And I'm baaack! Miss me? Didya?

Disclaimer: EveryNever looks underneath mountainous heaps of junk on her desk to find just where she puts those rights to Super Gals!. Dang, not there.


Chapter 7: To Meet the Parents

Key:

""- speech/dialogue

italics or ''- thoughts or an exaggerated phrase/word


It was strange. Yeah, it was pretty bizarre.

Well, today hadn't been exactly ordinary, but still. Why the heck was he just realizing this now?

"You're really Ran's brother, aren't you?"

"No, of course not," Yamato replied sarcastically. "I just tricked you into calling me Ran's Big Brother for the fun of it and me and Ran just happen to have the same last name and live in the same house. Why would you ever think we'd be related?"

"Oh, yeah," Yuuya laughed sheepishly. "I did call you that."

To tell the truth, he had always just thought of Yamato's title as Ran's Big Brother to be just that; a title. It's just like the Prime Minister of Japan. You know there's a guy who's the Prime Minister, but do you ever seriously contemplate what the dude does or what kind of person he is?

If he bangs his head on some random, Prime Minister related, pointy thingy, would you send a dozen assorted flowers and cheesy get-well card to whatever Prime Minister hospital room he goes to? Really, have you ever wanted to just call up the guy and say, 'Yo, Junichiro Koizumi! What's up? Me? Same as ever! But what about you? I never hear you complain, man, so just tell me whatever's bugging the Big Cheese! Let's hang out and do some Prime Minister stuff later and you can tell me what's going on, okay?'

Yuuya didn't even have this Juni-guy's phone number. He didn't even know if Prime Ministers of Japans got to carry around cell phones, because maybe they're so utterly amazing that they can hire a cell phone guy to carry around their cell phone(s) but that's beside the point…

He knew there was a Prime Minister, but he didn't really know the guy.

It was the same with Yamato. He hadn't really even thought of him as a person. Yuuya had absolutely no idea if Yamato had run into any pointy things lately, or even what the heck he does besides yell at Ran and the unfortunate people who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time to obey the law.

How could Yuuya not even acknowledge his future brother-in-law's existence…

"Damn, I'm sorry, Yamato…"

"Huh?"

"I'll be a better from now on, I swear! You can count on me to know you're real!"

"What the… no… never mind… I have a feeling I don't really want to know…" Yamato sighed and rubbed his sore temples. "Besides, we're almost at my house and I don't want you scaring my parents or little sister, you got that?"

"Aye, aye, Captain!" Performing a mock salute in mid-step Yuuya grinned in compliance until the realization hit him. "Hey! I'm not scary! I'll have you know that even though I may seem like a total badass on the streets, I have learned how to come off as high society figure when necessary from my experience in modeling!"

"I wouldn't say badass…" Yamato muttered softly under his breath. "Maybe closer to borderline nutcase."

"What did you say? Something about bad nuts? I didn't know they could go bad," Yuuya mused aloud thoughtfully. "Well, then again, I only really eat peanuts, so I wouldn't know about cashews or almonds, or anything. Man! Eating a moldy peanut would be downright nasty! It would be all green and mushy…"

"Stop it! You're making me nauseous!"

Yep, this took Yamato back… an absolutely lovely trip down memory lane…

"Oh! You really are turning green, man!"

Himself, nine years and twenty-eight days old, with school bought lunch, age unknown.

"No, really?"

Himself eating school bought lunch with plastic spork that comes with said school bought lunch, age unknown.

"Wow, and you're still able to be sarcastic when you're that color! That, my friend, takes skill!"

"Not helping…"

Himself, nine years, twenty-eight days and three hours old, in a hospital bed, whose age no one particularly cares about, with a severe case of food poisoning, three hours old and counting.

"Just don't imagine moldy, rotting peanuts that taste like overused soap and you'll be fine!"

Yamato Kotobuki would never underestimate the power of food again.

"Really not helping!"

That was it. Enough was enough. Sorry, Miyu, I loved the boxed lunch you made for me packed full of love but…

"Aw, geez! If you're gonna spew chunks, do it in the bushes, man!"

