A/N: Just a little something to let you all know that I'm still alive ^_^

As the title says, there will be no rhyme or reason for any of the following stories. This will be a series of one-shots which may or may not have any tie-ins with my other stories, but just things that I ended up writing for various reasons that certainly seemed to be valid at the time. Some will be simple fluff. Some will be kind of odd (or downright kinky) or just plain weird (no flames please. I'll add a warning at the beginning of those stories so that you can skip them if you want to). Some will be simple character studies for those secondary characters in the anime and light novels that I find intriguing. And some, like this first one, may be a little on the dark side. Since I already know that some of these stories will be "off-color" I have given the series as a whole an "M" rating.

As always, your comments and reviews would be greatly appreciated.

Legal: I do not own MSGM or any of its characters. All such honors belong to Oyuki Konno, may she decide to pick up her pen (or laptop) SOON! We miss you!

Timing

It seemed like it was always just a matter of timing.

"I'm sorry, Sei," Youko said with a hitch of sorrow in her voice and pain evident in her dark, hazel eyes, "but I couldn't wait forever. I realized how much I loved you when you were with Shiori, but I had to hold my feelings back. Then, when Shiori left and you changed so much, I knew that you weren't ready for another relationship so soon. So I waited, and I waited, and I waited."

Sei listened silently as Youko spoke her quiet words of devastation. It had been more than three years since Shiori had left her at that train station on Christmas Eve. It had taken that long for her to finally come to grips with the fact that she loved Youko and wanted to be with her for the rest of her life. Three long, wasted years.

"And when I realized that you already knew how I felt, but still you didn't want to acknowledge it, I thought it might be better for me in the long run; that you would never see me as a potential partner. So when I came to Todai I immersed myself into my coursework. If I wasn't in class or the library studying, it was because I was sleeping. And then, when I finally came to see that I was simply running away from any kind of life I might have for myself, I started going to study groups. I made friends, went to movies and to bars. I went to dances and parties. And I met Hiroki-kun."

Youko had started off just standing there in front of the girl she had loved for so long, hands clasped together to try to keep them from shaking, until her need to move, to do something other than stand idly as she destroyed forever what might once have been, led her to start clearing the debris of cups and plates from her dinner with Hiroki. Her black hair, longer then it had been during her time at Lillian, kept falling in her face, hiding her eyes and the pain and sorrow that shone in them. Sei couldn't move as she silently watched the young woman wander about the room as she tried to explain her decision. As far as Sei was concerned it was simply a litany of all of the mistakes Sei had made over the past three years.

"He was fun. He cared for me. He made me laugh. He made me happy. He made me see that there was a life outside of school, outside of my family and outside the Yamayurikai. Even still, I hoped that there might be some chance for you and me, but we rarely got together and then only with the other Roses; never just the two of us alone."

Sei had been too scared - too frightened of another loss, of rejection - despite knowing how Youko felt. She may have worn the mask of the fun-loving and flirty 'bian, but underneath she was still just a scared little girl, searching desperately for happiness but too afraid of being left alone again, of being hurt again, to take that next step.

"I figured that you didn't want to be alone with me, that my love for you was a bother and a nuisance, so I decided to give up and move on. I started to date Hiroki-kun seriously, and I realized that I had feelings for him; maybe not the love that I could have had with you, but still a love strong enough that it might last and hopefully make me happy. When he asked me to marry him last month, I said 'yes' and accepted his ring. We won't get married until after we both graduate, I still want to have a law career and so does he, but we will be getting married," Youko said, seeming to be trying to convince herself of this truth as she stopped her worthless movements and stared at the carpet, unable to bring herself to look into Sei's eyes to see what might be there.

"I appreciate that you love me, Sei. I know how much it took for you to come here and tell me that, but it's too late. I don't . . . no, I can't feel that way about you anymore. It hurts too much."

When Sei had finally gotten up the courage to try again, to drive into Tokyo and to knock on Youko's apartment door, it was to find a young man opening the door and telling Youko that she had a visitor. He must have read the mood because he quickly excused himself, telling Youko that he would see her tomorrow before he gave her a kiss on the cheek and left the two of them alone together. The look in Youko's eyes at that moment was enough to already tell her what Youko was saying now: that it was too late. That she had missed her one opportunity for true happiness in this lifetime. That the two of them could not now, or ever be, the lovers that she so desperately wanted.

"I'm sorry, Sei," Youko said softly to the silent girl as Sei simply turned and headed out the door, back into the street and to her car.

But Sei wasn't ready for the long, dark drive back to Musashino and her lonely dorm room just then. She was angry, hurt, and numb all at the same time. She needed to sort out her thoughts and feelings. She needed time to process everything that had happened and everything that Youko had said. So she bypassed her car and, tucking her hands deeply into the front pockets of her jeans, started walking. The clouds covering the night sky eventually began to release the cold drops of rain that they had been holding back, but Sei either didn't realize it or didn't care. She simply continued walking, taking no notice of where she was going, her mind elsewhere, head down as the wind whipped the heavy drops past her quickly chilling body.

She walked and she walked, it seemed like hours, until she was forced to slow at an intersection as the "Do Not Walk" sign started flashing at her, playing its warning jingle. On, off, on, off, on, off, until it stayed lit, stopping her in her tracks just like Youko's words had stopped any chance of a happy future for her. She turned to look left and right down the street. There wasn't much traffic on this rainy night. A few cars whizzed by, sprays of dirty water flying from their tires, coming from somewhere, heading to somewhere else.

Where was Sei going? Where did she have to go? Anywhere?

Sei stood at the curb, the "Do Not Walk" sign staring unblinkingly at her as she watched a heavy box truck splashing its way down the narrow street, moving too fast for the road conditions.

