A Day of Respite

Generation One

Chapter Five

A Day of Respite

At the triplex

The week flew by, filled with cramming, late night studying on River's family's side of the triplex. Fiona was more than happy to host Haruo for the afternoon and evening as both River and Haruo industriously studied for their provincial finals.

During the days, they headed to school armed with knowledge for River to ace her exams and Haruo to somehow manage to flounder through. In any case they felt relieved; provincials were nearly over and Haruo and River would have the rest of their lives together.

River felt relieved now that every thing was out in the open with her and Haruo. The relationship had been cemented into an official boyfriend/girlfriend status and it appeared as though there was an unspoken agreement that they were committed to each other as if eighteen years of being each other's best friend wasn't proof enough.

Her friend, Bebe, was one of the first she told and Bebe was surprised, "You mean he actually told you that he wanted to go out with you? I never thought he'd work up the courage to do so. That's so like totally rad.., River. So do you guys, like..." nudge "y'know...".

"What?!" River flushed; embarrassed, "No...I'd be grounded for life by my mom and Haruo's mom would kill him!" They both laughed. "I'm not some prude but I do prefer to wait at least until, y'know..."

"You think he will, soon? Or do you think he'll wait another eighteen years." Bebe asked.

"I hope not."

"You really are in love with him, River, aren't you?" Bebe asked, " you look glassy-eyed every time you talk about him."

River didn't deny it. She was indeed in love with Haruo. They had talked about travel, about the fact that they wanted to do the things that River wanted to do - painting landscapes in every corner of the world. Seeing new sights and enjoying every moment. And River smiled as she realized that she would be sharing these experiences with her best friend the one who'd been by her side for as long as she could remember.

When River and Haruo came home from school they immediately sat down at the kitchen table and did their cram-study session quietly with a minimal amount of fuss. Next exam was biology for River and English for Haruo. Haruo still studied that as he wanted nothing more than to at least have one subject he could ace.

After studying for several hours until their heads started to hurt, they grabbed Pepsi from the fridge got two glasses and several ice cubes and poured two glasses of Pepsi and went to sit on the chesterfield (couch for all you Americans). This was the last week of finals and they were two days into it. Tomorrow was Wednesday the eighth and they knew they had the subject matter down tight.

Haruo put his arm around River and looked at her, "I wish I'd told you sooner..." he trailed off as they looked out the bay window. "We could have had this earlier..."

"Well, I'm glad we did have the conversation...eventually." River told him. "At least we know where we stand as a couple. And it means that we'll be a couple when we travel." She gave him a naughty look that clearly projected what was on her mind. Only a blind man would fail to recognize it.

Haruo looked at her with deliberately exaggerated surprise, "Why...River, I didn't know you were interested like that?" And smirked irrepressibly which earned him a smack on the arm.

After the gauntlet of exams, they would be able to enjoy their freedom from scholastic endeavours. And Leisure Day was just around the corner. Everybody was on edge due to anticipation because of the impending holiday as students looked forward to being free of exams and adults were looking forward to a day off work.

That freedom of being able to enjoy the holiday was catalyst enough for them to have plowed through their study materials for their final exam and get it completely done.

River nestled into Haruo's arms. Was there any feeling more right than this? She couldn't remember exactly when her feelings towards Haruo had changed from a deep friendship to love but she knew it had and the simple act of his having his arm around her shoulders was enough to let her know that he felt the same way about her. And when he leaned in to cover her lips with his own in a tender kiss, everything was right in River's world.

Haruo felt the same way as he looked into River's green eyes; her eyelids partly closed, her mouth meeting his. Ever since he'd admitted his growing feelings for her; it had been reciprocated ten-fold by River whether it was at school where they held hands in the hall or a brush of her fingers on the back of his neck as she slipped by him to take her seat at the desk beside him and a smile for him when he looked up at her.

River's smile brightened the whole room and Haruo loved seeing her smile and the affirmation that they were an item was all that it took to see River smile more often.

Guys like Parker and Ethan were quick to notice that Haruo had done what they failed to do, which was treat River with a modicum of respect for her as a person and not as their next conquest or treat her like she should be glad to have them date her. With that, they had truly lost one of the truly beautiful young women; both inside and out. They would never have a chance to rectify that with River. And Haruo with a plan in mind intended to take River completely off the market entirely. He would not have Ethan or Parker try to make a play for River at all.

