Urlaub? Ich denke nicht!
[Holidays? I don't think so]

KnH: For all you who thought that this fic had fallen into oblivion, here's some good news: I did not, I'm (finally!!!) back with chapter three and to make it up to you I made this chap longer. Sorry to keep you waiting though and have fun reading nn!!

Thank you C.Queen for beta-reading!!!

Pu-chan: Digimon's neither mine nor Hiki-chans', if it were,…..that'd be awesome!



The scent of fried vegetables and meat reached Ruki's nose even before her mother slid open the rice-paper door of the little Okonomiyaki restaurant. Ucchan's Okonomiyaki was a small restaurant somewhere in the outskirts of Nerima, one of the 23 wards of Tokyo. The food was fantastic and sometimes Ruki wondered why there weren't many customers here, each time they visited, not that she didn't enjoy the solitary peace which was offered next to deliciously fried dishes. Walking into the food-haven, Ruki and her mother went over to sit on their favorite 'log' which was a large piece of square wood with a cushion on top to make sitting a bit more comfortable. When taking her seat Ruki made sure to keep her hands on the wooden ledge alone, the only thing separating them from the counter which at the same time was the hot plate on which the okonomiyaki was fried for the customer to see and the ledge was only wide enough to put your plate, cup and chopsticks on. The restaurant was situated in a very remote area where you wouldn't find many wealthy people, and if there were to be any rich ones, they wouldn't dine here, so thinking of her mother's luxurious car parking in front of the restaurant, caused a nagging feeling of embarrassment creeping over her.

"Why didn't you take the Beetle?"

"Mom needed it, so I took the Mercedes."

"Where's grandma going to?"

"A health resort in Hokkaido for the rest of the week." her mother replied nonchalantly as if it were an everyday issue.

"WHAT? that's like at the other end of the world, why didn't she tell me?" it nearly knocked Ruki off her log to hear that her grandma had left town without even telling her, she'd never expect her to do such a thing, her mother maybe, but not Seiko!

"Ruki, my mother is a grown person, she does not need our specific permission to go out. She can do so whenever she wants to. Besides, she did tell you early this morning, but you were in such a hurry to get to school you didn't hear her."

1 to 0 for Rumiko. Ruki opened her mouth and shut it again. Tthis wasn't the right moment for a smart-ass remark, she'd called her Ruki and her tone was quite serious, not the usual 'all's peachy' one. Little did she know. Her mother had given Seiko the spa-week trip to the Onsens'(1) of Hokkaido as a birthday gift in advance, only to fulfill her own selfish purposes, she had everything planned out and this trip was part of her plan.

"So, what's it gonna be today?"
A cheery voice interrupted their discussion. The familiar voice belonged to Ukyou Hibiki, the owner of the restaurant and chef cook, a beautiful young lady of about twenty-eight years in the possession of very appealing features such as thick long dark hair which she held up in a high ponytail using a white band, a cute round face and huge innocent looking eyes, which could deceive you, because Ukyou always knew more than you'd trust her to know. Her marine-blue working attire looked somewhat like a ninjasuit and her white apron with the many little compartments, held one tiny spatula each and when I say tiny I really mean tiny, compared to the gigantic oversized combat spatula which hung on the wall for decoration purposes, those meant for cooking really were tiny. Every time Ruki dined at Ukyous', she'd always look at the spatula in amazement and wonder, if it had ever been in use before, except hanging on the wall to beautify the place, combined with her skills and the ninjasuit she wore it was very imaginable that Ukyou might have seriously kicked some major ass with that spatula. Ukyou was very skilled when it came to making okonomiyaki though, and the way the energetic woman flipped and tossed the richly decorated dough and fried it to sizzling perfection, was a high art.

"Erm,….i'll have mine Osaka-style." Rumiko said after thinking for a while, which was unnecessary, because she always had her okonomiyaki Osaka-style and Ukyou knew that very well.

"What about you Ru-chan?" just for the record, Ukyou Hibiki was the only person (apart from grandma Seiko) who was officially permitted to call Ruki 'Ru-chan'!

"Will it be Rukinomiyaki today?"

