To say it had been a long day at work would be an understatement. Even for Emilia, the tasks Daniel had been assigning her and Robby were tedious at best. He had explained different ways of accomplishing tasks around the shop in clear hopes of it helping out with their 'training'.

It had been a couple of days since the twins had been at his house, where he had taught them some basic moves. While Emilia found it cool, Robby took an instant liking to the art of karate, more so than his sister.

So, while she didn't mind helping out with some of the chores the way Mr. LaRusso wanted them done, she didn't exactly have karate in mind when she was doing them like he clearly hoped for them to.

By the time lunch rolled around, Emilia was practically crawling out of her skin in anticipation, not being able to wait to see the grumpy boy again- Roman. He had made her laugh, the way his intelligent eyes bore into her own, and yet he could barely muster up more than a word at a time. It intrigued her.

She also thought it would be nice to finally make another friend- considering the homeless one she had befriended wasn't up to Robby's standards. Something about him having a knife and following them home...

The twins had gone into a diner across the street during their mid-day break, each ordering a burger and fries and in Emilia's cake, a strawberry milkshake- quite possibly her favorite thing in the entire world. She had been yet to tell her brother that she was going out tonight, unsure of how he would react.

Well, that wasn't completely true, she knew how he would react. His eyebrows would furrow and a look of concern would overcome his features, skepticism clawing its way into his expression as he would begin to integrate her about whoever she was going out with. And considering it was a guy she had coincidentally ran into a couple times and only knew the name of, she wouldn't be surprised if Robby opted for locking her in a tower like Rapunzel and throwing away the key.

He just wanted to look out for her, always wanting what was in her best interest, and she knew that... but she just wanted this one thing for herself.

While she loved her brother dearly and would do absolutely anything in the world for him, the two were hardly ever apart- much less have time to form their own lives away from one another. She just wanted a friendship that she could cherish for herself.

And it wasn't like she was lying to him. He hadn't asked her if she was doing anything that night, so she just hadn't brought it up.

Emilia clapped her hands together once in excitement as the waitress brought over their food, earning an amused look from the older woman as she set the plates down and went on her way after receiving a 'thank you' from both twins.

"Excited much?" Robby teased, popping a fry in his mouth and watching as his sister hurriedly ripped the straw out of the paper holding and stuck it into her milkshake.

Before she could even open her mouth to formulate a response, an all too familiar voice called out from behind them, causing both of the Keene's to tense at the same time.

"Yo, yo, yo, job kids." Trey said in way of greeting, strolling from the door to their table and plopping down in the seat next to Emilia with a smug look resting upon her features, either not noticing or not caring about the way the girl shifted slightly farther to the right in her seat upon him doing so.

Robby noticed, though, and it caused him to level a hard gaze at the boy across from him, but it quickly skidded to the side as Cruz dropped down into the open seat by his side, "Nice shirt, bro." He commented sarcastically, "You too." He threw a wink at Emilia, who dipped her head in discomfort.

"Yeah, man, looks like they're taking that job thing real serious." The boy beside her mocked, smirk pulling at his lips, before sobering up a bit, "I thought you just wanted to piss off your dad."

Wisley, the Keene boy placed a facade over his features, a smirk to match the boys acquired on his face, "I am. We're gonna quit soon." He lied with ease.

"It's a boring job anyways." Emilia interjected, going along with it just as easily as her brother was. She normally didn't condone lying, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

Trey nodded in approval, "Oh, okay, cool. We got an idea we wanna run by you."

Emilia shifted in her seat, eyes shooting to her brother and briefly having their gazes lock, they both knew what the boys meant. Another one of their illegal jobs. Emilia was certain that they were one bad day away from getting caught- and getting caught meant getting arrested.

"We're on our lunch break." The brunette boy tried to deflect.

"Not today. We're talking about tonight." Cruz leaned forward in his seat.

To his credit, Robby didn't let his mask crack for a second, "Oh yeah?" They echoed in agreement, "What's the plan?"

Trey leaned forward as well, as if he had just had the most revolutionary of ideas, "LaRusso's Luxury Motors."

It was only then that both of the twins' expressions crumpled, Emilia imminently feeling her heart sink in her chest. This was not good.

"What are you talking about?" Robby demanded, apparently abandoning the charade he had been keeping up all together, "Look, we can't steal a car."

"Dude, relax. We're not gonna steal a car."

"We're talking about auto parts. Like rims, stereos. Shit made out of chrome and shit. You know?"

The two unwelcomed boys sitting at the table were growing more and more idiotic with every moment that passed in Emilia's eyes. She bit down on her bottom lip to keep herself from saying anything.

Luckily, Robby did all the talking for her, "I don't know, guys."

"Dude, you don't have to do anything." Trey argued, frustration building up in his tone, "Just give us the security code. We'll let ourselves in."

"We don't have the code." Emilia spoke as if it were obvious- which it was- causing all three boys heads to turn to her, "We just started these jobs, they don't even trust us with the keys to the bathroom yet." She deadpanned.

