Here's what Riku and Lulu were up too during Saya and Hagi's alone time^^

The title is from Ai Otsuka's song 'Kingyo Hanabi'. It's a very beautiful, sad love song.

Chapter 10: Kingyo Hanabi

Summary: They would find another way…

It wasn't hard to find the pond, it was right in the middle of the park. There was a pleasant tune hanging in the air, the music from the square.

But Lulu wasn't thinking about the any of that at the moment. She was focused on Riku. She was ecstatic that Riku had came with her and she was getting a little alone time with him. She couldn't wipe the smile from her face.

To prevent him from noticing her happy grin, she ventured over to the edge of the walkway and looked down into the clear water, there were koi swimming in its depths. She watched out over the water at all the boats floating across its surface. Most of the small vessels contained young men and women, couples most likely.

With the fading daylight and the lovely blossoms in the background, it looked so romantic. A boat ride will be perfect!

She turned to gaze up at him. "Hey, let's go out on the water!"

A distressed look crossed his face.

His expression confused her. "Doesn't it look fun?"

She heard the faintest whisper of a groan. "You don't really…?" But he calmed himself and said, "If you want to." His voice sounded monotone.

She watched him curiously for a moment, worried about his strange behavior. "Daijoubu desu ka?"

"It's nothing. Come on, there are boats over here." Riku turned and walked away.

She stood, still confused, but followed him over to the small dock. He greeted the man in charge of the boats and asked politely if they could borrow one. He didn't sound enthusiastic about the idea.

She wondered why. Was spending time with her that bad? Then why did he come with me?

The tall man looked them both over for a moment then spoke in a deep gravelly voice. "You two young lovers shouldn't be going out there, should you?"

Riku's face turned red, as did Lulu's. Riku stammered, "W-we aren't together!"

But the man only heard Lulu's question, "Doushite?"

He gave a booming laugh. "You mean you don't know the story?"

"Iie." She looked up at the man, wide-eyed. She was oblivious to Riku's discomfort with the topic.

"It's unlucky for young couples such as yourselves to go out on the water. They say there is a noroi on the water and any courting couple that ventures out there… their relationship will end!"

"But… what about all the people out there now?"

"Most think it's just a superstition. But I thought I would give you a fair warning. I'd hate for that to happen to such a young couple as yourselves."

She swallowed hard, looking out at the beautiful water. She didn't have any desire to go out on it any more. She wanted to get away form it as soon as possible.

"Arigatou… for telling us." She bowed slightly and grabbed Riku's hand, dragging him away form the dock.

They collapsed on a bench and stared out at the pond. She felt sick. Glancing up at Riku she noticed how much more at ease he seemed now. Had he already known about the curse, was that why he didn't seem to happy? Why would it matter to him anyway? "So, you weren't going to tell me about the curse?" She was a little miffed.

Shrugging he answered, "It's just a fairytale." His outward appearance showed no real interest in the topic but she heard the undertone of relief in his voice.

"What exactly is the curse anyway?"

He stood and pulled her up. "Follow me." Tugging her by her hand, they walked around to the other side of the pond and down a stone path to a small shrine. There was a statue of a woman before it.

She studied the stone woman intently. The lady was pretty, and she looked foreign. Riku voice caused her to jump slightly.

"This is Benzaiten. She is a megami. I don't know all the details of the story but supposedly she was scorned by the man she loved, or something like that, I don't know for sure. But anyway, she grew to resent the sight of any couple and so she cast a spell on the pond. The spell is supposed to bring bad luck to any couple that is falling in love that goes out on the water. Apparently, their relationship will come to an untimely end, regardless of how in love they are."

Lulu shivered. She already wasn't too optimistic about her chances of even having a relationship with Riku, but she didn't need anymore bad luck on the matter. She glanced up at his calm face. She still couldn't figure out why Riku seemed so against going out on the water in the first place, and why he was so happy now…

"It that why you didn't want to go out on the water? You already knew about it didn't you?"

He seemed surprised at what she said and he looked away in discomfort. "We learned about it in history class…" He mumbled finally.

Lulu didn't understand his strange behavior, and he hadn't answered her first question, but rather than push the matter she dropped it. Gazing back at the statue of the woman, lost in thought.

"So what do you want to do now?" His voice pulled her from her thoughts.

"I don't know…" She was a little hesitant to suggest anything now, after the whole cursed pond thing.

"We can go try some more food. And I saw a few matsuri games back there."

"Sure…" She was up for any kind of game. She loved competing with Riku, when she beat him at something his reaction was always so funny.

He led her to where the vendors were set up. A few were decorated slightly more than the others and there were a lot of children and young people running around them.

They walked up to one that had a bunch of flat boards up on stands, Lulu examined one and discovered the board had a picture of a blank face on it.

"What's this?"

"It's called Fukuwarai. You're blindfolded and you try to place the facial features where they belong. Here watch. I'll show you."

