RECAP:
"Please go on a date with me!"
"Uuuh... Hey, James, wassup?"
-------------------------------
The younger's head shot up and he stared, a horribly afraid look in his eyes. There stood his Uncle Alfred, looking like he was going to work. A hamburger was in his hand, a bite taken out of it and stowed away in the side of his cheek so it bulged like a chipmunk.
"Hope ya know I don't swing that way, and that I'm married," Alfred chuckled after swallowing. "But good for you for coming outta the closet, brah!"
"N-No, no!" James denied quickly as he stood up and hid the flowers behind his back. "That was meant for your daughter, I swear!"
The bespectacled hero's expression changed then, going from amused and laughing to slightly curious. "Nekochi? You were gonna ask her on a date?"
"Yeah."
Suddenly his stomach plummeted as he realized that he might have just angered papa bear.
Which, you know, he totally did.
"Is that so~?" America said in an almost sing-songy voice as a dark blue-ish-black aura filled the air around him. It sparked with electricity and rage, and James squeaked in fright. He was gonna die, he was gonna die right there on the front porch and no one was gonna rescue him!
But Alfred's anger was gone in an instant, and he clapped James (who was technically like his grandson) on the shoulder in a friendly gesture. "Hahaha! Nah, bro! I wouldn't kill ya, I'm the hero!"
His gaze lowered until he was looking (read: glaring) at James over the rim of his Texas. "But I'm warnin' ya. You'd better think long and hard before you decide to mess with the hero's family. Got it?"
"Got it," James replied weakly, fighting the urge to stammer. "Yes, sir."
Alfred F. Jones smiled brightly and walked past him, heading to his car. The vehicle's beeping as it unlocked made James jump a little. He was still in shock, just a little bit.
Rayn appeared in the doorway, smirking at the terror-stricken boy standing there with a loose grip on his bouquet of orchids. "Hi, James. Are you looking for Nekochi?"
He nodded mutely, his eyes not focused on her or anything particular at the moment.
"She's still getting ready, you should probably just go home for now."
But he just stood there dumbly.
"James!" Rayn shouted. No dice. "JAMES!"
"AH!" James screamed, launching almost a foot in the air before darting around in search of what had startled him so badly. "What, what?"
"James, just go home," Rayn said sternly, pointing down the road. "Come back later, though, okay?" Her attitude was suddenly very peppy and excited. "Yeah, I have a job for you to do tomorrow! Come over around ten since it's a Saturday and all that, m'kay? Thanks!" She slammed the door kin his face before he could even have the chance to back out.
Shrugging, and completely recovered from his initial shock, he strolled down the steps and started for home.
~~
Nekochi's POV~
For once, James didn't come around to bother me.
IT WAS WONDERFUL!
I actually got to focus on my work and drawings without worrying if he would be breathing down my neck the next second! Lately, that hadn't happened and it was stressing me out to no end. I mean, jeez! He's like my cousin, or nephew, or whatever you want to call it!
Ew.
Just ew.
And no thank you.
Okay, sure, he's a good-looking guy. I will admit to that while speaking from an objective point of view. Or is it non-objective? Whatever, that doesn't really matter.
He's got sort of curly, light brown hair and dark blue eyes. I've heard tons of girls in all the grades squealing about him and wishing longingly for him to turn his eyes on them.
Gag.
No, I had absolutely no feelings for the ditz. He was such a dork, I had no idea how he was able to keep up in school! And he's always goofing off instead of doing his work, or at least in the classes I happened to share with him. Speaking of which, something weird happened during fifth period.
I was having some difficulty figuring out how to do one of the sections in my math homework. But when I went up to the teacher to ask for help, she just smiled and told me I should ask James to explain it to me.
"But, why would he know?" I asked with a confused look on my face. Well, one that was even more confused that it had been a moment ago.
"Are you kidding? He's probably done with it by now," she laughed. "He's a little goofy, but he's not stupid."
"Oh... I wasn't implying he was, but if you're sure," I said, feeling uncertain. If I asked him, it would definitely kick start up his dogged attacks again, wouldn't it? I didn't want that to happen, not when I was just starting to enjoy my peace and quiet.
But if he could really help me out...
'Nope! Nope, nope!' I told myself, shaking my head before sitting down at my desk. 'I'll figure this out on my own, I can get it eventually.'
'Yeah, if you stare at it long enough the answer will just magically pop up under the tip of your pencil' I thought sarcastically. A few minutes later, the bell rang and released us all to our sixth period. I had barely made any headway with the first question of that section.
