Twenty one

                                    

                                          
Holding the controller tightly in her hand, she sat hanging on the edge of her seat. It was the last race of 4 courses, and she was finally about to hit a perfect score of 60. She stared with nary a blink, but in her mind she was already celebrating. Suddenly, her character blew up a second away from the finish line, and 2nd place blew past her, stealing her victory. 
Hanabi jumped off of the couch screaming, "you freakin suck! You planned for that you little shit!!! I demand a rematch!" She froze, remembering who her opponent was. "I mean...I humbly request another game. Sir."
Satoshi fell over his seat in laughter, while his father threw his head back and laughed, "I accept your challenge! But you won't get so close to victory again!"
"Did you guys forget about me or something?" Satoshi asked. "I'm getting pretty good at this too!"
"No chance, son! I plan to win first place this time!" Akira declared.
Hanabi tried to reign in her competitive nature, but she was too far into it already. "No way! I don't plan to get anything lower than first this time!"
Satoshi asked if she could come over today after she was done with work because he wanted to play video games with her. After she had gotten the hang of it, she was thoroughly kicking his ass. She was more than surprised when his father joined the game with the intention to avenge his son.
 After a few more rounds, Hanabi didn't get so close to a perfect score ever again. "I concede!" She finally said, after coming in 2nd for the last 4 games. "Consider yourself avenged, Satoshi!"
"How can I be satisfied when I can't place higher than 3rd?!"
Akira laughed, "this old man still got it!"
"'Old man' my foot," Hanabi scoffed. "Papa Mori, I bet you could still run circles around your own sons if you tried."
"Hey!" Satoshi protested.
She giggled, "no offense."
"Kiss ass," he muttered.
"Am not!" She denied. Her face reddened, "Satoshi, I have spent the last hour making a complete fool of myself in front of your father. I'm sure no amount of ass kissing would change his opinion of me at this point."
Akira let out a deep belly laugh. "Not to worry, Hanabi. That was the most fun I had in awhile." He stood up from his seat, "are you kids hungry? We'll have dinner."
"Sounds good," Hanabi agreed, feeling right at home. "What are we having?"

Takashi and Mitsukuni followed the sound of laughter to the kitchen. There, they saw the kitchen island covered in an assortment of different kinds of sushi, and both of their families sitting at the table. To their surprise, Hanabi was also seated comfortably next to Satoshi and his father.
"Welcome home, son," Akira greeted. "Come join us."
Hanabi immediately threw up her guard, glancing suspiciously at the two baby-faced brothers.
Akira laughed, "not to worry! There's no bodies of water in the kitchen!"
"Maybe not, but I'd prefer not to be stabbed either!"
Yorihisa chuckled, "the tradition doesn't include mealtimes. You can relax your poorly formed defense."
"Hey!" she laughed. "It's more like a reaction at this point, so 'scuse me for my poor form!"
They adjusted their seats to make room for the two older boys. "I didn't know you were here, Hana-chan! We were just with Haru-chan and your dad. We had to save her from Lobelia and the Zuka Club!"