"What's with him," Ben asked the group.
"Girl problems, man," Luke added.
"Yeah, sure, if that's what you call it," Hikaru huffed out, his arms folded across his chest. After what he saw yesterday he wanted to kill Dave.
Dave stood alone, gazing out the porthole into space. Jupiter still loomed just out of reach and the ship was making good distance. In a few more weeks they will be nearing Mars where they will rendezvous with the Sara Base to obtain more allies and repair some of the crippled valkyries and battroids. But none of that concerned Dave now as he stood in his spot. No, he was too busy thinking about Stan, and Mimi, and Minmei. He definitely felt jealous of Stan, the man who he is positive is stealing her away from him, however, at the same time he was feeling loss, as if he had already lost Mimi. This mourning period then fluxed with visions of Minmei. Adorable Lynn-Minmei, the waitress over at the restaurant with the voice of a diva. She was attractive and very sweet, too bad she belongs to Cadet Ichijo. He must be a lucky guy.
"Yo, Dave, wanna go to the pilot's lounge," Luke called out from the group.
Dave slowly returned to his senses; to the here and the now. He turned slowly and looked at his friends, Luke, Max, Ben, and Hikaru. They looked concerned. It was as if he was throwing a pity party and everyone was invited.
"Come on man, we need a fifth for cards," Luke added.
"All right," Dave said at length. He then moved over to join his buddies as they left the observation deck and made their way aft to the pilot's lounge.
"Hey man, don't beat yourself up over it, I'm sure it'll all straighten itself out," Luke assured Dave.
"Luke, this isn't war it's love; war's simpler, you point and shoot, in a relationship you just sit there at take hits," Dave said sounding defeated.
"Hey Monroe, relax, we'll have ourselves a guys night out tonight, no girls, no problems, just cards, belching, and swearing," Max chuckled out heartily.
All the while as everyone was trying to cheer up Dave, Hikaru just sat there, boiling with a deafening rage building up in him. Minmei meant a lot to him and over the last few months in space he thought that they had fallen head over heels for each other. He recalled when they first met, he had no clue how to operate his valkyrie while it was in battroid mode and he took a clumsy step forward and came crashing down on to her family's apartment and restaurant. When she came to his aid to see if he was all right he remembered that she was the same girl he and Roy were checking out earlier. During the battle on Macross Island she was in danger as an alien grabbed for her. The giant was too slow for Hikaru as he grabbed her in his valkyrie's hand. The rescue attempt was sloppy, at best. He did manage to save her the one time but when an enemy fighter shot his arm off she began to plummet back down to Earth. Hikaru had to act fast so he pushed his ship into a fast dive and released the canopy so that he may attempt to catch her, this was a simple stunt for him, he used to use this as part of his act in his family's flying circus with Roy as a child. With Minmei safely stowed in the passenger seat of his training valkyrie, Hikaru tried to get aboard the ship and away from any further combat. Taking a wrong turn, Hikaru flew his fighter into a restricted bay deep below decks. It felt like an eternity for anyone to find them there in the belly of the ship. When the Macross spacefolded to Pluto, the bellow decks began to chill. Hikaru offered Minmei his jacket and scarf to keep her warm. They began to talk about a great number of things. From then on they became quite a number. But now, as Hikaru begins to see less and less of his girl, Dave has shown up in his place.
The doors to the lounge slid apart and allowed the five to step in before it sealed itself. They made their way to the poker table in the corner. Luke brought out his deck and started to shuffle.
Hikaru took a seat across from Dave and felt that this game will become personal.
"Opening bet is a tenth of a--" but Luke was cut off by Hikaru.
"Let's make it half a cred," he insisted.
"Gentlemen," Luke asked for their approval, which they gave, "A half a cred it is then."
Everyone tossed in a coin and the cards were dealt.
All through the night Hikaru kept taking Dave to school. It would come down to the two of them almost every single time after everyone else has folded.
