Early September

Families

"Mom, I'm home!" Shouted Yumi.

"There you are!" Yumi's mother was heard calling out from the kitchen. "I was starting to get worried." She walked into the front room and was quite startled when she saw Ulrich, but recovered quickly once she realized who it was.

"Hello Mrs. Ishiyama," the young man greeted.

"Ulrich, what a nice surpri..." Akiko trailed off as her gaze drifted to Ulrich and Yumi's hands clasped tightly together. A warm smile spread across her face as she looked back up at Ulrich. "Welcome back dear. It's wonderful to see you again."

"Thanks. It's good to see you too." He replied, grinning right back.

"Mom... could you call Dad and Hiroki in here, we've... got something to tell all of you." Akiko looked at her daughter curiously. She wasn't quite sure what was going on, but did as she was asked.

"Hiroki, Takeo, could you come to the front room?" She called.

"Alright, I'm coming!" Takeo's voice was heard shouting grumpily. "What's this about?" He demanded as he was entering the room. "Ulrich?" His eyebrows raised in surprise when he saw Ulrich standing there, but his expression was otherwise unreadable.

"Hello, Mr. Ishiyama," Ulrich greeted politely.

"Hiroki?" Yumi's mom called out again.

"I'll be down in a minute." Yumi's brother yelled down from his room. He was probably in the middle of a video game. Yumi shook her head in annoyance.

"Hiroki, Ulrich's here in the front room!" She shouted, knowing that would get his attention immediately.

"COMING!" Some loud shuffling could be immediately heard, followed by a THUD, causing everyone to turn toward the stairs and wince. "I'm okay!" Hiroki yelled, just before racing down the stairs two at a time. He stopped when he made it to the bottom and stared up at Ulrich. "Whoa, you're huge!" He exclaimed, causing the large man to chuckle.

"I've been getting that a lot lately."

Now that everyone was present, Takeo turned to the young couple with his expression still unreadable. "It's good to see you Ulrich, but what is this about." Ulrich and Yumi glanced at each other and Ulrich gave his fiancé's hand a reassuring squeeze. Yumi's heart felt like it was going to beat right out of her chest while she shyly turned her gaze away and to the floor. She slowly pulled her left hand out of her pocket and placed it on the front of her right shoulder, displaying her ring. Yumi heard her mother gasp, but for a few seconds nothing else could be heard and she was too afraid to look up. Her mother walked forward and Yumi's heart started pounding even harder as she felt her hand being gently pulled off her shoulder.

"Oh Yumi, it's beautiful," said Akiko, causing Yumi to choke up and finally look forward, blinking back a few tears. Her mother had a gentle smile on her face as she looked from the ring, to her daughter, then to Ulrich. "Congratulations you two." She looked back to Yumi. "I told you these things have a way of working themselves out."

"Alright Sis!" Hiroki exclaimed as he walked over to Ulrich and patted him on his upper arm. "Looks like we're gonna be brothers after all!"

"AHEM!" Everyone quieted down and turned to look at Takeo, who had cleared his throat loudly. He looked at Ulrich. "I would have liked to have discussed this with you beforehand."

"Takeo..." Akiko started to speak softly, but Yumi's dad held up his hand to her indicating that he wasn't done speaking. He narrowed his eyes and stared at Ulrich for several seconds as if sizing him up. Yumi's didn't know how much her mom had told him, and at that moment the tension in the air was almost tangible. He slowly turned to face his daughter. "It's a good thing I approve of the match," he said flatly. A couple awkward seconds later he tossed his head back and laughed loudly, causing the tension to dissolve. He stepped up to Ulrich and shook his hand, then turned back to Yumi with a smile on his face. "Your mother told me about your talk a couple weeks ago, so I am happy for you." He glanced back and forth between the two a couple times before settling his gaze back on Yumi. "But he's a good man, so don't leave him again. That was dumb!" Hiroki snorted out a laugh and Yumi smiled.

"I won't," she replied seriously. She rubbed the back of her neck and looked at her parent's incredulously for a moment. "You're both taking this a lot better than we expected..."

