Track 10

The next day, Hikari sat alone in the studio inside Crow's bedroom making the final touches on her song. They were only a couple days into their vacation and already she was close to being finished! If it weren't for Crow's help, she probably would have never made it this far.

The door slowly creaked open and Crow popped his head in. "Uh... I know you're busy, Hikari, but... I just wanted to let you know that some of my childhood friends are coming over for a bonfire... You don't have to come if you don't want to, but you are totally welcome!" His ear twitched nervously as he waited for her response. He wanted her to be there. He really wanted the chance to introduce her to his friends, but didn't want to bother her, either.

The leopard never looked up from her notebook. "Sorry, Hoglet. I'm in the zone right now and can't afford to take a break." She hadn't even noticed the fact that he wanted her to come with him.

His tail drooped behind him in disappointment. "Oh, yeah... I understand. I don't write such amazing lyrics by slacking off, either, so... yeah." He sighed, but then put on a happy face for her. "I guess I will see you tonight, then! You'd better let me see how the song turns out!"

"Of course I will. See you when you get back!" She smiled and finally looked up to him. He was wearing a red and black plaid button up shirt and black jeans. The outfit was so nice on him... As he turned to walk away, she noticed the sad look on his face. Was that because of what she had said? She shook her head. She couldn't get distracted... Not now.

About 45 minutes later, Hikari finally sat her notebook down again and reached for her bottle of chocolate milk, only to find out that it was empty. "Aww man..." She looked over to the little Crow plush that was sitting on the top of the piano. She found she worked better with it sitting there. "Why didn't you warn me that I drank it all?" It sat silently in front of her and she remembered that it was only a toy. She hung her head and sighed. At least the song was finally finished. Maybe she could get another milk and relax in the tub or something!

She jumped up and grabbed the empty bottle, but something outside of the window caught her eye. It was finally dark outside and a group of Myumons sat around a fire. From what she could see there was a deer, a beaver, a bear, a porcupine, and an owl. She also saw Crow sitting hunched over in his seat. Why did he look like he was so sad? Everyone else down there seemed to be having fun together.

She did feel just a little bit guilty for turning him down. Maybe she should make an appearance down there and meet his friends. She might be able to figure out what was bothering him so much.

She ran up to the room that she was currently staying in and unzipped her suitcase. Would it be too much if she dressed up a little? Who knew what these friends were like, and something told her she wanted to make a good impression on them and not embarrass Crow.

She found the one dress she packed, which came just a little above her knees. It was black with grey leopard spots and buttoned the whole way down. She put on her short black boots and inspected herself in the mirror. The outfit was cute! Her naturally wavy hair hung down her back and over her shoulders. She looked around until she found a long black ribbon, which she used to put her hair up into a ponytail, tied in a nice little bow.

She peaked out the window again, seeing the little porcupine girl was now holding one of Crow's hands in both of hers. Hikari felt her stomach drop and her face turn red. Did he have a girlfriend here? How did she not know?

She hurried down the stairs and was just about to walk out the door when she passed by Crow's mother, who was setting up a tray of milk and everything they would need to make s'mores. "Do you need some help?" Hikari asked, stopping to take the tray out of her hands.

"Thank you very much, dear. Now why aren't you out there already? Crow was so excited to bring everyone over to meet you." His mother smiled sweetly, not realizing how that one comment would make her feel. Did he really organize this to introduce her to his friends? "You look so nice this evening! I'm so happy our little Hoglet has met such a pretty little lady in the city. You two are just so adorable together!"

Hikari blushed and averted her eyes. "U-Uh, thank you, but we aren't dating or anything, ma'am. He's just a really good friend." She cleared her throat and changed the subject. "I can take the snacks out to everyone. I was just on my way out there."

His mother watched as she walked out the door, chuckling to herself. She saw the way those two looked at each other. Even if they didn't realize it, it was clear to her that they both had some sort of feelings for each other.

Outside, Crow sat with his chin resting on one hand, while his friend, Finn, held his other hand. "Oh come on, now, Crow. Don't look so down. City girls live such busy lives. It only makes sense that she wouldn't have the time to come out 'n meet us." The porcupine scooted closer to him, admiring him. She wasn't all that mad that Hikari wasn't coming out.

