Hi!! I'm just uploading somethin' for Ikarishipping? Day, so...yah, enjoy.

"Sigh… I can't believe I'm doing this…"

"Aww…you'll be fine, Shinji. All you need is some flowers, a box of chocolates, a few romantic lines and you're all set!"

Shinji rolled his eyes. Reiji had dragged him out in the middle of training to go to Twinleaf to see that troublesome girl. Reiji was totally wrong to think that he liked Hikari. Besides, it was all based on what that loser Satoshi had told his sibling, and another incident at home he'd rather not talk about.

The purple haired pre-teen faced his older brother with annoyance. "What do I look like? Fifty? Anyway, I don't even want to do this. You just dragged me out here because of some theory that's not even true."

Reiji blinked. "If it wasn't true, then why were you sovery excited when I bought you tickets to see the Grand Festival she was in?" Shinji scowled.

"You set me up." He snapped. "You made me high on sugar and coffee that you told me was de-caf. You knew I'd get hyper and act all crazy when you mentioned Hikari. I should have known better, but then again you're such of a goody two shoes that you wouldn't harm a fly, let alone set a trap. Why today, anyway?"

"Because June 28 is the day you met Hikari and fell in love with her. Today's like your one-year anniversary!" He smiled at him and said, "Besides, it's nice to have an anniversary about 2 days after your birthday.

"AAAArrrrrrrggghhhh…For the last time, I do not love Hikari!!"

But the eighteen year old wasn't paying attention to his little brother. He was looking ahead at some houses, and spotted one among the rest. "Look, there's Hikari's house. Start thinking up some catchphrases, will ya?" Before Shinji could protest, Reiji had already dragged him halfway to her house.

"Reiji! Shinji! What a pleasant surprise!" Akayo said, welcoming the two brothers as she opened the door.

"I'm sorry we didn't call first," Reiji explained, and his warm voice seemed to have a mocking edge. "Shinji just REALLY, REALLY HAD to see Hikari, and it couldn't wait." He raised an eyebrow at Shinji when he said this, and gave him a sly smile. The purple haired boy seethed.

Akayo smirked slightly. "Oh-Ok. Hikari! Come down here!" Akayo called out. Then she turned to the boys and offered, "Would you like to come inside and sit down?"

The older one accepted and stepped inside, but Shinji hung back and glanced around warily. He didn't want to spend much time inside her house. He was too old to be scared of cooties, but he didn't want any of her perfume or air freshener or whatever on his clothes. He'd never get the smell off himself.



"Well, Hikari was very excited about the last time she saw you at that pond," Akayo said, sipping a cup of tea. "In fact, she said she had a wonderful time with Shinji."

"A wonderful time!" Reiji exclaimed with that horribly teasing tone in his voice. "Ah. I see. Had some fun, did you?" His black eyes glinted with amusement. The younger sibling felt his cheeks burn, and he looked away quickly, remembering that time with her very well. That was the incident.

"Shinji!" Satoshi yelled out from the water, "Come on in! The water's great!" He dived underwater, and came back up squirting water from his mouth into the air like a fountain, which discouraged any of Shinji's temptations to go in the water. He was going to kill his brother for sending him outside to the pond with them.

"No thanks, I'd rather not swim in your filthy DNA," Shinji said coldly. "And the last thing I'd do is swim with you."

"But it's a hot day, and you're my friend. You're wearing black. Wouldn't it be a little sensible to just cool yourself off?"

"No, and I'm NOT your friend! I've told you already, friends are useless!" True, he was frying like an egg and his black clothing didn't help,

"Then would you swim if I called Hikari to come with us?" He asked, cocking his head.

Satoshi's rival blushed at the mention of the girl he travelled with, but he brushed it off and turned away to hide his red cheeks. "N-No! I said already, I don't want to swim!"

"Satoshi, I'm…Oh, HI SHINJI!!" Hikari's voice came out of nowhere and she stepped out behind a bush and waved her hand with a huge grin on her face. But Shinji's attention wasn't on her welcome

He was rather staring at what she was wearing…a yellow bikini with an extremely short skirt to go with it, even shorter than her usual skirt, and on it was a small picture of a pair of lips. He strayed off for a while and found himself looking at her barely covered chest for a few moments before hastily bringing it back up to her face.

