I am aware I have other unfinished stories and I apologise to all those who will get this notification and be disappointed that it is not what they wanted - been in a bit of a slump recently, sorry.

So this was some excercise to maybe help. Something fresh, something different. I don't think I've ever written a Jack x Kimiko fanfic before and I love that ship. One of my favourite stories on this site is the story 'I Never Knew' which I would recommend to anyone although its a little more mature for younger readers so take care, I suppose.

*~ The Meeting ~*

It had been years since their training was completed and the xiaolin monks returned to their respective homes as fully trained dragons. They met up every now and again and often stayed round each others places - at the temple too, in Omi's case. That is until he got a flatshare in New York with Jermaine who was still teaching him slang and how to understand every day phrases.

Raimundo had his own place in Brazil near the coast and Clay had stayed at home with his father and helped with the farm. His sister had also come home and decided to help out instead of staying out causing mayhem with her biker girlfriends - didn't mean she didn't go out riding from time to time.

Which left Kimiko who had her own flat in Tokyo and a job at one of her father's office firms. She had it easy and she knew it. It made her feel guilty sometimes, knowing that she could clock in and out when she wanted and still get paid a full day's work. She could pretty much choose which days she worked and also what she did on those days. The other people in her office were lovely to her face but she heard what they were saying behind her back. She kept to herself because of this only talking to her friend Keiko, who was always busy with her own job and when not working building a family with her newly wedded husband.

Kimiko had never felt so alone and she resorted to visiting her father a lot more often and even sitting in with him in his meetings just to be near someone she loved and to feel part of something.

Today was one of those days. She pulled on a long sleeve white shirt over her arms and watched in the mirror as it covered the age old scars from her far more exciting yet dangerous teenage years. She pulled the material around her mid section and buttoned it up leaving only the top two undone. She then pulled on a black waist coat that she left open and just stared at herself in the mirror.

Her black hair was tied back in a long ponytail and her lips were coloured a deep red. Her once bright blue eyes were outlined in black liner yet they seemed less lively and her skin was more pale than usual. The reflection staring back at her looked like a hollow shell of a girl she might have known once.

Her cell phone broke her dreary reverie and her eyes snapped to the device. "Moshi moshi!"

"Your father is waiting in the car downstairs, Miss Tohomiko," it was the apartment complex receptionist, Juno Midorikawa. He was a tall, slim man without much emotion but she had managed to make him crack a smile here and there.

"Thanks, Midori," she replied before clicking off the phone, throwing it in her bag and slinging the strap over her shoulder.

The twenty-four year old stepped in to her flat sole shoes by the door, grabbed her keys that were left on a cabinet in the entrance hallway and exited the apartment. The journey to the waiting car was a short and silent elevator ride from the twenty-sixth floor to the ground and she sent Juno a half-hearted wave as she passed through the foyer.

Once in the car, her father asked the usual questions and she gave the usual answers. They were also usually lies about how she was doing well and that life was great and all that nonsense. He began to waffle on and on about new ideas to her and she pretended to listen while her mind was elsewhere. She didn't even snap back to reality until they were in the meeting room and Toshiro snapped his fingers in her face.

She blinked twice and her eyes focused on his. He frowned and then sighed, "Kimiko, you would tell me if you were unhappy, right?"

"Yes, papa," Kimiko said slowly.

"Kimiko?" it was as if she hadn't replied at all.

She groaned and said with more emphasis, "Yes! I'm fine."

He patted her head like he did every time he comforted her and nodded. But he was still frowning like he knew better.

They took their positions in the room - him at the head of the table, stood behind his chair patiently waiting, and Kimiko to his left.

Exactly fifteen minutes before 10:30AM business men and women from around the world began to flood the room all greeting Toshiro and his daughter and taking their places at the table. Kimiko sighed as she finally decided to sit after the steady stream of attendants had dwindled down and only three chairs were vacant.

