MariMite

Stuck With You

Yumi's Prologue

"Yumi-san, your brain is melting…"

The voice echoed loudly around the room, bouncing off of each of the six walls, ricocheting over the freezing Fukuzawa Yumi's head.

"Yumi-chan's face is like a rollercoaster of emotions!"

It was different voice now, an older one with a mirthful tone to it. It too made a round around the ice walls, before fading into nothingness. Yumi whirled around, trying to find the source of the voice. "W-Where are you?" Her teeth chattered, her hand outstretched, "What is this place?"

"You don't know where you are? I thought it would have been obvious, but then again, I am talking to the ditz who tried to be a sœur to my onee-sama." Another new voice, younger than the first two, with a pompous air surrounding it, came from the left. Yumi didn't recognize it.

The brunette turned desperately, "Where a-am I?!"

The space that Yumi was standing in was like a pure-white 'house of mirrors'. The six walls (well, slabs of ice, really) were around nine foot high, looming menacingly over the brunette's head as she stood in the middle of the room. They seemed incredibly thick, like they were unbreakable, but Yumi wasn't foolish enough to ram them to find out. If she was going to get out of here, she wanted her shoulder to still be intact when she did. Ice of that enormity looked extremely tough and extremely cold. She would get even colder if she even took one step closer, let alone ram them..

Yumi was currently in this ice-prison standing in just her blue tank top and the ankle-length pyjama bottoms that she had gotten last Christmas from her European cousin. How she even ended up here (where ever here was) in these clothes was a complete mystery to her.

The sixteen-year-old girl frantically rubbed her arms to try to generate some warmth as the chill crept through her few layers of clothing, seemingly seeping into her bones.

"Y-Y-Yoshino-s-san?" Yumi shook as she called out to the first voice.

"Yumi-chan, you didn't look after her, did you?" Yet another different voice, this one sounding far more mature than the other three, "The only thing I ever asked you to do was look after her. And you couldn't do that."

Yumi turned to the right, where the voice came from, but found nothing expect the pure-white ice staring right back at her. "Y-Youko-sama?"

"Could you not have done that one thing, Yumi-chan? It wasn't too much to ask, was it? For Sachiko's well-being to be left in your hands? I didn't think so, and yet you failed."

A frozen wind picked up at her harsh words, and Yumi shivered, her eyes welling up with tears, not knowing if the cause was the wind or the cruel voice. "Are you really worth Sachiko's time, Yumi-chan? Do you deserve to walk around with a free smile on your ever-changing face when Sachiko is withering inside? I should just leave you here to freeze."

Yumi was crying. Tears poured silently down her face at the older girl's words as each one carved large gaping holes in her heart. Of course, somewhere inside of her unconscious mind, she knew that the real Mizuno Youko would never say such things to her, but that didn't stop her hysteria. "If Onee-sama…" she moved her hands to try to stem the flow of tears, but they seemed unstoppable, "I-If Onee-sama would b-be happier without m-me, I-I would gladly g-give up my… my life," her voice rose in pitch as she struggled to get the last two words out.

Yumi's arms wrapped themselves around her abdomen as she sank to her knees on the icy floor, trembling with sobs and the cold. "I-If Youko-sama thinks it w-would be… b-best for me not to b-be in… Onee-sama's life… t-then take me o-out of i-it. I only w-want her to be h-happy."

She could practically hear the gleeful smile in the fake Youko's face as she whispered "Excellent." The wind picked up speed and dropped temperature immediately, circling around the unprotected girl with such fury that in a matter of seconds Yumi's face was the same colour as the ice surrounding her. Her mocha-brown hair whipped across her face angrily, striking across her cheeks with an impossible force. She closed her tearful eyes at the pain, desperately wishing it all away, but at the same time accepting that it was her punishment for not taking care of her onee-sama. This is less than what I should get for neglecting her like I have, Yumi thought. And with that thought in mind, she let her body go; she surrendered to the wind entirely. It dropped even lower in temperature, and Yumi's brain began to shut down, the last thing she would ever think of was her onee-sama's happiness.

Yumi was almost completely gone when the wind abruptly stopped; it suddenly felt like she was being wrapped in the fluffiest, warmest duvet that had ever been created. It was enveloping her, hugging all the right places, moulding itself to her body, entirely shutting out the wind as if it had never existed.

Tiredly, with extreme effort, Yumi's eyes started to open. Colour returned to her cheeks, and her fingers were much warmer. She mumbled slightly in confusion when nothing new was around her – the ice was still there, but for some reason she couldn't feel the cold. What…?

When she tried to stand up, a gentle force held her down, and a silky-smooth voice teased the flesh of her ear, murmuring in its velvety tone – "My life has no meaning without you, Yumi."

XOXOX

Groaning, Yumi's brown orbs flicked open, meeting mirthful sapphire ones staring back lovingly. And, in that same soft manner, the owner whispered, "Good morning, Yumi."

Well, hello all! I hope I didn't make you wait too long for this =]

I don't really know where the dream sequence came from - I know i got the house-of-mirrors/ice thing' from naruto (the only good thing that show has shown to me) and I gained a lot of inspiration from the Twilight series, so that might have added something to it. Bah.

Anyways, please review to let me know what you thought! I can't tell if readers like it if they don't let me know their thoughts. I'm not psychic =P Thanks to all of you who reviewed the first chapter! You have no idea what it means to me to get reviews =]

Next chapter we stay locked behind Sachiko's shoulder! Look forward to it!