Hinyah~ Hikari here with this new chapter. It's time to finally finish up this 'double date'

Hope you enjoy.

Chapter 24

The boys soon went on to order desserts when their waitress returned. From the menu of strange sounding German desserts, they went with something called donauwelle, which was a slice of a sheet cake that contained with sour cherries, chocolate, and buttercream.

It not only looked great, but the smell of it provided enough as well. Along the way of eating Sora started to talk more… well more than he already had before. He started to talk about more general things, like events going on in the town or other things that excited him. Riku and Yata both gave as much input they could back to Sora, though Saruhiko mainly remained quiet. On the occasion he would add in his thoughts, but it usually ended up not being much besides a snarky comment.

Eventually the desert was finished and it came time to pay for the food. Though at first Sora insisted that he would pay for everyone, it did come down to splitting the checks; Sora with Yata and Riku with Saruhiko.

Now that it was taken care of they exited out of the restaurant. "It's getting late, I guess we should head back home," Riku said as he looked at the evening sky.

"Aw, I guess so," Sora replied. "But it was a lot of fun today!"

"And now we know that Sora is going to try and rearrange another tea party get together," Yata commented with a slight bit of snark.

"Hey! Tea parties are fun! But oooh we should totally do that now!" Sora said before grinning largely.

"You like… tea parties?" Riku asked before tilting his head to the side.

"Well not like the fancy ones where you gotta do all that ceremonial stuff. But just a casual gathering of friends and drinking tea."

"Now I wish I didn't say anything," Yata muttered quietly.

Sora laughed a little at Yata before looking to Riku once more. "So you guys think we could plan something again soon? Oh! I nearly forgot, maybe we should all exchange numbers. That way it would be easier to plan for next time."

"Why would I want the stupid moneky's number?" Yata asked before crossing his arms.

"Oh? Did Misaki not enjoy spending time with me?" Saru asked in a tauntingly sarcastic voice.

"First of all, stop calling me by that name!" Yat grumbled. "And… well…"

Sora tilted his head to Yata before nudging him slightly. "Aw you thought today was fun, right?

Yata's composer loosened up. "Yeah I guess. It was fun…"

"See? Everything is good!" Sora said before pulling out his phone.

The rest of them then pulled out their phones and showed each other their numbers. Saru added Sora's and Yata's numbers under the names 'Riku's future BF" and "Mi~Sa~Ki~'. Unfortunately Yata happened to glance over at Saruhiko's phone the moment he put in the name.

"Hey! What did I say about using that name?!" Yata shouted, glaring deeply at Saruhiko.

"What are you going to do to make me stop, Mi~Sa~Ki~?" Saru taunted while putting his phone away.

"Would you rather I start calling you Saru then?" Yata asked, keeping his stern glare, though it was clear he was getting more and more annoyed.

"Hmph. Unlike you, I actually go by my first name, and am not bothered by such a nickname regardless of my preference."

"But," Riku added into the conversation. "I thought you didn't like it when others call you by your nickname. Unless you changed you mind?" Riku raised an eyebrow slightly at his brother after the question.

"I would rather not be called by the nickname you address me with if it's not someone I'm close with."

"Then how about I just call you 'f*cking money'?" Yata replied, still clearing annoyed by the contact name choice.

"If you so wish to be rude, Mi~Sa~Ki~"

The two kept their eyes locked onto one another, but neither of them moved from the spot in which they stood. Riku and Sora quickly glanced to one another, both showing their concern and worry that something bad could start if they didn't do anything soon. Quickly Riku moved forward and put an arm around Saru and pulled him back.

"Okay, I think that is enough childish banter for one day," he said, easily pulling Saru back. "We should get going though."

"Which way do you guys have to head off? Maybe we can walk there together, as long as Saruhiko and Yata don't start of a fight of course," Sora replied with a laugh.

"We head off left at the park," Riku answered simply, not wanting to give away too much of where they lived.

"Hey, we usually head that way anyways. Though we head off more towards the residential area to the right instead. But that means we can still walk and talk some more.

"As long as these two decide to behave," Riku replied shooting a glare to Saru.

"Tsk."

Now that things were settled they began their walk towards the park. It was already late in the evening and the lights around the park were already lit up. The group walked mainly with only Sora talking, who had gotten back into talking about the fun tea parties he had had and how he started to have them.

"I know Anna loves tea parties as well, not so much Mikoto though," Sora said.

"Anna and Mikoto?" Riku asked.

"Some friends we know. Mikoto is a warlock who has been teaching Yata magic. Anna is a witch, and is his adopted daughter," Sora answered. "Maybe you guys could meet them sometime."

"Maybe," Riku shrugged. He wasn't too sure if meeting other supernaturals was a good idea, especially if he didn't know what their opinions on vampires were. Sora's werewolf brother already seemed suspicious of him, so the others could be just the same. It wasn't the biggest deal, but only a quick lingering thought in his head.

Sora continued to blaber on, occasionally prompting Riku and Yata for input. He did get Saruhiko to say something, but that one comment almost led to a fistfight with Yata. They eventually reached the park, crossing a low wooden bridge over a river, when Saru abruptly stopped.

RIku was the first to notice. "Huh? Something wrong, Saru?"

