Chapter 9:

Guys Day Out

Sunday May 18, 2025 12:30 p.m.

Klein knocked on the rich mohagany main door of the apartment. The lock disabled as the door widened. A woman with long green hair wearing an apron with a spot of flour appeared at the doorway. "Hey, its about time ya showed up. I thought you might've ditched to go grab a drink."

"Yeah, sorry I forgot to set my alarm..."

"Nevermind that, take a seat." Fuko gave him a glass filled with water.

"I dropped Koko off in the morning. Today's my day off, so I'll be going over there as soon as I'm done cooking."

"That explains the apron." Klein commented as he sat down on the sofa.

Fuko briefly bowed to him. "You have no idea how much I appreciate everything that you're doing... for us. He's been taking this pretty tough, and I haven't been able to get through to him for a few days. I gotta say its not easy being the only guy in the house, especially at his age. "

"Hey, no sweat it's really not that much of a big deal. I couldn't get any overtime this week, so I figured why not take him out of a couple hours. I wanted to do for a while now..." He drank the liquid to its last drop.

"You and I both now the reason why your working all of those extra hours." Fuko took placed a pan inside the oven.

"I don't how many hours I still have to do. I just her want to be cared for."

Fuko nodded in agreement.

The door squeaked opened. A middle school aged boy carrying a duffel bag on his shoulder hurried in to his bedroom. "Sorry, practice ran late."

"What's with the bag?" Klein asked.

"He's apart of his school's baseball team. He's a pitcher."

"Pitcher huh? That's a pretty tough position. What else does he do for fun?"

Fuko placed her hands on her hips. "Isn't whole point of today, you guys getting to know him a bit better?"

"Erm, right." Klein gave the glass back to the off-duty nurse.

The boy came out in a light blue sweatshirt, purple and white sneakers, jeans and simple red cap hiding his blonde hair.

"Wallet, keys, phone?" His mother looked at him.

"Got 'em." Takato sighed and stretched his arms high.

"I'm leaving soon and don't know when I'm coming back. So the door's gonna be locked."

"Seriously mom? You already told me like a 1000 times." He groaned in a slight annoyance.

Fuko patted his the top of his cap. "Now it's 1001 times." She hugged him.

"See ya." He pecked her cheek and walked out.

"Later." Klein fumbled with his car keys and shut the door behind him.

Takato looked out the window watching passing passing by. The atmosphere in the vehicle was slightly awkward. Klein was struggling to think of something to say. "First we gotta up Kazuto at his house. Then we'll take off from there."

The boy in the front passenger seat let out a small yawn and rubbed his shoulder. However his face looked curious, like he was dying to ask him something and sighed. "Listen, I wanted to ask you something ever since this thing was planned out... And I want the actual truth."

"Fire away. I'll try to be as honest as I can, but I don't really have anything to hide from you."

"Are you... are you only taking me out because your dating my aunt?"

Klein half smiled. "That's not the actual reason."

"What are you talking about? If that's not the reason then what is it?" Takato raised the volume of his voice.

"I grew up an only child. So I get how you may feel once in a while. But unlike you I wasn't lucky enough to have a younger sibling figure." Klein said not taking his eyes off the road.

Takato looking down to his shoes, biting his lips hard enough that they turned white. "I'm not lucky... I'm blessed." He muttered under his breath.

The car had stopped at a red traffic light. The boy felt a hand pressing onto his right shoulder. But it wasn't the small feminine hand that he was so used to feeling, this time it was bigger, masculine hand. He closed his eyes trying to remember the time he last felt something was that kind of nostalgia, but he couldn't.

"I stand corrected." Klein grinned.

Takato blinked snapped out of his small daze. "So how where the kisses last night?" He sneered.

Klein's face flushed red at the question. "Are you sure you're old enough to hear about this?"

"I turn 13 on Wednesday. But it wouldn't really hurt anyone if you told me a little earlier." The tween sneered. "Kazuto told me that you were nervous when you were talking at that party."

"Uh...yeah I was."

"And that she was the one that kissed you twice."

"That's how it happened."

"And you're okay with that?"

"Hey, I didn't really care about that at the time, I was just happy I got kissed one more time than expected."

"So is it true that this one time you flirting with an NPC in SAO."

"Wait you know about that?" Klein asked.

Takato nodded. "So what else did you do in the game?"

"I was a the leader of a guild."

"So is it true that on the day of the launch you got hit in the-!" Takato was cut off.

"Okay that's enough talking about me for now." Klein weakly laughed. Does this kid have an off button? He thought.

"Sorry, I get ahead of myself sometimes. I'm not really used being around... people when I'm not with my friends at school or at practice."

"You practice baseball right?" Klein turned the car over to another lane.

