FicWad

The door closed behind her date- her first date- as he stepped into the living room, glancing at her gun-cleaning family with barely suppressed...embarrassment, maybe? Cailin wasn't too sure.

Princess, that's called fear, her Uncle Shu told her helpfully and she smiled at him before wondering what Kenji could possibly be afraid of. Granted, Cailin had seen plenty of people afraid of her Uncles and Da but that was only when they had their weapons actually pointed at them.

Suspicious, she glanced over at her family. And breathed a small sigh of relief. They were just cleaning them. Well, perhaps Kenji was just nervous- it was sweet, when she thought about it.

"Hi, Ken-chan," she said, tugging slightly on a piece of her long hair and toeing the floor with her right foot. "You look nice." And he did, with his fitted black pants and charcoal colored shirt.

He smiled back, head tipped to the side so black hair fell over one eye. "Thanks. You look..."

A loud cough came from the vicinity of the couch.

"...nice," Kenji finished lamely, eyes darting around the room in something like panic. Which Cailin ignored after years of people near her looking that way. "Should we go?"

"Okay!" Grabbing her coffin-shaped bag, a gift from Kirito, she turned and gave the rest of Schwarzhaus a wave. "I'll be home early. Don't worry!" Then she grabbed Kenji's hand and tugged him towards door, clicking it shut as they left.

There were six other click noises that echoed from inside the apartment, but she ignored that as well.

"You're family is kind of...stiff," her date stated.

Somewhere in her mind, Uncle Schu snorted loudly and snickered.

She shrugged, swinging their joined hands back and forth. "They just love their work."

*

"-and then my Uncle Schu sang in the shower, and the kitty left!" Cailin finished her tale with a flourish. Kenji ducked the heavy black bag that sent sailing towards his face and was, for once, thankful for P.E. class. "It was sad, but funny."

"Sad?" he asked

"I miss the kitty," she sniffed.

"Oh. I'm...sorry?" He awkwardly patted her on the shoulder, fingers brushing against stray locks of hair, and mentally told himself to be a man. In retaliation to the accusation that he wasn't being a man, he grabbed her hand. And held on.

And was rewarded with a bright smile. "It's okay. Will you buy me an ice cream?"

"Of course. What flavor?"

"Green tea."

"Really? That's my favorite."

"I like anchovies on mine," Cailin exclaimed, looking as if she were waiting for Kenji to yell "No way?! Me too!" with as much excitement.

"My mom used to like that too. When she was pregnant."

"Wow," she breathed, eyes wide. Then giggled. "Let's go get some!" Tugging on his hand again, she lead the way to a small ice-cream shop. After paying, Kenji turned to hand one of the cones to the gold-eyed girl and paused.

"What's wrong?" Cailin asked, twisting around to see what he was staring at.

"I..uh...saw red. Hair, I mean." He glanced around nervously, warily taking a step away from Cailin.

"Oh, I bet they're trying to copy a singer. Lots of people do that, but our school doesn't allow it, huh?" she sighed and grabbed her ice-cream. "Not that Da or Uncle Brad would let me dye my hair. Not after Kirito bleached his."

"Bleached? I don't remember that." Speaking of which, the redhead had appeared again, apparently trying to keep someone with bleached white hair down on the ground.

"Oh, yeah. It was during the whole kitty thing." She licked the ice-cream cone delicately.

Kenji gulped and leaned forward a bit.

The white-haired man in the distance seemed to be struggling more against the redhead.

"Wanna go karaoke?" he asked suddenly.

Cailin nodded and sat on the edge of a wall. "Sure. After we finish our ice-cream. It's so good."

Kenji tried very hard not to watch her finish it.

*

Farfarello watched the pair on stage with a sharp eye.

They were sitting in a table far to the back of the karaoke bar, far away enough to see without immediately being noticed. Schuldig was had one elbow on their table, chin resting in his hand and bobbing his head along with the music. His telltale hair was covered with an old bandana, which Farfarello had looked at pointedly and the telepath had ignored.

The song was halfway over.

The pair looked like they were having a good time, singing and glancing at each other fondly.

"This isna' good," the Irishman muttered.

"Oh, I don't know. I think they're doing a pretty good job. I mean, the song isn't really made for two people to sing and neither of them is nowhere close to Hyde but still-"

"I mean," Farfarello interrupted, "tha' they're havin a good time."

"Well, Far, that's the point."

"I don' like it."

The music stopped, replaced with giggling and a low round of amused applauding. Cailin and that boy- Kenji, Schu has told him earlier- sat for a moment to finish whatever drink they had each gotten earlier.

It had better not be alcohol, was all the Irishman could say about /that/.

"Let go, Far, let go. You'll need to eventually," the German told him with the air of a philosopher.

Farfarello growled. "Unlike you an' Crawford, I intend ta keep it at 'eventually' fer a while."

"Touché." Schuldig smirked and leaned back in his chair. "They just left, by the way."

"We'll wait a while an' follow."

But then, Schuldig was eyeing the karaoke stage speculatively and while the telepath's singing might hurt God, it hurt Farfarello a hell of a lot more...

*

"That was so much fun!" Cailin laughed and spun a circle once.

Kenji grinned, hands stuffed into his pocket. "I bet L'arc~en~ciel would have been envious."

"Well, I don't know about /that/." Cailin tipped her head back, trying to see stars as she always did and failing again. There just weren't any in Tokyo, she supposed. "It's pretty though," she murmured.

Kenji raised his eyebrows and looked up. "Yeah," he agreed. "Too bad there aren't any stars."

Cailin smiled again, the same bright smile as before.

She leaned into him suddenly, and she smelled like sandalwood and pepper and something almost coppery. He wrapped an arm around her lace-covered shoulder as they walked, allowed himself to breathe in, once.

Coins, he decided. Or something like it. How odd.

But not unpleasant.