9: Noodles

After Ewart had left for work in the morning, Natalie paused halfway through doing her makeup in the mirror.

"You know what? I don't think I can face school today," she said, sitting down heavily on Jemima's bed.

"Well, I'm going," Jemima said impatiently. She'd already been waiting for ten minutes for Natalie to get ready and this was the final straw. "I'll see you there."

She slammed the front door behind her, but George was more sympathetic.

"I'd better go, or Ewart will blow up at me, but if you want to chill here I can leave you my key," George said, leaning against the doorframe as Natalie lay back on the bed, skirt tucked under her.

"I just can't face lessons and everything while my head is a mess," Natalie said, and when she sniffed back a sob George realised she was more upset than he'd realised.

"Listen, there's tons of food and there's DVDs and stuff here," George said, prising his door key off his keyring. "Just take it easy here and I'll make excuses for you at school. It's not like anyone even really asks anyway."

Natalie squeezed her eyes closed. "Are you sure?" she asked when she opened them again, sitting up and looking at George."

"One hundred percent. I'll come straight back after school, assuming I make it to the end of the day without dying of boredom," George grinned. "It's ten times worse without you there."

Natalie reached out and took the key. "Thanks, George," she said, swiping a tissue from the box on Jemima's bedside table and dabbing one of her eyes.

"Text me," George said, heading for the door and shoving his feet into shoes awkwardly with his one good hand.

En route to school, George put in a quick call to Ewart.

"Listen, Natalie didn't fancy school so I've left her in the apartment," George said, holding the phone pressed to his ear so he could hear over the crowds in the subway station.

"No problem, so long as you didn't leave your campus laptop lying around," Ewart replied.

"It's hidden under my bed and even if she found it, you need two passwords to get into it," George confirmed. "She seemed pretty upset this morning."

"I'll see if I can talk to her mum today at the Embassy," Ewart said. "She needs to go home today no matter what, though."

"That's fine," George said. "Train's coming, gotta go."

Natalie sent him a series of bored texts during the day about what she was doing in the apartment, culminating in one which said OMG UR UNDERWEAR DRAWER IS DISGUSTING. George laughed, getting a reproachful look from the teacher,

"Do I need to remind you that phones are not to be used during lessons?" she said, and George hurriedly shoved it back into his pocket.

Charlie was intrigued by the fact that Natalie had spent the night at George's apartment and kept asking questions until George got fed up answering.

"You can come over after school and see her if you want," George told her. "It's not a secret."

"I've got hockey," Charlie said, shrugging. "But I can come round afterwards."

In the end, it started raining before the school day ended, so Charlie decided to skip getting drenched at hockey and went home with George, who had to use his jacket to keep his cast covered up in case it got wet in the rain. He didn't have his key so he had to bang on the door to get Natalie to let them in.

"Do you reckon she's fallen asleep?" Charlie asked when there was no answer after a minute or so.

"Or she's gone out," George said, irritated, banging on the door again.

This time the door opened and Natalie appeared, wrapped in a towel and looking apologetic.

"Sorry, I wanted a shower," she said as George and Charlie came in. "Give me five minutes to get dressed."

George eyed Natalie's legs and felt his cheeks getting hot when he realised she was probably naked under the towel. She gave him a warning look and closed Jemima's bedroom door behind her.

Charlie giggled. "Nice going, meathead," she said, hitting him with her school bag. "Could you have been more obvious?"

"What?" George said, acting stupid. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Yeah, right," Charlie said. "Come on, get me some food, I'm starving."

"Hey, I'm an invalid, remember," George said, waving his broken arm. "Why does everyone expect me to do everything?"

"I texted your friend Letty," Natalie yelled through the closed door. "She hasn't replied to me, though."

George knew that Cherubs were strictly forbidden from staying in contact with people they'd met on missions and felt a twinge of sadness for Natalie. "She's probably just been busy," he lied, getting another look from Charlie.

When Natalie had dried her hair and got dressed back into her school uniform, she joined them in the kitchen for toast and jam.

"Ewart says you need to go home today," George informed her between mouthfuls. "Sorry."

"I've been thinking about it and I still don't think I can face it," Natalie said. "Mum is just such a pain."

"She's probably worried about you, though," Charlie pointed out.

"I called my dad today and he says he's going to call and talk to her, but with the time difference that won't be until late," Natalie said, sounding stubborn. "I'm not going home until he's called her."

George munched thoughtfully for a few minutes. "Ewart will probably get in a stew if you're still here when he gets back, but if we go out he probably won't mind too much," he said. "We can grab noodles or something and hang out until your dad has called."

"Perfect," Natalie nodded. "You in, Charlie?"

Charlie thought about it. "I suppose, but I can't stay out too late," she eventually said.

Natalie hugged her. "This is gonna be fun," she said, excitedly. "I've been stuck here all day so I'm dying to go out somewhere."

