Sunday morning Miri woke up early to do Hikaru's hair, as she had almost every Sunday since her younger brother had started his restaurant and asked his niece to play piano there. She was careful to leave her husband sleeping, for Sundays were currently his only days off.

Miri braided Hikaru's shoulder length hair up in a pretty weave. When her mother was finished, Hikaru dressed quickly. She left in time to catch the bus downtown while Miri started cooking breakfast.

--

This particular Sunday was an unusually busy one for the restaurant. A wedding party that had reserved half the restaurant that morning kept adding song requests until Hikaru was afraid she'd never get to leave. 

She complained about the situation to her uncle Kaoru, during one of the few moments she saw him that morning. 

He closed the request book down and asked her laughingly, "Why are you worried, got a hot date?"

"Yes," she replied as he whisked away to deal with the next problem.

--

Thus at closer to 2:30 than 2:00, Hikaru dashed breathlessly down to the meeting spot.

Kiri was waiting, dressed in black jeans and a long sleeved dark grey shirt. In casual attire he really looked younger. He stood when he saw her and said, "Wow!" He ran his eyes up and down her and declared, "So sexy!"

Hikaru came to an abrupt halt and blushed.

Kiri exclaimed, "Your school uniform really doesn't suit you!"

She looked at him in confusion and replied, "What?"

Kiri answered her in a rush of words. "Sorry, I meant you seemed ordinary at first, but you were cute the other night, and today you look fantastic! I was going to start by teasing you about being the one who was late this time." He gazed at her admiringly and added wryly, "I feel underdressed."

"This isn't what I'm wearing!" Hikaru protested.

Kiri gave her a puzzled look.

"This is my Sunday uniform," she explained.

She was dressed in flowing skirt-like pants of gradated grey that blended into a white top which showed beneath a short charcoal bolero style jacket. She had on white gloves and dark sandals.

"Uniform?" he asked.

"It's what I wear to play the piano on Sundays, the jacket is the same as the waiters jackets," she explained. "I brought clothes to change into," she said lifting the small duffel bag she carried over one shoulder, "but I was already so late, I didn't want you to think I wasn't coming." She asked uncertainly, "If you don't mind waiting, I'll visit the restroom and change."

"Can I take a picture first?" he asked with a grin.

"I guess so," she agreed hesitantly.

He had her stand against the decorative flower bed with its small trees. She stood stiffly for the photo. He laughed and asked her, "What sort of phone would you like?"

She pondered it and while she was distracted by the question he took another photo. She answered, "Something inexpensive I guess, I'm not sure it needs to do anything apart from being able to talk or message?"

He replied, "If you have nothing particular in mind, how about one identical to mine? It would make it much easier for me to help you with it," he suggested, then grinned and added, "it's what I insisted on last time my mother got a new phone. It was driving me crazy having to stop and look up her model's information every time she had a question on the one she had before."

Hikaru nodded and replied, "That sounds reasonable. I'll go change then, so we can go?"

He nodded. Hikaru entered a nearby public restroom and changed. She emerged in grey jeans and a long sleeved black cotton top. Her hair was still braided up and she still wore the sandals. Kiri smiled at her and assured her, "This is also cute."

Hikaru laughed and said, "We sort of match."

He nodded agreeably, then took her duffel bag. She looked at him dubiously. He smiled at her and put his arm around her. "Shall we go shopping then?" he asked.

She nodded and they started up the long flight of stairs that lead to the next level of shops.

--

"Kiri-san?" she asked.

"Yes?" he replied.

She didn't continue right away and they climbed a few more steps before he stopped, turned to her, wrapped his arms around her and kissed her.

She gazed at him in surprise.

He grinned at her and said, "If you call my name and don't say anything, I'll assume you want my attention."

She looked at him and said dryly, "If you're going to kiss me like that everytime I call your name and don't say anything, I might call your name a lot."

His eyes lit up and he kissed her again while running his hands down her back in a way that made her feel like melting. Then he stopped and said, "Sorry, I need to sit down a moment."

"Are you OK?" Hikaru asked in alarm. He was shaking.

