Chapter Four

Hikari's POV

I didn't know Shinji had a brother.

But then again, I hadn't really known Shinji until just yesterday.

I didn't think him as a social type so I was mighty surprised when someone knocked on the door and asked for him. It seemed like he was pretty surprised to see me there as well. He had almost went for the next door when he saw me.

"No! Shinji does live here." I called out.

He came back to his original position with a weird look on his face.

"Really?" He asked, "Because, he never told me he was going to be living with someone." "Yeah." I said sheepishly, "It was a bit unexpected."

"Hmm." He said thoughtfully, "Well, I'm just here to deliver his backpack." "Backpack?" I asked. "Yes." He said cheerfully, "He visited just an hour ago and left this. I was assuming he'd be back by now." I merely shrugged.

"Well," He said after a little silence, "I best be going now." He turned and headed for the stairs.

"Wait!" I called, "Why don't you stay for a bit. It's extremely hot right now, and it seems like you had to walk for quite a bit." He turned to face me with a thoughtful expression. "That does seem like a good idea." He said, "Okay."

He walked in, looking around as I closed the door behind him.

"Please," I said, "make yourself comfortable." "Oh, thank you." He said sitting on the couch where Shinji usually sat as I headed toward the kitchen to brew some tea.

His eyes still wandered around the room and I couldn't help but ask, "Excuse me, but, who are you?" He looked startled.

"Oh, I'm Reiji. Shinji's older brother." He answered with a bright smile.

"Br- brother?" I stuttered, overflowing the teapot with water.

"Yes." He said, the smile still on his face, but it changed into a confused look when he asked, "And you might you be?"

"I'm Hikari Toyoguchi." I answered, shutting the water off, "I go to the same school as Shinji, but, we've never met before this incident."

I put the teapot on the stove and heated it up.

"I'm sorry, but, I was just wondering why Shinji decided to live on his own." Oh, God. Me and my big mouth. Now I was prying into someone else's business.

He looked a bit shocked when I asked him and I covered my mouth and kept apologizing over and over again.

He smiled and said, "No, it's okay. It's not very personal. I like telling stories about Shinji anyways."

He moved and sat on one of the dining table chairs.

"Where to begin?" He asked, tapping his chin thoughtfully, "Well, I guess you could say, he has this love problem."

Love problems? Wasn't this extremely personal? Why was he telling me this stuff?

"L- love problem?" I stuttered, feeling stupid.

"Yes." He said with another blinding smile, "He had a childhood friend named Shirona. He'll never admit it, but she was a bit like a body guard to him."

I sat in the chair across from him to hear this story. 'Might as well listen.' I thought to myself. The guy was practically shoving it in my face. Although part of it was my fault.

"Shirona's just a few years younger than me," He continued, "And Shinji grew terribly close to her. Then when he got into Junior High. I guess you could say, he saw her as a woman from than on.

I choked on my own saliva.

Somehow, seeing Shinji with raging teenage hormones was something you just couldn't imagine without being on the verge of suffocation.

"Shirona knew of course." He said, "But, she didn't want to hurt him. He was still a boy and all. So she thought that maybe if she just left he'd forget her. So she packed up in one day and left for America. Shinji might not have shown it, but he was left a bit broken. Even if she wasn't really the 'love- of- his- life' kind of person. She's been there for him since he was very young."

"So she just moved away and never came back?" I asked.

"No." He answered, "She came back. Just this month actually. I honestly thought that Shinji would be at least a bit happy. It's been three years after all."

Three years!

No wonder he's so grumpy all the time.

The one person he ever liked dumped him and suddenly comes back. Did Reiji even get how his brother was feeling?

"And now she's getting married in late spring." He said happily, "We're invited to the wedding of course."

And now she's getting married?!

Reiji really was making me get a wrong impression of her.

"And when I tell him all this, he wants to move out." Reiji said, "It's very unusual. Usually, when there's something upsetting him, he usually faces it head- on."

Well, love was kind of different than other problems.

"I was kind of hoping that he would get over it when he accidentally met her today." He mused, "But he just walked out the door! I get why. It's not everyday that he gets dumped by someone."

I snorted.

"You should see him at school." I scoffed, "Girls drool over him. Gives them the cold shoulder every time." The teapot whistled and I got up to get the cups and teabags.

"I wish." He said sadly, "Shinji really doesn't talk much about school. He doesn't really say anything to me anymore." "Really?" I asked as I poured the water, "That's pretty hard to believe. He's been shouting insults at me ever since we started living together."

Reiji scowled, "I thought I taught him better manners than that."

"He always acts like he's all high and mighty." I said angrily, practically throwing the teabags which made the water in the cup splatter onto my hand which made me hiss.

