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Dendy believed she had hardly missed her home town, but when she returned to Lakewood Plaza Turbo after being gone for 4 years she could certainly categorize the emotion she as joy. She usually stressed how memories are meant to storage information and thus should not be weighted down or even altered by adding sentiment to it, but this was an exception. Of course, the sole exception. The place didn't appear to have changed much since her high school times. Those were still the streets Dendy had spent her childhood days, where she had run around and played tag...
Without realizing she had walked towards the bodega, when you looked closely you could notice that it had been rebuilt many times, nothing surprising considering its location. She put one foot towards the entrance, another step and came to an abrupt halt. Her brain started working with double processor capacity.
There was a 54.67 % chance he will still be there helping people like always, but there is also a 17.06 % probability that he had left to work as a hero somewhere else with his abilities it would not be surprising, although with a probability of 15.55 % he might have inherited his mother's Fitness Dojo and a remaining 12.70 % could be accounted for the possibility that he realized his true calling isn't being a hero and instead he decided to be a gardener or...
"Hey Dendy!"
It wasn't that the voice merely interrupted her thoughts, it was the fact that the voice was close, too close. To be precise, it was right beside her. Dendy blinked, moved her head and was almost nose to nose with a bright smiling boy. Well, young adult would be the more correct term, although his eyes still had this childish glimmer.
"Hey K.O." Dendy said. They greeted each other as if they had just parted ways yesterday, although it had been several years. This is exactly one of K.O.'s qualities she highly appreciated. His grin turned from enthusiastic to playful as he got into a sprinting position, opened his arms wide and tackled her with such a strong hug, that there was no chance of escaping it.
"It's really Dendy!" he shouted again and again, hugging her as if she was some lost plush he had just found.
"Yes, K.O. it is me." This is all she could say since most of the air in her lungs had been pressed out in his bone-crushing hug. When K.O. finally released her, she felt like she had been hugged by her grandmother, who also happened to be giant guerrilla.
"Where have you been? You left quickly after high school and I never heard from you since then." The excitement in his voice was overflowing and it was contagious, Dendy had never felt more energetic in the past four years. She pushed her glasses and wore a small, proud smile as she began to explain:
"I have told you several times before I went, but you didn't listen to my whole explanation as always. I was invited to study at the most prestigious university and I just finished my graduate program two years ahead of schedule. I will begin my PhD shortly, under Prof. Maximus, you know, the genius who helped P.O.I.N.T. with his significant innovations?"
"That's neat, Dendy! Of course I know him! He is so cool!" K.O. screamed hopping up and down.
"I know right!" Dendy agreed with 100 % of her enthusiast capacity.
Right in this moment, they were children again and she mused how only her friend could describe her C.V. as merely 'neat'.
K.O. looked at the watch at the centre of the Plaza, then at the bodega and back to her.
"You know I was working when I saw you outside, but ever since Enid became the new boss after Mr. Gar's retirement I can take my lunch break whenever I want anyway so how about we go and grab something to bite?"
So he really is still working at the bodega, Dendy noted that in her mind so she could later add it to her data base and nodded.
They went to the local coffee shop, and Dendy was slightly surprised that he did not order a lemonade, then immediately reminded herself, that he was more than old enough to drink coffee now. While they waited, she eyed him with more precision. He was taller than her, not by much though and his stature wasn't as buff as she had expected. K.O. wasn't even close to Rad's biceps, however, this didn't mean he seemed weak. On the contrary, his muscles were just equally defined from head to toe. The grand bush of hair was tied to a braid, not that it helped much to keep the hairy chaos organized. His sweatband served as a hair-band now and was still recognizable. It looked...good on him.
As soon as they sat down, Dendy opened her hologram database to update his extensive biography she had kept on writing. K.O. laughed, already in the process of quickly inhaling his sandwich.
"Are you still keeping track of everything?"
"Precisely," she answered him, browsing through the diverse sections of her information catalog.
"Hey, you let your hair grow out, it really suits you."
Dendy froze and looked up from her data, that had been unexpected. K.O. was grinning, so it had been an innocent comment, maybe not even an intentional compliment? She indeed let her hair grow a little but she didn't do anything with it, it just hangs there. Her jumpsuit also was still similar to the one she had as a kid. She just pulled up the sleeves at her arms and up to her knees since she currently felt more comfortable this way.
"Thank you." Her voice had the usual brisk and monotone tone, yet her insides felt a little upset, probably the double shot coffee. She went back to her interface.
"So tell me K.O. Did anything happen to you in my absence? I would like to keep things updated."
He leaned back and thought about her question, it was a very serious matter for him.
"Well, I did go to the beach this one time."
Dendy nodded, signaling him to continue and began typing.
"The beach was really nice and when I was there, I went with Rad to his home planet and I found my father, then I lost him again, then I found him again. Then we fought for the fate of the universe and I had a confrontation with my evil self and then we learned a lesson about balance and about the universe being a giant donut. The ice cream was also really good, you should definitely try the ice cream when you go to the beach."
K.O. took a satisfied slurp from his caramel coffee and Dendy stared at what she just had written down. She continued to stare.
"Something wrong? Sorry, I know I am not good at telling stories," he said apologetic.
She didn't even know if this was really the problem here. In fact, she didn't even know where the problem began and where it ended. This was enough material to fill...several seasons of a TV show...probably.
"I believe we will need some time to sort this data out." Dendy sighed and closed the interface. Another time then.
They went on with more normal small-talk. How were things with their families, is Lord Boxman still doing business, how where Enid and Rad. She learned, that K.O. not only helps out at the bodega but also supports his mother at the dojo, besides the usual robot beat down, of course. When they left the coffee shop she felt relaxed and strangely at home. They took the long way through the small park back to the bodega.
"Do you still have your awesome hack-pack?" K.O. examined her backpack and she snickered.
"Of course, it is up until now my greatest creation."
His face turned stern in a whimper.
"How can the backpack be it...when you are it." He tipped Dendy's nose with his pointer finger and ran several steps ahead of her. She also couldn't help but laugh.
"And here I thought you grew up a little..."
In contrary to her words she accepted his challenge and began running after him, but K.O. was always just a few inches away from her and he even only moved backwards without ever needing to catch a breath. When Dendy reached her limit and ran out of steam, he stopped and let her ran into him, throwing both of them of their feet. They giggled and discussed that this didn't count and who would now be 'it', when she suddenly became aware of K.O.'s arms around her, of his body touching her own and how nobody had been this close to her for a long time. Her stomach began to hurt again and she struggled out of his embrace. K.O. also was now quick to move a bit away from her and they just lay on the grass for a moment.
When Dendy returned from the university, she confirmed how most of Lakewood Plaza had stayed the same. But, this wasn't the same. It wasnt supposed to be awkward for him to hug her. Maybe she just wasn't used to it anymore?
"Strange," her friend next to her said, "maybe we both caught a virus when we were in that coffee shop."
This thesis seemed strange to her.
"Why do you think so?" Dendy asked, though if she would had been more truthful to herself she might have guessed his train of thoughts.
"Well, how else could we both have a fever at the same time?"
She turned her head to her right side and saw K.O. holding his arms above his head to cover most of his face, which had turned visibly red. Dendy knew she probably also looked this way. She touched her extraordinary warm checks with her fingertips.
"Yeah, you must be right," she agreed, even though it was such an improbable thesis.