Disclaimer: I don't a thing, I'm just borrowing for some non-profit entertainment.
The Sweet Far Thing
Chapter Four: Advance
Andy did not leave the dojo that morning to skate, nor to jog, nor to do calisthenics. She could hear him moving throughout the house, the creek of a floorboard in the hall, the sliding open and shut of a shoji screen, dishes clinking in the kitchen. Andy never took breakfast before some sort of workout in the mornings and he barely ever cooked anyway. What was he doing fussing around in the kitchen?
Mai sat up on her futon, sighing heavily. As much as she wanted to just lay back down and fall back asleep, as much as she wanted to lose herself to sleep's sweet oblivion, she knew she wouldn't be able to fall back asleep before knowing what Andy was up to. She pulled her heavy robe on over the lighter yukata she preferred to sleep in before exiting her room.
The house was still dark, a slight pinkish-grey tinting the screens on the eastern side. It was early in the morning even for Andy to be up. True, he was an early riser by nature but he was still human and neither of then had gotten much sleep last night.
…
Since he couldn't sleep and didn't feel much like training and it was still to early to even dream of waking Mai (not that she'd want to see him anyway, after what she had witnessed last night), he figured he might as well start fulfilling his obligation as the un-official and by no means legal guardian of Hokutomaru. He decided to make breakfast, or rather; he decided to attempt to make breakfast.
Andy was no great cook by any stretch of the imagination and, in fact, had been banned from the kitchen back during his years training under Master Hanzo. Mai had latter repealed that ban after his first return from South Town, after he'd failed to kill Geese Howard and realized that Terry was the superior fighter. Still, even if he was allowed back in the kitchen that didn't automatically make him a great cook. Truth be told, all he knew how to make was spaghetti.
Maybe Hokutomaru might like spaghetti and natto for breakfast.
"What are you doing?"
He turned at the sound of Mai's sleepy voice. She stood, leaning against the doorframe, her heavy house-robe open and hanging from her shoulders showing the pink cotton yukata she liked to sleep in. Her hair was loose and unbound, still wild and messy from sleep, falling around her shoulders in a tangled mane. She looked a mess, she looked beautiful!
"Makin' breakfast." He answered dutifully. "You want any?"
"What time is it?" She glanced toward the microwave clock, running a hand through her wild hair. Andy suddenly found himself suppressing the urge to reach out and caress her hair. "God! It's barely even five!"
"I couldn't sleep."
"Obviously." She scoffed then her eyes fell on the unopened package of spaghetti noodles on the counter and natto that he had just removed from the refrigerator. "You didn't seriously just try to offer me that affront to the culinary arts that you dare to call food, did you?"
Andy looked politely insulted. "I'll have you know that Spaghetti ala Natto is an Andy Bogard special."
Mai glared at him for a moment or two before sighing and saying, "Move. You can't cook for shit, I'll make breakfast."
She stowed the package of spaghetti back in the pantry and, taking the natto out of Andy's hands, replaced it back in the 'frige. She then measured enough rice for three people into the rice cooker and set some miso on to boil along with the kettle for tea.
"Can I help?" Andy offered.
"I've never needed your help before." She reminded him.
"I…" He stammered, not knowing what to say. "Ya know, this is the first morning I can remember that I haven't instantly started training."
"Oh, really? Ice skating is training now?"
The venom in her words cut him but he tried to ignore it. She was probably still mad about his decision to keep Hokutomaru (at least until they found his real family). Andy wondered briefly why she didn't just remind him that this was her house and she had more then enough right to kick them both out.
"Listen, Mai…" He paused, unsure of how to continue. "About last night…"
"Oh." She turned her attention away from the stove and faced him, her face turning a bright shade of pink. "I, um… sorry about that. If I had known that you were… uh…"
"Oh, oh no! I wasn't talking about that!" Andy felt his own cheeks warm and he knew that he was turning his own shade of red. "I meant our disagreement. About Hokutomaru."
"Hokuto…?"
"The boy. His name's Hokutomaru. Yeah, I think it's a stupid name too, but then again SNK isn't known for giving their characters great names." He quickly clarified in blatant disrespect for the fourth wall. "I… I'm sorry for yelling at you. This is your house and you have a right to decide who boards here and who doesn't."
Mai was momentarily reminded of something she had said to Andy the night before that day. Andy had been waiting for her on her doorstep when she returned from that year's KOF tournament. They had argued but because Andy was kind enough to "pretend" to care for her she had told him that she wouldn't call the police on him for trespassing.
"'Trespassing'?" Andy had echoed in disbelief. "I live here!"
"No." She had given him her most deadly piercing look. "I live here. You were my grandfather's apprentice but Ojisama is dead now. I've let you stay here from time to time because he liked you and for a while I liked you too. But you don't live here, Andy."
