Forgot to publish this yesterday, Imma so sorry!! >.< But here it is!

For the next few days, Mirai and Akari tended to Astral while Yuma and Kazuma kept him entertained, and Haru made sure the alien child had enough to eat so that he could get better soon. The entire family didn't question this odd need to make sure this child was okay. All they knew was that they had to care for him and make sure he got better. It was almost like instinct.

Today was another weekend. While his parents were away, Yuma sat next to Astral and fed him some of the breakfast they shared.

"I wanna go see a friend," Yuma explained, giving Astral some cereal. "Wanna come?"

Astral, who was feeling a little better to where he could sit up without feeling dizzy, refused the spoon. He still didn't have much of an appetite. "Who?"

"Her name is Kotori! She goes to my school."

The child shook his head. "I don't feel too good. I don't think I'd be able to get up without getting sick."

"Then she can come over. That way, you can meet her without moving!"

That sounded like a much better idea, so Astral nodded. Once again, Yuma tried to give his friend some food and persisted until Astral finally ate something. He had to stop to make himself hold the food down. This went on until they finished the cereal. Telling Astral that he would be right back, Yuma dashed down to the kitchen to put his bowl in the sink, grabbed his dad's D-gazer, and called Kotori's home.

"Hello?" Kotori called after her mom allowed her to take the call.

"Hi Tori! Listen, change of plans. I want you to come to my place! I have a friend here, but he can't get out much," Yuma said excitedly. "Can you make it?"

"Yeah, I'll see if I can." Yuma heard the sound of scurrying feet before the call ended. 

Bouncing excitedly, the young boy hurried back up to his room only to be scooped up from the air. "Hey!" he squealed as he squirmed in his father's grip.

"Good morning, bud!" Kazuma exclaimed. He hugged his son tightly. "How'd you sleep?"

"I slept fine, Dad," Yuma giggled. "Kotori is coming over!"

"Really? And here I thought I was going to drive you to the park!"

"I wanna bring Astral, but he's too sick to go." At this, Yuma pouted.

Kazuma ruffled his hair. "Hey, you'll still have a lot of fun, huh?" He set the young boy down and pushed him along. "Now, go along and wait for Kotori. I'm sure she'll be here soon!"

Yuma nodded excitedly and hurried along to his room, where Astral was waiting for him. As soon as he entered his room, Astral was looking at Yuma with a hazy glance. Was he half asleep? Did he still feel too sick? With a blink, the haze was gone.

"Did you call her?" Astral asked with a smile.

Yuma grinned back and hopped in bed with the little alien. "Yeah! She lives really close, so she'll be here soon!"

"Alright." Astral smiled slightly, and the hazy look was back.

"Are you okay? You look a little distant," Yuma said, scooting closer to see if he could see what was wrong.

"Nothing's wrong, Yuma. I'm just a little tired. I think it'll go away."

The human boy nodded happily. "Yeah! Like it never happened!"

"Yeah!"

Both boys stopped talking as soon as the doorbell rang. The door opened, and the sounds of a little girl talking floated up to the room. Yuma immediately hurried down the stairs, causing Astral to giggle at his enthusiasm. Boy, was he happy that Yuma  found him that night! Without him, he'd probably die of starvation.

In fact, what was he doing there anyway?

Astral looked at the capsule he arrived in. It was now kept by the wall opposite of the bed he and Yuma shared. There were times when he had to go back in because the air in there made him feel better. Even so, he seemed to have gotten better breathing-wise. He didn't seem to need it anymore. But why was it here in the first place?

He groaned in pain. A painful headache formed. Gingerly laying back down so as not to make the pain flare up again, Astral waited for Yuma to come back upstairs. He didn't want to yell down for medicine in case he was thrown into a coughing fit.

A few minutes later, Yuma and a green-haired girl arrived upstairs. Kotori took one look at the little alien laying in the bed and knew she wanted to know him better. She walked over and sat beside him without hesitation.

"Hi there," she said with a smile.

Astral smiled back. "Hi. You're Kotori?"

"Yeah. Who are you?"

"Astral."

~.~.~

A few weeks later, Astral was a lot better. He was able to move around a lot more, he was able to help around the house without too much pain, and he was able to go out and play.

Yuma and Astral, who carried a backpack of new goodies, hurried outside after finishing their chores and met up with Kotori and Tetsuo. Yuma's feet pounded on the ground as he hurried to meet with them on time while Astral zipped ahead, flying effortlessly and much faster, much to his delight. He occasionally waited for Yuma, but he beat him to the nearest park.

"Nice to see you out here, Astral," Tetsuo said. "And it looks like you even managed to beat Yuma!"

"That's...not fair...!" Yuma wheezed as soon as he caught up. "You never...you never said you could fly!!"

Astral giggled, but he also didn't know that. At the house, he liked to walk on the ground just like his family, but it seemed he could also fly. "I'll race you with my feet next time, then." He landed on the ground. The grass tickled his toe-less feet, but other than that, there was no feeling, just like at the house.

"Anyway, what are we doing here today?" Kotori asked. "You said you wanted to try something."

It took Yuma a while to catch his breath. As soon as he did, he whipped out a strange, disk-like object from the pack Astral carried with a flourish. "I wanna try dueling with VR! Me and Astral just got our duel disks. Wanna duel?"

Tetsuo smiled. "Let's do it, then! Me versus you!"

"I'll just watch," Astral said, and Kotori agreed. They both sat on a bench while the boys dueled.

Astral took a D-gazer, a golden angular one that fit his eye perfectly, out of the pouch, settled it over his eye, and watched as the boys dueled each other. Seeing the monsters come to life and actually battle, affecting the area before them, was such an exhilarating feeling to little Astral! It was as if they were actually there! The golem Yuma summoned and the kangaroo Tetsuo summoned acted just as if they were alive. If it weren't for the feeling of the D-gazer on his left eye, he would have thought they were real.

That didn't stop the boys from protecting themselves from the attacks. It didn't stop Kotori and Astral from covering their eyes and flinching when the ground that was thrown into the air due to the battle flew too close for comfort. It was amazing how they reacted to something that was only virtually real!

In the end, Yuma lost as he usually did. He ended up on the ground from the made-up force of the monsters clashing. Heck, even Kotori and Astral felt it, and they weren't the ones dueling! They hurried to his side to see if he was alright.

"That felt so real!!" Yuma marveled as he popped up from the ground without help. "Man, that was everything I thought it was gonna be!!"

Astral, who was worried that Yuma had a concussion or something, smiled when the boy's bouncy nature wasn't halted at all. "I wanna try it next time!"

"I don't think you'll be able to handle the blasts from where I stood," Yuma giggled. "You'd be on the ground with the first hit!"

"Will not!"

"Will too!"

"Not!"

"Enough!" Kotori interjected before they started another one of their pointless arguments. "Wanna come to my house, you three? My mom would be happy to have you guys here!"

"I think we have time before we have to be home again," Astral stated. "Yuma?"

"Heck yeah! Let's go!"

Tetsuo looked at the time and frowned. "Sorry. My sister expects me back now. She'll kill me if I don't go! Bye!"

"Bye!" the three called as their friend hurried back home. 

"Well, it looks like it's us three," Yuma said. "Let's go before it's time to go home."

The three children walked to the house. The walking eventually turned into a race, with Astral once again flying and in the lead and Yuma trying to keep up. Kotori watched them as she tried to keep up, a smile on her face. Seeing the two boys interact as if they were inseparable brothers was a refreshing sight, and she hoped that it would never change.