Chapter 98: The Calm (pt2)

"We cremated him." Tyne soberly answered.

Eiji nodded. It was the best thing they could do, given the situation. He gulped at the thought of how they would've cremated him.

"It didn't cause a forest fire, did it?"

Neither answered, but busied themselves with menial chores. Eiji groaned with a hope that the local fire crews were able to put out any drastic flames before they reached towns. Fortunately, they had been miles from one.

"I'm gonna get some food," Kei said to change the subject. Also feeling his stomach's complaints.

"I'll join you." Sean piped up.

Everyone agreed to go out and see what food they could find.

Fortunately the small village they had stumbled upon had an inn and local grocery where they were able to savor a meal from their dwindling funds, which Tyne kept track of.

Sean constantly grumbled about how they could've eaten more, but someone was being too loose with women and giving away their wads of cash.

Kei shrugged his shoulders with a cheeky smirk on the fact.

They were able to procure some staples that the small grocer shop was able to sell. A lot of it was cheap alcohol, tin fish and beans of a small quantity. It was enough for a light meal.

Eiji sighed at the lack of patronage the poor shopkeeper had attracted. Aside of themselves, there was only one other elderly lady in the story who spent more time gossiping with the shopkeeper than looking at wares to buy.

There wasn't much eavesdropped gossip they didn't already know about the war effort. The locals weren't keen to talk to them. So they returned to the cottage in the early afternoon.

The noisy drone of cicadas on heat drowned out any complaints they would've felt from their bodies as they stripped down to undershirts and slacks to cope with the sudden heat wave.

A cooling breeze from the distant river, offered some relief to their skin, as they sat on the porch to enjoy the early sun set.

"Here." Tyne offered Eiji a swig from the sake bottle they had picked up in town.

Eiji took a hearty gulp and passed the bottle to Sean who did the same.

Kei passed around cigarettes. The men lazed about, drinking and smoking away the afternoon.

"I like days like this." Kei absent-mindedly noted. "Reminds me of my brat days on the docks near Jefferson Ave."

Sean's face eased into a wide smile. "I remember my parents taking me to Chinatown for dumplings. Good ole times."

"Flat beer. Cold hot dogs, watching the Tigers." Kei added.

"You watched baseball?" Sean blurted with surprise.

"All men watch baseball, prissy." Kei grumbled and dodged Sean's piss-weak punch to his arm.

"Babe Ruth's called shot." Tyne chuckled. "Guess you can be cocky when you're a winner."

Eiji shrugged his shoulders, not really listening to the talk of western sports. His hand continuously stroked Tama's back, who was purring contently with her body stretched out next to him.

"What sports do you guys cheer on?" Sean asked Eiji.

"Sumo wrestling is our national sport." Eiji casually answered.

"You do archery. Did any pro comps?"

"Only in school. I won nationals." Eiji stoically noted his achievement.

"Figures. You were able to show that Takahashi guy a thing or too." Kei blurted.

Everyone fell silent at the reminder of the man they had cremated.

"Anyway. Let's get dinner happening." Tyne instantly changed he subject.

They entered the cottage to make a meal, eat it and laze about to play cards on the low table, which Kei had bought at the shops.

Sean goaded Kei into spilling more stories of his past, whilst knocking out his plays with his winning hands.

Kei cursed and snapped every time he had to remove a piece of clothing when he lost.

"You'll be butt naked if you keep losing." Eiji smirked behind his cards.

"Shuddup!" Kei growled. Feeling weird at his naked chest exposed to them.

They continued to play their poker game, although Tyne was having a hard time keeping a serious face whenever Kei kept losing.

"F'ckers!" Kei cursed when he lost three straight rounds, and was down to his briefs. "I f'cking fold!"

He stood before Sean who was appraising his toned and lean body with a roving eye.

"Gimme my clothes." He demanded Sean.

Sean coyly held Kei's clothes to his chest, making Kei feel weird at his sniffing of his shirt.

"Ugh. Disgusting." Kei regurgitated.

He turned and fled the room.

"Come back Kei! I'm only joking!" Sean called out, laughing.

Kei shortly returned wearing a dull blue yukata he had found in the closet.