Natalie said she'd seen a really good noodle place on social media which was over in Kawasaki, which was a fair distance away on the train, but George figured they weren't exactly doing anything else. The rain had subsided but it was still wet and humid, and they waited outside the restaurant for twenty minutes for a table to free up. Natalie wasn't wrong though: the food was amazing and George practically inhaled a steaming bowl of beef udon.

"My dad said if my mum wasn't going to listen, he'd get me plane tickets back to England," Natalie said suddenly when she was finished eating. George had been staring out of the plate glass windows at the harbour, the lights of the massive industrial sites reflected in the water, daydreaming about what his life would have been like if he hadn't been a Cherub. He definitely wouldn't have found himself sitting in a restaurant overlooking Tokyo Bay. His head snapped around to look at Natalie.

"Isn't the airport not far from here?" Charlie commented, and George put two and two together.

"There's no way you can just fly halfway around the world because you had a row with your mum," he said to Natalie. "No way."

"Why shouldn't I?" Natalie said, sounding angry. "My mum would be better off without me getting in her way and I could go to a proper school in England."

"Can your dad take care of you?" Charlie asked. "Isn't he still living with his friends?"

"He says he can sort that out," Natalie said, but she was faltering and George knew that she knew, deep down, it wasn't a good idea.

"Be realistic," he said, diplomatically. "If you disappear without talking to your mum, she'll call the police and they'll pick you up when you land in England. Then your dad would probably get into trouble."

Natalie nodded glumly. "Maybe," she said, staring out of the window where George had just been looking.

She looked deflated but George was pleased she didn't seem to seriously be considering getting on a plane any more.

"I could see Letty again, though," Natalie said, looking more hopeful. "She said she went to a school in London."

"Wasn't that a one-time thing?" George asked, smiling.

"She's fit, I'd definitely see her again," Natalie said, defensively.

Charlie looked at the clock on her phone. "Listen, I don't want to be a bummer but if I want to get home before curfew I need to leave in a minute," she said. "Can I leave you the money to pay for my food?"

"Sure," George said. "I'll give you the change at school tomorrow."

"Okay, thanks," she said, grabbing her bag and handing George cash. "See you then. Bye, Natalie."

"Bye, Charlie," Natalie said, getting up and giving her friend a hug.

"Don't do anything dumb," Charlie told her as she left, and Natalie smiled and waved her off.

"She's right, though," George said. "I know your mum is an idiot but surely life would be easier if you just talked to her?"

Natalie glared at him and he realised he'd crossed a line. "I literally cannot talk to her," she said, shaking her head. "I thought you would understand."

"I do," George assured her. "I just don't see what your solution is otherwise."

"I don't care," Natalie said, but her bravado was betrayed when she started nervously playing with the ends of her hair. "Mum is always on my case about school and about everything else and I can't take it any more."

They sat in silence for a few minutes, as the waitress came and swapped their empty bowls for a bill. George put out the money to pay his and Charlie's shares, but his phone buzzed and he saw it was from Jemima.

NATALIE'S MUM IS HERE LOOKING 4 HER, EWART IS TRYING 2 CALM HER DOWN

"Jemima says your mum is at our apartment looking for you," George said, awkwardly.

"Good," Natalie told him, coldly. "Sounds like she's finally bothered about something other than herself."

"Do you want to go back and see her?" George asked, treading carefully.

Natalie didn't reply for a minute, digging around in her purse for money for her share of the bill. "I've got tons of cash and I want to make her sweat," she finally said. "Let's go somewhere."

"Where?" George asked, looking confused.

"I don't care. We can get the early train back and I'll see her then, but I just can't deal with her now."

"Promise we'll go back first thing?" George asked, and Natalie nodded.

"I promise. But I really need just one more night away from her."

"Alright. I'm gonna text Ewart, though," George said. "No need for me to get into any more trouble, I'm already on thin ice."

Natalie seemed really down, so they hung out at another arcade for the rest of the evening, putting coins into retro fighting games, and then went to karaoke. There was a place that was open 24 hours and charged by the hour, so they got a room and passed the time taking it in turns to sing the handful of songs which were in English. The place didn't seem interested in checking their ages and was happy to bring them beer, and by two in the morning George was a bit drunk which was helping him to fight the tiredness. Natalie had crashed and was curled up on the sofa next to him, leaning her head on his shoulder as he half-heartedly sung his way through an 80s ballad he only knew the chorus of.

"What time's the first train?" Natalie murmured sleepily when he finished.

"Four-thirty," George said. "We'll be back at the apartment by six."

"Okay," she said, yawning. "Wake me up at four."

George drained the last of his drink and shuffled across to give Natalie space to lie down properly. The management came to check on you if you stopped selecting songs, so George stayed awake, choosing the longest songs the machine had and playing games on his phone until the battery was nearly dead. Then he nudged Natalie awake again when the digital display ticked over to 03:55.

"Let's go," he said, thinking how cute she looked as she yawned again and blinked. "It's almost four."

"You look rough," Natalie grinned at him as she sat up.

"No worse than you," he joked back, but when he stood up he realised he was totally exhausted and decided to look out for somewhere that sold coffee on the way to the station.