"I'm sure you two can figure something out. You always do." The boy insisted.

"Unless he doesn't want to..." Cruz cut in, jutting out his bottom lip in a fake pouting manner.

Trey put on a charade of revolution, leaning back in his chair, "Oh, and then we would have a bigger problem." He turned to Emilia, "Yeah, remember what we did to that bitch-ass kid over in Ventura?" The boy reached his hand out, looking as though he were idly reaching for a stray strand of her hair.

The girl was quick to pull herself back, eyes wide and lips parted slightly at the sheer audacity he had to try and touch her hair whilst threatening her and her brother.

Robby looked seconds away from lunging across the table. The only thing probably stopping him was all of the witnesses that mulled around the diner. He settled for balling his hands into tight fits until his knuckles turned white and glaring dangerously at the boy next to his sister.

"Oh, yeah, that was unfortunate." Cruz mused, hand tapping against his chin in a thinking manner. Both of them pretended not to know Emilia's plain discomfort and Robby's continued struggle to keep his temper under control.

Trey purposefully sent a long glance to the girl beside him once more before dragging his eyes back in front of him, "But we're not gonna have a bigger problem, are we, Robby?"

.·͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙　✩　*̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙ .

After Cruz and Trey had slunk away, victorious smirks upon their faces and stances at ease- a stark contrast to the Keene twins they left behind- Robby had gently nudged his sister towards finishing her food, though she hardly felt like eating any more.

The only thing she did was finish off her strawberry milkshake.

It was silent as Robby finished his food, seemingly deep in thought, and when he finally finished, his eyes met Emilia's. He had told her that he thought she should go home for the rest of the day, he would tell Mr. and Mrs. LaRusso that she wasn't feeling well. He told her that he wanted her to stay far away from the vehicle shop for the rest of the day.

She had gone to argue, but he had softened his voice and promised her that he wasn't going to assist the two of them in robbing the LaRusso's- both of whom have been nothing but absolutely kind to the two of them.

Emilia had made him promise once more that he too would stay far away after finishing the work day off, before hesitantly relenting and parting ways with him outside of the diner with the promise to go straight back to the apartment.

At least she wouldn't have to come up with an excuse to sneak out to the arcade anymore.

Instead, she used her now free time to get back home and change out of her work clothes into a tank top and jeans and was able to open up her sketchbook on the couch for a little bit and begin sketching.

By the time she looked back up at the clock, it was time to go. She was giddy with excitement, a smile was pulled on her lips as she walked in the direction that she knew the arcade to be in, having just enough time to get there on foot and not having to go through the hassle of public transportation.

A breeze cut briskly at her exposed skin, and as she wrapped her arms around herself whilst coming to the realization that while she looked cute, she had not dressed in the most appropriate manner considering the weather.

Welp, beauty is pain.

A smile tugged at her lips at the sight of Roman leaning against the brick wall of the arcade entrance, head resting against it and eyes facing the sky upwards.

As quietly as she could, Emilia crept over to him, turning her head up to face the world above them, "Beautiful, isn't it?" She spoke softly, grin widening at the way his eyes flickered over to her in surprise, not having realized that she had arrived.

The sky truly was beautiful in that moment, the sunset offering an array of pinks and oranges to be bled out into the vast oneness above them. What the girl wouldn't do in that moment for just the right paints and an easel.

"Yeah, I guess." The boy muttered, though he didn't look back up at it as his eyes stayed trained on the girl beside him.

Tearing her eyes away from the gorgeous colors, she beamed up at him, "Thanks for meeting me here, I can't wait." She told him honestly, "I love arcades. But really the arcade games- arcades themselves are sometimes gross and smell like old pizza. And then people are usually sweaty- but that's all the bad stuff! There's so much more good! Skeeball is my favorite game, and I always win a lot of tickets with that one-"

As she rambled, Roman continued to gaze at her, seemingly absorbing and processing her every word, not just zoning out as people often did when she got excited and went on a tangent about something.

The girl finally cut herself off, catching onto the way she hadn't stopped talking by the way she was out of breath already. She smiled sheepishly, "Sorry, I tend to do that a lot." She had grown used to apologizing for her overly-energetic attitude a long time ago.

Roman simply shrugged, "I noticed." He spoke, and just as her expression was about to falter, he added, "But I don't mind."

Emilia's smile came back in full force as she eagerly stuck her arm out and gently grabbed onto the brunette boy's sweatshirt, beginning to tug him inside, "Come on, I can't wait!" She exclaimed in excitement, head turning just in time to miss the way the boy's lips began to tug upwards.

As soon as they stepped inside, she gasped in awe, taking in the array of colors and sounds coming from every which way and combining into one beautiful scene. All but shaking in anticipation, she turned to the tall boy beside her, "What do you want to do first?" She questioned.

His eyes flickered down to her face before around to the space before him before pointing to the corner, "Let's do skeeball." He suggested.

