A/N: Readers of my "Duran and Kiyohime's Omake Theater" stories will notice that as I've moved along in the series, time has been passing slowly (and intermittently, and not always in a strictly linear direction). One of the ongoing subplots hanging around the background has been Mai's love life, so for Valentine's Day 2015, I'm beginning a short series to settle that matter! It's a three-parter, posting every other week, so the final part will post, conveniently enough, on White Day.

~X X X~

"Okay, so I have dinner with Reito at seven-thirty, and it's supposed to be formal," Mai Tokiha mused, going over her schedule in her mind. Since she was currently clinging to the side of a rock face, fingertips clenched around small handholds and boot-tips driven into tiny crevices, her next thought was eminently logical: "What was I thinking?"

"Mai, did you say something?" Yuuichi Tate's voice called down from about five feet above her and two to the left.

"Sorry; just talking to myself."

"Okay. We're almost to the top, though, so there's just a little more to go. You still doing okay?"

Kagutsuchi flapped up next to her and gave her a concerned "mrow," a sound that was more like whalesong than either the dragon or phoenix that he appeared to be a hybrid of.

"I'm fine, guys, really," she said with a laugh. "I can do this."

"Okay. Lemme know when you're ready."

"Un-huh." Mai took a couple of deep breaths, then set herself. "All right; I'm good."

Tate gave her a thumbs-up, grinning, then turned back to the rock face and started up. Mai did the same, pushing up with her feet in a burst of energy, reaching for the next handhold until she could close her grip around it. The muscles in her arms and legs burned as she hauled herself up, taking it one at a time, another handhold, then another, until at last she'd made it up to close her right hand over the top of the cliff face. She stretched with her left hand and Tate caught it, hauling her up to stand beside him.

"I did it!" Mai crowed.

"Darned right," her boyfriend agreed, giving her a big squeeze.

"Ugh, Yuuichi, I'm all sweaty!"

He smirked at her.

"You think that I care about that?" he said, and kissed her soundly. She leaned into it, enjoying the solidity of his form against her, the roughness of his slightly chapped lips. It felt good to be held like that, the urgent pressure of his hands and mouth telling her that there was no artifice to it—her underarms were soaked, her hair was matted under her helmet, and she had a smear of rock dust down one cheek, but none of that bothered or affected him in the least.

"Yuuichi..." she murmured as she broke the kiss.

He smiled at her, a grin that stretched almost from ear to ear.

"Take a look," he said, turning her so they stood shoulder to shoulder, his arm around her, facing out over the cliff's edge. The Fuuka countryside stretched out before them, the lush green of the spring forest, and beyond it the white marble buildings and red roofs of Fuuka Academy and all the way out to the sparkling water of the bay. Mai sucked in her breath.

"It's beautiful," she said, exhaling the words. "I...I don't know how long it's been since I've seen something like this. That's so amazing, Yuuichi."

"Eh-heh-heh," he chuckled. "I kind of thought you might like it. I'd been meaning to show you for a while, but..."

"But what?"

"Well, I wasn't sure you'd like rock climbing. I think a big part of the fun is working hard to get up here. That makes it a really cool thing, like we've earned it as a reward, y'know? It's not the same if we'd just hiked up the back side of the mountain."

Mai thought about it. She was tired, sweaty, and muscles she hadn't put stress on in a while were telling her that she'd probably regret this in the morning. But at the same time, she'd had fun, getting out in the fresh air, and it felt really good to have conquered the cliff.

"Yeah," she said. "Yeah, you're right."

It felt almost nostalgic, looking down at the campus like this, and after a couple of seconds' thought Mai realized why: it reminded her of two years ago, of the HiME Festival and how she'd been able to fly, carried aloft by her Elements. There wasn't a lot that she missed from those frightening, difficult days, but the amazing feeling of soaring through the air like a bird was definitely something that she'd love to have back.

