Lonely No More
by Cyberchao X

Chapter 43

Disclaimer: As always, less than 100%.

A/N: Ha…strange holiday to be making so many fanfics, or fanfic chapters, for. I've only actually made one Christmas fic—this one, or rather the one-shot that it spawned from (although due to the length of time that this fic covered, it's had a second Christmas chapter, that doesn't even really count since that chapter came out somewhere around last August)—but here we are, for the second time in three years, entering the second half of the year in festive fashion. Conservation of detail, you know; never said just how early in July it was. (I actually started this in June…)

*the next day—July 4*

"Good morning, Suzuka!"

"Oh. Good morning, Julia. What's with the futon?"

"You mean the cot? You're in the bed."

"I thought this was the guest bedroom."

"It is. I just use it as my room because it's gotten to the point where sharing a room with my twin is kind of awkward."

"Of course. Were you just waiting for me to wake up?"

"…Kind of. Today's a big day, and while I'm sure you'll want to be with Dylan tonight, I was hoping you could make some time for me, too. Most of my cousins are boys, too, so I always feel kind of out of place at family gatherings."

"Your extended family is visiting today?"

"Actually, we're going to Grandma and Grandpa's house. Family barbecues are a Fourth of July tradition!"

"…Right. Today's a national holiday in the US. That's why the airport was so crowded yesterday." Julia nodded.

CCX: Um…like I said, I was originally going to try to have this out in time for the holidays, and instead I broke the streak. Let's head back to our crew in Japan.

"That's…let me guess; your parents again?" Hanna asked.

"Yeah. Bad enough that they're insisting on chaperoning us, but this swimsuit is awful. I think Natsume-chan's probably got a better shot of landing a boy today than I do."

"Look on the bright side, oneechan; if I do, it might distract them enough to at least let you get in some time with Suki-neesan."

"…This might end up being the worst trip to the beach ever."

CCX: …Yeah, I've got nothing. At least this provided an interrupt which allows us to jump ahead to the Keith family gathering.

"So we get Dylan back for the summer and the exchange student?"

Dylan laughed. "No, actually, I'm not sure what happened to the exchange student my parents were supposed to be hosting. I just decided to bring a guest on my visit home. Kyle, this is my girlfriend, Suzuka Tsukimura. Suzuka, this is my cousin, Kyle Barrett." (CCX: Dylan's father and Kyle's mother are brother and sister, hence the different last names.)

"Nice to meet you."

"Ah, nice to meet you too."

Suzuka smiled. "No one ever expects me to speak English, do they?"

"Nope and I guess you're off now." Julia had already taken Suzuka by the hand and was eagerly leading her onwards.

"Eh, don't be too hard on her. I'm sure Katie will be happy that it's not just her and Julia, too."

"Just as well. She'll probably get into less trouble that way."

"…Eh?"

"Never mind." "Suzuka wouldn't be that blatant…would she?"

"Seriously, I'm the only guy in the group again?" Izei asked.

"Well, about half this group is single by parental mandate, and Arisa-san is a lesbian, so…yeah," Miki replied.

"What happened to your friend Aoba-chan? Wasn't she the one who got you into this 'clique' in the first place?"

"She's with her boyfriend."

"Exactly my point."

"I'm a bit surprised that Suki-tan didn't bring her new boyfriend, though," Arisa said, before adding in a whisper to Suki alone, "Especially seeing as how her girlfriend can't exactly be seen getting too close to her on this trip."

"You're complaining why?" Suki responded, kissing her. "You've always put on a much better show, anyway."

"Yeah, but who are you putting on a show for?"

"Hey, I've got to look out for my girls. Bring the boys over and let them go to work. Your nondescript friend would probably appreciate it too, right?"

"What do you mean, 'nondescript'?!" Kaburagi replied. (CCX: She really is forgettable, isn't she?)

"Yeah, Kaburagi's got plenty going for her! She just…hasn't had much luck getting any boys to notice."

"Well, that should change on this trip. After all, there aren't any cheerleaders hanging around this time."

"That's the spirit! Sure, it's hard for anyone to stand out when Makimaro-san's around, but you're like the fourth-biggest one here, Kagurabi-san!" Miki said.

"…It's Kaburagi. And the fact that I'm still being out-boobed by a pair of girls three years my junior isn't exactly comforting."

"Try living with one."

"…Point."

"…Wow. How'd your older brother manage to land such a gorgeous girlfriend?"

"I guess standards vary from country to country. I often wondered how I managed to land him."

"Your command of the English language might have helped."

"His Japanese is better than my English. I'm probably better than most of my classmates, though, because my best friend is half-American and half-Japanese and is fluent in both languages."

