Disclaimer: All I own is this computer…
Random little fic, my first (not-so) little attempt at a yuri, so be merciful. Sorry it's a bit long; that's just how I work – I don't really like rushing through things because I usually like everything explained.
They might be OOC but I haven't seen the dub version of G-Rev so I don't really know how they act.
This fic came from this little conversation that I should make a Mariam/Julia video on YouTube (since the only yuri video I have there is a bad Salima/Mariam one), but I never got the chance…yet. I didn't even find a song yet!
Hints towards multiple pairings, yaoi, yuri and het.
"No," the hot-pink haired girl turned away, arms crossed and her face scrunched up signifying that she had made up her mind and wouldn't change it for anything.
"Why 'no', what do you mean?" Mathilda asked, giving Mariah an incredibly innocent look that would probably make even Kai give her what she wanted.
Mariah ignored the look, knowing fully well what that look could make her do. She then started transferring her glare towards the Saint Shield instead. "I mean, I'm not gonna visit Julia."
Mariam gave a sharp glare in return. Salima looked back and forth between the two, afraid that Mariah and Mariam were about to shoot rays of heat at each other from their eyes in a very Superman vs. Bizzaro type of way. Salima didn't even know why Mariam was standing up for the not-present Julia, seeing as the two barely talked or knew each other – not like Salima knew Mathilda.
Giving up her innocent puppy-dog look, Mathilda objected. "But Raul said that she's really sick and wants to see her friends!"
"And since when did that include me?" the White Tiger said in return, aiming her question purely at Mathilda. Mariam and Salima exchanged confused looks, watching the light-pink haired girl search herself for the answer. For a moment, Salima wondered whether Mariah would question Mathilda's unwavering belief in Raul's word every single time and was disappointed when the White Tiger failed to do so.
"Since…um, well since me, you and her decided we would take the positions of the BEGA rebellion force," Mathilda said softly. It was apparent that she was trying to keep from stuttering her answer, which she knew would only infuriate the White Tiger girl even more.
Mariam and Salima instantly looked offended that they weren't considered for this 'BEGA rebellion force' if Mariah, Julia and Mathilda were. Hilary knew all the girls, but she couldn't notify the other two girls because she was too busy trying to be a MingMing wannabe? The traveler looked at the Saint Shield who was thinking the same thing, and nodded.
"All right, if you're done, we're gonna go visit Julia now," said Salima nonchalantly, turning away, "Mariah, you can do whatever you want since obviously nothing we say is going to change your mind." With that said, Salima began storming off, dragging a dazed Mariam with her. The Saint Shield was obviously asking herself why Salima was so bitter towards the White Tiger, somehow thinking it was related to the time Mariam saw Ray standing on the bridge. (1)
"Hey wait!" called Mathilda, "I wanna come too!" she yelled, running off after them.
--
Julia was sitting up in her bed of sky blue covers. She wore only her sleepwear of light purple dress. Her hair was a bit messy and truthfully, she didn't look all that sick.
Raul was staring at his sister, wearing clothes that demanded he go outside. He was unsure of what her intentions were. "You know since you said you wanted the other girls to come, they're coming?"
Julia nodded to herself, and then gave a look towards her twin, silently asking if Mariah was coming too.
"Well, uh, from what Mathilda told me, she's guessing that the chances of Mariah visiting you were very slim," the redhead said nervously, rubbing the back of his neck in discomfort.
Julia nodded again with a look of relief drawn all over her face. Raul was simply staring at her, the look on his face said that he was getting ready to bolt. He was obviously getting sick of serving his sister when she refused to speak. She gave Raul another look, this time asking if he knew that Mathilda liked him.
"Uh?" he blushed slightly at the thought of that. He thought that all the girls liked Kai or something. "No, I didn't, actually. I thought she was just being nice to me because I was 'her friend's brother'."
This earned a chuckle from the golden-haired girl. Again, she gave him a look asking if Mariam was still with Max, or at least still pining for him.
"I'm not sure that's any of your business," the younger said, "because firstly, I'm not that buddy-buddy with Max to know that, secondly, I'm not that buddy-buddy with Mariam either. Thirdly, you're not buddy-buddy with Mariam or Max either," noted Raul loudly, almost trying to make his sister feel bad with that information, "Fourthly, what's with the random topic change?" he was suspecting that she was running out of things to say, or think, to keep him there.
