Disclaimer: Don't own it, just playing with it.
About Damn Time!
Chapter Three:
Andy found Hokutomaru easily enough. His apprentice's bright red scarf stood out boldly against the stark white background of the snow-covered mountains of Japan in January. He casually strode up to the tree in which the teenage ninja crouched and lightly kicked the trunk three times as if knocking on a door.
"Oi, gaki!" He shouted up at the boy.
"Andy-sensei." The boy jumped down from his tree happily enough. Once his feet touched the ground, however, he glanced around nervously. "Shiranui-neesama isn't with you, is she?"
Andy found himself suppressing the urge to face palm. "No. Mai's not here."
The boy was suddenly all smiles.
"Okaeri na sai, Sensei!" The fourteen year old wrapped his arms around the blond ninja's torso and gave him a bear-like hug. "I got worried because Jubei-sensei said that Neesama was going to turn into a monster -or a battle axe- and breath fire and bite people's heads off."
Andy heaved a sigh. When they got back to the Yamada dojo he was going to have a talk with the old master about frightening the boy's inexperienced and inordinately gullible mind. They were supposed to be slowly trying to acclimate him to the real world, not scare him farther from it.
"But, kiddo, I thought you knew." Andy said, unable to resist. "Mai's always been like that."
The boy's eyes grew wide with fear.
"And if you could stand to be around her before, you can stand to be around her again. C'mon." He grabbed the boy by the shoulder and pulled him in the direction of the dojo. "It's cold out and you forgot to grab a jacket, young man."
…
As promised, Mai came to the Yamada dojo not long after Andy had gotten settled. He was practicing his forms when he spied her sultry form, clothed in tick winter wear as it was, scaling the steep dojo steps. He retreated from the courtyard almost immediately; before she could climb high enough to know he had been there.
Hokutomaru gave him a quizzical look when he re-entered the dojo flustered and in a huff.
"Listen!" He said, grabbing the boy's shoulders in a panic. "When Mai comes asking for me tell her I'm not here, okay? I'm up in the mountains training or in Tokyo visiting with Joe, I'm dead, I'm on the moon, I don't care! Just tell her anything."
The boy nodded in confusion but accepted his orders all the same. "But, Sensei, weren't you the one that said there was no reason to fear Shiranui-neesama?"
The boy was right. His contradictory words and behavior were setting a terrible example for the young and naïve ninja. Not to mention he was just being plain, damn, spineless by hiding from Mai in a vain attempt to delay what seemed to have become inevitable. But what Mai was asking of him was something that he just couldn't do.
He couldn't marry her and be the man she wanted because he lacked the patients and maturity for such a thing. This very attempt to hide was proof enough of that. And he couldn't just father a child for her and then walk away; it just wasn't in his character. The morals that Jeff Bogard had drilled into him as a child forbid it!
Andy heard the main door slide open behind him and Mai's lyrical voice ring out with a cheerful "Tadaima!"
No time to think on these things right now. Now he had to get away, he would have plenty of time to beat himself up once he was safely away from the sensually seductive succubus that was Hell bent on stealing his seed. He dashed passed Hokutomaru and out the back entrance of the dojo.
"Remember: I'm not here!" He called back and then disappeared.
Hokutomaru stood there like a dear caught in the headlights. Abandoned by his master with the ever frightening Shiranui-neesama drawing near, his simple and inexperienced mind had no idea what to do. If he ran like his master her wrath would be all that more severe not to mention that Andy-sensei might be disappointed in him for disobeying his instructions. But Neesama was very frightening and he didn't like the idea of standing between her and her objective.
His indecision was his folly. Mai came around the corner and spotted him right away.
"Hoku-chan!" She smiled sweetly. "Look how tall you've gotten!" She patted him on the head affectionately. "Pretty soon you'll be even with Andy." Another sweet smile. "Where is he, by the way? He and I have some business to take care of."
