I'm sorry if I didn't get everything accomplished I needed yesterday. I got to 2 chapters done by 2 am on Saturday 3/18. I hope that counts. I stayed up all night finishing of that heartwarming tale. This story has reached 41, 240 some words. That's awesome for my first fic. I'm going to stop writing before and after the story because it's starting to bug me. You know the one thing I want. More reviews.
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Chapter 12: Wedding Preparations
3 months after the catastrophe at the Festival.
"So the wedding is going to be in 2 months. That sounds like good timing. It's a month before my birthday and everything. I mean it's just perfect. It will be in the middle of spring and that's awesome. I think that's the perfect timing." Mariah said sitting in their new home. Ray was right beside her on the couch and he was glad Mariah wasn't like other people that were going to be added to the council. They made a big fuss out of the wedding and everything had to be perfect. Mariah agreed with him on almost everything because the compromised on everything they did.
"Ya Mariah, it's finally going to happen in 2 months. So how is everything with Miriam and Max? I heard you talking to them last night, what did they say." Ray said leaning back against their couch.
"Everything is great with them. They said sometimes when they have to go shopping it can get a little lonely but they said they'll get use so it again. I told them that they should just go shopping together but Max didn't exactly like that idea. What do you think about shopping, Ray?" Mariah said wondering if Ray would ever come shopping with her.
"I like shopping for gifts for you and beyblade accessories but other than that the whole walking around with other people for hours isn't something I find very exciting. I'd rather take you to a clearing in a forest where it's nice and quiet." Ray said.
"I don't particularly like the shopping we have here. It's very crowded with all the new people. I never realized how many visitors we get for the 6 months after the Festival. People are coming in from every place and city. I guess it will be the same when we have our wedding too. We should make invitations to send them." Mariah said laying back on the couch and Ray put his arm around her.
"That's a brilliant idea. That away we don't have to call them over and over to remind them. I wouldn't have thought of that. Good-thing you did for us." Ray said. They both had barely left each other's side for a moment over the last 3 months.
"I guess it was my idea but everything I do if for us so it's really just our wedding. I didn't think of the idea for the wedding either, you did. But I'm very glad you did." Mariah kissed Ray on the cheek.
"I'm glad I did too. So what are we going to have for breakfast? I'm making it today so, whatever you want. I have no clue what we have left. So what do we have planned for today?" Ray asked picking Mariah up and carrying her into the kitchen. He has done this a thousand times but he just found it made Mariah very happy when he did so he kept doing it.
"I don't know Ray. I found this DVD that Max and Miriam gave us. I don't exactly remember when they gave it to me or what it's on but they said not to open it until after the festival. It's a wedding and engagement present. I forgot I had it until they reminded me on the phone." Mariah said holding up the DVD.
"I think that's a great idea. They gave it to me to put in your stuff when we were packing. It was of the times when we were at their house. I think everything we did there was great happy moments. We'll watch it right after we eat." Ray fixed pancakes and bacon and served it and sat down next to Mariah.
The house that they were given as royal high council members had 2 floors. Downstairs had a kitchen, living room, bathroom, dining room, and a guest bedroom. Upstairs were a regular bedroom and a master bedroom as well as a bathroom, office, and storage room. It was very nice house. It had 3 bedrooms, a dining room, a office, living room, 2 bathrooms, an storage room and then it had the porch out front which was great because Ray and Mariah enjoyed sitting outside.
Ray and Mariah still felt uncomfortable sleeping in the same bed together because they weren't married. According to the law they could since they were engaged but they still had their own minds to listen to. They slept in the two main bedrooms upstairs so they would be on the same floor if something was to happen. Mariah had talked to Miriam about this subject on the phone last night.
Flashback
"So Miriam, why don't you and Max sleep in the same bedroom? I mean you are married. So why wouldn't you?" Mariah sighed maybe it was just her trying to find an answer to her own question or her just being a busy body. She didn't know she just needed an answer. She knew the reason she didn't.
"It's just that when we moved he we had just gotten married. We didn't feel comfortable with it. I guess it's that we're still pretty young; being 18 like you two are. It's not something that we think to talk about. It did when we first moved here. It'll come up maybe in the next year or two and we might or might not. It's how or minds think about it." Miriam was quiet and thought.
