23 Sleep Together?

Plato felt like his brain had exploded. In his mind's eye, it was like the once bleak world that was covered in blood had finally received new life.

His way of viewing things changed at that moment. Much like how watching a seed germinate and break through the earth was exciting and beautiful, nurturing and caring for adolescents was inspiring and fulfilling.

For Plato, who had experienced the ups and downs of society through all-out war, adolescence was simply a collection of mistakes that one had to learn from. Adulthood was when you had to deal with the aftermath of those mistakes.

He felt that the more mistakes one made, the better! Who knows when you are going to die? Live life in the now, and take care of the aftermath later!

This was the philosophy that he had imparted to numerous aspiring youths in his seven years of serving in the Alliance army. Now, he had finally felt like it was a philosophy worth applying on Earth.

In that instant, Plato flashed the same smile that Yuuto had shown him – the kind, grandfatherly smile – at Haruko.

When she saw it, she felt chills down her spine. It was like she was looking at a younger version of her father! And when her father had that smile on his face, it was the preface to a scolding…

But the expected scolding never came. The next moment, Plato got up from the chair and went to his suitcase. After unloading his necessities which he kept at the top, he went ahead and took a shower, brushed his teeth, and changed into his pyjamas.

Then, he once again graced the dining table, this time sitting next to Haruko.

"I'm going to sleep now, and I'm taking the bed. You have no objections, right?"

"Of course I do! Where am I going to sleep then? Aren't you a man? You sleep on the floor!"

"I'm afraid I can't do that. I'm dead tired after the flight. If you want… we can sleep together. Well then, goodnight."

Not waiting for her reply, Plato proceeded to his bedroom, and dropped onto his bed like a log and fell into a deep sleep. In truth, he had only offered to sleep together because he treated her like a child. What was wrong with an adult sleeping peacefully with a child that wasn't theirs? Many things. But in Plato's mind, there was nothing wrong with it.

Since it was his apartment, and Haruko wouldn't mean any harm to him, he let his vigilance slip a little bit. If not, he would have been woken up from the little shuffles he experienced a couple of hours later…

The sun had already risen when Plato woke up. His body still wasn't up to scratch with his standards, and he had woken up with a slight numbness in his left arm. That was what he thought. But when he went to lift his arm up to alleviate the numbness… it felt like there was a large amount of weight on it.

It took him a total of one second to realize what had happened. 'This rascal, she actually dared to sleep next to me.'

The worst thing about it was that Haruko was a very active sleeper. Plato had been pretty much knocked out last night, so he didn't feel anything at all. However, now that he woke up, he saw that Haruko was wrapped around him like an octopus.

She was sleeping on the left side of Plato, so her right leg was underneath his, while her left leg was on top. Her arms were holding tightly onto his neck, and she occasionally rubbed her face on his shoulder.

She had a smile on her face like she was content within her dream, and would drool every now and then. Of course, the drool was absorbed by Plato's shirt. There was already a severe wet patch on his left shoulder. Occasional whiffs of her fragrance would drift into his nose, forcing its way into his lungs.

It was a good thing that she didn't have the habit of sleeping naked. If she did, then Plato might be labelled as a paedophile! However, it remained a fact that she was wearing very thin clothes. Since she was practically stuck to him, Plato could clearly feel her modest chest and slightly thick thighs. His left hand was already sort of numb from being sandwiched between the exquisitely smooth thighs…

Plato had initially wanted to get up, but he decided against it in the end. It definitely wasn't because he wanted to enjoy Haruko's tender flesh. The next few days would be very relaxing for him, since the Miyamoto's and Hattori's still had to organize their investments. Before he went to sleep last night, he had messaged Basara and Iwatani, telling them to register a company for him after everything was sorted.

As an otherworlder, Plato wasn't familiar with the local law and commerce systems. He could easily read up and understand them in a few hours' time, but felt that his two brothers had to earn their keep. Which big boss would stress themselves out over such trivial things like laws?

(A/N: Like… all of them?)

As such, he was currently in no hurry to get up. Since Haruko was sleeping so soundly and was content to stick to him, he lay quietly in bed while ruminating over some minor things.

In the end, after half an hour of thinking, he no longer had anything to think about. Sometimes, having an extremely high intelligence worked against you. How would he act cool in front of women by thinking about deep subjects in the future? They would be resolved within minutes!

Therefore, he fell back to sleep. He had already decided that he would skip training his body for the day. After all, even the most iron-willed human needed some rest. When he woke up again, Haruko was already up, and had just finished her morning routine. At just the same time, the doorbell of the apartment rang again. It was no doubt the landlady, coming to gift food.

While Plato was getting up, he heard some snippets of the conversation at the door.

"Haruko-chan, how was the catch-up with your onii-chan? I still remember when you moved in, you would speak non-stop about him. Just let me warn you about this. While Japan allows for cousins to marry, it is generally frowned upon, and thus, the incidence is very rare. It might still be better for you to find someone else to spend your life with."

"Akari-san, how can you say that! There's nothing between the two of us. Besides… he wouldn't agree to it anyway."

"Ara, there you go again. Are you implying that if he agrees, you would marry him? Hmm… fine. It's not my place to stick my nose into the matters of youngsters, let alone ones that have no blood relation to me. Anyway, just be careful. Don't give him the chance to achieve a fait accompli!"

Plato felt droplets of cold sweat form on his back. He hadn't even fully adapted to living in this world yet, and this landlady was talking about him trying to get a woman – his cousin, no less – to bear his child? 'You should be warning me about stopping HER from achieving a fait accompli, right?!'

Despite how nosy the landlady was, it was an irrefutable fact that the food she made was always delicious. The breakfast was a traditional Japanese one, with natto, rice, tamagoyaki, salted salmon and miso soup. The dry dishes were carried in a bento box, while the miso soup was in a thermos.

Although it was only two levels up, it would be inconvenient to have them in bowls on a tray. Plato's apartment didn't lack cutlery and utensils anyway, so they could portion out the breakfast in their own bowls.

Plato chose the same moment that Haruko had finished splitting the food to walk out. The bathroom was attached to the bedroom as an en-suite, so washing up didn't require him to leave the room.

"Ah, onii-chan, you've woken up. Are you okay? Did you sleep well? Ah, your shoulder is kind of wet…"

Even though she was the culprit, Haruko maintained an expression of innocence, and more generally, ignorance to the fact that she was a bad sleeper.

It seemed like Plato's troubles would only multiply from now on.