Chapter 4:

Hikari slid through the water like a fish. She and the girls were at the pool, just having a nice 'girl's day out'. But the blonde wasn't really in the mood for all this…she had more important things to think of like Wan. He was supposed to be her cousin in some way, but they way he was acting at school wasn't helping her reputation. Moreover, she wanted him! He was so hot and what better time to move than now, before his feelings were claimed by someone else? It didn't help that almost every single girl at this pool wanted him as well.

Hikari heaved herself out, she was going to get that boy and she was going to get him now. But then Wan wasn't the kind of guy who got attracted to the popular girls or the rich ones…which meant she had to drop her carefully built up façade and open up to him. It was frustrating…she couldn't show him all her weaknesses or drop her pride. She was a lot like her father that way, a huge smoke screen covering her up, while only a few people could understand or see her. Oh well, maybe she could just call Wan and ask to spend sometime with him. Maybe she could be his friend first before dating him. She could ask him when the weekend came around…

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Wan couldn't help but smile happily. The rest of the week had gone by without any trouble. He and Shima had avoided each other like plague, Hikari was acting different now, she'd asked if he wanted to have some dinner or something and he'd accepted. Unlike last week he'd started liking the time he spent with her…maybe that was something. At least it was better than Shima being around.

He found his parents cuddled up together on the couch, asleep. It was funny how every Saturday morning; they woke up early, made some coffee, turned on the news and then promptly fell asleep in front of the TV. He shook his head…they looked so cute. He helped himself to some muesli and sauntered back to his room. They were going to go fishing today…just a lot of nice family time. It had been ages since they'd done that. It hadn't happened since Wan had gotten into his rebellious teenager mood. He'd hurt them a lot during that time…he was glad he was out of it. Nothing could ruin today…

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"Caught anything yet old man?" Wan said cheekily grinning up at Eiri. His stepfather smirked and started to reel in his line. Wan frowned as he saw Eiri big catch! He gritted his teeth, he still hadn't caught anything, and how did Eiri do it?

"Maybe you should concentrate on your line instead of shooting your mouth off eh?" Eiri looked at his son, glaring at him. If looks could kill Eiri would have been paralyzed! He cast his line again and after five minutes, he'd caught another fish. Wan stared, the fish must love Eiri! Then he caught another and another and another!

"How do you do it? I've never seen anything like it! I'll be damned if I ever go fishing with you again! It's freaky how you seem to be catching everything! Dad! Look at Eiri's…" Wan looked around for his father, but couldn't see anyone. "Hey, where's dad?"

Eiri smiled. "Oh, he must be somewhere around. He said he'd be taking a small walk." When he was sure his son wasn't watching he allowed himself, a small secret smile. About six more catches later, Wan's eyes looked like they were about to pop out.

Wan frowned. Something really wasn't right here. It's not like Eiri could catch that many fish in the space of half an hour. He was fishing just about 50 meters away from Eiri and he wasn't able to catch anything! he felt something tugging at his line and reeled it in. Yay! He'd caught something at last. He laid his fish next to Eiri's and realized, that his fish didn't smell, like Eiri's did. His eyes narrowed.

"Um…Eiri, I'm taking a small walk too ok? I'll be back soon." Wan walked in the opposite direction and then circled back, sneaking behind bushes around Eiri. Then he saw his father on the other side, swimming up to Eiri. He could see his father holding something…hey it was a bunch of fish! What the hell? Then Wan realized that he'd been had! His father had been hooking those fish up to Eiri's line!

"Ok, games up you two! How could you?" Wan scowled at his parents, who'd burst out laughing! Shuichi was rolling around on the bank, almost falling into the water, but Eiri saved him.

"It was just to shut you up! You went on about how you didn't know if Eiri could catch anything, so on my walk, I saw these fish being sold and bought about twelve of them! Then I signaled to Eiri, only he could see because of the position he was sitting in. the look on your face was priceless!" Shuichi burst in laughter again. Eiri was laughing too surprise surprise.

Wan felt like stamping his foot and throwing a tantrum! But he held it in and decided to sulk for the rest of the day. Eiri couldn't help poking fun at him every five minutes! Shuichi was trying to cheer him up but as Eiri wasn't helping it was not a very good attempt.

They got to the restaurant Lena's for lunch when Eiri ruffled Wan's hair. "Come on, shrimp, don't tell me you can't take a joke. Lighten up will you?" Wan pushed his hand off.

"I can't believe you made a fool of me!" he said a little loudly, taking his seat. He didn't even notice the waiter who was attending to him. "That was a low trick, there're two of you and one of me! How could you dad? And Eiri, how could you make fun of me like that? But I won anyway, old man! I caught one, you didn't catch nothing, you just cheated your ass off over there…" Wan turned big accusing puppy eyes on his parents who melted at once.

"Come on, Wan. It was just a joke, please forgive us? We apologize profusely. We'll make it up to you. Won't we Eiri…? We really are sorry…right Eiri?" his father elbowed Eiri roughly. Eiri scowled and then smiled.

"Yeah Wan, I'm sorry. I'll make it up to you ok?" Eiri moved back a little as the waiter shook out the napkin and laid it on his lap. Wan made big puppy eyes again.

"I need a car or a motorcycle…please Eiri? Pretty please with a cherry on top." he looked at Eiri with full puppy power blast. He turned to face the waiter who spreading his napkin now, without bothering to change his expression, thereby giving the waiter, Shima a nice pleading look.