The Next Morning

It was apparent that Mayumi’s insistence to the builders on getting second hand appliances to outfit the house wasn’t the best idea in the world to be cost-effective as the other suites’ appliances were on the tail-end of their effective useful life and as such, caused enough headaches that in order for the others to be able to cook effectively, they had to come over to the Chikamori’s suite to cook their food which annoyed Mayumi to no end. Mayumi, being sure that they weren’t using their appliances effectively, complained vociferously to Yasunobu and Yasunobu pretty much shrugged his shoulders with the explanation that if the appliances weren’t working properly; that if Mayumi wasn’t going to get the builders to replace them under warranty then she had no reason to complain about the neighbours coming over and using their appliances.

It annoyed Mayumi immensely that Molly French would come over to Mayumi’s suite and utilize her stove just dressed in her nightie and Mayumi was rapidly growing aggravated to the point where she was about to blow.

Satoshi, on the other hand, was highly interested in Molly French to the point where he was enamoured of her attributes; her cooking skill and her propensity to enjoy partying, which fed into his own interests and he seemed to find that she had the same love for getting the most out of life. Yet, he hadn’t had the gumption to try to get to know Molly better. But evidently Fate (or the Watcher) was putting them in the same spot.

So it was a rather tentative Satoshi that went up to Molly and said, “Hello...” hoping that he wouldn’t get shot down in the attempt, after all, Satoshi was a long-haired scruffy looking mountain of an Asian man addicted to rock music as opposed to classical like his brother, rippling with muscles, no doubt unusual for someone of that ethnicity to be that muscular as he was. Satoshi, unlike his older brother, was a big man and had to be, in order to travel the locales that he had without being accosted by ne’er-do-well locals bent on depriving a traveller of his or her possessions and pecuniary resources. His size had obviously made those who would do such things think twice about their unorthodox methods of obtaining “income”.

Her response was a shy, “Hi, Satoshi...” with a small smile; Molly, in fact, was hoping that Satoshi would talk to her as she was greatly interested in him and what he had gone through. Satoshi was a man who went against the grain of Japanese society – instead of taking a job as a salaryman taking orders from his shacho after university, he’d gone and done what he wanted to do, which was travel the world. Being a mother, Molly had suitors run the other direction when they found out that she had a daughter and to have someone genuinely interested in her as well as her daughter was flattering. Molly had oft-regretted her choices in men in terms of making sure that she had a stable and suitable person to show Sandi the ropes on being a productive human being that would make their way in the world upon reaching young adulthood. But she hoped that her thoughts about Satoshi would reveal him to be the man that was worthy enough of helping her raise Sandi to maturity.

In any case, Satoshi having had a son with another woman had inured him to the trials of raising a child and he was more than interested in Molly enough so that raising an adopted daughter in addition to the biological son that he had brought into the world was no big deal-breaker. In fact he was willing to add one more family member to his little family if she was interested in him that way.

They hadn’t much time to talk about anything consequential as Molly had to go to work, but they did leave off with each other with the promise that they would talk further.

Hogan's Diner

Jared Frio was still working at the diner though his reputation had taken a major beating along with the rest of his body. And he was still the same asshole that he used to be but never around Yasunobu, Satoshi or any of the McIrish family or Molly French. Jared knew all too well that all it would take would be one word getting back to that kid and his next place of residence would be Pleasant Rest Cemetery because he was sure that kid wouldn't hesitate to beat him to death. He'd never fought a martial artist before.

"Still moping..." Marty Keaton grinned sadistically. He didn't like Jared in the least and thought that it was hysterically funny to see Jared get beaten up by a teenager. Marty in fact thought Jared deserved every punch he'd gotten that night and then some. Jared's shiner had faded but his was still having some headaches. If he hadn't blown smoke in the kid's dad's face, Jared wouldn't be suffering those concussion symptoms. Too bad.

"Fuck off, Keaton."

"Still haven't learned your lesson, have you?" Marty snickered, flexing his muscles. His fists were even larger than Jared's. "Size ain't everything, even a bean-head like you should know that."

"If I get my hands on..." Jared clenched his fists; gritting his teeth so hard Marty thought Jared would pop a molar.

Marty guffawed, his laugh echoing off the cement wall. of the alley adjoining the back of Hogan's with the hospital, " you try that again and he's gonna hit you so goddamned hard you're gonna ralph your intestines. You stupid squatch."

