Disclaimer: You know I don't own Azure Dreams. Enough said. Start the fic.



Great Dreams by Jon Cook

Chapter 3



Koh woke up the next morning to see a mass of blue hair on his chest. Rubbing his eye, he remembered that Selfi had stayed in his bed the night before. In a controlled panic, Koh reached down under the covers and felt the waistband of his shorts where it was supposed to be. Sighing in relief, Koh thought about Selfi. How right it felt, holding her in his arms all night long. A million thoughts and visions danced through his mind as various images of him and Selfi as a couple, dating, and even married. The more he entertained these thoughts, the more appealing they became. Selfi slowly wakes up, rousing Koh out of his thoughts.

"Morning, Koh." she says as she remembers where she is: Koh's bedroom.

"Good morning, Selfi." Koh replied. "Sleep good?"

"Wonderfully. I had this dream; this huge purple monster was attacking me, and a man in shining armor saved me. I told you it was weird." Selfi replies.

"It's not that weird."

"Oh really?"

"I was wrapped in 50 feet of sushi, deep fried and fed to circus midgets."

"That one's weirder. What time is it?"

Koh looked at the clock on the wall. "Uh, 9:30 in the morning."

"You wanna make breakfast?" she asks.

"Why don't you get washed. I'll have breakfast ready when you get out of the bath." Koh replies.

"Alright," she yawned. "What'll be for breakfast?"

"I was thinking of pancakes."

"Okay. I haven't had those in a while."

"Alright. You get ready and I'll make breakfast." said Koh as he rose out of bed.

Stretching, he stood up and walked through the hall to the kitchen to gather the ingredients for breakfast; milk, eggs, flour, and so on. Selfi walked right past him into the bath, carrying the clothes she would later be wearing. She didn't carry any towels because Koh kept the towels in the bathroom, near the tub. Twenty minutes later, Selfi walked out of the bathroom, fully dressed in her purple striped top and blue shorts, to the smell of pancakes.

"They're almost ready, Selfi. I just remembered; I'm out of syrup and we only have butter. That ok?" said Koh from in front of the stove.

"It's fine with me, I prefer butter." she replied. Five minutes later, Koh turned from the stove and headed to the table with two large plates of pancakes.

"Here you are, Selfi. I'll be right back with the butter." he said going back to the refrigerator for the butter and some orange juice. Selfi couldn't help but take another look at his posterior. 'Gets better every time I look at it.' she thought. Koh returned with butter, orange juice and two glasses.

"There we are. Butter and orange juice for the both of us. Now we can eat." He said as he sat down at the table. They started to eat their food and talk about normal, mundane topics.

When he finished, Koh sat back and waited for Selfi to finish. He didn't have to wait long, as she was almost finished. "Well, that was good." said Koh. "Selfi, would you mind doing the dishes while I get washed?"

"Sure, it's no problem. I mean, you did make breakfast."

"Great. I'll take these over to the sink, and you can get started." Koh said taking the soiled dishes over to the sink. He handed her an apron and then left to his room to gather some fresh clothes, his usual ensemble of khaki pants, white T-shirt and red sleeveless vest. After gathering the clothes, Koh walked into the bath, undressed, and hopped into the tub.

Sinking partially into the water, Koh thought about the past few days, Selfi coming to him for help, punching Ghosh square in his prissy little face, waking up to Selfi's face. He smiled brightest when he remembered punching Ghosh. Koh thought back to when he woke up that morning, and how it felt. How right, waking up with her in his arms felt. 'Maybe today I'll ask her if she would like to go out with me.' he thought. Koh finished with his bath quickly, hopped out and dried himself off before dressing.

He stepped out and walked into the main room of his house to find Selfi drying her hands off with the dishtowel and placing the apron on its hanger.

"Oh, you finished already?" she asked.

"Yeah, I finished. Selfi, I think that we need to see the magistrate about Ghosh. If we go to him, we might be able to keep Ghosh away from us for a long time if not for the rest of our lives." he stated.

"I-we have to. Today would be best. We can only hope that Ghosh didn't get there before us."

