(At 16 years and a month old)
(3rd person PoV)
Nephelont woke up to a really weird situation, an unprecedented spectacle. Eucleia was nibbling on his arm in her sleep. She was not holding back, either. Her teeth and parts of her mouth were clearly in dragon form, making him believe that she was having a very blissful dream of eating something delicious.
'I should leave her be for now' Nephelont thought as he withstood the pain. There was little damage done to him, so he decided to ignore it.
A little while later, Eucleia's nibbling got worse. She was done tasting and began eating. She bit Nephelont with such strength that remaining in this position risked her eating his arm. He vanished from the bed and stood at a distance from it, his upper arm bleeding a little.
Eucleia's teeth gnashed together hard enough to wake her up. She picked herself up and began searching for Nephelont, who never vanished before she woke up for as long as she remembered. She was devastated to find traces of blood and teeth marks that matched hers on his arm.
"Bunbun!" Her complexion paled noticeably as she frantically jumped at him and began checking his condition.
"Don't worry. It doesn't hurt a lot" Nephelont reassured her as best as he could. That only made her inspect him more closely.
"Then that means it hurts!" She teared up, her eyes wide open and innocently begging him for forgiveness.
Nephelont sprinkled some drops of a health potion on the wound and closed it. Only then could Eucleia calm down.
"Don't let me do it again" Eucleia hugged him, remarking that his hair needed to be washed. Some stary hairs caught some blood as they passed by the wound. "Let me wash your hair for you today!" She said enthusiastically. Her eyes were sparkling with such determination that Nephelont could not ignore her request.
Nephelont sat with his head leaning on the tub's rim, his hair floating on warm water. Eucleia washed the blood off it before exiting the bathroom to give Nephelont privacy.
They then got ready for the morning. That morning consisted of them meeting up with the triplets and planning on how to help Oliver with his date. He found this particularly cute girl he came to like. She was single, around his age, and agreed to go on a date after a few meetings and some pleasant conversations.
"You see, Liv, you need to take her to try crêpe" Nephelont insisted while moving his index from side to side. "You can't ignore the power of crêpe, especially one with whipped cream and strawberry or chocolate chips fillings, maybe both"
"And... You sure that will work... How, exactly?" Oliver asked, perplexed. 'He doesn't have any dating experience whatsoever, not to anyone's knowledge'
"While I didn't date anyone, I got my experience with Lia" Nephelont said as he suddenly held Eucleia by the shoulders and brought her closer, sitting her in an intimate hug with her back pressed against him. She yelped in surprise. "I've seen other girls and what they like in their crêpes while waiting in line to buy her one. Most girls, if not all of them, liked strawberry and chocolate"
The three brothers were both impressed and at a loss for words. They were impressed by how well Nephelont treats Eucleia with so much love and care, and with how close they were at all times. On the other hand, they were at a loss for words because of how these two lovebirds ended up seeing each other as siblings.
"That reminds me of your lethal love for potato snacks" Arthur scoffed lightheartedly. There was a weekly event where Nephelont needs assistance while choking on potato snack bites. Nobody knows why he still eats them, or how in the upper realm's name he still did not learn how not to choke on the same type of meal he eats almost daily.
"I'll try that, then. Any other ideas?" Oliver was scrambling his brain for ideas. "What do you think of going shopping?"
"Absolutely not!" Arthur and Hugo said in unison, crossing their arms in huge Xs. "Remember what dad said about going shopping with a woman?" Oliver took that idea back to where it belongs, back to the very depths of his mind. It was to stay there until he found someone he would marry. Only one such woman could be allowed to empty his deep pockets so easily.
They remembered one time when their father took their mother on a shopping trip and came back with almost no money, and that time they took nearly fifteen million Valis with them. Women's shopping prowess was not to be taken lightly.
"What else is there?" Oliver put his hands through his hair in frustration. "What would a cat-person girl like?"
"Ah!" Arthur remembered something. "Absolutely avoid even the slightest brushing between your tails. Our parents are a special case" He remembered Henryk's warning, that he only had his tail around Shira's after their marriage, not that he had a tail before then to begin with.