"…So is Dylan really considered a catch?"

"Yeah. A lot of other girls are jealous. You don't look like you'd have any trouble landing a boyfriend if you so desired, though—unless our image of Americans is true and you really do all look like that."

"You mean blonde and blue-eyed? No, we don't. I'm not even light enough to properly 'take advantage of' being blonde."

"Don't forget 'tall' and 'stacked'. You're a few years younger than me, right? But we could probably share clothes easily."

"Ah, that's right…you're in Dylan's class, so that would make you 17. And I'm 14…"

"And yet you're of remarkably similar shapes."

"Let me guess—all of the real men in our family didn't want you around?"

"Aw, Katie, lighten up. It's…okay, yes, it is getting to the point where it's weird having him so close all the time, but it's hard to ignore that twin thing," Julia tried to mediate.

"Ah, yes, that's the other reason why I was so happy to see another girl here. Julia's fine company, but the thing about twins is that it's hard to separate them."

"You and Jackson don't get along?"

"There's a stereotype in other parts of the country that incest is prevalent in these parts. Jackson's the type of person responsible for that image."

"You wish. At least then someone would be interested in you."

"Have they always been like this?"

"No, only since Katie started growing boobs. So it's understandable why she feels that way. I'm pretty sure Jackson just likes to tease her, though. And Katie teases right back, because being the youngest, he's an easy target."

"Not for long."

"No, you'll always be the youngest of our generation. Mike's our cousin, so this new addition will be the first of a new one, even if he or she will be about as close to our age as Mike is."

"Well, so much for being able to help you," Natsume said. "With those death glares they're giving out, making you wear that awful swimsuit was just overkill."

"Speaking of 'death-glares'…," Yuriko said.

"Wouldn't have pegged you as the beach type," Hanna said coolly.

"I could say the same about you, but it seems that you don't dislike such shameless displays nearly as much as you claim to," Kuwata replied.

"There's nothing 'shameless' about this. Or were you hoping for a wardrobe malfunction?"

"You're not the one whose wardrobe seems to be malfunctioning."

"I don't need to hear that from you, too. My parents are way too overprotective; I'm surprised they haven't already descended upon us upon hearing a male voice."

"The sexual tension between Kuwata-san and Hanna-san speaks volumes louder than a person ever could," Yuriko said.

"THERE IS NO SEXUAL TENSION BETWEEN US!" Hanna and Kuwata both shouted.

"Right. Sure there isn't."

"Even I can see it, and I'm only 11," Natsume added.

"The beach probably isn't the best place for it, though. No offense, but you'd look much better in a classroom setting than you do here, while Hanna-chan is, um…"

"More stacked than you are?" Yuriko asked.

"I, um, wasn't going to say that," Sakura replied, "even though it's true…"

"Stop it. You do not have the right to get breast envy," Katsura interjected.

"I'm sorry, have we met?" Kuwata asked.

"No, I don't go to the same school as all of you," Sakura replied. "I'm Ichirei Sakura."

"Kuwata Shirou."

"Um, what I said before…it's not to say that you're not okay as is…"

"That's, um, I should be going now."

"…Damnit. Finally got a guy through one barrier, and another one comes to scare him off. Why'd you have to go and start flirting with him, Sakura-san?"

"…Wait, did I mess something up? I thought I was helping out, getting him away from you…"

"You did just fine," Hanna said.

"Speak for yourself," Katsura thought bitterly.

Once her father was a safe distance away, Sakura continued, "Although, if my father hadn't shown up to scare him off, I'd be fine with that too."

"You can't be serious."

"I kind of have a weakness for the bookish type. I know, I'm weird…"

"That's not it. Kuwata's just an arrogant prick."

"…He didn't seem so bad."

"He isn't; Hanna-chan's just had a long-standing rivalry with him."

"And yet you're willing to put in a good word for him?" Sakura wondered.

"Uh…"

"Katsura-chan's just a bit desperate for male attention."

"Um, yeah," Katsura was grateful that her friend hadn't pressed the issue.

"Your family is…quite interesting."

"Let me guess; Katie and Jackson going at it again?"

"Has it really been bad for that long?"

"Oh, it's always been bad. Jackson's the youngest in our extended family—on my dad's side, anyway—and he always kind of got excluded from our games for being too little, so he often had to play with Katie and Julia. I don't think Katie was ever too happy about it, so she used to mock him mercilessly for being too much of a girl to play with the boys, even though none of us ever said anything like that."

"That's mean."

"Yeah. I'm surprised Jackson hasn't done anything about it yet but I guess his code of chivalry's too strong."

"Code of what?"