"He'll believe us. It's his word against the word of you, Fur, Patty, Cherryl, Nico, and me. Our stories will all be the same, not to mention that the whole town knows that your brother drinks a lot."

"He's not my brother," she said darkly. "No brother should ever hit their sister."

"You're right about that. Do you want to go now, or later today?" he asked.

"Now. We might as well get it over with as soon as possible. Besides, my black eye won't last another day or two and it'll be the most condemning evidence against him." Koh smiled at her deviousness.

"Let's go, then." he said, ushering her out the door. The two of them walked over to the temple, where the magistrate was located. Fortunately, no one saw them walking, not even Ghosh.

When they arrived at the court, there were only two cases before them; both were drunk and disorderly conduct. The cases were over before Koh thought they would be and the both of them walked in front of the judge.

"Who are the plaintiffs?" asked the judge.

"Selfi Rhode and Koh Stannen, your honor." replied Koh.

"Who are you charging against?"

"My brother, Ghosh Rhode."

"What do you charge him with?"

"Drunk and disorderly conduct, aggravated assault and battery, and aggravated battery."

"I need to know what exactly happened between yourself and Ghosh, Miss Rhode." said the judge.

Selfi spent the next twenty-five minutes explaining what had happened to her over the past three days. Her fight with Ghosh, what Koh had done for her that night, the following morning and Koh's fight with Ghosh, that night and this morning were all explained and accounted for in detail. "That's what happened, your honor."

"Is there anyone who can corroborate your story?" asked the judge.

Koh answered this time. "Fur Gots, Patty Pan, Cheryl Child, and Nico Southey can all tell you what Selfi just told you, your honor."

"Bring them in to the court tomorrow. I'll send someone to have Ghosh arrested."

"Thank you your honor." said Koh and Selfi in unison before leaving. They left the room and made arrangements to return to court early the next morning. After leaving the building, the couple left to see Nico to inform her of the court date.

Koh knocked on the door, and a moment later Nico opened the door.

"Koh, Selfi, what a surprise! What brings you here?" she asked.

"Nico, has Fur told you about Ghosh and Selfi?" asked Koh.

"Yeah, she told me yesterday. Why, has something happened?" Nico asked.

Selfi told her of what happened at court. Nico welcomed the chance to get Ghosh where it would do the most damage: publicly. Nico agreed to go to court to testify against Selfi's brother.

"Thank you so much, Nico. You don't know how much this means to me." said Selfi. Nico said that they were welcome anytime and that she would be ready tomorrow.

All the girls; Cherryl, Patty, and Fur all agreed to testify, but Patty was unable to appear in court. She instead wrote down a signed affidavit that would be submitted to the court. Patty handed the affidavit to Koh for safe keeping until tomorrow's court appearance.

Returning to Koh's house, they passed Ghosh's house. Seeing a large crowd around the front door, Selfi decided to drag Koh over to see what was wrong. Selfi managed to push her way close enough to the front to see what was happening. Three police officers were standing outside while the sounds of a fight that was winding down came from inside the house. Moments later, Ghosh was dragged outside by the arms by two other officers. Anyone within 12 feet could practically feel the alcohol on Selfi's brother.

"Ghosh Rhode, you are under arrest for 2 counts of drunk and disorderly conduct, 1 count of aggravated assault and battery, aggravated battery and 3 counts of assaulting an officer of the court." said the officer in charge.

"Blah, blah, blah." was all Ghosh replied.

"Okay, boys. Take him away. We'll put him in the drunk tank until he's sober enough to be moved into a regular cell." said the officer in charge as they dragged Ghosh away.

Selfi had a look of relief on her face as Ghosh was dragged away by the police. She turned to face Koh with a small smile on her face as she hugged him, burying her face in his shoulder.

"Don't worry, Selfi. He can't hurt you anymore. I won't let him hurt you." stated Koh, returning her hug. When the hug ended, Selfi stood on her toes and kissed Koh on the cheek.

"Thank you. Let's go. I-I don't want to be here anymore than necessary." Selfi said after her blush passed.

"Alright." was his only reply. The both of them left the scene and headed to the fountain that Nico had put together with the money that Koh had given her.

