Anyway, comments are warmly welcomed, aren’t they, Koganei? (Yeah. – Koganei not looking up from the Rubix cube) There… as usual, the same disclaimers apply here…

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Fuuko stared around her drearily. There was laughter everywhere, children (Koganei and Ganko included… sigh…) running a mock in the park. Recca and Yanagi were seated somewhere else where Yanagi could draw her cartoons in peace. Domon was somewhere else arranging flowerbeds and Kagero and Mikagami were somewhere in the large city, Los Angeles. It was the summer vacation and the Hokage decided to go LA and just relax after a long period of fighting and studying.

She propped her sunglasses on her forehead and walked towards a water cooler. Slowly, she bent over and took a long drag when another head popped in and drank at the same time. Startled, Fuuko stood up immediately. The newcomer stood up and smiled at her.

Fuuko raised an eyebrow and ignored him, walking back to the bench she was at earlier on. The American teenage boy followed her and sat down next to her. She pushed her mirror sunglasses down again and looked around her, pausing to look at the boy next to her. He was obviously enjoying himself by annoying the hell out of her. There was a small smile on his face as his hands remained crossed. But he was…

“LA’s a bore in the park when you are tourist,” the boy suddenly said in fluent Japanese with a slight American slang. Fuuko stared at him and he smiled at her again, extending a hand. His sunglasses fell slightly, exposing a pair of hazel peepers shining with intensity. “My name’s Jonathan Stewart but you can call me Tetsuya. You are?”

“Fuuko. Fuuko Kirisawa,” Fuuko said, accepting his hand. What am I doing? He is a total stranger, Kirisawa! But good-looking too… Fuuko thought to herself. She snapped out of her train of thoughts and turned to where Koganei and Ganko were playing. Still, she couldn’t forget the way Tetsuya smiled. He was incredibly good-looking. Tetsuya was tall, tanned and had hazel eyes hidden by a pair of dark sunglasses. Not to mention a great body hidden under his basketball jersey and a crop of neat short black hair. (Think Tetsuya from Fushigi Yuugi.)

“You shouldn’t be sitting here on a wonderful day in LA,” Tetsuya said suddenly.

“Then what are you doing here?”

“Looking after my cousins who are visiting,” Tetsuya said and pointed to two young kids playing on the seesaw. They laughed and waved at Tetsuya who waved back and grinned. He turned towards Fuuko. “What are you doing here?”

“Looking after my friends… for an American, you speak really fluent Japanese.”

“You flatter me. It’s nothing. My dad is doing business in Japan right now so I go there pretty often. Then he decided that it would be good if I studied Japanese… Been learning that language since I was seven… so it would be about eleven years of Japanese for me. My taking of three languages amuses even my friends in school… English, French and Japanese,” Tetsuya said. He shook his head and grinned.

“Since seven? I didn’t even learn English for that long… I think I started when I was eight… Basically, I have had English knowledge for nine years but this is first place I actually used it,” Fuuko mused. There was a silence between the eighteen-year-old boy and seventeen-year-old girl until Tetsuya turned to her.

“How long have you been in LA and how long more do you have here?”

“I just arrived yesterday… have about two weeks left in this vacation in LA.”

“If you don’t mind and have no other plans, I would love to bring you around LA to see the sights.”

“Like?” Fuuko grew cautious. Tetsuya shrugged easily. “I don’t know. Places like the Universal Studios, Magic Mountain, Disneyland… and I could bring you to the factory outlets at the fringe of LA for really good shopping too…” Why is he so nice? Fuuko thought to herself again. In the end, she decided to go with him. Besides, she could protect herself.
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It wasn’t easily getting out as she thought. Ganko had a long face that made Fuuko guilty and Domon… well he didn’t want her to go with a stranger. “Technically speaking, he’s not a stranger to me anymore,” Fuuko said and received a glare from Mikagami. She glared back at him and didn’t say more. Mikagami was clearly annoyed by the way Fuuko managed to slip out of going out with the rest of Hokage.

After breakfast, Fuuko met Tetsuya and they headed out. Before she knew it, the same procedure carried on for a whole week and everyone in the team was getting annoyed with Fuuko’s disappearance each time they planned something. It was always about Tetsuya until one night when Yanagi confronted her friend after dinner.

“Fuuko, don’t you like us anymore?” Yanagi asked when the two friends were alone by the swimming pool that one night. Fuuko turned her head to look at Yanagi.

“Of course not! How could I bring myself to dislike people I love?”

“Then why is it always about Tetsuya now? It used to be about people you beat up but now it’s about you going out with your new friend.”

“I don’t talk about it, Yanagi…”

“I meant that you are always with him. It used to be that if you don’t show up, you were beating people up. But now you are not with us because you are with him. Do you… love him?” Yanagi couldn’t help blushing. Fuuko’s eyes widened and she burst into laughter suddenly. Yanagi pouted a little and tried to drown Fuuko. Fuuko broke free and after a while, stopped laughing long enough to continue their conversation.

“Why did you blush? I don’t love Tetsuya! He’s just a really nice friend who makes a terrific tour guide. Of course, the fact that he is good-looking is a good factor for me wanting to go out with him but we are just friends… Hey, I have an idea! He’s bringing me to the Universal Studios tomorrow. Maybe you guys would want to come along?? That way, you realize what good company he is and what a nice guy he really is, not the bad guy Domon pictured him to be.”

“Hmm… I guess so… how did you know about Domon’s…?”

“I sleep in the same room as Ganko. Do you think I’ll get away with going out with Tetsuya that easily?” Fuuko asked Yanagi with a knowing look. The two best friends burst into giggles and started splashing around in the pool.