A/N: Not mine.

Mrs. Irie considered the pair's banishment but a momentary setback. In her mind, her son's exposure to an additional potential girlfriend had been accomplished. While she preferred the daughter of her husband's long-time friend, any young woman who could divert his attention from his oh-so-boring schedule was acceptable; provided, that is, that she adored her Naoki at least half as much as she herself did and was willing to furnish her with grandchildren in the not-so-distant future.

She immediately began to plot further. Let's see, Kotoko-chan has another friend who will be free from her summer lessons in a few days. Three nubile young women, scantily clad, surely then Onii-chan's hormones will kick in. Now where are those passes that Papa received from that inflatables manufacturer?

"You know," Jinko paused to lick a melting drip of ice cream, "Irie-kun's mom sure doesn't act like she's the mother of a genius."

"Well, she doesn't treat him like one," Kotoko pointed out. "I told you that he has his own set of chores at home."

"Yeah, and from what I can tell, she makes quite an effort to keep him humble." Satomi sipped a diet soda, her eyes behind oversized sunglasses checking out the young men checking out the trio of girls on recliners at the water park.

"Whatever. It was really smashing of her to give us these passes, plus gift cards for food."

"Don't waste all yours on sweets," Satomi advised. "It's not even lunch time yet."

"Bossy!" Jinko stuck out a pink-colored tongue at her friend before doing a double-take. "What the heck is Kin-chan doing here?"

"Oh, rats," Kotoko moaned. "There goes our fun day out."

True was her prediction, for Kinnosuke and his two bookends dogged their steps for the next hour. Volcano Vortex: right behind them. Rapid Races: in the next lane. Wild River: they entered the same raft; although once the boys were buckled in, the girls quickly exited and waved farewell as the craft set off, Kin-chan's wails fading as the current carried them away.

"Well," Satomi dusted off her hands at a job well done, "that gives us some breathing room. Where should we escape to?"

"How about lunch?" Jinko suggested.

"You and your appetite…!"

"We'll be indoors, Satomi," Kotoko reminded her. "Maybe they won't think to look there."

"Good point."

While Kotoko stood in line, finger tapping her chin as she tried to decide between chicken strips or fish and chips, a child's shrill cry echoed in the tropical restaurant. "Onee-chan!"

"Yuuki-kun!" she cried in surprised delight, barely able to keep her balance when the boy barrelled into her. "What are you doing here? And who are you with? Why didn't Obasama let me know that you were coming? I would have been glad for you to come with Satomi and Jinko and me. It sure wouldn't have been any trouble, and–"

"Slow down and take a breath, Kotoko." Naoki appeared behind his brother. "Ma said he was anxious to go so she gave us some passes that Dad had."

"That's funny. She gave us passes too." She bit her lower lip guiltily. "I bet Yuuki-kun overheard us talking about it. I'm sorry that I didn't think to invite him too, and now you got conned into coming as well. I'm sure you'd much rather be studying or practicing or whatever else you do in summer."

"Relax," he grinned as he took in her companions' shock at the open shirt over his swim trunks, "I enjoy taking breaks too. And somehow,"he leaned close to her ear, "I suspect Mom was planning to send me here anyway."

"It would have been nice if you'd been along earlier," Satomi informed him with a sniff. "We've had problems with...pests all day."

"Huh?" Jinko looked at her before an expression of understanding filled her face. "Oh, yeah, Kin-chan's been a real pain. Can't take the hint that he's not wanted."

"Hint," Satomi huffed. "We've done everything but report him to the park officials for stalking."

At Naoki's inquiring look, Kotoko nodded. "It hasn't been as much fun as we thought, although we do appreciate Obasama's generosity. We shook them off a few minutes ago but might just leave after lunch."

"Aw-w-w!" Yuuki whined then turned to his brother. "Onii-chan, we can stay with them and chase away the bad guys, can't we?"

After an unfruitful search for their quarry the male trio eventually decided on a refreshment break to regroup. Kinnosuke's frustrated howl of fury when they entered the restaurant brought everyone's attention to bear upon them. "Oi!" he shouted, finger jabbing in the direction of the Irie party, "get yourself away from my girl!"

Naoki winked at those at his table before challenging, "Which one of these young ladies is the one you are claiming, as if she was a possession?"

"None of us belong to you, Kin-chan!" Kotoko's eyes flashed as she confronted him. "Least of all me!"

"Why– but– that's–" he sputtered.

"And something else," Satomi speared him with a glare, "how did you come about the information that we were going to be here? Rule number 39."

"'There is no such thing as coincidence'?" Naoki nodded. "Our," he indicated his brother and himself, "presence proves that one."

"Well– uh–"

"None of us would have told you," Satomi kept up the pressure.

"Maybe they bugged your phones or computers," Yuuki chimed in.

"No," his older brother drawled, "I think espionage is a bit beyond them. Spies," he added, when some at and around the table blinked in bafflement at the four syllable word.

"Yeah," Jinko snorted, "Kin-chan's way too dumb for that."

"And you're stupid to leave your phone unlocked on your desk," the boy snapped.

