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Chikako stared after Xanthus, entirely confused and hurt, yet another of his excuses for not spending time with her echoing in her ears. Why was he so suddenly avoiding her so persistently?
Xanthus felt her questioning gaze as he all but ran to his room. The worst part was, he wanted nothing more than to go to the park with Chikako and her friends. Unfortunately, he'd promised his Master he'd kill Chikako the first chance he got, though he couldn't exactly tell her that he was avoiding her so he wouldn't have to kill her. He couldn't tell himself that, either. He fully intended to obey Cyrus, just... not yet.
"Can he come, Mommy?" Aiko asked brightly, bouncing off Chouko's lap several feet away.
"Don't call me Mommy!" Chikako moaned, hoping Xanthus hadn't heard. "No, he can't come."
"Again?" Priire asked, raising her eyebrows.
"He's been busy," Chikako said defensively, glaring at Priire.
"I'll say."
"What do you want me to call you?" Aiko suddenly blurted out, finally reacting to the fact that her mother had just asked her not to call her so.
"How about Chikako?"
Aiko just stared at her and climbed back into Chouko's lap. Chouko gave Chikako a meaningful look as she smoothed the little girl's blonde ponytails.
"I'm sorry, Aiko-hime," Chikako sighed. "I'm just not used to this."
Aiko said nothing, but a second later squealed with delight when Pinku jumped onto her lap. For the moment, all was healed.
As soon as the small troop reached the park, some of its shorter members took off in bounds to the hover-train. "Please can we ride it, Daddy, please please please PLEASE can we ride?" Aisu gasped as she, Hisako, and Aiko bounced impatiently near the ticket booth.
Ben Skywalker laughed and looked at Priire, Chouko, and Chikako. "Only if you're buying," he joked to his future-daughter.
"Daddy!" Aisu pleaded.
"We don't have any money!" Hisako lamented dramatically.
"Wow!" Aiko exclaimed, turned the other direction, peering through the low fence as the hover-train zipped by. She spun around when it was gone. "Pretty please?"
"I suppose," Ben sighed melodramatically, scooping up his twins and getting into the short ticket line.
"Kleppa, do you want to ride the train?" Priire asked.
"No."
"What?!" Priire cried. "Are you sure?"
"Yes," Kleppa said calmly.
"Come on! It's so much fun! It goes really fast at first, and then slows down so you can see the whole park! It even goes on a bridge over the pond."
"No thank you."
"There are flying fish in the pond! Don't you want to see the flying fish?"
"Not really."
Priire threw up her arms in exasperation, seeming to plead with the sky for a second. Chouko leaned over to Chikako. "I think Priire really wants to ride this train," she said. Chikako giggled and nodded her agreement. They looked back at their friend, pleading once again with the dark-haired child. "I think she wants to ride it more than Aisu does!" Chouko added.
Aiko bounced over to them, blonde ponytails flopping. "Kage-kun, are you going to ride the hover-train?" she asked. Kagerou just stared at her and moved a little closer to Chouko. That didn't deter Aiko too much, and she simply moved her question up a few feet. "Chouko, is Kage-kun going to ride the hover-train?"
"I don't know," Chouko said. "Chikako, do you think Kage-kun is going to ride the hover-train?"
"I'm not sure. Priire, do you think Kage-kun is going to ride the hover-train?"
Kagerou's deep blue eyes darted from person to person as he watched everyone else discuss his fate. He looked up at Chouko, confused. "Hisako, do you think he's gonna ride the train?" Priire called.
Hisako quickly consulted Aisu, who then directed the question to Ben. "I have no idea, Aisu. What do you say, Kleppa? Is Kage-kun going to ride the train?"
Kleppa glanced over at the perplexed little boy. "Yes," she said.
"Come on then!" Aiko said, grabbing the shy boy by the arm and pulling him onto the platform despite the 'Save Me!' looks he shot back to Chouko.
"Aiko-hime may be one of Kage-kun's biggest fears," Chouko speculated. "I mean, Aisu-chan talks a lot, but Aiko is... aggressively nice. She forces him to do fun things. Drives him nuts I think."
