Courting Cherries

Just Like the Movies Part Two

Disclaimer: I have a shocking announcement! It is indeed true, that I do not own Hot Gimmick. Well, glad we got that law suit out of the way ;)

"That usher was ridiculously stupid! Do I look like I would have difficulty finding the right number theater? It says it right on the ticket! I mean maybe if I were you I might have some trouble but-"

"Ryoki, where are we going to sit?" Hatsumi asked, interrupting him from his little speech. They had miraculously found the theater thanks to Ryoki's genius, and were now standing in front of the enormous screen.

"Up there," Ryoki pointed towards the back right below the projector window. He started to pull her along before she made a small protest.

Of course he wants to sit up there! Just like I thought…

"Ryoki," Hatsumi said softly pulling on his arm a little. "I don't know about sitting up there. I don't have the best eye site, so I won't be able to see-"

"You think that we actually came here to-" Ryoki stopped himself before continuing.

It seems he might have made his plans a little too fast again.

The magazine says that you can either dive in or trick her, but I already said to her earlier in line why we came…So that leaves tricking out of the equation, right? Unless she wasn't paying attention like usual like her stupid self. She probably wasn't, so tricking can come back into the problem.

"I want to sit in the back." Ryoki said firmly, "Who cares if you can't see or not? It's probably going to be a stupid movie anyways." Ahh, perfect re-direction!

"But you picked this one!"

"Exactly, so I doesn't matter If you don't see it or not."

Sweat drops were starting to come down Hatsumi's face. The place is getting packed, there were so many people! And he still wants to…

"Hey, stop day dreaming!" Ryoki yelled, angered she had drifted off. "Let's go."

Hatsumi frowned, admitting defeat on the seating arrangements. She followed him up the lit stairs past at least nineteen rows, up to the very back. Oh great…

Hatsumi stood behind him waiting for the couple at the end of the row to pull their feet in. I'll just have to think of something…

"Hatsu!" Ryoki turned to meet the girly high voice yelling at them from behind.

Hatsumi moved to see only after observing the annoyed look Ryoki was throwing, a little stunned to find Akane about five inches away from her face.

"I can't believe you guys are here! This is so great, Hatsumi you didn't tell me you were going to the movies today." Akane's cheery voice filled the theater making some of the people in seats turn to watch the sisters.

"Yeah, it was Ryoki's idea."

"Great! We can watch the movie together, Subaru is getting me snacks." Akane pushed past Ryoki seating herself down in the middle of the row. "Come on," She said waving them over. "You better sit down there are a lot of people here."

Ryoki rudely pushed past the people at the beginning of the row, Hatsumi following, mumbling an apology to the them.

"Who the hell invited you?" Ryoki starred at Akane, his annoyed look had gone to steaming. "Go sit some where else!" He ordered, signaling towards the other rows of the movie theater.

"Oh come on Ryoki. Some one else is going to sit by you anyway, the shows filled up. I'll be fun, like a double date!" Akane giggled a little. "I never thought I would go on a double date with Hatsu. It will be fun for the whole family." Akane ended with another giggle and a ceremonious clap of her hands.

Ryoki's fury did not subside at all but he reluctantly plopped himself down one seat away from Akane. "Subaru's sitting there," He pointed to the empty seat separating them.

Hatsumi had stood quietly watching the scene put out there by Akane and Ryoki. Two thoughts ran through her head as she got pulled down next to Ryoki. The first being she never thought she could be so thankful to Akane in her life, and the second being…How could Akane just talk to Ryoki like that? And get him to actually listen? Sometimes she really did envy her younger sister.

"Where the hell is Subaru? The previews are going to start soon," Akane asked. She had since planted herself in front of Hatsumi so they could talk, much to Ryoki's dislike.

God, thought Ryoki, at this rate I'll never get my plan into action. I won't even make it past step two! What is that saying? Whatever can go wrong will go wrong? This magazine needs to have more scenarios in it.

