After school she pulled her guitar case out of her locker, and her stage clothes from Risa's, since the lockers were too small to keep it all in her own. Then she headed for Ryuske's place, where they were to meet up. She dressed in his bathroom. And when she came out, asked if he had anything she could eat.

Ryuske gave her a long look and said, "Sure." He found her a candy bar, a piece of cheese and some crackers.

Rin and Hatsuharu showed up shortly after. They all helped load Hatsuharu's drums and Ryuske's keyboard, they carried the smaller instruments in their arms, as they climbed into Hatsuharu's mini-van.

At Blue Moon, Yukito's bar, the bouncer Alex was on duty. Hikaru stopped to talk to him a little.

He told her, "Things are tight, but I resigned from the other door job," he shrugged and added, "apparently the police got enough corroboration from other employees of the owner's son bringing kids in through the back that I wasn't brought up on charges or fined for letting minors into the bar."

Hikaru told him, "I'm glad, I'm relieved that they've never contacted me about my part in the incident either, and my performing license seems safe. Does it have to be bouncer work?"

Alex said, "No, but my ugly face and my size put people off."

Hikaru bit her lip thoughtfully. "Give me your contact info, I'll pass it on to a guy I used to work for," she offered.

He did, then she went around to the back entrance and joined her band onstage.

Before they began, Ryuske surprised her by stepping up to her and placing a hand on either side of her face. Hikaru stared at him, so close she could see the texture of his eyeliner.

She'd only ever seen him without his eyeliner once, and when she'd asked, he'd told her he always wore it because someone he loved had told him he was beautiful in it. Hikaru thought he was beautiful either way, though the makeup certainly created emphasis.

Ryuske said, "I don't know what's going on with you today, but for the next three hours, it doesn't exist. Focus on the music Hikaru."

Hikaru opened her mouth to deny being distracted, but thought the better of it and simply nodded.

Ryuske released her and went to check the equipment connections.

They played the three hour warm up and then turned the stage over to a touring band, 'The Corbins'.

Hikaru pulled out her phone to ask where she should be heading, and found there were already messages from both her uncle and Kiri waiting. She said goodnight to her band, and took the bus downtown.

--

When she entered her uncle's restaurant she was directed to the banquet room. Upon entering she caught sight of her brother and ran up to him. He caught her up in a hug, and she asked, muffled, "What are you doing here?!"

He squeezed her tightly and said, "Mom called me in a tearful panic and said something about you having a boyfriend who'd been arrested for assaulting you and that you're moving out, so I skipped the rest of my classes and hopped on the first train. Are you OK?"

Hikaru said, "Kiri never assaulted me, that's Izumi-san's stupid story."

Yuki looked his little sister over and said, "I didn't even know you were dating anyone, last thing I heard was you'd just gotten your own phone finally.

Hikaru blushed. "Sorry," she apologized, "I just didn't think about telling you, I wasn't hiding it."

Her mother and Izumi arrived next, Miri still seemed to be angry with her husband. But rather than acting repentant, Izumi seemed defiant. Kaoru joined them shortly after.

Kiri was the last to arrive. He was freshly bathed and dressed in clean clothes, but looked tired. He also carried a thick packet that he handed to Hikaru. "The lawyer sent this for you?" he asked curiously. "I didn't look at it," he added. He didn't add that the lawyer had mentioned she might charge him for it if it wasn't approved by her supervisor.

Everyone else had already seated themselves at one of the large tables in the banquet room, but Hikaru held the packet and hesitated, looking at Kiri. "Can I talk to you about this first before we talk to everyone else?" she asked.

He nodded curiously.

Hikaru told everyone they'd be right back, and pulled him out of the room and into the back of the restaurant to the employee break room. There she pushed him to sit on the couch and knelt in front of him hugging the packet.

"What is it?" Kiri asked.

Hikaru said uncertainly, "I know I told you that you couldn't even ask me to marry you until we've dated for over six months."

Kiri nodded, acknowledging it.

"So maybe I don't have the right to suggest we do this," she continued uncertainly.

Kiri reached out and pulled her up onto the couch with him. He touched her ear at the piercing and said, "Since we're talking about it, I do want to marry you Hikaru. What is it that you've arranged? You can suggest anything you want."

Hikaru looked down at the packet and said, "This should contain a prenuptial arrangement that would allow us to, um, have sex, I think. But protect you from being arrested even if Izumi is acting like a creep."

Kiri stared at her. Then he held his hand out for the packet, Hikaru gave it to him, and he opened it and looked at the contents.

"There are three different arrangements here," he told her after a moment. "One where you live with me, one where I live with your family, and one the lawyer has noted as being less protection, where we continue our current residences."

Hikaru shook her head and said, "Even if I don't live with you, I'm still moving out."

Kiri grinned at her and said with amusement, "I'd prefer you live with me." He put the other two back in the envelope.

Hikaru told him nervously, "I have a condition."

Kiri pulled her close and asked quietly, "What?"

"If I live with you, I don't want to do it like I'm a kid you're taking care of, I want us to live like, um, like lovers," she explained while looking into his eyes, which were framed by long dark lashes and regarding her steadily.

