Hey, I'm in a good mood, because I got mostly good teachers for school, and I have friends in practically every class!

Future Hope

Reactions, the return of The White Tigers, and Emily's secret.

Previously on this beautiful, wonderful, marvelous, perfect, excellent fic: R/M fanservice! Mariah is pregnant, which basically means they obviously got it on. Mariah was captured, but Trinity, Kirra and Marth saved her butt. In the future, Emily is pregnant to Max! How majorly kawaii! Maybe it will happen earlier in the present, depending on my mood. Oh that's right, in case you hadn't figured it out, the other two of Ray and Mariah's kin showed their colors in their first ever appearance. And everyone hates Kirra! ' Rightio. Oh, and my friend's mum is pregnant! LoL... when they found out she was 4 months along and she was at the doctors for the checkup and the doctor came back with her blood test results and said "Oh, minor glitch in the plan...". Plus they just found out the 'it' is a 'he', so we are now continually debating over names during maths- is there a better time?

Now on with the fic...

(Two months after the last chappie)

Lee, Kevin and Gary walked through the deserted streets of their hometown. It had been almost 6 years since they had been back here, and they had missed being there. They had no idea where Ray or Mariah had ended up, but- call it a sixth sense if you want- their instincts had led them back to the place where they had grown up with their missing friends. Lee was sure they would find both of them here, so Kevin and Gary had just followed along, having nothing better to do anyway. It had been easy to get past the military because they were Chinese- going back to their home country; they assumed the military had thought so, at least. Lee smiled. 'If those two are here, won't they be surprised to see us!' (AN: Not as surprised as you will be with their news, Lee...)

(Mariah's POV)

Mariah leaned over the toilet, breathing heavily, sweat dripping down the back of her neck. 'Stupid morning sickness...' she thought to herself before feeling slightly better and standing up. She then walked into the bathroom and washed her mouth out repeatedly, and splashed some water on her face as well. She didn't feel well enough to eat anything, so she just sort of 'slumped' back to bed. Mariah sighed, she didn't really know why this had happened, but she knew it was meant to happen, that this was destiny. She was only 19, she would be 20 when the baby was born, and there was no way to get rid of it. 'Not that I want to anyway...' she thought, before smiling, lying down and closing her eyes. She needed rest, Emily thought, she was getting herself too worked up. She rolled over and tried to sleep.

(Ray's POV)

Ray was in the kitchen, sitting at the table, drinking decaf (AN: Coffee again) and getting lost in his own thoughts. He and Mariah had always been so close to each other, but he new neither of them had ever expected this to happen. She was 19, he was 20, and they were, in about 6 months, going to become parents. He rubbed his forehead thinking back to the night it had happened. Ray seriously doubted that she regretted what had happened at all; they had both waited so long for the outcome. He knew he didn't regret the events that had taken place, but the thought of Mariah getting pregnant had never crossed his mind. Ray supposed they could have been more careful, but there was nothing to be done about it now. He suddenly noticed that Mariah had walked into the room, looking extremely tired. He automatically walked over to her, and pulled her into a hug, resting his hands on her stomach. He could feel that it was starting to grow, but vision-wise you couldn't really tell the difference yet. She sighed into his shoulder, tears brimming in her eyes.

" I didn't want this to happen." Mariah looked up at him, her eyes that were previously just filled with tears, were now also filled with dread and fear.

"I know... but we will have to put up with it. There's nothing we can do about it."

"Don't you think I know that?" she snapped at him, causing his eyes to widen.

Her eyes then clouded with tears again. "I'm sorry, you didn't want this either, and I'm being such a pain in the ass."

"No, you are not, and you know it. You are just getting yourself worked up again. Go and lie down for a while, you'll feel better," he soothed.

"You're not getting rid of me that easily!" she grinned. "IT wants food." She gestured to her stomach.

"I bet you 'it' is a boy," Ray smiled, getting into the friendly argument with Mariah again.

" 'IT' is a girl."

Ray and Mariah both spun around to see Kai, sitting at the table, drinking espresso. (AN: Again...) He then looked up and noticed them both there, and he realized what he'd said. He was about to make some lame excuse, but Ray spoke first.

"I'll take you up on that little bet, Kai." He smiled, flashing his fangs.

Kai grinned evilly. "Ok, you're on Ray, but I can assure you, I won't lose this bet."

The two shook hands before Ray put his arms around Mariah and led her back down the hallway to what was now THEIR bedroom. Kai simply smiled and leaned back in his chair.

"Ray... I've changed my mind, I am happy about what happened, because it happened with you."

Ray turned to her and smiled.

"Funny how I feel the same way..."

And with that he brought his lips to hers. Mariah simply wrapped her arms around her beloved and kissed him back.

