~*Miyuki*~
“Aw he got away!” I sighed.
“I’m sorry Mi.” Taisuke came up beside me.
“It’ll be ok. He didn’t get away with the artifact though. What was it called?”
“Cascading Hearts. The plaque but the display said it was created by two lovers around 1800. The legend says that the strength of their love was compacted into it and that it was their eternal love that had kept it in such mint condition.” Tai explained. I frowned.
“Tai that’s silly.” I looked over and saw a horde of reporters running in our direction. “Let’s get out of here!” I said. Tai grabbed my wrist and we sprinted off. We got back to our hotel and caught our breath.
“Come on, let’s get our stuff packed, and leave ASAP. We can sleep on the plane if we are lucky and catch a flight soon.” He smiled at me.
“Alright.” I nodded. We didn’t have much to pack, since we knew we weren’t going to be there long, but still, I enjoyed Paris a lot. The art was amazing, and the food was pretty epic. It was a beautiful city, and I hoped I would be able to see it again and be able to fully appreciate everything it had to offer. I was getting tired by the time I had packed away everything, and was fighting to stay awake.
“Don’t fall asleep just yet.” Tai said and picked my suitcase up for me.
“Thank you.” I yawned.
“Of course.” We returned our room card and took a cab to the airport. We somehow were able to get onto the next flight back to the states. It left in about an hour, so we were able to board pretty fast. I sat by the window, Tai sitting right beside me. After we took off and were comfortably in the air, Tai put his arm around me. “Mi, sleep for a while.” He said. I nodded and laid my head against his shoulder. He tucked my hair behind my ear and I felt him kiss the top of my head. My mind flashed to Kuori and I wished he was here with Taisuke and me. ‘Actually, I kinda want to fall asleep on his shoulder. Tai is a sweetheart, but, I can’t stop thinking about Kuori…’ I fell asleep shortly after that.
~*~
“Mi, Mi. Wake up.” I opened my eyes and sat up straight. “You’ve been sleeping for a long time, we’ll actually be landing soon.”
“W-What?” I questioned. I was still tired too.
“We’re almost home, just another hour and a half of driving, and we’ll be back at the house.”
“Alright.” I blinked. “I slept the whole way here?”
“Yeah, you were dead, like a rock.” He teased.
“Oh be quiet.” I smiled. We exited the plane in another 15 minutes, and left the airport an hour later. We arrived home in the morning sometime. I was so awake that I decided to just go to school after I showered and changed. I knocked on the front door and walked in quietly, Tai behind me. I was heading to his room when he came out in nothing but his boxers.
“M-Miyuki…” He stuttered. I blushed and looked down, and noticed his leg was bandaged.
“What happened?” I asked.
“I fell and cut my leg open on the coffee table.”
“Ah, that must have hurt. Did it nick your arm too?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, um, I’m back…Zero got away again. But I’ll get him next time.”
"Of course so did you get a picture of the me look alike?" I rubbed the back of my head.
“He he he, I forgot, but he looked just like an older you I swear.”
"Whatever you say Miyuki." He laughed a little and walked past me to the kitchen. I looked at him and a blush creped across my face again. ‘Mi, stop it.’ I said to myself. "Hey Tai, so how was Paris?" He asked getting some drinks out of the fridge.
"Too high class for me that's for sure." Tai answered.
“I thought it was absolutely breath taking.” I smiled. “The boys there aren’t bad looking either.” I laughed.
"Says you." Kuori smiled "Anyways I'm glad neither of you got hurt while you were over there. Oh did you see my parents they went to Paris for their anniversary."
“No, we didn’t see them at all. So that’s where they went. Well, those cute love birds hopefully are having a good time.” Kuori started coughing from chocking on his water.
"I'm....ok..." He answered.
"Well don't inhale while you drink." Tai commented.
“What made you do that?” I asked.
"I was taking a breath." Kuori replied.
"I think it's when you called his parents love birds." Tai said flatly.
“Oh don’t be so sour when it comes to love and romance Kuori, you wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for them.” I grinned. “Now hurry up, we have school. Put some clothes on.”
