Magic Knight Rayearth Fan Fiction ❯ Cross ❯ A Medium Strawberry and we'll go from There... ( Chapter 15 )

Chapter: XIII

A Medium, Strawberry, and We'll go From There. . .

"So many flavors. . . It's hard to choose. . ."

"Hikaru," Umi huffed, "Just hurry up and pick one already!"

"But I can't decide. You pick it for me."

"Fine," she snapped, "This one."

"But I had Chocolate Mint the last time I was here."

Umi glanced over the various assortments of ice cream and tasted the milkshake that she had opted to buy, "Then how about Cookie Dough?"

"May I have one double scoop of Strawberry please?" Hikaru asked the women behind the counter. She then quickly added. "In a bowl. . . Not a cone." Then as an after thought, she also said, "please".

"Or you can ignore what I said." Umi took another sip of her shake as Hikaru made her purchase.

"Thank you." The red head said with enthusiasm.

Upon leaving the shop, the question of their next destination came up and it was decided that they would browse through a few clothing shops near by and then perhaps head over to the Ryuuzaki house hold.

Licking at the melting ice cream, Hikaru asked "How long before Fuu comes back?"

Umi thought a moment, "It shouldn't be too long now. She left what? Roughly a month before Lantis appeared? That makes it the end of next month that she'll be back-or maybe the start of the month after that. At any rate, I'll ask her the next time I'm in my e-mail account."

Finishing her ice cream, Hikaru threw her plastic bowl and spoon into a nearby garbage can.

"Finished already?"

Hikaru turned and nodded. "Yup," she licked her lips. They were slightly sticky, a result from the ice cream she had so enjoyed.

"You've got some of it on your chin." Umi announced. Yet another sip was taken of her milkshake. She lifted the lid and peered inside; half of the thick liquid remained.

Hikaru wiped her chin with her hand. "Did I get it?"

"Nope. Didn't you grab a few napkins before we left?"

"No. I didn't think I'd need them."

Umi groaned. "Thinking you don't need a napkin? That's like thinking you don't need air to breathe."

"I'm sorry. Now did I get it?"

Umi shook her head then unzipped one of the small compartments of her school bag. She retrieved her package of Kleenex, and pulled out a single tissue. It was better than nothing. After putting the package away she took a step towards Hikaru, covering the short distance between them. "Here, hold still."

Hikaru's hand came up to stop Umi's as the tissue made contact. "It's okay. I can do myself."

"It's done now." She said, retracting her hand. "H-Hey."

Hikaru skipped a few feet ahead of Umi; milkshake in hand.

"Give it back that's mine!"

"What? I want to try it."

"You could at least ask first, y'know."

Hikaru shrugged, and was just about to take a sip when Umi commented, "drink it then. But don't wear it."

Hikaru grinned, and rather than drinking from the straw, as she had intended, she took off the lid and drank straight from the cup.

Irritation crossed over Umi's face as Hikaru handed back her drink and smiled at her with a milkshake mustache. "Hikaru!"

A few passers by, had turned their heads at Umi's out burst.

"What?" she asked innocently.

"You know exactly what!"

"I have no idea what you're talking about." She said as she licked away what she could of the milkshake and wiped the rest with her hand.

Umi downed the rest of her shake and ran at Hikaru.

"Woa!" Hikaru too broke into a run as Umi chased her down the street. When she'd finally caught up with the red head, she began tickling her sides.

"Wah! No-ho-ho-ho Stop. . . please!" She wriggled away from Umi with a bit of a pant.

"Hey, do you want to go in?" Umi asked, as she gestured towards the bookstore several feet away.

"I thought we were going clothing shopping."

"You don't want to go in?"

"Let's go." She said, taking a step forward.

Loopy Hikaru; Umi shrugged and followed her. Once inside they went off in different directions. The Water Knight briefly glanced through the fiction section, picked up several books only to put them back feeling disappointed in how the first few pages read. She browsed through the section of foreign literature which of course, was translated, and later found herself scanning through various Japanese to English dictionaries and a few fairly comprehensive looking English grammar books.

Every so often Maxwell; would revert to speaking English-specifically when she really aggravated him. Which, depending on how one looked at it; was a good thing. Especially when one considered that, though she was struggling with the course this year, she really did have an interest for the language and was planning on majoring in English when she entered into her post secondary schooling. Perhaps her minor would be World History, or maybe Business. That would probably be best. . . She could pick up some words and a couple simple sentences that Maxwell spoke, but it was hard to follow what he was saying when he went into a rant and started speaking fast, or in slang. She wanted a better dictionary then the one she had- which, for someone who so fancied English, was only a standard book.

"Thought I'd find you here."

"Huh?" Umi looked up to see Hikaru. "Oh, yeah."

"Did you find anything interesting?"

"A book on the French Revolution-I don't think I'll buy it though. How about you?"

