AN:  Sorry about the long wait . I've been busy… and a bit writers blocky!  I'm not sure about the next chappy cause I'll be working on my new fic 'Chasing my soul' as well as maybe another new fic.. I'm sad.. PLUS Me and Jade-55 are working on our joint fic "Breaking at the seams" –excellent please read it.

This one goes out to DiamondBabe cause she reviewed every chapter!  Thank you!

Oh and one last thing… how come no one ever wants to write a fic with me? LOL.. cept Jade.. but she's awesome ;)

At 7:50 Robert stopped his navy blue Grand Am outside of the old dojo building that stood four blocks from their school.  He was ten minutes early but figured Liika was probably already ready, she wasn't one to fuss over her looks.  As he strode up the walk way to the door, he narrowed his eyes.  Something had been bugging him ever since Mariah had called to ask if he could drive Liika.

He had asked if he was going to pick up Enrique as well, but she had been offlly quick to say no, that they would pick him up with Rei's car.  If he didn't know any better he would guess they were trying to get Liika and him alone.  If that was the case he wondered why.  He shrugged as he reached the front door, he doubted that was the case, after all Rei lived like a block away from Enrique.  Enrique lived on the street behind Liika, and for Robert to pick him up from his house would mean going out of his way –he conveniently forgot, however, that Enrique was probably at her house anyway.

Knocking on the door he waited patiently for someone to open the door.  Sure enough after a few seconds he heard the loud thumping of feet on hardwood floors and the door jerked open to reveal Tyson who blinked at him rapidly and raised a navy eyebrow.

"Yo Robert, what's up?"  He greeted, nodding his head.

Robert nodded back and asked somewhat formally, "Is Liika ready?"

Once again Tyson blinked in surprise, then broke out into a grin.  "You goin' on a date?  It's about time!"  He exclaimed laughing.

Purple brows furrowed over crimson eyes.  What was Tyson talking about?  Date?  However, before Robert could ask what exactly the younger boy had meant, Tyson turned around and yelled down the hall to the back.  "Cuz!!  You're date's here!"

"HE IS NOT MY DATE TYSON! SHUT UP!" Came the screamed reply that echoed down the hall.

Tyson fell over laughing.  While rolling on the floor he managed to yell back, "Aww come on!  You know you want him to be!  Don't be shy!"

"OH MY GOD!"  Another scream sounded as stomping could be heard coming toward them.

Liika appeared, the very picture of vengeance, as she stomped over and kicked Tyson in the stomach - not hard, but hard enough to get the message across.

Robert stared.  She looked… amazing, different, but amazing.  She was wearing a baby blue spaghetti strap tummy top that ended mid stomach, baggy black jeans, a wallet chain and blue and white sneakers.  The top was shimmery and had the words "You know you want me!" in dark blue sparkly letters on the front, he thought he remembered Mariah giving that to her last year for her birthday.   Her blue hair was pulled up in a high pony tail –unlike the bun it was always in, with her bangs framing her eyes, but she had pale blue eye shadow and navy eyeliner and mascara on her eyes, her lips were painted a clear pink color so they were glossy and shiny.

Robert continued to stare.  Was this really Liika?  The pretty little tomboy that used to instill fear in all the boys in elementary school?  The baggy jeans and wallet chain were normal but the only times he had ever seen her wear make up was at the dances and sometimes not even then.  He wondered why the sudden change, not that it didn't suit her because it did.  She looked beautiful.

Liika glared at her cousin that was still writing on the floor.  How could he say that??  And in front of Robert no less!  She really was going to murder him when she got home!  She could feel her face burning in embarrassment.  Robert would surely think her foolish now!  She wanted to crawl back to her room and die.  Peeking at him from under her lashes she saw him staring at her in complete awe.  His crimson eyes were wide and his mouth was hanging open in surprise.  What was his problem?  Why was he staring?  She reached a hand up sub consciously to smooth an invisible piece of hair.  Grabbing her jacket from beside the door she coughed nervously to catch Roberts attention.  "Erm.. shall we go?"

Robert blinked out of his daze and looked down at the blushing girl, his cheeks tinging a bit red themselves before he smiled and nodded once.  "You look nice Liika."  He stated flatly.

She giggled and blushed more.  Yes!  Score one for her!  They walked out the door toward his car.  Just as they reached the car Tyson yelled out the door.  "No making out on the first date!"

Liika's face blossomed from a bright red to an almost purple color. She wanted to die.

The car ride was made in awkward silence, as neither person knew what to say.  Normally Robert couldn't be bothered with what the younger Tomoda said to or about him but that last comment just didn't sit well with him.  Sure he tried to ignore it and on the outside it looked as if he was fine – but inside his mind was whirling.

