Author's Note: Ivan's back, Ivan fangirls! Enjoy his vodka-soaked arrival while I update my One Piece crack fic series.
Disclaimer: I only own Rubio and Gareth, two of my OCs.
Ch. 4: "Alcohol Poisoning."
The next day, everyone was going... Kind of normal. Then, after lunch, Natalia told us something.
"We're going to the hospital to pick up Ivan. He got alcohol poisoning from last night."
I think I will take up Rubio's offer to go to Chinatown with him.
Anyway, at the hospital, only one person was allowed to get Ivan, so, Yetkaterina volunteered. I used this time to bring Toris and Raivis to the cafeteria.
"Whatever Yao or Kiku or anybody else but us proposes to do after this, we're walking out," I stated. I did not want any more of my money stolen from me. Then, Toris bought the three of us ice cream sandwiches. I don't know if it was out of pity from last night or not.
After we brought Ivan back from the hospital, Char and I decided to sit on lawn chairs out front and watch the world go by.
"Your cousin really loves Yao, ana," Char stated.
"Unfortunately, yes," I said, drawing experience from Friday night.
"You know what's weird?" Char asked me.
"What?" I said.
"I haven't seen Ivan and Yao be romantic all day, ana," Char said.
"Don't jinx it," I told him. Time passed. It was so quiet, we could hear the sounds of a yard sale down the street, a dog barking, and somebody mowing the lawn. Basically, it was a quiet, sunny afternoon in San Fran.
"Hey, do you want to go into Chinatown tonight? I always wanted to go, but Yao never lets me, ana," Char asked me.
"Why doesn't he let you?" I asked him.
"He had a bad experience in an opium den, ana," Char explained. I started to wonder if his verbal tic of 'ana' had something to do with The King and I.
"Don't worry, we can lie. Plus, we can go with this guy I met last night at the rum party," I explained. Despite my seemingly clean-cut and wholesome, nerdy image, I am a good liar. One time, there was an anime con in town (I believe it was Anime Los Angeles), and Ivan wouldn't let me go because he wanted all of his cousins with him as we celebrated his birthday. What did I do? I lied and said that I had to go to an important calculus-related lecture down near LAX when, in reality, I was going to the con. Ivan never knew about it, as I hid all the stuff I bought at the con in the trunk of my Prius until I could go back to my dorm at CalTech.
"Dude... For a nerd, you are awesome," Char marvelled.
That night, Char and I managed to lie our way into going to Chinatown. Everyone else in the house but Yao and Ivan came with us when they heard of the plan. I'm suprised that Ivan or Yao didn't get suspicious when we all left the house to quote-unquote "get dinner at Bucca di Beppo, see a comedy show starring Dane Cook, go to the arcade and play games, and get ice cream".
Yeah. Right.
So, anyway, Rubio and his roommate from Chicago, a blue-haired man named Gareth, were waiting for us at Chinatown's entrance.
"Welcome to Chinatown. We will be your tour guides on this mystical tour into San Fransisco's Chinatown," Gareth greeted us. Did I mention that he wore a long, green coat that looked well-worn?
Yeah. Rubio must have suspicious friends in high and low places.
We started the tour at a back-alley restaurant, where we had dinner. To my horror, the entire menu was in Chinese.
"Char, what does this say?" I asked Char as I pointed to some dish I couldn't make out since I can't speak or read Chinese.
"I don't know, ana. I can't read or speak that much Chinese. However, i'm fluent in Thai, if that helps," Char said.
"Let me translate for you," Kaoru offered. I was shocked, since Kaoru had been pretty quiet the entire time I was here. Or, at least speaking very little. I pointed to the Chinese characters on the menu.
"That's actually an eight-treasures vegtable dish," Kaoru pointed out. I'm suprised I wasn't pointing at something that had seafood in it.
"Do you see anything good, Kaoru?" I asked him.
"Try the pork stewed in teriyaki," Kaoru reccommened.
"Hey, Kaoru, you seem pretty fluent in Chinese. Can you help me with my menu?" Toris asked him. Within minutes, Kaoru and Mei had translated our menus, and we had our food.
"So, did you hear about the triads here?" Gareth asked us cheerfully.
"What's a triad?" Raivis asked Gareth and Rubio.
"They're basically mafia families," Rubio anwsered.
"Yeah. There was this one time where these two triads fought in the streets over a girl. There were tons of people watching," Gareth explained.
"No way. If only I can fight Yao in the streets for brother's attention," Natalia remarked. I'm guessing she missed a med or two today, since she's talking about her love for Ivan and not something else.
After dinner, we wandered the neon-filled streets of Chinatown. In between telling us about Chinatown's history and various other stuff, Gareth and Rubio taught us about pirated movies from China.
"Your descriptions of pirated movies from China make me want to see a kung-fu film," Raivis commented. I'm not sure if that was a compliment or just a random musing.
"You'll be impressed at Chinese kung-fu movies, especially "Kung Fu Hustle"," Rubio explained.
"We did a showing of it at the college we attend, and it was so popular, we had to book the screening for two more nights," Gareth explained as we approached a building with a curtain as the door.
"Wait, what is this?" I asked Gareth, who pulled back the curtain, revealing a door.
"Step inside to the world of awesomeness," Gareth said. We entered a somewhat dim room, but, it had arcade games i've never seen before, like Pop'n Music and Beatmania IIDX.
"Is this an aracde or something we will get arrested for?" I asked Gareth.
"Arcade. It's mainly import games," Gareth anwsered. After a round of Japanese arcade games and shopping, we parted ways with Gareth and Rubio. But, something bad happened - I got lost AND seperated from the group.
"Stacey? Kiku? Mei? Char? Kaoru? Yetkaterina? Natalia? Feliks? Toris? !" I cried.
Ending Note: Poor Eduard. He's probably going to get punished for lying.
Unfortunately, there are two chapters left of this fic, which cover the last two and a quarter days with Yao and his brood. Fear not, i've got other fics.
Review as always! Ja ne!