Wow it has been so long! I meant to update, but I a huge case of writers block that lasted all summer, and I've just recently been able to pick up a pen and write something decent. Don't expect me to update that often from now on - I mean I'll try to, but I'm juggling Advanced Placement classes, leadership positions in clubs, around 7 after school activities, and college applications. This year is going to be my busiest yet, but hopefully I'll have time to grab a paper and a pen and write out some fluff to post here!

I tweaked the idea I'd last attempted quite a bit so this is still the sequel to the previous story, but it isn't what the summery I'd previewed says (trust me - I think you guys will like this better!) and it's broken into 3 parts because it's going to be long.

Title: A Painful Apology (Part I: Morning)
Disclaimer: I don't own the show. Believe me - I don't even have time to watch television anymore!
Rating: K+ (slight violence, lol!)
Genre: Humor/romance-ish (this part is less romance-oriented than the other two parts)
Word Count: 2044
Summery: Saying you're sorry shouldn't hurt, but Raimundo learns the hard way that sometimes it does, and he has the bruises to prove it! R x K three-shot!

This was going to be a heck of a lot harder than he'd originally anticipated.

The mangled Brunette boy groaned in agitation as he crossed another failed idea off the list. Unfortunately for him the ideas were being crossed off just as quickly as they were being thought up. So far he'd tried everything and nothing had even come close to working.

He should've stopped teasing her at the preparatory school and this whole mess could have been avoided, but he was thick headed and even if he had known that Kimiko was being this difficult about accepting his apology he would've kept teasing her because that was the "Raimundo thing" to do.

Still when he glanced at his list for the umpteenth time he cringed at the painful and humiliating memories from earlier this morning.

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1) Pretend like nothing happened (aka act normal).

The Brazilian boy had casually sauntered up to the petite fire dragon as she was eating her breakfast cereal at the low table. He made an offhanded remark to her about the training session planned for later today, but she made no motion to show she acknowledged his presence. Her eyes never left the silver spoon she was using to scoop her cereal up with, and she started intently at it as if catching every little "O" with her dainty spoon was the sole purpose of her life.

He tried once more to tell her about training, and suddenly that innocent little spoon collided with his eye causing the boy to shrink back a safe distance and when he caught sight of himself in the silver kettle on stove his eye was swollen and purple. Begrudgingly he returned to the drawing board.

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2) Simple Apology

Raimundo walked silently into the training room where the peaceful looking Japanese girl (with the very violent temperament) was sitting cross-legged in deep meditation. He stalked soundlessly up beside her and then stopped to see is she would look up - she didn't budge.

"Kim," he softly murmured. "I'm sorry."

And then suddenly like an unpredictable bolt of lightening her arm connected with his leg and the Brazilian boy doubled over holding his now grotesquely bruised leg.

Kimiko gracefully got to her feet and wordlessly swept out of the room.

The poor green-eyed boy had to limp back to his paper for another idea.

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3) Beg.

It was still early morning and Kimiko was bustling around her little cubical of a room gathering all the necessary items for showering. A soft, pink towel was wrapped around her slender form, and in her hands she held all the important toiletries. By a stroke of bad luck just as she was about to slip out of her room there was soft rap on the post that held her "door" in place.

"What?" she asked in sheer agitation. If this was another Shengong Wu alert she was going to seriously hurt someone!

"I'm soooo sorry!" Raimundo pleaded pulling back the curtain and throwing himself at her feet.

Normally this sight would have caused Kimiko to laugh at the sure absurdity of it (honestly Raimundo begging at her feet?), but two things kept her in dour spirits. For one thing she was dressed only in a towel and the boy didn't even have the decency to wait to be let in (not that she would have let him in anyway), and secondly he'd been annoyingly underfoot all morning trying to win her over and failing at it.

"Get up," she demanded.

"I'm really, really sorry Kim," he stressed grabbing her little foot.

"Get out!" she commanded pointing to the maroon curtain he'd come bursting through.

"But-" he protested.

"Now!" she authoritatively spoke.

"I'm seriously very sorry," he whimpered.

"Move of I'll make you move," she threatened.

"I need you to accept the apology first." he said quietly.

"For now-" she fumed, "you can have this" and with that being said she stomped on his hand and he released her foot with a startled yelp.

"Girl-" he started

"The forgiveness is still on hold." she icily spat stepping around the boy and exiting the room.

The abused boy with the battered hand that was turning an interesting yellow and purple mixture slowly fumbled back to his room clutching his right hand all the way there and leaving his dignity behind.

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4) Demand.

Now she owed him! He'd humiliated himself (and hurt his writing hand making his ideas look even more scrawled when he wrote them on the page) begging for her forgiveness, and by no means did a boy like him ever beg (well up until earlier of course). He was cocky and confident - people begged to be friends with him, he didn't beg to get friends back.

