Chapter Four - More Than Friends

"And that's it? That's how you met?" Kento asked disappointedly.

"Well, that's how we first met..." Mina tried to explain as if there was something more.

"Lame! I thought there was going to be something big and juicy happening!" he whined further.

"Kento! How rude can you possibly be! She didn't have to tell us anything and you go on and insult her like that?! Have a little respect!" Sai cried out in response. Kento grunted in his seat as he folded his arms and looked away.

"All in all, Mina, not that we're ungrateful for you telling us the story, but one would think with Ryo's reaction there would be something a little more... you know, 'notable' in it," Sage stated in a courteous manner.

Mina looked down at her hands on her lap in concentration. The others were quiet waiting for her to say more. "He could be thinking of the time we first... started going together as... more than friends," she stuttered to explain. All eyes perked up, smiles resumed, and ears were ready for a story. Mina blushed at the attention.

"I think what the boys are trying to gesture is that they want to hear every detail," Mia said comfortingly.

"It's really long and kind of 'mushy' as some standard would say; I don't think it would be very interesting," she said, trying to back out.

"Ryomeo! Oh, I have to hear this! Please tell us, Mina!" Kento pleaded.

"Okay, but you have to promise not to hold it against Ryo," she warned. The others nodded to the stipulation but really didn't care, since they would probably do whatever popped in their heads when she was finished.

"This is how it happened..."

Mina's parents are business associates and have to go on long trips out of the country every now and then, at least once a year. They were usually gone for two weeks. After many hours of pleading and complaining that she didn't need her old Aunt Prudence to watch over her, she was allowed to stay home alone by herself. She did quite well on her own, so they no longer required any relatives to stay the full two weeks and just checked up on Mina a few times.

It was almost the end of the school year. Eleven months have passed and there was only one more until they were all promoted to the next grade. All have grown a little in the small grade school. It was after last period and the students filed out of the building, excited about the next grade and all the new classes they have just been assigned. Some received rides from their parents, others rode busses, while the rest walked home. Mina normally would wait with her friends before she would begin the long walk home, but this time she ventured over the boys' gate in hopes to see her black-haired friend.

She hadn't seen him at recess for the last two days and she would usually deliberately run into him on the walk home but neither has happened. She had hoped with sixth grade being inter-gender she would have a few classes with him.

Mina looked over her roster, leaning on the gate and waited patiently for Ryo. However, this would be a very large mistake. Tiro, larger than ever, had just received the bad news that he would be repeating the fifth grade for the second time and was not at all taking it in stride. Taking note of the blonde-haired vixen with her mind deep in the paper she was holding, he walked directly up and rammed into her, knocking her to the ground and spilling her books and papers.

"You rammed into me, you little dog! You did that on purpose!" Tiro exclaimed, teeth grinding and nostrils flaring. Mina looked up slack-jawed and in panic as she struggled to get to her feet. The cold November ground wasn't very forgiving. Tiro reached down and effortlessly picked Mina off the ground by the collar and started to violently shake her as he yelled. "You think you're better than me?! You think you can just ram into me and get away with it?! You little wretch, you have been making me miserable for years now and I am sick of it! I'm going to take care of you right now!" he yelled with pure hatred in his voice.

He dragged Mina back out of school bounds and threw her against a tree as she fell to the ground again. Tiro was seriously upset and getting madder by the second. His face was beet-red and it wasn't from the biting cold winds. "There ain't no one to save you this time, you little rat! You're mine now!" Tiro yelled. Mina cringed, but her eyes were wide and shrinking in fear. She was trembling and so stricken she couldn't think to get up and run. Tiro raised his fist high...

"No... please!" Mina pleaded, trying to shield herself from the coming onslaught.

"Not this time!" he hollered in reply. He brought his fist down, breaking through Mina's crossed arms and landing right to her eye. Tiro then brought up his other hand with a shot to her stomach, knocking the wind out of her. He just continued with more and more fierce blows all over her body.

"Please..." she gasped, "I'm begging you... please stop..." she stammered, out of breath. Tiro's eyes widened as he raised his hand high once more.

Grunts and screams, fists and blood, Tiro was relentless. Mina was bloody and bruised all over. The shoulder of her shirt was ripped, her lip was swollen and bleeding and a large dark bruise was forming around her eye. She was also bleeding from her forehead, and her arm was wrenched as Tiro pulled it away from defending her face. Eventually Tiro was through beating on the defenseless Mina and left her cringing, cowering, and crying body for someone to find.

Eventually Mina regained her composure and tried to get to her feet. She was weakened and sore and the cold wasn't helping. The sun was almost gone and little light remained in the sky. The school had long since closed and Mina was on her own. She somehow found the strength to get to her feet and began to wearily trudge the long way home.