Bear, the larger bear Myumon that sat across from him crossed his arms and laughed. "How do we even know this girl is real? Crow could be making this all up. Since when have we known our boy to be such a ladies man?"

Crow stood up, pulling his hand away from Finn, and clenched his fist. "She is real, and it's nothing like that! We just work together! She's here to have some time to herself to work on her music. I left her alone so she could finish working."

Elle, the little deer, giggled to herself. "Gosh, Crow. You seem more fired up than usual. And your face is all red and such. I'd say our little hedgie definitely likes this city girl." Finn crossed her arms, feeling just a little jealous. Her friends all knew how she felt about him, so why would they keep pressing the subject of the city girl. He said it was nothing, so that had to be true right?

The next to speak was the owl Myumon named Huck. "I-I dunno, you guys. Maybe she's just really scary. Girls can be really intimidating, ya know..." The anxious little owl blinked and looked around, hoping the city girl wasn't around to hear that, while his friends Finn and Elle gave him a look. They weren't that intimidating.

Finally, Tom, the beaver Myumon and Crow's closest friend in the group stood up. "Hey, ya'll need to give Crow a break. If he says there isn't anything going on with this girl, then we gotta believe 'em." He pat his friend on the back before sitting back down. "So you say she's in a band like you?"

Crow relaxed a little and sat down as well, giving Tom a smile. "Yeah... It's funny. Her band got their start by playing our songs because they were just big fans. Now they are signed to our record label. The girls don't have any music of their own, so that's what Hikari is working on now. She writes the music for their group and even though she gets embarrassed to show anyone, she's really good."

Hikari walked closer to the fire, seeing that Crow's back was to her. This could be perfect! Maybe she could surprise him. Once she was finally in sight, the three boys in Crow's group of friends all stared in shock. Not only was this girl real, but she was really pretty, too! "W-Why hello there, Miss..." Tom said, trying to be polite.

"No way!" Bear said, next. "She really is real! And she's way cuter than ya told us, Crow!" To this, Hikari tilted her head in confusion. Did they think Crow made her up or something? The last part of the bear's statement made her blush. So far so good, then. They seemed to like her.

"C-Crow... you never told us she was a leopard..." Huck said, shaking nervously. "Dang, city girls really are scary!"

Crow chuckled. "Nah, Hikari's cool. She's only scary when she wants to be," he teased before turning around. Once he did, his eyes widened. She wasn't wearing the same dress she normally had on. Instead, she had on a black dress that fit her just right, and her hair was pulled back and away from her face, which in the light of the fire, he could tell had a little more makeup than usual. She looked so... beautiful. The little hoglet was at a complete loss for words.

Finn stood up in front of all of the boys. How dare they look at her like that... "Hey, ya'll need to calm down! Ya act like you ain't never seen a girl before!"

Seeing the way Crow was looking at her, along with all the stares and comments from his friends, Hikari's face turned bright red. "Umm... Sorry to keep everyone waiting. I did bring snacks, though!" She held the tray up with an embarrassed smile on her face. The girl that was yelling was the one who was holding his hand earlier, wasn't it?

Crow cleared his throat and stood up to help her with the tray then grabbed her by the arm, leading her to sit on the log that he was sharing with Finn until she got up. He motioned for her to sit right in her seat. He sat next to her just as Finn turned around. The girl's jaw dropped when she saw that she was sitting in her seat, next to her friend Crow... Before she could say anything, Elle pulled her down to sit on the log she was sitting on by herself, not wanting her to ruin whatever might have been going on with Crow and the city girl. She knew how jealous Finn could get when it came to Crow. Everyone in the group knew. But they also knew that he didn't share the same feelings for her.

Elle looked to Hikari with a soft smile. "My name is Elle. My family owns the farm across the road. Crow and I grew up together since our families are pretty close and have worked together for years."

Finn crossed her arms. "Hmph... I'm Finn... I've known Crow since we were kids. We took all our music classes together. My parents own the only music shop in town." She looked over to Hikari with a bit of a glare. Hikari's ear twitched in response. Why did this girl not seem very happy that she was around?

Before Finn could continue, Elle pulled her away. "Boys, aren't you going to introduce yourselves, too?"

