Ch. 10

"What was that about?" Isumi asked slowly. Waya shrugged giving Akari a careless wave before turning around and following Shindo's rather abrupt departure.

"It's Shindo." He remarked finally as if that explained everything. It wasn't the truth, it wasn't a lie. It was perfect. Isumi gave him a strange look and then stopped in mid-step to turn back to Akari.

"Ah. Have a good day. We're sorry we interrupted your conversation." Waya rolled his eyes and snagged his elbow.

"Come on. We'll be late." He whispered amidst Akari's cheerful words of no worries. He wanted to actually talk to Shindo before they were all immersed in their games—to make sure that the kid was feeling ok. Or at least ok enough to be able to concentrate on the games. Waya had gone home yesterday and been predictably told off in Isumi fashion at being so late without warning. The rest of the night, as both tempers cooled off had been very quiet between the two boys. Waya gave him a side-glance. In fact, this had been the first time since last night that the boy had addressed him. Isumi was suspicious and a little hurt at being left out of the "something" Waya couldn't tell him about. Waya had been lost in his own thoughts, mentally preparing an action plan. He'd gotten the list from Touya about what Shindo needed to do to become a girl and all the possible maybes. Now all they needed to do was go down that list and check the items off as they happened. Some of them, they would have to wait for it to just occur. At that thought, Waya blanched and shook his head. He didn't want to think about his friend having to go through that.

Isumi sighed and lengthened his stride. The go institute was suddenly right there and Waya could see their friend, face bright red on the stairs. A group of people were already surrounding him. Oh hell. That guy just never had a break. "What is…" Isumi started but found to his dismay and growing confusion that Waya was no longer at his side. Instead the young man was running at full speed towards Shindo. He watched as the redhead barreled into his friend and successfully got him away from the other professionals.

"Sorry-sorry. We have to get going." Waya muttered, politely enough. "Come on Shindo." And without giving the other man a choice in the matter, he pulled him inside.

"Thank you." Hikaru muttered, leaning into her friend for a moment as relief filtered into her system. "I'm so happy to be away from them, I could kiss you." She wasn't really listening to what she was saying and so was slightly surprised when Waya stopped and pulled at her arm again until they were face to face. He was scowling but it wasn't a mean or angry scowl. It was the expression he would often get when he was thinking hard about having to do something that he didn't necessarily want to do but knew that he had to. It made Hikaru blink. "What is it?"

"You can if you want to." Waya started slowly. "You'd get that out of the way, at least." Wha-at? Hikaru felt her eyes widen and her cheeks start to flush. Kiss him? Her mind recoiled at the thought. Not that Waya was repulsive or anything like that. Her mind started chattering. He was actually quite good looking but-Ew. Wait. No. Stop. Halt. Oh my god. Hikaru took a step back.

"Waya! Shindo! Are you two ok? What was going on out there?" Isumi's voice broke on his last question as he looked between his two friends. Waya let go of Hikaru's elbow and gave his best friend a smile as if nothing had just happened. Well. Nothing had happened. But. Hell… Hikaru swallowed hard. Her mind was going everywhere and screaming and cursing at the moment. She couldn't even begin to think. She did feel gratitude towards Isumi. Impeccable timing. She made a mental note to pay for him the next time they went to eat. Or maybe she'd make sure that he chose this time. Yeah…

"I actually don't know what the heck was going on out there…" Waya's smile turned teasing. "Care to tell us?"

"The hair." Hikaru gritted out. "They were asking about the hair and—" She waved a hand. "—something about whether it fit the dress code or something. I didn't know there was a dress code for us? And why the heck do they not bother Touya about his hair? It's long too!" She pouted. "It's not fair." Isumi shifted uncomfortably and looked like he was going to ask something but then he just shook his head. He started to walk away, silent. "Isumi?" He didn't turn their way again. Waya sighed.

"I want to tell him." He muttered. "I hate lying to him."

"I…" Hikaru started but Waya cut her off.

"I know. I understand. I just—" He made a face. "It's hard, living with him." He followed Isumi with his eyes until the other was completely out of sight before turning his attention back to Hikaru. She froze under the attention and her mind went back to what they'd-he'd- been talking about before. "We should go in too. The games will start soon." She expelled the breath she'd been holding in with relief. Waya chuckled at it and shrugged, knowing exactly where it was coming from. "Hey. That's cool. Believe me…" He gave a little shudder himself before nudging his friend with his shoulder. "I didn't want to kiss you either. I'm straight. And you're…" He made a motion as if to say- don't know what you are. Hikaru growled at him.

"Shut up, Waya!" She started to stomp ahead.

"Hey. Wait up."

…

Hours later, with a new win under her belt, Hikaru sat on the park bench once more. Waya and her were waiting for Akari and Touya to join them. She waited rather patiently as she finished eating an ice cream, generously paid by Waya as an apology for giving her a heart attack earlier that day. She glanced at her friend who'd already finished his ice cream and was carefully licking his fingers to get the remaining chocolate from them.

"Think Isumi will be ok?" She asked carefully. The older boy had spared them a brief smile before waving their invite away. He'd muttered something about going to lunch with Nase and left. Waya froze and then shrugged.

"Yeah. He's gotten better at handling his emotion since China." He muttered, frowning slightly. "And this will be over soon and he won't be left out or whatever." An amber glare held her in her place. "You do realize that to be normal again, you have to get certain things done, right?" Hikaru groaned.

