CHAP 77 IS UP D!!! Heehee...now you'll all know what's going on inside Yuriko's dreaming head ;)! I hope you enjoy this chap :D!!! Thanks for the wonderful reviews, SKETTY and HUGHLOVER D!!!

Chapter 77: Please don't go

"Wake up, sleepy head." Said a man's voice in a rather melodious way.

Yuriko groaned in bed and tucked her thick blanket closer to her. She shivered at the feeling of the cool morning air against her bare shoulders. She was only wearing a tanktop and underwear at the moment, because she usually preferred to go to bed with lesser clothes on. Then she furrowed her eyebrows and shifted to her side, so that she was facing the window. She felt the light from the window touch her face, which made her mindlessly rub her eyes. She couldn't believe that the sun was up already.

"Come on. Wake up." Said the man again. His voice was gentle and soothing...It was more requesting than commanding.

She groaned again and waved a hand in the air, in an effort to drive the young man away. "Later..." She muttered. "I'm still tired." She could barely move her lips.

Yuriko wasn't sure who it was who was waking her up, but she recognized the voice, and she had a good idea as to who it could be.

"Yuriko..." Said the man. He had a pleading tone in his voice. He really wanted her to get up already, or at least, pay attention to him.

"William..." She groaned. "I'm still tired." Her eyes were still closed and she continued to hold her blanket so close to her. "I can't believe you're already awake. We just got back from death-defying mission last night." She mumbled. "Shouldn't you still be in bed, relaxing with the fact that you still have all your limbs intact?"

William quietly laughed and kneeled down beside her bed. He was on the side that was facing her back. Then he crossed his arms on the bed and perched his chin on it.

"You do know that it's already ten in the morning, right?" He asked with a chuckle.

Yuriko's eyes suddenly shot wide open and then she turned around on the bed so that she was facing him. And when she swiftly turned to her other side, she found herself face to face with William. He was kneeling beside her bed with his head on his crossed arms. And he had a smile on his face that had 'good morning' written all over it.

"What?! Did you just say it's already ---"

William smiled and looked at her with comforting eyes. "Relax." He said. "Don't worry...We don't have anything lined up for today. Believe it or not, after three weeks of working us off our butts, Nathan's going to give us the day off." He chuckled.

He couldn't believe how physically close he was to her at the moment. There she was, all crumpled up in her blanket, and her face just inches away from his. While his crossed arms, rested on her bed, with his head perched on it.

Yuriko exhaled and felt relieved at the good news. She definitely needed as much rest as she could get. She knew she was trained to withstand months of rigorous missions, but she was human too. And like any other twenty four year old female human being, she also needed some time to relax and sleep and have her day-offs.

Then she suddenly furrowed her eyebrows. "Then what are you doing here?!" She asked with a ranger angry tone in her voice as she looked at him. "Shouldn't you be sleeping too?" She suddenly pulled her blanket up to her face. "God, I could have slept more but you woke me up." She groaned, with the blanket on her face muffling her voice.

William sighed and rolled his eyes. Then he chuckled and playfully tugged the blanket off her face. "Yuriko..." He whined. "You don't even want to spend a little bit of your quality early morning time with me?" He asked with a laugh.

Yuriko grunted and tried to pull the blanket back over her face. But ever time she tugged on it, William pulled on it harder, which caused a little tug of war between them. Then she gave up and sighed. "Will --- I always, always, always spend my little quality early morning time with you." She said as she looked at him sternly.

"Like, come on, you practically wake me up everyday. You're like the whiny little brother I never had." She said in a joking manner. "My father's already used to having you in the house every morning, that he makes breakfast for three people!" Then she looked deep into his eyes, and a quiet laughter escaped from her lips.

William cocked an eyebrow and looked back at her. "Hey, enough with the brother thing already, okay?" He scolded. "First of all, I'm not your 'little brother' due to the simple fact that I'm a year older than you." He said as he poked her on the nose. "And second, I am in no way related to you by blood which doesn't make me your brother in any way whatsoever." He said matter-of-factly with one of his eyebrows arched up.

Yuriko suddenly reached out from under her blanket and grabbed William by the neckline of t-shirt. Then she pulled him close to her, so that their faces were right in front of each other. "You're my adopted big brother then." She said perkily.

Then she giggled and pulled him on the bed. "Now come here, adopted big brother." She dictated as she tugged him on the bed.

He sighed and then submissively climbed up on the bed. He lay down beside her and rested his head on her pillow. Then he clasped his hands together on his stomach and shifted in the bed to find a more comfortable position. Yuriko on the other hand, wrapped an arm around him and placed a folded leg over his, while still keeping the rest of her body under her blanket. She rested her head on his shoulder and looked at him with a wide smile across her face.

"So..." She said as she snuggled closer to him. "Where's Logan?" She asked.

William looked to his side and his eyes stared deeply into hers. He loved seeing her this close to him. "It's always about Logan, isn't it?" He chuckled.

