*Hikari walks into room wearing pjs with towel over shoulders while carrying the giant Tally Squishmallo in arms.*
*Yawns* "Well, idk where Riku is, but half-asleep kitty here to bring you the next chapter."
*goes to walk across room, but trips on Riku, who's just passed out on floor from last chapter. Hikari falls face-first on Tally, landing across Riku.*
*Muffled* "Oh, there you are." *turns to face readers* "You can go read the new chapter now. I need to sleep."
*Hikari proceeds to fall asleep where she fell*
Riku stares at Hikari. "Hmm well you her heard her, we hope you guys enjoy reading while Hikari sleeps."
Chapter 17
The next couple of days passed within the blink of an eye. And before anyone of the boys knew it, Friday had come. Riku sat in the kitchen as he stared up at the clock, seeing that it was half past eleven… in the morning. He had made sure to try to get to bed earlier the night before so he would be awake for the next day, but it still felt weird to be up at this hour. He rubbed his eyes one last time as he looked down the hallway to see Saru appoching.
"About time you finally got up," Riku replied.
Saru just yawned while flipping him off.
"Well sorry. I didn't think to ask Sora if we could meet up at a later time. Just didn't occur to me in the moment."
"No, it probably didn't cross your distracted brain that you should maybe ask to meet up later as you were apparently too enamored with the human talking to you instead." Saru retorted, heading into the kitchen to rummage around for a quick bite.
Riku's cheeks reddened slightly. "I wasn't enamored… just I guess… curious about him. I think he has more positive energy than Zack does."
"So he's a literal ball of sunshine. No wonder you're attracted to him, lunar boy." After fishing out an energy bar, he turned to face Riku. "Where's the sunscreen?" Questioned Saruhiko before unwrapping the bar and taking a bite.
Riku wanted to tell Saru to stop saying things about him being attracted to Sora, but over the past few days he had thought about it more. He couldn't explain it, but he did find himself curious and wanting to know more about Sora. Even though it had been a few days, he still couldn't get Sora's sweet smile out of his mind. He found himself… actually wanting to see Sora smile more. Something about it… warmed his heart. He still wasn't completely sure on his feelings, and he really didn't know how to explain it, but he knew it had to mean something.
"I guess it's true then about that saying? You know… opposites attract?" Riku replied. "And the sunscreen is on the table here."
Saruhiko didn't respond, just put the bar he was eating in his mouth, holding it there while he walked over to the table and began to apply sunscreen.
"I still can't believe that we are doing this. Going to meet two humans we barely know… all really because you were a bit rash that other night."
Responding with just a shrug, Saru finished up applying the magic sunscreen before tossing the bottle to Riku. Within a second he caught the bottle and placed it back down on the table, "I already applied the sunscreen… and as well took the awful potion." Riku gagged at remembering the bitter taste it had. "One day I really hope they can make it taste better… it would be so much easier that way."
"Let's just go already before I decide this wasn't worth the effort," Saruhiko scoffed
"All right," Riku said before standing up.
The two of them headed to the door and Riku slowly opening the door and letting the light stream in. He squinted for a moment, but his eyes adjusted and soon walked outside. Saru followed quietly behind him as they finally left the house and started to make their way towards the town. Soon enough they exited out of the forest area they had been walking through and came to the sidewalk. It took them only a moment to figure out which direction they were going to head to and they started on their walk once again.
"I know Zack got on you already for this, but please… try not to cause any scenes or problems," Riku said. "I would like to not end up getting banned from the arcade."
"I'm not an idiot." Saru snapped at his brother before mumbling out "and I actually like this arcade."
"Only making sure," Riku replied back as they continued down the street.
Eventually they turned down a few more streets until they arrived at the large building that housed the arcade. Riku glanced around to see if Sora and Yata were waiting outside, but he didn't see them anywhere. With a shrug he opened the door and headed inside. He immediately blinked a few times as he let his eyes adjust to the darker lit building of the arcade. Riku started to wonder where exactly the other two could be, but he ended up hearing a voice shout over the loud sounds of arcade games.
"Riku! Saru! Hey!"
Riku and Saru turned and saw Sora walking over, with Yata right behind him. Sora came right up to them and grinned. "So glad you guys made it!" He then looked over at Yata. "See? I told you they would come."
"Yeah whatever, I just said it was a possibility they may not decide to come," Yata replied as he crossed his arms.
"I would prefer it if you didn't use that nickname when addressing me." Saruhiko told Sora.
Sora tilted his head to the side slightly. "What? You mean I can't just say Saru?"
"No."
"Saru is only part of his name. It's actually Saruhiko," Riku began to explain. "And the only people who call him Saru are me, and our other two brothers. So you'll have to call him by his full name."
