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After spending her quality time with her father, Yai decided to go and hang out with Dex and Tory for the afternoon. They were walking into the ice cream parlor when they saw Mary and Chaud walking towards the carnival. "What's going on?" asked Yai.

"Um, Yai, you may want to sit down," said Dex as he and Tory found a booth. Yai, curios, followed suit.

"Uh, I don't really know how to put this lightly," said Tory, "but I think that Chaud and Mary are seeing each other." Yai sat there for a minute, thinking about this before…-"

"WHAT!"

"Yai, calm down; we're in a shop," said Dex, casting a nervous glance over his shoulder and looking at the other patrons. Yai fumed for a second before she spoke again.

"I can't believe that my pen pal is going out with my, future boy- I mean, my future business partner," she quickly recovered. "I can't believe that I almost called him my boyfriend. Luckily, Mary will be going home in a week, and the deal will be sealed by then. Then, Chaud will be mine!" She squealed when she thought the end.

"Yai, I thought that you were mad about Chaud and Mary. Why are you so happy all of the sudden?" Tory asked, scooting away from Yai.

"Oh, nothing, let's go and get some ice-cream now!" The boys, not wanting to upset her again, quickly got in line and they ordered the ice cream.

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Lan and Maylu left the movie theater and decided to stop by the park before they went shopping in downtown. They wanted to see how their Navi's were doing, and, mainly, what they were doing. "Where do you think that they would be?" asked Maylu as they entered the park grounds.

"I don't know, but knowing Mega, it's going to have a good view. He likes nature a lot," Lan replied as he looked around.

"Why?" asked Maylu, thinking about all of the destruction that he had caused. She thought that Mega would like blowing things up more than sitting down for two hours.

"I think that it's because of the hospital," said Lan, remembering the time that he spent there as a child. "I think that I may know why he likes the park, do you want me to tell you the story?"

"Sure," said Maylu, sitting down on the grass, followed by Lan.

Flashback

Hub was lying in his bed, weakened from his medicine and pain killers, about to fall asleep when his parents and little brother came in. "Hub, how are you feeling?" asked Dr. Hikari. Hub looked up at him and tried to lift his head off of the pillow, but couldn't.

"Calm down," said Mrs. Hikari as she walked over to his son's side. "It's ok; don't talk, don't even move." Hub responded with a weak smile and looked over to his brother.

"Hey Lan," he whispered. Lan ran over, jumped on his brother's bed, and gave him a big hug. "How are you doing?"

"Just fine! Guess what I got to do today!" the young boy squealed, almost jumping up and down on the bed. Hub smiled.

"What did you do today?" he whispered.

"I got to go to the park! I brought you something," said the two year old. He jumped off the bed and ran over to his parents. Mrs. Hikari handed him something that Hub couldn't see. Lan ran back and jumped on the bed again. "I found this for you. It's your favorite color!" Lan handed Hub a single blue jay's feather.

"It's so cool, thanks Lan," Hub said as he gathered enough strength to pull his brother into a hug. Lan returned the gesture with double the strength.

"Lan, what did I tell you?" said Dr. Hikari when he thought that Lan was hugging to hard.

"Sorry papa, sorry Hub," said Lan as he got off the bed and hung his head.

"Hey, it's ok. You didn't hurt me or anything," said Hub. Lan jumped back on the bed, glad that he wasn't in trouble, and was about to give Hub another hug when the nurse came in.

"Visiting time is over. Hub needs his rest," she said stiffly as she walked out of the room.

"Awwww," said Hub as he went limp in his bed. "Why does she have to be so strict?"

"Hub, sweetie," said Mrs. Hikari, "It's because she is looking out for you." She walked over and gave Hub a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Right at that moment a very nervous Jena ran into the room and dove under the bed.

"If anyone comes in, I'm not here. And I ran away," Jena whispered as someone opened the door.

"Have you seen young Miss Walker, it's time for her surgery," said the nurse, which Hub recognized as the nice nurse that you got to see before you went home. Thinking for a minute, he responded.

"She's under the bed," he said. The nurse went and pulled Jena out.

"HUB! WHY DID YOU RAT ON ME!" she yelled as she tried to get out of the nurses firm grasp by kicking and screaming.

"Would you like to talk to your friend before your appointment?" said the nurse. Jena squirmed out of her arms. Lan watched as Jena walked past him and up to his brother. He had never seen Jena that mad before, and he was scared.