"Yes, thank you!" Ruki nodded smiling.

Ukyou went straight to work, mixing egg flour water and many other ingredients which were needed to make the okonomiyaki dough and when she was done mixing and knitting, she proceeded to decorate the two pancake-like pieces with meat and vegetables, not to forget the delicious sauce, meandering its way through the mountain and valley landscape of batter and legumes, followed by a splatter and sizzle which emitted from the black hotplate while the steam rose from the okonomiyaki and the various spicy scents emitted from it and wafted directly into Ruki and Rumikos' nose, instantly making their mouth water. The alluring smell increased their appetite and both their eyes followed Ukyos swift hand movements with which she flipped and tossed the okonomiyakis from one side to the other frying it to scrumptious perfection.

A minute later, Ruki's plate was filled with a unique and delicious okonomiyaki, just the way she wanted it.

"Ittedakimasu(2)"

and they began to eat.

"So, Ru-chan, what are you gonna do Friday or Saturday?" then Rumiko added with a wink "That date with Sato-kun still on?"

"No, I will not date that jerk" she growled slightly.

"But he's seems such a nice guy"

"Mom, we've had that already and I said NO."

"This is your last week of school and you haven't dated a single guy yet, don't you think it's about time?"

Was Rumiko deaf or only pretending to be and where was this conversation leading to anyway? Ruki smelled trouble, her mother had laid a trap and if Ruki wasn't careful enough she might fall for it.

"Which part of NO don't you understand?"

"Not in that tone, young lady."

growl

Rumiko returned to eating her food and without even looking at Ruki, she continued lecturing cooly.
"You should face it, that guy likes you, he told you so and from what I saw today I'd say from now on he'll chase you no matter where you go or what you do. That kid'll be after you and odds are he won't let go until he gets what he wants and the more you reject him, the more he'll be head-over-heels for you. It's only one week 'till summer break but it could become a very long week you know and then what'll you do?"

Ruki who threw her a skeptical glare, wasn't sure to which devious schemes her mother was up to yet, but whatever it was, it sure wasn't good.
"Simple, if he dares to make a move on me, I'll clobber him!"

Rukis' answer was met with a fake sounding laughter from her mother, merely causing her skeptism to grow.
"Oh Ruki, violence is not the answer."

"Sure it is, works every time now can we change topic? I'm not in the mood for this right now."

"Oh, you just reminded me. Ru-chan, have you ever heard of the famous photographer Satô?"

The name did ring a bell and sounded familiar to her but actually she couldn't care less so a simple "hhmm" was her reply.

"Anyway I met him at work a week ago, where he was the supervisor of the session. After the shooting he invited me to have dinner with him and after a little conversation he told me how impressed he was by my work and that he was about to start a new summer collection project and he needed ME as a model, can you imagine?"

Staring blankly ahead, apparently not interested at all in what Rumiko had to say about that Satô-grapher, Ruki ceased to listen after the third word was spoken, nevertheless she threw in some 'hmm's inbetween, feigning attentiveness.

"So we kept on talking for about an hour and he told me about his son, Teelo, Neo or something like that and that he models too at times. I told him about you and that you model for me too and since his project was about summer fashion for teens and young adults, he said he'd love to have you model for him as well, what a unique offer. I told him you'd be glad to come…"

The sudden involvement of Ruki in this matter instantly tore her out of her trail of thoughts and she stared at her mother in disbelief.
"Say WHAT??? ABSOLUTELY and DEFINITELY NO! I'm NOT going to model for ANYONE, I don't care how famous he or she is, no way!"

"But Ruki I promised! It's an important appointment and Satô is a very busy man you know. It would be totally unprofessional to blow off an appointment like that."

"I don't care!"

"It would mean a whole weeks trip to Fukuoka(3)"

"Fukuoka? Why's that?" she perked her ears, a sudden growth of interest apparent.

"Because the session is to take place at Fukuma Beach, so we'll have a photoshooting and after a hard days work we can all relax at the beach or go windsurfing or you can explore Fukuoka together with his son, they live there you know." she added with a wink.

