A/N: Takes place a few years after the end of the finale. Kind of a different take on a fic I've seen a few times. My first fic with a legit OC.

Discomfort radiated off his form in waves, directly felt by those around him. Jack did not wish to be in this situation, but there was little choice to be had. That was made more apparent with the excited crowd chattering as the palanquin came ever closer. These people deserved a proper leader, no matter how he felt.

"Don't look so tense my son." His mother whispered taking hold of his hand lightly. "It's only a meeting." Her words though soothing were patronizing as well. This was the first meeting of six others, each more agonizing than the last. That day was almost four years ago and the towns people grew anxious that their Prince remained unwed. His parents too old to bear another and with no direct relatives, the fear that this might be the end of the line was all too real. So begrudgingly Jack agreed to these arranged marriage meetings. None went very well.

"I have heard rumors that this one is quite…..abrasive." His father cautioned. "I only ask you do not offend her, her family is a good ally." From what Jack recalled her family lived just west of them and did much trade, it would not do to lose that. "But chances are also good she may do so herself." He joked and Jack laughed lightly with him stopping when the palanquin dropped to the ground. Looking truly like the Emperor he was he stepped forward to great the couple that exited.

After a few moments of pleasantries the man and his wife approached Jack. "So this is the man who defeated Aku, I am honored to meet you." He said bowing, and Jack followed suit. "I am proud to introduce my eldest daughter Yumi." The lord announced and slowly the woman stepped out.

She was striking to say the least, tall and thin with a long face to match and skin so pale he wondered if she ever saw the sun. The most notable thing though was her hair, deep dark black that fell to the ground trailing with her kimono at each step even while being held up in an intricate style atop her head. She must have been growing it all her life and Jack wondered why?

From the mutterings of the crowd it was easy to see she was a great beauty but Jack could not help but compare and be left wanting.

When she stood before him however, at nearly equal height, Jack felt himself under scrutiny. Sharp eyes took him in as her face stayed utterly neutral behind a fan. It made everything all the more uncomfortable. "I expected you to be taller." She finally said her voice deep and low. Before Jack could say a word her parents seemed to give a disapproving look. "I apologize for my rudeness I mean only that stories of you have been quite exaggerated I would suggest that write down your tale before it becomes more legend than truth." His father was right she was quite abrasive.

"um I will take that into consideration…" He replied unsure. It was a good idea yet her steady gaze made him feel as though anything he said would be wrong. Jack offered her an arm to walk inside but she seemed to refuse to drop her fan. This Yumi was odd to say the least.

Walking silently through the halls behind their parents Jack could not help but notice two more oddities about her manner of dress. A pendent hung off her neck, plain, simple and almost crude in design, compared to the finery she wore it stuck out like a sore thumb. But then what was more concerning was was how her kimono was tied right over left, that couldn't be an accident could it?

"If you keep staring I'll think you indecent." She remarked dully and Jack blushed in embarrassment.

"No no I did not mean to stare." He confessed seeing her roll her eyes in response. "Its just that pendent, is very um unique I was wondering if there was a story about it." For the first time Jack saw true emotion on this woman face, it definitely meant something. But then another look from her parents seemed to stop her.

"It was a gift from a child in our land, I hadn't the heart to refuse." She was not lying, not fully anyway, but there was more to it than that. Something in her eyes reminded him of himself.

The meeting from there droned on as the others had, he sat in silence at the table as their parents spoke. Yumi's lord parents sang praises of her accomplishments and what marriage to her would give them. Flower arranging, dancing, poetry, sewing, music, all the same trivial things. She looked as though she never worked a day in her life, all too thin and delicate, it seemed a strong enough breeze might blow her over. Despite her size Ashi always….damnitt he was doing it again. He needed to stop that no woman in any time would be able to stand on equal to her in his eyes, he needed to stop tormenting himself.

"You have been quiet." Came that same dull tone, as though she had seen and done everything there was to do in this world. "If you find me distasteful come out and say it." He glared at that fan of hers, he could hardly tell what she was thinking with it covering most of her face.

"I do not even know you yet." He defended himself only to hear her scoff.

"And yet you've already decided who I am." She shot back.

"Have you not done the same to me?" He smirked when her fan dropped just slightly. The victory was short lived however when he saw a smirk grow on her newly revealed face.

"I must say you are more observant than I first thought." She replied cooly pointing at him over the table with the fan, oddly proud. And her parents seemed strangely pleased for the first time.

"Well well why don't we let you two speak more freely." Yumi's mother announced almost giddy as she tried to drag her husband up. "You know I've wanted to see how this wonderful land looks again dear Emperor please do show us around." The woman was quite forceful and before Jack knew it he was alone with Yumi.

"Ha, one nice word and my lady mother thinks her task complete." He heard her sigh turning to find Yumi leaning back on her arm, hair pooling even further on the tatami, and fan back in her face. "Though I suppose I can't blame her, ten failures already…"

"TEN?!" Jack let out in surprise, gaining a curious look from the woman. "Ahem I mean um that is uh I am only surprised that you…" There was no way to fix this was there, he'd gone and offered the daughter of a valuable ally.

"Tell me truthfully." She started sitting back up. "This is not something you wish to do is it?"

"No…" He confessed. "But I..I must for my family and the people who depend on me I must be wed." This was about duty not feeling, nothing more nothing less.

"As I recall…" She started, "You were almost wed, to um hmm what was her name…. Ahriu?"

"ASHI" He corrected a bit louder than he'd have liked.

"Yes, I apologize." She did not seem to mind. "I heard that she perished on your wedding day or vanished." She appeared genuinely confused tapping the fan on her chin. "It seems to differ with whomever is telling the story."

"No….both are correct." He admitted solemnly and she gave him a few moments to compose himself. Speaking of Ashi was still so difficult.

