"Here we are."
"Thanks for lunch, Kiba."
"The pleasure is mine. Definitely…"
He trailed off as our lips met. I grabbed his other hand, savoring the contact. I unlocked the door and squeezed his hand.
"Goodbye."
"I'll see you soon. Love you."
"Love you too."
I watched him leave. When he was out of sight, I shut the door. My cat, Kegawa, wound herself around my legs, mewing for food. I set my bag on the table and went to feed her.
"Here you go, Kegawa."
"Nyaa, nyaa."
"Aww. Okay, I've got to go check the mail."
I shuffled through the mail until a thick, fancy looking envelope caught my attention. I carefully opened it.
Inazuma Mao
and
Nara Shikamaru
Request your presence at a celebration of their marriage.
Familiar words. I'd designed the invitation, after all. Mao had put me in charge of the details of her wedding. I had many designs for her wedding dress, with one picked out that would probably be hers. I sighed. I desperately wanted Kiba to 'jump on the bandwagon' and propose. Someone knocked on my door.
"Hey, what up, Kami?"
"Hey, did you get Shika and Mao's invitation?"
"Of course! Without my magic, those invitations wouldn't exist!"
She giggled as I let her in. As if by a magnet, she was attracted to the invitation on the table.
"I still can't get over how pretty it is."
"I still can't get over the fact that they're getting married."
"True, true. And you were there when he proposed."
We had known Shikamaru was going to propose long before he actually proposed. He'd told a few of his guy friends, who had told their friends. When it got to Sasuke, he'd told Sana, and of course she couldn't keep her mouth shut. We had all known except Mao, and and Wakana, Sana and I had been at her house having a sleepover when he'd shown up and proposed in her rooftop garden.
"Seems like such a long time ago."
"True that, true that. Want to go congratulate her again?"
"Okay! She's probably at home."
We walked the short didtance to Mao's house and knocked on the door. After a few minutes, it was opened by a breathless Mao.
"Sorry! I was upstairs. Sana's here!"
"We just got our invitations. We came to congratulate you."
"Oh, thanks! Come on in."
We followed her down the hall and up the stairs. Sana leaned out of Mao's bedroom, exclaimed that we were here, and ran to attack us.
"No, no, not the Sana-tackle!"
"Yay, you're here!"
"Calm down, calm down."
We went into Mao's room. Apparently, a tornado had struck. Or, as Mao explained, she had ransacked the room looking for the "Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue."
"I found the 'something old.'"
"Cool! What is it?"
"It's my mom's veil from her wedding."
Now she was searching for the "something borrowed." She explained how Sana had lent her a necklace she's worn when she got married, and now she couldn't find it.
"It was in my jewelry box, but you know how messy I am."
"True that. I see you've looked all over."
"Yep. I don't know where it could be!
We rummaged around some more. I brushed up against some clothes in her closet and heard a clink. There was the necklace!
"I found it! Mao, I found the necklace!"
"Really? Great!"
"That's the last time I lend you anything, Mao."