Ch 62: ...The Wrong Bunny Woman

Ever since Baldeur had joined Zeerous he had many interactions with the sisters. Their mother, Ulmira, was his boss's secretary and made sure to keep track of his training. She would often bring along her daughters to socialize with him.

While Renie and him developed a playful relationship, he and Anika ended up with the opposite. She had made her disdain for him known from the first moment they met.

"Wait, What's HE doing here?" Anika blatantly pointed at Baldeur.

"Oh, it's just that I thought you wouldn't like being a fourth wheel, so I invited him to keep you company." Renie said.

"What?" Anika said, "I don't need a date with anyone let alone him. I'll be going now."

She was getting red in the face as she spoke through her teeth. The storms on her robe had also picked up in intensity. The Laksulm enchant must have tied the design to the wears emotions. Baldeur was impressed, since that was a tricky enchant to pull off.

"I guess I'll just have to contact mom about what I saw the other day." Renie pulled her communication disk out of her robe.

Anika stopped for a moment and looked at Baldeur before looking back at her sister to call her bluff.

"Just do it then."

"Hmmm, you're right. Mom won't care all that much." Her mischievous smile deepened. "But dad might."

Anika went pale. "Fine, I'll stay."

Baldeur wasn't happy about the situation either and his mind was also trying to figure out Renie's previous words. 'Why would she say fourth wheel if there are four of us now?'

Again he didn't have to wait too long for an answer to his question.

"Anika, I didn't know you were going to join us, or I would have got you one too." A man with broad shoulders approached them carrying three sticks with glazed grilled vegetables on them.

"Here, have mine, I'll get one later." Geoff said.

This was the other man Renie had mentioned in the past.

"Don't worry about that. Baldeur can take her to get some." Renie said with a smile that Baldeur would forever curse.

"Hey there. Sorry I didn't get one for you either. Someone didn't tell me others would be joining us." Geoff gave Renie a knowing smile.

All Baldeur could do at that moment was sigh. Anika and the other guys thought it was because he had been set up by Renie. But he and her both knew the truth.

The sigh was because Baldeur was fully giving up on trying to make Renie a member of his future harem.

It seemed she had a similar dream as him.

Baldeur gave her a slight nod which she returned.

"Anika, would you join me for a walk to get something to eat?" Baldeur extended his arm to her.

In response she glared at her sister before taking his arm.

They walked away into the festival crowd before Baldeur pulled his arm back.

"I think we're far enough away from them." Baldeur said.

She let go of him right away and continued walking in silence.

"Feel free to just blame me for leaving right away. I hope you have a good evening." Baldeur said before turning to leave.

"Where do you think you're going?" Anika asked.

"Home. It's clear you don't want to be with me." Baldeur replied.

"Do you really think my sister will accept that? If you leave she won't let me hear the end of it and I doubt she'll let you off either."

"Really, why should she care if we actually go on a date?"

"First off, don't call it a date. And trust me, she'll care. If you knew her beyond her body, you'd understand."

Sighing Baldeur rejoined her. While he wasn't romantically interested in the older bunny-kin anymore, he didn't want to watch her pout about this.

Besides, since he wasn't interested in Anika, he didn't need to try and impress her. So it should just be a relaxing evening.

"We're supposed to be pretending to be on a date, so shouldn't you be getting me one?" Anika had her arms crossed under her bosoms.

She was scowling at Baldeur who was only getting one stick of glazed grilled vegetables.

"What do you think my sister will say about this?"

He rolled his eyes and purchased a second stick.

"We should play some of the games. It would be best if you could win me a prize." Anika pointed to a ring toss game.

With mild grumbling he handed over a coin and tossed. In the end he landed enough rings to get a small stuffed bear.

She held the thing by its leg as if it was nothing.

They continued to walk around for awhile as he purposely lost a bunch of games. She didn't try to get him to win either, since she already had a token to show her sister.

Night had set in as they walked around, stopping to watch the occasional street performer.

