The Snack J Jam
by Jimp

"So what's that song?" Jinpei asked the customer as she popped another 500 yen coin into the CD player.

"Wang Chung." You never dance to this? Of course not. I guess you spend all your time behind the bar don't you?"

"Not realy. Only when my Sister's too busy working in the back. The again......Hey Sam!"

A short very stumpy looking character walked through the door and took a seat at the bar. "Hey Jayster, the usual tonight. By the way, I finished the software mod on your Tracker. You got the new GPS mod II with Mylar track five extention....."

"Another of those ten thousand yen words Sam? Give me some slack, my ten year old mind can't take all that stuff." Jinpei says as he places a tall glass of brew before the ISO tech wizzard's face.

"Hey, did you see the game tonight? Kenji Jizo's in top form tonight! Bashed another three homers over the fence!"

"Yeah, That was the stuff! I got tickets to next weeks three run with the Tandeshi Dragons, Ryu's taking me."

"Oh no....Look who just popped in Sam, the top of the line stud who owes me his whole paycheck and then some."

"Watch it Jinpei." Ken Washio said as he took his usual seat. "Suntori Jinpei. Where's Jun?"

"At home where I sent her. I can't stand you two when you get all nice and kissy, and don't try the usual pouting Ken......your tab makes the national debt look tame and Jun says I gotta start refusing you."

Ken smiled "Ok....here's five thousand for starters. I'm a paying customer now!"

Jinpei held the money over his head. "Look everyone! A blessed event has just happened! Mr. Ken Happy Boy Washio decided to pay off some of his tab! I'm gonna faint!" Jinpei proceeded to spin a bottle of Suntori in his hands, slaming it on the counter before his Commander.

"Hi Jinpei!" Came another well known voice as Jinpei's younger friend Kenji walked in and grabbed a white apron from behind the bar. "What's the special tonight?"

"Well......let's try California rolls and Yakasoba. Joe and Ryu should be here around 9:00 and you know those two. Joe will want something to go with his Adam's ale."

Kenji began to stur a ton of noodles and beef atop the hotplate behind the bar which rapidly filled the Snack with a heavy smell of hot spices. Kenji and Jinpei seemed to swey with the rythum from the CD player as the night progressed and other well knowns filtered in after a hard days work.



"How's buisness ace?" Jun said as she tapped Jinpei on the head.

"Well....your lover boy's having his usual fare Onechan. He even paid me Five Thou! Imagine, he paid! I just about died! Oh yeah, he's swooning sweet nothings again..says he likes the beach...."

"Jun promptly hit Jinpei with a light tap of the head. "I'll take over for now....you can take a break but don't break anything!"

Jinpei knew what he wanted to do. He bounced out to the small dance floor and invited Misako for a little fun. She was two years older than he was but Jun didn't seem to mind him hanging out with her at all. At least Misako would keep him leashed and out of trouble for a while.

"Hi Jun!" Ken said as he still wore the dark mirror shades over his eyes. He did it out of respect...She didn't need to know if he was tanked or not.

"Ken, Jinpei told me you finaly paid for once. Your still in debt though." Jun said as she rested on her ebows and pulled his glasses off.

"You look happy tonight Jun, more than usual I might add. That's good, the whole team's in real good spirits as of late." Ken said as he touched her hand. " Why don't we do what your brother's been nagging us to do. Take a vacation, just you and me. We don't have to do anything foolish."

"Ken...." Jun said back as she traced a finger around the glass he was drinking from. " How many times have I asked you before and always something comes up? Let's face it...right now it's just a Brother, Sister thing between you and me."

Ken began to frown. "Jun..it's not easy being Commander. I have to be official, stuck up, and impartial when we're working, you know that. For once I'm serious about this, you and me alone for a few days. No other people around to bother us. I know a real nice place in Enoshima. High in the mountains with a great view."

Jun noded, " Allright...if this crazy lull in operations holds...we'll go."

Ken gave her a real wide smile and pushed the glass of beer away. "That's enough for me. I'll take Cokes for the rest of the night." Ken turned to look at Jinpei cutting the dance floor.

"Jun.....Don't tell Jinpei just yet. The list of promotions came in an hour ago....your little brother's a Leutenant now. I think he'll like the nice bonus he's gonna get in his paychecks."

"A leutenant? Oh boy that'll over blow his ego into overdrive won't it?" She said as her brother danced his way back behind the bar.

"HEY! THE MASTER BLASTER HAS ARRIVED!" Joe screamed as he and Ryu walked into the Snack with a big racing trophy slung over their shoulders.