Well unfortunately for Jared, he had to admit that Marty Keaton was right in one regard, Jared would blow smoke but after that savage beating that the Kung fu Kid had administered to him, there was no way that Jared would go after Haruo or risk getting his face beaten to a bloody pulp. Perhaps the next time that little runt may very well put him into a coma and that wouldn't bode well for Jared's continued existence on this planet.

The ownership of Hogan's Diner had heard about the prizefight that had taken place just outside in their parking lot and had put Jared back on probation as punishment. For three months he had to keep his nose clean and not abuse the customers or they would fire him.

That was going to be a near impossibility as Jared's anti-social personality was deeply ingrained within his psyche. But Jared knew that if he wasn't going to find himself on pogey and looking for work, he would have to find some way to stifle his behaviour to an acceptable standard. So like it or not he would need to learn to play well with others if he wanted to keep his job. And there was a literal axe over his head.

The Chikamori triplex

Thursday morning was a serious annoyance for Satoshi since he had to unplug two toilets after they were clogged. Cursing out Mayumi, who was nowhere to be found, for buying things as cheaply as she could; the toilets were prone to clogging since the design of the passageway was inferior to the Kohler brand of excrement flushers. Mayumi had saddled him with a major headache as a result of her pecuniary stinginess that technically turned a savings into more of a cash outflow when just ponying up the dough for the more expensive unit would have resulted in a cost savings in terms of efficient use. Frustrations galore. It also meant that Satoshi was going to have to take a shower as a result of splash-overs of the contents in the bowl which was thoroughly disgusting to say the least. Satoshi being fluent in Japanese cursed out his sister-in-law vehemently including some very pungent descriptives. “Ijiwaru Abazure!” he groused as he exhorted the plunger to free up the clog in the flue.

By the time that he cleared up the first toilet, Mayumi had come down on the elevator in their suite. Of course, karma chose that very moment to make its presence known as Mayumi got squished between the two doors and struggling to free herself, she fell flat on her face.

Satoshi found it very hard to keep from heckling his evil sister-in-law but somehow succeeded. He chose to take the elevator and head upstairs to tackle the second toilet instead.

Yasunobu came down to see Mayumi and Bebe at the kitchen table.

“You could do better you know, Bebe...that worthless spawn of Satoshi will be a drain on your ambitions.” Mayumi stated as she sat there eating her piece of pizza. Bebe looked shocked at Mayumi; so shocked in fact that her apple pie sat untouched on the plate as she tried to decipher what Mayumi was getting at. She, like River, knew just exactly how she treated Haruo and she was hard-pressed not to feel sick to her stomach at the way that Mayumi was disparaging her own boyfriend. In the end, Bebe just put the matter to one side and ignored Mayumi’s ranting...passing it off as the irrational spouting of an abusive witch.

A cloudy morning; the skies pouring with rain; dawned over Sunset Valley. The mist shrouded the nearby hills and mountains with a blanket of mist. And the town center was silent in the earliest sign of lightening sky.

As soon as Haruo awoke, a nefarious plan was percolating in his head since he got up early enough and was able to depart quickly without being stopped by his parents, he could execute it without getting caught. He had this irresistable urge to go let all the frogs out of the Biology classroom. Normally he was a very quiet student only speaking up when spoken too and he was entirely too forgettable in the midst of the hustle of classmates who were more rambunctions and extroverted than he was. The best part of the being the introverted, quiet and forgettable classmate was, that no one would suspect him of being the one who pulled the prank on the school. He could get away with it and not have to worry about any repercussions. So...he hopped a taxi and headed down.

Luck was on his side as no-one saw him enter...

And he was able to get in, sneak down the hallway near the science lab, jimmy the door knob to gain entrance. It was at that point he heard whistling as the janitor rounded the corner of the hallway corridor down the hall; Haruo nearly jumping out of his skin as he heard the approaching footsteps. As the footsteps drew nearer he ducked under the solid lab table until the footsteps receded from his hearing. That was way too close.

He needed to get done what was needed to be done. So he undid the latch to the cage and pulled out one frog and put him on the floor of the lab. the croaks of his compatriots would make it so that the released cavalcade of croaking amphibians would join the one that was loose and accomplish his task for him. Now it was time to get his butt out of the school without being caught and identified by school authorities. He had gotten away with it scott-free. And that was a good feeling.

It was time to get out of Dodge. Too many villains had been caught by hanging around and gloating about their misdeeds.

