AN: The chapter kind of seems cut off a bit, because it is. It was the only place I could even remotely cut it off at. It was 18 pages before I realized it wasn't going to end any time soon, so I just picked the best spot, which happened to be page 10 and snipped it. On the bright side, this means there are already 8 pages written for the next chapter.
Reviewers:
KoumiLoccness: It's called creative license, dear. Don't worry, there's a reason for the way I did the ages. It's also the part where I said it was AU. Thanks for the review.
Takato the dreamer: Thanks for your kind words. Hope this update was fast enough.
Tyson: Thanks for the review. I know it's kind of cliché, but pretty much any storyline out there is now. Hopefully the twists will make it more interesting. And yeah, Tai wouldn't be Tai if he didn't do stupid things.
Chapter 2:
Matt finished cleaning his work station for the umpteenth time, trying to alleviate himself from the boredom he was currently feeling. He had been at work for two hours with almost nothing to do. He had remembered hearing that Friday nights were the busiest night of the week at The Grill, but from the way the past two hours had gone, he was beginning to doubt it.
Since the moment he had entered the building he had noticed a certain lack of activity. Even when he had worked earlier in the week there were more people there. So far today the staff had been at a minimum, two waiters, one bartender and himself with no kitchen staff. It was nearing 5 pm and he was starting to wonder if being told Friday was the busiest night was just a joke.
His stomach growled slightly, reminding him that he had skipped lunch to work on his song and that he hadn't had the chance to eat before he started his shift. It wasn't the first time he had skipped a meal or two and he was certain it wouldn't be the last. He would just have to make himself something to eat before he left for home that night. He didn't want to deal with his mother's cooking, especially if it was one of the only things he would have eaten that day.
He jumped when the door to the kitchen opened and Mimi came in. He had almost started thinking again, which would have led to disastrous results, like his not paying attention.
Mimi was as bubbly as ever, greeting Matt with a hundred-watt smile and an exuberant greeting, "Hi Yamato! Sorry I missed you at lunch! Are you ready for a busy night?"
Matt raised his eyebrow. "Busy? I've made no more than four dishes in the past hour with no help. This is not what could even be termed as busy."
Mimi giggled, her grin not leaving her face. "Give it less than two hours. All the kids from the rec center come here after it closes for the evening, especially on Fridays. The people just seem to migrate. More of the staff will show up soon, so we better get everything prepared for tonight. It's just us two back here, Jyou has the night off and Ryo called in. There's gonna be a lot of work to be done for about a two hour stretch, then it should slow down a bit."
Matt raised his eyebrow. "Is it really going to get that busy?"
Mimi nodded. "Definitely, they'll probably move a waiter or waitress back here to help up a little during the rush. It just depends on if Tai can keep the waiting staff organized enough."
Matt still looked skeptical but shrugged, "Where's the rest of the staff then? I've only seen one or two people show up besides you."
"Oh they'll be here within the next 30 minutes or so. Tai should be the last one in, since he'll have to shower before he shows up. Mr. Tekino doesn't like when he comes to work sweaty," Mimi scowled slightly, "I don't know what he has to complain about really. Tai brings in half the crowd on Friday's on his own since he tells the kids at the rec center to come."
"What does Tai do at the rec center?" Matt asked. "He didn't bring anything up at our conversation at lunch."
Mimi beamed. "Ah hah! I knew he went to find you. Bathroom my ass! Oh he's gonna get it when I see him!" Mimi bounced for a minute before calming down to reply to Matt. "He does some volunteer work. I've never really gone to see what he does, I usually have to work or get tutored. He spends a lot of time there though."
Mimi made sure there were plenty of clean dishes ready for when the rush would arrive, "What do you do in your spare time, Yamato?"
"I play music or just hang out with friends. I never really had to do anything I didn't want to when I was with my father. Just so long as I never got arrested he didn't really care what I did." Matt shrugged. "Well that and make sure there was something ready to heat up when he came home. If I was working I would just bring something from the restaurant, otherwise I would wait for him to get home and make him something."
"Sounds like you have a pretty easygoing life," Mimi said.
"It would seem like that, but life isn't all fun and games, even if you're allowed to do whatever you want." Matt grinned slightly and changed the topic. "So what are the typical orders for Friday?"
Mimi bit her lip. "That's always hard to tell. You would figure that with the kids from the rec center coming here it would be a lot of the finger food items and that sort, but sometimes the parents come too. This part of the community is pretty close so usually the parents will bring their kids here. Last Friday was a finger food day, so we'll probably have a large variety of dishes this time."