The shorter girl rose slowly. "You looked in my phone messages?" she asked, a little too quietly. Her friends' eyes widened as they tried to scoot away unobtrusively, Kotoko even placing a protective arm around Yuuki's shoulders. "My phone that my parents refused to purchase for me after the last one was stolen? My phone that I took three part-time jobs to buy? Jobs that took up my Christmas and spring holidays?"

"Then you shouldn't have made it so easy," he sneered.

"Eh, Kin-chan," Dozo tapped him on the shoulder, "was that when you had Gin-kun drop the firecracker in the trash can while Jinko was at the front of the room reading that English poem?"

"Yeah, nothing easy about lighting that without anyone noticing it," his pal chipped in. "And Dozo here had to pretend to be scared and knock over half the desks to cover me getting away from it."

"Not very considerate of you, old chap," Naoki tutted, "making your friends take all the risks. Of course," he nodded at Jinko, "what goes around does tend to come around."

Indeed, the girl was whaling on him with her flamingo-colored bag. While not doing much damage, she did manage to herd him towards the door, Yuuki cheering her on despite Kotoko trying to hush him. When other patrons got the gist of what she was shrieking, they leaped in to assist the boy down the stairs, luckily not head first.

Before joining their friend, Dozo and Gintaro made jerky bows to Jinko and the rest of the table. "Sorry about that," they said. "I guess we kinda got caught up in the thrill of finally getting out of that damn summer school."

"Chaos does tend to follow in that person's wake," Naoki mused.

Dozo scratched his head. "Not sure I understand that."

"Which is part of our problem," Gintaro pointed out. "Look, Do-kun and I would rather not have extra school days."

"Yeah, it was kinda hard seeing Kotoko and Satomi free while we were stuck with old Tanihara's bad moods."

"So, Kotoko, if you're going to do any more of that teaching, maybe we could too?"

She pulled an ear, face flushing. "I, uh, hadn't thought that far ahead."

"Well, keep us in mind." Dozo jerked a thumb towards the door. "We'd better see about getting Kin home before he gets thrown out of the park."

"Good luck with that." Naoki narrowed his gaze. "I believe those are security personnel headed his way."

"Shit! Well, see ya!" The two hurried to hustle their friend down the path towards the exit ahead of the cavalry.

"Well, that came out of left field." Satomi's declaration had them all look her way. "Those two have been Kin-chan's faithful shadows ever since first year."

"Maybe he had them do his dirty work one too many times," Naoki offered.

She shrugged. "Could be. What I was getting at is them wanting extra lessons."

"Yes," Kotoko piped up, "Kin-chan did his level best to interrupt me with Satomi and Jinko."

"And he made fun when others tried to listen in." Jinko crossed her arms in disgust. "And then did everything but steal my phone to learn our plans. He's a real bast–"

"Uh-uh." Kotoko shushed her. "Children here," she tilted her head in Yuuki's direction.

"Really, Onee-chan?" the boy scoffed. "I hear worse than that during recess. But, say," he gave her his best puppy-dog eyes, "even if the excitement is over and the bad guys are gone, Onii-chan and I can still stay and have fun with you, can't we?"

"Who do they think they are, shoving me, Kin-chan, to the side like that? Why I oughta–"

"Calm down, Kin." Dozo and Gintaro continued to guide him to the bus stop nearest the water park.

"Yeah, those security guys looked like they meant business."

"Irie's a dirty stinking coward, calling up for reinforcements like that. He's just afraid to meet me one on one."

"Look, I don't think Irie had anything to do with–"

"Are you challenging me now?" he snarled.

Dozo backed away, hands in the air. "All I'm saying is that the guy didn't make any move towards a phone. It was probably one of the other folks…or maybe the restaurant staff."

"They shoulda stayed out of it. I had it under control."

"Boss?" Gintaro questioned. "What do you think they stopped you from doing?"

"Why, showing Kotoko what a lousy guy Irie is compared to me. I was just about to convince her, and then I got cock-blocked."

Rolling his eyes at Dozo, Gintaro said in a placating tone, "Yeah, it wasn't very sporting of him, was it?"

"No, it wasn't," he growled. "And if I could be sure that he wouldn't do some other underhanded trick, I'd go right back in there and show him what's what."

"Well, you can't. We gave them our tickets at the gate."

"Another foul move by that… Hey, Gin, you said it wasn't sporting of him, didn't you?"

"Uh, yeah?"

"Sporting…that gives me an idea." He chuckled evilly. "Irie may think he has me on the ropes, but the bout isn't over yet."

"You understand what he's saying?"

"Nah," Dozo shook his head, "but at least he's headed home now."

Naoki and Kotoko had not thought to advise Yuuki not to mention a certain part of the day. So when he performed an exaggerated re-creation of the 'Battle of the Café', Mrs. Irie almost burst into tears as she embraced Kotoko. "Une vraie héroïne, you protected my baby!" she exclaimed. "I now proclaim that you, Kotoko-chan, are my true daughter of the heart!"

Later, after Naoki had given Yuuki a lecture on the values of discretion, she asked him what that meant.

"Probably that she'll try to interfere in your life even more."

Yuuki chortled at Kotoko's resultant groan before succumbing to more hysterical laughter when she tackled and began to tickle him. When she began to giggle as well, Naoki did not even try to banish the thought that it was a cute sound.

T/N: Une vraie héroïne=a real heroine.