"Papa!" Ruu shrieked as he floated slowly to Kanata. "Papa!"
Laughing, Kanata caught him and said, "Now Ruu, you have to eat your vegetables. It's good nutrition."
Ruu pouted and made his untouched green peas fly, fly, fly into the air — and hit the ceiling with a loud SPLAT.
The alien baby giggled as Kanata shook his head. He turned to Wanya and asked, "Wanya, why isn't Miyu eating dinner with us?"
"I don't know. I asked her so many times, but she didn't say anything," the sitter-pet replied, wiping the ceiling clean. "Ruu-chama, please do not throw any more vegetables! You're wasting good food!"
Puzzled, Kanata bolted down the rest of his supper, and immediately went to Miyu's bedroom, and started knocking. "Miyu?" he called.
He distinctly heard a nose being blown before she yelled, "Go away!"
"Not until you open this door," he said stubbornly, banging his fists on the door.
"Leave me alone!" she yelled again, sounding like she had a bad head cold.
He started kicking the door. "No. Open this door!"
She started muttering curses so quickly one after another, that Kanata was quite impressed. With a final "damn it!", she slid open her door.
Miyu's entire face was wet, covered in tearstains, and she was sniffling and hiccupping and gulping all at the same time. She looked so much like a little girl whose lollipop was stolen that Kanata had to stifle a laugh.
"Er — why are you crying?"
She glared at him, tears sliding down her face. "As if you care." She scrubbed her face furiously.
"Would I knock down your door if I didn't care?" he asked.
"If it had your best interests in it," she muttered, stepping aside to let him in. "What do you want?"
"I want to know why you're crying." He sat down on her bed, arms folded, a resolute expression on his face. "I'm not going anywhere, Miyu."
His blonde friend heaved a long, tragic sigh as she flopped onto the bed. "Seiya left me."
Startled, he asked, "What do you mean, he left you?"
"He broke up with me. Just now."
"How?"
"Come on, Kanata. Do you need all the gory details?"
He threw a pillow at her. "Of course. Talking helps."
"You sound like a girl." She laughed, then hiccupped. "Remember when we were talking in the cafeteria at lunch?"
"Yeah, so?"
"He said that—that I was too immature and clingy. I quote: 'Miyu, you're a great girl, but I need someone more mature and grown-up. It's embarrassing to be seen with someone who acts like a child.' Unquote."
"He said that?" Kanata said, incensed. "The nerve of that wimp."
Miyu wailed. "On the way home, I saw all these couples holding hands in the quad. I swear, I was so jealous." A light bulb went off in her head. "Jealous! That's it — I'll make Seiya jealous! I'll get some guy to pretend to be my boyfriend, and boom! We're together again!"
"Who'd be stupid enough to pretend to be your boyfriend?" Kanata inquired skeptically.
"Kanata…" She batted her eyelashes at him. "Kanata…"
He knew what she was asking for. "No way, Miyu."
"Come on, Kanata! Please!"
He looked in her pleading, red-rimmed, swollen eyes, and sighed.
Did he really have a choice?
sorry for the long break! It's nice to write again. R&r!