Normal POV
So it turned out that Yukiko played around for a couple of weeks to ease off all the stress that she had gained from the testing. Marui joined her, along with Aikiko, Arisa, Niou, and any other tennis regulars who wanted to come. To Yukiko, it was the most fun she's had in her life. Playing around without the need to study hard. To Marui, well he's just trying to figure out what made her want to have fun and not work as hard as she normally did. Which he did find out on a day that he wasn't suppose to be around.
"What are you talking about? I'm completely fine," Yukiko answered to his question once. The answer was kind of suspicious, so on the next Sunday afternoon, he went to her house to hopefully get an answer.
"I can already hear her questions...," he muttered to himself.
Right when Marui was about to knock the door slammed open and Yukiko noticed the boy in front of her. "Marui?!"
"What's up, Yuki-chan?"
Now, if this was a normal day, she would have answered, but it wasn't. "Yukiko, get back here this instant!" her mom's strict voice yelled out.
"Crap! Let's run!" Yukiko grabbed Marui's hand and ran as fast as she could. The positions have switched, haven't they? When they were far away enough, Yukiko asked between breathes, "What... were you... doing... there?"
"Nothing really...," Marui answered, completely fine from the running. "What was going on at your house?"
"At lot of annoying things." Yukiko sighed. "Either way, I don't want to be there right now. Since you're here, you wanna do something together?"
"Sure," Marui agreed, wondering what was going on. "I know just where to go." Yukiko didn't say anything, so Marui decided to start a conversation. "So your parents are back from their business trip thing?" Yukiko just nodded. "Where's Aikiko-chan?"
"She went out with Arisa somewhere earlier today, so she didn't have to deal with our dear parents." Then she quietly muttered, "Why did she have to leave me alone today?"
"Still have problems?"
"Yeah... You're lucky that your family is so nice."
"Eh, they're pretty normal. My grandma and mom kept telling me to bring you over again for dinner sometime," Marui mentioned. "They really seem to like you."
"Really?"
"Yeah, did you cast a spell on them or something?"
"I'm smart, not magical." Yukiko hit him lightly.
"Ow, why did you hurt me," Marui asked in a falsely hurt tone.
"I know you're lying. Are you becoming more like Niou-san or something?" The sound of waves crashing against the shore diverted Yukiko's attention from Marui. A fresh sea salt scent wafted into her nose."The beach? Isn't it a little too cold to go here?"
"Eh, I thought you were tired of going to the park and other random places."
"Isn't this considered a random place? It's only March you know! If we go into the water, then we're going to freeze," Yukiko reasoned following Marui onto the slippery sand.
"I thought we could just walk around and look for stuff... do you want to go in the water?" Yukiko shook her head, but Marui ignore it. "Okay, let's go in," he decided, taking off his shoes.
"Wait a second, Marui!"
"What? It's fun to do stuff like this every once in a while too." He waddled into the ice cold water. "Wow this water's cold!"
"You're unbelievable." Still she took off her shoes and socks, rolled up her jacket and joined him. She started shivering almost immediately. "This is water is cold... " Marui smiled at the girl's comment. Then he got an idea in his head. While Yukiko was thinking about her conversation with her parents, Marui slashed some cold sea water on her. "Marui!"
"What?" He asked innocently. Yukiko twitched and that's how a water fight broke out! Well, they were just slashing water at each other. They were smiling. They were having fun, despite the fact that the water was freezing.
Until some clouds rolled over and it started to lightly rain down. Yukiko looked up and her hands caught the rain drops. "We should go somewhere drier."
"Yeah." The light sprinkling slowly turned into heavy drops. "Shit. Let's go." Marui grabbed Yukiko's hand and dragged her out of the ice cold sea water. After they grabbed their shoes, Marui just ran straight for his house with Yukiko trying to keep up. Yukiko didn't enjoy the situation, but she was still happy. They soon got under the shelter of Marui's house. "I'm home!"
Yukiko noticed that there wasn't anyone in the house. "Where's your family? It's normally pretty noisy with your little brothers."
"They went off to some hot spring place, so we've got the place to ourselves," Marui explained slightly.
