The look Eien gave the hosts as they filtered through into the kitchen could only be described as cold. He was not pleased that they had woken so late – the customers would be arriving any minute, and when the hosts got up late it meant that Eien had to entertain the customers for half an hour, and hour, sometimes more while the hosts prepared for the night. Eien was the best host there – he had seventy customers named to him – so it was not exactly
difficult for him to entertain the girls until the hosts were ready, but that wasn’t the point, was it? One of the reasons that he had taken up managing his own host club was because managers, and other hosts of their ranks, only had to host a few times each month to keep their customers happy.
Eien, with such lazy hosts as he had, found himself hosting for an hour
every. Single. Night. He was not happy with this.
“Yes, yes,
ohayou gozaimasu (good morning), now shut up and eat. Breakfast is in the oven,” he jerked his head at the machine, which was lit, to reveal a rather large stack of pancakes and sausages within. One of the first signs that the quirky manager did not
really hate his hosts as much as he said he did – he always had breakfast made for them when they got up, whether he bought it or cooked it himself. “We have some new guests coming tonight. Get yourselves ready. I’ll be down entertaining them, so hurry up.”
“Sorry, sorry,” Rai mumbled, watching as Ai jerked awake and began checking his blood-sugar levels. He was too groggy to really register what it was that Ai was doing, or the fact that he adjusted his pump, otherwise he might have been more nervous. But it was too early in the morning to panic beyond being scared awake my their Manager. “Eien-san woke me up…”
He shook his head slowly, running his hands through his red-brown hair and rolling off of his futon. He did not bother to take his blanket with him, though he slept with nothing but his underwear on. They were all men, they all saw people naked more often than most people did. Even Ai, who was brand new, should be able to deal with someone as pretty as Rai walking away from them and wearing no pants or shirt.
“Dunno,” he answered Ai’s question about the time. “Guess it must be almost seven, if Eien’s that angry. The guests’ll be here any minute and we’re not fed yet.” He laughed lightly, even as he winced, running his hand gingerly over his side. Just as he had thought. The bruise on his side was large, considering the size of the heel that had struck him, and such a dark blue it was nearly black. She really had hit him hard… absentmindedly he wondered if he’d cracked a rib. “Ne, Ai, you have some pain meds somewhere around here…?”