She realized now that she hadn't spent much time at all in high places since that time. In fact, Mai thought, she couldn't remember once in those two years when she'd just looked down from anything higher than a second-floor window—not a cliff, or the library spire, or a mountain road, or the bridge, nothing. She'd never thought about it, but now wondered if she'd been avoiding it, somehow.

If true, she thought, she was even happier that her boyfriend had taken the time to bring her. She didn't want to have any lingering regrets over anything any more, not over anything or anyone.

"Thanks for inviting me, Yuuichi," she said. "I had a lot of fun this afternoon."

"Well, I can't take all the credit, much as I'd like to. Right, Kagutsuchi?"

The CHILD made a curious noise, cocking his head to one side.

"C'mon, you two remember, don't you? You made this cliff, two years ago. You told me that fire on the mountain was you, right?"

Mai blushed. She remembered the incident, all right. It was when she'd first summoned Kagutsuchi, when she'd seen—and fought—her first Orphan. And when Kagutsuchi's fiery breath had set the forest on fire, lighting up the night and creating an incident that had been the talk of the school the next week.

"Wait, this happened then, too? Geez."

Kagutsuchi gave an innocent whistle.

"Yeah, it's too bad that we can't tell people. We could call this place 'Mai's Ridge' or something like that. Wouldn't it be cool to have a natural feature named after you?"

"No, it would not!" Mai yelped. "It'd be embarrassing. To have something named for you because you blew the side off a mountain is not every girl's dream!"

"I bet Mikoto would love it," Tate said defensively.

He had a point. Mai's catlike roommate would probably take people on tours to proudly show it off. Mai really didn't want to let Tate off the hook that easily, but the mental image made it impossible for her to repress a snicker.

"Or Midori," she agreed. "I bet she's leveled a hill or two in her career."

Tate laughed. "Probably! She may be a history teacher, but I think she's more likely to make it then tell it."

"You might be right."

She leaned into him again, relaxing once more, letting a couple of minutes drift by contentedly, until he started to shuffle his feet. Tate was the kind of boy who liked to do things; there was only so long that he could stand and stare at a view. Appreciating that he hadn't said anything, Mai let him off the hook.

"Well, I guess we ought to get going."

"I guess so," he struck at the bait, making her grin inwardly. The separated and unclipped the various safety ropes and harnesses, stowed them, then shouldered their packs and set off down the trail. They'd gotten about a hundred yards along when Tate spoke up again.

"Hey, Mai?"

"Yes?"

"I was wondering...would you maybe like to go grab something to eat after this? Nothing fancy, on the spur of the moment, I mean, but maybe like a burger at Linden Baum or something?"

Mai's face fell.

"I'm sorry, Yuuichi, but I can't."

"This isn't because I made fun of you for blowing stuff up, is it?"

"No! No, it's not that," she hastily assured him. "It's just that, well, I've already got plans with Reito tonight."

"Oh. Kanzaki, huh?"

"Uh-huh. He set up the date with me two weeks ago."

"Really? What is it, some fancy-pants place?"

"He's taking me to Maison Blanc et Noir in Tsukimori. The grand reopening is tonight."

"Damn, I'm amazed he could even get a reservation; they'll be packed." His face fell, a not uncommon occurrence when he was discussing Mai's other boyfriend. Then he brightened as a thought struck him. "Hey, wait a sec. You knew you had all that going on and you still agreed to go rock climbing with me?"

"It sounded like fun!" Mai defended her decision. "And I did have a good time, so obviously I knew what I was doing. Even if getting showered and changed and primped and preened is all going to take forever and I don't have time for this..."

"I don't get it," Tate groused. "What's the point of going through all that work just to go to some snooty place where you pay three times the price for half the amount of food?"

Mai stiffened her shoulders.

"Sometimes, a girl wants to be treated like she's a princess," she told him archly, "with chivalry and consideration."

"Is that what you want, Mai? For me to make a big fuss over you? To prance around like I was some snobby little git in a fancy suit who holds his pinky out while he drinks tea?"