Matt shrugged, "All right then. If it's going to get as busy as you say, we better start getting everything placed where it's easiest to get to."
Mimi nodded and they got to work setting up the kitchen for themselves.
Nearly an hour and 45 minutes later Matt was almost regretting his earlier thoughts of boredom. Tai had come in just before 6 pm and gave a friendly wave before he was back out into the dining area assigning positions to various staff for the night. Once tables were assigned to different individuals he quickly went about making sure the tables were organized correctly.
"He works fast," Matt had commented watching from the kitchen door.
"He has to," Mimi had responded, "The rush should be here any time. It will start slow, but it'll be busy before you know it, but we're ready for it. His job is to make sure everything out there runs smoothly, it's your job to have things run smoothly in here."
"I know that Mimi," he had responded back, closing the door and getting ready to cook.
DING The sound of the timer on the fryers brought Matt back to reality and he quickly removed the French fries from the fryer, quickly seasoned them again and put them on a plate covered with cloth. He moved it over so that Mimi could prepare the fries on the correct plates and place them on the counter shelf if they were ready.
Before Matt could even turn around another beep sounded, letting him know that the baked spaghetti in the oven was nearing completion. He had just enough time to pull it out before he had to go and flip two of the six steaks cooking. "Remind me why I chose to work at Japanese/American restaurant?" he muttered.
Mimi had expertly gone and removed the baked spaghetti from where Matt had placed it and set it on the correct plates with the French bread that had already been prepared earlier. She placed the order up on the counter shelf and then turned to Matt. "Matt go ahead and start on the preparation on the next two orders, I can turn the steaks and make sure they get plated. We'll probably need a new pot of mashed potatoes soon, but I can do that too if you want."
Matt gave her a grateful smile and moved off, not even realizing that she hadn't called him by his full name. "That'll be fine, just remembering the list I put out for which seasoning goes with the potatoes when you plate them. It's very important depending on what kind of dish they want."
Mimi nodded as she turned a steak over with one hand while moving another one to a fresh plate with the other hand. "Don't worry I got it covered. Just make sure I don't get out of order. I'm not quite used to it being this fast either."
At that point Tai came in through the kitchen door. "Okay guys, we have a full house with people eating or waiting for their orders, so it should slow down now that this first rush is over and we'll have to wait for some folks to clear out before others can be seated. If you want I can have one of the waiters come back and start making the side orders that are most ordered. You know like the vegetables and things. We all know the most important part is the main dish."
"Tai, every part of the meal is the important part," Matt said panting slightly. "We'll be grateful for some help though."
Tai looked at Matt curiously. "Hey man, are you okay? You look like you're having problems. Do you need a break or something?"
Matt waived him away. "I'll be fine. I just didn't get a chance to eat before work started and well I was too busy to eat at lunch. I'll eat when I get home."
"You sure man?" Tai looked skeptical.
"I'll be fine Tai. Now go and get us our helper." Matt glared at Tai until he left, then went right back to working on the preparation for the teriyaki chicken that was almost ready to cook.
Mimi watched the exchange between the two, before turning back to the stove which conveniently hid her smile.
Matt wiped down the last of the area around the kitchen before heading out into the dining area of the restaurant. He no longer doubted that Friday's were the busiest day of the week, even after they had gotten the extra hand in the kitchen it had still been difficult to keep up with the incoming orders. He knew he hadn't been moving as fast as he normally would, but now that he was prepared for the workload he would be able to do it again if he needed to.
It was nearing midnight, an hour later than when he normally got off, but that was due to the fact that on Friday nights The Grill wasn't open until 3 am, so everything had to be cleaned for when the morning shift started. Luckily he had told his mom that it would be a possibility and she hadn't had too much of a problem with it since there was no school on Saturday, just make up exams.
As he entered the dining area he was surprised to see how many people still remained there. Mr. Tekino was talking with some of the employees while a group of people were waiting near the door. He could spot his brother with a girl with brown hair and pretty eyes, he saw Mimi chatting with the red haired boy he had almost knocked down on the elevator the other day, and Tai was talking with a boy that almost looked like a carbon copy of him and a purple haired boy, with the girl from class hanging off his arm. Matt quietly clocked out, ending his shift and walked quietly towards the door.
"Hey Matt!" Matt tried not to visibly tense up and turned around to see Tai making his way over to him, with TK and the girl in tow. "Hey, Kari and I were gonna walk TK and Koushiro home, you wanna come with us?"