Dammit.
~~~
"Uuuh..." I murmured, staring at the unexpected sight in my front living room.
Well, let's see here. There's James, sitting on the floor.
Then a ton of my little cousins were around him and playing with whatever they could find and hold in their hands. From what I could see, there wasn't a single one of them that was over the age of three.
James glanced up at me, his darker blue eyes meeting my arctic blue ones. He smiled, though it faded from his face almost as fast as it had appeared.
"Oh, hey there, Nekochi," he said casually, as if we were just acquaintances passing each other in the hallways at school. "What's up?"
"I think I'm asking you that question first," I replied as I set my bag down next to the reclining chair and slid out of my combat boots. "What are you doing in my house?"
"You mom asked me to babysit for you guys," James answered, picking up Louvel and setting him in his lap. "Although I have no idea why there are so many little ones here..."
"Yeah, beats me," I agreed while walking past and spying a note resting on the kitchen table.
Hi, Nekochi! It's Mom. I decided to call a play date in, but then got James to babysit instead so I could hang out with my friends. Take good care of them all! (That includes James, too)
;)
I have no idea why she would have put a random winking face at the end of her message, but I didn't trouble myself with it. Instead, I threw the note away and walked back into the living room. After a head count, I knew just how many toddlers we had on our hands.
Louvel, Evan, Cassiopeia, Andromeda.
Thank goodness Evan and Louvel were notorious for being quiet, because the other two were the offshoots of Kadi and Allistor. They were handfuls, to put it lightly.
Oh man... Getting saddled with unpaid babysitting was not how I pictured my evening to be spent. Dammit!
'Come on, Mom! This is so not nova...' I thought unhappily while crossing my arms.
My irritancy melted when I felt a couple of hands pulling futilely at my leggings. Glancing down, I saw Lou-Lou trying to get my attention. I smiled and picked him up, setting him on my hip. "What is it, little bud?" I asked him, but he mutely pointed at James with the other three chilluns.
My eyes wandered over that way and I saw him looking... absolutely adorable with the other three crawling all over him like cats.
Wait, did I just think he was adorable?
Adorable?
I need a soda... With lots of caffeine. I must be getting tired or something.
Yeah, that's it. Totally.
~~~
"I had a great time today," James told me while we worked on cleaning the kitchen up. The kids were down for naps at the moment and we'd made a mess with dirty dishes for lunch.
"It's not over yet, soldier," I told him with mock seriousness in my voice. He chuckled and handed me a stack of plates to put away in the cupboard behind me.
"How're you doing with the, uh, secret?" he asked me suddenly, and I looked at him with an eyebrow raised.
"What secret are you talking about?"
"You know, about your parents being countries," he clarified.
My expression hardened, but I shut the cabinet and didn't let much of my thoughts show on my face. "It's been practically four months since I found out they'd been lying to me all my life, but never better." I had to force out those sarcastically chipper last three words.
"Yeah... When I found out, I was kinda mad, too," James admitted as he arranged all the forks in his hand so they faced the same way. "But then I got over it. It's not a big deal. They kept it from us for a reason."
I groaned loudly and slammed a palm against the counter, making a loud slapping noise. "It's still not okay for them to lie to me, James. And I used to pride myself on being able to tell when people are lying to me, but they never set off my radar until recently!"
"Kids aren't very quick to mistrust their parents," he pointed out wisely. "And it's no big deal. National security is kind of important, you know. Humans can't find out about what they are, or else they'd have a lot of problems on their hands."
I scoffed. "You sound like you don't consider yourself to be a human."
"I guess I do, but I don't really know for sure," James said. "After all, both of my parents are technically like countries, just smaller."
Suddenly two pairs of small feet could be heard just inside the kitchen, and we both looked up worriedly to see Cassiopeia and Andromeda holding hands and looking at us curiously.
"Uh, hey, sweeties," I said awkwardly. "Don't repeat anything you just heard, okay?" There was no way they didn't hear us, after all. My smacking the countertop must have woken them...
Andromeda smiled at me. "Oh, we know about countries. Ama tells us lots 'bout it."
Cassiopeia tilted her head to the side curiously. "You didn't know? But you're big!"
I shot a glance at James, who looked just as shocked as I was. Aunt Kadi tells her kids about countries, but ours don't? What's up with that?
I guess it's just one more thing for me to grill my folks about.