Mr Tohomiko's eyes scanned the room and he smiled at his guests, "Who are missing?"

"Come on, hurry up. Pick up your feet. We're late," everyone turned toward the door hearing the approaching mumbling from the corridor. Suddenly the doorway was filled with a man with a wide frame and a flat face. He had short black hair that was combed back and greying at the sides. His eyes smiled with his lips when he saw Mr Tohomiko, "Toshiro! You waited. I appreciate that very much."

"Only late by a minute, Tom," Kimiko's father replied chuckling as he made his way around the table to greet the large man. They met behind the vacant chairs and shook hands, "It's good to see you, Spicer-san, and this is your son?"

Kimiko's eyes snapped up at the mention of the familiar name and when she looked over she saw the wide man step aside revealing the young man with him. Her eyes widened and her heart rate sped up.

"This is my son and only heir, Jack," Mr Spicer introduced them while Kimiko sat near the head of the table completely stunned.

Jack was suited up like his own father but, where his father's blazer hugged his form, Jack's hung loose looking almost a size too big for his slim lanky form. As always he was still as pale as anything but his hair was more of a natural shade of red now also slicked back in the same fashion as his old man.

"Ah, yes, I may have met you once before. You do look familiar," Toshiro said as he shook Jack's hand. The boy laughed awkwardly at the comment hoping that Mr Tohomiko wouldn't remember exactly where and what had happened the first time they met. Kimiko watched the awkward exchange between the two seemingly unable to look away from the boy that she had spent many of her younger days fighting against in the Xiaolin-Heylin war.

Mesmerised, her blue orbs watched the Spicers take their seats and that's when he looked up. His gaze passed over several faces uninterested until he found her. Maybe it was because she was also staring back or maybe he would have still reacted the same had she not been so pointedly watching him but the young man let out a small yelp and jumped in his chair. His father quietly scolded him for his unusual outburst and Jack whispered his apologies feeling embarrassed of himself for reacting in such a way which had a few members of the table casting him odd glances.

They stared at each other for, what Jack would have described as, an uncomfortably long time before Kimiko resigned to just giving him a thin smile. Although she wasn't sure that that was the right thing to do as the boy's eyes just seemed to widen all the more. Not knowing what else to do to try and diffuse the awkward tension that only the pair of them could feel, Kimiko broke eye contact and looked to her rambling father.

Neither of them heard a single word which was said throughout the entire meeting and when it came to a lunch break, Kimiko bid her father farewell as she 'didn't feel too well' and had decided to go home. She snatched up her bag from the floor next to her chair and slung the strap over her shoulder as she hastily retreated. Jack watched her fleeing and his shoulders deflated, a sad heavy sigh escaping his lips.

The young woman reached the glass door and as her hand touched the handle she saw the boy's reflection staring after her. His eyebrows arching as he averted his gaze to the ground looking rather dejected. She squeezed her eyes tight and took a deep breath; the kind-natured heroine in her hated that expression and it would at least be polite to say hello after all these years, right?

Kimiko then turned her head, hand still on the door handle, and cleared her throat loud enough to catch his attention but not disturb all of the chatting business partners in the room. The young man's expression was suddenly confused as she was looking back at him expectantly. He shook his head and his brow wrinkled with a silent question hanging in the air. She just smiled back and tilted her head toward the door in a 'follow me' fashion. Jack swallowed back his unease and moved to follow her quick strides out of the room, briefly glancing over his shoulder to his unaware father.

He caught up with her and they walked side by side down the corridor and finally in to an empty elevator. On the ride down Jack cleared his throat and croaked out a simple, "Hi."

"How have you been?" Kimiko asked not bothering with a formal greeting.

"Um, good, I guess," he mumbled staring at his shoes. He cleared his throat again not trusting his voice in the slightest, "Err, you?"

The young woman was staring straight ahead at the closed metal doors in front of them. She sighed and shrugged, "Same, I suppose."