"I think I understand what you are asking for, for us to be partners," he said after a moment, "and I'll try, but I have a condition too."

Hikaru looked at him questioningly.

"I cover all the living expenses, and if needed, your tuition, until you're done with school. And I don't mean just until you're done with high school, but until you are entirely done with school."

Hikaru stared, and then protested, "But I don't want you to have to take care of me like that. If you're paying for everything, how are we partners?"

Kiri hugged her and asked, "Hikaru, if our positions were reversed, and you were older, with a good job, and I was still studying, would you insist on supporting me?"

Hikaru nodded reluctantly.

Kiri kissed her and said, "It's not because of your age. If you were 30 and going back to school, I'd insist on the same thing."

"I don't want to go to college," she said unhappily. Kiri frowned, and she added miserably, "I understand that I ought to, that music isn't a good long term career choice and that musicians often struggle and have to have other jobs. But I hate school."

Kiri opened his mouth and then closed it. After a moment he told her, "I think you should go, especially after what you told me about the independence you'd like to have before having children. And there are music colleges. But this is a separate issue, and we can talk it over other times."

Hikaru nodded. "We should go back," she said reluctantly.

He hugged her again and countered, "We should also read through this carefully, together."

"It won't matter if my mother doesn't agree though, so we have to talk to her first," Hikaru pointed out.

Kiri nodded, and they returned.

Everyone had obviously been arguing. Izumi asked bitterly over folded arms, "Why am I the bad guy?"

Hikaru looked at him and said flatly, "I want to say I don't know why you're acting like the bad guy, but I think I actually have a pretty good idea why."

Everyone stared at her.

"I've only been trying to protect you!" protested Izumi.

Hikaru shook her head and said, "No, you've been trying, very hard, to protect some imaginary little girl who doesn't exist. You don't know anything about me and you don't like me enough to learn."

"I know a lot about you," Izumi declared.

"Name one thing you like about me?" she challenged him.

Izumi looked taken aback and said after a moment, "You don't wear too much makeup."

Hikaru laughed bitterly.

"Makeup?" Kiri protested, "You don't even choose the fact that she's in the top 20% in her school?"

"Or that she's a great musician?" her brother added. "What the hell are these curfews he said you broke anyway, you didn't have any curfews when I came for Christmas? You haven't even had a bedtime since you were eight?" demanded Yuki.

When Hikaru had turned eight her mother had given up on trying to convince Hikaru that age had anything to do with getting enough sleep and had simply warned her daughter that if her grades dropped because she was not getting enough rest, she'd be in charge of preparing her own lunch box. Since Yuki had been the one preparing their lunches most days that year, he remembered it clearly.

"He'd already made the weekday curfews then, he just didn't complain if you were with me," Hikaru replied.

"You weren't protecting her when you hit her," Kaoru told Izumi sharply, for Miri had told him about it.

Izumi flushed and protested, "I didn't mean to."

Miri said unhappily, "But you did mean to have Kiri-kun arrested. Even after you agreed to leave Hikaru alone."

Hikaru pointed out bitterly, "He'd agreed to leave me alone, but not Kiri."

Izumi stood up and angrily demanded, "Why are you all fine with her having a relationship with a man a decade older than she is?!"

Everyone stared at him.

Kaoru said quietly, "Because we trust Hikaru."

Her brother nodded and said, "I don't know anything about him yet, but I trust Hikaru's judgment."

Miri sniffled and said, "I do trust Hikaru, but I don't want her to live alone." She looked at her daughter who lifted her chin at this statement. "Can't you at least live with Takeshi-kun?" Miri asked her.

Hikaru covered her face and laughed.

Miri said, "I'm serious."

Kiri replied, "That's just what we were discussing."

Miri looked up at him hopefully. Hikaru and Kiri sat down at the table. Hikaru blushed.

Kiri continued, "It turns out that a legal contract for such a situation is what Hikaru requested from my lawyer. But we'd need your approval. And we need to go over it together."

"A legal contract?" Kaoru asked dubiously.

"A certain type of prenuptial agreement," Hikaru explained.

Yuki frowned. "Isn't it a little early to get married?" he asked his little sister.

Hikaru looked at Kiri uncertainly and said, "It doesn't mean we have to get married, only that we're considering it?"

Kiri looked at her expressionlessly for a moment and then said, "Let's read through it then."

Hikaru cuddled up against him, and Miri came around the table and sat beside her daughter. Kiri placed the "Hitoshi lives with Takeshi" marked contract in front of Hikaru.

Within the first few paragraphs Hikaru exclaimed, "That's ridiculous!"

Kiri hugged her and said, "I don't mind it, but finish reading the whole thing before we argue about it?"

On the next page Hikaru commented, "I don't like that."

This time Kiri wasn't sure what she was talking about, when he asked, Hikaru pointed to the section dealing with children. "What don't you like about it?" he asked.