As they approached, Koh noticed that the cello player had returned and was playing that lively tune he always performed. Selfi sat down on the side of the fountain and closed her eyes, basking in the warmth of the sun as it shone down on her. Koh sat down next to her and as soon as he did, Selfi rested her head on his shoulder.

"This is nice." she said.

"Yeah, it sure is." was his reply.

"I wish it could last forever. For all the problems I've been having, I don't think I've been this happy in a long time."

"I can understand what you mean. It feels like these past few days have been some horrible nightmare and a wonderful dream rolled into one." replied Koh.

Selfi just sighed. "Koh, there's something I have to tell you."

"What is it you need to tell me?" he asked.

"I love you." she said, looking at him with nothing but honesty.

"You tell me that almost every time we see each other."

She shook her head 'no'. "I mean it, Koh. Like you said, 'It feels like these past few days have been some horrible nightmare and a wonderful dream rolled into one.' I want to get rid of the nightmare and keep the dream going for as long as I can." she said inching her face ever closer to his.

"Are you sure you want this?"

"Yes." she said before pressing her lips to his. This didn't surprise him. Koh had known that practically every one of the girls in town had these kinds of feelings for him. When their kiss broke, Koh looked straight into her eyes.

"Are you sure you want this?"

"Yes."

"Good, because I want the same thing." he said before kissing Selfi full on the lips.

This was a huge surprise for her. A surprise that she thoroughly enjoyed, and one that she returned in full. She wrapped her arms around his neck and tilted her head to allow him more access to her lips. Koh brought his arms around her back and pulled her closer. Selfi opened her lips slightly and snaked her tongue past her lips to tease his. Koh felt her tongue poke at his lips and opened his lips to bring his own tongue into play.

Selfi smiled inwardly at his sudden boldness. She took one of her arms out from around his neck to move his hands to the small of her back. Once this was accomplished, she replaced her arm where it was and leaned back on the blue tile, pulling Koh on top of her. After a few more moments, Selfi broke the kiss. "Wow." was all she could say.

"You can say that again." was all Koh could say after regaining his breath. Leaning back, Koh pulled her up with him and into another hug with Selfi sitting across his lap.

"I love you, Koh. You mean everything to me." she said resting her head against his chest.

"I guess, maybe I should ask you something." Koh asked out loud.

"Ask me what?"

"Selfi Rhode, will you marry me?"

The only response Koh received was Selfi trying to swallow his face, starting with his mouth.

"If you want time to think about it, I can wait." he said. Selfi laughed softly and rested her head in the crook of his neck, where it meets his shoulder.

"Of course I'll marry you." Selfi said.

"Do you want to go pick out the rings later? We should go tomorrow but we'll probably be stuck in court most of the day, so we won't really have a chance to look for the rings tomorrow." commented her new fiancée.

"We can go now if you want. I'd rather go today and get it out of the way now." she said rising reluctantly from her soon to be husband. "Come on, let's go."

Selfi just about dragged him to his feet when he sat back down, pulling her into another kiss.

"Now we can go." he said as he brought them both to their feet. They both walked into Fur's store with smiles on their faces.

"Selfi, Koh, what brings you here? Don't tell me that they called off the trial 'cause he confessed?" asked Fur.

"No, it's something much better." Selfi said, just about bursting with excitement. "Koh asked me to marry him!" Selfi squealed.

Fur ran around the counter and got Selfi in a bone-crushing hug. "Congratulations, you two. I always knew that he'd be getting married someday. But this soon, I mean, wow, you know?"

"Yeah, I do know. With the trial happening tomorrow, we might not be able to go get our rings tomorrow and we want to get the rings done as soon as we can." replied Selfi.

"Really, well then, I have just the selection you'd love." commented Fur as she walked behind the counter. Fur knelt down behind the counter and re-appeared holding two trays of rings, one for engagement bands and the other for wedding bands.

"Here are the engagement bands and the wedding bands. The women's bands are above the matching men's band. Take all the time you need. Just make sure that you pick the right one." said Fur.

