Yoruko: Sorry it's been so long since I've updated! I promise I'll try to be better about updating from now on.

Eiji: You'd probably be better at updating if you read less fanfiction or stopped alternating between writing chapters and reading fanfiction, nya.

Yoruko: *shrugs* You're probably right.

Disclaimer: Yoruko Rhapsodos owns nothing in this story that is recognized.

Pairings: Kagome/Ryoga/Seiichi (threesome) & fem!Ryoma/Shinji

Chapter 4:Ryoga's Return

Saturday came fairly quickly. Though, Ryoma felt that it came a little slowly for her taste. Ryoma had woken up on her own at around a quarter to nine. Nanako was visiting her parents for the weekend, so Ryoma got her own breakfast- being unwilling to eat anything her oyaji might be inclined to attempt to make or to cook anything for him. So she just ate some cereal, glad that Nanjirou wasn't up therefore could neither complain that she hadn't made or gotten anything for him nor pester her about her plans for the day. After she ate her breakfast, Ryoma showered and got dressed. Today she decided to wear black denim capris, a black long-sleeved shirt with a red T-shirt over it, a black baseball cap, black wristbands with a gothic style L on it, (AN: a Death Note reference, btw) a black chocker necklace with a ruby that Ryoga gave her, red converses, and she wore her hair down for a change. She grabbed her black purse that was decorated with Nekozawa and his puppet beezelnef from Ouran High School Host Club.

Ryoma had plenty of time until the time that the decided to meet at, so she decided that she would walk all the way to the mall. She grinned. Today would be a good day- she would get a break from her sempai, (they were great but sometimes they were a little much) she would get to check out the new Death Note video game to see if it was worth getting, she could find a welcome home gift for Ryoga-nii, and perhaps best of all she would get to spend the day with Shinji.

A while later, Ryoma made it to the mall. She went through the entrance and made her way through the slight crowd (which was fairly small since it was still the morning) and to the fountain where she had agreed with Shinji that they would eat at. Shinji was already there when she got there.

"Were you waiting long?" she asked.

"No. I just got here." Shinji replied.

It was a pointless question. Shinji would have said something- probably either asking what took her so long to arrive or complaining that it was about time she got there because he had been waiting for a while- (He would even specify exactly how long he had been waiting.) and they both knew it. They both knew it, but they ignored it.

"So shall we be off?" Ryoma said, grinning.

"Hai." Shinji said.

They walked in a companionable silence, Ryoma quiet and rarely one for many words to begin with and Shinji usually only being the constant mumbler that he he's known as if worked up, excited, mad, annoyed, or upset.

It wasn't long before they made their way to their first destination: the electronics store. To Ryoma's excitement, not only was the videogame that she had been looking for there, but they had gotten in the anime version of Final Fantasy VII in. She had been waiting for that one for two years! Ryoma briefly wondered what took so long then dismissed the thought, not really caring. Shinji got the anime version of Kingdom Hearts and the latest Soul Caliber game. The new Soul Caliber even had Sephiroth as a character choice! Needless to say, they had similar tastes in movies and videogames and often hung out in the safety of Shinji's house to watch movies and play videogames.

One might think that even if they were safe from Seigaku, Fudomine would still be a problem. But this wasn't the case. Unlike Seigaku and apparently Rikkai to a lesser extent, apparently the teens who had been regulars at Fudomine when they were all in Jr. high usually understood the meaning of the word privacy. (In that respect, Ryoma was jealous of Shinji.) So when it was time for one of their get-togethers to watch movies and play videogame, they always did it at Shiji's house.

Next, they had lunch. They ate at the food court. Ryoma and ate pizza and Shinji ate Wendy's. They chatted about everything and nothing in particular.

"Ah! I'm finally having a good time!" Ryoma said.

"What do you mean by that?" Shinji asked.

"Senpai-tachi tend to turn into stalkers and follow me around if I'm doing something or else they barge in and turn everything chaotic." Ryoma said.

"You mean that happens all the time?" Shinji said.

Ryoma nodded. "Yup. Do you remember the time I actually told them that I was going to have lunch with you then play some tennis on the street courts?"

