A Gift

Four

The evening of the fifth chapter


"I know, I'm late," Juri says as soon as she joins the others, taking a seat next to Takato. It's awkward because they're currently separated, but still better than sitting next to Hirokazu or Kenta. She trades small, shy smiles with Takato while the other two groan and mutter not this again.

"You're always late," Hirokazu complains loudly. "That's why we've learned to go ahead and order without waiting for you."

"Here," Kenta says, handing Juri the menu. The boys carry on a conversation about their current project while Juri contemplates her choices and places her order. As soon as the waitress leaves though, three pairs of eyes turn to her.

"So," Hirokazu speaks up, ever the more impatient one of the trio. "You said you had something big to tell us."

"Oh, yeah," Juri mumbles. They're seated in a tiny booth, and it's a tight fit for two grown people. Takato is uncomfortably close when he turns to look at her. "It's about Jen and Ruki." She announces clearly, trying to figure out how she's going to say this.

"What about those two?" Kenta asks, pushing up his glasses.

"Yeah, what about them? They never join us for these things, don't you think?" Hirokazu hijacks her conversation, going off on a rant. "I mean, we barely even see them anymore. Do you think they don't want to hang out anymore now that they're important secret government agents?"

"One, they're not secret government agents," Juri glares, speaking up for her friends. "Two, maybe they don't want to hang out because you always behave like an immature boy around them."

"Ouch," Kenta grins, turning to Hirokazu. "I'm going to agree with Juri."

"Like you're any better," Hirokazu sneers.

"Guys," Takato speaks up before these two spend the rest of dinner bickering. "I think Juri had something important to tell us, remember?"

"Oh," Hirokazu says, pressing his thumb against Kenta's glasses to smudge them.

"Right," Kenta mumbles, trying to rip off the hat Hirokazu wears to hide his bad haircut. He glares at Hirokazu and pulls off his glasses to wipe them clean while the other boy adjusts his hat, but they settle down after that.

Juri clears her throat when all six eyes turn upon her once more. "So, it's about Jen and Ruki."

"You've said that already," Takato reminds her quietly.

"Oh, I did," Juri realizes. "Anyway, um, Ruki's pregnant."

Hirokazu turns to Kenta and spits out a mouthful of water, most of it landing on Kenta's recently-cleaned glasses. The green-haired boy is too shocked by Juri's announcement to muster up a proper reaction.

"What?"

Beside her, Takato remains silent. Juri suspects that he might be in shock, and decides to let him work through this recent development while she fields questions from their friends.

"Ruki's having a baby? Dude," Hirokazu turns to Kenta, who's once again wiping his glasses. "Can you believe that? Man, I feel bad for the kid already."

"Hey!" Juri protests, feeling offended on behalf of her best friend. "Ruki is going to be an amazing mother, you ass." She's usually quite mild with her words but after her conversation with an uncertain and worried Ruki earlier today, the last thing Juri wants is for Hirokazu to share these thoughts with Ruki. If Juri's forceful enough, maybe Hirokazu will learn to shut his mouth. "I think she'll be a better parent than anyone else in our group. She's the most mature."

"Other than Jen," Kenta pipes up, providing an opening for Juri to drop her second bomb. Unfortunately, Hirokazu cuts in.

"Yeah, right," He snorts. "I'm telling you, that kid's only chance at a happy childhood will be his father. Who's the father, anyway? I mean, everyone knows that Ruki's gorgeous but who actually had the guts to approach the Ice Queen?"

"See, that's probably why Ruki doesn't want to hang out with you." Kenta quips.

"Whatever. Now that she's going to have one of those crying, messy tiny humans attached to her, I don't want to hang out with her either." Hirokazu mutters. "But seriously – who's the father? I bet he's not even in the picture. Five bucks says Ruki's like a black widow. If you don't run fast enough, you won't survive an encounter with her. Or your pride won't, at least."

"You're comparing our friend to a deadly spider." Juri's glare is scary enough to make Hirokazu look away and shut up.

"Guys, Juri said she had news about Jen and Ruki." Takato speaks for the first time since Juri's announcement, and she's surprised that he's the only one to have caught that.

"Oh, yeah," Kenta nods. "I mean, I still have questions about Ruki but what's up with Jen? Tell us about him first."

Juri can barely believe how dense her friends are. "He's the father." She says bluntly, because who knows how long it'll take for them to figure things out otherwise?

"Wait, what?" Hirokazu's voice is so high, it's nearly a shriek.

"That's it, that's the news. I told you guys it's about Jen and Ruki."

"Wait, what?" Hirokazu echoes dumbly, earning an elbow to his side. "Ouch!" He glares at Kenta, who's busy staring at Juri with wide eyes.

"So is Jen sticking around?" The boy asks as their food arrives but by the time the four of them are left to their own devices after repeatedly assuring the server that they don't need anything else, Hirokazu has taken control of the conversation once more.

"Like, are they going to do this as friends-slash-co-parents? 'Cause I've read about a lot of friends doing that, but usually they're older and they do it because they don't have anyone else to have kids with."

Juri's features twist into a mask of confusion as she tries to figure out what Hirokazu's going on about. "Or like, was it a one-time thing and now they're completely surprised and both of them are just trying to figure things out?" The boy goes on.

"Is Jen even going to stick around?" Kenta adds.