It was late and the sun had all but set as she searched for her key. She was about to insert it into the lock but then she thought, There's nobody here... Mina knew that the entire way there, but only now did it make a difference. She wanted to be near someone, she needed to be held and comforted, she didn't want to be alone. She took one long look up the mountain and before she had actually decided she would go, she found herself walking the long mountain path up to Ryo's place. She had walked up there before; it was a very beautiful scenic route and she always saw the cabin by the lake.

A few hours finally passed and the sky was black, throwing icy chills and cold winds. Mina had plodded her way up the mountain and came across the cabin. She was so tired she could collapse, but reaching this goal had given her renewed strength. She came up the wooden door and prayed Ryo would answer. Feebly knocking, in a hoarse voice she called Ryo's name. Now more than ever feeling the fatigue, she knocked again weakly and called once more. Soon the door was heard unlocking, and the red and orange light shone through. It silhouetted a large figure. It was Ryo, and he looked almost as bad as Mina.

Ryo was almost deathly ill. His eyes were droopy and had dark bags under them. His nose was red and stuffy and his forehead was covered in sweat. His face was nothing as Mina had remembered, but hers wasn't much the same either. Ryo was draped in a red blanket and only wearing blue pajama bottoms as he gasped in shock looking over Mina's once beautiful, now beaten face. Without a word he immediately removed the blanket and wrapped it around Mina's shivering body and led her inside.

"My God, what happened?!" he tried to ask in his raspy, sore strep throat voice.

"It was Tiro, he failed the fifth grade again," Mina's voice replied in its weakened manner.

Ryo led her over to the fireplace with his arm around her. "I'm so sorry, Mina, I should have been there," Ryo went on as Mina was taking a seat by the fire.

"No, Ryo, it is no way your fault! You obviously have your own problems here, and no one can help that Tiro is just a big bully."

Ryo didn't respond, he went off to some other room and immediately returned with an ice bag and bandages. He slowly wiped away the blood from Mina's forehead and wrapped it carefully in bandages. Next he placed the ice bag to the side of her face and held it there lightly. "Is that okay?" he asked quietly. Mina gave a half nod and put her hand to the ice bag, holding it there herself.

Without a word Mina took off the side of the blanket and showed Ryo that her arm was bleeding as well. This was a good idea, she stated to herself, Ryo taking care of each and every wound.

"Damn that Tiro..." he said, looking on at her mangled arm. It looked as if her elbow was a little disjointed. Ryo carefully rolled up Mina's sleeve and expertly moved his fingers around. "This may sting a little..." he whispered. He waited for Mina to agree, then he gently corrected her arm and wrapped it up. She let out a little stinging gasp as everything snapped back into place, but the pain was short-lived.

Mina watched Ryo perform every gesture. His face had so much concern for her, so much heart, not to mention he was in no condition to be moving around himself. If Mina didn't feel overwhelmed by Ryo before, this certainly put it over the edge. It was enough to make her cry.

"What's the matter? Does something else hurt?" Ryo asked in his overly concerned voice.

Mina closed her eyes and smiled, her swollen lip tasting the tears. "Ryo... thank you! Thank you so much!" she bawled. Mina seemingly fell forward into Ryo's chest, crying her eyes out.

Ryo wrapped his arms around her and laid his head atop hers. "It's okay, Mina, it will all be okay," he said comfortingly.

And for that moment, with Ryo stroking her hair as she laid upon his chest. For that moment, the fire shined with its pure warmth. For that moment, everything for Mina was more than just okay, it was absolutely perfect. Her tears stopped, the stinging pain dissipated, and everything except then and there was just a shadow.

"Ryo?" Her voice was nervous; she didn't want to risk this moment for anything, but it was too late.

"Yeah?" His voice was scratchy and sore, welling with fiery pain.

"I want to stay like this forever," she stated softly, resting her voice.

Ryo, however, was in usual manner and tried to keep Mina's emotions away from him. "Surely you have been in better situations than this," he said, almost sounding surprised, shaking off the depth of Mina's words.

"Why are you pushing me away?" Mina asked out of nowhere.

"Wh... what?" Ryo was stuttering. Pushing her away? What could she mean? he pondered to himself.

"I want to be with you, Ryo. I need you." Mina obviously wanted to say more, but she was exhausted.

"You don't need me, Mina. This is just a weak moment. You'll recover." It was his custom line of pushing people away, yet this time his opponent would not leave. There was something between them.

"Why do you have to be so distant? Why can't you just be with me? Is that so hard?" she asked, sounding upset.

"Mina... you can't..." Ryo sighed. He had hoped Mina would just give up, but that was not to be.

"Tell me, Ryo, I want to know. You can't keep me away like this," was her only response in the midst of the silence.

"I... I can't be with you because... it will be the end of you," Ryo sniffled. His voice was shaky and Mina felt a tear atop her head. "And I will not let that happen to you. My mother, she died because of me; it was my fault. I couldn't just listen to what she told me to do. If I had, she would still be here..." Ryo was letting it all out now. He was completely broken down. Before he was so stiff and quiet, and here he was now, showing all the emotion he had.

