397 Chapter five, 2017, leverage: 7

Christina was discharged from the hospital the same evening as the attack, but Ryu had to stay two nights.

Ulf wondered where things had gone wrong, and now, a full week later with finals looming on the horizon he felt the need to be at several places at once.

Kareyoshi had to go. This time Ulf hadn't even pretended to be as meek as he usually was when Amaya turned grumpy. He even skipped the 'mother dear' part when he demanded to know what happened to the men who attacked Christina.

Amaya sulked since three days, but Ulf got a full feed of news. Assaulting an arrival was apparently a no-go, and this was the third time Kareyoshi had been involved.

Ulf found himself rushing between meetings. Nakagawa, the Wakayama parents, Sano, the creepy duo representing Swedish interests, the Swedish university students, the club, and somewhere in all that he tried to squeeze in time for Noriko and himself to be alone as well as time for studying and training.

Right now he sat beneath the windows in his classroom with Noriko snuggled up using him as her backrest.

Yukio would have been proud. An unseasonal spell of relative warmth allowed them to keep the windows ajar, and the curtains bulged around them like slowly moving clouds indoors. Yukio would have been extremely proud. Even Ulf knew enough manga to understand that the scene deserved a full page.

He was dead tired and dug his nose into her hair. For the first time since forever he just relaxed and enjoyed doing nothing together with the person he needed closest to him.

She healed him, or maybe, as Noriko surprisingly had suggested, Christina did the healing, and Noriko herself enjoyed the rewards. Ulf didn't agree. He could feel how Noriko made him whole again in a way he hadn't been since his daughter died. Maybe Christina had started that process, but Ulf knew the day when he was fully healed still lay ahead of him.

It scared him. Not that he had broken apart at the death of his child, but that he hadn't noticed how broken he became. His pride lay in knowing himself, and he hadn't.

"Sleeping?"

Ulf hugged Noriko closer. He could feel her breasts under his arms but pretended he didn't notice. "No, just enjoying what you're giving me."

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She didn't move away, so Ulf guessed she pretended as well. Her face turned upwards and her hair caressed him. It was longer now than last summer. Then she turned her head and Ulf felt small hands grabbing his neck. Hungry lips sought his.

"What we're sharing," she said after the kiss. "Not giving or taking. You said so yourself."

Somehow she managed to turn around in their embrace, and now she sat straddling one of his legs. There was nothing sexual about it, or at least mostly nothing. He'd be lying if he said he didn't notice what pressed against his thigh, but there was no intention.

Ulf hugged her closer and rested his face on her shoulder. "I'm happy you never gave up on me. Thank you!"

"Worth waiting for," she answered, and he could hear how hoarse her voice had become despite her whispering. "Worth waiting for," she repeated. She started shaking in his arms. "Worth waiting for."

He let her cry against him. Too much tension during the autumn, and now when the two of them finally found a moment to relax it all ran off her. He felt no sorrow in her tears. Relief, happiness and a lot of love all mixed together reached him through her sobs.

He just held her and kept his silence.

A moment of shared solitude. A moment of bliss. A moment to call their own. A moment, he hoped, that would stay with him for long years to come.

They fell asleep in each others arms. When Ulf woke dusk was rapidly cloaking the room in ever fading light and he shook Noriko awake as well.

"Time to go," he said.

She blinked back at him through unruly hair and shook her head. "Just a little more." Her arms wrapped around him again.

They sat on the floor until all daylight had vanished and temperature dropped.

With a little regret Ulf loosened himself from her embrace, rose and began closing the windows. He took her hand and together they made their way down to the shoe lockers. A bit guiltily he helped Noriko climb the closed gates to the school before he pushed at the rails with both hands and rolled over to the other side.

"Wow!"

It had been deliberate, and Ulf greedily drank Noriko's admiration. 'I used to like showing off like this back in the days as well.' It had worked to a degree. He wasn't a real athlete in any of his lives, and Noriko grew up with Ryu who definitely was.

"Wow what?" Ulf said, trying his best to sound nonchalant.

"You really are as strong as you're clumsy."

'So much for impressing your girl.' He smirked. "I made it, didn't I?"

"Idiot bro would have..."

"Yeah, I realised myself," Ulf interrupted her. "Just felt like it," he added and took her hand. "Eight o'clock, at Waseda," her reminded her.

They had a rather well paid two hours of work ahead of them. A hundred thousand, and he needed those jobs since studying and running between meetings cut into the time he had available for customers. With a bit of luck it would lead to more short stunts like this one.

They walked under trees dressed for the coming winter, along more and more heavily trafficked streets until they arrived at the station. For once they took the same train, and Ulf thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to spend a little more time with her. It didn't matter that the train was crammed. Right now it was easy to pretend that it was just the two of them going somewhere, anywhere.