After much procrastination and anime-watching, here's chapter 9 - I apologize sincerely for the wait and I hope you won't hold it against me.

E-N-J-O-Y~


Megumi was the first to wake up that morning and she felt more refreshed than she had in a long time after sleep. She inspected the area, enjoying the modernized view with slightly-traditional aspects mingling - Her slender arms stretched widely in their respective directions and she let out a loud yawn.

Abnormally calm about the events of that night, she gingerly wiped away the sleep clouding her fawn-eyed vision and a light blush painted her cheeks, "That was such an embarrassing dream - I can't believe I came up with all of that.. I feel so bad," she mumbled in mild panic to herself.

While she mulled over the events of her 'dream', her peripheral vision caught sight of a suspicious and 3-dimensional mold of blanket next to her. She poked it.. and a groan erupted. She looked wide-eyed at the messy heap of lavender covers and gently, ever so gently, tugged on the top of the blanket to reveal unkempt pink hair and vulnerable, closed eyes, presumably enjoying sleep.

She was so surprised that she quickly covered the 'evidence' back up and proceeded to shoot upright - Revealing that she was, in fact, only wearing her pale-yellow, bow-adorned bra over her torso and nothing else, "Eh?!" she squeaked out, covering herself up quickly. She looked to her right and saw the missing top of her extravagant wedding gown discarded next to the bed carelessly, "Ehhh?!" she let out again, dragging it out and her volume slightly increasing. She looked down to inspect herself again and there were.. wait, love bites? "EHHH?!" she wailed, mortified.

"Hey, baka - Why are you being so noisy so early in the morning?" a thin-fingered hand shot out from under the light-purple covers and pushed them down, revealing an annoyed, tired and shirtless Yahiro, glaring pointedly at his recently-made wife.

"EHHHHH?!" she practically screamed, a sharp, accusing finger pointing right at his barely-open, deep-brown eyes. He gave her that look and she immediately reached for her writing pad that was on the nightstand next to a rectangular-prism shaded lamp. / W-what a-are you d-doing in heeere?! / she finally wrote out, her hand practically stuttering as much as her voice would.

"Sleeping, what about you?"

/ That's not what I meant! /

"Do you mean why was I in the bed?"

/ H-hai /

"Stop blushing like that, we should be over that stuff, since last night, we.."

/ N-No way! /

"Megumi-chaaan~ Did you forget? I'm hurt!"

/ W-We didn't.. /

"After all of the passionate effort I put forward to make it memorable.."

/ Oh, no! I don't remember anything.. What am I supposed to do now? Ryuu-nii is going to be so sad, and Akira is going to kill Yahiro.. And what about Jun-kun? He'll die - I'm dead.. /

Suddenly, a whole-hearted laugh escaped Yahiro, "Oh, god - I'm sorry, I couldn't.." he held his sides as he laughed loudly at Megumi, ".. I couldn't stand it! You're so innocent, it's hilarious!" he roared out along with his broken cackles.

/ Ne, you big jerk! What do you mean?! /

"Relax, relax.. We didn't do anything," a sinister, scheming smirk lit up his face and mischievous mirth was set alight within his shaded orbs, ".. Not yet anyway," he said with a hushed, bordering seductive, tone, suggestive implications practically dripping off of his tongue.

She shielded her rose-tinted face completely with her writing pad and threw it forward, hitting Yahiro square in the face - a common occurrence. She quickly ran out of the bed, trailing the silky blanket behind her and grabbed the overnight bag she had prepared the morning of her wedding, proceeding to shut herself up in the adjacent bathroom.

What a big fat jerk! she thought as she desperately pulled on her sleeveless jersey with an adorable picture of a penguin on it. Baka Yahiro! Baaaakaaaa! she mulled indignantly, despite knowing that her husband was practically a genius, as she pulled on knee-length jean shorts.

She inspected herself in the mirror and at first, gave a small smile. Upon catching the slight sparkle of her expensive wedding ring, she seemed disheartened - Is this really how a married woman should dress.. or look?

She frowned, looking at her undeveloped curves with insecurity clear in her shaky, chestnut eyes. She lightly brushed through her well-maintained tresses of honey-brown. Does Yahiro like the way I look now? If he doesn't, he wouldn't have married me, but.. it was his parents' idea.. Unn! I can be so negative! Megumi, fighting~ her mood changed quickly, as she lowered the brush back onto the basin's edge and clenched a determined fist in the air infront of her, but still, she couldn't shake the feeling of doubt that slowly crept into her otherwise optimistic mind.