"A Book of Five Rings-"

"Why would you need that? I thought your family already owned a copy."

"Ours is falling apart, so I thought I'd pick up a newer version. I also found a few kendo books that I thought some of our students might be interested in flipping through."

"Anything for you?"

"A samurai graphic novel," She held it up for Umi to see.

"For you?"

"Well, and for Kakeru."

"I thought so."

"Just about ready to go?"

"Yeah. I think I'll buy a grammar book, a dictionary and forgo clothes shopping. Are you okay with that?"

"Sounds good."

They made their purchases and exited the store.

"Oh, Umi? Can we stop when we near a phone booth? I should call home. I didn't tell anyone that I was going to be out with you after school."

"How could you? We just sort of crossed paths and went off from there."

"Still."

"I'll keep my eyes out. I'd let you use my cell, but Maxwell somehow got a hold of it and drained the batteries playing games."

"You left it lying around again didn't you?"

"Shut up," she said coldly. Her attitude then pulled a one-eighty. "Anyway, what are we going to do for Fuu when she comes back?"

"A Party! A Party!" Hikaru chimed. "Let's hold a party for her at my house!"

"Well, that's one suggestion."

"No, it's the only suggestion."

"What if I want the party at my house? It might make more sense, don't you think? At your house it will go something like this: `Welcome back Fuu'- Eeeeiaaaa Meeeeennnn!!!" Umi motioned to attack the head of her made up target.

"Your footwork's all wrong."

"That's not the point! I doubt Fuu or I would care to listen to your kendo classes screaming at the top of their lunges for three hours."

"You've got a point. . . okay, we'll have the welcome back party at your house." Hikaru announced. "I kind of wish we could pick Fuu up at the air port though."

"Phone booth."

"Where?"

"Over there."

"I'll be back in a minute."

"Sure." Umi waited patiently as Hikaru made her call.

"Okay, we can go." The red head declared after hanging up the receiver and joining Umi.

"Who did you get on the line?"

"Masaru."

"I thought he'd be working by this time."

"He doesn't go in until eight tonight I don't think."

"Another late night for him I guess. How does he manage it? Going to University and juggling a job at the same time. . . I don't think I could do it and I'm in high school."

"He's too stubborn to let Satoru nii-sama worry about money on his own so he tries to keep himself from being a drain on the family by contributing what he can, while also saving up about half what he makes. It's a bit admirable don't you think?"

"I guess."

"But then Satoru nii-sama starts to worry that Masaru will burn out-which every so often he does and he ends up either quitting or getting fired. Then when he gets back on his feet and back on track with his studies, he goes and applies for part-time work again."

"Starting the grueling process all over again," Umi added.

Hikaru nodded. "But he's kept this one for a while now."

"Oh? How long has he been working there for?"

"Four or five months I think."

"And what exactly is his job?"

"He works for a catering company. Because of his line of work, the hours and amount time he works per week fluctuates quite a bit. They're fairly well known though, so Masaru usually works at least once a week. But sometimes he's called in three or four times."

"Hmmm…" was all Umi said in response.

"It works for him and when there are leftovers; Masaru generally brings whatever he can manage home for us."

Conversation fell onto another topic soon after and it wasn't long before they'd made their way over to a train station.

"I had a strange dream a few nights ago," Hikaru said as they made their way over to the appropriate platform.

"Me too."

"What was yours about Umi?"

Umi shook her head. "You go first."

"Satoru and I opened up a noodle hut off the eastern coast for some reason. And some restaurant owner kept throwing sushi at me."

"Okay. . ."

"That's not all. At one point, it turned into this portable oil rig, thing that started sinking with us on it. You were cutting a picture out of a credit card and you said, `this better work or I'm going to be really pissed' `cause you wanted to swipe it through one of those machines" she made wild hand gestures as she said this.

"That sounds like something I'd say."

"And someone kept saying `up'."

Umi checking to see if the train was coming; she could see two parallel lights down the tunnel.

"Is it coming?" Umi nodded. When it arrived, the two girls waited for several passengers to get off, before they stepped on. Shortly after that, the doors closed and the train resumed its travel.

"So," Hikaru began as she looked through the nearby window which was about a meter away from where she currently stood. "What was your dream about?"

Umi was quiet for a moment. "My dream. . ." she was hesitant to say anything. A few nights ago she'd had several dreams but the one which stood out the most and the one with images periodically playing in her head was the one where a rather naked, and somewhat older version of herself was getting hot and heavy with a man who bore a striking resemblance to the Autozam commander-two years deceased. She strained to remember her other dreams. Perhaps she could omit talking about her erotic one. Umi decided to start over. "It started with me sitting in my classroom- actually, it wasn't but it was supposed to be."

"Uh, huh. I know what you mean. It happens to me all the time-when I'm dreaming."

"You were sitting at the desk in front of mine and you kept turning around to talk to me. When the bell rang we got up and left, so I guess it was supposed to be the end of that school day, but once we stepped through the door, we were suddenly in Tokyo tower only you weren't there anymore." She paused when the train slowed to a stop; being that Hikaru and her were obstructing the other passengers' way the two girls had to shuffle about so they could pass.

"You were saying?" Hikaru asked.

"I-"

A girl looking about the same age as the Water Knight had bumped into her. "I'm sorry, I lost my balance."

Umi's attention fell onto the girl, "It's alright."

The girl stared at her and Umi began to feel uncomfortable. The girl noticed, "Oh, I'm sorry, but you are Captain Ryuuzaki Umi aren't you?"

Umi blinked, "Do I know you?"

"Yes, I was a member of the fencing team in our junior high school. I'm Yoko Izumi"

"Yoko? Wait you had to leave the fencing team or something right?"

"We moved because my father lost his job. I wound up attending a public school for a while."

"How are you doing now?"

"Good."

"I'm glad to hear it. Do you still fence?"

"No."

"That's too bad-Oh, I almost forgot. Let me introduce you to Shidou Hikaru."

"It's a pleasure to meet you," the two strangers politely chorused.

Hikaru faded into the background as Umi and Izumi conversed for much of the train ride.

Thus, she busied herself with the comics section of a newspaper that someone had left on one of the seats.

"Shit!" The cry startled Hikaru as well as several other people.

The red head looked up from her paper. "Aiya," she said as several pages slipped out onto the floor. She scrambled to pick them up and Umi kneeled down to help her.

"What's wrong?"

"My stop was two stations back!" Izumi glanced down at her watch, "I'm going to be late! Damn it." the train came to its next stop.

"I'm sorry," Umi said as she righted herself. "I didn't mean to distract you."

"Thanks Umi," Hikaru said quickly into her ear as she stood up.

"It's okay, this isn't the first time this has happened to me. It was nice to see you again Captain. Good luck with your next match, bye!" Umi waved after Izumi as she dashed off.

The doors closed and their transportation was once again on the move.

The rest of the voyage was relatively quiet. The two girls chatted leisurely but the topic of Umi's dream was untouched. Mainly due to the interruption of Umi's former team mate; the discussion had slipped Hikaru's mind and when it was questioned what they'd previously been chatting about, Umi had made no attempt at reminding her fellow Knight.

Upon reaching the Ryuuzaki residence, conversation had fallen, for not the first time, onto Hikaru's beau. Questions such as how things were going between her and Lantis had snowballed into more personal inquiries to which Hikaru would have preferred they not delve into. Unfortunately for her, Umi was particularly interested in regards to the subject and she knew that to attempt to change the topic would be rather fruitless.

They were now walking up the stairs leading to Umi's room, where their little discussion continued.

"How far have we come along?" Hikaru repeated. She had taken a seat at the edge of Umi's bed.

"Have the two of you, Y'know-" her back was to Hikaru as she said this fore she was putting her purchases away.

Hikaru's eyes widened and her head shook furiously from side to side with a deep blush.

"He'd be a dead man if you guys had." Umi said not all that gravely.

"You sound like you almost want us to."

Umi grabbed her desk's chair and dragged it over, where Hikaru was and sat down a few feet away from her, "If you stay with the guy I assume it will be inevitable."

Hikaru nervously laughed at that. "Well later on down the road I suppose we will when we get married or something."

"Married huh? So you'll be Mrs. . . uh, He doesn't have a last name. . .we could always make up one I guess."

"I thought you already gave him a last name."

"I was joking around with that. No, he needs a real last name- or I guess we could always give him yours."

"Well I don't need to worry about that anytime soon now do I?"

"Should I put on some music?"

Hikaru nodded. Umi stood up and walked over to her CD collection. "Any preferences?"

"No. Whatever's fine."

"Have the two of you ever talked about where you want to go with your relationship?"

Hikaru thought a moment, "no, not really." Music started to play as Umi grabbed her comb and headed back over to where she was. "What's there for us to talk about? We already know how we feel about each other, so what would be the point?"

Umi shook her head. "Take out your braid; I'll comb your hair."

"Oh, okay."

"What am I going to do with you Hikaru?"

"What?"

"If you don't talk to Lantis, how will you know how serious he wants to get? Maybe he won't want to make a life time commitment to you. Not all guys are like my father."

Hikaru dismissed Umi's comments, "I'm not worried about that."

"Nonetheless, you should still talk to him about stuff like that."

"When? My brothers are almost always around, it's a little difficult. And constantly walking around with his hand held in mine would be conspicuous."

"Eh?"

"Didn't I tell you? Sometimes Lantis and I can communicate with each other without speaking. Sort of like telepathy only we need to be in physical contact with each other. And it's not so much that we can hear each others thoughts, but rather we can feel each others emotions." Hikaru announced, looking quite proud of herself.

