A/N: I'm hoping to finish this up this weekend! And then I want more Shiyori stuff going... And a big, big thank you to everyone who's reviewed so far!
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. I make no profit from this.
"You're still in love with her, aren't ya?" Shinji eyed Rose from the other side of the living room. It was far too late to have this kind of conversation, but to hell with it, far too many people were interested in this. "Lisa. You still love her." Rose looked away, doing his best to ignore Shinji. "You can 'fess up to me." Shinji pressed.
"It's not important." Rose shook his head. "She's moved on."
"No, she hasn't." Shinji rolled his eyes. "You know damn well she hasn't too. You need to make a move on her before she does though." He stood from his chair and made a vague hand motion. "But if you don't care about her, you can always let her move on. Be with some guy that doesn't appreciate her the way you do. Doesn't matter to me." Shinji was doing his best to play up the carefree best friend, but he had turmoil in himself as well.
Rose said nothing; just let Shinji wander off into another room. So what if he loved Lisa? She didn't love him anymore, so what would be the use of trying to get her back anyway? After all, she didn't need him, she had said so herself. So what would be the use of trying to woo her back to him if she didn't need him?
Rose collapsed onto the couch, but he knew he wouldn't get a wink of sleep tonight.
Mashiro was in the shower, Hiyori was on the bed with Lisa, watching a movie on the TV, and Lisa was hoping like hell that her plan worked. Because the hell she was putting herself through wouldn't be worth it if both her projects didn't work out.
"You seem awfully content watching a romantic comedy." Lisa commented to the blonde girl lying beside her. "Having fun?"
"Shut up, I'm watchin' this." Hiyori growled, never taking her eyes off the movie. She had bothered Lisa into buying a marathon of romance movies, and she had been tethered to the TV for the past three hours. Still, every time Lisa made a comment similar to that one, Hiyori's cheeks gathered a pink tinge and she wouldn't even look at Lisa. Lisa did hope she hadn't warped the girl too much, but she wished she had the video camera for Shinji. He wasn't going to believe her when she ratted Hiyori out later.
Mashiro exited the bathroom in just her panties and bra. "Has anyone seen my clothes?" She looked around, as if her suitcase chockfull of clothes wasn't directly in front of her, if she'd only look down.
Lisa pointed to the floor, where Mashiro's suitcase lay open. She feared if Hiyori had any more disruptions the little girl would lose it. She seemed deeply enthralled with "10 Things I Hate About You", and Lisa wasn't about to break her of it.
Mashiro hummed as she pulled on her clothes, and then glanced over at the TV momentarily. Peeking at Hiyori for a moment, for once, she decided not to push her. Mashiro threw herself on the empty bed, stretching out.
Unexpectedly, Hiyori buried her face in the pillow. Lisa and Mashiro both eyed the screen and then looked back at Hiyori in horror. On screen, Kat was crying. And Hiyori was tense, her face buried in the pillow. No signs that she was actually crying, so Lisa could take a wild guess that she was embarrassed.
Lisa decided to wait out, but Mashiro didn't. "Hiyori, are you crying?" She yelled, reaching over to shake Hiyori.
"Don't touch me!" Hiyori shoved Mashiro down. "Lisa, I want to go home!" She growled, whipping the pillow at Lisa's face.
"I don't want to be here anymore!" Mashiro whined, her bottom lip quivering.
Oh, now Lisa was really considering cutting her master plan a day short. "Both of you should sit down and watch the movies. I'll order us some pizza, alright? We're going home tomorrow night." Strangely, that was enough to settle them down. A quick phone call to the local pizzeria and they were soon eating pizza while the movies played.
"Do you think they miss us?" Mashiro asked through a mouthful of cheese, dough and pepperoni. "Do you think they'll be excited when we come home?"
"Kensei?" Hiyori snorted. "Kensei's never excited. Yer out of luck." Mashiro pouted, but said nothing. If anything, Mashiro seemed to be the one who had calmed down the most out of this little excursion, and Hiyori even seemed to have matured a little.
"I think you'll find that maybe things have changed a little since we left." Lisa added her two cents in. She was picking at her slice of pizza, not really hungry. She'd felt traumatized and spacey ever since her phone call with Rose. If she ever needed to lose weight, all she'd have to do is think of that and she would lose her appetite for days.
Both girls looked at Lisa, as though they weren't exactly sure what to make of that. But eventually, Hiyori blushed a faint pink and Mashiro grinned.
"What are you two going to do first when we get home?" Lisa asked, trying to distract herself more than anything else.
"Hug Kensei!" Mashiro beamed at Lisa. "Give him a big hug!"
"None of yer business." Hiyori shot back. "What about you?" When both sets of eyes turned to Lisa, her jaw clenched.
"Start to unpack." Lisa shrugged. "Read some manga."
Mashiro and Hiyori weren't satisfied with that answer. "Liar." Hiyori muttered. "Yer such a liar."
"Lisa's lying!" Mashiro joined in. "Lisa's a big fat liar!"
Lisa sighed. She couldn't put up with this, she really couldn't. "Watch your movie." She sighed, trying not to let her annoyance and turmoil into her voice. Mashiro and Hiyori reluctantly turned back to the TV, eating pizza all the while.
Lisa moved over to the other bed and tried to take a nap. She was going to need months of extra sleep to make up for this – this stress.
Still, if it worked, it would all be well worth it.
A/N: a little bit of a more somber chapter, really. Tell you what, I'll tell you at the end of this story; about my Shiyori I'm going to do soon. Sound good?