Shinji did remember. He remembered all o well. They showed up right after the two of them sat down with their food and joined them- much to Shinji's annoyance. he looked forward to the time he spent with Ryoma and didn't like it ruined or interrupted by people meddling.

"You mean your senpai do that all the time? You're senpai are so rude. They should know better. Following people is not only invading privacy but is also stalking. Your senpai are creepy if they're always stalking people like that." Shinji mumbled.

Ryoma giggled. "Yeah, they can be pretty rude. But they're still good friends and great people. They're always there for me. They just… are nosy and get on my nerves. None of them are like you though, Shinji. I can actually get some peace and quiet around you and I can actually talk to you about things. The only other people I've ever been able to do that with are Aniki and Kagome Nee-chan."

Shinji blushed and stayed silent. It touched him more than he would ever admit that Ryoma would allow him to know that she considered him one of just three people that she could truly talk to. The only one who wasn't family or considered family, at that.

"What do you want to do after this?" he asked.

"Do you want to go to the bookstore? I heard that they just got in a new shipment of manga." Ryoma said.

Shinji didn't bother asking her where he heard it. Those who were actually close to Ryoma or at least truly friends had long since stopped questioning how she knew random things such as when such-and-such a store got a new shipment, such-and-such movie is coming out or in the making, and so on.

"All right." It had been a while since he had been to a bookstore- maybe they had the new manga volumes that he needed now.

An hour or so later, they had finished up at the bookstore. Now they were headed to the park to just hang around since neither felt like either heading home or playing tennis. Not that they could play tennis, neither had their tennis gear with them.

Shortly after, the duo was sitting on a bench, watching the pond and the birds swimming in it. Shinji looked at Ryoma out of the corner of his eye. She looked so beautiful like that… Shinji blushed lightly for a moment at what he had just thought.

Then, Shinji came to a decision. He would tell Ryoma how he feels, then ask her if she would date him. He turned so that he was now looking directly at Ryoma. Feeling his gaze, she turned to him, a question of what was up or what did he want in her eyes.

Shinji decided for the blunt approach. It was almost always the wisest approach with Ryoma. She tended to be oblivious and if you tried to make something into a speech or rant of sorts it often annoyed her. Though, as Kamio couldn't help but half-teasingly point out, Shinji couldn't help but notice that Ryoma didn't seem to mind Shinji's mumbling as much.

"Ryoma…" he said, "We've been friends for a while now, and I've long since fallen in love with you. Will you go out with me?"

Ryoma smiled lightly, a light, mostly unnoticeable blush on her cheeks. "Un. Of course I'll go out with you. And…" she gave him a quick peck on the lips. "I love you too… Shinji Ibu."

"So… Would you like to go on a date with me tomorrow? We could have lunch and see a movie." Shinji said.

Ryoma smiled. "I'd love too, but I can't. Aniki and Kaa-san are coming home tomorrow."

"They're finally coming back for good?" Shinji said.

"That's right. Kaa-san finally got transferred over here so she doesn't have to worry about her job anymore and therefore can finally come to stay."

Shinji smiled slightly. "That's good. You've been missing them a lot."

Ryoma nodded. "It'll be nice to finally have someone besides Oyaji and occasionally Nanako around. At home I've really only had Karupin for company."

Shinji chuckled. "Yeah. From what you've told me, you don't exactly have much in common with Nanako and Nanjirou-san sounds like he's difficult for anyone to handle."

"That's an understatement. If Kaa-san didn't love Oyaji so much and find him cute and charming for reasons that I'll never understand she would probably have left him by now." Ryoma said.

Little would change between them, they both knew- they would act the same, for the most part. They also had agreed that they wouldn't make a point of announcing that they were dating or keep it secret- it just wasn't either teen's style. Their friends and family would find out when they find out. Besides, if they tried to keep it secret, their attempts at hiding the fact that they were dating would blow the situation out of proportion. An hour or so later, they parted ways to return to their homes a little happier than usual.

