I started working on this chapter alone but couldn't finish it without the help of JNaegi. Thank you JNaegi for helping me finish it.
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It was the next afternoon after the drama of the last couple of days; from Taichi going to the hospital, Gero & Akagi going up against some dicks in a soccer game and Erina getting closer to Taichi which resulted in a kiss for the scrawny teen.
In the dinning room the group ended up having dinner made by the pink pigtailed, brown eyed maid and it was enjoyed by all. Even Erina couldn't offer out snarky as she too enjoyed the meal as everyone ate with gusto.
Offering a small bow Akagi stood to the side of him as Taichi as he ate his meal.
"How are you enjoying your ribs, master Taichi?" She asked with politely.
A big grin appeared on the teen's face as he answered. "This is great as always, Akagi!" He ate a big bite pulling off some of them meat. "It still has that slimy quality and the sauce is so tasty…you really cooked the meat well."
Akagi smiled and blushed at the compliment from her master. "Thank you, master Taichi; your flattery makes me happy."
'Ah, master's acknowledgement of my cooking prowess is what makes serving him all the more better.' Akagi thought as nothing could ruin this moment! Loud eating could be heard as well which knocked Akagi off of her euphoria like high as she turned to the source of the noise. 'He was raised in one of those barns, wasn't he?' She didn't speak it outright but by Kami, Akagi was close.
"I enjoy the ribs too." A certain silver haired and former panther lover said as Gero bit into another piece of the meat. "Man never had something like this!" He wiped a napkin over his mouth to get the sauce off.
'I was right about my first impression of the mongrel' her mouth formed into a frown and sniped out at him. "I don't care what you like. Along with can't you eat with a little bit of dignity? This is a room for eating not some place where pigs go to stew!"
Deciding to have some fun with the uppity maid Gero made some pig noises which sounded authentic. This caused Taichi to choke on his water briefly but laughed which led to Erina banging the boy's back but she too looked amused.
This didn't please Akagi as she looked ready to cut off a certain appendage and throw it in the garbage disposal.
Pressing his legs together Gero gave a weak chuckle and apologized for that juvenile action. "Forgive me Akagi." He gave her a puppy dog eyed look which threw her for a loop and just brushed aside that topic.
"Tell me I'm wrong but aren't these ribs from Texas?"
Bringing her attention to the question at hand the maid answered.
"Yeah, so?" Akgagi sounded brusque with that language to her internal shock. Akagi had indeed been adapting to some of the lingo by hanging out with the mongrel.
"How did you get meat from Texas over here so fast?" Gero asked innocently enough. Given they lived in Japan he wanted to know the details.
Giving the skater boy a contemptuous look she spoke, trying hard to keep ire out of her voice.
"The Kou family has an abundant amount of money, of course. We use that money to hire a pilot who can deliver us meat from anywhere in the world." She finished proudly and crossed her arms over her decent sized chest.
The amber eyed teen whistled with appreciation before saying "I wish my mother was rich like you." He gave an uneasy smile. "I don't even know what she does, but most of the money she gets she spends on herself, when not dealing with me. That is until she told me to move out."
Taichi, Erina and Akagi looked shocked by how Gero described his mother. They all thought the same sentence, 'How can a mother neglect their own child like that?'
Akagi felt strangely sad for the way Gero was brought up. 'However his demeanor isn't one of sorrow or anger; he has a good heart...' She turned to Gero again who finished his ribs and drank down his water. 'Hmph, he might not be such a lost cause.'
As dinner was getting finished Tarumi appeared, who appeared winded. He wore a coat and had sunglasses in the room which was strange to Gero but he kept that to himself.
"Tamura, welcome home." Erina greeted but sounded puzzled given his attire.
Akagi gave him a nod while Gero said, "Wazz up, brah?"
Taichi also gave his greeting and soon said, "Tamura, I don't mean to sound like my father but we don't allow people to wear coats in this house."