She replied, "I think that it's just selfishness. Splitting custody, it's like the parents are afraid of not having an even share, it's not helpful to the kid. I know lots of kids whose parents aren't together anymore and too many of the ones with shared custody act like they don't really have a home."

Kiri looked at her soberly, then said, "This says in the event that we can't agree, if you take that out, what do you want to put in its place?"

Hikaru looked at him for a minute and then replied, "I think if we can't agree, you should probably have custody."

Kiri looked at her in surprise. "Why? Isn't it more traditional for the mother?"

Hikaru said unhappily, "But you are already financially able to provide for a child, and you cook, and... I just think that you might do better. But I don't plan to have kids so soon anyway."

Kiri hesitated, then nodded. "OK," he agreed.

They read the last bit.

Miri asked, "What was wrong on the first page?"

Hikaru replied, "It's ridiculous that Kiri should have to pay me if he decides not to marry me before the contract ends. It doesn't say I'd have to pay him. And that's a ridiculous amount!"

"It's not ridiculous, I have no problem with it," Kiri said tiredly.

Hikaru looked at him and opened her mouth to argue.

"Hikaru I am older. It can matter." He put a finger against her lips. "If you look at history, older men do take advantage of young women. That's why it's not equal. This clause is for your protection. It's not that much, enough to live on for 2 or 3 years, not that long if you're in college," Kiri said.

"What if you wound up having to pay it?" Hikaru protested. "If it goes into an escrow thingy you do have to pay it."

Kiri laughed and hugged her against him. "Then my savings account will look a little thin," he replied with a grin.

Hikaru gaped at him.

"Hikaru, I don't mind it, though honestly I don't intend to pay it in the end, because I do want to marry you," he told her wryly. "And if you decide you don't want to marry me, there's no penalty," he added quietly.

Hikaru nodded reluctantly.

"I doubt that figure is random either," Kiri told her. "I think it's probably a year of my income, averaged over the last few?"

Kaoru asked to see the contract, he read it and whistled. "How much do you make?" he asked, passing the contract on to Yuki.

Kiri said wryly, "60k base, plus extra contract bonuses. And the last few years I've barely had time to take any vacation, and been working 60 hour plus weeks regularly. The owner and I have been discussing it a lot lately, we've reached a point where we need to either expand or cut back."

Izumi stared at him.

Kiri said to him, "I told you I could afford a wife if I wanted to."

Izumi sneered and said, "So money makes it all OK?"

Hikaru glared at him and said, "I don't care how much Kiri makes."

Kiri said quietly, "Hikaru doesn't actually need me to take care of her, even though I want to." To Hikaru he added, "I've been thinking, that part of the problem is the secrets you're keeping. He can't understand you, because he has no idea Hikaru."

Hikaru looked at Kiri. Kaoru looked at them both with surprise.

Kiri said uncomfortably, "I don't think it's fair to your brother either, I don't think you should keep it secret anymore."

Yuki asked, "Keep what secret?"

Hikaru looked at her uncle, who nodded and said, "I think we should confess."

Hikaru said reluctantly, "I've been paying half of Yuki-ni's tuition."

Kaoru said, "And I've been paying the other half."

Izumi, Miri and Yuki stared at them disbelievingly.

"With what?" demanded Izumi.

Hikaru stared at him, then said, "With the money I make from my jobs?"

Yuki asked, "For how long? I thought mom was paying it and then Kao-ji-chan took it over at Christmas?"

Miri said reluctantly, "Even when I was paying it, Hikaru was paying most of our household expenses."

Yuki and Izumi stared at her.

Hikaru explained, "Mom didn't make enough to pay everything alone. And Kao-ji-chan is still paying off his restaurant."

Yuki nodded. "I'll start paying it again myself," he said.

"No!" Hikaru protested. "You're doing great like this, your grades are good and you're already paying your own living expenses."

Yuki told her, "I can't let my little sister put me through college."

"Why not? If you were younger wouldn't you still want to help put me through college?" Hikaru demanded.

Yuki hesitated, but asked, "What about your own tuition, how will you go to college?"

Hikaru said, "I don't want to go to college," and before everyone could protest added, "and even if I do go anyway, I'm not as stubborn as you are. Taka-ji and Yukito-san both offered to give or lend you enough for college and medical school. And they both would do the same for me."

Kiri added, "And so would I."

Izumi interrupted, "How are you making enough money to even have this argument? You're limited to 20 hours a week!"

Hikaru glared at him and said, "I usually average about 50 an hour. And even before I switched to only music, I had that night stocking job, at 25 an hour."

Izumi stared at her.

Kaoru asked, "What did you think she was doing with her money anyway? Even if you didn't realize she wasn't working at minimum wage?"

Izumi said dubiously, "Well, I know that clothes and makeup and stuff for girls are expensive..."

Everyone rolled their eyes at him.

In the end, Yuki agreed to let the current arrangement with his tuition stand, though reluctantly.

The contract for Hikaru to live with Kiri was agreed to, with the changes about children's custody. Kiri felt that Miri was actually more enthusiastic about signing it than Hikaru was, but he still signed it without hesitation and promised to get the contract registered in the morning.