The locked, misted door shook with added pressure, as Yahiro leaned his nonchalant self against it, knocking flimsily with a sideways fist, "Oi, hurry up - We have to go," he practically growled, but despite this, he couldn't get rid of his amused smile at all.

"Where?" she froze in the middle of brushing her smooth locks of honey-brown hair and watched the door wearily.

"Stop using your voice,"

"What? You won't know what I'm saying if I don't talk! Who's the baka now?"

"It'd be nice if I didn't know what you were saying,"

She grumbled indignantly and threw her shoe at the sturdy door, grimacing slightly as she heard the unpleasant shriek of their contact, ".. I'm coming out," she whispered lowly, grabbing hold of the door's handle.

Yahiro wisely moved out of the way so that she could open the door and grinned mischievously at her upon her exit from the bathroom, "This is yours, right?" he said, holding out her notepad-weapon that had been thrown at his cheeky face.

She took it from him quickly and turned away, huffing. She soon turned back towards his mocking visage with a message for him written on it, / .. A-Arigatou.. / she looked down and blushed profusely, scampering through the door with her small amount of luggage in hand.

He merely nodded with that slight ghost of a genuine smile and picked up his own things, he figured they could shower at the new place, and followed Megumi out to the lobby.

When they arrived, Yahiro casually threw the room key at the desk clerk, "Here." he had rudely, and bluntly, told the clerk with a stoic expression, which earned him a scolding glance from the otherwise silent Megumi.

His car.. looks really expensive.. Megumi thought as she inspected the sleek, gray vehicle of her new husband. After hearing a grunt of "Get in," she silently obeyed, ducking under the revolving door and sitting into the interior-leather, which was really comfortable, so much so, that she closed her eyes with a small smile before putting her seat-belt on.

Yahiro unceremoniously stuck his key into the ignition and the luxurious car roared to life, quickly finding itself driving across the main road. In his peripheral vision, he noticed Megumi giving him a curious look and sighed deeply, ".. My irresponsible Mother called and said our new home was ready, so we're going to get settled in," he explained with obvious signs of agitation and animosity towards his spontaneous Mother.

The car ride was filled with silence other then Megumi's slight humming and occasional mumble of song lyrics - Yahiro found it, somehow, soothing and tapped his slender fingers against the steering wheel to the meticulous beat.

His narrow eyes gave Megumi a curious side-glance and he coughed lightly, gaining Megumi's attention, "Are you interested in travel?" he asked randomly, not taking his eyes off the road this time. For some reason, I'm really nervous.. Curse this baka! he mentally growled, gripping the steering wheel tighter than before.

"Hmm.." Megumi uttered slightly, hoping it would be okay if it was just a sound - She quickly scribbled out her answer on her notebook and smiled at him, showing the messy scrawl, / Yeah! Traveling sounds fun. / it had said in slightly wayward kanji.

He nodded in understanding, ".. Where would you want to go?" he questioned further, almost off-handedly.

/ Uhhhm.. I've always wanted to go to New Zealand.. / she shared reluctantly, biting her bottom lip nervously - She never knew what kind of stuff would get her teased by the pink-haired antagonist.

"Why there?" he asked simply, giving her his attention with a sneaky side-glance.

/ The scenery's supposed to be beautiful! / she enthused with a large smile, thinking about her dreams of travel was nice, but knowing that Yahiro was actually interested in her desires made her even happier.

"I see," he uttered slowly, "Have you ever left Japan?"

/ No - I'm too scared. /

"What if someone went with you?"

/ I guess, that'd be okay, but Ryuu-nii is always busy helping his Dad with clients and Sakura-chan has completely taken all of Jun-kun's time. / she complained with a childish pout.

"Oh." he deadpanned - All she ever thinks about is them.. he thought in frustration, clenching his jaw tightly.

The rest of the car trip was undeniably quiet and it seemed Yahiro's aura wasn't doing anything to lighten the mood.

Did I say something wrong? Megumi thought guiltily, frowning slightly.