Before Julia could conjure another look, Raul sighed. "All right, never mind. Don't answer that. I'm gonna go before you abuse this whole 'twin telepathy' thing (2)" He grabbed his comb and his wallet, and dashed out the door, barely giving his sister any time to object.
The boy smirked, having finally gotten time to himself. Just outside the apartment, he stopped to check his wallet. He didn't want to go out without enough money. Tyson had invited him, along with handful of the other guys to go over to Tyson's to hang out and 'be guys'. Raul, of course, and Ray were in charge of getting the junk food that the other guys would willingly get sick over. He shuddered in half-disgust; he wasn't willing as they were to get that sick.
"Well, well, well. Look who it is," a teasing feminine voice announced.
Raul looked up from his wallet, quickly closing it and putting it where he knew they couldn't get it. The first thing he thought was that he was about to get mugged. Randomly. By tough guys in black suits. In broad, broad daylight.
Like hell, he'd get mugged.
Mariam lifted a brow at his actions and Salima tried her hardest to turn away from him, which resulted in Mathilda almost running into the redheaded girl. Mathilda had thought the look was supposed to mean turn around and run back to Mariah.
"Salima! Why'd you do that?" whined Mathilda, trying to keep her balance from falling, also trying to keep from crashing into the traveler. Raul noticed this, grabbing the girl's hand before she fell. The goggle-wearing girl sighed in relief, and then looked at whose hand was holding hers. Raul, Mariam and Salima witnessed Mathilda's face exploding into a very red hue. Feeling he did something wrong, he let go. This caused the red hue to fade away, but only slightly.
Mariam smirked. "Salima did that because Mr. Paranoid here just randomly decides to put his wallet down the front of his pants."
"Oh," muttered the light-pink haired girl. Raul didn't even think of defending himself against Mariam's statement, as it was true and saying that he thought he was going to get mugged by guys in black in broad daylight would end in something rather odd. It would also give Mariam the opportunity to verbally destroy him, and he didn't want to give her the satisfaction. The blush on Mathilda's face was still quite apparent, so much that Raul took hold of her chin and tilted her head to look at him, although the proximity caused the blush to rise again.
"Mathilda?" he asked, studying her carefully. Green eyes roaming over her face for anything.
"Yes?" came the squeaked tone. Pink eyes tried their hardest to keep contact with the emerald ones above her, and to no avail. They resulted in clasping tightly and her head slightly turning away from him.
Mariam and Salima watched in anticipation. Salima was wondering if Raul was actually gonna kiss her and Mariam was wondering if he was gonna ask what was wrong with her.
"Are you…sick or something?" Raul finished, using his hand to turn her head so he could see the sides too, "Because you're really red and you're heating up. I think you look worse than Julia when she got sick,"
Salima couldn't help but smile innocently at that. Mariam, on the other hand, was getting annoyed.
"All right, Mr. Paranoid and Oblivious, Mathilda's not sick, but just take her with you, okay?" the Saint Shield yelled in a very demanding tone. This, however, had no affect on Raul.
"But I have to get food for Tyson's little guy-get-together," replied the confused boy, letting go of Mathilda. Salima's smile faded at wondering what Mariam's intentions were.
"With who?"
"Ray," he replied quietly, almost in shame, "that's why I got my wallet,"
Salima's head shot up. "But he has his own money, ya know."
Before Raul could respond, Mariam cut in. "And you would know, Salima…"
Raul took glances between the two as they began bickering childishly, completely forgetting about Mathilda. He then remembered that Julia had wanted to know the status of Mariam and Max, but he failed to drive the Saint Shield's attention away from arguing with the traveler. When he figured he'd wasted enough time, he spoke up, "Well, Mariam, Salima, it was nice talking to you, but I gotta run," he began running off.
"Wait, wait!" yelled Mariam. Raul sighed to himself and stopped in his tracks, asking 'why me?' and 'what now?' He turned around to face Mariam who continued, "Mathilda's coming with you!"
"Girl, what part of 'guys-get-together' do you not comprehend?" retorted the annoyed boy. Mathilda was wondering to herself who she should be more afraid of; Mariam or Raul. Deciding that they were both frightening at the moment, she hid behind Salima, muttering things like 'make her stop' and 'forget it; I'll talk to Raul myself later'
"The part were you say it's a 'guys-get-together' when it's rather obvious that Hilary's gonna be there! What do you say to that?" demanded the Saint Shield, feeling that she had just made and excellent point.
