CHAPTER THREE.

"Are you sure you've got everything?" Ukyo asked as they climbed the stairs, calling it a night. Ryoga looked ready to collapse.

They had spent the whole afternoon and evening trying to get to know each other. It was an obvious thing to do, considering they had been supposedly together for over a year. The smallest details could make all the difference. She had prepared a plan that afternoon, she'd written down the story she had told her dad to the smallest detail for him to memorize, along with information about herself, the restaurant, and her father.

He nodded, clutching the notebook to his chest. She opened the guestroom's door and stepped aside for him to enter.

"Okay, if you need anything, that's my bedroom," she pointed to the door right in front of the guestroom, "and that's the bathroom," she pointed to the door at the end of the hall, "but you already know that."

"Got it." He nodded, scratching the back of his head, "So, um, I guess I'll just go to sleep."

"Yeah," she nodded too, fidgeting her feet; "I just wanted to say thank you again…" she added shyly.

"No problem," he dismissed, "it's just a couple of days and then we'll never mention this again…" he said uncomfortably.

"Right, it'll be just a funny memory."

"Right…"

"So, uh, good night!"

"G-good night."

He slid the door closed as she darted to her room, feeling a bit uncomfortable. She had never spent so much time with the lost boy without including a lot of yelling and spatulating, and especially not getting to know each other.

Okay, so maybe there hadbeen some hitting and name-calling, but still…

She changed into her nightdress and tucked in bed, sighing when her tired body started to relax for the first time since she had received her father's call. She couldn't believe she'd been so lucky! Ryoga couldn't have appeared in a more perfect time, and he had agreed to help her! Of course, she would have to close the Ucchan's for a while and make a little trip with him to find that goddamned place, but that didn't matter now.

All that mattered was that the lost boy was safely tucked in her guestroom's bed, exactly where her father would be sleeping tomorr—

Ukyo sat up abruptly when she realized exactly what that meant.

She had been supposedly engaged for a year now, and that meant her 'fiancé' would obviously have been sleeping in her room all this time. She couldn't just let Ryoga sleep in his sleeping bag or the couch once her father arrived!

And of course, how suspicious would it be that her 'fiancé's' clothes were constantly packed? Sure, she could say he was leaving on another training trip after her dad was gone, but how would she explain that those were his only belongings?

Ryoga had been right; she hadn't thought this through well!

Crap, crap, crap, crap…

She would need to get up early tomorrow, forget about opening the restaurant for breakfast and take the lost boy to his house to gather some of his things and scatter them around the apartment. The guy had been living with her for over a year for her father; it would be highly suspicious that there was nothing of his around.

As for the other matter…

Ukyo took a deep breath and held it. Ryoga was going to freak out. Hopefully his cure was more important to him that such a moral dilemma as to sharing a room with a single girl and he won't spill the beans the minute he sees her father. Although, knowing Ryoga, it would take her a lot of time to convince him, something she didn't have… maybe she shouldn't say anything and just hit him unconscious and take him to her room at bedtime?

Ukyo sighed, what would her dad say about that?

Tomorrow was going to be a long day.

It was the third time she knocked on the door and she couldn't wait any more.

"Ryoga, wake up!" She slid the door open and hurried to the bed. "We need to hurry! Come on!"

She had woken up around six, got showered at lightning speed and now tried to drag a still sleeping Ryoga out of bed, clad in only a towel.

He mumbled something unintelligible and hid his head under the pillow.

"Ryoga, come on!" She pushed his back and when he didn't even move, she pulled the covers off the bed and flipped the pillow off his head. "Ryoga!" She tugged at his arm and pulled him upwards.

"What? Ukyo? What time is it?" He mumbled sleepily, rubbing his face while she dragged him out of the bed and to the bathroom.

"Time to get a shower and get dressed, you jackass, hurry up!"

She pushed him inside the bathroom, turned the hot water on and she was about to flip the curtain open when she realized what she was doing.

"Uh…" She looked up to his face and noticed he was now wide awake and looking at her with wide, astonished eyes; a full blush on his face. She realized what the situation looked like with her having just a towel wrapped around her body and him just in his sleeping shorts, both inside the bathroom and the shower running.

She pressed the towel with both hands tightly to her chest, feeling exposed, and the boy clamped his nose when his eyes darted to that area.

"Just get in the goddamned shower!"

She yelled, more embarrassed than anything, and this seemed to set him into motion.

"O-okay, okay!"

"And get your mind out of the gutter, jackass!" She shouted to the closed door for good measure.

Ukyo stomped back to her room, got dressed, carried the idiot's backpack to the bathroom so he could get dressed there, and went downstairs to fix a quick breakfast.

"Oh my God, it's almost seven and that jackass is taking so long…"

She needed to be back home by eleven if she wanted to make it in time for lunch crowd, and she still had to set up the apartment for her father, who was probably coming around two or three in the afternoon.

"Ryoooooooga!" She yelled at the base of the stairs.

"What?" He said from behind her, making her jump in the air with her hair sticking out.

"You jackass! When did you get down here?" She hadn't noticed him! He merely shrugged. "Doesn't matter, just sit down and eat so we can go!"

She pushed his back to guide him to the table and made him sit down.

"Where are we going?" He asked through a mouthful of food.

"To your house, we need to get you as much clothes as we can."

