Author Note:

' ' means the talking is in German.

Chapter 8

"No! You are MY child I won't allow you to marry him!" the man with graying hair black hair and full beard said to his daughter, a girl of about 21 with blonde shoulder length hair dressed in a nice dark-red dress that hugged her curves.

"Don't you understand? I love him with all my heart!" the daughter said, ruffling her hair in a very dramatic fashion before grabbing one of the very expensive looking vases and throwing it on the floor, shattering it into tiny pieces.

The man, bubbling over in anger grabbed the girl by her wrist, dragging her out of the room into the hallway. "You will only marry who I tell you to marry, do you hear me Josephine?!"

The girl was dragged up the stairs and shoved into her room, the door falling shut the moment she tumbled to the floor. Getting up, the girl tried to open the door to no avail.

"Let me out!"

"No! And do something about that terrible dress of yours!"

"Ah this is boring!" the girl 'shouted' in a bored tone as Leifang switched channels. The Chinese was lying on the folded out sofa, dressed in only her sleeping T-shirt and panties, lying on her stomach with her bare feet dangling in the air as she crossed and uncrossed her legs to have something to do other than making up the dialogue of shows that she didn't understand anyway. The last one was her favorite due of its over the top presentation, but even that got boring.

After Saturday Hitomi and her had spent the whole day at home, deciding that the brunette should at least have another day of recovery - even if she felt fine - before going outside. Today though she had to attend class and without anything to do, or nowhere to go, Leifang stayed at Hitomi's. For the first few hours it was fine, she did some training and followed her usual morning routine.

Before her was an empty bowl with a few traces of milk inside. Not being rather confident about another cooking attempt the Chinese just raided - with Hitomi's permission of course - the cupboards for the cornflakes.

Now she was watching some kind of mix between a cooking show and a talk show. Sighing she inspected her fingernails, only to realize that she did file them a few hours ago. Maybe she should do her hair again? She did kill some time by braiding, unbraiding and braiding it again.

She cast her gaze to the clock on the TV table. Luckily Hitomi would return soon and then they could do something together. Leifang did feel a little bit like a dog that was left alone, but they couldn't help it. First it was Leifang's fault for coming over unannounced and second Hitomi couldn't afford to just skip out on the lessons, so she had to kill some time until her friend returned.

Maybe I could surf the web? She mused but decided against it. She wasn't really big on the whole Internet thing to begin with and she usually just checked her mails anyway so she wouldn't really know what to look up.

Going outside would be an option too of course, but then she would risk getting lost and that would only be fun if she got another foot massage from her friend afterwards.

"I should ask her again where she learned that" she said aloud to no one but herself.

Salvation came to the Chinese as she heard the door ring, but she furrowed her brows in confusion. If that's Hitomi, why would she ring? Did she leave her keys here?

The young woman stood up as the doorbell was rung again, smoothing out her long T-shirt to make herself more presentable and pulling it down so it would cover her panties completely. Maybe it was the mailman.

She looked through the peephole, seeing an elderly lady standing there. Blinking in confusion she opened the door, and tipped her head sidewards.

Once the door was open the old lady looked at her in surprise for a moment before smiling and talking to her. In German of course.

As the old lady kept on talking Leifang could only lift her hands and shaking her head, the only thing she understood was her friend's name. The woman looked over Leifangs shoulder then asked her something. Then a look of realization crossed the woman's face and she put her left hand onto her cheek before pointing to what she held in her other hand, asking Leifang something.

The Chinese looked down. She held a plate with a piece of cake on it, offering it to her. Leifang hesitated for a moment before taking her up on the offer. The old lady smiled and said something that seemed to be some kind of thanks and goodbye and left her befuddled in the doorway. Was this some kind of joke?

She leaned out of the door and spied into the hallway, seeing no one else but the old woman that was descending the stairs. Blinking her eyes a few times she went back inside the apartment, closing the door and taking the cake into the kitchen, putting it on the counter.

She put her elbows on the counter, placing her chin on the palm of her hands and looked at the piece of cake. It looked like it was only made of cream, with various pieces of fruits and liquid chocolate - drawn in a wavy pattern - adorning the top. Simply delicious looking.

But it was for Hitomi, or at least she thought so, why else should the lady bring it to her friend's apartment?

...A taste wouldn't hurt though, right? She balanced her face onto one hand so that she could guide her other one down and to the left, opening the one of the drawers where she knew the eating utensils were stored. She took a fork and brought it close to the piece, letting it hover over it. Should she really do it?

Come on, it's only one bite, what can it hurt? Asked a little traitorous voice inside her mind. She hesitated for another moment before she shrugged and brought the fork down upon the cake, cutting off a small piece and bringing it close to her lips.

Leifang had to close her eyes as she tasted it. It was just so good!