Matt thought about it and nodded, "Yeah, I'm kinda tired from today so it would probably be a good idea to walk home with someone else, since the bus stopped running for the night. Thanks." Matt smiled slightly and headed for the door.
He was the first one out of the door, with the rest of the kids following after him. It appeared the whole group was leaving at the same time. Matt stood outside the door on the outer edge of the group while everyone said their goodbyes for the night. He had to be waiting there, paying attention to nothing for at least five minutes before he heard someone call his name.
He turned around and about five feet away from him stood a guy that looked to be about his age, though a bit taller with purple hair. He dropped his bags in shock and just stared for about a minute. Then he snapped out of it with a shake of his head and a huge grin. "What the hell are you doing here, Kai?" On impulse he rushed over and gave the other boy a hug.
Kai laughed as he ruffled Matt's hair. "So excited and it's only been a week? I guess it's a good thing I didn't bring the others."
Matt and Kai chatted happily away while the group watched in curiosity. Matt was so engrossed with his conversation that he didn't notice the lack of noise behind him. Kai noticed though and grinned cheekily at the crowd. "Hey Matt, is that blonde your brother?"
Matt turned around quickly, completely forgetting that he was with a group of people. Seeing one of his friends out of the blue even after a week was a shock to his system, especially since he wasn't expecting it. He felt Kai's arms settle around his shoulders. "Yeah, that's my brother Takeru. Hey TK come here," he called out. TK separated himself from the group, but Matt wasn't surprised when Tai, Mimi and Kari came to all with curious and a few slightly distrustful looks on their faces.
"Don't worry, TK," Matt said when he noticed his brother's hesitant steps, "He's one of my band mates, I promise he won't bite you." Matt paused for a second. "Well he won't bite you hard at least. It really depends on if he likes you."
"Just little nips really," Kai grinned and removed his arms from around Matt and stepped to the side so he could shake TK's hand. "My name's Kaishi."
"Hi..."TK said hesitantly, shaking Kai's hand.
Kai grinned and rolled his eyes. "I won't bite. Hey Matt, introduce me to everyone else. They all know my name, but I don't know theirs."
"Oh yeah sure, we'll the one with the pink hair is Mimi and she goes to my school and works in the kitchen with me. The boy with the brown hair is Taichi and I'm assuming the girl with the brown hair is Kari, from what I've gathered from the conversation earlier."
Kai raised an eyebrow at Matt. "Let me guess, you've been here all week and haven't even attempted to make any new friends."
Matt shrugged with a guilty look on his face. "Don't start."
Mimi and Kari were eager to talk with Kai, never really meeting anyone quite as interesting as he seemed to be, other than Tai. Tai was strangely quiet, glancing at his watch occasionally. Finally Koushiro came up to them hesitantly. "Hey sorry to interrupt guys, but we're going to miss curfew if we don't leave soon and I would personally like to avoid another few days of restriction."
That made the group quiet immediately as everyone checked the time on their watches or their cell phones.
"Yeah," Tai chimed in, "We'll have to walk home fast if we're going to get there on time. Your mom did say 1 am right TK?"
TK nodded. "Yeah, she told me to be home at 1 am." He looked at Matt. "Did she give you a curfew, Matt?"
Matt shook his head. "I had to come here right after work. I was planning on grabbing a bite to eat on the way home, but if you have a curfew I better follow it until she gives me one that I can handle." Matt turned to Kai, "Sorry man, but it looks like I gotta go."
Kai shrugged. "No problem. I was just passing through anyways. My cousin has a gig in a town south of here tomorrow and wanted me to work the sound equipment for her. I just wanted to stop buy and let you know the whole band will be here Sunday. We couldn't get out of the gig next Saturday because my brother already spent all the money on new amps. So we gotta work out a song. You don't work next Saturday do you?" He added as an after thought.
Matt shook his head, "No, and I don't work tomorrow either before you ask. I might have to clear the gig with my mother though."
Kai raised an eyebrow. "I thought part of the agreement was that you didn't have to quit the band."
"Kai, she's already tried to get me to quit my job, and my guitar is staying at Hideki's house 'cause I'm not allowed to have it either. It doesn't really matter though. I'll be there regardless."
"All right man, I'll call you tomorrow on your cell to let you know where to meet us. We'll come up here sometime on Sunday." He quickly gave Matt a hug and trotted off to a beat up looking van that was parked on the side of the road.
"Matt?"
Matt turned to his brother. "Yeah?"
"You have got very weird friends."
"So do you," Matt said simply, grabbing his bags and started to walk in the direction of the apartment.
