Disclaimer: I do not own Animal Crossing: Wild World, or Ai and Yu, who were from the Animal Crossing movie.

Note: Okay, so, Ai and Yu are characters from this Animal Crossing movie. I saw the first two parts or so on youtube and they were dubbed, so I haven't seen the ending or anything. If you haven't seen part of it, let me explain: Ai moves to the town, and Yu is a boy who lives in a nearby town but spends most of his time in hers. So if you haven't seen it, trust me, you're not missing out on anything or whatever, and just treat Ai and Yu as if they are two made up characters and the story will progress much the same. If you have seen the movie, I'm sorry I'm not following it very much, it's just that I haven't seen it all and am probably not going to get a chance to. Thanks for reading. :)

"What are you wearing?"

Ai self-consciously lifted up her shirt to check on it. It was one of Margie's prized designs, with a beautiful purple print down the front. She looked over at the boy before her, frowning. He was dressed like a pirate- again. "I could ask you the same thing, you know!"

"No, not that!" Yu snapped. He could be very irritable at times- after spending a year with him in Animal Town, Ai had grown to learn that. Especially if he wasn't getting his way, or the answer he was looking for. "That…that…that thing on your head."

The petite girl hesitated. She was often switching through different hats and headdresses, so why should this new one get any attention? He was the one wearing a pirate's hat, anyways. She felt on top of her head and felt the familiar lace and said, "Oh, the veil. What about it?"

"What, are you getting…are you getting married or something?" The word married sounded like he might as well be cursing, the way he put it.

Ai frowned at first and then found herself laughing. "Uh, no! I'm only a couple months from seventeen, and it's not like there's many marriage candidates around here, you know. They're all kind of…not the same species as me."

When she had come to Animal Town, she was still fifteen. Now, she was almost seventeen. Time had flown, and time had turned her into a braver, more cheerful person. The move to Animal Town had been very good for her.

"Then why are you wearing it?" Yu asked, obviously having ignored everything she had just said. She was used to that as well. Despite him being the only human from miles around, sometimes she felt like she could relate to him the least of all. While she found herself growing up and getting more mature, he was still dressing up and pretending to be everyone but himself.

"Because Whitney gave it to me, Yu," she told him, sighing. "I thought it was cute and I'm always trying on the different accessories she gave me. Why are you here, anyways? You don't even live in this town and the flea market is today. Didn't you want to visit your villagers?"

Yu looked pretty embarrassed- apparently his over reaction had finally hit him. "Well, it's a wedding veil, it's not like you can blame me!" he retorted angrily before tacking on, "And I came to hang out with my best friend Alfonso, for your information."

He went to stride past her but Ai caught him. "Who did you think I was going to marry, Yu?"

The boy turned and caught her vindictive little smile and his cheeks reddened instantly. "Oh, shut up, Ai. I don't care if you get married or not!"

"Oh really?" she asked him, continuing on with her smile until he groaned, letting her know that she had won.

"Okay, okay, fine Ai. I thought maybe you met some guy who came to visit over here or something. So what? It doesn't matter. Nobody comes to visit over here anyways. And it's better like that. Just us and our friends, and my other friends in my town. It's not like we need anything else."

Ai watched him for a moment and thought about all the other things she had grown to want. Romance, that was the biggest. More communication with humans. And she wanted something big, something so much more than she had. Yu, on the other hand, was content to play Peter Pan for the rest of his life.

"There is so much more that we need, Yu," she whispered.

He puffed out his chest and shook his head. "No there's not! We have everything here, Ai! We have everything we could have ever wanted! You always try to ruin things!"

Yu jabbed his toy sword at her, purposefully missing her, but only by an inch. In response, Ai yanked the sword from his hand and threw it to the floor. "You're turning seventeen next week, Yu. It's time you acted like it!" she snapped, and then turned and headed over to Margie's house.

As no surprise to her, the elephant was drawing furiously in the corner of her elegant home. Her designs were tacked all over the walls- something the pair had done together. Marge smiled and set aside her work when she noticed she had a visitor, and as no surprise to her found the girl fuming, as she often did after a confrontation with Yu.

