Yuki liked the autumn in Metal Bey City.
His favorite part was always the lovely breezes carrying the fallen leaves in all sorts of directions. It was so easy to stare at them and get lost in your thoughts.
"Dad?"
The young astronomer felt a light pat on his head and looked up with a smile.
"Yes, Tae?"
"Can you launch a beyblade into space?" The little boy on his shoulders asked curiously.
"Mmm…I think it would require a lot of strength and a powerful launcher." Yuki thought about it and gave him an honest answer. "Maybe I could ask some of the engineers at the WBBA if it's possible."
"That would be awesome!" Tae nods excited but then starts to think again. "...Dad?"
"Yes, Tae?"
"Is it nighttime where Mama is right now?" The boy's green eyes sparkled with curiosity.
"No, it's not." Yuki laughed softly. "Australia is only one hour ahead of us. She is probably getting ready to narrate today's tournament."
"Oh…" He mumbled in response. "...Dad?"
"Yes, Tae?"
"Why didn't they get the local beyblade DJ to narrate the tournament?" Tae asks in confusion. "You said it's a tradition for the world championships to do that."
"It is." Yuki nods. "But unfortunately, Mr. Joey was unavailable. Turns out his kangaroo had an appointment lined up the same day, so they needed someone else."
Tae giggled.
"And they picked Mama because she is the best beyblade DJ ever, right?!" He asks enthusiastically.
"Precisely." Yuki nods with a giggle. "I'm sorry we can't watch the tournament live together, but you can watch it with Kenta."
"Yup! Uncle Yu promised he would watch it with us and bring ice cream!" The little boy nods. "...Dad?"
"Yes, Tae?"
"Can we bake Mama a cake for when she comes back?" The boy put on his best puppy dog eyes as he asked. "She is gonna feel tired, so I wanna surprise her!"
"I think that's a wonderful idea." Yuki nods. "What type of cake do you think she would like?"
"Mmm…." Tae starts to think, but then gets the perfect idea. "A galaxy cake! With lots and lots of glitter!"
Yuki laughs again, he feels Tae leaning a bit too hard to the left out of excitement. So, he moves to balance him again and holds his ankles a bit tighter to keep him on his shoulders.
"You mean sprinkles, right?" The legendary blader of Mercury asks in a teasing tone.
"Nope!" Tae shakes his head and giggles. "Purple and blue glitter makes it look like a real galaxy!"
Yuki sighs.
"Absolutely not." He shakes his head tiredly. "Remember what I said about eating glitter?"
Tae pouts very loudly.
"Daaaad!" The little boy groans. "But what about a tiny bit of glitter?"
Yuki didn't say anything, which made Tae huff, so he grabbed something from his backpack.
"Pluto the Cat loves eating my special galaxy cakes!" The little boy dangles a purple cat plush in front of his dad's face. "Pleeeease!"
Yuki smirked and arched an eyebrow, gazing at the toy like he would gaze at a person.
"Does Mr. Pluto the Cat remember what happened the last time you gave someone a galaxy cupcake without disclosing the ingredients first?" He asked, making his five year-old son make a grumpy expression again.
"But grandpa Ryo was okay!" Tae argued as he sighed in annoyance. "His tummy just hurt because he ate too many cupcakes!"
Yuki winces for a second. He and Motti agreed that Tae did not need to be aware that Ryo actually ingested too much glitter and was taken to emergencies that day…
Yu also had plenty of cupcakes at the tea party, but he was fine. According to the gastroenterologist, Yu's intestines were actually accustomed to ingesting glitter years prior and he did not suffer nearly as close as Ryo.
….Still, Yuki refused to let that incident happen again.
"What if…I get you sprinkles of multiple colors?" The young astronomer offered a solution to his son. "I'm sure we can find dark purple and blue sprinkles at the supermarket."
"Mmm…" Tae started considering it. "Can we get star sprinkles too? Stars of many colors?"
"Sure we can." Yuki giggles. "Deal?"
"Deal!" The little boy kicked his feet, an obvious indication he wanted the piggyback ride to be over.