Mai hadn't thought that he would continue to take that statement seriously after she had begged him to stay with her, made him promise not to leave even thought his training was suffering and his goal of one day beating his brother was slipping farther and farther away. He still thought of himself as a guest in her house. "Andy…"
"Yeah?"
"I…" Now. This was it; this was perfect, she should talk to him now! Tell him that she appreciated the fact that he was staying with her, that she knew what it was costing him, that she was sorry for trapping him, that she still loved him… no, not that last one. He probably wouldn't believe that one. She certainly hadn't been displaying any feelings of love for him these past few months. The way she's been neglecting him, she would be amazed he didn't hate her; after all, she hated herself. "This is your house too."
"My name's not on the deed." He reminded her.
"You've lived here since you were nine." She continued. "We grew-up together, you were my grandfather's apprentice and… this is your home as much as it is mine. If you want the boy, Hokutomaru, to stay here until you find his family then he can stay."
"Thank you."
They lapsed into silence. Mai leaned against the kitchen counter while Andy took up a seat at the kitchen table. She would occasionally stir the miso or poke at the timer on the rice; he leaned back in the western style chair and appeared to be meditating (or sleeping). The kettle whistled, startling them both. Mai poured the hot water into the pot and set it on the table between them, finally claiming a seat of her own across form Andy.
"It needs a few minuets to steep."
He just nodded and they lapsed back into their silence, the only thing changed was Mai's position in the room.
"How did we get this way?" Andy finally asked.
"What do you mean?"
"This, this isn't us, Mai." He threw his arms up in helplessness. This estrangement between them had gone on long enough, he was ready for it to end, and he was ready for them to talk. He couldn't find the answer to their problem through meditation; the only way to heal their broken relationship was together.
"Things happen, Andy." She stood and pulled two mugs down from the cupboard. "I'm not even sure I know who 'we' are anymore."
"We're supposed to be the comic relief pair that everyone else can point and laugh at. You're supposed to be randy and relentlessly aggressive, while I'm supposed to be awkward, prudish and have nightmares about being smoothed by double Ds."
"You have nightmares about my breasts?"
"Well… they're not exactly 'nightmares'…" He was suddenly reminded of her walking in on him last night and decided it was best to steer the conversation away form this particular topic. "Anyway, we haven't been ourselves lately and I don't like these new people that we've become. I don't like you being a stranger to me, I don't like being kept at arms length, I… I just miss you." That last bit was said more under his breath then to her.
"I miss you too." And it was true, she did miss the old Andy Bogard more than she thought possible. "But we've changed and we can't go backwards, Andy, we have to keep moving forward or else we stagnate."
"We've been stagnant for a while." He pushed his own chair back and stood as well. "I'm ready to start moving again and I'd like to keep moving with you!" He took a step towards her intending to take her hand, to touch that soft flesh that he had been forbidden to for so long.
"Don't." She slammed the mugs down on the table and backed away from him. "Don't say mawkish things! It's my fault you can't train the way you need to! It's my fault you're falling behind! It's my fault you can't challenge Terry yet! All because I made you promise to stay here with me instead of pursuing your own goals! How could you ever want to move forward with me? You probably hate me, don't you?"
"Hate you! Mai, I…" The word he wanted to say caught in his throat. "I don't hate you. I can't hate you. I…"
"Stop it!"
"I put aside my training for you." He continued, advancing toward her with every statement. "I put aside my plan of surpassing Terry for you. I stayed here for you!" He was right in front of her now, one arm reached out and encircled her waist, pulling her body against his while his other hand stroked her hair. "I stayed for you…" A gentle whisper.
Mai gazed into his ice blue eyes, so clear and deep. For just a moment, one fleeting moment, his eyes held all the intense passion and fire the old Andy Bogard held. He had always been such a passionate person. He always felt things more deeply than he let on. "I… I'm sorry."
She trembled in his arms.
Andy held her while she shook, he didn't know what to say, he never really did, he just wasn't good with offering comfort but he was good for hugs. He stroked her hair and soothed her as best he could.
"Andy…" She ventured meekly after a while.
"Yeah?"
"If, either of those times, if I had tracked you down and told you I was pregnant instead of getting an abortion, would you… would you have married me?"
He tightened his hold on her, crushing her to his chest. "That's not important now." He knew his answer would only upset her; there was no point in making her feel any worse then she already did.
"Would you?" She pressed.
"It doesn't matter."
"Tell me."
"Its in the past."
"Tell me!"
"Yes." He hissed into her hair. "Yes, I would have married you. I would have returned with you to the Shiranui dojo and married you. I would have put my goal of surpassing Terry aside and put my skills towards providing for you and our child, our children. I would have tried to become the man you needed me to be."
"You hate me now."
"No."
"You think I'm horrible."
"No."
"Well, why not? I do!"