"His son?? Are you trying to hook me up with a guy again?"

"Now come on Ruki I would never try to hook you up with a guy I don't know well."

Ruki gave her the 'yeah-right'-look and Rumiko continued. "Besides, Satô mentioned that he was into some kind of monster card game and so are you, right? You have a lot in common already and will have many ideas to share. Nemos' dad's a great guy and he son's gotta be wonderful, trust me on that."

"His name's Nemo? What kind of a name is that?" a slight hint of disgust was evident in her voice.

"I don't quite remember what his name was, but you shouldn't judge people after their names. Come on Ruki and give it a try, you'll love it and Fukuoka is the place to be."

Ruki was silent and thought of another excuse to bring up, she sure wasn't going on a photoshooting with her mom in Fukuoka with some freak called Nemo and his pseudo-artist dad.

"But school isn't over yet, can't you just let me stay home, leave some money behind and go to Fukuoka alone?"

"Honey, you're only 14 and your grandma isn't home for the whole week. I can't just leave my 14 year old daughter alone at home and take a trip to Fukuoka, it's against the law!"

"I don't mind."

Then with a uncharacteristically smug smile Rumiko retorted, hammering home the clear message,

"Sato-kun wouldn't mind either…"

That certain glint in her eyes said everything. Ruki perfectly understood and groaned in vexation. Now she had the choice between staying at home and risk being haunted by Satoshi-the-creep-Tajiri or go with her mom on a gruesome photoshooting session in Fukuoka and meet Nemo-the-freak or whatever his name was. On the other hand, Nemo meant 1. No school 2. Extended holidays and last but not least NO SATOSHI and after careful consideration she came to the conclusion that the latter option might be the wiser and let's not forget Kotomi and her sappy book, she'd manage to escape all that in one session. Maybe this wasn't that bad after all, besides the idea of Fukuma beach didn't sound that bad either.
Swallowing down a huge lump, also known as her pride, or was it the last bite of her okonomiyaki, but not wanting to grant her mom the pleasure of triumph, she accepted the offer reluctantly.

"OK, OK I'll do it but this is the LAST shooting EVER. After this there will be no more cameras, no more pictures, no more posing and no more make-up alright?"

"Let's say last but one?" Rumiko tried coaxing her, already having many future sessions in mind.

"Promise it's the last one or I won't go." she hissed behind gritted teeth, glaring dangerously at her mother.

Now Rumiko had her where she wanted but she wouldn't let that slip because of some little fight over future-sessions she might or might not hold. Better promise her now and see to those sessions later. And raising up her right hand, Rumiko proclaimed solemnly, "Alright then, I Makino Rumiko hereby declare that this is the LAST photoshoot I'll ever drag my daughter, Makino Ruki, along to!" and as an afterthought she added 'This year…'

Ruki was suspicious about the overly cheerful tone in her voice, something smelled fishy and it definitely wasn't Ukyou's recent okonomiaki order. But now was not the right time to search for deeper meanings, as the feelings of fatigue and a slight headache started to rise up in her, all she needed right now was a good nights sleep simply block out all the memories of this eventful day for a while and save the thinking and musing for tomorrow.

Rumiko called for Ukyou to pay for the dinner. "Thanks once again Ukyou, for the delicious meal, that'll be 1200 Yen, as always?"

Ukyou suddenly directed her attention towards Ruki before accepting the money Rumiko was about to take out of her purse, "Say Ru-chan, wasn't today the day your school held a sports festival?"

"Yes" Ruki answered, half in surprise, half in confusion. Surprised that Ukyou still remembered something she merely mentioned by the way three weeks ago and confused at the sudden change of topic.

"And I bet you won something, ne?" Ukyou stated being sure of herself and winked at her

"Uh-huh, wanna see my gold medal?" this sort of eagerness was quite unusual for Ruki, maybe she was just glad that for once, someone was interested and approved of her achievements.

"Sure." Ruki pulled the medal out of her pocket and handed it over to Ukyou to take a look at it. Turning it from side to side with an outstretched arm, Ukyou ooh-ed and aah-ed at the little round piece of gold enthusiastically commenting on Ruki's attainment.

