Title: Life After
Author: Weaver of Words
Rating: PG-13
Number of Words: 2,073
"This" Denotes speech while
"This" Denotes thought
Chapter 3
Kei walked towards the classroom, struggling to keep himself upright. Once he reached his seat, he nearly collapsed on to it. His friends were obviously surprised when Kei came in looking dead tired.
"Hey Kei, you look like you were up pretty late last night. What's up?" Hyosuke asked, grinning. Kei just looked up and answered nonchalantly.
"Homework."
"Homework? We didn't have any homework yesterday…" Hyosuke asked, scratching his head. Kei looked up at his friend in disbelief. Could he be any denser?
"Special homework then." Kei finally said, before collapsing onto the desk again. Hyosuke, finally sensing that his friend doesn't want to be bothered, decided to just quietly slip away and join the rest of the gang. Kei other friends, although concerned, decided against asking him right now. He looked like he needed all the sleep he can get before class.
The young Kusanagi, realizing that his friend had already left him, sighed inwardly and smiled as is mind drifted back to last night's "activities". It may have left him dead tired in the morning, but he wasn't going to complain anytime soon.
"Good morning, class!" Mizuho Kazami said cheerily, quickly entering the room as she was already five minutes late. She may have appeared well-rested, but in reality, she was almost as tired as Kei.
If not much more.
"I wish there were no classes today, so I could rest… on second thought, what am I complaining about? Last night was-" She suddenly blushed at the thought. It was a good thing that she had her head down as she arranged her teaching materials or her students would have badgered her about it.
As soon as she finished her arrangements, she gave Kei a subtle wink, before starting on today's classes.
Kei subtly glanced at his fiancée with a perplexed look in his face. He was amazed at how Mizuho appeared to be in the best shape although he was sure she was as tired as he is.
"How could she hide it so well?" Then a thought crossed his mind.
"What am I complaining about? Last night was great. I just wish I could hide my fatigue so my classmates won't suspect anything… " Kei inadvertently followed his fiancée's earlier train-of-thought.
Not wanting to be caught daydreaming again, the young Kusanagi cleared his thoughts and turned back to the lesson at hand. He may be tired, but he'd rather force himself to listen than to fall asleep in the hallway!
After what seemed to have been an eternity, the bell finally rang. The students ran out of the classroom like bats out of hell. They were obviously eager to enjoy their temporary freedom from anything school-related.
The young Kuanagi, deciding that he wasn't at all hungry, looked around for any students that might see him heading towards the tree-laden school grounds. The said place had become the hidden rendezvous between the two lovers, and he wasn't going to let ANYONE discover it now.
The tree line there provided an excellent hideout for the engaged couple. That, and people rarely go to the outlying school grounds, except when the Biology class decides to trek in there from time to time.
Kei, spotting Mizuho, quietly crept towards her. When he was directly behind her, he covered her eyes. The young man felt her stiffen before he placed a gentle kiss on her lips.
Mizuho stiffened when her vision suddenly went black. She knew who it was, but she was just being cautious. It might be a student, a fellow co-worker playing tricks on her or…
All kinds of thought were cut off when she felt the person's lips pressing onto hers. When they parted, she quickly opened her eyes, and saw that it was none other than Kei. She smiled.
"You gave me quite a workout last night." Mizuho said, her eyes showing her mirth at the situation.
"Same here." Kei replied, pulling Mizuho into his lap. "But I'm not going to have it any other way."
The couple continued to cuddle and talk, oblivious to the fact that two pairs of eyes were watching them.
Kei was walking alone towards the apartment complex he and his fiancée shared. Usually, the two of them would walk home together in a different route, but Mizuho said she was going to be late today. He sighed.
"It seems that she's being loaded with more and more work with every passing day. Its not like-" His line-of thought was interrupted when…
"When were you planning to tell us?" A feminine voice that seemed to have come out from nowhere asked him frigidly.
Kei stopped dead in his tracks. A chill suddenly went up his spine.
That voice… I know that voice!
Kei immediately spun around and came face to face with…
"Uhh, hello there, Maho, Miss Hatsuho…" Kei chuckled nervously, owing it mostly to Maho's icy glare directed towards him. Hatsuho Kazami just laughed and gave Kei a 'motherly' embrace. He tentatively reciprocated the embrace so as to not hurt his soon-to-be mother-in-law's feelings. The young man turned beet red in an instant.
This does not bode well, for Kei that is.
Mizuho was already on her way home. She managed to finish her work early and was eager to relax with Kei when what she saw next suddenly stopped her.
Kei was locked in an embrace, with another woman no less!
"How could he do this to me? Ugh!" Mizuho asked herself, anger suddenly building up inside of her. She quickly decided that it was time to teach Kei a lesson.
A lesson of pain and humiliation!
Steam began to rise up from her ears as she marched towards Kei and the woman. When she was about to rip Kei from the person's grasp and smack him silly, she suddenly stopped when she saw the woman turn to face her.
"That hair, those eyes… it can't be!"
"Mother!" Mizuho cried out. She couldn't help but smile and be happy that her mother was here. Hatsuho, releasing Kei, smiled back at her daughter. They shared a brief hug.
"What about me?"
