(( A/N: Sorry for the wait guys. I already had this chapter done but me and my brother had a row and he deleted it, so I had to start all over again. By that time I was thoroughly discouraged...I won't keep you waiting: ))

RECAP…

Bankotsu stared at his brother in disbelief. "You almost caused us to get in an accident because you saw a mall?"

Jakotsu shrugged like it was no big deal. "I need some more clothes. Well," He stole a look at his watch, "You can pick me up here in around two hours. See yea."

Unable to speak because of his shock, we watched Jakotsu leave. Yet, as soon as the feminine man took three steps, he came rushing back to Bankotsu.

"Hey, Bankotsu…"

"What?"

With a goofy smile, Jakotsu asked, "Could you lend me some money?"

"Kiss my ass!"

---

Chapter 05

The seemingly happy couple were sitting silently in the food court section of the Iowan Center mall. God knew how many people bustled by them, completely ignorant to anything other than their animated conversations. As if know one were watching them. Laughing, joking. Friends, siblings, lovers.

Hiten watched them pass one by one from underneath his coal black bangs, examining them all with a general dislike. He sat hunched over in his seat, his head resting in his hand. He shifted his gaze lazily past the many shopping bags to look his girlfriend up and down. The boredom was tearing him apart. He studied her to pass the time, while she leisurely sipped her cappuccino.

Nice, creamy complexion, silky raven hair, great shoulders (which she really needed to show off alittle more), and elegant hands. The stupid table blocked the rest of his view.

This whole little plan was taking alittle too long for his liking. How had he known she was going to want to soak up the special treatment? Hiten inwardly scowled at the whole façade thing he was putting on. It was damn annoying being so cheerful, but it would be worth it in the end, right?

And what was with her fascination with clothes? Once the girl started, she wouldn't stop! His feet ached, even though he was sitting down. This had better work.

"You doing alright, Hiten?" Kagome inquired sweetly, looking down at him dreamily.

He wanted to scream at her. Alright, indeed! He felt like smashing his skull into the tabletop, but vaguely restrained himself. And what was worse, he was really craving a drag.

"Super." He said instead.

That was another thing. Now that he was pretending he cared about her and all that crap, she had gotten the idea in her head that it was ok to get all lovey-dovey on him. Gag me, please he thought to himself.

Kagome gently shook her cup to show that its contents were gone. "Well, I'm finished." She announced.

And about fuckin time Hiten retorted silently. He stood up quickly and impatiently waited for her to do the same. Everything she did today seemed to be in slow motion.

"Where to next?" She asked him cheerily.

He fought the urge to roll his eyes at her. Remember what we're working for He forced himself to smile back.

"There's one last place I think we should look."

Her hand sought out his as they began walking. She held his fingers loosely but affectionately, her other hand carrying her bags, and looked up at his face in slight wonder. "Where's that?"

Hiten responded by guiding her around a corner, past a few stores, and through the doors of a women's shop, full of colourful and frilly bras, panties, and such. This was no strange territory to Kagome. Even though she was currently being forced to date a horrid street racing whack-job, she was still a girl, and girls did shop. She broke away from Hiten, heading to look at a table, but he quickly regained control.

"Over here." He whispered into her ear, and led her to a wall of sexy silk lingerie outfits, ranging from soft colours of orange, pink, and white, and darker, more lustful, colors like black and red.

"Pick one," Hiten told her. Kagome gapped at him. "Go on, get the one you like."

Kagome closed the distance between herself and the wall of outfits, eager to start looking about for the style she liked. Meanwhile, Hiten left her to do her thing, trusting his girlfriend to pick out something scanty enough for his tastes.

He meandered around the shop lazily while he waited, every so often coming upon something dirty enough to catch his eye. He stopped, pictured a random girl dressed in the attire, and moved on.

A sales clerk came up to him offering her assistance, but he only shook his head no, and let her walk away, looking utterly put off at his rude behavior. Hiten smirked.

As he wandered deeper into the shop (it was quite a large store), he came across something that really turned him on. He circled the table which it was laid upon, trying to picture Kagome in something like that.

It consisted of a pair skimpy black panties and bikini style bra connected by a rude amount of chains. Chains that buckled up from between the legs, and then across the chest….

Hiten was snapped out of his reverie as the costume was pulled out of his vision. His head whipped upwards as he looked around wildly. He was surprised as well as angered to see another man on the opposite side of the table cradling it in his arms and turning to walk away. Hiten snapped into action, before he could get the better of himself.

"Hey, you, give that here," He demanded at the offending man, not at all abashed.

Unfortunately, the other man was far form ashamed as well. He turned to face Hiten, who was absolutely disgusted to see that this man was wearing make-up. Make-up! He wore a tight, flowery pink top, and equally as tight jeans. His light, chestnut hair flopped into his face as he turned to face Hiten.

He appeared thoughtful for a moment, then, "Oh, dear, did I take the last one?" He drawled sarcastically, his black eyes reading amusement like open windows.

"Yes, and I had it first!" Hiten barked childishly. He held out his hand expectantly, "Now give it here."

The reply was long-waited, but finally, he issued, "Suck it."

"Oh, why I-" Hiten seethed, but the feminine man cut across him.

"Unless you will, of course."

Hiten stopped. "What?" He asked, narrowing his eyes in distrust.

"Suck it, I mean." The other man said airily.

