Tadashi woke up with a sore neck that could only be obtained from sleeping in a funny position. He groaned and stretched. His shifting woke up Hiro, who was still leaning against Tadashi's shoulder.
"Wat?" Hiro asked sleepily, blinking and rubbing his eyes. "Wut timz iz it?"
Tadashi stared, awestruck at just how adorable sleepy Hiro looked. His brain jump started, remembering Hiro's question as Tadashi fumbled for his phone for the time. "It's currently 9:12am," Tadashi answered him.
Hiro rubbed his eyes again, head turned in the direction of the window. Outside was still a blanket of snow and no visibility. You couldn't even see the sun in the sky. Hiro let out a sigh. "And I see the blizzard is still going strong," he said.
Tadashi ignored the small part of him that was immensely happy with that. He quickly shot off a text message to Aunt Cass to inform her that the storm was still strong and he was still grounded. "Wanna get some breakfast?" Tadashi asked. "My treat."
"Well, I'm not going to turn down free food," Hiro said, stretching. He rolled his shoulders, trying to loosen the muscles that had tightened over the night from the position he had slept in. "I'll tell you what, you buy breakfast and I'll go pick us up some toothbrushes and toothpaste so we can at least feel somewhat refreshed."
Tadashi grinned. "Deal."
An hour later, after breakfast and a quick wash up in the bathroom, they found themselves wandering the shopping area of the airport. Some of the stores were still closed; no doubt the employees managed to escape before the blizzard had hit. Then there were the not so lucky employees who were stuck with everyone else. A few stores were being opened by disheveled employees who clearly slept on the floor in their uniforms.
Tadashi soon found himself standing in front of Kinokuniya, a popular bookstore that had a small branch in the airport. It was one of the many tourist attractions Tadashi had visited in Chicakaidoo as the original and largest store in the chain was located here. Who didn't love a good bookstore?
"Thinking about buying a book?" Hiro asked. He casually skimmed across the titles that lined the shelves.
"Was looking for a game to help us pass the time actually," Tadashi said.
"Tired of my charming personality already?" Hiro joked.
Tadashi doubted that he would ever tire of Hiro's quick wit, cheer and confidence. "Nah, more like I'm afraid I'll bore you." Tadashi was smart but not like Hiro. Outside of their love of robotics and the fact that they were snowed in, there was really no real reason for Hiro to actually stick around with Tadashi. With a game, hopefully that would change. Tadashi really wanted to be friends with Hiro and what better way to bond then over a game?
"Impossible," Hiro said.
Tadashi smiled. Then he saw a light brown box with a tiny man with a Viking horn helmet and a chainsaw. "Munchkins!"
"What?" Hiro asked. He stood on his tiptoes to read over Tadashi's shoulder. "What's that?"
Tadashi grinned. About two years ago, Fred had discovered the game and dragged everyone over to play. It later morphed into weekly game night at Fred's house. It was good fun and highly competitive. Ah the chaos they got into.
"Do you like video games, Hiro? RPGs to be exact." Tadashi asked.
Hiro blinked, uncertain where Tadashi was going with this. "Yeah," he said, warily.
"Then you're gonna love this game," Tadashi explained. He handed the money off to the cashier and dragged Hiro to the nearest empty table they could find.
Tadashi opened the box, pulling out a deck of cards and dice. From his wallet came out the coins from the other day, level markers to be used in the game.
"Alright," Tadashi said, shuffling through the cards. "So think of Munchkins like your normal RPG video game. You have a character, you which, depending on the cards can have a race, a job, armor and weapons." He flipped onto the table several cards the shown samples of what he was talking about: a elf race card, a priest job card, a sword and a helmet.
"You win when you get to level ten. To level up, there are cards that auto-level you or by defeating monsters." Tadashi flipped a weak Level 1 Monster on the table. "The points from your level, armor, and weapons determine if you beat the monster. So right now, your current level is 1 and the monster is level 1, so that would be a tie, which still results in you losing. But if we add this helmet which gives you +2, your total power is 3 and you beat the monster, get some treasures and gain a level, going up to level 2."
"Okay," Hiro said, soaking up the cards in front of him. "So how do we find the monsters in the game?"
"Right, so when it's your turn, you flip over the top card in the deck. That is 'kicking down the door'. If it's an item card, you get to add it into your hand. Then you can either fight a monster from your hand, or loot the room and take another card from the deck. If it's a monster though, you have to fight it." Tadashi explained.
"What happens if the monster is like Level 5 and I'm still level 1 with a total power of 3?" Hiro asked.
"Couple things. There are cards that make the monster stronger or weaker, even some that make it disappear. Or you can ask me for help to take the monster down. If I'm not feeling charitable," Tadashi paused to chuckle. "You can try running away. That's what the dice is for. You need to roll a 5 or a 6 to escape."
"And if all that fails?" Hiro asked.
"Depending on the monster you could lose certain armor and weapons, lose levels or even 'die' which removes all your items," another voice interjected.
Both Tadashi and Hiro looked up to see a tall, scrawny teenager with messy brown hair and a camera swung over his shoulder grinning at them. "Sorry," the teenager apologized. "I was just walking by and saw you guys playing. Smart idea. I was just at every store looking for a simple deck of cards, or anything to help kill the boredom. Everything is sold out."
Tadashi blinked. He supposed it wouldn't occur to most people to check the bookstore for board games and now that he thought about it, the shelves were looking a little bare when he and Hiro were in there. People had to be entertaining themselves somehow. He shared a quick glance at Hiro, who simply shrugged his shoulders. Well… Tadashi did want to spend time with Hiro, but the more the merrier right?
"Do you want to join us?" Tadashi asked.
The teenager brightened. "Really? Cause that would be great."
