"Sorry again about that..." Kazuma grinned awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head and leaning as far away from his older sister as he possibly could. Shizuru was glaring at him, rubbing her red knuckles. I forced a tight smile, looking down at the menu in my hands again. The cafe was small, falling in the less common path to Sarayashiki Junior High and therefore not nearly as attended as say those on the same strip as the shopping strips.

"Maybe if you paid more attention, we wouldn't have found ourselves in this position and you wouldn't have made our blood related cousin rethink coming in the first place." Shizuru snapped her menu closed, resting her hands in her lap and looking for the waiter with an annoyed expression on her face.

"So... uhm... how was your trip here? Comfortable?" Kazuma fiddled with his hands on the table, drawing my attention back up to him. Shizuru had beaten his face into a pulp, his eye blackened, his lip busted open, a gash running across his neck. I tapped my menu on the edge of the table before resting it down and folding my hands on the table as well. This was more awkward than Christmas at my great aunt's.

"It was, thank you." I nodded. "I wandered over to a different corner in order to grab a taxi, but the ride was comfortable enough. I'm a fan of airplanes, so it was nothing that required more than a book in order to ease the hours of boredom. Though I admit, I've been very lazy with reading in Japanese, so I haven't been able to navigate around as well as I would like to think that I could. I can barely keep track of all the streets we went through."

Kazuma laughed, a gravelly, irritating sound that made me flinch. I truly didn't remember this being the case when we were kids.

"What can I get you?" The waiter blessedly showed up to distract us from having to converse any further. At least for the moment.

"Could I get some tea? Chai if you have it."

"Anything else for you, miss?"

"Yes, just some rice and cakes please."

He stared at me, blinked, and just turned to Shizuru and Kazuma, asking their orders as well. I frowned. Was that an unusual order?

I glanced down at the silver bracelet on my wrist, smiling at the memories. It was strange to think that I was suddenly here with my cousins, sitting out at a cafe with real life people walking outside rather than imaginary beings wandering around with magical powers, wreaking havoc on the world that we had to correct. Reality was so normal, so boring... but at the same time so thrilling in it's own respect.

"Hey, when we get home, would you guys want to play a game?" I wondered, looking up at them. Shizuru turned her head from the retreating waiter with a look of surprise on her face. Kazuma, on the other hand, jumped on the opportunity.

"That sounds great! Do you like Pacman?"

"I love pacman, but I was thinking something more... card based."

He grinned, leaning over the table with his arm pressed against the tabletop. "Oh, you think you can beat me at a game of go fish? You are so on, little girl."

"Oh, short jokes already. Just you wait, jolly green, you have invoked war."

"Invoke... what?"

I winced, shaking my head. "What do you say, Shizuru?"

"I say only if we throw in some stakes." She grinned, tapping her cigarettes pack on her knee, preparing the tobacco out of habit. "I say that whoever loses the game has to dress up in the halloween costumes."

Kazuma's mouth dropped open, and mine followed suit.

"You wouldn't..."

"No!" I started laughing, undoubtedly drawing attention from the rest of the cafe. Shizuru grinned, leaning away from the table and tucking her cigarettes in her pocket again.

The Halloween costumes were a gathering of miscellaneous outfits we had collected since we were kids, including the mistakes of childishly sewn together pieces of colorful trash bags hippies once wore to try and replace pants. I hoped dearly that she would go so far as to push for picture proof of these costumes.

Thankfully, the rest of the meal went very decently. Kazuma apparently had a long-standing fighting relationship with Yusuke Urameshi, whom I actually remembered from childhood playdates.

"He's the one with the black hair and the disgusting obsession with the color green, right?" I walked backwards to look at Kazuma, resting my hands in my pockets. "I remember playing with him when our dads were off on their business trips."

"Yeah, but he's gotten way meaner, and a lot more arrogant." He balled up his fists, a fire blazing in his eyes. Shizuru rested her forehead in her hand, shaking her head. I bit my lip, feeling like I had started something that I couldn't stop. "And don't think that just because he's a 'bad boy' that he's someone that you can go and date! He's a punk, and he's already got a girlfriend!"

"Okay, when did this turn into a 'Gavriella is going to date the bad boy of the school' lecture?" I felt my face burning up, and turned around to keep walking, choosing to catch up with Shizuru before I turned around and walked backwards again to talk to her instead. "Shizuru, what's your opinion of Yusuke?"

"Me? I think he's a great guy, albeit a punk who wants to show the world that he's tough and doesn't care. He keeps my brother out of trouble by beating him up on a regular basis and making him stronger while he's at it. Trust me, they both need all the help they can get when it comes to their tempers. As long as they're beating on each other and that's who my brother is trying to beat instead of some loser on the street, I'm all for him."

I grinned, glancing behind me to check for cars. You can never be too safe in a foreign city.

"Either way, I don't think a boyfriend is in my best interest right now." I looked back at Kazuma. "What with my not staying here and my being here for a funeral, a boyfriend would be counterproductive."

"Good. I wouldn't approve anyway. It isn't right when Keiko is always waiting for him for him to be chasing other girls."

"You mean other girls that are' babes'?" Shizuru took her cigarette out of her mouth and blew the smoke out in a ring. I blushed again, turning around again. I'd rather try and work out my discomfort with walking forward than face the nervous wreck behind me.