A/N: I appreciate all the comments that I received after the last chapter. I will endeavor to get even better. BTW, in my life outside of this story, I am a major fan of the Sachiko and Yumi pairing. Just so you know. Please enjoy and let me know what you think! Thanks!

Disclaimer: I don't own Marimite. Konno Oyuki does. I'm broke, so please don't sue me.

Ten Years Later

Chapter 7: Aftermath

Yumi

After getting her sleepy son into his bed, Yumi hurriedly called her parents. Her mother answered the phone and Yumi greeted her with high tension in her voice, "Hello Mom, is Dad there?"

Fukuzawa Miki had heard this stress before and usually meant one thing, Ogasawara Sachiko. Trying to remain calm, the Fukuzawa matriarch asked, "What's wrong, Yumi? Maybe I can help."

"I just forbade my husband from my house. He was demanding that I be intimate with him and I couldn't. The very thought makes me want to be ill."

Her mother relaxed slightly, "That is because you are a lesbian, dear. We've been expecting this for a while. I was beginning to wonder if I was wrong."

There was a stunned silence on the other line, and then Yumi chuckled, "Yuuki wasn't kidding when he said that you and Dad were already aware of things. As always, I'm the last to know these things," the young woman said ruefully.

Yumi could hear the smirk in her mother's voice as she responded, "That's because I am your mother, and I know you better than you know yourself." Miki heard a relieved sigh from her overwrought daughter, and continued, "So what would you like us to do?"

"I am going to do one thing that Masamune wanted; could you come pick Yuuichi up for the night?" Yumi knew that her soon-to-be-ex-husband would show up and she didn't want her son to witness the inevitable argument. "I don't think that he is going to take 'No' for an answer, and it could get a bit ugly."

Miki didn't need to hear anything more, "Your father will be there in 10 minutes. Do you want me to call your attorney or the police?" She was not sure of Kobayashi's temper, but she did not want to take any chances.

"That won't be necessary, Mom," Yumi answered confidently. "Masamune has never been violent." She paused before changing the subject, "Are you sure that you and Dad will not be shamed by my getting a divorce?"

"Yumi, we didn't think that you marrying him was a good idea in the first place, so we will support your ending the mistake," the grandmother said softly.

She was rewarded by the relief and tinge of joy in her daughter's voice, "Have I ever told you and Dad how much I love you? I wouldn't be here today without the two of you and Yuuki."

"Of course, I do," Miki started and Yumi finished with her, "I'm your mother. I know you better than you know yourself." They both laughed and then hung up.

Yumi then took a moment to assess her situation. She had hopes that her father would beat her husband back to her house. She knew that she was right to end it, but she did owe Masamune a lot. His dogged pursuit of her had helped shake the overwhelming depression that she felt after the break up with Sachiko. He was the most successful of all the friends that had tried to pull her out of the suicidal ocean in which she was drowning. Deep down, she knew that he really loved her, maybe to the point of obsession.

Their lovemaking always seemed like it was an act of possessiveness on his part, and one of passivity on hers. He acted as if he needed to claim her and she, in a manner reminiscent of Victorian-era wives, endured it because it was her duty. Anyone with any insight into their relationship could have told them that their marriage was far from a healthy situation, but no one offered that advice because she never asked. That is the Lillian Way; do not offer advice unless it is requested. Not that Yumi would have listened anyway. She had a son, and she believed that he needed have both his mother and father together. "That changed didn't it?" She asked herself ruefully. More than ending her marriage, she was giving up a cherished friend. As she waited to see which man would arrive first, she said a prayer to Maria-sama.

Masamune

"That fucking bitch has her nerve, to forbid ME from returning home!" Kobayashi seethed in a bar near the Hanadera campus. "And then she had to rub it in my face that SHE bought the house! I saved her miserable life when that Ogasawara troll threw her in the garbage, and this is the thanks that I get?"

People were beginning to move away from him as the rant gained volume. He continued to no one in particular, "You know what the topper is? She said that she's been a dyke the whole fucking time. Can you believe that shit? If she was into women, why the hell did she marry me?"

His shoulders began to shake and unabashed tears started falling from his eyes, "I love her more than anything in the world: more than our son, more than life, and certainly more than that fucking hill that I have to walk up to teach Lillian girls math! I would get a sex-change operation if only she would stay with me!"

Alerted by one of her friends that Dr. Kobayashi was in the bar piss drunk and venting, Michie made it down from the dorms in record time, walking in just as she heard her crush volunteer to become a woman so that his wife would love him. She walked up to the drunken man, slapped him across the face, and said sternly, "Kobayashi-hakase, you are making a scene, please come with me. Let's talk this out."