Raul pointed his index finger at her, "I have no idea!" Although the look on his face screamed confidence, the tone of his voice made it clear he didn't have a clue.
"Just take the girl with you," replied Mariam bluntly.
The F-Dynasty boy thought this over for a long time. "Fine, as long as we stop verbally jousting," he pouted, noticing Mariam confused look. "It's about as fun as arguing with Kai – everyone always loses to him. You two should consider verbal jousting sometime…"
Mariam smirked in triumph, "Deal!" she triumphantly. "Except about the verbal jousting!" and then turned to Mathilda. "Go on…"
Mathilda silently thanked Mariam and ran off to Raul who, when she was close enough, ran too. Salima still caught glimpse of Mathilda's blush and thought about it.
"I'm betting that some random strangers will see them and instantly say to themselves 'that pink-haired girl likes the redheaded boy'," noted Salima loudly.
"You put a lot of thought into that, didn't you?" asked Mariam, slightly shaken.
"Maybe, now come on! We've almost forgotten about Jules!" the traveler announced, running into the apartment before the Saint Shield could decipher anything more.
"Yeah, yeah…." Mariam sighed, following the girl inside.
--
After her brother's departure, Julia had decided that the most fun thing to do was to braid her bangs, unbraid them, and then braid them again.
"Knock, knock!" a happy feminine voice said from outside her door. There was a couple of shuffling of feet and muttering of 'just get in the freaking room already'
Before Julia could respond, another feminine voice, albeit a harsher one, spoke up. "Julia, don't say 'who's there?' because this isn't a 'knock, knock' joke,"
The two voices began bickering again. Julia caught things like "she's sick, don't toy with her mind" and "I was just trying to lighten the situation"
"Come in already!" the F-Dynasty girl yelled, cutting their argument short. Mariam and Salima walked into the room, approaching Julia at her bed. "Where're Mariah and Mathilda?"
"Mariah wouldn't come, so we just left her and Mathilda um…" struggled Salima. The traveler was obviously poor at word selection, nor was she able to portray thoughts subtly so she just went for the blunt approach. "Mariam made your brother take Mathilda with him while he went to get food for Tyson's guy-get-together."
Mariam snarled. "Way to be subtle," the Saint Shield wasn't even hoping for a response and simply looked at Julia. Raul was right; Mathilda's face in exploding red hues looked more ill than Julia right now. But it was only natural, wasn't it? "Hey, Julia, where does Raul keep your medicine?" asked the blue-haired girl before sitting on the edge of Julia's bed.
"In the cupboard on the right, why?"
Salima replied instead. "Because Mariam wants to give some to Mathilda. Apparently, Raul made her sick."
"He did what?" Julia's voice suddenly became dripped in anger. She looked like she was going to find her brother herself, beat the living daylights out of him and then place him somewhere where he wouldn't be found – and she'd do it in less than four seconds flat.
Ignoring Julia's sudden outburst, Mariam turned to Salima. "Sal, you're not exactly helping here. How about you wait outside?"
"And do what?"
"Find the medicine," offered Mariam, "anything, just go."
Julia couldn't understand what was happening. After everything Julia had done to get Mariam's attention, prior to 'being sick' Mariam had never shown her any concern, and hadn't even thrown her a simple glance. Why all the sudden attention now? Whatever the reason, Julia didn't care as long as she had Mariam's attention, and was even more thankful that the Saint Shield had gotten Salima out of the room.
Salima had popped back into the room, giving Mariam the bottle of medicine which the Saint Shield read silently. The traveler had given Julia a silent look to 'get better and don't let Mariam scare you' before she left again, afraid of what Mariam would do if she knew that the traveler had went against her word. Julia nodded, knowing that couldn't happen. Or at least she hoped.
"Mariam?" Julia finally asked, finding her voice.
"Yeah?" replied the blue-haired girl, still reading the label of the medicine bottle. A red hue spread over Julia's face, which caught Mariam's attention. "Hey, are you getting sick all over again or something?" asked the Saint Shield, her attention was finally diverted from the medicine bottle. Mariam recalled how Raul reacted to Mathilda's red hue and she began asking herself if this was the same principle.
"Can I tell you something?" said Julia worriedly. "That you can't repeat?"
"If you feel comfortable telling me over your closer friends like Mariah or Mathilda, then sure," shrugged Mariam with a sincere smile.
The golden-haired girl nodded. "I do feel comfortable, and I don't think I have closer friends." If anything, the hue grew brighter.