"Can't I just go back to bed, it's 3 in the morning." He complained.
“Huh?” I looked at the clock. “Oh no I’m so sorry, come on then!” I grabbed his wrist and pulled him to his bedroom.
"Ow, I can't go that fast with my leg." He complained.
“I’m sorry.” I went slower and slipped my hand into his. “I missed you you know.”
"Maybe that's why you thought that guy was me." He stated.
“It could be. It was just strange.” He got to his bed and sat down.
"My leg is throbbing." He groaned and laid down across his bed. "And I'm not going to take aspirin."
“I wasn’t going to make you.” I said sitting down by him. Just then Tai came in and looked at me.
“I should get you home, you still look exhausted. So tired you didn’t even realize it was so early.” I nodded.
“Alrighty, sleep well. See you in the morning.” I told Kuori.
“Yep, night.” He said and rolled over. Tai and I walked out of the house together.
“I hope you liked Paris.” I said.
“Yeah, it was alright.” He said. It looked like he was thinking hard about something.
“Oh, ok…” I said.
“Didn’t it seem strange to you that Kuori hurt his leg but he never said anything about the bandage on his arm?” He asked.
“Well, I asked if he caught it on the coffee table too and he said yes. Do you, think he lied?”
“I don’t think he could have cut both his leg and arm on the coffee table so it’s a good possibility that he lied about the one on his arm.” I looked away. ‘Why would he though?’ “I don’t know for sure, just a suggestion.”
“Yeah…”
“He could have caught himself on something else, like his dresser.” He offered.
“Yeah. He was half asleep when he answered me too.” I reasoned with myself.
“So ask him tomorrow.” He said.
“Ok.” I smiled.
“I swear that child could say that he was thrown into a pit of monkeys when he’s half asleep.” Tai looked at me, grinning. I laughed. “Well, you’ve probably never had to have a weeks worth of sleeping over with him.”
“Nope.” I took his arm. “I can only imagine what went on.” I said.
“Well, that was an interesting week to say the least.”
“It was. Thank you so much, for everything.” I said seriously.
“Now that I think of it, the way Kuori has been acting, how he doesn’t want to come or get involved kind of makes me think he’s Zero.” Tai speculated.
“You’re so funny Tai.” I pushed him playfully.
“Yeah.” We stopped at my front door and I hugged him after he set my case down. “Go get some more sleep.”
“Thank you again so much.”
“You’re welcome.” I yawned and then leaned up and lightly kissed his cheek. “Night Mi.”
“Night Tai.” I walked in quietly, and left a note that I was back home on the counter, and went up to my room and fell asleep again.
~*~
Morning came, and I was up and ready in almost no time at all. I met up with Kuori, and we headed to school. “You look cute today.” He said suddenly.
“W-What?” I stuttered, not sure if I heard right.
“I said you look cute today.” He repeated.
“Oh, thank you.” I said.
“You’re welcome.” I brushed some dirt off my skirt.
“You look nice too.” I said not really knowing what else to say.
“Thanks.” He bent down and whispered in my ear. “You always look pretty no matter what you wear.”
“N-No.” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“You can even ask Tai or Kenji. I’m sure they would agree.”
“I’m not Kuori…”
“Yes you are…” He said.
“D-Did you really miss me that much?” I was frozen on the spot; I couldn’t move.
“Yea, I didn’t really mind you waking me up at 3 in the morning either, all though I can’t remember half of the conversation we had.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it.” I looked away from him, feeling a little bad about that.
“It’s fine really.” He answered.
“Ok.” A few seconds later, I felt his breath on my ear. ‘What’s he doing?! My heart will pound out of my chest if he couldn’t tell already.’ He laughed.
“Your face gets so red when I blow on your ear.” I felt his fingers run up my spine.
“S-Shut up.” I scolded him, and then leaned against him a little. It felt really nice, and I hoped that the conversation would go in the direction I wanted it to go in.
“I’m just joking.” He laughed again. “But since my leg is messed up, it’s probably not the best idea to lean on me.”