"Peter!"
"Assuming my girlfriend doesn't haul me off somewhere."
A blond haired teenage girl ran toward them. "Tell me you found a deck of cards or something," she said. "Sudoku, crossword puzzles, anything quick and easy so that I don't strangle my kid brothers? I'll even take a regular book if it wouldn't be impossible to get them to read it."
"Err, well these guys just asked if I wanted to join their game of Munchkins," the teenage boy, Peter apparently, said.
The girl brightened. "Oh Munchkins! I love that game. Oops where are my manners? I'm Gwen Stacy, this is my boyfriend Peter Parker."
"Tadashi Hamada, nice to meet you," Tadashi said.
"I'm Hiro Takachiho," Hiro said.
"Are we intruding?" Gwen asked; her voice full of concern. "I don't want to jump in, if you two rather play by yourselves."
Hiro and Tadashi shared another look. Another shrug was passed between them. "Nah, Munchkins is more fun with more people. Do you have to get back to your brothers?" Tadashi asked. He shuffled the deck and dealt out the cards to everyone.
"My mom can deal with them for a couple hours. I had to deal with them while she ran around trying to figure out how we were gonna get home, where we were gonna sleep for the night. Maddening," Gwen said, taking a seat.
"Ah, not from Chicakaidoo?" Hiro asked.
Peter shook his head as he dropped into the seat next to Gwen. "Nah. We were here for a campus visit to Chicakaidoo Tech. Both Gwen and I will graduate from high school this upcoming spring."
Hiro grinned. "Oh, you should definitely go to Chicakaidoo Tech," Hiro said.
"Do you attend there?" Gwen asked, curious.
Hiro nodded. "Yup. It's great there. Their robotics department is the best."
"Hey!" Tadashi said. "SFIT is just as good." Like Tadashi was going to let Hiro get away with saying that CT was the better school. There were rivalries to maintain!
"Do you go SFIT?" Peter asked Tadashi.
"Yeah. Grew up in San Fransokyo, so going to SFIT was my first choice," Tadashi said. He glanced through his cards, laying down a weapon and armor.
"Bitter rivals, huh?" Gwen joked with a smile. "We just came back from visiting SFIT three days ago too."
"Totally. Don't listen to Hiro," Tadashi joked. "SFIT is a much better school. I keep telling him that."
"Hey! Remember who kicked whose butt in the battle bot tournament," Hiro said, sticking his tongue out at Tadashi.
"Details," Tadashi replied. "Beside, I won the team competition remember?"
"Just can't accept how awesome I am, can you?" Hiro teased. Then he shifted through the cards in his hand and asked, "Can I just put down all my armor and weapon cards?"
"Yup," Peter said. "Just place them down. Might as well start off strong, right?"
"I'll go first," Tadashi said. He reached for the card, flipping it over.
The game quickly progressed. ("Et tu, Hiro!" "Sorry Tadashi, but letting you win is not an option.") Despite the long run, Hiro was the one to come out on top in the first round. ("How did you do that Hiro?!" "Well, Gwen, I'm just that awesome.") Peter claimed the second round and was promptly sentenced into doing the first food run. ("How does that work?! I win, but I'm the one who has to go get everyone lunch?" "Peter, just do it." "Yes Gwen.") The bet for dinner was quickly introduced to the table. ("So now you people want me to win? Really Hiro? Playing that card that decreases the monster's strength?" "Well, you wanted to win…" "I hate you." "Love you too!")
They were through their fourth round, stomachs content with food from the various restaurants nearby when Gwen's phone went off.
"Ooo, that's my mom," Gwen said, picking up her phone. "Hi Mom, um, yeah. No, we'll come back. We're fine. MOM! We're not -!"
Turning red, Gwen hung up on her phone. "Sorry guys, we need to go."
"The mother dragon calls," Peter joked, folding his cards.
"Thanks for letting us interrupt your date," Gwen said. "Double dates are always fun."
Tadashi felt his cheeks burn. She thought he and Hiro were a couple? But they weren't… Sure Hiro was cute- 'Did I really just think that?' Tadashi thought. "Oh, we're not-"
"We should totally swap numbers," Peter said with a wide grin. "Chances are, we're gonna see one of you again."
"Um, sure," Hiro said, his cheeks equally as red as Tadashi's.
Numbers and emails were exchanged and Tadashi and Hiro waved goodbye as Gwen and Peter went down a different terminal.
"They were nice," Hiro said with a cough. His face was still red.
"Y-yeah," Tadashi said. He wasn't sure why Gwen thought they were dating. It wasn't like… Unless that last round, when Tadashi had said that he hated Hiro (playfully of course, the same way one often curses their opponent) and Hiro, being the cheeky brat he was, replied with 'Love you too' in the same bantering manner. But it could be so easily misconstrued to a pair of strangers…! Tadashi felt his cheeks burn a brighter red.
"Hey Tadashi?"
Tadashi snapped out of his thoughts to see Hiro staring at him.
"Thanks," Hiro said with a gentle smile. "This was really fun."
Oh god, did Tadashi's heart just skip a beat?
Hello Peter, Gwen. If you're not familiar with them, this adorable couple is from The Amazing Spider-man movies. Is Peter Spider-man in this story? Dunno, probably not though if he's considering moving across the country for college.
With any luck I didn't butcher too many of the rules of Munchkins. (Yes it's a real game, look it up if you haven't heard of it. Youtube has some great videos!) It's been awhile since I played (couple months) and I wasn't willing to dig through mess leftover from Christmas to find the rulebook. Hopefully for those of you who haven't heard of it, understood it enough.
Until next chapter (whenever it comes to me...) D: Remember I have a terrible track record with chapter stories.