"Way da go Ru-chan, straight for the gold. Congratulations, I'm very proud of you!" Ukyous' encouraging words were exactly what Ruki wanted and needed to hear after such a crazy day. Chicken soup for her ego.

"Thanks" she answered, blushing slightly

"This has to be celebrated, the okonomiyaki's on the house." she winked, nudging her lightly.

"Oh no Ukyou, that's alright we'll pay." Rumiko budged in.

"No no, it's fine, it's my gift to you and it would offend me if you wouldn't accept it." she objected.

"Thank you very much, gochisosama deshita(2)." Rumiko thanked her very politely and they left the restaurant. Ruki spun around and threw Ukyou-san a genuine smile which said more than a thousand words and Ukyou understood.

With a loud thud and a groan of relief and fatigue, Ruki let herself drop on her bed and started to doze of slightly, this day had been way too long. Only God knew how she'd survived it and it was now that she truly felt the total impact of her tiredness. But she had to get up once more and at least change the clothes she was wearing, she'd save the shower for tomorrow morning. Right now the only thing her remaining strength would permit her to do was wear her PJ's, which were a pair of sky-blue cotton trunks and a matching tank-top, the top had realistic clouds imprinted all over it and the word "clouds" embroidered in kinky curly letter in the upper right corner of the trunks. After dressing up, she put herself back into bed and took a quick glance at the alarm clock at her bedside, it read 10:13 PM. Quite early for her but today was an exception. As she placed the covers over herself and felt the caressing softness of her mattress and pillow beneath her a small smile curled her lips as this last thought struck her mind before she slipped off into slumber, "Last year, I was sleeping on a futon…"

Rumiko stood at Rukis' door and decided whether she should step in or not. Someone had left a package behind addressed to Ruki and she wanted to give it to her, but when she saw her daughter all snuggled up and peacefully asleep, reminding her of her little girl she used to be so many years ago, she decided better not to wake her up and disturb her from whatever dream she was having at the moment.

"Oyasumi nasai(4), Ru-chan." Rumiko whispered tenderly, before shutting the door silently so as not to disturb Ruki. After closing the door, Rumiko sighed a sighed in contentment and headed off to her bedroom to get some sleep herself, tomorrow promised to be a long day.

7:30 AM

The golden rays of the bright morning sun, shone through the blends of Ruki's window and slightly tickled her nose in an attempt to wake her up. As they reached her eyelids and caused her to blink, purple orbs met golden sunlight, instantly causing the eyelids to shut again, trying to hinder the luminous intruder from disrupting her sleep. But sooner or later, she'd have to wake up anyway, so after rubbing her eyes and blinking some few times to get them acquainted to the light, she glanced at her alarm clock standing at her bedside, telling her that it was 7:32 in the morning. Slowly pulling the covers off herself, she got up and not before yawning and stretching luxuriously and scratching her head (a habit; she did that whenever she woke up) she headed off to the bathroom to get herself ready for the day.
Once in the bathroom, the first thing she did was take a look at herself in the mirror.

'Picture perfect! Ain't I a dish at 7:30 am?' she snarled cynically at her reflection before reaching for her toothbrush, when it struck her like lightning,
'Fukuoka!' and groaning as an afterthought 'oooh nooo… Why in the names of the deities above do I always get myself in these crap-situations, now what did I do to deserve this?'

After brushing her teeth, she peeled herself out of her pajamas and hopped under the shower, in order to freshen up, because she skipped showering the day before and to help clear her mind and think things straight about this whole trip-matter. When done, she wrapped a towel around her body and stepped in front of the mirror one more time giving her reflection the hairy eyeball.

'OK Makino, let's get this week over with!'

"Ru-chaaan…breakfast is ready!!!" her mothers voice sounded from the kitchen.

