Anna & Rewrich: Chapter 1

"Anna! You need to marry soon, for the Lemouri family! You're already 28 for God's sake!"

"I haven't found anyone I WANT to marry." Grown Anna Lemouri, looked at her father. She wore a black, short-sleeved shirt with a yellow plaid skirt and black velvet-feeling boots. She sat in seiza position to him, her long aqua hair in a ponytail reaching her waist.

"That's it! I'm setting up an arranged marriage!" He huffed.

"I refuse, father!" She said sternly. Anna had just broken up with her first boyfriend, Farion. He had left her for another girl, a mary-sue named Katie. In hopes she wouldn't get hurt, he cheated on her with Katie and didn't say anything. She was so pissed, she didn't want to have to deal with this crap.

"Anna!"

"Now, dear, you know that a girl has her dreams…" Anna's beautiful mother, Celeste cooed to her husband. "Anna. You know you can't be picky. We already let you go to Al-Revis."

"That really helped me, even if it was 15 years ago."

"Why don't you make the terms for a husband, hm?" Her mother suggested.

"Dear…!" The father, Soiichirou protested.

"Fine then. If there is a man who can defeat me, then I will marry him." She knew this was impossible. After all, the only men who could stand up to her were Vayne, who was married to Philomele with a child on the way, Gunnar, who was married to Nike with 5 children, and Roxis, who was engaged to Pamela. This was perfect. She was pissed off from her break-up with her boyfriend. She needed to get violent.

"Oh?" The father smirked. "Then tomorrow we shall battle, you vs. your husband!"

"Bring it on!"

"Hmph! This is nothing!" Anna laughed, taking a sip of energy drink.

"That was number 175, dear." Celeste told her beloved.

"Tch…! That was the last one…!"

"Well, there is one left, but he hasn't arrived to check in…" Celeste flipped through the sign-up sheet.

"Sorry~ I'm late." A care-free voice of a man called out. "Can I still try out?" A man with long, silver hair in a ponytail, dressed in a mercenary's garb walked up to Anna.

"Of course! Please, go ahead!" Soiichiro clapped his hands.

"I see…" He kneeled on one knee, took Anna's hand and kissed it. "A pleasure to see you, my Princess." Anna blushed furiously.

"Wh-What are you doing?" She smacked his hand away.

"Sorry, sorry, I just thought I'd give you the proper greeting." He laughed. She couldn't tell if he was actually laughing, or that was just his personality, to take everything in stride.

"Get ready…!" The father stood ready, and Anna put her hand on her blade (a wooden one, of course). Suddenly, however, she felt a ping in her head.

"Hey… Before we begin… Have we… Met before?" Her eyes were misty as she tried to remember something, deep inside of her mind.

"Oh, nice pick-up line!" He clapped. "Although I prefer flirting with you, it's a good thing-" He dashed to her in one second and pointed his wooden sword to her throat as he held her back with one arm, as if to tango. "To have affections for one's betrothed."

"Eh… Eh? …EHHHHHH?" She realized that she was back on the planet. "FATHER! HE CHEATED!"

"What are you saying Anna? The gong rang!" Was she really so spaced out the she didn't notice something like that? The man looked her deep in the eyes, eyes that swirled like the sky on a sunny, windy day.

"I got the princess." He smirked and held one of her hands as he kissed her on the lips.

"Mmph…!" She tried to get out of the lip-lock, muffled by his mouth. Finally, she got free. "…I'LL KILL YOU…" Anna lurked up to him. "…MY PRECIOUS FIRST KISS…!" She started raging after him with her wooden sword, and he dodged each one, laughing without a care.

"What, at your age?" He laughed.

"SHUT UP! I'M A PURE, INNOCENT MAIDEN!"

"Dear, what's our son-in-law's name?" The father asked. Celeste looked at the list.

"It says here, his name is… Rewrich Wallach, age 29." She looked at their bickering, "Don't they make a cute couple?" The mother blushed and held her hand to her cheek.

"Just so you know!" Anna told him as he came into their two-person room (originally Anna's room, changed into a couples suite by the houses' maids), "We're NOT getting married."

"But Anna, you said whoever could beat you-"

"That was just to get my father off my back! And please don't call me so casually!" She scolded him.

"You're still hoping to get back together with your old boyfriend?"

"How did you-?"

"I heard all about it."

"OK, but you're wrong. I actually want to get revenge on him." She gritted her teeth, "Cheating on me…! I'll never forgive him!"

"Ooh, passive aggressive." He laughed. "But if you were engaged to me, wouldn't that be a good revenge? You'd be all happy without him, getting touchy-feely with your fiancée…" He reached for her shoulder.

"Who's getting touchy-feely?" She slapped his hand away. "And in the first place, why did you come to this competition, anyway?"

"Um, well~" He smiled. "An annoying girl was chasing after me to marry me, and you looked prettier than her, so if I could get her off my tail-"

"What kind of world do you live in?" She rebutted.

"A world where a handsome bachelor is barraged by rabid fangirls?"

"Oh come on."

"Now now, this is fate, Anna… san." He caught himself and smiled.

"Hmph." She looked at him dully from the corner of her eye.

"It's already late, so let's get some sleep. I'm tired from coming here." He pulled off his jacket, where underneath was a white dress shirt with black pants.

"Wh-What are you doing, stupid?" She covered her eyes and tried to hit him.

"Whoa, calm down!" He shielded with a pillow. "I'm not getting naked, this is it." He untied his long, wavy hair and unbuckled his headband. The silver hair with white strokes looked like a beautiful waterfall as it dropped against his back..

"I'm not sleeping with you!" Anna bickered, still in her imagination.

"Of course not. I'll sleep on the couch. You sleep in your bed. That's fine." He tried to get comfortable on the cramped, scratchy sofa.

"Really?" She opened her eyes and looked at him. Maybe he wasn't as bad as he seemed…

"But you know…" He lifted his head from the make-shift bed, "You haven't once said my name."

"You never even told me."

"Ah, touché." He laughed. "I'm Rewrich Wallach."

"Sounds weird." Anna rebutted. "Cccch!" She imitated the sounds at the ends of both of his names.

"Right? I never liked it either. You can say it like 'RUR-RICK'. It's easier that way." He smiled, and Anna laughed. "Say my name?"

"…" Anna blushed. "…Rewrich."

"There you go, Anna."

"That doesn't mean you can say mine!"

"Ahaha!" He laughed, and they went to sleep separately.

"Hah!" Anna swung her wooden sword in place, early in the morning. Her pale feet touched the moist ground that squished whenever she moved. She gripped with her toes, feeling the earth beneath her. Anna wore her dojo outfit, like the traditional Japanese archer clothes.

"Ho~ Up so early, huh?" Rewrich passed by, bare-chested with a towel around his neck. "I already finished.

"WH-WH-WHAAAAT?" She blushed from the sight of seeing a man besides her father bare-chested, not to mention her (forced) fiancee's. "And wait, how'd you-?"

"Early bird catches the worm." He snickered. "But don't worry Anna, you can still catch m-" She punched him in the face as he tried to lunge for her.

"REJECTED." He fell down.

"…Hey." Rewrich sat on the ground. "What was so great about that guy?"

"Eh?" She looked at him. "You mean Farion?"

"Yeah,"

"Um…" Anna put her finger to her chin. "He was polite, a gentleman. He was really kind… He never forced me to kiss him."

"Oh~"

"And…" She whispered.

"And what?"

"Nothing!" She stopped herself and put her practice sword back on the rack. "Let's go in for breakfast, Rewrich."

"Oh, you said my name on your own! Anna-"

"Don't get cocky!"