Dave wondered to himself what was with Hikaru tonight, usually he is quite passive and rattles off with stories that he and Minmei did earlier that day or tell some embarrassing jokes on his big brother, Roy.
The last hand of the night came around and again it was another show down between Dave and Hikaru. Both men knew what they had and were reading each other's bluff to see what they might have. The pot had risen pretty steep but to Hikaru, the money wasn't on stake here, it was pride. It was to show Dave up and prove that he is better than him. To prove that Minmei would only really love a man of Hikaru's caliber.
"I call," Hikaru said at length as he slowly fanned out his cards before Dave, "Three threes."
Dave smiled to himself, trying not to laugh at Hikaru's hand. He bit his lip to compose himself as he sat his hand down. Everyone was in awe that he managed to pull it off.
"Royal flush, read 'em and weep," Dave said, sounding like a tough guy. He reached his arms out to drag the creds back to his side of the table.
"That's it, let's settle it right here and right now," Hikaru exclaimed as he stood up from his seat.
"What the hell," Dave asked with a curious look on his face. Everyone else was shocked, too. No one has ever seen this side of Hikaru before. Even other pilots turned their head at the commotion at the poker table.
"Kid, relax, it's just a card game, if you want your money back, come by tomorrow night and we'll do it again," Dave started.
"Shut up, I saw you yesterday," Hikaru began but Max and Ben grabbed their friend by the shoulders and tried to calm him down.
"Hikaru, quiet down before an officer gets involved," Max added.
"What seems to be the problem here," Roy Fokker asked as he charged up to the table with a stern sound in his voice.
"Commander Fokker, sir," Dave said as he snapped into attention.
"Cadet Ichijo, what is the meaning of this outburst," Roy demanded.
"Roy," Hikaru started.
"Ichijo, when I have my uniform on and when I'm this serious, I am Commander, do you understand me," he asked.
"Yes sir," Hikaru said defeatedly.
"So, who's going to explain to me what's going on here before I get an officer involved in this matter that won't tolerate this kind of crap?"
"Sir, it's just a little disagreement on a hand of cards," Dave said.
"Sounds to me that it's a bit more than a little disagreement," Roy started, "but until you boys learn how to play nice, I'll have to take your toys away," with that, Roy took the creds from the table and the deck of cards. Everyone stood there in silence as their winnings went into Roy's pocket.
"As you were, gentlemen," Roy said as he snapped around and headed out of the lounge.
"So, party's over, I guess," Luke said.
The five split of into two groups, Dave and Luke left followed later by Hikaru, Max, and Ben.
"So, Dave, what did you do to get Hikaru so pissed at you for," Luke inquired as he laughed about the entire incident in the lounge. "He really flipped out."
"I don't know, I know I'm a little hard on the kid but I had no idea he was this mad at me," Dave said as he too tried to figure out Hikaru's motives.
The two shrugged and headed down the promenade. The busy row had the hustle and bustle of a typical street if this were actually a city here in the belly of the massive Macross fortress. Along side here was a cafe. Luke had told Dave that he was going to meet up Kelly and spend some time with her. He offered Dave to hang out with them so they can hang out like old times.
Back in highschool Luke met up with Kelly in their PE class. The two of them hardly ever participated with the class and were often told to go run the track for the remainder of class. Down on the field the two would share a cigarette and talk about whatever two teens talk about during their gym class. Luke had known Kelly from other classes they had had together and the two definitely found kindred spirits within each other. The two started dating and the two of them would make time to hang out with Dave so that the three could be good friends. One day Dave had told the two that he found this most amazing girl in his detention hall. She was a total straight-A student and lead actress on campus, Mimi Rodgers. Kelly knew Mimi from their French class they took together. They weren't close friends as they are now but Mimi did tell Dave that she looked pretty and appears very well mannered, a total opposite of Dave. The two girls have become great friends like Luke and Dave are. Even aboard the Macross they share a cabin.
