I don't own the songs mentioned. Enjoy.

Finding himself on the floor with his tie and jacket undone, Shin was staring at the ceiling. He had just come back from the airport after watching Nasuti leave. A glass of wine was sitting next to him, that he was drinking from. Everything that was broken from a few days before was repaired as Michelle said it would be.

The meeting was replaying through his mind, and now he was calling himself foolish for what he did. Although he was free from having to forcefully give Suiko to some organization, he thought he could have done better. Checking his watch, it read four o'clock. Gabby and Martin wouldn't get off from work for another hour. Lying next to him was the folder from Michelle. He was hesitant to look through it as it contained everything that was being offered to him for decided to use Suiko as a humanitarian object. And it was only the first offer he was given from a government.

Closing his eyes to take in the silence, he heard his phone go off. Rubbing his face, he got up to answer. It was Sayoko, and she sounded worried. It didn't help that she had two tired kids in the background fighting his brother-in-law about not being able to talk to Uncle Shin. Sayoko excused herself so the two kids could go to bed sooner. He got an earful of laughter from his three year old niece Naomi. She didn't really ever talk to him; she would always just tell them that she missed him even though they hadn't met yet mixed with a lot of laughter. Taro on the other hand, went on explaining how school went and his recent experience jumping into the harbor without telling his parents where he went. Shin tried to hide his own laughter. All was interrupted by his sister telling them it was way past their bedtime and they needed to go to bed.

"So," Sayoko sighed, "When are you coming back home? There's a nice restaurant that opened up here recently. You could work there. You won't have to be fighting any government about Suiko."

"I don't know yet. I've been enjoying my time here."

"Are you still hung up about the Gabby girl?"

"No," Shin paused, "Maybe, I don't know. It's complicated. We're going out Friday, but I don't know if it's going to be considered a date."

He heard a long sigh, "Shin, out of the five of you, I thought Ryo or Touma would be the ones with girl troubles. You and Touma proved me wrong."

"If this was ten years ago, you'd scare them off, and then preach to me about how evil other girls are."

"I think you're hiding in the closet."

"What?" Shin screeched then deepened his voice, "I am not. You're getting old and senile."

He heard Ryuusuke in the background before his sister spoke, "True, all you have ever brought over to the house were men and Yayoi. And I'm not old."

"Mom told me to not bring girls over."

"Excuses." She laughed, "Well, you should think about at least coming back to visit."

"What the?" she heard Shin say.

"What?"

"There's something crying in the washroom."

Sayoko soon heard Shin shout, and the sounds of light footsteps were heard running around. She heard the words 'no,' 'step,' and 'wine' being yelled.

"Shin, what's going on?"

Hearing the phone move, Shin soon answered her question, "There's a puppy in my apartment and now I have a stain on the floor. I have no idea where it came from, but I could probably make a couple guesses of who brought it here."

"What kind of puppy?"

"The hairy kind. There's hair all over my suit and washroom." There was a pause, "Je vais tuer Martin."

"Shin, would you like me to let you go?"

"Yes please. Apparently, I have a puppy to settle down. How about I plan on coming in September?"

"Sounds great."

"Okay, until next time. Ow, you can't bite me."

"Bye Shin."

By the time Martin and Gabby showed up, Shin was leaning against a counter with the puppy leaning on him, sleeping. Shin gave them both a nasty look.

"I see you found Claudia." Martin laughed.

"Yeah, I did. She caused quite the mess too." Shin growled.

Gabby rolled her eyes, "You should have asked him first if he wanted a dog."

"Nah," Martin waved her off, "Claudia will keep you busy when you're home. She's a sweet puppy."

"My nice suit has black and white hair all over it, not to mention the new stain I have on the floor."

"It'll come out."

Shin raised an eyebrow at him, "A glass of Merlot is not going to leave a beige carpet, Martin."

"Ohh, you opened the Merlot?" He headed to a cabinet.

Gabby gave Shin a sad smile, "I can take her back to the breeder."