(Kai's POV)

'Whew, Ray just saved me from himself.' Kai thought, considering how lucky he was that they didn't question why he sounded so sure on the gender issue. When he had first found out about Trinity's past, he had almost fallen flat on the floor in disbelief. But now that he had seen that they truly cared for one another, he started to consider the facts and it could very easily be true. Trinity had seemed to be the 'odd one out' of the three siblings in a way- she didn't really look like either her parents, more like a mixture of them both, which was strange, seeing that the other two looked so much like either one of their parents. And her bit beasts... it seemed different to the other bit beasts from their family. Almost special in a way- well she had said that Ray and Mariah's bit beasts were unique. (AN: That is a true fact- it's on one of the Japanese sites- it says only a few other people get blessed with bit beasts like theirs- one other one was Dragoon)

Kai stood up to take his coffee cup to the sink, when he heard voices outside. He immediately stood still and tried to listen to what they were saying, but couldn't really make anything out. He then sneaked around the corner, to just about a meter away from the front door. He grabbed Dranzer out of his pocket, and with renewed courage jumped into the doorframe.

"FEEL THE WRATH OF MY DRANZER BLADE! FIRE ARROW!"

(Lee's POV)

Lee immediately ducked to avoid the fire attack coming from the red phoenix, and grabbed Galeon out of his pocket.

"DARK THUNDER, BLACK LIGHTNING!"

The attack hit head-on, causing Kai's hair to stand on end due to the static. He crackled slightly from the electricity, and then realized who it was.

"The White Tigers!"

"Yeah, that is who we are. We have come to see if Ray and Mariah are here," explained Kevin, who hadn't yet realized that his hair was on fire.

"Yes, they are here, but you may be surprised about a few things," Kai smirked, which raised their curiosity. "Oh, and Kevin, you may want to put some water on that."

"On what? ... ARGH HOLY SHIT!" Kevin saw his reflection in the window, and ran around like a crazy monkey (AN: Just couldn't resist!) before sticking his head in a bucket full of water.

"Okay, when we are all QUITE ready..." Kai said before leading them in.

(Max's POV)

Max sat on the couch, watching Emily work on her laptop. He watched in amazement, as she worked through so much stuff he could probably never ever figure out for himself. And then he thought of Ray and Mariah and what they must be going through. He felt pity for them. But they didn't actually seem that upset about it- well Mariah did sometimes but her hormones were probably stuffing up and making her have mood swings or whatever. 'Maybe that is what happens when you love someone, you can find the bright side of everything, no matter how bad things get. They seem happy to be becoming parents, especially together... they truly love each other, and nothing will ever change their feelings.' He then realized that Emily had stopped working on the laptop and was looking at him. He smiled and grabbed her hand in his and squeezed on it, and she shifted so she was a little closer to him, and he leaned his face down to hers.

'At least Kai isn't here to stuff things up this time.' Max thought before brushing his lips against hers in a feather-light kiss, running his fingers through the back of her hair. She snuggled closer to him and pressed her lips against his a little harder, which made him push her down on the couch, unwillingly having to take his fingers out of her hair so she could take his weight. He then kissed her again with an air of experience that made an electric feeling course through both of them. Emily suddenly felt Max's tongue pressing against her lips, so she opened her mouth to give him access to what he wanted to explore. They were lying there, kissing on the couch, without a care in the world.

(AN: AWWWWWWWW, kawaii, no? I'm going to bed, I'll finish 2morrow morning- this is not the end of the chappie... alrightie then I'm up.)

(Lee's POV, you can tell this is gonna be interesting)

Kai led the White Tigers through the hallways until they got to the lounge room, and were faced with Max and Emily abducting each other's tonsils with their tongues. Kai rolled his eyes and smirked a bit.

"Jeez, everyone's getting lucky except me."

This caused Emily and Max to look up and blush slightly. There were a few moments of uncomfortable silence, before Lee said,

"Aren't you two busy with something?" which caused both of them to blush deeper. They then both turned to face each other at the same time, Max smiled, Emily smiled shyly back, and they got back to what they were previously doing.

"Oh well, at least that wasn't Ray and Mariah." Lee sat on the couch opposite to Max and Emily, and sort of stared at them for a while, before snapping out of the trance he appeared to be in and looking at his teammates, who smiled back, and then to Kai, whose smirk grew about ten centimeters longer.

"Ah, but you see. That's just the thing, Lee. Ray and Mariah are..." Kai never got to finish, because the two people he was talking about suddenly entered the room, holding hands. Lee's mouth hung open for a minute, before he closed it quickly and stood up to greet his friends.

"Hey guys, surprised to see us?" he asked before walking over to them both. Ray's eyes grew wide with shock, and Mariah stared at the ground and shuffled her feet. (AN: Remember, the kids do that too- hereditary reaction!) Then, if it were at all possible, Ray's eyes grew wider still when he saw Max and Emily on the couch. He elbowed Mariah, who looked up at him, and he pointed to what he was staring at. She then gasped slightly, and clapped her hand over her mouth, trying to keep from laughing.

"You two are hardly in any position to laugh at them." Kai's voice cut through their amusement. Yes, he was right on that one.

Kevin and Gary frowned, obviously thinking about what Kai had meant by that little remark. However, Lee shook it off, and continued to talk to his friends. "So what have you two been doing all these years?"

"We have become part of the resistance force against the youma- and yes, that's what they are called."

"Yeah, other than that, we haven't been doing..." Ray looked at Kai who was giving him a 'tell them what's going on' glare. Ray ignored it. "... that much."