"How can I forget them Waya?" She suddenly wasn't hungry anymore. "It's a nightmare." She sniffed and looked around for the nearest garbage can. Once spotted, she aimed and threw. Good thing she'd always been good at sports, she thought as it dove neatly into the garbage can. Only a couple of ice cream spatters touched the pavement as it flew. She ignored his cry of indignation that this had been a good ice cream and how could she waste it when he'd paid for it. "What would you do?" She asked, serious. Obviously, Waya didn't feel too uncomfortable with the matter since he'd been bringing it up the entire day. She felt comfortable enough to ask him. "Think it'd be easier to kiss a stranger or a friend?" Waya scratched at the back of his neck and made a slight face.

"Eh." He grunted. "There are pros and cons to both, you know? Kiss a stranger and well, it'll be weird and most likely disgusting for you but at least there won't be any strangeness afterwards. I mean…you don't have to see the guy ever again. Then again, since you don't know them. You don't know what they're like and you could end up with a stalker—but you'd hopefully be male again and that shouldn't cause too much of a problem. Let's see…" The redhead stretched out, placing both his hands behind his head. "You don't know where they've been, who or what they've done before."

"Oh gross Waya!" Hikaru shrieked, pushing her friend in the side. He barely budged and just glared at her.

"You asked. Want me to stop?"

"Just move on to the next category or something. Urgh."

"Fine." He ground out. His side was throbbing slightly. "Pros and cons of kissing someone you know. Well. Really, unless you tell Isumi you're kind of limited to Touya and I and you already made it clear that I'm out. So…" Hikaru was about to open her mouth when Waya sat up. "Or were you thinking that kissing someone who doesn't know about the situation and who does know you would do as well? Cause that opens up a whole other realm of cons. Like. Seriously, I would punch you if you ever did anything like that and I didn't know." She found that she could only blink at him as he prattled on. He'd spent a lot of time thinking about this while she'd been busy trying to avoid it. She gave him a slightly watery smile and snorted.

"I think I get the point, Waya." She sighed and watched as sat back. His body language screamed: I have more! "No kissing a stranger. Not after all the wonderful images you've left for my mind to be completely scarred with."

"Hey. I didn't go into any detail or anything. You're the pervert for thinking anything more than what I just said." He bantered logically. Hikaru ignored him.

"And no kissing people I know who don't know about me. I will get hit."

"You got hit?" Akari's voice broke the pensive silence that was just about to settle between the two friends. "What happened?" The other girl was at her side in a heart beat, wide eyes looking her over with concern.

"I'm fine Akari. No one hit me." Yet. Hikaru scooted over to make room for her friend to sit by her side. "We were just discussing some options."

"Oh?" Akari pushed her hair back behind one ear and took the seat with a relieved smile. "What options."

"Hikaru's kissing options." Waya muttered with an amused grin. "Might as well get the easiest one out of the way."

"Easiest?" Hikaru felt herself twitch. "How is that one the easiest?"

"Well compared to getting your uhm… uhm…" He stammered.

"Period?" Akari added helpfully.

"Yeah. That!" Waya nodded defiantly. "Kissing will be a breeze. And you'll at least have control over it." He shook his head. "Actually…you never did go into what kind of a kiss Shindo has to experience."

"There are more than one type of kiss?" Hikaru asked quietly, eyes widening. Both Akari and Waya stared at their friend incredulously.

"Shindo, Hikaru…" Akari started aghast.

"You have got to be kidding me." Waya continued, poking the girl sitting next to him. "Hello? You are NOT allowed to turn into Touya Akira and be only about go! There's more to life than that. And I am NOT going to be the one explaining to you how many types of kisses there are and how you go about… No. I'm just not. There's no way in hell you can still be that innocent." He shook his head. "How old are you anyway? When this whole mess is over—you need to get a girl friend. End of story."

"Wa-ya!" Hikaru yelped. Waya ignored him and stared at Akari.

"He's hopeless, you do realize that, right?" Akari nodded, biting her lip. The boy snorted as he took another look at his blushing friend. "Anway, about what we'd been discussing previously…" It was Akari's turn to blush. She tugged at her skirt, smoothing the fabric before clearing her throat.

"Well…you know. The kind of kiss a girl would share with her boyfriend." Hikaru moaned.

"And that could range from peck on the cheek to making out on the couch." Waya commented dryly.

"Not a peck and not making out…" She squeaked. "Somewhere in the middle?"

"French kiss?"

"..yes..."

"Ah…uhm… Shindo?" Waya turned to look at the girl who was hiding her face in her knees. "Increase the awkwardness level in the kissing someone you know category. By a LOT." He swallowed and patted the girl's shoulder. "And check the internet for more information on kissing."

"Fine whatever. Is this conversation done yet?" Akari and Waya stared at each other and shrugged.

"Sure."

"Oh good." This was a nightmare. A ridiculous never-ending nightmare and if she ever EVER heard someone else pronounce the words I wish in front of her… well… she'd kill them. Once in a lifetime was already too much.

To be continued…

A/N- My first year as a grad student is completed. I'll hopefully have more time to write now as a consequence. I truly am sorry for keeping you guys waiting but I wanted to let you all know… this story is definitely NOT abandoned!!! 