What had caused the younger boy to say something like that?  And why did he seem to think they were going out on a date?  They never had before… he knew they always went out as a group on Friday nights.

The idea of dating Liika wasn't so bad –truth be told he wouldn't mind it at all, but he had never really thought about it.  Why bother?  She didn't like him like that anyway.  However lately everyone had been acting strangely when it came to him and Liika –everyone being Mariah, Enrique and Tyson, the people closest to her.  They would drop hints at her, she would then turn red and either try to hide or she would get mad.  He remembered the incident the day before at her locker.  Then just him touching her had made her blush –or so Enrique had commented on which made her hide her head in her locker.

It was all very odd.

Now that Tyson had made comments about the two of them dating he was sure that Mariah was up to something having him only pick up Liika.  If it was a single event, like just Tyson teasing he could have written that off as Tyson wanting to annoy his cousin, but when one added all the events up, it was far too suspicious to be coincidental.  His eyebrows furrowed as he frowned out at the road, too coincidental indeed.

The tense silence was finally broken when Liika spoke up in an uncharacteristically quiet voice and asked, "Um Robert… I was meaning to ask; if bowling doesn't start till 9:30 what are we going to do for an hour and a half?"  As she spoke red began creeping up her neck and across her cheeks once more. 

Robert looked at her from the corner of his eyes and narrowed them as he did so.  Yes she had been blushing in his presence far too often lately. 

Liika could feel the burn of a blush spreading across her face.  Geez!  She was turning into a pile of mush!  She couldn't even ask him a simple question with out blushing!  She was getting weak.

She could also feel his gaze and shifted uncomfortably, trying desperately not to blush anymore than she already was.  Yup weak and pathetic! That was her alright.

"We are meeting the others at DB's" He stated finally, training his eyes back on the road.

Du Bois' –or DB's as they called it, was a diner in the middle of town that was a popular hang out of the teenage population of Bakuten, Colorado.  More specifically a hang out for their group.  It helped that it was owned by Oliver's parents.

"I see."  She replied, sending the car back into an uncomfortable silence.

Thankfully they reached the diner shortly after.  Robert pulled into the parking lot, parked expertly and they both exited the Grand Am rather quickly.

As they reached the front door, Robert, being the gentleman he was, opened the door and allowed Liika to enter first. 

They entered to find the rest of their group already seated in their usual book, at the back.  Mariah was perched on Rei's lap at the back of the booth –it always amazed Liika  how Rei's legs never feel asleep.  Lee was about two feet away sitting at the right entrance of the booth, Oliver across from him and Enrique sprawled over a backwards chair in front of the table. 

Waving a greeting to Oliver's mother, who was behind the counter, Liika hurried over to the table.  Ruffling Enrique's already messy hair –he whined in protest, she grabbed a chair turned it backwards and dropped her self down beside Enrique, glaring at Mariah the whole time.

Enrique turned to scowl at her for 'messing up' his hair but his words caught in his throat.  What was Iki wearing?!  His dark blue eyes widened slightly as he took in the tight sparkly tank top and make up, and then he started to laugh.

"AHAHAHAHAHA!!"  He roared falling off his chair, clutching his stomach.

The entire establishment stopped and stared at the almost hysterical boy, laughing on the floor.  "Yo-you!"  He choked sputtering in masculine giggles, "you're we-wearing makeup! Fo-fo-for…." He broke off into another round of loud laughing.

Liika stared at her friend who was writhing on the floor, her face turning purple in outrage.  What the hell was he laughing?!  "For what?!  Stop laughing!"  she screeched, kicking him with the toe of her foot.

This only made him laugh harder, his face was by then red with tears streaming down his face.  "Fo-for Robert!  AHAHAHAHA!"

She went from purple to red in one second flat when she heard Mariah start to giggle as well.  Rei, Lee and Oliver looked hilariously confused as they sent each other questioning looks and shrugged.

"What was for me?"  Robert appeared behind Liika, carrying a glass of dark pop and a mug of what appeared to be coffee.

He set the glass of pop down in front of Liika's abandoned chair and the mug down on the table, where Lee had just vacated moving over closer to Rei and Mariah, and sat down next to the dark haired Lee.

Liika's eyes expanded in mortification and her hands flew to her face.  How could he?  Oh he was going pay! 

Robert eyed the blond –who was still on the floor laughing, in distaste.  "Sattiay, what are you going off about?"  He asked, the disgust evident in his voice.

Enrique sat up and grinned at the tall purple headed boy.  Cackling a bit he started, "Oh it's very simple, Robby my man, Liika's only wearing make up to-" 

"ENRIQUE FLAVIAN SATTIAY!"  Liika's very loud hiss cut him off before he could finish the very embarrassing sentence.

The booth paused, then collectively turned their eyes to the boy on the floor and burst out laughing.  "Flavian?!" Rei exclaimed laughing.