The smile on Yuriko's lips lingered as she nodded her head and the side of her face rubbed against his shoulder as she did. "Uh huh." She said softly. She wasn't even going to put up a fight. They both knew how much she loved Logan.

William exhaled and then he looked up at the ceiling. "Believe it or not, your man is in the living room right now with your father." He said, almost monotonously.

Yuriko's eyes widened and a big broad smile spread across her face. "Wow...You actually got Logan to come over here? This early in the morning?" She chuckled again, as if she couldn't believe that Logan was really there within the walls of her house right now. "Wow..." She said again with awe. "You and I both know that it's either he's in the headquarters at this time in the morning, or somewhere else that apparently --- only he knows." She said with an ominous tone in her voice as she looked at the young man.

He laughed, and then he looked to his side and saw her staring up at him. "Well, your lover boy is here right now, whether you like it or not." He said with a grin.

Yuriko smiled and rubbed her cheek against William's shoulder. Then she looked up at him and laughed quietly. "Well of course I like it that he's here." She said joyfully. "I really want him to be as close to my father, as you are to my father." She giggled and gently ran a finger down William's cheek.

William rolled his eyes and snorted. "Yeah yeah...I know...I'm your adopted big brother and your dad looks at me as the son he never had." He raised his eyebrows and widened his eyes as he mentioned of the words 'brother' and 'son'.

Yuriko giggled again and cuddled even closer to him. She snuggled her face closer to his so that her forehead was almost pressing against his chin. "Yes. Yes you are...My big brother." She said in a cutesy way, as if she was talking to a baby. Then she wrapped her arms around him tighter and snuggled as close to him as she could.

"Okay --- okay, enough about Logan now." He said with a chuckle as he looked at her cuddling form. "Aren't you even going to ask me why I came all the way here to wake you up, when I could still be sleeping back home?"

Yuriko grinned and stared deeply into his eyes. "Yeah...Why 'did' you come here?" She asked curiously. "In fact, in days when we don't have any Code7 stuff lined up, I'm usually the one who goes to your apartment to wake you up." She chuckled. "And why's Logan here too? What's the special occasion?"

William exhaled and looked up at the ceiling again. He kept silent for a couple of seconds and so did she. Yuriko could see the troubled look in William's eyes and she knew that whatever he was going to say was something that she might not want to hear...because it definitely didn't seem like good news.

"I'm going to Vietnam today." He finally said, breaking the deafening silence that encircled the two of them.

All of the happiness, smile and comfort in Yuriko's face suddenly faded away, as if all of her emotions have died down. "What?" She asked. She couldn't believe what he had just said. "What did you say?" She hoped that she heard him wrong.

He breathed in and turned his head to look at her. He could barely find the will to look into her eyes. "I said I'm going to Vietnam today." Then he forced a faint smile on his lips. "That --- wasn't really that hard to understand, was it?" He asked with a smile.

Yuriko felt her chest tighten as his words sank deep into her mind. He was going to Vietnam? She knew of the war in Vietnam --- 'everyone' knew of the war in Vietnam. She also wasn't naïve enough to not know of the USA's situation in the war. And she was also aware of the young men who were being drafted to go there, and of soldiers being assigned to suicidal Black Ops missions. But, the least she expected was for William to be one of them. Didn't he have Code7 already? Shouldn't he just stay behind and let the ordinary soldiers do their job for their country?

There was so much fear in Yuriko's eyes as they stared into his blue ones. "I don't understand." She said faintly, her voice almost fading into a whisper. She couldn't find the right words to say at the moment...and it was probably because there weren't any.

William could clearly see the sadness in her eyes. He could feel the fear in her heart emanating from the look on her face. Then he smiled and gently placed a hand on her cheek. "I have to do this, Yuriko. I have to. I know I don't need to...but it's me who wants to. I really do want to go there. I want to be there..."

She suddenly felt her hand mindlessly clutch on the chest of his shirt. "But why?" She asked. "Why do you have to go? Why can't you just stay here? What about Code7? What about me and Logan? Who's going to---"

"You and Logan are going to be fine without me." He said, cutting her off in mid-sentence. "As for Code7, they understand my decision...and amazingly, Nathan let me go." He chuckled. "He said things are currently lying low in the CODs since the world and everyone in it is focused on what's going on in 'Nam, so he told me I could go. After all, that's where all the action is at the moment, right? And you know me, I want to be there where all the action is." Then he gave out a small laugh.

But Yuriko didn't laugh with him. "That's not funny, William!" She said with an angry tone in her voice. She looked at him sternly, as if she wanted to drive some sense into his brain with her eyes. "You may think this Black Ops thing is some kind of little adventure, a little challenge for your skills...but people get killed out there, Will!" She said through clenched teeth. "And no matter how good you are or how skilled you are or how intelligent you are, if you blink at the wrong time, you could be dead! And the last thing I want to see is your name in the death list!" She said firmly.

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