Matt woke up to soft knocking on his door. He blearily opened his eyes and looked at his clock and saw that it was only 9 am. Groaning he hauled himself out of his bed and opened his door to see TK there fully dressed and apparently very full of energy. "What is it," he asked grumpily.
"I'm sorry to wake you Matt, but I have something kind of important to ask you," TK said almost bouncing in place.
"What?" Matt's brain wasn't working on all cylinders, especially since he hadn't eaten at all the day before.
"Well, Kari and I have a project to work on and her dad won't let us be together without a chaperone. He even calls to check on her on her cell and everything," TK took a breath and gave Matt his brightest smile, "I was wondering if you could watch us while we're here today since mom went to visit a friend and then hang out with us when we want to go out later."
Matt's brain tried to process the information and it was succeeding, albeit a bit slower than normal. "You need me to baby sit you?" Matt said incredulously after thinking about what TK had said for about 3 minutes.
"Basically, yeah," TK said. He grimaced, "Kari and Tai's dad is so anal retentive that nothing penetrates his decisions. He's not too bad on Kari, just the whole chaperone thing with me, but the guy can be a real dick."
Matt thought about it a minute more. The only thing he had planned to do today was finish the song he was writing and wait for Kai's call. "Well I guess. I won't really be around to watch you, but I figure you're old enough to not be spied on. Whenever you leave just let me know though, so I can get ready. Otherwise I'll probably be in my room working."
TK gave Matt a huge grin. "Thanks bro! You'll have to meet Kari's mom because she'll be dropping her off, but other than that, we won't bother you until we're ready to go out for a late lunch at The Grill."
"Sure it's not a problem. Well since you woke me up and I'm not going to be able to go back to sleep, do you want me to make you breakfast? I can make enough for Kari to eat too for when she gets here," Matt offered.
"That'd be great, thanks Matt!" TK ran out into the living room and grabbed the cordless phone to call Kari.
30 minutes later, Matt was putting the finishing touches on a mixed breakfast. He wasn't sure what TK or Kari liked to eat so he had varied the dishes. Even if there was a lot of food, he was ravenous, especially after cooking it all. There were scrambled eggs, French toast and bacon for an Americanized breakfast, and for a more Japanese style breakfast of miso soup, rice and fried fish. Matt hadn't wanted to look and see if he had the proper equipment for grilling the fish. All in all though, everything smelled wonderfully.
Just as he was finishing setting the table he heard a knock at the door and turned around in just enough time to see a flash of blonde hair race past the entryway to the kitchen. After he finished moving the food from the counter top and onto the table for easier access, he stood in the entranceway of the kitchen.
He saw a very young looking mother for someone with a child almost graduated from high school. Matt could tell she couldn't be older than her mid thirties, which meant she had probably gotten married very young. She was very beautiful and Matt could tell where Tai got his eyes and Kari got her looks. Mrs. Yagami was animatedly talking with Kari and TK, and Matt could see the youthful movements in all her gestures. He could tell easily that she would be easy enough to get along with.
"Breakfast is ready," he said quietly from his spot in the entranceway, gaining everyone's attention.
The small group walked towards Matt and TK began the introductions. "Matt, this is Kari and Tai's mom, Yuuko." Matt bowed to her and she laughed while Kari and TK smiled. "Yuuko, this is my brother Yamato."
"Hi Yamato, there is no need to bow. I don't like formality very much when it isn't needed," Yuuko said with a smile holding out her hand to shake Matt's.
"It's nice to meet you Mrs. Yagami," Matt said, still trying to show some respect, even if not formality.
"Yuuko is fine," Mrs. Yagami said, releasing Matt's hand. "Did you make that breakfast that smells so wonderful?"
Matt nodded.
TK jumped in at this point, "Matt's a chef at The Grill so he's used to cooking for a lot of people. There's probably tons of food in there if you want to join us Yuuko."
"I really can't. Your father has a business meeting in a few hours so I have to go home and get all dressed up and crap," she turned towards Matt. "So you work with my son?"
Matt nodded.
Yuuko bit her lip. "Well I better get going. Kari, keep your cell phone on in case your father decides to check up on you. Don't forget to check in around 7 pm if you plan on doing anything tonight and don't get into any trouble."
Kari smiled. "I know the drill mom. Go have a horrible time at the meeting and if we go out tonight, maybe you can come with us to relax a bit."
Everyone waited for Mrs. Yagami to leave before sitting down at the breakfast table.
"So what's the project you're working on," Matt asked, covering his plate with eggs and French toast.
