DISCLAIMER: I do not own Utena, or else I wouldn't be using personal canon. Do beware of that, though. Sequel to "The Beautiful Leopard and the Shy Lamb". For the amazing cypsiman2, who all JurixMiki lovers bow to.
"Ju-juri, we shouldn't be doing this in the practice room." He quieted when she kissed him, his cheeks dusted rose. Juri's graceful slipped around Miki's slim waist. It was a full minute and forty-two point seven seconds before she let him go. Miki knew because the stopwatch clicked pause, almost of its own accord. They were both breathing raggedly, Miki's eyes fixed on the polished floor.
"Sorry, Mickey," Juri said gently once she had composed herself. She placed a hand on Miki's head, smiling affectionately. "It hard to hold myself back when you're so close." Miki cleared his throat delicately, tentatively grinning back.
"It's all right, J-Juri." Juri's hand trailed down his neck to rest on his shoulder. Miki took a step closer, reaching out to touch one of Juri's brilliant orange curls again. Then the door slammed open and the third-in-command of the fencing team poked his head inside. His eyes lit on the couple instantly.
"Hey, everyone! They're at it!" There were a lot of "oooh"s and snickers from the rest on the fencing team as they filed inside.
"What time is it?"Juri snapped, back to being the fencing team captain.
"It's two-thirty, captain," third-in-command replied. "Time for practice." Juri could have sworn she had heard Miki swear under his breath. She would have as well, but she had to take this coolly. She had every right to be in a relationship. It was not, was not, was not embarrassing. Sadly, Miki's pomegranate red blush didn't agree with her.
"Indeed." Juri's eyebrows narrowed. "Now, may I ask your implications behind the clause 'they're at it'?" She crossed her arms, her tapping foot sending an ominous echo through the fencing hall. Miki was in a panic, trying to get his fencing supplies and dropping his foil repeatedly while his teammates gave him knowing smiles and pats on the back.
"Well, we always knew you two were together," third-in-command admitted. "We were just wondering when we would catch you two kissing. Fencing halls aren't just for practicing fencing."
"That's… odd. We only just got together yesterday… and were planning to tell everyone at the end of practice today." Now Juri was flustered. Was her affection for Miki truly that noticeable? Oh, no, this wasn't good. She was going to lose the respect of the fencing team…
"Really? That's intense!" a first year winked at Juri. "How far have you gotten?"
"That's enough!" Juri said, glaring. "Get ready for practice, everyone. We're here to fence, not to discuss Kaoru and mine's relationship."
"Too late for that," Shiori said, walking by with foil in hand. Ack, thought Juri. Love seemed to be more trouble than it was worth at times. Don't think about Shiori, she chanted in her mind.
"You knew?" Juri asked Shiori. She felt a stab of pride for not succumbing to guilt. Shiori stuck out her tongue.
"Don't make me jealous, Miss Juri." She looked over at Miki. "That's almost too much perfection for one couple."
"Mickey?"
"Hai, Arisugawa-sempai?" Miki said promptly, straightening. Juri grimaced at the formality.
"Just get them started on the drills. I find myself in need of a glass of water."
Lunch and the announcement of their couple status at the Student Council was uneventful, excepting Touga's occasional "leopard" and "lamb" jibes. Juri decided that next time she would break his jaw so that the playboy would finally shut up. As it was, her attention was focused on preventing Miki from throwing knives at Touga. Revenge wasn't the point, and it wasn't as if Touga had ever hit Miki during his throwing knife practices.
Saionji was absent, having quit the council. It was only Touga that had stayed on as the "college advisor". Juri had scoffed when Touga had walked in senior year of high school. It was evident that it was a role made up by the now chronically loony husband of the acting chairwoman, Kanae Ohtori. Akio Ohtori was as sad it got, having crashed and split his head open after purportedly riding on the hood of his bubblegum pink convertible slash racing car. Still, married to the chairwoman as he was, he carried administrative power.
Juri would see Saionji at kendo practice, though. She had taken it up about a year ago. It was interesting, similar yet quite different to European fencing. She was already in the top ranks of the team. Juri was beginning to think that change was good. In small doses. Saionji was starting to get on her nerves, turning into a monkey-mouse every time it was monthly curry day at the dorms. She shouldn't have to lead the kendo team as often as she did.
While Juri was off to kendo, Miki was staying behind in the Student Council room, preparing documents for next week with the help of Tsuwabuki. He was quite proud of his pupil, who was picking up Miki's observant ways and helpful habits quickly. Tsuwabuki lingered after they had finished.
"Will you review my notebook? It's kind of nerve-wracking to be secretary all by myself now." Miki accepted the notebook from Tsuwabuki. "Ah, not that one!" the young secretary leaped to grab the precious Nanami diary turned observational notebook by mistake. He couldn't wrest it from Miki's hand; he was already staring at the dog-eared page.
"Noooooooooooooo!" Tsuwabuki shouted dramatically, haven taken up Nanami's tendency to dramatize every little thing. He ran around in a circle flailing his arms and having a remarkable resemblance to a certain "friend" monkey-mouse.