Haruo was no villain, nor was he a gloating villian rubbing his hands comically with glee. He was just a teenager with a penchant for pulling off one single prank before he graduated from school and he'd accomplished his mission, now it was time to go home.

As it was, when the bell rang on Thursday the school staff came in to 55,000 croaking frogs which had all assembled in the principal's office and pandemonium ensued. Video monitors were checked however no trace of the culprit could be found. Needless to say, none of the students were willing to give up any potential names of the culprits even under threat of graduation being cancelled. It didn't work and the staff gave up trying to find out who let the frogs out. Croak...croak croak...

Thursday afternoon was the end of the week. Finals were over and the start of relaxation was to begin. The next day was the day before Leisure Day and everybody was on edge due to anticipation because of the impending holiday.

Haruo and River spent the rest of that afternoon...upstairs with Torao and Bebe who were finally admitting to each other that they were as close as everyone else thought they were. Finals were over and the rest of their lives were ahead of them. All there was left was becoming young adults and graduation. Bebe’s birthday was tomorrow. Haruo’s was two days after and River and Torao would soon follow. In fact, River found out from her mother that they weren’t exactly born on the same day though it was so close that it almost seemed like it. River had been born about two minutes after midnight on June 13th, and Haruo had been born at 11:58 on June 12th. So they were actually four minutes apart and on separate days, but it was so close that it almost seemed as though they were in lockstep with each other no matter what.

But right now, that wasn’t their focus. Both Haruo and River were eying Bebe and Torao with raised eyebrows. Haruo and River knew that the two were attracted to each other but they had constantly been acting like they were just friends. Yeah, sure and pigs would fly if they had wings...aerodynamically.

“Are you two going to admit to yourselves that you’re boyfriend and girlfriend?” River asked Torao.

“Oooh...I don’t know...” Torao mumbled to himself. Like his father, he’d always been a bit shy when it came to dealings with the other gender.

“Holy flarkin’ heck...” Haruo rolled his eyes as he looked over at River. “We’re going to be here all night waiting for them to come to the realization that they love each other too.” River snickered at that since her boyfriend wasn’t the quickest person in the world when it came to realizing how much he loved her. After all, what had it been? Eighteen years?

“River!” Bebe looked at her friend; aghast that her friend was forcing the issue with Torao’s relationship with Bebe. What’s good for one goose is good for another... evidently. Bebe thought as she realized that her dear friend River was doing the same thing she had done to River for the past five years, ever since they’d gotten into high-school.

River shook her head looked over at her boyfriend who had gone to sit down on his bed. She shrugged her shoulders and went over to join him on the bed stretching out as if they were watching a show on TV. “Well...I guess we have all night...” she said snidely. “I don’t have anywhere to go, do you?”

“Nope...nowhere that I know of.” Haruo responded, just as snidely.

Meanwhile, Torao had finally bucked up the courage to talk to Bebe about their relationship. “Do you know what I want?” Bebe asked him. “I’d like for you to tell me exactly what we plan to do with the years ahead.”

Torao looked at her with a deer-in-the-headlights look, “I...I... well...” he stammered.

Bebe was more than willing to wait, she had always been interested in Torao and he always seemed like a guy that would be more than willing to share his life with her. “I’ve always liked the idea of travelling too.” she shot a look at River with a not in the same locale. She knew that she wanted to take Torao somewhere out of his comfort zone.

“I like to travel too...y’know... my dad...he traveled so much...so I want to see a lot of the places he did too.”

“I like that idea.” Bebe brightened as she gazed at Torao, “I’ve always been interested in the tales of the things that your dad did and would love to see those places too.”

Haruo looked over at River, “You know what, I think we’re getting somewhere...”

Bebe and Torao ignored the barbed commentary and continued to talk amongst themselves, eventually culminating in a closer and closer almost-kiss.

River smirked at Haruo and said, "Yeah, maybe we can get them out of our room so that we can go to sleep...since we have things to do tomorrow..."

Haruo grinned at River, "Sounds like a plan..." Hey...you two wanna wrap things up and take it to your room? River and I were planning to go to the Festival tomorrow...and relax...and we need some sleep..." He and River managed to get Bebe and Torao to go hang out in Torao’s room next door.

When the door closed behind the two headed to the other room, River turned to Haruo and whispered, “our room.” she said with a sly look. Haruo’s mouth gaped open as he looked over at River...who was slowly removing her outer garb; then she looked at him...while dressed in sleepwear that left nothing to the imagination. “...our bed...” she said softly. “Since we’ll be travelling together...we might as well get used to sleeping together.”

“If my mom catches you in here...she’s going to have a cow.” Haruo said whispering.

“Then we’d better make sure that she doesn’t find out...” River said as she leaned in closer to Haruo...and then was pulled into an embrace and a lip-lock by him. Nothing more was said for a long while...as they slipped back the covers and made ready to go to sleep. There was no hanky-panky. They were too young for that. They had a future ahead that they had to build for themselves before they took that step.

“Hold me...” River whispered; needing Haruo’s closeness as they slept. She knew for a fact that from now on she wouldn’t sleep alone. She couldn’t...not after this. The close warmth of his body next to hers comforted her and she nestled in closer to him. “I love you...” she whispered softly snuggling together.

A barely audible, “I love you too...” softly fell on her eardrums as she fell asleep.

In the morning it was downpouring rain. Haruo and River needing to get a few more courses under their belts decided to home-school until they aged up to young adults, so thus in the morning braving the wet, they headed down to the city hall where they signed up for home-schooling and got their first homework that needed to be completed.

Haruo and River went to the food booths having been famished during their walk to the festival grounds. Haruo and River both got grasshopper pie to deal with their burgeoning hunger, a rather delicious delicacy of mint ice-cream, Oreo pie crust and a chocolate shaped like a grasshopper along with a mint gelatin icing; both of which were exceedingly delicious for Haruo and River. Haruo decided that for lunch he would try the pulled pork sandwich. River informed him that it was delicious as she’d tried it before and that he really should too.

After they ate, they tackled their homework together so that they could get it done for the next day where they would take it back down to the city-hall and get their new assignment for the following day.

After they had finished their homework, River had the idea to test the love tester again. She looked over at Haruo when the meter shot all the way up to the very top and set off the heart; their eyes met...while a small smile played about both their lips. “I guess...that’s pretty much that...” She smirked at him as they walked away towards the roller-skating rink. Haruo took that moment to put his arms around her and kiss her tenderly.

Bebe, having aged up to young adult, had managed to get a job in the education field as a playground monitor...considering that she had a few preparatory courses before she could deal with going to university for an education degree, had spent the morning reading a book on handiness and was now famished. She decided that she would come down to the fairgrounds and have herself a grasshopper pie to take some of the edge off her hunger.

River and Haruo spent the whole day at the fairground at Central Park taking advantage of all that the festival had to offer them, playing on the roller-skating rink for a long while. When they were done at the roller-skating rink, River and Haruo decided to head for the photo-booth tent to get a photo of themselves at the spring festival. It turned out nicely and each of them got a copy of the photo set in a nice frame. It was well worth the time to have the photo taken as it would be a nice memory down the road.

When it came down to it, they were in no hurry to get home from the festival. It was worth it to spend time away from the madhouse that was their home. With Mayumi blowing the top of her own head off like a nuclear explosion, it was safety to be away from her as much as possible. And, frankly, Bebe came to join them as they pulled out their fishing rods and decided to spend some time fishing. In fact it was nice to see that Bebe still found that they were fun to spend time with even though she had broken through the teen barrier to become a young adult with a life to live and a real job to earn money with. In fact. Two of their friends, Holly Alto and Noel Allan had become young adults along with Bebe. Holly was at the park as well even though they hadn’t talked with her as she was more Bebe’s friend than River’s. When it came time to go home, Bebe took the taxi as she explained, “I’ve got work tomorrow, so I’ll see you two back home...later...” she smirked at the both of them. Haruo and River decided that they would walk home together as they had a lot of things to talk about but they weren’t ready to go home yet and wanted to stay out a lot longer than they had originally planned.

Ultimately, River and Haruo managed to delay their return by going to watch a movie that River had wanted to see for some time, “Balloonists I Have Loved”. It was romantic schlock, but anything for River, Haruo thought, and proceeded to watch that said chick-flick, hopefully it wouldn’t rot his brain too badly. But then again, it didn’t seem to do that for River. Maybe it was just those of the male persuasion who ended up with brain decay when it came to girlie-flicks.

After the movie they headed over to Hogan’s which was very quiet as Jared Frio wasn’t there. He’d been chastised by the owners and his hours reduced after his confrontation and argument with Marty Keaton which had got back to the owners who promptly threatened to can him if he didn’t knock off with the aggression against his customers. So Haruo and River had a nice peaceful dinner.

