Killer (Kaname)- Age 18

Lyla- Age 16

It was moving day, they'd graduated from the academy and were starting their service as marines. Lyla was drafted to the research department and received a full scholarship to further her education. Kaname, though graduating with the best fighting ability of anyone in their class, was not picked for any high-ranking positions due to his temperament and decided to take up a position consisting of basic grunt work stationed at the same base as Lyla.

Kaname shook his head as he watched the petite blonde struggling to lift one of her moving boxes. He flicked her on the back of the head and held back a laugh as she let out an adorable squeal and hurriedly rubbed the back of her head with her hands before turning to him.

"Kaname-senpai!" She squeaked as he gently shoved her so she toppled backward landing on top of the box she'd been struggling to pick up.

He easily lifted the box with her atop it and carried it into their apartment, chuckling to himself as she clung to the box desperately. "Why don't you just tell me where I should put everything."

A faint blush spread across her cheeks. "I can help carry things."

"I'm afraid I'll lose you in the boxes." He teased her, "Where am I taking this?"

"My room." She sighed. "I could make some food." She offered in an attempt to be useful.

"Let's not burn the house down, on our first day." Kaname teased her as he set the box down in her room and chuckled as she stood atop the box and swatted at him, even standing atop the box she was still a few inches shorter than him. "I'll make dinner, when I'm done."

Lyla puffed out her cheeks in an adorable pout, "So what am I supposed to do?"

"If you don't want to tell me where to put everything, the garden might need some work." He held back a smile, trying to act cool and indifferent.

"We're on the ninth floor. We don't' have a garden." Lyla frowned.

"Strange, I thought I saw one on the balcony." He shrugged and held back a laugh as her bright golden eyes grew wide with excitement and she sprinted for the balcony. He couldn't help but laugh as he heard her squeal in delight and then laughed more when he heard her struggling to open the balcony doors. "For a genius, you sure are dense sometimes." Kaname chuckled as he flipped the latch keeping the door from opening and smiled as the door slid open.

Lyla stuck her tongue out at him before scrambling to their balcony, there were several suspended flower boxes hanging on the balcony with more lining the railing and various beautiful blooms sitting on the ground just waiting to be planted. Tears welled in her eyes as she looked at all the beautiful blooms and the various gardening tools and supplies littering the balcony. Kaname had done all of this, for her.

"Thank you, Kaname-senpai!" She cried as she nearly tackled him with a hug.

"Will this keep you busy for a while?" He chuckled as he slowly disentangled himself from her.

Lyla nodded.

"I'll take care of the rest, then." He smiled as he ruffled her hair affectionately before resuming his task of moving in the rest of their furniture and boxes.

Lyla busied herself planting the beautiful blooms in their boxes, getting them all organized by how much sunlight they needed and based on the position the sun would hit each box. She calculated everything out perfectly and spent the next few hours planting and tending to the blooms in her own private hanging garden.

The door to the balcony, slid open and she jumped as a cool glass of water was extended to her from behind hovering beside her face. "Still at it?" Kaname chuckled as she accepted the water and took a sip.

"Almost done." Lyla beamed and turned to him only to gape as her gaze fell on the living room behind him, all the furniture was already assembled, put together and things looked like they were put away. "You're done?!"

"Well dinner will be ready in about ten minutes, otherwise yeah." He shrugged. "I assumed you'd want to organize your books and things, so I didn't open them, but your furniture is assembled."

"Now I feel useless." Lyla grumbled as she finished up tending her last bloom before pushing herself to her feet. She dusted the potting soil from her front and sighed as she caught a glimpse of her reflection, she looked like she'd been rolling in the dirt, not planting flowers.

"Why don't you get cleaned up, dinner should be ready when you're done." Kaname suggested.

"Okay, fine, but don't clean up my mess while I'm gone." She indicated the discarded plastic from the plants she'd transplanted. "I feel useless enough as it is."

Kaname shook his head, "You're not useless." He flicked her on the forehead and chuckled as she squeaked adorably and rubbed the spot he'd flicked her with a whine.

"Ow!"

"Hurry up." He shooed her inside before snickering to himself as he cleaned up her mess knowing it would fluster her and she'd throw an adorable tantrum.

Once finished fixing dinner, he set their small black dining table for dinner, he couldn't help but laugh as he heard her stomp her foot in the living room once she'd finished with her shower.

"Kaname!" She stormed into the kitchen, her shoulder length blonde hair still damp and dripping onto her simple grey oversized sweatshirt. As she opened her mouth to give him a piece of her mind he popped a warm buttery dinner roll into her mouth cutting off her lecture with a laugh. "That wasn't very nice." She grumbled her voice semi muffled from the bread.

"Just let me take care of you." Kaname chuckled as he steered her to the kitchen table.

The fight left her golden gaze and she reluctantly took her seat as the heavenly aroma of food wafted around her. Her plate had an assortment of delectable foods, he'd managed to move and assemble all their furniture and belongings, and make a feast in the time it took her to plant some flowers.

"So, are you getting your own lab and research to do tomorrow?" Kaname asked her curiously as they ate dinner, he didn't entirely know how things in the research department worked.

"No, first I have to write a dissertation before I can publish my own works, and head my own research campaign, so I'll just be starting out as a research assistant for some other scientist while I get to work on my dissertation and degree. What are you doing?"

Kaname shrugged, "Nothing interesting. Just menial tasks, housekeeping and cooking."

"Why did you pick that position? You could have gotten a ranked position." Lyla noted, she knew he'd had the most physical and tactical skill of anyone in the academy.

"Then who would take care of you?" Kaname chuckled as her cheeks flushed with color. "So, what are you thinking about writing your dissertation on?"

"I had a few different ideas, I thought about advanced research on artificially crafted devil fruits, botanicals to increase longevity or the one that I'm most intrigued by, but probably will be the hardest to find any research on, poneglyphs."

Kaname looked to her curiously, "What are poneglyphs?"

"Well I'm not exactly sure, myself, but they're the giant slabs of rock with indecipherable text all over them in some dead language, but apparently they hold many secrets." Lyla beamed, "I thought it sounded like a fun puzzle to try to piece together."

"Wouldn't one of the other two be easier?" Kaname pondered.

"Probably, but I'm curious." Lyla giggled. 

Video- Whisky Lullabies By Janet Devlin