How to Take a Compliment a.k.a. For Real??
Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon and the majority of the characters in this story...nor do I own a bunch of objects in this chapter (Nigella's cookbook, Starbucks...).
Part III, Chapter 7
That night was Christmas Eve, and everyone was dolled up for the occasion–guys included. Jaden was suffering in his dress shirt, black pants, and tie, but to his right, Zach was in high spirits. On Jaden's other side was Lita, who looked striking in a soft, rose-pink dress. Due to some meticulous seating arrangements, Ami was seated directly across from Zach.
There was no way for her to avoid his piercing gaze–not that she wanted to anymore, anyway. Every time her eyes met his, the color rose a little higher in her cheeks, and the swooping sensation in her stomach was not entirely unpleasant. Ami found herself laughing more than usual: a light, bubbling laugh that was completely carefree and happy that night. Zach watched her closely–perhaps because Darien was seated at her side, across from Jaden.
He really shouldn't have worried, for next to Darien was Serena, and the two seemed to have finally decided to stop pretending they weren't interested in each other. Serena was also wearing pink, although it was of a more vibrant shade than Lita's. Her hair was up in its customary meatballs.
Ami was safely ensconced between Darien and Rei, the latter of which was wearing a lavender-colored dress and a satisfied smirk. Ami wasn't sure she wanted to know the cause of her smug expression, so she refrained from asking.
Ami herself was wearing a white dress that glittered in the light and a pearl barrette in her hair. She and Darien were rapidly acquainted and soon began discussing their hopes to enter medical school during the first half of dinner. When he turned his attention to Serena, Ami chatted with Jaden, while Rei engaged Zachary in conversation. Neither Ami nor Zach noticed the devious looks on their respective cousin and sibling's faces, and Ami didn't even realize that other, less pleasant people were seated near them. She didn't pay them a single minute's attention the entire evening.
After dinner, they endured an amusing rendition of "The Night Before Christmas." Then the adults and their children branched off, but as Ami was about to make her way into the indicated drawing room, a warm hand wrapped itself around her arm and pulled her into an isolated, darkened hallway. She would have slapped the presumptuous stranger had she not recognized the emerald-green eyes glimmering at her in the dusk. "Zach!" she exclaimed quietly before he slipped his hand over her mouth.
As they watched the others trickle by, he leaned down to whisper in her ear. "What do you say to ditching them?"
She thought for a minute before throwing caution to the winds. She nodded, and he removed his hand from her mouth. However, she was still leaning against him, and his arm was around her waist. "Jaden's a bad influence on you."
He smiled angelically, even though she couldn't see his face. "Funny. And all this time, I thought it was me who was corrupting him. Let's go."
The door had closed behind Melissa Cromwell, the last person to enter the room. She was wearing a dark crimson dress and glancing around suspiciously, almost as if she suspected their escape.
"What if someone notices that we're gone?"
Zach smiled charmingly as he held his hand out to her. "Jade will cover for me, and Rei can cover for you! Unless..."
She looked at him suspiciously. Already, she could tell when he was plotting against her. "Unless what?"
"Unless you'd rather be in there exchanging catty comments about your clothing for tomorrow night instead of spending time with me." He raised his eyebrows suggestively. "Is there any chance you'll be telling me what you're wearing tomorrow?"
Ami laughed at him. "Not a chance! I don't even know what I'm wearing myself–it's Rei's Christmas present to me. Besides, I wouldn't tell you even if I knew. It'll be a new dress...I can only hope it's not red, low, or short."
"I don't know," he said thoughtfully, "the last two options don't sound too bad to me."
She smacked him lightly on the shoulder. "Yes, well, you would say so. We're friends now, remember? Friendship doesn't entail flirting unless you want to get on my bad side."
He smirked. "We're standing in a dark hallway, alone; I've abducted you from everyone else, and you're merely concerned about flirting?"
"There you go again," she sighed ruefully.
Sensing that he had reached the limit–for the moment–Zach grabbed her wrist. "Speaking of going, let's run for it–someone's coming!" They ran down the hall together, Ami following his lead. She was regretting wearing those white, slipper-like shoes now.
"Where are we going?" she asked when the coast was clear.
"Your room," he answered matter-of-factly.
"What?! No!" she protested, turning as red as a tomato.