"If it was with anyone else, we'd be very concerned, but we've always liked Ulrich. You know that." She explained, and looked up at the young man fondly, then back to her daughter. "After you told me about how you two had reconnected, we started hoping for the best because you were always so good for each other. While you coming home tonight announcing your engagement is a bit of a shock, we really are very happy for you." She glanced down at Yumi's hand for a second then peered at Ulrich. "If I had to guess, I'd say that you probably got that ring for last year, didn't you?" Yumi stared at her mother in shock for figuring that out so easily while Ulrich nodded and both he and her mom chuckled. "I thought so. How long are you in town for?" She asked him.

"Four more days, but then I've got to get back to start conditioning for soccer again."

"You should stay here. You've been gone a long time and there are lots of things to talk about and catch up on," said Takeo. Everyone else gave him some strange looks from suggesting that his daughter's significant other spend the night. "That is, if you don't mind sleeping on the couch," he clarified and Ulrich grinned.

"That sounds good Mr. Ishiyama, thank you. I think I'll stay at my hotel tonight though because my stuff is already there, but I can cancel the rest of the reservation and be by first thing in the morning!"

"That sounds wonderful Ulrich." Chimed in Yumi's mom. "I'll make a big breakfast in the morning to celebrate. By the way, have you told your parents yet?" Akiko asked. Ulrich's expression darkened and he sighed deeply.

"No... but I guess I should probably get it over with."

"I'm sure they're going to be happy for you," Akiko said unconvincingly. She meant well, but all the Ishiyama's knew what Ulrich's relationship with his parents, particularly his father, was like so she wasn't very successful.

"Thanks, but somehow I doubt it..."

"Would you like to go upstairs for some privacy," she offered. Ulrich nodded in thanks then headed towards Yumi's room. While Yumi watched him go, she felt her mother's hand on her shoulder.

"You should be there with him." Yumi jerked her head toward her mother in surprise. Both her and Ulrich being in her room alone had been off limits since they started dating. "You're getting married. That changes the rules a little bit, and I think he's going to need you right now." Yumi smiled at her mother's understanding. "Just don't expect us to be ok with him spending the night in there," Akiko whispered in her daughter's ear, causing her to blush. Yumi walked to her room and knocked. A moment later Ulrich opened the door, and since he knew about her parent's rules too he was rather confused. Yumi just stepped up and gave him a warm hug.

"My mom said I should be with you while you call your parents. I thought so too," she said when she pulled away. The two of them walked over and sat on the bed next to each other.

"I'm glad we've at least got your family's support, that means a lot," Ulrich said while pulling out his phone.

"Yeah, it does." There was an awkward pause for a minute.

"You know that however this goes, it's not you, right? It's just how my father is."

"I know. You probably should stop stalling though." Ulrich sighed.

"You're right. Do you want to listen? I can put it on speaker." He offered.

"Yeah, I think so." Ulrich scrolled through his contacts until he found his dad's entry. "Hey, it's going to be alright," Yumi took Ulrich's hand in hers and smiled at him.

"Thanks, I hope so." Ulrich pressed 'call' and put it on speaker.

"Ulrich?" His father's voice sounded irritated, like Ulrich was interrupting something.

"Hello to you too..." he muttered, but only loudly enough for Yumi to hear. She gave Ulrich a little nudge to get him to start talking.

"Hi Dad."

"What's going on...? Wait, you're in France right now, aren't you? I hope those good-for-nothing friends of yours haven't gotten you into trouble." Ulrich just looked at his phone with disgust as his father spoke.

"First off, no! Second, I'm here with Yumi and you're on speaker!" He retorted.

"Yumi? You mean that little Japanese girl who dumped you? Why are you with her!?" It was Yumi's turn to look disgusted at how rude Ulrich's father was being, after being told that she could hear everything!

"Yeah, we did break up, but we kept in touch with each other. I'm just letting you know that we got back together again... In a big way." So far Ulrich was succeeding in holding his temper back, but just barely.

"Humph. So she called you back like a yo-yo and you came running. That's pathetic. Why did you even bother calling if that's all anyway? This had better not interfere with your schooling" Yumi couldn't take any more.

"Are you serious..." she started, but Ulrich cut her off.