"Gaze apon this! The mother of all road race trophies! Won it with the usual tallent and skill awarded to the true Romanio, Joe Asakura the roadway master!"

Ryu beamed as he placed the trophy on the table. "Truely amazing. Drove the other racers mad at every turn. You should have seen it Jinpei! The man was the most!"

"Jinpei studied the trophy carefully....."Huh, looks like plastic to me Joe."

The bar fell sillent as patrons scrambled to get clear of the artillary that was building in Joe's head!


*******************

Joe looked plenty pissed off by Jinpei's remark about the trophy and the boy quickly snaped a finger behind his back for Kenji to help him out.

"Here Joe! A nice big plate of Yakasoba with all the fixings too!" Jinpei said as he held the big plate and a bottle of beer in front of him.

Joe took the plate and smiled back. "Your lucky I'm forgiving and one hungry Sicillian Bambino Jinpei." Joe took the plate to his table at the far end of the club.

All of a sudden the familliar strains of the song "Macarena" filled the air and Jinpei was off over the counter and once again on the dance floor as Ryu joined him.

'Oh Kami-da!" Jun said with a slap of her head. "The little stud's at it again!"

The sight was so funny that Sam sprayed a huge cloud of beer from his face as he fell from his bar stool to the floor. Here they were, the very large Ryu and his boney ten year old counterpart doing the Macarena, a most wild awkward display of flailing arms and swerving hips ever seen on Earth.

Jun noticed the new flock of customers filing in for the nightly festives, led by the consumate party girl Miori Sendai from Utoland Unniversity.

"Hey Jun! I brought some of our new frat Freshmen with me! I hope you got enough room for a roial frat fest!"

"If you got a plunger girl, we'll try it! Join the gopher twins and see if you can get my brother to dance with some style for once!"

Jinpei wasn't phased, he retalliated. " Well at least I'm dancing Jun! Why don't you get Ken the log to dance with you for once!"

Ken curled his lips, the last thing he wanted to do was interupt a nice night by dancing in a crowd of crazy college kids.

"Come on Ken?" Joe said from his seat! "The swallow challanges you.....don't back down or he'll be bragging for another week!"

Jun came around and offered Ken a hand. "If you survive this, I'll promise to paddle him till he can't sit."

He smiled....." Let me kill him first. Little shit." Ken took Jun by the hand and danced her onto the small dance floor surrounded by the encroaching crowd of students.

Jinpei and Ryu had wisely retreated to a table where Jinpei stood resting to admire his handywork.

"Thier trapped Ryu. She's gonna marry him someday." Jinpei said with a smile.

"I thought you'd be upset at the thought Kid. Ryu returned as he swigged a helping of beer.

"I was at first. But my sister deserves it, she deserves everything I can give her."

"What about you though, I bet you like that Misako huh?" Ryu prodded.

"What?....She's two years older than me. We're just friends that's all."

Ryu smiled......"Now...where have I heard that before?"


*******************

Jinpei became rather redfaced by Ryu's proddings over Misako. " Ryu, it's true. I like her but..."

"Then ask her out for a date!" Ryu pointed to Jinpei's nose. " A movie, the park, anyplace. For Kami sakes kid, your not gonna die from showing a girl a nice time."

Jinpei tried to change the subject, "Say.... what's that stuff under your nose?"

Ryu brushed his lip. " I'm growing a stash. Though it would look cool, give me an older sort of look you know. What do you think?"

"You'll look like a big, fat walrus!" Jinpei said as he smirked.

"Oh.....how sharp the tooth of the young Swallow!" Ryu grinned. " At least I'll have a full stash before you'll ever get anything downstairs!"

"RYU!" Jinpei yelled as he chased the burly pilot out of the Snack and into the street!

Joe, meanwhile, resided himself to a nice cold beer and a solitary vidual in the dark corner of the club when he was suddenly sturred to life by a familliar female voice.

"Joe Asakura! Avoiding me again as allways you jerk!" Said the leather jacket wearing girl who's eyes blinked behind a set of reyban shooting glasses.

"Rally? I'm sorry about last night, I was busy with other personal stuff and...."

"Personal? With you Joe it's always personal. I had a nice dinner all set up, heck I even got May to leave the house and the crazy internet for once! Dam it if you don't think it's worth a nice night for once!"

Joe got up and stopped Rally as she tried to walk out on him. "Dam it? Rally, if you ever realy knew what I go through day after day, you'd understand why it's so hard for us to get together."

"Then tell me....tell me why? Your one tight lipped, moody bastard Joe. You don't want me to get too close for some crazy reason, is that right?"

