Disclaimer: I only own what is mine. My OCs and Ideas.
A/N: So I did have big plans this weekend and then things fell through. So... yeah... the countdown has begun on exams. I think I'm going to be ok... I hope so anyway... So the tentative plan is to update this week, and then next two weeks and then take off for exams and testing. Then this summer I want to update every week, but we will see what happens. Anyways, cute chapter coming up! Enjoy!
Reviews:
ArtemisBAMF1218- I saw your PM! Wow, that's a long PM. But I've replied now! Yeah, Ryu addresses this in her 12-year-old way. They are nervous. But so cute! Oh yes, that line. Adorable. Very adorable. Ah, no geisha stories. Not this time, not yet. I'll see if I can slip something in some time.
Anyway, this chapter has a little something special for you. A little name drop maybe? Or something to just make you fan-girl? Anyway, I'll keep this short. Enjoy!
Chapter 14
"So, what did you do to my brother?" Ryu's voice was the first thing Aiko heard. She was sitting crouched down in front of Aiko, who had been sleeping on her side in her bed.
Their faces were inches apart and Aiko had to take a moment to process her surroundings.
Once she did she jumped up and pulled back quickly. "What?"
"What did you do to Danny? He's not acting like himself." Ryu repeated.
"What time is it?" Aiko asked.
"Not long after sunrise." Ryu shrugged. "So…?"
"I did not do anything to him. We went out to eat yesterday and that was it."
"He didn't even show up at dinner. And he had a minor meeting he skipped." Ryu deadpanned. "What did you do to mess him up?"
"Nothing!" Aiko exclaimed.
"Well… something happened." Ryu shrugged.
Aiko felt her face get hot. "I misunderstood him a few times and that caused us to get mad at each other. Is it that big of a problem?"
Ryu shrugged. "I don't know. I'm too young for marriage counseling."
Aiko sighed. "Of course, you are."
"What?" Ryu asked sharply. "I'm just trying to figure you guys out."
Aiko got up and walked over to her dresser. "I think I am too."
Ryu sat there for a minute with her mouth agape.
"What?" She asked loudly.
"I don't think we act like a couple. We are still just as we always are. There is a difference between being friends and being a couple… right?" Aiko asked she looked over at Ryu.
"My hours of watching television have not failed me." Ryu grinned. "There is a difference."
"Are you going to give me quality information or what?" Aiko asked.
Ryu shrugged. "I will tell you what I know. But you see, Danny is Danny. So if he wants something certain, you have to ask him about it. He's not just going to out and say it."
"What does that mean?" Aiko asked as she pulled out a dress and walked behind the room divider.
"Um… It means he is not going to come out and say he wants to do stuff. He's more likely to hang back. He's not going to say, for example, that he wants you to kiss him, or something mushy like that." Ryu made a face to show her disgust, not that Aiko noticed.
Aiko had slipped off her night dress and changed into her usual cheongsam dress with loose pants.
"So, for starters where are you two with your relationship?" Ryu questioned.
"What do you mean?" Aiko asked.
"He kisses you?" Ryu asked.
"Some."
"Hugs?" Ryu asks.
"Usually gets embarrassed," Aiko replied as she tied her belt.
"Hm…" Ryu hummed to herself. "Does he hug you around the waist?"
Aiko's face heated up. She was overly thankful for the room divider to hide her.
She could hear Ryu thumping her tail outside.
"Your lack of response says 'yes,'" Ryu called in a sing-song voice.
"Um… yeah… a little…" Aiko shrugged. "Not much."
"Well… sadly we are not in New York so that is where my evaluation ends." Ryu sighed as Aiko walked out.
"What does that mean?" Aiko asks.
"You guys are awkward." Ryu sighed. "Helplessly awkward."
Aiko walked up to the Dragon Lord. A dark purple dagger in her hand.
"Never seen that color before," Ryu commented.
Aiko adjusted her grip. "Why… I ought to strangle you."
"You'd be doing Danny a favor." Ryu sighed crossing her arms.
"What does that mean?" Aiko asked, slowly calming down.
"I was bugging him. I think he wants to strangle me." Ryu shrugged. "Not much."
