Hello all,
Got some connection and some writing done so finally able to post a few chapters for you :)
Got some really exciting twists I'm now starting to plan out so definitely looking forward to a lot more writing whenever I'm not lying half dead in my cabin feeling seasick T~T (slight issue: sailing every summer for about 10 years now and still not over it }:[ )
Anyway, that's why uploads are iffy even when we have connection as the chapters are slow on the write ups but soon going to be based back on solid land so hopefully I'll cram in a load of chapters before uni starts up again :)
Read on my lovelies and please keep dropping reviews, I love hearing from you all :)
We didn't visit her father the next day, Shizuru slept through to the afternoon, clearly relieved her father was going to be okay, and that he'd finally accepted her choices by accepting me.
I wasn't nearly as drained as her as I wasn't emotionally involved to the same level as her so I woke mid-morning, borrowing one of the books from Shizuru's bookcase to pass the time until she woke.
I was alerted to her stirring beside me as she rolled over so her head was in my lap as her arms snaked round my waist.
Smiling, I set the book on the small table beside me before gently running my hands through her hair.
"Good afternoon".
"Afternoon?"
"Yep, you slept clean through the night and right through breakfast, you should have seen your mother's face when I told her you weren't joining us".
"What!?"
She caught on to my joke when my laughter burst through despite my best efforts to hold it back, sitting up to glare at me.
I broke it quickly though with a quick peck on the lips causing her to form a mischievous smirk before pouncing forward, pinning me back beneath her as she leant in and gave me a kiss that left me giddy and gasping for air.
Once again, the moment I started to respond, she pulled back, grinning at me as I glared at her, still pinned by her weight.
I surprised her then by hooking one of my legs round her back and pulled her down to me for another kiss, which she promptly returned.
It was strange but we always seemed in sync as to when we wanted to take things further as we both moved together to deepen the kiss.
I heard a cough sound that didn't belong to either of us.
Gasping, I rolled Shizuru away from the door, covering her with the blanket as I looked over to see her mother standing in the doorway.
I felt my face explode in a blush that far surpassed anything Shizuru had ever induced as I found myself unable to speak through the embarrassment.
Shizuru was also blushing a furious red as her mother tried to cover her mouth to hide her smile but the laughter that broke free gave her away.
"Ara, was I interrupting something girls?"
A new wave of heat flashed across my face as Shizuru's face reached an even deeper shade of red.
With both of us still unable to speak her mother continued.
"I came to tell you that lunch was ready. I thought you would both be hungry having missed breakfast but I can see you were already tuck-"
"Mother!"
Shizuru had finally recovered enough to cut her mother short.
I was thankful, knowing full well where she was going and was glad I didn't have to hear her continue.
Now I know where Shizuru got her teasing habits.
Her mother was worse even as she didn't seem at all phased by what we were doing and didn't seem shy in any way about talking about it.
I still couldn't find any words, but managed to nod to acknowledge I'd heard.
"We'll join you shortly mother, thank you".
I could hear the annoyance in Shizuru's voice and had to bite my lip until the door shut to hold back my laughter.
Shizuru's annoyance was then directed at me as I couldn't help but laugh at seeing her as helpless as she left me when she teased me, her pouting was also rather cute seeing as her mother couldn't see it anyway.
I dove sideways to avoid the pillow aimed at my head as I hurried to the bathroom to freshen up.
Finally Shizuru detangled herself from the duvet to join me as she quickly brushed her teeth, still glaring at me in the mirror.
I couldn't stop grinning though, I knew she was embarrassed that I'd seen her mother do what she did so easily to me and it was nice to know it was possible to embarrass her this much.
We wandered down with out arms firmly linked as a thought came to mind.
"You know, it could have been worse".
"How!?"
"It could have been one of the staff who walked in, that would have spread like wildfire through the house and your mother would still probably have heard about it. At least this way it's just the three of us".
Shizuru had an expression that kinda had a 'never thought of it like that' kind of look to it as I grinned.
I stepped forward to hold the door open, surprised to see a full table set for six.
"You expecting anyone?"