"It's a mouth full though," Yata commented bluntly, remembering that Riku had said it when he last encountered Saru.
"Not my fault. So deal with it." Saru turned and started walking farther into the arcade.
"And there he goes," Riku commented, not surprised by Saru walking away.
"I still don't understand how you deal with him as a brother," Yata commented.
"Hey!" Sora interjected. "Let's not talk about boring stuff like that. Let's get our arcade tokens and start having fun!"
The remaining three of them walked over to the front desk and looked over the deals for tokens. Since this was a newer arcade, there were no physical coins. All their tokens were put onto game cards that would be scanned at the machine. All of their tickets would also be digitally added to the card as well.
Though just before Sora handed the cashier the money to purchase a card and tokens, he noticed a display case just a few inches to the right. Inside were odd looking necklaces and wristwatches with the name of the arcade on them.
"What are these things?" Sora asked as he pointed to the case.
"These are new things the arcade is trying out. They work just like the cards, but are in the form of wrist watches and necklaces. To make it more fun for everyone," the cashier explained.
"Ooh! That sounds cool. Does it cost extra?" Sora inquired.
"Only a small extra fee," the cashier said as they brought out a sheet showing the prices for the items.
"Hmm I wanna get the necklace then instead of the card. It just seems fun," Sora said as the cashier brought out a necklace.
After Sora bought his necklace and got a certain amount of points Yata walked up to the desk. He glanced at the case and the items within it. "Might as well… I'll get a wristwatch. I will be easier to keep track of than a card."
Once his purchase was finished it was Riku's turn. He looked at the stuff for a moment before shrugging. He pulled out a card and handed it over to the cashier. "I'll just reload onto my old card."
"Aw come on, why not something fun like this?" Sora asked as he held up his new arcade necklace.
"Because don't really see the need to have it as a necklace or wrist watch? I'm fine with just a card," Riku said as he handed over the money to finish the transaction. "Besides I already have a card. I assume you guys did too, but chose to get something new."
"Yeah you're right. But I think it is still cool," Sora replied with a shrug. "Wait! What about Saru… I mean Saruhiko."
"He probably still has tokens left over on his card from the last time he came here," Riku explained as they left the counter and walked into the main area of the arcade.
"Let's go find him then!" Sora said as he decided to run off into the large room filled with arcade games.
Riku and Yata picked up their pace as they followed after Sora. They weaved between the rows of games, passing by all different types. From fighting games, to Pac-man, to various different types of wheel spins, and even an air hockey table. There was even more than that, but none of them focused on that at the moment as they looked for where Saru was.
"There he is," Riku called out, raising his voice slightly as the many arcade games made the building rather loud and noisy.
Saruhiko was at a six-sided, coin pusher game that rewards cards and chips that tumbled off the edge. He was on one of the bar stools at one of the stations, half sitting, half leaning, with one foot up on the ringed foot rest. He was almost completely focused on one of the many cards that precariously balanced on the edge with a chip weighing it down, keeping it from falling.
"Oh! So you like to play this game Saruhiko?" Sora asked as he and the others walked up to him.
"Better payout than most of the games." Saru answered without taking his eyes off the machine.
"Really?" Yata asked, scoffing slightly. "Always seems like a big waste to me."
"Tsk. An idiot like you wouldn't understand the best way to play this." After carefully shooting a few more coins from the launcher, the chain of effect caused quite a few coins along with the card Saru wanted and the chips that were originally keeping it from falling.
"Whatever," Yata replied as he rolled his eyes. "Still takes forever to even get a complete card set. Some of them are rarer than others, so I don't even bother."
Without giving a verbal response, Saru bent down to collect the one card and pulled out a bound stack of similar cards out of his pocket. After removing the top six cards, he then added the newest edition to his collection amongst them, fanning them out in one hand to show the others. Sora and Yata stared with wide eyes, while Riku just rolled his eyes, knowing already the amount of cards Saru had collected.
"Wow with a full set you get 2500 tickets! That's pretty awesome," Sora commented.
"I guess it is… pretty impressive. But it's just one set, the best prizes are far more than that," Yata added while crossing his arms.
"Don't underestimate Saru," Riku commented, knowing full what Saru was going to do next. "I suppose you could say he is a veteran of this style of game."
Grabbing the nearest bar-height side table, Saruhiko placed the stack of cards and spread them out on the table. Quickly organizing them into sets as well as adding the one he had in his hand, Saru had seven full sets as well as quite a few extra cards.
"What the hell?! How in the world did you ever get that many sets!" Yata exclaimed, completely caught off guard by the number that Saru had.
"Patience, skill, and Luck. None of which you apparently have." Saru retorted while putting his cards away.
