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Sake-Crossed Lovers

Kyouju lifted up the mainframe display screen.

"Where's the invitation?" he muttered, searching his desk frantically. "If I don't show up, Rei'll probably find an... escort... for me, and he's likely to choose the scariest one there!"

His AI offered a solution on the display, but Kyouju ignored it. "Where is it?!" he yelled frantically. "Where is the stupid thing?!"

"Kyouju!"

"Yes, overseer sir?"

"What's all that noise about?"

"I can't find my appointment sheet!"

"It's on your personal drive." Kyouju called his thanks, and the overseer replied with a 'quiet' "Imbecile."

He sorted through his files. Where did I put it? What folder would I put it in? Research notes... no; Data files... no; Applicatory devices... unlikely; A! Here it is! Appointments! Of course! Sub-folder: work applications... not likely; employee meetings... nah; union gatherings... probably not; clubs... yep. Here we are; old team. Now, if I can bring it up...

He clicked the mouse, held down the input key and tapped on the numeral pad, occasionally releasing and re-compressing the data entry key. In other words, he pressed random buttons because he was bored, mainly because with all the networking that happened between his computer and the printers it took about three minutes to process and partly because of the 'interesting' patterns they showed on screen.

Luckily for him, it was at least half an hour away, which was just under the time it took for him to bike from work to the Hayazakis' place to Kai's. Not that he'd done it officially, of course, but by calculating the distance, traffic ratios, his average biking speed and the weather variations he'd constructed a pretty reliable scenario.

He tagged himself out and seized his company bike. Putting his palmpad into its pocket on the back of the handlebars, he set off through the streets of Tokyo, a geeky-looking little figure on a supercomputer company bicycle.

Kai flopped down onto his cushioned mat, looking around the room at his work. The streamers and balloons hung exactly from his intended angles. The only blemish on the walls was his errant staple, which (to his obsessively perfectionist eyes) stood out like a black toupee on Mr Dickinson's head.

Just as he was about to rip out the stupid staple, his doorbell rang. Forgetting to change the pictures hanging on one wall, he stalked to the door and threw it open dramatically. Rei stood there, a girl in a red skirt and "5 6 7 8's" T-shirt on his arm.

She was talking very fast in what sounded somewhat like Mandarin, but not quite.

"Hey, Kai," Rei greeted him. "This is Xiao Xing. She's from Shanghai."

"Ni hao, Xiao Xing," Kai said slowly, nearly obliterating all tones in his clumsy Mandarin.

"Konban wa, Hiwatari Kai," she replied.

He showed them in to the huge 'party room'. The doorbell rang again.

Kai opened the door to Max and his red-headed date. "Hey Kai. This is Ally. Ally, meet Kai." They shook hands, and Max led Ally through to the 'party room'. The host remained by the door this time, so that Kyouju, Takao, and the girls they'd bring wouldn't make him run down the stairs every five seconds.

Kyouju and an African-Asian girl were waiting for him. "Kai, Megumi. Megumi, Kai."

"Hello." Megumi and Kai shook hands.

Kyouju and Megumi began the long walk to the 'party room'. Kai stayed by the door. Megumi repeatedly questioned Kyouju and got complex answers involving the BBA Revolution Team's history. By the time they reached the 'party room', Kyouju was out of breath.

Rei and Xing were browsing the photos on the wall. Rei was muttering to his most recent girlfriend about each photograph, and Xing occasionally giggled or made a brief comment in Shanghainese.

Max and Ally were chatting, giggling and making jokes in rapid English, with some Japanese and French thrown in.

Kyouju and Megumi sat down and began to talk. A small electronic dog skittered around Megumi's knees.

After about half an hour, Kai stalked in scowling. "Takao's probably still asleep," he snarled scathingly. Rei looked over and noticed his friend's expression.

I think Kai likes Takao, too... he thought. He looks upset that Takao's not here. He probably misses him. Funny, nobody's commented on my ...oversight... of Hiromi... no, I did invite her... she just hasn't shown up yet.

He glanced at a small photo resting on a picture of the Hiwatari family and his eyes widened. "Hey, Kai, what's she doing here?"

"What's who doing where?"

Rei pointed, and Kai snatched the photo off the larger frame.

"Come on," Rei laughed, "Tell me you've had another girlfriend in six years!"

Kai remained silent.

"Oh my god!" Rei sniggered. "You've been single for six years! Misha must've been something..."

Kai was still silent.

"I mean, she dumped you three days after you met when you went back to Russia for your maternal grandmother's funeral. Yuri told me that you cried for a week--"

"I did not cry!" the bluenette snapped. "She didn't dump me, either."

"So you just mutually separated?"

"Yuri is a feminine idiot with stupid hair who doesn't know anything about people. His CPU came from a TANK, for crying out loud. Why did you believe him? Misha and I're still in contact..."

Rei smirked. "So now you give her advice on what shoes to wear with which hairband?"

Kai muttered something under his breath, which sounded something like "I'm going over to see what's keeping Takao."

"Nah, I'll do it. You talk to Xing for a bit. There's waaaay too much pizza in here, dude. The smell's really overpowering."

Rei walked out of the room and ran down the stairwell, picking up his bike and riding it towards Takao's place, now run by the former world champ's uncle.
Xing looked up from Kai's description of Moscow and St Petersbourg, where some Stalingrad veteran's grandson and his relatives had told him about his grandmother.

Rei and Takao entered, Rei supporting Takao towards the cushions. Max and Megumi piled them up, and Rei let Takao go. Unfortunately, a totally stoned person has no aim whatsoever, particularly if the options are a pile of cushions or a polished hardwood floor.

"Aowww..." Takao muttered, rubbing his head. "Whatsssh shappeninginging?" he slurred.

"You drank a whole bottle of old rice wine," Rei told him. "Good thing Max ordered fast food and fizzy drinks, or we'd all have nothing to drink."

"Is that even possissississississible?" Takao wondered drunkenly. He raised a heavy arm. "Still breaking... records..."

Kai rolled his eyes. "We need strong coffee, and a lot of water."

"How do you know this?" Max inquired.

"When you go out for vodka with TNB, you learn how to hold alcohol. Or you die. First time, I ended up in a shower stall for ten hours throwing up with the water running."

"Aa."

"He should probably go to the bathroom straight after," Kyouju put in. "The water'll just go through..."

"Chief! Too much information!"

"Sorry. I just thought you'd li--"

"Shut up!"

About half an hour and several gigalitres of water later, Takao was talking almost normally. Now that he was only loose-tongued and not almost dead, Rei found it safe to ask him THE QUESTION. He still took care to avoid the former champ's breath, though. Kai was finding it quite easy, kneeling on his mat and drinking what was labelled 'ORANGE FIZZ' but actually looked like the eighth ingredient for the famous Primordial Soup.

"Takao?"

"Yeah?"

"You have a crush on Kai, don't you?"

A wall was suddenly redecorated with a very modern splatter design of greenish-purple ooze.

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