"Go on..."

Ryo held back his tears, but as soon as he heard those two words, he almost let them loose again. Does she actually want me to continue? Is she actually willing to hear my problems? Does she actually... care? the voice in his mind echoed. "My father..." he began, "without my mother to help support the family, he had to work double the time. He's a wildlife photographer so he gets shipped around the country a lot. He says he has a lot of work to do but I know he doesn't want to see me, he doesn't want to see his own son who had taken away a beautiful and wonderful woman."

Ryo decided it was time to stop crying like a small child, but he had never felt so relieved and relaxed since he was old enough to remember. "You're a strong man, Ryo," was the only thing Mina had to say in response.

Ryo didn't know what to make of the comment. He didn't fancy himself any kind of man, particularly not a strong one. "Mina, I-" Ryo began before Mina hushed him.

"Let's just be here, Ryo, just you and I. No ghosts of the past, no demons of today, just you and me." Ryo couldn't help but to agree. This night was just absolutely perfect.

The silence dragged on; Mina's eyes were getting heavy, she began to daydream to herself. "There is only one thing that has ever made me feel so... at peace as I do here with you, and it's the one and only thing that could make this night better," she found herself spilling out.

"And what would that be?" Ryo asked lightly.

"Samurai Heart, my song. It would be so beautiful right now, don't you think?" Ryo looked at the ceiling in thought. Mina looked up and realized an important fact. "Oh, I'm sorry. I don't think you ever heard it before." After that statement, Mina could feel a shift in Ryo's chest; he was rubbing his throat. Mina knew he was nervous about something.

"And then he did something just so... unbelievably beautiful, I fell in love with him a second time that night," Mina said with her eyes gazing at the ceiling, picturing her story in her mind.

"What'd he do?" Kento asked, seemingly urging Mina to continue.

"Oh, no, he didn't! Not Ryo! Not on the first date, no way!" Rowen said, almost hopping up and down.

"He didn't kiss me..." she responded soundly, yet her dreamlike gaze never disappearing.

"So what did he do?" Sage asked.

The group surrounded closely as Mina began to blush. "He sang to me..."

"He what?!" Kento asked, screaming, eyes wide, smile wider.

"No way! Our Ryo?! You're making this up! Ryo singing?! He would never!" Sai said, letting his excitement get the best of him.

"Ryo sang to you?!" Sage asked in equal surprise.

"Wow, Ryo has pipes and moves!" Kento whispered to himself, fearing another strike to his head.

"Was he any good?" Rowen asked bluntly.

"Oh, he was like an angel... a more beautiful voice, you couldn't have ever heard!" she proclaimed, still lost in her mind. "He was so clear, beautiful and elegant... I can see him smile at me every time I sing those lyrics to myself."

"Now the only time you'll see me smile at you is when you sing those lyrics to yourself," a harsh voice interrupted. All eyes turned to find Ryo leaning against the doorframe, drying his hands on a dishtowel and a very disgruntled look on his face. "You stick me in there with God knows how many dishes, drag my girl out here to get some dirt on me and go on over stories I specifically asked you to keep to yourself," Ryo stated with an angered tone.

"Hey now, friend, aren't you overreacting just a little?" Sai asked sheepishly, feeling most ashamed of himself.

Mina immediately rose from her seat with a small smile on her face, almost seeming unsure if Ryo was pretending or not. "I love that temper!" she exclaimed as she alluringly walked towards him. The red in Ryo's face turned from anger to embarrassment. Mina knew just what buttons to push to turn him on and shut him off. Ryo's furrowed brows showing anger reversed in almost fear, his teeth once clenched, hung loose as his jaw fell. Ryo was actually backing down.

"Now that's a woman!" Kento whispered to the group. "She got Ryo under control with just one sentence! Not even Mia could do that!" he finished.

Mia sneered; she didn't like being reminded of her shortcomings, though how pointless this one was. "We'll see who has control of what, Mr. Fuan! You better keep in mind I am in control of your food supply for this weekend!" Mia shouted back. Kento seemed to choke as he jolted back.

Ryo and Mina were by this time in each other's arms but they couldn't help but to look back at Mia shouting for what, to them, seemed like no reason. "Kento, you ruin everything!" Ryo sarcastically shouted.

"Aw, man, gimme a break, will ya? I've been getting it all over today! Jeez!" Kento complained in retort.

"Is it time to go yet?" Yuli asked, rushing in at all the commotion in the room.

"Go? Go where?" Ryo asked with slightly nervous eyes pointed at Mia.

"We decided to spend the day at the carnival that was in town for the weekend. Kento would have told you that if he called," she responded. All eyes again turned to Kento.

Kento threw his arms in the air, screaming, "That's it! I give up!"