Heyo the everybody, ~nyah.

Hikari the here returning with a the new chapter of the Shadows of the Night after a the long break, ~nyah.

Now, while the you readers enjoy the chapter, the Riku and I are working on more the writing, ~nyah.

Chapter 22

Sora, Yata, and Riku had gone around the arcade several times. They went to various games and tried their hardest to get the best scores they could. Even for just a single player game they would have a friendly competition with each other to see how each would fare in the game. Sometimes it got a bit more challenging than others, but overall they still had a good time.

Time had slipped away from them and before they knew it, it was around the time for dinner. When they realized this, they finally took a moment to see that Saruhiko had still not rejoined them.

"He still isn't back? Is he seriously still taking a nap?" Yata asked.

"I wouldn't put it past him," Riku replied.

Yata raised an eyebrow, but didn't bother to question it. "You think he is still back by the dance machines?"

"Let's stop thinking about it and just go find out!" Sora interjected.

The three of them made their way back across the arcade. While they walked, they kept their eyes open to the other games, just in case Saruhiko had woken up. When they got back to the dance machine, they found Saruhiko still laying on the floor.

He had moved slightly from where he was left, now facedown with his head resting on his arms as he lied along the wall.

"So how are we going to wake him?" Yata asked.

He stared closely at Saruhiko sleeping. It was strange to see him look so calm and peaceful compared to his usually annoyed look. It almost made him look and maybe even cute.

Yaya quickly shook his head. He pushed those thoughts away as fast as he thought of them. He could only hope that his cheeks hadn't reddened. If Sora saw that, he'd never hear the end of it.

Riku had now moved forward. He leaned over as if to shake Saru awake, but he instead picked him up and slung him over his shoulder. Sora and Yata stared with wide eyes. Neither of them expected Riku to just pick him up.

"I guess you've done that before?" Yata asked, actually curious for the answer.

Riku nodded, a sly grin on his face. "No point in trying to wake the little baby brother. That way he won't get to complain about where we eat. He'll be stuck with whatever we choose."

"But where are we going to go?" Sora asked. "What are your tastes in food?"

Riku thought for a moment. He never really had any particular favorite food. It was something that he never gave much thought to. He only ate real food from time to time if he felt like it, as it wasn't a necessity for him to survive. It never had a strong enough taste for him to really enjoy any of it. But he couldn't let them know that. He wasn't ready to give something like that away. Not with them being friends with the one they almost killed over a month ago. Though he didn't know if the boy had survived or not, there was no way he could casually get into a conversation to bring it up.

"I don't know," Riku answered as casually as he could. "I guess I could go for anything. What about you guys?"

"Hmm, I know there are some good restaurants in the area. But I think the closest from here is the Fischerhaus & Bar," Sora replied.

Riku turned to focus on Sora fully. "Fischerhaus? The german restaurant?"

Sora nodded. "Yeah, you've been there before? I think I went once or twice before when I was young. And I think I remember that it was pretty good." Sors then looked over to Yata. "How about you, Yata?"

"Huh? Oh uh… I guess?" Yata replied, only half paying attention to what was being said. "I don't know if I've been there before."

"Then how about we go there? Sound good?" Sora asked as he looked back and forth between Riku and Yata.

Yata shrugged. "Sure. As long as we eat I'm good."

Riku didn't answer right away. A few thoughts circled in his head, but he was quick to brush them off. He wasn't wanting to think about it too hard anyways. The focus was having dinner and that was it, nothing else to it.

Riku cleared his throat when he saw Sora was looking at him for a reply. "Yeah, we can go there."

"Woo!" Sora exclaimed. "Let's go get some food."

The three of them left the arcade, with Riku still carrying Saruhiko over his shoulder. No one seemed to bat an eye as they left the building. Yata and Sora could only assume that something like that must have happened before so it wasn't too out of the ordinary.

How it looked still was odd. Odd in a way Sora and Yata couldn't quite explain. Maybe it was because how much taller Saruhiko was to Riku. Or maybe how casual and calm Riku was about carrying his younger brother. Maybe even a bit of both. Either way it was hard for them to take their eyes off of Riku while walking beside him.