Joe didn't say another word, he just looked Rally in the face and stormed out to his car. Leaving her standing in the door confused as he drove off down the street.


*******************


"Ryu! stop pushing me!" Jinpei said as Ryu gave him another nudge through the front door. The party was well underway inside the crowded snack as Midori Sendai stood atop a table singing to a Karoke machine's output of a popular song by The Gunsmith Cats.....

"You know you love me baby.....you love me all night long......"

"Comeon Swallow...get in there and ask her!" Ryu said as he lightly tossed Jinpei towards Misako's table. Jinpei hesitated at first but he got another confident ribbing from Kenji as he placed two full glasses of coke on the table in front of Misako, one of them had two straws in it!

"Hi Jinpei!" Misako said as he took a seat and fidged with the straw. " I thought you wern't gonna come back in after Ryu chased you out."

" Misako....." Jinpei seemed to wince a little as he struggled to get the right words out. " Ulm......you wana go......to a movie?" He said with a slow, hesitent voice.

" Yeah!" Misako returned with a big smile. " I hear that new one called "Unrequented love" is a real good movie. I'd like that!"

Jinpei suddenly smiled as he moved to take a sip of the coke and Misako moved to do the same with the other straw. They just froze in wild, puppy like gazes at each other as everything else seemed to vanish around them.

Ryu moved his hand in front of Jinpei as a test of his conscience. "Yep....he's hooked like a fish out of water. The Great Horned Owl of gathered souls does it again!" Ryu said as he could see Rally Vincent sitting alone at a table near the door. It was obvious that Joe had pissed her off again.

*******************


Jun and Ken had finished their dancing a while ago, leaving the floor to Midori and her wild brat pack who danced to the techno mix of Wang Chung. Jun thought for a moment as she watched Ken rub his finger around the lip of his glass of beer.

"Jinpei!......" She called out to her star crossed brother as he sat talking with Misako. "JINPEI!"

"Oops!....my sister wants me. You staying around or going home?"

"Misako knoded with a smirk. "What do you think?" She said as she got up and joined in the wild dancing and Jinpei went back to the bar.

"What's up sis?" Jinpei said as he leaned over to hear her wisper.

"I want you to handle the shop for the rest of the night." Jinpei took a quick look at Ken and gave it a thought.

"Don't start.....don't say a word you hear me. Can I trust you for once?"

Jinpei wisely knoded as he walked behind the bar and took an order from one of Midori's freshmen cronies.

Jun grabbed Ken by the hand and pulled him off the stool. "Comeon...."

Ken wanted to resist at first, the cold, cool professional once again getting in the way of the real Washio very few people ever noticed.

Jun was carefull, don't force him out of his shell or hey may just stay in it perminantly. The climb up the stairs to the apartment was eternity, but they finaly made it. Jun seemed to know Jinpei had an idea what was going to happen, as she heard the sterio speekers below crank up and shake the whole floor below her feet.

"Little wise ass!" She thought as the noise cooled to a very noticable love song.

Ken still wanted to slink out, untill Jun grabbed him on both sides of the face and looked at him with her penetrating eyes. She could see years of pent up frustration melt into tears.

"Jun....." He wispered as he broke and tried to pull back.

"Shut up!...for once in your life.....just be quiet." She met his trembling lips with a warmth that made him crumple. He gripped her tightly and let the tears fall in rivers from his tired eyes. " My God I love you!.........."

She fumbled around the room for the light control and switched it off as the music below continued on.....

"And if you loose your way........Think back to yesterday............Remember me this way........ ...............Remember me........this way.........."

Rally Vincent still sat waiting for the obvious inevitable event that had to happen sooner or later, which it did as Joe came walking through the door and put his hand out to her.

"Am I still a close minded bastard?" He asked as Rally smiled and shook her head. " Joe...... your a jigsaw puzzle."

"Fine..........put the pieces together. Or you can sit here all night and mule over spilt milk." Rally gathered her leather jacket and took Joe's hand as they walked out into the city night.

*******************

Jinpei was free of the teathers for once, Jun and Ken that was, and he was off again around the floor wavering between dancing and bottle twirling as the music turned into soft rock with Midori and her boyfriend Kazama singing a very soothing duet on the Karoke machine.

Ryu was his usual, smooth talking self as he talked with two female freshmen students about the " Introcates of turbo engine design" How he managed to make technical talk sound so "Kissy" to girls, Jinpei could never figure.

