The few minutes Neku spent 'teaching' Shiki how to whistle were absolutely amazing to him. Eventually they stopped and Shiki leaned against his side. "Y'know something, Neku?"

"Hm?"

"This isn't how I expected our first kiss to be." She giggled, then stopped when she saw the look on his face. "N-not that I didn't like it or anything! It's just... I don't know. I just pictured it differently."

"I'm not mad at you or anything. How'd you imagine it?"

"Well, one of those ones you'd have after a romantic dinner or something. Just a fantasy, I guess." Neku smirked after hearing that.

"We could always make that a reality. How about it?" Shiki suddenly blushed but smiled brightly.

"Oh Neku! I didn't know you could be so romantic. Or that you'd be willing to do that."

"We could go to Ramen Don. It's usually pretty empty this time of day. Maybe we could hang at my place afterwards?" He trailed off at the end and blushed a bit because he felt like he was rushing things. Shiki quietly gasped and looked up at Neku.

"O-oh. I'd love to. Do you have any movies? We could watch a bunch and... well, I don't know, but we'd be hanging out together at least." She was really flattered and happy that he'd do that. For as long as they'd been back, he had never invited anyone to his place, let alone mention it. Shiki felt honored that she was the first. Neku looked at her and smiled before taking her hand and helping her up.

"Let's go then." They walked side by side to Ramen Don, the gang's favorite ramen place. When they stepped inside, it was empty except for them. This was absolutely perfect. Ken Doi soon appeared and took their orders before disappearing in the kitchen.

"This is really nice of you, Neku. I can't believe this is actually happening. I mean..." Neku just laughed, because he was feeling the same way. Never in a million years had he thought he'd be going on a date with Shiki and yet, here they were having dinner together, enjoying each other's company, with Joshua serving them their food.

"Joshua?!" Neku was shocked to see the ashen haired teen standing next to their table holding two bowls of ramen and wearing his teasing smirk.

"Neku. Long time no see."

"More like long time no shoot." He grumbled. Joshua set down the bowls and placed a hand over his heart in mock hurt.

"Is that any way to greet your former partner, especially after everything I've done for you?"

"Yes." Josh pulled a chair up to the end of their table and sat in it backwards, resting his arms and chin on the back of it. "What are you doing here?" It wasn't hard to hear the venom in Neku's voice. The response he got was a giggle, and that pushed him another step closer to losing it. "You just love to annoy people, don't you?"

"Aww, Neku. I only came here for something to eat. Being the Composer can really work up an appetite, you know. Personally, I don't really like cooking, and since there's no one who can do it for me I come here. It's quiet and I really enjoy the food. I was expecting it to be just me here, but clearly I was mistaken." He giggled again and Neku narrowed his eyes. He knew Joshua was lying. He had to be. He'd been here on his own before when it wasn't busy and had never seen him anywhere, and he was hard to miss.

"Bull. Now why are you really here?"

"I just told you why. Now what about you? I've never seen you here alone with Shiki." He directed his gaze towards her and she sank down in her seat some, not really wanting to be part of the conversation. And his stare was rather piercing. She had had a brief moment of 'who the heck is this?' when she first saw him but soon remembered who and what he was once him and Neku started going back and forth.

"It's none of your business, Josh. Now get lost so we can eat." Joshua returned his attention to Neku who took his bowl and angrily grabbed a clump of noodles before shoving them into his mouth, all the while giving the other a death glare. (Not that it would do anything since he's already dead.)

He pouted. "There's no reason to be so harsh. If anyone's going to be upset, it should be me. After all, my dear, dear proxy never told me he had a girlfriend." Joshua smirked at Neku's face. It was a mixture of anger and embarrassment. Amusing, to say the least. Shiki had blushed a bit at the word girlfriend. Sure, they had kissed and yeah they were having dinner together before heading over to Neku's to watch movies, but neither of them had ever called it official. Well... maybe it didn't need any calling. Slowly, she started to eat her own lukewarm food as an extremely uncomfortable silence surrounded them. None of them said a word but Joshua continued to stare down Neku, simply because he knew it was pissing him off. Once Neku had finished eating Josh spoke.

