Phew it's been awhile since I've written a chapter this long and I hand write them first so when I type them it's my second time around.

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Chapter 9 Ren

Ren woke up groggily and it took him a few seconds to remember where he was. He remembered waking up on the fisherman's boat and staying at Jen's and Kyoko had slept beside him the whole night. He looked to his side for her and saw she wasn't there. He stretched out his arm to touch where she had lain, the bed was cold. She had left his side a while ago. Ren got up and made his way down stairs. I wish I could take a shower. Ren made his way to what looked like a kitchen. He saw no one and so started to head outside when it swung open.

Jen walked inside carrying a basket full of laundry. "Oh, you're up." She said quickly glancing at him then putting the basket in a chair. "Those clothes really are a little short on you." She observed while staring at him. Ren looked down and realized he was wearing the pjs the woman had given him the night before.

"Oh, uh um…" Ren blushed slightly in his embarrassment. Sure he had done tons of modeling jobs where he had posed half naked but this was different. Even if the pajamas covered him fully he was still in a stranger's house, standing in front of the female owner wearing her husband's clothes.

"Hahaha don't be so embarrassed Ren. If you want you can go and bathe at the watering hole and change into some day clothes. The girls are probably on their way back so you shouldn't have to worry about interrupting their bath." As she said this Jen moved about the kitchen collecting items and placed them all on the table.

"That would be nice." Ren secretly thanked God for allowing this opportunity to clean himself.

"Only… do you think you could do me a favor?" She asked with an innocent expression. "My boys are filthy but they won't wash up. Maybe if they went with you they would at least scrub behind their ears."

"Sure," Ren couldn't say no when the woman was providing shelter, clothes, and probably food. All without asking for anything in return.

"Thank you! Now I'll just fix you up a snack before you go and then get you some clean clothes." As it turned out the items Jen had gotten out were what she needed for the snack. She quickly whipped up something mysterious, in Ren's opinion, and went upstairs. Ren tentifly tasted it and discovered it was quite good despite not knowing what it was. Normally the snack would have been too much food for him to finish but he hadn't eaten anything the day before and so he ate it all.

Ren was just finishing his last bites when Jen walked back down the stairs carrying a stack of clothes. "These are for you." She said while placing some of her pile in front of him. She continued to the door and walked out leaving Ren unsure of what to do. He decided to pick up the clothing and followed the woman out. Ren used a few seconds to take in his surroundings. The house was near a cliff, about one hundred feet away. All around the building was green grass and a dirt road that led from the house steps to the town which was about one hundred fifty feet away. To his left lay the ocean off in the distance. On his right he could see a garden with various plants growing in it and beyond a forest. Jen was standing near her garden telling at three boys. Two of them looked like identical twins around the age of ten and the other looked about thirteen. All three were hanging their heads listening to the lecture.

"How dare you step in my garden!" Ren heard Jen yell. "How do you think you're going to eat if you ruin my plants? And you didn't just step in it, you ran through it several times. What are we going to do if the plants get ruined and we can't eat?" She gave the boys a couple seconds to think about that. "Since you're so careless with our food source perhaps you should go to bed without dinner tonight." The boys looked up in horror at her. "But perhaps that won't be necessary. Ren needs to go wash up and I want you boys to show him where the watering hole is. And while you're there clean yourselves up as well, especially after you've been playing in the dirt." She handed them each their clothes and then walked back towards Ren. "Just follow the boys and they'll show you where to get cleaned up." Jen continued to walk inside when something occurred to Ren.

"Jen-san, where is Mog-Kyoko-chan?" He hadn't seen her since he'd woken up and found her already gone. He hoped she hadn't run from fear because they gad slept in the same bed last night.

"She went to bathe with the girls." Jen said as if it were obvious. "And my name is Jen, not Jen-san." And she continued walking inside.

"Hey mister," one of the boys shouted and he turned to look at them. The watering hole is this way." It was the older one who spoke and Ren followed them to the forest. Ren lost himself in the scenery and so it took him about ten minutes to realize none of the boys were speaking.