Aiko sighed. "How do we act?"
"I see you two as brother and sister, to be honest. You guys love each other… but it's not like a married couple would." Ryu nodded. "A step in the right direction."
"Really?" Aiko asked, his voice dripped with disappointment. She walked over to her bed and plopped herself down. "How big of a step?"
Ryu shrugged. "Never dated. Wouldn't know."
Aiko sighed. "My stomach hurts thinking about it."
"Butterflies?" Ryu asked as she walked over to the bed.
"No," Aiko grumbled.
"Cramps?" Ryu asked. She jumped up and plopped herself on the bed.
Aiko sat up to look at Ryu. "How do you know what cramps are?"
Ryu shrugged. "The internet. I don't know the pain."
"You never will and you are lucky for that," Aiko complained.
Ryu grinned. "Yup. So is that what it is?"
"No, I'm just making myself sick. I want to just have things work." Aiko sighed.
"Are you guys compatible with each other?" Ryu asked.
"Yeah, I guess so." Aiko shrugged. "The stars say so."
"Well… the stars don't know stuff like that." Ryu said stubbornly.
"You are going to get beat up for saying that." Aiko laughed.
"Don't care." Ryu sighed. "Come at me with a weapon."
"I'm not who you need to worry about." Aiko smiled.
"I know. I skipped out on my tutor to try to get a rise out of Danny. Make him snap out of it." Ryu looked up at the ceiling. "His death glare is really powerful."
"I can believe it." Aiko nodded.
"Look, I know I am 12 and this isn't my place to say because I don't have parents. But you and Danny are going to be fine. You both admitted to me that you love each other. And just by watching the two of you, I know you would die for each other." Ryu said sitting up so she could look at Aiko. "So you two are going to be fine. You are just trying to force it a little too much. Danny too. You both want to reach that stage of where you have been in love for a while and it's smooth sailing."
Ryu took a deep breath. "It does not happen overnight. So, your date was a mess and there was a misunderstanding. So, what? Congrats, you are still going to end up married to him. You guys are official and there is nothing either of you can do about it now except fall over and die."
Ryu grinned at Aiko. "I am team Daniko all way."
"Team what?" Aiko asked.
"Uh… that is a shipping thing… Ava and Sam helped me come up with it…" Ryu's face got darker and darker blue. "Didn't mean to say that aloud…"
Aiko smiled. "You can be very confusing at times."
"So can you!" Ryu shot right back.
Aiko rolled her eyes. "Well, thank you for the pep-talk."
"Anytime." Ryu shrugged. "So… what are you going to go do?"
"I don't know. I guess I could go hang out with Danny, we haven't really worked on plans yet." Aiko sighed stretching out her arms. "Planning a wedding is a lot of work and we have been putting it off."
"Oh, Danny's already started with the basics." Ryu smiled. "He is a confused man when it comes to this."
Aiko sighed. "Of course, he is."
She swung her legs over the side of the bed and sat up.
The doors to Danny's office were open.
Aiko noticed this as she walked around the corner.
No one was there, except Danny.
Aiko sighed and walked in.
Danny never even looked up.
Aiko stopped right at the first step up. She stood quietly for a moment before coughing.
Danny looked up. "Good morning, Aiko."
Aiko smiled. "And to you as well."
Danny moved over to the left and patted the seat next to him. "Come up here."
Aiko froze for a moment before walking up next to him. She smiled at the long cushion about the length of the desk that was sitting there waiting on her.
Aiko slowly sat down and placed her legs in the empty spot that had almost been dug out from under the desk. "Very nice, I guess your legs don't hurt from sitting."
"Yeah." Danny nodded as he moved papers around. "You know. Usually, couples have about a year to plan their wedding. We have a month, now. You have to exclude the week we will not see each other."
Aiko shrugged. "Well, I guess that means a lot of work."
Danny nodded. "Speaking of work. You moving in came up again." He said pointedly.
"What?" Aiko as frantically. "Why?"
"Master Zhang has missed you during his lessons the past few days. And he was questioning where you were." Danny said still arranging papers.
"What did you tell him?" Aiko asked weakly.
