dojima_hime | Verona, Thursday Evening

It was the evening of Christmas Day, and after too much of everything -- too many relatives, too much food, too many gifts, and far too much church even for Romeo's tastes -- Romeo and Yurika were finally, blissfully alone. Benvolio and Rosaline had been kind enough to give them a room together with no comment (besides a faint blush from Rosaline) and they had a day and more to relax before their portal back to Fandom.

Romeo collapsed on the velvet bedspread, staring at the ceiling. "So, that was Christmas in Verona," he informed Yurika. "Was it too much of a trial?"

Dōjima Yurika	Yurika kicked off her heels and crawled on to the bed to join him. "You haven't gotten in any fistfights while I wasn't looking?" she teased, curling up next to him. "I didn't accidentally cause any major scandals? I think we might be able to mark this one down in the 'win' category."
Romeo Montague	"No fistfights, no scandals, the Capulets ignored me, and you made it through the church services without giggling or falling asleep," Romeo noted, inclining his head closer to her so they could touch. "I would call it a win, and a Christmas miracle at that."
Dōjima	"I wasn't going to fall asleep!" Yurika protested indignantly. "The church was all very pretty!" If a bit nonsensical, but she wasn't going to say that. Being close was nice, and she reached up one hand to play with his hair. "Hai, a miracle just for us," she agreed with a smile. "Are you enjoying yourself?"
Romeo	"I am," Romeo admitted. "I'm home, it's Christmas, and ... you know this means we've been in Fandom a year." There was a tone of wonder in his voice at that. "Are you?"
Dōjima	"Not quite a year," Yurika corrected with a laugh. "I seem to remember battling a wicked New Year's hangover when my father yanked my blanket off my bed and announced I had been expelled, again, and I was going to a new boarding school in the States." She had set the whole thing up with Father Juliano, true, but it had still been a real hangover. "I am." Yurika tried to cuddle a bit closer and giggled. "I like Ben and Rosaline, and it's nice to see them again."
Romeo	"A year when the semester starts again, then," Romeo conceded. "My father told me the day after Christmas. I was hiding, supposed to be banished, and the authorities made him know that if he kept me in hiding things would get very bad for all of us." He paused, the story seeming a few thousand years away. "At the time I hated him."
Dōjima	"And now?" Normally, Yurika tended to steer their conversations away from anything that might make him melancholy, but she was curious. "The East Coast not as bad as you thought it would be?"
Romeo	He leaned in to kiss her. "There are compensations," he said. "And do you still think Americans are barbarians?"
Dōjima	"There are compensations," she answered glibly, claiming that kiss. "I still maintain that the vast majority of you are lunatics, but there's potential."
Romeo	"I can be a lunatic with potential if that's what you want of me," Romeo told her, returning an extra kiss for good measure. "Hopefully not the potential to land in a madhouse, though, I've no interest in that."
Dōjima	"I should be more careful, really," she answered, kissing him back for a bit longer than necessary. "It's a contagious insanity; I seem to have caught a little bit of it from an American boy with very pretty eyes."
Romeo	"It's a disease I don't mind having," Romeo mooned. "Which reminds me, I've one last gift for you. I didn't want to give it in front of my family."
Dōjima	Yurika pulled back slightly, watching him with a combination of suspicion and mischief in her eyes. "Now I'm curious," she said. "What did you get me that can't be seen by your cousin or his wife?" If it was dirty, she was going to tease him to no end.
Romeo	"It's nothing dirty," he said, as if reading her mind, and he leaned off the bed to grapple in the suitcase for a small box. "I just know they'll think it means something it doesn't mean." He handed her the tiny package. True to form, he'd used far too much tape on it.
Dōjima	There was a box. A little box, which usually meant something shiny of some type, and Yurika sent up a silent prayer as she sat up to open it that it was the necklace to match the earrings he'd given her as an anniversary gift. Please let it be a necklace. Yurika carefully opened up the box lid, then let out a surprised squeak and closed it quickly. "Nande ya nen! You are nuts! You can't give me this, it's too expensive!" Although now she definately knew why he couldn't give it to her with his family around.