"She never treated me like a yo-yo, or badly in any way!" He shouted. "We were even able to stay very good friends throughout this last year! Besides, I'm the one who asked if she wanted to try again and it turns out she did! I called you tonight to tell you that we're going to be getting married!"

"WHAT!" Ulrich's dad sounded more shocked than angry at the moment, but both of them knew that was coming next so Ulrich didn't let up.

"She is the love of my life, and if you can't show a little more respect then that to my future wife, then you can forget about ever seeing your grand-kids!" Ulrich yelled before hitting the 'call end' button. He was breathing heavy and he looked tired. Yumi felt awful for him and started rubbing comforting circles on his back until he seemed to calm down a bit. A few minutes later Ulrich spoke again. "I'm sorry I lost my temper... maybe I shouldn't have had that on speaker after all."

"It's alright, you didn't know it was going to be that..." Yumi was cut off by Ulrich's phone ringing. He rolled his eyes before looking at the display.

"It's my mother."

"Are you going to answer?"

"Yeah. I probably should." He answered, but kept it off of speaker this time. "Hi Mom." There was a couple seconds pause. "Maybe, I'll ask." Ulrich looked to Yumi. "She wants to talk to both of us... are you up for that?" She nodded, then he fiddled with his phone for a second. "Ok, you're on speaker now."

"Hello Yumi, it's been a long time. First, I'd like to apologize for my husband's behavior. He gets cranky in the evenings. He's more of a morning person.

"That's because his happy pill wears off around dinner time..." muttered Ulrich.

"Anyway, Your father told me the news and while we're happy for you, it's just that it's so... sudden and we're very surprised." Ulrich sighed. While it wasn't the support that they were getting from Yumi's family, his mom's reaction was at least reasonable. "Do you know when and where the wedding is going be?"

"No." Yumi spoke up. "We haven't talked about that yet, but I think we're going to wait until after we're both done with college." Yumi looked up at Ulrich and he nodded. "Yes, Ulrich is nodding in agreement."

"That's probably smart." There was a long pause. "Ulrich, you really should try talking to your father again sometime. You just caught him off guard, and you know how he doesn't like surprises." Ulrich closed his eyes and sighed. "You know he really is proud of you and they way you're putting yourself through school on your own."

"Mom, I never told either of you this before, but I turned down financial help from you guys because it's one less thing he has to hold over my head, and one more step toward being free of him." A sharp gasp was heard over the phone. "I'm not talking to him again tonight... and not after tonight either for that matter." Ulrich took another deep breath. "I'll still talk to you, and Dad will invited to the wedding with you, but if he wants any sort of relationship with his son, his future daughter-in-law, and any kids that we might have, then he needs to think long and hard about how he needs to change. Until then, I'm done dealing with him... for good." There was several seconds pause, and when Ulrich's mom replied, it was barely a sobbing whisper.

"I'm sorry you feel that way..."

"The one who needs to be sorry is Dad."

"Ok... I love you Ulrich."

"I love you too mom and I'm sorry that this hurts you, but I can't keep doing this. Goodbye." He hung up and Yumi immediately wrapped him in a tight hug.

"I'm so sorry, Ulrich." He tightly returned the hug and Yumi felt a few drop of wetness fall onto the top of her head.

"It's ok, I should've done that a long time ago. I'm only sorry that it happened tonight, but I couldn't handle him talking about you like that." They sat like that for several minutes until the warmth and comfort of each other's embrace made them both feel better. "I've got one more message to send, if you don't mind. It's a much happier message," Ulrich said after they pulled away.

"I don't mind, but to who?"

"I told William that I'd let him know how it went," Ulrich replied and they both chuckled. He pulled out his phone again and Yumi watched him type out the message over his shoulder.

'She said yes to both! Thanks for the calling when you did. By the way, I heard about Lily, good luck man!'

A few seconds later there was a reply.

'That's awesome! Glad the ring didn't backfire, good luck. P.S. Lily's great!'

Both Yumi and Ulrich smiled.

"Ok, we can go now."

The two of them left the room and went downstairs to the waiting Ishiyama family. Yumi's mom walked up and wrapped Ulrich in a motherly hug.

"We didn't hear everything, but I think we heard enough."

"Yeah... I was kinda loud, sorry." She pulled away and looked up at him.