Yuki understood Tae's gestures right away and gently placed him down on the ground. However, he remained kneeled as he saw his son extending his pinky to him, clearly expecting him to solemnly swear they will get star-shaped sprinkles.
So, with a smile on his face, Yuki intertwined his pinky with Tae's and swore upon their agreement.
"Promise?" Tae asked to make sure his father was serious.
"I promise." The legendary blader nods. "Now let's go, we don't want to keep your uncle waiting, right?"
"Hehe, right!" Tae nods and excitedly jumps as he resumes their way.
Yuki couldn't help but to feel his heart warm up at the way the little five year-old boy giggled as he hopped on the sidewalk.
It was difficult not to love Tae's cheerful nature, it was something he adored about Motti after all…
Yuki laughed a little under his breath, remembering the many times his friends told him the different ways Tae takes after him. While it might be true that they shared a lot of things in common, it was impossible to see Tae's bright smile or his big green eyes and not immediately think about Motti.
"Meow!" The little boy squeals of joy as he jumps in a puddle.
Yuki laughed again.
That's just another thing Tae picked up from his mother.
Tae sprinted through the door of the B-Pit like he hadn't been there in months. He looked around for a bit until he noticed the green haired man descending the stairs.
"Uncle!" The little boy rushed to his side and tackled him with a hug.
Kenta almost fell from the impact, but he managed to keep the boxes he was holding in perfect balance.
"Oh, hey Tae." He smiled at the child and placed the boxes on the counter. "It's been a while."
Tae nodded and jumped excitedly, "Two weeks! Where did you go?! Did you train in a volcano?! Can Saggitario swim in lava?! Can you swim in lava?! I wanna know! I wanna know!"
"Hehe, I see Yu and Tithi told you about my training." Kenta giggled nervously at the child's energy. "I heard Mal babysat you while I tagged out. Did you two have fun?"
"Yup! She taught me how magnets can make a beyblade float!" Tae nods and continues jumping. "And we fed the duckies at the lake too! One bit me, but Miss Mal says they don't have teeth so it's okay! It didn't hurt!"
Kenta giggled under his breath, before he could ask the child something else, he noticed his friend opening the door of the B-Pit in a hurry.
"Tae, please don't run off like that!" It seemed as if Yuki was running out of breath for having to run after his son.
Tae giggled in response and held his dad's hand to drag him where Kenta was standing.
"Sorry, dad! But look, uncle Kenta is back!" The child kept jumping excitedly.
Yuki couldn't help but to smile at his son's joy, "I can see that. How was your training, Kenta?"
The green haired man smirked, "Heh, it was nothing I couldn't deal with. I was just glad to get out of the city and sleep under the stars."
"Did you fight strong bladers?!" Tae asks eagerly, not caring about Kenta's fondness of camping.
Kenta chuckled and pulled out something from his pocket, "As a matter of fact, I did. I reunited with an old friend and she gave me one heck of a battle."
Tae noticed how Kenta pulled out a picture from his pocket and showed it to them. In the picture, Tae could notice Kenta smiling next to a girl with dark brown hair and eyes, she was holding her beyblade with one hand and making a peace sign with the other.
"Oooh! She has a Phoenix! Just like grandpa Ryo!" The little boy pointed out.
"She looks familiar…" Yuki's eyes squinted for a second, trying to recognize the young woman in the picture.
Kenta smirks, "She should. It's Sala. Remember that time we went to Zarkan island?"
"Oh, is she the little girl we met back then?" Yuki remembered the earliest adventure he had with his friends.
"Yes. Sala has gotten so strong that I didn't stand a chance against her." Kenta nods as he puts the picture back in his pocket. "We battled at this tournament and-"
"Was the tournament inside a volcano?!" Tae asked excitedly.
"Tae, I don't think-"
"Actually it was." Kenta interrupted Yuki, making Tae gasp in surprise.
"Woah! That's so cool!" The little boy jumped.
"That sounds…Dangerous." Yuki tried to smile, but the absolute thrill in Tae's face made him feel uneasy. He knew his son, and he knew it was a bad idea to tell him it was possible to battle inside volcanoes.
…He is still recovering from the heart attack he almost got the day he took Tae to a camping trip. Yuki had been busy for a few minutes setting up the tent and next thing he knew, his son was riding on the back of a tiger and was asking him if they could adopt it.
"I wanna know what happened!" Tae grabbed Kenta's hand and started shaking, "Please tell me, uncle! Please!"
Kenta chuckled again, "I'll tell you after I'm done stocking these." He gestured at the boxes on the counter.
Tae sulked, his face went red and he crossed his arms. The little boy's gaze went to the floor, a clear tell he was upset.
Yuki giggled under his breath and caressed Tae's hair, trying to make him feel better. However, Kenta smirked and pulled out something he kept under the counter.
"In the meantime…You can open this," He walked over to Tae and gave him something enveloped in paper. "Tithi spent all morning making them and told me to bring you some."
The little boy stopped moping as soon as he saw the present and took it. When he unwrapped it, he gasped.
"Buñuelos!" His expression morphed into a bright smile as soon as he saw the sugar-covered pastry his uncle had gifted him. "Look, dad! Tío made me buñuelos!"
Yuki nods, grateful that Tae stopped brooding before it escalated into a full-on tantrum.
"They are your favorite, aren't they?" He asks, giggling at how his son starts jumping in excitement again.
"Yup!" Tae nods eagerly.
"Remember to thank him." Yuki kneels down to Tae's height. "I have to go now, I'll be back at seven, okay?"
The little boy nods, "Can we go to Bull Burger for dinner?! Uncle Benkei says he started adding toys in the Red Horn Meals! Can I have one, please?!" He asks, jumping a few times.
Yuki nods, "Of course! Remember to be good and call me if there is an emergency, alright?"
"Yup!" He nods and then points at his dad's face. "And you remember to not stay working late, alrighty?"
Yuki laughs under his breath, "I'll do my best, but I have to run a lot of tests to help a group of bladers, so it might take a while."
Once again, Tae pouted, but Yuki ruffled his hair in response. The astronomer knew his son hated it when he stayed late working, so he would try to promise he would come back early.
Although, sometimes he didn't get to stay true to his word. Last time he picked Tae up after midnight, the child was so upset he fought hard to stay awake and kept mumbling, "You are late again" despite being so sleepy.
"What happened this time? Did a powerful bey fall from the sky or something?" Kenta asks, trying to distract Tae from his moping. He knows the little boy might sulk a lot, but it's easy to stop him with a distraction.
Yuki notices what Kenta is doing and follows along, "Not really. But a few bladers were having a battle during a meteor shower, one meteor crashed into their stadium, and now they can't stop glowing."
"Glowing?" Kenta blinks, "Like…Glowing in the dark or is this a spirit energy thing?"
"Spirit energy." Yuki clarifies. "Although, one girl can't stop floating. So, I wonder what that is about."
"Woaaaah. She has magic powers!" Tae giggles.
"What kind of meteorite does that?" The green haired man looks pretty bewildered by what he just heard.
"That's what director Hasama wants me to find out." Yuki giggles at his friend's confusion.
Kenta sighs tiredly, "Man, poor Hikaru. This is like, what? The third chaotic group of kids she has to help this month? At least we were consistently chaotic with Gingka's dad."
Yuki nodded in agreement and stood up, "Well, I better take my leave now. Let me know if you two need anything."
"Will do," Kenta nods and goes back to stocking inventory, "See ya later, dude."
"Dad, wait!" Tae takes Yuki's sleeve and pulls it to stop him from leaving.
"Yes?" Yuki blinks in confusion, but he notices Tae opens his backpack and starts looking for something.
Finally, Tae takes something out of his bag and places it on his dad's hand.
"Here, I found these pretty shells and thought auntie Hika would like them!" The little boy explains, "I painted them many pretty blues to make her smile because last time I saw her, she was tired!"