Selfi and Koh spent the next two hours browsing over the rings, comparing and contrasting the differences between all 75 sets of rings. Eventually, Koh and Selfi picked out a thin gold ring with a rectangular diamond placed parallel to the band with two small sapphires on each side of the diamond for Selfi and Koh selected a plain, thin gold band.

"It's more than enough." was all he said about the ring.

Koh paid for the rings and the wedding bands that he'd pick up before the wedding. They were about to leave when Fur spoke up.

"Uh Selfi, could I have a word with you?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"Koh, could you wait outside? It's kind of for Selfi only." Koh looked puzzled when Fur said that.

"Don't worry, Koh. I won't be gone long. Just wait outside." Selfi said.

As soon as he walked outside, Fur and Selfi turned their complete attention on each other.

"What did you want to speak with me about?" asked Selfi.

"I promised myself that when this happened I wouldn't get jealous about it, but I can't help it."

"What are you talking about?"

"Koh. I always knew that he wouldn't be marrying me, and I tried not to be jealous of you, but I am."

"Fur, what are you saying?"

"If I feel that Koh is unhappy with you for any reason, I won't hesitate to take him from you. Married or not."

"Don't worry. I'll treat him the way he deserves to be treated. Better than he treats all of us."

"You do that. Please, don't tell Koh about what I said. It's kinda embarrassing."

"I won't. He'd never believe it anyway."

"Thanks for letting me get that off my chest, Selfi. I really needed that."

"It's okay. To be honest, I'd feel the same as you if our positions were reversed." Selfi said as she walked out the door. She found Koh sitting on one of the dirt mounds outside.

"Have a nice chat?" he asked.

"Yeah, you know, the usual girl stuff."

"Okay. Do you want to get something to eat?" Koh asked.

"That's fine with me. It's funny, shopping always makes me hungry."

"If you say so." Koh said, smiling.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she demanded.

"Nothing at all." he replied.

"Well, you're paying for lunch."

"And I paid for the rings as well."

"Stop worrying about money so much. If it'll make you feel better, I'll pay for my food, okay?"

"If you want to." Koh said.

They arrived at Patty's restaurant to have lunch. Selfi told Patty about their engagement, and to her credit, Patty was remarkably cool about the whole situation. Koh ordered the Spiral rice and Selfi had the red Sushi platter. They ate their meals, paid for them, and went home.

When they arrived home, Koh found Weedy having some cold cereal. When Weedy noticed them coming in, she looked up at them. "Where have you two been? When I woke up, you weren't here."

"Selfi decided that enough was enough." Koh answered for her.

"What do you mean?"

"Your brother and I decided to press charges against Ghosh."

"Really? What'll happen to him?"

"At worst, he'll get off scott-free and the best we can hope for is exile from Monsbaiya." said Koh.

"Good. What else happened with you two today?" Weedy innocently asked.

Selfi and Koh looked at each other.

"Do you want to tell her or should I?" asked Koh.

"Why don't you tell her." Replied Selfi.

"Weedy, I've asked Selfi to be my wife." he stated with a small amount of pride.

Weedy leapt out of her seat and grabbed her brother and soon to be sister in a powerful hug. "When's the wedding?"

"Sometime after this whole mess with Ghosh is over. After that, we'll have all the time in the world." answered Selfi.

"So, what are you going to do now?" asked Weedy.

"Well, I don't know about the two of you, but I think a nap sounds good right about now." Koh yawned out.

"That does sound like a good idea. How 'bout I join you?" said Selfi.

Koh just grinned and led Selfi to the bedroom. They changed into their sleepwear and crawled into bed together. Neither of them had much rest as the spent almost all of their time kissing. Forty-five minutes later, Koh had a marvelous idea.

"I just had an idea. Why don't we get our swimsuits and head out to the pool for a swim?" asked Koh.

"That's a wonderful idea. I haven't gone swimming in such a long time. It'll be nice to work on my tan after so long."

"Then it's settled. As soon as we get up, we'll head to the pool."

"What if we don't want to get up?"

"Then we stay in bed."

"No matter what happens, it'll be nice."

"Yep."

"Wanna go to the pool?"

"Yes."

"You just want to see me in my swim suit." commented Selfi.

"Who wouldn't want to see you in your swimsuit?"