He smirked at her. "I was only joking. But you seem awfully paranoid, Ami. Are you hiding something from me?"
She rolled her eyes and said crushingly, "Don't flatter yourself. If I needed to hide something, I wouldn't be concerned about you finding it."
Zach was just now adjusting to the discovery of the sharp edge of her tongue. At first, it astounded him, but he learned to see the gentler humor lurking in her eyes and smile. "What are you going to be?" he asked unexpectedly.
She opened her eyes wide. "What?"
"What type of career are you planning to pursue?" he droned, reciting the question his guidance counselor had asked him recently.
She laughed before answering, "I don't know, really."
Zach, whose green eyes had closed lazily, reopened them. "Come on, don't hold back. An academically-driven girl like yourself has to have a goal in mind."
Ami glanced at him suspiciously. They were standing in a hallway she was unfamiliar with (big surprise, considering the size of his house), and she leaned against the wall, placing her palms flat against it behind her. "What exactly do you mean by ‘academically-driven?'"
"Don't be modest. I've heard all about you–more along the lines of your grades." He grinned at her. "I'm still beating you in physics, by the way. You might want to pull your grades up a little."
She bridled at the insult. "Yes, well, we can't all be geniuses like you."
He moved closer to her, the laughter clear on his face. "It's so incredibly fun to provoke you. Don't be angry, Ames."
"Who have you been hearing about my grades from, anyway?"
He looked more amused than ever. "Oh, loads of people. Rei, Nevan... Most recently my mother."
She groaned. "Don't tell me your parents are in on it, too."
Zach blinked at her in confusion. "In on what?"
Ami flushed and moved away, even though they had been standing quite close together for the past five minutes and she'd had no problem with it then. "If you don't know, I'm not telling you," she said firmly.
"Aw...I can't believe someone's plotting something and I'm not in involved!" he complained.
"It wouldn't be logical for them to include you if you're one of their victims."
"Oh, that. I already know about that–the matchmaking plan, isn't it? It's hilarious."
She glared at him. "Figures that you'd be pleased about it."
He looked slightly hurt before he shrugged nonchalantly. "We've gone so far off-topic. Are you going to tell me or not?"
It was Ami's turn to be confused. "Tell you what?"
"What you want to be!"
She giggled at his exasperated tone. "You lose patience a lot quicker than I expected. How can you be so annoyingly persistent about certain things and have so little patience with other things? I want to...go to med school."
Zach raised his eyebrows, looking faintly surprised. "Going to be a surgeon?"
"No. I'd like to be a pediatrician and work with children."
"Hm. Well, that's nice...if you can stand the nasty little brats."
Ami laughed at him. "Now that's being hypocritical. If I recall correctly, you were one of those ‘nasty little brats' yourself nine years ago."
He smiled impishly. "I grew out of it. You, however, don't appear to have changed so much. Although I'm relieved to see–and hear–that you cry less."
"Hey! I'm also taller...more mature...and better able to take you down a few notches when you need it."
He smiled sleekly. "I noticed. Luckily for me, there is an up side to this whole maturing aspect–it's given you a splendid figure."
Ami's face crimsoned for the first time in awhile, and she turned away.
Infuriatingly–as usual–he just got in her face again. "You have to learn to take a compliment," he said seriously. But he soon resumed his joker conduct. "For example, I'll say, ‘Miss Mizuno-Anderson, I feel that you are a most attractive person.' You aren't supposed to blush now. You're supposed to respond, ‘Why, Mr. Coruni, how charming you are!'"
He mimicked the ridiculous speech of their elders so well that she giggled. Then he continued, "Or it could be this: ‘Ami, you look marvelous!' And you reply, "Thank you, Zach. You're a sharp dresser yourself.'"
He smiled smugly while she burst out laughing and swatted him on the arm. "Stop taking every opportunity to compliment yourself. It's not becoming."
Zach shrugged blithely. "I see that you're blushing less than usual–tonight must be a rarity. I'm such a good influence on you! Next lesson: when flattered by dashing, handsome young gentlemen, don't blush–accept the compliments as your due. You only blush when a) you're flirting, b) the man is actually some old fuddy duddy who's friends with your parents, or c) the compliment is meaningful. To the giver, I mean," he added after a moment.