About ten minutes and one partially recovered Yamato later…

"No more crazy talk or any mentions of any rotting food items whatsoever as soon as I open this door, you got that?"

With a hesitant hand placed on the knob of the entrance to his Kotobuki household, Yamato was beginning to have second thoughts about bringing this thing in with him.

"I told you already! I may be a badass at heart, but when I have to I-"

"That was a yes or no question, and I want a one word answer only!" Yamato snapped, irritated.

"Yes…"

"Good. Now you say you can be high class when you want to, but when you talk to my parents there will be no traces in anything you do that could give the slightest hint that you are, have been, or someday will be badass." Yamato spit out the last word like the aforementioned moldy peanut of earlier discussion.

"Got it!" Performing another salute, Yuuya nodded in conformation. "Now, I don't mean to be badass or anything, but could we head in 'cause I'm freezing my butt off out here."

Might as well get it over with…

With one final, meaningful glare at his bedraggled-looking guest, Yamato tightened his grip on the knob and turned…

About another ten minutes later…

This cannot be happening… My god… What the hell have I done? A monster… I've unleashed a monster… What should I do? What can I do? Am I doomed? Am I-

"I'm sure Officer Yamato would agree with your fine point as well, wouldn't you Sir?"

Brought back suddenly into the conversation with the mention of his name, Yamato locked his gaze onto the person who was both the asker of the question as well as the being who was currently scaring the living daylights out of him.

"Oh dear," furrowing his eyebrows, Yuuya's whole expression grew to show depthless concern, as he spoke apologetically. "Was I wrong to assume your stance on the matter, Officer Yamato? I am ashamed to say I must have jumped to an incorrect conclusion. Please accept my humblest apologies."

"Uh… yeah… sure thing…"

"What an absolutely, wonderfully charming friend you have here, Yamato dear," his mother gushed with enthusiasm. "He is so considerate and thoughtful!"

"Oh, you are too kind madam," Yuuya spoke as he gave a friendly grin and Yamato thought he could almost see a sparkling background, like the ones on those cheesy anime, glittering behind him.

"Did you hear that, Taizou!" Mrs. Kotobuki turned excitedly to her husband, putting a hand to her forehead and faking a swoon. "He called me madam! Now isn't that something?"

"It certainly is," Taizou Kotobuki nodded his head in approval from his place on the couch in the living room. "Young children don't have as much respect as they should for the world around them these days. I'm glad I finally got to see an exception to that rule. You sure are an exceptional young man, but I do have to question your choice of attire."

Yamato watched with a mixture of mute awe and terror as Yuuya's entire being darkened with a look of piercing sadness and pure, unadulterated angst. His eyes swirled with emotion as he gripped the edges of his torn shorts with white-knuckled hands.

In a teary voice no louder than a melancholy whisper, he spoke, "Today was quite… unfortunate. My clothes, as well as my impressionable, adolescent spirit were shown no mercy…"

The silence that followed couldn't have deepened even if this universe everyone seems to live in gained a suicidal personality, went kapoot, and all life ceased to exist. Nope. That type of silence couldn't even compare to this…

"Clothes! Let the poor soul wear some of your old clothes, Taizou!"

With what seemed like a strangled stream, Mrs. Kotobuki dragged herself and her husband up from their places on the couch, quickly proceeding up the stairs. Mr. Kotobuki, on the other hand, couldn't have been crying harder as he stumbled after his wife.

"Don't worry, boy," Taizou managed to say between sobs. "We should wear about the same size. You just hang in there okay?"

They were gone in a flash, leaving Yamato to gape at only person left. What else could he do?

As soon as they'd stepped a foot inside the open door, his parents, who seemed to be the only ones in the house still awake at the time, came to greet him and well… Yuuya turned into a… a… respectable human being? No… couldn't be….

His mom or dad didn't seem to care a bit that he had brought a guest over with him in the middle of the night. They led him right into the living room and sat him down for tea! In fact, after a few minutes of chivalrous compliments and small talk from the guy, they treated Yuuya like the son they never had! Hmph! The Kotobuki household may have two daughters, but there is only one son!

"Who are you, and what have you done with the idiot?" Yamato finally spoke, newfound anger etched into each word.

