Heart's Treasures Chapter 4: A Surprising Afternoon, a flame of recca fanfic

Chapter 4: A Surprising Afternoon

Tokiya parked his car at the edge of the enormous park. He watched as Tanya gathered up the food packages and exit the passenger side. She followed him to one of his favorite spots: a bench near a fountain shaped like an enormous fish.

"Wow." Tanya breathed, looking around. "This park is really big! And it's only a few blocks from your house?"

"Our house." Tokiya corrected her. "And yes, it's only a short distance away. About a five minute walk." He passed her a Styrofoam container of macaroni and cheese and a plastic fork.

He watched intently as she ate up her lunch, pausing once in a while to drink from one of the mineral waters he had purchased. She had an appetite, that was for sure, but the way she ate reminded him of himself.

"Pizza?" Tokiya offered her a slice from the foil package he just unwrapped.

"Yes, please." Tanya put down her empty Styrofoam container and accepted a hot slice of pepperoni pizza from her brother. "Hey! This is my favorite too!"

"Well, that's one more thing we have in common." Tokiya commented, his traitorous lips twitching up into another smile.

Tanya laughed and choked on her mouthful of pizza. Tokiya immediately stood up and began to pat her on the back.

"Easy, Tanya. Drink some water."

Tanya did so and then caught her breath. The siblings finished their meal in silence, enjoying the scent of flowers brought by the slight wind.

'Wind.' Tokiya thought, feeling a bit bittersweet. He hadn't contacted any of his teammates since he left for college. They had flooded his celfone and his email with messages, but he couldn't bring himself to reply to their increasing pleas of wanting to know where he was. He thought he could start a new life. Make something of himself before he came back to impress them. He saw how much they had in each other, and he was always the outsider.

He felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Everything okay, Nee-san?" Tanya looked up at him, concerned.

"I'm fine." Tokiya threw the food wrappings (there weren't any leftovers) into the nearby garbage can.

Other people started to come to the park. An old man was helping his grandson up the slide. A mother was watching her two children play in the sandbox.

"May I go play on the swings?" Tanya asked all of a sudden.

"Sure." Tokiya surprised himself and stood up to go with her to the old swing set. It was a very sturdy model, with strong chains. Tanya selected one and sat down. She was about to kick off from the ground to start swinging, when she felt the swing move forward. She turned her head to see her brother pushing.

"Thanks." She smiled and settled herself securely.

Tokiya pushed his sister higher and higher, enjoying the sound of her laugh as she soared up and back down repeatedly.

"Whoa!" he heard her exclaim. "Now this is really high!"

Ooops. He hadn't meant to push her too high. He caught the back of the swing in order to lower it a bit but the motion ended up sending Tanya flying off the seat.

"Ooof!" She landed on the ground.

"Tanya! I'm sorry!" He ran around the swing and knelt down next to her. She looked up and attempted to brush the grass stains and dirt off her shirt. To his surprise she laughed.

"I'm okay." She confirmed, with a grin patting her arms and legs.

"You need babysitting experience, Mi-Chan." came a familiar voice behind them.

He knew that tone. Tokiya stood up and turned around to find -"Fuuko." He greeted her. "It's been a while."

"Still as cold as ever." Fuuko Kirisawa, for indeed it was she, smiled at him. She gestured to Tanya who was hiding behind her brother, clutching the back of his shirt. "And who might this be?"

Tokiya didn't know what to say. He hadn't told anyone he had custody of a sister he didn't even know existed till only a couple of weeks ago, plus he wasn't exactly expecting to see his Hokage teammates now that he was well into his second year of college. He didn't exactly know which universities they were in. It was a surprising fact that all of them had actually graduated high school.

"Hello?" Fuuko waved a hand in front of his face. "Earth to Mi-Chan. You there?"

Tokiya took a deep breath and answered. "This is my sister, Tanya Mikagami."

"Your-?" Fuuko stared from him to Tanya and back again.

"My little sister." Tokiya continued.

Fuuko's surprised expression drew his attention to how much she had changed physically in the years they didn't see each other. Her hair was longer now, reaching down the middle of her back, and the way she dressed was a lot less boyish than before.

"Seems we have a lot of catching up to do." Fuuko stated. "I just moved into Pine West Apartments. It's not far from here. I decided to do a bit of exploring around the neighborhood and what do you know? I run into you."

"You just moved here?" Tokiya raised an eyebrow.

"Yes. I got into Tokyo University, and so did Yanagi, Recca and Domon."

Tokiya's eyebrow never wavered. "Yanagi, I understand, but how did you two sea-monkeys and that gorilla-"

"WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME?" Fuuko balled up both her fists

"You heard me." Tokiya replied, nonchalantly. "Well, I'll be seeing you around then."

He took Tanya's hand and began to walk toward the direction he parked.

"You're still a stupid Eskimo!" Fuuko's voice sounded exasperated, rather than angry. "If your little sister wasn't with you I'd…"

Tanya tugged at Tokiya's hand. He looked down at her. She pulled her hand out of his grasp, went over to Fuuko and held out her hand.

"I'm Tanya."

Fuuko had to smile at the gesture. She shook the little girl's hand. "I'm Fuuko Kirisawa."

"My mentor mentioned you when she told me about my brother fighting in the Urabutousatsujin." Tanya said. " You can wield the Fuujin?"

"Yes." Fuuko replied, astonished. "Who -?"

