--Chapter II--

A/N: Hello! It's me again! Well, I haven't been writing for a pretty long while! Hope you guys like it! Thanks by the way for the sincere reviews.

Disclaimers: I don't own Xiaolin Showdown.

Oh, and before I start the chapter, I want to thank all the people who reviewed! I really, really appreciate it. Especially cause it's my first time to write a Xiaolin Showdown fic. I usually write fics for some animes I like, but I love this show so much:) hehe!

To:

Cartoonhottie200: thanks for the review! And the comment too! Hehe… hope you'll like this chapter too!

Kitty-krazy04 and spicydonut185: Yup! Here's the update… ok, thanks for the info! Hehehe…

Gnetix: really, you don't get the story? Hehe! Guess I have to work harder then… :) Thanks for the comment anyways!

Derry Babe: Really:) wow! Thanks:) anyways, your wait's over… here's the next chapter!

Katana-Babe: thanks for the review:) hey tell me if this chapter's okay! Hehehe… thanks!

Cute Peridot816: hehehe! Thanks for the review! Really? I write… maturely? Wow first time I received a comment like that… thanks:D Yup Omi is cute! And Clay too, hehe!

hyped up gurl: thanks! Here's the next chappie :)

Azn-kyute: you like anime too? Cool we got something in common :) hehehe! Thanks for the review!

Lyzz2nwn: thanks for the review:D

"Bye guys! I need to go! I need to practice…" Kimiko called, waving her hand as she grabbed her gym bag, swinging down the staircase. She usually went to a certain kung fu class outside. Raimundo once asked her why she didn't want to train in the house with Master Fung instead of going outside just to take a class. Kimiko wanted to because she never really went outside unless she needed to.

Raimundo rolled his eyes. 'Practice? Phooey. It's that Ben Ashmond guy again. Man, all she's been talking about all this week is that stupid dude.' Raimundo scoffed. He was just trying to get used to not seeing his best friend Kimiko around. She usually lazed around the house, playing with her laptop, and with all those high-tech gadgets you don't really see around.

"Kimiko's been really busy lately," Omi commented in his Chinese accent. Omi pulled a fighting stance.

"Yeah." Clay responded, twirling his lasso around like some kind of cowboy. Raimundo just wanted to scream at them that Kimiko wasn't spending her time doing whatever practice, but she was flirting with a guy she barely knew! But Raimundo knew better than that. If he had screamed that, he would be betraying his best friend.

'I can't turn traitor on Kim, no matter what… remember the promise…' he told himself, biting his lip to keep his mouth shut. Kimiko had told him about her first "date" with that Ashmond guy. One of these days, he'd have to keep an eye on that guy to keep him away from Kimiko if ever he showed any signs of him being dangerous, or whatever…

'As much as I wanna spill the beans on the Almond, I can't cause Kimiko made me promise, and no matter what secret she tells me, I have no right to betray her trust. No matter how much I'm starting to dislike that guy…' Raimundo thought, thinking of the nickname he had devised for Ben Ashmond. He tried cooling his head off, but it didn't work. He bet even if he stuck it in the freezer, his head wouldn't cool down.

He took a sip of his hot cocoa and rubbed his eyes. It was still 9:00 in the morning one Saturday, and he had slept at 3 A.M. Man, was he sleepy. 'I wonder how's Kim's doing with Almond.' He couldn't help thinking.

Kimiko, meanwhile, was strolling on the roads to the nearest mall. She picked up her bag, because inside it something was vibrating. She zipped open her bag and picked up her cellphone, which was causing all that vibration. She took a look at the name of who was calling her cellphone.

Ben Ashmond. Her heart beat quickly. Her hand was shaking as she raised the phone up to answer it. "H-hello?" she stammered.

"Hey, Kimiko! Where are you?"

"Um, I'm here, like where you said we would meet." She said nervously, unable to breathe.

"Oh, okay. I'm near there. Can you wait for me? I'm sorry there's a big traffic jam here."

"Sure!" she said shakily. Then she hung up.

It was normal for her to be nervous because it was the first time that she met with him without her friends. It was Ben's idea. He decided that there would be more "privacy" without Jan and Sal. Sal and Jan were usually the ones who were talking, gossiping, and they were both cheerleaders. They were the type to know everything about anybody, and were really flirty and popular. Kimiko usually disliked that attitude, but these girls were decent, and it was a way to get "news."

But Ben knew that Sal and Jan would just be "messing around" with them, or teasing Kimiko about Ben, so on and so forth. They both decided to meet without them knowing.

'If Sal and Jan find out, we're dead,' Kimiko thought. Knowing her friends, they usually had "spies" usually their fellow cheerleaders, the ones who share the gossip and news around. That was why Sal and Jan usually knew the gossip going on.

"Kimiko! Hey!" someone called from behind her.

Kimiko turned around, seeing Ben striding to reach her. Her heart beat quickly as he slowly came to her through the crowd. She could see his short brown hair following the flow of the wind, those heart-stopping acid green eyes, and the charming, handsome face. She was frozen to the spot, unable to move. Her brain kept ordering her limbs to move, and her mouth to speak, but it seemed like her limbs and mouth had minds of their own.

"H-hi!" she forced herself to say as he approached her.