"Be there in a minute." she yelled back before walking to her bedroom to get dressed. Rummaging in her wardrobe she searched for her beige capris' and the pale turquoise-white striped armless tank top which collar wrapped itself around ones shoulders. As for her hair, she decided to tie the hair at her sides to the back so, half was up and the other half was left open. When done, she reached inside her wardrobe and pulled out her duffle bag and randomly dropped in pieces of clothing and accessories she thought she might need. In case of any eventuality Ruki always had a ready packed toilet-bag with things like toothbrushes, soaps, sponges, body-lotions et cetera ready and so she grabbed it and dumped it into the bag. "That should do it, it's only a weeks trip anyway, not a world tour." She always preferred to travel light.
Now that she was done, she dragged the bag to the entrance and went and sat in the kitchen to have breakfast, consisting of fried eggs, toast, tea and cereals. Ruki helped herself with the cereals and decided to have some toast afterwards. Wordlessly they both ate their breakfast, Ruki carrying a not so enthusiastic expression while Rumiko sported a perpetual smile. Fortunately, and much to Ruki's surprise, she had cut down her usual morning conversations, given the fact that she was at home this morning to hold them, to "Good morning Ruki" and "Sleep well, last night?" which Ruki answered the way you'd expect her to answer. Ffurthermore, Rumiko reported that she'd faxed the excuse letter to her school this morning and now nothing would stand in the way of their trip. She smirked at the thought of Satoshi, who would neither find her in school today or for the rest of the week and Kotomi, but apart from that, her joy was limited.

8:15

Stowing their bags into the Mercedes' trunk Ruki shook her head at the loads her mother was taking along and went and sat up front, her mother joining her to her right, as right-hand-drive was usual in Japan.

"What do you need all those bags for?"

She chuckled "All those? they're only 2, you're making it sound like a whole cargo load."

"Well, that's what it looks like." she answered dryly.

"One always has to be prepared for every situation." she lectured jokingly.

"Oh brother." Ruki rolled her eyes.

Rumiko sparked the car and off they drove. Fortunately there wasn't all that much traffic going on today and they managed to reach the highway during half an hour. Looking out the window, the only view offered to Ruki, was that of a sheer endless street with busy cars rushing along it, shining in the midday sun, billboards, which were desperately trying to shove their message down your throat and light-poles flashing by so rapidly, you could hardly count them, but counting them wasn't quite what Ruki felt like doing despite her current state of utmost boredom.

"How long is it going to take us?" she asked actually wanting to get off this minute.

"Some 9 to 10 hours if we're on time."

she stared in disbelief "Why didn't we take the train then?"

"Imagine all the fuss there'd be if someone recognized me in the train." Rumikos' reply came nonchalantly and that settled the discussion for now and Ruki didn't know whether to laugh or scream, sometimes she really didn't understand her mother. The attention craving super-model was bothered that someone might possibly recognize her, as if that wasn't what she was always out for. "Oh by the way, someone came and left a parcel here for you yesterday, I wanted to give it to you but you were sleeping and I didn't want to wake you. Check my handbag, you should find it in there." she yanked her head in the direction of the handbag to show her were it lay.

"Really?" she answered flatly and searched her bag. Pulling out the parcel, she was not exactly curious as to know what the purple wrapper was hiding. It had her name written on it, so it was hers all right and after holding it for 2 seconds she identified it's content, namely a book and it didn't take long to figure out who that book was from.

'Kotomi' she mumbled barely audible, but her mom still caught that.

"Is that a present from Koto-chan?" perking her ears and giving Ruki a quick glance before returning her attention back to the street (where it belonged), always glad to see Ruki associate with her favorite niece and wasn't it just so darling of her to give Ruki this "farewell" present?

"Yes it is from Koto-chan."

"Why then, go ahead and open it."

"Why bother, I know what's inside already."

"How come?" Ruki never minded answering that question. She unwrapped the book and looked at it for a while 'nice cover' she thought before placing it on the dashboard and returning to her beloved billboards and light-poles.

Rumiko looked at her out of the corner of her eye and smiled a small smile.

