One and Only

Ch. 13 Outing

  I stirred to the noise of rustling fabric. I don't remember when I fell asleep, but I know it wasn't long. I squinted my eyes towards where the noise was coming from to see Satoru getting up and stretching. I sat up and rubbed my eyes.
  "What time is it?" I asked in a groggy voice.
  "About 6:30, did I wake ya?" He whispered.
  "No," I lied. "I was already waking up." He just smiled at me.
  "Wanna wake up those two? Maybe go get breakfast somewhere?" He sat on the bed, trying to be quiet.
  "Mmm, yeah. That sounds nice." I happily agreed.
  "There's a new Cafe that opened not too long ago, they got good crepes." He yawned out.
  "Sounds good. You can go change and stuff, I'll wake these two up." He hummed in agreement. He tiptoed his way out the door.
  I turned towards Suguru and began to lightly shake him.
  "Time to wake up," he let out a groan. Sitting up and scratching the back of his head with a yawn.
  "What time is it?" He breathed out.
  "About 6:30. Get up, we're gonna get breakfast." I tugged at his arm.
  "Where?"
  "A Cafe Satoru recommended."
  He was up and stretching.
  "Why not go wash your face and get ready? Shoko and I will meet you guys in the hall." I smiled at him.
  "Mmkay." He made his way to the door, shutting it behind him quietly.
  "Shokooo. Time to wake up," I poked at her arm. She let out a groan and slapped my hand away. I grabbed at her arm and shook her.
  "Rise and shine! We're getting food!" I said in a louder tone.
  "Food?" She sat up, completely alert.
  "Yes, food. Get up, let's get dressed. We're eating crepes."
  "Sweet!" She got up and nearly ran out the door.

  Thankfully today was Sunday. Which meant no class, and hopefully no assignments.
  I got up and stretched, I could hear my back pop. Sleeping on the ground probably wasn't the best idea. I grabbed some clothes and made my way to the shower area, wanting to feel refreshed. 
  Shoko and I ended up running into each other, so we enjoyed each other's company and talked a bit about silly things that happened through the night while washing ourselves.
  On our way out of the bath area, we saw Satoru and Suguru. I made a few comments on Satoru's hair lying flat, Suguru joining in on it.
  "Yeah, yeah. Let's hurry up and go back so that we can leave, I'm hungry." He said, shoving Satoru towards the dorms.
  We all nodded in agreement and went back to our respective rooms.
  As well all made it back, I could hear the loud hum of blow-dryers going off. I guess we all had the same idea. I picked up mine and turned it on to high heat. My hair was blowing into all directions as I swiveled the blow-dryer around my head. I stared at my reflection, my hair already past my waist.
"Maybe I should give myself a trim later," I spoke out to no one. I rummaged through my closet, finding something simple to put on. Deciding on a colorful striped short sleeve shirt tucked into high waisted dark wash jeans. I threw on some gray sneakers, grabbed a hair tie, my wallet, phone, and keys, and made my way into the hall.
Shoko and Suguru were already waiting. Shoko sporting a cute light washed overall with a white long sleeve underneath, one of the straps left unfastened. Suguru had his hair up in its usual bun, and a plain black t-shirt and Jean combo.
  "Ohh, you two look nice." I said, shutting the door behind me.
  "Not too bad yourself! I really like those pants on you, shapes your legs very nice." Shoko replied.
  "Why thank you, Satoru isn't done yet?" I asked, looking towards his dorm.
  "Nah. He's probably choosing what sunglasses to wear." Suguru answered. "You know how he is."
  Speaking of which, we heard Satoru's door open. He came out with his usual round sunglasses, wearing some very form fitting black pants and a short sleeved button down that had a simple black and white floral pattern tucked into his pants.
  "Well don't you look spiffy," I said.
  "And you look down right adorable," Satoru replied. "I see we had the same idea." He said, motioning to our shirts being tucked.
  "Just makes the outfit look better." I humored him.
  "Almost as if you two coordinated your outfits." Shoko chuckled.
  "Do you want to invite your sisters, Mai?" Suguru asked.
  "No, not this time." I answered. "I sent a message to Dazai letting him know I was going out with you guys, so he's gonna be spending some time with the girls." I reassured.