Mariah giggled then started waving her hands dramatically.  "Oh Flavian!" She moaned in a soap-oprah actress voice.

It was now Enrique's turn blush in embarrassment as he hung his head and slouched back into his chair.  Hearing Liika's triumphant, yet somewhat evil, chuckle he twisted his neck and pouted at her.  "You weren't supposed to tell anyone!"

Narrowing her eyes, Liika brought her face to with in inches of his.  "And you weren't suppose to say anything about you know what."  She growled.

Enrique smiled innocently and laughed a bit nervously.  Reaching up he tweaked her nose and leaned back smirking.

"Ack!" She grabbed her nose and glared at him.

Turning back to the group, Enrique noticed they were still grinning, smirking and in the case of Rei still laughing at him.  Frowning her held up his hands in defeat.  "Its not my fault!" he whined, "You know my parents and their Italian craze!  Flavian is a latin name meaning blond."  He pouted.  "And I was toe headed from birth."

Lee and Robert snickered.  "Flavian sounds like some gay male super model's name."  Lee pointed out.

When Enrique groaned and slumped his head down on the table, Oliver reached out and patted his friend on the back sympathetically.  "I think Flavian is a wonderful name."  He consoled smiling kindly.

Enrique lifted his head and stared at his green haired companion.  "That's why you laughed?"

Oliver blushed a bit and laughed.  "Well, it did sound a bit funny at first… but now it sounds perfectly normal!"

Lifting his head from the table and propping on his left palm, Enrique looked less than pleased.  "Perfectly normal my ass.  This is why I didn't want anyone to know Iki.  Thank god Tala and his gang aren't here."

"Don't call me that."

The blond shifted his dark blue eyes to the blue haired girl who was now sipping the root beer that Robert had brought her –he snickered mentally at this, Robert indeed.  "Icki, Icki, Icki, Icki!"  he taunted, sticking his tongue out at her.

Liika's eyes narrowed into a glare and she looked ready to hurt him.

"Why do you call her that anyway Sattiay?"  Lee asked cutting in the childish banter.

Lee had moved to Bakuten the year after Robert had, when they were eleven.  He had lived in the small town for the least amount of time of their entire group.  Enrique grinned wolfishly at the dark eyed teen and playfully nudged Liika.  "Well you see when we were about… oh four I'd say, we were playing in the field behind the old elementary school –the new school was build like the year you came.  Anyway, we were playing in the field disregarding the caution signs and yellow tape that surrounded the field –we were four, like we could read, when all of a sudden Iki fell into this hole in the middle of the field, it was hidden by the tall grass.

You see at that time they were putting a new septic field in for the school –a waste of time since they built a new school seven years later anyway.  Being the young adorable children we were –ignoring the caution signs and our parents warning, we played in the field that was being worked on and Liika fell into the open septic tank."

Even though the others had heard the story before they still cringed.  Lee looked surprised before he started chuckling and muttered a, "poor Liika."

Liika sat there, head in palm sipping her pop and looking mildly annoyed.

Enrique chuckled at the memory.  "Yeah, so me, being the gentleman I was and still am," at this Liika and Mariah snorted, "Pulled her out of the tank.  It was pretty full so it was easy to pull her out –she wasn't very big.  But she was covered head to toe in sewage and smelled horrible, it was really gross even to a four year old boy.  Saying she was 'icky' we headed back to her house to clean up.  The name just stuck, and to this day I still call her that."  He smiled fondly at the silently fuming blue haired girl.

"And you can see why I don't particularly care for it."  Liika injected, toying with her straw.

The table laughed.  "That really must have sucked!"  Lee said with a shake of his head.

"Oh that wasn't the worst of it either!  After I got cleaned up someone here opened his big mouth and Tala bugged me about it for months afterward.  And let me tell you, even as a four year old Tala was talented at annoying people and being mean."  Liika groaned, shaking her head and smiling at the memory, it was funny now, but it sure wasn't then.
Mariah sighed as she finished her drink.  Getting up from Rei's lap she pushed Oliver out of the booth and exited behind him.  "As much fun as this trip down memory lane is, Liika and I need to visit the little girls room."  She said grabbing Liika's arm.

"We do?"  Liika echoed looking rather confused as she followed the pink haired girl toward the bathroom that was beside the diner's entrance.

"Yes we do."  Mariah sent her a meaningful look over her shoulder.

"Blah."  She muttered, letting her chin hit her chest as she followed behind the other girl.

However, just as they passed the door, Liika collided with someone that was just entering the diner.  "Oops!  Sorry about that!"  She smiled, looking up to the person she had collided with.

Her smile froze as turquoise met chestnut. 

"You!"  Both exclaimed glaring.

Great!  Just great!