Magic Knight Rayearth Fan Fiction ❯ Cross ❯ Fiancee? Nani?! ( Chapter 9 )

Chapter: VII

Fiancée? Nani?

"You jerk!" Umi shouted across the room. No doubt about it now, she knew exactly who he was.

"I guess you do remember me after all," the stranger replied brightly. Umi merely stood silently; sending him death glares. "But now I'm suddenly wishing you didn't."

"Uh, Umi? What's going on? You know this guy?" Hikaru innocently questioned. She had no idea what was going on. It seemed as though they both knew each other but…

"We're old friends," the blond butted in.

"You…" there was rage in her low voice and Hikaru took a step back as Umi took a step forward towards him and pointed her index finger at him. "You killed my hair!" she bellowed.

It was then that her parents decided to make their presence known. "Oh, hello Hikaru, what a pleasant surprise! It's so nice to see you with your hair down for a change!" Umi's mother beamed, as her father merely stood their flipping through his morning paper.

"Uh, good morning Mrs. Ryuuzaki."

"Mother, what is he doing here?"

"It's not nice to point at people dear," was all she said, as Umi feel over in a very anime-like style.

"Didn't we tell you Umi?" her father asked as he glanced over one of the sports articles. "Your mother and I made arrangements with the Claytons for their son to stay with us for a while."

"What?"

"Oh, dear. We must have forgotten to tell her…"

This time both Umi and the blond haired boy feel over while Hikaru simply sweat dropped.

Umi's mother took a moment and thought that over, "No wait, I remember now. We decided to not tell her so that it would be a surprise. Well Umi, are you surprised?"

The sixteen year olds eye brows twitched as she took in a deep breath. "Oh, I'm surprised alright…" she glanced over at Hikaru, who was at the moment looking over to see if Hikari was okay. `Crap! Stupid jerk, he almost made me forget about the

Sweater…' without saying anything, she sent another death glare towards the blond haired man and dashed off upstairs.

"Jeez. It's been ten years; you'd think she'd get over it…" the golden blond said to no one in particular.

"Huh? Get over what?" Hikaru asked sheepishly.

"Oh, uh… About ten years ago, right before I moved away, I kind of, accidentally…" His hand came up and scratched the back of his head as he slowly continued. "Well let's just say there was an incident involving Umi's hair that I'd really rather not elaborate on…" he laughed lightly and Hikaru just stood there. "Oh, but you must forgive my rudeness, I haven't properly introduced myself yet have I, Red?" he said as he took her hand in his.

She took a step backwards; "R-Red?" was all she seemed to be able to say.

"I'm Maxwell Clayton," he suddenly combed his fingers briefly through his hair, pulling back the bangs that shagged in his eyes. "Or rather, Clayton Maxwell, seventeen years old eleventh grade," he said as he lightly kissed her backhand. "And it's a pleasure to meet someone as beautiful as you."

"I-Uh…" Hikaru was taken a back slightly. `Is he… hitting on me?'

"He's Umi's fiancée." Mrs. Ryuuzaki stated as she playfully tugged at her husband's sleeve. Hikaru stood their wide-eyed in shock as her heard the sound of a kettle boiling in the background, "Come along dear." She said as she dragged her husband into the kitchen.

It was only after the duo left the room and when Hikaru heard the light pound of foots steps racing down the nearby stairs that the words fully sank in. "You're Umi's WHAT!!!!?"

The blue haired girl quickly whipped down the stairs at the sound of the glass shattering, yell that emanated from her friend. As she reached the bottom step, she saw Maxwell just releasing his clutched ears.

"Ow, that hurt…" he said laughing it off. He then gave Hikaru a dashing smile. "Y'know, you're really cute when you're caught off guard."

"Huh?" she lightly asked, being, or was it acting? As though she was clueless to the fact that he was hitting on her.

Umi then tackled him and put him in a chokehold. His arms flailed and he cried out in surprise. "Heh, and you're an idiot when you're caught off guard. But then again that's you all the time."

"Umi-chan… I can't breathe…" He cried out. As his knees buckled and gave way.

"Umi-san!" she corrected him as she pinned him to the ground.

"Y-you!" Umi's head darted up to find Hikaru's index finger pointing at her, then moved and was directed at the teen under her. "He…? Flanagan Joe?"

"Can we try that again in an actual language?" Umi huffed, as Maxwell pounded the floor with his fist vainly attempting to breathe.

"You two are getting married?!" Hikaru shouted as she forced her words to make sense.

Umi looked down at him and instantly got off him, standing up right. "No way! Not in a million years!"

"I can breathe again," Maxwell said, overjoyed. He still lye on the floor gaping for air but he was happy non the less.

"I wouldn't marry this "jerk" if he was the last guy on the planet!" Umi continued.

"Jerk?" The blond young man asked, then placed a hand over his heart, "That hurts."

"But your mom said you two are each other's fiancée," Hikaru pointed out.

"We're not!" Maxwell shouted, "I mean, not really. Well, uh… We're sort of more like each other's intended."

"Intended?"

"It's kinda complicated," he stated.

"No, it's just really weird." Umi interjected.

"Well it was your parents who came up with this arrangement!"