Ami raised her eyebrows. He seemed unsettled. "Well, I can't say I've ever gotten many of those–meaningful compliments!" she joked cheerfully. There was a strange expression on his face that made the heat rise in her cheeks before she hastily changed the subject, with none of her usual ease and grace. "We've gotten off-topic. So what do you want to be?"
"I don't know."
"That's not fair...I told you!"
He turned to face her, a sober expression on his face. "I really don't know, Ami. If I did, I'd tell you–but I don't. It's sort of like your dress." He cheered up slightly then as they heard music drifting up from the floor beneath them. "Look, they've started caroling...man, they sound awful."
Ami hit him lightly. "That's not very nice. I doubt you could do much better. Don't be mean; it's Christmas Eve."
"I know. Everyone keeps reminding me."
"Then maybe you should start listening to them," she replied tartly. "It feels like we should be doing something...I don't know, special. Like sitting by the Christmas tree, watching the fire, putting up stockings." She flushed at his appalled look. Suddenly, he grinned in a way she wasn't sure she liked. "What are you thinking of now?"
Zach, who had been staring fixedly at the ceiling for the past thirty seconds, turned to face her. "Hm. Something special and out of the ordinary, is it? I think I can help you with that."
"Zach, I don't think that–why are you smiling like that?"
"Mistletoe."
"What? Oh..." She, too, looked up at the ceiling, where bunches of holly, evergreen cuttings, bows, and...mistletoe had been hung along the wall. Her heart suddenly seemed to be beating very quickly.
Slowly, he reached out to her, and she did not step away. His hands touched her face first: carefully, gently, intimately. As he cradled her face in her hands, Ami looked up into his eyes, barely breathing. He was no longer smiling; his eyes were intensely green as they probed the softer, uncertain blue depths of her own. As his lips touched hers, her eyes closed, and she felt an indescribable joy spiral upwards inside her.
Ah. Cursed, blessed mistletoe!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The next morning, when she shook Rei awake, she was still smiling. "Merry Christmas!"
The raven-haired girl rolled over with a groan. "No...sleep..."
"Rei, it's Christmas morning, and we only have a half an hour before breakfast."
That did the trick, but it didn't prevent Rei from glaring balefully at her cousin. However, she soon started to smile. Ami and Zach hadn't been present the night before, and she had been able to talk to Jaden as much as she wanted. They were in for a lovely surprise tonight...the thought never occurred to her that they had been together.
When Rei had thrown a robe over her nightgown and combed her hair a bit (grumbling about its length all the while), they made their way to their parents' room. Kira and Richard were already awake, and the gift exchange began.
Ami unwrapped the presents from her parents first, wanting to save Rei's for last. She had also resisted opening Mina's gift until now, preferring to wait until December twenty-fifth. Her father had given her a laptop, one of the newest models. She kissed him on the cheek, and he thanked her for the new briefcase she and Rei had chipped in for together. Kira had received a necklace and bracelet set from her husband, and they were sitting together hand-in-hand as Rei and Ami rolled their eyes at each other.
Ami read Mina's Christmas card, full of spirit and laughter. She pointed out a few misquotations to Rei, who laughed and showed her what Seren had given her–a cookbook entitled How to be a Domestic Goddess. "I think Meatball Head's trying to give a hint...the entire thing is on pastries and cakes and things like that. It's too bad for her that I can't make anything decent except tea!" Rei exclaimed.
Mina's gifts to Ami were a pretty silver bracelet, a framed picture of Mina, Ami, and Rei taken the last time they had hung out together, and a new bathing suit she wasn't sure she could wear ("I know you would have appreciated some book more, but this is a lot more fun and much less scary than Grendish!" she had written). Ami sweatdropped. She hoped Mina meant Grendel.
She checked the size tag on the swimsuit, wondering if she could say it wasn't her size–she was positive that Mina had purposely forgotten to put in a gift receipt...but then again, it was Mina...there was a slight possibility that she had actually forgotten. "How did she know my size?" she wondered out loud.
Rei grinned impishly. "I told her–actually, I was there when she picked it out last summer. We went shopping together while you and Nevan stayed in the bookstore. Don't you like it?"
"Um..yeah, I guess...but don't you think it's–"
"If you're not sure, you could always wear it for Zach and see what he says," she suggested with a mischievous look in her amethyst eyes.