"Why don't we get up and go to the pool instead of arguing?"

"Fine with me. We can change when we get to the pool." said Koh. Both of them gathered their swimsuits and beach towels and left for the pool together after leaving a note for Weedy. They went to the pool and changed into their swimsuits when they arrived. Selfi had a very revealing purple two piece swimsuit, and Koh had a simple pair of white surf-shorts. Selfi sat down in one of the sun chairs and put some suntan lotion on, while Koh helped put some on her back. After that was done, Koh kissed her goodbye and headed to the pool.

Thirty minutes later, Selfi headed to the pool for a swim and to wash off the suntan lotion. She found Koh resting in a back-float position. Selfi and Koh just floated there in the almost empty pool, until the sun was halfway between noon and sunset. They got out of the pool and changed into their normal clothes before leaving. As they left, Koh commented Selfi on her tan.

"That tan really looks good on you, Selfi."

"I'm beginning to think that a tan wasn't such a good idea. My skin is going to really clash with the wedding dress."

"Whether it clashes or not, you still look wonderful. If it does clash, we can hold back on the wedding until the tan fades."

"Okay." she said sounding a little sad.

"You okay Selfi? You sound a little down."

"I'm not, it's just that I wanted to get married soon."

"We will, just not as soon as you'd like. I promise, that as soon as we're married we can do whatever you'd like."

"Really? Even..." she whispered into his ear.

"Of course we can take a bath together. We can do that tonight if you want." replied Koh.

Selfi hugged him and made him spin her around. She almost had to drag him home, had he not been running with her. When they got home, Weedy was making dinner, beef stew, for the three of them. After dinner, Weedy went to bed way too early to be in character. However, both Selfi and Koh were never one to look a gift horse in the mouth and took advantage of the situation as soon as they could. As soon as they finished dinner, Koh washed the dishes, and Selfi dried the dishes. When that was done, they headed into the bath.

Koh and Selfi undressed and got into the bath. Selfi went in after Koh because she needed to put her hair into a bun to keep it from getting wet. As soon as she got in, the warm water surrounded her and put her into a relaxed state as she snuggled in against Koh's chest. Five minutes after placing her head against his chest, she kissed him on the lips and wrapped her arms around his neck.

He brought his arms around her and pulled her closer. Soon, Selfi started to kiss more heatedly. This didn't worry Koh until she straddled his waist, one of her legs on each side of him. When she started to grind against him, he had to put his foot down.

"Selfi, what are you doing?"

"What do you mean?" she replied, having her lips work their way down the side of his neck.

"The way you're acting. It's like you're trying to seduce me."

"You don't want me to?" Selfi looked a little hurt. "You don't want to make love to me?"

"It's not that, Selfi. It's just that...well,"

"What?" she asked.

"We're not married," he said. "I just don't believe in sex before marriage. It's nothing against you, Selfi. I do want to have sex with you, I just can't until we're married. I promise Selfi, after we're married, we'll stay in bed for a week if you want to. We'll never even leave the bed if that's what you want."

She looked a bit confused, but it was replaced by understanding as what Koh said sunk in. He was just old-fashioned, a lot more than she thought.

"Okay, Koh, but don't keep me waiting a long time. I might just decide to take you on the dinner table."

"Don't worry. I won't make you wait that long."

Selfi re-adjusted herself so that she was sitting across his lap, like she was earlier at the fountain. They stayed in the bath for another hour before getting out. After they dried themselves off, they changed into their nightclothes and headed off to bed. After getting in bed, Selfi put her head on Koh's chest.

"I love you, Koh." she said.

"I love you too, Selfi. You mean a lot to me, more than anyone else."

"Goodnight, Koh."

"Goodnight, Selfi." he replied. With that, they closed their eyes and went to sleep for the night.



Author's Notes: Wow, longest chapter yet. I've been doing some thinking while writing this chapter. Right there at the end is probably as lemon as this story is going to get. I'll put their wedding night into another story. You won't be able to read it on FFN, so I'll put it on another website, I haven't decided which one yet. I'll let you know. I'm going to put this fic on the back burner until another story of mine gets finished. That won't take me too long, I think.