Without saying a word, Saru just vaulted the railing, landing in shallow water, before taking off down the river. Now everyone had stopped, staring at the scene they had just witnessed. Though out of all of them, Riku seemed the leased surprised or phased.

"What the hell is he doing?" Yata asked.

"Probably something only he would think to do," Riku commented.

"Should we follow after him?" Sora asked.

Riku nodded. "Yeah, just to make sure he isn't doing something competely stupid."

With that the three of them took to carefully going down the river bank, making sure not to slide into the water. They then proceeded down the way trying to find where Saruhiko was.

It wasn't long before they heard sounds of a scuffle: splashing water, squeaks, growls, a few grunts, and even a cry of pain. Yata and Sora glanced to one another with a mix of worry and confusion, though Riku seemed rather calm. By this point he had put the dots together and figured out the basis of what Saru probably ran off to do.

The three of them hurried up further down the river bank, keeping an eye out for Saruhiko. They all figured he couldn't be too much farther ahead of them given by the proximity of the sound.

Just a bit further down the river, the three of them finally saw Saruhiko. He was now drenched from head to toe; his hair plastered down, and his clothes clinging to his wet form. The lower half of Saru's left pant leg was shredded, and his leg bleeding quite a bit. Clutched to his chest with his right arm was a small dark bundle, that he was apparently trying to protect from the beast attacking him. Crouched a few feet from Saruhiko was a very large coyote that appeared to be starving.

Within moments, it lunged at Saru. Briefly, a faint blue wall of sorts that seemed to be made of hexagons appeared between the animal and his target, which the coyote collided into. It was then struck by a fireball that Saru flung through the now shattered barrier.

"Uh… What is even going on here…" Yata commented as he started at the scene.

"I figured it was something like this," Riku commented with a sigh.

"Wait! You 'figured' it was something like this? What do you mean by that?" Yata asked, turning to Riku slightly.

"It isn't the first time Saru stupidly put himself in danger to save an animal," Riku responded.

"Save an ani… what do you mean by-" Yata started to say, but then Riku pointed towards Saruhiko.

Yata looked and saw Riku was pointing at the dark bundle that Saruhiko had in his right arm. Though it was hard to see in the nighttime with barely any light aside from the moon, there was something clearly there that he was holding.

Before either Yata or Sora could ask or say anything further on the subject, Riku ran forward towards Saruhiko. The coyote had toppled down into the water after being hit with the fireball. Though when it stood back up there was plenty of fur that had been burnt and singed.

Not skipping a beat Riku casted a cura to his brother before sending out an icy blast of blizzard directly at the coyote's feet. The slow moving river water around it started to ice over and freeze on the surface, with the coyote's legs now stuck within the frozen water.

The coyote snarled and tried to break from its' icy hold, but the ice was far too thick. Riku now turned to Saru, giving him a deep and serious stare. "Let's get out of the river now. You have some explaining to do."

Saru gave no verbal acknowledgement, but climbed his way out of the river towards Sora and Yata. Those two had already headed out of the water and up back to dry land. When the brothers met back up Sora was the first to speak.

"That was so cool how you two fought off that coyote! Now I really want to learn some magic," Sora exclaimed happily. "But… what was it all for? I mean why did you run off like that Saruhiko?"

Shifting the bundle in his arms so that the others could see what he was holding, Saru revealed a very wet mass of fur that had a nose and four webbed feet. With the dim lighting from the moon, it was hard to see. There was that and the fact they had not gotten back onto the path so any pathlights were far from them.

Sora took out his phone and clicked the flashlight button and shined it towards Saruhiko. Now it was clear what he was holding, but it still proved to be surprising. "Is that a… baby otter?"

"Not even old enough to open its eyes." Saru muttered.

"What happened… to its family?" Yata asked slowly, keeping his eyes on the little baby animal.

Saru just gave Yata a deadpan stare. "Take a guess shortstack."

Yata lowered his head. "Oh… Yeah I see…"

"I know you were doing the right thing Saru, but you know what Zack is going to say if you bring that little guy home," Riku added as he looked at the little otter cuddled up against Saru's arm.

"Zack's rule is nothing large or dangerous." Saru said with a shrug. "This won't get as large as my false water will, and is about as dangerous as it looks."

Yata raised an eyebrow. "You have a cobra?"

"False water Cobra isn't actually a cobra, but I'm surprised that a brat like you even knew what animal I was referring to."

"Well I know some things about snakes!" Yata retorted. "Just… not too much about that one. But that's… that's cool that you have one of those."

"You two can talk about snakes another time. Right now we need to get you home before either that coyote breaks out or we draw up more unwanted attention," Riku said.

Saru just clicked his tongue at Riku before continuing to walk back towards the bridge/path.

"We'll be going now…" Riku said as he kept an eye on Saru. "Sorry for all of that, but… you know… that's just how he is sometimes."

He tried to say goodbye, but with the event that had just played through, he had no idea how he could do that. How would one even say goodbye so casually after fighting off a coyote to save a baby otter? There was no possible way so Riku just turned around and ran after Saru, though he did give a short wave to the two behind him. He hoped that it would be enough to pass as a goodbye. Though next time they met up… whenever that would be… he would be sure to explain himself properly for leaving so abruptly.

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Until next time, にゃ~ (Nyah~) :3