The one thing that Haruo and River discussed on the way home was the option of Haruo taking one of the bedrooms on the McIrish's side of the triplex. River brought up the idea as her mother had discussed that option with her. He figured he didn't want to use that option right away but to have that option available should things get too untenable at home.

By the time they had discussed matters they were nearly home. Since it was late, again they wouldn't be able to cuddle on the chesterfield that night.

Somehow, they managed to evade Haruo’s mother heading up to what they called their room; Haruo kissing River passionately as they split up at the door resolving to utilize the door that led between Haruo’s room and River’s suite, leading her to whisper in his ear, "just you wait till we become young adults..." she purred and licked his lips with her tongue following that up with an impassioned kiss of her own.

In three days they would face graduation and the rest of their lives. As Haruo turned his footsteps towards his parent’s suite, he realized that his life wouldn't be complete without River. After all they'd spent the majority of their lives together already. Would it not be natural to spend the rest of their lives together as well? She was the light of his life and the logical progression of their relationship was to be the culmination of those years together.

It was a monumental decision. But he felt he was able to figure it out. Was he able to take the final step?

When he reached home and headed upstairs, he knew that he had to make that decision. His mother would try to marry him off to a woman of her choosing; a puppet from which she could continue to exert control over him. Did he want to continue to allow his mother to have those chains around his neck; to continue to pull the strings on everything that he would ever do in life? If he was ever going to get control this would be the time to do it.

He needed to make the decision. As any red-blooded male he loved his freedom to do what he wanted and go wherever he wanted with no checks and balances. But he rationalized that he wasn't going to be tied down with River. They were going to be together willingly; that he was to have the woman he loved be by his side for the rest of their lives; to support her and to stand side-by-side as equals. And his mother wouldn't be able to control River as she was too strong mentally to ever allow another person to manipulate her.

But would she be willing to tie her life to his, to spend their life together. With his mother being the type of person she was, any lesser woman than River would turn-tail and flee. But would River be able to have the strength and internal fortitude to willingly withstand the barrage of abuse from his mother after his mother realized that she would be unable to ever get her claws into him again? That very act of rebellion against his mother's wishes to control him would send his mother into a fit of narcissistic rage.

How dare he have any semblance of independent line of thought? How dare he attempt to break the shackles that Mayumi had spent nearly eighteen years meticulously and painstakingly placed on him? What right did he have to go against the plans she was intent on seeing through in order to make his life completely hers?

Well, if his mother thought that she could control him, she had another thing coming. He was not her slave and he would not be held to her edicts. He would go out in the morning and get what he needed to put his plan into motion. He did not want to give his mother the opportunity to thwart his plans.

Haruo slipped into his room, shut and locked the door; he slipped off his clothes and got under the covers of the bed. It was very much a cocoon of warmth around him. And he barely noticed that River had slipped into the room and had joined him in the bed. Her arms, her body and his pleasant thoughts surrounded him as he dropped off to sleep.

Morning, Chikamori triplex

Haruo's eyes opened at the crack of dawn. It was first light and peering at his fifteen simoleon wristwatch from The Savvy Simoleon store he grinned. It was five forty-five. If he could make it to the city hall, he could do what he needed to do; namely get his homework and get it done before the store opened where he could search for the thing that he wanted to get. After all any other place would be vastly way more expensive than what he could afford on a budget. Maybe he could replace it down the road when he could afford to if River hadn't grown attached to it as a memento. He got dressed quickly and slipped downstairs.

Molly French was in their kitchen as the kitchen next door as the Chikamori's side of the triplex seemed to have appliances that cooked straight through on the recipe timings that were quoted in the recipe books. Haruo put finger to lips as Molly was about to greet him pointing towards the ceiling to indicate Mayumi's presence upstairs and then towards the door as Molly nodded, smiling, as she noticed his attire and light summer weight jacket. After all his jacket indicated that he was slipping out to go somewhere that morning.Molly gave him a silent thumbs up to indicate that she understood what he meant.

And with those silent gesticulations he slipped out the door into the cool morning air. The store would be open around eight oh clock and it was already six-ten. There was a nice sweet scent to the morning air as he walked past some lilac bushes on his way down. He walked past the Bistro and down to his destination at the end of the block which he would go to after the store opened at nine in the morning. The store which he was about to patronize after getting his next assignment done for home-schooling was a retailer town which gave a lot of jobs to those from around Sunset Valley and the surrounding Lower Mainland. But first he had to go to the city-hall to get his assignment.