Ami turned scarlet–she wondered if her neck was also burning red this time. She hadn't told Rei about last night...she had, in fact, lost track of how much time they had spent in the hallway wrapped up in each other–almost literally. "No. I don't want to go anywhere near him wearing that," she said firmly, putting the article of clothing back into its box.
Rei shrugged. "He's not so bad, is he? I think he's growing on you."
‘He was so close to me last night I'm surprised we're not permanently attached.' Ami mumbled something about how she supposed so and then unwrapped a small package wrapped in shimmery red paper. She caught her breath when a diamond necklace slithered out of the soft black pouch. "Mom?"
Kira smiled at her. "My mother gave me a diamond on my sixteenth birthday. I figured that both of you should get one on Christmas. It's a special one this year, isn't it?"
As Ami hugged her mother, she agreed silently. Rei was holding up her own necklace, looking at it without saying a word. Ami spotted the tears gathering at the corners of her eyes and quickly pulled Rei's giant green box towards her. Rei hated getting emotional in front of people. "Hm...should I be scared, Rei? I have a feeling that I'm putting my good-girl reputation on the line tonight."
"It's nothing to be scared of," Rei answered, swiping at her eyes before thanking her aunt and uncle. "Just open it already!" She sounded more like her usual self then.
Ami grinned and applied herself to undoing the complex bow. When she finally lifted the lid off to reveal the dress, she temporarily lost the power of speech. Rei smiled brightly and removed it for her, holding it up for inspection. "Well? What do you think?"
The dress was about knee-length with thin spaghetti straps. It was a gleaming, pale blue shade that she adored, and it shimmered softly in the light. There was a silver ribbon that tied in the back and would leave two shiny streamers trailing behind her that night. The top of the dress was form-fitting, but under the ribbon, the folds of the dress fanned out in filmy swathes. "Oh...Rei...I don't know what to say!"
"It's not red," Rei said helpfully, feeling slightly anxious.
She let out a strangled giggle. "No, it's not red. It's beautiful! Thank you so much, Rei."
The nervous expression on her face faded, and she smiled brightly. "I knew I had good taste!" she laughed. "Try on the shoes," she urged, "I want to make sure they fit."
Obediently, Ami riffled through the tissue paper until her hands contacted two hard objects. She pulled them out and looked at them closely–silver-colored, with heels. Heels that were much higher than what she was used to wearing...not that they were excessively tall; they were the type of shoes that Rei wore often and with no trouble at all. Ami preferred shoes with slightly lower heels, but she hoped she could manage for a night. The bright side of this was that she was usually the shortest girl in the group, but tonight, she could be taller.
It occurred to her that she might even be on eye level with Zach tonight. He wasn't extremely tall, perhaps of medium height for a guy. Not like Kunthan, who gave her neck aches when she had to look up at him all the time. It was lucky that Mina wasn't a shrimp like her, she thought.
"Great! They fit perfectly," Rei said, clapping her hands.
Ami looked down at her feet, suddenly drawn back to the present. "Oh, right!" she agreed, smiling somewhat dazedly.
Her cousin chattered on unconcernedly, even though she was watching Ami closely. ‘She won't know what hits her.'
"Now, we're all going to get ready together tonight! You'll let Serena do your hair, won't you? Even though she only puts her own in meatballs all the time, she can work wonders with hair. And Lita will join us, too."
Ami nodded, letting the enthusiastic stream of words flow by her. Even though she had been dreading the ball for the past week, she was actually looking forward to it now...
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Hello?"
"..."
"Yeah, it's me."
"..."
"Oh, hi, Christie. What's up?"
"..."
"Merry Christmas to you, too."
"..."
"So how've you been?"
"..."
"Yeah, I'm fine. No, I'm not dating anyone right now. Are you still dating Devon?"
"..."
"He what?"
"..."
"Yeah, of course I don't mind. It'll be just like old times. But this is just for a while, right? And so he doesn't make trouble for you?"
"..."
"No problem. Thursday at two? In front of Starbucks?"
"..."
"All right, I'll be there. See you then. Bye."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The gala would start around seven o'clock and last until past midnight; girls began retreating to their rooms and refusing to emerge starting at around three o'clock in the afternoon. Lita, Serena, Rei, and Ami were more restrained. After lunch, they spent the beginning of the afternoon hogging Jaden, Darien, and Zach, who were very happy to be monopolized.