"You're very cryptic do you know that?" She said with a hint of a laugh hidden by the fan.

Jack raised a brow at that, was she teasing him? "And you, you ask for honesty yet you lied when asked about your pendent." He shot back and her fan dropped again.

This time he saw her smirk. "You noticed that huh?" He nodded. "My lord parents instructed me to lie about the true origins of the pendent. Among other things."

"Why?" They seemed the honest sort why instruct their daughter in deception?

"They want to see me married." She answered nonchalantly. "With my younger brother the heir they worry for my future." A smile ghosted over her face then placing the fan on the table that separated them. Jack could understand her he found, surprisingly there was more in common between them than he had thought. "I am always asked three questions, I assume you have been meaning to ask the other two." So the pendent was among them. "Why is your hair so long? And why is your kimono tied improperly?"

"I would be lying if I said I had not thought to ask those." He replied offering her a smile. "So are you going to tell me the truth?"

"The answer to all three, is the same." She replied and for a moment Jack thought this might be some game of hers. That is until she said, "Hiro."

"Hiro?"

She smiled not wide, but bright and sorrowful all at once. "I suppose he is my Ashi." And suddenly Jack understood. "He made me this pendent when we were young." She raised her hand to the simple trinket. "He always praised my hair so I grow it." The hand raised further to flow through some loose locks. "And with him gone I feel a walking corpse….." Finally it landed on her chest where her kimono folded over. "My suitors do not care for me holding another man in my heart."

The room was silent as he took in what she said, Jack had judged her poorly, she too suffered greatly. This man she cherished and mourned, died before his time leaving her exactly as Ashi left him. "I'm sorry…" He watched as she composed herself, lifting herself up moving to stand by the opened door to the gardens.

"Tell me how long did you know your Ashi?" She asked her voice calm and still as ever but with her back to him Jack knew she was trying to maintain her composure.

"In truth not very long." He confessed with a bitter laugh. "But when I was with her it felt as though I had always known her, that we were always meant to meet." Carefully he told Yumi his story, a tale he'd only spoken once to his parents. How they met, fought, how he taught her the truth, how she saved his life, their fight against Aku, how she left, and the small moments in-between. Each word filled him such joy and terrible pain as he lost himself in memories for the first time in so long. Though Jack could not see her reactions to the tale, a part of him felt she did this more for his sake than her own.

"You really ought to write that story down." She quipped turning for a moment with a smile.

"And you?" He asked. "How long did you know your Hiro?"

"Since we were children." She started turning back to the garden. "He was the son of my father's favorite blacksmith. I was often brought along and Hiro would keep me company while our fathers spoke. One day he gave me this pendent and said 'One day I'll marry you Yumi'." She laughed bitterly this was obviously hard for her. "He was lucky my father did not hear him. I told him a blacksmith would never do he'd have to be something impressive such as the head General of my fathers guard. Little did I know he'd set out to do just that. I spotted him from my window among the recruits and the youngest at that."

"My mother had warned me all my life of men who would lie to me to help themselves and wondered if he was doing that. So I asked him why he was doing this and he said 'You always look so lonely, if I marry you I'll make sure you're never lonely again.' It was that moment that he stole my heart and any chance for me to accept another." There was a long moment of quiet as she stood there likely indulging as he had done. "He was so close to being able to ask for my hand when.…" Her voice shaking, Jack knew she was fighting tears. And he knew why she was afraid to utter the words.

"Aku." He said for her and saw Yumi's head nod.

"I begged him not to go, to stay with me as I cared for the injured…." She sighed heavily as though she were trying to force the grief from her body. Jack had truly misjudged her. "But he was always too kind for his own good. I loved him for that as well."

"He sounds like a great man." Jack offered as some form of solace. "I'm so sorry….. had I come sooner perhaps….."

"Stop." She turned and he could see the dried tears on her cheeks. "I'm tired of restless nights spent pondering what ifs, aren't you?" Jack had to concede to that, this was the world they had now and he had to accept it. There was no need to torture himself further. Well more than normal. Slowly she walked back, fiddling with the pendent between her fingers like prayer beads. Jack envied her a little, he wished he had something of Ashi's to carry with him always.

"You said the men you meet do not care for you because of your dedication to Hiro." He spoke once she was again seated and she nodded. "For me it is the opposite, all the women I meet seem almost excited after I or they bring up Ashi, vowing to help me through and that we'd find love together and…." He fisted his hands in frustration on the table, he knew they meant no harm but, "They don't understand…"

"When the sun has set no candle can replace it." Jack looked at her in awe at her words, that was exactly how he felt. "I read that once from a foreign book and its stayed with me." He wanted to ask her the name of the story so that he might read it as well but she spoke again. "I…I hmmm…" This was the first time she was fumbling over her words it was odd even with how short a time he knew her. "I will offer you a proposal. I do not think we will ever come to love each other, to be blunt you do not even seem the type I find attractive." He wanted to say he could say the same of her but bit his tongue to hear her out. "However I think we understand each other, and that we could be friends." She smiled bringing her hand over the table. "I offer you this candle to help expel the gloom."

Jack looked at her outstretched hand and thought of her offer. Not a new love but a friend who could understand. Slowly he smiled and accepted her hand. "You really do enjoy poetry I see." He teased causing her to laugh real and true.

"So you were actually listening." Yes they could be friends and for a situation such as it was it was the best either could hope for.

A/N: So i created Yumi with idea of a woman the opposite of Ashi. I'd seen a few after Ashi's disappearance pics where jack finds what is essentially Ashi in his time and i wanted a more realistic take (at least for now haha feel free to see my alternate timeline fic for Jashi). Anyway I hope you enjoyed, more to come later.