Other Fan Fiction / Romance Fan Fiction ❯ Silver and Gold ❯ Silver and Gold ( Chapter 1 )

DISC: I do not own Koukou Debut or the characters, which are owned by Kazune Kawahara. If the Kawahara-sama would like this story removed, I will pull it. I make no money off this story.



"God, this is kind of embarassing!" Haruna hid her face in her hands allowing everyone to witness the new three-stone anniversary ring on her finger in great detail, the luster of the platinum setting with scrollwork, the sparkle of the clear, princess-cut stones.

At 44, Haruna's athletic build gave her a youthful appearance that was upheld by her natural enthusiasm. But the awkwardness of youth was now gone. Instead, she'd grown comfortable in her own skin - no longer trying to be anything other than what she was. She accepted her limitations now as just part of who she was, and instead of railing against her inadequacies, she now could see that they were a part of what made her special - and loved.

Her husband, rather than appearing youthful, maintained the type of agelessness that only those blessed with natural good looks can achieve. A white streak above his left temple merely added a layer of distinguished gentleman to his charm. But the biggest difference in his appearance was the faint trace of smile lines - that had been building since he met and won the love of his life. He reached over and gently squeezed his wife's shoulder. "If you don't want to watch it, we won't."

"Aw. Yoh! Don't be that way," Assa laughed as she popped the disc into the DVD player. "This is history! Don't you want to relive your story on your anniversary?"

That brought a cute smile to two sets of lips, Yoh and Haruna couldn't help but fall into each others' eyes. 'A love to last the ages,' that's what Asaoke said in his toast at their wedding. He'd repeated it again tonight at their anniversary dinner. What a romantic thought. Worthy of inclusion in any of Haruna-chan's shoujo manga.

The picture popped up on the TV, showing a much younger Yoh and Haruna sitting together and looking a bit anxious. "You two just sit there together, and we'll ask you questions," Assa's voice said from offscreen. "Fumiya, you're getting this all on film, right?"

"Yup!"

Shrugging their shoulders, the young couple entwined hands as they sat on the sofa and readied themselves to review their story together. Then it faded into black, with a super reading, "Describing Each Other." this faded into the next scene: the night before their wedding.

Mami & Fumi had approached them individually at their respective parties. Neither one would have expected that what was being recorded would truly be kept for posterity and edited down into a keepsake. Even if they had known, it probably wouldn't have changed anything. Their responses would have been predictable to anyone except their spouse. Neither one of them had ever wasted time on lies or games.

"You want me to tell you about Yoh?"

"Yes," Mami quietly restated the question. "You guys are getting married tomorrow. Tell me how much you love him."

Haruna couldn't help blushing, but it only took her a couple seconds before she was ready to talk. "Yoh is... He's the most handsome man I've ever known in my whole life. And he's so..." She bit her lower lip as she continued, "He's sweet and nice." She grinned from ear to ear. "He's amazing. So smart. It's why everyone trusts him. I knew right away - as soon as he told me he was thinking about becoming a lawyer and eventually running for judge that he'd be perfect at it. He can just see things no one else can... Maybe that's why he can put up with me, right? I mean, who else would have even given me the time of day." Her smile turned dreamy. "He's always been like... He's better than any manga guy - ever. He's just... perfect."

"And he's sexy..." Mami prompted, bringing a bright blush to her friend's cheeks.

"Mami!" she exclaimed outraged.

"Well, don't you think so? You ARE about to marry him!"

She looked down shyly before muttering, "Mm-hm," quietly and nodding.

*****

"Actually, you're even more so now than you were then," Haruna sighed happily and snuggled into her husband's shoulder. "I was so embarassed when I hit you in the head when we were playing baseball with the kids. But... that white stripe..." She reached up and twiddled it with her fingers as she grinned broadly to show how hot she thought her husband was.

A quick flick to the forehead, then, "We're supposed to be watching..." Haruna looked a bit chagrined until she realized that Yoh had pulled her further into his shoulder, and now had his arm around her. She smiled and settled back to watch.

******

The scene on the DVD cut to Yoh, the night before the wedding.

"Haruna is beautiful." Yoh stated simply.

"Ah. So all her work with you as her coach to become attractive paid off then?" Asaoke queried.

Yoh rolled his eyes at his friend. "That's not what I'm talking about. Haruna has the kind of beauty that shines from inside her. She lives her whole life - every second - with her whole heart. She's genuine. And she expects others to be, too. So she takes everyone at face value and doesn't expect more.

"Some people think that makes her simple, but in reality, it makes her pure. She's the best person I've ever met. And anyone who gets to know her feels the same." His smile turned possessive and proud. "Did you know she was the favorite influence listed on most of her graduating students' yearbooks? Her first year, and already her students love her."

"Really?" Fumi countered. "So you're saying she's got inner beauty to make up for not being attractive?"