Ryoki was still fuming away, you could almost see the red waves radiating off him. He hadn't taken the time out of his day to get his plan interrupted by Subaru and Hatsumi's exasperating little sister. Hatsumi already gives him enough of a hard time as it is, and now I have to deal with all of them! No! Ryoki Tachibana will get his way.

"Ryoki, are you okay?" Hatsumi asked, having looked over to find him throwing a victorious fist in the air.

"Yeah, what's wrong with you?" Akane joined in the questioning.

"Why does it-"

"Hey can someone help me?" Saved by the geek.

Subaru had apparently found them, but was having difficulty carrying all the snack food items in his arms. Akane and Hatsumi rushed to grab something from him before he went crashing down the many rows of seats.

"Subaru, what are you doing carrying so many things?" Hatsumi asked, not knowing whether to laugh at Subaru's almost comedic scene or give him sympathy.

"Hey Hatsumi! What are you doing here?" Subaru asked, apparently not having noticed her until she had spoken.

"Watching a movie dumbass," Ryoki threw out to him, not having moved from his seat to help.

Akane laughed a little and told Subaru where to sit, pointing next to Ryoki. "We're all gonna sit next to each other. Won't that be fun?"

"Umm, I guess," Subaru scratched his head. Obviously he was just happy to be rid of all the snack food, it having been evenly distributed among their group.

So there sat the four of them, from right to left, Akane, Subaru, Ryoki, and Hastsumi. Once again conversation commenced. Will they ever shut up? Ryoki thought, glaring at the three.

"So what exactly were you doing with all this stuff?" Hatsumi asked again.

"Yeah, the two of them don't need it. I already got Hatsumi popcorn. What if they get fat?" Ryoki asked leaning back in his seat, smirking.

Akane decided to through Ryoki a look, before she responded to the question for her new boyfriend.

"I couldn't decide what I wanted so I made Subaru a list."

Subaru just sat there during Akane's explanation sharing a moment of 'we both know how your sister can be' with Hatsumi. She smiled back at Subaru, before noticing Rykoi starring at her. Oh…

"Are you and Subaru communicating telepathically or something? Care to explain Hatsumi-"

"Shut up, Ryoki. The previews are about to start." Akane leaned over to see him, putting her finger to her lips in a 'shh' sign.

"Argh," Ryoki crossed him arms and leaned back, he would have yelled at the girl but he had other things to think about. The lights had just dimmed and he had a new plan to brew up. All of the plan focusing on the girl next to him who had chosen to remain rather silent since they had gotten there. He starred at her, scheming thoughts. She was just sitting there taking a sip from her soda, making an irksome slurping noise. God…she could be irritating.

The movie wasn't bad, at least looking from what he had seen halfway through. It was some science fiction movie that Subaru seemed to be paying the most attention to. How he had gotten Akane to come to this was beyond Ryoki. It didn't matter though, because best of all Hatsumi seemed to be bored out of her mind. It was a painfully obvious fact; she just sat there twirling her hair, sighing often.

This was not going to work against his plain, but with it. If she is bored to with the movie then she'll have to concentrate all on me!

Ryoki turned over to Hatsumi just in time to see her yawn, covering her mouth with her hand. No! She is not supposed to yawn, I am!

Almost as if he had been screaming out loud and not in his head, Hatsumi turned to look at him. She threw him a 'so your bored too?' Ryoki had to make this work to his advantage, throwing a small partial smile. Well, as much as Ryoki could smile at the moment without looking evil.

"Hey… hey" Someone whispered to them, disrupting whatever moment they were having. Ryoki leaned over, determined to find the source and maim them. What a surprise, Akane was interrupting them.

"What the hell do you want now?" Ryoki whispered fiercely, trying hard to contain his voice.

"I said that the movie is going to be over soon, so do you guys want to get something to eat?"

"What do you mean over?"

"It's gonna be over in like five minutes."

"What? I thought it was only half way through!" Ryoki yelled, the patience he'd held with his voice having flown out the door.