The walk down the street made it even more strange. Now that they were out in the public eye, people did turn heads. Thankfully the walk to the restaurant was not far, and the awkward walk beside Riku carrying Saruhiko would be over after that.

Upon arriving at the restaurant, Sora ran ahead of the group and opened the door. As Riku passed through Sora glanced to him. "Is he still not awake yet?"

Riku shook his head before letting out a sigh. It gave the indication that he was already tired or possible annoyed at his little brother for snoozing through the walk. "Nope, but I really hope he'll wake back up soon. But knowing him it's a low chance."

"You're really going to let him keep sleeping?" Yata followed with the question after he walked through the door behind Riku.

"It's better than trying to abruptly wake him. Trust me… we don't want to cause any scene…" Riku replied. Though under his breath he muttered something far too quiet for the other two to hear. "At least there won't be any knife throwing if I did try… or at least I would hope."

The three of them walked up to the front desk where a hostess was waiting. She gave a friendly smile to the group, not even batting an eye towards the sleeping Saruhiko. "Table for four?"

After nodding to her, the hostess picked up four menus and started to walk into the main area of the restaurant. Following behind her they walked in silence until they were brought to a booth. The booth was the kind that was tall, so when someone sat down, the cushioning on the backside rose above their heads. Once the hostess placed down the menus, she informed them that their waitress would be with them shortly.

Riku placed Saruhiko in first, resting him gently against the wall. The sleeping boy, with the still tranquil and peaceful expression, continued resting quietly, still undisturbed from anything. Riku took his seat right next to him and began to look over the menu. Yata slide in first on the other side of the table, now sitting across from Saruhiko, and with Sora on his left.

Now that they were seated at the table, the three of them started to look over the menu. Saru still did not wake from his slumber, causing Riku to stare at him more than at the menu. Finally Riku sighed and placed it down and leaned back.

"I guess it's about time he woke up," Riku said.

He then gently nudged Saru in his side. Knowing Saru was hard to wake up, but difficult to deal with if abruptly woken, Riku decided to take the slow easy approach. The only response that Saru gave was to shift positions so that he now had his head resting in his arms on the table.

Riku sighed quietly, but he wasn't ready to give up that easily. That wasn't what he wanted to do at all. He was supposed to keep an eye on Saru, and while having him sleep made it easier, it in return came off as rude and embarrassing in public. Despite still feeling wary and uncertain around Sora, the last thing Riku wanted right now was to be embarrassed in front of him. Going to try again, this time he held onto Saru's shoulder and shook him lightly. This time he gave more of a response, Saru used the arm nearest to Riku to swat at him in a motion similar to as if he were throwing something that wasn't there.

Riku leaned back and gave another sigh. "I don't think waking right now is going to happen."

"Why don't you try shaking him harder or something?" Sora asked. "That's what Vani does sometimes when he tries to wake me up."

"Because Saru doesn't respond well to being rudely awoken," Riku responded. "Trust me I know from experience."

Yata grumbled before crossing his arms. "Well we can't just let him sleep the entire time. Even if it is rude to him, he's gotta wake up already. And if you aren't going to do it, someone should."

Before Riku could reponse, a knife embedded itself a mear inch from Yata's head, Immediately after, Sora and Yata saw that Riku was gripping Saru's wrist tightly. But neither of the boys could find the proper response. It all had happened far too fast for them to even process. But Yata kept glancing back to the knife, and then Saru. He could feel his heart was racing from the sheer fact that no matter how hard he thought, he couldn't understand what had just happened.

Saru still had his head resting on his arms, but was now looking up slightly at Yata, glaring with a pissed off expression so hard, that if looks could kill, Yata would be a pile of ash already.

"Wh-What… the hell?" Yata finally managed to say.

"You kicked me," Saru grumbled out.

"Yeah, and?" Yata asked. "You threw a knife at me!"

"Can you not shout," Riku interrupted before Saru could answer. "I am not about to let this become a big scene."

"But he threw a knife at me!"

"And he is going to apologize for that, right Saru?" Riku asked as he turned to look at his brother. He still had his grip on Saru's wrist and continued to hold onto it.