Making sure that he got to the city hall the second it opened to maximize the amount of time that he had to do his homework, he sat down in front of the city hall steps with his cousin, Torao who had gone with him to get his own homework, he started doing his homework.

It was at about the time that he’d had twelve percent of his homework done that he looked up upon feeling fingers brush across the back of his neck, “Good morning, honey...” he heard River say as she walked past him heading for the door of the city-hall. She was heading in to get her homework as well. Haruo didn’t want her to know what he was up to so he asked Torao to cover for him.

“Just tell River I needed to get something at the bookstore...” he fibbed. Torao grinned at him and nodded.

Walking into his destination, Haruo beelined for the department he was interested in. As usual there were no attendants; there never is. Finally he had to flag down a customer service person and ask if there was anyone available to help him. At least what they had to offer was in his price range; perhaps at the top of his price range but still within and that was the key. It would at least be a token of how much he loved her.

"Well we have a Simmabella 1/3 Carat T.W. Diamond 10 K White Gold HALO Engagement Ring for §698.00, would that fit your price range?"

"May I see it?"

She held it up and Haruo was able to admire the cluster of diamonds around the single stone and the smaller diamonds embedded in the silver band. Haruo would have preferred to get one that he felt River deserved but they were too far out of his price range. He most definitely could not afford anything in the four digit range let alone anything higher and he thought to himself. When I make enough, I'll get her the engagement ring that she truly deserved from the beginning.

"We have a good range of sizes, would you happen to know her size?"

"At one point she and I were talking about friendship rings and she let slip that her ring-size was 5 1/2." Haruo said. "But I'd rather go bigger and we can resize it to make it fit."

"She doesn't know; does she?" The customer service staff-member smiled.

"No, she doesn't" Haruo admitted, " we just recently got together as boyfriend/girlfriend so she's not expecting this." He explained further,"she and I have been close friends for about eighteen years."

The customer service-person nodded, "Well, sometimes the best relationships develop from the friendships you've had from childhood. So... would you like to buy that ring?"

"Most definitely." Haruo nodded. This ring would take a hefty chunk out of his savings but it certainly was worth every cent he spent as he was rung up for the purchase.

His introspection was interrupted by the customer service-person handing him the bag with a conspiratorial grin, a "good luck..." and a thumbs-up.

Haruo left the store with a smile on his face; his pockets §781.86 lighter and the knowledge that he was going to surprise River with what she probably figured was a few years away. Haruo knew he had the prize in River McIrish and he wasn't about to let her slip away.

Back at the triplex

In the meantime, Franz was trying to assist the local mail-lady to set an all-new unassisted world land-speed record. Of course by the time that his vocalizations got to the front gate of the house, it was quite certain that the mail lady had managed to get to the municipality border.

River was looking at an easel on her in a catalog to an art store wishing she knew where Haruo had gone. I really want this easel. She thought as she browsed the offerings from the ArtsPlus website offering art materials for lower cost than going to a brick and mortar.

She had the feeling that she needed to make that switch to painting in order to ensure that she had a good stream of money coming in in order to boost their savings. She smiled slightly. "Our savings?" She grinned looking up at the ceiling, "We're boyfriend and girlfriend, I might be jumping the gun here if I look at what we both earn as ours." It never hurt to look ahead but to just keep in mind that the future was always changing and nothing was for certain. All she knew was that her constant best friend in the world was now her boyfriend. And whatever came afterward would come.

Certainly she would love it if it came down to spending the rest of her life with Haruo. And he had a lot of upside to him; hardworking, quiet, an introvert like her, not prone to flamboyant displays of obvert masculinity except when needed, and he was tough. Shellacking the ever-lovin' shit out of VJ Alvi and Jared Frio. Of course they deserved every bit of those beatings. River was never a person who chose violence as a course of action but even she felt they'd stepped over the line and deserved the thorough pasting they got from Haruo.

She was wondering if she should just go ahead and buy the easel when her mother looked over her shoulder.

"You know you should really get that easel and those paints." Fiona commented by her left ear looking down at the catalog on River's lap as River's jaw dropped. The easel was not cheap. §300.00 out the window if her attempts were unsuccessful.

