Disclaimer: I do not own HYD or any of its characters cuz if I did I would not be killing myself in school. : (

Chapter 2: The end to a LONG trip

We had fought so long and hard to be together, and standing on that ship watching Shigeru swimming to Kazuya's boat where the rest of F4 and Yuki were waiting made me realize something. I had given up. I had given up on our love. It was only for the note that Rui passed to me saying it was from Doumyouji that made me jump on that ship. My friends believed more in our love than I did. They pushed me to remember what I had forgotten along the way. I really did love that idiot and nothing else mattered. They gave me back my weed spirit to fight till the end. I could feel the blood rising to my head at reading that note.

Yo Makino,
I only married that monkey girl because my Mom made me do it. We'll be going on our honeymoon around the world. I'll go along with this for a little while until things quiet down, but as soon as we reach the nearest port I'm jumping ship and making my way back for you. That monkey girl will have no trouble finding another man to entertain her, so she won't know the difference. Wait for me. Later.

Tsukasa

I don't know what got into me, but at that moment clutching that letter I had to go after him. I wasn't even controlling my own body when I jumped off the pier, grabbed onto the anchor as it was pulling up, and climbed aboard. Then the only thing I could do was punch him in the face like that first time at Eitoku. Little did I know I had walked right into the plan that F3 and the others had planned all along. The next thing I knew Shigeru had jumped off the ship into the water in true Shigeru style, wedding dress, veil and all.

Standing next to Doumyouji we didn't know what we were getting ourselves into. We thought for sure that his mother would send the navy in after him dragging him back to Japan. It wasn't until we headed into the ship did we for the first time figure out what had happened.

Inside the honeymoon suite, Shigeru and F3 had left a manila envelope marked "Akira and Soujiro's Master Plan" then a big X across it with "Our Master Plan" written underneath. The contents inside explained everything. Believe me, I was truly amazed how clever those two playboys could be, but I had to admit that in the back of my head I knew that Rui was the brains of the operation. Shigeru had arranged for the marriage certificate and everything to be fake. They were never really married. How they managed to pull that over Doumyouji Kaede I will never know. Rui forged Doumyouji's horrible handwriting to write that note knowing I would get angry. Everything fit into place.

The best part of it all was our savior, Tsubaki. I don't know what she said to her mother, but it worked. Soon after reading the note we got a call from her. She was out of breath and could hardly speak, but managed to scream into the phone, "Mother's left. She said that you two are free to do whatever you please!"

That was the last ok we needed. We were given the green light to go. For once, we didn't have to be a secret couple, and we were for once free.

For the next three months, I saw things I never thought I, a poor girl, would ever see. We traveled through Europe, Asia, and Australia. Although we had our little fights along the way, Doumyouji would always end our squabbles by simply wrapping his arms around me whispering, "aishteru". We were in love. We were happy. What more could I have wanted?

I think it must have been two thirds into the trip did I sense the dangers that lie ahead. I mean I loved Doumyouji, but spending every minute of the day and night with him was more than I could take. I refused to let him sleep in the same bed as me, of course, but the last thing I saw at night was him on the couch and the first thing I saw in the morning was him. It came to a point where I would make excuses to be alone saying I had womanly problems, which always cause him to jump five feet away from me excusing himself to do something else to get away.

Then his jealousy was another problem. It was mind numbingly boring at times during those long bouts at sea. He was used to being a rich, spoiled little boy wasting hours of the day sitting around. I couldn't do it. I wasn't raised that way, so I decided to find little things to learn round the boat. On board they hired a pianist, Thomas, who would play for us every night over dinner. Out of sheer boredom I asked him to teach me to play the piano. We would secretly meet while Doumyouji was swimming or working out in the gym. I didn't want him to know. I had mentioned to him wanting to learn to play before, which lead to a disastrous lesson from him. Punches and insults were thrown ending up with us not speaking for a week. Thomas was kind and patient with me never scolding me for making stupid mistakes. He made me enjoy the piano.

Sadly my lessons ended a few weeks after I started. I thought Doumyoji was going to swim in the pool for awhile, but he ended up coming back early and caught Thomas sitting next to me with his hands over mine guiding them over the keys. Doumyouji went into a fit of rage, fired him and threw him off the ship. Did I forget to mention that Thomas was a 60 year old man, who reminded me of my grandfather. It was sad to see him go, but inside I was a little happy he could escape. After that, the male servants aboard were a little more careful to not seem too helpful when around me.

Once again I was bored and lonely. Doumyouji incessantly whined I wasn't spending enough time with him. He said I was always distracted when we went sightseeing. In reality, I was tired of depending so much on him. Even though his English was never the best, he was my only source as a translator. All those years of being refined for high society made him quite knowledgeable in a few languages. Everywhere I went I had to rely on him to talk for me. The little English I did know how to speak was always broken and leaving me the butt of many of Doumyouji's rich people poor people jokes, making me feel more insecure about it.

That was when I decided to learn English on my own. With the help of one of the female servants, Miki, who had grown up in Hong Kong, she taught me to speak English and a little Chinese. There was no one else to talk to except Doumyouji, so I was forced to practice with Miki, whenever I had a free moment. I was such a quick learner that by the end of the trip I was perfectly fluent in English and even picked up a little bit of Chinese to get around.

At the end of the trip, our relationship was extremely strained. I could blame it on cabin fever and being stuck in closed spaces too long. Maybe it was just the truth finally slapping me in the face with a loud smack, but I wouldn't see what was right in front of me. I was in love and like they say love makes you do stupid things.

The moment I could see the port in Japan coming closer I was willing to jump ship and swim to land to get away from that idiot. Upon reaching land we were greeted by Kazuya, Yuki, Shigeru, Akira, and Soujiro..

Kazuya with tears in his eyes ran up to me and wrapped his arms around me screaming, "My Tsukushi! I missed you so much. Did that Doumyouji do anything to you, my precious Tsukushi?!"

"Get your hands off my woman! And she is not your Tsukushi!" Doumyouji grabbed Kazuya by the collar and tossed him aside like a piece of trash.

"Don't do that to Kazuya!" I ran over to him and helped him up onto his feet. By that time he was crying like a baby whining nonsense to me about why I chose Doumyouji over him.

Akira wrapped an arm around Doumyouji's shoulder grinning ear to ear with a smug look on his face. "Hey Tsukasa! Did you finally do the deed, so we can stop calling Makino a hard working virgin?".

"Yeah, three moths alone on a ship with only you would have finally driven her to go to bed with a guy like you" laughed Soujiro.

Doumyouji's face turned red. "Well.."

"Shuddup! Don't talk about my private business!" I screamed smacking their skulls together.

"Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Tsukushi, we almost forgot how scary you can be." The two playboys shied away quietly rubbing their heads in pain.

"Tsukushi!' screamed both Shigeru and Yuki at the same time. They went running towards me, but Shigeru got to me first squeezing me into one of her monster hugs. Yuki waited quietly behind Shigeru for her turn and just lightly hugged me.

"I've missed you guys so much!" Tears welled up in my eyes. It had been way too long since I had real female friend contact. Other than Miki, I hadn't spoken to someone with a feminine perspective in ages.

Yuki started to cry as well being the crybaby she was, too. "I missed you too! I got all your postcards, though. It's been lonely working in the dango shop without you." She wiped the tears away from her eyes and looked up at me with her natural, innocent face. "So how was the trip, Tsukushi?"

I looked at Yuki with a little surprise thinking about the first answer that came into my mind. Most people would have answered with a cheery "Great" or "It was the greatest time of my life", but the only words that could come out of my mouth were, "It was LONG."

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