How Things Changed Forever...

Ch 28: Changes

Ray quickly lowered his eyes to his plate, feeling terribly flustered. This was the was the fourth time he was caught staring at Mariah. Well, the fourth time she actually caught him doing it. He felt horribly stupid as he felt intense her gaze on him, suppressing her laugh at his expense. 

He tried concentrating on his Aunt Rosa's words, muttering a 'yeah' here and there, as she continued telling him of her Floral Studio, but he didn't register much. He had to consciously restrain his eyes from going back to Mariah. 

It wasn't exactly his fault, you see. When Mariah had first arrived at Tokyo, nearly ten days ago,  she looked just like the girl he remembered. Her golden eyes, her cat-like smile, her pale pink outfit clashing terribly against her hair. Her hot-pink, extremely-long hair free to sway in the wind, her favourite bandana holding it back. 

She had expressed her wish to blend into the city world, now that she was sure that she was staying here for a pretty long time. And our over-enthusiastic aunt had given her a complete make-over. Sitting at his left, Mariah wore a plain white top and a black jeans. Her hair was no longer as long as it used to be, but they could still be considered long by normal standards, reaching her elbows. She wore it into an updo these days. The only jewellery she had on was a small pendent of a curled-up cat in black and gold.

******

It was the first gift he had given her just after the First World Championship he had won as a Blade-breaker, exactly a month before they started dating each other. Yes, they had been dating each other for more than half an year now. When Mariah had confessed of her crush on him at the Asian tournament, he hadn't  known what to do about it. He had promised her that she was very much one of the most important people in his life, and that was all he had thought about her till then. 

In his complete dedication and devotion to his goal till then, he had never thought about his romantic interests like a fifteen-year-old teen normally would . Only when he returned to the village, finally achieving his dream of becoming the world champion, did he realise that he very much reciprocated her feelings. 

He'll admit it, he had completely freaked out. Things had finally started looking good for him and the white tigers, both the team and the village. They were very much ready to accept him back into the clan, even though he had run away more than a year ago. But they had withheld judgement whether he would be the next Village Chief or not, which was fine by him. Another year of carefree life according to him. 

The team had slowly accepted him as a friend again, the first one being Lee. Mariah had once again started being her old fierce self in his presence, which was what he loved the most in her. Though there weren't any restrictions on dating people in his clan, as long as they were of the same village, or a relative of the villagers, but he hadn't wanted to strain his friendship with Lee, Mariah's elder brother and his best friend, as he didn't clearly know whether he favoured them together or not.  And he definitely didn't want things to go back to awkward between himself and Mariah again. 

So he did the first thing that came to his mind. He sought his friends' permission to ask his sister out. He had never seen Lee laugh so hard. He had felt incredibly stupid standing there,  waiting for Lee to gain control, all the time blaming Tyson for rubbing his stupidity on him. Lee wouldn't let him hear the end of it for a week. Finally, he had gained his blessings. 

Asking Mariah out was a lot simpler. They had casually been talking at one of their favorite waterfalls during a picnic. He had been in the middle of explaining their encounter with the 'Dark-bladers' when he had suddenly taken her hand and confessed his feelings. She had reciprocated his feelings without a hint of hesitation. She had looked highly flustered later on, when they announced their relationship status and Lee told her about their previous encounter, despite Ray's pleading and furious glares.