"How do you feel about it, Miriam? I don't know exactly how I feel about it. I know that we shouldn't until after the marriage at all but after then I don't know how I feel about it." Mariah was trying to see if her feeling matched other people's feelings. It was second guessing herself which she had been trying not to do as much but in this it wasn't. She didn't know how she felt about it so how could she guess if it was wrong.
"I don't know either. I don't think Max does either. I guess that it's something we afraid of like. It's a fear that something might go wrong. It's a chance, it could be tempting. Maybe that's it. I guess it's a chance that we're not willing to take. We sleep most nights on the couch together anyway, I guess it just seems better to keep things were they are. Someday we might change but for now it's fine with me. How do you feel about it?" Mariah had to sort out her feelings.
"I guess I feel scared that something might happen too. It we be nice to wake up in the morning together but it bothers me to think about sleeping in the same bed together. I guess it really bothers Ray. I think it's because that if he did anything to be at all. He would never forgive himself. I think it scares him to think that if I had a child it could possibly kill me. It's a risk that he's not willing to take. It doesn't scare me as much as it scares him but I don't why. I guess he's just being over protective. I guess it's good but sometimes it's a little too much." Mariah sighed. She would need sleep to make plans with Ray in the morning. Ray already went to bed so she'd need some too.
"It's something you guys should talk about if it's something that bothers him like that. You told me that you're fine to have a child. You both don't want one now but it's still something you can't be afraid to talk about. Good-night Mariah. Bye." Miriam stated so Mariah would understand it wasn't a choice she would have to.
"I know I should talk to Ray but it's something that I don't like talking about. I don't find it exciting to talk about how I have a chance of dying. It's defiantly not fun to see Ray scared for me. If I died; I'd never forgive myself. I'd forgive him but not myself. Bye Miriam." Mariah wanted to cry. She didn't because Ray would see her and that would cause them to talk about and she wasn't in the mood right now.
"You do know how you feel, clearly. You just don't want to say how you feel. Talking can only help make you're marriage stronger. It won't hurt your marriage, Mariah. Goodnight." Miriam hanged up then Mariah hanged up. She made sure there were no tears in her eyes as she went up stairs into her room.
Flashback Ended
Mariah knew she would have to bring it up sometime so after the movie she'd bring it up. At least she could start out being as happy as she could then end it in tears and sadness. She truly didn't want to talk about it but she knew that holding this inside would never help.
They finished eating and she and Ray walked into the living room. Mariah put in the DVD and watched it. It wasn't just from the time at their house. It was moments from the Asian tournament and the world tournament and other moments. It also had moments from their first trial. Mariah was crying; she didn't know all the things Ray had gone through. Also some of it was Mariah crying when he was gone. It showed everything they had endured together. It included times from when they were in the forest, the engagement, when they slept and talked on the couch. It was the perfect wedding gift.
Ray held Mariah in his arms through the whole movie then turned it off after it ended. She was crying and Ray was at tears through a lot of the moments too. He couldn't believe they had all the times he had caused himself pain yet Mariah was in so much more pain than he was. Some of the tears were of joy others were of sadness. They couldn't believe all they had been through.
Ray sat Mariah straight up and looked at her. She had been through so much pain and sadness when he left. He would take her anywhere he went ever again. He would never let her be so sad. He now had another question. Would she just be worse if she saw him in that much trouble? When he left like that it never was for anything good. If he did bring her, could she stand it? He wondered. He saw something else on her mind. She was trying to hide it but it was false hope because he would soon find out.
"Mariah, something else is bothering you? What is it?" Mariah shook her head then sighed. She knew he knew something was bothering her and so did she. She knew she couldn't lie to him. She had to give up. "Mariah, what's wrong?"
Trying to understand what Mariah was thinking about when she was sad was like guessing what a dog was thinking about. There were millions of things she could be thinking about. Ray knew her good enough to guess when she was happy. But when she was sad she hid any signs that would show it. "I really don't want to talk about it right now." She didn't say it mean she said it like she was so sad already and talking about it wouldn't help.
"You need to get this off you mind so you can be happy again. It's something is bothering you. I want you to tell me." Ray said trying to get Mariah to tell him. She was sometimes as hard as a rock to crack. Ray sometimes had a hard time but sometimes it was easy.
"Ray, it's about me. I really need to handle this by myself Ray. I know I'm not doing a very great job but I will learn to handle it."
