After my classes ended on Thursday I returned home pretty quickly, after dinner was consumed we grabbed the cake I baked yesterday, grabbed the grill, and took dad's car to deliver it to Keisuke's house, considering that dragging it around just to showcase it to the birthday boy seemed to be such a hassle.

Additionally, I had no way of knowing where he was at the given moment since he was supposed to be driving with his Toman buddies right about now.

At the door we were greeted by Keisuke's mom, showcasing to her the grill that had only one red big bow concealing it, because I wouldn't be out here wasting so much paper, think about turtles man. Before she could question our purchase, dad went in and introduced himself first and foremost.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Michi's father. Hirabayashi Masato." Keisuke's mom seemed taken aback by her visit even if I let her know beforehand about our settlement. Despite that dad decided to be funny and added this phrase on top of that.

"Although we never had the pleasure to meet, previously to this encounter, you can rest assured that every time your kid comes over for a visit to our house, we treat him as one of our own kids."

"That's good to hear." But I had to be cheeky and added this to the conversation.

"I wouldn't repeat those words to Keisuke tho..." I warned her.

"Why?" She wondered as I got the chance to explain the whole gimmick.

"We have a joke circulating around that Keisuke is our family's adopted son, which he hates. But fear not we don't plan on actually following thru with that plan." At first, she seemed unsure why her son would be mad at such an innocent joke since he loved spending time at our house so I decided to aid her.

"He would prefer to claim the title of the son-in-law." She looked like she suddenly received divine enlightenment on the situation.

"That's a good position indeed." She agreed, so I decided to pull a small prank at her expense. I put my hand into prayer and soon uttered.

"Don't worry I will support your son in this endeavor." She seemed intrigued that's when I let out this line.

"I bet my older brother and Keisuke will make a good pair, but they may have it hard because by law gay marriage isn't allowed. But the future is bound to bring improvement if we join hands and demand change in the situation, don't you think?" She stared at me wondering how to respond.

"Michi, you should give Keisuke some slack from time to time, it's his birthday, after all, you shouldn't bully him this much on his special day." Dad intervened, I sighting at his reminder. I guess he did have a point.

"So you were pulling my leg?... I guess Keisuke did warn me about your prankster nature." She must have been astonished by the fact that she as an adult wasn't safe from my jokes, and I bet I was way too cute to stay mad at.

"Well let's go inside, so you can explain to me what the grill is for." After I dragged it inside and dad handed over the handmade cake for Keisuke into his mom's hands I started my explanation.

"Of course, this is Keisuke's present." She wasn't really amused by my choice of gifts.

"Mrs. Baji thinks about it, our little arsonist needs something from keeping him from setting cars on fire, candles won't do the trick. Therefore not only he can gaze and be fascinated by a pretty fire thanks to my contraption, but he can also prepare himself a meal in the meantime... our little moth man." She busted out laughing after hearing the nickname I just gave him.

"You even gave him a nickname, you must like this boy a lot." I shook my head in denial.

"I just like bullying him." Somehow we ended up drinking tea with Keisuke's mom, during the conversation we had I changed Keisuke's phone contact into his new nickname, yet I adjusted it a little.

"Moth boy." A few moments later we somehow arrived at this crazy exchange.

"I'm happy to find out you think so highly of me, but can you really survive years to come with the fact I could become your daughter-in-law? I could be a bad influence... what if I transform your son into a lazy couch potato?" Dad pointed out it was unlikely, even Keisuke's mom didn't believe me.

"Listen, before you knew me, I could be classified as a hermit... and you know what they say, couples start to resemble each other the more time passes." This conversation was cut short because Keisuke decided to give me a call.

"You are not planning to hang out with me, even if it's my birthday?" Was his starting line as soon as I received the call.

"Um... weren't your plans to go around riding with your boys? I didn't want any part of that, so I delivered a cake to your house together with your present?... And you accuse me of something like this? That's it, I will ask your mom for your baby photos to gather bullying material." He was quick to change a tone while declaring.

"We are coming over!" Who were we? Did we need to get another cake? I wasn't sure this was enough. Dad decided to head out and buy more cake, while I was showcased some of Keisuke's baby pictures.

"How about you take one for yourself?" I looked at Keisuke's mom in wonder.

"Is this some deliberate plan of yours to make me want babies in the future that are looking like Keisuke?" She laughed so hard, she was basically holding her stomach while some tears were streaming down her face.

"I never thought I would hear something ridiculous like this from a 13-year-old." Oh right, never mind then. I guess young couples weren't expected to stay together for so long. Chifuyu's romance mangas were giving me too many expectations at this point.

Then we heard a bunch of motorcycles arriving, beside Chifuyu and Kazutora there was also Mikey and Sanzu, and Jun?

"I heard there was cake!" Mikey declared after coming inside, but Sanzu wasn't too fond of me being here, but I just went in for a hug and while fake tears streamed down my face I spoke.

"I'm so proud of you Sanzu, you are finally hanging with your friends and making meaningful connections." He groaned but didn't push me away and once Jun walked in we high-fived each other.