Yuki smiles and nods, "I'll make sure she receives your gift."
"Promise?" Tae extends his pinky.
"I promise." The astronomer nods and intertwines his finger with his son's to seal their promise.
"Then I asked Mama why UnKing has a special nickname but uncle Masamune is just uncle?" Tae tells Kenta while sitting on the counter as the other stores away the contents of the boxes. "And Mama said it's because uncle came up with the nickname himself because he wanted UnKing to be special!"
Kenta laughed, he knew the actual reason and could tell Motti did not tell Tae the full story.
Masamune had come up with the nickname "UnKing" and taught it to Tae as a baby to tease King. Since it kinda sounds like he is being called a non-king or an unfit king, it was pretty funny for Masamune. At first, King hated it and tried to get Tae to call him "Uncle King." However, he gave up eventually and just let the toddler call him whatever he wanted.
….Then he found out Masamune had started it and got Tae to call him "Number 2" for a while in retribution.
"Yeah, Masamune sure loves to make King feel special." Kenta said with an absentminded smile as he continued with his duty.
"Yeah! Uncle Masamune gives him lots of nicknames!" Tae nods.
"Really? I haven't heard any." Kenta sounded intrigued, but he still didn't look away from his work.
"Yup! Uncle Yu said that Tío said that he once heard uncle Masamune call UnKing a baby gir-"
Okay, THAT made Kenta turn around.
"H-hey! Why don't I take a break so we can eat the sweet breads Tithi made?!" He laughs awkwardly.
Tae smiles brightly and re-opens the gift, "Remember, uncle. They are called buñuelos!"
"Yeah, yeah." Kenta giggles as he grabs one, "Hey, what's that?"
The green haired man notices something interesting about the paper Tithi used to wrap up the pastries. It looked familiar.
"Ooo! Look! It has drawings!" Tae brushed off the sugar off the paper. "Look, uncle!"
"Isn't that a sketch of Tithi's mural?" Kenta asked as he inspected the drawings, it had a lot of notes, color palettes, and measurements.
Despite continuing with his beyblade career, Tithi had also been pursuing another love of his, which was art, and had become quite the successful muralist. Just recently, Tithi had been commissioned to paint a mural at the local Metal Bey City aquarium and had been brainstorming ideas nonstop for the past few weeks.
Since Kenta had lived with Tithi and Yu for a while, he knew that Tithi always needed a sketch like this one to work on his murals, he believes they were called "references" or something.
"Wait, if Tithi used this to wrap the bread…What did he take to his-…Oh boy." Kenta winced.
"What is it, uncle?" Tae tilted his head to the side.
Kenta checked his phone and groaned, "Yeah…Just as I thought."
Tithi and Yu have been trying to call him for at least an hour. He would normally silence his phone at work to not get distracted, so he had no idea they were trying so hard to contact him.
"I guess we are going to the aquarium today." Kenta scratched the back of his head and sighed tiredly.
Tae jumped off the counter, "We are?! Yay! I wanna see the fishies!"
"Sure, we'll see them. But we need to give this to Tithi first, can you keep it safe for me?" Kenta asks as he hands the piece of paper to the little boy.
The child nods and puts it inside his backpack. However, he makes sure to take out his purple cat plush from his bag.
"We'll make sure to protect Tío's paper!" Tae raises his little fist up as he proclaims his mission. He also raises his toy's arm.
Kenta giggles in response, "Thanks, kiddo. I need to make a phone call first to let him know we are coming. You can go ahead of me to the bus stop-"
Tae blinks in confusion at first, but then gets visually excited at his uncle's command.
"I will!" The little boy runs to the exit before his uncle can finish speaking. "Bye bye, uncle!"
"-and wait for me there, okay?" Kenta says, unaware that the child already left because he was too busy calling Tithi. "Tae? Did you hear what I- Oh, hey Tithi! Yeah I just saw your messages."
Johannes hated the cold seasons of Metal Bey City with a burning passion. No matter how much time passed, he simply could not get used to this type of weather and missed the warmer days of his childhood.
