"Nicole!"
A man in his mid-thirties shouted. The girl, his daughter flinched.
"Why aren't you ready yet?"
Nicole looked at her feet, ashamed.
"I don't like that dress. I can't play in it."
She pouted, looking up at her father with puppy dog eyes. The older man sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
"How about this, if you wear the dress today, I will buy you a cake on the way home?"
The girl perked up at this and started jumping up and down.
"Will it have lots of chocolate, and cherries and vanilla, and…"
The man laughed at his daughter before picking her up and carrying her to her room.
"What ever you want, just get ready, we have to leave soon."
"Ok!"
She was so happy she didn't even mind the uncomfortable dress anymore.
They got to the party a bit late, and her father left her with the other children to talk with his colleagues. Nicole didn't mind tough, for she found the adults conversations about some 'family alliance breeches' or something like that boring. Instead, she looked around the table that held many sweets for a piece of chocolate cake or a muffin or two. Not paying attention, she bumped into a white haired boy.
"I'm sorry!" She quickly said and turned to the table again.
"Hey, what makes you think I forgive you?" The boy teased her, making her turn to look at him.
"What? But I apologized! You can't not accept it!" Nicole, one the other hand took him completely seriously and started to defend herself.
"Of course I can, and I don't" The boy continued to make fun of her.
Now, Nicole wasn't happy at all. You see, her mother taught her that you must always apologize when you do something bad, and that all will be forgiven. So when the boy didn't accept her apology, he was indirectly claiming that her mother lied. And that is not the best thing one can do. So, to get back for the horrible insult, she decided to insult him back.
"Yeah, well that's only because you're an old man! Just look at your hair."
It was the boy's time to be mad, for as I'm sure we all know, the worst thing you can say to a child, is in fact that they are old. Unlike Nicole, he was a bit better at keeping his temper in his check, so he smirked without missing a beat.
"Well at least I don't have an ugly dress. I mean I didn't choose my hair."
And that was probably the second worst thing he had done that day. What he thought was "She's a girl, insult her dress and she will be crying to her mommy in a second". Unfortunately for him, he had just reminded the already angry girl of the offending dress she was tricked into wearing. So she did what she thought was the best punishment for the rude boy. She turned to the table, grabbed as many sweets as she could with her small hands, and shoved it all down his shirt. Then she proceeded to laugh so hard her tummy started to hurt, because in her opinion, the boy's face was the next best thing after Christmas.
Of course, the squabble didn't end there. The boy, no longer caring about looking cool, with the soul task of defending his honor in mind launched himself at the weird girl and pulled on her hair. Nicole responded by biting his hand. They fell on the floor and started rolling on the floor, fighting for dominance.
Fortunately, the adults saw that and came to separate them.
"Nicole! What is the meaning of this?" Her father shouted, pulling her of the boy.
"Byakuran! What are you thinking?" The boy's father pulled him on his feet.
"I am sorry for my daughter's behavior Mr. Gesso. Rest assured, she will be punished."
"There will be no need for that Rick, I'm sure we will all laugh over this in a couple of years." Mr. Gesso said smiling.
"Thank you for your generosity."
As the men dragged their children to opposite sides, Nicole and Byakuran glared at each other.
"This isn't over!" Byakuran shouted across the room.
"You bet it's not!" Nicole replied.
The party attendants all laughed at them.
Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. With it's total area of 25,711 km2 and over 5,050,486 people, just how unlucky a teenage girl named Nicole must be to attend a random party of one person from her school or another, only to find out that the person she swore vengeance on all those year ago id there as well? Let's just say, very unlucky, because not even four meters from her stood Byakuran Gesso. The boy that called her mother a liar (not really), insulted her dress (that she hated as well) and pulled on her hair. Usually, Nicole is a very forgiving person, so for her to hold a grudge this long must mean something really bad had happened. Just that it didn't and there is no logical reason why she should still be angry with Byakuran. Well, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned after all.
'No! I must ignore him! Don't give him the satisfaction of knowing he got to me!'
"Hey, Nicole right?" She heard a voice.
'Ah come on! Thanks a lot, Karma!'
She turned around.
"Yes? Have we met?"
She asked sweetly while he approached her.
"You don't remember? We met at the alliance party when we were kids. I believe you called me old and then shoved food down my shirt. You were a really angry child, weren't you?"
Now, Nicole is many things, but stupid she is not. She knew that he was saying that on purpose. She knew he was just provoking her. She knew she should just laugh it off. But, unfortunately, she also knew that the smile on his face was too taunting for her to let to stay there. So she didn't the worst thing a person can do when being teased.
"You started it! If you had just accepted the damn apology none of that would have happened!"
She shouted, her cheeks flushed with anger.
Byakuran's smile only grew.
"So you do remember?"
"Go to hell!"
She shouted and stormed out of the party. Byakran's laughter rang after her. He won that round.
Nicole was ecstatic. She was accepted to the Engineering University. She was currently moving in her dorm. Carrying a mountain of boxes while crossing the hallway.
"Need any help?"
She heard someone ask, and was about to accept the generous offer, until she saw who it came from.
"Not from you!"
She said speeding up while cursing her luck. She stopped in front of her dorm only to notice Byakuran following her at his own pace.
"Why are you following me?"
She shouted after placing her boxes on the floor.
He just smiled and wiggled a key in front of her face before unlocking the door opposite of her own.
"You have got to be kidding me."
"I'm afraid I'm not."
Nicole groaned in frustration. She was going to bump into him every day.
She knew what she had to do. As difficult and painful as it was. She looked down at her shoes and spoke.
"So we are going to be seeing each other every day, huh?"
"Yep." He smiled a carefree smile.
"There is nothing I can do about it?"
"Noup." He replied popping the 'p'.
"So now I'm supposed to offer a truce?"
"Only if you want to."
"Fine! Can we call truce then?"
Byakuran stroked his imaginary beard while pretending to think.
"I don't know. Teasing you is rather amusing. You have such funny reactions. Hmmm. Alright, under one condition. "
She feared what the demon spawn (in her opinion) had in mind.
"And what might that be?"
"Go out with me."
His sentence was followed by silence and soon afterwards a crashing sound. Nicole fell to the floor, leaning on the wall.
"I'm sorry, I must be hearing things. Could you repeat that?"
"Go out with me."
" There it is again, my crazy imagination. I must really be tired."
Byakuran just laughed.
"You're funny. I'll pick you up tonight at eight. Try not to wear THE dress." He left not giving her the time to recover. But when she did, se started pounding on his door.
"You bastard! Come out here and fight like a man!"
Only more laughter was heard from the other side.
That night Nicole surprised herself by actually going with him. She convinced herself it was all so she could have some peace. They spent the entire night at a fair, going on different rides and eating many sweets, from cotton candy to chocolate. The second surprise came sooner then Nicole had hoped when Byakuran kissed her. The third surprise, she was kissing him back.
They started going out after that night. Their relationship was like the rollercoaster they rode on their first date. They fought; they made up, and repeated that routine.
The approximately one millionth surprise that happened to Nicole since that faithful night was when he proposed on their graduation. She literally fell over from shock. He laughed. She threw her cap at him. Yes, they were happy together.
ETENDED ENDING
It was finally Nicole's chance for revenge on her husband. A year after they graduated. She came up to him in the kitchen and told him flat out.
"I'm pregnant."
Byakuran didn't react. It didn't even look like he breathed. He just stood there like a deer caught in headlights. All in all his face was priceless.
So Nicole did what every 'good' wife would do. She took a picture of his face, kissed him and left the kitchen cackling like a hyena.