It was as if every time he thought her smile couldn't get any bigger, he would be proven wrong and it would do just that. She almost squealed as she began dragging the boy in that direction once more, "That's my favorite game! How did you know?" Though the question came out, she hadn't really expected an answer. She had apparently already forgotten that she had told him as such merely a few moments prior.

Just as she reached into her pocket for a few quarters, a hand stuck out in front of her and placed some in both the game in front of her and the one beside her. Her eyes flickered up to Roman in surprise, the first emotion other than utter joy she had yet to show, "Oh, you didn't have to-"

"It's no problem." He shrugged her off, and before she could protest further, the music from the game coming to life sounded through the speakers and snatched her attention once more.

Quickly, she and Roman each picked up one of the balls and eagerly began rolling them across the surface in an attempt to get them through the correct rings.

Laughter bubbled up from inside the girl as one of hers took a very odd turn and ended up going straight through to the regular hole with no points awarded, and the sound caused the boy beside her to glance in her direction, as if the mere sound of her laughter was drawing him in.

When the game was over, Emilia was quick to send Roman a congratulatory high five seeing as he had won by well over two hundred points. And just like that, she was pulling him off to the next game, and then another, and another.

Each time, the girl would try to pull out some of the quarters that she had scraped together in anticipation for today, and each time the boy would beat her to it, dropping enough money in for the both of them to play.

When she had finally insisted on keeping a tally of the amount of money she owed him, Roman had finally let a smirk grow onto his features and assured her that she could try before continuing with the basketball game that he had just paid for them to play.

Emilia had stared at him in shock for a few seconds before shaking her head slightly to herself and picking up her own basketball, attempting to get more in than him. Once again, she found herself laughing hysterically, and she was pleased to see a smile on the accompanying boys face as well.

"Ha! I finally beat you!" She giggled, throwing her hands into the air and pointing at him in victory.

He seemed to be fighting off a larger smile as he spoke, "Just wait until the rematch-" He was cut off as another body stumbled into him from behind, sending them both slightly off balance.

"Oh, shoot, man. I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to- Oh, Roman. Hey." The surprised voice of a black haired boy cut himself off as both of them straightened up, "I didn't expect to see you here. How are you doing?"

Any trace of a smile had vanished from Roman's face, replaced with something similar to a scowl as he stared at the boy, "Hey." Was all he muttered out in return, suddenly the same facade of a boy that Emilia had quite literally run into on the first day they had met.

"Hi!" She chirped, interjecting when it became apparent that the boy she was there with was making no sort of effort to dig himself out of the uncomfortable silence that had fallen over them, "I'm Emilia! It's nice to meet you!" She stuck a hand out with a friendly smile.

The boy smiled back, "Nice to meet you, too. I'm Miguel, Roman and I go to school together. We sit next to each other in biology."

Roman was still yet to say another word, though he did shift and cross his arms over his chest. Emilia figured that might be his way of confirming the statement.

"Cool! Are you having fun? Do you like arcades? I love arcades!" She chatted away happily, as if she had known Miguel for years and not mere moments.

The boy took it all in stride, however, smiling and nodding enthusiastically back, "Yeah! I love arcades too, I'm here with my... friend right now." He glanced backwards towards the Dance Revolution that he must have accidentally stumbled off of and into Roman. A girl was dancing on it by herself, seemingly too absorbed in the game to realize that her partner had fallen off.

Emilia's grin widened and she wiggled her eyebrows at him, "Well, have fun with your... friend." She teased, despite having known the boy for barely a whole minute.

He laughed, seemingly enjoying the overly-friendly girls' company before giving a wave to the two, "I should get back to her, speaking of. It was nice to see you, Roman. And nice to meet you, Emilia!"

The girl happily waved him off before turning back to Roman, electing to ignore his sheer rudeness towards his classmate, "He was nice." She commented, already walking off towards the next game.

"I guess," The boy grumbled, falling into step beside her, "He was trying to recruit me to join his karate dojo the other day. Told him that his sensei saw me arguing with a dick football player in the parking lot after school and called me the 'most badass kid in the Valley'." His words were accompanied by an eyeroll, "Whatever that's supposed to mean."

"Did you join?" Emilia asked, moving towards a classic Pac-Man machine that sat towards the center of the building.

He scoffed loudly, "No."

Confusion pulled at her features, "Why not? That seems like it would be a lot of fun, plus the teacher already seems to like you. So you get to start off on his good side!"

Roman paused in his steps and studied the girl, "You think I should join some lame karate studio?"

She shrugged happily, "Why not? At least think about it! If I were the least bit athletically inclined, I would even join one! It's a great way to make friends."

Though it was clear that the boy couldn't care less about the last part of her statement, he hesitated, "I'll think about it." He murmured after a moment, placing a quarter into the machine with ease and allowing it to start up for the girl.

Emilia grinned up at him as the machine roared to life, "That's all I ask." She replied, "I think you would do really well in karate."

Somehow, she missed the way Roman's eyes stayed on her throughout the entirety of the game, not once straying from her features, even when she let out joking exclamations at the game.

A/N: People have been begging me to update this story for a while, sorry it took me so long to get around to it!