Romeo	"The money's no matter," Romeo said seriously, and it wasn't, really. He leaned himself up on one elbow, considering how to explain what he knew was an extravagant gift. Though not so much, if it was (as he feared) the only chance he got to give her one. And if it was, he wanted her to have something really good to remember him by. "Ignore the money," he said again instead. "Do you like it? It's for your right hand, of course."
Dōjima	"Romeo, I can't," she protested weakly. "I mean, it's gorgeous, it really is, but I don't have any business wearing something that beautiful." And he didn't mean it as a ring in that way, or didn't seem to, anyway. He was crazy. Completely crazy.
Romeo	"It's no more beautiful than you are," Romeo said, flattery beside the point. "Truly, love, if you'd rather somethimg simpler we can go to the jewler's and pick one out together. But I would like you to have that one."
Dōjima	"But why?" Yurika peeked inside the box again and blushed. He was rather good with the flattery, even when he wasn't trying. "I'm serious, koibito, I don't need anything this fancy. You already spoil me rotten."
Romeo	"Because, love, after graduation you go back to your world," Romeo finally, gently explained. "And I'm likely to go back to mine, as things stand now. And I wanted you to have a ridiculous gift to make up for all the Christmases we may have to spend apart. Consider it every gift you would get until we were old, because I love you that much now."
Dōjima	There was a long pause as Yurika looked at the box, processing what he had said. Crazy, impulsive, romantic, foolish, hopelessly mad poet. That's what he was. Yurika took a deep breath and held out the box, meeting his eyes steadily. "Well, then," she said. "Aren't you supposed to put it on me?"
Romeo	He took an equally deep breath and looked into those blue eyes he loved so much. "That is how it often works," he said. With slightly trembling hands, he slid the ruby onto her right ring finger.
Dōjima	She watched intently as he settled the ring on to her hand, and bit back the urge to giggle uncontrollably. "It's beautiful," she murmured, leaning in to reward him with a kiss. "Arigato, Romeo."
Romeo	The ring looked just right on her hand. "Dou itashi mashite, Yurika. Merry Christmas," he returned solemnly, but happily claimed the kiss.
Dōjima	Yurika would happily kiss him for the rest of the evening. He deserved it. "Merry Christmas," she answered, a giggle escaping from her lips. "Your accent keeps getting cleaner; have you been practicing?"
Romeo	"No," he lied, looking pleased, then reconsidered. "Perhaps a little." He'd been spending time with "Teach Yourself Japanese" tapes for months and was glad it was finally paying off.
Dōjima	"Mmm." Yurika reached out to entwine his fingers with hers, and smiled. "I'll have to start watching what I say around you. I don't want you to pick up any bad habits." No more swearing. Well, less-swearing, anyway. She glanced down at her hand again and blushed. "You know I can't wear this around campus all the time, right?" she asked quietly. "Or everyone's going to assume it's something that it's not."
Romeo	Romeo considered that for a long moment. "Even on your right hand?" he asked weakly, knowing she was right.
Dōjima	Yurika favored him with a Look before giving him a quick kiss on the nose. "But now I have something to try and match my dress to for the Valentine's Dance," she said impishly. She could probably (hopefully) get away with wearing it during special events and things like that without anyone reading too much into it. "Assuming, of course, there is a dance and I manage to find a date. It's still a few months off, you know."
Romeo	"I might know someone who would ask you," Romeo told her coyly. "Though it is, as you say, months away."
Dōjima	"I have an admirer, huh?" she teased, nuzzling lightly at his neck. "Maybe if I find out who it is, I'll turn the tables and ask him to the dance! I hear boys like girls that are a little bit forward."
Romeo	Romeo turned to nuzzle her back. "There is a certain appeal to boldness in a girl, and a lack of false coyness," he said, lips buzzing against her skin.
Dōjima	Yurika chuckled and nipped lightly at his ear. "Then I hope you'll find my boldness appealing," she replied, tangling her fingers in his shirt to pull them both farther onto the bed. "It happens to be one of my specialties." With that, she shifted to capture his lips with her own. Yurika had a few more 'gifts' she wanted to give him tonight, and now seemed like a very good time to start. [FTB]