If it wasn't because his friends acquaintances made this life slightly more tolerable, he would have hauled his ass out of this city years ago.
Seriously, they were supposed to be a modernized city and the stupid buses did not had the braincells to install a freaking heater.
"Want some?" Ryutaro's voice snaps him out of his cold misery and makes him turns his head.
He is offering him some gum.
"No," Johannes' voice sounded muffled because of his scarf, "I want to go home."
"Oh, don't sulk. It will be quick." The blue haired man puts the gum away as he rolls his eyes. "Besides, the beach is right next door. I thought you loved the beach!"
"I don't love it when it's freezing, you moron!" He hissed back.
Again, Ryutaro rolled his eyes.
"Johannes, it's barely like 16°C. Be for real."
"Fuck off!"
"Ugh, you sure know how to make your friends feel wanted."
After mumbling that, Ryutaro went back to looking out the window. As he expected, he felt Johannes' hand brushing his almost an entire minute after their bickering session. Feeling Johannes placing his hand on top of his own made him sigh and smile without turning his eyes away from the window.
Ryutaro is all too familiar with Johannes' outbursts, he has been dealing with them for years and they always end up like that. They don't hold hands, intertwine fingers, or grip on each other's hands, they prefer to simply touch to keep the other grounded.
For a second, everything felt perfectly relaxing.
However, soon Ryutaro started feeling something strange, like he was being watched.
Not watched in the sense of feeling a blader in hiding waiting to pounce out and challenging him into a battle, but more like…The feeling he gets whenever one of Johannes' cats is staring at him.
Feeling his friend's hand tense up, Ryuto snaps his gaze away from the window and looks at his side.
"What's wron-'' He didn't get to finish his question as he noticed Johannes was staring at something.
Well…More like someone.
There was a kid peeking at them from the seat in front of theirs.
…An unaccompanied kid.
This child seemed to be struggling to reach the end of the bus seat, so he was truly small, couldn't be older than six years old or so Ryutaro thought. He was very short, had dark brown hair, and light green eyes hidden behind a small pair of oval-shaped spectacles.
Finding such a young child alone in a bus surely is a bit disturbing, sure, but Ryutaro couldn't understand why Johannes was so tense.
…Did he know this kid?
"Uh…Hi." Ryutaro mumbled, seeing how the child wouldn't stop staring at them. "Why are you staring at me so much?"
He wasn't used to dealing with children, so he didn't exactly know how to approach this situation. So, Ryutaro opted for being direct.
The child's light green eyes blinked for a second.
"Your mouth is purple." He pointed out Ryutaro's lipstick with a smile.
Now he is the one who blinks.
"...Oh…Yes, it is." Ryutaro found himself unsure of how to address that statement. "...Does it bother you?"
"Nope!" The child almost squeaks. "I like that purple! It's the same color uncle Jack uses to paint his mouth too!"
He blinks again, but this time his face relaxes into a smile.
"Well, your uncle has good taste in colors." He chuckles silently.
The child giggles and nods, "Yeah he loves colors! But I think purple is his favorite color because he always wears it. Thou one time, I saw he painted his mouth a very very dark green, so I guess he also likes green too!"
Ryutaro nodded, slightly amused by what this child had been telling him. However, it seems as if the kid turned his head to the person sitting next to him and blinked in confusion for a quick second.
"What color is your mouth, mister?" The brunette child points at Johannes, who tenses up even more and muffles against his scarf.
Ryutaro has no idea why Johannes is so scared of this child, but he finds it amusing. So, he smirks.
"Oh, this guy is all natural, kid." He teases his friend, even waves his closed paper fan as he says it to exaggerate his statement. "He only lets people give him a makeover like once in a blue moon."
He feels Johannes elbowing him on the shoulder after saying that.
"What? It's true!" The young psychic giggles at his friend's nervousness, but then gets close to the kid and whispers, "On his last birthday, our friend Tobio took him to get their nails done and Johannes came back with a cheetah print design on his nails."
"It was a lynx print, you jerk!" Johannes hissed at his companion.