They trooped around outside, turning red at the cheeks and ears, until an impromptu snowball fight began. It was girls against guys, and the latter won the expected, landslide victory.
Ami was laughing as Lita chased Jaden around for stuffing a snowball down her jacket, and Darien was standing with his arm around Serena. Zach stole the perfect opportunity and lobbed a snowball gently that hit Ami right in the face, exploding and plastering her with snow. Her mouth also filled with snow; she spit it out, wiping at her face.
Laughing, he clumped his way over to her and brushed away the snow with his scarf. He checked furtively to make sure no one was watching before kissing her quickly. "Ow, your lips are so cold!" he complained, pulling away.
"Well, who's fault is that?" she retorted before scooping up an armful of snow and dumping it on his head.
No one noticed that at one point during the fight, Jaden had Rei pinned against the ground and was kissing her amid the frenzy of snowballs being hurled every which way. Once everyone had regrouped, they were back to being their stilted selves, giving the impression that they were currently in an "off-again" phase of their relationship.
Dozing over her steaming mug of hot cocoa, Lita muttered to Serena, "You'd think that they'd at least get back together for Christmas."
The blond-haired girl nodded emphatically, squealing when Darien stole one of her marshmallows.
After they had finished their hot chocolate, they curled up in front of the fire to play a board game; because there were only five playing pieces, Ami and Zach occupied themselves with a game of chess. She won by a clever move and declared "Checkmate!" confidently.
He shook his head, baffled. "Wow. I didn't figure you for the chess-playing type."
She smiled that half-shy, half-mischievous smile. "Well, I didn't think you were ‘the chess-playing type' either. How long have you been playing?"
"Mm..I don't know. Middle school, maybe? I was bored and learned it off a computer game."
"Really? You taught yourself? Dad taught me, but he doesn't play much anymore. Rei thinks it's boring, and Mina got a little confused when I tried to explain it to her...but I've played with Kunthan before."
Looking up as Jaden won their game, Lita suggested, "Speaking of Kunthan and Mina, let's give those two lovebirds a call and make sure they're not up to anything."
A laughing conversation on the speaker phone (with everyone chiming in at once, making it almost impossible for anyone in particular to be heard) ascertained that Mina and Kunthan were enjoying a nice, safe holiday together. Kunthan's parents adored Mina (no surprise there), and she wanted him to meet her mother and father over spring break (he was a little nervous about that).
Just as they hung up the phone, Aileen and Kira came into the room with two heavy boxes in their arms. The boys gave them a hand, and the women beamed at the group. "Would you guys like to decorate the trees in the ballroom? We were thinking of asking all of the ‘younger generation,' but most of the girls seem to be up in their rooms, getting dressed."
They all thought that it would be a fun activity, and when Zach and Jaden threw open the doors dramatically, they knew that the ball would be a blast. There were two sparkling chandeliers, glistening in the afternoon sunlight. They would sparkle even more when the multitude of light bulbs nestled among the crystal pendants were lit. The ceiling was made of mirrors that would reflect the swirling dancers that night, and there were lots and lots of windows that stretched from the floor almost to the ceiling along the walls. The lights on the rose-colored walls were ornate, done in twisting flower patterns of pink and gold with green leaves.
"The place looks great!" Serena chirped. "Do you guys entertain here often?"
Jaden shook his head. "Nope. It's way too fancy for most things. But this year, Mom's started going on and on about having our wedding receptions here...she's gone completely nuts about it...it makes me seriously consider eloping."
There was one towering evergreen tree in the front of the ballroom, two smaller ones along the sides, and one medium-sized tree against the back wall. They agreed that they would trim the smaller trees first, in groups, before decorating the largest one together. Somehow, Ami and Zach found themselves together by a tree in the back. Serena and Darien were at one of the side trees; Jaden, Rei, and Lita worked on the other tree opposite to them together. Halfway through the decorating, Kira and Aileen arrived with more boxes, and everyone dug in eagerly to unearth the beautiful ornaments.
"Oh, look, stars!" Lita exclaimed, holding up the tree-toppers.
Darien and Jaden went off to get step stools while the rest of them continued decorating the trees. Zachary turned to Ami, holding up a string of lights with a rather bewildered expression on his face. "Um...I think we should've put these on first."
"It's all right. As long as we're careful around the ornaments, it should still look good."
