Akira's first vacation ever wasn't off to a good start. Rather than being relaxed, he was furious. He was mad at Haru, because how DARE he? How dare he have made this all about him? This wasn't about him, it was about the stupid secret he was keeping. Whether or not he had missed Haru didn't have anything to do with it.

He was mad at Urara for - well, his hair was still too long. And what had he been doing to Haru in that room? Something weird and alien, probably. Akira wasn't going to put up with any alien shenanigans on his planet.

But most of all, he was mad at his boss. He still remembered the bastard's smug smile as he waved him off. He'd known, of course, he'd definitely known. No alien set foot on earth without DUCK knowing. "Don't forget to relax" - HA! He was probably laughing at Akira right now.

Everyone was laughing at him. This was why he hated jokes. They were always on him.

He'd show them. He'd show them all. He would enjoy his vacation and figure out what Haru and JFX were up to. "Quack," Tapioca chimed in, to remind him that those were two conflicting statements.

"Do not underestimate me, Tapioca."

"Quack." That wasn't Tapioca, that was Pudding. Pudding never had anything useful to say. He was an idiot. Akira did not know what Tapioca saw in him.

He didn't have much to do today, or at least not until school let out. They'd all managed to get off work but Yuki, Haru and Urara, apparently, still had school to go to. Akira didn't know why aliens bothered with school when they were terrible at it. He'd once seen a simple algebra equation reduce Haru to a sobbing mess. How their species had ever discovered space travel was a mystery.

He kinda wished he was there…

Nope. He wasn't going to sulk. This was his vacation, he was going to go out and do something.

He was sulking at the Usami Family restaurant instead, watching his ducks getting forcibly cuddled by Sakura, when Mr. Usami got the call.

They'd been waiting for the call all day. Natsuki's family had pestered him to phone when he was nearly there, knowing that if they didn't he'd slip back into Enoshima without anyone noticing. The Usami family had not seen their first born, the fishing prince, in months and they wanted his return to be a big deal. Natsuki hated big deals.

Akira tagged along as the family filed into the family van. They were just four people, why did they need a van?

Then they stopped to pick up Misaki and Ayumi, and Akira started to realize just what he had gotten himself into. Then they stopped at the school and picked up Yuki and the aliens. They ended up squashed together like sardines for the entire drive.

Enoshima train station was a big, beautiful red building shaped like a shrine. Both aliens stared at it intently. The color red had that effect on them.

Akira got out of the van first. All of that social interaction had exhausted him so much, he practically leapt out of the van as soon as it stopped. Everyone streamed out after him, stretching their limbs and complaining. It hadn't even been that long of a drive. Whiners, thought Akira.

"Look!" Haru squealed, pointing at the train station. "Look! Earth is beautiful!" he told Urara. Urara smiled weakly but said nothing.

Akira would have observed them further if it hadn't been for Ayumi, who slapped Akira on the back and started telling him about the married life like it was the greatest thing in the world.

He was saved by Sakura screaming "NATSUKI!": she had spotted her older brother stepping out of the train station. He looked as cool as ever, with a bag and fishing kit slung over his shoulder. And -

Oh, no. His hair. It was back. It had been so short and neat when he'd left, why would he do this? Natsuki had awful hair when it was long. It didn't grow down like normal hair, it defied gravity and just grew in a halo around his head. A messy, unkempt halo.

Sakura ran up to her brother, laughing and crying, and hugged him around the waist. He instantly dropped his belongings to hug her back.

"Prince! We missed you!" giggled Haru. Natsuki let go of his sister to ruffle the alien's hair. "I didn't think I'd ever see you again, Haru." He didn't seem very surprised to see the alien, though. Someone had already told him, but NO ONE ever told Akira anything.

"You grew your hair back," Akira grumbled.

"It's great to see you too," Natsuki laughed.

Yuki rushed over and they bro-hugged and then looked into eachother's eyes for a few seconds too long. Akira found it awkward and weird, so let's just skip to later in the day.