The kid's eyes went wide with wonder.
"Lynxes are awesome!" The kid opens his backpack and pulls out a bunch of papers. "Look! Look! I made this one last night because I saw a bobcat sitting on my window! Did you know bobcats are a type of lynx that don't get big? But Mama told me that it doesn't matter how much they grow! They are still awesome!"
Without any hesitation, the child gave Ryutaro the papers he had in his bag. He decided to be courteous and take a look at the scribbles the child had made.
They weren't the greatest thing out there, just drawings of a cat. It was easy to tell they were made by a small child, but you could tell he made an effort to color inside the lines. So, he was clearly dedicated to his craft.
He noticed a word at the left upper corner of each paper.
"Tae?...That's your name?" Ryutaro asked curiously.
"Yup! That's me!" The child with green eyes grinned and nodded. Then, he went back to his backpack and pulled something out.
It was a purple cat plush.
"And this is Pluto the Cat!" He introduced his toy with eagerness. "He is my favorite friend in the whole world!"
Did he just said…Huh?
Ryutaro felt Johannes flinching again, but this time, he was also quite shocked since he know the….relation Johannes had with that name.
Well, that is an….Interesting coincidence.
Ryutaro does his best to not look surprised by the toy's name, and places his hand on top of Johannes' to calm him down.
"That's…A lovely name." Ryutaro nods awkwardly. "Very creative."
"Thanks!" Tae giggles as he moves around the toy, as if he was making him talk too. "I named him that because that's the name of my favorite planet!"
"Your favorite planet, huh?" He almost sighs in relief as he receives an explanation about the name, "That is quite the choice, I must admit."
Tae giggles again and nods, "Yup! I had a hard time picking it because I didn't want to play favorites and make my dad or my uncles feel sad…So I picked Pluto to keep things fair, but then I started liking it a lot!"
"Really? Why?" Ryuto wasn't sure as to why he was keeping this conversation going, but it was nice to have someone to talk to when Johannes is being a grump.
"Mmmm….Mostly because even though it's tiny and many people bully it saying it's not a planet, Pluto managed to float so much farther than the other planets! And that's very brave!" Tae explains, "And I wanted Pluto the Cat to be brave too because he is joining me in lots and lots of tough adventures!"
"Adventures?" Ryutaro asked in amusement, arching an eyebrow. "What type of adventures?"
"Like the one we are having now! Our mission is to go to the aquarium and bring really important papers to my Tío!" Tae makes Pluto the Cat pat his backpack. "It's like, super important and uncle sent me to deliver them!"
Ryutaro blinks.
Tío?...
Oh, wait. That means "uncle" in Spanish if Ryutaro can remember correctly.
…This kid seems to have a lot of uncles.
"So, your uncle sent you to the aquarium all by yourself?" He asks, not quite believing it.
"Uh-huh!" Tae nods, he seems so excited that his eyes are sparkling."He said I could go to the bus stop ahead of him!"
"...Uh…It kinda sounds like he wanted you to wait for him at the bus stop." Ryutaro couldn't help but to wince for a second as he put what Tae had said together.
The little boy blinks and then looks down.
"...Oh." He mumbled and hugged his cat plush. "I think that makes sense."
Ryutaro noticed how Tae started to look embarrassed.
"Uncle Kenta must be scared that I ran off…"
The young psychic is taken aback, Did he say "uncle Kenta"?
Kenta….As in Kenta Yumiya?
Did this kid belong to someone in Gingka's friend group? Is that why Johannes is acting so weird?
"And he is gonna tell Dad and he will be scared too…" The child's voice started to quiver, his cheeks got red and his eyes become teary. "And we won't get to see Mama at today's battle…."
Both Ryutaro and Johannes flinched. It was obvious the little boy was about to cry because of how hard the realization hit him.
Before it could get out of control and cause a scene on the bus, the blue-haired blader reached forward and gently started patting the child's head.
