Chapter 67

Hitomi pushed her reading glassed back up her nose as she flipped the page of the book she was currently reading. It was part of her little project to learn Mandarin, but since they started to live under the same roof it had become hard to keep it hidden, as she wanted this to remain her little secret until she had gotten good enough at it.

But since Leifang had to work until evening today it was the perfect time for it. So after having gotten back from the dojo a few hours ago she had started her little self-teaching routine.

Around her neck she wore the headphones she used to listen to the tapes, that came with the book, to help her with the pronunciation.

"Mu-no no-Ma-Aww dammit!" she slammed the book on the table and sagged into the sofa, closing her eyes and letting out a sigh. Damn this is difficult.

Pronounce something wrong and it can have a whole different meaning!

It sure was a step up from Japanese, and even though she was raised with the language she still didn't get the hang of the characters. Her hand went up to her face and pulled off her glasses, placing them onto the table beside the book. The headphones followed the glasses soon after and Hitomi rubbed her face with her hands.

This would be as far as she got today. With a yawn she got up from her seating position, gathered everything and put it away securely where she was sure that Leifang wouldn't look. Inside the sofa.

Really, a perfect hiding spot, Leifang wouldn't even think of sleeping on it anymore now. That had the downside that, if they ever got into a fight, it would be Hitomi that would be banned to sleep on the sofa. Something that she would like to avoid if possible.

So far the two had been very lucky in that regard, most likely because their last major fight didn't end so well. But she didn't want to go down that road again. They were happy, that was what mattered.

Just as she was finished with putting her things away she heard the key being pushed into the lock and the door opening, soon followed by the familiar steps of her girlfriend and the sound of keys being tossed in a glass bowl.

"I'm back." Leifang called and Hitomi could already tell that she was exhausted. As she rounded the corner the Chinese gave her a tired smile and walked over to her.

"Hey there, sweetie." Hitomi said after Leifang has given her kiss and sat down together with her. "You look beat."

"I am beat. My feet hurt, my shoulders ache and I got a major headache." Leifang said, leaned back and shut her eyes. She felt Hitomi's weight leaving the sofa as she got up and listened to her steps before feeling the German's hands on her shoulders. She wanted to question what that was supposed to be, but before that thought could even reach her tongue her mind went blank as Hitomi started to massage her shoulders. The only thing she managed was a small moan.

"Just sit back, relax and tell me everything."

"If I didn't love you already I would fall for you this instant. Oh right there!" Leifang gasped out once more.

"Well if that isn't a compliment I don't know what is." Hitomi chuckled. "So I presume it was pretty busy?"

"Like you wouldn't imagine."

"Oh I dunno, try me."

"Wha- Oh yeah," Leifang chuckled. "Of course you do."

Working on the Oktoberfest would make someone understand the concept of being incredibly busy. Hitomi put a little more force into her massage and asked "So how busy was it?"

"Very. I couldn't even manage to take my break because one of my colleagues was sick. Lucky for me it became less busy, or else I wouldn't even be here right now." she sat a little more upright so that Hitomi would have better access to her shoulders. "God, I wish we could take a vacation. You know, just fly somewhere where it's nice."

"It's nice here."

As if on cue they could hear the roll of thunder in the distance.

"You were saying?"

"Alright, so it's not always nice. But can you even take a vacation?" Hitomi asked and pressed her thumbs gently against her shoulder blades.

"Yeah, I already talked with Miss Sūn about it. I would just have to tell her a week in advance."

"Good thing I work with my father. But now the important question: Can we actually afford going on one, or would we need to raid our savings?"

Leifang mulled over this for a moment, but came out empty handed and breathed out a sigh. "Well it was a nice thought at least."

Like Hitomi, she really didn't want to use her savings other than for emergencies and a vacation was hardly such.

"How about I make you feel like you're on a vacation at least?" Hitomi asked, stopped her massage and went into the bathroom to fill one of the plastic bowls with hot water and carry it back into the living room. She sat back down next to Leifang and motioned for her to place her feet on her lap, which the Chinese only eagerly did.

"Oooh, a foot massage. You really know how to spoil a girl."

"Now where have I heard that one before?" Hitomi asked, her voice full of flirtatious intent and took one of her feet, then started to massage it.

Letting out a dreamy sigh Leifang said "Just what I needed. After that last sprint I thought they might fall off."

"Last sprint? What, did you participate in a marathon today too?" Hitomi joked.

"Very funny." Leifang said dryly but smiled as she enjoyed Hitomi's every touch. "I nearly missed the bus, so I had to run like hell. Otherwise I would have had to wait half an hour and I really didn't need that today."

"Oh, right! That reminds me of something I wanted to ask you. Why do you always take the bus?" she asked. "Seems like a total detour to me. Wouldn't riding a bike be much faster in this case?"

The only response she got to that was some unintelligible mumbling.

"Come again?"

"I said: I don't know how to ride bicycles."

Hitomi's eyebrows shot up as she looked at the dark haired girl in surprise. "Seriously?"

"Seriously."

"I always figured riding a bike was a very Chinese thing."

"That's a stereotype. I don't see that all Germans are constantly drunk on beer, dressed in Lederhosen, eat nothing but sausages and pretzels, and get ticked off, when someone mentions the war, either."

"True." Hitomi fell silent for a while, just focusing on the massage and listening to the sounds that Leifang occasionally made. After she was finished with the massage and the water was down to a much more bearable temperature she placed the Chinese's feet in it to let them soak.

"So..." she started. "Want me to teach you?"

"Teach me what?"

"Bicycle riding."