  "Well, that's good. Hopefully they don't feel left out." Shoko chimed in.
  "I can make it up to them later, for now I just wanna hang out with my best buds." I said, slinging an arm around Shoko. "Now let's go get some food!"
  The drive into town was pretty normal. We talked about upcoming assignments, class work, and the usual banter that teens often partake in. The auxiliary agent who drove us was fairly quite, kept to himself.
  As we pulled up close to the Cafe, He told us to either call him or to meet back at that same spot at 3pm. It was currently 7:30am, so that gave us plenty of time to enjoy ourselves.
  "So, where's this Cafe you talked about, Satoru?" Suguru asked.
  "It's a few blocks north, but they don't open until 8:30. We could walk around a bit." Satoru suggested.
  "Sounds fine to me. There should be a fountain nearby that we can hang at too." Shoko chimed in.
  "Oohh I wanna see the fountain." I linked arms with Shoko as we began to walk in the direction Satoru pointed at.
  We passed by a few shops; jewelry, shoes, confectionery, a small bookstore. I never really knew all of this was here, maybe I could bring Himeko and Mafuyu here for a fun shopping spree one day.
  "Oh there's the fountain!" Shoko pointed across the street. It was a decent sized fountain that was in the middle of a public garden. Trees, flowering bushes, and some ornate benches lined the perimeter. A few people were out with their children or pets, enjoying the warm day.
  "Oh that's really cute. I wanna go see some of the flowers." I told the 3 of them.
  Satoru and Suguru sat near the fountain as Shoko and I were admiring the hydrangea and azalea bushes.
  "We had some of these back at the estate, they were my mothers favorite." I said to Shoko.
  "Speaking of, has there been an update about your home?" She asked.
  "Yeah! Dazai said that they were able to salvage some of the foundations of the main house and some of the surrounding buildings. Since the clan is.. smaller now, they are planning on remodeling the right wing to be smaller and to be used for more leisure type of things. Probably for meetings or something." I explained. "Since we'll have more room, that means we can work on making a larger garden, or maybe even develop an outdoor training area."
  "I see you're trying to make the best of it."
  "I'm doing what I can," I sighed.
  "We should probably start heading to the cafe." Shoko noted, looking at the small watch on her wrist.
  "What time is it?"
  "8:20 almost." She got up and dusted herself off.
  As we were walking back towards the boys, we noticed a small group of girls surrounding them. Well, more like surrounding Satoru. One of the girls stood closer to Suguru, seemingly having a conversation with him. The closer we looked, we noticed that she was still trying to get Satoru's attention.
  "Wow, your eyes are so beautiful!" We heard one of the girls squeal out.
  "Yeah, they look just like sapphires!" Said another.
  "Your hair looks so soft, can I touch it?" A third asked.
  Of course, Satoru obliged and allowed the girls to give him the attention. Suguru sat looking almost bored by it all. More than likely used to it, as he was the one who frequented missions and outings with Satoru the most. I noticed Shoko looking at her watch, becoming more and more impatient with each passing second. I let out a sigh and walked up to the group.
  "Excuse me," I placed a hand on one of the girls shoulders, alerting them of my presence. "I'm sorry. I know you're all enjoying a conversation, but unfortunately my friends and I have something to attend to. Would you all please excuse us?" I tried my best to keep it short and sweet. The last time I tried to drag the boys away from a group of girls, they all began throwing some rather nasty insults my way. I turned towards the boys.
  "If we don't go, there will probably be a line and we won't be able to enjoy ourselves." I stated, keeping it as vague as possible so that none of the girls try to follow Satoru.
  "What? Who are you?" One of the girls asked.
  "Don't worry, don't worry. She's a friend of ours." Satoru reassured. "Is it already? Man, time sure does fly by when you're having fun." Satoru said in a flirtatious tone, mostly directed towards the group of girls. Of course, they ate it up and giggled. I rolled my eyes at him.
  I held out my hand to Suguru. He gladly took it and pulled himself up. He tugged at Satoru's arm so that we could hurry and go. Suguru and I walked back to where Shoko was standing, waiting for Satoru to finish up the conversation and get away from the group of girls. As he walked up to us, he stuffed his phone into his pocket.