Her nagging sense of honor and the brain killing boring view out the car window, made her wonder, if reading that darn book wouldn't be the better option and after 2 minutes of pondering and staring at it from time to time out of the corner of her eye, she finally strechted out her arm and gingerly fingered the book and turning it around she started by reading the blurb. Just as she'd expected, a teenie love story with a not so stupid and hormone driven little barbie doll heroin, who later, despite all effort to evade cupids arrows, falls for the stunning and -oh, surprise- good-looking hero after some ups and downs during the story line. Well she wouldn't take it too serious anyway, rather read with a distance and a good portion of sceptism, and if it's that bad, at least she could have a good laugh on the account of the stupidity of this book.

page one:

>>I've had enough of this bull shit they call love, there is no such thing as love, some scientists even say it all comes down to some chemical reactions in our system to which we are bound to react to. Now, look at man, who claims to have conquered the world, tamed every beast on the face of this earth and make the sky limitless, simply making the impossible possible. But when it comes to his own self, he is smitten, beaten and tossed to and fro by his own emotions and feelings, not being able to control his own self anymore and prone to do unthinkable things at the very brink of insanity, sometimes even hurting others with their impetuous actions. Why on earth would I want lower myself to such an insufferable level and make a huge fool out of myself. Where is the sense in that? Seen from the biological aspect, romantic "love" is merely the first step leading to a interpersonal relationship between a man and a woman, causing the two subjects, who plan on spending the rest of their lives together, to merge during the passionate coital act , literally becoming "one flesh" thus resulting in the birth of their offspring for reproduction to take place in order to multiply and replenish the earth. I am only 15 years of age, and I don't plan to "reproduce" or "replenish" this earth any time soon, so why indulge myself in meaningless love affairs, and waste my precious time, while I gain nothing worth the while? I don't believe in love, as I said there is no such thing as love, it's all just nothing but a worthless illusion, a figment of our imagination and as fleeting as a flash of lightning in the gray and thundery clowds of a summer thunderstorm, now you see it, now you don't….>>

'Hey' Ruki thought, slightly amazed at how un-barbie doll like this girl Akino seemed to be 'She's got a point there…' Ruki continued reading and before she knew it, she was deeply engulfed by the story, growing fond of the main character with whom she shared many opinions with.

8 Hours Later

"Ru-chan, we're here." the soft voice tore her out of the shallow sleep she had fallen into during the long drive, they had finally reached Fukuoka city. Rumiko had parked her car right in front of the Righa Royal Hotel, approximately 13 miles away from Fukuma beach. The lights of the city were on, cars were rushing by and the setting sun had cast its reddish-pink and purple light over the skyline of Fukuoka, donning it a somewhat slightly romantic appeal altogether. The Righa Royal Hotel was a luxurious and beautiful hotel, a marble fountain with water squirting carvings adorned the center of the lobby while a crimson wall to wall carpet decorated with little yellow crowns run along the floor and crystal lusters hung from the ceiling above. Admiring this ritzy hotel the notion ruefully struck Ruki that they were to stay here for one night only, somewhere along the drive, Rumiko had told her that they would spend the rest of the week as guests in Satôs' house. Great, that meant Nemo for a whole 24/7. Rumiko saw to the necessary arrangements and soon she held the key to their room in her hands and as soon as Ruki landed in the room, she immediately dropped her bag right at the entrance and flung herself onto the huge, soft and cozy bed with pillows as fluffy as marshmallows.

"Oooh, the good life" she moaned in fatigue and pleasure, this bed sure was soft, seemingly absorbing her into the deepest depths of the mattress. Yes she would sleep very well tonight. Half an hour later, Rumiko appeared with her white bathrobe on and a towel wrapped around her head,

"Care to take a shower?" she asked letting herself drop on the edge of the bed

"Couldn't hurt." Ruki shrugged, lifted herself of the comfy bed and headed off to the bathroom.

15 minutes later she was out and all dressed up in her PJ's lying flatly on her stomach with the book in her hands, 'Hhmm, funny' she thought 'so far, this ain't that bad' but after five pages, she felt sleep overwhelming her and she decided to put the book aside and get a wink, tomorrow promised to be a long day.