The boy nodded and the silence resumed for a few moments more until he looked straight at her and suddenly blurted out, "Can I just say that I'm sorry? For everything! I -"

The doors suddenly opened and Jack's voice cut short as an older lady with a bob cut and glasses stepped in. She shot them both a friendly smile before standing to the side, apparently going to the ground floor also. Five more floors of uncomfortable silence until finally the doors open on the ground floor with a ding and they exited behind the older woman.

When the lady was out of earshot, having walked over to the receptionist while they made their way to the exit of the building, Kimiko stated, "You may not."

"Huh?" Jack's brow wrinkled yet again.

"You may not say you're sorry for everything," Kimiko explained as she turned left out of the building doors heading toward a busy high street. She looked up at Jack then and added, "Because not everything was your fault. I was no angel for one."

"You fought for the side of good," Jack pointed out.

"I did," she nodded looking forward again, "But I also recall kicking your arse for no other reason than you showed up one time," Jack winced at the memories of fighting the Xiaolin monks. He was surprised to hear the disappointment in her voice when she added, "Not very honorable. Could even call it cruel. It was."

The young man didn't know what to follow up with after that comment. He had never expected any of them to ever feel ashamed of how they had treated him in the past. He had grown so accustomed to the way that most people treated him that he barely even thought it not normal.

"What do you fancy? Sushi since you're in Japan?" Kimiko suggested and yet again Jack was surprised. He thought that they were going to quickly say hello and that would be that. They were now having lunch together? He was pleasantly surprised and in no way going to refuse the offer.

"Sure," he said and hoped he didn't sound as eager as he felt, "Whatever you want."

A thin smile appeared on her lips as she led the way to one of her favourite sushi bars.

"How are the others?" Jack suddenly asked as it occurred to him.

"Since the last we talked, they're doing alright," the boy noticed how her eyes dropped to the ground in front of her and her words suddenly had a tense feel about them. Before he could ask more questions she went on, "Clay's back in Texas with his family on the farm. He says he met some nice girl at a county fair so that's new. Um, Omi is in New York with Jermaine, nothing new on his part other than that. Rai is back in Brazil."

"Nothing new for Raimundo either?" Jack asked.

"Nope. Girls falling over him, surfing, forgetting that his friends exist. Nothing new," her tone was spiteful and Jack suddenly felt very uncomfortable so attempted to steer the conversation away from the boy that, it seemed, neither of them liked very much.

"Omi told me you were doing great. With a good job and you're own apartment here in Tokyo city," Jack shrugged and Kimiko looked up at him quirking her eyebrow, "What?"

She had a sly grin, "I knew you weren't all that bad."

"What do you mean?" he asked confused.

"You and Omi have always gotten along even when you were all 'Jack Spicer, Evil Boy Genius'!" Kimiko mimicked him, laughing when he rolled his eyes at her, "Said you were frenemies in the end because you guys just got along too well."

"I mean he was the only one willing to take me in when I needed help," Jack explained shrugging, "I'm allowed at least one friend, right?"

"Of course you are," Kimiko nodded and then added, "See, I wasn't a saint if I didn't instantly help someone when they needed it. That is something I should apologise for."

"Yeah but then I would always turn on you guys in the end," Jack countered.

"Because we made you do all of our chores and still treated you horribly," the girl rebounded.

"What if I said that I had planned it all along?" he asked curiously.

Kimiko shook her head making a low buzzer sound with her voice as if in a game show and replied, "We played a game of truths, remember? You lost the showdown because you attempted to lie saying that you hadn't tried to be good when you had. We just made it unbearably difficult for you."

Jack sighed although there was a small smile on his lips and he felt his shoulder lift a little.

When they finally arrived at the sushi bar Kimiko asked the young man what he wanted and told him to sit down at one of the tables. The man pointed out that he could easily pay for himself and that she should just get her meal but she shook her head and sauntered off to join the queue. Sat waiting patiently at the table, the redhead's mobile phone buzzed in his pocket.