Mariam's head feel aback, confused at the information she had just been given. Never to her face had the Saint Shield been kind to the F-Dynasty girl. People were even confused on how they were friends. How could the female twin consider Mariam as a close friend when they had barely interacted? Mariam's stomach began creating feelings that she soon discovered was guilt. Julia thought highly of Mariam and Mariam couldn't even return the sediment.
When Julia had decided that the Saint Shield wouldn't say anything, she continued. "I'm not really sick. I never was," admitted Julia. She looked up at Mariam, seeing her lost in a daze. Julia then decided that her fingers were rather interesting and began fumbling with them.
"Then why did you tell Raul--?" Mariam began to ask.
Julia cut in like a knife through warm butter. "I was just trying to avoid someone."
Again confused, Mariam asked. "So you faked sick because you were avoiding someone? Is it because of hormonal pressure?"
The F-Dynasty girl nodded. "How did you know?"
"Everybody gets that way sometimes. Everyone deals with it differently, I suppose, but I've never seen someone fake sick to do it," replied Mariam.
"So how do you 'deal with it', if you don't mind me asking?" asked Julia. She really wanted to know, and hoping that the Saint Shield wouldn't lie or deny the question being asked.
"Sarcasm," said Mariam bluntly. Julia nodded at this. "So, do you wanna take some medicine? I'll get some water for you to drink it down?" offered the Saint Shield.
"But hormonal pressure isn't the only reason!" announced Julia, ignoring the girl's last statement referring to medicine.
"Okay," said Mariam with a nod, deciding that if Julia wanted to get things off her chest, Mariam would be kind and listen to them, especially considering that Julia claimed that Mariam was her closest friend. And Julia didn't look like she was exactly willing to share it with anyone else, "so what else then?"
"Er, um, romantic emotions?" it was a rather awkward way to put it but Julia feared that if she put it a different way, it would sound cliché and cheesy.
A long moment of silence followed. Julia was scared that Mariam had put all the pieces together and figured out the truth.
"So, wait. You faked sick because you have a crush on some guy?" asked Mariam, giving Julia a confused look, "'Lia, we all go through it. You didn't exactly have to go to these lengths to hide it. If I can help Mathilda get with Raul, I can help you with whoever this guy is," she announced happily.
"Ah, Mari, there's a little problem with your theory," Julia said quietly. It was like she feared that if she spoke any louder, Mariam would go away, "Er, more like two, really."
Sensing Julia's voice taking sudden volume change, Mariam lowered hers to equal Julia's. "And what's that?" asked the Saint Shield, completely ignoring the fact that Julia had just called her Mari. Either she was ignoring it completely or she was just fine with it. She then supposed it was payback for calling her Lia.
"I'm not sure it's a crush; I think it's a bit more than that. I can't really explain it and um," Julia once again found her fingers very interesting but the look on Mariam's face caused her to say the words she knew she would regret, "it isn't a guy,"
Now things were beginning to make sense. The words burned into Mariam's head until she was once again aware of her surroundings. She soon found herself whispering, "I thought you liked Tala…"
"I thought I did too, but I guess he just wasn't what I was looking for," Julia shrugged.
"So you're bi or what...?" Mariam didn't know what she was supposed to say.
"I dunno. It's just this one girl I like; any others just don't really appeal to me. Same with Tala; it was just him and the other guys didn't matter to me like that," Julia uttered out softly. Julia knew what would happen next – Mariam would ask who it was, and Julia would tell her. Julia would tell her everything.
Mariam nodded, silently letting all the information stick in her brain. She still couldn't figure out why Julia was telling her all this; they weren't all that close, despite Julia's claims. She honestly thought that this was something that Mariah or Mathilda should have been told first. Maybe if Mariam had been like Salima and spent a lot of time with a girl she barely knew, the Saint Shield might feel more comfortable accepting this information. If only she'd been like Salima towards Mathilda. Or Queen towards MingMing. Or Mariah towards Emily.
It hit Mariam just then why Julia faked sick like that. She probably fell for someone who either was in love with someone else, or someone who didn't swing her way. And remembering what certain countries did to people who loved those of the same gender, Mariam knew why she was so unwilling to say anything.
"Are you sure it's me you want to be telling this to?" the Saint Shield asked again. "Because I can get Salima or Mariah if you want."