Yoh's face grew stormy, "Who said she's not attractive?"

"Well, you said she has inner beauty - that THAT is what attracts people to her."

Yoh folded his arms tightly across his chest. "I said Haruna is beautiful."

"Ah, but not sexy," Asaoka teased.

In response, the soon-to-be lawyer/judge turned quite rosy and smiled softly to himself as he replied, "If you think I'm going to brag to my school buddies about how amazing my fiancee is, how beautiful, sexy, and how athletic... Let's just say, I have her, and I'm not about to risk one of you assholes hitting on her. So you're getting nothing out of me!"

Onscreen, it cut from Yoh looking amused, to an art card reading, "They Meet". Then it faded up on the newlyweds on a sofa.

"So... Tell me what did you think when you first met each other?"

"Oh, god!" Haruna buried her face in her hands in an almost eerie recreation of an event that would occur 25 years later. "I knew this would be embarassing."

Laughing, Assa turned to her brother. "You go first, Yoh."

"I thought she was pathetic. It was obvious she was trying to find someone to meet - but she didn't even know why she wanted to meet someone. Haruna was like..." He paused and looked up, trying to think of the right word. "She was like a little girl dreaming about life - knowing it would be bigger than she could imagine or possibly handle, yet wanting it all to happen right that second anyway."

"You... thought I was pathetic?" Haruna's expression betrayed her hurt, but then, as she thought it over she nodded. "Well... I guess that's about right." She concluded with a sigh. "I thought *you* were so good looking I might be imagining you - like maybe you weren't really there or something. Maybe I'd hit my head when I fell, and not just my knee."

"Is that why when I handed you your shoe, you blurted out that embarrassing comment about me being attractive? I thought it was a crappy pick-up line."

"Augh!" She rolled her eyes and shook her head. "I don't think picking you up ever crossed my mind. And then, I thought what a great coach you'd make, and you turned me down flat"

Assa interjected, "Yeah. You were being really hostile." She mimicked her brother at 16, "I hate girls!"

"What do you expect me to do? Some strange girl practically attacks me in the stairwell and asks me to coach her in being attractive..."

"Did you really think she was trying to hit on you?" Asaoka asked quietly, and Haruna's eyes grew wide in shock. Even now that they were married, that thought never occurred to her. Yoh's silence could loudly be heard as an affirmative.

Sputtering, his wife began to explain, "But... I wouldn't. I wasn't..."

"I know that now, dummy. Actually, I figured that out pretty quickly. You... You don't have it in you to be sneaky like that. You've got no guile in you." He smiled at her lovingly and she smiled back, appeased. "And you were so forthright and determined. I'd... never met a girl like you before."

"Yeah. Every time she showed up, she kept asking you for advice. And the things you said were so cruel. I thought it was so funny how she kept coming back for more." Assa's sense of humor remained warped.

Haruna shook her head. "He wasn't being cruel. It was the truth!"

Her husband smiled over at her and held his tongue.

Fumiya continued his questions, "So you met and Haruna asked you to be her coach-"

"And he turned me down," Haruna interjected.

"And he turned you down," Fumiya agreed. "So what happened? Why did you change your mind, Yoh?"

Yoh looked to the side embarassed and didn't answer, so Haruna jumped in. "Well, I just kept trying. I bugged him a lot, I guess. And... I think he eventually felt sorry for me. I was trying so hard and still failing. He kept calling me 'clueless.' I think he decided it would be less painful to help than to have me keep bugging him."

"That's not it," he muttered softly.

"So finally he agreed, but only if I agreed to two conditions: One, that I never cry..."

"Yeah!" Fumi interrupted. "Remember that day at the batting cages? You were feeling so discouraged, but you didn't think you were allowed to show it at all, and when I told you that I'd never tell Yoh, you burst into tears and just bawled."

Pink tinged her cheeks, "Yeah... I still kinda feel bad about that..." Her voice trailed off.

"What's the second one?"Asaoka brought them back on topic.

Haruna cocked her head. "The second what?"

"What was the second condition to Yoh agreeing to coach you?"

Sitting next to her on the couch, Yoh began to pink as Haruna stated, "He made me agree that I'd never fall in love with him. I didn't know why at the time, but then you guys told me about the beads incident..."

"Do we have to talk about that on our wedding day?"

"...And I just figured it was because he didn't want me to get hurt when he knew that he could never be interested in a loser like me - he's just too nice, and even then, he wanted to make sure I didn't get hurt..."

"Still clueless," Yoh muttered under his breath. The camera captured it, but not Haruna.

*****

"Hey! What did you mean then? Still clueless?" As always, Haruna's expression was a perfect reflection of what she was feeling. At this moment, it was confused.

In response, Yoh shook his head and gave her a peck on the cheek before turning his attention back to the DVD.