'Sup, Spicer. How's it holding?'

It was a text from Omi and of course, he was close to the phrase but still incorrect as always. Jack chuckled to himself and replied, 'Hey chromedome, you'll never guess who I ran into at my father's meeting'

He didn't have to wait long for a response and when he looked down at the text his eyes widened. 'Kimiko?'

'How do you do that?'

'Tiger instincts! :) Plus you said you were going to Tohomiko Tower so that would have been my only guess anyway' Jack rolled his eyes at his own self for not realising the massive clue that the former Xiaolin Dragon of Water had. A second later and another text came through 'Say hello from me and that I can't wait to see her next month!'

Jack decided he would ask Kimiko later what that was about and only replied simply, 'Will do, catch ya later Omi'

All of sudden there was a tray of food in front of him. He looked up to say thank you but she wasn't looking at him only putting her purse away before taking her seat. She sat opposite him and looked up. She gestured to the tray with a smile, "Well, go on then. Don't wait for me."

"Oh, okay," he replied rather bashfully, "Um, thanks."

"You're welcome," she shrugged as if it were nothing and picked up a plate of chicken katsu curry and then a second plate with some salmon rolls to the side.

As they ate they began to talk about the reason as to why Jack was in the meeting with his father. Apparently he was to take over the family business one day though he didn't seem to fond of the idea.

"I imagine it's the same for you too?" he asked before biting into a piece of sashimi.

Kimiko shrugged and around a mouthful she mumbled, "I suppose."

"Why else would you sit through that? Not exactly entertaining," Jack laughed softly.

"My apartment walls aren't very interesting as of late," the young woman mumbled glancing out the window to her left.

"So you chose to come to the conference today...for fun?" Jack asked incredulously.

The raven haired girl looked back and chuckled at his bewildered expression, "Not for fun, no. But I did have a choose to attend. I'm beginning to think you didn't have the same luxury. Rather be doing something else?"

Jack nodded and sighed, "I may not go out much and socialise but I still build in my spare time. Of course Dad believes that its about time I learnt more about the business side of the Spicer company. The company that I really don't have much of an interest other than the robotics."

"Have you told him that?" the young lady asked taking a sip from her cola can.

"Are you kidding? I'd like to keep my head, thanks," the young man scoffed and then countered the discussion on to her, "Interested much in the gaming and toy industry?"

"Not really," she shrugged again and went on, "But its the only one I know somewhat about."

The redhead nodded though his brow was inclined and a frown appeared as he processed what she had just told him. Kimiko stared out the window watching a few cars pass by as she chewed a bite of a salmon roll.

"So…" Jack began. Kimiko looked back round and he was frowning at his plate in thought, "Mr Tohomiko has never made you work for him. He never told you that you would be taking over the company?"

"Well no," Kimiko answered when he looked up into her eyes confused. She went on to explain, "For a start, I'm not the eldest. I have a sister, though she couldn't be any less interested so it I guess it would still fall to me. Still, Papa has many business partners that could easily take over if I didn't want to step in when he finally retired. In all honesty I could still take over and yet not have to contribute to much. Papa's business partners pretty much run the company anyway, not to say that he doesn't do anything - my father is a hard working man. All I'm saying is if he wanted to take a year off, he could and nothing would have changed. So, it really doesn't matter what I choose to do at the end of the day."

"I envy you," Jack muttered shaking his head in disbelief, "So are you really going home after lunch?"

"Well I pretty much didn't listen to the whole thing so I don't see a point going back and listening to more information I won't understand," she replied, "Besides everything is recorded and logged so I'll just find the typed up notes later if I'm really interested."

"I didn't hear most of it either, if I'm honest. My attention was...elsewhere," he shrugged looking down at the food on his plate. He poked it with his chop sticks as he muttered, "But my father will skin me alive if I just decided to ditch the rest of the afternoon."

