It was a heady feeling to be out in the big world in terms of adulting. Haruo, River, Bebe and Torao were pumped to be away from the parents and doing what they needed to do to get ahead in life.
University was a step in the direction in which they wanted to send their life. The classes and studying they had to put in would prepare them for the rest of their life; their experiences governing the direction of their subsequent failures or successes. It would behoove them to work hard and not be too inclined to party the nights away.
There had been a long conversation over lunch and they’d come to the mutual decision to enroll immediately. This would get their education on track quickly and get them their university degrees. So after lunch, they decided to walk down to the university administration building.
“I think athletics is worth taking.” Haruo informed the rest. “It’s something I like doing and frankly, if it comes down to it, I can teach Phys-Ed in Sunset Valley Secondary.” He looked over at the spires up above and marveled that the school had been established in 1908, eighty plus years ago. Man, this building is ooold. Haruo thought to himself.
“So when is hockey practice for you?” River inquired.
“Practice is at five in the morning; five days a week, goes for two hours, get a shower and then head to class. I think the T-Birds have power-play drills tomorrow morning, at least as far as Coach Kelley says. “I gotta re-tape my stick, the tape’s going on it; getting worn from practicing slap-shots and get some tape wax.” River smiled at Haruo as he went through some of the stuff he had to do before he got on the ice.
“When’s the first game, Honey?” River looked at the T-Bird’s schedule that she purloined from Haruo’s hand.
“Four days from now. babe. Exhibition against U of A Golden Bears. (University of Alberta), Coach had a sit down intro to performance expectations on the ice. You get cut if your mark goes below a B average.”
“Ouch!” Torao said. “That’s a rough guideline to hold up to.”
“Naw 3.5 in academics shouldn’t be hard to maintain if I crack the books. The worry’s if I get injured during the season. Rehab will cut into my study time. It would matter if I wanted to make the A or get signed on to an NHL team, but I’m just doing this for the varsity letter and the connections that it’ll give me in the future.”
“So…you’re just milkin’ it for the benefits, huh?” Bebe teased him. Haruo pantomimed shock and let out a small “oh…” and all of them laughed.
“Hey, an CICHL (Canadian Inter-Collegiate Hockey League) Championship is nothing to sneeze at.” Haruo pretended to be offended. That caused another outburst of laughter.
Registration at the Admin building was quick. Haruo had a few changes to his schedule now that Coach had drafted his schedule of practices. One of his Athletics department courses would have conflicted. But now he had a schedule that worked for what he needed.
And early morning practices were going to be hell to get up for but he’d signed on the dotted line. He was a second pairing defenseman and could look at about seven to ten minutes of ice time a shift depending on the line-matchups with the other team. He was paired with a six-two bruiser of a d-man and they both checked hard so Coach Kelley was going to put them out against the top-line of opposition teams to forecheck and blunt their attack into the blue-line. Campbell’s role was to stand in front of the goalie and knock opposition forwards who tried to screen the crease.
At least that was the plan.
Bebe’s stomach chose that moment to complain. “Oh jeez, that was embarrassing.” She flushed pink.
“Guess we’re all hungry.” Torao grinned at her. “Where to?”
“I thought I saw a burger joint around here somewhere.” Haruo stated. “…y’know…when we were driving in.
“Yeah down by the first corner. Right across from the theatre.” Bebe said. “I saw it. Haruo was too busy with the rental truck.”
“There really isn’t much other than that; other than a cafeteria that sells snacks. There really isn’t much of a grocery store, except on the other end of town.” River added.
They all finally agreed to get burgers over at the fast food joint. They felt that it was a good idea to make sure they ate well considering that they would be making their new accommodations livable. Unpacking would take them the rest of the day.
As Haruo approached the restaurant, a blonde middle-aged woman was eying him like this morning’s prime Grade A beef sirloin steak. As River was following right behind him, she caught the woman’s interested gaze at her fiancé and barely restrained herself from saying “Hey witch, keep your cougar eyeballs to yourself. Get yourself your own man. You cradle-snatching tramp.”