The musclebound teen apologized. "That's okay. I was just stopping by to change my boots." He sounded uneasy as was about to leave until Erina's voice confronted him.
"Take off those sunglasses." She simply said getting up from the table and trying to peer beneath the sunglasses.
Tarumi got defensive trying to prevent his nagging sister's actin. "Back off Erina; you take this mother role far too seriously…you're my sister."
Erina didn't budge as her voice got sharp. "Take off those sunglasses!"
When it looked like Tamura wouldn't do it she went on the offensive. "Don't make me take them off for you, bro. Remember how this was always settled when we were younger?"
Bringing that up made Tamura shiver; his sister never refrained from beating him up and hitting him in the nuts. He should have mentioned to her that she reminded her of a boy when they were little.
'My dick still hurts...' He griped before relenting to his sister's request and took off the sunglasses.
Akagi, Gero and Taichi gasped at what they saw.
"You have a black eye!" Erina sounded aghast! Who would hurt her brother like this? She started fretting over him as she went to get some ice to put over his bloated eye. She soon asked, "Why do you have a black eye?"
The black haired teen took the ice pack from her; he was a man dammit and didn't want his sister to fret over him like some child!
"A guy mistook me for someone he hated and punched me in the face." Was his answer.
From Taichi's perspective, his girlfriend looked bristled as if she were a cat drenched in water by this response before she cut into the matter.
"Don't lie to me; I'm your sister. I know what kind of boy you are but you are not a liar." Her voice sounded hard but her blue eyes shined with concern. "You were spending your night with those awful boys again, weren't you?"
Giving a sigh he responded, "I never could hide anything from you."
She rolled her eyes. "Of course not; as a sister I need to keep you on a leash, at least until your married."
"I was just hanging out with my friends." He tried again, hoping to divert answering the question.
"Some friends they are; just taking you somewhere and get you a black eye." She fussed over him by grabbing the ice pack and placing it on his eye.
"You shouldn't be spending time with those brain dead gangbangers. You should be studying for your entrance in college." She admonished him.
Tamura appeared stressed as if they already had this discussion before.
With an annoyed grunt the purple eyed teen spoke his mind. "Come on, I told you once before that I don't want to go to college. I tried and they wouldn't let me in."
The strong willed Erina rebuffed the statement. "You failed your first entrance exam so you stopped going to school. You still had next year to along and do it."
"Even if I did pass my exam I wouldn't want to go to college. I think of the place like some slave camp of people who make you feel bad about yourself! And the worst offense those ass clowns do; making you feel foolish the courses you thought you were good at." He shook his head dismissively.
Taichi could somewhat relate to Tamura's strife with wanting to go into college. 'Nothing is ever easy, is it?'
"It's called being a grown up and it's about time you started taking responsibility of your life!" Erina stood firm in that belief like a mom drilling in table manners to a son who liked doing burps at the table or whoopee cushion noises without the cushion.
With a roll of his eyes Tamura gave an acid like response to his sister turned mother. "Well I'll never be a grown up. Even when I'm old, have white hair and wrinkles over my body it won't change how I think. I'm not smart and I lack any attention."
"You're smarter than most of your so-called friends. If you keep going to your classes you'll pass. Maybe not this year but there's always the next year and the year after that!" The black tailed girl couldn't stress that enough.
Tamura gave a shrug of his shoulders. "I'm only going to live once. I want to live it doing something that makes me feel special and not another dummy trying to get into college."
He's taken to the YOLO thing that most kids/teens are into nowadays (or some years ago?).
"You're just being paranoid." Erina said. "If it's so much trouble getting into college why didn't you just ask someone for help. I can help you, I get good grades."
Tamura looked appalled by her offering. His sister was a drill sergeant when it came to her grades!
"No one can help me with this, so just shut up!" He shouted at her having enough of her uppity attitude of what he should do!
"Where are you going?" She yelled out.
"My room so I don't have to hear your screeching bitch!"
Erina looked stunned for an instant before snapping back. "It's Taichi's house and the rooms belong to his family so it's not your room because we're his guests!"
