Legal Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or situations presented here and am using them only for entertainment purposes and without any profit whatsoever.
Title: Questions Not Expected
Romance: Asuka x Jim, minor hint of Rei x Martin
Notes: This was written for the 15pairings Livejournal challenge and there will be seven more fanfics written for it, each with a different pairing. This takes place about ten years after the end of Yu-Gi-Oh GX.
It is a time-honored tradition that important phone calls occur when the recipient is in some situation where they can't answer conveniently. The phone call that rang through Tenjoin Asuka's small apartment that afternoon was no different. For a moment, it was impossible to tell if she'd even heard the noise or not. Then she slammed open the shower doors, wrapped a towel around her dripping self, and ran to pick it up, hopefully before whoever it was gave up and just left a voice-mail.
"Hello?" Asuka gasped out the word, keeping the towel held closely to herself as she flipped the cell phone open. "Hello?"
"Asuka?" Rei's cheerful voice greeted her, and Asuka relaxed a little, glad that she'd made it. Rei called her regularly to let her know what was going on with her own tour in the Pro Leagues and anything else that was going on in her life. "I didn't interrupt anything, did I?"
"Just a shower. What is it?" While Asuka liked talking to Rei, she also wanted to finish her shower and get some clothes on.
"I asked Martin to marry me." Rei didn't really squeal at the age of twenty-two like she had at twelve, but there was still an edge of 'squee' in her voice. Asuka chuckled a little. She'd been expecting that.
"So, when is it?" There wasn't any way Martin would have turned her down. Those two were as made for each other as they could be. She also suspected she knew why Rei was calling her about it, more so than just letting her know. She was used to it from her female friends, after all.
Rei could be heard shifting around on the other end of the line. "This summer. In June, most likely, though we're not sure on the exact date just yet. Asuka, I'm hoping that you'll be one of my bridesmaids. Ito Manami is going to be my maid of honor." Asuka had met that girl before; she had been one of Rei's first friends at the Academy other than Asuka herself. She wasn't surprised that Manami had been who Rei asked for that.
"Of course." Asuka smiled, and was quite glad that her ground floor apartment had walls conveniently set up so she didn't have to worry about showing off skin to anyone who might be passing by until she could get something proper on. She glanced at the clock quickly; Jim was going to be there soon, and she had to be ready when he did. "It would be an honor, Rei. But I really need to go. I'm expecting company soon and I'm not quite ready yet."
She wasn't really going out of her way to avoid telling people that she and Jim had been seeing one another for over a year now. She just preferred to be a little quiet about her own love life. Like so many other things, she wanted to be just a little different from her brother in this. Besides, she was quite certain of what his reaction to this would be, and she wanted to put that off as much as she possibly could.
"Oh! I'm sorry!" Rei groaned some, and Asuka couldn't help but smile at that. "I didn't know! Call me when you have the time and we can work things out?"
"All right." Asuka was fairly good at being a bridesmaid after having been through it twice already. Both Momoe and Junko had asked her to perform the same function when they'd gotten married. "I'll call you when I can." She managed to scrawl down a note to herself to that effect, and did not lose the towel in the process. She was quite proud of that.
Once they'd said good-bye, Asuka clicked off the phone and hurried on into her bedroom to get everything ready. She had a feeling that Jim was going to be there very, very soon, and she wanted to be presentable when he showed up.
Just the thought of him made her smile, really. He was so kind and so gentle, but with an unmistakable core of solid steel strength. Being around him simply made her happier than she could remember being with too many other people, and he simply treated her right.
She ran a brush through her hair once she'd dressed, and a small smile flickered across her face at the memory of the last windstorm that had passed through the area. Her hair had gotten tangled almost beyond her ability to deal with, until Jim had shown up, and gently helped her get everything taken care of. Feeling his hands touch her hair with such tender concern had been sweet beyond words. That was just one of the reasons that she cared about him so very much.
Just as she finished putting the last touch on her outfit, a very familiar knock sounded, and she breathed a quick sigh of relief. She'd managed to get everything ready before he showed up. She hurried over and opened the door, taking a quick peek through the peephole to be certain it was him. One could never be too careful, after all.
"Hello there, Tomorrow Girl," he greeted her with that usual warm smile and tip of his hat before he took it off and came inside at her gesture. "Hope I'm not too early."
"You're right on time," she told him. She didn't want to let him know what had happened before, since it had worked out anyway. At least not everything that had happened. "I got a call from Rei. She and Martin are going to be getting married this summer."
Jim chuckled a little as he settled down on the couch. "She finally asked him, didn't she?" Asuka could only nod and grin in reply as she got them their usual drinks. "Can't wait to see it."