Let’s just say that River had no intention of letting anyone near her man and she had a pretty vicious right hook as several girls found out who tried to bully her in high school. And frankly now that it was official that she was getting married to Haruo when they returned to Sunset Valley from UBC, there was no bloody way she was going to let anyone try to get in between her and her fiancé. Anyone who tried would find out the hard way that River McIrish, soon to be River McIrish-Chikamori was no pushover.
River gave the woman a cold stare as she went by her in challenge.
The four went into the restaurant and picked a table; evidently their specialty was the taco burger with taco sauce and a half oz. burger slathered in guacamole and and salsa. Torao and River decided on that burger while Bebe opted for the Swiss Mushroom and Haruo decided on the Hawaiian burger which had three slices of bacon, a pineapple ring slathered in Polynesian sauce on yet another flame-grilled half oz. patty.
The aromas emanating from the kitchen of the restaurant were making their mouths water and Haruo was glad that the wait wasn’t too long. In fact they all headed to the drink fountain to get their drinks before collecting their burgers and fries. The buns and patties measured at least four and a half inches across so they were big burgers.
“So tomorrow’s gonna be a rush out the door, eh?” Bebe grinned. “First class for all of us is at 8.”
“Speak for yourself, my ass has to be on the ice by five in the morning so my butt has to be out of bed at four. Two hour practice, get out of my gear and take a shower. Then hustle my butt to class.”
“Awwww….” River grinned at him. “Such a hard life…”. She teased him playfully.
“Hockey is life…” Haruo grinned back at her.
“And the macho chest-beating starts…” Torao interrupted Haruo’s train of thought as he was about to pontificate on the excitement that was inherent in lacing up the skates, grabbing one’s stick, jamming your helmet on your head and going out to do battle on the ice. To put the puck right where he intended it to go; the satisfaction your stick meeting the puck and sending it laser-beam delivery past the butterflied goalie sprawled prone on the ice while watching helplessly as the puck headed, unimpeded, for the back of the net.
Haruo looked thoroughly blissful as he talked about his on-ice enjoyment while Torao rolled his eyes and the girls giggled in amusement. “UBC Thunderbirds…HOCKEY…” and let out a sound that sounded like a dog barking; a large dog.
“OK Hon.” River chided him affectionately, “calm down or the university might send the dogcatcher around to restrain any one exhibiting animal-like behavior”
Haruo subsided very quickly after that admonition.
The four settled into chairs and pulled open their books in order to get ahead on the studying. They wanted to make sure they were ahead of the game insofar as learning their course materials was concerned.
Haruo knew that part of his course curriculum involved staying physically fit. That meant time in the gym toning his body and making sure he was able to perform well on the ice. College hockey for some was a stepping stone to the NHL. Haruo on the other hand wasn’t going to count on making it to the NHL to deal with having any sort of a career. He had other plans. Hockey was a fun game but it wasn’t going to be his future. There were a lot more talented players ahead of his position in line.
However, he was looking forward to the games knowing that some of the players whom he was playing with would be signing with an NHL team and if he could hang with them in terms of his on-ice ability, then he wasn’t that bad. At least he could say that he was able to skate with future NHL’rs. After all Canadians were born on skates, so it was said.
Haruo had to sit himself in a room of his own to study because he had to have music going on in order to have the atmosphere to be able study; on the stereo he had Arcangelo Corelli’s Trio Sonata for Violin and Cembalo #4 in F major, Op. 5 Allegro playing in the background. He didn’t want to disturb the rest of his room-mates or fiancée who needed silence to be effective in their studying. It was his own idiosyncrasy to want to have something playing. And he found baroque music suited him much better than any other music. It had been that way since he was a child and his dad had put classical music on. He felt so hyper-focused on his course materials when he was bent over the textbook with the music running in the background.
“How can you study with that on?” Bebe asked; a grin plastered all over her face.
Haruo answered her with a smug look, “According to researchers: brain imaging research using electroencephalography found that Baroque music can bring about a balanced, stable, calm state of mind and improve learning efficiency.” Along with a wink to let her know that he was not taking himself seriously even if the research was accurate.
Bebe nearly rolled on the floor laughing at just how comical Haruo looked since he had on this smug air of superiority.
It was a late night of studying as the students made sure they knew their course materials because there could be a spot question on the quizzes that the instructors gave to know if you had studied the course material. It would behoove them to be well prepared for midterms, since rumor had it that those exams were insanely difficult.