"I ratted on you because that's the nurse that you get to see before you get better. It's not the nurse that you get stuck with if you're never going to get better," he said.

"Hub, which nurse would that be? Which one is the one that you, um, get stuck with if you're never going to get better?" Dr. Hikari asked as he looked at his son and his son's best friend. The two young kids exchanged a nervous look. "Hub?"

"The one that I'm stuck with," he said so softly that his father could barely hear him.

"Hub," said his father, leaning in close, "I think that I may have found a way to help you. But I'll tell you tomorrow," he said as he looked at his wife. "Come on Jena, let's go and get you to the, um, nice nurse." Jena and Lan waved goodbye to Hub and left the room.

End Flashback

"Wow," said Maylu after Lan was finished. "I had no idea."

"I didn't know what he told Dad that day until fifth grade," said Lan, looking at the ground.

"Well, now you do, and I know why he likes the park. Time to go and find them," said Maylu, standing up. Lan followed her and they started walking when something caught Lan's eye. He bent over and picked it up. "What did you find?"

"A blue jay's feather," said Lan, putting it in his pocket.

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Mega and Roll were asleep under the tree when Lan and Maylu found them. "You were right Lan," Maylu whispered as they watched their Navis sleep. Roll had fallen asleep across Mega's lap in his arms, and Mega was leaning against the tree. "He did choose the place with the best view."

"I don't think that we should wake them, though," said Lan. "Want to go to downtown in the meantime?"

"Sure," said Maylu. She turned to leave when she saw Lan messing with his PET. "What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to see if I can get this feather into the net. There we go!" he exclaimed as he inserted the feather into the PET, and Maylu watched as the feather landed right beside Mega.

"Ok, now can we go shopping?" asked Maylu. Lan smiled, and they left the park. A few minutes after their Op's left, Mega and Roll woke up.

"How long were we asleep?" asked Roll.

"I don't know," said Mega as he looked around and saw the feather. "Hey Roll, do you remember birds being in the net?"

"No, why?" she asked. Mega showed her the feather, and Roll used her antenna to analyze it.

"This feather was sent into the net via your brother's PET. Why would Lan send you a feather?"

"Well, I think it is because he gave one to me when I was in the hospital, and I think that's why he sent it."

"Oh," said Roll. She didn't really like asking about Mega's past, she felt like she was intruding on his privacy, but she really wanted to know more about him. "That's sweet of him." Mega smiled and gave her a hug.

"So, what do you want to do now?"

"Hmmm, I don't know. Do we really have to go somewhere? I like it here," she said, making herself comfortable in his lap, and, incidentally, pinning him to the ground.

"Well," he said, trying to get up, but failing, "I guess we can stay. Do you want to talk?"

"Sure."

"What to you want to talk about?" Roll looked at the ground, not wanting to answer.

"I-I-I sorta want to hear more stories from your, um, child….hood," she said, blushing a little.

"What do you want to hear about?"

"How did you get into the net?"

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Chaud and Mary had hit most of the games, and were about to hit the roller coaster when Mary got a call on her PET. "Hang on, I need to get this," she said as she looked at the caller id. "It's my dad."

"Ok, I'll just try my luck with this game," he said as he went over to the ball toss game. "I wonder how my dad is doing. Wait, why should I care? He hurt me. He deserves what I'm giving him," he thought as he began the game. "Although I don't want to care, I do. Why?" He threw a ball and missed. "He's ruined my life since I was little. I should be happy, but I'm not." He threw the second ball. "I just wish that I had a good relationship with my dad like Mary has with hers. I should go home. I should do that once we're done here." He threw the last ball and knocked down the pins.

"Congratulations kid, what prize do ya want?" asked the owner of the game. Chaud looked and saw all the gigantic stuffed animals.

"I'll take the gigantic stuffed zebra," he said. The owner took down the animal and handed it to Chaud.

"Hey Chaud, you won!" said Mary, coming up to him.

"Yeah, but now I have to carry this thing around all day," he replied. Mary laughed.

"Why don't we go now? I don't think that my heart could handle the coaster," she said.

"Ok, let me call Proto and tell him that it's time to go," he said as he pulled out his PET. "Proto, time to go. Hey, Mary, do you want this?"

"Sure, thanks," said Mary as she Chaud handed her the animal

"Yes sir," came his answer.

"Well, let's get going," said Chaud as they left the park.

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Proto and Ring opted to walk home like they walked to the park. "So Proto, did you have fun or what?" Ring exclaimed. Proto just sighed. "Well? Tell me!"

