I apologize for the (very) late update! I decided to change it up to 3rd person to see how it works, so please let me know which you prefer! I will also be posting chapter 5 as well because the two are on the shorter side. Anyways enjoy!

Chapter 4:

Dai-chan and Ren were laying against the hillside, watching everyone practice. At least Ren was, while idly playing with a blade of grass; the dog was more focused on the ball than anything else. His tail wagged furiously as the ball passed in front of him and looked like he wanted to chase it, but knew better than to separate from the boy. As they were distracted, the grass crunched next to the two and Ren casually glanced over to see Natsumi sitting down beside them, also watching everyone practice.

"How was your first day?" She asked after a moment of silence. "I meant to ask after school, but you were already gone… out through a window I heard." Ren chuckled, knowing the girl was teasing him (although that was rare for her to do). Natsumi usually had a haughty attitude and tried to act like an adult because it was expected of her as the School Chairman's only child. Ren, himself, could understand the weight of the expectations on her and was happy when she would act her age. Even accepting her attempts to tease him.

"It was fine," He answered honestly, steering away from the window comment, "I'm not used to being surrounded by people our age though." Natsumi hummed thoughtfully, cringing slightly as Kurimatsu took a ball to the face. The two (three including Dai-chan) sat in silence again with their classmates being noisy in the background. In reality, the noise came mostly from Endou. Ren didn't know how one kid could be so loud.

"Your cousin Kazue was the only one around at the time, right?" She tentatively asked and Ren flinched slightly. He could tell from her hestiance that she had heard about what happened between him and Kazue… probably from her father who was friends with Date. From the day the two met, Masamune Kazue was aggressive to Ren… although it was later discovered that Kazue was fed a bunch of lies by various family members who didn't know a thing about Ren. Of course, Kazue apologized afterwards and the two became good friends.

Belatedly, Ren realized he was trembling when Natsumi placed a hand on his forearm. The boy sighed, releasing the anger growing in his heart, flopping back to lay against the hill and using his arms to cushion his head. He hated remembering what they would say about him and his Mother, who he hadn't even known at the time.

Natsumi seemed to take the hint Ren didn't want to talk about it anymore and turned her attention back to the field. The boy did as well and made eye contact with Kazemar–who averted his eyes–with cheeks flushed pink. Ren idly wondered if the blue-haired boy was overexerting himself.

With little effort, Ren pushed himself up into a sitting position and opened his mouth to call out, but was interrupted by a voice from behind. "Ren-ren! Up here!" Cheeks turning pink at the nickname, the boy turns around to confirm that it was, in fact, his mother calling for him. Ayame waved to her son while Date stood stoically beside her, nodding slightly to Natsumi in greeting.

Ren stood up and quickly brushed the blades of grass from his pants. "I expected you to call." He said, raising his voice slightly so his mother could hear. Turning around towards his classmates, Ren moved to wave good-bye, but ended up covering his mouth to prevent the laugh building from escaping. The team was staring, with mouths agape, at the two adults… particularly Ren's Mother. He couldn't blame them either, his mother was pretty and, as an aspiring designer, she wore fancy clothes that she designed herself.

"Thanks for letting us hang out with you!" Ren shouted to the team, shaking some of them from their staring. Endou cheerfully waves back, shouting See you tomorrow! The others echoing a little after him. Ren, walking backwards, waved to his classmates while trusting Dai-chan to make sure he didn't run into anything. By the time the boy reached the top of the hill, his parents were already waiting in the car. Opening the door behind his Father, Ren let Dai-chan in first after taking his leash off and climbed in after him. Once Date made sure his son was buckled in, he drove off… at a snail's pace.

Ren quickly realized that shopping with his parents was going to be a nightmare. What should have been an in-and-out trip at the grocery store, turned into a 2 hour debacle. Date ended up knocking an entire stand of oranges and was left to pick it up by himself by the other two. When Ayame and Ren were looking at vegetables, a friend of hers walked up and they ended up chatting for over an hour. Ren ended up doing the shopping by himself… probably for the best, since Ayame tried to put oyster sauce in the basket earlier.

Heading towards the check-out counter, Ren walked by the book aisle and spotted the tiny section of cookbooks. Remembering Kazemaru's joke from earlier, causing the boy to giggle again, he grabbed a couple to place in his basket. Upon doing so, it occurred to the boy that he needed a new bento box as well. Tanaka-sensei, the school nurse, was fascinated by the organism living in Ren's old one and wanted to keep it. However, the thing was stuck to the box and Ren just gave it to the adult… as he didn't want to remove it from it's home.

After the boy was able to get his parents out of the store, they headed to a mall for their other shopping. Date opted to wait outside the clothing boutique while Ayame helped Ren find clothes that weren't sporty. By the time they checked out, he had more than enough clothes and some were a little more stylish than he was comfortable with. Ayame looked happy though, so Ren kept any comments to himself and gave a look to his father when the man looked like he wanted to say something about all the bags.

The last store they went to was a home goods store. Date left to find an employee to order furniture the family needed while Mother and Son wandered around. While the apartment, owned by Date's family, was furnished with the basics–Ren's bedroom was quite bare. He only had a few belongings and wanted to get a couple of bookshelves, a low-table and a couple of cushions.

After the two picked out new dishes and pans (since Ayame and Date ruined theirs that morning), Ayame helped her son pick out a new comforter, stating that the one he had was too ratty and a few other things to make his room more "homely". She picked a few things for herself as well, since some of her belongings broke when she moved.

Date had brought most of his belongings from the Masamune estate and Ayame had already been living in Inazuma town, so she only had to move her things to the new place. Ren, on the other hand, had a few stuffed animals for his early childhood, some books, the weapons he earned and Dai-chan. There were also the things his Grandfather bought for him when the boy lived at the estate.

It was already nearing 10 o'clock when the family arrived home, way past Ren's normal eight o'clock bedtime. None of them hadn't expected shopping to take so long, especially Ren who used to shop with his Grandfather which would take an hour at most.

Though exhausted, the boy helped his parents bring in the groceries–placing his own purchases in his room to be put away another day–and headed to the kitchen to prep his lunch for the next day. Grabbing one of the cookbooks, he opened it to something that sounded good and followed the recipe directly. It wasn't as pretty as the pictures in the book, but Ren was positive that it would taste normal. At least, he hoped.

While cleaning the dishes he used, the boy glanced up at the microwave clock. It was nearing eleven-thirty. Panicking, Ren rushed and quickly got ready for bed. Dai-chan curled up in his spot at the end of the boy's furton and Shu-shu, his cherished stuffed fox, laid beside the pillow. Both ready for Ren to curl in next to them. Upon his head hitting the pillow, the boy was fast asleep… already in dream land.