He went back behind the bar to pour himself a little "under the table" drink, buku taboo in Jun's eyes but it would help him to settle down tonight once the partying began to die out. He looked at his watch and smiled, 12:00....He looked towards the ceiling and snickered as he beheld his multi-colored creation which he liked to call Skittle stripes because of it's multi-colored hue and sweet taste.

Kenji took the floor now for a while asking Musako to dance with him. Jinpei waved him on with an obvious look of trust. Kenji was good company considering his less than happy life. He always told Jinpei how much he owed him for saving him from dying in an ally and how Jinpei didn't care about any debt. Kenji was worth his weight in gold as a friend and little anikie which Jinpei liked to call him. Someday, the old Snack would be his to run as Jun and Jinpei had different plans once Gallactor was done and dead.

"Hmm......Rally's gone!" Jinpei said as he rushed a nice warm plate of small chicken wings out onto a table near the dancing. "Good....Joe's happy too. That's great...This is a real weird night for love."

*******************

The night was slowly dying down at last. Midori and her bunch left around 1am, taking Ryu with them. Sam left shortly afterwards with a big smile and another job to do on the God Pheonix at base. Now only Misako, Kenji, and Jinpei were left alone to clean the Snack up for the night.

Kenji decided it was about time to take a little longer break this time. He searched through the CD case till he found U2's Joshua Tree album and quietly placed it in the player with track two shining in the display. He then left out the back as Misako and Jinpei cleaned the tables and the floor.

"I have climbed.....the highest mountains...... I have run......through the fields.................... only to be with you.............. only to be with you...............

Jinpei looked around the Snack to find only he and Misako were the only one's inside..... "Kenji?" Jinpei thought as he watched Misako step on the dance floor, her eyes pulling him along. They slowly danced to the quiet melody of the music. Their giggles betrayed a simple childish embarassment to the clumsy way they were dancing....their thoughts were on other things.

"But I still.......haven't found....what I'm lookin for..........

"But I still........haven't found....what I'm lookin for..........

She was getting closer......closer.....closer.... they started to kiss slowly at first and Jinpei's heart went crazy! He got warm as a rocket! She wouldn't let him go and he realy didn't want her too as it felt all to nice.

He pushed her back and caught his breath as she blew a kiss and placed a playing finger on his lips. " Can you take me home?" She asked.

Jinpei knoded with a warm smile. "If you'll wait a minute." He said as he walked out the back door and tapped Kenji on the shoulder.

"Thanks Kenji...your a real friend." Jinpei said as he hugged Kenji hard.

"Just don't do anything stupid anikie." The boy said as he pushed Jinpei back through the door. "Get going, I'll clean the rest of it and lock up."

"I hope you can handle my driving." Jinpei said as he jumped into the tracker and brought the V-8 to life with a loud rumble.

Misako held the rollbar as the tracker tore down the street and into the quiet morning of the city. With no traffic on the streets, Jinpei felt free to swey the car back and forth with the music from the radio. He shot glances with Misako as they crossed the Kansai bridge into West Yokohama and the long expanse of highway 246.

She lived in Sho Hiratska city near the beach in a very nice single floor house that Jinpei had slept over in the past few years. Her parents trusted him completely even if he was only ten and two years younger than Misako, he showed the maturity and respect they enjoyed.

He let her out and walked her to the front door where once again they locked in kisses and gentle hugs. "Tomorrow? You wana go to that movie tommorow?" He asked her as they stayed close.

"Yes.....Then maybe the beach? I have a tent?" She returned as Jinpei gave her a slight smirky glance.

"No funny stuff.....ok?" He said as he left her standing alone.

She gave him a knod of aproval and waived as he drove off....

Kenji had done a nice job as always, the Snack was ready to go at it again as always and so was Jinpei as he re-locked the front door and made his silent way up the stairs to the apartment.

He was carefull, all so carefull not to wake Jun up. He could just faintly make out the two sleeping forms in her room as she had left the door wide open. Jinpei slowly closed it and made his way up to his own room. " Good.....I'm happy for both of them. It's about time they took some happiness in all this mess with Gallactor."

Jinpei performed a quick stretching drill in the center of his attic room before flopping into the bed and taking time to read a book before passing out.

"What a night it had been, a nice one for once without threats, bombs, mechs, and the death angel hanging over the team's head and for once...some semblence of a normal life had emerged for all of them.

Jinpei thought of Misako and the date they had set for tomorrow night......he thought that a little funny stuff might not be to bad........then he quickly dropped the idea for a later day when he knew he'd be better ready for it.

With a click of a small desk lamp's light switch, darkness and peace decended apon The Kagaru Ninja Tai for yet another day.

THE END (Thanks to my little sister Megan who gave me the idea for this one.)