Fiona must have noticed as she squeezed her daughter gently in a hug and said,"I know you can, River, you've always had an artist's eye for things."...and River was reminded just how much her mother had always supported her aspirations...and how her boyfriend had never been supported in the way that she had been; emotionally. Everything that he had to do, he did without knowing if he would get targeted by his own mother for doing which created an air of uncertainty for the entirety of his life.

"I love you, Mom." River said as she made a list of what artist's supplies she would need. And on a few other items she wanted including an artist's palette, a complete set of artist's oils, watercolors and a set of artist's pens and pencil crayons. After all, might as well go for the gusto while she had her mother's permission. Maybe Haruo would like to go to the art store with her. But of course that would have to wait until he got back.

Little did she know that he had just turned at the corner of the street they lived on and would be walking from the corner.

Oak Grove Street

Haruo walked quickly down the street as he approached the triplex. He hoped to slip into his room without anyone noticing.

As he got closer to his door he saw River poke her head out the door of her family's half of the triplex, "Haruo, I'm going to head down to the art supply store, do you want to come with me?"

"I'd love to but I have to put something in my room. Can you wait a few minutes and I'll go with you." He replied as he headed towards his door.

"Sure, I will..." River said waggling her fingers at him. "Honey, maybe we can go get something to eat at Hogan's too."

"Hopefully asshole isn't working there today." Haruo muttered.

"I heard from Molly that he's under work probation. If he mucks up one more time he's going to get fired." She smirked.

Haruo growled, "It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy." He hoped that he wouldn't have to have another showdown with Jared Frio. He didn't like having to fight but if challenged, he would with no quarter given.

"Go on in and drop off what you needed to, hon," River told him so he headed upstairs.

"Just exactly where were you this morning?" Haruo groaned as a strident tone permeated his eardrums. "What have I told you about not saying anything about where you were going? You were probably out blowing money on arcade games, weren't you? That is an irresponsible thing to do. What do you plan to do when you have to go to university? Did you even bother to think of that? Are you incompetent?"

"For fuck sakes..." Haruo muttered under his breath as he tucked the engagement ring under several layers of t-shirts and shut the drawer. He was beyond caring about what his mother thought of him. She had made it clear that she had never respected him. "Look, I had something really important to do!" Haruo shot his mother a sharp drop-it look.

"What are you looking at me like that for? I'm just concerned that you don't seem to do anything but waste money on that little tramp next door when you should be more concerned about your education."

"Enough! Mother! I'm busy and I have somewhere else to go today. Now shelf this until I get home." Haruo snapped, finally fed up.

"You watch your tone, young man! I'm still older than you and I'll give you what-...where do you think you're going?" She looked shocked as Haruo finally just brushed past her.

"Out!" Was his brief snipped reply. "Don't bother waiting up!"

Mayumi could only stand there gaping like a fish out of water vibrating with self-important, indignant outrage. "YASUBO!"

Yasunobu rolled his eyes, "Kare o oshi sugita...(you pushed him too far) dorehodo hisan'na koto suru ka. So'nani oshitara kare okoru yo. (How miserable are you going to make him? You push him so much and naturally he will get angry)." He shook his head. kanojo o sarubekidatta. (I should have left her). Haruo mo tsurete ikubekidatta (And I should have taken Haruo with me too). He turned to go down the elevator to see his son. Maybe he could slip him §50 on Haruo's way out the door.

"Hoi, Haruo kun..." he hailed his son, “goju doru" he said passing over some money. “Anata futari doka de tabenasai...". He nodded.

"Arigato, otosan." His son said and grinned at his father as Yasunobu ruffled his son's hair paternally. "We'll go eat somewhere. Thanks for the fifty." While River's mouth opened in shock, again? His dad was the one who always seemed as though he passed money to his son and in addition River also became the beneficiary of same act and River gave her surrogate dad a hug. Haruo's dad was so much like the father she wished she had.

Yasunobu watched his son's and River's body language and a small smile stole over his face. He quietly nodded as his suspicions were piqued. River and Haruo were certainly standing closer to each other than before. Well Mayumi's plans to make Haruo miserable were in the midst of being thwarted.

Toranu tanuki no kawazan'yō: he grinned widely. His wife should know better than to count raccoon dog skins before she'd even bought them. Now all her plans would mean nothing and Yasunobu wouldn't utter a peep. Whatever Haruo was going to do, he hoped that he would do it soon.