The next morning Ruki woke up feeling rather good that day, something just felt right and even though she wasn't jumping for joy and prancing around the room or expressing her happiness in any other typically teen manner, her facial expression clearly revealed that this girl was in a good mood. It could have been the bright and sunny morning, the book she pretty much enjoyed so far, the fact that she wasn't working her brain to death in school at this moment (and others were), or maybe even because no, in any way, invidious incident had occurred yet, but whatever it was, which put Ruki in this good mood, she wouldn't let it be ruined by anything today, not even by the upcoming shoot. Fortunately, their window offered them a view across the beach and it was breathtaking. The sun was rising, the sky was nearly cloudless and the deep blue see glistened magically in the morning sun. Since it was only 8 AM, there wasn't much going on at the beach yet but somewhere a little far off she spotted a horde of people in the process of building up a set and she figured that this was where the shooting was to take place. Taking a look at her cell-phone which told her that it was precisely 8:14 she decided to go ahead and take a little stroll along the shore while the place wasn't filled with people and enjoy the cool sea breeze and maybe even take a look at the set. Heading to the door she yelled back into the room to inform her mother that she was leaving already. Hearing her mothers' muffled response, since she was in the bathroom, Ruki shut the door and walked over to the elevators. She pushed the button to call the elevator and since there were three of them, she tried to guess which one would arrive first. To her amusement, the elevator to her right, which she guessed would come first, did come after two minutes and she stepped in with a triumphant grin plastered on her face, taking this as a good sign.
Right in that same instance as her doors slid shut, the doors of the left elevator slid open and a young lad clad in slightly baggy sand-colored ¾ pants and a white shirt with black sleeves and a black rimmed collar imprinted with a black vortex, encircled by the words "Fukuoka NOW" in the center of the shirt, exited the elevator and went and stood right in front of Ruki and Rumikos' hotelroom door, knocking at it politely.

"Just a minute" Rumiko hastily announced before unlocking the door.

"Ohayo gozaimasu, Makino-san(5), my father sent me to come and help you get your luggage down." he greeted her very politely.

"Oh, good morning to you too Theo." she replied cheerfully and then pointed at the bags lying at his feet in the entrance. "Our bags are right here, thank you very much, now if you'll give me a second to get done, I'll be right with you and we can leave" he nodded and off she went to search for some last things in order not to forget them.

'Did she just call meTheo???' he asked himself in astonishment. He'd heard many different variations of his name before, even though it was a very common name, but Theo was new, once someone even had the nerve to call him Nemo. Anyway, since this wasn't the first time in his life he'd gotten renamed, he simply shrugged it off and reached for the two bags on the ground. They sure weren't light 'Holy mother of Buddah, what's inside these bags?' he thought, trying to regain his balance after heaving the bags up his shoulders. Waiting patiently for Rumiko, she got done three minutes later. Standing in the door frame she took one last look around the room once more to see if she had really taken everything along, when her eyes fell on Rukis' book on her bed 'Oh, she must have forgotten it' so she quickly grabbed it and dropped it in her handbag.

"Sorry to have kept you waiting for so long but I'm done now, so let's move." she apologized to him, now fully dressed in her pastel blue and yellow wrap-around skirt and a pale mint colored tank top, sunglasses tucked into the front part of the top while a large sunhat crowned her head.

"No problem at all ma'am" he assured her with a slight shake of his head and they went to call the elevator

Meanwhile in the hotel lobby, Ruki was about to exit the building, when she was held up by a sympathetically looking man standing at the counter, who seemed to have recognized her."You're Makino Ruki, am I right?"

"Yes, I am Makino Ruki." she confirmed cautiously. One could never be too careful, most of the time the nicest looking men turned out to be the most dangerous.

"I thought as much, you have your mothers eyes" Rukis' skeptical stare suddenly switched to bewilderment due to the bluntness of his unexpected comment.

"Come again?"

"Pardon me, allow me to introduce myself, the name's Satô." the man who turned out to be the photographer himself greeted her friendly and stretched out his arm which she politely shook.

"Seems like you're mother's still to come, my son's helping her bring your luggage down you know, but if you wish to, you can go out and snoop around the set before we get there. You have my personal permission to do so or you might as well take a walk along the beach, the breeze is terrific and there ain't many people there yet." Could this man read minds or what? That was just what she was about to do. Ruki thought him nice already, seeing that no harm went out from him. Whoever said "Like father, like son" had better not been a big fat liar, or he had another thing coming.