This caused Leifang to break out into laughter, making her hold her sides. She laughed for half a minute until she realized that Hitomi wasn't.

"Wait are you serious?"

"You were serious." Leifang said a few days later. She looked upon the field in front of them. They were currently at the outskirts of the town, near the Black Forest, and Leifang was holding onto the handles of Hitomi's bike.

The German had talked her into going out for a little picnic as a little compensation for not going on a real vacation. They had taken the bike, Hitomi riding it of course.

Leifang liked the spot, being a wide field with the trees giving them enough shade so that they wouldn't have the sun shining down directly upon them. As they enjoyed the food Hitomi told her that she once held a picnic under this very same tree for someone very special to her and that it only felt right for her to do it once more with the new person that she held dearest to her heart.

But as nice and romantic as that was it was soon followed by disillusionment after Hitomi told her she would teach her how to ride a bicycle.

"Of course. Did you think I wasn't?" Hitomi smiled.

"I was half-hoping you were joking to be honest." Leifang said and let out a sigh of resignation. "Alright, what do you want me to do?"

"Well you get your sweet behind on the saddle here," Hitomi slapped it as she said so. "And start to pedal while I'll hold you steady. Don't worry, the grass is pretty flat and we'll start slowly."

"O-ok." Leifang sat down on the saddle and placed her feet on the pedals. Her girlfriend hooked the fingers of her right hand under the saddle and grabbed the top tube.

"Ready?"

"Y-yeah, ready." She started to pedal slowly, and Hitomi walked with her, not letting go. They staggered a little as they handle-bar swayed left and right because of Leifang's shaking. But it quickly became less and less as Leifang managed to get the balance right, in no small part thanks to her extensive martial arts training.

"See? Isn't too hard, right?" Hitomi asked and Leifang could no longer keep the smile from her face. She couldn't deny that she was starting to enjoy it a little.

"Ok, now pedal faster." Leifang did as she was told until Hitomi was running alongside her. The smile turned into a grin as she felt the warm wind on her skin and they all but flew over the field.

"Hitomi this is-" she turned her head to look at the German to find her missing. Reflexively she looked further back to see Hitomi standing there, simply watching.

And lost her balance.

Leifang tumbled to the ground and, letting out a surprised yelp, landed face first in the soft grass.

"Sweetie!" Hitomi called as she ran over to her but stopped in her tracks as she came face to face with glare that Leifang was throwing in her direction.

"What the hell was that?!" demanded the Chinese.

"I-Well-" Hitomi stuttered.

"What?!"

The brunette tried to keep herself from grinning, but soon couldn't hold back and laughed. This only served to aggravate the Chinese even more and she crawled onto all four, clawing at the grass in anger before hurling herself at Hitomi.

The couple rolled around in the field as they wrestled with one another. Eventually Hitomi won out though because her advantage in strength and pinned Leifang to the ground. The older girl glared daggers at her while Hitomi still had that grin on her face.

"You stupid cow!" Leifang said. "You told me you wouldn't let go."

Hitomi only chuckled. "Well I wasn't really honest there. But that's the fastest way to teach it to someone. My mother taught me like that. And look at that, you managed to ride it pretty good until you realized I let go."

Leifang couldn't deny that, but that didn't mean she liked it any better. "I swear to god Hitomi-" but before she protest any more that oh so familiar pair of lips covered her own. She wanted to resist, bite her lip or claw at her skin, but like every time Hitomi kissed her she found her resolve slipping away until she joined in wholeheartedly.

Noticing that Leifang had relaxed she let go of her wrists and deepened the kiss. A soft sigh passed between them as their lips parted and blue met brown as they looked into one another's eyes.

"That still wasn't nice of you." Leifang said.

"Forgive me?" Hitomi asked and planted a few more kisses along her jawline.

"Well I'm not going to beat you up anymore, but I'm still angry if that's what you want to know."

"Guess I've got to be more persuasive then." Hitomi emphasized the last three words with three more kisses.

"Not going to work." Leifang singsonged. "And now get off me, I would like to keep grass stains to a minimum on this dress."

"Yes ma'am." Hitomi did as she was told and helped her girlfriend on her feet, then pulled her bike up.

"So?" she asked.

"What?"

"Want to give it another shot without me this time?"

Leifang eyed her warily for moment. "Sure. Might as well get this done."

With a smile Hitomi watched as she learned to ride a bicycle for the rest of the afternoon before both of them decided to call it a day and head home.

Back home Hitomi told Leifang to head up first and stored the bike back in the cellar, then went to check the mail box. As soon as she opened it two envelopes fell out, both having a very eccentrical, and identical for that matter, color pattern. And both addressed to Hitomi and Leifang respectively.

Cocking her brow she opened the one with her name on it and read what seemed to be the important part

Congratulations!

You're among the selected few that have been invited to participate in the SPECTACULAR fighting tournament hosted on the AMAZING New Zack Island taking place over the course of two weeks in which you will get to enjoy the LUXURIOUS accommodations the island has to offer.

Attached to this you will find the ticket as well as the date of flight. We look forward to your participation.

Sincerely,

The New Zack Island staff.

Hitomi mulled over this for a moment, then ran up the steps, taking two at a time, a grin on her face. She entered the apartment and called out to Leifang.

"You gotta listen to this. There's a tournament held on New Zack Island and-" she trailed off at the look that Leifang was giving her, then realized what she was about to say. She groaned. "God, I nearly did it again, didn't I?"

Insert 'How Crazy Are You?' here. Now really who didn't see the fanservicey Zack Island vacation coming?

And I really found the idea that Leifang didn't know how to ride a bike very endearing.

Well until next week then!