Disclaimer: All characters and anything related to Fushigi Yuugi belongs to Watase Yuu. I am not making any money from this so if anybody should decide to sue me for anything in my pages I'm just a poor student and you may just be wasting your money. And so forth and all that good stuff.
Miaka nibbled on her pancake, too anxious to eat anything. She watched as her mother roamed around the kitchen, packing some sandwiches and other snacks into a small picnic basket. She gulped down some orange juice trying to swallow the lump forming in her throat, due to the fast paced process of gobbling down three whole pancakes and abandoning the chewing process.
"Ohayo." Keisuke yawned in greeting to his mother and sister. "What's for breakfast?"
"Aaah!" Miaka looked at her disheveled brother, who was still wearing his pajamas. "You were supposed to be up and ready an hour ago. Yui and the others will be here soon." Miaka stood up and shoved her brother into the direction of the bathroom. "Go get ready! Then you can have your breakfast!"
"Ah. Hai! Slave master." Keisuke made a mock bow and quickly dashed away before Miaka's fist landed on his face. Miaka tried to incinerate Keisuke retreating form with a look, failing to do so, she put her hands on her hip and cried menacingly, "Hayaku!!"
"Miaka..."
"Hai, Okaasan?" Miaka turned around to face her mother.
Miaka's mother closed the flap on the picnic basket. "I've arranged everything and put the brownies that you made in the red tupperware." She smiled at her daughter. "Where are you guys going today?"
"A-arigato. We're going to go to Shiranai Lake. Yui-chan and Tetsuya will be there. Don't worry mom I'll see to it that oniichan behaves." Miaka grinned at her mother not knowing what else to say. Luckily, the doorbell rang and Miaka excused herself as she went to see who it was.
"Ohayo." Yui greeted.
"Ohayo gozaimus, Miaka." Kourin greeted from behind Yui. "The others are still at our house trying to get the things ready. So we thought we'd walk here and see if you guys are ready." Doukun's place was just five minutes walk from Miaka's apartment complex.
"Yui-chan, Kourin, please come in. Onii-chan's still getting ready." Miaka rolled her eyes at Keisuke's tardiness, then smiled at her friends.
"Oh. Hello." Miaka's mom greeted the newcomers from the kitchen.
"Ohayo, Yuuki-san. We're just here to pick Miaka and Keisuke up for the picnic." Yui bowed politely to Miaka's mom and introduced Kourin to her.
"Hajimemashite, Yuuki-san."
"My, what a proper young lady. Do you have a boyfriend by any chance? You know Keisuke--"
"Okaasan!!" Keisuke hurried to finish getting ready when he heard Yui and Kourin's voice and was just about to join the others in the living room. His ears were burning with the unsaid words that his mother was about to propose to Kourin.
Kourin only looked at Keisuke, whose his shirt halfway down, and suppressed a giggle with her hand. "Iie, Yuuki-san. I'm afraid that I already have a boyfriend. I'm sure Keisuke-san will find the right woman eventually."
"Eh, maybe we should go." Miaka went into the kitchen and retrieve the basket. She kissed her mother good bye and headed for the door dragging the blushing Keisuke with her. "Bye, Kaasan, we'll see you around eight."
Yui and Kourin followed the two towards the door and bid their good bye's to Miaka's mother. "Don't worry Yuuki-san I'll look after them," enlightened Yui.
"Arigato, Yui-chan."
A hand reach out from the shadows to stir the clear fluid that was contained in a big brass bowl. The hand touch the surface and formed circles with its middle finger. Even though the fingers touched the surface of the fluid, no ripple formed. A strange humming accompanied the the finger as it danced it's way from the inside of the bowl to the outside. As the hand finished the last circle, it reach out to touch the center again, the humming died down and the fluid in the bowl rippled and began to stir. An image form on it's surface.
On the surface of the liquid formed trees with green leaves and the birds settled on the limbs of the trees to rest in their nest. Beneath the trees two legged creatures took shape.
"Wow... This is great." Ryuuen stretched out his limbs glad to be out of the confines of the crowded car. He smelled the fresh air and the smell of the fresh leaves and flowers.
"Miaka. Here's a perfect spot." Yui set one of the picnic baskets down in a spot near the edge of a small cliff overlooking the lake. A big tree stood over that area guarding the delicate flowers and plants that rooted itself around it's feet, from the strong wind and harsh sunlight.
"Ahhhh." Miaka went to near to the edge of the cliff and raised her arms against the wind. The wind swept over the lake and small droplets of water splashed onto Miaka's face. "You're right Yui-chan. Everything's so perfect."
"Miaka." Taka reached for his girlfriend fearful that she might accidentally fall in. He held her closely in his arms as if afraid to let go of her.
