"Listen to me Marie. You may not want to, but I am making you speak!" Julie said to Marie when she said she could never speak to Kenshin. "Why do I have to do this? Why do I have to talk to him?" Marie complained. Just then Kenshin stepped up behind them. "That's him" Marie whispered. Marie turned around. Julie called for him to stop and pushed Marie over to him. "My friend wants to tell you something." She said. Kenshin sighed. "If it's that she hates me, I wouldn't be surprised." He said. Marie all of a sudden felt sad. Then she did what she thought she never could. "That's not true and it will never be.I hope." She said. Kenshin looked surprised. She turned blood red because she was blushing so bad because she was so embarrassed. She finally stopped when Kenshin was looking suspicious. "See. How hard was that?" Julie asked. Marie nodded. Then she decided to do something unthinkable for her. "Um. Want to..Come over to my house after school.and meet my little brother?" she said. Kenshin nodded. He sort of smiled at the thought that she didn't dislike him. "O.K. Here's my address. But if he's annoying, don't blame me." She said laughing. Kenshin laughed too. She started to leave but Kenshin stopped her. "I have to tell you something." He said. She stopped, dead in her tracks. She turned around and walked back to him. "What is it?' She asked. He looked her straight in the eyes. "Never mind. It's not important." He said. She remembered Lestat, then she remembered what a jerk he was. "If you have something to say, tell me. Don't act like my first boyfriend did. He was such a jerk and he kept things from me and lied to me. Kenshin, don't do the same." She said. Then she hugged him, to her surprise and to his.

"Hey. How are you? I'm glad you came. Come on in and I'll go get Alex." Marie said when she opened the door to see Kenshin there. She ran back down a hall. Her house was a big one story house. A few minutes later she returned, a boy around 3 feet 9 inches tall with blondish hair and green eyes who seemed only 9 or 10 years old with her. "This is my little brother, Alex. He's 10." She said. Then a big black lab dog came into the room. "This is Asheena. She's my dog. I got her name from a book I read. I've had since she was a puppy." Marie said, petting the dog's head. Kenshin stepped over to pet the dog as well, but instead it sniffed his hand and barked as loud as possible. "Shh. It's ok Ashe." She said. Kenshin looked confused. "Ashe is her nickname. She was barking because she doesn't know you yet." She explained. Kenshin nodded and walked over to the dog, this time able to pet it. "Alex, this is Kenshin. He's the one I've told you about, the one you wanted to meet." Marie said. Alex nodded. He walked over to Kenshin and looked at his sword. "Hello" he finally said, after inspecting Kenshin's sword. Kenshin as well said hello and walked over to Marie. Alex did the same. Marie looked from one to the other. The dog then followed. Then all 3 looked at her expectantly. "I suppose you all want me to show Kenshin around the house." She said. The dog nodded. And so did Alex. "Fine. But you're coming too Alex." She said. Then they were off.

"Thanks for coming. I'm really glad you did. I hope maybe sometime you could come over again." Marie said when Kenshin left. She hugged him for the second time too. She swore this time Kenshin whispered something to her. "Did you say something?" She asked when she released him. He nodded. "What?" she asked. Kenshin shook his head to say he meant for her not to hear it. "Well fine then. I have something I wanted to say, but I won't unless you tell me what you said." She said, crossing her arms. Kenshin laughed. Marie smiled. "Ok. I'll tell you. But promise you won't tell your brother?" He said. Marie nodded. "Ok. I just wanted to say that I.I.I l.lo.love you." He said. Marie looked somewhat surprised. She walked over and whispered in his ear "I love you too."