"Chivalry. Basically the idea that men are supposed to be polite and respectful to women."

"And what was stopping him when they were younger?"

"If she'd ever wanted to, Katie probably could've joined in at any time. You'd never know it by the way she acts, but she's probably as tough as any of us, or at least she was when we were littler. Biology always catches up, though, so Jackson could probably take her in a fight now. Assuming, of course, that things don't start getting weird."

"So the rest of the family feels like there's something…{incestuous}, going on there, too?"

"I'm not really sure what you just said, and I'm assuming you don't know how to say it in English, so we're going to have to stay disconnected on that one."

"Um…'incest'. As an adjective."

"'Incestuous'?"

"That."

Dylan chuckled. "Not really, but just enough that if they ever actually came to blows there's a chance that hormones would take over."

"Should I start a fight with you, then?"

"You're insatiable." He kissed her.

"Nah. {You just won't go far enough.}"

"{Well, I'm sorry I can't please you the way Arisa can.}"

"{You don't know that until you try.}"

"Well, it looks like they didn't need my help. Hanna-chan's really bringing them in."

"Think they realize she's only 13?" Arisa asked.

"14. No, wait, you're right, she's still 13 at the moment."

"Oh, is her birthday coming up soon?"

"The seventh."

CCX: I haven't decided if this is taking place on the fourth, a bit earlier than action in America, or on the fifth, a bit later. I just know that due to time zone differences, these two halves can't possibly be taking place simultaneously. Also, please excuse me if I already gave Hanna's birthday and forgot about it; I'm going to have to start making notes of birthdays on my character list…although if I'm not mistaken, Katsura's the only other one to be given an exact birthday so far, although Kanna's is known to be in August and Miki's has also been implied to be in August; also Natsume's is known to be in either the summer or the autumn, as her age was first given as 10 in a chapter set in June, then as 11 in one set at Christmastime, and now she's still 11 the following July so she wasn't on the verge of turning 11 when introduced.

CC: On that note, thanks to Jackson's interruption, Suzuka never got the chance to correct Katie if need be—and her assumption would be a logical one since Dylan's graduating high school in 2014. I still haven't found any canon character birthdays, so I'm going to avoid ever stating for sure when they've had their birthdays for the school year.

CCX: I keep forgetting if I gave Suki a birthday, though…

"Well, still. Those guys look like they've got to be at least my age."

"Katsu-tan's parents are going out of their minds, of course…I should extricate her."

"Forget the Himiyas; Ichirei-san is absolutely livid, and with good reason. Erm, not that your Katsura-chan isn't gorgeous as well…"

"It's fine; I know that she doesn't look her best today."

"How does she not get sunburned?"

"Lots and lots of sunscreen. And spray tan, which her parents were mad at me for getting her but she really needs it. I mean, I love her pale skin tone but it's just not 'summery' enough."

"Heh. I thought that seemed a bit dark."

"Hey. Katsu-tan. Come on, let's leave Hanna-chan in peace."

"You know that's not going to work."

"Why not?"

"Because now they've noticed you."

"Well, then, I guess I'll just have to make it clear that I'm not available."

Katsura winced. This was going to be the end of her relationship with Suki…now that her parents knew the true nature of their relationship, it would be forbidden…

It never came. "Suki-tan, are you playing around with the boys again? You know how jealous I get when you do that." Katsura had never been religious, but she was thanking a higher power. Arisa had just saved her. Well, sort of—her parents did just learn that Suki wasn't straight, but at least they didn't know that she was in a relationship with her. "Showtime," Arisa whispered to Suki.

Suki shook her head. "Thanks for the 'rescue', but we can't be too overt in front of the Himiyas. They think I'm straight, and I want to keep it that way."

"Well, that got them off of my back. And one less parent watching us like a hawk," Hanna said.

"Oh, trust me; as long as you're near me, my father will be watching like a hawk."

"It's kind of a double standard that he only gets that way with you."

"Not really. He was like that with both of us until neesan started high school; more with her, actually, because I was too young to really be dating. Then I started developing right as she reached high school, and, well…"

"Yeah. We're in the same boat. Except I'm not that developed," Katsura said.

"It's your own fault that your parents are so strict with you," Hanna chided.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Still, we probably have a better chance entering the fray."

"I don't think you're quite ready to 'enter the fray' just yet."

"Right on time, Mai-chan."

"You're a horrible influence on me, you know that, right?"

Katsura grinned as she took the delivery and went off to change. "Yep."

CCX: Man, I didn't realize how boring Suzuka's end would be. I ended up sticking back with the other girls because nothing was going to happen over on Suzuka's end. Until next time, CCX, signing off.