And that wasn’t the only thing. Even the D was supposed to play the “transition game”; to move the puck through the blue-line and into the center ice area to transition forwards into offense. The last thing any team wanted was to be trapped in their zone. What they wanted was puck possession and moving it out across the opposition’s blue-line on the attack. Which meant that Haruo had to study tape and make sure he got familiar with the playing styles of his opposition so that he could counter their play and get them off their game.
And of course Haruo had to study for his lecture courses too so he had what seemed like twice the studying to do. After all his coach wanted to see performance on the ice or his position would go to someone who was hungry to reach the NHL. And his teachers wanted to see academic performance. A whole lot of pressure for Haruo to be under. And plus, this education was costing his dad an arm and a leg in money.
So thus was the strain in education for Haruo.
Bebe also was under a lot of pressure. Her parents had only discovered their prowess late in life and she had a lot to prove that she wasn’t like them in the slightest: dedicated, hard-working, punctual and smart were to be her key characteristics. And a head-start at a teaching career bolstered those views of her.
River on the other hand was self-driven to succeed. What she wanted, she went after with single-minded purpose. Her love of art transcended any other, except for her love towards Haruo, her best friend in life next to her mom. She put her whole heart and soul into her artistic efforts and it showed. Between that and her general knowledge courses at university, she was going to be quite busy during the school term.
Torao on the other hand was undertaking a mentally taxing course-load. His line of study was in medicine and he was headed for a life dedicated to the healing arts. Anyone who has studied medicine knows just how mind numbingly intensive the course-load was. There were no margins for error. These were the men and women who fought death daily on the frontlines of healthcare. Hence the reason why in UBC Faculty of Medicine, a pass mark was 90% on tests. If you did not know your stuff inside out, you were not being let out to practice medicine. After all. A wrong call on a diagnosis could result in the Reaper paying a nice little visit and no one wanted him around.
It was around one in the morning before anyone got to sleep. And it certainly wasn’t unusual for students to pull an all-nighter in order to make sure that they knew their course materials inside out. The systematically thorough study habits of the students certainly were quite intensive in their attempt to know everything for their tests.
By the time Haruo’s and Rive’s heads hit their pillows it was clear that the temptation to have unmarried intercourse was the least of their problems. Haruo was exhausted and so was River and the only thing they could do was cuddle in bed.
Monday morning was insanity times four. People having to eat, use the facilities and get to class combined in a rather volatile state of affairs.
“Aren’t you out of the washroom yet?!!”, bellowed Torao who was waiting on Haruo to get out of the washroom since he had to go pee.
“Well excuse me if I can’t excrete on command. Why don’t you use the one upstairs?!!! There’s two washrooms upstairs!!!”
“BECAUSE THE GIRLS ARE USING THE OTHER TWO WASHROOMS!!!! THAT’S WHY!!!”
A scream of frustration ensued when Haruo roared back. “Go use the FUCKING BUSH!!!!”
Somehow they all managed to get out the door without killing each other.
Classes for River were always interesting. There was always a lecture on an artistic medium that she was interested in: Romanticism, Post-Impressionistic, Renaissance…you name in, as well as lectures on artists and how their works affected modern day artistic efforts. Lectures on types of mediums and what they were used for: watercolours, oils, graphite pencils, etchings, etc. And on the days off from classes, River usually could be seen either at the easel or sitting on the floor working on a pencil sketch.
It wasn’t certain what Bebe was doing, but she was neck-deep into technology studies at UBC. And learning about these new emerging tech gave her a leg-up in teaching since she would educate the next generation. The world of computing was starting to switch from hard disks and floppies into optical drives and such was that medium that capacities were being expanded from kilobytes to megabytes of data. The days of gigabytes, terabytes and petabytes would loom distant on the horizon, but data was infinite and would be compiled as quickly as could be coded in storage sizes that could make one’s head spin.