Shin shook his head, "No, after I settled her down, she cuddled up next to me. I just wish she didn't have all this hair."

"Yes, English sheepdogs have lots of hair." She smiled, "How was the meeting?"

Shin mumbled something, before making himself clearer, "I need another glass if I'm going to recall the day."

"Here." Martin said, holding a glass low for him.

"Thanks."

Shin then began telling them what had happened. As he was talking, Martin was going through the folder Michelle gave him. His eyes grew big.

"Shin, you have to take this offer."

"Why?"

Martin held up a picture of the place being offered. It was a cottage on a vineyard. A large lake was also seen in the background.

"Lots of land, a freaking lake; you could own your own winery."

Shin sighed, "I don't want countries thinking they can buy my armor with grapes."

"Wine, Shin, you fool. We could drink it like it was water."

"I see that."

Martin threw his hands up, "Why can't you be a greedy bastard for once, Nigiri?"

"I already told you why, Grenadine."

Gabby shook her head, "You two and calling each other after food."

After the shouting, the puppy woke up. The trio then spent the rest of the night out around the city walking the puppy.

When Friday night came around, Shin noticed that his neighbor was moving out. Wanting to mess with Michelle one last time, Martin grabbed Shin's guitar and begged him to sing for him. When Shin asked why, the other red head replied that Shin spoke better English than he did. Shin later found out why Martin wanted him to sing. Martin began playing a Beatles song, which Shin recognized as the song 'Michelle.' Already dressed nice for his own date, Shin sighed before singing. The warrior of water tried to not laugh towards the end, but couldn't help it when Martin changed songs. Shin rolled his eyes and joined in on Martin's next prank.

"Yo, I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want." Martin's English was heavily accented.

"So tell me what you want, what you really, really want."

"I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want."

"So tell me what you want, what you really, really want."

"I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna really, really, really," they both saw Michelle open the door with her typical annoyed look as Martin was finishing, "wanna say hi."

"One, you didn't sing the correct words, and two," She had her hands on her hips, "Why would you sing a beautiful song and then ruin it with the Spice Girls?"

"Because you're leaving us. How will we get through the day without our favorite stalker?" Martin smiled.

Shin couldn't stop laughing as Michelle slapped Martin. He too then received one.

"What was that for?" Martin yelled.

"For being a fool."

"Why did I get one?" Shin asked innocently.

"Because you're dumb enough to be friends with him. Don't you have a date tonight?"

Shin nodded, "I was just about to change."

He left his friend with the bitter woman. As he walked into his apartment, Gabby was already there and dressed semi-formally.

"I was going to get you in a few minutes." Shin whined.

"I'm the one that kissed you, so I came to pick you up. Are you two still tormenting Michelle?"

"Yes." Shin gave her a fake frown, "It was Martin's idea again."

"And singing the Spice Girls was not helping him?"

"Okay, so we couldn't let her go without a show. She did follow me around for a couple of years."

The puppy at the time was lying on Shin bed watching them. Much to Shin's dislike, she would sleep on his bed when he was at work and again when he was in bed. When he walked in to grab his shoes, she sat up. Claudia was trying to look cute to get his attention.

"You're not eating my nice shoes again, are you?" Shin asked.

She just looked at him.

"Aww, not my Dockers. Why can't you eat my old sneakers?" he said frustrated after looking behind his bedroom door.

She started to move, but stopped when Shin hissed at her, "I'm trying to get out of here without being covered. We'll play later. Behave for Martin will you?"

Again, he just received a look from the dog. Walking out of the bedroom he joined Gabby at the front door. She had a basket in her hands.

"Come, we have a bit of a drive." She said with a devilish smile.

"Okay."

When they left, the sun was just starting to set. Seeing the city itself start to thin out, Shin started to wonder where they were going. Soon they were on a country road near the Seine River. Mentally slapping himself for not leaving the city more often, the smell of the country hit it hard.

"We're near a farm aren't we?"

"Yes, but not for long."

"Okay, where are we going?"

"It's a surprise, Shin. Be patient."

