Thankyou Devilish Aisha for giving my first review! And for reminding me to explain that I have never been to an anime convention so I'm just making it up as I go along. If I'm totally wrong and they are actually nothing like this, please just accept that this is a weird convention and just happens to be different! :D

Also, thankyou Claire for checking the 1st chapter for mistakes! XD

Chapter 2

They rushed down many winding corridors, Isamu always in the lead, Catriona trailing behind being tugged along by him. No wonder she had been lost. This place was huge!

Eventually they reached the main hall. Catriona glanced around in the hope of glimpsing her friends, but to no avail. Finally the grip on her wrist loosened and Isamu slowed to a stop. Although he didn't altogether let go of her hand. She blushed on realising this and didn't know whether to try and pull away or not. The contact was muddling her mind.

"Hey, Ken'ichi Oniisan (Big brother), Yuudai Otouto (Little brother)! Where's Mitsuko?" Isamu's voice interrupted her awkwardness and she looked up to see a tall, thin Pai cosplayer and a small 10/11 year-old Taruto cosplayer, evidently Isamu's brothers. Ignoring him, the tall one said "Isamu, who is this? And why are we speaking English?"

"This is Catriona-chan. She's English. And lost. SO I said she could hang with us until her friends come looking for her!" His brothers nodded a greeting and she smiled back nervously. " By the way," he added, turning to Catriona, "The tall one's Inoue Ken'ichi, and the midget's Inoue Yuudai. Inoue Mitsuko's our sister."

"I'M NOT A MIDGET! Anyway, Mitsuko-Chan is looking at stupid Mew dolls in the stupid shop. I'm so BORED! Why do I even have to be here? This is a stupid girl's convention!" Yuudai was evidently annoyed.

"Yuudai, I have told you. Father wanted us to stay and look after Mitsuko-chan." Sighed Ken'ichi.

"But why do I have to wear this stupid costume?" Yelled Yuudai. Ken'ichi levelled a stare at his face that would be enough to make anyone want to curl up and die. It wasn't a glare, as such. More of a You- are- of- no- consequence- whatsoever- and- unless- you- stop- annoying- me-I-will- shoot- arrows- of- cold- hatred- from- my- eyes- and- you- will- be- in- pain- and- I- will- be- totally-indifferent kind of look.

"This is a cosplayer convention. Only cosplayers are allowed in. Therefore we must cosplay. Do you understand?" He spoke each word slowly and clearly, as if Yuudai had the IQ of a drunk ant.

Isamu turned to Catriona. "Our sister created a huge fuss to make our parents send all of us instead of just Ken'ichi. Apparently we are exactly like the three bad guys so she made us dress up like this." He grimaced, looking down at his clothes as if they were some sort of disgusting creature that had just appeared there and refused to let go.

"Um, well..." She was reluctant to insult this strange, impulsive boy who had agreed to help her, but she couldn't help agreeing with Mitsuko. He was exactly like Kisshu. Deciding to change the subject, she said "Y-you all speak very good English. Even Yuudai-san." She chose to use his first name to avoid confusion with his brother, although she knew that she was supposed to use his surname. She hoped that it wouldn't offend them, but she really didn't know how else to address them.

"Father made us all learn English from an early age, along with German and Mandarin Chinese." Ken'ichi answered before Isamu. "He believes that learning many languages stretches the mind to allow us to reach our full potential." Not sure how to reply, Catriona just nodded. Another question occurred to her.

"Um, Isam- Hashimoto-san," She was trying very hard to remember the correct honorifics and Japanese etiquette, but it was really rather confusing. "W-why, if you don't mind me asking that is, do you have a different surname to your brothers?"

After a few seconds, during which Catriona fidgeted nervously, aware that the question had caused him discomfort, and wishing she could take it back, Isamu sighed.

"I'm adopted. My parents died when I was young in an accident- I don't remember them. So the Inoues' adopted me, since they were friends with my parents." He suddenly grinned. "Call me Isamu if you want. How much do you know about honorifics?"

"Not very much..."

Isamu's grin widened. "Then call me Isamu-kun. I don't mind- at all." His eyes flashed mischievously, and Catriona forced herself to keep her expression from showing her reaction. Which was shock, initially, replaced with embarrassment and confusion- again. It was true she didn't know much about honorifics, but she did know that "kun" was a term of familiarity, and that using his first name would probably imply he was her boyfriend. She saw his brothers rolling their eyes, and chose to pretend innocence- it would probably be the least embarrassing path.

"O-Ok."

They stood there in silence for a while, Catriona scanning the crowd for her friends to rescue her from the awkward silence. Isamu still had her hand. The thought crossed her head to say she had spotted her friends and run into the crowd, just to escape his mind-clouding presence, but she dismissed it. She was a useless liar. And anyway, it would be very ungrateful when they were looking after her.

Isamu was growing restless. A spark lit in his eyes, and he turned to Ken'ichi. "Hey!"

"What?"

"TAG! No it-backs!" He laughed and stepped away. Ken'ichi stared at him disdainfully. Then he turned to Yuudai, tapped him on the shoulder and said in a careless monotone "Tag."

"WHAT!" Yuudai screeched. "That isn't fair I didn't know we were playing! Grrr..." He looked around, spotted Isamu who had been distracted by the back of Catriona's head, and smiled evilly.

"TAG! Haha! Oh yeah and NO IT-BACKS!"

Catriona jumped and span around as Isamu immediately tagged her and jumped back. He had let her hand go- finally- and was smirking. She looked at her two possible targets, deciding who to chase. Ken'ichi wasn't even watching, and besides, she found him rather intimidating. That just left Yuudai. Resigned to her humiliation –she was REALLY bad at running- she leapt forward and attempted to corner him. Having totally failed, she chased him around the hall a couple of times before stopping back by Isamu to catch her breath.

"So slow! I bet you couldn't even catch a dead tortoise!" Yuudai scoffed. She ignored the goading and concentrating on breathing. A shadow fell and she looked up to see Isamu standing in front of her, hand outstretched, a suspiciously innocent smile on his face.

"Tell you what, honey. I'll let you tag me back- just this once. On one condition." He was obviously struggling to keep his smile from turning into a smirk, but Catriona was desperate so she nodded.

"The condition is I'm allowed to change the rules- for one round only. My new rules: "It-backs" are allowed, so I can catch you if I want. Which I will. Also, instead of poking you and saying "tag", the game is now changed to..." He stopped fighting his face and allowed his smile to become a fully-fledged smirk, "KISS-CHASE!"

Catriona's eyes widened and she stepped back. "B-but, um, can't we..." Isamu cut off her plea.

"Quick, sweetheart! It's no fun if you don't run. You have 5 seconds. Otherwise I might think you don't want to be kissed at all." He pouted, and although Catriona knew he was only teasing, part of her was worried she might actually upset him if he didn't. That same part of her was also urging her to play for quite another reason, too. Her lips tingled, from the memory of his last kiss, and she made up her mind to play.

Isamu had just started the count-down, so she had 4 seconds to escape. She fled, trying to understand herself. Did she actually want this bold, overconfident boy to kiss her? Her consciousness said 'NO!', but down in the recesses of her subconscious, there was a quiet yet overpowering 'YES..."