Luke moved along the crowd until he found his way over to the patio of the cafe.
"There she is," Luke said as he hopped over the rail and made his way to his girlfriends arms who greeted him with a hug. The two are very close to each other. And these days they seem a lot closer than Dave and Mimi are nowadays.
"Dave, hey, how are you doing," Kelly said and hugged her friend.
"I'm all right, and you," Dave said as he took a seat with his friends.
"God, I'm dying for a cigarette," Kelly confessed, "but they took away all contraband before boarding."
"Well, almost every cigarette was confiscated," Luke said as he nudged Kelly.
"What are you talking about," Dave asked in disbelief in his friend's words.
"Commander Fokker let me in on a few secrets that go on here," Luke said with a wink, "He's introduced me to a few of the officers aboard here, I can get smokes and booze, whatever."
"Damn, I guess I've been missing out on a lot," Dave huffed, "I thought Fokker liked me."
"Oh, he does, he just thinks you'll tell everybody or try to market on this racket," Luke said with a chuckle.
A waiter came around and got everybody's order. During this time the three collected themselves, not wanting to look excited over this black market that exists here on the ship.
Kelly played with one of her tails, twisting the ends of the hairs between her fingers before flipping it back over her head. She looked at Dave for a moment and then put a smile on her face before frowning in mock of him.
"Ah, what's wrong," she asked in a hurt baby doll voice to mock her friend even more.
"It's Mimi," Dave started at length.
"You two are fighting," Luke asked with laughter.
"Yeah," Dave added.
"What's it about this time," Luke asked.
"I don't know, it's like we're both busy right," Dave asked Luke, in regard to their duties to the ship, Luke nodded his head, "well, I don't see Mimi quite as much as I'd like to, you know. And whenever we around she cops this attitude towards me like I messed something up. And on top of that, I think she's got a thing for her co-star."
"Stan," Kelly asked, "well, I guess I can see why, that golden hair, those sparkling eyes, that broad chin, and that cute butt," she was partly being funny and partly being honest, too.
"I just want to know what's going on, yesterday I saw the two of them holding hands over at the other cafe across from the Chinese place. I just want her to say 'Dave, I'm seeing Stan now,' so at least that way I can get this off my chest and move on."
"That's rough, buddy," Luke said. The waiter sat his cup in front of him and then moved his way around the table.
Dave waved the waiter off seeing that no one at the table needed anything else.
"Kel', you speak to Mimi all the time, does she say anything," Dave asked vulnerably.
"Well, she does seem excited all the time about her acting. She still can't believe all the attention she's receiving, being a celebrity is something new for her," Kelly answered as she recalled the last few days.
Dave hung his head slightly as he stirred his coffee. He then huffed and sat back in his chair. He collected himself and combed his hands through his hair before taking a sip of his drink.
"Hey, I got this totally good idea you guys," Luke said as he recalled something from earlier, "I almost forgot, but there's going to be a beauty contests in a few weeks. You should get Mimi to enter it and when she wins, she'll totally love you."
"That would be great, but we all know she's good looking, what makes you so sure that she'll win," Dave asked.
"That's the easy part, aside from her being the talk of the ship with her play and stuff, Commander Fokker and myself are judges. The only thing is I got duty that night so I'm sure we can get you into the judge's seat," Luke added. "So, what do you say, Judge Larry Kramer from Southern Armistice Border, formerly Texas, USA?"
"Larry Kramer, with a name like that I'd sound like the pervert who'd try to sneak backstage during the swimsuit competition," Dave laughed aloud.
"Honestly, man, do you need a different name from doing what you'd be doing anyway," Luke laughed back to Dave.
Kelly, meanwhile, was rummaging through her purse until she found this folded up piece of paper. She unfolded it and smoothed it out in front of the three of them.
"Here you go, the Miss Macross competition," Kelly read aloud.
Dave glanced over the flier and began to see a light at the end of his tunnel.
