By: The Night Rain
04/17/04
Ray has returned to his small village town in the mountains. Only to find that he no longer has the same feelings for Mariah, and neither her for him. With the two in separate lives now, Ray leaves for a smaller, lower town. There he meets the ever so familiar Salima, and past feelings and conferences flood back to them in a rushing river. Will the river sweep them away down the valley of love, or will it pull them under?
Only time will tell…
I must apologize for using characters from the Beyblade V-Force episodes to those whom have not yet seem the episodes.
Another disclaimer, for I Hope You Dance ~ is by Lee Ann Womack.
Kittykatkat: glad you like Ray/Salima ^^
pink-writer: Mariah reminds me of Sailor Moon XD
Nobody: don't worry, the story is rolling. Siren of Erised helped me by inspiring me.
Destiny's Angel: (same thing as pink-writer.) I'm glad you find my story so vivid.
Salima Hater: it said on the summary that it was Ray/Salima. If you "hate" Salima, then you shouldn't have bothered reading this --|||
Kasiree: that's okay, no offence taken, or nanimo. Not many people like Salima because she invokes competition.
Shells: (Salima doesn't show up in season III, that I know of.)
Rain2004: arigatou ^^
blucherry: I know, that's why I wrote one. ^^
aZn-DiViN3-bLeU: pink is eeeevviiiil!
Just-some-girl1: updating!
TechnoRanma: I wont make her annoying; I'll just portray her personality – which I find annoying. I don't change the characters.
Feeling Glayish: I like this coupling too ^_~
Ray unpacked his clothes from his duffle bag. He opened the wooden drawer and then neatly stacked his clothes inside. The sun was setting in the view of the open window behind him, and then warm light leaked in and settled against his back.
"Rayyyymooond!" there was a voice from outside.
Ray turned to the window and then looked down, and saw the short form of Kevin, standing there with his shawl on, looking up.
"Not that I love looking at your backside, dude. But we're all going down fishing to the lake, wanna come?" he called up.
Ray smiled – fishing sounded fun, he hadn't gone in a long time.
'I'll be right down, Kev!" he called back, then he quickly - yet still as neatly – put the rest of his clothes away, then grabbed his jacket and hurried downstairs. He didn't even open the door, when Kevin kicked it open.
"You really ought to keep your door closed, Ray." He grinned; "or bears will get in."
Ray gulped, then heard bottles and boxes being knocked together – Gary was in the kitchen.
"Hey Beary-Gary!" Kevin called as he ran into the kitchen, and revealed Gary eating a large sandwich in Ray's kitchen.
"I thought we were going fishing?" Ray asked, confused.
"We are, we just…" Kevin attempted to pull Gary's seat out from under him, but didn't succeed. "Need to get jumbo out."
Ray smirked; "hey Gary, I'll bring cookies." He held up a bag.
Despite the fact that Ray was 6 feet tall, when Gary stood up, it still felt like he was a boy, staring up into the eyes of a hungry bear.
"What are we waiting for?" Gary asked, then picked up Kevin, under his arm then walked out.
"Save me!" Kevin screamed shrilly – he sounded like a woman.
Ray rolled his eyes, and then followed them out. "I don't think that there's a man on this planet that wouldn't want to save this beautiful, young lady!" he announced from his doorstop, then closed his door and ran after them and jumped onto Gary's back.
They wrestled for quite a while, until Gary sat on both of them and ended the struggle – for victory. Now both Ray and Kevin were trying to save themselves from being squashed.
"Lets go fishing!" Gary announced, and then grabbed the bag of cookies Ray had and then picked up his and Kevin's gear.
"I don't have any fishing gear, guys." Ray told them as he dusted his shoulders off.
"Chill! Gary and me have tons of crap you could borrow." Kevin told him.
Ray smiled, but his grin faded when he heard his name being called out.
"Hey Mariah," there was no enthusiasm in his vocal tone, but she didn't notice.