The fourteen year old fighter stuttered momentarily. "H-he… Sensei's visiting Higashi-kun in Tokyo!" The boy shut his eyes to Mai and dutifully carried out the orders Andy had given him. "Their training in the mountains, he's not here, he's dead, he's on the moon!" The boy peeked one eye open just enough to gauge Neesama's reaction and see whether or not he should also run.
"I… see…" She said slowly, tapping her chin with a single, perfectly manicured fingernail. "In Tokyo, in the mountains, dead and on the moon. However does he mange that, I wonder…"
Her words were curious, her tone thoughtful but her air, her air was suddenly that of the deceptive calm just before a typhoon, the retreat of the sea before a tsunami. Hokutomaru suddenly found himself desperately trying to make peace with whatever God would decide his fate before the storm that was Shiranui-neesama broke, before the wave crashed and he was swept up in the current of her rage.
"Hoku-chan," she began.
"H-hai, Neesama." He stood at attention with a rigidness that would have made a steel rod blush.
"Which way did he run after he told you to lie like that?" Her sweet smile this time was that of a viper before it struck.
"That way!" He pointed, more than willing to give up his master if it meant saving his own hide.
"I see. Thank you." She strode past him offering nothing more than another pat on the head.
He had survived this time. The boy sank to his knees, weak with relief.
…
Between his naturally fair completion, pale blond hair and preference for white clothing, Andy was able to blend and hide well with the pure January landscape. He watched Mai exit the dojo through the same door he had from the concealment of an evergreen's snow laden branches.
She looked to the left and right, briefly scanning the immediate area for any obvious signs of him. When she found none she changed from her heavy flannel jacket and blue jeans to a variation of her standard red fighting costume, this one with a black thermal body suit underneath that clung to her flesh like a second skin, providing warmth in the cold weather without restricting her movement.
He paused momentarily to admire the way the black material accentuated her luscious curves against the white background of the snow before backing up against the rough bark of the tree's trunk. He recognized the posture of a predator when he saw one. Usually the vision of Mai as a huntress exited him but not today, today he was scared shitless. Andy had never imagined himself as her prey before, he'd never imagined himself as anyone's prey. Now here he was, hiding with his back pressed against the figurative wall because to flee would also be to give away his position.
His heart jumped when she vanished from view in a blur of red and black. As a ninja, Mai was adept at stealth and climbing. For all he knew she could be coming up behind him right now.
He heard something whistling through the air a faction of a second before the top of his tree was lopped off. Andy had barely enough time to leap to the next tree before the top of the evergreen came crashing down on him, but the damage was done, he'd lost his hiding place and was now open and exposed in the naked branches of a leafless birch.
"Nice dodge, Andy!" Mai's voice rang out from another tree that had likewise been stripped bear by winter. She leapt from her tree and rolled into a forward flip, landing on the same branch on which he stood.
"M-Mai, its good to see you."
"'Its good to see you'?" She echoed. "How can you lie so smoothly, you heartless beast?"
She lashed out at him with her fans, one in each hand. He caught her wrists effortlessly and held them both in a stalemate.
"I can explain." Actually, he couldn't. He was just stalling until he thought up another way to deny her what she was asking of him.
"I don't care about your explanations." She snarled. "You've got a job to do and you're gonna do it! I don't see what your big problem is. After everything's said and done you get to go back to your precious training and never have to worry about little ol' me again. You should be happy! Why are you fighting me one this?"
'Never have to worry about her again?' He would worry about her twice, no, three times as much knowing he had fathered a child with her and then just left. "You honestly think this is what will make me happy!?"
"Well, why not?" She snapped. "You get what you want and I get what I want. Every body's happy!"
"I don't want…" 'What?' What didn't he want? He didn't want to leave Mai, he didn't want to marry her, he didn't want to leave a child of her's fatherless, he didn't want to be a father. Why couldn't things just stay as they were? He wanted to continue as they always had! Was that so hard for her? Did she really need the change so much?