She was a bit confused, seeing his shocked and embarrassed expression mixed with a poor attempt at looking like he didn't care. "What's wrong with Shinji?" she whispered to Satoshi.

He shrugged. "I don't know. I guess he likes your outfit."

"AWWW!! DO YOU REALLY LIKE IT??" Hikari exclaimed, and wrapped herself tight around Shinji's waist and held him there for a while. Shinji was struggling to breathe, and when she released he was gasping for air. "Hey, why don't we just go in the pool?"

His black eyes widened. "Oh, God no…."

"INCOMING!!" Hikari jumped into the water, holding a protesting Shinji's hand. The boy balanced dangerously on the side for a few moments before he collapsed into the pool…right on top of her.

Shinji immediately banished all dirty thoughts about it out of his mind and glared at his brother for bringing it up.

"So, where is Hikari?" Reiji asked, ignoring Shinji's glares and silent death threats.

"Oh, she's upstairs in the shower." Akayo said. Good, Shinji thought, so maybe we can leave before she comes out of the shower.

"Hey Mom, what did you call me for?" A cheery voice piped up.

Crap.

Hikari came down the stairs looking very messy. She had an undersized grey tank top with matching shorts, and her hair was sticking up from all sides of her head. Her blue eyes looked sunken and tired.

"Yeah, Mom?" She asked. "What did you….EEEEEEKKK!!" She broke off and screamed when she saw the two boys sitting on the couch. Reiji smiled and waved weakly, but Shinji just stood there with his eyes wide staring at the blue-haired girl.

"Reiji?! SHINJI??" She screamed, trying to cover her bare stomach and fix her hair. "Why didn't anyone tell me you were coming?!"

The eighteen year old sweat dropped. "We…didn't tell anybody we were coming. Shinji just wanted to talk to you." Reiji didn't see his little brother waving his arms frantically, drawing his finger across his throat mouthing "NO."

"Umm…alright…." Hikari looked bewildered at Shinji's furious expression and was still shocked about being so improperly dressed with guests around. She led Shinji up to her room.

As the purple haired boy passed his brother, Reiji whispered with a smile, "Have fun." Shinji scowled and started to plot the death of his stupid sibling.

Once they were upstairs, Hikari sat down on the bed and tipped her head expectantly. Shinji took a deep breath and tried to figure out what words to start with.

"Humph. I just want to say that this is all my idiotic, apron obsessed brother's fault I'm here in the first place, and this has nothing to do with me. Or you. He has the stupid theory that I'm in love with you, and I need you to know that he is my parent's eighteen-year-old mistake and his theory is absolutely wrong."

Hikair had a crestfallen look in her eyes. "Really?"

"Yes, Troublesome." Why did she sound so sad?



"Oh. Because…" She tried to smile, but her eyes glistened with tears that were about to fall. "It's just that…I was going to go to your house and talk to you about some feeling Ihad….remember when we met at the Oreburgh Gym?"

Shinji blinked. He was gazing at her eyes, and how beautiful she appeared to be. A warm feeling rose up inside of him. Why hadn't he noticed this before?

"I just tried so hard to work up some courage to tell you about it….to grow stronger so you wouldn't call me weak…to try so hard to win every contest I entered, so you wouldn't shun me and call me pathetic. All I wanted to tell you…."

Shinji looked straight at her, and he felt he knew what she was going to say.

"….I love you, Shinji."

Hikari brushed the tears out of her eyes before they fell. "But I guess there's no need for that now, huh?" She gave a tiny smile that disappeared a quickly as it had appeared, and she turned away.

"Hey, Shinji! We're ready to leave!" Reiji called out from downstairs.

Shinji glanced at Hikari again. If he was thinking properly, he would have rushed downstairs and left the girl crying her heart out. But his actions weren't connected to his thoughts. Hikari glanced warily at him as she turned around and saw him approach her.

"Shin…ji..?"

The pre-teen leaned down and stroked her messy hair and smirked. "Troublesome girl…" What he did next took Hikari by surprise. He brushed the strands of hair out of her face and kissed her cheek. The blue-haired girl stared at him in awe as he walked away.

He smiled, something that was rare in his part, but he couldn't help it. He just hoped he'd sent her ...a message.

Well, you might not have understood it or whatever, I had to rush.

Happy Ikarishipping Day!!

:) :) :)