"So how come you're here, what is going on?"

"I was hanging with Sanzu and then got invited over." Jun declared and then he decided to bring up my previous joke.

"I believe you should have Sanzu as one of your twenty husbands." Everyone looked shocked.

"In this case, you're not allowed to have Baji-san," Chifuyu announced clinging to him, staring at me like I was some kind of predator.

"Just give me a break already," I said and pointed at the grill for Keisuke to see.

"That's your present..." And then dad arrived holding the second cake he brought.

"And here we have another cake." Before I could say anything else, I was picked up by Keisuke and dragged away to his room while he yelled.

"Be right back guys!" I was so confused by this situation, what could he possibly be up to?

"Be quick, I want to eat the cake Michi made!" Mikey was the only one that dared to utter anything.

"So um... what is this?" I asked as he soon responded.

"I came in here to negotiate, but first answer me... why a grill?" He seemed serious.

"Well, my little moth boy, pretty flame, and on the side, I may be training you to be an American suburban dad." I had no idea where this thought came from, but of course, he took it the wrong way.

"You gave me a nickname and said something about dad training, is this your way of asking me out?" He already seemed to be in the seven heavens.

"No, you're truly smoking too much hopium." He didn't seem to understand what I was implying with this specific sentence.

"And what negotiations are you talking about?"

"I want another present like a date and kiss and bento box made by your hands."

"Hold your horses, aren't that too many requests, I'm not even your girlfriend yet." That's when I noticed a mission window popping out.

'Would you rather fulfill all his requests, or give him a reward for performing well on the grill?' Second option it was.

"How about this... we check your barbeque skills, and if you perform well I can grant your one request?" He seemed excited but it looked like he noticed something odd.

"Wait... you spaced out there for a moment, as if you were reading something, don't tell me you only did it because of a mission." Wow did his DnD rolls perform so well?

"Was it so obvious?" I asked, I guess since he was more aware of my circumstances it was easier for him to notice such details.

"And you chose to fulfill my request out of two options? You must like me a lot." This guy had a lot of confidence.

"Sure let's go with that." And so after consuming some cake we started the fire to cook some meat. Our arsonist was mesmerized by the flames dancing around, so much so that he had a great time grilling the food.

"Never thought you would bring out my cooking talent. You seem to know me well." Keisuke expressed, no not really I was shaken by this discovery myself. I was expecting minimal cooking expertise from him, I thought it would be acceptable if he didn't burn the meat.

"I did my part of the deal, which means I'm taking you on a date today." He declared pointing the metal tongs he was holding in my direction.

"Ugh, fine, have it your way." He then proceeded to show a peace sign to Chifuyu that seemed mesmerized by his coolness. Did they have some kind of bet beforehand or what?

"We should have a Toman BBQ party." Mikey soon voiced his idea.

"Keisuke will provide us with food and Michi will make sweets." And who was supposed to finance this?

"Who's going to pay for the food exactly?" Mikey then proceeded to point at my big brother.

"I know nothing about this arrangement." He denied ever promising this, causing Mikey o to look at him with puppy eyes. Were they already on such good terms? Wasn't Mikey more resentful in the manga towards this matter?

Later I found out that Keisuke's date was just dragging me onto the motorcycle ride and trying to give me a heart attack.

"I didn't agree to you speeding like a maniac, slow down or your date is over!" He finally did.

"Shouldn't girls like scream at this moment and hug the guy close for protection?"

"Did Chufuyu feed you too many romance manga scenarios? Listen someone could get a panic attack at that moment and do something stupid like pulling your hair and distracting you from driving your vehicle, so be mindful of others." It looked like such a scenario never crossed his mind.

So apparently the one thing Keisuke wanted to do was look at the stars together.

"I thought you will like this kind of view...but I bet it would look even better if something was burning in the distance." I just facepalmed and just dragged him down to sit beside me.

"No I will not support your car-burning hobby, just throw that idea out of your head." And decided to give him a whole lecture about pollution, but then got interrupted by a falling star.

"Yo, check it out," I said pointing at the sky. I decided to wish for something, and the only thing I could think of was a desire to stay in this world.

"What was your wish?" Keisuke asked and my chaotic brain decided to mess with him.

"I wished for Kisaki to realize his feelings for me and ask me out."

"I knew it, him staying with Toman will not help anyone, I will bust his head in." I just fell back on the grass and laughed.

"What, what? Why are you laughing?" To which my response was.

"Do you really think I would waste my wish on such a thing?" He seemed done with my jokes.

"No mercy." He said as he tried to tickle me.

"Wait, wait, I surrender." But then because of reflexes, I managed to land a punch on him, but all he had to say was.

"We should totally fight each other! Since you will only become stronger from now on." I just blinked at him in confusion, so he went from flirting to testing my strength in a fight?

"And you want to win a fight against me at least once?" A mission came out and asked me to either kiss him or entertain his fighting idea.

"I guess we could have a spar. You're lucky that I like you..."

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Sorry for the delay guys~

Also here some more kid Michi fanart~

Cute~