Chapter 2

Knock knock.

"Gimme a sec!" There were sounds of shuffling heard from the shabby apartment, and Rukawa stood outside leaning against the doorframe, his bags on the floor in a heap. "Who's there?" the woman inside called out.

Rukawa kept silent, not bothering to utter even a sound. He was that phlegmatic. He crossed his arms on his chest and tapped his foot impatiently. She'd better come out soon or I'm barging in, he thought, blowing the hair away from his eyes.

The door swung open suddenly, revealing a medium-length raven haired girl of about 20, with bangs that were hanging into her deep set ice blue eyes. "Kae-chan?!" she exclaimed, clearly surprised by her little brother who wasn't, well, very little anymore. She took his face in her cool slender hands, and hugged him tightly. Rukawa coughed uncomfortably.

"Nee-chan... you're suffocating me," he squeaked, and immediately cleared his throat. When his sister made no move to relax her grip on him, he hissed, "Nee-chan!"

The pretty girl who was Rukawa Naomi gave a slight chuckle, and released him from her death grip. "Ne, Kae-chan. You've grown to become quite charming," she told him, pulling him by the elbow into her apartment, carrying whatever lighter bags she could get hold of. Rukawa just let himself be pulled in by her sister, and stood at the entrance, eyeing her apartment critically.

The building itself had looked pretty worn down from the outside, and it would be appropriate to assume that the rooms would also be as rundown, but that wasn't the case for Naomi's apartment. It was furnished simply, with a comfortable looking sofa, a 21-inch television sitting on a modest wooden stand, a coffee table and an oak shelf lying against the wall at the far end of the room. The kitchen was right next to the living room, with dirty dishes left piling in the sink. There was a square table which seemed to be the dining table and between the kitchen and the living room was a short corridor leading to a bathroom at the end and 2 bedrooms by the side facing each other. All in all, it was a small but comfy apartment.

"So," Naomi said, interrupting his thoughts. "How do you like it?" she spread her arms, gesturing at the state of her apartment.

"I like the wallpaper," was all he could manage, but at least he meant it. It was a pretty blue, smeared with clouds of different shades of white and grey and yellow.

His sister snickered. "Still the same old Kaede I see." She shook her head, giving a small smile. "Mom called me a few days back to tell me that you were coming. But I had no idea you were coming this early. I thought it was next week or something,"

"Yeah well, the Americans came earlier than expected, so I had to move out ASAP too." He shrugged. "Mom and Dad left 2 days ago."

Naomi rolled her eyes. "How typical of them to just leave everything and go," she tugged Rukawa's bags to his room but he stopped her and carried them himself, following her into the room on the left of the corridor. "The bed is made, you just gotta settle in, put stuff away in the cupboard over there," she pointed at the large cabinet by the window. "Switch on the fan if you're feeling warm, and yep, that's about it. My room's next door if you've got problems." She grinned. "Come out to the living room later, yea. I wanna talk to my little brother," she winked and closed the door behind her.

Rukawa sat on the bed, giving the room a once over. He bounced tentatively on the bed, and was satisfied at its springiness. The bag lay at the foot of the bed untouched, he figured that he'll have 3 months to settle himself in properly, so he'll just do it another day. Flopping back on the bed, he tucked his arms under his head and looked at the spinning fan directly above him.

So, what was he to do for 3 whole friggin' months? First things first, he was going to check out the nearest basketball courts in the neighbourhood. Even if there wasn't a proper court, street courts would have to suffice. And he would think that the streets here would be more active than the ones in Kanagawa. He'll probably get a job, a simple one, maybe as a waiter at a restaurant or something. Yeah, that sounds good. I'll start looking around tomorrow. Remembering his sister's request to chat with him, he stood up and stretched lazily, feeling his back and shoulders pop and headed for the living room.

Naomi spotted Rukawa coming out of his room and motioned him to come over. "Here. Sit by the kitchen counter. I'll fix you a drink. You drink?"

"Nee-chan. I'm only 17."

