Starlight (Kojiro Nanjo)

Chapter Twelve: Vacation

"Vacay all day." Joe replied with a wink, pulling the two women wrapped around his arms, impossibly closer to his body.

"Going to hot springs." Another voice called out, causing Hoshiko to peer over Joe's shoulder and finally take notice to the crowd of people in front of him.

Truly why wouldn't Langa, Reki, Miya and Shadow all be here right now?

"Yeah, same." Miya nodded, agreeing with Langa's previous statement.

"I'm.." Shadow sighed, looking less like himself than ever with his hair parted in the middle while wearing a white and pink t-shirt. "Babysitting."

"Well, looks like we're almost all here." Reki spoke up with a weak chuckle. "Now all we need is Ms. Saito and we've got the complete set.."

"She's here too, you idiot." Cherry replied, pinching the bridge of his nose while he exhaled in disappointment.

"H-Hoshiko's here?" Joe stammered out, taken completely off guard at the news. The two stranger's that were held in his arm's looked up to him, quite frankly, confused. "You mean, right now?"

"No, she's here, but later." Cherry rolled his eyes, sarcasm dripping in his tone. "Of course I mean she's here right now, you baboon!"

Cherry's finger pointed to his right, aiming directly to the women in question as she stare the group with her mouth slightly agape. Unsure exactly what the ring thing to say was, especially as her eye's met with Joe's and they instinctively snapped between him and the two girl's he was hanging onto. She tried to look away, pretend it didn't bother her as much as it did, she pressed a smile to her face and the gave the group a subtle wave.

"We should really stop meeting like this." The words were genuine. It was beginning to become absurd how often she ran into these various individuals.

"No, she's right." Cherry huffed, irritated. "We definitely should."

Exiting the ferry was a relatively easy task. The hard part was watching Joe wear a cheerful smile as he waved goodbye to the girl's from earlier. One planting a kiss to his cheek before she rushed off. Hoshiko shouldn't have been surprised to see something like this happen. Shokichi tried to be a good friend and warn her before it ever had the chance to happen, and yet she still fed into it. Maybe she deserved this. The disappointment that welled in her chest as she tugged her overnight bag over her shoulder. That was right; she was supposed to be on a vacation. A weekend get away with a good friend. A time to relax.

She decided, that's exactly what she was going to do.

"Think we should head to the inn first and drop everything off." Shadow began to announce today's itinerary to the boy's as they crowded around a pile of their bags. Hoshiko wasn't sure they knew what packing light meant, or if they were really staying for longer than just a weekend. "Then we can go get some grub, and-"

"Wahoo!" Reki shouted, sailing ahead of the group on his skate. Holding a bandage arm to the sky - he at least didn't have to deal with the sling anymore, which meant he was probably approaching the end stages of his healing process.

"Moron!" Shadow shouted out to the boy as he grew further and further away. "Aren't you here to nurse your injuries?"

"There's no point in using logic with idiots." Miya shrugged, hopping onto his own board and riding straight past Shadow without a second thought.

"If you're hanging with morons," Joe began, skating past Shadow with a chuckle. "well what does that make you?"

"Alpha Moron, maybe?" Cherry prompted, Carla beneath his feet as he race ahead as well.