"Looks good on you." Eiji cordially noted.

"Stinks of moth balls." Kei complained.

Kei started sharing a story of when he was a teen brat. He and his sister had chased off one of his mother's ex-boyfriends by pretending to be ghosts. It was Halloween. They had been practicing ghost noises for weeks.

The ex-boyfriend had entered their unit to hear spooky sounds from the drain pipes. Kei and his sister had some of the objects tied to strings and around poles, so they could pull down on them to raise the objects. Under semi-darkness, it actually looked like a ghost was doing it.

He bolted out their door and never returned. It seemed he had a phobia for ghosts and all things supernatural. Hearing those noises and seeing the floating objects made him believe that her ex-husband was around to haunt them.

"You're serious?" Eiji raised his brows at the absurd reason to break up with someone.

"No shit! The f'cker almost wet his pants when Taylor started howling like a banshee. The pussy!" Kei laughed.

"Devil child." Sean smirked.

"Yeah. Good times." Kei sighed.

The mood quieted to a moment of reflection as the affects of the cheap sake began to dull their senses.

"I remember when I was still a good boy. My best friend was aiming for our high school's ace cheerleader..." Sean started telling his tale.

The ace cheerleader was already dating the school's quarterback. His friend was only an average player on the team, and held a lot of respect for the team's star player. Sean, on the other hand, found the quarterback a beefcake with no brains. Especially when he was bullying other kids to do his homework or other stuff for him. He was both a jock and jerk. It seemed the ace cheerleader was only tolerant of him because of his team star status. She seemed slightly uncomfortable when they were together, but the quarterback didn't notice. Obviously. Of course, Sean wanted to give his friend and the jerk's victims some justice and fighting chance.

So, at one of the kissing booth events, during their school carnival, Sean convinced the ace cheerleader to swap places behind the secret wall that only showed lips through a hole. The other person on the other side weren't able to see who the pair of lips belonged to. He had her boyfriend kiss him instead.

"It was meant to be a prank, I was going to use it to dissuade the cheerleader and jerk from dating. My prank worked better than expected." Sean chuckled.

"He liked the kiss so much, he dumped the cheerleader and spent rest of his school days eying all the girls' lips to find the person who had driven him crazy with a kiss. The amount of face-slapping and punches he got from other members of his team was priceless. A lot of girls avoided him like the plague afterwards!" He rolled about the floor with laughter.

"Tsk. The poor man was doomed by Sean." Tyne groaned, slamming a palm to his forehead.

"Should've known back then that I had that magic touch on men." Sean cackled, teasing Kei that earned a light whack on his shoulders.

"Keep away, pervert!" Kei shivered.

"Whada about you? What's your girly story to share?" Kei asked Tyne.

Tyne told them about a time he was trying to woo a girl during his high school days. Being from rich parents, he attended a private all boys school that was neighbors with the affiliated girl school. Sometimes he would see the girl he liked during shared gym sessions. As the schools shared the same sports field.

"She was a hard case. The most difficult flower to try to impress. She had both beauty and an academic record to prove her intelligence."

Tyne was like a lot of the guys in his school, queuing for her attention. So one day he decided to do something out of the ordinary. Her house wasn't far from his. It was a box mansion on a picturesque street. He had scoped her room to be on a top floor balcony. One night, he climbed up the tall tree next to her balcony. He stood before her bedroom window, wearing his best Sunday suit, and started crooning a ballad beneath the moonlight, with a bouquet of roses in his hand.

Instead of receiving the adoration from his love interest, he had received the attention from her older brother. Who at first was angry by the disturbance, until he caught a good look at him.

"He listened to me sing the whole night, putting in requests whilst crunching his fists." Tyne gulped.

"Her parents eventually came to the window to call me into the house and give me a stern lecture. It was so embarrassing, I felt like dying. The next day, her brother asked me to give him a kiss, saying he liked my serenading very much. I ran and stopped trying to woo her."

Sean and Eiji burst with laughter.

Tama's yawning caught their attention. The men felt the same sleepiness as the sake was, well and truly, dulling their bodies into a comfortable lull.

Eiji dragged the table out of the way to make space on the mats. Soon the men were snoring in their cozy spots on the ground with sleep.