Ruki exited the lobby and strolled to the beach. Satô was absolutely right, the salty breeze which blew from the ocean and ruffled her hair was very refreshing and for a moment she simply stood there at the shore, eyes closed and listened to the sound of the sea, the movements of the waves, the whistling of the wind and the cries of the seagull. Breathing in deeply the various scents of the environment, she stretched her arms, exhaled and sighed contentedly.

"Kirei na des(6)"

she said to herself before looking for the set Satô talked about.
Finding it quickly she headed over to it and decided to get to know some of the crew-members beforehand , sooner or later she would have to go there and work together with them anyway, and as they say: better the devil you know, than the angel you don't know, so checking them out right now wouldn't be such a bad idea and to be honest, she was a little bit curious. Usually she detested the mere idea of modeling but a feeling told her that this was supposed to be a whole new experience altogether.

"Aaah, Ruki, glad to see you've made it" when arriving at the set, she was warmly greeted by Satô. Her mother and the boy who helped her carry the bags down, most likely his son, were there too.
She smiled at Satô in return, before her eyes landed on his son, which instantly wiped the smile off her face.

"What are YOU doing here?" she gaped in disbelief, her eyes wide in shock, hoping that he had a good excuse to be here, but she quickly regained her composure.

"I see it that you've already met my son?" Satô asked in astonishment.

"Hey there Ruki, nice to see you again, ohisoshiburi des(7)" he winked at her, flashing her his trademark smile.

"Good morning Akiyama." she greeted him with her coolest tone, then turned over to her mother and glared at her slightly irritated,
"I thought you said his name was Nemo?"

"Nemo???"

"Why it is, isn't it? Nemo, Theo?…"

"The name's Ryou Mrs. Makino." he answered laughing, seemingly amused by this name-confusion issue.

"Oh I'm sorry honey, my bad."

"It's alright Mrs. Makino, happens all the time" he took it lightly.

"Well to get things straight, allow me to introduce myself, I am Akiyama Ryou and this is my father Takeyoshi Akiyama, also known as Satô," and turning back to his father "And she dad, is Makino Ruki, the girl I once told you about who nearly beat me in that tournament a couple of years ago, remember?"

"Is that so, are you the young lady who gave my boy a tough time?"

'Not as tough as I'd wanted it to be' --"Well, more or less…"

"It's a small world we live in, well then I'm truly enchanted to meet you again, Makino Ruki, you seem to be a very talented young woman, and that was a job well done, you see sometimes, my boy here needs someone to show him who's boss around here or he might get his head too high up in the clouds." he said ruffling Ryous' hair in a jovial manner

"Dad, would you cut that out?" he protested, trying to sound annoyed but it didn't quite work for they both had to laugh and Ruki shook her head at them both, surpressing a chuckle.

"OK kids, now we've got that little misunderstanding straightened out, it's time we got to work. Ryou, Ruki those are your separate cabins. You'll find all the swimm suits ready in there, after that Noriko and San will have your make-up fixed, then we take the first pictures. Now when we're done with one suit, you just go back, quickly change into another and we continue, got it?"

"Got it!" Ryou replied and Ruki nodded confirmatively.

'Nemo' Satô secretly snickered 'What kind of name is that?'

1.)Onsen..............................Hot springs
2.)Ittedakimasu.......................Enjoy your meal
2.)Gochisosama deshita................The meal was tasty
3.)Fukuoka............................City in Japan
4.)Oyasumi nasai......................Good night
5.)Ohayo gozaimasu....................Good morning (very formal)
6.)Kirei na des.......................This is beautiful
7.)Ohisoshiburi desu...................It's been a while/ long time, no see
Yaaay, finally, another chap done, hope you liked this one too, and don't worry, there will be even MORE Akiyama-kawaiiness in the following chaps, that's a promise. BTW, to all those who really speak japanese, if you find any mistakes, please be so kind as to inform me, domo arigato gozaimasu! Now, don't forget to review…