  "So, how many numbers did you get?" I asked him. We began to walk towards the Cafe.
  "All of them!" He announced proudly.
  "And how many are you gonna message?" Suguru asked.
  "None!" Satoru, again, proudly stated. I couldn't help but sigh.
  "That's gonna get you in big trouble one of these days." Shoko stated.
  "You're gonna run into one of these girls and they're gonna confront you about." I added in.
  "Or find out about the many other women you're talking to." Suguru finished.
  Satoru just shrugged it off.
  As we got closer to the Cafe, we could already see a small line forming. We quickly jogged across the street to secure a decent spot in line. We were about 5 groups or so behind the rest.
  "We might be here for a little while." Said Shoko.
  "Wouldn't be a problem if Satoru didn't take so long." I teased.
  "It's not my fault I was blessed with these looks." He played along.
  We continued to make jokes at each other to pass the time. Before we knew it, we were next to go into the Cafe.
  "Oh sweet," I cheered. "How long have we been waiting?" I checked my phone.
  "It's been about 45 minutes." Suguru replied.
  "Wait, really?" Satoru also checked the time. "Doesn't feel like it at all."
  "Time flies when you're having fun." Shoko said, taunting Satoru.
  "Oh, haha," he retorted. "Using my words against me, I'm hurt."
  "Alright! Who's next in line?" A bubbly girl came out from the cafe, holding a clipboard in hand.
  "That would be us." Suguru stepped forward.
  "Wonderful! This way please," she guided us inside.
  The place was nicely decorated. Creams and light pinks adorned the walls and counters. Gold decoration with some plants gave a nice accent to the restaurant. Natural wood tables and booths with squishy pink pillows tucked into the corners. Nice big windows that let in lots of natural light as well. It was incredibly cute and very cozy.
  "Ohh this is really cute." Shoko said.
  "It really is. How did you here about this place, Satoru?" I asked.
  "Came here for a date a month ago!"
  "Of course you did." We said in unison. 
  As we all sat, we were handed the menus that were as equally as aesthetically pleasing. We looked it over, making a few comments about how good the foods and drinks sound. Once we were happy with our options, we decided to call for a waitress.
  "Excuse us! We're ready to order." I called out to a passing waitress.
  "Of course! What can I get you all?" She sweetly asked.
  "Can I get the strawberry crepe with the vanilla creme black tea, please?" I pointed at the items.
  "I'd like the matcha parfait with green tea," Shoko said next.
  "The omurice with an americano, please," suguru said next.
  "The choco-creme pancakes and latte for me," Satoru finished. "Oh, and do you have a bandage?" We all look at him, puzzled by why he'd need one. "I scraped my knee falling for you." The three of us let out a collective groan.
  "Please ignore him," I reassured the flustered waitress.
  "O..okay, is this all I can get for you?" She scribbled our orders down.
  "Yes, thank you so much." She hurried away.
  "Can we go out without you flirting with someone? Just for once?" I scolded the white haired boy.
  "What? I just asked for a bandage." He innocently defended.
  "I'd like to have a nice morning with you guys without more girls trying to get your number." Shoko said, throwing a balled up napkin at him. Satoru let the wad bounce off of his head with a laugh.
  "You guys are just jealous of my good looks!"
  "No." We said in a flat tone.
  "I'm not concerned about how many people fawn over me." Shoko leaned back against the chair.
  "I agree, I just wanna get my food and enjoy myself." Suguru chimed in. I nodded in agreement with the both of them.
  "Yeah, sure. I bet it's just because you guys can't get anyone's number!" Satoru teased. We just gave him a very bored look.
  I noticed the waitress was coming back over with our food, but it seemed like she was struggling a bit. I decided to indulge in Satoru's little taunts.
  I slid out of the booth the 4 of us were seated at.
  "Where you going?" Satoru asked.
  "Bathroom, I'll be right back." I smiled at him.
  I walked towards the waitress. Looking at her now, I noticed she was quite a bit shorter than me. Maybe 4 to 6 inches smaller. As I got closer I let out a small burst of my technique. The burst was enough to make her think she tripped over her own feet. She let out a strained yell of surprise and began to fall backwards. I quickly walked forward to grab the large serving tray of food and her waist to keep her from hitting the floor. I stabilized the tray before looking down at her.
