Chapter Eight

Kino, Shiro, Hayami, and Shidora all sat at one of the tables set up in the Cafeteria. Kino and Shiro talked amongst themselves, giggling every now and then at a comment, waiting for Freeda to join them and give them details on the night before. Shidora and Hayami played a game of chess, neither really paying attention; simply making random moves on the board.

Finally, Freeda appeared in the doorway, smiling to no one. She was quickly waved over by Shiro and Kino, where she took a seat and exchanged greetings. Hayami and Shidora nodded at her, before moving back to their game, not wanting to get caught up in the "girl talk".

Kino was the first to speak what was on every one's minds. "So, how did it go?"

Both she and Shiro leaned towards her, waiting anxiously. Freeda looked at them and laughed, resting her head in her left hand, leaning on the table. Kino gasped and grabbed Freeda's hand, pulling it closer and looking over it. "Oh. My. God!"

Shiro, who sat beside Freeda, shrieked and hugged her friend, her eyes still wide in surprise. Kino shot up from her seat and came over to them, joining on the hug. Hayami and Shidora looked over in partial surprise, partial curiosity. They both saw what the girls were so worked up about: resting on Freeda's ring finger was a ring. An engagement ring.

Hayami reached into his pocket and pulled out a fifty dollar bill, handing it to Shidora, who had a smug look on his face and was mouthing out, "Told ya,"

Finally pulling away, Kino took her seat and looked at Freeda in surprise. "Not that I'm not happy for you, but isn't it a little soon?"

Shiro nodded in agreement. "Yeah. It was only the first date. Or was it really that great?"

Freeda blushed and leaned a little closer to her friends, making harder to hear for the guys. Not that they were listening. After all, it wasn't their fault that they could hear certain parts of the conversation accidentally.

"Alright, I'll be honest," Freeda stated in a somewhat whispered tone. It seemed half the cafeteria, which consisted of, at the moment, five other people counting Tsuji, was listening in on their conversation. But who could blame them. After the outburst Shiro had, and even Kino surprised remark, anyone would want the details. But currently, it wasn't something she was going share with half the boat.

"It was that great,"

Both Kino and Shiro looked at each other. A few giggles emerged, but other than that, they were fairly quiet. Freeda continued.

"You should have been there! Five star restaurant! I didn't even know he had that kind of money! Turns out he booked the reservations months ago on the off chance we would survive Zorndyke."

"That was why-" Shiro shouted, but Kino quickly clamped a hand over her mouth, silencing her. In a much quieter tone, she repeated, "So that was why he was so persistent last night…"

Kino nodded. "Yeah, I was wondering about that too…"

Freeda nodded. "Oh god, you guys. I've never been to a place that… well, honestly, High-class. There was live-music, and an actual chef! I felt so out of place… Every person in there looked like they had just come from a fancy party or something. We got some pretty humorous stares…"

She paused a moment to reflect, and Shiro, unable to wait any longer for her to continue, reached over and smacked her upside the head.

"Yoohoo!" Shiro stated, glaring as Freeda chuckled. "Yeah, focus! Tell us!"

Freeda laughed and rubbed her head. "Okay, so we're sitting there, getting these funny looks from every person in there. He's completely ignoring them, and I'm glaring at the entire restaurant,"

"Can you do that? Glare at- what?- twenty people?"

Freeda shrugged. "Dunno, but I sure as hell tried. Anyway, we end up ordering a couple of hamburgers because we can't read anything on the menu! So now half the restaurant it staring at us like we're nuts and not just outsiders."

Shiro clucked her tongue. "Actually, Freeda, that sounds like a really bad date…"

Kino laughed, and Freeda glared at them both. They quieted, but not without looking at each other and smirking.

"As I was saying! So, we're eating these hamburgers and all of a sudden, this guy goes up on stage, and announces that one of his guests want to sing a song for a special lady."

"Shiro, if you scream, I'm gonna ring your neck." Kino threatened, looking at the girl who had her mouth open. Shiro closed her mouth, knowing Kino would make good on the threat if she got the chance.

Turning back to Freeda, even though they had a good idea of what was going to happen next, they urged her to continue.

"I was probably bright red when Alessandro stood up and went up on stage. He sang this song, I can't remember for the life of me what it was, but it was sweet." She leaned closer and whispered. "He sounded really bad."

The two girls laughed. She shrugged and continued. "So, when he finished, he came back down and got down on one knee and proposed!"

Spontaneous "awws" erupted from her friends as they leaned back, already knowing the end. Shiro leaned on her elbow and sighed wistfully. "You're so lucky."

Kino nodded. "All that's missing is the, 'And they lived happily ever after'."

Shiro thought about that, and then reached into her pocket and pulled out a pack of sticky notes. Snatching a pen from Kino, she wrote in big, bold letters across it, "Princess Freeda". She then pulled it off of the stack and slapped it on Freeda's forehead. She wrote another note, this one reading, "Prince Alessandro" and handed it to Freeda.

"Here, you out this one on his forehead and you'll be in a fairy tale." They all laughed as Freeda pulled off the sticky note and look at Shiro with an odd expression.

"Do you always carry a packet of sticky notes in your pocket?"

Shiro shrugged, and the others laughed. After a point, the girls settled down and fell into their respective thoughts, each thinking about something similar, but completely different in the same aspect.

