Title: How It's Said
Author: Potato Maiden
Pairing: Umi Ryuuzaki/Ascot
Fandom: Magic Knight Rayearth
Theme: #13 - Excessive Chain
Disclaimer: I do not own Magic Knight Rayearth, it, and all it's components belong to Clamp, who refuse to answer my phone calls...

He had been planning it for a while. Ever since they had started dating, he believe was the term. But, taking advice from Fuu, he waited. You see, with Ascot, things are either rushed, or slow and easy. After about their first few months together, Ascot was ready to say it, but then he lost his voice for a few days. When his voice finally came back, Umi was home sick with something called 'the flu'. Following this were exams that the three girls had to take, and that took two weeks of their time. Then came something called summer vacation in which Umi had to go on a vacation with her family for a week, leaving Ascot to practice how to say it. When Umi came back from vacation, she was tired and not willing to put up with anyone, not even him.

Umi herself had been waiting to hear the three small, yet big words, but so many things had happened, and seeing Ascot was becoming a conflict of interest with her and her schedule. Between work, school, family and friends, she had almost no time to herself, let alone to go see Ascot. There was also that blind date one of her friends had set her up on one time when she had promised herself she'd go see Ascot, but, instead of the date going successfully, Umi had caught a cold which turned into the stomach flu, causing her to stay home for three days. With school over, Umi thought she'd have a chance to go see Ascot more often, but then her parents roped her into going with them on vacation. Umi was much displeased through the whole trip and when she got back to Tokyo, she went straight to Cephiro and slept the whole time, seeing as her parents wouldn't let her have time to rest. Needless to say, she was a very moody magic knight when woken up.

When the free time had officially become free, Umi, Fuu and Hikaru, who had also been very busy, had an idea, and Umi was in charge of decoration. While figuring out what type she should do, she had reverted to daydreaming about kissing Ascot and Hershey's kisses. How those were relevant, she didn't know, but she did end up with a massive craving for the chocolate candies.

Ascot too had reverted to daydreaming about Umi and the many kisses they shared, and was surprised when the magic knights showed up with many plastic bags of colorful papers, scissors, balloons and other items for a party of some sort. He was even more surprised when Umi gave him a hug and an almost longing kiss on the lips. Thus proving that, when you live in different worlds, it's very hard to keep in touch.

In the room that the knights shared, Umi sat with Ascot, folding strips of construction paper and gluing them together after connecting them. Ascot studied Umi's process and discovered she was making a very large, and long construction paper chain. Her tongue poked out in concentration as she added another link to the chain. He had also added to his mental list that Umi looked rather adorable when she was concentrating, but not when she was disturbed, to which the palu sat quietly and watched. And watched... and... watched.

Thirty minutes into this chain making, Umi had stopped for a break and realized that the chain was too long and needed to be shortened, but the excessiveness of the chain couldn't help but make her laugh as she carefully started to pull it out into the hall, Ascot helping by making sure nothing would tear.

"Umi," he began, unable to stop himself. Umi looked up at him to show she was listening. "I love you..."

a/n: The next chapter continues this part. :D