"Of course I'm comfortable with you knowing it. I actually wouldn't have it any other way," replied Julia, "we might not have been really close like Salima and Mathilda are but, I can't explain it but I've always felt some weird connection with you," the brunette looked at Mariam, ensuring that she was still there and that Julia was dreaming. "It wasn't like the connections we have with our bit-beasts or anything… I guess it's like Kai and Ray's connection. Like Hilary told me about how Kai fought for Ray's bit-beast and stuff. Then how Ray fought to help Kai even though Ray didn't have his bit-beast. I sorta imagined myself doing those things for you," admitted Julia with another red hue taking over her face.
Mariam was still staring at Julia, which Julia returned until the brunette shut her eyes tight and looked away. The Saint Shield still didn't know what to say or do, and when she noticed Julia's gaze being diverted, she glanced around the room. A glass halfway filled with water caught her attention. She then popped a tablet from the medicine bottle into her hand, picked up the glass and held it in front of Julia.
"Here…before you forget," spoke Mariam softly, "You're turning red again…"
Julia stared at the tablet in the blue-haired girl's hand, and nodded. She popped the tablet in her mouth, grabbed the glass from Mariam and gulped it down. With an inhale of breath, she smiled and handed the glass back to Mariam while wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. "Thanks,"
Mariam smiled as she put the glass back on the side table and Julia noticed it was one of those rare, sincere smiles. The Saint Shield still refused to speak, not knowing what to say that pertained to Julia and her female crush. Julia was still waiting for Mariam to talk – she'd feel better if Mariam spoke.
"Mariam, do you still like Max?" Julia asked, at least wondering what her chances were before she spilled everything.
The blue-haired girl felt herself unable to speak. Why was Julia suddenly asking this? It didn't have anything to do with anything they were talking about before. But the guilt of Mariam's lack of connection with Julia obligated Mariam to answer. "I suppose not. The way I felt for Max was probably like what Mariah felt for Ray," Mariam sighed, lowering her head slightly, "I mean, I knew about him and Tyson but I guess I became attached to him anyways. I felt something with him, but Max and Tyson's something is even clearer to me than my something with him, so I guess I've given up on him," Mariam replied truthfully, feeling her cheeks heat up a tad.
Julia let out a small breath. "Okay, that's…reliving to know," she said with a smile. The brunette could feel herself shaking and her heart pumping against her chest, "Did you shift your feelings towards someone else?"
Mariam couldn't understand Julia's sudden interest in the Saint Shield's feelings, but if it'd make her feel better, she'd answer, "I suppose Ozuma's always been cute in some weird way, but I don't think I like him like that," she replied, staring at Julia who gave her a look to clarify, "So…no, I don't."
"Oh…" Julia's heart sank. There were two ways to look at this – one, Mariam has no feelings for anyone at the moment, including Julia, and two, since Mariam has no feelings for anyone, Julia could have a chance before someone else swept in and took her.
"But I bet whoever you like will understand and won't criticize you," offered the Saint Shield with a smile, trying something she imagined Salima would do.
"Do you?" Julia asked, with a small dare in her tone.
"I think people should be able to like someone else, no matter what they are. Interfering with people's happiness and emotions is just…retarded," answered the Saint Shield with a bitter tone, "to me, anyways."
The brunette gave a nod, eyes staring at her hands again, "It's you."
Mariam stared, eyes wide open, then blinked twice. "What's me?" her brows came together in confusion.
"That person I have bit more of a crush on – it's you," Julia whispered.
Mariam wished she could say that everything made sense now. But it didn't.
So there you have it, my first attempt at a yuri. I've read it to myself over and over and I'm still not sure about this whole thing.
I really didn't want to end it there but I didn't know what else I could do. I'm not good at this type of stuff (love confessions and what happens after that). I was going to have Mariam review everything that just happened mentally and kiss Julia after announcing that she didn't know what her feelings were (and saying that she would learn to return Julia's sediments with time), but knowing that she felt something (then relate it to her something with Max) but I wasn't sure and I'm sure it'd just make this long one-shot even longer.
(1) – Mariam mentioned in dub V-Force episode 19 that she saw Ray on the bridge. Her line was just "Maybe that's why [Ray was down by the river last night"
(2) – The 'Twin Telepathy' thing is from Zack & Cody, if anyone's familiar with them.
(Yay, I think I've got a song for my Mariam/Julia video: You and Me by Lifehouse. I listened to it while writing this, and I thought it kinda fit)
All I have left to say is: be merciful?