"I simply said that I did not know where you were. Which, was the wrong answer." Danny stopped. "I'm ready to not have the council breathing down my back. I've still got a while until my birthday."
"So… moving in?" Aiko asked.
"The council wants you to move in so that they can micromanage your life and make sure you are completely ready to become queen," Danny said looking over at Aiko. "I looked Master Zhang in the eyes and said; 'No, I will not pressure Lady Aiko to do that. She has already expressed her displeasure with the thought.'"
"And he wasn't happy." Aiko finished.
"Correct." Danny nodded as he placed papers in front of them.
He picked some up. "Anyways, the library has a whole section on ceremonies and rituals and customs and all that stuff. And I was able to read the books and produce a list of everything we have to do."
Aiko took the paper from him and looked through it. "This is a lot."
"Well, I was thinking. You can attend your lessons in the morning. And I can do all my meetings and other things. We can eat lunch together and then spent the afternoon working on planning. I know it means spending a lot of time working." Danny said easily.
Aiko looked up from the list. "I know. But the sooner it is done the better."
"Even if we were to finish planning today, we would not be done." Danny reminded her. "You would still be running around doing stuff. And so would I."
Aiko nodded. She put the paper down. "Do I need to explain some stuff to you again?"
"I think I understand most of it. I'll just ask you questions as we go." Danny said taking the list from Aiko.
"Ok, first; we can skip over a lot of things like where we are going to have the wedding. And details about arranging the marriage and making it official." Danny said marking the items off. "We did that already."
Aiko nodded.
"Guests." Danny read off.
"I do not want to do that." Aiko sighed. "It's going to be a bunch of officials and nobles that I have never met."
Danny took a fresh paper. "Kasumi, Hiroshi, your family. Mistress Ratana, Ryu, Wanika… If Kasumi's brothers are in town they can come, some martial arts masters that trained us…" Danny stopped.
Aiko looked at him with a joking frown.
Danny smiled at her and she could not help but laugh. "Small wedding?" Aiko laughed.
"We can leave that to the council. Master Zhang has been making a list already." Danny nodded putting the paper off to the side.
"Next." Aiko supplied.
Danny looked down at the list. "Next… your dress. Qipao Kwa?"
Aiko shrugged.
"In the outside, it is believed to be bad luck if I see the dress before the wedding." Danny raised an eyebrow at Aiko. "So maybe I should just let you and your mother handle that."
Aiko smiled. "Sure."
Danny looked at the list again. "So… I guess I am going to have to get something too…" He sighed. "That will be fun."
"You don't know the pain of standing still on a stool for an hour so that someone can make sure your clothes fit!" Aiko said quickly. "I do. And it is the worst."
Danny sighed. "Right. Do you know anyone?"
"Māmā might know someone, or she might just do it herself. It would make her happy." Aiko smiled.
"Make-up and hair for you?" Danny asked.
Aiko blushed hot pink. "What?"
Danny smiled. "You are going to have to deal with getting all dressed up. There is no way out."
Aiko looked down at the table. "Right. I think Kasumi might know someone."
"I think you should spend a whole day at the Abbey getting pampered," Danny commented off-handedly.
"Why?" Aiko looked up at him.
"Isn't that something that girls like to do? Get pampered and treated like a queen?" Danny asked. "Plus, you need to do something nice for yourself."
Aiko took a deep breath and smiled at the word choice. "I guess… but… I'm not really a pampering kind of person."
"Don't worry about it. If you don't want to arrange it. I will." Danny shrugged.
"No!" Aiko nearly jumped. "You are not handling that by yourself. You'll do something wrong! Or embarrass me!"
Danny smiled at Aiko. "I would not."
"Yes, you would," Aiko said pointedly.
Danny rolled his eyes. "Your faith in me is astounding."
Aiko looked down at her lap and smiled. "Fine, you can do it. I'll just make sure you do it right."
Danny nodded. "Sounds good."
He leaned back so his arms help him up and he looked at the ceiling. "You know. I think I am incredibly lucky."
"Why?" Aiko asked.
Danny sat himself up a little. As he did he gently wrapped his arm around Aiko's shoulder.
"Because I have you." Danny smiled as he leaned in and kissed her forehead.
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