Shizuru just shrugged as I led her to the seats we had sat at previously, holding her chair for her as I tucked it in behind her.
Just as she sat down, the doors opened again and her mother walked in followed by another woman and a boy who looked about our age. Shortly after a rather stuck up looking man walked in, acting like he thought he owned the place.
I stood back as Shizuru instantly stood back up, tensing beside me.
I held out my hand slightly and she reached for it, gripping it tightly just out of sight.
"Good day Miss. Viola".
Shizuru nodded her reply to the man who was looking down his nose at me as he spoke.
"And you are?"
I was already ready to punch the man but ignored the growing itch to lash out.
"I'm Natsuki sir".
"What are you doing here?"
Shizuru's mother stepped in, seeing how much the man was twisting the wrong nerve as my eyebrow twitched in annoyance.
"She's our guest and will be joining us for lunch today. Natsuki, this is the Naano family".
I could see even Shizuru's mother was tense so I knew something was up with this family.
Shizuru sat back down and I again helped her with her chair, noticing the man glaring at me as I took my seat beside Shizuru.
Just as the father looked like he was going to say something, the staff came out with a number of trays and dishes.
We sat in silence as they offered us food from the trays, serving us as they rotated around, it was like clockwork.
Soon, we all had generous helpings of food on our plates and the staff disappeared back through the door they'd entered, leaving a heavy silence over the table.
I waited, not wanting to start eating in case they wanted to say grace or something.
Instead, it seemed as though we were all waiting for the man to begin as the guest.
He began quickly thankfully instead of leaving us all waiting in awkward silence and I took my lead from Shizuru as she too started.
Minutes passed and the air was so thick it was a wonder no one had choked yet.
I paced myself to match Shizuru, not knowing if there was some polite speed limit for eating in company.
Finally the man sat back, wiping his mouth as he stared hard at Shizuru's mother.
"Are you going to tell us why you invited us here?"
I was struggling not to let my mouth hang open, I couldn't believe how rude this guy was acting towards his hosts while in their home. Both Shizuru and her mother however looked more tired than anything, like they dealt with people like this all the time.
I guess they must, I was the odd one out here but I was still surprised neither mother nor daughter looked mad.
"Yes, my apologies for the wait but I wanted to eat something before it got cold, I didn't manage to eat breakfast as I was visiting my husband in hospital".
There was the anger.
You couldn't see a trace of it in her body language but you could definitely hear it in her voice. I also caught a glimpse of it in her eyes, I could see the anger lurking in them.
The man seemed oblivious to what she'd just said.
"And…?"
I saw the anger come to the forefront in the icy stare Mrs. Viola held to him.
"As you are aware, our agreement was put on hold for personal reasons but-"
"Personal reasons! Your daughter flat out rejected my son's hand to our faces".
"Would you have preferred if I rejected him behind your backs Mr. Naano?"
He then became angry.
"You little miss never even gave a reason for rejecting him beyond you couldn't make it work".
"Well with regards to the arrangement, we have decided to withdraw from it so as to give your son freedom to find another suitor".
The man turned a furious scarlet in his rage.
I noticed the mother looked scared while the son looked more embarrassed than anything.
"Father-"
"No! You make us wait this long and tell us it's off! What the hell is wrong with you people!?"
"Firstly-".
"I don't even want to hear it, come on, we're le-".
He was silenced as Mrs. Viola's hand slammed down onto the table as she stood.
He looked wary now.
Her rage was clear for all to see, her mask slowly falling away.
"Firstly, this was always only an option, you knew that nothing was fixed. Secondly, Shizuru has found someone she is happy with and both my husband and I approved of the match. And finally Mr. Naano, you are a guest in this house, even without this unfortunate news I tolerated your despicably rude behavior up until now. You have no right to speak to me like this, let alone in my own home".
"Who was it then? At least tell us who you deem more worthy than my son".
"Enough!"
I couldn't hide my shock as Mrs. Viola raised her voice, clearly trying her best to control her rising anger.
"Natsuki is Shizuru's partner now. As I told you, both my husband and I ha-".
"What the hell, you'd let your daughter be with her ov-".
