A/N: I have no excuse for not updating for so long. Except that it was really hard to write this chapter for some reason. Description is lacking in some places but at least you get an update right? You may still hate on me if anyone still reads this. Okay no, please don't flame me. xD

OH! And you might want to listen to Dawn's theme song, By Your Side (instrumental, the slow one) while reading the second half of this. Or at least when she start's talking to Paul.

INITIATING CHAPTER NOW!

Chapter 15 - The Wedding II

Kengo paced up and down the ball room. What is Shinji going to say to her? He's not...trying to take her back. Of course he isn't. It's not impossible though. Would she say yes? I don't know. There something between us, I just know it. But what if she changes her mind because I haven't said anything yet?

"Hey Kengo!"

The brunette turned around to see his upperclassman heading his way. "Hi Takeshi-senpai."

Kengo and Takeshi were on good terms, Kengo once bailed Takeshi out what was an obviously embarassing moment between him and a girl he was trying to flirt with. Takeshi had said something wrong and it looked like the girl just might slap him when Kengo stepped in and pretended to pester Takeshi on being late for his tutoring session. The girl was then instantly impressed that Takeshi was 'smart enough' to tutor someone.

"The wedding's amazing Kengo!" Takeshi said. "I haven't been able to congratulate your parents yet, I mean the line is too long, but I will."

"Well thanks," Kengo said in reply.

"By the way," he put a hand on Kengo's shoulder and swiveled him around. "Do you know that girl's name?'

Kengo rolled his eyes. "Of course, this is about a girl, as always."

"Come on! I'm begging you!" Takeshi pleaded.

"Sorry but I really don't know. Why don't you go ask Yumomi?" Kengo expected Takeshi to run off straight away but he just stood there with his arms crossed.

"You're not getting rid of me that easily. I saw you moping a few minutes ago. What's up?"

"You're the last person I should talk to about something like this," Kengo stated in a matter-of-fact way.

"Then this must be...a matter of LOVE!" exclaimed Takeshi looking pumped up.

"You do realize you just put yourself down there?" Kengo said to deaf ears as his senior put an arm around his shoulders.

"Ah young love! How I remember the days!"

"You're only two years older than me Takeshi-senpai."

Again, Takeshi ignored this. "Who's the lucky girl? Hikari? It's Hikari isn't it? Yeah it's Hikari."

Kengo's eyes widened. "How did you- ?"

"I have my sources," Takeshi cut in. "Anyway what seems to be the problem, Romeo?"

Great, now even the upperclassman knew about him and Hikari and yet they still hadn't sorted themselves out. Kengo surprised himself by answering. "I can't find the right moment to confess."

Takeshi pointed upwards. "You just have to go for it!"

Kengo felt a vein starting to throb in his head. "That's easy for you to say! You practically throw yourself at the feet of every girl in site! And does that work?"

"Yes."

"No it doesn't!" Removing Takeshi's arm from his shoulder, Kengo sighed. "You don't get it. Hikari...she's special. Whenever I look at her and see her smile I..." Kengo cut himself off turning pink.

"Kengo." The younger boy turned around since Takeshi's tone seemed different. "I meant it when I said to just go for it. Nothing will happen if you don't do anything, so what are you waiting for?"

And suddenly Takeshi made perfect sense.

"...you're right." Kengo smiled. "Thanks Takeshi!" He spotted Shinji entering the room and ran over to him.

"Where's Hikari?"

Shinji just nodded towards the outside and patted his shoulder before walking away.

xxx

Hikari was in one of the most awkward silences she had ever had in her life. She and Shinji were sitting on a bench in the garden outside the ballroom. Shinji hadn't said anything yet; he looked like he was thinking and Hikari didn't really want to disturb him. She wanted to hum out a tune just to break the silence, but that would make her look stupid.

Instead, Hikari decided to take in her surroundings. It was a beautiful afternoon, the sun wasn't shining to brightly and it wasn't too hot.

She wondered what Shinji was going to say, when he suddenly turned to finally look at her and Hikari made a small 'eep' sound of surprise. She thought his lips twitched as if he was going to laugh but it was gone in a second.

"You never change do you?" Shinji said, which Hikari was taken aback with.

"Well you haven't either!"

Shinji actually chuckled this time which surprised Hikari. "That wasn't meant as an insult."

"...Oh...right." Hikari wanted to dig herself into a hole right about now.

Hikari realized that Shinji had changed, even if it was only by a little bit. It seemed that he laughed more but what really was the tell-tale was his eyes. When Hikari first liked Shinji, it was mainly because of his confident eyes that seemed to stare down at you, as if he could see right through you. His eyes seemed to look...softer somehow. Kinder even.

"Anyway, what I wanted to say is..." Shinji paused as if wondering if he should say it. "I'm sorry."

"What?" Hikari said blankly. It was as if her mind was slow to process that Shinji was actually apologising.

"I'm sorry that I treated you badly when we were dating. I didn't consider your feelings and I know it was wrong." Hikari gazed at Shinji searchingly, it seemed like he really did mean it. Her stare was unnerving him though; he stood up and bowed slightly to her. "I don't expect you to forgive me but thank you for listening. Excuse me."

The girl stood up as well. "Wait Shinji." After one more penetrating look, she smiled. "You're forgiven. You don't have to use your formal tone with me by the way." Shinji smiled as well and started heading back into the ballroom when Hikari added, "Hey, did Nozomi convince you to apologize by the way?"

Shinji stiffened momentarily then quickly relaxed. "I don't know what you're talking about," he said, before disappearing into the crowd.

Hikari sat back down on the bench she wasn't in a hurry to go back into the masses of people. She closed her eyes as a cool breeze swept around her face. She was glad that she had managed to get some closure with Shinji. Somehow she knew that after this, telling Kengo about how she felt would be much easier.

xxx

"Daydreaming again, Pikari-chan?" She opened her eyes to see Kengo beside her with a smile on his face. Kengo had walked out of the ballroom, after Shinji going back in. Seeing the sight of Hikari so peaceful there had brought a smile to his face. He still couldn't resist the urge to tease her though.

"Tease me all you want but the weather's too good to get all worked up." Hikari smiled warmly at Kengo.

"Hey, what did Shinji want to talk to you about?"

"He wanted to apologise for what happened when we broke up."

"Oh...are you two-" Kengo seemed to struggle to get the words out, as if it pained him to say them. "-what I mean to say is...are you getting back together with him?"

Hikari looked at him in surprise. She studied his face, he looked worried."No. I don't like him in that way anymore."

Kengo chuckled, relieved. "That's good then."

Nudging him playfully she said, "Good? Don't tell me you were jealous of Shinji?"

"Maybe I was," he replied quietly. He then took Hikari's hand and squeezed it. They sat there in silence for a while. It wasn't an awkward silence like Hikari had with Shinji. It was a comfortable quiet, which meant more than anything Hikari could think to say. She could feel a kind of warmth in her chest. After a while she leant against his shoulder.

"I love you, Hikari," Kengo whispered to her.

"I love you too," Hikari replied with a small smile.

About a minute passed and the pair stayed the same.

"...did I say that out loud?" Kengo finally said.

Hikari, not shifting from her position grinned. "Yes you did."

"And did you just-"

"Yup."

"...alright then." Kengo now had the happiest smile on his face that he'd ever had. Hikari couldn't see it but she sensed it was there.

There was no need for some elaborate confession that Hikari had planned out in her mind. There was no need for flowers Kengo had planned to buy when he would tell her. They were best friends, they understood each other's feelings. They didn't have to explain why they loved each other. It was simple that way. And that was the way Hikari preferred it to be.

A sneeze was heard and the two nearly jumped. They heard hushed voices coming from the direction of a certain bush. "Shut up they're going to hear us!"

"Speak for yourself you're practically shouting."

Hikari parted the bushes and looked down. "Hello there."

Haruka, Kasumi, Satoshi and for some reason Iris and Dent were paused in argument staring back up at Hikari's face. She didn't look angry although there was something quite threatening in that smile.

"We can explain," Satoshi cried in panic.

"Oh really?" Hikari said menacingly.

Haruka waved her hands in front of her. "Haha well you see Iris here sensed something was about to happen outside so we followed her and you were here so we...hid."

"What? Don't blame me for this! Dent's the one who went all 'It's confession time!' and suggested we watch," said Iris defensively.

"What a bad taste..." Dent said to himself avoiding Hikari's deathly gaze.

Before Hikari could actually physically harm any one of them Kengo, deciding to let his crazy friends off for a change took Hikari's hand. "It's okay, I'm sure they didn't mean anything bad by it."

Kasumi nodded, spotting a chance to take the attention off of them."Right! We're happy you guys finally got together! Er – you are together right?"

Hikari and Kengo exchanged a look and said in unison, "Yes."

"Way to go, my man!" Takeshi yelled and appeared from behind a tree.

"Takeshi-senpai!" they all exclaimed (excluding Iris and Dent).

This time it was Kenny who was fuming. "You were watching as well?"

"Heh it's not like the outside of the ballroom is a private area. Did you not notice Kenji and Masato over there? I bet Kenji was painting you two."

They all spun around to see Kenji and Masato in one corner of of the garden, Kenji having what was obviously a big canvas in front of him. Realizing that all of them had noticed him and Masato the two walked over as well. "Ah well you two got up a little too soon for my liking but I did manage to get quite a decent painting of you two."

"Well Kenji's paintings are fine and all but what's better than the good new-fashioned way of a camera!" Masato, Haruka's younger brother, said.

"You got pictures?" cried Haruka and hugged him. "You really are my brother."

"I'm amazed how Kengo and Hikari didn't notice us though. We were right there." Iris mused.

"I guess they were just so in lovey-dovey mode that they didn't notice us," suggested Kasumi with a suppressed giggle.

"Everyone..." Dent said quietly pointing to Kengo and Hikari who for some reason appeared to have a dark and menacing aura emitting from them.

"Run for it!" Satoshi shouted and immediately the unfortunate spectators ran back into the ballroom, splitting up.

"Should I get them now, or later?" Hikari asked, her dark aura tuning down.

Kengo, who had also calmed down managed to laugh weakly. "Later. You know, I think they're about to play a slow song." He shyly held out his hand to her. "Would you like to dance?"

"Of course I would, my prince." Taking Kengo's hand, they went back to the ballroom and started to dance. It was a slow waltz and they glided across the room. Admittedly, Hikari was a slightly better dancer than Kengo so she tended to the lead the dance.

"Hey Hikari, what was that about 'my prince?'" asked Kengo.

She turned slightly pink but didn't look away. "Oh, well just now when you waved at me...I kind of thought you looked like a prince."

Kengo's cheeks started heating up as well. "Then...that makes you my princess." Immediately his face turned completely red. "Sorry, I don't know where that came from. Kinda cheesy huh- H-Hikari?"

His partner had leaned her head against his chest so that they were closer together. "No, it's just perfect."

And here, with Kengo's arms finally around her, Hikari truly thought that this moment was perfect.

A/N: There you have it! THE END! ...okay, no, not really. This would be the last chapter if I was good at fluff and all that stuff but since I'm not you're going to have to bear with me for one more chapter. It will hopefully be good. I'll try not to spam in with the supporting characters (notice how all Ash traveling partners were there!) and not have a major (8 MONTH) gap between this chapter and the next. Until then...review! Constructive critism is appreciated.