"It's actually a year long project but we decided to start planning early. Basically we're just going to be brainstorming today. We're supposed to write a play based off of any novel or play we know and put the characters in similar situations in today's world. So we're going to be figuring out which plays or novels to go through and figure out what will work best for us," Kari said.
"You get a whole school year to do this?" Matt asked.
"Well yeah," TK said, "The entire project is supposed to be no less than 75 pages long, plus after that we have to have a 10 page essay explaining why we chose to do what we did and how it worked. It's not going to be as easy as a lot of our class thinks it will be."
"How much of your grade is it worth?"
"60 percent," Kari said with a grimace, "It's something our English teacher does every year. I remember when Tai was in that class he almost never came out of his bedroom because he was working on it. He had papers scattered everywhere. He had chosen to work on it by himself though instead of with a partner so it was twice as hard for him."
Matt changed the subject, "So after you guys are done brainstorming, we're going to go out and eat right?"
TK nodded. "We'll probably be done around 3 or 4 this afternoon and then go eat after that. We'll probably end up getting Tai from soccer practice if that's okay with you. He gets done around six."
"Yeah sure, it's not a problem," Matt said turning his full attention back to his breakfast.
After everyone had eaten their fill, Kari and TK said they would clean up the kitchen and Matt excused himself to his room. He lay face down on his bed with his music folder and the song he had been working on the day before and put everything out of his mind but what he was focusing on. It was surprisingly easier for him to be pulled into the realm of words and notes than it had been the day before, but that might have had to do with the fact that he was working on a full stomach.
About two hours later he was broken out of his writing daze by a hurried knock at this door. Getting up he quickly went to his door to see what the problem was. When he opened the door Kari and TK were standing there and Kari held out her cell phone. "My dad wants to talk to you to make sure I'm being properly chaperoned," she said sarcastically.
Matt rolled his eyes but took the phone from her, "Hello?" He listened for a moment before his face turned into a grimace. "Sir," he said smoothly, interrupting the other person, "I'm just as old and responsible as your son and believe me I wouldn't want my brother getting into any kind of trouble either. I'll make sure they behave themselves here and if we go out in public. If you would like, I can also give you my cell phone number if it would make you feel safer."
Matt listened to the phone for another minute before smirking and ending the call. "He'll call back later," he turned to TK, "You're right, definitely anal retentive."
Kari took back her phone when a thought occurred to her. "Whatever you do Matt, don't tell my dad that you work with Tai. Tai isn't supposed to have a job so that he can keep his grades up, but he decided he wanted one, so pretty much everyone hides it from my dad."
"Sure," Matt said, "Now if you'll leave me alone I'd like to get back to my work." As his door was being closed he said, "Now don't do anything too naughty in your room TK, and don't think I didn't notice that smudge of lipstick on your neck."
He shut the door solidly on TK's string of curses.
He was left in peace until just before 3 pm, when TK knocked on his door and called that they were going to get ready to go out and eat. Putting his folder in his backpack, Matt went about his room getting dressed enough to go outside. Since it wasn't a school day and he didn't have to work he was really looking forward to wearing what he termed his normal clothes.
After 20 minutes he emerged from his room and went into the living room where Kari and TK were waiting patiently for him. He shrugged off their open mouthed stares and put on his black sneakers. "So food first," he asked nonchalantly, "Or is there somewhere else you want to go first?"
Matt was wearing a very tight pair of black jeans that left nothing to the imagination. His shirt was what looked like a normal t-shirt, except that it was only mid-drift and was black with silver writing that said, 'Teenage Wolves' on it. For accessories he had a silver chained belt, a small black chocker with silver lining and black and a silver spiked wrist guard on his right wrist.
TK shook his head to clear it, "Well we were thinking of going to the mall first and we can pick up a snack there. Then we can go get Tai and we can all go out to eat afterwards."
"Yeah sure, I have to get a new outfit for the gig next week anyways. I'll have to wait until the gig to get my hair done though, since my regular hairdresser doesn't live here. Better get some recommendations from her next time I see her." Matt said opening the door.
TK and Kari followed Matt out, "Why don't you ever dress like that?" Kari asked TK, who in response shook his head violently.
"Not a chance. I don't think I could pull off that look quite as well, and I don't want to."
Kari mock pouted, but there was still a bit of a sparkle in her eye. "Tai's gonna flip when he sees him."
TK grinned in agreement before adding, "At least the pants weren't leather."
That signals the end of this chapter. On the next chapter we go out with the kids for the day and eventually meet the band. Also Tai tries stupid things again. See you in a month or two.