A/N: what do you think? isn't E/K rather cute...

Disclaimer: Er…just look at the previous chapter pls.

Chapter IV
The weeks passed by without no significant event, and both Kaoru and Enishi seemed to maintain their distance at school and at home. Well, it was quite easy…they never really talk at all…

She shrugged it all off.

Her mother came to see her as she was working on her assignment.

"Kao-chan..busy?", she asked as she came into the rather messy room of her only daughter. Sighs...even Enishi's room is much more neater than this, she thought as she shook her head.

"Mm? Oh, Kaa-san…no..I'm not.." she turned around to face her mother's already cheerful-looking face.

"Well…I'm going to have to ask you a favour…you see…Kendo-san just had been given a week allowance from his firm…and…since we haven't had our honeymoon..", she halted there, looking quite unsure of how to continue.

Kaoru smiled in understanding, "Sure, it won't be a problem, and I know how to cook a thing or two", she said.

Her mother's face beamed, "I know I can rely on you, Kao-chan….then, we'll be leaving tomorrow night for Kyoto, we'll stay for four days there..", she continued.

Kaoru's eyes went wide at that.. 'Wait...that means….I'm just going to be here alone with him? …and with little Tomoe..she quickly added.

"It's not a problem, Kaa-san..", she softly repeated, more to herself.

Her bedroom was knocked second time that day, late in the evening. Kaoru just finished tucking in the five year old Tomoe into her bed after telling her a story to lull her to sleep.

"Come in", she said.

A mass of silver spiky hair in cool disarray was immediately seen.

"Tou-san asked if we have a camera they could use for their trip", he asked civilly.

"Mmh…let me look for it", she replied, promptly opening a couple of her drawers to finally pull out a camera in its black leather pouch. She stared at it lovingly, before she took it out from the pouch, checking it. All the while, her step brother looked around her room. 'How could she sleep amidst this mess?'

"Ah, it still has a few left..", she said, referring to the unused film.

"Let me take your picture to finish it off", he quickly snatched the camera from her hand.

"Hmph…better do it nicely", she said, sitting down on her study chair.

"Ready…one..two..three…" the camera's button was pressed down.

"Hai.." In front of him, the face of his step sister transformed into a very beautiful girl.

He put down the camera and rubbed his eyes in confusion.

"You done yet?", the bored-looking Kaoru asked flatly, her swivelling chair rotated slowly as she tapped her feet impatiently on the wooden floor.

Taken aback, he looked at the camera…"Un…one more"

"Be quick", she said.

"One, two..th….err.." His voice halted mid-air as the camera's flash snapped her picture.

"Hai", she smiled very beautifully, rendering him speechless.

"Huh? what 'er'?", she asked.

"…"

He was damned to say it out loud, but he couldn't help it.

"Un..you look rather…different..I'd say…pretty..when I took you picture", he said, allowing half-truth to roll down from his mouth. He couldn't say 'very pretty', it's taboo for him..and she most probably would feel smug about it, so he bit his tongue before another word came out.

She was surprised at this. "Uh…er..my father was a photographer.. journalist...and he always took my photos…I suppose...", she said.

"Really?" this was new to him.

"Let's try again then…. Smile", he said, hiding the camera. This time, he saw her expression looked rather funny instead of pretty.

He rolled his eyes. "I guess you look like a clown…it does make a difference, having a camera and not..." he added insultingly.

She wasn't listening, fully absorbed in her own world, while mumbling "Yeah….until he's got too high of an ambition to go off to some mountains to take picture of certain landscape…", her teeth clenched tightly. " Well, it was fine by me if he wanted to do that…the problem is..he never came back…and was reported dead instead…it was bad…mom was crying all the time..as his inheritance of various pots and china came to us…what did he think we want? a few pots and pans? and I..I grew up to be a much mature person..was forced to, anyway..now, do you have a problem with that?", she suddenly glared at him.

"N..no..", he said, surprised at her outburst.

She suddenly stood up,took hold of his collar dangerously, and was eyeing him suddenly..His turquoise eyes were quizzical.

"Good…now, if you want to see a pretty angel face, go and see Kaa-san", she kicked him out of her room then.

Enishi was flabbergasted as he stood up from the carpeted floor outside his step sister's room, with a camera on his lap. quickly he stood up and went off, pretending as if nothing has happened.

Meanwhile...

Looking around carefully to see if anyone's around, she fished out her rubbish bin into which she dumped that laminated photo of his a few weeks ago. "Well…he does have eyes like tou-san", she smiled sheepishly, smoothing down a few creases on the edges of the photo, and carefully tucked it back into her wallet.

Little Tomoe was standing next to her, her small hands frantically waving at the black sedan that carried their parents to Kyoto. Kaoru was waving at them too, as she noticed from the corner of her eyes, her arrogant step brother stepped in to the house, looking rather annoyed.

She sighed, and Tomoe-chan looked up at her.

"What's up, Kaoru nee-san?", she asked her.

Kaoru gulped nervously.."Er…no, Tomoe-chan..was just wondering..is your brother always that..moody?", she said.

"Aw…no, Nishi Ni-chan was angry coz' dad won't see his upcoming fight.."

For a five- year old, Tomoe was quite a smart cookie.

"Nani?", Kaoru coughed in surprise

"Unn…to..tour…something", she seemed to be thinking hard.

"Ah…tournament..", Kaoru suddenly remembered that the jerk (so she called him since that fateful day) was involved in some martial arts class.

"Yeah…we can go see it", her cute voice piped in.

"No way!", she rejected flatly.

The little girl shrugged her shoulder "O-kay..", as she turned around to step into the house.

"Wait Tomoe-chan……mm...let's go see it..", she smiled lopsidedly.

The girl just rolled her eyes.