Author's note: the dots … means time has passed. Sorry about the name for this chapter!

Chapter Four: Issues

"Are you ready yet?" asked Raimundo who was waiting at the door. Kimiko was putting pillows underneath her blanket incase Wuya came back she would think it was Kimiko underneath the blankets. Kimiko came back a few a minutes later with nothing but her pan and Dojo on her shoulder. Raimundo looked down at the pan. "You're kidding me right?" he asked arching an eyebrow.

"What? People need protection." she said hastily.

"And dragons too." added Dojo.

Raimundo shrugged and turned to the door, twisted the knob and- "Oh WOW!" exclaimed Kimiko. She stepped outside. She couldn't believe the beauty on the outside. It was light blue skies, lush green trees, beautiful green grass, and a beautiful, fresh, crisp air smell. She took in a big whiff of the air around her. She could feel chills run up and down her spine.

"Hey! Are you coming or what?" Kimiko looked down and saw Raimundo already five steps on the stairs.

"Oh, right. Sorry." replied Kimiko. She took one step and- "Oops!" she missed the step and went tumbling down the stairs. Raimundo looked up and saw Kimiko falling down the stairs and before he could get out of the way, Kimiko, Raimundo, and Dojo went flying down the stairs. "Owwww!" they let out a big sigh went they reached the bottom of the stairs. Kimiko opened her eyes and saw the blue skies and green trees above her. She landed right on top of Raimnudo and Dojo landed right in front of him.

"Get.. off.. of.. me." Raimundo said sounding crushed by Kimiko. She rolled off of him, but when she touched the grass she felt it's moistness on her fingertips, she smelt it's earthiness in her nostrils. When Raimundo got up he offered a hand to Kimiko. She sat up and refused. She kept brushing the grass between her fingers. Raimundo rolled his eyes and said "What are you doing?" he crossed his hands and looked down at her.

"I'm feeling the grass." she replied looking up. Raimundo's cocked an eyebrow. "What? Wouldn't you feel hypnotized by what the grass feels and smells like?"

"Personally, I don't care for what nature has to offer on Earth." he said.

"Come on, you have to like something about Earth." she said getting up off the ground.

"I said on Earth. However I do like to feel the wind around the Earth." he corrected. He never liked sharing this information, but he didn't know why he shared this with her.

"Oh, so you love to feel the elements too uh? Yeah, I personally feel the same about fire." she had no problem telling Dojo this, but when she said that to a complete stranger she's only known for a few minutes she felt it was okay to tell him. But she wasn't going to share anymore information about how she acted or felt around fire.

He simply shrugged and said, "Well we better get a move on then if you want to see those lights." he turned and started heading towards the woods. She looked over at Dojo who was on her shoulder now and went running to catch up to Raimundo.

…

Kimiko sat underneath a tree crying her eyes out. "What am I doing?" she asked herself.

Raimundo was leaning against the tree and thought to himself, 'What is up with her? She's been like this off and on, happy one minute and then sad the next!'

"What will Wuya think?" she asked looking up at Dojo who was sitting right next to her.

"Who's Wuya?" asked Raimundo looking down at her.

"She's my guardian." replied Kimiko with her head in her hands.

"Yeah some guardian." began Dojo, "She never let Kimiko play outside let alone let her have any freedom." he said patting Kimiko on the back.

"Wow, sounds like a real kill joy." said Raimundo thinking about a life without freedom. That's exactly the life he had before he met Kimiko. He wanted that back, he needed that back. He suddenly had a perfect idea. "Oh well, she'll get over it." he put his hands on the back of his head and leaned up against the tree.

Kimiko looked up at him and asked, "What do you mean?"

Raimundo gave a little grin then said, "Well, I mean it's not like she deserves to get her heart broken into a million pieces, but she's got to know it's just a part of being a human." he looked a Kimiko from the corner of his eye.

She looked down and repeated, "Break her heart?"

Raimundo smiled, 'She's falling for it!' he thought. "And besides, even if you do crush her spirit and leave, she'll probably die a lonely old woman."

At that response Kimiko looked more frightened than anything, "Crush her spirit? Die an old and lonely woman?"

Raimundo picked her up by the arm and said, "But hey, it's your life not hers. If you want to go back and live a life of trust and friendship with a woman you call your guardian go ahead. No one's stopping you." he handed her the pan that was on the ground and started leading her towards the direction her house.

Dojo, realizing what he was doing glared at him from Kimiko's shoulder. And Kimiko realized what he was doing too and said, "Hey! I am not going to go back until I see those lights!" she broke away from his grasp.

"Oh come on! What will it take to get my scroll back?" he shouted realizing his plan had failed.

Kimiko raised her pan to his face and said, "I will use this." they heard a rustling in the trees and Kimiko jumped back behind Raimundo and said in a panicky voice, "What is it? Punks? Thugs?" she had a slight fear of punks and thugs. She heard about them from Wuya and from what she said, Kimiko did not want to meet one anytime soon.

A monkey suddenly jumped in front of them holding a banana in its hand. "Stay calm, it can probably smell fear." said Raimundo sarcastically.

Kimiko then let out a sigh and said, "Sorry, I was just-"

"You were scared weren't you?" asked Raimundo laughing at her. Kimiko stepped out from behind him and punched his arm. "Dang girl you hit hard!" he said holding his arm.

"Don't ever make fun of me." stated Kimiko. "And I wasn't scared, I was surprised."

"It would probably be best if we stayed away from punks and thugs though?" he asked letting go of his arm.

"Yeah, that'd probably be the best." she said looking at Dojo then at Raimundo.

Raimundo got a grin on his face and said, "Are you hungry? I know a great place for lunch!"

A little surprised by his sudden change in attitude, Kimiko and Dojo said, "Sure. Where is it?"

"Don't worry, you'll know it when you see it." he said leading them through the forest.

Author's note: Stay tuned next time for Xiaolin Showdown Tangled Parody! Sorry, I had to say that! ^^