"Neither can I. She's asked me to be one of her bridesmaids." Asuka sat beside him and handed him the chilled can, opening her own once she had. "I said yes."
He nodded briefly and took a slow sip of the drink. "Was expecting that, too. They always ask you, don't they?" There was something a bit odd in his voice. She wasn't sure what to think about it, or even how to bring it up in the first place.
"I don't mind." She really didn't. Sure, getting all dressed up was a pain, especially since her own style leaned more towards comfortable pants and blouses when she didn't have to wear something more formal, but it was being a part of such a special day for her friends that made it worthwhile. Besides, Junko's wedding had been very casual so she'd really only had to get fully dressed up for Momoe's. And maybe Rei's now, since Rei was probably going to go full out as well, wanting all the frills and fancy outfits she could squeeze everyone into.
"I know you don't." Jim sipped his drink again, and the talk turned to other topics. Karen was at his home at the moment, instead of on his back; she'd recently laid a clutch of eggs and she was busy tending to them. Jim kept an eye on them as well, but as much as he loved the crocodile, he knew not to hover over them constantly.
Asuka was generally relaxed all by herself, but there was something unutterably soothing about being around Jim. She simply felt good being there, and relaxed even more as he put an arm around her. They seldom touched that often, which made it all the more treasured when they actually did.
"Have you told your brother yet about us?" he asked after an hour or so of conversation that had ranged from Karen to Rei and Martin's wedding to the last time either of them had seen many other people from the Academy that they knew to her current work researching a novel about ancient duelists.
She shook her head briefly. "I know how he's going to react." There was a mix of resignation and amusement in the sound of her voice, she knew. Fubuki had been so eager for so long to get her to see someone, anyone. Finding out that she had done so was going to have him walking on air for a month: and probably get her a week or two of 'I told you it wasn't that bad'. Or at least an hour or two, until something else distracted him. She knew she'd have to tell him something, eventually, but she just wasn't in that much of a rush for it.
Jim nodded some, and she glanced over a little curiously as he slid his other hand into a pocket of his vest. "You might want to think about it soon. Though I have to ask you something first."
Now that was getting a little curious, as well as interesting. Asuka watched, not certain of what he was doing, though she felt as if she should. When he pulled a small ring box out of his pocket and began to turn towards her, something clicked in her mind, and it was all she could do not to let her jaw drop completely in shock. Was he…was he going to ask her what he thought? Was he serious? And if so…what was she going to say?
"Jim?" She wasn't sure why she spoke his name, only that she felt that she had to say something, and there was nothing else that came to mind that made even the slightest bit of sense at the moment. He opened the box up, and Asuka was no longer certain if time had somehow sped up or slowed down. Everything was just suddenly different, as if there was a door ahead of her that she could choose to go through or not, and no matter what she picked, there would be a change she would have to live with.
"What do you say?" he asked, one eyebrow lifting a little. "Do you want to? Will you?"
Asuka was still a trifle frozen, but then she began to smile suddenly. There wasn't any real need to think about it. The answer had been in her mind even before the question had been asked. She was going to have to admit one tiny thing, though: Fubuki had been right. When the right person had come, she had known, even though she hadn't known that she'd known until now.
Something else he was going to crow about until something shiny caught his attention. Maybe she could arrange for that before she told him?
But there was something to do first. She reached over and picked up the box, admiring the ring for a moment before she said anything else to Jim. It was beautiful, and while she was no judge of diamonds, the pear-shaped gem looked as if was somewhat expensive. The band itself had a small design of the sun on each side of the jewel and she smiled at the sight of it. Jim liked to make plays on names, she'd noticed. That was why he'd always called her Tomorrow Girl, and this was no different, given the characters that made up her name.
"Yes," she said simply, raising her head to look at him, her entire heart in that one simple word and in her joy-filled smile. "I will."
Jim smiled right back at her, then gently took the ring back from her and put it onto her left hand. She glanced at it, enjoying the look of it. "It's really beautiful, Jim. I love it." She didn't need to say that she loved him. They both knew it.
This was going to require telling people not just that they were together, but that they were engaged now. That thought was like a flame burning within her heart, comforting and slowly filling parts of her that she'd never even dreamed existed, much less in need of filling. She was more certain than ever that she liked that now.
"Looks like you get to pick out the bridesmaids this time," Jim teased her lightly, and she laughed, swatting at him. Maybe that was true, but she really didn't know if that was something she was going to have to do yet. There were a lot of details that they had to work out, but for now, she was content just to enjoy the not yet familiar weight of the ring on her hand, and to look forward to the pleasantly hopeful and hazy future that it meant.
The End