Sighing, Shin turned to the window. Soon the car stopped in an area by the river. There was a small island in the water. Gabby grabbed the basket, and motioned Shin to follow her, only to stop by the shore.

"There was a small bridge here." She said, disappointed.

Looking around, Shin brought Suiko out to put the underarmor on.

"I can get us over. It's not a far jump."

Holding on tightly, Gabby tried to not yell out as they hit the ground on the island. Soon after, Shin took the underarmor off.

"There," Shin grinned, "No one can follow."

"Michelle won't be here, just so you know."

Shin laughed, "That's not what I meant."

Gabby rolled her eyes. Shin was reminding her how childish he could be sometimes when it was just the two of them. Opening the basket, she pulled out several towels wrapped around food she had brought with her from her parents' café.

"So Mr. Armor-man how was your day?" she asked.

"Busy. I think people only come into the café now to ask me questions about the armor. I think your father wanted me to stand outside and wave people in."

"Well, you wanted people to trust that you were not there to kill them."

"I wasn't expecting to get movie offers."

Gabby stopped setting up to look at him, "Movie offers?"

"Yeah, they asked if they could make a movie about me and wanted me to sit and talk about everything. I'm not even the so called leader. If they only knew Ryo better."

"Ryo, your footballer friend?"

"Yes." She started laughing, "What's so funny?"

She stopped herself, "He was so awkward at first. I don't know whose English was worse that day; his or Martin's."

Shin gave her a smile before changing the subject, "I think that I'm going to shave the moustache off."

"Why? You look handsome with it." She sighed, "It makes you look your age too."

"I kinda want to walk around the city without people coming up to me."

"Shin, they'll bother you either way."

"You're not helping."

Handing him his share of the meal, Gabby gave him a look, "What is so wrong about this armor that you would rather hide from people? It sounds like it's a gift."

"It is, but it's a" Shin paused to think of the correct word, "Noroi. Ah, I forget the word."

His put a hand to his forehead, frustrated that he forgot the word.

"It's a pain in the ass sometimes." He finally let out, "It's like opening a history book. You get both the good and the bad stuff and everyone can read it, but no one can understand it because it only affects certain people."

Gabby laughed, "Like a bad omen or curse?"

"Yes, curse. That's the word." Shin relaxed, "I tried to get rid of it once, and something bad happened, but when I did get rid of it, I felt naked and fell into bad habits. It's hard to explain it, but having people come up to me and ask me questions makes it weirder."

The two of them spent the next few hours eating and watching the sun go down. Just before the sky became dark, Shin rolled to his side facing her.

"I've been wanting to ask you again, if you'll come to Japan with me. I was going to go in September."

Gabby frowned, "Shin, I don't know. I've never really been outside of France. I'll stick out like a sore thumb there."

"I know, but I do too." He sighed, "I'd be guiding you like you and Martin guided me around Paris the first few years being here."

"There are earthquakes, and tsunamis there. And demons. I'd be scared of them coming about that time."

"I'd keep you safe." He said, trying to hide his disappointment.

"I don't think so, Shin. I'm sorry."

Shin sighed with defeat, but then gave her a smile "It's okay. You can stay here."

"You're not angry?"

"No."

Changing the subject, Gabby gave him that devilish smile again, "Do you want to go swimming?"

"I didn't bring anything to swim in."

Sighing, Gabby sat up to take her blouse off, "You won't need anything."

"Nothing? Like naked nothing?"

"Yes, naked nothing."

Shin laid there with wide eyes, "Ugh."

"Please tell me you have gone skinny-dipping before."

"Not with members of the opposite gender. My friends and I in Japan would go all the time."

He received a glare. Thinking back to what his sister had said days earlier he swallowed his pride.

"Right, I'll just take the clothes off."

"Shin, you've seen me naked before."

"Not at a river in the countryside."

Shaking her head, she jumped in. After he surfaced, she brought him in for a kiss.

"Now, I will finish what I was doing before we were rudely interrupted by the government."

Shin only nodded and went along with her.