Run and Go Seek

[Kida]

ICE CREEEEEEEEEEEEAM!!!" Not bothering to stop at the sight of the shop, or Hikaru looking back, Ann Marie sped along and made impact with the door to the ice cream shop with full force. The head on collision threw the door open while the momentum launched Ann Marie into the store only to smack right into the protective glass that shielded the dessert from customers. Rather than crumpling on the floor and groaning 'ow' like she might usually do after such an escapade, Ann Marie remained plastered against the glass, created a large cloud of fog with her breathing.

"I SCREAM! You SCREAM! We all SCREAM for ICE CREAM!!!! Yummeh in the tummeh...tummeh full of yummehs!" Seeing from her peripherals that Hikaru was not beside her, the monkey (needing some strength) pulled and unstuck herself from the glass. Then she turned and waves. "Reeeeeeeeeeed! C'mon! ICE CREAM in here!"

[Zephel]

Hikaru watched, flabbergasted in both fear and amazement at how inhumanely fast Ann Marie is. He was left dumbstruck there, unable to move as he stood, until the girl hollered out for him. "Y-yeah! Coming!" He hurried his way inside the shop and carefully (plus cautiously) moved beside Ann Marie to glance at the different flavoured ice creams displayed inside the glass.

His hands instinctively shoved themselves inside his pockets, and found there exists a few notes inside to support the ice creams, hopefully. It's not everyday he would accept a payment from helping an old lady carrying a crap-huge ancient tv from inside her house to her front yard...but it did fractured his spine, so he's too weak to fight back the oncoming money he usually refuse. That was two weeks ago...he can't believe he forgot all about the money.

"What would you like? My treat~!"

[Kida]

Ann Marie had turned back to the glass and started bouncing to a silent tune in her head when Hikaru started for the door. Soon she started singing the names of the flavors to the beat. " Shurbert, Minty, Banana-nutty--Cookies N Cream, Strawberry Cheesecake~!" She even went on to name flavors that were not available, but ones she thought should be. "Cotton Candy, Big Spicy Pumpkin, Cinnamon Tart!"

But she suddenly stopped when she heard Hikaru say 'my treat'. Blinking at him with her big brown eyes she repeated, "Treat...?"

[Zephel]

Hikaru can't help but to shoot the same strange look at Ann Marie the same way the guy behind the ice-cream counter is doing when she sings that little flavor song of hers. The redhead was more surprised when she suddenly stops. "Hahahah. You don't know what treat means..?" He asked to make sure first before bursting out in a small laughter.

"Ah, I'm sorry. Heheh. What I meant by that is...I'll buy." Grinning at Ann Marie, Hikaru then turned to the guy waiting for their orders. "I'd like a pure vanilla one on a cone, please." He ordered for his brother, quite positive that's his brother's favourite flavor, but can't decide a flavor for himself. "Umm..." He looked over all the different flavors, everything seemed yummy for him. He gave up after a while to turn to Ann Marie, "You know what? You choose for me, Ann Marie. And pick one for yourself!"

[Kida]

"Ann Marie knows 'treat'...." she said in a wondering sort of voice. Then, quite different from her usual energy crazed manner, Ann Marie gave Hikaru a firm hug. A bright smile lit her face as she stayed there hugging him for a moment. "Red more nice than Ann Marie even thought of!" The monkey gave him a small squeeze.

"Red is good person."

Turning back to the counter she quickly told the man behind the counter that she strawberry cheesecake flavored ice cream. "Red have....Minty Choco chippy?"

[Zephel]

Blinking continuously at her statement that she knows what it means, Hikaru could only tilt his head slightly and stares at her at how surprisingly mellow she could be. ...Until she launched an attack hug to him.

"Aaah!!" Caught in surprise, Hikaru held his arms in the air, blinking at this girl that's squeezing him. "Wh? A-Ann Marie...treating you ice cream doesn't mean that I'm good entirely.." He sweatdropped awkwardly, but laughed nervously after a moment's pause, "But.....thanks.."

The redhead faces the guy behind the counter with a wide smile, "Whatever she said, please."

"Hikaru?" A voice could be heard from behind...and it's none other then the vanilla-lover himself.

[Kida]

Ann Marie let go of Hikaru and started swaying to the silent tune in her head once more. She had just started to hum with it when she heard a voice behind them. "White!" The monkey bound over and tugged his hand. "Lookit, lookit, White! Red is great bro-bro! Is sweet and nice and gets treaties for us!"

