Pizza and embarresment

Walking back home, Benjiro never knew that it was possible to love the fact that it was Friday so much. He just wanted to go home, take a hot bath, find a corner to sit in with his phone and computer, get caught up on watching GTO and a few videos of animals doing stupid things and forget about everything until the school week started back up again. But in the back of his mind, he knew that lazy of a weekend wouldn't be happening anytime soon. There was work to be done and as such, preparations were needed. Honestly, he wasn't even sure if his work would pay off in the end. But even though he didn't go searching for difficult tasks, he hated the feeling of failure or of leaving a job incomplete.

However, that was something to worry about when tomorrow arrived and Benjiro refused to let that ruin an afternoon of just letting his brain atrophy a little. When he arrived home, he was a little surprised to see that his Dad hadn't started making dinner yet. His Dad, since he wasn't home every night, tried to make good dinners for the two of them to eat together. Seeing his slightly overweight father just nonchalantly stretched out on the couch was a somewhat unusual sight.

"Hey, kiddo", Fumihiro called out, "How was the day?"

"Let's j-just say if the w-weekend was a girl, I'd m-marry it", Benjiro responded.

His joke earned a chuckle or two from his Dad, "I'm feeling kind of lazy tonight, do you just want to order some pizza and call it a night?"

"Boy, y-you must be feeling l-lazy."

"Hey, I work a twenty four hour shift, and spend most of that time trying to keep people from dying and in the case of today, helping a woman to deliver a baby in the backseat of her car."

Benjiro's eyebrows shot up in the air, Wow! D-Does that happen often?"

Fumihiro put on his thinking face for a moment, "Eh, every now and then. Sometimes we just get them to the hospital, but when the need arises, you've still got a job to do."

Grinning, Benjiro asked, "B-Boy or girl?"

"It was a girl, and I would say she was cute, but when they first pop out, they're all pale and covered in goo-"

Benjiro groaned while covering his ears, "Ugh, la la la la, I don't want to hear thiiiis", he said in a loud, sing-song voice.

Fumihiro laughed at his son acting dramatically, "Anyway, you want a meatlovers?"

Benjiro snapped his fingers and pointed, "Add another one with peppers and onions and we're s-set."

A half hour later, the two of them were about to start laying on the couch, channel surfing for a good MMA fight and start snarfing down on their pizza. While they were getting plates, a knock was heard at the door, "Hey, could you get that kiddo?"

Benjiro went to the door without saying a word. The knocking continued a little more intensely, "OK, I'm c-coming." He opened the door and was a little surprised to see Akiko standing on his doorstep, tapping her foot. After taking a moment to organize his thoughts, he greeted, "Higaki, wh-what's up?"

"Why didn't you come over today? I saw you come home and I've been waiting for an hour now."

"Oh...uh", he stumbled, "I d-didn't know we were g-going to do it today t-too. It's Friday aft-ter all."

Akiko lifted one finger in the air in a scholarly fashion, "Just because it's the weekend doesn't mean that you should skip out. We both have a lot of work to get done, don't we?"

Benjiro scratched his head, "I s-suppose but a n-night off couldn't hurt, r-right?"

"What are you doing right now?"

"J-Just having a p-pizza and watch-ching the cage match with m-my Dad."

"Hey Ben, who's at the door", Fumihiro called, "The match is about to start."

"It's th-the neighbor girl", Benjiro responded.

The sound of heavy footsteps could be heard approaching. Fumihiro appeared behind Benjiro to observe the girl, "Oh, it's you", he said in a surprised tone, "I thought that the two of you were just in the same club together?"

"W-Well, there is that, but w-we're also n-neighbors."

Fumihiro recalled this girl stopping by his house a few weeks ago, but he had been bleary-eyed at the time. Now that he got a better look at her, he could see that she was a pretty cute girl, but she also seemed to have a slight Napoleon complex. So, he was a little torn on what to consider as his opinion of her, "I don't think we were properly introduced the first time around. My name's Fumihiro Nojiri, I'm Ben's father."

