Rena went to work the next day with Nanase. Nanase looked around the restaurant. "It's so empty here today. This is what the holidays does to a restaurant."

"Yeah," Rena replied. There were only two customers in the restaurant, a couple, being served by another waitress. The two girls sat in the back waiting for customers to sit at their assigned tables.

Nanase looked at Rena. "Come on Rena, tell me EVERTHING."

Rena looked at Nanase in confusion. "What do you mean?"

Nanase grinned. "I want to know how your date with my brother was. I want to make sure that he didn't treat you like an a**hole."

Rena laughed a little. "Don't worry, he didn't treat me like an a**hole. He was so sweet throughout the entire date. Greg and Cody came over to his apartment before coming to me and they sprayed cologne on him. When he told me that cologne makes him itch, I gave him Gold Bond to cure it."

"No wonder he smelled like powder when he got home," Nanase laughed. "What else happened?"

Rena grinned evilly. "I was the one who put the Gold Bond on him."

Nanase laughed even more. "I wish I could've seen his face! Gold Bond will never be the same again!"

Rena laughed along with her.

Nanase wiped a tear developing in the corner of her eyes. "So other than the Gold Bond treatment, what else happened?"

Rena told her everything that happened last night from the moment he came to her door, until the moment he left.

"You know," Nanase said after Rena finished. "There are so many jerks in this world. My brother may be anti-social, but he's a very sweet person and has so much respect for woman. He's so polite that Greg once said that it's sickening. You're so lucky to find someone like that and I hope you two will be together forever."

Rena smiled. "Well, we're just friends right now."

"Doesn't seem like it though."

"Yeah."

Rena looked out the window. She was going to see Guy tomorrow when he trained her at the dojo. She couldn't wait until then.

***

"Okay everyone!" cried Guy to his students. "Class is over now. Monday, we'll be working more on our kicks. Have a good weekend."

His students bowed to him and then started making their way to their bags over to the benches. Guy wiped a bead of sweat off by his brow and sighed. He looked at the time. 'One o'clock,' he thought. It was time for his break.

Guy walked to the changing room, grabbed a towel, and wiped the rest of his sweat off his face. Then he heard a knock on the door.

"Come in," Guy said. The door opened. Guy was surprised to see Kairi come in. "Hey Kairi, what are you doing here?"

"Well, I'm off from work and I'm bored," Kairi replied grinning. "So why don't I visit my big brother here since he goes on his break for an hour."

"All right," said Guy. "In that case, let's grab something to eat and bring it back here."

"That's fine by me," the younger Hinato brother replied.

The brothers agreed to get some McDonald's a few buildings down. After ordering and waiting for their food, they went back to the dojo and sat in the back.

Kairi took a bite out of his cheeseburger then looked at Guy. "So, tell me, what happened with Rena last night."

Guy smirked a little thinking about the Gold Bond treatment Rena gave him. "I've never been so relaxed before."

"Actually," Kairi replied. "You've been pretty relaxed ever since Rena came to your life. I'm glad to see a relaxed Guy Hinato for once."

Guy laughed a little. "Yeah. I guess I'm glad to see a relaxed me as well."

The brothers ate more of their lunch before Kairi spoke again. "Hey Guy, I have a strange question to ask you."

Guy looked at his little brother. "Yeah?"

Kairi looked at him a little seriously. "Do you think you are falling in love with Rena?"

He looked at Kairi with a little shock. He didn't expect a question like that to pop up, especially this soon.

"Well," Guy began to say. Rena appeared in his mind. To him, she was a nice, smart, funny, beautiful woman. "I wouldn't call it love, at least not yet. Love is supposed to come with time. I can say now is that I do care about her a lot."

"I thought so," Kairi replied. "Even if one changes you a little bit, it does mean that you care about the person."

"You think so?"

Kairi nodded. Guy smirked a little, feeling glad that he could talk to someone like Kairi, especially since they were brothers. His other male friends, especially Cody and Greg, would laugh about it and joke around.

"When are you seeing her again?" Kairi asked.

"Tomorrow. I'm going to train her here."

"That's cool. I have work tomorrow, so I'm kind of going to miss out."

"And if you did come," Guy said. "I'll have to kill you."

The brothers laughed a little.

***

Rena came home late that night from Ming's. She went over to the answering machine and saw that there are two messages.

Rena pressed the play button. The first message came on.

"Hi this is The Metro Phone Company, we just wanted to talk to you about your phone bill. Please call us back at 555-6631."

The next message came on.