"High and might, huh?" Reiji asked in an amused tone, "He wasn't always like that. I remember when he was just five he came home exactly half of his body muddy. When I asked him what happened, he told me he was walking on a brick wall when he accidentally lost his balance and fell sideways in the mud."

I snickered.

I'd have to use that one against him sometime.

"Thank you." Reiji said, taking the tea I was offering, "He was so innocent back then, always sneaking into my room at night because he was scared of the monsters under his bed."

I snorted into my tea.

He looked startled at the sudden outburst but helped me clean myself up.

When he resumed back to his position, he was just about to say something when the door slammed open and Shinji (looking rather urgent) glared at both of us.

"Shinji!" Reiji called out in surprise.

Since I was sitting with my back against the door, I turned around and smiled sweetly at him and said, "You never told me you had a brother Shinji."

"And you never told me you had a roommate." Reiji said, I could see that he was winking at him, "And a cute one at that."

That was comment I'd usually snort at, but just for the heck of it, I giggled, "Oh Reiji, you're making me blush."

He rolled his eyes and glared at his older brother.

"You." He said, "Get out of here, and you." He glared at me now, "Go clean the bathroom."

I dropped the girly act and asked, "Excuse me?" "You heard right." He said, "You made it, you're cleaning it."

If I hadn't known what he was talking about, I would've been terribly disturbed, but since I knew, and it would be pretty bad if it wasn't cleaned out soon.

"What am I supposed to clean it with?" I asked. "I don't know." He said, "Just clean it, 'cause I'm not going in there 'till you do. Use your toothbrush or something."

"Sure I'll use your toothbrush." I said, smiling haughtily, trying to make my anger not show.

"Don't we have a toilet scrubber or something?" He asked rather rudely. "I'll check." I sniffed.

What a meany!

There indeed was a toilet scrubber. It had been in the cupboard and it wasn't very long when I had it all cleaned up.

And, God had it been disgusting.

I never wanted to experience anything like that again! Remind me to regurgitate in a trash bin next time.

When I staggered slightly out of the doorway (I'd been bent over the whole time, and my legs were sleeping) Reiji was gone and Shinji was nowhere in sight.

Probably in bed by now. Since it was so late, I realized as I checked the clock.

I sighed as I realized how tired I was and grudgingly changed into a pair of pink pajamas.

I flopped down on the bed, snuggled into my blanket and drifted off to sleep.

I woke up with a jerk the next morning.

I had woken up earlier than I thought.

And still in my pajamas, I headed to the kitchen to make breakfast. Shinji still wasn't awake. I wasn't really affected by that until I heard a knock on the door.

I opened the door. I was kind of hoping it was Reiji again since he seemed to have a tendency to get Shinji annoyed. And it was kind of fun to see him be mean to anyone other than her. Sorry. That was a bit mean. I really did enjoy his company.

But standing on the other side of the door was none other than Haruka.

"What are you doing here?" I hissed.

She looked taken aback at how I greeted her but said in a cheery voice, "Good morning! I just thought since it was the first day of Summer break, I could hang over here."

I was about to tell her to go away when I remembered Shinji was asleep.

I could just make breakfast, change and hurry out with Haruka before he was awake.

I sighed.

"Okay. Come in."

She squealed in delight and practically skipped in.

"But we're leaving as soon as I eat breakfast and get ready. Got it?" I said in a slightly threatening voice. "Why?" She whined loudly. "Shhhh!" I shushed loudly, "Be quiet. Most people are still sleeping at this time and these walls are as thin as cardboard."

She tilted her head with a confused expression.

"But it's only six." She said quietly.

I ignored her and asked instead, as I headed toward the kitchen to make breakfast, "So how was Kasumi?" "Seems she sprained her foot while diving." Haruka said, "She just needed to rest for a day. It looked really bad. I don't really blame her for not coming to school that day."

"Oh." I said, "I hope she's okay." "She is." Haruka answered, "God Hikari. I didn't know you had so many books." "What?" I snapped. "And on medical stuff too." She mused, sounding impressed, "I didn't know you wanted to go into the medical profession."

I stopped flipping the fried rice I was in the middle of making and looked at the books Haruka were talking about.

She was flipping through a rather thick book about cells and in front of her was a big shelf full of books.

When had that been there? It's so big! I should've noticed it sooner!

I couldn't let Haruka know that Shinji was living with me, if she knew, she would flip! And everyone knew that Haruka couldn't keep a secret! This would be bad.

"Uh, yeah!" I said rather unconvincingly, "Medical stuff always fascinated me."

I turned back to flipping over the rice until it was done.

And I got out two plates and divided the rice in half.

I quickly ate my half, changed, brushed my teeth, combed my hair etc.

And soon, I was ready as hell to get out of here. It looked like Shinji would be up any second and I did not want to see his reaction if he found out that Haruka was here.

"Well, I'm ready." I said, "Better go."