"Girl problems, man," Luke added.
"Yeah, sure, if that's what you call it," Hikaru huffed out, his arms folded across his chest. After what he saw yesterday he wanted to kill Dave.
Dave stood alone, gazing out the porthole into space. Jupiter still loomed just out of reach and the ship was making good distance. In a few more weeks they will be nearing Mars where they will rendezvous with the Sara Base to obtain more allies and repair some of the crippled valkyries and battroids. But none of that concerned Dave now as he stood in his spot. No, he was too busy thinking about Stan, and Mimi, and Minmei. He definitely felt jealous of Stan, the man who he is positive is stealing her away from him, however, at the same time he was feeling loss, as if he had already lost Mimi. This mourning period then fluxed with visions of Minmei. Adorable Lynn-Minmei, the waitress over at the restaurant with the voice of a diva. She was attractive and very sweet, too bad she belongs to Cadet Ichijo. He must be a lucky guy.
"Yo, Dave, wanna go to the pilot's lounge," Luke called out from the group.
Dave slowly returned to his senses; to the here and the now. He turned slowly and looked at his friends, Luke, Max, Ben, and Hikaru. They looked concerned. It was as if he was throwing a pity party and everyone was invited.
"Come on man, we need a fifth for cards," Luke added.
"All right," Dave said at length. He then moved over to join his buddies as they left the observation deck and made their way aft to the pilot's lounge.
"Hey man, don't beat yourself up over it, I'm sure it'll all straighten itself out," Luke assured Dave.
"Luke, this isn't war it's love; war's simpler, you point and shoot, in a relationship you just sit there at take hits," Dave said sounding defeated.
"Hey Monroe, relax, we'll have ourselves a guys night out tonight, no girls, no problems, just cards, belching, and swearing," Max chuckled out heartily.
All the while as everyone was trying to cheer up Dave, Hikaru just sat there, boiling with a deafening rage building up in him. Minmei meant a lot to him and over the last few months in space he thought that they had fallen head over heels for each other. He recalled when they first met, he had no clue how to operate his valkyrie while it was in battroid mode and he took a clumsy step forward and came crashing down on to her family's apartment and restaurant. When she came to his aid to see if he was all right he remembered that she was the same girl he and Roy were checking out earlier. During the battle on Macross Island she was in danger as an alien grabbed for her. The giant was too slow for Hikaru as he grabbed her in his valkyrie's hand. The rescue attempt was sloppy, at best. He did manage to save her the one time but when an enemy fighter shot his arm off she began to plummet back down to Earth. Hikaru had to act fast so he pushed his ship into a fast dive and released the canopy so that he may attempt to catch her, this was a simple stunt for him, he used to use this as part of his act in his family's flying circus with Roy as a child. With Minmei safely stowed in the passenger seat of his training valkyrie, Hikaru tried to get aboard the ship and away from any further combat. Taking a wrong turn, Hikaru flew his fighter into a restricted bay deep below decks. It felt like an eternity for anyone to find them there in the belly of the ship. When the Macross spacefolded to Pluto, the bellow decks began to chill. Hikaru offered Minmei his jacket and scarf to keep her warm. They began to talk about a great number of things. From then on they became quite a number. But now, as Hikaru begins to see less and less of his girl, Dave has shown up in his place.
The doors to the lounge slid apart and allowed the five to step in before it sealed itself. They made their way to the poker table in the corner. Luke brought out his deck and started to shuffle.
Hikaru took a seat across from Dave and felt that this game will become personal.
"Opening bet is a tenth of a--" but Luke was cut off by Hikaru.
"Let's make it half a cred," he insisted.
"Gentlemen," Luke asked for their approval, which they gave, "A half a cred it is then."
Everyone tossed in a coin and the cards were dealt.
All through the night Hikaru kept taking Dave to school. It would come down to the two of them almost every single time after everyone else has folded.