"Hey," he said, beads of sweat running down his forehead. He took out his handkerchief to wipe the sweat off and gave her a mega-watt smile, showing all of his clean, pearly-whites.

"Sorry I'm late." He said, panting quickly to catch his breath. "It was a hell of a traffic back there, and I was worried that you were waiting really long for me." He said.

"No, not at all," Kimiko tried to say casually, even with the butterflies fluttering in her stomach. She waited for him to finally catch his breath, and he said, "So, you ready?" he asked.

"Yeah," Kimiko answered. They were going to watch a movie. "Oh yeah, one more thing…" Ben started to say.

"Yeah?"

"You look really nice today, Kimiko." He said, grinning.

Kimiko blushed crimson. 'If he only knew how handsome he is whenever he flashes that smile.' She thought dreamily. Ben wasn't like anyone she had ever met. He was charming, sweet, nice, great to talk to, a great listener, handsome… the list could go on and on. Kimiko felt like she wanted to get to know him more. She was intimidated by his charming personality, and she felt herself get attracted to him each and every day.

'Could this possibly be a crush?' she thought, her cheeks flushing. She had had crushes before, usually on celebrities. But she had never had a crush on a person she knew.

"So… which one would you like?" he asked her casually, leading her into the ticket area. The crowd was thickening in there and people were busy buying tickets. "The romantic flick or… a horror movie? Your pick," Ben told her jokingly.

Kimiko had an eye out for action movies, action being her favorite genre of movies, but she wanted to watch something else aside from the old kung fu flicks she always watched with Omi, starring Jackie Chan or Jet Li.

So she decided, why not a romantic flick? After all… she had never tried one before. She had nothing to lose.

"I guess the romantic one," she said.

"Figures. I never met a girl who didn't like romantic films." Ben teased.

"No, actually I'm more of the action movie kind. But since… there are only two choices… I never tried romantic films, anyway. They never really were my kind of thing." Kimiko admitted.

Ben laughed. "Wow! This is the first time I met someone like you, Kimiko." He said. "Please take that as a compliment." And he flashed another grin.

Kimiko blushed again. 'I can't believe he complimented someone like me!' she thought excitedly. She was enjoying this meeting (Or you could say, date… XX) a lot.

"Where is she?" Raimundo complained, looking at his watch. Kimiko was really, really late. She was supposed to meet Omi, Clay, Master Fung and him at a Chinese restaurant. And she was already a half an hour late.

"I don't know. Maybe she took a long time at her practice." Omi said, playing rock-paper-scissors with Clay.

Master Fung had his head bowed solemnly. "Kimiko's not far now," he said after a moment of silence.

Before Raimundo could concoct a sentence, the swinging of the door disrupted him. Kimiko came running in, panting, and out of breath. She dragged her feet to their table, her raven black hair, which was usually in two neat ponytails, was in a rugged mess, but she was smiling.

"Wow, sorry I'm late," she apologized. "We had a lot of practice today."

She sat down right beside me, giving me a solitary wink. "I saw him today," she whispered. Raimundo pretended to be interested, giving her the biggest smile he could muster.

"He was… just so perfect." She said dreamily, rearranging the food on her plate.

"Aren't you going to eat that?" He asked flatly.

"Yeah…" she said, obviously still in dream world.

Raimundo rolled his eyes. Talk about lovesick. His best friend was turning into a zombie. He desperately wanted to bring her back to reality by saying "KIMIKO! GET REAL! I DON'T TRUST THE GUY YOU'RE WITH!"

But he ruled that out. That would make him sound like a blundering idiot in front of the whole restaurant. And Kimiko would get in trouble, cause all of her friends would know about Ben. And she would also be in trouble with Master Fung because she lied to him. And most of all she would get really, really mad with Raimundo.

The last time she had gone mad with Raimundo, she completely ignored him for 2 weeks. She hung out with her other friends and made gritting remarks whenever Raimundo attempted to talk to her.

But it was a good thing that they resolved it, and they went back to being friends again. Raimundo swore that he wouldn't ever try to make Kimiko mad, knowing how she got angry, and he was sure that she wouldn't try to make him mad either. She had never seen him extremely mad. 'And believe me, she wouldn't want to see me mad,' he thought.

"You know, he asked me out for another date," Kimiko whispered excitedly. "It was so exciting a while ago. You should have been there, Rai! He said I was so fun to be with." She gushed. Her face was glowing, with a certain glow that Raimundo had rarely seen. It sounded like she finally had a crush she could connect with.

It wasn't like Raimundo wasn't happy for her. But if Kimiko liked this guy and trusted him, then maybe he could trust that guy too, as long as he never hurt Kimiko literally. He was going to pay if he did that.

"Okay, Kimiko." He said plainly. He never wanted to listen to mushy love stuff. That was the reason why he never liked girls. He thought that it was plain infantile. But he didn't want to hurt Kimiko's feelings.

All through out dinner, all Kimiko did was gush about her fabulous date. And Raimundo was bored to death. 'When would this ever end?' Raimundo thought desperately.

A/N: Well, here ends "The tale of two friends" chapter II. I hope you all like it! Any comments? Questions? Suggestions? Violent reactions? Please tell me in a review… It would be very much appreciated. Thanks:)