"Oh, but I want to see more." She whined, "And why are is there another plate of fried rice on the table?" "Because I'm saving it." I said firmly, "Now let's go."

"Hey!" She cried, "There are two rooms! Can I see?" "Shh!" I repeated, "I told you not to be so loud! And no!"

She sighed and said, "Fine, let's go."

I sighed in relief.

Then there was another knock on the door. And suddenly, I wanted to scream as loud as I could.

I breathed in slowly and released all the air out.

I calmly walked over to the door and opened it.

There, stood a gorgeous woman with blonde hair at least down to her knees wearing a very fashionable coat with black pants.

She smiled at me and said, "Hello. I'm here to see Shinji."

"Shinji?" Haruka immediately questioned.

Momentarily stunned by how pretty she was, I hesitantly said, "He's sleeping in his room." "Say what?" Haruka asked.

"Thank you." She said, flashing us a brilliant smile. And I moved so she could get a clear path to his room. I didn't even think about stopping her. Since she knew Shinji, I guess that would be okay, but then I remembered Haruka.

Oh no.

She cleared her throat to make sure I had her attention and asked, "Shinji?" I gulped soundlessly and instead of answering, followed the lady.

She knocked politely first, but when no one answered, she knocked for a second time. Still no answer, so she quietly opened the door and I saw her smile slightly as she saw him sleeping.

I could see why.

Shinji looked pretty cute when sleeping. He didn't look like he was mad, like most of the time.

Then suddenly.

"WAKE UP!!" She screamed, kicking him off the bed, losing all composure she had just a minute ago. "My God." I heard Haruka say under her breath as she saw what happened.

Shinji sat up from the ground, rubbing his head. He looked up, about to say something, but when he saw who it was, his eyes widened and he said softly, "Shirona."

My eyes widened at her name. She was Shirona?

"DON'T GIVE ME THAT CRAP!" She kept screaming, "DO YOU KNOW HOW WORRIED I'VE BEEN?! YOU SUDDENLY MOVE OUT WITHOUT SAYING ANYTHING TO ME! THEN YESTERDAY!… UGH!"

"Huh," He scoffed, "Remind you of anyone?"

"SHUT UP!" Shirona screamed, "IF REIJI HADN'T TOLD ME!…YOU'RE GOING BACK HOME RIGHT NOW!"

She grabbed his arm and dragged him out of his room, completely ignoring his protests.

Shinji pulled his arm away and crossed them.

"Keh." He said, "Who said?"

I heard Shirona growl under her breath. Wow, she had it worse than me. And although I was surprised at the scene before me, I was even more surprised at how Shinji was acting. He was acting like a little kid! Excuse me, a spoiled little kid.

"There's a reason why I left you know." He said softly.

Just then, I saw a flicker of hurt cross Shirona's face, and then completely emotionless.

"I see." She said calmly, heading towards the door, "I'm sorry for interrupting all of your mornings." And she headed out the door.

"God." I said under my breath, "Is that really how you express your attraction to someone?" "Ch." He said, "I'm going back to bed." Then he stopped for a moment, and turned to give me a menacing glare. "You broke rule four." Then he slammed the door behind him.

"Who was that?" Haruka asked. I'd almost forgotten she was there, "And more importantly, why are you living with Shinji Ikari?"

"Long story." I sighed. "I've heard of that excuse before." She said waving her hand, "You have to tell me at some point."

"How about during a nice cup of tea at a nearby café?" I asked, smiling sickeningly sweetly.

She smiled at me back.

"Why not?"

So we headed to the café where I launched into the story. It was a bit ironic really, how we'd only been living together for two days, yet I had so much to tell.

I made sure Haruka and I had plans for the whole day, and we even arranged a sleepover at her place.

That could buy me more time.

Because I sure wasn't looking forward to going back.

AN. Sorry. I lied. This chapter came pretty soon. Sooner than I thought. I'm trying to stay awake for the whole night because I've been getting really nocturnal lately. And I'm hoping that maybe I'll get really tired tonight and sleep at, like, ten or something. I forgot to mention it in my last authors note, but Shirona is way out of character. But, if I kept her in character, it would be really hard to write this story, and being the lazy author I am, I'm going to go the easy way. I don't know when I'll be able to update again because my cousin and aunt are coming to visit and I don't really want him to read everything I have. He doesn't like reading, or Pokemon, he'd just keep making fun of me. And, I'm extremely tired of the computer. I'm going to play outside all day tomorrow and the next day. I would write at night, but the computer just happens to be in the Guest Room. Sorry. For those of you who care at least. Sorry if this chapter sucked, I'm really sleepy, but I want to sleep at the right time, not at three in the morning like I usually do, cause then I'd wake up at noon. Now, I'm going to watch T.V. until sunrise then take a bath. Happy reading!

Kahmelion