Shima dropped the napkin, without taking his gaze off Wan. Wan's expression changed in a moment. "Shima? What are you doing here?" the other boy looked away, turning to the others.

"Excuse me, my shift ends now. Sean here will be taking your order." With that he turned around and almost ran into the kitchen. Shuichi and Eiri didn't see anything wrong; they'd been too busy looking at each other to notice Shima or Wan. Wan shook his head turning back to convince his parents to get him a vehicle.

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Shima couldn't help staring at the family from behind his counter. He saw Wan pump his hand in the air, which meant he'd probably succeeded in convincing his parents to get him a vehicle. He felt really envious, he wished he had parents like that who he could spend a nice time with and confide in…

He shook his head, he was getting late for his other job, which would take up the rest of the day. He needed to stop thinking about families or even having one. It didn't matter, all he needed to do right now was work so he could get a decent meal and pay for his home. He changed in the restroom and left.

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Wan looked at himself in the mirror. Ok, he looked good. He was wearing ripped black jeans, body molding green shirt that brought out his eyes and his leather jacket. Tohma was allowing him to borrow his car to take his daughter out in, so he'd just have to make it to Tohma's place first.

He called out a goodbye to his parents and left. The walk to Tohma's place was short, so he made it in time. Mika ushered him in saying that Hikari would be out in just a minute. He had a fun conversation with the Seguchi's and with Ken, who wanted to talk about rockets and space. Hikari joined them then.

She looked beautiful, with a nice wraparound, dark pink skirt and a sleeveless white silk shirt. Wan smiled at her and then made his excuses to her parents. Once they were out he grinned. "You look beautiful…so where do you want to go today? I was thinking about a nice café down the street, they have very good pizzas and pies. Sound good?"

"Yeah, that sounds good. So did you have fun fishing?" she grinned at him, in a I know something way. Wan narrowed his eyes. "did dad and Eiri tell you about the prank they played?" he asked her.

She nodded. "I think it's cute that you're parents do those things…with mine, it's very normal. They don't do anything fun." Wan nodded, he could understand that, Tohma and Mika would never let loose even in front of their kids! They got to the café and Wan escorted Hikari to a table and went to order.

He rattled off a few things to the guy behind the counter. Then he turned to see Shima, micro waving something. How many places does this guy work at? The other boy looked up and Wan waved. Shima nodded and got all the stuff together. Wan went back to the table once; Shima told him that he'll bring the stuff over.

Wan smiled at his date. "Hey, Hikari…did you know Shima was working here?" the blonde nodded. Wan frowned a little. "Does that kid work everywhere? I mean, he still gets his homework done and plays basketball neh?"

Hikari sighed. "Yeah, he lives alone, so I guess he needs the money. But from what I hear, he's got a full work schedule. On Mondays and Tuesdays he works at the ice cream store at the mall, Wednesday to Friday he works at the laundry place downtown. On weekends he works at Lena's in the mornings and lunch, and then he works here in the evenings. I guess it must be tough."

Wan stared at her as she rattled off Shima's schedule. "How do you know all that? it's like you're his best friend or something…" Hikari grinned.

"Hey, Wan-chan? It hasn't always been like this you know. Back in elementary school, we all used to hang together. Shima wasn't like this then, he used to be more open and stuff, but after he lost his parents and his grandmother, he's become a complete loner. It's not like we haven't tried to be friendly but, he doesn't want us as friend, he's usually really rude and stuff. Maybe he doesn't want us or he's just too scared that we'll look down on him." she tactfully changed the subject to movies as Shima came up to them.

To Wan's surprise, and then popular girl, Hikari actually spoke to Wan. And what she said surprised him out of his wits. "hey, Shima…long time no see. Would you like to join me and Wan? I don't think we can eat all this food alone…"

Shima shook his head. "I have work; I don't think I can slack off. Larry would get mad." But Hikari stood up and pushed Shima down on one of the chairs.

"Hey, I'll talk to Larry. You need to slack sometimes, I'll be back." She walked off towards the manager, leaving Wan and Shima together. Wan attempted a grin, but it was a little awkward after their last meeting.

"So, Shima what's up?"

"Nothing much. I really should go, I'm sure Larry will say no…I need this money." Shima fidgeted, before looking at Wan. "Is this a date?" he saw Wan nod slightly and turned a little red. "I'm sorry; I should just leave you two alone… I know I'm intruding…"

"No, it's ok. And anyway, she asked you to spend some time with us. I'm fine with it." Wan looked up as Hikari came back. She beamed at them.

"It's ok. Larry said you can eat with us, you're off for today. So Shima how's life?" she picked up a slice of pizza and bit into it.

"it's ok…things are fine." Shima licked his lips nervously. Wan had to stop himself from staring. He was on a date with Hikari! He wasn't supposed to be staring at Shima! And this was a side of Shima he hadn't seen, this nervous side. He'd always been so confidant and sure of himself. They made small talk for a while more, before they finished, paid and Wan took Hikari home.

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Shima stared at Wan's retreating form. The guy had everything he wanted, a good home, popularity and a great soon to be girlfriend. Shima had wanted to ask Hikari out for a long time…but then, I'm jealous of Hikari for having Wan aren't I? I wonder when I stopped wanting her and started wanting him…"

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A/N: god this is longer than I thought it would be…well, see Hikari isn't all that bad, but don't worry, it's a Wan and Shima fic! Oh and Yuki and Shu stuff start soon too. Thing's will start happening now, so hold your breathes. Of by the way, due to my exams coming up I might not update too quickly, but bear with me!