"I guess I had fun," he finally answered. "But I could do without all the yelling. I shouldn't have allowed her to buy cotton candy and a funnel cake. I have a feeling that she's going to be hyper all night. I almost feel sorry for Glyde and Yai."

"What's with all the silence? Hey, I have a question: what was your favorite part?"

"Um, I guess the, um, arcade."

"I loved the shooting games!" she said. She was about to say something else when, all of the sudden, she and Proto were surrounded by six dark grey Navis. Two had sniper rifles, two had blasters, and two had swords.

"Hey, remember us?" asked one of the Navi with the blaster.

"Yeah," said Proto, "Didn't Ring and I delete your buddy and force you and your friend to log out?" The Navi growled at the memory.

"As a matter of fact we do," said a Navi with the sniper rifle.

"Well then," Ring yelled, "if you remember getting your tail whooped, then why are you asking us to do it again?"

"Listen missy," growled one of the swordsmen, "You deleted my brother, and now I'm going to delete you!" Once he finished saying that, he ran at Ring, who dodged.

"Actually," said Proto, "If I remember correctly, I was the one who deleted that thug." This ticked off the other Navis. The snipers shot at Proto, one of the bullets made contact. "Fine, if that's the way you want to play. Chaud, I could use some chips here." Chaud responded by sending an m cannon. Proto shot it and hit one of the snipers in the symbol, logging that Navi out.

"Ring! Here are two hi cannons!" Mary said as she sent the chips. Ring used them as soon as she got them. She logged out the other sniper and one of the blasters. Chaud sent Proto a long sword, as well as a variable sword. Proto logged out the other blaster one and one of the swordsmen, not the one who was trash talking, though.

"Well, now let's think about this for a second. Do you really want to attack us?" asked Ring sarcastically. The swordsman started to tremble in fear, and logged himself out. "Now, that was almost as fun as the space ride that went around in a circle really fast!"

"I hated that ride," mumbled Proto as Ring began to remind him of every detail of that day.

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Mary and Chaud arrived back at Blaze Mansion around five at night. They walked up the path, and into the den, where they found Mr. Blaze waiting for them."How was your day?" Mr. Blaze asked the couple as they sat down in their chairs.

"It was fun," said Mary. "I think that even Chaud enjoyed himself." Chaud just rolled his eyes at the last remark.

"That's wonderful. Chaud, have you made your decision," asked Mr. Blaze, sounding worn out.

"Yes," Chaud said. "I'll come home and go back to work for the time being. But if anything else happens, I'm going straight back to where I've been staying." "I shouldn't tell him where I've been just in case I do have to go back."

"Chaud," said his father, standing up and walking over to his son, who tensed up, but allowed his father to come close. "Thank you. Thank you for giving me a second chance." Mr. Blaze then did something that he hadn't done in years. He gave his son a gigantic hug. Chaud was shocked at first, but then he hugged his father back. Mary looked at the broken family and smiled.

"I wish that my relationship with my dad was like that. He hardly ever pays attention to me. He never really did. I wish that I could just go and give him a big hug sometimes," she thought. She looked at her PET, and saw Proto and Ring talking. "Hey, it's all ok, right?"

"Yeah," said Chaud, ending the embrace and walking over to Mary. "It's all ok now, Mary; thanks for helping me."

"It was nothing," she replied.

"No, it was everything," Chaud said.

"Well," said Mr. Blaze, "Why don't I leave the two of you alone." Chaud thanked his father as he walked out of the room before turning his attention back to Mary.

"I don't know how I could have coped if you weren't there. Thank you." He finished his speech with a kiss.

"Chaud," said Mary as she threw her arms around his neck. "Thanks for accepting me and my heart trouble. Most of the kids in Netopia are mean to me because of it."

"No problem. And I think that our Navis have gotten closer since we met," he said, looking on Mary's PET, where Ring had just thrown her arms around Proto, who seemed startled by her reaction. "Proto, what did you do to deserve that?"

"I just told her that I was grateful for her being my friend," he said. Once he said the word "grateful", Ring hugged him tighter.

"I guess that Ring likes Proto," said Mary as Chaud laughed.

"I guess so too. Isn't it weird that when Op's who are boy and a girl like each other, and they have a boy and a girl Navi, that the Navi's tend to like each other too?"

"Well, I guess that is weird. I have no idea why that happens, but I like it."

"Me too. I just hope that Proto will come out of his shell too."

End Chapter