Disclaimer: See epilogue

Chapter 1:

So Happy Together

"We're married?" said Keitaro, looking down on his other, cast-bound hand. Sure enough, a gold wedding band encircled his ring finger. "Oh my..." Motoko gasped, as her own finger also held a wedding ring. Both of them blushed and stared at each other, their eyes carefully staring at each other in a new light.

"Wow. I have a beautiful wife." Keitaro said, not really thinking about what he had just said. When he realized what he had blurted out, he immediately clamped his hand over his mouth. Motoko blushed even brighter, turning her gaze to her lap. "I'm sorry. That was rash of me." He said through his fingers.

"N-no need to apologize..." Motoko began, stuttering. She carefully looked over towards Keitaro once more. "... actually, I am quite flattered... my husband." she said softly with a small smile. Keitaro let his hand down from his mouth. "Um, you're welcome, Motoko." he replied gingerly.

The doctor sighed. "Hmm, I was afraid of this. Judging by your reactions, both of you have no idea why you're here, do you?" Watanabe said, pulling up a chair by the wall.

"What do you mean, sir?" Keitaro asked, looking away from his newfound wife for a second. "Well, I guess it would be best if I tell you what we know up until this point." the doctor answered, preparing to go off in a long explanation.

"You two were almost hit by a truck, to put it simply." The doctor said with a laugh. His two patients face faulted at their doctors blatant humor for their situation. "A truck? Then why the both of us? Why are we not injured more seriously?" Motoko said, getting annoyed with their less-than-professional practitioner.

"Okay, okay, I'll go more into detail." Watanabe chuckled, holding his hands up in defense after noticing the girl's cold stare. "Anyway, from what we could get from the eyewitnesses, Mrs. Urashima seemed to be walking in sort of a daze when she was crossing the intersection. Mr. Urashima followed behind her in a sort of lopsided pace, due to his leg injuries." the doctor counted off.

"Leg injuries! What are you talking about?" Keitaro blurted out. He had checked himself when he had regained consciousness, but apart from his arm and head, nothing else seemed to be out of place. "Well, you two have been in a coma for three days. Your cast was taken off right around the second, seeing as you had completely healed by then." The Doctor pointed out, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

"Umm, alright." Keitaro mumbled, not really wanting to see if he had any more invisible injuries. "Please continue with your story, Watanabe-sensei." Motoko said. For some reason, she felt bad after hearing about Keitaro's leg. Almost a little guilty.

"Of course." Watanabe nodded understandingly. "Motoko-san did not see the truck turning in from the left lane. Your husband, even with his injury, pushed you away from the impact in the nick of time." the doctor recounted.

"K-keitaro... saved my life?" Motoko whispered. Keitaro also took this news with surprise. "Was that how I got my injury?" Keitaro said, holding up his cast. "There's a funny story in that." Watanabe laughed, once again his eyes glinting with amusement. "Well, as soon as Keitaro pushed you out of the way, both of you hit your heads on a lamppost." Watanabe added. Again, Keitaro and Motoko face-faulted.

"But that still does not explain Keitaro's injury." Motoko pointed out, beginning to think that this doctor was just messing with both their injured heads.

"Oh yes, that. Well, Keitaro wrapped his arms around you as he pushed you out of the way, so when you both hit the post, Keitaro's arm also got in the way." Watanabe explained. Motoko and Keitaro nodded in approval.

"I see. So my husband injured himself trying to prevent further harm to myself?" Motoko said softly. "Um, yes, it would seem so." Watanabe said. "I... am thankful to have married such a selfless man." Motoko said, the slight redness slowly returning to her cheeks. Keitaro smiled. Though he wouldn't say it, he doubted that they were truly married. Him, stuck with such a beautiful girl like that? Impossible. It must have been some sort of mix-up. They couldn't be married... could they?

"Doctor, how did you find out our names anyway?" Keitaro said, trying to change the subject. "That was easy. It's on your marriage license!" Watanabe laughed, pulling out an official-looking certificate out of thin air. If Keitaro had been drinking anything, he would have sprayed it out of his mouth in disbelief.

"W-what!" Keitaro cried in disbelief. There in front of him was government proof that he had, in fact, entered a lifelong contract with the woman beside him. "Yup. Right under there. Groom's name, Keitaro Urashima. Bride's maiden name, Motoko Aoyama. We found it in Keitaro's pocket when we were looking for ID." Watanabe explained.

"B-but how can you be sure that Motoko was the Motoko on the certificate?" Keitaro said, still stubborn over the fact the he indeed was this beautiful woman's husband. How the hell did he win the heart of Motoko Aoyama?

"There's another funny story..." the doctor had the familiar look in his eyes. "... we found it on Motoko's underwear!" Watanabe laughed. Again the newlyweds face-faulted. "P-pervert!" Motoko cried, her hand reflexively going to her waist. She grasped for something, but only found air. Motoko didn't understand why, but she felt as if something was supposed to be there for this situation, but wasn't. "Hey, I don't exactly appreciate Motoko having a hentai for a doctor!" Keitaro said angrily.

"Hold on, guys. I didn't say that I took Mrs. Urashima's panties. A nurse did when she was putting on your hospital gowns! It's standard procedure!" Watanabe raised his arms in front of him once more. This seemed to placate the young couple somewhat, and the doctor resumed his story.

"Anyway, you guys won't believe how many patients we ID with their underwear. After a while, we just adopted that policy on people with no identification. It's better than having a hundred 'Jane and John Does.'" Watanabe said, taking humor on how the hospital's many little known practices always seemed to surprise people.

