Chapter 2

As comfortable as the bed was, after 2 hours of just lying around in it and listening to her friend's soft snoring she was getting rather bored.

Hitomi looked at her friend, who was totally out cold. Nope, no way of getting her out of bed anytime soon.

She was struck by an idea and a smile formed on her lips. She got out of bed, careful not to wake Leifang, gathering her clothes quietly and put them on. It took her a little moment to find her missing hairband but she managed to find it hidden under the pillows.

Thought you'd start a little affair without telling me? She chuckled to herself putting it in place after brushing her hair with a brush she found lying around. Taking the keycard of the suite, from where she had discarded it the night before, she left the hotel.

She'd need to go to her hotel, but she thought it was going to be a nice surprise. Luckily she knew her way around this part of the city and just took the next bus that would take her to a few minutes distance from where she was staying.

Once she arrived at her room she took a quick shower and put on a fresh set of clothes after which she started looking through her traveling case.

"Ok I need this, this aaaaand this" she said to no one in particular as she pulled out her kitchen utensils. A long time ago she learned to rely on her own cooking when staying in a rather cheap hotel and while this place - never mind Leifang's - was rather good, but there was nothing like a nice, home cooked meal and she was sure her Chinese friend would appreciate it.

Putting them into a small duffel bag she noticed the picture frame that dropped onto the floor. Picking it up, she smiled at the picture.

The picture had to be about 13 years old now and featured herself and her parents. Back then her father's hair was still the same color as her own and her mother was still alive.

Hitomi slid her fingers over the picture and lingered on the black haired, beautiful japanese woman, whom the young Karateka sadly didn't resemble much; she was all German with her brown hair and blue eyes. She didn't talk about her very much but she missed her mother, though the woman would probably be slightly disappointed of her daughter, since she wasn't too big on her Japanese heritage.

Looking at it a little longer she put it back securely inside the case and hoisted the duffel bag over her shoulder and left the Hotel, but not before asking where she could buy groceries nearby.

"Hmm, no that one's no good" the German girl murmured, putting the cabbage back down and immediately started inspecting another one. If she wanted to make a good salad she needed the best quality and thus far she wasn't very impressed.

A certain friend back in Germany would just call her way too picky, but seeing how most of their food consisted of instant food and the odd freshly cooked food here and there that she made for them, they weren't in the position to point any fingers.

Sometimes she thought if she didn't like cooking as much as she did her friend would have long since starved or gotten sick from all the unhealthy junk.

She seriously couldn't wait to get back home. Traveling around the world training – courtesy of a certain friend that was still sleeping off her hangover - and participating in a tournament was fun and all but there's no place like home after all.

Besides, she was getting behind in her studies.

"This one will do" finding a cabbage that met her expectations she put it into the cart where the rest of the ingredients were already laid out, taking a look at everything she had bought, counting off everything in her mind, using her fingers to see if she didn't miss anything.

"That should be everything" she nodded and went to pay up.

After paying for them she made her way to the nearest bus station, dodging people here and there on the busy streets.

Hopefully her friend would still be sleeping when she came back to the suite.

Chuckling to herself, she had to think of the first time she actually had cooked something for her. That was after they fought over the cabbage the nice old shopkeeper was selling.

That event showed that both of them could be quite stubborn when it came to certain things but in the end they laughed about it and enjoyed a nice meal. Though the Chinese never gave her an answer as to why she even wanted that cabbage in the first place and it was grating Hitomi to this day.

I'll get my answer one day.

Leifang had told Hitomi a little of her private life back then too. How her parents were wealthy and gave her a lot of leeway as long as she didn't damage the reputation of their family name, which apparently was one that came with a lot of weight. Her father was rather strict when it came to that and while he was in favor of her being a Martial Artist, even actively encouraging it, there was once a case where he had explicitly forbidden her to practice it. She didn't know the details but it couldn't have been all too bad, since, after a while, he had given her his permission to let her practice again.

But that had been years ago.

The brunette didn't know if that was either a good or a bad thing but seeing how her friend was fine she wasn't one to judge. Though she could see that Leifang's father would probably not be very pleased if he learned that his daughter was borderline stalking after another martial artist, renowned he might be.

Sighing she remembered that she wanted to talk to her about it.

Over lunch, she thought. Over lunch.

By the time she came back it was already turning afternoon. Placing everything she brought onto the kitchen counter as she walked past it to the door of the bedroom.

Hitomi opened the door quietly and peered inside to see her friend still being asleep. She couldn't keep the grin of her face when she saw that she hugged her pillow like it was her favorite teddy bear, she only needed to drool and it would've been priceless.

Biting her lower lip she got an idea, took out her cellphone and pointed the camera at her friend.

Gotcha! She looked at the picture for a few seconds and saved it. It could be useful if she ever needed something to incriminate her friend, or just rile her up a little bit.

Snickering to herself she closed the door quietly and went into the kitchenette, cracking her knuckles as she walked and started washing her hands.

"Alrighty, let's do this!" she said, firing herself up

What no one knows is that Hitomi will send this picture to the next boulevard magazine! For shame!

Crap, this chapter turned out shorter than I thought, and I'm usually pretty anal about that. Oh well, I just have to make that up with a longer chapter another time.

Sorry for anyone who thinks those two will get busy rather quickly, but from my current estimate this could take a little while, I'm having ideas after ideas how this can go here.
Until next week then!