“S-S-Sorry.” I stuttered. ‘I’m so confused…’
“It’s alright.”
“Oh…” ‘Why did he do that? And then he just, brushed me away.’
“Jumper cables!” He said interrupting my thoughts and jabbing his fingers into my sides. I squeaked and blushed madly. He chuckled. “You’re cute.”
“Stop lying.” I glared.
“But I’m not.”
“Ok…” ‘What in the world is going on?’
“No, you’re right, I was lying.” I shook my head and walked ahead of him faster. I heard him run up behind me and he whispered in my ear. “You’re sexy.”
“Kuori what’s with you?” I whipped around.
“What are you talking about?”
“Nothing. Never mind.” I turned and continued to walk.
“No, tell me.”
“No.” My eyes started to sting, and he noticed.
“Why not? Is it something I said? If I said something wrong I’m sorry.”
“It’s nothing…” ‘I’ve never been so confused. Ever.’
“Mi, I’m sorry, please don’t cry.”
“I’m fine.” I wiped my eyes before anything could spill out of them.
“I’m sorry, I’ll just be quiet now.”
“No, it’s just me. I’m just tired.” I lied.
“You sure?”
“Yeah.” I smiled a little at him
“I know you can smile better than that.” ‘That’s my Kuori.’ I felt a tear go down my cheek. “Don’t cry.” He wiped away the stray tear. I hugged him carefully. He hugged me back. “Good thing it’s Friday. My parents would kill me if they knew I was walking around on a bad leg.”
“I got your back…You’re so warm. I could fall asleep right here.”
“I would fall over.”
“I would too.” I giggled.
“I think my landing would hurt a bit more though.”
“Yeah…hey, why were you saying that stuff before?” I asked
“It was on my mind.” I blushed. ‘Really?’ “It’s been on my mind a lot lately.” He continued.
“W-Why?”
“Well, it’s more or less I get a bit worried that you’re going to get hurt whenever you go after Zero and I know that Tai was with you and all, but it wasn’t like I was literally right there to come and help you if you got hurt.”
“Aw, you’re sweet.” I said.
“You’re sweeter.” He said. I blushed and got to my locker.
“B-Bye Kuori. See you later.” I said and shoved my stuff in fast and quickly went in the direction of my first class. I spotted Kenji and I decided to talk to him, since I figured talking to Taisuke about this situation would be a bit awkward.
“Hi Kenji.”
“Hello Mi.” He smiled.
“Can I talk to you about something?” I asked.
“What is it? Oh, how was Paris?”
“Good. Well, I have this friend, and her best friend has been acting weird around her, and she doesn’t know what to do about it.”
“Well, in what way is your friend acting weird?” He asked.
“My friend’s friend, has been super flirty one minute, then completely normal the next. It’s like a switch and she’s confused.”
“That is strange. Well, what if he’s just playing with her and the flirting thing is going right over his head?”
“She doesn’t know where he’s coming from.” I said.
“So ask him.”
“No, that would make things super awkward.”
“Then I’m not sure what to do really.”
“It’s ok.” I said softly.
“I wish there was something I could do for you, unless you’d rather me talk to Kuori for you.”
“No, that would be so strange and weird.”
“So it is Kuori.”
“I just, I’m confused that it’s…” I looked down.
“That it isn’t making sense.” He finished my sentence. I nodded. “So go to winter ball with me and see how he feels about it.” Kenji suggested.
“You, really want me to go with you?” I asked stunned.
“Yes.” I blushed. He asked again. “Will you go to winter ball with me?”
“Um…I-I…” I stuttered.
“Please.” He asked and blinked at me. He was so new still, and I didn’t want to be mean.
“O-Ok.”
“Thank you.” He hugged me. I hugged back.
“You’re really sweet.”
“I was hoping you would say yes, but I didn’t think you would.” I hugged him tighter, it felt familiar and comforting, but I couldn’t figure out why. “We should probably get to our next class Miyuki.” He said.
“Ok, see you later.” I let him go.
“See ya.” He smiled and waved as he walked away.