Dave wondered to himself what was with Hikaru tonight, usually he is quite passive and rattles off with stories that he and Minmei did earlier that day or tell some embarrassing jokes on his big brother, Roy.
The last hand of the night came around and again it was another show down between Dave and Hikaru. Both men knew what they had and were reading each other's bluff to see what they might have. The pot had risen pretty steep but to Hikaru, the money wasn't on stake here, it was pride. It was to show Dave up and prove that he is better than him. To prove that Minmei would only really love a man of Hikaru's caliber.
"I call," Hikaru said at length as he slowly fanned out his cards before Dave, "Three threes."
Dave smiled to himself, trying not to laugh at Hikaru's hand. He bit his lip to compose himself as he sat his hand down. Everyone was in awe that he managed to pull it off.
"Royal flush, read 'em and weep," Dave said, sounding like a tough guy. He reached his arms out to drag the creds back to his side of the table.
"That's it, let's settle it right here and right now," Hikaru exclaimed as he stood up from his seat.
"What the hell," Dave asked with a curious look on his face. Everyone else was shocked, too. No one has ever seen this side of Hikaru before. Even other pilots turned their head at the commotion at the poker table.
"Kid, relax, it's just a card game, if you want your money back, come by tomorrow night and we'll do it again," Dave started.
"Shut up, I saw you yesterday," Hikaru began but Max and Ben grabbed their friend by the shoulders and tried to calm him down.
"Hikaru, quiet down before an officer gets involved," Max added.
"What seems to be the problem here," Roy Fokker asked as he charged up to the table with a stern sound in his voice.
"Commander Fokker, sir," Dave said as he snapped into attention.
"Cadet Ichijo, what is the meaning of this outburst," Roy demanded.
"Roy," Hikaru started.
"Ichijo, when I have my uniform on and when I'm this serious, I am Commander, do you understand me," he asked.
"Yes sir," Hikaru said defeatedly.
"So, who's going to explain to me what's going on here before I get an officer involved in this matter that won't tolerate this kind of crap?"
"Sir, it's just a little disagreement on a hand of cards," Dave said.
"Sounds to me that it's a bit more than a little disagreement," Roy started, "but until you boys learn how to play nice, I'll have to take your toys away," with that, Roy took the creds from the table and the deck of cards. Everyone stood there in silence as their winnings went into Roy's pocket.
"As you were, gentlemen," Roy said as he snapped around and headed out of the lounge.
"So, party's over, I guess," Luke said.
The five split of into two groups, Dave and Luke left followed later by Hikaru, Max, and Ben.
"So, Dave, what did you do to get Hikaru so pissed at you for," Luke inquired as he laughed about the entire incident in the lounge. "He really flipped out."
"I don't know, I know I'm a little hard on the kid but I had no idea he was this mad at me," Dave said as he too tried to figure out Hikaru's motives.
The two shrugged and headed down the promenade. The busy row had the hustle and bustle of a typical street if this were actually a city here in the belly of the massive Macross fortress. Along side here was a cafe. Luke had told Dave that he was going to meet up Kelly and spend some time with her. He offered Dave to hang out with them so they can hang out like old times.
Back in highschool Luke met up with Kelly in their PE class. The two of them hardly ever participated with the class and were often told to go run the track for the remainder of class. Down on the field the two would share a cigarette and talk about whatever two teens talk about during their gym class. Luke had known Kelly from other classes they had had together and the two definitely found kindred spirits within each other. The two started dating and the two of them would make time to hang out with Dave so that the three could be good friends. One day Dave had told the two that he found this most amazing girl in his detention hall. She was a total straight-A student and lead actress on campus, Mimi Rodgers. Kelly knew Mimi from their French class they took together. They weren't close friends as they are now but Mimi did tell Dave that she looked pretty and appears very well mannered, a total opposite of Dave. The two girls have become great friends like Luke and Dave are. Even aboard the Macross they share a cabin.