"Hi!" her voice was full of life, and so was her smile. "Where are you guys going?"
"We…"
"We, as in just us guys, are going fishing." Kevin interrupted
Mariah's eyebrows furrowed in frustration with the green-haired young man; "oh really? Well maybe Ray would rather spend some time with me, instead?" she looked up at Ray.
"Actually Mariah, I already told them I was going…"
"You see?" Kevin interrupted once more, "Raymond's coming with Gary and me!"
"Gary and I." Mariah corrected his grammar.
"Why you…"
"What have you two done other than bicker and quarrel since the last time I left?" Ray interrupted them.
"Euh…" both of them replied in unison.
"Like I said before, I'm going with Kevin and Gary. I'll hang out with you later, Mariah." Ray told her, and then gave her a light kiss.
Mariah kissed back eagerly, and then Ray lightly pushed her away. "I have to go." He told her, and then he turned and walked away with Kevin and Gary – who was eating the cookies.
Kevin was hesitant at first, but he spoke up; "You've never pushed Mariah away before, Ray." He quipped.
Ray felt his forehead heat up at the mention of Mariah. "Ye-ah… I know." He sighed.
"So what's up?" Kevin asked.
Ray felt his breath quicken and his heart pound. "I… just… don't know anymore." He answered.
Little did Ray or Kevin know, but Mariah had followed, and had heard everything. ~
Later, Ray returned home, and found Mariah sitting there on his doorstop. "Mariah? W-what are you doing here?" he was nervous to see her – what did she want.
"Ray… we need to talk." She told him, her voice wasn't as confident as it always was – she was nervous too.
"Yeah?" he sat down beside her.
"Look, I know that when we started out… as a couple. That it would be awkward at first, considering that we had always been friends. But… things are still the same, Ray." She immediately began talking even before he gotten seated.
"'scuse me?" he asked.
"We haven't changed – things are still awkward. I don't know about you Ray, but I don't feel infatuated or anything. You're… like a brother, to me." She blushed – she thought she was in love with someone like her brother.
"I'm like Lee?" he asked – he was trying to be humorous.
He succeeded, Mariah smiled; "no, not really. You're like the brother I didn't get." She grinned.
Ray smiled; "so… we're… not dating anymore?" he asked
Mariah shook her head – her pink waves bouncing against her head. "Nope."
Ray sighed, still smiling. "Alright." He answered her. ~
A few weeks passed, everything was fine as Ray got back into the life of the living, and then Ray started getting mail.
Most of them were from Kenny, to notify him of new devices he's made for his Beyblade once he sees him again, and then the others were from Tyson and Max – just to ask how he was doing.
But one was from an unknown address: S. Raymer – who was it?
Ray tore opened the top, then pulled out the yellow stationary, then his golden eyes widened as he read the letter.
Dear Ray,
How have you been? I haven't seen you in, how long has it –three, four years?
If you haven't already figured it out by know, this is Salima, you know, the redhead who ass you saved from Team Psychic?
Well, I just moved into a small town outside of Hong Kong, and well, its lonely – because I don't know anyone. Then I remembered that you lived near Hong Kong, so I looked up your address and wrote this letter – I wanted to know how you were doing (and if you didn't remember me, I was wondering that too!)
I would appreciate it if you could write back, if you get this letter. If you're too busy or anything… I'd understand.
Sincerely,
Salima Raymer©
Ray didn't think twice – he grabbed a pen and a piece of paper, then he wrote one thing down, he didn't know if it might make any sense to her – he just wanted her to read it.
When he went to mail it, he almost forgot to put the return address on it, but soon his letter was at the post office of Hong Kong and on its way to Salima – he hoped.
Two weeks later, the mailman delivered a package and several letters to Salima Raymer. The package was a gift from Kane and Jim, and the letters were all bills – except for one.
She recognized the return address, and she calmly opened the letter. It was a plain piece of rice paper, and then she unfolded it and read the writing. There was no name, or consent, it just said one thing:
I remember.