"I could tell that neither President Juri or Vice President Miki was focusing on the Student Council Meeting today. Both readily agreed to cut funding for the fencing team and the music program while they were trading stares, never catching each other. It's as if they practiced. Not that I would be surprised." Miki read aloud. He turned blush, then rose, then pink, then scarlet, and at last seemed to settle on a shade one could call eggplant purple. Absentmindedly, Miki wondered if it was normal for so much blood to run to a person's face. Perhaps he could do a study?
"H-how did you kn-know before we told you? This is an entry from a month ago, and w-we weren't even t-together," Miki stammered.
"I'm just doing what I've learned and what you've taught me," Tsuwabuki shrugged, petting the squirrel he had in his arms. Miki sighed. Perhaps he had trained Tsuwabuki too well.
Juri lost the first match of practice at the dojo. "Something bothering you, Arisugawa?" Saionji asked irritably. "Your form is off." Juri got back into position quickly.
"Look again, captain," she snapped.
"Hey, Arisugawa. Don't be like that. I can tell that something's bothering you." He put a hand on his hip, and Juri groaned inwardly. Ever since Saionji had decided to major in psychology, he had been attempting to double as everybody's psychiatrist. If you asked her, he needed to consult a psychiatrist, not to be one. Well, she had to tell him anyway.
"Mickey and I are a couple."
"And?"
"What do you mean, and?"
"Well, it's obvious you two aren't friends, so what else would you be?"
"Obvious? How could it be obvious?
"Come on, Arisugawa," Saionji said patronizingly. "All the signs point to it." A tear sparkled in his eyes. "Ah, the beauty of youth. Their only problems are of the heart." he pressed a hand to his heart. And meant it. "Here. Take this blank exchange diary so that years from now when you forget the joys of youth you may rediscover it like I have."
"How old are you, captain?"
"Don't mess it up like you did with that butterfly girl," Saionji advised, becoming quite serious all of a sudden. "Turning a friend into a lover is a delicate process indeed. I myself have experienced its trials and tribulations."
"Captain."
"Hmm?"
"I did not need to know that."
Miki and Juri sat next to each other at dinner that night, Juri's arm around Miki's shoulder. Nanami joined them as usual, humming "Dona Dona" while carrying her vegan meal to her table. The highest quality silken tofu, of course. However, the moment she saw Juri and Miki together, the rose-carved tray fell out of her hands with a cowbell-like clang.
"My greatest fear has come true! What shall we dooooooooooooooo?" Miki's eyebrows quirked. Was it him, or did Nanami suddenly sound like a cow. "A brother and a sister couldn't love each other like that!"
"But, Nanami, we're not brother and sister," Miki reasoned. "Not even cousins."
"Of course you're brother and sister! Didn't you know that Juri's mother and your father just got married?"
"I have a mother?" Juri asked.
"Not really," Tsuwabuki said, popping out from behind Nanami. "Actually, Mari's mother's husband died, then Mari's mother married Mr. Arisugawa and ran away, then divorced him after embezzling all of his company's funds, then had an affair with Akio Ohtori, then married Mr. Kaoru."
"What?" Miki's head was spinning.
"I don't get it either," Tsuwabuki replied. "You don't have to understand. This is Ohtori Academy, after all."
"Regardless," Nanami said, "the jig is up! I've got you now, Juri Arisugawa and Miki Kaoru." Touga's phone immediately rang, startling them all.
"Yes. Ah, yes. I see. Alright. Goodbye," he answered. He then looked up, his face beautifully troubled. "Juri's ex-stepmother just divorced Miki's father." A bell rung, and everyone was draped in shadow as the walls turned bright red.
"Do you know, do you know, have you heard?" the Shadow Girls interrogated them gaily. One stepped forward. "Are you sure you're just friends?" the other two asked her.
"Of course I'm sure," she said."
"Then you won't mind if we rip of a picture of your old love." The girl did nothing when they tore the photograph to pieces.
"Aha! You are in love!" they concluded, pouncing on her.
"No, no, that's not it!" she gasped, trying to escape from the fistfight.
"Then you won't mind us crushing the locket that held the picture of your old love." The girl didn't even squirm as they smashed it to pieces.
"Aha! You're in love! they shouted, jumping onto her again.
"No, no, that's not it!" she protested.
"Then you won't mind if we break your crush's favorite instrument." The two hefted up humongous crowbars and made to destroy a piano.
"No! Don't do it!" the girl cried.
"Aha! You're in love!" they announced, and sprang on her once more. The two high fived each other when the girl in love stood up wearily from the fight.
"I confess!" she shouted. "Phew. That was a relief."
"Yay!" the other two squealed. "We knew, we knew, we knew right from the start. But did you?"
"So that's how the secret got out," Juri muttered, cracking her knuckles. The Shadow Girls squealed.
"Please don't," Miki pleaded.
"Make it quick!" the Shadow Girls begged. "It was about time you got together anyway! There's no harm in announcing it to all of Ohtori Academy and the entirety of Japan."
"Now you're just over-dramatizing it," Nanami complained.