TWENTY

There was a loud thumping sound as Amane continually punched a heavy bag in the centre, wearing it away and creating leaks in the fabric and his sanity, he had been non-stop preparing for that rematch, to continue his life the way it was, they way it should have been in the first place...

The bag stopped shaking as someone held it from behind, then Amane said,"Be careful you don't hurt yourself."

"Don't worry bro, I will."

Amane turned to face Lee and frowned, instantly punched him, hard, right in the nose and pounced on him, roaring at him, demanding his reason for not preparing.

Scarlet Sapphira and Akane wanted to do something, but Ruby held them back, they had to settle this, like men...

"Amane, I'm not going to fight you in the ring."

"So you want to do it here? Fine..."

"I'm not fighting you at all...I came to apologize...Amane, you have been the best friend I have ever had in my life and more than a friend, a partner...but I betrayed you and your trust, when all you did was help me, I wanted to get back together more than anything, but I know things wouldn't work between us, because you should be with someone else...with her."

Amane's eyes darted to Scarlet Sapphira, but he frowned and looked back at Lee then said,"The very person who made you stab me in the back?! Why the heck do you think I'll go out with her?!"

"Because you also loved her...even when you were with me, I'm straight now so there's no way we could get back together, unless maybe, as friends."

Amane frowned then said,"You know I'm still going to have to beat you up for this."

"Of course."

"And you'll fight back and make it look good."

"Till I win."

Amane smirked then pulled him up by the hand and said,"Then friends, we are...but I only go out with guys..."

He then walked away and Scarlet Sapphira was about to do same when Ruby pulled her back and said,"It's your turn..."

Amane lifted a barbell of about twice his body weight above his head and dropped it when he had enough, then Scarlet Sapphira picked it up with one arm and placed it back on the stand to sit by him, leaving him absolutely shocked.

She nervously shuffled her feet, then sighed and said,"I'm sorry I came between you two, I just overheard you guys talking about the bet and thought that as a good opportunity to get back at Red Briar for stealing my brother from me... and I know I was wrong to do that."

"But what I did was..."

"Shut up, I'm still talking...I was mean, cruel, wicked, manipulative, unemotional, tyrannical and most of all, bad..."

"Are you trying to manipulate me right now?"He asked.

"Is it working?"She asked.

He kissed her red locks and asked,"Why don't you go on and find out?"

***

The mansion doorbell rang and I went to answer as one, two, three, four and a half?

"Woah, woah, woah, woah, hold your horses young man... what's your name?"

"Amane Bushida."

"Age?"

"Twenty in three months."

"Height? Girth? Body fat percentage?"

Rose yelled my name, but without looking I said,"Silence woman, the men are talking."

She looked at me, shrugged as he answered in succession,"Six foot six, pecs are 42 inches, waist is 32, arms are 15.6 inches and ten percent last time I checked."

"When was that?"

"This morning."

"Wow, you really... really monitor your weight, fine, it's time for the lightning round...where were you born? Where did you grow up? Where did you meet my daughter? Which animal has the longest migratory route and what is the time on the Greenwich meridian as compared to now?"

"Addis Ababa Ethiopia, I grew up moving from place to place but spent most of my youth in Tokyo Japan, on my first day of my school exchange at approximately seven twenty ante meridiem, the Arctic tern on their unusually jagged path from Greenland to Antarctica over a distance of three hundred miles and judging by the time of day... three thirty-six post meridiem, EST and two thirty-six post meridiem EDT."

I looked at him then at Rose, who had already known this would happen and gave her a look of respect and nodded, impressed then yelled,"Welcome to the family boyo!"

He slightly tensed as the man who was literally half his height encased him in a tight cocoon of a hug, then when I had begun dragging him away, he gave Scarlet Sapphira a look and she mouthed,"My dad."

He actually cringed.

I then started wobbling my fists in the air and said,"So I heard you're an MMA specialist, well I may know a thing or two about wearing some gloves, you know what I mean?"

After punching his shoulder as hard as I could and getting absolutely no result, I asked him to give mine a try, and everyone seemed to beg him to do it, so he threw a medium- low forced fist and my last words were,"I bruise easily..."

After Scarlet Sapphira and Amane were reunited once more from the ends of the earth, he placed his nose on hers, then rested his chin on the crown of her forehead while breathing slowly and she asked,"What's wrong?"

"I only came with Lee to stay for a few months, in a week, that time will be over...I still have things to do, but that means..."

"This is goodbye..."She said.

***

"This is goodbye..."She said.

"No, this is..."He said.

He drew nearer and gave her her first kiss on the lips, and it was magical, the entire cheering crowd seemed non-existent as she felt the soft and comfortable clouds of his lips...

When he pulled back, he said,"Goodbye..."

She looked at him as he walked out the door, then he came back and asked,"Unless..."

"... I'm coming too..."She blurted out.

He smirked then looked to see if he had our approval and Rose spoke,"Well, summer's coming in about two weeks, I think she could just skip one, she already does top all her classes."

I came back with a black eye then said,"But don't you dare bring her back here with some random kid sprawling around my daughter as HER kid otherwise I'll bust you up like a...daah!"

This time Rose yanked me out of the screen.

Walking out the door, while holding Scarlet Sapphira's only traveling bag, which was even half filled at that, my daughter waved at me and I felt that she was all grown up, she was sixteen for Pete's sakes.

I would have cried if my own tears didn't burn my eye like acid.

Amane gently took the bag from Scarlet Sapphira and put it in the trunk of the car when she kissed him on his cheek then flustered and surprised for a moment, he smiled at her.

After opening the door for her, he also got in and they drove away...

On the drive, Scarlet Sapphira then asked,"So, where are we going?"

"Mount Fuji...first."

She smiled as he placed an arm over her shoulder and they rode off into the sunset...