"Well either way, I missed you guys a lot." Lee then went over to Mariah and hugged her. She closed her eyes and held her breath, she could feel her bloated stomach pressing into his abdomen.

"Hey, Mariah, is it just me or have you put on weight?" questioned Lee before looking directly at her. Mariah gathered all the courage she had left and started to speak. "Yeah, you could say that I suppose." She took a deep breath before continuing. "I'm pregnant. Me and Ray are having a baby." (AN: I just realized I was holding my breath!)

Lee's face grew pale before he spoke, very slowly. "Yeah, good one. You almost had me for a minute, there." He looked at Ray, who shook his head, saying that this was no joke. He looked at Emily and Max, who had just come up for some air, and they both nodded to show that they were not lying. Kenny and Tyson, who had just walked in, also nodded. Lee then turned to Kai, and he had the most triumphant smirk on his face ever seen by man. Lee's eyes rolled back in his head, and he fainted. Kevin laughed and walked over to his two friends. "Ray, way to go! I didn't know you had it in you, man!" This caused Ray to blush and Mariah to glare. "It doesn't matter, we are in love and we are happy that this happened, even though we didn't exactly expect it." Gary walked over and hugged them both. Kai was now nudging Lee with his foot, smiling a 'how long have I wanted to do this' smile. (AN: DIE GERBIL MAN DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE! I don't think Lee is in love with Mariah, I think he's just really really really overprotective of her.) Gary the walked over and slapped his team leader across the face, which caused him to wake up and stare at Ray and Mariah. "I think I need to lie down for a while."

"Umm, sure, spare bedroom is down the hall and to your right."

Lee then walked as if zombified down the hall. Ray put his hand to his forehead, and Mariah snuggled closer to him, trying not to giggle at her team leader.

(Emily's POV)

Emily sat in her room, on her bed, smiling. Max had just come in to kiss her goodnight (AN: More like tongued her goodnight) and she was in a very good mood. Suddenly she heard a knock at her door. Emily stood up and went to open it, and Mariah was standing there. "Sorry, I needed to talk to someone, and Ray is asleep." Emily nodded and let her in. Mariah then went over to the bed and sat on it, her eyes brimming with tears. Emily walked over to her, and put her arms around her in a comforting gesture. "I'm scared... what if something goes wrong, no one will be able to come and help us. Both me and the little one will die." Emily was shocked to hear that the always oh so brave Mariah was completely scared out of her wits. But then again, who wouldn't be? "It's OK, I've had medical training (AN: It don't really make sense Emily just seems like the sort of person to have medical training OK?) and should be able to help at least a little if something goes wrong. And Ray won't let anything happen to you. He'll always be there to look after you; both you and I know that. He'd probably throw himself into the path of a moving truck if it was to save you." Emily smiled at her, and Mariah smiled weakly back. "I don't want to sound whiney or anything, I mean I'm so excited about it! But I'm only nineteen..." Mariah trailed off, although she did sound a lot better. Emily sighed, and gulped. "I've never told anyone this but... when me and Michael were going out, he got me pregnant. Neither of us wanted a baby, so we got it aborted." Emily lifted up her T-Shirt to show Mariah. It was very hard to see, but there was a paper-thin scar reaching across her lower abdomen. "Now tell me..." Emily's eyes filled with tears. "Would have you done that if you had the choice?" Mariah gasped, she had never thought about Emily in that way. "I'm probably going to regret two things in my life; one letting Michael get me pregnant in the first place, and two, getting rid of the baby." Emily's tears were now sliding slowly down her cheeks. Mariah hugged her. "No, you shouldn't feel that way. You did what you thought was best at the time." Emily nodded, wiping her tears away. "The doctors said I could still have children, but it would be hard- I would have all these problems." Mariah sighed. "Wish it was that hard for me!" She looked down at her stomach, from her perspective you could definitely tell the difference. She put her hand to her stomach, and rubbed it gently, smiling the whole time. "So you don't have to worry Emily, there's still plenty of time for you and Max to have children." Emily looked up at her and blushed furiously. Mariah laughed and stopped looking down at her stomach, but continued to rub it gently. "Oops, did I say that out loud?" Emily glared, but then gave up and laughed. "I don't mind being pregnant, I always wanted to be a mother- especially with Ray- but I just can't help but think about what my family would have said if they were alive..." Mariah trailed off, and looked back down at her stomach sadly. Emily smiled and put a comforting arm around her shoulders. "They would have been very proud of you, Mariah." Mariah nodded, and then stood up and smiled. "Thank you Emily, you made me feel a lot better, and sorry for what happened to you." Emily nodded. "And don't forget what I said about Max!" Emily blushed again, Mariah laughed and slipped out the door. Emily got up, turned off the light, and got into her bed. The last thing the thought was "Maybe Mariah is right about me and Max..."

Heh heh! Me the evil! I hope you like it, because that's a part of an upcoming chappie! Lol, review and you'll be able to see the rest sooner! And NO, that's not when Kirra enters the picture, she's two years behind Trinity, remember? So you'll have to wait a little longer... ja ne people, and please review! And Kai is getting in touch with his feminine side, no? Lol...