"That's not what I—"

"We're like a month from graduation, Mai. I am who I am, and I'm not going to change that."

"I didn't ask you to change," Mai shot back. "I just said you could try understanding that it's nice to feel elegant and sophisticated for a change!"

Tate rolled his eyes.

"Hey, if you want someone who'll get all dressed up in a monkey suit and fake being all suave, then maybe you ought to go out with Kanzaki. The guy's so slick he drips oil, but hey, he looks good in a tux and I guess that's what counts."

"Gah!" Mai yanked at her hair. "Seriously, can you not tell the difference between having some class and being a pompous stuffed shirt? There is a middle ground, you know! Why are you acting like a jerk all of a sudden?"

Tate stopped in his tracks.

"I'm the jerk? Hey, maybe I am a little short-tempered, but it's not easy to hear about how the girl I'm out on a date with has to hurry home so she can go out with some other guy and watch him open his wallet."

"Are you calling me a golddigger? That I'm just using Reito because of what he can give me?" She stepped right up to him so that her head was almost touching his chin. "Because if that's what you think—"

"No, no, that's not—" he backpedaled frantically. He knew that he'd firmly stepped in it, but at the same time he wasn't willing to just concede the point, either. "It's just that we've been going out for almost two full years now, and if stuff like fancy French dinners and concerts and visits to art museums are what you want out of a boyfriend, well...maybe I'm not the guy that you want to be with."

"What? Yuuichi, of course I want to be with you."

"Do you? Like I said, it's been two years. Sure, we've gone on dates, and we've kissed, but that's all."

"If you want credit for not trying to do more than cop a feel—"

"That's not it! I'm not going to say I don't dream about that stuff, 'cause sure, you're the girl I love and you're cute and stacked besides. But I mean, after all this time, you've never said 'I love you,' and you're still seeing Kanzaki, too. I mean, what kind of a relationship is it when you've got to hustle to squeeze in time for a date because you've got to make it to a date with someone else?"

"You've never complained about it before." Made snarky comments and gotten in arguments with Reito, yes, like rams butting heads in the pasture, but never taken it out on Mai.

"At first, there wasn't anything to complain about. I mean, Kanzaki had made it clear he was still interested, and you didn't just tell him to go fly a kite. If I wanted you to pick me, I had to win you over fair and square. But you've been stringing us along for all this time, Mai, and I'm getting tired of it. I can't force you to make up your mind, I know, but...you can't force me to keep chasing you, either."

With that parting shot, he spun on his heel and started off down the hill again.

"Yuuichi?" Mai called, but he didn't stop. She went after him, but it soon became clear that he was going as fast as his longer legs could take him without actually running, and if Mai was going to catch him, she'd have to run. "Yuuichi, wait!"

But he didn't, and Mai had to walk back down herself, wondering just when everything had gone wrong.

~X X X~

"Mai, you're back!"

The happy squeal from Mikoto was immediately followed by the black-haired girl tossing her book aside, springing over the back of the couch, braids flying, and pouncing on Mai, squashing her face square into Mai's breasts.

"Hi, Mikoto."

"You smell sweaty," her roommate said, wrinkling her nose.

"We did go rock climbing. That's pretty hard exercise."

"Oh, I like rock climbing. Grandpa had me do it all the time as part of my training."

"I bet you were pretty good at it."

"Mm-hm, of course!" She let Mai go. "I don't think ani-ue likes sweat, though."

"I'm not sure that Reito sweats at all. But you're right; I need a shower."

Mikoto was Reito's little sister, but surprisingly she never took his side in the competition for Mai's affections, instead remaining a neutral party.

"Mai, are you all right? You smell sad."

Three years ago, that comment would have surprised Mai, but by now she'd gotten used to the feral girl. Mikoto had been raised in isolation by her family to serve her brother—who'd himself been groomed as the host of the Obsidian Prince—as his right hand. But where Reito had been accustomed to the environment of high society, Mikoto had been virtually isolated from human contact outside of her training regimen. It occasionally made her social interactions...unusual.