"C'mon, be a little more adventurous will you? I'll fix you an apple martini, ok? It tastes really good. Vodka or Gin?" she asked, then realising her blooper, she said, "Oh. You wouldn't know the difference anyway. I'll just put Gin." Naomi finished, reaching for a bottle of Bombay Sapphire from behind the counter.

"Wait. I want the Vodka." Rukawa spoke up. He'd tried some Gin before, and didn't like the taste of it, and he had never tried Vodka before, and wanted to give it a try. "Nee-chan, do you actually have a bar behind this counter?" he leaned over to where his sister was standing and true enough, there was a bottle rack with a range of hard liquors and liqueurs, with liquor pourers on the tops of each bottle.

"Silly boy. This is a bar counter. It's more for practice," she said smirking. She picked up the vodka bottle and flung it into the air, which flipped a few times before catching it with her left hand at the bottom of her back. The hand holding the bottle came up around her head and she rolled the bottle across her shoulder down her right arm, flipping it into the air again as it reached her fingertips then catching it upside down, pouring into the shaker.

Rukawa watched with mild interest. "Wow, nee-chan. You're something with that bottle," he said, obviously impressed, though he tried to hide it.

Naomi couldn't stop grinning. "I am darn good, aren't I?" she prepared the cocktail glass, putting a lemon twist by the side. "Worked hard at this, ya know. Won the best bartender prize twice in a row too." She decanted the liquid into the glass. "I love my job."

"Mom never told me you were a barmaid," he mused, wondering what his mom's reaction was when Naomi had broken the news to her.

"Well, I never told her," she said, pushing the glass towards him. "Here, have a try."

Rukawa sniffed the drink uncertainly, and then took a slight sip. His eyes widened a bit, and he murmured, "It's pretty good, nee-chan."

Naomi looked gleeful. "Heh heh. What did I say huh? I make a mean drink."

Her dear brother rolled his eyes skyward. "Oh yeah, whatever."

After a few drinks, the duo was sprawled on the couch, laughing and chatting away into the night. Well, Rukawa wasn't laughing per se, but he was a lot more light-hearted and chatty than he was sober.

"You guys actually fought it out with mops in the gym?!" Naomi snorted in an unladylike manner, nearly spewing her drink all over herself.

"Well yeah. There weren't many things we could use as weapons at that time," Rukawa interjected defensively, swigging down another mouthful of vodka-7up. "You shoulda taken a look at Sakuragi. His face was totally bloody and if the atmosphere weren't as tense as it was, I'd have laughed my head off," he chuckled.

Naomi made a face at him. "Glad to see something amuses you, even if it's blood," she poured another rum/coke for herself. "What do you think of your team-mates really?" she asked, eyeing him through the corner of her eye.

Rukawa looked a little sombre for a while, before leaning his head against the back of the couch. "They're great, actually. Except for maybe Sakuragi," he said after a little pause. "I mean, he's so competitive and acts like he has a grudge against me or something. Like I've done anything bad to him," he scoffed, rolling his head to look at his sister. "He's jealous 'cos of a girl. I'm always chased down by girls, tons of them. I hate girls. You should see me at school every morning, fighting off hundreds of them at a time..."

"Really? What about that girl you were talking about?"

"What girl? Oh. Ohhh. That girl. Haruko," he giggled again, and Naomi decided that giggling did not suit Rukawa very well at all. "Well, Sakuragi's infatuated with that dumb girl, who's as usual, is infatuated with me. So obviously, I'm the one at fault here since I obviously have control over who she likes," he said sarcastically. "I don't even like her!"

"Brother-mine, you are so full of yourself it's not funny," Naomi told him, shaking her head slightly. "But I can see where you got that ego from. With all those girls chasing after you, it's hard not to develop an ego of epic proportions..." she trailed off, looking over at Rukawa, who had fallen asleep. "Oh Kaede," she mussed his hair a little, "I've missed you, little brother," she planted a chaste kiss on his cheek before getting up and putting the glass away.

She trotted to his room, pulled a blanket and pillow out and walked unsteadily back to where her brother laid, dropped the pillow on the arm of the couch and pulled him on top of the pillow. She draped the blanket over him before placing another kiss on his forehead, and headed into her room.