He hated when she was right but he couldn't let that stop him, Tamura needed to keep the momentum going!
"Whatever! I'm just going to bed." He yelled!
"Fine, I'm going to my room too!" She yelled back before both went upstairs and opposite directions before slamming the door with force.
This left Taichi, Akagi and a somewhat bemused Gero to deal with the cleanup, figuratively speaking.
"Why is Erina going to her room?" Taichi asked on one in particular confused at the behavior of the siblings. 'I'd always assume they had the perfect sibling relationship'
Cue the maid of Kou's response to her naive master. "If I were to guess it's Erina trying to deal with her feelings of anger and worriment for her brother."
Looking back up the stairs started heading upstairs.
"Yo dude, where you going?" Gero asked trying to prevent the rich boy from getting involved.
He turned to his sensei/friend. "I'm going to talk to her and then we can speak to her brother together."
Akagi vetoed that idea. "It would be wise to leave her alone, master Taichi; she is a woman and chances are she doesn't want to talk to anyone at the moment."
He turned to Akagi and actually had some tears in his eyes out of worry. "But what if Erina tries to hurt herself or Tamura as well?"
Gero gave the rich teen a look. 'Damn, does he really jump to one extreme to another?'
" They are in no harm, master. I have set up cameras around the room that trigger an alarm if any weapons are found or if any sounds of harm occur." She spoke as if showing off a boutique magazine to some friends.
The silver haired Gero turned to her next trying to keep bewilderment off his face less he entice the wrath of the maid.
"You don't have to worry about them, master Taichi" Akagi spoke to him and without missing a beat smacked Gero upside the head for his look. Gero had a lump on his head which he tended to in comedic fashion.
Taichi still looked on the verge of crying as he spoke. "But they're my friends…and I love Erina. I don't want there to be any family problems between them."
Gero soon thought that once Taichi uttered the "love" word in front of the maid, she'd go into some death con one scenario with military personnel lining up in the ranks. But that didn't happen.
Akagi smiled at her master. "You're very kind, master Taichi."
The two shared a "sibling" moment until a voice broke in.
"Can one of you pass the ketchup? I want to pour them on my noodles." Gero said as he found noodles and soaking them. How he found it in that short span of having a knot in his head is a mystery.
A moment later.
"Why did you pour noodles on his head, Akagi?" Taichi's voice rang with shock.
"He was being very insensitive, master Taichi." Akagi simply stated glaring at her (unknown) love interest.
'Jokes on them; I like having noodles on my head.' Gero thought as he licked some of the substance coming down his face. 'Mmmmmm, garlic flavor!'
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The night went by unmolested and we begin this scene the next day!
Gero lay on his bed just enjoying the ambiance of staying in an actual feather bed. "I like waking up in this bed. It has a profound impact on my happiness." He uttered in happiness.
As he finally decided to get out of bed (which is always hard) Gero put on his clothes (which I'll leave to your imagination) until he heard something as a moaning of misery.
Wondering who could be packing on the emo-feels this early in the morning he opening the door and saw Taichi, rolled in a ball. Gero could have sworn he saw mushrooms growing around his area.
A drop of sweat ran down the back of the amber eyed teen's head as he spoke. "What are you doing leaning against that wall? Don't you have somewhere to be?"
Taichi turned to his sensei before asking a request. "Gero…can you teach me some things about being a man?"
"Sure. What do you need to know?" He replied with no hesitation.
"Everything, I know it's much to ask right now but things are starting to get confusing and I want to know how you would deal with it." Taichi responded as if it was his last rights.
Thinking for two moments Gero gave an answer. "I normally take long naps to help forget about my problems."
Blinking on how relaxed he was Taichi soon said, "Can you teach me this?"
"I can and many more things. Walk with me." He replied as the duo soon walked around the Kou family garden; azaleas with roses and daises were in bloom.