Torao was studying medical terminology which was a total mind-blast. Some of the medical terms were so convoluted and complex that it would give a person nightmares just trying to remember it all. Oncology: the study of cancer. Epidemiology; the study of epidemics and how they occur, Virology; the study of viruses and its sister study; Bacteriology; naturally, the study of bacteria…were all straightforward. But complicated terms like endovascular surgical neuroradiology were brain-twisters. All anyone who wasn’t prepared to undertake a four year pre-med degree before jumping into medicine was that it had to do something with the body’s blood transport system; your veins and arteries and usually you were sent to the endovascular surgical radiology department when something was going haywire with your vascular and endovascular systems, such as an aneurysm or some sort of disease attacking said veins or arteries.
Haruo, on the other hand, was on the ice for two hours a day five days a week and in the gym for three out of those five days working on his body, getting it back into shape for being on the ice and taking hits along the boards. He was muscular but he wasn’t tall and big like most hockey players. If you were 5’10” you were on the short side for a hockey player and NHL teams tended to overlook you at the draft.
Sleep came early and so did wakeup that first morning. First practice was on Tuesday so that the coach could determine just what his lines were going to be, so that Monday morning was just a meet and greet during regular classes. It was still early and Haruo was not looking forward to the 4AM wakeup to get to the rink by five.
That was the time that had to be met if he wanted to get any sort of breakfast in him before Coach made them do bag skates down the length of the rink.
Bebe headed into her morning class and in technology which was quite an eye-opener in terms of learning experience. There was more to the field of tech than she’d originally known. There were new forms: cybernetics, computers, data storage and robotics. All sorts of fields were going to open up in the future and if that was what she wanted to learn she would be on the cutting edge of her field. And a B.Ed in Tech would help her immensely in terms of what salary she could command.
River was annoyed at the fact that she, being the last out of the house, had to wait at the entrance to the lecture hall for the class to begin. Meanwhile the rest of the students milled around aimlessly socializing, while blocking the entrance. River was focused, a perfectionist and frankly, anything that detracted from her goals frankly pissed her off immensely.
“For crying out loud, will you guys get a grip and figure where in hell you’re gonna stand? Others have to get to class…y’know?” She muttered caustically under her breath. She gave the most intrusive one the evil eye when he looked her up and down, his eyes straying to her assets. “My eyes are up here.”
“Well you’re a fine one…” Mahmoud Yavari grinned at her.
River gave him a frosty grin that signaled and you ain’t gettin’ any of this. And shot Yavari down in flames.
“Yeah, my fiancé thinks so. He’s a brown belt in Kung Fu. I’m not sure if you’d like to meet him.”
Mahmoud Yavari was certain of two things: one; that River McIrish was one fine piece of womanhood and two; that he would find himself wrapped like a pretzel around a tree if he meddled in the relationship of that guy that he’d seen River McIrish take her lunch breaks with.
Mahmoud may have been Persian in ethnicity, (his parents had emigrated to Canada in the 60s) but he had been born in Canada and was well aware of its social graces. Plus he wasn’t suicidal enough to get involved with River McIrish because of her man that played sports and, despite that man’s minimal height, could bend him into the shape of an accordion and quite possibly knock his teeth into next Thursday.
River’s fiancé, Haruo, was Japanese-Canadian and he was on the university hockey team. Haruo was also someone who was very physically fit and could probably turn Yavari’s spine into a pretzel. Was he willing to risk that kind of physical beating just to get a piece of River McIrish no matter how cute she was. The answer was a resounding no. It was clear Mahmoud Yavari preferred self-preservation over self-indulgence. And at the revelation that not only did River’s guy did martial arts as well as play hockey made Mahmoud look for the quickest exit where he could save face as possible.
River saw Mahmoud’s unwanted advance crumble beneath her revelation and smiled savagely. Serves him right. If he was blind enough not to see my engagement ring, then he deserves whatever he gets.
She walked off, knowing Mahmoud’s eyes were trailing her six. She smiled as she saw her fiancé exit the main doors of the athletic building. “Hey lover…” she called out to him.
“What’s up, sweetheart?” Haruo acknowledged her hail.
“Oh, just wanted to know if you had some time between classes.” She smiled up at him.
“Next class is at two, so I have time."
“Wanna get something to eat?”
“Sure”, Haruo smiled at her as River slipped her arm in the crook of Haruo’s elbow and they walked towards the SUB (Student Union Building). “Been feeling a bit hungry since we left the house.”