"What's the matter, tootie? Did you talk to Yu again?"

Ai sighed when she realized how often it was that she came in, upset over Yu, and had to have Margie talk her down. "He just…he won't grow up, Margie. It's so…frustrating. I wish he would just dress his age, act his age, and just admit that he…that he…"

She gave up and collapsed into a chair next to he friend. "I'm sorry, Margie. I always come in here complaining. How's your designing going?"

The elephant waved away the words. "Oh, don't worry about it, Ai. This is important to you. But…maybe you should give Yu some credit. Everyone matures at different rates. Maybe he's just not ready to admit that he's almost seventeen- and that his feelings for someone else are very seventeen too, don't you think?"

Ai's cheeks flushed as her friend passed her the sketchpad on the table beside her. "I wonder what would happen if he did," she mumbled, and then her eyes widened as she looked down at the beautiful dress. It shouldn't have come as such a shock to find such amazing talent on the paper, but it always did. "This is gorgeous, Margie! You're going to be as famous as Mable and Sable one day. As famous as Gracie!"

Margie blushed as well. "I hope so…but it's not even finished yet, tootie," she giggled, taking the sketchpad back. "I better get to work. And Ai, about Yu- don't worry too much. Give him some credit, and he'll do the same for you."

The girl got to her feet and smiled at her rather large friend. "Thanks Margie. Good luck on your new design!"

"Thank you, Ai," Margie called after her, and Ai exited the house and took a deep breath.

I better apologize, she sighed once again. It wasn't Yu's fault that he was taking a little longer to grow up than she was. Plus, throwing his sword might have gone a tad bit overboard.

Luckily, she didn't have to look very far for him. She could hear Alfonso shouting, "Look at me, it's a me!" If Yu wasn't with her, than he was sure to be with his lazy friend.

She hesitated before showing herself to them, cowering behind a clump of trees as she watched Alfonso prance around with a fossil.

"That's an ammonite! Wow, that's amazing, Alfonso! I've gotta show this to...nobody…" Ai watched as Yu hung his head, jamming his shovel hard into the dirt and looking, for just a moment, much older.

Alfonso seemed to see this too, as he very cautiously approached his friend. "Do you want me to go find Ai? You've been spending a lot of time with her lately and-,"

"No!" Yu demanded. "Go turn it into the museum. I've gotta do something."

The alligator shrugged and backed away. "Well, suit yourself…see you later, it's a me."

Ai wanted to comfort the boy she watched sulking, but she wasn't sure how he would react to it. She could just imagine him shaking her off and declaring her to have 'cooties,' or something immature like that. In fact, she expected that reaction.

But Yu was her friend, and he looked miserable, his toy sword lying on the floor next to him, slightly bent. She came out from behind the trees and approached his turned back, gently setting her hand on his shoulder. "Yu…I'm sorry. I shouldn't have pressed you like that. And I'm…I'm really sorry about your toy sword, too."

He jumped at her touch at first, but surprised her by relaxing and leaving her hand there. "It's okay, Ai. I'm sorry, too. Sorry I'm not…" he drifted off, not letting her know exactly what it was he wasn't.

"You don't have to be anything you don't want to be…or, aren't ready to be," she murmured quietly, and watched shock cross his face first before acceptance. He continued to hang his head, nodding once.

After a few more moments he straightened up and gave her a smile. "You missed it! Me and Alfonso found this perfect ammonite. Come on, if we hurry we can catch up to him- besides, he's probably waiting somewhere on the way, eating or something…"

He seized Ai's hand and began to pull her through the trees, rushing after his friend.

Ai merely let him. Maybe she was already grown up, but he was going to take some more time.

Author's Note: I'm not sure why I'm writing about these two…I just love their little innocent relationship at the beginning. Sorry to those of you who have seen the movie and think they shouldn't be around seventeen or whatever, but I feel like it just helps the story progress. I'm going to be adding on more oneshots soon, so stay tuned. Hopefully you liked this one! Thanks for reading! (: