It was a bright, sunny, mid-summer day. The campus had been mostly deserted, with most of the students off to better places (for the most part) for the summer. But Kaze was taking summer classes, for lack of anything better to do since he had decided to stay in America rather than going back home. It was mostly because Rei was there, but also partially because Moriko refused to go home, no matter how much their parents begged her. And Kaze was not about to leave her on her own, with her limited English and only three people in the area who spoke Japanese (as far as either of them knew).

It would have been the perfect day to skip classes, except that every time he thought about it, Kaze remembered that he had given the "you need to go to classes all the time, not just when you feel like it" speech to Moriko more than once. And if she ever found out that he was skipping classes on nice days, she would probably stop going to school completely in favor of spending time outside where it was quite a bit less boring than it was at school. Of course, the weather made campus even more deserted than it would have been.

Compared to campus, the street that his apartment was on was practically crowded, what with the small band of children trying to play some strange variation of roller hockey in the middle of the road, moving themselves and their makeshift nets every time a car tried to go down the street. And the five different people walking their dogs who he saw during the two block stretch between when he turned onto the street and his apartment building. Still, fairly peaceful, except when one of the "teams" of children scored a goal and they all started yelling.

He was almost to the main door of the apartment building when he heard something rustling in the bushes next to him. A moment later, just enough time for him to turn his head in the direction of the noises, and he was being yanked into the bushes, which, now that he thought about it a little more, was more of a hedge than anything else. Surprisingly enough, it was fairly roomy inside, the leaves covering the outside, but not really reaching inside to the skeleton of branches that held the entire construct up.

"What the...?" he managed to get out before a hand clamped itself over his mouth.

"Shhhhh!" came the softly hissed reply from the owner of the hand, who turned out to be Rei. A very wary, almost panicked, Rei, but still Rei. What he was doing in the hedge...Kaze wasn't quite sure. Except that the first thing that came to mind was not something that Kaze was willing to follow through on, not in the middle of the day in a semi-public place. Besides, that wasn't the kind of stuff that Rei was into...even if he was the one pulling Kaze into the hedge in the first place.

"What are you doing in a hedge?" Kaze asked, lowering his voice to an almost whisper, which caused Rei to sigh in relief.

"Hiding. From Moriko. She's been following me around all day long."

"And you chose the bushes to hide in?" Kaze asked.

"Well she knows where I live. I was going to try and sneak into the apartment while she wasn't looking, but she caught up to me before I could get inside. I think she's up at there right now, waiting for you to get home. Not that I'm about to go check."

"So what do you expect me to do about it?"

"Nothing," Rei replied, grinning. "I was thinking more along the lines of us getting out of her before she comes out. How about it?"

"You think I would abandon my sister when she's apparently waiting for me?"

"Knowing you and knowing your sister, yes."

Rei stared at Kaze for a few moments, during which time Kaze found it extremely difficult to keep from laughing. He was trying to act like he seriously meant what he had just said, but it was turning out to be more difficult than he expected. Finally, he sighed and spread his hands in defeat.

"Okay, you win. Where did you want to go?"

Rei just grinned again, and then started to drag Kaze out of the hedge. And, before Kaze knew it, he was being led back down the street he had just walked down, to somewhere that Rei apparently wasn't about to share just yet.