"Uhhmm. Ta..ka...I...ca..n't...breath..." Taka smiled, gave his girlfriend one last fond squeeze and let her go.
"This place is beautiful." Kourin joined Yui underneath the tree and helped Yui spread the big picnic blanket on the ground.
The rest of their groups joined the others underneath the tree as soon as they were finish excersing muscles which seemed to have fallen asleep. "A-re? Did we really need five picnic baskets?" Ryuuen asked again as the three ladies spread the food across the blanket.
"Ano...Ryuuen..," whispered Keisuke in Ryuuen's ear holding a hand up to hide his word from Miaka, "with Miaka around, we're even short two more baskets."
"I heard that." Miaka sneered at his brother around a mouthful of cherry pie. Keisuke snickered and waved his hands at Miaka in surrender.
"This place is really picturesque. I did not think Japan would have any big lakes like this." Doukun looked out at the lake. He then joined the rest inside the blanket. "Maybe I'll take a walk and investigate this place."
"Perhaps we could also take a walk, Kourin." Saihitei put a hand on Kourin's hand as she spread peanut butter on a sandwich for Miaka. He winked at his girlfriend as she looked up from the sandwich to look at him. She smiled.
"So, Saihitei." Ryuuen put an arm around his friend. "When are we taking that walk again," he chided.
"Hmm..." Saihitei picked at his friend hand and flicked it as his friend. "The day I take a walk with you will be the day when you start dressing up as a girl and I loose interest in girls."
"Oi! Saihitei. You know you don't have to play dumb with me. I know you've been silently in love with me and just went after my sister just to get closer to me." Ryuuen puckered his lips at Saihitei. Saihitei sneered at his friend and made a sucker punch at him. Ryuuen jumped to his feet, just in time to miss connecting with Saihitei's punch. "You were always slow as a kid." Ryuuen stuck a tongue out at Saihitei and made a run for it as his friend started to run after him. The other guys joined the two to referee the match.
"Aaahhh...sometimes I think they should get married instead of me." Kourin shook her head at her brother and boyfriend brawling. "Miaka here's your sandwich."
Miaka eyes were on the group and she had somehow forgotten about the sandwich. "Hotohori's so different." Miaka mumbled.
"Ne, Miaka? Are you all right?" Kourin looked at her, dumbfounded as she refused to acknowledge the sandwich offered to her.
"Eh? Uhm. I'm all right Kourin." Miaka smiled at her new friend and took the sandwich from her. "Ne Kourin, have Saihitei and Ryuuen always been friends," asked Miaka curiously.
Kourin looked at his brother and boyfriend who seemed to had taken the brawl into the water and included everyone else. "Hai. It seems like it." Kourin leaned against the tree closed her eyes and prepared herself to recount story to Miaka. "Our family has always been in the textile business. When I was ten my parents never came home from a business trip they had took to America. Their plane crashed somewhere in the Pacific Ocean."
"Kourin-san. I'm sorry." Yui reached out to comfort Kourin.
"It's okay Yui. It wasn't your fault." Kourin gave her a sad smile and continued. "My father's business partner was set up as our guardian. He was an fiendish man, who wanted to own my parent's profitable business for himself. So he sent my brother to a far away boarding school. I wrote to him everyday and told him what happened in our home. Then six years later, he came home with Shoji and with his help secured my parent business away from him. Nii-sama said he met Shoji in the city near his school. He's a kind old man and nii-sama seems to trust him. Ever since then Shoji has handled the business under my brother's careful eye and nii-sama's always taken care of me."
"Now, Saihitei. He just showed up at our door. I remembered the day he came to our house." Kourin smiled as she remembered her first meeting with her beloved. "He had gone to the same school as my brother had and had come by to see why he hadn't come back. I really didn't like him at first." Miaka's eyes widened at this. "No really, I didn't. He was so cocky and appeared self-centered." Kourin smiled. "But then--I think Shoji and my brother conspired in getting us together." Kourin raised an eyebrow as she said this. "But it worked out for the best." She grinned, locked her hands together and put them on her knees. Then she rested her chin on them. "I guess, brothers always know best, ne Miaka." Kourin glanced at her.
"Eh. My brother only knows about beer. He knows nothing about business." Miaka whispered conspiratorially and waves a bottled soda at Keisuke's direction. Yui laughed.
Kourin grinned. "You never know. Shoji and I are trying to marry my brother off. But he seems to be stubborn about it. Sometimes I worry about him." Kourin's eyebrow knitted worriedly as she watched her brother. Miaka looked at Kourin, then looked at Ryuuen who was pouring water down Keisuke's head. She felt worried, too.
Author's Notes: Shiranai Lake. Shiranai is Japanese for "I don't know" and I don't know any lakes in Japan, so that kind of fits, ne?
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