Mizuho turned and saw Maho standing in the distance. The siblings shared an embrace before Mizuho turned her attention back to her mother. Her smile disappeared in an instant as her eyes narrowed into thin slits.
"What were you," She said, pointing to her mother. "doing hugging my Kei like that?"
Kei stood there helplessly as he could already sense the lightning sparks between the mother and daughter. He was just about ready to slink away when-
"You're not going anywhere, not until mother explains all this to me." Mizuho said, pointing at the older woman.
"Alright now, explain." Mizuho said, crossing her arms. Hatsuho just chuckled softly.
"Oh that? That was just platonic affection for my soon-to-be son-in-law." Mizuho and Kei's eyes suddenly grew wide. Both inadvertently shared the same thought.
"How did she know about that?"
"Judging by your reaction, both of you seems surprised." Taking into account the lack or response, she continued. "Well, we knew because we were watching you."
Kei and Mizuho both opened their mouths to speak, but decided against it. While the former just stayed silent, the later decided that she still had bigger fish to fry!
"We're straying from the subject." Mizuho said, her eyebrows twitching.
Kei just placed his head on his hands.
This was going to be yet another long day.
Two pairs of eyes widened in surprise. "So you are Miss Kazami's mother?"
Hatsuho smiled. "Yes. My name is Hatsuho Kazami. And this," Pointing to her youngest daughter, "is her sister, Maho Kazami."
"Really? That's quite surprising." Minoru's eyes suddenly narrowed suspiciously.
"Let's face it; there is no way you look anywhere old enough to be her mother."
"Well, you're quite the flatterer." Hatsuho said flirtatiously. Minoru chuckled appreciatively before he noticed Konoha's twitching eyebrow. He coughed.
"I suppose I'll just bluntly have to ask. Do you know about the situation between your daughter and our Kei?" Minoru put on his best poker face.
Yes, of course I know about it. I heard it from the-" Hatsuho carefully chose her words as Mizuho gave her a warning glare. "Letters she usually sends me."
Kei looked on with confusion; their conversations were almost identical to the one with their first meeting with Hatsuho, albeit under different circumstances. He was about to delve deeper into that train-of-thought when-
"So, when are we going to hear the wedding bells?"
The young couple looked at Maho with surprise. They couldn't believe that Maho would actually be in favor of their engagement, much less a wedding!
The youngest Kazami, feeling a bit uncomfortable at the stares the adults were giving her, placed her hands on her hips and stared back at the couple.
"Well? When are we going to hear it?" Maho asked, albeit exasperatedly. This jolted the young couple from their thoughts.
"W-well, we haven't decided yet…" Kei said nervously, carefully choosing his words or he might just set off the 'walking time-bomb'. He knew how close Maho was with her sister, and one wrong move might-
"Actually, we were thinking that we could have the wedding sometime this week, since all of you are here. And besides, it doesn't need to be a grand ceremony, so it won't need any extravagant preparations. Right, Kei?"
"Yeah." The young Kusanagi couldn't help but agree with his fiancée. He could clearly see the logic in that.
He was going to add more when a thought struck him.
"If it'll be in a week, how will we find a gown within that?"
"If you're thinking about a gown, you could always borrow mine. I think it'll look good on Miss Mizuho here." Konoha said, as if reading Kei's mind. The latter looked at the former strangely, but finally smiled.
"Then that settles it. Ok-"
"Wait a second." Maho said, silencing Kei with a raised arm. She glared icily at Kei.
"Even though I am in favor of your wedding or engagement, it doesn't mean I've already changed my opinion about you. I am only doing this for my sister. One wrong move and I'll-" Suddenly remembering that she might accidentally reveal her sister's identity, she carefully chose her next words.
"kick your butt towards the ends of the universe. Are we clear on that?"
"Yes ma'am." Kei said, with a smile tugging at his lips. He was surprised at her sudden change of demeanor, but he was happy nonetheless.
Maho then walked towards her soon-to-be brother-in-law and extended her arm. The young Kusanagi gratefully accepted it.
"It's a deal then."
Mizuho couldn't help but smile at the two. It was very nice to know that the two have finally reached an understanding between the two of them.
All was right in the world.
Author's note: Maho and Hatsuho finally make an appearance in the story! I was planning to provide some information on how they got to Earth but then decided against it. After all, I could just add into a later chapter. Anyways, I'm pretty sure that there will at least be one more chapter before I do the OVA chapter. Nothing much to say here except read and review!
Many thanks to those who reviewed my previous chapters!
Ominae – I've decided to make Maho a little kind during this chapter, so I can justify the ranting she will make in the later chapters. (confusing, I know. :D)
P.S. Its nice to see another Tom Clancy novel reader!
SophisticatedAlexir – I'm glad you enjoyed it! I actually wrote this fic because I wanted to explore their possible life after the series. I know the credits show a little about what their life had been at the end of the series, but I just felt like I needed to expand on it a little more.
Hobie – Thank you very much for answering my questions! They should help me greatly in planning my future chapters!
BattleAngelKurumi – I'm glad you enjoyed reading it. As for school, I'm planning they would find out eventually.
For the most part, I'm actually writing it as I go, but I already have a plot to follow… just needed to expand on it a little more.
As always, constructive criticism, comments and suggestions are most welcome!