Riku allowed himself to be blind folded and then proceeded to try and give the picture a face. Lulu laughed and he pulled the blindfold form his eyes. He had done horrible. The mouth was upside down and up where the forehead was, the eyes were sideways and no where near each other. The nose wasn't even on the face.

Riku laughed and offered the black cloth to her. He cleared the board as she tied it over her eyes. I can do this! It'll be easy. She set to work.

She heard Riku laughing and pulled the blindfold off, and burst out laughing too. She had done even worse than he had. They played a few more times and then went to find another game.

They played Kitsune bakuchi. Riku was very good at the dice game, but Lulu lost half of her yen in the gamble.

Nursing a sore coin bag, they found a stand that had a bunch of American games. Lulu played a game where she threw darts at balloons and she won a lovely French looking doll.

Riku brought over a bowl containing several different flavors of ice cream for them to share, and they drank nearly an entire bottle of Calpis.

They were walking back to the games when Lulu paused to look at an item on a table. Riku glanced back at her before walking to join her where she stood.

It was a jewelry stand. The woman behind the table was wearing a fancy uniform and said she worked for an expensive jewelry store in Shibuya. She was showing Lulu a lovely ornate hair comb.

"It's a very beautiful piece." She held it up for Lulu to get a good look. "This is pure silver. And the stones are emeralds. They match your eyes very nicely, Ojou-san."

"It's very beautiful…" Lulu agreed. She didn't have anything like it and she wanted it.

"It's on sale, and it's the last one we have."

Lulu looked at the price tag. That's on sale!? It was still fairly high, but she might have enough to get it. She dug through her bag trying to count her remaining yen. She just a few hundred yen short. Her heart sank. "I don't have the money right now…"

Riku watched her face fall and heard the sadness in her voice. He could see how much she wanted it.

"That's alright. Maybe some other time." The woman was beginning to put it back up.

"I'll buy it." Riku said loudly.

Lulu's eyes flew up to Riku's but he was looking at the woman. He handed her the money for it. The woman looked between them for a moment, then smiled and took the money and handed him the comb.

"Arigatou." Riku bowed graciously. He gave her a smile and turned to walk away.

"Arigatou!" The woman called after him.

Lulu hurried to catch up with him. She ran full on into him when he stopped unexpectedly and turned to her. She backed up and looked up at him, "Hey, um… why did you… buy that?"

He didn't answer her. Instead he took a step closer to her and lifted his arms above her and gently slid the comb into her hair. She felt her face heat up.

When he stepped back she looked up at him. He just smiled down at her. "Because you wanted it so badly." Then he turned and walked back towards the games.

Lulu squeezed her doll tightly and reached up and brushed her fingers over the stones in the comb. Her heart thumped. She ran to catch up with him again. She paused, grabbing his sleeve, when they came across a game where everyone was on their knees leaning over tubs. "Hey, what's that?" She pointed when he looked.

"Kingyo-sukui." He replied. She looked up at him in confusion and he clarified, "Goldfish scooping. You use the poi to scoop a kingyo into the little bowl. They usually only have this during the summer. I wonder why they're having it now."

"Can we try it?" When he nodded she grabbed his hand and drug him over to it. She watched the other participants playing and then handed Riku her doll and went to get a poi and a bowl form the vendor.

She sat and watched closely as the girl across from her easily scooped a kingyo into her bowl. Lulu mimicked her, but instead of catching the fish, the poi broke. Frustrated she got another and tried again. It broke too. She growled. No matter how many times she tried she never got it right.

I give up! But just as she was about to throw the broken poi down she gasped. Something solid pressed up against her back, and arms, covered in dark green material, extended around her and gentle hands covered hers. Riku's face appeared above her shoulder. She blushed at the closeness and her heart sped up. He was very warm.

"You're moving it too fast. You have to do it slowly. Here." He moved their hands to show her, but it broke again. A result of Lulu's jerky movements, caused by the stiffness in her body contact with him had brought upon her.

"You need to relax. It's not that hard once you get the hang of it." She tried her best to clam herself. When she was reasonably sure she had, they tried again. They lowered the bowl near the surface of the water, the poi slid down into the water near the fish. One big kingyo swam over around the paddle.

Their joined hands twitched. The fish bounced out of the water and into the waiting bowl. "We did it!" Lulu giggled, turning her face to his and froze. His breath puff against her cheek and lips. Her face felt as if it had burst into flames.

Riku didn't seem to notice anything unusual about their closeness, but he backed away from her. "Hai! We did." He looked around before adding, "Are you ready to go?"

"Hai." Lulu stood to follow him. As she was leaving she noticed a little girl, crying near one of the other tubs. She heard the little girl mumble to her mother, "But I want a fish…"

Lulu looked down at the bowl holding her fish and ran over to the little girl. "Here you go!" Lulu handed her the bowl and the child stopped crying. She looked down at the goldfish and smiled when it splashed around in the water. "I think he likes you."

