The Ninja and the Ranger ((Sequel to "More than just a hat")) ((BH6 fanfic))

Chapter 3: Wake Yourself Up

Tadashi's POV

I reached into my suit and pulled out the ring. I had tied it around my neck with some string. A quick pull and it snapped off. I pulled her around so that she was facing me. I couldn't believe no one remembered, except me. I kneeled in front of her.

"Chàn, will you be my girlfriend once again?" I asked her. She nodded and hugged me. "Happy birthday, Chán."

She smiled. "You remembered!"
"As if I could forget," I said as I put the ring on her finger. "Four years ago, today, we were at San Fransokyo High School, under the oak tree (where we had first met), and I did and said those exact same things. And you did the exact same. Besides the 'once again' part."

The gang awwwed at us and we laughed. I had her. And this time I didn't promise, but I vowed never to let her go. Hiro walked up to me and elbowed me in the arm. "So now what? You gonna take her to that church and get married? Or you gonna take her home and tell Aunt Cass that you're no longer a bachelor?"

I had to give that one a laugh. But what would Aunt Cass say? After 4 years of living life as a single, this would be big. I could see it on the front pages now, "Young Man Finally Retrieves Lost Love"

When I turned around Chántel was gone. We sat around outside chatting about what would happen when we got home. About 30 minutes later, she came out of the gas station looking like her good old self. She was holding her wedding dress, veil and crown, but was wearing jeans, a Rangers v-neck t-shirt, and plain brown cowboy-style boots. Her hair was pulled back into a bun. I pulled out her hat. She took it gladly and put it on. She had washed off all of the makeup, leaving her skin to have its tan glow and her lips to be more of a bronze rather than tickle-pink. She was wearing Chapstick, the only kind of makeup she would ever wear. She had removed the awful colored contacts and put in her old ones, so now I could see her icy blue eyes as they pierced through my brown eyes. I hadn't noticed it before but she had freckles. Small sunspots. They covered her upper cheeks and out here in the middle of no-man's-land I noticed every little detail, from the strands of hair falling out of her bun to the noticeable curves of her body to the way she walked in the cowboy boots. She seemed more at home here in the wastelands in between Corpus and the nearest towns.

As far as the eye could see was shrubs and dead grass, yet my Chán seemed to enjoy the sight of this plain area. No wonder she spent so much of her time in the park, she was a nature lover.

Duh, Tadashi, duh! Wake yourself up!

I looked around and Chántel called the gang together.
"Alright people, I know this state like the back o' my hand so listen up! Juan's expecting us to head straight for San Fransokyo. We need to evade the place for as long as we can. I know the best places on the map. Literally." She pulled out a map and sat on the dirt ground. We crowded around her and the map. She pointed at several places I've never heard of, but she seemed very sure of. "Dallas; Amarillo; Abilene; Austin; Houston; Galveston; San Antonio; Laredo; El Paso. We need to head to these places in this order. After we reach El Paso, we can hitch a ride back to San Fransokyo."

I noticed something has changed about her. Whether it was the way she acted (SF: a girl who can figure things out, but still needed some help; TX: a strong, almost military like leader who likes no-nonsense), or the way she dressed (she stayed the same, but wore cowboy boots in Texas, rather than T-shoes), or the way she walked (more confidently in TX), or the way she talked (her accent seemed to change, almost thicken with a southern feel. It lost half of its Hispanic touch.), she seemed different.

She got us together and we prepared to leave for Dallas, our first stop on the Tour of Texas.