"Alright this should be enough to keep my sister off our backs." Anika said.

"Fine by me." He watched as she started to walk away.

"Hey, can I ask you something?" Baldeur called out.

"Sigh. Sure why not?" She replied.

"Why do you hate me so much? I don't really care either way, I have just never fully understood."

She paused for a moment to consider how to reply.

"I don't hate you. You are just not worth my attention." Anika answered.

"Ha, alright well have a good night and may we never see each other again." He started to walk away again.

"Do you want to know the real reason I don't like you?" She caught up to him. "Because I saw what you did the first time my mother introduced my sister and I to you."

"Yeah and what was that?" Baldeur seriously could think of anything he had done to offend her even beyond their first meeting.

"You leered." Anika didn't like how nonchalant he was about all this. "You were an eight year old boy and the first thing you did was leer at my sister. I might have been only ten but I could tell what type of person you were just from that."

Baldeur wasn't able to reply because there was a good chance he did leer at their first meeting. He had a thing for beast-kin since his very first life. Renie had already begun to develop at the age of twelve and he had decided to pursue her from the first moment he laid eyes on her.

The fact that he wasn't more crushed at realizing he had no chance, told him how superficial his desire for her was. The amount of love he had for her, never went above that of a good friend.

"So? What's wrong with admiring beauty?" Baldeur was hoping to regain some face by redirecting a little.

"Argh." The storm on her dress picked up again. "That's what I hate about this. And about people like you. Of course it's nice to be admired and I want to look great for my own confidence. And yes sometimes I just want to attract a good man.

"But I also want to be acknowledged as having more to me than nice ears and tail. Don't think I can't see how you look at my sister. She's just a plaything to you." Anika said.

Baldeur raised an eyebrow at her words since this became more about her own personal experience than his actions towards her sister.

"I won't deny that your sister is incredibly attractive and I would have loved to… well… make love to her. But don't think I saw her as just a plaything or I wouldn't be so willing to give up on that aspect of her and just be her friend." He said.

"So you're just going to give up on her because she has other men? Shouldn't that make it easier for you?" Anika said.

Baldeur shook his head. "Your sister isn't with Egar and Geoff because she's easy. I should have realized it from the way she spoke about them, but she truly cares for the two of them."

"I still don't understand why you aren't still going to pursue her?" Anika was genuinely confused. She knew that her sister was in love with her two men but that kind of relationship often attracted creeps that thought she'd be down for anything because she loved two men.

Baldeur's words were ruining her internal narrative.

"Renie and I are the same in this respect. We might have a few lovers but in any serious relationship, we want to be our partner's only partner." He replied.

"That's so selfish."

"Eh, people have different preferences. I don't plan to lie or force people to be with me. I'll just try my hardest to show the people I love how much they mean to me and hope that that can be enough for them." Baldeur had been thinking about what Renie had said to him earlier.

His words were similar to what Renie had told her in the past, when Anika asked her about her relationship.

"You're still a perv." She said with less force then she would have in the past.

"If I'm such a perv, why haven't I been checking you out all night? Anyone can see that you're just as beautiful as your sister." He said.

Anika was stunned by the compliment and realizing that he was right, he hadn't been ogling her at all. The storms on her robes even stopped for a moment with her confusion.

"Why haven't you then?" She wasn't sure if she should be angry or not that he admitted to not checking her out.

"I knew you wouldn't like it and I'm not interested in you." He replied.

She studied his face to see if he was trying to use reverse psychology on her. But she didn't see any deception on his face.

Over the years she had had three boyfriends. Even though she didn't see it when they started dating, she eventually realized they didn't care about her as a person. She fully recognized that it had made her a little jaded. Especially since she had just managed to avoid a fourth one.

"I guess I should apol…" She was cut off by a man that started to approach them.

"Anika. I didn't expect to see you here. And who's this with you?"

Was her luck really this bad? Had her thoughts summoned this bastard? Anika stiffened when the man that was almost her fourth bad boyfriend walked up to them.