"Yeah, I'm one of the team's pitcher. It took a while for me to get the hang it though."

"People need time to get the hang of things on their own pace."

"Coming from the guy who got hit with a boar in the-!"

"I thought we were done talking about the game." Klein turned on the car radio and flipped to the available channels, letting the music fill the silence of the drive for a few minutes.

The tires screeched as they stopped in front of Kazuto's house. Klein takes out his cell and sends his friend a quick text.

Within a few minutes the black haired teenager ran out of his house and jumped into the backseat. "What the hell took you so long? The movie gonna start in less than 40 minutes. We still need to get tickets, grab snacks and find a good place to sit."

"Well, hello to you too." The driver sarcastically remarked.

"Cut the sarcasm and hurry up! I've been waiting patiently for months to finally go see this movie."

"You don't sound very patient right now." Klein retorted restarting the car engine again.

"So what's this movie about anyway?" Takato asked curiously.

"Who cares? It's got action, mechs, fighting and explosions. Plus its in surround sound, 1080p HD and 3D." Kazuto sounded excited.

"Everything's in 3D these days." Klein added.

Kazuto glanced at him. "Don't ruin this for me."

"That sounds like fun." Takato turned to Kazuto.

Kazuto gave him a high-five. "This kid knows entertainment."

"Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?" An overexcited Kazuto kept repeating himself like a broken record.

"If you ask me that one more time I swear, I am going to turn this car around and then no one is going to go see this movie." Klein raised his voice.

Kazuto stopped bouncing in his seat and remained silent the rest of the time.

After the movie...

"That was so cool." Takato exclaimed after coming out of the dark viewing room.

"Man, there was so much noise in there, I thought I would've lost my hearing." Kazuto rubbed his ears.

"I gotta go to the bathroom. Go start the car." Klein instructed in a laid back tone and handed Kazuto the keys.

"Got it boss." He accepted and led Takato out of the theatre.

"Hey do you mind if I ask you something?" The boy in the red hat sat in the backseat.

"Sure, what's one your mind?" Kazuto shut the driver's door and opened up the backseat.

"How do I be a good brotherly figure?" The tween asked.

The question almost surprised the teenager. "Oh uh, to be honest I'm not really the best guy to ask. I was pretty unfair to her after I found out that we weren't really siblings. But it's all good now."

"Do you think that I'll be a good one someday?" The kid questioned further.

"I think that's something that you should figure out for yourself." The older boy answered.

The driver's door clicked. "Hey what were you too talking about?"

"Just about that epic fight scene at the end." Takato dishonestly replied.

"Where to next boss?" Kazuto wondered.

"I was thinking about taking a nice drive and maybe talk." Klein pulled out of the somewhat crowed parking lot and onto the road.

"Okay but if I fall asleep, stay away from my wallet." Kazuto warned.

Kazuto tapped Takato's shoulder. "So a while ago you told me that your a pitcher for your school's baseball team. That's sounds like a lot of pressure."

Takato slightly grinned. "Yeah it is, but I'm getting the hang of it now."

"So how do you like middle school so far? It must have been hard adjusting to a new school after being in the same one for so long." Kazuto continued.

"You'd think that but I blended in quite well with my classmates. Having a class that's mainly filled wiht girls ain't so bad either if you catch my drift." The younger boy snickered.

"Keep your eyes on the books and off the books." Kazuto put him into a headlock giving him a nugie.

"You make it sound like its easy." Klein said from the front.

"You better study hard if you want those grades of yours to get better." Klein advised.

"So did you join any clubs yet?" It was Klein's turn to ask.

"Besides baseball, I'm in the cooking club." Takato replied.

"Cooking club? Why?" Kazuto asked curiously.

"Well, my mom usual works pretty late. So I make lunch for her sometimes and..."

"And?" Kazuto raised his eyebrows looking interested.

"And... there's a... girl that I like that's in there. She's in my class too." Blood rushed to his the tween's face as he finished his sentence.

Kazuto narrowed his eyes at him. "A girl huh? What she like?" He nudged.

"She's wears glasses, has red hair always in a pony tail and pink eyes... She's at least an inch smaller than I am." Takato explained while hoping that more blood isn't rushing into his face.

"So did you tell her about your little crush?" The older boy smirked.

"Are you crazy? You can't just walk up to a girl and say you like them! Plus I may not even old enough to date yet."

"So how how do ya got to be to date?" Klein asked.

"My mom and I are still... negotiating." Takato frowned.

"I hope you win." Kazuto winked.

"I wonder how jealous I'm going to get of Yumeko-chan." Takato lowered his face.

"Jealousy is a natural thing. Especially when you've been by yourself for that long." Kazuto tried to cheer him up.