Umi stopped combing through the crimson sea of tangles. "Oh, really? And when did you come to discover this?"

"Not that long ago."

Umi's palm came over Hikaru's forehead. "Getting anything?"

"Hmmm. . . no."

Umi resumed combing, "Maybe it only works if one of you is Cephirian."

Hikaru shrugged.

"So, how are you enjoying your stay in Tokyo?" asked Kakeru. He was currently assembling the right arm from his recently bought model kit.

"It's alright." He said as he looked through the small manual of his model kit. Squinted several time only to say, "Forget it, I'll just wing it."

Kakeru snatched Maxwell's manual. "Having trouble reading it?"

"Yeah."

"Because of the kanji Max?" he'd taken to the shortened version of Maxwell's name.

"There's hiragana too though. I think it's mostly because I need to get my eyes checked. I've been straining my eyes to see clearly and I think that's why I've been having head aches off and on."

"Hmm…"

"I think I'll ask Mrs. Ryuuzaki if she could set up an appointment for me with an optometrist."

"Probably a good idea," Kakeru replied as he snapped together another piece. "Do you paint the mecha when you finish building it?"

"No. not usually," he went to work on the mid section of his model.

"Oh? Why's that?"

Maxwell shrugged. "Too much of a hassle, I guess. Not to mention, my painting skills aren't all that great."

"When you go, leave it here. I'll get Masaru to do it. He used to collect mecha model kits from various series so he's become fairly good at painting them."

"Cool."

"Yeah, I don't have `the artist's eye' either, so I usually have him paint mine anyway, so he won't mind too much I don't think."

For a while, nothing much was said between the two of them.

"Shit." Kakeru uttered; at last breaking the silence.

This drew the other young man's attention. He looked up from his work on the small plastic body. "What's wrong?"

"The thing broke off in the leg and now it won't properly connect to the lower body. See."

"Damn."

"I'll have to glue it into place- good thing this isn't a transformer." He went over to his desk and searched the draws. "Maybe Masaru's got some of that Cement Glue in his room. . .I'll be back in a minute."

"Shortly after Kakeru left, Maxwell heard the phone ringing in the near distance. It stopped and within a minute, an older Shidou-Satoru came and informed him that who ever had called, called for him.

Maxwell followed Satoru out into the kitchen where a diner was currently in the process of being prepared. He went over to the phone as Satoru tended to the stove, Kakeru entered the kitchen just as he was about to speak to the person on the other end of the line.

"Hello? Oh, hello Mrs. Ryuuzaki. I'm doing quite well thank you. . .yes. . .yes okay."

Kakeru walked over to the fridge and retrieved a jug of juice. He looked to Maxwell and gestured to it. Maxwell nodded. Thus Kakeru poured two glasses.

"Diner? When will it be?" He took the glass from Kakeru. "When he returns from work. . . which will be? Oh, alright then." He took a quick sip as he listened to her. "I'll be back shortly. Okay. Yeah. Good bye."

"You have to leave soon?"

Maxwell nodded. "Actually, it's probably best if I go now."

"I'll walk you up the road."

"Good," Satoru interrupted. "Then you can take Hikari out for Hikaru."

"Satoru," Kakeru whined. "Why do I have to. Why can't Masaru do it? Or Lan?"

"You are going out anyway. Why not take him?"

"I'm not going to get out of this am I."

"I doubt it."

"Fine, fine."

Hikari's tail wagged enthusiastically and as usual, Kakeru had a bit of trouble controlling the dog. "Easy boy," he'd said several times. The dog kept swerving from one side of the sidewalk to the other and wrapped his leash around Kakeru's once already.

"Can I walk him?" Maxwell asked. He took the leash from Kakeru and he ended up getting dragged a bit by Hikari; he seemed to be enjoying himself though.

"Wish I had a dog, my mom's allergic to animal fur though, so I can't." He announced, once they'd hit the bottom of the street. He gave Hikari a pat on the head and handed the leash back to Kakeru. "I'll see you later okay?"

Kakeru nodded, "see ya." With that, Maxwell headed off.

<Authors Note: This chapter has certainly been a long time coming. See the problem was, that I'd start writing this chapter but then I wouldn't like how it was turning out so I'd scrap the idea. In actuality, I've writing chapter 13 about six times. Sigh. . . but it's finally here so be happy. You will be happy!

(Check out my Bio for more info on Cross and other fics)

"A Book of Five Rings" is a book written by Miyamoto Musashi a very publicized historical figure of feudal Japan. The tale of this man can be read in the manga "Vagabond" which is currently being published by viz, you can also read the novel that is about him which is titled simply "Musashi", there also is or was a television series about him that started up several months ago in Japan. . .