Time Stamp: Present Day

"Hey, are you lost?"

On an early Saturday morning in the neighborhood, Yuta Takebayashi had discovered a little boy trying to read a poorly-drawn map. The little boy had an expression of confusion on his face, so it was evident that he was lost.

"M-Maybe..." the little boy whimpered.

For some odd reason, Yuta had a feeling that this boy held the same aura as Marie. Even though the little boy had short blond hair and brown eyes that were the complete opposite of Marie's characteristics, the alarm bells in his head refused to stop ringing.

"I can help take you home if you want?" Yuta offered.

"U-Um... if it's fine with you..." the little boy timidly agreed.

Yuta realized that it was a bit hard to converse if they didn't know each other's names. "I'm Yuta Takebayashi. What's your name?"

"Akira Tanaka."

Just like I had expected. The siblings really do give off a similar aura even though their personalities are polar opposites.

"Does your sister's name happen to be Marie?" Yuta asked.

In response to hearing his sister's name, Akira's eyes glowed with happiness. "You know my sister!"

"Haha, we're classmates at school," Yuta laughed at Akira's sudden change of emotion. "I've been to your house a few times before, so I know the way back."

"Mhm, okay!" Akira happily nodded his head.

Unexpectedly, it seemed that Akira had no longer associated Yuta as a stranger since Yuta knew his sister. In his mind, any of his sister's friends would be his friends as well. The fear of a stranger was completely wiped clean from his mind.

At their current location, the two were only about a 10 minute walk away from the house, so they weren't that far away. Since it would soon be lunch, Yuta wanted to take Akira home as fast as possible so he could go get something to put in his stomach.

"So, what were you out doing today?" Yuta asked Akira as they walked through a quiet neighborhood.

Akira's face grimaced as he recalled the previous events of the day. "I went to get ice cream, but I forgot my way back..."

Yuta remembered that Akira was often gone from the Tanaka house since he was out playing with friends, so he wondered how Akira didn't know the way back home. "If I recall, you go out to play with friends a lot, so why don't you know the way home?"

"Mom drives me everywhere since I'm not allowed to go out on my own," Akira replied.

"Wait, you're not allowed out on your own? Then, today..."

Akira averted his eyes. "I snuck out without telling anyone."

"Oh," Yuta said with his eyes widened. There was a good chance Marie and her parents were in a panic looking for him right now. Pulling his smartphone out from his pocket, Yuta clicked on Marie in his contacts and clicked the call button.

"Um, Yuta, right now isn't a really good time. Trust me when I tell you I would love to talk to you, but we're having some family problems over here," Marie spoke frantically.

"I found your brother," Yuta calmly said. "We're on our way back to your house right now."

"Oh! You found Akira! Oh my goodness!" Marie happily yelled over the phone. "Mom! Dad! Yuta found Akira!"

Excited shouting from the rest of her family could be heard over the phone, so Yuta chuckled and handed the phone over to Akira.

"Your family is happy that you're coming home safe," Yuta smiled.

For the next few minutes, Yuta walked in silence as he listened to Akira apologizing to his family over the phone. Even though he was profusely apologizing, it wasn't like his family was mad at him. Akira was just a good and honest kid at heart.

"Done talking with your family?" Yuta asked as Akira handed him his phone back.

"Mhm, I apologized. I won't leave without permission again," Akira reflected on his mistakes.

Since Yuta could tell that Akira was properly reflecting on his actions, he decided to treat Akira with something nice.

"Do you want to get some ice cream?"

"Really?" Akira's expression brightened.

"Yep, there's an ice cream truck down the road over there. Since you learnt from your mistake, let's go eat ice cream to celebrate! Choose whatever flavor you want!" Yuta grinned.

"Wow, thanks! Yay, I'm going to get chocolate!" Akira started to sprint towards the ice cream truck.

Should I get some for the rest of Marie and her parents as well?

***

After Yuta and Akira obtained the ice cream they desired, the two of them showed up to the front entrance of the Tanaka household with a lax atmosphere.

"That mint chocolate flavor was so good," Yuta sighed dejectedly since he didn't have any more ice cream.

"Chocolate was the best! I don't think there's any other flavor that comes close to it!" Akira excitedly proclaimed.

Since neither of them had a key, Yuta pushed the button next to the door and the doorbell rang in response.

Immediately, the door flew open and the entire Tanaka family was there to celebrate Akira's return.

"You had us worried!" Marie pouted.

"Haha, he's a curious kid. But yeah, you had Dad and Mom scared a bit," Takei wryly smiled.

"Mommy was really worried for you, y'know?" Akari ruffled Akira's hair.

In face of all this overwhelming love, Akira rushed forward and hugged all three of them with an apologetic expression on his face.

"I'm sorry, I won't do it again!"

Watching all three of their faces change to an expression of relief made Yuta realize once again that the Tanaka family was the most pure-hearted family that there ever was.

"Thanks for bringing him back home," Marie turned towards Yuta and smiled with an exhausted expression. "You really keep on making us owe you."

"Don't worry about it," Yuta shrugged. "I didn't do this as a favor, so just take it as a sign of goodwill. I just want you and your family to be happy and safe."

"Perfect response. Ten out of ten!" Takei clapped. "Use that line of any girl and you'll win her heart."

"Woo! Go get 'em, you playboy!" Akari teased him.

Ignoring the peanut gallery in the back, Marie blushed and averted her eyes. "T-Thank you..."

Now that they had been talking for a while, Yuta was starting to get scared that his present might melt.

"Oh yeah, I got a little something for you guys," Yuta grabbed a box from the bag that he was carrying. "It's an ice cream cake I got as a present."

The whole family, except Akira since he already knew, looked at Yuta with great excitement. He had a feeling that they all shared similar food tastes since they were all Tanaka's, and it looks like his assumption is correct by the looks of it.

In unison, the entire family invited Yuta to enter their humble abode.

""Please come in.""

—

I don't know what we'll call this arc, so I'll call it the Marie-Goes-On-The-Aggressive arc.

Sugar-chan: Woohoo! We can see what she learned from her mother!

Serious-san: *ring* *ring* Is this Yuta? GLHF