"Yeah," Chikako sighed. "I worry about her... Someday she's going to be aggressively nice to the wrong person, and they're going to obliterate her."
"Well... Kage-kun probably won't obliterate her," Chouko assured her.
"Are you sure you don't want to ride the train, Kleppa?" Priire asked, her final plea.
"I'm sure."
Priire watched, deflated, as Chouko, Chikako, Ben, Aisu, Hisako, Aiko and Kage-kun disappeared onto the platform and the hover-train sped into the station, leaving her and Kleppa behind.
"Well," Kleppa said, tilting her head. "Maybe I do want to."
Priire blinked, staring after the little girl as she walked purposefully onto the platform. "The Okyhana Park Hover Train departs in one minute," a cheerful female voice announced over a loud speaker. "All aboard!"
"Oh! Wait for me!" Priire jumped up and ran onto the platform after Kleppa, reaching the train just in time.
The jolt of the train starting threw her onto a bench next to Ben. "Don't you want to sit in the aisle?" she asked him.
"Of course I do," he said, rolling his eyes and switching places with her. Priire stared eagerly out the window as they approached the pond.
"Hey, where's Kleppa?" she asked, suddenly turning back to the inside of the train.
"She's behind us," Ben said, glancing back to where she, Aisu, and Hisako were sitting.
"Do you like the flying fish?" Priire asked them.
"Yes!" the twins responded eagerly. Kleppa's response, however, was cut off by her own gasp of surprise when one of the flying fish flew right into the train and landed on her lap. The little girl picked it up by the tail and looked at it curiously as it fluttered frantically, trying to find its way back to the pond.
"Oh my goodness!" Aiko exclaimed from the bench behind the three little girls. "It's a real flying fish! Kleppa has a real flying fish! Wow, look how pretty it is up close! Wow – hey, is it dying?"
"Kleppa," Priire said, "put the fish back in the water, please." Kleppa frowned. "Kleppa..."
"Fine," she sighed, and tossed it carelessly out the window.
"Kage-kun, did you see that?" Aiko exclaimed, turning to the boy trapped between her and the window. "I can't believe I got to see one so close! I've never seen a flying fish so close before!" Kagerou, to whom Aiko had generously given the window seat, squeezed a bit closer (if that was possible) to the train wall.
Behind them, Chikako and Chouko exchanged amused looks. Chikako rolled her eyes and turned back to the view through the window. When she heard a male voice say "Aiko-hime!" she turned back. It was Kalei.
"Da- Kalei!" Aiko exclaimed, making a face at the word. "Did you see the flying fish? Weren't they pretty? Who's that?"
Kalei squeezed onto the bench with Aiko, giving Kagerou even less space, but at least taking some attention away from him. "The fish were great. And this is Yartina," he said, lifting a little humanoid girl with pearly eyes and pinkish-red hair onto his lap. "She's my neighbor's daughter. I'm taking care of her while he's at his job interview."
"Wow, look how pretty her eyes are!" Aiko said.
"Da fuiizni suzu marakatta ryoe zoe!" Yartina exclaimed.
"She doesn't know Basic yet," Kalei added. He leaned over Aiko. "How are you doing, Kage-kun?"
"Good," Kagerou said shyly.
"That's good," Kalei smiled.
"He's really glad he decided to come on the train," Aiko said. "Well, I would be if I were him."
"I didn't decide," Kagerou said softly, looking solemnly (and solely) at Kalei.
"Puchyan NI!" Yartina suddenly yelled.
"Shh," Kalei said, smoothing Yartina's hair and chuckling as other passengers turned to see what the alien girl was shouting about. He gave Kagerou a sheepish smile as he tried to somehow remind Yartina to use her indoor voice. The little boy smiled and turned back to the window.
"Puchyan ni," Yartina whispered, correcting herself.
"Puchyan ni," Aiko repeated under her breath, just to see what it felt like.
Half an hour later, the train returned to the station. "Now let's go get ICE CREAM!" Aisu suggested at the top of her lungs.
"That's a great idea!" Hisako said.