"Hm..." Then Yukiko noticed that Marui was staring at something. She looked in the direction of where Marui was looking and noticed that her pale colored shirt was completely see through to the point where you can see her white bra. "Stop looking!"
"Sorry!" he apologized, turning away. "Do you want to borrow some clothes like last time? You can take a quick shower if you want." He was still turned around.
"You're not going to look are you?"
"I won't, I swear I won't," he promised.
She shook her head at the boy. "Always..."she whispered thinking deeply about something. There was a small smile that curved her lips.
"You say something?"
"I wonder if I'll be safe with you here..." After taking a look at Marui's face, she added, "And of course I'm joking. Well, at least 50%."
"Seriously, only 50%?"
"Yep only 50," she told him as she took off her wet jacket. "Do you mind if I use the bathroom that your mom showed me to last time?"
"Sure."
"Then, excuse me." Yukiko went to the bathroom and took a warm shower thinking about what happened before the water fight. She didn't want to deal with her parents right now, she wanted to be like a normal kid and have fun, since she worked so hard on that test. "Marui... you're-"
A knock interrupted her thoughts. "Yuki-chan, where do you want me to put your change of clothes?"
"Just outside the door, I'll get them myself after I'm done. And don't think about waiting outside the door."
"I'm not!"
Yukiko smiled, dried herself, and put on her underwear, which was the only semi-dry part of her outfit. Carefully, she grabbed the clothes that Marui was lending her and quickly changed. "Huh... it's bigger than last time. Did I lose that much weight? I thought gained it back."
She ignored the size and walked out, colliding with Marui and they ended up in an awkward position with Marui on top of Yukiko. Incidentally, one of his hands was on Yukiko's chest, making things even more awkward. "Um... Sorry?"
"Marui. Get off of me," Yukiko commanded with a clear blush on her face. They got up and Yukiko glared at him. "So you are a pervert. Niou's going to be so happy to hear about this."
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that."
"Hm... Since something else got me even more pissed, I'm not worried about it. Well... As long as it was a complete and utter accident of course," she said in a sickly sweet voice that could give shivers to little kids.
"Seriously, when did you get this personality?"
"Eh, it's been in storage for a while." Since early elementary school when she didn't feel so different next to Aikiko. She smelt something sweet. "Were you cooking something? There's something... sweet smelling."
"Yeah, pancakes. You want some?" he offered.
Yukiko's eyes started glittering, she was even drooling a little. "Really?"
"Yeah. What kind of syrup do you want?"
"Whatever you have," she replied as she sat down on the couch and Marui put a plate in front of her. Yukiko immediately took a bite after saying thanks. She gave out a smile the second the strawberry syrup covered pancake touched her tongue. "It's good."
"Can't you make this yourself?"
"Nope. There's always this one part in the middle that's not completely cooked and I absolutely hate it," she told him.
"And you can make good cakes, that's weird."
"I don't understand myself either."
Marui watched Yukiko as she finished her pancakes. She seemed so childish compare to her normal strict self. "Yuki-chan, did something happen while I was gone? Or even after I got back?"
There was a brief silence. "Nothing important," she finally answered. Looks like she still isn't willing to tell him. "I just want to have some fun before going off into high school. There's nothing wrong with that. Do I really seem that much different when I want to have fun?"
He nodded without any hesitation. "Kind of."
"Then why do you get to have fun whenever you want?"
"Because that actually makes sense with my personality, while I'm used to you having a strict, 'focus on school' type of personality," Marui explained.
"Hm... well it's only temporary. I'll go back to it in about a week?"
"So it's a yearly thing?"
"I would say more of a 'once in a blue moon' thing." She yawned. Yukiko went to bed at 2 because Aikiko was telling her all about how she needed to fill out her career form and Aikiko was going somewhere and needed to pack. Yukiko assumed that it was a one day trip or something. Then her parents came at about 5 in the morning and she's been up ever since. The warm shower and pancakes made her sleepier.
"You wanna borrow my bed to sleep?"
"No. I'm not that tired." Another yawn came from her mouth.
