KOF Extras

Christmas Vacation in Cannes (Part 7)

Hi! I'm sorry I didn't get to continue this chapter sooner, there was a problem with my equipment and it proved to be a little inconvenient to write this chapter for a few days. And besides that, I also had to battle a cold during those days and the inconvenience just proved to be not worth at that point lol. But I'm better now and the problem has been solved so here I am writing again.

27th December
They didn't do much on the day after Christmas since they were all tired from celebrating and decided to just spend an hour at the beach besides going on for meals. It was time to leave and Shingo was making sure that they left nothing behind.
"Did you check under your beds?" Shingo asked as he searched the living room.
"There's no space under the bed, Shingo-Niichan," Meiten reminded. "The bed is... it's that soft thingy."
"You mean modern upholstered frame," Shun added, much to their surprise. "Yeah, I looked it up." He chuckled.
Shingo nodded as he came over. "Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. Checked your drawers?"
The two nodded.
"Alright, give the place one last sweep and we can go to the airport," Shingo said, taking his phone out. "You guys wanna go to the toilet or anything?"
"Already went," Meiten smirked.
"Same," Shun added.
Shingo shrugged. "Aight, then let's go."
But just as he was about to leave with the rest, Shingo's phone started ringing.
It was K', much to their surprise.
"You're actually friends with that dude?" Shun asked in surprise.
"Well, yeah, we entered one tournament together," Shingo said, but he was just as confused at the call. He answered it and pressed his phone against his ear. "Hello?"
"Yeah, hey," K' said on the other end. "You're leaving today, aren't you?"
"Yeah, I'm on my way out to check out now, what's up?" Shingo asked.
"Uh... your flight's been cancelled and Beni just received the refund or something," K' casually said this bit of devastating news. "Apparently, there's a blizzard or something, would take days to pass, so it's unsafe."
"Then... then what are we supposed to do now?" Shingo asked. "Are we stranded?"
"Well, no, that's why we're on the way to pick you up," K' added. "We sent you a location, just go there, it's not that far from the resort."
"But we still gotta go to the airport to return the car," Shingo added. "I'd have to take another car back."
"Oh..." K' paused on the other end. "Yo, Beni, he says he still has to go to the airport. Why you chose this spot, then?"
There was a murmur on the other end and K' was heard muttering "Ah..." before turning back to the phone. "Alright, this location isn't near the resort, it's near the airport. Fairly near, just five minutes away by car... fifty minutes away by foot. So, you wanna get a car?"
Shingo sighed. "I guess we can book a taxi. Should be cheap since it's only five minutes away."
"Yeah, if you know French," K' snorted. "You guys are the definition of tourists. They're gonna take you the long way."
"Dash, I'm taking a PickYou," Shingo sighed. "They have a fixed route, remember."
"Wait, they do?" K' seemed surprised. "Sorry, I don't usually take those."
Shingo just rolled his eyes and told him that he will be there before hanging up. He turned up the rest and told them about it as well.
"And good news, we will be home in minutes!" Shingo was actually excited to ride in the spaceship.
"Minutes?!" Meiten gasped. "How?!"
"I don't think that's possible," Shun added. "We're so far away from home!"
Shingo smirked. "Not of we're flying in a spaceship."
That revelation surprised them. "What?!" They uttered in unison.
"Who's spaceship are we flying in? Aliens?!" Shun asked. "Shingo-Niichan, I don't trust this K' guy. He's never been nice to us."
"Come on, he's nice," Shingo insisted. "I've flown in this spaceship myself. We went on a few holidays together, actually."
The teens were still sceptical, but still agreed to follow him.