"What are you two even-" Juri is momentarily speechless. "How are you even coming up with all of this?"

"Huh?" They ask in unison.

"All of this!" Juri gestures wildly. "You're thinking up every scenario except the most obvious one."

Kenta furrows his brows. "And what's that?"

"They got pregnant the way most people do," Juri sighs, too tired to even get frustrated by how obtuse her friends are being. "They're a couple, and it was a nice surprise."

"Wait," Hirokazu says after a moment. "How is that the most obvious scenario?"

"I give up!" Juri cries, turning to Takato. "Are you the only one here who understands what I'm saying?"

"Well, Jen had a huge crush on Ruki when we were fourteen," Takato shrugs. "One day, he stopped talking about it. I thought that maybe she'd turned him down and it was too painful for him to think about it, so I never asked why he just stopped talking about her. But now I'm guessing that's when they got together and they decided not to tell anyone."

"Finally," Juri says with a huff. "Someone's making sense."

"Dude," Hirokazu's eyes are wide as he turns to Takato. "They've been together since we were fourteen?"

"How would I know?" Takato asks with a frown. The boys turn to Juri for answers.

"That sounds about right," Juri tells them. "Ruki says they've been together for ten years, and we're twenty-four this year. So I think it started when we were fourteen or fifteen, sometime then."

"Wow," Kenta comments as Hirokazu lets out an impressed whistle.

"That is a long time to be with the same person," He says in awe, but his brows knit together. "How did they even manage that?"

"You know," Juri recalls a conversation she had with Ruki two years ago. "I asked Ruki that exact question once, and she told me she has absolutely no idea."

"There must be some sort of secret," Kenta points out. "I mean, if it's been ten years and they're still going strong… there's got to be a secret to that."

"I think all of us at this table could use that secret," Takato mumbles under his breath, not expecting Juri to hear him. She turns to him with a sad smile and nods. A hushed silence falls over the table then, as everyone gets lost within memories of failed relationships and heartaches.

"Guys," Hirokazu speaks up just as everyone finally starts eating. Juri pauses and a forkful of pasta hovers mid-air, halfway to her mouth. Kenta stops chewing and Takato puts down his knife. "They're living together."

"Buddy," Kenta turns to Hirokazu with no small amount of concern in his eyes. "Jen and Ruki have been living together for two years now. Are you okay?"

"No – I mean, yeah, I'm fine," Hirokazu says. "But they're living together."

"Yeah, we know," Takato says slowly as all three of them stare at Hirokazu.

"No, you don't understand," He rambles on. "Like, we thought they were living together with separate rooms. But they're living together. Like a married couple or something. Come on, they definitely sleep in the same bed."

"Are you seriously thinking about that?" Juri asks, setting her fork down.

"Come on," Hirokazu balks at Juri's blank stare, turning to Kenta for back-up. "You're thinking about it too, right? Like, it's been ten years but they just moved in together last year. After ten years, do you still… you know? I mean," Juri rolls her eyes as Hirokazu goes on and on, and even the other two seem to be uncomfortable. "Obviously there's enough going on for Ruki to get pregnant but dude, ten years. Do you even want to after that long?"

"Oh," He crosses his arms when no one speaks up. "Come on, I can't be the only one wondering."

"But you're the only one to actually wonder out loud," Kenta points out.

"Look," Juri speaks up before Hirokazu can go on. "It's not my place to tell you this, but the last thing we want is for you to ask Ruki these questions and land in the hospital."

"Exactly," Hirokazu nods eagerly. "Last thing we want. So you're helping everyone by just telling us. You're sparing Ruki the trouble of beating me up." Of course everyone's amused that Hirokazu doesn't even try to deny the fact that Ruki would definitely emerge as the clear winner, but no one contests it either. Whether you're a friend or an enemy, everyone knows better than to cross Ruki.

"Okay," Juri sighs reluctantly. "Look, Ruki isn't the kind to really say anything, alright? But sometimes she makes a comment here or there, and also I've walked in on them a few times. I'd say ten years hasn't really changed anything for them." She can still see Ruki's troubled eyes, still hear the hitch in her voice when Juri prompted her into opening up about her relationship with Jen and the problems they face. Of course she remembers all of that but- "Theirs is the closest thing to a perfect relationship I've ever seen."

Takato sighs wistfully, and Hirokazu looks down at his food. "If that's what being a grown-up means – having a proper, stable relationship – then sign me up." He says quietly, and the others express their agreement as everyone focuses on their food.

"Wait," Kenta speaks up suddenly, his mouth full of chicken. He freezes when everyone stares at him, and makes quick work of chewing his food. "So is Jen sticking around for the baby or not?"

"Oh, hell," Juri groans in frustration, suddenly glad that Ruki chose not to deal with this personally.


Yeah, this one's pretty short. Just a wee snippet of what these guys and Juri were up to during the events of the story. Luckily, today's Christmas Eve and that means two outtakes – an extra one to make up for how brief this one is. I'm not sure that one will be much longer but I guess two of them will count as one normal-length chapter, at least.

I'll be putting the fifth outtake up later this evening, so I'll see you guys then. Until tonight, I wish everyone a merry Eve. If you're hosting a dinner party – good luck, comrade. I hope yours goes smoothly and I hope mine goes… somewhat smoothly.

E Salvatore,

December 2014.