"BOTH my husband and I support the paring and I hope you may allow your son to find his own happiness as we finally allowed Shizuru".
The man paled as he finally tuned into her fury, coughing out an apology for his behaviour before dragging his family out.
The son however pulled his hand away before quickly running up to us before his father could grab him again.
"I'm really happy for you Shizuru and it's a pleasure to meet you Natsuki. My apologies for my father, I hope you realise that neither my mother nor myself share his opinions and are happy to find another suitor for me if it means you can be happy".
We all smiled at him, thanking him as he shook all our hands firmly in turn before leaving, this time dragging his father out.
I finally breathed again, not realising I'd stopped during the release of Mrs. Viola's anger.
"Well that went well".
I turned to her, surprised at how quickly her mask was back in place though I could still see the last tendrils of anger snaking through her eyes.
I laughed nervously as I tried to take in what had just happened.
"It seems we are unable to even have a meal now without some drama forming Natsuki".
I smiled as I remembered when I said something along those lines.
Really, what the hell was the world's problem that it couldn't leave us in peace.
We passed the rest of the meal in a surprisingly comfortable silence, finally able to enjoy the food set out for us as I tucked in properly, eating faster so it didn't get too cold.
Having finished ahead of the others, I just waited for them to eat, lost in my thoughts until Shizuru's mother broke the silence.
"I'm sorry you had to see me loose my temper Natsuki".
I smiled.
"No problem, I've seen far worse for far less. It was surprising though, you are so controlled it was more strange than anything else to see you angry".
"What do you mean far worse for far less?"
"I think Shizuru told you I enjoy free running?"
A nod.
"Well I had to learn the hard way that some people can be crazy. I once had a man try to stab me for walking too close to his shelter in an alley, though he didn't have much of a chance as I just ran off before he could get anywhere near me. That's kinda why I learnt to run, to be able to get away from those kinds of crazy people".
I noticed a mix of worry and sadness fill Mrs. Viola as I waited for her to respond.
"You sound like you had a rather hard life".
I nodded.
"Pretty much, I always avoided trouble when I could but life always seemed to have it out for me. How much did Shizuru tell you about my past?"
"Not much, and she said it wasn't her place to tell me about the bad things that happened to you".
I smiled as I took Shizuru's hand in mine.
"Yeah, I've been through hell but with the help of Shizuru, I managed to find my way out".
Both of them smiled at my answer as I asked if her mother wanted to hear more about my past.
She nodded as we moved back into the living room where she sat on the sofa opposite me and Shizuru, while Shizuru sat against me, tucking her legs under her.
I took a deep breath before telling my story, glossing over the more gruesome details as I was certain Shizuru's mother wouldn't want to hear them. That and I wasn't really willing or able to talk about it again, Shizuru knew and she was the only one I wanted to know everything.
By the time I'd finished, her mother looked impressed, sad, sorry and horrified all at the same time as the lady that had woken us the first morning came in to tell us dinner was ready.
Through the meal, I asked my own questions, wanting to learn more about Shizuru through her mother as I knew she had a habit of downplaying herself when she told me anything.
I was thrilled as I learnt a number of embarrassing things Shizuru used to do as a child including her inability to speak to anyone she had a crush on without her ears turning bright red. That when she used to play with dolls, getting mad when people told her two girls couldn't be together and how she would always refuse to put clothes on after a bath until her hair was dry but didn't like it being towelled or blow dried so she'd streak through the house to avoid clothes and/or drying it until she was ready to dress herself. Shizuru told me she still remembered all the hiding places she'd cram herself into to avoid the staff and her parents finding her as she finally revealed a few to her mother, who in turn groaned an 'of course' as she gracefully did a posh equivalent of a graceful face palm.
By the time the ladies had finished their tea, it as almost eleven so we bid Mrs. Viola goodnight before heading up to bed.
"Oh and girls?"
We both paused and turned to face her.
"I don't really mind what you do but either lock your door next time or wait till you're back at your own places".
We both blushed a whole new shade on the blush-o-meter once again as we nodded before all but running up the stairs to avoid the torment of any more teasing.