PART 10 : Food for Thought

Junko and Calli

Junko sat across from Calli, stuffing his face in a burger the size of a basketball.

Calli stared in awe and disgust at Junko, while a salad sat in front of her.

"Wow." Junko said between bites, "You were right. This place is great." He took another bite. "Especially this burger!"

Calli smiled. "Well, I'm glad you like it. Although I'm not sure about the burger."

Junko stopped eating. " You mean, you haven't tried one of these?" He asked referring to the burger. Her blank expression was a yes to him. He shoved his half eaten burger to her. "Try some! I insist!"

"No!" She spat rather fast. "It's just that I'm a vegetarian."

Junko's expression turned apologetic. " Sorry. Didn't realize." He smiled.

"It's okay." Calli said. "Uhhh. So…." She scooped up some of her salad and took a bite. "What do you do on the team?"

"Flight engineer and…" He showed his arms and flexed. "Heavy ballistics."

"Heavy ballistics? Never would have guessed." She laughed.

Junko looked up at her, laughing as well. " What do you do on your team?"

"Oh. I'm the mission specialist, and I'm starting to learn about crystals. I've always wanted to be a crystal expert, but… I only really know the basics." Calli explained.

"That's cool." Junko said, inhaling the last bit of his burger. "Piper's our Crystal mage. She knows everything there is to know about crystals." "Really!" She paused suddenly, and idea suddenly dawning on her. "Wait a sec! She could teach me!"" Calli said excitedly.

"That's a great idea." Junko said.

Calli's smile faded. " Except…how long were you guys planning on staying here?"

"Umm…." Junko pondered for a moment. " We were planning on leaving tomorrow, but I could ask my team if we could stay longer."

Calli grinned. "Thanks Junko."

"No problem." He said grinning.

The waiter walked up to their table. She wore the restaurant's uniform and her bright ginger hair was tied up in a messy bun and freckles littered her face. She smiled warmly looking at them.

"Well I'll be." She said flustered in an unfamiliar accent. " I didn't know it at first but when the boss pointed it out I couldn't help but realize he was right."

Junko and Calli stared at her confused at first. What was she talking about?

"Might I just say it's an honour to serve you two. A Storm Hawk and a Trouble Clef!"

"Oh." said Junko and Calli.

The waiter turned to Calli and focused on her. "I was at the concert, you know. You're my favourite band member." The waiter ranted on. " I'm learning how to play bass like you, but I'm actually better on the guitar." Calli's expression flickered with acknowledgment at this, but only for a second before she started to ignore the waitress, who continued on about the band and their instruments. Calli tried to ignore her by continuing on eating, and hoping she would leave them in peace.

The waiter seemed to realize she was getting side tracked. "Anyway, how are you enjoying your meal?"

"It was delicious!" Junko commented.

"It is." Calli looked up and agreed. "Send my compliments to the chef, will you?"

"Of course. Is there anything else you'd like?" She asked.

"Uhh. Can I get another deluxe burger, with everything on it?" Junko asked.

Calli's eyes widened. "Another one?" She whispered under her breath disbelievingly.

"Sure. Will that be all?" The waitress asked, writing the order down on the note pad.

"Yes." Calli and Junko agreed in sync.

"Very well. But…before I go.." The waitress flipped the page of the note pad and held it out to them along with her pen. "Can I have an your autographs?"

"Sure." Calli smiled taking the notepad and pen. Calli wrote her signature on the notepad and handed it over to Junko. He stared at her obviously confused, and hesitant, but he took the pad and pen and wrote down his autograph anyway and handed it to the waitress.

The waitress grinned from ear to ear. "Thank you. I'll be back with your burger." And with that the waitress walked off in a hurry.

"Fans." Calli stated simply. " They're everywhere."

Junko nodded tiredly, recalling yesterdays events before the concert.

Calli looked at him curiously. "Why didn't you want to give her your signature?"

"I gave her my signature." He said defensively.

"I know, I know." She assured him. "It's just that you looked like you didn't want to."

"Well…." He said tentatively, "It's just that I don't understand why fans always want our autographs. I mean, it's just a name, anyone can write it. And what's so special about it anyway?"

"Well…umm…hmmm." Calli murmured trying to think of a contradicting point in the argument but couldn't think of one.

"You're right." Calli finally said.

"I am..?" said Junko a bit surprised, thinking she was going to argue.

"You do make a good point. I mean, what are you going to do with a signed piece of paper anyway?" Calli said, questioning herself.

"Exactly." Junko said happily. He remembered how stubborn Finn had been when he had brought up the same point with him.