Kino felt herself sigh into her hand as she leaned against the table. What she felt was necessarily jealously as much as it was idealistic. She knew Hayami would never be the type to set up something like that. She knew that with him she would be stuck either in the cafeteria eating rations, or at some cheap restaurant snacking on foods that were really bad for them. The fact was, though, she really didn't mind. Hayami didn't do that type of thing. She accepted that. In a way, she liked it. But in another way, she felt a bit disappointed.

But she really didn't have a choice anymore. She didn't. No matter how much a perfect guy might appeal to her, she was in love with Hayami, and there was no chance she would give that up. Not even for Prince Charming.

Hayami hadn't expected Kino to be so quiet when they returned to her room. He'd expected her be rambling on about Freeda and Alessandro. Instead, she walked in and sat down on her bed, looking up at the ceiling lost in her thoughts. They had spent most of the day doing nothing. They stopped by Iga to check up on things, and visited the Granpus, and then returned back to her room. She hadn't said much at all.

He had a good idea what her thoughts were on. In fact, he was fairly certain about it. He knew he wasn't like Alessandro. Fancy dinners and dates really didn't suit him. He never liked them, and really couldn't understand why girls had such a fascination with them. Looking over at Kino he saw she had moved from her spot on the bed and was reaching under it. She pulled out a folder and looked it over, before sighing and collapsing back onto the bed.

He sighed, "Am I really that disappointing?"

She looked up at him, blinking. "What?"

He shrugged and came over to sit beside her. "You've been quiet since we came back from lunch with Freeda and Shiro. And you've been sighing a lot."

She laughed and shook her head. "No, no. It's not that. I'm just a little jealous, that's all…"

"Jealous?"

"Of Freeda." She explained. "I mean, she's probably the luckiest girl I know. She got a fairy tale ending."

He looked at her with a lopsided grin, though he really wasn't feeling up to smiling. "So you want a Prince Charming?"

Kino sighed. She should have seen this coming. He was worried he wasn't meeting up to her standards. Taking his hand in her own, she looked at him and put the folder aside. "Listen, okay? Every girl wants a Prince Charming. We all want a guy whose sweet and romantic. Who notices thing like when you're wearing a new perfume or outfit. Who'll come in and sweep you off your feet.

"We don't all get that. In fact, most of us still want one. Some of us get lucky and find the guy of our dreams. Others," she wrapped her arms around his neck. "Have to make due with what we've got."

She kissed him, softly. "Don't worry. So you're not Prince Charming. Good." She leaned up and whispered to him, "I'm no damsel in distress."

He chuckled. She certainly had a way of pulling him out of his self-pity. She smirked and moved, resting her head on his lap and her feet on her bedpost, kicking off her boots and socks. Wiggling her toes, she smirked and relaxed. Reaching over, he picked up the folder and looked it open.

"So, what's this?"

"Hmm?" she murmured, opening hers. He began to open the folder and her eyes widened. "Wait, don't, that's-"

She broke off as he pulled it all the way open, looking at its contents. She bit her lip and sat up, nervously wringing her hands together as he looked over her work, a look of surprise mixed with a gentleness that was rare for him. She looked at her hands as he sent her a questioning look.

"How long have you been doing these?"

She flushed. "A few weeks." She admitted. "I don't why… I just did."

Hayami turned his attention back to the papers that the folder held. Colors and shapes swerved on the pages, swirling together to create one solid picture. The same picture, or at least subject, over and over: Him. Every art medium he would think of short of clay had been used: oil paints, watercolors, pastels. She had sketched, and painted, and even scratched out pictures of him. Different angles and styles. It was amazing. She had a talent for art, it seemed. She was still flushed, looking nervously around the room.

"Hayami?" she looked at him, running her tongue across her dry lips. "Are you okay?"

He shrugged. "Aside from the fact that I just realized I've had a stalker the past few weeks and didn't know about it…" he trailed off, still going through the papers. "When did you find the time to do these?"

She shrugged. "I worked in pieces. A little here, a little there…"

He looked over at her. "These are amazing."

She looked up at him, suddenly brightening up considerably. She smiled at him and looked over his shoulder. He was looking over one specific picture that had been shoved in the back. It was of him asleep. She smiled. That was one of her more recent ones, sketched out in pencil and then colored with chalk pastels. She had done that not two days before, after the first time they had slept together.

"That's my favorite." She said, smiling at it. He looked it over and then back at her. Putting her work back into its folder, he set it down.

"You know, all you had to do was ask and I would have posed."

She laughed and swatted his shoulder playfully, grabbing the folder and shoving it back under the bed. "I was going to go hide it in the closet," she explained as she leaned over the edge of the bed, giving Hayami a very good look at her ass.

He smirked and grabbed her by the wrist, pulling her closer. She gasped a little, but smiled and relaxed. He looked her over, before cocking his head to the side.

"You wanna take a shower?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at her. She leaned back on her heels, scrunching up her face as she thought about it.

"Ah… okay," she jumped up and a run for the bathroom, laughing hysterically as he grabbed her by the waist a few paces from the door and swung her up, carrying her to the bathroom.

Author's notes: Ah, shorter chapter this time. I dunno, I just felt like it should end there. Anyway, yay! Freeda's engaged. Lucky girl! I wonder what's in store Hayami and Kino in the next chapter? Well, you'll have to read to find out!

Please review!

Graywords-girl♥