It also made it hard to hide things from her.

"I...kind of had a fight with Yuuichi."

"What did he do?"

Her assumption made Mai have to repress a chuckle, but she managed to remain honest. "I'm not sure that he really did anything."

"He should apologize anyway. He's the boy, so that's his job."

That time, Mai did give in, giggling.

"You've been spending too much time hanging out with Nao again, haven't you?"

"I like Nao. She's sneaky, but she'd honest, too. She'll say things other people are too nice to admit."

"That's Nao, all right."

"So? What was it?"

Mai sighed.

"He got mad that I'm going out with Reito this evening. He thinks that I should just pick one of them already instead of waffling back and forth."

"But you don't want to?"

"I don't know. I mean...I'm not sure how I feel. I think about Yuuichi, and I don't want to lose him, but I can't say that I want to lose Reito either." She sighed. "I want what Natsuki has with Shizuru, Mikoto. I want a relationship where I can look at the person I'm with and know that even when we have fights or disagreements or I think their family is made up of idiots, that I still want to be with them and see the trouble through to the other side."

Her own younger brother had found someone like that, her best friends had, her classmate and fellow HiME Akane Higurashi had...but Mai, with not one but two great guys interested in her, still found herself on the outside looking in.

Is it me? she thought. It had been two years, after all, since she'd agreed to give both Tate and Reito a chance to date her and win her over. And yet, here she was, as indecisive as she'd been back as a first-year when she'd been out on a few dates with Reito but couldn't get Tate out of her head.

She couldn't shake the question all the way through her preparations, through showering and shampooing and drying her hair to getting dressed in a sleek black sheath dress that fell to just above her knees and had a scooped neckline that showed off just a bit of cleavage, enough to be a little inviting without making a display of it. She put on a thin gold chain with a garnet pendant that had been a Christmas gift from Reito a few months ago, and simple gold hoop earrings. Her makeup was understated, a bit of color around the eyes and cheeks, with coral pink lip gloss instead of red. Surveying herself in the full-length mirror on the back of the bedroom door, she turned one way and then the other.

"Not bad, if I do say so myself!" she decided, and headed out. Mikoto had reclaimed her spot on the couch, curled up with her book and a bowl of snacks, but looked up at once at the click of the door handle.

"Oooh, Mai, you look great!" She gave her the thumbs-up sign. "You're going to knock ani-ue's eyes out!"

Mai laughed.

"Thanks, Mikoto. There's leftovers on the second shelf of the refrigerator, so you can have those for dinner if you want. The containers are microwave-safe, so you just need to loosen the lids."

Kagutsuchi and Miroku both looked up from whatever they were doing (it appeared to be a board game involving several pieces and a squeaky toy) and stared at Mai.

"...And remember to follow the instructions. Fumi said that if you blow up another microwave we'll have to pay for the replacement out of our own pockets."

Mikoto winced. Mai wasn't in "save every penny to pay for her brother's heart operation" mode any more (thank you, Kazahana Mashiro!), but a lifetime's habits of frugality weren't just casually tossed aside. Mikoto had definitely learned not to tempt fate by being the cause of large household expenses!

"I'll be careful, Mai; I promise!" she assured her solemnly.

"All right, then. Have fun! Hey, what is it that you're reading, anyway?"

"It's called Night Whispers. It's a supernatural romance."

"Oh, really?" There was a pretty substantial cottage industry in those.

"Uh-huh! It's about a girl who finds out that she's secretly the daughter of the leader of a powerful magical tradition, and now she's being courted by a vampire prince as well as her human childhood friend."

"I didn't know you liked romance stories."

"Well, Aoi recommended it. But she did say that there were lots of magical fights and stuff, and she's right there. It's almost as good as the fights we had when we were HiME!"

Miroku and Kagutsuchi both looked up, making quite offended noises.

