Title : Between Gray and Rose

Category : Hyouka

Disclaimer : Not mine, of course.

Character(s): Houtarou Oreki, Eru Chitanda

Rating : T

Summary : It's actually never late to realize who she is.

Notes : Thanks to the last episode of Hyouka. It's amazingly beautiful, honestly.

It wasn't a new or rare thing for him anymore.

Her sister, even he hated to admit it, was a beautiful person. Being lived with her for several years didn't make a difference of action in him if he met some pretty girls.

Even Mayaka was could include too as well in that category. But of course he would never say it to the person herself, it would just bail out a storm of sarcastic remarks from her.

Eru wasn't any different too if it was about the appearance. She just got more bonuses like having a black, long straight hair, beautifully-colored pupils of her eyes, a gentleness feeling in both of appearance and personality, a polite manner, and being a daughter of a prominent family.

At least until that day.

There she was, with a background of falling and swaying petals of cherry blossoms, wind blowing to both of them, smiling gently at him.

Just one certain thing that he could think of at that time.

Had she always been that beautiful?

It was different from the usual. She was different. He was curious.

But what he was more curious about when he would see that kind of scenery again. Where Eru was smiling, especially only to him.

And then, he suddenly realized it.

Wouldn't it mean he was longing for a rose-colored life? Moreover, it was with a really high possibility that it would be a pinkest life that he would ever go through, and the 'energy waster' kind of life.

A very tiring, shocking pink-colored life.

He then sighed, and then smiled a little.

At this point, he probably already had gone through half way of that kind of life, ever since Eru came to his life. And you could say he liked it.

When the time had come for them to go back…

That was when Houtarou finally snapped his eyes open from his peaceful slumber.

That dream again? His mind really liked it, didn't it?

He quickly looked at his alarm clock. 06.45 a.m. Wait, that was too morning, he thought. He decided to throw himself back on the bed, took a good position for his head on the pillow, and closed his eyes one more time to meet some good dreams.

Unfortunately for him, it didn't go well smoothly as he heard a knocking sound was reverberating through his bedroom. But hearing at the sound which was soft and gentle, he could quickly identify the person who was behind the door all this time.

The clicking sound of door that being opened was heard by him, and a face of woman were showed up in the gap of the opened door. "Houtarou-san?"

Seriously, his fiancée's ever soft voice was making him more and more sleepy. As the result, he was so lazy to even turning his head to where she was.

"Houtarou-san? Are you still sleeping? Geez, why have you always not waked up when I come to your apartment?" Eru said with a bit annoyed expression as she saw the state where Houtarou was in; curled up nice and good, and so did his hair.

What he more curious was why that she always came to his apartment this morning? Was Houtarou thought, but he decided to still keep his silence.

Finding that he wouldn't ever wake up for any time, she then headed to the other side of his bed, sitting where Houtarou's body were facing to. "Please wake up, Houtarou-san. We're already agreed a week ago that you will come with me to Juumonji Family's house, aren't we?"

Her so ever polite manner of speaking was never get old, even when they are already together for 5 years. He remembered that it was a quite hard for her to get the general idea of first name basis and doing it eventually.

But it was not even a matter for him.

He then opened up his eyes slightly to see his fiancée's appearance for better, while the latter was still looked at him and started to talk again. "Please prepare yourself, Houtarou -san. While you were at it, I will cook a breakfast for us. What would you like to have for—" Her statement were suddenly cut by him as he lifted his hand and reached her cheek, caressing it gently with an expressionless face.

Eru just stared at him a bit dumbfounded what he was just doing to her, but still enjoyed his touch.

What an idiot, his teenager self.

She was indeed always this beautiful.

Not that he said it out loud, of course.

"Houtarou-san…?"

It wasn't even a minute for him to pull her onto his bed until she finally realized that she was facing his face, while his hand was holding tightly to her waist.

Those lips of hers. They were like a ripe strawberry to him, and she didn't know how much he wanted to ravish it again. They were just like a constant drug to him.

No. She was the drug. And he wouldn't mind if he couldn't ever be healed from this addiction.

"What's wrong, Houtarou—"

He just didn't want to hear the 'san' suffix, so he cut her by placing his lips on hers. It was a quick one, though.

But he would surely never enough of it. So he kissed her again.

But the second one didn't fulfill his need. So he did it again, much longer and deeper than before.

At first, Eru unconsciously followed him and slowly placed her hands on his chest. But as Houtarou started to lean at her again, she showed an expression, more like a plea for him to stop doing it.

He suddenly remembered what state they were in and reluctantly stopped his advance. That was so close, they were nearly doing it. And now they still faced each other's faces, looking everywhere but their partner's faces.

This was quite mortifying, though. Did he know how much he wanted her? Did he know how much he wanted her until he could sacrifice his fully grey-colored life and his way of energy saving?

Although that was completely flooding his mind, he already knew that more or less Eru was feeling the same with him, so it was okay. For now, at least.

The comforting silence was finally shattered as Eru coming out from the bed and telling him that she want to prepare their breakfast. Not showing how much she pretty disappointed with this turn of event, she still showed her gentle smile to him.

Yeah, this scenery.

"Eru."

She turned her face as she saw her fiancé was mad a signal for her to sit again on his bed, which she did it without hesitance at all.

Only for him to cup her cheek and give her a peck on the lips.

"Thank you."

For a second, she gave him a confused look.

Nevertheless, she then showed him her smile that he loved the most. And this time, he smiled back at her too.

A/N: Whew! First Hyouka fanfic that I managed to finish it in one day. Surely amazing for me. Hurray for episode 22! And sorry if they were OOC and the idea was a common one. And my bad grammar too.

I hope they will manage an OVA or season two, but I hope that the novel translation from Baka-Tsuki is fast too. Volume 5, volume 5!

Please review it! Thank you very much for reading it!