Dedicated to everyone born into a broken home. May love find you.

Zibra

"Ready?" Usui asked Misa.

"Yeah," she answered determinedly.

Usui grinned. The two of them were sitting on a bike, Usui in front and Misa behind him. Around them a lush scenery provided a most beautiful backdrop. From the hilltop where they were, they could enjoy the cool afternoon breeze running through their hair. Blooming flowers, green trees and blue sky smiled at the two lovers. But now they only had eyes for the steep descend in front of them.

"Hang on," Usui warned her. And down the hill they went, in full speed. He didn't need to pedal anymore, unlike the climb up earlier. Gravity did all the work. The wind whipped their faces. It was like flying.

Her arms around him, she pressed herself close against his back. He'd told her that this hill occassioned the first time he got stitches. But she wasn't really afraid. It just felt so good, holding him like that. He turned his head slightly to smile at her. Misa smiled back.

They arrived safely on the bottom. "It's a great place for a ride," Usui commented while pedalling strongly.

"Mm-hm," Misa replied, still not loosening her grip around him. He steered the bike towards a cool, shady place and stopped under one big tree. He jumped off the bike, stealing a kiss from his passenger while keeping their ride steady with one hand. The kiss took quite a long time, so an update while waiting should be in order.

Just a day earlier they had been pronounced as husband and wife. For honeymoon, the Usui family insisted they be paid a week's visit. So here the newlyweds were, at the place where Usui spent his childhood. It was a beautiful castle-like house, surrounded by an enormous-sized English park. Misa immediately fell in love with the park. There were endless routes for long walks, bright fields to roll and tumble into, giant trees to climb. She had stared wide-eyed at the trees and said longingly, "I've never climbed trees before."

Now they were under one that was easy to climb. He helped her up. Afterwards he went, like a cat, swift and nimble. The tree was like an old friend to him. Soon Misa was at home there, up among the sweet-smelling leaves, between strong branches that held them in their outstretched arms. She explored how far she could go on that tree while Usui sat leaning on the tree trunk, watching over her. When she got tired, she returned to him and asked, "Didn't you miss all this outdoor while you were away?"

He pulled her to his lap, saying, "I found something much better," and kissed her just in case she did not realize he meant her. Misa blushed like a school girl, only unlike highschool, she did not push him away. Instead she kissed her handsome husband again and leaned against him contentedly. Usui put his arms around her waist, keeping her safe.

A moment of silence with her head laid against his chin, then she said, "I'm not sure I'll make a good wife for you."

"You were very enthusiastic about it," Usui said with a smile and a light kiss on her hair. She had promised she'd learn cooking, haircutting, even sewing. He didn't care so much about those things. But the sight of her enthusiasm was exhilarating.

"Being here is so different, Usui." Couples normally call each other by the first name, but that was also one of the things that Usui didn't care about. Misa looked at the gigantic mansion in the distance and slowly stated, "I wouldn't even qualify as a maid for a house like that."

"I could qualify as two maids, if that comforts you."

Misa looked just as worried as before. The sky grew dark by the seconds as if understanding her heart. A storm was on its way. Usui looked up. "We'd better hurry."

Misa rose and Usui jumped down from the tall branch. "Jump, I'll catch you," he said as Misa made slow progress down the tree. She did as he said. Soon the two were riding in a race against the thunderstorm. They reached the nearest building, a small hut, just in time when sky opened its gate to flood the world beneath it.

"Master Usui and Madam," a little boy greeted them reverently.

Usui nodded and asked, "How is Oba-chan?"

A voice from inside the house replied, "Is that Takumi? Come here!"

Usui led the way into a bedroom where an elderly lady was sitting upright on a chair by her bed. She was very old, but her eyes were sparkling. Usui smiled warmly at her and introduced Misa, "Misa-chan, this is my old nurse. This is my wife, Misaki."

"What a pretty lady you are!" Oba-chan smiled at Misa happily. "I didn't think Takumi would be so lucky!"

The little boy came running into the room, saying, "Oba-chan, there's a very big leak in my room! The water just came swooosh to my bed!"

"I'll take care of that," Usui said, smiling. "Oba-chan is too fat to climb roofs now." He left the room with the little boy.

Oba-chan laughed, "I can't believe that boy's married! Misa-chan, you should have this." She opened a cupboard and put out several boxes. "This is all Takumi's stuffs when he was little. I told him I'd show them to his wife so he better behaved, and I always keep my word."