"My name's Bear, my family owns the grocery store in town. Both Crow and Elle's families supply to us, so I met them that way." He raised his thumb to point to himself as he told Hikari who he was.

"U-Uh... I'm Huck. I... umm... My family doesn't do anything too special. But I tutored Crow in school and sometimes his friends would come. S-So now they are my friends too, I guess," the little owl said in a quiet voice.

Tom stood and sat on the other end of the log next to Hikari and threw an arm around her, just to mess with Crow. "An' my name's Tom. Crow and me have been friends almost our whole lives. Back when we were kids, I saved this guy from drownin' in the river by my house. He thought he was so cool and was dancing around on a big rock, pretending like he was playing a guitar for Bear and Elle and fell off. The dummy didn't even know how to swim. And if we are talking about family, my father is the mayor in town."

Hikari chuckled and elbowed Crow, somehow completely unsurprised by the story. He was such a show off. "Well... I'm not sure what he has said about me, but I'm Hikari. I live in Midi City just like Crow, and I'm in a band that is under the same label as him."

"Yeah, cool... And what does your family do?" Finn asked, sounding just a tad bit spiteful.

Crow waved his hands in front of him, trying to stop her from going there. He didn't even think about warning them about bringing that up. Hikari finally broke away from Tom, who still had his arm around her and pushed Crow's hands down. "It's okay, Crow. Since everyone was kind enough to tell me about their families, I don't mind sharing." She turned to look at the porcupine girl, a serious look on her face. "If you are talking about the people I actually consider family, I'm sure you've heard quite a bit about them from Crow, here." The little hedgehog looked over to her with a surprised look on his face. What did she mean? "In the few short months that I have been in the city, my best friend Kamiko and I have grown very close to Crow and the rest of Shingancrimsonz. If anyone is like family to me, it's her and those boys. My real family, however, is out somewhere chasing their dreams. Unfortunately, I wasn't a part of that dream, so they left me behind as a baby and Kamiko's parents adopted me."

Everyone in Crow's little group of friends stared at the leopard in shock. They hadn't expected such a story from her. After hearing what Hikari said, Elle took Finn's hand and stood, pulling her up with her. "Excuse us for just a moment, please."

The two girls walked away from the group and Elle put her hands on both of Finn's shoulders. "Alright, darlin'. I know you still have feelin's for that boy, but we all know it ain't happenin'."

Finn rolled her eyes, but sighed. "...I know. He really has changed, hasn't he?" She turned to face the group, where it looked like Crow was telling Hikari some story about the group when they were younger. He seemed much happier than she had ever seen him before. It was really nice...

Elle looked to her friend with a sad smile. "Maybe he has, but he's still the same farmer boy hedgie we all know 'n love. It's just that now he's a rockstar. There are new people in his life 'n we need to respect that."

"Do you think there's something special about this girl? It's been years since I've seen him in such a good mood. The last time was when he came home to tell all of us that he got that big record deal." Even though Finn felt like she should be disappointed, she wanted to be happy for him.

Elle shrugged. "It's hard to say..." She turned to her and smiled, glad she was starting to see what the rest of the group was seeing. "But there's only one way to find out! Let's get back over there and start over."

Finn smiled back and gave her a nod. "...Okay. Let's go."

The two girls walked back to the bonfire. Finn picked up the tray of snacks handing everyone sticks to roast their marshmallows with. She listened to Crow's story about the first time he performed at their town fair. She chuckled as she made it to Hikari and kindly handed her the last stick.

"Our boy here was so small that he could barely hold up the guitar he was going to try 'n play. He had one that was more his size... but he refused to play it. Instead, he wanted to play his lucky guitar, which happ'ned to be given to him by Grateful King himself!" she told her, trying to finally be friendly. Hikari chuckled. The story didn't surprise her. Crow was obsessed with Grateful King.

Elle spoke up next. "Crow grew pretty popular at that talent show. Everyone thought he was just the cutest thing. He was this tiny little hedgie with a big ol' guitar."

Crow's face was getting red. His awesome story about how he won his first talent show at such a young age turned into an embarrassing one... "Okay, okay... We all know I was cute, sure. But it was the way I played that guitar that made that whole crowd become my cattle!" he said confidently.