Mai took advantage of his indecision to launch a Ryu En Bu at him. Andy was flung back and landed on his ass, nearly falling out of the tree in the process. She grabbed him by the wrist and, pulling them both down from the tree, dragged him back inside the dojo. She kept a firm grip on him until they were safely inside his bedroom, the door securely locked behind them.
Andy felt suddenly trapped. Sure the walls were just wood and paper, he could break through them and escape easily, but what then? Mai would just find him again and bring him back. Or if not here, then a hotel with drywall walls that he couldn't penetrate. She was persistent and would have her way no matter what.
"Now then…" She stalked toward him, removing the sash that held her red tunic shut. The material coiled on the floor as the tunic slipped from her shoulders. She then proceeded to peal off that second-skin of a jumpsuit she had worn for warmth, all the wile moving ever closer to him.
Andy backed up unconsciously, placing himself at the foot of his futon. Mai smirked in what was probably triumph and, swinging her leg out, kicked his knees out from under him. The American ninja fell backwards onto his ass for the second time that day, landing himself dead center on the bed.
Mai was on top of him before he had a chance to register the severity of his situation. Her hands pinning his wrists down so that he couldn't move. It was like the time she'd taken his virginity all over again only this time he was less exited and more apprehensive.
"To much clothes…" She muttered, bring his wrist together above his head and holding them there with one hand. Her other hand, now free, busied itself untying the sash that held his pants shut.
Sensing an opening, Andy brought his legs together and kicked up with as much force as he could given his disadvantageous position. Mai was thrown forward and forced to somersault off of him to avoid bashing her head on the floor. Now freed, Andy reclaimed a standing position, his pants hanging precariously from his narrow hips.
"I can't do this!" He said.
"What?" She demanded, sitting on her knees and bring her arms up to cover the swell of her generous breasts. "What can't you do!?"
"Leave you!" He shouted back. "I can't leave you! I can't just father a child on you and then walk away. I just can't, Mai! Its one of those things that I just cannot do."
"Men do it all the time!"
"I'm not one of them!" He roared. "I can't leave you! If you want a child I have to be there! I have to! Its just one of those things that I have to do! I'll marry you! I…" He paused, suddenly aware of the words that were poring out of his mouth. "I have to… marry you…" He sank back down to sit on the bed, stunned and in sock of his sudden epiphany.
"Andy…?" Mai managed, her heart in her throat. Did he really just say what she thought he just said? Was she hearing right?
"Mai." He looked up at her, his expression suddenly vulnerable. "Marry me?"
The urge to squeal and throw herself into his arms bubble up inside her but she forced it back down. This couldn't be real. Andy Bogard had just asked her to marry him, this had to be yet another one of her dreams. She held the skin of her arm between her thumb and index fingers and pinched hard enough to make her eyes water. No, she was awake, this was real, Andy had just proposed to her.
"Mai…?" He ventured, suddenly unsure.
That was when the squeal of pleasure erupted from her lips. She pounced on him, throwing them both backwards onto the futon.
"Yes! Let's get married!" She all but shouted.
Andy put his hands on her shoulders and held her at arms length for a moment. "I'm still going to train allot." He said, not breaking eye contact. "I still want to beat Terry one day. I won't give that goal up just because we're married."
She had a feeling he would say something like that. She might have finally worn him down, but Andy's life, his true love, and his lady would always be his Kappoken and Ninjitsu –his martial arts. But she practiced those to and so didn't mind sharing his heart with them. If anything it was an activity they could do together.
"Get over here and give me a baby!" She ordered as her way of telling him everything was fine.
Andy was more than happy to oblige and closed the distance between them to plant an ardent kiss on her soft, ruby red lips.
…
(A/N: And with that this fiction is officially complete! Whoot! I was thinking of adding an epilogue, taking place during KOF XII (because XII has no story I can use it without fucking with the cannon), but I'm not sure. You guys will just have to tell me what you think. Feedback is my best friend. :wink: )