Misa took a peek. There were drawings, writings, handmade toys, little kid's things. "Thank you, Oba-chan," she said, touched by her warm welcome.

"Go ahead, take a look. I better see whether Takumi's fixing my roof or making another mess," Oba-chan left her to examine the curious items, smiling.

Misa had thought a lot about Usui's childhood. He did not talk about it often, but she could sense it was a rather lonely time. He had no parents, there were no children whose friendship might comfort him, the illegitimate child everyone tried to hide. One can't lock a kid inside a cupboard, but with everyone treating him like someone who should have never been, a kid can learn fast enough to create his own invisible cupboard; a cupboard to hide his pain, tears, and even all his existence. Misa sometimes wondered whether he was really the tough single fighter he always appeared, or had been forcibly made into one.

The box didn't hold many stuffs that were radically different from any other kid's belonging. One thing caught Misa's eye though. From between the pages of a printed book, one loose and somewhat dirty piece of paper flew out. It had a drawing of a zebra, evidently made by a child's hand. The zebra's head was larger than the rest of the body. Anyone could see very clearly that the zebra was crying. There were lots of tears running down the long face, and even more tears pooling at the zebra's feet, so much it looked like the zebra was standing on the surface of a lake. The black stripes were colored very thickly and very strongly. Under the picture was some writing in English, also made by a child's hand.

It said:

Once upon a time there live a black horse and a white horse. And the white horse is so pretty. And they get married and they have a baby horse. And the baby horse is not a horse, but a zibra. Because his father is black and his mother is white. The black horse went away and the white horse went away too. And the zibra dont know his parents because he never see them. And there is other horses, but not his parents. All black horses dont play with him because his not black. And all white horses dont play with him because his not white. His a zibra, so his black and white. Its not his fault his a zibra.

The zibra is sad because nobody loves the zibra.

Misa took a closer look at the picture. Somewhere between the stripes of the zebra there was a jumbled attempt to write characters in Japanese. They looked like "Takumi" to her eyes. Misa didn't actually realize the tears coming to her eyes, but her sight blurred.

"Misa-chan."

In a hurry Misa hid the paper and turned around, feeling like a student caught cheating. She didn't know whether Usui would like her to find that record. He never talked much about his sorrows. "Y.. yes?"

Usui was thoroughly wet. He stood by the door, having left puddles of water whereever he stepped in that house. There was a thoughtful look on his face, but he only said, "The rain's stopped. Let's go before I catch a cold."

After a hot bath, Usui went into the bedroom and found a tired Misa asleep sitting by the bed. She'd roamed all over the land belonging to Usui family in just one day, something he himself hadn't accomplished in all the years he resided there. He stood transfixed by her graceful appearance for some time. When he picked her up easily in his arms and carried her to bed, he had the most tender look on his face. That look was replaced by an inquisitive one as he found the zibra piece. He looked at it and looked at Misa. Her face was tear-stained.

So this made you cry. I wondered what I did to make our one-day marriage go wrong already.

When Misa woke up, she found Usui next to her, fast asleep, and a new piece of writing placed next to the zibra piece. She recognized Usui's handwriting and read it, curiousity burning.

The zebra grew up and stopped waiting for his parents. He'd lost all hope. While he didn't hate anyone for anything, he didn't love anyone or anything either. Not that he was angry. He couldn't be angry. He couldn't feel anything. He was numb. It was all empty within and without. He did not want to die, but he wasn't alive either. He was merely going on.

Until one day he met a mare. She kicked at him time and time again and roused him. It wasn't anything personal, she just liked kicking any stallions, or male zebras, or whatever species that was male. Awakened, he looked at her and he saw her through her pain. She, too, had been betrayed. But she was so unlike him, because in her anger, she kicked at the world with all her might. She tried making the world better, mostly by kicking at it.

The world was going to kick back and trample on her. He couldn't let it happen. For the first time in his life, he loves. Her joy becomes his joy and her tears his. Every one of her fiends was his fiend, and for the first time in his life, he hates all that stands against her. He was alive again.

And as he loves her, she learns to love him. Between kicks there were honest kisses too. It seemed that each kiss made him a true stallion, except that she told him from the beginning he had been a stallion all the time. Maybe each kiss opened his eyes. Whatever it was, eventually they got married.

Now the mare is worried she's not a true mare. But the stallion is not in the least worried. Because he knows, only a true mare can make a true stallion out of a zibra.

The end