The next day

It was a quarter past 11 am. Kagome, Ryoma, and Nanjirou had arrived a whole fifteen minutes early. Nanjirou's excuse was 'but what if they arrive early and we're not here?' But it didn't fool Kagome or Ryoma- Nanjirou just missed Rinko so much that he was being overly energetic and in a hurry. Hasty, as Treebeard from Lord of the Rings would call it. Ryoma rolled her eyes. Nee-chan was right- guys don't ever grow up. And her father was the worst of them. Ryoma had been more grown-up and mentally mature than her father since before they moved back to Japan, and she had only been twelve when they moved to Japan.

"So, Kagome, what are your plans with Nii-chan?" Ryoma asked, "It's been a while since you've actually seen each other. You must have plans."

Kagome grinned. "You bet. Tomorrow we're going out for the evening once we're done with class. Then next Saturday we're spending the whole day together."

Ryoma smiled lightly. "That's nice .I know that you've been missing Aniki even more than I have."

"Yeah…" 'I have, but… it's not as bad when I'm with Ryoma or…'

Nanjirou spent the time pacing and Kagome and Ryoma exchanging ideas of how Rinko could stand him and speculating on what he must have been like as a child. In fact, not too long ago they had started a betting pool between all tennis regulars (Seishun or otherwise) on the subject matter, and intended to ask Ryuzaki-sensei and, if possible, Ryoma's grandfather. The bet had been, surprisingly, not Kagome's idea but Ryoma's. She didn't bet often but when she did woe betide anyone who bet against her. There were few who could beat her at a bet. Her luck was just that good. Though it helped that in the tennis circles of the area, there were few who both had and truly used both a brain and common sense. The point is, if you beat her at a bet you're usually incredibly lucky or you knew something that she didn't. Proof of which being the now infamous/well known bet she had with Atobe AKA Monkey King. Heck, she had even won bets against the Tokyo tennis circle's resident sadists and data tennis users. Finally, after ten minutes and at least thirteen prank/revenge plans against Nanjirou for being a loud nuisance later, The plane had finally landed and the passengers had exited the plane.

"Do you want to head to the baggage claim?" asked Kagome.

"Sure. It'll probably be quicker and less troublesome since chances are they'll head straight there." Ryoma said.

"Should we tell your dad where we're going?" Kagome said.

They look at each other. "Nah." they said in unison.

'He's a full grown man. Surely he can take care of himself and eventually figure out where we went.' thought Kagome.

'This way, it'll be less troublesome and if he gets into mischief or even into trouble it won't be my problem.' Ryoma thought. Sure enough, Rinko and Ryoga had just arrived at the baggage claim and gotten their luggage when the two teen girls arrived. Ryoga was the first one to spot them.

"Yo! Chibisuke, Kagome! What's up?" he greeted, giving Ryoma a noogie and a quick half-hug.

"Good." said Ryoma.

"I'm doing well. How about you?" Kagome said.

"I'm great now that I get to see the two of you. Especially you, Kago-chan." he said, giving her a hug.

Ryoma rolled her eyes. She was used to this, and didn't take what some girls may take as a hint that they're second fiddle the wrong way. She meant a lot to her big brother, and she knew it. Kagome just honestly meant that much to him. Ryoma admired the two of them, in a way. Any who met or saw the two of them and truly paid attention would be reminded of an old married couple. Not the type who fought, argued, or bantered a lot yet obviously rarely if ever meant anything about it and brought a smile to your face. No, they were reminiscent of the serene and obviously in love older couple that one who saw them couldn't help but want to find a love like that. Even now they understand each other so well that they needed few if any words to communicate.

Just then, Rinko finally noticed the two.

"Ryoga what are you- Kagome-chan! Ryoma-chan! It's so good to see you!" Rinko said, giving them both a big hug.

They started walking towards the exit, chatting amiably.

"So, Chibisuke, do you and Oyaji have anything in particular planned?" he asked.

"We're taking Kaa-san to a restaurant. I made the reservations Friday." Ryoma said.

With that they left.

Ryoma stopped for a second.

"Ryoma? Is something wrong?" Rinko asked.

"No. It just felt like we were forgetting something, was all. It's probably nothing."

Meanwhile, in another part of the airport, Nanjirou had finally finished up a rant that he had started right before Kagome and Ryoma left.

"Hey! Where did those two girls go?" he said.

Owari