"It seems you are going to need to tell some one to help you handle this and I want you to tell me Mariah. Anything about you is part of me now so I want to know okay?" Ray wasn't trying to pry into her life, he was part of her life so he needed to know what was going on inside of her head.
"Are you afraid to hurt me? To do anything that my hurt me or endanger me? I just need to know that. You try so hard to make everything great for me but are you afraid to hurt me." Mariah just really needed an answer.
"I guess I am. I wouldn't forgive myself if I did anything against you or to you. I have done so many things to hurt myself and since you're part of me know. I'm afraid I'm going to hurt you somehow. You saw how many times I've gotten myself into trouble and you being a part of me ended up being hurt. I guess it's just not fair for you." Ray said looking away from Mariah. She never thought of it like that. He did get hurt a lot and now that they would always be together she would be hurt.
"I guess I don't care. By protect me from you; you've hurt me much more than saving me. When you protect me you seem to push me away. When you push me away you're hurting me much more than if you kept be with you. I thought you get that by now. If I'm not with you, you're hurting me. So what good is taking my away from you to protect me it I'm better off being with you anyway. It seems kind of silly if you think about it; it's more ironic if you think about it." Mariah kind of had a smile on her face.
"I know but if anything physically painful happened to you and I had brought you into it I couldn't forgive myself. I know that it's painful for you and me to be separated like cutting something in half. It's our bond that is being weakened but. I do it because as much as I go through I couldn't go through it if you were ever in pain. I need you to be safe so I can get through and return knowing you're safe." Ray stood up and pulled Mariah up with him. He hugged her.
"I guess I don't completely understand it, Ray. The real point of this is that by trying to protect me you hurting me more than helping me. It's just making me more sad and trust me. I'd rather go through physical pain than go through another time being without you. Physical pain I can ignore and be happy that I'm with you. Emotion pain there is not a medicine in the world that can make me ignore it. It's always there. I'm making my own choices on when I'm going with you from now on. You're not leaving me." Mariah started crying again.
"Okay, I never will again leave you. I guess you win this case. What exactly is this about though? I don't see where you're mind got side tracked and then came to this? What made you think about this?" Mariah sighed. She had tried to get around it but Miriam said that they'd have to talk and she hasn't been wrong with her advice yet.
"I was talking to Miriam last night. I was talking about their sleep arrangements. Why there's were like that. They really don't know. I wanted to know why ours is like ours. I mean for know I understand but they've been married for like 3 years since they were 15 and it hasn't change. I wondered if ours was going to be like that." Mariah and Ray sat down.
"So you were wondering what I felt about it. I thought about that a lot. I felt that I was invading your space. I felt you needed your privacy; well that's what I thought at first." Ray sighed.
"Then it came to what if something happened." Mariah interrupted Ray and he nodded.
"If something did happen then you had a large chance of dying still. I still have all you're paperwork from the test if you want to see it. It scared me. You still had very high risk of dying. I couldn't lose you. If it something happened then I lost you. I'd be all alone and be so sad. It would be my fault and I couldn't live without you." Mariah started crying and it kind of startled Ray for a second. "Why are you crying?"
"I may have scored low then but so what. I'm not going to have a child any time soon and we'll be sure to check it out before then. I'm strong; I won't leave you. I wouldn't forgive myself if I left you. We have a bond and I need you just as much as you need me. You make me a lot stronger, remember. That test means nothing because I wasn't with you." Ray know understood why she was know laughing. They were stronger when they were together so when she did have a child it would be part of both of them and she would be strong because he would be there.
"Thanks for clearing that up for me. I forgot about that. I just couldn't go on without you and you couldn't without me. So let's do each other a favor and take care of each other and ourselves." Mariah nodded happily. Ray and Mariah kissed for a while.
Then there was a knock on the door. They weren't expecting any guests. Mariah got up and went to the door. It was Kevin and London. London was just like Zackary. She was very tall with red hair. It was very short down to her chin. Her hair was very straight and she was smiling. So was Kevin. They finally had some visitors. They had finally returned from doing all the paper work and now they could get visitors. They invited Kevin and London in. It was a huge surprise to Mariah to have guests. They didn't have very much stuff after only living there for 3 months. They only things they had brought themselves was their laptop, their bit-beasts, clothing and blankets and other necessities, like food.