"I see..." Motoko replied, still a bit peeved at how this doctor seemed to take everything a bit too lightly. "Ok, with that out of the way, we can get on with hospital formalities." Watanabe said, pulling out another piece of paper out of thin air. "These are your MRI scans." he said, pointing to the two laminated printouts.

"As you can see, both of you have suffered some damage to your frontal cortex, the memory processing part of your brain." Motoko and Keitaro nodded, following along so far. "Got it? Good. Anyway, we can't really say how bad your injuries are, but for some strange reason, you two have almost identically similar injuries on both of your brains." Watanabe said, going in to 'oh-my-god-I-have-to-geek-out-about-your-frontal-cortex' mode. Keitaro and Motoko gasped. Sure enough, as Doctor Watanabe overlapped the two pictures on the wall's backlight, the red areas fit on top of each other perfectly.

"Whoa." Keitaro whispered. Motoko only nodded, with her mouth slightly open. "Well, your memories are still intact, but you guys just can't tap into them right now. I can't really say how long you guys will have amnesia, but hey, look on the bright side. At least you guys are starting of your marriage in a special way." Watanabe chuckled. The young couple failed to see the humor in this and stared at the doctor blankly. "I guess not every amnesia-suffering newlyweds will find that funny." the doctor sighed.

"We'll try to contact your families as soon as we can, but most of the time it takes us a few weeks to do this. Also, there's a two-week observation period, so even when we contact your relatives, we can only let you go after that time, understand?" Watanabe finished his long explanation of their situation. The couple nodded.

"Good. If there's anything you guys need, just press the nurse call button. I'll see you guys again later this week." Dr. Watanabe said, rising from his seat and walking to the door. "You guys have a good afternoon." He said behind him as he closed the door.

This left Keitaro and Motoko in an odd silence. It wasn't really awkward, it was just... strange.

"So Motoko-"

"Keitaro I-"

The two cut off each other and laughed. The tension, if you could really call it that, was lifted. "Well, I guess that answers my question." Keitaro said sheepishly, rubbing his nose.

"Ah, yes. It seems we are more than just two people with the same family name." Motoko replied, at ease and nervous at the same time. She was certain the same questions ran through Keitaro's mind as in hers. When did they meet? How intimate where they? What were the details of their wedding? Did they-! Motoko reddened at the thought. They were married. Was he good in bed? Was she? Who's to say that they hadn't, or weren't planning too? (he-he, role switching. gotta' love it. : P)

Keitaro noticed his wife's sudden change of color and decided to ask what she was thinking about. "Oh, just, ah, about, err, us in general..." Motoko laughed weakly, trying to hide her glaring ecchi thoughts.

"Yeah, me too." Keitaro said innocently enough. And sure enough, he was thinking about him and Motoko's new relationship. He just didn't get to think as far ahead as Motoko did or else he would have died of blood loss.

"I guess we never planned to have our honeymoon like this, did we." Keitaro joked, lying back down on his pillows. "It would be the result of poor planning if it were." Motoko replied, also lying down on her side, facing Keitaro. They left each other to their thoughts for a few moments before Motoko spoke once more.

"Keitaro." She said, raising her eyes to the brown haired young man. "What, Motoko?" Keitaro said, turning to face his wife. "How do you think we... fell in love?" Motoko whispered, almost as if she were telling Keitaro a secret. Keitaro smiled and rubbed his chin as if deep in thought.

"I don't have a clue Motoko..." Keitaro began, his face lighting up. "... but I'm sure about one thing." Motoko raised herself up on herself up to hug her knees. "About what, Keitaro." Motoko questioned, feeling content to talk with the gentlemen beside her.

"That I'm the luckiest guy in the world to marry you." Keitaro said softly, sitting up to Motoko's level. "I feel that I too am quite blessed to have wed such a kind man, Keitaro." Motoko said, gently caressing the side of the ronin's cheek with her hand. It was as if time had stopped in that small hospital bedroom. There were only two people that shared that moment.

In the red brilliance of the setting sun, a newlywed couple shared their first kiss.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

End Chapter 1

Author's Notes:

That was sooo waffy! I can't believe that sugary crap came out of my keyboard. I like the way Motoko asked Keitaro if he had any idea on how they fell in love. I personally think it would be quite romantic to talk about possible ways of meeting your special someone. And wouldn't it be funny if Motoko would be the one fantasizing about Keitaro instead of the other way around? I loved that part. I also broke up the paragraphs. Better now, or does it still need work? Here's a question. Do you want the Hinata Girls to visit them first, or Tsuroko-neechan? In my opinion, if the Hinata Girls come visit, it'll jumpstart the story and add new situations for the amnesia-ridden couple. However, if Tsuroko-neechan is the first to visit, I can make Keitaro and Motoko's relationship mature into real, full-blown love, not just campy potshots like blushing and stuff. I really want to deepen Keitaro and Motoko's passion for one another, and a nice, peaceful stay in the mountain dojo (presuming that the Aoyama's school is in some secluded mountain range in the country like all the other secret-art dojo in manga.) would really help them open up even faster. If I get the Hina girls to come, they'll probably drag Motoko and Keitaro back to Hinata-Sou and cause all these deep, inner turmoil for the young couple. Can Keitaro handle his old love with Naru? Can Motoko face her violent past against the man she loves? Anyway, I'm leaving it to the readers. In truth, I'm going to use both devices either way, I just need to find out what you guys want me to do first. (I still like the Tsuroko idea, but since fanfiction is for the fans, you guys go ahead and pick.)

-Lex