"Why?"

"You are supposed to have been living with me for over a year, and you just have a little backpack. Doesn't that seem a bit suspicious?"

"Oh," he nodded. "There are two problems, though."

She stopped chewing. "What are those?"

"One: do you know where I live?"

"Um… no."

"Then we can't go, it'll take me forever to find my house. And two, I don't think there'll be anything that fits me there anymore, anyway."

"Oh…" Well, she hadn't thought of that, either. "Okay, change of plans: we're going to the mall."

"Okay, I guess I could use some new clothes…"

She was thinking along the lines of filling half of her wardrobe with his clothes, actually, but he didn't need to know that.

They finished breakfast and started their way to the mall, hoping it would be open so early in the morning.

By the time they got there, though, its opening schedule hadn't been a problem.

"I can't believe it took us forty-five minutes to get here when it's only a ten minutes' walk! I had to go after you every time you took off only God knows where!"

Ryoga bristled, his face reddening. "I'm s-sorry, next time you should just put me on a leash!"

"Maybe I will!"

He crossed his arms on his chest and glared at his feet, looking both embarrassed and angry.

The chef pinched the bridge of her nose, already losing the last bit of patience she had for that day. Why this boy got so well on her nerves was beyond her.

"Okay, let's just calm down and focus on the plan. Let's get you some new clothes and go back before you get lost and everything goes down the toilet."

"Fine." He grumbled, making no move to keep walking.

Ukyo lifted her eyebrows at him and he rolled his eyes, sticking his hand out for her to take with a deeper blush on his cheeks. Her lips twitched but she refused to smile. She took his hand and started dragging him along, tugging slightly when he seemed to start wandering off and keeping him right behind her.

"I feel like a toddler." He mumbled annoyingly, low enough so she wasn't supposed to hear, but she did anyway and this time she had to laugh.

"An oversized, directionally impaired toddler I'd said."

She didn't need to turn around to know he was glaring daggers at her nape.

"Maybe I'll get you an onesie," she taunted, laughter bubbling up in her throat when an image of grown Ryoga wearing one of those things assaulted her mind. It didn't help that the garment had little black pigs all over it.

He sputtered something unintelligible, and she turned to face him; he looked even redder, if that was possible.

"I wouldn't be dragging you if you could just keep walking beside me without wandering off."

"It's not my fault…" he mumbled embarrassedly, looking away. Her anger deflated and she noticed just how hard she was holding his hand. She'd been so focused on the situation she hadn't realized she was taking all her frustration on him.

Her grasp softened a bit and she gave him a little squeeze.

"You're right, you are helping me here and I shouldn't be such a bitch to you…"

Ryoga just shrugged, looking anywhere but at her, pursing his lips.

She couldn't believe she was about to say those words, but she needed him to keep focused on the plan and not grumbling and sulking all day long.

"I'm sorry…" She drawled, her cheeks heating up.

"What was that?" He gaped incredulously at her.

Argh! The jackass!

"I said I'm sorry, okay?" She repeated reluctantly.

"O-okay..."

"Can we just get back to the plan?"

He gave her a curt nod, his hand wrapping securely around hers. "Lead the way."

Ryoga watched as Ukyo tucked all his new clothes inside the wardrobe, scratching his arm absentmindedly. He still felt ashamed of what had happened earlier, but after a day and a half of putting up with her patronizing remarks, name-calling and physical abuse, it had been pleasant to have her apologizing. He couldn't recall the last time she had, if she had ever.

Now, though, he was curiously wondering why she was tucking all his clothes in her wardrobe instead of the one in the guestroom.

"Um, Ukyo?"

She jumped, placing a hand on her chest, and then turned around.

"Goddamn it Ryoga, stop doing that!"

Doing what? He'd been standing by the door for a while now; he'd supposed she'd known he was there. Interesting.

"I was wondering… why are you putting away all my clothes here?"

The blush exploded on her face like a drop of red paint on porcelain.

"Uh…, I was hoping we'd get to deal with this later…"

"Deal with what?"

Ukyo blushing and fidgeting around was definitely something that couldn't bode well.

"You see… my dad thinks we've been living together for a year now."

"Yeah, you kinda said that before."

She nibbled her thumbnail. "And what he's gonna think if my fiancé's staying in the guestroom…?"

"Well…" He stopped short when he realized exactly what she meant. His face burst into flames. "You c-can't p-possibly mean… I d-don't, I m-mean…"

"Relax, you jackass! It's nothing like that! You have your sleeping bag, don't you?!"

"Well, y-yeah, b-but…"

"We'll just hide it under the bed, and you can sleep between the bed and the wall, that way if my dad happens to come in he won't notice it."

"B-but still…"

"We're not going to sleep together, you big idiot! Get your mind out of the gutter!"

She turned around and started putting his clothes away again. He supposed she was right, after all, Mr. Kuonji wouldn't have expected her daughter to have her fiancé in another room, what with living alone and all; and she had clarified that they wouldn't be sleeping together (of course not! What had he been thinking?), but they would be still sharing a room and he would see her going to bed in her pajamas and she'd be sleeping right next to him…

The fact that she was still blushing wasn't helping, either.

Thank God it was only for two nights. Just for two nights…

I love the word 'spatulating', even if it's not a real word, lol. Thank you for reading and reviewing =D