He stepped to one edge of the stairs and sat. "I'm fine," he said, embarrassed.

Hikaru knelt on the step below him. "But you're shaking!" she protested.

Kiri gave her an odd look and asked carefully, "You haven't noticed why?" Hikaru stared into his face with a puzzled expression and Kiri blushed. He looked down at the problem and back up to meet her eyes and said, "It's a natural reaction."

Hikaru looked and blushed. She withdrew from him a little.

"Hikaru?" he asked worriedly. "Don't be afraid of me, I won't do anything to you, I don't know why I got so completely aroused all of a sudden, it just happened, but it's not a weird thing."

She hesitantly placed her hand on his knee.

He held open his arms to her, and she scooted up into his embrace.

"Won't this make it worse?" she asked.

"I can't get any more turned on than this," he said wryly. "Let's just rest here a few minutes, it will subside."

--

"Kiri, think of having babies," Hikaru said suddenly.

"What!?" he exclaimed and laughed.

"Shizuoka says the fastest way to get rid of an erection," Hikaru blushed again, "is to talk about having babies."

Kiri laughed. "I suspect that would be more effective if I didn't feel like I might love to have babies with you."

Hikaru looked up at him in surprise. "I don't want to have kids until I'm 25," she blurted.

"OK?" he agreed questioningly.

"Because of my mother," she explained.

"I don't understand," Kiri said.

"My mother had my brother when she was 16," Hikaru dove into a full explanation, "she got pregnant when she was 15 and her parents threw her out, my father married her as soon as he turned 18. But things must have been pretty rough for them at first," she said uncertainly.

Kiri nodded.

"I was planned though, so that there would be two years between Yuki-ni and I. And everything was OK until my father died. But then it was horrible for her. She had trouble finding a job she could keep, and people would say the most horrible things about what a young mother she was. Stuff no one ever said when my father was alive. And she cried all the time. She cried herself to sleep for almost three years."

Kiri hugged Hikaru tighter.

"I just think it wouldn't have been so hard on her if she'd been older," Hikaru said. "I mean, it doesn't have to be 25 exactly."

Kiri said lightly, "I don't think 35 would be too old to start a family."

Hikaru blushed and told him, "I'm sorry, talking about having children when we've barely even started dating." She shrugged helplessly.

Kiri reassured her, "I think it's good to talk about it early. I think it's sad when a couple that's spent years together suddenly discovers that one of them doesn't want children and the other wants a dozen." He grinned at her and asked, "How many children do you want?"

"A couple maybe, or four? One is too lonely, and three is difficult to divide many things evenly." she answered uncertainly.

"Four is too many, and I often wished I were an only child," he replied.

She looked at him curiously. "Why?"

"I have three much older sisters, opinionated, strong willed, domineering elder sisters," he explained. 

Hikaru blinked in surprise.

He told her a little more. "My oldest sister had just had her first child when my mother got pregnant again. So my eldest nephew is a year older than I am," he laughed. "The one closest in age to me alternated between acting like a second mother and treating me as a convenient servant. My parents had thought they were done having children when I came along." His expression grew more sober as he continued, "I felt like they were always a little bewildered by what to do with me growing up. Not that I felt unloved," he added hastily.

"Kiri, they probably were bewildered by having a boy after raising three girls?" Hikaru suggested.

He smiled at her and replied, "Anyway, four is too many, my middle sister has four as well, and it's crazy."

Hikaru laughed. "Two then?" she asked.

"Two would be good," he said, and kissed her. "We've talked for so long that I'm fine, shall we go?" he asked.

Hikaru nodded and they resumed their climb.

"What's your favorite color?" Kiri asked.

"Grey," Hikaru answered, looking at Kiri's grey shirt.

"That's very flattering," he said dryly, "but I meant really?"

Hikaru was a little offended. "Grey really is my favorite color, it's quiet. What is yours?" she asked challengingly.

"Sorry, I have no room to talk," he replied laughingly, "my favorite is black."

They both laughed then, and they walked hand in hand the rest of the way.