Yata's eyes widened slightly, starting to fill with a little anger. He was about to take a step forward and say something when Sora stood in front of him. "Heeey, how about we all go find a game we can play together. Or something like that."
"Yeah, the coin game is fine, but I prefer other games. And there are some fun games we could play with each other, or against," Riku commented, looking around at the other games.
"Finish using up my drops first." Saruhiko responded, turing back to the station and picked up where he left off.
"What are we even going to go to then?" Yata asked, backing away from Saruhiko.
"Hmm well I do I wanna try to beat my high score on the Disney Crossy Roads, and that does have two player. And the normal version is right next to it. So essentially all four of us could play," Sora suggested.
"All right, I'm fine to start with that," Riku stated.
"I guess… that game isn't so bad, but there is always that high score that is nearly impossible to beat," Yata added in.
"Tsk." Saru just clicked his tongue as he collected everything that was in the little winnings bin and shoved them in his pockets.
"Let's go!" Sora shouted as he pumped his fists up in the air as he started to march over to the games he had mentioned.
"Is he always like this?" Riku asked Yata as they followed behind him.
"Pretty much," Yata laughed. "He can always find a way to keep a positive vibe."
Saruhiko silently followed the others, giving a brief glance back at the game he was leaving behind. The four of them soon came upon the two different versions of the game. Sora took his seat at the Disney version and looked over to Riku.
"You wanna play on my team?"
Before Riku could answer, Yata spoke up instead. "Why does it sound like you are trying to make a competition out of it?"
"Cause I am," Sora grinned. "Whichever team can get the farthest wins! Whether it is only one of the players or even both."
Riku looked at Sora before glancing to the other two. After a pause he focused back at Sora. "Are you sure that it would be safe to have those two on a team?" Riku asked jokingly as he pointed to Yata and Saru.
"I never agreed to play," Saru commented, shoving his hands into his pockets with a bored expression on his face.
"Aw, but I thought this could be a fun little game between all of us," Sora said pouting slightly.
Yata turned to look at Saruhiko, raising an eyebrow. "What gives? You think you would lose if we were teammates on this game? Or do you just suck at it?"
"Why should I waste my credits on this?" Saru retorted. "There's little payout for the amount that it costs."
Riku shook his head as he took his seat next to Sora, at the game. "No use trying to convince him. Saru is picky when it comes to games here."
"So what do you like to play?" Yata asked as he eyed Saruhiko. "There has to be more than just the coin shooter games."
"Tsk. Enjoyment of the game itself has little to do with what I'm willing to spend credits on playing."
"So you are stingy then?" Yata scoffed.
"And if I am? Unlike you, I have no desire to blow my money on an arcade version of a free to play phone game."
Riku turned to Sora. "Did Yata even hear what I said before?"
Sora shrugged. "Probably not. Let's just make sure they don't get out of hand."
Riku nodded as he leaned over to the other game. He took out his card and taps it on the play box once. "There Saru. Now will you play?"
Saru just sighed before sitting down at the game console.
"Hmph that answers that," Yata replied as he tapped his wristwatch to the game box to add in the second player.
Sora and Riku then tapped in on their own games and all of them got ready to start the game. Though Saruhiko and Yata could have started right away, they had to wait a moment as Sora picked the map he wanted since he was playing on the Disney version. He ended up picking the Mickey & Friends map and choose Donald as he character. Riku looked over the remaining characters and decided to just pick Mickey.
The four of them glanced between each other for a second before they went back to staring at the screens and began to hit the button to move their characters forward. The game was simple enough, just tap to move the character, but whomever was playing would have to time the taps forward carefully, so they wouldn't crash into anything.
Saruhiko had a bored expression on his face with a glint in his eyes as he focused on the blocky duck that was bouncing across traffic. He eventually put his elbow on the consol counter and started leaning on it. Yata looked just as bored, but still had at least a moderate level of concentration going into moving his little chicken character right behind Saruhiko's.
It didn't take long before Yata tapped too soon and an oncoming train flattened his poor little chicken. Yata had gotten up to nearly 40 for his game, much to his surprise. He huffed as he stood up and looked between the two games going on. Everyone else still seemed to be easily going along without any problems.
"How the heck can you guys all play this so well?" Yata asked. "I mean, I know this is Sora's favorite game pretty much, but how can you guys also play it so well?"
Riku gave a small shrug, as he tried not to pull away too much from concentrating. "It isn't all that hard at least."
Sora laughed. "Just you wait 'till we get past the hundreds. Then that is where it starts to get real tricky."
Riku is sitting next to a sleeping Hikari. "So arcades heh. This is kind of, sort of based off our own experiences to arcades. But we got more planned for it. So stay around for that next time!