"You don't have to apologize. Are you ok?" Ulrich smiled at her concern.

"Yeah, I'm alright." She turned to Yumi.

"How about you?" Her daughter nodded and she turned back to her future son-in-law. "That's good. We were all talking while you were upstairs, and we want you to know that you are always welcome in this family." Ulrich's grin grew wider.

"Thanks."

"Anyway, if you both are alright, then we're going to bed. We'll see you in the morning." Yumi's mother informed the young couple before her and her husband headed upstairs.

"I'm going to bed too, It's good to have you back Ulrich!" Exclaimed Hiroki with a wide grin, playfully punching Ulrich in the arm. He also went upstairs and Yumi and Ulrich were left alone, probably intentionally. Fortunately, the young woman had a great idea of what to do with the time.

"Ulrich, do you want to watch a movie?" The thought of cuddling up to Ulrich for the first time in years was very enticing indeed! Ulrich seemed to share her enthusiasm and his face lit up.

"Yeah, I'd like that a lot." He started walking over to the movie cabinet, but she grabbed his arm, stopping him.

"Not from there... I'll be right back." She kissed his cheek quickly just because she felt like it, then ran to her room grinning madly. Her grin faded some as she carefully pulled down a shoe box from top shelf in her closet and checked the contents. Taking a deep breath she descended the stairs much more slowly than she ascended them to her waiting fiancé. She put the box down and nervously picked out a particular movie case. The cover had a picture of a large, but cute furry creature with big round eyes and a large leaf on his head to guard against the rain that was falling. Next to that giant fluff-ball was a little girl with a pink umbrella, who didn't seem to know what to make of her fuzzy neighbor.

"This movie, and ones like it are kind of a guilty pleasure..." she said shyly as she slowly handed the film to Ulrich. "It's not flashy or really even all that exciting, but it's been my favorite since I was a little girl."

"My Neighbor Totoro," he said out loud, then he smiled at Yumi. "Alright, we'll watch it then." Yumi got the movie set up and they settled into the couch together.

When the ending credits start rolling about an hour and a half later, Yumi looked up at Ulrich nervously.

"Well... what did you think?" She asked.

"I liked it, it was cute," he replied with a grin. "You said you've got more?" Yumi nodded. "I'd like to watch them with you." Delighted, Yumi happily nestled into his side again and felt a warmth spread throughout her when she felt him kiss the top of her head.

"I'd like that too."

The two of them just enjoyed sitting like that for a long while until Ulrich headed out. When Yumi made it to bed herself, she found that sleep came easier than it had in months.

Morning came, and Yumi woke to the smell of miso soup and fish*. At first she couldn't shake the feeling that she had dreamt the events of the day before. Without opening her eyes, she reached for her left hand with her right. Starting with the tip, she slowly felt her way down her ring finger until she bumped into something solid. With a deep breath, she looked down at her hand and her gaze was met the jet-black sheen of an onyx stone flanked by two diamonds glittering beautifully in the morning sun. She leapt out of bed, threw on some clothes, and ran down the hall to the top of the stairway.

She saw a large brunette man sitting on the couch facing away from the staircase.

"Ulrich?" He stood up, turned around, and grinned widely. Yumi returned his smile, bounded down the stairs and into his waiting arms.

*It may seem strange to us westerners, but fish and miso soup are both common in traditional Japanese breakfast. I looked it up! ;)

A/N: I don't quite understood why some authors make Mr. Ishiyama dislike Ulrich because he didn't in the show. I'll admit that I may have made Yumi's parents just a little too understanding here (it's my story, deal with it! :p), but they both expressed that Ulrich was a good kid in 'The Chips are Down,' and I'd imagine his efforts in 'Laughing Fit' would probably have been appreciated too.

Anyway, I really hope you enjoyed this story, and I want to thank you for making it this far! Writing this has been a bit of an emotional roller coaster and I hoped that I was able to successfully bring you along for the ride. As always, if you liked it, let me know, and if you didn't, let me know that too!

I'd like to give a special thanks to everyone who has left reviews over the course of the writing process. I cannot fully express my appreciation for you taking the time to let me know what you thought of my efforts!