[Zephel]

Hikaru spins to face his back too at the same time as Ann Marie, only with no physical greeting. Though, that surprised smile he was giving off to Zeph is out of reflex... ...and out of surprise Zeph is heading straight to this place after he cooled down. The redhead is partly proud of himself to figure out exactly what Zeph needs though.

"You like vanilla, right nii-san?"

Zeph was caught off-guard apparently when this girl tugged his hand. His eyebrows creased as he tries to understand what this child is trying to say to him. She's saying something about Hikaru, that's the only thing he thinks she's talking about..

"Yes, yes. Please, let me be." The silver-haired calmly pulls away his hand as he stood near to Hikaru, raising a confused brow. "What...are you doing here?" Ignoring Hikaru's vanilla question, Zeph just continues to stare at both the 'brats' as he worded it out in his mind, until...

"One vanilla cone, one...strawberry cheesecake. And one mint chocolate chip. Are those right?" The guy at the counter faced Zeph, guessing the silver-haired is the kids' guardian or some sort of brother.

Zeph turns to face at the guy, then his eyes darted at the ice-creams the guy is handling out towards him...and then to the counter where the price is revealed through the cash machine thing. But before Zeph could do anything...the corner of his eyes caught a pair of hands reaching out to take the ice creams..

Hikaru grinned as he take the orders, and not only that, he handed the money too. The redhead smiled with pride as he received a stare by his brother. While waiting the man to give back the balance, Hikaru turns to Ann Marie happily, "Ice cream time!"

[Kida]

"HURRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY! YES YES YESH!" Ann Marie jumped up and down with her ice cream, careful not to spill any. "Thankies, Red! Thankies!" Slightly blushing, she started to hurriedly lick at her ice cream. Strawberry cheesecake was one of her favorite ice creams, top three. Top five. ....Top ten.

"Vanilla is for you, White!" she supplied when Zephel stood there looking at Hikaru. "See? Told you he nice bro-bro."

[Zephel]

Hikaru just laughed at Ann Marie's thanks, thoroughly enjoys her relish with her ice cream. His laugh faded into a smile, and finally into a blush when the girl complimented him being nice. "Wha? Ann Marie, anybody would do this to make his brother smile." He whole-heartedly intended to say this to Ann Marie only, forgetting Zeph's existance beside him for a while...until the vanilla cone in his grip is getting pulled away.

Zeph calmly pulls away the ice cream cone intended for him when Ann Marie confirms it. After one lick and a moment to savour the taste, the silver-haired closed his eyes, reached a hand up, and surprisingly ruffled Hikaru's thick red hair...almost playfully too.

"Thanks, Red." Using Ann Marie's name call for him, Zeph cornered his eyes at the boy and for once in his dull lifetime, loosens up the tension around his cheeks to curve a small smile to his brother. A sincere one, at its best.

Due to one single ice-cream treat, Zeph waved off all the money Hikaru managed to burn by spilling all the groceries... Yeah, he knows about it already when he spotted the shopping list he wrote being stepped on with egg stains around it during his walk alone after the two brats annoyed him.

Zeph then turned to Ann Marie. This crazy lunatic that probably started the whole chaos in the first place. He can't believe that chaos turned out to be one inspiring day for both the brothers at the end of the day. Licking his ice-cream, Zi-Fi in his arms just barked playfully in compare of Zeph's sudden mood change. Then, his smile just dissappeared completely, like it never exist, then takes his time walking off with his dog in his arm and an ice-cream on his grip to exit the Baskin Robbins shop.

Hikaru stood there dumbfounded. Did his cold-hearted frigid unemotional brother just frickin' SMILED at him?! He was so shocked, he almost dropped his own ice-cream. He had already loose his touch receptors out of shock the second Zeph ruffled his hair, and now he thought that there's an illusion of light or some sort when the cruel silver-haired actually truly SMILED at him...

"A-Ann...Marie... W-what..just happened..?"

[Kida]

Ann Marie had been too busy cuddling her ice cream to really notice the effect of Zephel's smile. She had seen it of course, but to her smiling was totally normal for every person. She didn't see that it was supposed different for Zephel. "What mean Red? Got ice cream..." Pointing to his own untouched ice cream she cocked her head to the side in a confused manner.