Many hugs later;

The entire group was chilling and laughing at the Hemingway and Akira was back to square one. He wasn't having any fun, nor was he any closer to finding out anything about Haru and Urara.

The problem was too many people. How was he supposed to start a conversation with anyone with this many people in the room? They were all having plenty of fun without his involvement, and Haru and Urara weren't likely to do anything weird with so many humans watching. Haru was busy dragging the reluctant JFX around the room and hijacking conversations, trying to make JFX the center of attention. "Look at Urara!" "He wants to make friends!" "He likes whitebait like me!"

Yeah, too many people. Or...

Just enough.

Akira was struck by a brilliant idea. He made his way to Ayumi's side. He was in the middle of a conversation with Yuki and Natsuki, but it didn't matter what they were talking about.

"There's enough of us to go trolling." he stated bluntly.

Ayumi laughed and slapped him on the back. "You're pretty sharp, Indian!"

"Trolling?" asked Yuki. "Like... on the internet?"

Akira narrowed his eyes at him. "And you call yourself a fisherman!"

Yuki blushed such a deep shade of crimson that both aliens in the room dropped what they were doing to look at him like sharks.

"It's an boat fishing technique." Natsuki explained. "You can catch marlin with it. You need an entire crew, though."

"Oh wow, marlin!" Yuki exclaimed. "I want to try catching one of those!"

Akira beamed. Finally he was going to start having fun!

To go sea trolling you needed a boat and skipper (Ayumi), fisherman and fishermen hands (Akira, Yuki, Natsuki, Haru and Urara), and all of the necessary rigging and equipment (Misaki tagged along to help with that). Natsuki's dad came along too, he was in charge of the annoying sea chanties.

And they fished - it was exhilarating. Akira had never been trolling before, he'd never known enough fishing enthusiasts. It was a little restraining, he and his rod had to be strapped in place, and it wasn't his rod either. Misaki had let them borrow some really heavy duty rods. Just holding onto it was a bit of a thrill.

A half hour later, no-one had caught anything and they took a break unhooking their fishing rods to fish normally.

This was a good chance to turn his attention back to Haru and JFX. Haru hadn't been too thrilled at the thought of going out on the ocean, and that was suspicious in itself. He hovered behind JFX nervously, like a worried parent. He seemed to expect Urara to throw himself into the water at any moment.

"Why do they catch fish like this?" Urara asked in a superior tone. Maybe; his tone and expression were really hard to read at the moment. Akira had seen this before. Some aliens's human disguises weren't up to scratch and couldn't convey their emotions too well.

"There's an easier way," Urara continued, reaching off the side of the boat and into the water. Haru grabbed his wrist and shook his head at him.

"Haru!" Urara exclaimed, sounding shocked.

"Urara..." Haru half growled.

JFX yanked his hand out of Haru's grip and stormed off to the other side of the boat. Haru didn't follow him but kept an eye on him from afar. Akira felt a little bad for the alien, though he couldn't put his finger on why exactly. He just seemed stressed out and wasn't having nearly as much fun as usual. Akira decided against asking him about what just happened. Instead, he found himself gravitating towards a subject he'd wanted to avoid.

"Haru, about yesterday," he started, casually dropping his line into the water near where Haru was standing. The alien didn't turn to look at him, but Akira knew he was listening.

Akira distracted himself with retrieving his lure. He wasn't good at this sort of thing.

"I'm glad... that you're back." he said after a while.

Haru turned to look at him, his hair being blown by the wind across his face.

…Maybe Haru needed a haircut too, Akira thought distantly.

Before Haru could say anything, Akira's rod was nearly jerked out of his grip by a catch. Strike! Thought Akira, pulling his rod up to hook the fish and losing all of his brain cells in the process. Akira LOVED fishing.

He'd lost the chance to have a frank chat with Haru, but he managed to catch a sea bass, so it all evened out in the end.

It was a pretty good day of fishing. That is, until Yuki ruined it all by being the one to catch the marlin.