"We need to be getting home." Tokiya interrupted. "Come on, Tanya." He took her hand again and led her away.

Tanya turned around and called. "It was nice meeting you!"

Fuuko waved back, dazed.

'Tokiya has a little sister?'

The weather was getting chilly when Tokiya pulled up at the driveway of his house. He and Tanya began to take her things inside.

Tokiya lead the way up the stairs to a room that was above his.

"This will be your room." He said, opening the door, and allowing Tanya to precede him inside.

"Wow! All my books are unpacked already!" Tanya walked over to the bookcase Tokiya had already arranged.

"You seem to like reading very much." Tokiya said.

Tanya nodded. "And writing and drawing too." She fingered the neat arrangement of her volumes, then opened the closet to find most of her clothes already fixed up.

"Thank you!" She ran to Tokiya and hugged him. "You went through all this trouble?"

"It was no trouble at all." Tokiya found himself returning the hug. "Do you need help unpacking?"

"Nope."

"All right. I need to do a few things downstairs. Call if you need me."

Tanya nodded and started to unlock her suitcase. She heard her brother leave the room and go down the stairs. She began to unpack.

Tokiya paced the living room of his house, throwing glances at the phone from time to time. He was definitely rude to her at the park. And since he would be seeing his Hokage teammates around for they were going to the same university he was, she was right, they did have a lot of catching up to do.

He removed the phone book from a drawer beneath the desk that held the phone and flipped through the yellow pages till he found the number for Pine West Apartments.

"BEEEEEEP!"

"Hey, this is Fuuko Kirisawa. I can't answer the phone right now. Leave me a message and I'll call you as soon as I can."

Fuuko came in just in time to hear the phone. She quickly closed the door to her apartment and dashed for the living room. It was probably Yanagi. She had made Fuuko promise to go shopping with her, to which Fuuko had begged to get out of, but was unsuccessful.

The voice that issued from the answering machine wasn't the one she expected.

"Hey Fuuko, this is Tokiya. I'm sorry about being rude at the park earlier. You're right, we really have some catching up to do and-"

Before she knew what she was doing, Fuuko picked up the receiver.

"Hello, Mi-Chan?"

"Fuuko?" his voice sounded different. A tone warmer than before.

"I just came in." Fuuko slumped down on an armchair. "So what were you saying?"

"I was just apologizing for being rather rude to you at the park earlier today. And I was wondering if you, Recca, Yanagi, and that gorilla, Domon, would want to get together sometime this week? I owe you all an explanation about Tanya. If you could get Kaoru and Ganko and Kagerou to come too, I'd appreciate it. I don't know how to contact them."

"Can you rewind to the part where you were apologizing to me? Man, I need to record that. The great Tokiya Mikagami, ice block, is actually apologizing to someo-"

She heard him sigh on the other end of the line.

"All right, All right. Hey, can you blame me for acting this way? I've never heard you apologize for anything before."

"Ha ha." Tokiya said, sarcastically.

"Don't get your precious hair all messed up. I'll give everybody a call and get them to come. You owe us a lengthy explanation, Mi-Chan, starting with why you left for college without saying good-bye to us."

"I- what?" Tokiya stuttered.

"You heard me." Fuuko teased, imitating his nonchalant tone from earlier. "I need to go, Mi-Chan. Bye!"

Tokiya stared at the cordless phone in his hands.

They wanted him to explain why he left without saying good-bye.

Like they really cared about him.

Tanya found her brother in this predicament, staring at a cordless phone he was holding.

"Erm…? Tokiya?" She tugged on his shirt. "You okay?"

Tokiya seemed to snap out of his reverie at the sound of her voice. "Yes. Come on. Want to help me in the kitchen?" He led the way to the kitchen.

"Sure." Tanya started to follow him. A picture caught on the wall caught her eye.

She took the frame off the hook and brought it over to Tokiya.

"Who's this?"

A lump formed in Tokiya's throat. "Mifuyu."

"Mifuyu?" Tanya's eyes widened.

"She was our older sister." Tokiya explained. "And she -"

"Died." Tanya finished for him. She looked down at the photograph. "Sensei Megumi told me about her, and what happened to you when she was killed." Tears were forming in her eyes, and she swiped them away with the back of her hand.

"It's a shame you never got to meet her. You two look a lot alike." Tokiya said, in a strangled voice. He watched as Tanya hung the photo back on the wall, then forced a smile and said; "Let's go get something to drink."

Tanya took another glance at Mifuyu's photograph and followed her brother into the kitchen.

Tokiya set down a pot on the table. He saw Tanya looking around the kitchen, absorbing every detail.

He smiled and removed two big mugs from a cupboard.

"Come and sit down. This tea's best when it's hot."

Tanya came over and accepted the mug her brother handed to her. He filled both their mugs and they sat down.

"Was Fuuko really your teammate in the Urabutousatsujin tournament?" Tanya took a sip of her tea.

"Yes. She was." Tokiya answered, setting down his mug.

"She's really pretty." Tanya said, observantly.

'Well, she's changed since I saw her last. She used to be such a tomboy. Her hair was a lot shorter too."

"Shorter than yours?" Tanya grinned at him.

"Yes." Tokiya answered, returning the smile.

"Your hair is still longer than hers, and even longer than mine." Tanya took a long swig from her mug. "Don't get a haircut yet. I like your hair that way."

"Fine." Tokiya said. "As long as you do the same."

"Deal."