Friday Mirage played at Blue Moon and Yukito's bar reached maximum capacity.

Ryuske had a rather vacant look on his face when they finished and Yukito informed the band that he'd had to close the doors within the first hour.

Hikaru looked at Ryuske and asked quietly, "Why are you so shocked? Our fan club is already above 1500 since our music videos started releasing, and this place only has a 500 person maximum capacity."

Rin leaned his elbow on Ryuske's shoulder and said, "Because he doesn't believe in himself."

Hatsuharu chuckled and replied, "Either that or we've been playing the long shot and he can't believe it's paying off."

Ryuske waved them both off with irritation, and told Hikaru, "I'm just worried that things are moving too fast, it's not only the fans increasing. Takeda keeps bringing me offers of projects to work on, and you're not done with school."

Hikaru glanced at Hatsuharu and told Ryuske seriously, "I've only got a couple months left, Hatsuharu has five more years, shouldn't you be more worried about him?"

Ryuske glanced at Hatsuharu and replied, "No."

Hatsuharu told her almost shyly, "It turns out my boss saw our first video, and loved it. Instead of worrying about being fired, it looks like I may just be pressured into some sort of company sponsorship."

"Is that a good thing?" she asked worriedly.

All three of them shrugged back. Ryuske said, "There's worse things than wearing the logo of a company Hatsuharu has worked at for decades. And nothing is set."

Rin reached out and patted her head and said, "Just focus on school, let us worry about the rest until you're done."

--

The school festival was set for the last Friday before spring break, and so they were buried in tests Monday through Wednesday, while Thursday was set aside for preparations.

Kiri was busy and worked late so much that Hikaru actually felt kind of sorry for Keito-san, until she found out that the actresses schedule was only about half of Kiri's current workload.

Wednesday night Hikaru cooked their dinner because Kiri was only home for half an hour, and after looking at Kiri's face she said, "If this happens again, I'll just make Ramen."

Kiri shrugged and said, "It's not as bad as you think, wait 'till you try Kazuha's cooking." He paused and added, "On second thought, don't if you can help it."

Hikaru laughed and leaned over to kiss him.

--

Risa and Shizuoka were both scandalized to discover on Thursday that Hikaru had signed up for the clean up crew. She shrugged and pointed out, "I'll need the participation points. I've been way too busy with Mirage and then we had tests, I had no time to join any of the big class projects like Risa."

Shizuoka complained, "You could have joined one of the cafés like I did."

Hikaru laughed and replied humorously, "As one of the cooks or one of the cute waitresses?"

"You'd have made a cool waitress at least?" Shizuoka replied.

"Won't you get points for being my model?" Risa asked.

Hikaru nodded, and said "But only a few, because it's only for an hour."

--

In the morning Kiri drove her to school. When she reached for the door, he said, "Hikaru."

She stopped and looked at him, he looked frustrated and unhappy. Instead of moving toward the door she scooted closer to him and leaned in for a kiss.

He raised his hand, caressed her and pulled her closer. They kissed for long enough that Hikaru murmured, "Kiri, I'm going to be late."

He sighed and released her and then he grinned and reached up to tidy her hair. While he was busy doing that she told him, "It's fine. I'm not a child and you're not my parent, you're not required to come to my school events. And my mother and my brother are both coming, so it's not like I'll be left alone." She smiled.

He bit his lip and said, "I want to though."

She laughed and said, "Take me on a couple of dates during spring break instead?"

"Absolutely," he promised. "I think I'll have all day on Thursday."

"Me too," Hikaru replied happily.

"I know," he replied dryly, "that's why I am trying to arrange it, I'll find out for sure soon."

--

When she got out of the car and walked to the gate, a girl from her class that she didn't know well sneered at her and said, "Slut."

Hikaru just stared at her blankly for a moment, belatedly she asked, "What?"

They passed through the gates and the girl said, "I saw you kissing him, you can't pretend he's your uncle or cousin."

"Of course not," Hikaru replied immediately, "he's my fiancé."

The girl stopped walking and asked, "Really?"

Hikaru turned and nodded.

"When's the wedding then?" she asked derisively.

"Probably in July," Hikaru answered promptly and she continued on to the classroom without looking back.

They all waited together until roll call was finished, and then they were dismissed to their various activities. Risa and Hikaru went and helped Shizuoka and the other students who were working on that classroom café for a little while, since they didn't do the fashion display until afternoon.

Hikaru had three one-hour shifts with the clean up crew: one late morning, one early afternoon right after she modeled for Risa, and one at the end of the day.