"My, my. Such violent thoughts, Neku. Who would've guessed?" Shiki stopped eating for a moment. She had no way to tell what was really going on in Neku's head, but judging by the murderous look he shot Joshua it most likely involved him stabbing the other with his chopsticks. She shook her head and finished eating. Boys.

"You are such an ass." (A/N:Only bad word that will be in here.)

"Do you treat all your friends this way? If so, I can't imagine how you became friends in the first place."

"Look. I really don't feel like dealing with you right now. So-"

"Perhaps later then?"

"Rrrghh!"

"Guys!" Both turned to look at Shiki, whose sudden outburst had surprised them. "Let's just go, Neku." She then looked to Joshua with the friendliest smile she could manage at the moment. "It was nice seeing you again, Joshua."

"No, it wasn't." Before Neku could say anymore, she got up and grabbed his arm, leading him to the door.

"Leaving so soon?" Joshua now blocked their path, which was odd because he hadn't been there a second ago. The owner didn't seem to notice the teleportation of a boy, which didn't surprise them.

"Move." Neku growled.

"I was just wondering where you were going." That same 'I know more than you' arrogant smirk was on his face, and it annoyed the crap out of Neku.

"None of your freaking business. Why would we tell you?"

"Don't you trust me?"

"Hardly."

"That's not what I'd heard." Josh said while brushing some hair out of his face. He knew that Neku was ready to punch him, and he had every right to, (didn't mean he wouldn't get a vending machine dropped on him for it though) but he just wanted to see his limits.

"You actually heard-"

"Your mental invitation to join you and the others? Of course." Neku's face switched briefly from anger to surprise, but then switched back. Joshua was messing with him because he wanted to, and if he hadn't been alone with Shiki he would've ignored the guy, but now that he was on a date he wasn't gonna let the snotty brat ruin it.

"Let's go, Shiki." He pushed past Josh and walked out onto the sidewalk before stopping and turning to face him with perhaps the most wicked grin plastered on his face. If Josh was gonna push his buttons, then he was gonna punch his. "See you around... Yoshi." He left immediately after that, not even bothering to look at the other's face. He already knew exactly what it looked like.

In no time were they already heading towards Neku's apartment. Shiki lightly tugged back on his arm to get him to slow down a little. "Why are you walking so fast? What's your rush?"

"Sorry. I just wanted to be sure he wasn't following us or something. We can slow down now, but we've still got a little ways to go." They both walked in silence, each unsure of how to start a conversation.

"Hey Neku?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

"For what?" He turned his head to Shiki with a bewildered look.

"For not losing your cool and yelling at Joshua or starting a fight. It was really sweet of you to do that for me. I know how much you wanted to punch his face in." He smiled.

"No problem. I just didn't want to ruin your time."

"Don't worry. You definitely weren't the problem." She kissed him on the cheek and held his hand as they walked on.

Joshua stood there looking absolutely infuriated. Normally, he never got worked up over anything and kept a calm demeanor. But this? This was going too far. A simple jab at him? Whatever. Something hadn't gone as planned? He could deal with it. A harsh insult? Tolerable. Especially since most of those came from subordinates or RG people who had no clue who he was. But crossing the line and stepping into his personal boundaries? No, no, no. You just simply didn't do that. Everyone, regardless of their importance to him, were told to call him Joshua, and for good reason. He didn't like his real name. It wasn't so much that sometimes other people had a hard time saying it and just said 'hey, you', it was because of that nickname. That aggravating nickname that people started calling him because it was easier to say and they found it rather funny. Joshua was not to be laughed at. So he suggested a different name to his parents, which they didn't bother arguing about. He wouldn't have changed his mind anyway. Since then, virtually no one has called him by his real name nor have they ever used Yoshi. The fact that Neku just did really ticked him off. It wasn't funny, not even Mr. H called him that as a joke.

He decided to head back to the Room of Reckoning so he could think of all the different ways he could get back at Neku that didn't involve shooting him but would be just as satisfactory in peace and quiet. He didn't even get halfway there when he thought of the perfect way to get revenge. Smiling dangerously, he continued on.

"You're really going to get it, Neku."

A/N:Well, as usual, please review. Next chapter may take a couple of days or it might go up on the weekend, I'll try to get it done as quickly as possible.