♫ It's the moooost wonderful tiiiime of the yeeeeear ♫ [Private, English, Kakashi's apartment Warning for supreme awkwardness and possible chocolate milk.]

Minato looked about him as he got off the train, hefting his sports back on his shoulder. Christmas hadn't been the same since his mother died, but this one had been pretty weird. His Dad seemed to be doing a bit better, drinks-wise, so Minato hadn't told him anything that might cause potential trouble. Which meant, nothing about girlfriends or babies or failing grades. Just that he was going back to the school a bit early so he could spend some time with a friend. If he had to be absolutely true to himself, Dad had seemed rather relieved to be free of his son again.
Yep. Good to get out of there. Now.. this was going to be pretty fucking awkward. He looked about him for the lamentably familiar mohawk.

Aand there it was, as Kakashi came around the corner, wearing a leather jacket over one of his normal tanktops, keys in one hand. "Yo." he put up a polite smile. He'd been spending some time in his apartment with the band over the last few days, only being with his step parents for Christmas Eve and morning themselves. After that, it had been back to practising, and as many shows as they could do, which was about one every second day. "You ready to go?"

"Hey. Yeah, sure." Urgh. He had to admit that Kakashi had style. Minato felt both young and useless in his slightly-too-small old winter jacket and the scarf his Gran had knitted for him. Not a bad scarf, just not a designer scarf... okay, screw the scarf, he was going to see Kushina again. That mattered. "Soah. Had a good Christmas?"

He nodded, smiled, as he began walking towards the parking lot, of course expecting Minato to follow. "Got the two things I wished for, after all. So yes, I'd say it was a pretty good Christmas. But a bit weird, too. First Christmas without... Yeah, you know who."

"Ah. Yeah. Christmas are the worst for that," Minato said quietly. He checked his phone for something to do. He'd tried to keep from sending too many worried texts to Kushina, but a few had escaped nevertheless.

"Guess you're right. Soon enough, they reached the car - a black Audi Q7, and Kakashi opened the trunk for Minato to throw his luggage into.

Minato did. His sports bag and computer backpack looked very small in the large trunk. The car looked awesome. It smelled of new car and awesome. "Nice car," he said politely and manly.

A small smile. "Thanks. 'Tis the one I got for my Sweet Sixteen." he informed, closed the trunk again, and went for the driver's seat, closed the door, put his seat belt on. Very careful with all the pre-drive safety measures, checking mirrors a couple more times than strictly necessary.

"Cool..." Minato trailed off, not knowing what to say. "Uhm, I didn't know you could drive at sixteen," trying to make conversation. And hoping he didn't trail mud on the (expensive-looking) mats.

A crooked smile. "In the US, you can. That's where I've been living since I was 8, after all, until I got my apartment." after looking, checking that Minato had his seat belt on, too, he backed out of the parking lot, and took the quickest path to the highway.

"Ah. Right. So that's where your parents - adoptive parents live?" Of course Minato had his seat belt on.

He nodded, keeping his eyes on the road, of course. "I paid for my licence, they paid for the car. Good deal if you ask me." he grinned.

"Uh, yeah, I guess..." Minato had no idea what a drivers' license cost, just that his dad couldn't afford one. "Soah, you went there for Christmas? The US?"

"I did," he confirmed, nodding. "Florida, to be precise. Went home the day after. No wonder I fell asleep as soon as my head touched the pillow, with that long trip."

"Sounds nice," said Minato, as politely as possible. Everyone on school rich but him. Wonderful. And Kakashi was being genuinely nice, so Minato couldn't even be properly grouchy about it.

"18 hours. You're bound to be tired after that trip." he turned off, towards the city Orléans, where Kushina lived. "What kind of music do you usually listen to?" he then asked, glancing for just a short second at Minato, with a smile, then his eyes were glued to the road again.

"Bit of everything. I like a lot of the eighties and nineties stuff. And metal, too. Darkthrone, Anthrax, Slayer." Well, that, and he had a playlist called "Love songs" too, but he wasn't about to tell another guy that.

"Metal? Really? I wouldn't have expected that from you... But awesome." he grinned. "I keep to rock and metal, too, so... Yeah. Though I tend to listen to Dragonforce, Children Of Bodom, HIM, Nightwish, Metallica and the likes."

"Just because I don't have long hair?" Minato grinned, though. Music was alright to talk about. "You can't _not_ like Metallica, although I think their old stuff's better than the new." He thought all Dragonforce sounded the same, but better not tell that to the guy who was giving him a ride and all that.

He nodded. "Their music isn't as diverse as it was before. They blend in with all the other heavy metal bands, it's too bad." he agreed, making another turn, and finally - driving up the driveway of one of the suburban houses here, sounding the horn just once.

A few minutes later, and a certain, red-haired girl exited the building, with a medium-sized suitcase, looking slightly embarrassed as her parents hugged her and kissed her goodbye on the porch, where the others could see it.

Maybe. Just maybe. He could forgive Kakashi all that stuff he'd saíd. "Exactly! The old albums are much better..." Then he got sorta distracted, craning his head to find out which house was Kushina's. Oh.. It didn't look super fancy.. And those were her parents.. he wondered how much they knew.. did she want him to meet them?
...he decided to get out and help her with the suitcase no matter what. Even if he was just about to piss his pants.

Kakashi just looked after him with a smile, rummaging around for a cd while he waited for the two lovebirds.

"Hi 'Nato." Kushina grinned. "So this is the young man you've been talking so much about?" her dad asked - he was of slighty large build, with dark hair and blue eyes. Kushina nodded, and her father put out his hand to Minato. "I'm Francois." Kushina's mother, who stood just behind her, was clearly the Korean parent - smaller and petite, with shorter red hair, and dark eyes.

Oh God, help. "Minato Namikaze," he introduced himself with only the slightest of shakes in his voice, and took the offered hand and shook it. "Nice meeting you, sir. Madame," he shook hands with Kushina's mother as well. Hoping he didn't look too stupid or did something extremely wrong that she'd never forgive him for.

He srutinized him, just a few seconds - then smiled. "You seem nice. Just keep taking good care of her, will you? Someone needs to while she's at the school." he grinned. Kushina blushed and kept quiet.

"I try to, sir," said Minato very honestly. Not without a blush of his own, though. If only Mr. Uzumaki knew, he'd probably be chasing Minato around with a bat now. Or a shotgun. Or a pair of scissors to castrate him.. "She can take very good care of herself, though!" he hurried to add. Was this the place where he took her hand? Was there even a code for this?