"Hey, keep it down." Some one yelled from in front of him, followed with a mumble of "kids these days, no respect for anything…"

What! This is impossible! Ryoki turned red, all his preparation and careful thoughts…all for nothing.

Now I'm gonna have to try the whole thing all over again. I'm gonna kill those two…

"So are you guys going to come or not?"

"Can we go with them Ryoki?" Hatsumi piped up, looking up at him. He didn't look happy, but it couldn't hurt to ask right?

"Didn't you just eat an entire bag of popcorn? How can you possibly still be hungry?"

"Well, I did spill some of it-"

"Fine! We'll go get some stupid food! At least one of us will get something!"

"Great job Ryoki. We got thrown out of the movie because you don't know how to whisper!" Akane and Ryoki had gotten into somewhat of a altercation in the parking lot. At least they weren't tearing each other's throats out…yet.

Hatsumi and Subaru just stood by idly on the side lines, showing no support for either team. Poor Subaru, he was so upset. He didn't get to see the end of the movie. Hatsumi patted his back waiting for the hot-heads to quit the petty brawl.

"It's not my fault you don't have a good concept of time!" Akane screeched back.

Hatsumi was getting tired of this, her stomach starting to growl. "Hey guys," She said, slowly walking in between the two. She held up her hands indicating 'I come in peace.' "Do you think we could go get some food now?"

"No," Ryoki said snatching Hatsumi's hand swiftly from above her head. So much for peace, thought Hatsumi.

"But you said-"

"I changed my mind. We're going back to the apartment complex." Ryoki stormed off towing Hatsumi behind him.

"See you at home." Hatsumi threw a little wave at Akane before being forcefully turned around by Ryoki.

Akane gave a little wave back and turned around to Subaru. "I'm sure Ryoki will be over it by tomorrow." She said optimistically, before starring at Subaru. He didn't look very happy. "What's wrong with you?"

What a stupid place to have a meeting, one that's most likely going to be a short one anyway. This stupid idiot probably just wants a free dinner.

Throwing his hands into his deep pockets, Azusa walked toward the lavish restaurant located in the middle square of the third district. He wasn't exactly dressed for the place having just come from a shoot, but what did he care? He was going to get in and out as fast as possible. He wanted an update on information, but he had other things to attend to as well.

Walking into the restaurant, the man waiting to seat people looked at him with a snobbish glare. Azusa smiled back with a smirk, grinning with all his teeth.

"I don't think that I can help you," retorted the waiter before Azusa even reached the man and his reservation book.

Azusa keep his signature smile, "That's okay, I can help myself." He walked past the haughty host, receiving a gawking gaze from him. He didn't need that asshole's help; he already saw who he was looking for.

He walked by a couple tables, quietly observing what was on the menu. He wasn't sure if he was even going to get something to eat anyway. Maybe a drink…

"You're late."

"Can't even say hello? I pay you; you're the one who can't be late." Azusa replied, slinking down in his chair, starring across the table to look upon the man there. "Love the seating choice, sitting next to a big tree." He made a gesture with his hands at the pruned shrub placed next to their table, "Makes me feel like a secret agent, you?"

"I have other people I work for. If I'm late seeing you, I'm late seeing them." He said, completely disregarding Azusa's other comments.

"Don't have an aneurysm Sherlock, we won't be long."

"No, we won't."

A/N: I forgot to mention in the first chapter that this story starts after the 8th manga. I'm going to try to work with the future story lines, but who knows with me. If I did that, Ryoki might never get some : O

Review of the Reviews :) I'm not sure if I'll get the chance every time, but when I can I'll throw this in.

Romantic Bliss&RyokiLover: Thanks so much, here's the update.

Michellesdaughter: Thanks, I really love your story!

Jenbo: I'm happy you and everyone else thinks it's funny.

Hammy-Chan & the littlest weasley: I'm glad you think I've kept them in character, I was a little worried about that.