Without thinking about it she took another bite, and another. She noticed that under the cream was the subtle taste of marzipan, which she only had tasted once before, but found absolutely delicious. Usually she tended to eat lighter sweets like Almond Tofu, but sometimes she just had to sin a little, and this was one of the sweetest of them all.

Before she knew it the only thing left of it was a few spots of cream on the plate.

Oh... she thought.

And as if the timing couldn't be any worse she heard a key being pushed into a lock and unlocking the door, followed by her friend's voice. "Hey I'm home!"

Leifang looked around frantically; she had to hide that plate. Sadly Hitomi didn't own a dishwasher. That would have been the perfect solution. Hearing the steps of her friend coming closer and closer the Chinese did the only thing she could think of in such a hurry. She threw it in the trash.

And not one moment too early as Hitomi decided to round the corner and walk into the kitchen.

"There you are." She greeted. "Uh, something wrong? You look kinda winded there."

"I'm fine." She replied quickly, folding her hands together and rocking back and forth on her feet, laughing nervously. "Should something be wrong?"

Hitomi gave her a disbelieving look and was about to say something when someone knocked on the door. 'Coming!' the brunette shouted and went for the door.

Leifang sighed in relief. Saved by the doorbell. She thought, but then her eyes widened. What if it was the old lady again?

She quickly followed her friend but stayed away a little just to be safe. When the German opened the door a wave of relief washed over her as it was only Viktor. "Hey you two." He greeted.

"Hey Vik."

"Hello."

The young man looked over Hitomi's shoulder to get a better look. "Nice outfit." He said dryly, pushing his glasses back up his nose.

Only then did Leifang notice her state of dress, yelping she ran back into the living room to put on something more decent.

Viktor snickered as Hitomi just shook her head. 'So to what do I owe your gracious presence?' she asked switching to German.

'Well old lady Dumas brought me this.' He lifted the plate he was holding up to eye-level, his other hand holding a fork in his other. 'Mmh looks delicious.'

He cut off a small piece of cake and brought it up to his mouth, only to have Hitomi grab his wrist, pulling the piece towards herself. He tried to resist a bit but he was no match for her strength.

'Hmm...' Moaned Hitomi as she tasted the creamy treat, narrowing her eyes in concentration. Viktor looked at the fork.

'Yeah, of course you can take a bite!' he said sarcastically, putting his fork on the plate and looking at his friend, who herself was lost in thought, in irritation. 'Now I have to get another one. No way am I eating with something that has Hitomi germs on it. Wasn't your piece enough?'

'Hmm?' this brought the brunette out of her musings. 'My piece?'

'Yeah, she brought one not too long ago. Huh, what's with that look?'

"Leifang!" Hitomi shouted towards her friend.

"I'm sorry, I didn't want to, but it looked so delicious!" the Chinese leaned out of the living room doorway, having put on a simple red blouse and a black business skirt. In her hand she held the plate that the old lady brought, looking like she was caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

Hitomi rolled her eyes and sighed in frustration. "Doesn't matter. But you gotta have to help me now."

"Help?"

"Yeah, I have to get ingredients to answer her challenge!" Hitomi pumped her fist like she did before a fight before walking into the living room. Leifang gave them a puzzled look.

"The old lady and she have a 'rivalry' of sorts and pretty much all the residents are judges in their little contest." Viktor explained to her.

"I guess that makes sense, I suppose." Well it was something to do and she was just glad that Hitomi wasn't too mad, so glad that she just missed that while he answered in English, he had understood what they said in Japanese perfectly.

Hitomi returned with a large bag slung over her shoulder. "Ok let's go."

"Well, have fun you two."

"You're coming with us Vik."

"Yeah alright-wait what?!"

The three of them walked through the inner-city; the bag Hitomi held was full with ingredients for her own cake. Leifang and Viktor each held a paper bag full of groceries that Hitomi decided to buy as well since she was already shopping in the first place.

"Dammit, can you tell me how you got me to coming with you?" Viktor asked looking at the bag in his hand. Hitomi smiled at him playfully and nudged him with her shoulder.

"Maybe it's my irresistible charm."

"Pfft, yeah right, tubby."

"What did you call me?!" she punched him roughly in the arm.

"You heard me!"

Leifang giggled to herself watching the two, it was clear to her now that the two of them really were friends, deep inside her she felt something tug at the sight of them; Hitomi and her didn't playfully bicker like this and they didn't see each other that often. Maybe that should change. Having heard her they both stopped their bickering and looked at her.

"Something funny?"

"Yeah, you two." She said pointing at them. "Say, how did you two meet?"

Viktor and Hitomi looked at each other for a moment. "Well you see," Viktor started. "It's a glorious tale filled with blood, sweat and tears,"

"Mostly his." Hitomi commented.