“Then, honey, it’s a good thing we’re going to grab a bite to eat, isn’t it?” River’s cheeky grin lit up his day.
“Yeah…” he pulled River into a tight embrace. “I am lucky…”.
River leaned in to whisper in his ear. “Wanna get lucky tonight?” Her smirk was deliciously lascivious.
“Your mother would castrate me.” Haruo raised an eyebrow.
“…what she doesn’t know…” River murmured softly as Haruo silenced her by kissing her hungrily, his hands playing in her hair. “Oh, Watcher,” she gasped into his ear. “You know, I just want to skip the rest of the day and take you to bed?”
“Can’t have that, can we?” River let out a frustrated sigh as Haruo pulled away.
They walked over, arm-in-arm, to the burger joint located in the Student Union Building. The SUB had some pretty good food and they were more than happy to spend their money at the food kiosk A burger, some fries and a Coke were what the two got and sitting down at an outside table taking in the fall air, they enjoyed.the closeness.
River knew she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him and the looks she got from him told her that Haruo felt the same about her. They were joined together in a way, heart and soul, that no-one else could put asunder.
Bebe came running up, “Hey, you guys, I met another Chikamori. He’s going to UBC too. His name’s Kosuke. He doesn’t think you’re related but ask your dad, Maybe he can move in with us for the duration of university studies.” River raised her eyebrows. So much for the private, intimate lunch.
“You know…” Haruo nodded, I think we may have to move out of that rental place and just build something for the five of us to live in. You think we can rent a lot and put three trailers on it?”
Bebe shrugged her shoulders “…could…hmmm…work.” She paused, “Y’know…he’s dating someone…really pretty girl too. A girl by the name of Samantha...Gray, I think her last name was.”
River chimed in, “I know Samantha, she’s in the same program as me. She’s also an artist. Yeah I recall her saying something about dating this Japanese guy.” She turned with a mischievous grin, “…so, what if he really is a long-lost Chikamori relative?”
Haruo shrugged his shoulders as he ran his fingers through his hair. “I don’t know…if he is, I guess, we’ll, um, welcome him into the family…?” He paused, weighing his thoughts and feelings about the whole matter, “…and find out more about him and his mom and dad.”
When they got home from their first day at university, they had yet another surprise, there was a new tenant at the house, putting her belongings into a room that they had used the night before for a study room only realizing after the fact that there was an actual bed in the room. Evidently the landlord was trying to maximize income from the rental property. “Hi, my name is Michelle...” It wasn’t sure if Haruo’s jaw managed to shatter at the news. The blonde was friendly.
“So, how are we going to do this?” Haruo asked River. “We have way too many people if we’re going to have Sam and Kosuke join us at the house to offset the rent.”
River grinned at him, “Well, how about we take the garage.”
“It won’t be too cold?” Haruo thought for a moment about what living in the garage would entail. “We might need to get ourselves a heater...for those cold winter nights.”
River smirked at him, “Why not something else?” her tone a sly innuendo, “We still get to use the washrooms, kitchen and common areas inside the house...”
“So we don’t have to have a Port-a-Potty shipped in and dig a nice deep hole?”
“Ewwwwww...”
“Evidently the landlord had the same idea, he’s coming over to rough in a washroom and we should have it by the end of next day, he’s going to attach it to the garage.” ...and the landlord was as good as his word. By the end of Sunday, they had a door and a washroom with toilet, shower and sink. They still shared accommodation with the house and were able to make use of the fridge and stove...and the common areas inside the house, but their garage/bedroom was nice and quiet. At least they didn’t have a car so it made it that much easier to do this. The landlord had also insulated the walls and the roll-door had a nice rubber air-block to prevent rain, snow qnd cold air from coming in. However it was at least ten degrees chillier still in the garage so one of the things River insisted on was blankets; plenty of them to keep them warm.
It just so happened that Kosuke had a brother and that brother was dating their new female room-mate, so Haruo turned around and said, “Well...why don’t we just all room together and that way we can all save on some rent. Kosuke thought Yoshiharu would agree to it, especially if it came down to living with his girlfriend, Michelle. “Fair enough”...Haruo had said and Yoshiharu moved in with Michelle Eberhard; they both were artists. Mornings were going to be insane.