"I…" He didn't know what to say. He had never been good with words, actions were more his thing. He didn't know how to make Mai understand that he didn't hate her, he couldn't hate her, it was just the opposite… "You couldn't have known that that would be what I would've done. I was never around, I know it seemed like I didn't care. But, Mai, I… the truth is I…" He faltered again, that one word he wanted to say once again getting stuck in the back of his throat. "I need you."
"You 'need' me." She scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest, pushing her breasts up. Andy swallowed a lump that suddenly formed in his throat. "You sure as Hell didn't seem to ever need me before! You were always away! The only time you ever came back to me was for a booty call!"
"Hey! You enjoyed our time together just as much as I did!" He hadn't meant to shout. "And if I was really only interested in you for sex why would I stick around here for almost three months when you're not putting out? Huh, Mai? Why? If all you were, all you are is sex to me!"
"You're just here to clear your own conscience!" She snapped back, pushing herself away from him. "You feel guilty over the whole thing and are just here in a superficial attempt to make things right!"
"'A superficial attempt'!" He echoed. Andy reached out and grabbed her wrist, lifting her up to her toes and glaring into her wide hazel eyes. "I gave up my goals for you, my dream of surpassing Terry; I gave it up for you!"
"Let go." She met his eyes glare for glare.
"I stayed here for you." He continued. "What have you done for me?"
"Let me go or else I'll let myself go."
"Mai, you haven't spoken to me in months. I stayed for you. What have you done for- Ow!"
His question was cut off by her heel colliding with his shin. Andy released his vice like grip on her wrist and staggered back wards.
"You don't listen very well." Mai likewise backed up.
"You… you haven't hit me in a while." Andy sounded so ecstatically happy when he said that. She was always so beautiful while in the heat of battle, so vibrant and passionate, like a goddess of battle in human form.
"God, what is wrong with you!?"
"What?"
"I kick you and you're happy about it!"
"I…"
"Ya know what? This was a terrible idea, I can't talk to you." She turned to leave.
"Mai, wait!"
"Take the rice out of the cooker when the timer goes off and don't fuck-up." She ordered as she passed through the kitchen door and back down the hall to her own room.
"Don't walk away from me!"
…
"Andy-san, why is this rice split?" The boy indicated the bowl of rice Andy had served him with his miso.
"I overcooked it." Andy deadpanned.
"Oh." The boy turned back to his food. "What were you and Shiranui-san fighting about this morning?"
"What?"
"I heard you earlier this morning." The boy clarified. "You and Shiranui-san were shouting but I couldn't here what you were saying."
"Its none of your business, kiddo." Andy replied.
"Oh."
They both turned back to their meal and ate in silence, each seemingly lost in their own thoughts. Somewhere else in the house Andy heard the phone ring, he was about to stand to answer it when the ringing stopped and he assumed Mai had gotten it.
After their prolonged silence, when Andy was gathering up the empty dishes to take back to the kitchen, the boy spoke again. His eyes downcast, speaking more to the hardwood floors rather to Andy he asked, "What are you gonna do with me?"
Andy sat back down, placing the tray and dishes off to the side for the moment and focusing his full attention on the child. "Well, kiddo, I'm gonna help you find your family." He promised.
"But I already know where they are." The boy said, his voice strangely melancholy.
"Then are you ready to tell me where you live?"
"The mountains." The boy answered.
Andy suppressed the urge to face-palm, they had just been through this last night. "Tell ya what." He began. "Later today, after I've finished the dishes and found you some decent winter clothes, I'll take you up into the mountains and you can show me where you live. How does that sound?"
"Yeah, okay." He didn't sound very enthusiastic.
…
Mai didn't return to the kitchen until she was sure that Andy had left, taking that feral child he'd rescued some breakfast in bed.
"Andy-san, why is this rice split?" She heard the boy ask as she passed his room.
So not only had Andy managed to piss her off to no end but had still, with the help of a timer and automatic rice cooker, still managed to mess-up the simple task of cooking rice. How was it even possible for him to be such an abysmal cook? It really boggled the mined.
She entered the kitchen and helped herself to a bowl of Andy's overcooked rice and poured herself a bowl of miso soup to go with it. She hadn't had much of an appetite these past few months and eating had seemed more like a chore to her. But for some reason, this morning she felt ravenous. Maybe it was these passed few months of eating so little finally catching up with her, or perhaps it had been her argument with Andy last night over the boy that made her forget her depression and replace it with a burning anger that used up more of her energy and thus required her to eat more.
Or maybe it was because of her fight with Andy just earlier that morning when she had kicked him. She hadn't done much fighting of any sort since that day, and had to admit that after kicking him in the shins, mean as it was, she felt better. She had forgotten how good it felt to fight, your adrenalin pumping, heart racing, the thrill of a damaging contact or a successful block, fighting was a rush. Maybe that was why Andy had looked so happy after she'd hurt him, not because he liked the pain but because he was a fighter too and he understood the pleasure one got from violence. The only thing Mai had ever found that was just as good as a fight was sex.