"I'm doing what you said to," Yuuya blinked innocently, "being high class and all."

"Just. Tone. It. Down. A. Bit."

"Woah… Why the sudden animosity there, Yamato?"

"Just tone down the dramatics or my parents might start trying to adopt you!"

Slowly, realization dawned on the face of the one and only Yuuya Asou.

A knowing smirk graced his lips as he spoke confidently, "Don't worry Yamato. Just leave everything to me."

Yuuya gave a quick wink and returned to his angsty expression just as the two eldest Kotobukis reentered the room.

Oh no… Hold on. Back up. What the HELL did he mean by THAT?

Yep, he had no idea what I was hinting at!

Okay, Yamato, you know this is most likely really bad, so what are you going to do about it?

If only time travel was possible in this day and age… Then I could travel back in time to a minute before the life-ruining bozo found his way near my police box and tell my past self to run for his… err… my life.

Damn. Where were a few dozen, Nobel Prize worthy inventors when he needed them?

Augh! This is just too much!

"This is just too much!" Yuuya was looking up at Yamato's parents, a pair of neatly folded clothes in his lap, smiling brightly. "I don't know how I could ever begin to thank you for such a wonderful gift."

"No thanks necessary, boy," Taizou harrumphed in attempt to keep attention away from his watering eyes.

"Aren't you just darling!" Mrs. Kotobuki twittered as she gave his cheek a motherly pinch.

"I know it's probably…" trailing off almost as soon as began, the sadness seeped back into Yuuya's eyes. "I know it's probably horribly rude of me. But… I have another favor I must ask of you."

"You are anything but rude, Yuuya dear," Yamato's mother comforted anxiously. "If anything, you are an absolute pleasure to have as a guest."

"We'll help you in anyway we can," Taizou chimed in hurriedly. "Just don't get upset, boy."

"Well, you see…" Yuuya began. "Officer Yamato-"

Two accusatory pairs of eyes rested their glares on the disgruntled cop who was once again thrown unceremoniously back into the conversation.

"I am indebted to Officer Yamato and his self-sacrificing sense of duty that was able to rescue me from the misfortune that has befallen me this day."

Immediately the glares turned into looks of gratefulness and relief.

"It is a very likely possibility that Mr. Yamato will lose his very job because of his selflessness and I must know what I can do to attempt to stop this from happening," Yuuya stared Yamato's parents in the eyes with what seemed like unbridled determination.

"You, boy, are the selfless one," blubbered Taizou, no longer able to stop his tears. "For your sake, I will head down with my son to the police box this next very morning and defend his worth with every speck of life in my body!"

So Yuuya's plan wasn't to ruin his life. He's trying to save my job.

Well, same difference.

Yamato would have been pissed either way.

Now he felt like he was indebted to the guy or something, and the very thought of that made him sick to his stomach. Not sick enough to repeat the 'peanut incident', as it shall so forth be named, but sick enough to be quite pissed.

"Don't you feel lucky to have such a loyal friend, Yamato dear?" questioned his mother as she turned to him, smiling.

"Yeah, lucky..."

And so the conversation continued, for the next hour or so. Things were settled, and sleeping arrangements finally made. Yuuya was given the living room couch and a blanket for the night, as the rest had their regular rooms.

Soon after, Mr. and Mrs. Kotobuki said their 'good nights' and headed up the stairs. Yamato got up to follow and… stopped.

"What the heck's wrong with you?" Yuuya gave him an inquisitive glance. "You're looking royally pissed."

Yamato looked at the floor, he looked at the ceiling, he looked at the wall, and he finally gave up.

"Heck no!" he grumbled. "I hate feeling like I owe you one or something, so just tell me a quick favor you want so I can even the score!"

Yuuya thought for a moment then, "That's easy," he grinned. "All you have to do is give your complete approval when I start dating your younger sister."

"I sure as hell hope you're not talking about Sayo," Yamato raised a threatening eyebrow.

Yuuya blanched.

"What kind of sick pervert do you think I am!"

"Do you really want me to answer that?"

"I guess not," Yuuya sighed into his hand. "And no! It isn't Sayo."