---

It wasn't a terribly horrible idea, Bankotsu admitted moodily. But he had wanted to get to know the neighborhood.

"Well, this is getting to know the neighborhood!" Enju had argued. "We might as well go in."

"You know that's not what I meant," Bankotsu had grumbled, unhappy at not getting his way. "I meant something more to do with racing."

"Bankotsu, don't you think I would too?" She had snapped at him. "But as we're here, we can explore here."

And that was that. There had been no arguing with her.

And thus Bankotsu had been dragged into the Iowan Shopping Center, sulking all the way. While walking down the crowded isles, Enju had come upon a popular clothing store that she absolutely had to look in, so the two decided to split up, leaving Bankotsu to wander aimlessly.

His feet led him to the food court, where he ordered a side of fries from a random stand. After paying for and receiving his snack, he sat down heavily in a chair at an unused table. He ate up his fries half-heartedly, even though in truth, he was famished.

The topic of food reminded him that he'd have to go grocery shopping later (unless he could persuade Enju to do it for him); since he was pretty sure his new apartment room didn't come with food. Bankotsu stared dejectedly at the fries- moving in was going to be a lot more difficult than he had planned.

Something bright and pink caught his eye. Bankotsu quickly looked up, just in time to see Jakotsu head into some girly lingerie store. His nose instinctively scrunched up in dislike, yet he heaved himself out of his chair and followed his brother from a distance.

As he entered the store, he started feeling slightly self-conscious at being in such a frilly, girly place, but as he looked around, he was stunned to see other people of his gender browsing around as well, either on their own or with a girl.

They have no pride, Bankotsu thought with a grimace.

He glanced at his surroundings, and finally caught sight of Jakotsu near the back of the shop. He hurried towards him with high hopes of bolting out of the shop, hoping know one he knew decided to move to Iowan as well and happen to see him.

As Bankotsu made his way down the floor, keeping his eyes fixed foreword so he could not see anything offensive, he bumped into something. He looked down in exasperation. Scratch that. Someone.

The someone was a rather attractive young girl, and he could only guess that they were about the same age. She looked up at him with startled brown eyes, sweeping the curtain of glossy raven hair out of her face that had come out from behind her ears.

"Er…sorry," Bankotsu spoke first, hardly paying any attention. His voice sounded distracted as he watched Jakotsu begin to talk with another guy. That would not end well.

"Oh, that's alright," She muttered in return, and Bankotsu squeezed by her, careful not to touch her again, and strode away.

When he reached his brother, the other man he was with (to whom Bankotsu took an instant dislike towards, seeing as he had long, braided hair just like his own) looked like he was getting ready to pull back his fist and land a punch. Immediately, Bankotsu interfered. He pushed himself in between the two quarrelling men and forced some distance between them.

"Whoa, hold up," Bankotsu said sternly. "What's going on here?"

He was acutely aware of the attention they were drawing to themselves. Out of the corner of his eye, it looked as if everyone shopping had frozen, waiting anxiously to see what would happen. The store clerks seemed unwilling to intervene, and decided it looked like Bankotsu had gotten everything under control.

"Aniki, you came shopping, too!" Jakotsu greeted him happily.

In a split second, a girl had appeared by the stranger's side (the one who had copied his hair), and Bankotsu recognized her as the girl he had bumped into a few seconds ago. Bankotsu's mouth tried to form words, but his voice failed him as he eyed the peach coloured outfit that was clutched in her hand. He forcefully swallowed a lump in his throat.

"Hiten?" The girl asked, eyeing Bankotsu and Jakotsu warily.

The man called Hiten shrugged her off, sending a fiery glare towards Bankotsu. "That thing –he pointed to Jakotsu- basically just asked me to be gay with him!"

Jakotsu looked positively outraged. "I am not gay!" He cried.

Bankotsu bit his bottom lip nervously and took a firm hold of his brother's forearm, tugging it persistently. "Come on, Ja, the nit isn't worth it." He said, sending Hiten a spiteful look.

"Nit?" Hiten seethed, and made to move forward, but the girl had quickly discarded her (sexy? Bankotsu thought) outfit and latched onto her companion as well, holding him back.

Hiten whirled around unexpectedly and snapped at her, "Kagome, how dare you interfere?"

"I'm not some servant you can order around, Hiten. We've got this thing in our country, you see, it's called Freedom of Speech," She retorted furiously, emphasizing the last three words.

Hiten sent her a threatening look, promising punishment, but visibly calmed, and tugged his arm out of her hands. Turning away from the brothers and seemingly forgetting about the reason of the fight, he asked Kagome if she had found out what she wanted.

Kagome nodded and picked up the abandoned peach, short, silk nightgown and its matching panties, but not before looking over her shoulder at the dark haired man with such startling azure blue eyes, who was now gently leading the other man out of the store. To her astonishment and embarrassment, he was looking back as well, and for a moment, they held each other's eyes. Then, the man (whom she had not had a chance to learn his name) cocked and eyebrow and sent her a smirk, and turned away, exciting the store.

Hiten was still muttering angrily as he paid for Kagome's outfit and as they left the store together. She felt a feeling of dread wash over her –something told her this was the end of his good mood.

---

Anyways, so, end of the chapter. I'm sorry it had to be so short, but I'm sure getting an update finally was alittle more important. Oh, and see that lilac coloured drop down box below to your left? It says "submit review?" Yeah, click the button that says "Go." Thanks!

Sincerely,

Blueeyedchibi