"Dash, dash!"

Junior took off sprinting across the tiny park, Chonshu right behind.

"Dash, dash!"

They hit the opposite end, Chonshu just a half-step behind Junior, and spun around to race back.

"Scraaaaaamble... dash!"

Junior ran in ever-tightening circles until Chonshu tackled him to the ground. They laid dizzily on the patchy grass and laughed until they couldn't breathe.

Eventually Chonshu sat up, humming the next few bars of the song. It was a nice day, maybe he could take Junior down to Sound Beach to run around in the waves for a change. Emilia'd kill him if he got Junior's clothes wet, but they could go wading no problem. It would be a good way to cool down.

The kid in question grabbed him around the waist and failed to drag him back down to the ground. "Again, again!" he panted. "I bet I can beat you this time!"

"No way, I'll catch- huh? Hey, it's Chonrei! Chooooooooon-reeeeeeeeeiiiiiii!" Chonshu waved to the figure he had just noticed coming down the street, to absolutely no reaction.

"What's he doing?" Junior asked as they watched Chonrei saunter along. He stopped in front of one of the innumerable little shops that lined the streets of Chinatown, but not to look at items he couldn't afford. Instead he brought out a little comb and carefully teased his hair up into sharper points, dusted a bit of dust off his jacket, and made a dozen more minute adjustments to his appearance.

He was dressed to the nines for no reason Chonshu could see. A sharp black jacket with a discreet amount of embroidery, pressed sky blue shirt, loose black pants Chonshu was pretty sure he recognized from their workouts, and...was that a scarf? In the middle of summer? "What a dork," Chonshu said.

"Brother Chonrei!" Junior yelled. Chonshu corrected him with a quiet "Uncle Chonrei," because he knew it pissed his brother off. Chonrei deserved it for being so smug about being two minutes older anyway.

None of their shouting had any effect. Chonrei ignored them both and disappeared into what Chonshu vaguely remembered was a restaurant.

Chonshu and Junior sat in silence for a few minutes. "Let's spy on him," Junior suggested.

"Sure." Chonshu was getting hungry anyway. They picked themselves up, brushed off the worst of the grass and dirt, and scampered over to the door Chonrei had disappeared into.

They ducked down and peeked into one of the windows like real spies, and saw...a perfectly ordinary restaurant. Waitresses ran around with trays, a bunch of customers sat at tables, and plenty of noise boomed out from the kitchen. Chonrei had settled himself in one of the booths and looked like he was just perusing the menu. It was disappointingly boring.

"Let's get lunch," Chonshu suggested, and Junior nodded. No point in playing spies if there was nothing to spy on.

They plunked themselves down right across from Chonrei, who glared at them. "What're you two doing here?" he grouched in Chinese.

Chonshu ignored the tone. Chonrei was always irritable when he was hungry. "Getting food, same as you. Chonrei, what the hell are you wearing?"

"Some of us want to look nice sometimes. Anyway, find your own table."

"Why? If you can afford those clothes you can afford to buy us lunch. Right, Junior?" Chonshu said, switching back to English. Junior nodded in enthusiastic support.

The lines between Chonrei's eyebrows got deeper. "Can't you at least ditch the kid?" he asked, still in Chinese.

"No, because Franco and Emilia are paying me to look after him while Franco trains for his comeback," Chonshu replied in the same language. "Besides, you like Junior," he added in English.

Junior took the hint and looked adorable. "Let's have lunch, Uncle Chonrei!"

Chonrei's face got so red it looked like he was going to explode. Chonshu nearly died smothering his laughter. "Uncle-" Chonrei snapped, finally switching to English, "Kid, you do not-"

"Sorry for the wait!" One of the waitresses bounced up to them. "Can I take your order?"

Chonrei smoothed himself out so fast Chonshu wanted to applaud. Then die laughing again because Chonrei was sprawling himself out in the seat like he thought he was a model at a photoshoot. So that's why he was dressed up like that!

The waitress was pretty cute, Chonshu had to admit. She had a nice round face with bright sparkling eyes and smooth black hair done up in two little loops with silver bells on top. His brother had good taste...even if he lacked in savoir-fare.

"Well, what do you recommend, little miss?" Chonrei said in what he probably imagined was a cool guy voice.

"Huh? Sorry, can you say that in English? I don't speak Chinese."

"Nice going, bro," Chonshu snickered, but he kept it in Chinese out of brotherly loyalty. Switching back to English, he brightly asked the waitress: "Were you born here? You don't have an accent at all."

"Yep! My grandfather came over back in the 40s and we've been living here ever since. It's his restaurant, you know. Anyway, do you want some more time?"

"Can you..." Chonrei paused, lost, and Chonshu took pity on him enough to hiss "recommend" under his breath. "...yes, recommend a...dish?" God, six months in the US after another six months in Hong Kong and Chonrei still sounded like he was trying to remember a phrasebook. Even with the weird blackouts they got that couldn't be normal. Chonshu didn't have that much trouble, after all.

"Sure!" The waitress immediately launched into an enthusiastic description of what sounded like every item on the menu. Junior and Chonshu listened with interest, Chonrei with increasing desperation. Well, she was going pretty fast. And was that drool at the corner of her mouth? "-the noodles are so delicious, mmmm. Oh, and then there's our desert menu, if you want that too."

"Not right now. The noodles sound excellent, let's start with those" Chonshu said, and Chonrei added "two, please." Junior thought for a long time and ended up ordering some dumplings.

"Thanks for your order, we'll have it out soon!" The waitress nodded and dashed away to a different table. Chonrei watched her go with undisguised disappointment.

"She didn't even notice your hair, huh?" Chonshu asked, and winced when Chonrei kicked him under the table. "Sorry bro, I think the way to that one's heart is through her stomach."

Chonrei frowned. He stewed like that for a solid ten minutes, while Chonshu entertained Junior with stories about what real Chinese food was like. Then he abruptly stood up, threw off his jacket and scarf, spun around, and headed for the kitchen with fire in his eyes.

"I didn't mean it that seriously..." Chonshu muttered to himself. Well, whatever. If it worked - and Chonrei was an amazing cook - then good for both of them.

"What's he doing?" Junior asked. Behind the kitchen door they could hear Chonrei shouting for a job.

"Trying to get cooties."

"Ewww."

"Yeah. Hey, do you want to go to the beach after this?"

"Yeah!"

The song in the beginning is Ore wa Great Mazinger, which is a bit old for 1995 but it's also my theme song so I don't care.

In Japanese Chonshu claims to have been the one looking after Junior after Yamazaki kidnapped him. I just extended that a bit to keeping babysitting after Terry punched the evil out.

Chonrei talks entirely in hiragana or katakana in FF3 and Real Bout, which I interpreted as not being very good at English. He gets better by RBSpecial and RB2, presumably because of immersion. (or SNK forgot) His special skill is listed as cooking in FF3, and only changes to dressing up in RB.