"Go to sleep," Marui commanded, softly pushing Yukiko's head onto a couch pillow. He watched as her eyes sluggishly closed and she drowned into a peaceful sleep. Marui went to get and blanket and put it over her. "What can't you tell me, Yuki-chan?" He sighed and ruffled up her hair.
"Hm... Marui..."
"I'm right here." A smile curved the girl's lips. "I guess this is fine for now." Marui kissed her gently on her forehead, not wanting to wake her up.
"Gone for a couple of months and I see that my son has become creepy. I should be gone more," a man thought aloud, making sure that Marui could hear him loud and clear. He's been there just long enough to see his son kissing an unknown girl on her forehead.
Marui turned around to see a man with similar features to him. "Dad, do not tell her about this. Or she will kill me. Or get someone to kill me."
"I won't. So who's this?"
"Yuki-chan, my..." Marui was at a lost of words. His father eyed his expression.
"Son, looks like we need to talk." He sat down in his armchair.
"I already heard it in health!" Marui replied quickly, really not wanting to go back to last year in health.
"What?" Marui shook his head from his foolishness. "If you like this girl, don't do anything to break her heart, or she will get revenge. In the worst way possible."
"Like that time you broke Mom's tea set?"
"God, that woman really knows how to shun someone for months!" He remembered that Yukiko was sleeping and continued what he was saying quietly. "Just know, if you make her cry, you are going to regret it in the worst way. So be careful and whatever you do, do not, under any circumstances lie to her."
"Dad, I think I got that after you lied to Mom about that time her hair looked nice," Marui commented, chewing on a piece of gum. "Then her friend told her it looked ugly."
"Again, I mess up a lot. I've done a lot of things to upset your mother. Don't follow my example."
"Kind of figured that out after that time you were locked out of the house."
Yukiko eventually woke up after an hour or so and she found herself in an unfamiliar bed. 'Where am I?' She rubbed her eyes and remembered the entire situation. 'I need to go back...'
"Up already, Yuki-chan?" Marui asked as he walked into the room.
"Yeah, I'm up. Sorry for the inconvenience Marui. I didn't get enough sleep this morning." She yawned then sighed. "I should probably go home for today," she told him as she stepped out of his bed. "Can I have my clothes back?"
He handed her clothes over. "You're going back already?"
"Yeah, I shouldn't intrude on you any longer."
"That'll be a problem though..," he mentioned rubbing his hair. Yukiko looked at him confused. "You see, my old man wants to have a chat with you."
"Eh, your dad? Why would he want to talk with me?"
"He was blabbing about something weird, and apparently wants to have some tea with you."
"Um... Why?"
"I don't know something about wanting to meet the first girl that I brought home or something, but you can always say no. I don't think he'll care that much."
"I personally don't care, but do you mind getting out? I kind of want to change and you being in the room..." Marui got the hint and went outside. Yukiko sighed softly. 'It won't hurt to stay a little longer...' Especially with everything at home. She shook her head, knowing that she needs to face her problems head on. She opened the door to see a man standing next to Marui.
"Oh, so this is the girl, she looks a fine-"
"Dad! Sorry about that Yuki-chan."
"Um... it's okay... I guess," she told him, not knowing how to react. "I'm sorry for intruding on you. I should be on my way home."
"Really? Then Bunta's going to walk you home, right son?"
"Got it. Let's go." Marui grabbed Yukiko's hand and headed out. The rain had let up, but Marui felt strange as they continued to walk. "Yuki-chan? Everything okay?"
"Hm..?"
"Are you still sleepy?"
"A little..." Looks like 2 hours of sleep can't do much for a person who only got three hours of sleep earlier. "I can probably make it..."
"I don't feel like dragging you through the ground. Wait a second." Marui lifted her up by giving her a piggy back ride and Yukiko did nothing in protest. "You're heavier than last time."
"Shut up..." she muttered.
"Sleep already," he commanded. He felt Yukiko's head on his back and smiled a little. When he got to Yukiko's home, he was trying to figure something out. How was he going to explain this situation to her parents? They sound strict no matter how he thinks about it.
The minute he got to the door, a woman who looked exactly like Yukiko. "Yukiko?! Eh...?"
"Um... Nice to meet you?"