On Tuesday, Neko and Mi-chan opened their neighboring lockers and were surprised by the balloons that flew out of both of them.
"Oh!" they both yelled.
"Do you think it was the 'boys'?" Mi-chan asked.
Neko thought about how Tenshi and Jian-wa had told them that they were going to hang out together at the arcade yesterday. "I think it was a conspiracy. Not very sporting, considering they know we can't jump back in surprise," she pointed out.
Mi-chan sneezed. She was allergic to love letters. "Jian-kun left me a card. Oh, and roses."
Neko looked in her locker. "Ara, Tenshi-kun did too."
"Left them for me?"
Neko stuck her tongue out at her. "Did Jian-kun leave your present in there?" She peered around the locker door.
"Back! Or I'll hit you with my crutch."
"Gomen."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Neither Jian-wa nor Tenshi had left their presents in their lockers. They had both asked the twins to stick around after school. Not only did they want to give the girls' their presents, but Ami and Ryo, figuring that the girls' loves had their own plans for the twins' birthday, had informed Tenshi and Jian-wa that they were planning a surprise party for them. Tenshi asked if Neko would hang around during pole vault, and Jian-wa had written that he would take Mi-chan out as soon as school was over, since she couldn't fence with that ankle.
Jian-wa waited outside the autoshop classroom for Mi-chan. He planned to give her his present, but after that, he was going to have to find some way to occupy their time before he had to get her to the party. It was supposed to be after the girls' activities originally, so now he and Mi-chan would have lots of time to hang out.
Finally, Mi-chan hobbled out of class. "What's up?"
"I want to give you your present. Will you come with me?"
"Depends on how fast you're walking," she joked. She hated being on crutches, so she was trying to make light of it.
He smiled. "Ok, follow me." He took her book bag from her. "I'll carry this."
"Ara! How chilvarous!"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
She hadn't known he wanted her to come up to the roof of the gym. Not that she would have minded normally, but with the crutches�.
She knew why he had brought her here, though. This was where they had made up. Where they had confessed their feelings. Where they had kissed.
"Lots of work for a birthday present," she said in mock-complaint.
But any actual annoyance that she might of felt was forgotten when she saw her present.
The roof had a raised portion where the skylight was over the pool. There hanging on that wall was the most beautiful dress Mi-chan had ever seen.
The dress was long with a flowy skirt. The top of the dress was dark blue with white flowers outlined in beads. As Mi-chan's eye traveled down the dress, the color gradually turned to ice blue and then transformed back to the dark blue towards the bottom. A layer of veil netting was over the skirt, covered in the same beads in a white flower pattern as at the top. The netting had a slit in the front to make it easier to move in the dress, as well as allowing one to see the skirt underneath more easily. It looked like something a princess would wear. And at the base of the dress, there were some beautiful shoes to match.
"Oh, Jian-kun!" she breathed.
He looked slightly uncomfortable. "I was going to take you dancing today, since I ruined the last dance we had, but now I can't. Gomen."
As she moved closer, she noticed there was something else hanging on the hanger with the dress. She realized that it was a necklace and upon picking it up to look at it, that it was a locket. She opened it.
There were two pictures already in it.
"Where'd these come from?" She recognized one of them as her when she was about three. In fact, she was pretty sure that it was a picture taken on the day Chibi was born.
"Ano, Neko gave me that one. She made a copy of it so I could cut it up and put it there. And the other one�." He pointed to the other picture, which was of a little boy. "My oba-san was going through her attic and found some letters that Petz had sent her. She sent a letter and a picture twice a year between the time I was born and when she died. This was the last one, and Cooan-san predicted that I was about 2� or 3." He took her hand. "You said that that's about how old we were when we met in your dreams. So now our young selves can be together, since they never met in real life. I mean, just think of how much happiness he'd miss if he has to wait another 14 years to find her."
Mi-chan thought that was the most romantic thing she had ever heard.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Tenshi landed in the pit, happy that she had done better today than on Thursday.
She was also happy to be done.
"Need a hand?" asked the beautiful voice of her girlfriend.
Tenshi thought about the trouble she'd had last week. "Yeah, that'd be great."
"Too bad. The doctor says I'm not allowed to bend over."
Tenshi got out of the pit with no trouble. "Okay, let's go!"
"Hey, Mizuno-san!"
Neko turned to see her coach, running towards them. She felt she should apologize to him for not being able to practice. Again.
"Gomen, Coach. I didn't want to risk tearing my stitches." Not that she'd do well vaulting today anyway.
"Oh, that's fine. I wanted to know if you were going to be all right before Regionals."
"Regionals?"