Akiko shook her head to regain her train of thought, "I'm Akiko Higaki, I'm one of your neighbors I suppose. Nice to meet you?"

'Well, at the very least she knows her manners, I'll give her that', Fumihiro observed.

"Would you like to come inside?" he offered, "We can't offer much, but if you feel like having some pizza and watching some MMA, we certainly wouldn't say no to a little extra company."

Benjiro turned to his Dad, "We would", he discreetly asked.

"Yes, we would", Fumihiro responded with equal discretion.

"Yes! W-Would you l-like to?" Benjiro reaffirmed.

Akiko was a little surprised, since her odd neighbor and classmate never seemed to go out of his way to interact with anyone any more than he deemed necessary. She opened her mouth to respond, but then got a better look at the boy's father. It had been some times since she came to fetch his son, but now that she took some time, to get a better look at him, she felt a little afraid. Benjiro was at least a whole head taller than she was, but his father appeared to be a whole head taller than his son, nearly at two meters' height, 'Yikes, what do these guys do to get so tall? Do they eat and drink nothing but milk and MiracleGro?' she wondered. The start of a gut gave him the look of someone who was once in great shape, but had recently fallen out of his routine. The way he smiled made him look as though he almost wasn't used to it and had only recently started. Like a grumpy statue that had forcibly carved a smile onto it's face. But despite his imposing nature, Akiko saw that the big man seemed to genuinely be trying to be friendly.

"Sure, if I'm not intruding", Akiko accepted.

As they walked back inside Benjiro couldn't help but think, 'Wow, usually when strangers meet Dad, they try to finish whatever it is they're doing as quick as they can. Fumihiro and Benjiro both went back inside to make sure that there was nothing especially dirty that needed to be picked up off the floor, but fortunately there were just a few stray newspapers and maybe a dust bunny. Akiko walked in and hesitantly took a seat on the couch while Fumihiro retired to his recliner.

Akiko didn't particularly care for watching two men beating the piss out of each other entertaining, but she sat through it and payed attention as much as she could. Whenever someone went to the ground and the winning opponent rained down hammer fists, Akiko would do her best not to flinch. However, she noticed that the father and son didn't seem to be very absorbed in the fight either. Instead they mostly just used it as a distraction for whenever the conversation lagged, which it seemed to do quite often. Trying to add something to the mix, "Hey... uh, Nojiri."

"Yes?" they both responded.

"Sorry... um... Benjiro", saying his first name was an odd thing indeed, "Are we going to continue working on stuff for the play tomorrow?"

"W-We could, b-but it'd have to b-be in the aft-ternoon still. I h-have someth-thing to do at the libr-rary."

"Since when do you go to the library?" she asked.

"H-Hey", he responded in a mock offended tone, "I like b-books."

"Boy, does he ever", Fumihiro jumped in, "If this kid isn't being weird, he always has his nose in a book."

"Dad!"

The big man gave one of those obnoxious giggles that seemed to be trademark of fathers that wanted to bust their son's chops.

"I n-need something th-that'll probabl-ly help with Haruok-ka."

"Haruoka, who's that?" Fumihiro asked before gasping, "Is that your girlfriend? But I thought this might be your girlfriend."

"Dad!", Benjiro shouted in a genuinely embarrassed voice, "Haruoka is a g-girl I'm t-tutoring. I th-thought I t-told you about h-her."

"Oh yeah, the mean, uncooperative girl", Fumihiro recollected.

"Wait, you're actually going to try to teach Haruoka? How do you plan on doing that? From what you've told me, it's a miracle she even tolerates being around you."

A knowing smile spread across Benjiro's face, "W-Well, I l-learned something very interest-ting from her c-captain."

He began to explain what the plan or at least, desperate attempt, was going to be.