Sex and violence, two of the greatest things she could think of.
She sat down at the kitchen table and sipped her tea while running through some of her past battles in her mind. That lovely thwack sound of her fan impacting on someone's weak-point, that slight sizzleing coming from another fighter's body after a successful Ryu En Bu and the knowledge that she had also just flashed her lovely little ass to everyone on the sidelines, the slight burning sensation of over tires muscles being forced to keep working, the exquisite feeling of waking up stiff and sore the next day and knowing that the other guy was a thousand times worse… She really did enjoy fighting.
That was what she could do. Andy's training had been suffering since he'd been staying here and she hadn't been training at all. If they sparred together, his skills would improve just like he wanted and she might finally get over this damn depression that had been weighing on her since before that day. She would just have to be careful to control herself; sex and violence, Andy embodied both of them all wrapped up in a tight blond five foot eight package. She had only just barely been able to control herself last night after walking in on him, she would have to be extra carful not to go down on him in the middle of a spar in the wide open training field (and especially with a child living with them now).
Training with Andy again was going to be an exercise in self-control as much as it would be in ninjitsu.
The phone rang, startling her from her thoughts. Mai pushed herself away from the table and stood to answer the kitchen's wall-phone. "Moshi-moshi. Shiranui residence." She answered in as pleasant a voice as she could muster.
"Ah, Shiranui-san!" Nakamura Ken, Mino's sheriff's voice crackled over the line. "I'm glad to hear you're feeling better. Bogard-kun said you were under the weather."
"I'm fine." She lied.
"Glad to hear it. I assume you know about the boy Bogard-kun brought back from the mountains yesterday."
"Hokutomaru? Yes, he woke-up last night and is doing all right. What about him? Have you found his family yet?"
"Er, no…" Nakamura admitted sheepishly. "We can't match his prints to anyone in our database. I'm calling to tell Bogard-kun that if we can't find any relatives in the next twenty-four hours I, as a sworn keeper of the peace in Mino, have to turn him over to Child Services."
"Andy won't like that." Mai said in all seriousness.
"I know." Nakamura replied in the same tone. "Anyone who went to our high school knows how much Bogard-kun hates Child Services."
"Twenty-four hours, right? Well, I'll tell him."
"Thank you, Shiranui-san."
"You're welcome. Bye, Nakamura-kun." She hung up before he had the chance to return the salutation.
Mai sighed and leaned against the paneled wood wall, resting her forehead on the solid pine. Andy would not be happy with this. If he hadn't found the boy's family by this time tomorrow then they would have to give him up. Things just weren't fair. When had the world become so complicated?
Well, complicated or not, she still had to tell him. Mai pushed herself off the wall and exited the kitchen bumping into Andy and almost causing him to drop the tray of dishes he was carrying.
"Woops. Sorry, Mai, I didn't see you there."
"Ya know, you're not really a very good ninja."
"You sure do know where to hit a guy."
She grabbed the tray from him, rattling the dishes as she did so, and returned to the kitchen to dump them in the sink. "Nakamura-kun called." She said, her back to him. "He wanted to know if you've found out where the boy came from yet."
"I was thinking I'd take him back up into the mountains today and have him show me where he lived."
"I thought he was living at that hot spring."
"No, he was surviving at that hot spring." There was a bit of a clip to his voice. "I'm sure he lived somewhere else."
"What are you going to do if you can't find his family?" Mai asked just a little to quietly.
"I haven't figured that out yet."
"Nakamura-kun says that if you can't find his family within the next twenty-four hours we have to turn him over to the authorities." She paused, waited, listened for his burst of anger; episode two of last night's Foster System drama but Andy said nothing.
He was quiet as he pored himself a cup of tea from the pot, he sipped it tentatively and then, only then after a prolonged silence said, "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."
Mai only nodded, hoping he wasn't planning anything… devious.
"Want some help?" He asked, changing the subject. "I can dry while you wash."
"That's not necessary." She answered. "If you're gonna take the boy back into the mountains he needs some warmer clothes."
"I know."
"I think we still have some of your old clothes from when you were training under Ojisama in the storage shed. You might find something to fit him there."
"You kept my old clothes?"
"Don't flatter yourself." She scoffed. "I had been planning to reuse the material. Its not like I would wear one of your old shirts to bed on those lonely nights while you were gone."
"I didn't say you did."
"Grr. Oh, get out."
"Wait, why are you suddenly angry?"
"I said get out!"
…
A few short hours latter, Andy and Hokutomaru were both trekking back up the mountain trail to look for the boy's home.
…