"Arigatou!" Her relieved mother said.

"Arigatou!" The little girl repeated.

"Dou itashimashite!" Lulu smiled and ran to catch up with Riku. He was smiling at her. "Nani?"

"That was very nice of you."

"Well, I really don't need a fish! Kai would be mad because he would be the one taking care of it."

Lulu suddenly noticed how dark it was. They park employees were lighting the lanterns hanging in the trees. "I guess it's time for the fireworks. We should head back."

"Hai." He sounded a little disappointed.

They took their time walking back to the square, looking up at the blossoms illuminated in the glow of the lanterns.

Lulu stole glances at him the entire way. She just couldn't help herself. Mao was right she really was hopelessly in love.

"Daijoubu desu ka?"

"Huh?" She was broke from her thoughts by his voice. He was staring at her. She barely registered that they were in the square already and surrounded by hundreds of people.

"Daijoubu desu ka?" His brown eyes were locked on hers.

"Um…" She couldn't answer. It was like she was hypnotized. Her mouth moved but nothing came out. She wanted to say something but she couldn't.

"Lulu?"

"I…" This moment was perfect. She wanted so badly to tell him how she felt… but she was afraid he wouldn't like it, wouldn't feel the same. A loud pop caused her to jump.

Their attention was drawn to the sky. A bright blue light lit up air above them followed by a red one, then a green…

"It's been a long time since I've seen fireworks…" Riku mumbled quietly.

Lulu looked back to him, admiring the way the colored lights lit up his face. He looked so happy, and that made her happy too. She wouldn't say anything that could take that away. Nothing else mattered but his happiness. It had been such a wonderful day and she didn't want to ruin it.

"Arigatou, Riku."

He glanced down at her. "Hm?"

"For everything. I had a very nice time with you today."

"Me too." He returned the gesture.

It didn't matter to her if she was no more than a friend to him, so long as she could be with him. She wouldn't risk loosing him, if that was to be the outcome then his knowing wasn't worth it.

But if he did feel the same… well, they would find another way. She could wait.

She brushed the back of her fingers against his in a causal accidental sort of way and she was surprised when his hand captured hers, linking their fingers together.

Lulu blushed from joy, I've done that a lot tonight. This night couldn't have been any better. She pressed up against him slightly and continued to watch the fireworks.

"Lulu?" Her eyes darted up to meet his. He was staring at her intently. After a moment he began leaning towards her.

What is he…? Oh! Her heart beat double time.

His face was only a few inches from hers when…

"YAA!" A familiar voice came from behind them.

She saw Riku's eyes widen and he jumped back from her. She had a similar reaction herself.

"Don't scare me like that!" Lulu yelled frantically when she saw Saya.

"Neechan that isn't funny!?"

"Gomen. I just couldn't resist!" Saya giggled. She looked at Lulu appraisingly for a moment. "Hey where'd you get…" She was interupeted by two loud cries of…

"Oka-chan!"

"Oto-chan!"

That was followed by a two tiny arms wrapping around her. And two more grabbed at Riku.

"Where have you guys been, we've been looking everywhere!" Kai grouched as he walked up.

"We only just arrived." She heard Hagi reply.

Lulu hefted up Hibiki and the girl looked fondly at the doll in her other arm. She handed it to the small child with a smile. She noticed who tired the young girl acted.

"Did you guys have a good time?"

"Hai." She answered at the same time as Riku.

Kanade and Hibiki replied sleepily, "Hai, Oba-san…" then they both fell asleep.

"They were really tired." Kai informed them. "Maybe we should go so the noise doesn't wake them."

"Hai, the show's almost over anyway." Lulu agreed, brushing Hibiki's bangs from her cherub like face.

They followed behind Kai. She hadn't been expecting it but she felt a soft hand clasp hers. She smiled brilliantly into Hibiki's hair.

Hai. As long as she had him with her, nothing else mattered.

Even if the wonderful time they spent together only lasted for a little while, she could hold onto it in her heart for the rest of her life.

And judging from the events of tonight, maybe finding their way to each other wouldn't be as hard as she first thought.

There really is a curse on the pond in Inokashira park, I found that when I was researching where to have them go for a Hanami, I thought it sounded kinda fun.

Translations:

Noroi - curse

Megami - goddess

Matsuri- games

Fukuwarai - literally - lucky laugh; its basically a version of 'pin the tail on the donkey'

Calpis - a sugary drink mix. Saya drank the heck out of it in the manga.

Kitsune bakuchi- literally - fox gambling; a game where you place a bet and roll 3 die, if the die match you can get up to 3 or 4 times what you bet.

Ojousan- (spelled ojosan; added 'u' to draw out 'o' sound since there's a line above it) used to address a young girl or someone else's daughter.

Poi- plastic paddle with a paper frame

Dou itashimashite- you're welcome

RATING CHANGE!!!!!! Next chapter: What does it feel like…