Tom laughed and smacked Crow on the back. "More of that cattle talk, huh? This boy used to get so nervous before a show. Since he used to practice in front of his cows all the time, so I told him to pretend the crowd was them cattle."

Hikari smiled and elbowed him gently. "I always wondered where that came from. That's what he calls his fans now, too."

Everyone laughed and Hikari looked over to Crow, still smiling, but noticed he seemed a little embarrassed. Gently, she placed her hand on top of his, which caused him to jolt out of shock. He felt himself blush, which only embarrassed him more... but he was okay with her actions.

"You know... If it wasn't for Crow, there's no way I'd be where I am today. His music... helped my best friend and I get noticed, since we started covering it. And even now he's helped me write music. He's been really great," Hikari told the group. Hearing her say such nice things about him surprised the hedgehog. Her compliments were much nicer than if she were just a random fan saying such things.

Elle smiled, seeing the way the two seemed to think so much of each other. They had already heard the things Crow had to say about Hikari, but now hearing her stories, she could just tell they were pretty close.

Tom elbowed Hikari gently. "So why haven't you played anything for us yet?"

Her eyes widened and she rubbed her arm out of embarrassment. "Uhh... I mean... I play drums, so it would be a little hard to get a whole set out here, don't you think...?"

Crow nodded, but picked up the acoustic guitar that he brought out to each of their bonfires. "She's right... but don't worry, I didn't forget to bring entertainment!" He said with a wink. "You guys will just have to wait and see when Hikari is a big star!"

A star...? Her? She could only hope...

Crow started to play their new song that Hikari had helped him with just a few weeks before their trip. The title of the song was 'Last Flower.' She watched him carefully, listening as he improvised an acoustic version of the song. She then decided to pat a beat on her legs with her hands. She might not have her drums, but that didn't mean she couldn't play along.

Without warning, she decided to even sing along with him, making the song a bit of a duet. This caught Crow a little off guard. When Hikari noticed him slip up, she glanced to him out of the corner of her eye with a bit of a smirk on her face and kept singing.

When they were finished, all of Crow's friends cheered and couldn't stop talking about how great the two sounded together, but all the hedgehog could think about was just how wonderful her singing was... In the middle of his friends chatting back and forth about the 'performance' they just gave, he pulled her to the side and whispered to her, a huge smile on his face.

"You have an amazing singing voice, Hikari. How come we haven't heard you sing before?" Crow asked her.

"Singing has always been Kamiko's dream. I couldn't take that away from her," she told him, staring down at the ground. In a way, she felt embarrassed, but the reaction she got made her feel pretty good about herself, especially when she saw the look on Crow's face the moment she began.

"Well I think you should try it sometime. The cattle could really love you!" He smiled brightly at her, doing his very best to encourage her. How could she keep yet another talent hidden?

"It's not that great, Hoglet. Don't get too excited." She flashed him a smirk, trying to hide the fact that his compliments were making her blush.

He took her hands in his own and gave them a reassuring squeeze. "Not that great...? Whatever you say... You'll see how wrong you are one day-"

Suddenly, they were interrupted by Tom. "Hey you two, lovebirds! We're all still here, y'know!"

They quickly backed away from each other, their faces a crimson color. Hikari let out an embarrassed laugh.

Huck piped up, taking the attention off of the two. "U-Uh... I hate to interrupt, but I need to be getting back home."

Elle nodded. "He's right... It is startin' to get a little late... But it was great meetin' you!"

Bear stood up and gave Hikari a big... well bear hug. "We had fun, fer sure. You'd better come back to see us again, okay, Hickory?" he said, completely mispronouncing her name.

She chuckled, feeling happy that she was so accepted by his friends. "I'd love to visit again!"

Tom nudged Hikari as soon as Bear let her go. "Just try not to be too rough on our boy, if you know what I-"

Before he could finish what he was about to say, Finn pulled him away from Hikari. "Ugh... ignore him. But seriously, thanks for comin' down to meet us. I know it meant a lot to Crow," she whispered to her. "You're pretty cool, Hikari, and he definitely likes you a lot, so just keep that in mind."

Hikari blushed and looked over to Crow, who was talking with his friends before they had to leave. "I will... Thank you." She gave Finn a smile as she walked away to thank Crow for inviting them over.