"White going...We follow-wollow, Red? Yes, yes?"

[Zephel]

Hikaru stayed rooted there for a moment, taking a longer time than usual to process Ann Marie's question inside his head. The redhead hasn't recovered from the shock he received yet, but thankfully, his receptors are working now, so might as well try to MOVE before his ice-cream melts.

"Y-yeah. We follow-wollow.." He blankly trailed off, not exactly getting his mind back yet, but glad to see that his feet are moving. Though, being naturally cursed, Hikaru ended up tripping on his own untied sneaker laces before he even reached the exit. "Waaahh!!"

After that incident, Hikaru quickly discovers a good news and a bad news. Good news is he finally tasted his ice-cream...and it's cold taste pulled his normal thinking capacity back in his head. Bad news is, the ice-cream is all over his nose, his mouth, and his red sweater. Some drips on the floor too. The cone is also crushed in his grip.

Hikaru blinked his red eyes. It's his second fall today actually, he expected it. "Ai..." The redhead sighed, sitting up with one of his knees bent up, pulling away his fingers as the cone pieces fell off his hand, the stickiness of the ice-cream could be felt around his fingers. Looking up, Hikaru could no longer see his brother in sight, and that got him down as he frowned.

"..Guess we can't follow-wollow... Sorry, Ann Marie."

[Kida]

"Red-red Okay?!" she gasped as thought the boy had been in a car accident. "Not hurt, not hurt? ...Awww, poor icey cream cone." The Monkey ran back to a napkin dispenser and pulled out as many as she could carry while still holding her own ice cream--which was far more then they could use. She ran back and offered them to Hikaru. "To cleansy."

"Red-red can share Ann Marie's icey cream cone! Red-red was nice to buy it for her." she smiled. "No fear 'bout findy White neither! Ann Marie SMELL him out!" she declared very loudly and proceeded to make exaggerated sniffing noises with narrowed eyes.

The monkey then proceeded to hand Hikaru her ice cream and all but throw herself face first onto the ground. She adopted a dog's stance, crawling around on all fours, sniffing for a hint of Zephel. "AHA! THAT ways!" she cried suddenly and jumped back to her feet, pointing.

[Zephel]

"I'm okay, I'm okay." Hikaru spoke out his signature quote, smiling up at Ann Marie. Really, he's just happy as it is to see somebody's worrying about him...but later then sweatdropped at the large amount of napkins that was being offered to him.

He tried to take all of it from her hands, and used some of it to wipe the ice cream off of him. But still, the stain on his sweater was far too messy to merely wipe on. So, Hikaru took hold of the rim of his sweater and pulled it upwards to remove it. Under his sweater is a thin red t-shirt that matches his red hair almost too perfectly.

"No, no, that's okay, Ann Marie. Just eat your ice-cream. I bought it for you, you know?" He smiled as he ties the sleeves of his sweater around his waist. Then again, Ann Marie never ceases to make him loose all the liquid inside his body by sweatdropping too much. "You can...smell him out?"

It took Hikaru a while to remember that Ann Marie's not a normal human being, and yet, releases another drop of sweat. "Uh...Ann Marie, that isn't necessary. You don't have to do that. Nii-san won't like it if we hang around him too often anyway." He's too late though as the girl's already started on it, pointing to the direction she had picked on. ...This sort of disturbs Hikaru a bit.

"You mean you can track my brother's...scent??" It's not that it feels kind of...off, with her nose. But the fact that everybody's staring at Ann Marie like she's Hikaru's dog is seriously bugging him. And thus, to escape the stares, "Okay, okay, sniff him out! Go!"

[Kida]

"THAT WAYS! Come on, Red-reeeed!" Ann Marie sprinted off down the walk way of the mall with out realizing she had left Hikaru behind. "C'mon, Red-Red, c'mon!" The monkey jumped over trash cans, small children, around trees and people and even under a few. "Excusi, excusi!!!" she seemed to say as an after thought.

"Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!" Ann Marie hurtled herself over a small fountain, twisting in the air. She took the opportunity to stop and sniff the air again. "White.... White.... WHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITE!!!!" Ann Marie ran in another direction towards a white haired person. "Here is White, Red! Here is he!" she jumped up and down, waving her arms for Hikaru to see her.