Ito Ai: A New Dawn

"What, Ai!?" Mai immediately woke up from her groggy state and looked at Ai with wide eyes. She didn't expect that first thing in the morning, she would be told to share her room with the mutt who followed her all over the place.

"Mai..." Ai looked at Mai, who blushed and walked over to her and whispered in her ear. 

"Do I have to?" Mai whispered.contemporary romance

Ai sighed as she whispered back. "Do you hate him that much? To be honest, he is quite cute and is very faithful to you." 

"It's not that I hate him or anything…. I mean… well… Fine… But I won't do anything with him… and he has to bring a cot in, to sleep on." Mai's cheeks were red, just thinking about sharing a room with a boy. This meant at night, she would be sleeping with Shogo in her room.

"You will do fine. This is also why I left his collar on. If he tries to do something you do not like, just activate it. I am not asking you to do anything that you can't. But you realize he sleeps outside your room every night guarding your door. That has to account for something, right?" If this was any other time, what Shogo was doing could be considered disturbing, but Shogo slept with his back against the door and a gun in his hand. He had taken Ai's order for him to protect Mai very seriously. 

Ai had noticed this and could tell Shogo liked Mai. And Mai did not seem to reject him being around her. She would punch him and kick him, but there was always a smile on her face as she did it, and she never hit him hard. Only for these reasons was she trying to pair them up. Ai had come to trust every one of the people in the base except for Mio. Something she never thought would happen. But the way they all did things proved to Ai that they were worthy of her trust, and not once did they try to harm anyone within the base or try to throw them out to be killed. Plus, she had faith in Eiji's judgment.

"Okay, so it's settled. Without further ado, Eiji and I will be taking off." Ai said as she stood up.

Eiji also stood up and walked over to Shogo. "Don't do anything stupid. If you do, I will kill you myself. Mai is Ai's sister, and Ai is my woman. That makes Mai my sister as well. So if you hurt her in any way, I will not hesitate to kill you, do you understand?"

Shogo almost cried out in pain because Eiji gripped his shoulder hard. He did his best to hold it in and nodded his head. "I understand. I wouldn't want Mai mad at me either, so I won't do anything stupid."

"Good." Eiji said, letting go of Shogo's shoulder. Ai walked by and grabbed his hand, pulling him along with her. 

Mai walked over to Shogo, who was rubbing his shoulder, and let out a sigh. "Come on, let's go clean out your old room and get your stuff to my room."

"You're not against this?" Shogo asked.

"Mmm… What do you think?" Mai said as she walked off, not letting Shogo see the slight smile on her face.

---

Outside the base, Ai watched the shutter close behind her and stretched her arms. "We will be busy these next few days. Are you ready?"

"As ready as I can be." Eiji got a little courageous and hooked his arm around Ai's waist and leaned in for a kiss.

Ai smiled and gave him a peck on the lips, then pushed him away. "No time for that, let's get going."

Eiji nodded, and the two headed off. Inside the base watching the camera, Yoshi shook his head. "Looks like the kid was able to win the girl's heart." 

"What do you mean?" Mio asked.

"That kid fell in love with her at first sight. He even pulled a bunch of those damn machines away so she could take over this base without even speaking to her. If not for that girl being as crazy as she was setting off all kinds of explosions, Eiji, Shogo, and I would not be here today."

"Well, they say love is something you can not stop." Mio said with a smile as she hugged Yoshi.

"That is very true." Although he had a smile on his face, Yoshi had a touch of sadness in his eyes. He still couldn't forget about his wife and child who died to the machina.

----

"This is it?" Mai asked as she looked at the four sets of clothes in Shogo's hands.

"Yeah. I didn't want to waste any of the resources, so I kept everything I used to the minimum." Shogo answered.

Mai was surprised that Shogo was actually going this far for the base. Even Eiji and Yoshi had much more than this. "Shogo, come." Mai said as she grabbed his hand, pulling him along. Her actions surprised Shogo and made his cheeks grow red. 

She pulled him right to the stock room and began piling stuff into his arms. "You need these things. When your clothes get worn, ask Yoshi for more. When you run out of daily items, just come get some—no need to deprive yourself. I will be clearing out a spot in my well our room for you to place your things. No more sleeping outside the door. You can sleep inside, okay?"

Shogo nodded and softly smiled. Seeing him smile made Mai smile as well. "As for our training that Ai has told us to do. We will be doing it at night from now on. Since we are living together, we can read a book or something together, okay?"

"Yes..." Shogo did not know what to make of the situation right now, but he felt Mai was acting much friendlier to him, which made him happy.

"Good, now let's go clean up my room a bit. We need to make you a spot."

***

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