A thought then occurred to the young woman and she contemplated this. They hadn't seen each other in so long and here they were eating lunch together and talking like they were friends catching up. If she were bold enough she may even say she was enjoying herself somewhat with this unexpected reunion. Of course they were only chatting but it was nothing like the awkward conversation that she had imagined earlier when she had attempted to flee. She was somewhat thankful now that she hadn't.

"If you didn't have to sit through the rest of that mind-numbingly boring meeting, what would you do?" she asked tilting her head in question.

The boy only chuckled and replied around a mouthful, "Anything!"

"I see," she muttered thoughtfully.

Next thing Jack knew she whipped out her mobile phone out and was deftly clicking in keys before waiting on an answer. He didn't think anything of it until he heard her answer, "Moshi moshi Papa!"

His head snapped up and he panicked, "Wait! What are you doing? Kim, I don't think -"

His protests fell on deaf ears and she only smiled back at him as she ignored his pleas for her to stop, "Yes, I'm fine now. I think maybe I just needed to eat something. So listen Papa, is Mr Spicer looking for his son?" she paused and Jack grimaced, already thinking of all the questions his own father would have for him when they met later that day, "Can you tell him not to worry for me? I'm with Jack now. We decided to get lunch together as we're old friends...yes, that's how you remember him," she smirked at him from across the table and he rolled his eyes at her, "Thing is it's been so long that I've decided to steal him for the rest of the afternoon but please tell Mr Spicer that I'll fill him in on all of the meeting notes so he won't miss out on anything important."

Jack gaped at her wide-eyed and Kimiko had to hold back her giggles, "Thanks Papa, speak to you later. Ja ne!"

With a final click it was done and Kimiko winked at him, "You're welcome."

The young man didn't know how to feel. Conflicted was what he decided on. He was relieved yet knew that he would have words waiting for him when he returned home. He frowned, "I'll be surprised if I'm not met with a lecture later tonight."

She narrowed her eyes at him and asked, "How old are you again?

"Yeah, yeah. I know," he sighed rolling his eyes yet again, "But I live under his roof so I have to live by his rules. Something he reminds me of often even when I've not done anything to warrant the reminder."

Kimiko shook her head, "Well, I guess I'll just have to give you a copy of the notes so you can prove to the man that I'm not lying. Well not completely anyway," She sniggered with a smirk.

"Well, thanks I guess. Though I'm not sure what I'm gonna do for the rest of the afternoon now," Jack muttered, pushing a piece of takoyaki around his plate.

"Weren't you listening? We're gonna hang out," she told him and saw his eyebrows raise in surprise, "What? Are you not finding this reunion as pleasant as I am? If you say no, I'll be hurt."

A brilliant smile then lit up his features and replied, "No, no. This is nice. I just...I didn't think you would want to hang out with me. I was never very nice to you in the past."

"True, you locked me in a cage once," Kimiko agreed and then chuckled, "But then we established that I wasn't all that nice to you either. We were kids and I hope you can forgive me like I'm now forgiving you."

Jack felt his heart swell and didn't trust his voice not to crack so he only nodded and left out a laugh full of relief. Apparently his emotions didn't go unnoticed and Kimiko gasped, her eyebrows arching upwards, "Oh god please don't cry. I won't know what to do."

The young man chuckled even more then, "I'm not going to cry...I think."

Kimiko smiled at him warmly then and when he stopped laughing he returned it, "So what do you wanna do first?"

So I wrote the start of this three weeks ago as just a thought and an attempt to get some of those creative juices flowing. Then I recently moved and have been a tad lonely and bored so found it again and decided to try and finish it somewhat.

Thoughts are welcome and encouraged. Remember if you don't like it thats fab just let me know why and how I can improve it next time, okay? ;)

Much appreciation for all those who read the story and enjoy it.

Remember to Read, Review, Rock & Roll!

Lv Lv Hazard ^_^ x