Kimiko. Ah Kimiko - she had to be the exception to the rule. He wouldn't put all the effort forth in winning her back over if he didn't like her as much as he did. She was different than all the other girls he'd known; she was special, but by God was she stubborn! She couldn't hold up this anger charade for too much longer...could she? Maybe he was going to come across as childish or brusque, but this new way was the Raimundo way of handling apologies.

He watched her from his open room as the girl, now dressed in a blue robe with her wet hair clipped up at the nape of her neck, retreated back to her tiny room after the shower.

He watched her fingers work delicately taking out all her hair accessories and tools to create a funky new hairstyle. She unclipped the bun letting her wet, black hair fall loosely around her shoulders. He scrutinized her as she plugged in the hair dryer and turned it on. Raimundo decided finally that this was the moment so he marched over with confidence and loudly knocked on the post.

"What?" she spat whirling around on her seat and flipping the hair dryer off.

"You owe me forgiveness" he insisted.

"No, I don't," she replied.

"Yes, you do!" he yelled his green eyes flaring up with intensity.

"Forgiveness is something you earn. Prove you deserve it, and you'll earn it!" she shouted back placing her hands on her hips in easy defiance.

"What do you want Kim? Should I preform the 12 Herculean tasks for you? Do you need the earth flipped upside down? Or maybe I can just get by with removing everything evil from the world? Take your pick babe, you're too hard to please." he snapped.

You don't get it do you?" she nearly cried.

"Obviously not. What do you want Kimiko? There's not much I have to give." he exasperated. "I'd get you the world on a silver platter, but -oh- wait you'd much rather it be on gold." he tantalized.

"Urg!" she screamed throwing the hair dryer at him and managing to clip him right in the forehead.

"Ow!" he yelled crumpling up in a ball on the ground and clutching his head in agony.

He glanced at her expecting a reaction or remorse, but only saw her fixing her hair in the vanity mirror. Realizing she was back to ignoring him the bleeding boy wandered off to find some bandages and to concoct and new plan.

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5) Phone Call

Raimundo was feeling more upset and more frustrated than he'd ever been before in his life. Every time he tried to do the right thing and apologize Kimiko had to be the most difficult person on the face of the earth and physically hurt him. Was there any way around this?

The boy could practically feel the imaginary lightbulb spark to life above his head. This ingenious idea would keep him out of her punching range and hopefully win him some forgiveness.

At half past nine he felt it was time to attempt his next apology.

Kimiko was sitting on her mat in the middle of her tiny bedroom painting her nails with careful concentration. The color she was using, a frosty blue with tiny glitter particles, matched today's outfit which consisted of an expensive blue sports jacket and a pair of matching sweat pants.

As she was carefully applying the polish her little, pink flip phone rang with an obnoxious song from a dying pop artist. Quickly she put down the brush and bottle and answered to stop the noise.

"Hello?" she spoke having not recognized the calling number.

"Kim, I'm sorry," Raimundo apologized into the receiver of the black pay phone. He'd used the Golden Tiger Claws to sneak away from the temple and teleport to a nearby town which had a pay phone outside the single gas station.

He was confident in his inability to be harmed, but once Kimiko recognized the caller she screamed without warning into the receiver. Raimundo dropped the phone which swung like a pendulum on its thick, silver cord, and he covered his ringing ear.

He hung up and dejectedly (along with deafly) used the Golden Tiger Claws to return to his list.

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6) Flowers

At approximately ten o'clock Dojo burst into the main hall shouting about a new Wu revealing itself. Omi, Clay, and Kimiko quickly assembled outside in the central court area of the temple. Unfortunately their leader was nowhere to be found.

As it would turn out the dragon of wind had wandered off to a field to pick some flowers for his next apology ploy. A few minutes later, after he'd assembled an exceptional bouquet, he perambulated back to the temple grounds where he was met with agitation and annoyance from his friends.

"What took you so long?" Kimiko snapped.

"I got you these. I'm very sorry." he murmured extending the beautiful bouquet of wildflowers to her with his left hand (the hand without the bruise).

"You're late." she repeated unmoved.

"Just take the flowers and forgive me Kim; I'm not sure how much more of this I can tolerate. You really want our friendship to be over?" he sighed.

"You're not very good with apologies," she spat.

"You're too high maintenance," he retorted instantly snapping his mouth shut after he said it. Oh she was going to seriously hate him now.

A half a second later the bouquet burst into flames and Raimundo's hand and pride suffered some major burns.

Quickly he doused his hand in the fountain to put out the fire and then ran inside for what felt like his millionth trip to the medicine cabinet for more gauze-wrap.

-end section I-

Well I hope you liked it. There are 20 total apologies, and quite a few more injuries to come (I do feel bad for poor Raimundo, but it makes for good fiction. Lol).

I'll try to update before Christmas...I'm really not going to promise quick updates, but I'll try. Thank you for reading. Please review!

Much love,

~Heart