Looking intrigued by this area Gero asked a question to the mild mannered rich teen. "When does water come into your brain?"
He looked perplexed the random question before stuttering. "W-When you're drinking it?"
Gero made a buzzing noise. "Wrong. It's when you imagine it in yourself. You're not yourself if you haven't taken three glasses of water a day, and you also need water if you want to survive." He continued with the long speech. "Being a man isn't about having muscles because we all need water in our systems. The way we act is the way that best describes how manly we all are."
This made the silver haired teen with a short tail pause. "But I've listened to everything people told me, followed all the advice my teachers have given me, and I've never say anything bad about my parents."
A sigh escaped the skater boy's lips. "That's half of what I mean. I was really telling you to think for yourself. You're miserable, right?"
Taichi gave a pout. "I do have my days when I ask myself what's the point of doing something, but it's usually when I'm tired."
"Well the key is to know that other people don't see their good qualities." Gero began as they found a bench to sit on, birds chirped merrily and it felt like the kind of time for Mary Poppins to come out of nowhere on that infamous umbrella spouting "Spoonful of sugar" song.
"They see themselves as 'ugly' or 'fat'. People are born the way they are and they are envious about people who are better looking than them and thinner. Thin people are jealous of muscular people because girls swoon over them and they can do things they cannot do. The important part about being a man is worrying less about your looks and more about being a good person to people."
Taichi absorbed all this information like a sponge. "What else?"
"Exercise for thirty minutes each day, always spend more than three hours reading a book, never tell yourself you can't write anything, and always be nice to people who are nice to you and ignore people who are bad or greedy."
"Wow Gero. Do you really do those things?" Taichi asked his eyes sparkling like a star.
A nod from said person. "Of course not. My teacher just told me those are the ways a man should live even though he never lived those ways either."
'Than I know what I need to do!' Taichi thought as he got up.
"Where are you going? The stairs are this way, that way leads to the woman's shower…!" Gero soon thought a devious and perverse thought. "You're going to peek on the girls taking a shower, you horney dog."
Taichi shook his head with a blush, hastily saying, "Actually I'm going to Erina's room."
"The illicit relationships of a rich boy and a poor hot girl; a story made in heaven!" Gero said with a laugh.
The scrawny teen didn't how to respond and moved on what he was going to say. "I'm going to ask her if she's still mad about what happened yesterday."
"Why would you ask her? It's not like it was your fault it happened." Gero raised an eyebrow.
"Its something I want to do; as a man!" Taichi said and soon was out of sight.
Seeing go to the woman he loved Gero ran a hand through his hair. "Man he's changing; oh well hope it works for him! I'm going downstairs to eat some pancakes. I hope I can put marshmallows in the pancakes." He soon thought of doing that…unless a certain maid put a damper on his plans.
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Taichi soon arrived at Erina's room. He wouldn't hesitate any longer and do this! Knocking on the door he said, "Erina, are you still in there?"
A moment later Erina opened the door, she wore her night clothes; a long white shirt that went to her knee caps and the bitch could vividly be seen. Her hair was let loose and it went to her upper shoulders.
Blushing and trying not to stare at the mountain peaks of mount Olympus he replied. "Hey, I wanted to check up on you to see if you were still mad."
Erina shook her head. "I'm not mad." She simply said sounding a little irritated.
Taichi tried again. "Are you mad at all the men in this house? I know Gero and I can be tough to live with but—"
"I'm not mad…I'm just upset. I'm upset because my brother is a thickhead who spends his time hanging out with the wrong crowd." She yelled out.
This surprised Taichi before he placed a comforting hand over hers. "Erina you can tell me everything if it will make you feel better. I'm always here if you need to speak."
Some tears spilled from her eyes. "Thank you, I really appreciate it."
"There is however nothing I can say that will make you feel better over this situation. I want you to be happy, Erina. I'm going to give you a hug. It will be my biggest hug ever."
He does just that as she looks down at his small frame and rubs his arm. Erina and Taichi stayed that way for awhile.