"Shut up. I'm serious." Astro replied giggling. "I have to give her something besides dinner right? What does human behavior demand?"
Reno scratched his head. "Well…Abby liked perfume but I really don't think there's a regulated gift for a second date actually. You could get her one of those heart to heart lockets or a new dress."
Astro played with his lips. "A new dress? She might like that…or…..or a new baseball glove? The one she has now is gross looking."
Reno shrugged. "Be spontaneous and shocking, just go blind as a bat and get something unexpected."
"And that would be a good thing?" Astro asked.
"Trust me. Sometimes a surprise gift can give good results…like an extra long kiss….or another visit to her house…"wink wink."
Astro smiled. "Oh?...ok…I'll try the secret gift idea then." Astro waved goodbye as he walked towards the lab door. "Call me when you get those results?"
"I'll try not to bother you tonight at diner unless it's really urgent to act quickly." Reno replied as he went back to looking at his computer screen.
Korando's restaurant
6pm
Astro stood by the door pulling on his coat and playing with the draw strings on his hood to pass the time, which started to feel like forever as he looked for Nicky. Finally he saw her hop down from a passing bus.
"Sorry!" She said as she walked up. "Practice went longer than we thought."
"That's….." Astro didn't finish what he was saying since now he was trapped in a passionate kiss…"Eeeeep! Sigh…I'm always getting warm when she does this." He thought happily, not wanting to let her catch a breath…
As she pulled back, Nicky tickled Astro's nose. "Guess what?"
"Your parents are gonna be out again?" Astro replied with some hope.
"I made Babe Ruth silly." Nicky said as she looked down at the box Astro was holding. "For me?"
"I…wouldn't open it out here." Astro said as he lightly pushed the box against Nicky's chest. "Hopefully you won't smack me."
"You're being bold!" She said smiling. "How very un-natural of you."
Astro took her by the hand and led her into the restaurant. "I'm sorry I haven't been seeing you more often Nicky…things are kinda busy."
Nicky took her seat and started opening the gift to Astro's shock. "Wait! I said not here!"
"Oh come on you prune." Nicky said smirking as she lifted the cover and sat blank faced for a second. Astro looked like he was ready to run out the door when the waiter caught a glimpse of what Nicky was holding.
"Mmmm…." She said with a devilish look. "That's what you think of me?"
"I…I was told to be shocking…spontaneous…it's Reno's fault!" Astro gasped as Nicky held up one of the items. Astro was turning beat red with embarrassment.
"I love them!" Nicky suddenly said with a bright face and a cute giggling squeal. "Eeeeeee….you are such a hotie!"
"I'm dead." Astro said moanfully. "This will be all over the city….I am so dead."
"Oh come on!" Nicky said as she reached for a hand. "Will you stop…you buy me some cute panties and you think the world just blew up."
"Well….." Astro said as he rubbed his lips. "Now I feel all dirty and perverted, I shouldn't have…"
Nicky warmly smiled as she reached over the table and gently kissed Astro again. "Oh shut up before you get yourself deeper in trouble will you?"
As the dinner progressed, Astro felt more at ease. He sat smiling as Nicky ran her hands through one of the "gifts"
"Silk? This one must have been expensive." She said as she put it back into the box. "So is this the big budget kiss and make up gift for not seeing me so often? And why are you spending so much time with that Tokugawa punk any way?"
Astro sat back with his hands behind his head. "Well…you're a robot, don't you feel the calling too?"
"Calling?" Nicky replied.
"Yeah." Astro said proudly. "As robots we have the responsibility to take care of humans and I wanted to find one human to really give me a challenge, some one who's right on the edge of going the wrong way forever. I wanna pull em back from the abyss and turn his life around. It's…
Well it feels great!"
Nicky smiled and shook her head. "Always with your brain in the clouds. Can you take a break from saving the world tonight though? Or are you going to rush off and leave me with the check?"
Astro's face doe'd and his eyes fluttered. "I think Daichi can handle himself tonight…why?"
"Because….my parents really aren't home again." Nicky replied.
Astro played with his fingers. "You're…..sure?"
"Absolutely." Nicky said as she reached across the table and gave him a gentle kiss.
7pm
Tokugawa Industrial HQ
Higashi Saturino nervously stood by a water cooler in the darkened hallway. "Daichi?" He whispered nervously. "Man…busting into your old man's office?"
"I'm not "busting" into anything." Daichi replied as he sat at his fathers desk. "I can do whatever I want remember? It's only going to take ten minutes or so."
"But if they see our bikes outside we'll be royally screwed! I'm sure your old man didn't want you messing around with his stuff!"
Daichi poked his head out through the dorr. "Higashi, so help me if you book on me I'll turn everything on and really screw you now just keep watch."
Daichi returned to his father's desk and worked over his computer. Cracking the password was so easy, did he really think Daichi didn't have good ears when he was younger?
"KittyCuddles" "How sweet. The only sweet thing about my Dad was what he called mom." Daichi said to himself as he ran from file to file and transferred some of them to a zip drive. "Who is it Father? Who are you trying to screw me with this time?"
As he searched, Daichi replayed over and over those other times when he tried to do something on his own, like art. He had a gift for it, especially painting. He still had the glowing report written by his primary teacher, his father had tossed or ripped up everything else in his pursuit to mold his young son in his image…"A keen eye, great dexterity, wondrous talent!" She wrote about him. He pleased his mother so much with his artwork, her reaction, her smiled brought Daichi abundant joy. To his father it brought only discomfort. "Art is the medium of losers, drifters and homosexuals. Not in my family!"
Daichi cursed as he finished his probing and pocketed his zip drive. "Not this time Father, I swear I'll discover your conspiracy and make you rue this time. After I'm done you'll never mess up my dreams agin."
9pm
Nicky's House
Was this perfect? Astro searched his memory files to see if the situation was aligned with how a "date" would go. Another warm kiss on the lips ended that streak of blind logic hunting.
They lay on the couch, rather half sitting and snuggling together at one end wrapped in a thick blanket. The music was soft…she was soft….Astro was nervously fidgeting.
"Are you sure this is ok? I mean if your parents walk through the door…I'm kinda….dead." He looked into her soft doeish eyes for a moment and smirked. "Oh what the heck, where's my noose?"
Nicky lay on top, her fingers tracing softly over Astro's face and lips as she hummed to the music…"So…what are you going to do when you finish school? My Parents want me to stop at High School."
Astro thought for a moment. "I dunno. I would like to go to college just to see what that's like but Doctor O'Shay wants me to work full time at the Ministry of Science at some point, after all they have to recoup some of the cost Doctor Tenma expended in making me."
Nicky smiled lightly…"Could I fit in some place?"
Astro fidgeted. "Uh….it's possible…but shouldn't it be a while still, I mean…a few years more?"
Nicky doe-ishly eyed Astro before kissing him around his neck…he swore he was going to over-heat and thought of throwing her back…
"Oh the heck with it…who needs a few years." He said lightly as they rolled around on the couch…
"Beeeep!...beeeeep!...beeep!" Suddenly the call alert chimed through Astro's head. "Oh come on! Not now!" He said gruffly as he sat up. "Always at the wrong time…do you mind?"
"Click…." "Astro here."
Nicky sat making curses and strangle hands, showing her sudden impending rage if Astro dared to take a call if she thought it would be saving a cat from a tree. "Tell em you're on vacation!" She snorted.