"Is something wrong?" Ren asked nervously. Shouldn't they have had an abundant amount of energy?

"Would you really throw us in the ocean?" one of the twins asked.

"Um, no, why did you think I would?" Ren had no idea where they got that idea from.

"Because mother said you would if we woke you up." The other twin answered.

"Oh, I wouldn't do that" Ren said confused. Do I come off as that much of a brute?

"Well either way here is the water hole/" The eldest boy said as they walked through a line of trees. The watering hole was the size of a pond with a fast running stream flowing into it. From the stream the water had to fall a few feet into the large body creating a mini waterfall. There were other sourced of water flowing into the small lake but the waterfall was the biggest.

The three brothers placed their clean clothes on rocks a safe distance from the water and started to undress. As they did the eldest told Ren the tradition.

"The oldest person always jumps into the water first. Normally that would be me but since you're here you have the privilege." As Ren started to undress the boy continued to explain. "The best jumping rock is over there. If you jump off it you'll land in the deepest part. Don't worry the water feels great!"

All four of them walked over to the rock he had pointed out. Ren wasn't really sure if he wanted to jump in but the boys were giving him expectant glances. He took a few steps back and gave himself a running start and then leapt for the water. Right before he hit the surface he heard peels of laughter. When he was fully submerged it hit him. The water was freezing and his body did not agree with the cold, especially one part. He swam to the shore as fast as he could gasping for air. Once he reached the sand he stayed bent over till his genitalia would allow him to move again.

"Bwahahahahahahahaha," Ren looked up to see the three brothers lying on the ground from laughing so hard. Ren grimaced and stood up but by the time he reached his full height he was wearing his lying gentlemanly smile and he walked over to the laughing maniacs.

"That…hahahah…was so….hahaha… funny!" One of the twins managed to say.

"Would you like to know how great the water feels?" Ren asked with his lying gentlemanly smile as he picked up the twins and threw them in the water. Now the eldest was laughing hysterically. He loved to see his younger brothers get tortured and all the better if he didn't get in trouble for it. "Don't you know families should stick together?" Ren asked still smiling. The boy's face turned pale as he realized it was his turn. Ren picked him up and threw him in too.

Ren smiled to himself as he watched them swim ashore. They looked like drowned rats with their expressions. He wondered if he had looked that way as well. He walked over to where they had climbed out of the water and stood in front of them.

"Now that we've all had some fun why don't you tell me your names?" He asked while still chuckling a little.

"My name is Fred, and this is my twin George." One of them answered. The oldest brother looked away clearly unhappy with the turn of events.

"He's Nakatsu, the oldest out of all of us." George said. Ren nodded his head in replay and took note of Nakatsu's attitude.

"I think your mother already told you but my name is Ren." Ren walked around the brothers and waded into the water to slowly allow his body to adjust to the temperature. Within a few seconds the twins were on either side of him.

"You're really strong to be able to throw both of us." One said.

"Yeah and it was awesome the way you threw Nakatsu." The other said. Ren knew their names but he couldn't tell them apart. But he could tell they both had hero worshipping looks on their faces. Even though he had thrown them in the ice cold water he had defeated their big brother. Whish was something they were probably always trying to do. And for his part Nakatsu was sulking over being bested.

The twins were willing to do anything Ren asked and so they cleaned up quickly. Nakatsu washed up only after Fred reminded him of their mother's threat to make them all skip dinner tonight.

On the walk back Ren realized something. "Weren't the girls supposed to be heading back? Why didn't we cross paths with them?" Ren felt fear start to creep in as he thought of losing Kyoko again.

"Kayra's scared of the fish in the watering hole so the girls wash in one of the brooks that flow into it. So they would have taken a different path than us," explained Fred.

"Oh," Ren said as he released the breath he'd been holding. He was anxious to see her again to make sure she was fine. He could still feel the wave ripping them apart and he wanted to hold her to confirm that she really was safe.

Finally! It felt like forever typing that up. I hope you enjoy and thank you for the reviews!

Oh and I just had to use the names Fred and George once I thought of two of the brothers being twins and mischievous.