Despite the fact that Samson was bringing home countless gemstones, Haruo and River decided that they were going to try to keep things reasonable and use only the cash they had on them at the time. They had so much money saved up (all of it their own from selling gemstones and those toads oh so long ago) that it would have been easy to go on an ego trip to impress their classmates, but River and Haruo weren’t like that.
They preferred living life incognito. But what others did notice was that when it came time to pay the bills at any place they went out to, River and Haruo always paid their way, never borrowing a cent or begging off others. They were upfront and honest and when the bill came around at the end of the night, they paid their share promptly without quibble.
And that was what people liked about Haruo and River. They weren’t pretentious though they had a decent amount of money. They’d worked hard for what they earned and paid their dues even if they were young in comparison to those who were in the upper echelon of wealth. They were not millionaires by any stretch of the imagination but they were what most people in the 90s would consider comfortably well-off and that was how they conducted themselves.
River looked over at Haruo as he glanced in the washroom. “We have a separated dual shower, single tub setup.” River murmured coming up behind him and wrapping her arms around his waist and snuggling into his back. “I sooooo want to test that out.” She purred, as Haruo turned around to look at her with eyebrows raised in a questioning look. She curled her lips in a lascivious smirk as she said throatily, “…together.” She paused for a moment and impishly asked, “Wanna?”
By that time, Haruo’s reaction made it clear that he would need to pay extra attention to clearing the door when he went into the bathroom. “Oh, Watcher…” he breathed heavily.
“Wrong deity, I’m River…”
Haruo burst out in helpless laughter and River did too. It was a long time before they could even look at each other without the other’s face setting them off in more fits of laughter.
They collapsed against each other on the nearby couch, their faces close to each other. “I love you.” River murmured softly, her lips against Haruo’s as they kissed, “Not to sound sappy or anything, but you make me the happiest woman in the world.”
“I do?” Haruo asked, sounding inquisitive.
River nudged him gently with her shoulder, “You do…and I find it really sweet that you want to wait until we become husband and wife before we make love.”
“You do?”
“Yeah, but…” she paused for a long moment. “You know, this waiting when we know we want each other and the fact that it’s just getting downright frustrating. It’s making me want to jump your bones in the shower and let you have your merry way with me.” She whispered in his ear. “Doesn’t it make more sense to just ease our passions so that we can concentrate on our schoolwork? Losing my maidenhood to you isn’t going to make it any less a commitment when we do get married, y’know.” She stroked his arm and leaned in so that he could smell her perfume that she had on. And it was seriously arousing Haruo.
It was sensory overload and Haruo’s inhibitions were starting to fray at the very edges, a little voice inside him called out a warning and he voiced it, “What...if you end up pregnant?” For him, release was a simple matter. For River, if the situation went sideways could involve nine months of discomfort and the birthing process was a risky one.
“Then we deal with the cards that life throws us.” River didn’t hesitate in the slightest in response. “I’ve wanted to be a mother. And I think we’re both adult enough that we can handle the situation if it comes down to it.” River brushed her lips along Haruo’s.
“I love you, River...” Haruo said softly; the part of him that still had any sort of resistance shattered and he gave in to his desires. A frantic shedding of clothes ensued as each beheld each other naked. “I’ve wanted you for so long...” River’s smile warmed his heart as they ran their hands over each other’s body.
“You don’t know just how frustrating it was...I think we made a promise in haste...not realizing just how much we want each other...” River told him...and breathed a sigh as Haruo lowered his mouth on her lips, hungrily kissing her. “Have me, Haruo... oh...” she let out a bit of a pained gasp as Haruo settled himself...
Author's note: This following section won't be posted here...but it will be posted at another more "adult section"...I leave the details to your own imagination.
Later when they had been sated they looked at each other with contented grins on their faces.
“So...was it everything that you thought it would be?” Haruo asked.
River gave him a satisfied smile, “Everything I imagined...and more...” she buried her face in his shoulder. “I think I’m happily satiated now...”
“You know morning is going to be early...” Haruo smirked, noting the time. It was around 2 in the morning.
“Awwww, does that mean you gotta bump and leave?” River grinned coquettishly at him.
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