Sloth

(Animal Oneshot for fluff week)

**So this was inspired by one of my life-long friends. I don't know why but she always had a hard time pronouncing the word slut. Instead of saying slut, she would say sloth. She can say it correctly now but I thought it would be an entertaining idea to pursue, that and I really had no other idea…so the animal for this story is the sloth.

**I use the word slut because that's what I normally hear people say in the U.S (my friend included). Other people might say it differently but since my friend inspired this one-shot, I use the word slut.

Some engagement party

Mai was tired and all she wanted to do was to climb into bed and fall asleep but she couldn't just abandon her own engagement party. Her silver heels were killing her and she couldn't really hide her discomfort anymore. All day, she had to smile politely at everyone and had to pretend not to be offended when anyone underhandedly insulted her or her soon-to-be-husband.

Mai sighed as she watched some sloths flirt with her fiancée.

"Those sloths," Mai muttered under her breath, not expecting anyone to hear her. She had a conversation with them earlier and that conversation wasn't very pleasant, not to mention that later in the evening, she had overheard how they would compete to gain Oliver's affections, even though they had their own boyfriends and the fact that the engagement party was his. Overhearing that conversation made Mai's skin crawl. She even wanted to throw up when she heard a girl with black hair say that she shagged some guy in a closet. Mai didn't really understand the word shagged at first, but she could only assume she meant that she had sex with the guy because her friends had asked how big he was and although most would think that Mai wouldn't know about that stuff, she did.

"Sloths?" asked a confused Yasu who came to stand beside her at the table full of engagement presents.

Not expecting her best friend or the rest of the SPR group with the exception of Lin and Madoka until the next day, Mai was pleasantly surprised that Yasu was at her engagement party and without thinking about it, she wrapped her arms around her best friend and gave him a hug which didn't go unnoticed by Oliver Davis and his fans, or in Mai's terms…sloths.

Across the room, Oliver didn't seem a bit unfazed that Mai had hugged his employee; in fact he seemed glad to see him. Oliver was never one to be happy to see Yasuhara because he was always up to no good, even if he was a good employee, but today was an exception because Mai really needed someone that she knew to be at the party, even if it was for a couple of moments. Oliver didn't expect to see anyone else from SPR because they all couldn't come to the engagement party because of conflicting schedules. As far as he knew, the rest of the group was supposed to fly in the next day.

Oliver didn't want to have the engagement party but he couldn't really refuse his mother's request. He never liked dealing with people he didn't like and even more so when it came to more intimate matters but he had to do it for his mother sake, even though it was at the expense of Mai's comfort.

Though Oliver thought Mai looked beautiful in her long strapless dark blue ball gown, which partly spilt onto the floor, he knew that she was uncomfortable and he felt really bad for it. Not only did she have to dress in what he would assume would be uncomfortable clothing for her; she had to deal with all the obnoxious guests, like the ones who were critiquing her at the current moment.

"What a slut," said one girl with dark brown curly hair.

"Yeah, what a slut. She has a fiancée and she's over there hugging some other guy," a girl with jet-black hair chimed in.

"She doesn't deserve a guy like the great Oliver Davis," a girl with short reddish hair also chimed in.

If Oliver wasn't already annoyed, he definitely became irritated. He really thought they were so stupid since they were insulting his fiancée right in front of his face.

"And what exactly is your definition of a slut?" Oliver asked, effectively gaining the attention of the trio who had their backs to him when they were insulting Mai.

"Pardon?" asked the girl with black hair.

"As far as I can see, my fiancée is merely giving her best friend a hug. I don't see how that makes her a slut," Oliver said with a hint of venom in his voice, which startled the girls.

"Um…." the girls started.

"Because I thought a slut was a sexually promiscuous person and by that definition, my fiancée is not a slut. I'm actually quite surprised you don't know the definition already," Oliver said as he left three confused and angry girls as he started walking towards his fiancée.

"It's pronounced sluts," Yasu laughed.

"Don't mock me. Sl-slu-ths," she attempted again, but she still couldn't pronounce it correctly. "There are still some English words that I still have trouble with, so don't tease me."

"Sluts," Yasu repeated.

"Sloths," Mai said once more.

"Sluts."

"Sl-sloths."

"Okay, repeat after me."

"Okay."

"Sl."

"Sl."

"U"

"U"

"Ts"

"Ts"

"Sluts."

"Sloths."

"Should I bother asking?" Oliver asked as he took Mai's hand.

"No, " Mai blushed. Even though they had been dating over a year and had been engaged for another, Mai still flustered easily whenever Oliver displayed any sort of affection, though he didn't do it as often, which made it more understandable as to why she still blushed around him.

"Well now that your betrothed is here, I think I should leave you guys. I'm certain you two haven't been able to have talk to each other all day," Yasu said. Yasu's statement was not too far off; Oliver and Mai barely spent any time together throughout the day, even though it was their engagement.

"Thanks for coming today, it means a lot," Mai said as she gave her best friend an awkward hug because Oliver still hadn't let go of her hand.

"Anything for you Mai," Yasu smiled at her as he released himself from her embrace.

"There is a room already set up for you, just find Lin and he'll direct you to your room, your stuff is all there."

"Where can I find…"

"Lin is over there," Oliver directed his gaze across the room to where Lin and Madoka were in a deep conversation.

"Well I'm beat, so I think I'll head off to bed now."

"Yasuhara…"

"Yeah?"

"…" Oliver couldn't really bring himself to utter the word thanks but luckily he didn't have to.

"Thanks," Mai interjected, smiling at her friend while giving her fiancée's hand a squeeze.

"How cute, you finish each others sentences now," Yasu teased before he left to find Lin.

As soon as Yasu left, Oliver pulled Mai away from the crowd and led her outside towards the terrace garden.

The slightly chilly air nipped at Mai's exposed skin, causing her to shiver ever so slightly. Oliver noticed and let go of Mai's hand so he could take his jacket off and hand it to her. Mai thanked him and she put the jacket on. Afterwards, she took a hold of his hand once again and casually leaned her head on his right shoulder.

"Thanks for flying my family out here," Mai murmured.

Oliver knew that she was referring to the members of SPR. "After today, I don't think that's enough," Oliver said as he squeezed her hand. "After all, none of them are here, well with Yasuhara being the exception and he barely made it," Oliver commented.

"Well, I know that you flew him in earlier, but he wasn't able to make it in time because of a delay."

"Did Yasuahara tell you?"

"No, we were too busy talking about other things, but I guess my assumption was correct," Mai smiled. "Anyways, it means a lot that he was with me today, even if it was for only a couple of minutes. Thanks."

"And what exactly were you guys talking about?" Oliver asked.

Mai leaned forward to kiss him on the cheek before saying, "sloths."

"Well forget those sloths, maybe we can find a different way to celebrate our engagement," Oliver whispered into her ear.

~Unfortunately, this might be the only oneshot that I get to post for fluff week because I am going to Canada for a couple of days (so excited). I have a couple other ideas worked out but I didn't really have time to complete them because of some recent events but quite frankly I don't know if I'll be able to finish them in time, I might if I finish them throughout the drive, but then who knows if I'll have Wi-Fi in my room to publish them so yeah…worst case scenario, this will be my only post for fluff week, hope it's decent.

~Sorry for my rambling (my excuse is that it is 2 am and I'm very tired), please review if you have the time.