Luke moved along the crowd until he found his way over to the patio of the cafe.
"There she is," Luke said as he hopped over the rail and made his way to his girlfriends arms who greeted him with a hug. The two are very close to each other. And these days they seem a lot closer than Dave and Mimi are nowadays.
"Dave, hey, how are you doing," Kelly said and hugged her friend.
"I'm all right, and you," Dave said as he took a seat with his friends.
"God, I'm dying for a cigarette," Kelly confessed, "but they took away all contraband before boarding."
"Well, almost every cigarette was confiscated," Luke said as he nudged Kelly.
"What are you talking about," Dave asked in disbelief in his friend's words.
"Commander Fokker let me in on a few secrets that go on here," Luke said with a wink, "He's introduced me to a few of the officers aboard here, I can get smokes and booze, whatever."
"Damn, I guess I've been missing out on a lot," Dave huffed, "I thought Fokker liked me."
"Oh, he does, he just thinks you'll tell everybody or try to market on this racket," Luke said with a chuckle.
A waiter came around and got everybody's order. During this time the three collected themselves, not wanting to look excited over this black market that exists here on the ship.
Kelly played with one of her tails, twisting the ends of the hairs between her fingers before flipping it back over her head. She looked at Dave for a moment and then put a smile on her face before frowning in mock of him.
"Ah, what's wrong," she asked in a hurt baby doll voice to mock her friend even more.
"It's Mimi," Dave started at length.
"You two are fighting," Luke asked with laughter.
"Yeah," Dave added.
"What's it about this time," Luke asked.
"I don't know, it's like we're both busy right," Dave asked Luke, in regard to their duties to the ship, Luke nodded his head, "well, I don't see Mimi quite as much as I'd like to, you know. And whenever we around she cops this attitude towards me like I messed something up. And on top of that, I think she's got a thing for her co-star."
"Stan," Kelly asked, "well, I guess I can see why, that golden hair, those sparkling eyes, that broad chin, and that cute butt," she was partly being funny and partly being honest, too.
"I just want to know what's going on, yesterday I saw the two of them holding hands over at the other cafe across from the Chinese place. I just want her to say 'Dave, I'm seeing Stan now,' so at least that way I can get this off my chest and move on."
"That's rough, buddy," Luke said. The waiter sat his cup in front of him and then moved his way around the table.
Dave waved the waiter off seeing that no one at the table needed anything else.
"Kel', you speak to Mimi all the time, does she say anything," Dave asked vulnerably.
"Well, she does seem excited all the time about her acting. She still can't believe all the attention she's receiving, being a celebrity is something new for her," Kelly answered as she recalled the last few days.
Dave hung his head slightly as he stirred his coffee. He then huffed and sat back in his chair. He collected himself and combed his hands through his hair before taking a sip of his drink.
"Hey, I got this totally good idea you guys," Luke said as he recalled something from earlier, "I almost forgot, but there's going to be a beauty contests in a few weeks. You should get Mimi to enter it and when she wins, she'll totally love you."
"That would be great, but we all know she's good looking, what makes you so sure that she'll win," Dave asked.
"That's the easy part, aside from her being the talk of the ship with her play and stuff, Commander Fokker and myself are judges. The only thing is I got duty that night so I'm sure we can get you into the judge's seat," Luke added. "So, what do you say, Judge Larry Kramer from Southern Armistice Border, formerly Texas, USA?"
"Larry Kramer, with a name like that I'd sound like the pervert who'd try to sneak backstage during the swimsuit competition," Dave laughed aloud.
"Honestly, man, do you need a different name from doing what you'd be doing anyway," Luke laughed back to Dave.
Kelly, meanwhile, was rummaging through her purse until she found this folded up piece of paper. She unfolded it and smoothed it out in front of the three of them.
"Here you go, the Miss Macross competition," Kelly read aloud.
Dave glanced over the flier and began to see a light at the end of his tunnel.