The three brothers were taken for a loop when they were told that their parents were originally both pure-blood humans. For one, they could understand how Shira became a cluwr. What puzzled them a few years ago was when they saw Henryk had them meet their grandparents, being in his human form for the first time ever in front of his kids. Up until then, he only let them see him in his cluwr form without fail.
Anyhow, Hugo had an idea.
"You already talked about your hobbies, right?" He asked Oliver. Oliver nodded. "Then try her hobbies. Make her feel that you want to connect with her and understand her better. Don't say, show" Hugo said with his best serious face.
Seeing some tension starting to bubble between the five of them, Nephelont decided to change the subject.
"What about you two? Did neither of you find a girl he likes?" Nephelont sparked another panic, this time from the two who were stuttering to say that they simply did not want to yet. He knew. They had tight preferences.
"Bunbun" Eucleia leaned her head back to look at him in the eyes. "When are you gonna find a girl to date?"
"I won't, not with you here" Nephelont took only one look at Eucleia's face before booping her nose and dematerializing away. "I don't want to bother you with the presence of some woman" His voice lingered long enough to deliver these words.
Eucleia sputtered out a few mangled words before she also dematerialized away, her face red with embarrassment. The three brothers were left in a loss for words yet again. "Why didn't they kiss already?" was their collective thought, three blank faces staring into the vast blue sky above Orario. There, one could almost see two clouds, which looked like dust, moving a little faster than the rest, chasing each other.
Oliver's date went well that day. At the end of it, the girl asked him when he was free for another date. Her smile melted him. He was in love.
(The Next Day)
Today, it was Arthur asking for advice. While he was walking down some road, he spotted a sheep girl that made his heart skip a beat for a second. She was not the prettiest, nor had she had the cleanest and tidiest of clothing, but she had a smile like no other, and her hair looked soft. Something about her smiling face attracted him, definitely the smile, not the hair. Arthur was not admitting to himself that he got attracted to her for her hair as well.
"Well, your eyes lingered on her hair for quite a long moment, Arthur" Nephelont said in an altered voice, drifting away in the wind before Arthur noticed him.
Arthur turned around, covering his ears.
'That... I got a hunch that it was Nephelont...' He thought. 'But I didn't notice anything to be sure of'
When Arthur looked back, the girl had disappeared.
His first thought was to seek Henryk's help. He went back home to the Hearth Manor, where Fey was sure to wait for Nephelont to bother him.
"Big sis!" He called his big sister. Fey swooped in and carried him in her talons.
"Arthur!" Fey said.
"Big sis, can you tell dad to come over? I want his help with something important" Arthur said, slowly climbing his way to Fey's back.
"'Kay~" Fey did as Arthur asked. Moments later, she landed back down with Henryk teleporting close by.
"Grandma and grandpa said hello to you, Arthur" Henryk said while ruffling Arthur's hair.
"So, dad, I saw this pretty girl..." Arthur started talking about the circumstances and what happened at the time. He even drew an image of her to make her image clearer in Henryk's mind.
"I'm losing my kids quickly, it seems" Henryk turned away with a hurt face. "First, it was Oliver, and now you too"
"Dad!" Arthur's tail flared up in protest. "No teasing!"
"Alright. Not the time to tease, noted" Henryk's face was perfectly normal, all signs of his pretentious hurt face gone. Arthur wanted to blow up right now. "Your cheeks are gonna blow up, son" Arthur deflated back to normal. 'They are all seeking relationships now. How time flies' Henryk thought happily.
"So, you are interested in this girl you have never met or talked to before?" Henryk asked for confirmation.
"Y-Yeah" Arthur said nervously.
"Well, all you can do is be a good acquaintance with her for a while first. If you go to her with words of love from the start, it's gonna feel creepy for most people" Henryk said. "After some time, you will know more about each other. You should judge for yourself how long that is. That is an experience you should get for yourself, not to be told by others" 'He should get that experience himself, to know when certain boundaries allow him to cross them or not. He'd need that in a marriage' Henryk thought back to his time with Shira.
"Can't you tell me an estimated timeframe at least?" Arthur said.
