A/N: Although I have read several stories here on FanFiction, this is my first time uploading one of my own. I've been a huge fan of Maria-sama ga Miteru for a while now and like a good hopeless romantic, I have always envisioned happy endings to our beloved Lillian girls, although the "getting there" might become very, very complicated at times.

This story was completed in July and has about 25K words. I'm no professional writer, nor am I very confident that this will be a good story; however, this keeps the fandom alive, and I hope it can make at least some people smile!

Thank you for reading!

Whatever it was: Chapter 1

Noriko was used to it. Pain had never really bothered the girl, though the taste of bile was proof that the theories were correct: alcohol was poison. Touko had warned her a few times before, "I'm okay with the taste of it. As a matter of fact, I actually like the damn thing. Onee-sama, on the other hand, does poorly with alcohol. In a way I do believe the woman is too pure to have such toxic liquid percolate her veins. That might be your case, too, Riko-chan." The dark-haired woman was actually able to smirk at the memory before the second wind of dry heaving possessed her.

This is exactly what I deserve, she thought.

Choosing a destination when she left Tokyo was surprisingly easy, Noriko was never one to have second thoughts about her decisions. The hardest part was not even leaving her friends. She was certain they would do just fine without her, and indeed they had done well for themselves: Touko was done with medical school and had been working for a federal hospital. Yumi was in the midst of making it big in the architecture world as many of the projects she had done for the Ogasawara Company were being noticed by other wealthy business-leaders. Lastly, Yoshino along with Rei had finally taken over the Hasekura's Kendo. The hardest part of living abroad was the constant reminder that Tokyo still existed.

Damn poison!

The third language acquisition during the last leg of her scholastic endeavor was almost there, granted, a few slips here and there still happened; however, Noriko had gotten to a point where her speech wouldn't falter anymore, so finding places and making new friends wasn't hard at all. She had the chance to travel up and down the west coast of South America and had along the way become an even stronger woman and very dedicated scholar. Her research was almost finished; two hundred eighty seven pages of Incas examination. Who would've thought that the Buddhist statue worshiper would've gone as far as idolizing a different kind of sculpture?

Her phone buzzed and she put up a fight with her back pocket while another wave of sourness escaped her lips.

"Touko," she coughed, "I'm a bit busy."

"You never e-mailed..."

"I'll e-mail you when I get WiFi."

"Which will be never."

"…"

"Let me call you tomorrow."

"But I'll be in the hospital. I won't be able to ans–"

"Then I'll get a hold of Kanako."

"Nor – "

Noriko dropped the call knowing very well that Touko would get mad, but not wanting to let her friend worry. She also didn't want to leave Touko with the picture of the always well-put Lillian maiden holding on to a toilet, barfing her dinner and half a bottle of tequila.

Ok, more like three-fourths of a bottle.

Ah Japan, I don't miss you a bit.