Bleary-eyed, Masamune looked up and saw the young university student pulling at his arm, trying with all her ninety-five pounds to get him outside. "Komura-san, what are you doing here?"

"I am trying to keep you from torpedoing your career!" Michie replied smartly, and then seeing a lack of comprehension brought about by excessive alcohol consumption, she explained, "My friend Yuri-chan knows that you and I are friends, so she texted me to say that you had been dumped by your wife, and that you were ranting and raving about it in this bar."

That seemed to resonate with the heartbroken young professor, "That's right, Yumi told me that she didn't want me to come home anymore. I don't want to live without her," he sobbed.

"Kobayashi Masamune, you have exactly ten seconds to pick your sorry butt from that bar stool and come with me or the Master (term for barkeep) will have the police here! The scandal would help your wife finish destroying you. Is that what you want? I enjoy your class, so I don't want that to happen. So please, Sensei, please come with me," she finished with an appeal that made every male heart in the bar begin to beat rapidly and other parts to embarrassingly come alive.

Masamune was not unaffected. He slowly stood, apologized for his behavior, drunkenly shuffled out of the bar with Michie right behind him. Eventually, she took the lead, and he followed, oblivious to their destination. After what seemed like seconds, he awoke in a bed. He looked around to gather his bearing, and seeing his favorite Lillian University student walking out of the bathroom, he asked, "Komura-san, where am I, and why are you here?"

Unable to contain her feelings any longer, Michie moved to the bed and kissed him passionately with a tenderness that he had never experienced in his life. Momentarily, he began to respond; much to Michie's pleased surprise. She snaked her slender arms around his neck, giving herself more fully to the kiss.

When they had to come up for air, she looked him in the eyes, and said with deliberate slowness, "Yumi-sama is a fool. You are a wonderful man that I would be proud to call my husband. I told you before that I love you, and that I would make you happier than Yumi-sama ever could. I meant that. She doesn't want to be with you. I do. What will it take for you to believe me?"

Still slightly intoxicated, Masamune took a moment to process what the younger woman said and what she was offering him. He slapped his head to clear the alcohol-induced cobwebs in his brain, and he asked sadly, "My marriage and my dream are both over, aren't they?"

"Dream, what was your dream, Masamune-san?" Michie inquired.

Oblivious to the honorific change, he explained, "Ever since I went to her house for the first time with Yuuki in our first year of high school, I dreamed that she would always smile for me like she did for her brother and for that Ogasawara bitch that killed her heart. I wanted to wake up to that smile every morning, knowing that it was special and just for me. The only time that I've seen it since we've been married was after Yuuichi-kun was born, and then it was only for our son."

The coed leaned over and kissed him softly before whispering, "Masamune-san, your dream doesn't need to die, you just need to change the object of that dream to me. I promise that you will never regret it." She began to kiss him with building intensity, silencing any answer until he was incapable of rational thought while clothes were shed and speech was replaced with passionate sighs as Michie began to heal his broken heart.

Yumi

Yumi woke up the next morning a bit stiff because she had slept sitting on her bed with a bokken* in her lap. She had packed all of her husband's belongings up and had put them in the living room. She then waited for the storm that never arrived. What she had said to her mother was true. Masamune had never been violent with her, but she wasn't about to take chances. The bokken was a wedding gift from Yoshino, who had kidded that it was a "husband correction tool." The young architect really had no idea what to do with it except that she knew that it would hurt if swung with enough force. It had not been needed, so she stood it up against the wall, and called Youko, her attorney.

On the other line, was not the beautiful raven-haired legal eagle, but her groggy, blonde wife. "Good morning, Yumi-chan. To what do I owe the pleasure of your call?" Sei asked.

Enjoying her first smile of the morning, Yumi countered, "Sei-sama, where is your sexy wife? I need to speak to her on a legal matter."

"Oh?" Sei responded drowsily. "You-chan is probably in the shower, getting ready for work. That's the only time that her cell phone isn't with her. Did you need me to take a message? She needs to be in court at 8:45." Some fumbling, "Ugh, what the hell time is it anyway?"

'Sei-sama never fails to cheer me up,' Yumi thought to herself. "It's 7:30, the time that most normal people have to get up and prepare for the work day. Being an artist, I'm sure that you cannot understand why we need to start our day in morning, right?" Yumi teased, relishing the rare opportunity to have the Tease Mistress on her heels. Sei had just finished promoting her second bestselling novel. She also moonlighted as a screenwriter, adapting The Forest of Thorns for a movie that was well-received internationally.

Sei chuckled, "It's not fair to attack a girl when she's half-awake, Yumi-chan!"

This caused Yumi to laugh, "How would you know Sei-sama, have you tried?"

"Are you implying that I can get Youko do things easier when she's half-asleep? That girl is never half-asleep. She's either alert or dead to the world. There is no midway with her!" Sei replied with a pout.