"There, there." He tried to smile, unsure of how to calm such a small kid. "W-we can make you company until your uncle finds you! We were actually heading to the aquarium too! Our roommate, Tetsuya, works there and he forgot his lunch, so…You know. We can…Share our adventures at the aquarium, I guess."
As he sobers up, Ryutaro starts noticing how awkward he is sounding. He just doesn't know what to say to help this kid feel better.
To his surprise, Tae seemed shocked upon his suggestion. His big green eyes staring at him in wide curiosity as the tears stop making themselves noticeable.
"Really?" The little boy asked, looking flabbergasted.
"Y-yeah! We can hang out with you, right Johannes?!" He asked nervously, he even elbowed his friend.
Johannes let out a sound that was a nearly perfect imitation of an agonizing cat.
Okay, jokes aside, Ryutaro felt concerned for him.
However, Tae ended up giggling almost an entire minute later. Maybe he was done processing Ryutaro's offer or he simply laughed at how weird Johannes was acting.
"Hehe, meow! Thanks!" The little boy quips, his smile wide as can be.
That….That sounded a lot like…
Wait.
Those green eyes…That smile…
He can see the similarities now…
Ryutaro remembered a certain girl…A girl he didn't exactly know, but had seen on tv narrating beyblade battles hundreds of times.
…He remembers how Johannes would walk away from the tv whenever it showed her face.
Ryutaro side-eyed Johannes, basically searching for an answer in his reaction and…Well, the way Johannes went as pale as if he had seen a ghost told him pretty much everything he needed to know.
The young psychic felt a tug on his sleeve. He turned his gaze and noticed that Tae was staring with a look of confusion.
"Sir, I think mister really needs to go potty." The child suggested while pointing at a very uncomfortable-looking Johannes.
Ryutaro just barely managed to avoid snorting at his words, "H-he's fine, kid! Don't worry!"
"He doesn't look okay." Tae was unconvinced. "Here, mister. You can hold Pluto the Cat, it always helps me feel better!"
Johannes looked like he was about to die, and having his possible nephew shoving a purple toy with THAT name did not help in any way. He just took the cat plush and held it in the air, trying to look away from the toy's face and Tae's curious eyes.
Ryutaro needed to laugh, he desperately needed to. But he knows he can't or he will cause a huge scene on this bus.
"Hey…Johannes." Ryutaro manages to whisper. "What if you take Tetsuya's lunch? I doubt Tae is looking for someone at the aquatic vet premises anyways."
"Y-yeah sure." To his surprise, Johannes whispered back.
Tae was about to ask what they were talking about, Ryutaro could tell, so he swiftly thought of a plan to distract the child easily.
"Hey! You said your uncle's name is Kenta, right?" He asked and the little boy nodded. "Could it be you are referring to the legendary blader: Kenta Yumiya?"
Tae's smile went wide and he nodded vigorously again, "Yup! That's uncle Kenta! You know him?"
"I sure do! I met him years ago when we were kids!" Ryutaro answered in an overly happy tone.
"Woah! Really?!" Tae gasped. "How did you meet?! Did you have a battle?! Are you a blader?! Are you strong?! Tell me! Tell me!"
Well, his distraction seems to have worked. Tae was so excited to hear Ryutaro's story that he had completely lifted the mood again.
…..He should congratulate Johannes later, he had one adorable nephew.
Meanwhile, Kenta was running through the streets of Metal Bey City as fast as his tired body would allow him.
"Yuki is gonna kill me! Yuki is gonna kill me!" He whispered over and over as he ran.
How had he been so irresponsible?! He knew he should NEVER keep his eyes off Tae like that, his nephew was known for climbing the curtains as soon as he learned to crawl!
He already called Tithi in a panic and warned him that Tae will be wandering around the aquarium, but he won't calm down until he makes it there and makes sure the boy is okay-wait!
Kenta stopped in his tracks, his eyes wide open for a second, "Wait a minute, ugh! I forgot I can teleport!"
He literally JUST made a journey to polish all the abilities Ryuuga passed on to him and he just FORGOT?!
"Ugh, I need to take a break from everything…" He mumbled before manifesting a red lightning bolt.