The PickYou car stopped in front of an empty field and Shingo amicably got out and helped the boys unload their luggage, much to their surprise as well as the PickYou driver's. Shingo watched the PickYou driver leave and led the boys into the empty field.
"Shingo-Niichan, where are we going?" Shun asked. "This place gives me the creeps."
It didn't help that the land was completely empty with, sand as far as the eye can see. There were bones around too, which they hoped didn't belong to any human.
"They're already here," Shingo insisted. "Wait, let me call him..."
But before he could, the giant spaceship materialised before them. The two of them looked at it in awe while Shingo grinned proudly. He urged them forward when the door fell downwards to form a gangway. K' stood at the doorway, sipping ginger ale as he watched them enter. "Yo," he greeted simply.
Shingo waved at him excitedly and ushered the teen boys in. They didn't know what to do and just bowed at K' before hurrying past him. K' snorted and watched them enter before closing the doorway and joined them as well.
"Thanks, dude," Shingo said as soon as K' sat down. "I didn't even know the weather could go bad."
"Eh, no one knew," K' shrugged. "The airlines cancelled the flight with a full refund. Beni asked us."
"Who's flying this thing again?" Shun asked.
"Oh, it's Max," K' said, pointing towards the cockpit.
"Hi!" Maxima excitedly waved at them.
"Okay..." Meiten turned to K'. "We didn't know that you're friends with Shingo-Niichan."
K' snorted. "Shingo-Niichan. That's cute."
Shingo nodded in agreement. "Right? These guys are adorable."
"Well, if only we were treated like that back in our day," K' shrugged, downing his soda. "They called us terrorists."
"But aren't you?" Shun asked, immediately earning a frown. "Wait, no, I meant before KOF."
"I never was involved in those things," K' sighed. "And people like you still think us as terrorists." He turned to Benimaru who looked just as uncomfortable. "And this is what we get for helping out. Thanks."
Benimaru groaned. "Dash, come on. They didn't mean that." He turned to Shun. "He was wronged, pulled into that mess against his will. He never once supported them, broke out first chance he got."
"Oh, right..." Shun nodded slowly. "I'm sorry."
K' clicked his tongue and got up, going over to a window to look out instead.
Shun frowned and turned to Shingo. "He's not angry or anything, is he?"
Shingo snorted. "Nah, he's always like this. But he's nice. The guy's had a tough life, and he finds it a little hard to express himself sometimes."
Benimaru nudged Meiten and handed him a can of grape soda before handing Shun another can of orange soda. "It's a good thing Dash didn't ask any questions when I explained to him about the issue. I just told him you guys were stuck in Paris with a cancelled flight ticket and he came over."
"In the spaceship?" Meiten asked, surprised.
"Nah, he came in his car," Benimaru chuckled. "They parked this spaceship somewhere else."
"We're here," Maxima suddenly announced.
Shun and Meiten were shocked.
"Wait, what?!" Meiten ran to the nearest window to look and sure enough, they were in China, right beside Tung's monastery. "Wait, we're home!"
"Yeah, we figured that we'd just drop you off since the tickets got cancelled anyway," Maxima said called from the cockpit.
Meiten turned to Shun and found him getting up from his seat, taking his baggage with him. Shun turned to Shingo and gave him a bow, then hugged him before going over to K'. Meiten hugged Shingo too and followed Shun as well.
"Thanks for bringing us home," Shun bowed, much to K's surprise. "And I'm sorry for misunderstanding you."
"We didn't mean any of that, it's just that we know so little of you and we don't talk much during the tournament," Meiten added. "Maybe we can keep in touch now?"
K' just looked at them, his eyes hidden behind those red-tinted sunglasses of his, then gave them a short nod. The two of them immediately hurried out, much to his amusement.
"Quite a bunch, aren't they?" Benimaru snorted.
K' shrugged as he closed the door before rejoining them. "Looks like it. But I guess they aren't so bad."
"They just never met you before, dude," Shingo added. "And maybe it's because you always scowl at them at the tournament."
"Definitely that," Maxima added as he ascended the spaceship.
K' couldn't help but snort. "So you want me to go about grinning at everything under the sun? Like this?"
When he grinned, Shingo and Benimaru couldn't help but burst into laugher.
"Okay, that's funny," Benimaru grinned. "Maybe not like that, just quit scowling. That would make a huge difference."
K' shrugged. "Eh, it must've just been because I found them annoying. Seriously, how can he even hear with those headphones? And that other kid carries a bolster around too."
"But they're actually pretty fun," Shingo added. "We spent almost a week together."