"I think so too!" Chikako said to Chouko.
"You would," Priire said, joining them as they walked along the brick path away from the platform near the entrance of the park. Kleppa ran just a little ahead of them.
"So would you," Chikako countered.
"What?"
"I don't know."
"I need a piggy-back ride to the ice cream stand," Aiko informed Kalei.
"Um... okay," Kalei agreed, setting Yartina down. She immediately fell over. "Hm," he said.
Chouko looked at Chikako and Priire with an amused half-smile. "I like Kalei's pants," she said.
Chikako blinked, having expected to hear a comment about Yartina, and looked at Kalei's pants. "He's wearing... velvet pants."
Ben whisked up the pearly-eyed toddler as he walked past. "Since I don't have enough of these to keep an eye on," he laughed.
"Thanks," Kalei grinned, putting Aiko on his shoulders.
Kagerou gave Chouko a cautious but meaningful look. "I don't think so, Kage-kun," Chouko said gently. "BUT," she added before his face fell, and took his hand. "This is almost as good as a piggy-back ride."
Chikako took Kagerou's other hand. "One! Two! Three! WHEE!" The pair swung the young Knight forward every few steps all the way to the ice cream stand. "One! Two! Three! WHEE!" The final swing landed the giggling boy right in front of the vendor.
"So Kage-kun," Chouko said, "would you like some pants like Kalei's?"
It took him a second to respond, since he was expecting a question about ice cream. "Sure," he finally said, not even looking at the pants.
"Maybe we should all get velvet pants," Priire said. "Kleppa, do you want velvet pants?"
"No," she said. "I would like three scoops of Mint Fudge Swirl."
"Of course," Priire laughed and passed the order on to the man with the ice cream scoop. "He's cute," she said with a wink, teasing Chikako as she and Kleppa walked away from the vendor with their ice cream.
"I don't need an ice cream man," Chikako said. "I've got a Jedi!"
Priire said "hmph" rather than commenting on the boyfriend skills of Chikako's Jedi, and Chouko said, "Above anything, wouldn't you rather have a man in velvet pants?"
"No," Chikako giggled, and ordered her ice cream.
Meanwhile, Aiko was exploring the nearest flower patch with Aisu, Hisako, and Yartina. "I'm going to give these flowers to Kalei to give to Mommy," she told the others as she collected a bouquet. "I mean, Chikako," she sighed.
"Is she supposed to eat those?" Aisu asked, watching Yartina devour violets like Minae did doughnuts.
"Puchyan ni!" Aiko said, getting a quizzical look in return.
"I doubt it," Hisako said, grabbing the humanoid toddler by the hand and pulling her out of the flower patch. "Come on," she told her. "I'll do your pretty hair!"
"Run, Yartina!" Aisu joked. Hisako stuck her tongue out.
"Okay," Aiko said, looking at her bouquet. "Kalei!" she shouted, running back to the group. Chikako, Priire, and Kleppa were lounging on the grass, watching the clouds; Aisu returned to Ben, enjoying his ice cream on a red park bench with Yartina and her hairdresser, Hisako, who was turning the wild fluff of pinkish-red hair into a strange bouquet of "elevated odango." Kalei was standing by a wishing well with Chouko and Kagerou. When the little blonde got there, she gave him the flowers and whispered into his ear. "Give them to Mommy!"
Kalei blushed. "Why don't you give them to her, Aiko-hime?"
"I want you to!"
"But Aiko-chan, Chikako and I are not –"
"Do it!"
Kalei sighed and walked over to where she was sitting with Priire and Kleppa. "Aiko-hime picked these for you," he said quietly so Aiko wouldn't hear from her new vantage point between Aisu and Ben.
"Tell her thank you," Chikako said, accepting them.
"Sure."
"Kalei," Priire said as he turned to go back to the well. "Those are great pants."
"Thanks," he said, and returned to Chouko and Kagerou, who were dropping coins into the wishing well at an alarming rate. Chouko, who was already smiling, looked up briefly and raised an eyebrow. "Hey," he said, glancing at her handful of small silver coins. "Can I borrow one of those?"