Shrugging, Haruna refocused on the scene playing.

*****

"But I broke the rules and fell for him anyway," the young bride said, as her groom blushed. And then the video cut back to black. Onscreen, it read "They Fall" before fading into their individual interviews.

"You have her?" Asaoke joked.

Fumi, dense as usual responded, "You mean you two have already-!"

Yoh reached toward the camera, and judging by the way it jerked, smacked Fumi upside the head.

The camera cut to Haruna.

"So, are you nervous about the wedding night or have you two already...?" Mami inquired.

The bride-to-be flushed an interesting shade of fuschia while sputtering her denials.

"Awww..." Assa countered. "You haven't even done it yet?" The fuschia darkened toward maroon. "Wow. But you guys have at least kissed, right?"

Haruna's eyes got dreamy as she nodded.

"Wow! Look at that expression," Mami laughed. "Yoh must be a great kisser."

Continuing to nod, Haruna burst out into a giant grin.

"So tell us about your first kiss?"

Her voice was as soft as her smile. "It was so wonderful! I was feeling so unworthy to even be with him, and he pulled me close and said, 'I only want to ever do that with you.' Afterwards, I kept thinking about it, and even the memory made me weak in the knees. And to think, if it hadn't been for Asaoke..."

Cut to an angry Yoh.

"If it hadn't been for that stupid game at Asaoke's restaurant on Christmas..."

Asaoke sounded shocked as he replied, "You mean your first kiss with Haruna was that night?"

"Yeah." He smiled softly. "I was so mad at you. I mean, Haruna's so sweet and innocent, and she gets to find out that I've kissed someone before through that stupid game! She... always felt like she was useless in relationships. She'd never done anything before. And I didn't want to rush her. She might..."

"She might what?" Fumi asked.

Yoh blushed as he said, "I didn't want to scare her off. I... really liked her a lot."

"Yeah, we know," Asaoke said blandly, as Fumi said, "Yeah, and you don't like girls."

"Hey! That's right" Asaoke inquired, "So, when did you first realize you liked her?"

The camera cut to a contemplative Haruna. "Actually, that was Asaoke's fault, too, now that I think about it."

"Really?!" Assa's voice was very surprised.

"Yeah. Yoh was asking me why I couldn't find anyone to be interested in, and Asaoke said that maybe it was because I'd already found someone I liked and was comparing everyone to that person." She smiled. "And just the night before, I'd been thinking, 'If Yoh hadn't made me promise not to fall in love with him, I could so fall for him.' After Asaoke said that, though, I kept thinking about it. And then, every time I was near him, I realized that... I just wanted to be with him so badly. Everything I could possibly want in a guy... EVERYTHING! And MORE! It was just... Yoh."

The DVD cut back again. Yoh looked away embarassed and mumbled something under his breath.

"What? You have to speak up or the camera won't record it," Fumi said.

Looking angrily into the lense, Yoh declared, "I liked her before I agreed to coach her!"

You could hear the smile in Asaoke's voice as he asked, "Really?" It was almost like he knew already.

"But how could you train her to look for someone else if you already liked her?" Fumi asked. "How could you sit there and talk about other guys - like when you tried to get her to go after Asaoke!"

"Or when you set her up with Fumiya," Asaoke countered.

"I... I wanted her to be happy. I didn't think she'd ever fall for me. And even if she did, she'd probably end up just getting hurt by me - that's what happened before. But Haruna... She's not like anyone else."

Cut.

"I never thought anyone like him would ever like someone like me. And then, when I told him I was in love with him, he was happy and..." She sighed happily.

Cut.

"She's so straightforward - she doesn't play any games."

Cut.

"He's always truthful. He never does or says anything he doesn't mean."

Cut.

"I always know where I stand with her."

Cut.

"I always know that he'll stand by me."

Cut.

"And when I'm with her, I truly feel loved."

Cut.

"And when he smiles at me, I actually feel beautiful."

Cut.

The video changed to split screen. "The only thing that matters to me in the whole world is seeing him/her smile." The scene faded out to a visual graphic that read, "Happy 25th Anniversary, Yoh & Haruna."

As the screen faded to black, the couple turned to look at each other. Their faces were wide and blank with the impact of knowing how each other had felt for so long. In the past 25 years together, they had grown closer than ever. They truly trusted each other with a trust that would last forever. But deep down, the underlying questions: "Do I really deserve him/her?" and "When is s/he going to wake up and realize s/he deserves someone better?" still plagued them both. Not enough to cause damage, just enough to keep them on their toes.

As one, they looked around to thank their friends for their thoughtful gift - only to realize they were all alone.

Yoh smiled at his wife. The kids were staying with Assa. He leaned down to kiss his wife. Then, they slowly walked toward their bedroom, the silent words filling the air around them with "I love you."