"I meant the humans," Mikoto told them.

"And she did say 'almost,'" Mai added.

Mollified, the CHILDs settled back down to what they were doing.

"Are they...playing shogi?"

"Uh-huh! Duran taught them when you and Natsuki were hanging out last weekend!" She frowned and stage-whispered, "I think Miroku tries to cheat sometimes, though."

The oni looked up at his mistress, trying to be the picture of innocence. He failed miserably because, well, he was an oni. Trying to sneak a lance back onto the board when the ringing doorbell distracted Kagutsuchi didn't help his case, either.

Idly, Mai wondered what the squeaky toy was for.

"Reito!" Mai exclaimed happily on opening the door. "You're right on time."

"And you're beautiful," he said, extending a bouquet of coral pink roses.

Like Tate, Reito Kanzaki was tall and handsome, but otherwise he was a study in opposites compared to his rival. Where Tate's good looks were rugged, with a long face and strong chin, Reito was almost beautiful, elegance rather than strength. His hair was neatly styled and combed rather than spiky, jet black rather than sandy with hints of auburn. His manners were polished instead of rough, his black turtleneck and charcoal slacks and blazer immaculate, matching neatly with the same level of formality as Mai's outfit as if he'd known in advance what she'd be wearing.

"Thanks, Reito. Just let me get these in some water."

"Of course."

Mai stepped back and let him in.

"Ani-ue!" Mikoto called while Mai darted off to the kitchen in search of something suitable. Thankfully, with two boyfriends, she'd figured out pretty fast that she needed to own vases and had gotten a couple.

"Good evening, Mikoto."

"It sounds like you and Mai are going to have a lot of fun!"

He chuckled.

"If you like, I could take you some afternoon when you're free."

"Nah, that's okay. Fancy restaurants never give you enough. And if we went for lunch, I'd miss out on Mai's food!"

"Well, obviously we can't have that; Mai's cooking is the best."

"Mmn!"

"Flatterer," Mai called, arranging the flowers. "But no matter how you butter me up, I'm not going to cancel the date and stay in and cook for you two."

"Awww."

"That sounds like a good idea for Mikoto's birthday, though," Reito suggested.

"Or for tomorrow!" Mikoto countered.

Reito grinned, an expression that was all too close to the smirk that Natsuki constantly assured him of having. "Shall we make it a proper family dinner tomorrow night and humor our cute little sister, then, Mai?"

Mai wanted to roll her eyes and make some kind of lighthearted response, but couldn't quite do it. The sticking point was how he'd said "our" little sister instead of "my." Now, it was quite true that Mai and Mikoto were as close as sisters—indeed, one of the reasons Mai had clung to her so easily was that Mikoto offered her the chance to redo that sibling relationship without all the baggage and history that went along with Mai's relationship with Takumi.

Of course, as it turned out Mikoto came with her own baggage and issues, but by then she was inextricably a part of Mai's life.

But that wasn't why Reito's words got to her. The problem there was the underlying implication, that subtle little fillip playing beneath the surface like with so much of what he said: the suggestion of if you marry me, she really will be your little sister. The phrase "proper family dinner" fed that implication as well—a boyfriend was hardly what Mai would call family, at least not as a default, even though he was Mikoto's family.

It was hard to engage in lighthearted banter about remarks like that.

When she glanced over at Reito, he was still smiling.

"We can talk about that later."

"Aww, but Mai."

"Later, Mikoto."

"Okay," Mikoto pouted.

"Be good, and I'll see you when I come home. Kagutsuchi, you behave for Mikoto. And Miroku, move your silver general back where he was before Reito came in." She set the vase down on the table while Kagutsuchi demonstrated the purpose of the toy by picking it up and bonking Miroku with it, the loud squeak venting his frustration.

"Shall we go, then?" Reito offered, extending a hand to her. She took it and he led her out. They walked downstairs to where his car was parked, a sleek silver Infiniti. He opened the door for her, and in a few moments they were on their way.