"Hey Rena, this is Maki. I'm not going to be home until about midnight. My damn ass boss is making me work later because HE'S working late. That jerk I can't stand him! Don't worry about dinner; I'm just going to have some bread or something. I'll see you later, sis."

Rena laughed a little. "Poor Maki." She looked at the time, which read ten o'clock. "Good thing I had dinner before coming back here. Now I'm in a mood for some cheesecake."

She put her purse and keys down and made her way to the refrigerator. She found a piece of cheesecake and took it out. She opened a draw and took out a fork. Then she unwrapped the clear Saran wrap off of the cake.

"Maki will kill me for eating this, but like they say, you snooze, you lose."

As Rena took a bite of the cake, she found herself looking at the door. She knew that Maki usually locked the bolt part of the door and then made her way down the fire escape. Rena then saw why she got in the apartment so easily.

Like in the movie 'Don't Say a Word,' the bolt was broken into two pieces.

Rena's heart jumped to her throat as she jumped up and dropped her fork. 'Oh my God!' she thought as she became panicked. 'There's someone in my apartment!'

She looked around her apartment from where she was standing. All of the items were in their places and nothing looked like they were stolen.

Rena wanted to check her and Maki's rooms, but she didn't want to take a chance. She slowly backed away from the kitchen and walked towards the front door. As soon as she put her hand on the knob, the nearby closet suddenly flew open.

Rena shrieked with terror as someone grabbed her around the waist. Rena managed to smack the man hard enough to let her go. Rena pulled back to take a better look at the man. He was a thin man with red hair and sunglasses. He wore a yellow cape over his green uniform-like clothes.

"Who are you?" Rena cried.

The man only laughed and ran over to her. Rena looked around quickly and saw an empty vase on the nightstand. She grabbed it and threw it at the man. The man quickly dodged out of the way and the vase crashed into pieces against the wall.

The man got close to Rena, grabbed her and threw her against the wall. Rena began to cry for help, but the man shut her up by slapping her across the face.

"We want you with us Rena," the man said. "We want you with us."

***

Guy got off the subway train and made his way down the streets.

He thought back on his conversation with Kairi. Could it be that it could be more than how much he cared about her? Guy sighed. After their conversation, Guy decided to go to Rena's house and surprise her with a movie night. In his right hands he held a movie called 'The Skulls.'

When Guy saw her apartment building, he realized that it was a good thing he came when he suddenly heard a female crying for help. Guy's heart jumped to his throat as he recognized Rena's voice.

"HANG ON RENA!!" Guy cried as he started making his way into the apartment. Knowing that elevators took forever, he began to run up the stairs until he reached her floor. He saw that her door was partly ajar and barged right in.

Over in the living room, he saw a man laughing whiling pinning Rena against the wall. Tears fell out of her eyes.

Guy ran over to the man and pulled him away from Rena. Rena watched as Guy threw the man against the wall.

"What the hell do you think you are doing?!" Guy demanded. "Don't you have any respect?"

The man laughed. "Why should I have respect?"

Guy threw a hard punch at the man immediately knocking him out unconscious. He looked at the man before turning towards Rena, who was sitting on the floor and leaning against the wall. Tears fell out of her eyes.

Guy ran over to her and sat next to her. "Rena, are you okay?" He touched her arm. He could feel her tremble with fear. "What did he do to you?"

Rena tried her best to speak through her tears. "He said something about wanting me with someone. Guy, I was so scared, I didn't know what was going to happen to me."

Guy wrapped his arms around her. She buried her head into his chest and sobbed uncontrollably. "Ssshhh, it's over now, Rena. He won't hurt you again." He brought her closer to him. 'Why in the world would someone try to hurt her?' he thought. 'What did she ever do?'

He leaned down to her head and kissed her forehead. He then noticed something on the floor just next to him. He reached over to it and realized that it was an ID card of the person who attacked her.

'Billy,' Guy thought. 'That bastard!'

Rena looked up at him. Guy quickly put the ID card away. "How did you know that I was in trouble?"

Guy held up the videotape. "I was going to surprise you with a movie night, but I guess the plans are changed."

Rena forced a smile. "That's so sweet of you. I'm sorry I gave you a little surprise of my own."

Guy wiped the tears away from her face. "It's all right. You didn't ask for this." He looked at her seriously. "It's a good thing I'm training you tomorrow. I don't want to see you hurt again like this."

"Will you stay here with me tonight?"

Guy nodded and kissed her forehead once more. Inside he heart, he started to feel more emotions for Rena.

'Maybe Kairi's right,' he thought. 'Maybe I am falling in love with her...'

To Chapter Ten---->