The tween gave the facial impression that he was in replaying an unsettling memory in the back of his mind.

"Hey, what's the matter?" Kazuto snapped his fingers a few times, hoping to bring him back. "If you need to tell us something, it's totally fine. We won't rat you out or anything."

The boy blinked at looked at Kazuto and opened his lips. "I was thinking about my visit a while ago after the baby had her surgery done." He clenched his hands into fists and rested it on his thighs. "I wanted to see to the day of it, but I got really held up at pracitice. So I went the very next day, and stayed their for a bit. While I was there, she went instantly into an apnea spell and stopped breathing." Takato bit his lips.

Kazuto urgently started thinking of something else to say that could possibly change the sudden atmospheric shift and regain its cheery mood, then it came to him.

"Speaking of visiting... Suguha and the others spent almost the whole day over at the hospital yesterday." He smiled. "She did a lot of her homework the mintue we came home. I almost had to drag her out of her room, just so she could go down for dinner. I couldn't go with her because I have this really big test tomorrow and needed a lot of time to concentrate."

"Yeah, my aunt's kind of strict on that." Takato smirked. "Don't forget about her penalty."

"Don't remind me. The last time she found out I was forced to wear... those things for the whole time. She even took pictures." Kazuto cringed his teeth.

"She'll go easy on you if you need any help with it." The younger kid advised.

"Yeah I guess." Kazuto stretched his arms.

"Sounds like you two are getting awfully chummy back there." A voice came from the front.

"Sounds like someone's getting jealous." Kazuto snickered.

Klein rolled his eyes and kept driving.

"So did you buy her a gift?" Takato asked Kazuto.

"Yeah, Suguha and I got this small pink bear. What about you?"

"I got this bell rattle when my aunt was still pregnant. Yumeko-chan really likes the sound of bells." Takato went silent and started staring out the window.

He left a light punch on his arm and heard a voice. "Hey what's up? You've spaced out for like five mintues."

"Nothing I was just thinking about something."

"Thinking about what?" Kazuto's voice went a little soft.

"This one time, I was sitting right next to my aunt and I put my ear on her stomach...and before I knew it, I fell asleep listening to her heartbeat..." Takato lamented.

The conversation momentarily paused and the silence was replaced by the muffle of the car's running motor.

Kazuto swallowed. "That sure is a nice sound to fall asleep too."

Takato gently laid back his head. The material of his hat was rubbed against the material of the car seat.

"Yumeko-chan is quite popular in my class. My classmates even have a little fan club in her honor."

"Really? Does she have a nickname?" Kazuto sounded intrigued.

"Yeah. They call her "Soilder-sama" sometimes." Takato cheered up a bit.

"Is that so?" Kazuto jokingly arched his eyebrow. "I still think my nickname's better."

"Hey, wanna grab a bite to eat?" The driver requested.

"Sure that sounds great." They both agreed.

Klein pulled up to the nearest fast food drive thru. "Okay so that'll be three burgers, 3 large fries and 3 large drinks." Klein tapped some buttons on a colourful touch-screen monitor.

Drive thru workers have been replaced by touch-screen menus instead of the costumer reciting the order through a voice box. So for a costumer's order to be taken by an employee, the consumer would either have to go inside to a restaurant or complete the errand by phone.

The guys sitting in the backseat quickly took some cash out of their wallets and then handed the money to the front.

Instead of a normal cashiers handling the money. There was small machine that would collect and give back change.

"It's been a while but it still feels strange having those things instead of actual people." Klein commented between bites.

"These are one of the few fast-food franchises that do this. At least the food is still being made by actual employees." Takato shoved some fries in his mouth.

"I hear ya. I don't think I could ever really get used to that. It feels like something straight out of an old sci-film from decades ago." Kazuto sipped through his straw.

Klein looked at the clock on his dashboard. "Damn it. Look at the time, it's already getting dark."

7:55 p.m.

After dropping of Kazuto at his house, Klein decided to drop off Takato at his doorstep.

"I had a good time today." The tween thanked him.

"No prob. If your up for it we could go out for some ice-cream or maybe to a video-game arcade. Just the two us."

"For real?" Takato sounded excited. "That sounds...nice. I'll see about that."

As Klein began turning around to leave, the sleeve of his shirt felt like it was being caught by something. He looked back and saw the boy's stern-looking face, the boy stares down to the carpeted floor the hallway.

"Will you promise me something?" His voice sounded serious.

"What's that?" Klein questioned further.

"Please... don't make... Yumeko-chan feel the absence of a... of a...father." Takato's voice slightly croaked.

The man placed his hand on the boy red cap. "Trust me. I won't. Ever."

Thank you very much for reading! Please review!