That day, Aero was late to work for the first time in his life. He bumped into some person who wasn’t looking and helped carry their groceries which had fallen out of the now broken bag. Aero did think that this person carries way too many packs of fishballs, but he tried not to judge. He quickly apologised and hurried back the other way. Sky was looking at him curiously when he arrived, a mixture of worry and questions in their face.
Arret smiled to themselves as they put the groceries away. They thought back of the stranger who bumped into them, his kind smile and the legal lapel pin on his collar. She remembers the strong aura emanating from his masculine figure. He wonders if he would see the stranger again, although the tingling sensation of his power indicates that he would.
Sky came over to check on Aero, sensing a menacing presence looming over him. A familiar one, though.
“Hey, you’re a bit later than usual. Everything good?”, Sky asked soothingly.
“Yeah, just bumped into someone on the road and they dropped all their groceries - I stayed behind to help and it took quite awhile, sorry!” Aero explained.
“No worries!” Sky replies with a smile, “we’ve got to focus today though, big case next week.”
Aero nodded and started going through the documents on his desk, although his mind can't seem to stray away from the stranger’s smile.
The week passes without incident and Sky and Aero enter the courtroom ready to face the challenge that awaits. Afterwards, Sky shyly invited Aero if he would like to come over and meet Meow Meow, and to have some drinks together to celebrate the case being over. Aero, however, noticed a familiar face amongst the public watching the day’s proceedings. He ignored the glimpse and accepted Sky’s invitation, brushing off Sky’s look of concern. Sky warmly smiles and they begin walking off, but Sky catches the familiar presence of someone for a moment as they leave the room.
In Sky’s apartment, Meow-meow is nuzzling Aero’s skin when the bell rings. Meow-meow sniffing the air jumps up and off Aero in excitement, sitting next to the door in ambush. Sky walked out of the kitchen to open the door, calming down Meow-meow as they go. They open the door and are surprised to simply see a box at the foot of the door, which Meow-Meow excitedly jumps on top of and paws furiously at the tape (which is very much designed to be cat-proof).
While Sky is confusingly looking for the person who rings their bell, they find their neighbour, Arret, popping their head from their door.
“Howdy there neighbour! I see you finally figured out them internets.” The neighbour gleefully call out.
“Hey! Sorry for the commotion, my cat got too excited.” Sky smiled, gesturing at Meow-meow. Sky is confused because they certainly didn’t order the tuna… could it have been…
“Sky? Is everything okay?” Aero approached from behind them.
“Huh? Yeh. Someone delivered some tuna.” Sky says while suspiciously eyeing Meow-Meow (who is still frustratingly trying to break into the cat-proof certified box). “I don’t remember ordering anything, though. Maybe I shouldn’t leave the computer lying around.”
Aero comes over and double checks the address, then picks up the box, with Meow-Meow in tow, and gracefully takes it inside, missing the neighbour observing the going ons. Meow-meow jumps off the box instead and starts aggressively meowing at the door outside.
Sky ignores the stupid cat and waves goodbye to the neighbour, carefully, but forcefully, pushing Meow-Meow inside before closing the door. Right before it closes, though, another knock comes at the door. Sky peeks through the crack.
“Arret! Do you need something?”
“You missed one” the neighbor says, handing over a tuna can.
“Ah, I must have dropped it when I picked it up!” Aero comes rushing to the door, but his steps are halted when he sees who’s standing there.
Together they point and shout “it's you!” at each other, Sky standing bewildered in between.
“You know each other?” Sky asks.
“This is the person I bumped into the other week” Aero replies with a sweet soft chuckle.
“Thank you so much for your help the other day!” A blush spread across Arret’s face. “I wasn’t expecting to run into you again at all…”
Sky attempts to read Arret’s intent, but is met with almost nothing to mentally grasp. They nod carefully - contemplating if this is where they should be asking if Arret wanted to join them and Aero.
“Well it was good to see you again” Aero says and waves goodbye. Sky could sense the slight disappointment within Arret which intrigued them, but they simply thanked their neighbour and promised that they would catch up sometimes.
Suddenly there was an awful screeching sound as Meow-Meow reached their limit with the Cat-Proof-Certified™ Box. Aero grins and crouched down to help, and Sky’s heart melts slightly as both he and Meow-meow look up at them, as if asking for permission to open the box. Sky provides a most royal of nods. Aero softly removes Meow-meow from the box before carefully opening the box, Meow-meow’s eyes sparkling with delight. Only to discover another box labelled Ferret-Proof-Certified™.
Aero looks confused for a moment, but then recovered and cheerfully goes, “Well, thank god none of us are ferrets!” He proceeds to open this box only to behold… Another Box! (this one inscribed with Tuna-Resistant-Material).
“Are we sure this is not some prank box? Are we even sure it’s safe to open?” Sky sighed heavily. Before Aero replies, Meow-Meow goes ham and shreds the box open, unleashing a whirlwind of tuna stink on them all.
“Um, Sky, isn’t it… a lot of tuna?” Aero chuckled. Sky still baffled by who would order this much Tuna didn’t notice the Tuna juice that splashed onto their cheek, which Aero did notice and gently wiped with his thumb. A blush spread across Sky’s cheeks, blissfully unaware of Arret popping his head out of the door again outside, wondering about the overwhelming pink-cloud-aura seeping out of his neighbour’s unit. Meow-Meow now covered in 100%-Organic-Natural-Health-Inducing-Tuna-Juice™ jumped onto both Aero and Sky, evidently asking for one of them to prepare her meal.
Aero, his little moment burst, scrambled to turn the other way, blushing furiously. Sky gave Meow-Meow a pet and then placed her into the sink, the water turning on automatically at Meow-Meow’s preferred temperature.
They turned to Aero smiling gently at them over the counter - “I’m sorry for the mess - we were supposed to celebrate.”
“No worries” Aero replied in their characteristically charming way. “I like spending time with you. It's a celebration enough for me.”
Sky blushed and Meow-Meow shook water all over them as she stood and left the sink.
Aero chuckled and gently placed his hands on Sky’s shoulders; “don’t worry - I’ll take care of it. You do what you gotta do, yeah?”