Hearing the love in her older friend's voice dimmed Yumi's smile a little as she felt a bit lonely. "How nice for you, Sei-sama, to be so in love after all these years. I wish that I was that lucky," Yumi said wistfully.

"So you finally woke and realized that it's not going to work with you and Stalker-nerd, huh? The author asked. "We all had bets on how long it would take for you to stop lying to yourself about your orientation. Thank you, Yumi-chan, you just gave You-chan another reason to say 'I told you so!' She had it pegged at ten years, between your weak dating and doomed to failure marriage. I really thought that you would dump him sooner." She paused, and then chuckled, "I wonder what your old fan club will do now that you are out."

Yumi snorted, "What fan club?" The only girl from Lillian that she thought might have had a crush on her was Kanako.

"Let me see," drawled Sei, understanding that she had now taken control of the teasing. "The members are Stalker Kanako, Camera-chan, most of the first years from when you were a third year, and oh yeah, Shimako-chan."

Yumi sputtered, "There is no way that Shimako had a crush on me. She and Noriko have been together since high school!" There was a little hope sparking in her words.

'Oh ho, so the wind sits in that quarter,' Sei smirked to herself. With the smirk still in her voice, Sei retorted, "Not anymore, they broke up a month ago. It was a mutual decision. Noriko just got a job teaching Buddhist philosophy and Buddha statue appreciation in America, so instead of trying to maintain a long-distance relationship, they parted ways. It was clean and they are still friends, unlike you and the Ice Princess. Maybe I should tell her that you have accepted that you are one of us and will be single soon."

Sounding like she was drowning, Yumi choked out, "Don't do that, Sei-sama. I'm not ready to see her just yet!" As she was speaking, Sachiko's face popped into her mind unwittingly. She cursed inwardly, 'Damn, why'd I have picture her face? Ugh.'

"Too late, I just texted her," Sei said slyly.

"You know, you really can be a bitch, Sei-sama," Yumi said with a mixture of irritation and affection.

Sei smiled, "You know you love me anyway, Yumi-chan. Hey,now that I think about it, if I could get Youko to agree to it, I'd add you to my harem."

Yumi heard a sharp voice in the background, "What harem, you dirty old man in a young woman's body!" Youko had come out of the shower just in time to hear her wife's perverted suggestion.

Sei began to backpedal, causing Yumi to laugh aloud, "You-chan, I was just suggesting that I could take Yumi-chan under my wing and teach her everything that she needs to know as a Bian*"

Snatching her phone from Sei, Youko commanded sharply, "Yumi-chan, please don't take this idiot seriously. She has been begging me for a three-some with you for years!" She paused, treating her partner to an arch look. "So how can I help you?"

Wiping the tears of laughter from her eyes, Yumi answered, "I need Youko-sama, Attorney at Law, to help me to divorce my husband and get full custody of my son."

Youko smiled, and said, "Good for you, Yumi-chan. I'm proud that you are finally taking this step. We will all support you. I even have some friends that I can introduce you to, one might even be girlfriend material."

"I would appreciate that, Youko-sama," Yumi said with a bit of the cheer that Youko remembered from when her younger Grand-sister was fifteen.

Youko smiled, "If you could come by this afternoon, I'll have the forms ready for you to sign. Then we just need to get Kobayashi-san's hanko (signature stamp) and you will be free to chase after Shimako-chan."

"Youko-sama, not you too," Yumi wailed in frustration. The call ended with Sei and Youko in stitches. Now that Yumi felt better about her personal life, it was time to go to work and concentrate on her and Yuuichi's future. 'Go Yumi go!' She left the house, ready to conquer the world.

Masamune

Kobayashi woke up with what felt like a pound of dust in his mouth. His head was about to explode, and just before he uttered a curse word; he noticed that his right arm was pinned by something soft and warm. His heart leapt and he thought, 'Yumi changed her mind. I'm so happy!' He leaned over to kiss his wife, but something was wrong. Yumi's hair isn't this dark brown! He asked himself, 'What the hell?' As he moved the bed coverings lower, a lump formed in his throat. It was Komura Michie naked in the bed next to him! He groaned, "Lord, why do you hate me?"

A/N: Things are moving along properly. I apologize to the Shimako/Noriko fans, but I had to give Sei and Youko someone to tease Yumi about. Let me know what you thought. I hope you all enjoyed. Peace!

*Bokken – a solid wood kendo practice sword. It really does hurt like hell to get hit with one. I know from personal experience…it's a long and embarrassing story.

*Bian – Takeuchi Sachiko, in the intro to her classic manga Honey and Honey, remarked that it is another way to say lesbian. You got to love the indirect way that things are said in different languages!