"You're making me apologize for defending myself after having been attacked." Saru stated with a deadpan.

"Both of you apologize then. Despite being kicked you should not have thrown the knife," Riku said, keeping a strict tone to his voice. He then turned his attention to Yata. "And I warned you that waking Saru rudely doesn't end well."

Yata locked eyes with Saru instead of looking to Riku. Both the boys were glaring deeply at one another. Riku and Sora could already feel the slight tension starting to fill the area from the two of them. But neither one of them made any move or attempt to go at each other. They remained in their seats, but their thoughts and actions were seen to each other by the looks in their eyes.

Finally Yata scoffed. He crossed his arms and leaned back, turning his head away from Saru. "Fine. Whatever. Sorry. It's a stupid thing to get in a fight for anyways."

"Tsk." Saru picked up his head slightly before speaking. "Sorry for chucking silverware at your head." He then turns to face Riku. "Happy now brother? I would like to get back to my nap."

Riku gave one last serious stare to Saru before letting go of his wrist. "Yes, but you aren't going back to sleep yet. We're going to eat dinner and you aren't sleeping through that."

Saruhiko just gave him a half hearted glare in response before putting his head back down on his arms.

"Saru, you can sleep later, right now you need to-" Riku started to say, but he stopped when he saw a waitress approach their table.

"Guten Abend. Welcome to the Fischerhaus. Can I start you boys off with anything to drink?" She spoke with a heavy German accent, which made sense considering where the group was dining.

"Uh yeah," Sora said, finally speaking up after seeing that everything had calmed down at their table. "I'll have some lemonade."

"Just a water for me," Riku answered.

"Coke please," Yata said.

Saru lifted his head up slightly and faced the waitress. "Coke, no ice." He then put his head back down.

The waitress nodded as she wrote everything down. "Okay, I'll be back with your drinks shortly."

Once she was gone, Yata looked at Saru. "Seriously? How can you be that tired?"

With a sigh, Saru shifted so that he was looking at Yata while still having his head down on his arms. "Lovestruck here," Saru emphasized this by jerking his head towards Riku, "decided to wake me up extra early cause he was excited for this double date."

Riku narrowed his eyes. "Shut up Saru."

Sora blinked. "Double date?"

"You asked to meet up at the arcade, and now we're here at dinner, while not a stereotypical movie and dinner date, it's sure as hell close."

"It's what Zack kept calling it anyways," Riku said, adding on quickly after Saru.

"So wait, you guys think of it as a date?" Sora asked. He tilted his head to the side as he started to think about the possibility of it being classified as a date.

"No!" Riku answered a little too quickly than he should of. "I mean, we've only just properly met each other today. Jumping right to that seems a bit out there, don't you think?"

"I only showed up because of the arcade." Saru gave his two cents before facing down again to nap, mumbling a bit more of his thoughts aloud. "And cause Misaki's entertaining."

"Huh?" Yata's eyes widened slightly. Neither he, nor anyone of the others expected that response from Saruhiko. Yata wasn't sure if it was meant to offend him or some how compliment him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"What do you think it means, eh Mi~sa~ki~?" Saruhiko looked up at Yata as he taunted in a sing-song voice.

Yata gritted his teeth. What he thought could have been a complaint, now was gone. All there was in Saruhiko's expression was a taunting annoyance. Though Yata still could not look away from the sly smile across Saruhiko's face. Something about him ticked him off to no end, yet he couldn't stop staring.

"Just shut up," Yata grumbled.

Riku watched the two of them, now locked in a deep stare. He thought about figuring out something to stop whatever could start, but nothing ever went further than the two of them glaring at each other.

With a deep sigh he leaned back against the cushioned booth and looked back to Sora. He also had been staring at Yata and Saru, and seemed just as confused by their actions. It was something neither of them could explain.

Though between the two of them, Sora had a pretty good idea what it could have been about. But he wanted to save it for later, if he was correct about it anyways. Now was the time Sora wanted to focus on Riku. With Saruhiko and Yata just staring it out at one another, it felt like the perfect time to once again get to know more about Riku.

Hope that you the liked the chapter, ~nyah.

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See you the next week, either on the here or on Another Time; Another Life, ~nyah.