"When our parents' first spoke about it, I seem to remember yours were rather thrilled at the prospect of you eventually marrying me!" She said as she turned her face to the side and stood arrogantly with her eyes shut, a light smirk on her face.

"Boy were my folks ever wrong on that call!"

Her eyes shot open and she faced him, "What-Just what are you implying there?" Both of them sent unhappy glares at each other, when Hikaru made a dumb attempt at relieving some of the tension.

"Well, you know what they say, opposites attract right?" she nervously said as she desperately tried to neutralize the negative atmosphere with her positive, perky self.

Both teens suddenly turned on her and yelled in unison, "DON'T EVEN JOKE ABOUT THIS!"

`Mental note: from now on, don't go near Umi until she's had her morning coffee…'

"Would anyone care for a nice, hot cup of coffee?" Umi's mother called from the kitchen.

The death glares turned into big, happy smiles, "Coffee!" they both yelled and dashed off as though they were two small children who had been told they were going off to the candy store.

"And Umi says I'm childish…" The red headed girl announced as she smirked and headed into the kitchen as well. "Hey, Umi? Sorry I can't hang out but I really need to get going…"

"Oh, so I guess you're wanting this," the water knight stated after sipping the hot drink. She went to hand her the fuzzy, purple, hooded sweater when a thought occurred to her and just as Hikaru was about to take it, she pulled it back, out of the other girl's grasp. "It's pretty chilly…" A sly grin crept up the side of her face. "Why not warm yourself up with a nice hot cup of coffee before you go?"

"Coffee? Oh, no that's okay." Hikaru had a bad feeling about where Umi was going with this.

"I insist. After all, it's the least you can do after I went out and bought all those nice sets of clothing for your… Ahem, friend."

Hikaru winced slightly; she knew that was coming. She then sighed in defeat and poured herself a cup of the steaming dark coffee. She reached for the sugar container only to have Umi yank it away from her; the red head glanced over at the cream only to have that pulled back out of her grasp as well. "Umi!" Hikaru whined then made a pouty face.

"Alright, Alright, I suppose it would be really cruel of me to make you drink it like that." Umi was sure to pick up one grain and only one grain of sugar and let it fall into the dark beverage, and then poured but one droplet of cream in as well, stirred it and handed it to Hikaru. "Drink up, and remember, you have to drink the whole thing."

"Okay…" the fire knight agreed hesitantly. The cup was brought up to her lips and she looked up, "you do realize that my debt to you will greatly diminish."

"Fine, fine," she said as she went and sat down at the table, she leaned in and watched intently as Hikaru slowly brought the mug closer and closer to her mouth.

The moment of truth: The young girl's eyes widened after quickly downing a large portion of the drink. Instantly she slammed the mug onto the table and it was a wonder it didn't break. She leaned over as her nose wrinkled, "glagh…" she said, and her eyes were wincing. "Blech!" her head shook back and forth, her tongue rolled in her mouth hoping that the horrid taste would just magically go away. Her arms flailed as she danced around in an unhappy state while Umi was using all her power to stop herself from bursting out into laughter.

The blue haired girl couldn't take it anymore. The look on her poor friends face was hysterical. Hikaru never was a coffee fan… She clutched her sides and slunk off her chair onto the floor. "Hi-Karu…" she said between laughs, "the look on your face is just too damn funny!" even the "jerk" and her parents were laughing slightly.

Maxwell held out his hand to help Umi up, "I take it your friend doesn't like coffee much…" he chuckled.

"Hell no! Hey, wait a sec! I'm still mad at you, you Jerk!" she said pushing him away.

"Aren't those two just adorable dear?" Mrs. Ryuuzaki asked her husband.

"Oka-san!"

"Uh, Umi-" Maxwell began but was interrupted by his "fiancée".

"That's Umi-SAN to you!" she shouted.

He ignored her and pointed, "Uh, your friend is…" he pointed towards Hikaru and as she followed his finger, she found Hikaru madly pouring the sugar container into her mug.

"Hikaru! Honestly, you can't be left alone for even two minutes! Now give me that, that's way too much sugar!" she grabbed to container and both struggled to take the sugar away from each other. "Come on! Give it up!" Hikaru pulled back, sugar sprayed all over the place as the two continued to fight.

"I just want a little…" the red head roughly yanked it again, they both lost their balance and fell to the floor but continued to wrestle over it.

Umi's mother laughed as she watched the two fight over the now empty container. "Really, you'd think they were fighting over a bar of gold…"

<Author's Notes: Hey, what's up? Gomen nesai, this chapter is considerably short. I'm also sorry that it's taken me so long to update, it's partially because I've other fan fiction in the works and partially because I've gotten a bit of writer's block for chapter twelve, which is as far as I've written up on paper... I actually had this written up a while back, I just haven't gotten around to posting it. Chapter VIII should be up within a week or so, so don't fret. But why would you? By the reviews it looks like I'm losing readers… Oh well, I'll keep going anyway. I've got at least one fan completely loyal to the fic so if nothing else I'll keep writing it for her… One question though, have I written Hikaru out of character? Someone wrote me an E-mail saying that I did. I'd like you all to remember that she's sixteen in this fic so I figure I can get away with writing her slightly out character at times, cause y'know, people change over time. What do you think? >