He paused for a moment.

Even though he didn't have to say it… Even though by the use of process of elimination his answer was obvious… He still did.

"It's Ran."

"Yeah, I kinda guessed," Yamato half chuckled, half sighed. "And yeah, I guess I could give you my blessing if you two ever became an item."

"Thanks, man!"

"There are worse guys out there, I suppose."

"You know, I don't really know whether to take that as a compliment or an insult," Yuuya huffed, crossing his arms.

Ignoring Yuuya's last comment, Yamato continued with utmost seriousness, "And I know it wouldn't just be some fling."

"How could you tell that?"

"It's obvious you're crazy about her, just by your voice when you say her name."

"Wha?" Yuuya blushed, embarrassed, and fidgeted uncomfortably. "Am I really that obvious?"

"Trust me. I'm in love too, you know, and I always speak Miyu's name with a little more care than I do with the rest of my vocabulary."

"She really is special to you, isn't she," there was a touch of admiration in Yuuya's voice as he spoke.

"It's not as if you haven't fallen almost, if not just as hard for my little sis," Yamato retorted with a hint of approval.

Yuuya smiled, but it wasn't just any smile. It was content, proud, but on closer inspection, an observant eye might find it seemed just a bit pained.

"Yeah," with a far-off look in his eyes, he nodded. "I guess I have."


A/N: At first, EveryNever was like, "Hey! Isn't this a great place to end it?" Then, she was like, "Nah…"
Here he was. Here of all places.

After a roller coaster of a day complete with elations that looped around into frustrations and most everything in between, he'd ended up… here.

Yuuya Asou was in the house of Ran Kotobuki. He was lying on her couch, well, maybe it was the family couch, but still… His makeshift bed was literally a jump, hop, and a skip away from hers. Putting his hands behind his head, Yuuya grinned widely at the darkness of the empty room.

He definitely wasn't going to get much shut-eye tonight.

It wasn't like he could sense her presence or anything, nothing like that at all. He'd heard a couple of those epic romance stories where one person would just know if the other was near, as if they we're connected somehow.

That was just a little too deep for him at this point in time, no matter how much the romantic sop in him tried to deny it.

He just knew the facts. This was the house Ran slept in, and he was positive that strict parents like hers wouldn't be so lax as to let her wander around at this time of night.

All evidence pointed to her, in her room, under the same roof as him, and that couldn't help but make his heart skip a beat or two.

The one thing that would have made the ending to this night absolutely perfect was if he actually got to see her. But he knew that was pushing it.

If her parents found him wandering into their precious daughter's room in the middle of the night, he highly doubted they'd even wait for the law to punish him. Also, Ran wouldn't come down to him, because she had no idea he was even here. And even if she did know, would she really care?

Gruffly rolling onto his side so that all he saw was the soft material of the couch, he stopped that train of thought in its tracks. Maybe sleep would come to him if he tried hard enough.

"Oh my god! Is that you, Second Place?"

Then again, maybe not.


Dun, dun, duuun!

Hrm, I bet you're all wondering who that could be… EveryNever shrugs her shoulders innocently.

The good news is that EveryNever has gotten a ton of chapter eight done since these last couple of weeks were her school vacation, so you can be expecting 'More Than a Midnight Snack' pretty soon!… err… hopefully…

The bad news is that review replies have been banned from ffnet, so EveryNever can no longer reply to her wonderful reviewers!

EveryNever sobs dramatically.

Instead, each chapter will have a Q&A at the end. This will be for any questions that were brought up in reviews or in some way that EveryNever feels might be beneficial for all her readers to see the answers to!

So…. Here we go…

Q: "Miyu says... Miyu will... Miyu is... geez, why does she talk like that! ARGH! I know she really does talk like that, but WHY?

A: It's one of those things that got lost in translation, or so to say. If I'm getting my facts straight, I think there are quite a few people who talk in the 'third person' in Japan. I believe it's considered a sort of 'cutesy' way of talking there. When Miyu does her 'third person talk' in English it sounds a little strange because no one really talks that way about themselves in this language. Except for crazy authoresses like EveryNever, of course, heehee.

Until next time!

EveryNever poofs.