"No, that's for you to judge" Henryk patted his son's head. "While you could lose any chance with her forever, you need to gain the experience to judge for yourself when you could or couldn't step closer to someone"
"What should I do if she rejected me after?" Arthur was concerned. He did not want his first crush to end in vain.
"I'll give you my shoulder to cry on" Henryk said with the straightest of straight faces.
"Mom's there for that" Arthur replied with his version of the straightest of straight faces.
"That hurts!" Henryk clinched his heart, his face twisting in pain.
"Dad! Stop!" Arthur started pummeling Henryk's back as Henryk was laughing his heart out.
"Anyhow" Henryk said once they calmed down. "You should give the other person some room. Don't ever make her feel pressured or cornered when you finally confess"
(A Look into the Future)
"Arthur" Arthur was peeling some potatoes in an orphanage when he heard his name called. A moment later, his hand stilled when he felt a person pressing their head against his back, arms wrapped around his abdomen. "When are you going to say it?" He heard the soft voice of the girl he liked- No, the girl he came to truly love.
"Melody, I..." He sighed. "I just didn't want to fumble this relationship"
"Well, it's been months since you became my friend" She giggled. "And since a month or so ago, you just couldn't stop yourself completely from giving me some unintentional hints" She giggled some more. "It warmed my heart that you held back and gave me time to think about it without the pressure of your emotions being pushed onto me"
Arthur turned to face her.
"Is that-" He did not get to complete his sentence. Melody has kissed him in reply to his incomplete question.
"Let's go on a date tomorrow" Her smile got him again.
"L-Let's go on a date..." He almost stuttered and was left in a daze as well. He slapped his cheeks to see if he would wake up, upside down with a leg over the side of his bed. He was still awake.
"You aren't dreaming, silly!" Melody chuckled as she walked out of the room. There was much to do to free up time for tomorrow.
(Back to the Present)
A month after Arthur talked with Henryk about him taking a liking to Melody, Hugo came to his room and shook him awake. Hugo was pranked to death for a few days as payback, but Henryk helped him as much as he could with his crush. It was just that Hugo had a crush on an amazoness of all people.
(A Few Days After Hugo and Henryk had a Talk)
"So, if I defeat you, we will be together forever?" Hugo was standing in an arena. On the other side, the amazoness he had a crush on stood, her weapon in her hands.
"I'm searching for a man who's my type and is stronger than myself, much like many of my people" She had a predatory smile. "Lucky you, you happen to be my type" She pointedly looked at his ears and tail. "If you prove your strength, I'm becoming your lover or your wife, whatever you make of our relationship!"
'His lineage will likely be all dark-skinned women with cat ears. That's gonna be fun to witness' Henryk thought, visibly interested in something. 'I might be adapting our manuals to fit a woman's physique soon. Dad could help with that' He was interested in finally having a reason to adapt his family's swordsmanship manual so that it fits women as well. As of now, all who practiced it were solely men.
He looked at his son on the platform of the arena, thoughts jumbled in confusion.
'She wanted to test your strength, not your skill alone. Why did you tell me to water down your strength to her level?' He commended his son's determination but did not like the disadvantage he put himself through. With the same amount of strength and speed, there is a very good chance he loses to her.
"Start!" Henryk announced the start of this match.
The amazoness, Asma, fought with him to a draw, or what appeared to be one. Hugo was better at conserving his stamina in a fight, which gave him an edge against Asma, who gave as much as she could whenever she delivered a strike.
After she laid down in exhaustion, surrendering, Henryk approached her. He had one of the Horrors whisk him away for a moment.
"A thing Hugo wouldn't have told you is that he applied a spell that lowered his strength and speed to match yours before the start of the match" Henryk stifled a laugh at her stupefied expression, which quickly turned into a red face with charmed eyes.
"He was so strong already!" Asma bolted up, her exhaustion forgotten in favor of celebrating her great find. She got herself a man so strong, who also came to have an interest in her by himself. Not to mention, he fits her type.
'Mother! Watch this! Your daughter's life's gonna blossom into a beautiful love story!' She raised her arms into the air as if she were celebrating victory. She had the best kind of victory, a technical victory.