After the first shift she met her mother at the gates. Miri looked cheerful and somehow visibly rounder than even when they'd had lunch on Sunday. Hikaru hugged her and then looked around and asked, "Yuki-ni isn't with you?"

Miri pouted and said, "He had to cancel, he didn't message you?"

Surprised, Hikaru pulled out her phone and checked, and said, "Oh, it's still on the mute for classroom hours. He did."

Miri complained, "He's hardly been home this semester."

Hikaru laughed and replied, "Between his classes and his job, that's not surprising."

Miri nodded, then brightened and asked, "Should we go visit him one of the days during break?"

Hikaru hesitated, then silently apologized to Kiri and nodded, "If Thursday is OK."

"Yes," agreed Miri enthusiastically.

Hikaru smiled and messaged Kiri, 'Sorry, going to visit Yuki Thursday, he couldn't come today.'

Kiri replied a few minutes later, 'I just confirmed I'd gotten it off, can I come with you?'

Hikaru grinned and replied, 'Of course!'

Miri asked, "Messaging Kiri-kun? What did he say?"

Hikaru blushed and asked, "Is it written on my face?"

Miri laughed and replied, "Sort of." Wistfully she added, "You've looked a lot happier since you moved in together I think."

Hikaru raised her eyebrows at her mother and questioned, "If I didn't you'd be worrying at me, so why aren't you content?"

Miri laughed and replied cheerfully, "Because I'm a greedy mother who wants to see her children more often."

Hikaru shook her head and said mock-sadly, "How terrible, and soon there will be another victim of your wicked desires."

Miri giggled.

Hikaru told her, "He'll come with us to visit Yuki-ni."

Miri greeted the news enthusiastically, to Hikaru's relief.

--

They wandered around a little, then visited Shizuoka at the café room, and then it was time for the fashion modeling.

Hikaru's heart felt like it was pounding and she tripped once at the beginning, but she recovered and didn't fall. While she was changing from the cute pajamas into the swimsuit, she muttered, "This is embarrassing."

Risa asked incredulously, "How can this be more embarrassing than standing on stage singing about sex?"

Hikaru shrugged helplessly, but she thought, as she yielded the sheet draped space to the next person, that it was probably a good thing that there weren't any mirrors.

She was thinking that walking out in a swimsuit was the most embarrassing thing, until she saw the tennis outfit one of Risa's classmates had created. She decided she'd gotten off easy and walked out with confidence in Risa's skills.

The dress was so good that people actually applauded when she took her turn again later. Hikaru wasn't actually surprised and didn't falter.

Risa was bursting with pride. She told Hikaru as she pulled on the comfortable jeans with flower cutouts embroidered around in a curve up the right leg, "You can wear this set the rest of the day."

Hikaru laughed and teased, "Sure, I can advertise your work all afternoon."

Risa blushed as she passed over the matching long sleeved shirt dyed with an echoing curve of color, and said, "I just meant these are your clothes now."

Hikaru leaned over and hugged her. "Thank you," she said seriously, "they're all amazing, you're going to be a great designer."

Risa grinned and laughed up at Hikaru, declaring boldly, "I already am! You're welcome!"

Hikaru laughed and strode out to take her position in the last lap of the event.

--

Afterward she did her next shift on the clean up crew. She marveled a little at the amount of garbage being produced. Most of the cans she emptied were already full.

Miri had taken video of the whole thing she discovered later. When she rejoined her mother, she found her showing it to Makoto and giving a full description of the whole display.

Makoto grinned when he looked up and saw her face. "Your mother and I are hiding from the mob while Risa takes all five of her siblings and her parents to catch goldfish."

"You didn't go along?" Hikaru asked with surprise.

Makoto grimaced and replied, "You know I love Risa to death, but seriously, what were her parents thinking with six kids?"

Miri elbowed him and answered his question, to his surprise. "They were going to stop at four they said, and then they had twins, so they had one more to make it an even number."

Makoto had a faintly horrified look on his face when he commented, "Dear gods, what if the last had been another set of twins?"

Hikaru asked a little diffidently, "Have you and Risa ever talked about having kids after you get married?"

He looked at her with surprise and said, "We haven't even talked about getting married." He looked embarrassed and added, "I kind of plan to ask her on our one year anniversary." He followed up quickly with, "Have you and Kiri-san?"

Hikaru nodded.

He regarded her with a serious expression and asked, "Oh? Am I invited to the wedding? When am I expecting my first god-child?"

Hikaru hit him, though not hard and laughed and replied, "Of course you are, and not for a few years yet."

Miri asked, eyes sparkling, "You decided? Do you know when you'll get married then?"

Hikaru blushed and replied, far more shyly than she'd declared it that morning, "Probably in July, on or just after my birthday."