"That took place years ago. You see back in the day I decided to learn some self-defense and someone I know,"

"A friend of his, even if he won't ever admit it." Hitomi said, shaking her head.

"That isn't up for debate right now!" he cleared his throat. "So where was I? Oh yeah, so someone I know just happens to be the masseur of a certain someone's father, who incidentally owns a dojo. So I decided to learn some karate. Nothing fancy just enough to defend myself."

He gesticulated towards Hitomi. "And there I met her. I was thinking 'Man what a hottie' and was wondering the whole time how I should approach her when suddenly I got 'lucky'," he made quotation marks with his hands at the word lucky. "And managed to bag her as my training partner. I thought a cutie like that wouldn't be too hard to take down."

The young man shook his head, running a hand through his blond hair. "Worst idea of my life. She slapped my shit when I hit on her. I was pretty much black and blue by the end of the day. But,"

He shared a smile with Hitomi. "She helped me get patched up afterwards while still berating me."

"And after that we became friends pretty fast." Hitomi finished up, directing her smile at Leifang. "I have a tendency to befriend people I beat up it seems."

The girls shared a laugh at that. "But don't worry; you're the only one of my friends that ever saw me in a bikini."

"What?!" Viktor asked and said under his breath. "Damn."

"Zack Island sure was fun. Hey, maybe we should go for another vacation there." Leifang suggested. "Just be sure not to fall for the obvious lie again."

"Oh come on, am I never going to live that down? It's been two years now." The brunette complained, causing Leifang to giggle again. Just then Leifang had an idea.

"Say, you told me your semester break is coming up at the end of the month right?" she asked.

Hitomi and Viktor both nodded. "So why don't you come and visit me in Hong Kong for a few weeks?"

"Hey, that's actually a good idea!"

"So will you come?"

"Sure!" Hitomi said, but got sullen shortly afterwards. "I will have to take some money from my savings account, though. I wanted to avoid that, but it's not like I spend it on willy nilly so I might as well use it."

"So you will come?"

"Sure, I'd be happy to."

"Yes!" Leifang clapped her hands together excitedly, before grabbing her friend's hands. Both of them grinned widely and jumped up and down once, causing a passerby to look at them.

Shaking his head Viktor chuckled to himself. "Hey girls, how about we go stop over there for a coffee?" He pointed towards a café on the other side of the street. They agreed and the three of them made their way over, stopping at the streetlights.

"So that friend of yours, you know the one that told you about the dojo?" Leifang asked, looking at Viktor who grimaced at her mentioning it. "Who was it?"

"Argh! You had to ask didn't you!?"

"Huh?" Leifang gave Hitomi, who shrugged and let a sigh past her lips. A questioning look.

"Don't pay him any mind. You see him and Sven, that's his name, used to be roommates." Hitomi explained. "And as much as he complains they are still good friends, even if he won't admit it."

"Yeah whatever." The young man muttered, fumbling with his pack of cigarettes, contemplating if he should take one but deciding against it since the place they were headed to was a no smoking area. "He's still a major pain in the ass. For god's sake he was always running around naked in our apartment back then. Drove me and Tim half nuts."

"Tim was another one of his roomies." Hitomi explained.

"And the worst part is," he went on ranting, the traffic lights turning green, letting them cross the street. "That the guy ran around naked whenever he was home!"

Leifang's jaw dropped in shock at this revelation while Hitomi could only shake her head and shrug. "Why would he do something like that?"

"Beats me, probably making a statement about how he we won't give the corporates his money by using too much detergent. Or he is just full of crap"

"Oh come one it can't have been THAT bad" Hitomi huffed in annoyance, having heard this for the hundredth time now.

"Yes it wa-Oh wait I forgot who I was talking to. After all, our dear Ms. Buchfink has the habit of dancing around her apartment butt naked while her balcony door is wide open for everyone to see!"

Leifang looked at Hitomi in shock, eyes widening. "You did what?"

"Hey, that was only one time and I was excited that day so I didn't...didn't really notice what I did!" the young Karateka answered defensively, waving her hands in front of herself and her face turning red from embarrassment.

"Excited yeah, wonder why." the young man snickered. "Ok but I'll let it go"

Turning to Leifang he added: "Well now you know how we met. Certain other things," he looked at Hitomi, who puffed her cheeks in annoyance. "She can tell you herself, later"

Leifang looked at her friend, who was muttering something under her breath that sounded like 'You better be buying, pal' from where she was standing. Giggling to herself she decided to ask Hitomi about the naked thing later.

They entered the café and after looking around for a moment she could hear Viktor cursing under his breath before nudging Hitomi in the shoulder. "Great. Speak of the devil"

Dun dun dun.
Damn I think I'm digging myself in with that language barrier. Gotta do something about that in the future.
And is that a new OC on the horizon? Don't worry, like I mentioned I'll use them sparingly.

Until next week :)