They smiled at each other and continued talking. They talked about things such as food, different terra's, vacations, training, Cyclonians, and anything else they could possibly think of and that's when they started discussing the band.

"So the twins play the drums and the keyboard. And they are both wicked on the electric triangle." Calli said enthusiastically. "Vincent specializes on the electric cello. But when he first joined he did violin. More of a string instrument guy." She smiled, recalling something.

" Speaking of first time he joined….the first thing Jay asked was if he wanted to be a back-up singer! You should have seen his face. Because you know, he's a mute…but Jay didn't know that so…haha!" Calli kept giggling. " It was hysterical. I could have sworn that steam was coming out of Vince's ears."

Junko laughed alongside her. " So…" Junko started curiously when they'd stopped laughing, " How did he become a mute anyway?"

Calli's face suddenly became stern. "He was born a mute. Kind of a sad story."

Junko gave her a questioning look at she continued.

"He had a horrible childhood because of it. Barely any friends. Then….there was his parents."

"What happened?" Junko asked sadly.

Calli looked down. "I …I shouldn't talk about it. He rarely tells anyone."

"It's okay….." Junko said. Desperate to change the subject, he directed a question at her. " So, you and Jay have the same uncle? How's that work? Are you two brother and sister?"

Calli smiled at him. "No. We're cousins. My dad had two brothers. One of them was Jay's dad and the other one is Reuben. Jay parents died in a Cyclonian raid, so now he lives with Reuben and his wife, Cassidy."

"And how bout you?" Junko asked.

"Well. My dad went traveling, and met my mum on Amazonia. Then they had me and my sis, but it didn't work out so they split. Now, I live here with my mum, a few streets down from here and my dad and my sister live on Terra Amazonia."

"Woah, so you have a sister?" Junko blurted.

"Heh, yeah. But we never really got along. I'm much closer to Jay than to her."

"That's too bad." Junko commented.

"Nah, I don't really mind. I like Jay. He's like a brother to me. He's always there for me." But Calli's words seemed to tremble. "Well, as much as he can be." she admitted. "It gets annoying sometimes." Calli looked down. " We get into more arguments than I'd like to admit."

There was a long pause. Then Calli's expression turned somewhat spiteful.

"He always wins them anyway though. Guess, cuz he's the leader, and older than me. My opinions not important enough."

"Don't say that." Junko contradicted.

"It's true!" Calli exclaimed. "I wanted to played guitar instead of bass, but 'Nooo'. He's playing guitar, so I just get stuck with bass. Not to mention how angry he gets when I disobey him. It's as if his needs are first priority."

Anger had glazed her eyes. It was obvious she had been wanted to tell someone about this for a long time because her words just seemed to pour out of her like a waterfall.

"Hmph, I don't even bother anymore. It's clear what he's trying to say. It's that 'He's the leader, and what he says goes.' "

Junko looked at her in awe. For the short time he had known Jay, he had been one of the nicest guys he had ever met. But Calli didn't look like she was lying , and he knew it best not to oppose her about it.

"Calli," Junko said calmly. " If you know Jay is doing something that you know in your heart is wrong, it's okay if you stand up against him." Junko gave her a reassuring smile.

Calli frowned though. "But you're supposed to be able to trust your Skyknight aren't you? I know I should trust him but sometimes it's like…" She sighed angrily. Then looked at Junko with desperate eyes. "You don't ever have this problem, do you? I mean, do you ever second-guess Aerrow?"

"Well," Junko thought about it, his eyebrows pulling together. "Aerrow's a good guy, and sometimes he does crazy stuff, but I trust him and he's always there for us."

Calli's frown seemed to deepen. "So it's just me then," she mumbled.

But then Junko reached across the table and lightly grabbed her shoulder.

"Hey," he said. "You wanna know something? Before I was a Storm Hawk I used to be part of a Cyclonian Youth gang."

Calli's eyes widened. "You?" she said incredulous. "But you're the nicest, sweetest guy there is!"

Junko withdrew his hand and continued to explain. "Yeah, well," he blushed a little at her comments before growing serious again. "Before I was always trying to fit in. Other Wallops looked down on me cause I was weaker. I thought that by joining Grimsley's gang, I could be accepted. But, it never felt right, and I was always doing things I didn't want to. For a long time I was too afraid to stand up to them. It wasn't until I met Aerrow and the others that I finally had the courage to do it. "

Calli's jaw had dropped open. "Wow," she said finally. "Thanks Junko. That means a lot…but I'm not sure…I can be that brave."

A/N: I know, I really have neglected this story. In fact, I've neglected all my stories. I haven't written for months. I think it was almost year ago that I last updated. So it was time that I updated. Think of it as an early Christmas gift.

Please Read & Review.