  "Are you alright?" I asked her. She stared at me, shock still evident on her face as she processed what happened.
  "Y-yes!" She stammered out, getting up in a panic. "I'm so sorry! I must have tripped on something!"
  "It's alright, don't worry. I'd be more upset if that pretty face got hurt. Oh, is this our food? I'll bring it to the table." I turned towards the booth. I heard a soft "huh?" come from the short girl. I could hear her footsteps as she hurriedly caught up to us. As I finished setting down the rest of our food I heard her nervously call out to me.
  "Yes?" I turned to face her. The girl looked up to me, I could see a faint blush color her cheeks.
  "Um, thank you so much!" She bowed. "You really helped me," she nervously fumbled with the fabric of her apron.
  "It's no problem, really. I couldn't stand the idea of you getting hurt. The thought of it just breaks my heart." For a bit of an added touch, I brought my hand up and brushed some of the loose hair behind her ear. "You've been so sweet, it's the least I could do." I pulled back. I watched as her cheeks darkened in color. She stammered out another soft "thank you". She quickly grabbed the tray and made her way into the back of the cafe.
  I sat down and began to sip on my tea. I looked up and saw the three of them looking at me.
  "What?" I asked.
  "Please do that to me." Shoko blurted out.
  "What?" I feigned innocence.
  "That was cheating!" Satoru yelled out.
  "What ever do you mean, my good friend Satoru?" I continued enjoying my drink.
  "Oh, you sly mother fucker." I couldn't help but burst out laughing.
  "You made that look too easy," Suguru chuckled as he enjoyed his food.

  We spent the hour laughing and talking about anything and everything. This little outing was really needed for all of us. School work was really starting to pile up, and not to mention with the amount of missions we've been going on lately. During it, the waitress would stop by the booth and ask us how things were. We all took notice at how close she stood to me every time. She would shoot me nervous glances and every time our eyes met she would quickly look away.
  I set my spoon down and let out a very content sigh.
  "That was delicious. Definitely bringing the girls here one day." I patted my stomach.
  "Told you, place is really nice." Satoru triumphantly proclaimed.
  "And you were right," Shoko said. "Oh and thanks for paying."
  "Huh?" He had a very confused look on his face.
  "Yeah, thanks for paying Satoru." I chimed in.
  "Thanks, man." Suguru roughly patted his back.
  "Huh!?"
  "Can I get you all your check? Will it be separate or together?" Great timing from the waitress.
  "Together, please." I gave her a smile. She happily obliged and bounced away.
  "HUH!?"
  The 3 of us laughed at Satoru's face.
  "Don't worry, we'll cover it next time." I reassured.
  The waitress came back and handed me the check. Satoru went to grab it, but I could see a look of panic flash on her face. I smacked his hand away. I heard her let out a relieved sigh before running off to help another customer.
  "Wonder what that was about," Shoko said. Head propped up with her hands. I shrugged and opened the sever book. Ah.
  "This is probably why," I waved the small piece of paper in front of my face with a smile.
  "No way!" Satoru yelled out and snatched the paper from my hands. Suguru and Shoko leaning in to see the sheet. Clearly written was the girls contact info with a little "call me xoxo" note at the bottom.
  "So much for not being able to get numbers, huh?" I snatched it back. Satoru grumbled as we gathered our things and went to the front of the restaurant to pay. As Suguru, Shoko, and I stood near the door, we saw the waitress gathering up the dishes from our booth. She looked over at us and I just sent her a wink and held up the piece of paper. She gave me a flustered smile and went back to work.
  "You gonna call her?" Suguru asked. I could tell he was asking out of curiosity, but there was something more there too.
  "Don't know. She was pretty cute, didn't look too much older than us." I said, putting the piece of paper into my pocket. "Don't worry, if I do decide to date you'll be first to know." I whispered. I could see his ears turn a light shade of pink.
  Satoru came back, putting his phone and wallet back into his pockets.
  "You guys ready to head out? I contacted the auxiliary guy already." He gave us a thumbs up.
  "Oh, nice." Shoko said.
  "Oh, also," Satoru got all of our attention. "Yaga-sensei wants to see us in his office when we get back."