First year of high school, and Yuri was failing history. Robespierre mixed with Rousseau, John Adams mixed with John Quincy Adams, and what was the difference between the Constitution of France and the Articles of America again? Examinations were coming, and she had to prepare for them like a squirrel had to prepare for the upcoming winter.

Twenty days in the hospital didn't magically instill knowledge inside her head. Unfortunately. She scratched her head with her pen and underlined a quote in her book. History was confusing, filled with people, places, dates, events, and consequences to remember. Himuro had explained many things on their current course, but she couldn't rely on him forever! So back to studying it was.

Her pager buzzed, lighting up with Himuro's incoming message: Hey, Yuri! I got a ticket to a concert the day after the exams, do you want to come?

She smiled. Her boyfriend really was so sweet he made her heart ache. She quickly gave her reply.

Of course! But only if I can defeat this history monster.

xxx

A breeze brushed her locks as Yuri stood waiting in front of the train station for Himuro to come. It was already three months after her accident and in the month of June, the rainy season in Japan. The air was damp and slightly drizzling, and she twirled a frizzled lock around her fingers, wishing that she'd brought an umbrella.

A group of tourists then came out of the station, foreign words dancing on their tongues as they gazed around the scenery. That was strange, because although Yuri lived on the outskirts of Kyoto, a popular tourist attraction, they usually never come to her area. As she stared at them in awe (blondes, brunettes, redheads), one tall girl with striking blue eyes and straight blonde hair made eye contact with her. They smiled tentatively at each other, then the girl turned and left the station with the rest of the group.

"Yuri!" Himuro wrapped his arms gently around her from behind. "Sorry I'm late."

"No, no it's fine," she quickly said, leaning back into him. "Come on, let's go."

Being with Himuro was relaxing and heart lurching. They would shyly hold their hands, but the amount of blushes that went on sometimes reduced handholding to just linking their pinkies together. He liked doing bold things like swooping in out of nowhere and kissing her, but every time after their lips parted both of them would look at each other in flustered excitement and shyness. Yuri loved their little moments, when they would relax against each other and enjoy one another's presence. The soft kisses, the little touches, the I love yous.

On the train there was only one open seat left, and Himuro grasped the railing Yuri sat. He coughed and tried not to look directly down at her shirt.

"Umm."

"Huh? Oh! Oh..." Yuri hurriedly buttoned up her jacket. "Sorry!"

"No, don't be! You didn't need to, wait, I mean, it wasn't necessary although if you felt uncomfortable...uh, I wasn't uncomfortable...uh..." Himuro cringed at his own words. "Let's just never mention this again."

"Agreed."

He inconspicuously held out a hand to her, and she took it.

They were both hopelessly in love.

It made the news that Yuri received at home devastating.

xxx

"Today was amazing."

"It was, I'm glad you liked it."

She gently lowered his head to her level and softly pecked his cheek. "Call me later."

"I will." He nuzzled her back, then turned and headed out the front gate.

Yuri opened the front door, and was surprised to see her older sister and her father's shoes; they were supposed to be at work, weren't they?

"Papa? Mary?" she called, "Are you guys home?"

She walked into the living room to find Mary typing on the huge desktop computer and listening to a disc player on her headphones. Yuri bounded across to her and leaned on Mary's shoulders.

"What are you doing? Still working on that script?" She grinned and slipped Mary's headphones off. "Your'e such a workaholic!"

"I like doing this," her sister replied, stopping her typing and looked up at Yuri. "I think you forgot the rule; never disturb me when I work. This calls for punishment," Mary said seriously. Then she attacked Yuri's armpits from her position in the chair, "Tickling!"

"Ahaha-stop-aha-Mary please-haha-I'm going to tickle back!" She tried to ignore Mary's fingers and aimed for her sister's own unguarded sides, "Revenge will be mine!"

She grazed her fingers lightly and quickly over Mary, eliciting a shudder and a pout. It was an all out war. A war that ended when Mary's chair fell backwards on top of Yuri, and they both collapsed in a pile of laughter.

"Girls," called their mother who pretended to sigh dramatically. "Oh, what kind of daughters do I have?"

"Amazing ones!" called out Mary.

"Haha, sorry, Mama!" said Yuri, extricating herself from the mess and pulling Mary up too.

"Good," their mother smiled. "Yuri, your Papa and I wanted to talk to you and Eimi about something, wait here with Mary while I call your Papa down."

Yuri nodded, and helped Mary right the chair. She looked over at the computer and found that Mary was typing in English.

"Why English? Is your new publisher foreign?" She asked.

"Yes, in fact! The new story will be in both Japanese and English," explained Mary.

Soon their father came down. He was a large man, broad shouldered and strong, a professor in the history of the twentieth century who specialized in WWII. Fairly well known in the field, he wrote several renown papers that were must reads for any student who wanted a more modern view on the war. A very respectable figure, Professor Suzuki. In fact,

"I've been offered a job for professorship in the New York University in New York City, America. If I so choose to accept it, we'll have to move there. I know that this is a difficult time to talk about moving, especially since Yuri has been accepted into her high school of choice, but this must be a family decision. You will all have a say in my decision, we won't leave unless it's an unanimous agreement."

Eimi started crying, "I don't want to leave Japan!" Yuri hugged her, burying her face in her little sister's hair.

She didn't want to leave either. She didn't know English very well, she had just finished her exams and haven't gotten the results back yet, and Himuro was in Japan. On the other hand, this was a huge honor for her father. For even a fairly well known Japanese professor to be asked to teach in one of the most famous universities in the world! In the end, she knew there was never a choice. She loved her father too much.

"Hush, Eimi. Think about Papa, this is a chance of a lifetime," she said. "I think that we should go."

A/N:

Yeah, because having people randomly showing up in Japan in the "Hello, I'm the transfer student who was also an important figure in my past life and oh you were involved!" way is just stupid. Especially if I want to add in more than one character from the past.

So the obvious discourse is to have her move to a big city where people meeting people is not a huge coincidence because hello big city.

Hope you guys enjoyed this! I hope I have Yuri's voice down right.