"Nice, I guess," K' shrugged.
Benimaru decided to change the subject. "Any new year plans?"
"Going to the Yagamis," K' said. "And right after, we're going to Sapporo."
"Nice, nice," Benimaru chuckled. "Well, I'm going to visit my parents. Well, I was in the middle of having breakfast dinner with them anyway when I got the notification."
"Oh yeah, how was your Christmas?" Shingo asked. "Forgot about that for a second."
"Was good for us," K' said. "The Yagamis celebrated with us since no Beni and Honoka."
"She went to her village," Benimaru added. "It was fun for me too. Had fun with my parents."
The spaceship soon landed and the four of them got out and got right into K's Ford Explorer. They dropped Benimaru off before leaving Shingo at his home.
Shingo waved at the K' team and sighed before turning to his home. He rummaged in his pockets for his house keys and unlocked the gate before letting himself in. Everything was just as he had left, Christmas lights hanging from the porch, his dad's bike parked beside the entrance, and then there was the bench that he liked to sit on whenever he was bored of being inside. It was covered in snow now, but he could just scrape it off.
"I'm home!" Shingo announced when he stepped into the living room.
Rieko came bundling down the stairs. "Niichan!"
Shingo thought that was a surprising sight. The only reason she usually came running to him was to see if he had done anything stupid. But this was the first time she was coming for him alone.
Rieko threw her arms around him, almost throwing him to the ground. "You're finally home!"
Mrs Yabuki chuckled as she entered the room. "She's been asking for you all week."
Shingo chuckled as he pulled away from the hug. "Really? Not because I did something stupid?"
Rieko quickly shook her head. "No! I've missed you."
"Right, right," Shingo snorted. "For the first time ever."
Rieko gave his arm a punch.
"You must be tired, why don't we have lunch?" Mrs Yabuki suggested, coming over to give him a hug as well. "You're telling me all about your Christmas."
Shingo nodded and followed her to the dining room. "Where's dad?"
"Doing something in the kitchen," Mrs Yabuki sighed. "With your Neechan. They've been at it for hours."
"Sounds delicious," Shingo shrugged as he snuck into the kitchen to see what they were up to. To his surprise, he spotted Ayako pulling a turkey out of the oven. "Whoa, you guys are roasting turkey?!"
"Stuffed turkey," Ayako said, placing the steaming turkey on the counter top. She peeled her mittens off and turned turned to him with a slight smile on her face. "You finally decided to show up. At the right time too."
Shingo snorted as he hugged her. "And you decided to do the turkey this time."
"Well, yeah," Ayako squeezed him. "Because you decided to leave us for Christmas."
"Yeah..." Shingo sighed. "I didn't want to deal with some unwanted drama."
"What drama you had in mind, boy?" Mr Yabuki asked, stirring something in the pot.
Shingo shrugged. "Well, there was the stuff that happened last year. PTSD was what made me go away this year."
Mr Yabuki sighed and placed the lid on the pot before coming over. "Come on, boy, we're still family in the end."
That statement made Shingo feel a little queasy. "I know. But I still didn't want to go through that again. I spent days planning only for me to get spat on like that."
Rieko hugged him again, Shingo didn't even realise that she had entered. Ayako joined the hug as well.
"We're sorry for what happened last year," Ayako said, rubbing his back. "That's why we decided to surprise you with the turkey this year."
"Yeah, these two planned it for you," Mr Yabuki added with a smirk. "And then suddenly you tell us you're going to France and disappear for a few days."
"So we had to put it on hold," Ayako added. "Rieko cried on Christmas Day because you weren't here."
"I know, she was on-call with me," Shingo sighed, patting his little sister's hair. "But least I'm here now, and we have turkey." He frowned slightly. "When's mochi day?"
"The day after tomorrow," Mrs Yabuki said. "You'll be the one pounding it, okay?"
"With me," Ayako piped up, grinning.
"Yeah, strong woman is taking over for me this year," Mr Yabuki smirked.
Shingo chuckled as he tried to imagine the sight of his older sister helping him pound the mochi. He didn't doubt her strength, she really was strong, but it must be a funny sight.
"Let's have our lunch," Rieko said as she finally pulled away from the hug. "And you have gifts to open too."
Shingo smiled. "I can't wait."

The End.

Hey guys! I'm sorry this chapter took forever to come up. I couldn't write since there was a problem with my device and then there was also the fever. Yeah... I had to cancel my plan of baking a cake for new year as well...
But here it is now. I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!