"Hi Kevin, how are you? Come on in. You must be London, right?" The girl nodded. She was very quiet and didn't say a word.
"Hi Mariah, Hi Ray, I wanted to stop by and see how everything is going for you. Me and London are doing great. Our house is pretty nice. Feel free to stop by sometime. London would like some company, right?" London looked slightly paranoid with Kevin talking to her. "London you can talk freely here. Ray is just like the rest of our tribe."
"If you're sure. Hi. It's nice to meet you Mariah and you too Ray. I'm still not use to being able to talk freely to men yet. In our tribe we couldn't. You're house is very nice. Though all the houses in you're tribe are. There not as cramped as ours usually are. It's really great how wonderful it is in you're tribe. They have nice people, you can be nice, you can speak, and look at Kevin he's so nice to me." Mariah started laughing and Ray and Kevin looked at her. Mariah was smiling.
"Mariah, she's really serious. There tribe rules are really horrid and unfair. If you thought ours were than we still have no clue. I thought it was a joke at first too but when we went for the festival again I realized how real it was." Kevin didn't blame Mariah for thinking it was a joke. He too made the mistake of taking it as a joke.
"I'm sorry; I knew it was no joke from the crazy tests they made me take two years ago and again this year. I just think it's funny that someone as annoying, rude and horrible as Zackary would have such a sweet sister like you. It's nice to meet you. I'm sorry if I offended you though." Mariah apologized to London.
"I feel really bad for Guan now. He is such a jerk. I'm glad I'm so far away from him now. Everyone expected me to be a jerk like him. The tests we take are to make sure that our qualities match so that's why I didn't get paired with someone from my tribe because I'm so different from them. I'm so glad to be away from all of them. Oh and I brought you some more silk. It's a wedding present for you and Ray. Congratulations. I'm so glad you didn't have to marry my brother." London handed Mariah like 600 dollars in Silk.
"Wow, look at all this silk!" Kevin slapped his head. "This is like 600 dollars worth of silk. Did you buy all of this silk for us?"
"No, of course not, only some of it. Most of the silk you have there is all the extra silk I can't use. See I can't sew at all. I total failed sewing. That was the worst thing I could do. I had no need to sew anything because the seamstress at our house maid all of our clothes. I asked Kevin what you'd like and he said silk so I took all the silk we had and bought a lot more to give you." London shrugged.
"I told her I didn't know what you'd like but you enjoyed making us clothes so I figured it would work. I told her she went a little overboard with all the silk. But I don't know what we're going to do for our clothing. She's really is not good at sewing." Mariah got up, took a look at London and ran upstairs.
"I have no clue what she's doing Kevin. I think she needed to put all the silk away. I don't know why she didn't wait but whatever." Ray said wondering why his wife had just grabbed all the silk and ran upstairs.
A few minutes later Mariah came down with a large basket. "Here this is a bunch of clothes that I can't wear for you London. I made them a little small and some of them are old ones that I never wore when I was at the other house. You can have them, if you ever need some clothes made just ask, okay?" London was so happy to see clothes at all.
"Wow Mariah, these are so beautiful. You made all of these. You must be a wonderful seamstress. I'm sure you'll work wonders with all that silk." London admired the beautiful gowns Mariah had sown.
"Ya, Mariah is awesome with a sewing machine. It's all those years of sewing things for all of us. It's very expensive to hire your own seamstress so she just did everything herself. That's where we all got our clothes." Kevin said.
"Kevin, London, do you want to stay for lunch? I'm going to be making it so we really don't mind having company." Ray said inviting his friends to stay and eat lunch with them.
"Sorry Ray, but we still have a few more errans to do today. We'll stop by another time but we have to go shopping. Bye Ray, and thanks for clothing Mariah." Kevin excused himself and London out the door.
"That was very nice of you to give her some of your extra clothes. I wondered what you were planning on doing upstairs. We need to finish making the fliers and then send them out today. So I'll make us lunch and we can get a head start on that." Ray said as he got up and went into the kitchen.
'Ya, it's always nice to get some homemade clothing and 600 dollars worth of silk was a really nice gift too. I don't think I'm going to need more silk for like 2 more years. I think we should make a list of gifts that we need for our wedding so everyone doesn't get us silk." Mariah said, Ray started to laugh and agreed.