When they arrived Megumi was incredibly impressed by the place, just the entrance was great - There was a sturdy, silver-clad gate with cursive, metallic letters spelling out 'SAIGA' on the front, with beautiful, lilac flowers branching off from growing vines - There was even 24-hour security.

She continued to watch as they passed by the expansive Manor's garden, which was filled with a whole spectrum of colorful flowers and plants, "... So pretty," she uttered absentmindedly, totally forgetting that Yahiro hated her using her voice.

Yahiro, secretly, thought that her reaction was cute - It was as if she'd never seen flowers before, there's a public garden for ohanami* in town all year round, too. She was just a mystery to him, though he wasn't as mad as he was anymore, no where near as mad.

He quickly decided that he'd have to make a few phone calls once they arrive at their new home, "We're here," he bellowed intrusively, flicking the handle to the car door and lightly kicking it open.

Megumi rushed out of her seat and enthused over the gigantic household they'd now be occupying, "Sugoi*!" her chestnut eyes fell over the scene before her in wonder.

It truly was a gigantic home - She'd never seen any home as big as this, though she thought the main Saiga home might be bigger, she wasn't sure, since she'd never seen it - It was a smooth, creme color on the outside and all of the many doors were garnished wood, intricate designs carved around the golden door-knockers. It had to be atleast 3 stairways to the top.

She wasn't one for overly-expensive things but she was really excited - Not only would she be living with Yahiro but their own home would be so big, there'd be alot of room..

"Go look around, I have to make a call," Yahiro told her, ushering her away from the car while he got his Fenikkusu touch-screen phone out and tapped a few buttons with meticulous fingers - He waited until Megumi was out of sight and earshot before speaking, "Oi, Hinata - I need two plane tickets," he barked into the phone with assertive posture.

He heard the clicking of keys immediately after he finished speaking and smirked at his dominance, "Where to and when do you need them for?" could be heard from the other side, the moving fingers of his secretary obviously ceased for the moment.

"New Zealand," he said simply, clicking his tongue as he thought when would be best to go, "... Make it the 22nd of next month," he said absently, as he scrolled through his schedule, whimsically deleting important business meetings and out-of-town conferences for the two weeks after that date.

The clacking of the keyboard didn't start, instead Hinata chimed in, "Are you sure, Saiga-dono? Hajimiya-san will be coming from Kyoto on the 23rd," reminded him of something he was already aware of.

"Just do it, Hinata - Some things are more important than meetings," he said assuredly, albeit uncharacteristically.

The obedient secretary made the order for the two plane tickets in first-class, since that's what he knew his boss would want, "Done." he had said, before Yahiro rudely hung up on him without so much as a thank you - Leaving Hinata bewildered - He never thought he'd hear his savvy employer say that something was more important than business.


Meanwhile, Megumi was being guided through the house by Yahiro's Mother, Reiko Saiga, quite literally by the hand. She giggled and smiled like a young girl in love while prancing through the extensive hallways, while Megumi struggled to keep up and wondered how she could do that in her heels.

So far, she was pretty amazed - All of the carpets, tapestry, curtains and bed-linen was satin or silk, and the place was completely furnished - Something told her that Reiko had this in mind for a while before she actually told the couple that they were to marry.

The eager, pink-haired woman stopped infront of double doors of the same garnished, deep-brown wood and thrust them open excitedly, "Here's your room!" she bellowed benevolently.

Megumi gaped, her long, honey-brown tresses falling over her shoulder and her large, fawn eyes sparkled with amazement. She went forward and ran her hand over the expertly-sanded wood of the snow-white dresser, small fingers going up to caress the intricate border of the large mirror, feeling around the wedges. She then sat herself down on the soft, feather-soft bed that invited her petite frame to sink downwards into its royal golds and deep reds, "This is amazing!" she felt over the extravagant material and gave a blissful sigh, closing her eyes, "Where's Yahiro's room, by the way?" she asked, tilting her head in curiosity towards her now Mother-in-law.

Reiko gave her a dumbfounded look and laughed lightly, a coy hand covering her crimson-coated lips, "When you're married, you share the room, ne?"

Megumi looked on with wide, horrified eyes - This is so embarrassing~! she mentally screamed, feeling shame and anxiety inflaming her face with its red fire.


*Ohanami means flower-viewing :D Japanese people have a whole festival dedicated to it, which is nice ^^

*Sugoi means 'amazing' in Japanese - that is to my understanding.