Fifteen minutes later, Zach was holding one end of the lights, looking sheepish, while Ami and the tree were entangled in the other part of the strand. Lita, Rei, and Serena came over to enjoy the spectacle as he apologized, "Sorry...I'm not very adept at this."
"How did it happen??"
"I don't know! Stringing these lights are hard," he said defensively. "Turn around. No, other way. Okay. Get that piece out from under your arm..."
Just as Ami was finished spinning around and stumbled into Zach, Darien and Jaden reappeared with two stools. Jaden snickered at the scene. "Are you practicing for tonight? Because if you are, I'd advise you to be a little more careful, Zach. Twirling your partner doesn't mean she has to fall into you."
Zach gave him an evil glare, and they started putting two angels on the side trees. As Darien and Serena were hanging the silver star at the top of the tree in the back, the others moved to the front. "Okay, who's doing it? Someone tall–"
"And not too heavy," Jaden added. To prove his point, the back stool suddenly folded in on itself and collapsed, dumping Darien on the ground. "Darien? Are you all right?"
After a probing glance, Rei turned away. "Yeah, he has Sere to fuss over him. He'll be fine. Why don't you do it, Lita?"
The brunette shrugged. "Sure." As she was trying to maneuver the golden star into place, it suddenly slipped through her fingers and bonked Zach on the head.
"Ouch!" he yelled, rubbing his head.
"Oh, sorry!" Lita called.
Jaden walked over to him and said in a serious voice, "Zach, how many fingers am I holding up?"
He blinked once, feeling slightly cross-eyed, before he shoved his brother's hand away. "One, you idiot!"
"Just checking."
He snickered as Darien laughed good-naturedly, but Rei rolled her eyes. "Please, let's be a little more mature than that. Zach is fine–it's not like losing a few brain cells is going to affect him."
"Are you sure? He might not have any left!" Jaden joked as Zach shoved him.
While that inflammatory debate was going on, Ami picked up the star and gave it back to Lita, who put it up with no further mishaps. She climbed down, surveyed the room, and nodded happily. "Looks good!"
Rei detached herself from the argument between Jaden and Zach and checked her watch. "Five o'clock. Let's go, guys."
"What? Already?" Jaden said, looking disappointed.
Serena stuck her tongue out at him. "Other people need four hours, you know. Be glad we're restrained and are only using two."
"But...can't you go just are you? I mean, you'll look beautiful, no matter how much time you take."
Jaden and Zach exchanged appalled looks. Was this guy for real??
The girls were also asking themselves the same question but with different sentiment behind it. Lita, starry-eyed, turned to Serena. "Oh, you're so lucky to have a guy like that!"
He blushed as the two blondes shot him annoyed looks. "What's wrong with you, Darien?!"
Serena, meanwhile, threw her arms around her hapless boyfriend. "You're so sweet, Muffin!"
"I changed my mind," Jaden choked out through gasps as he laughed hard, "I don't envy you anymore."
Rei, looking more than a little annoyed, said, "Nice try but no cigar, Darien. We're leaving no matter what. And you two morons–try to look presentable tonight, won't you?"
Trying to keep a straight face, Zach replied, "We'll do our best, Rei."
"Now that you mention it," his brother added mock-thoughtfully, "we might still have our Halloween costumes around. I wonder if they still fit?"
Lita made a face. "Please tell me you threw those disgusting creations of yours away."
"What were they?" Serena asked curiously.
"I don't think I really want to know," Rei sighed.
"Swamp monsters. They used real sludge."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
AN: I'm so sorry we didn't intersect the ball yet ^^;; but it was fun anyway, right? I promise that sometime this week (probably Friday or close to it) the next chapter will be posted. It was originally one big monster (maybe 4x the size of a normal chapter), so I cut it in half and have to finish the last chunk...
I'm sorry it's taken me forever to update >.< but thanks to Kaze, K. Wyse, and Yoshi for prodding me to update! ^.~
Overall, it is a sappy and fluffy chapter (next chapter's even worse)–but HP 5 depressed me, so–yay! But hey...fluff is good! Of course, the season's all wrong ^^;; I should be writing this around Christmastime, not in this sweltering heat...
~Ice
P.S. Thanks a bunch to readers and reviewers!
Mainpage: Love at Fifth Sight