Was there anywhere for her now? Now that Youko was gone forever. Was there anyone for her now?

The truck continued its approach, still moving too quickly, as if it was trying to beat the light, its driver intent on where he was going, not on where he was now. She could even see the determined look in his eyes. And then something suddenly occurred to Sei as she watched the truck bearing down on the intersection.

Yes, it was all just a matter of timing.

She lifted her foot to take a step off of the curb.

"The Sato Sei that I know would never take such a cowardly path," a chill voice came from the darkness off to her right, the shockingly unexpected sound stopping all movement. Even the sounds of the city seemed muted, as if it were holding its breath waiting to see what the blonde would do. "The Sato Sei that I know would fight for what she wants or, if she knew the fight to be fruitless, she would look elsewhere to find what was missing from her life," came the cold voice again.

As she watched the speeding truck fly past, the water spraying from its large tires drenching her even further, Sei gingerly put her foot back down on the sidewalk and turned slowly, her entire body turning away from the roadway, just as she had been taught those many years ago at Lillian, so that she could face her . . . accuser? Or was it her savior?

The brown pigtails were the same, but the maturity . . . and anger . . . in those deep brown eyes was new.

"Yumi-chan . . . ?"

"That's 'Yumi-sama' to you, Sei-san . . . at least until you can prove to me that you are no longer going to act like some love-struck twelve year old that has just been rejected by the boy she had a crush on," the smaller girl said, her voice thick with contempt as she stepped from the darkness to stand under the yellow light of a streetlamp. She was wearing a long red and black plaid skirt with knee-high black boots and a white, pearl buttoned blouse that was currently plastered to her skin from the heavy rain. "Imagine my surprise when I happen to see an old friend standing pensively on a street corner in the pouring rain while I calmly drove by in my nice warm car. Then imagine my shock as I see the intent behind those grey eyes that I thought I knew so well!

"What do you have to say for yourself young lady?" Yumi asked in the same tone of voice her mother had used on her so many times. She even crossed her arms over her chest and tapped her foot as she waited for the answer.

"Ah, I . . ." Sei stammered, not sure how to deal with this new Yumi. It suddenly occurred to her that she was standing on a street corner, in the rain, water sluicing down her face, soaked to the skin . . . and she wasn't angry anymore. She wasn't confused anymore. She still hurt, a lot, but it wasn't that blinding pain that it had been . . . was it only moments before? What she was was embarrassed! "I'm a fool," she finished lamely, hanging her head in shame.

"You won't get an argument from me," Yumi said sternly, but then a tenderness crept into her eyes as Sei moved slowly towards her, away from the edge of the road. "Shall we take this conversation indoors where it is a little dryer and, hopefully, a lot warmer?" she asked quietly. "There's a coffee shop not too far away, or . . . my apartment is also nearby."

-oo-

Sei had forgotten that Yumi had entered AIIT to study architecture after she had graduated from Lillian. She had also somehow forgotten how devastated Yumi had been when Sachiko had gone ahead with her arranged marriage to Suguru Kashiwagi even after Yumi had somehow found the courage and strength to confess her feelings for the raven haired heiress. If anyone knew what it was like to have your life destroyed by the one you love it was Yumi-chan. It had taken Sei and the remaining members of the Yamayurikai almost a year to help the young woman get over the blow.

"A fine pair we make, huh," Sei chuckled as she sat cross-legged on the floor in Yumi's tiny apartment, a mug of hot coffee in her hand. She was currently wearing a much too short terrycloth robe that Yumi had lent her after taking a hot shower. Yumi had just sat down on the old and dilapidated sofa across from her, her head wrapped in a towel, another robe wrapped around her body, and a cup of tea in her own small hands. The brown eyed girl pulled her legs underneath her short, pink robe to sit on them and it was a testament to Sei's still roiling emotions that she didn't try to sneak a peak during the movement to see if Yumi was wearing any panties. A tiny sneeze finally caused her to raise her head to look at the young woman across from her.

"Just a couple of friends hanging out and having a drink," Yumi replied with a slight, shy smile as she used a tissue to wipe her nose. It was a look that Sei had seen many times over the past few years. It hammered home to her that, despite the strength and maturity she had seen in those eyes earlier, the girl sitting across from her was still 'her' Yumi, albeit a slightly older and world weary version. The girl's deep brown eyes still looked haunted with the pain she was suffering from her onee-sama's rejection of her love despite the time that had passed. "I would have thought you had read about it in the society papers like I did, but can I assume that you have just learned about Youko-sama's engagement?"

"Yeah, you might say that," Sei chuckled as she rubbed the back of her wet hair in her trademark show of confusion or embarrassment. "It seems that my timing, as usual, was a bit off. It's my own fault though. It's not like I haven't had enough time or enough people pushing me these last three years. I just . . ." she trailed off, dropping her head.

"I know," Yumi sighed in commiseration, her eyes focused on the cup in her hands. "Sometimes we just can't have what we want," she sniffed. The younger girl, no, woman, put her tea down and pulled the tissue from her robe's pocket and blew her nose, "but we have to remember that we have good friends that love and care for us." A tear welled up and trickled down her right cheek. "We can't forget about those that would be left behind . . . it – it would be mean . . . and selfish . . ." The tears started coming harder as the brown haired girl's words changed to hiccups of emotion. Sei got up from her seat on the floor and moved to sit next to her distraught kohai, putting an arm around her shoulders and pulling her close.

"Shh, shh. It's going to be alright, Yumi-chan," Sei said in a soothing voice. It was always easier to take care of someone else, to help them with their troubles, than to think or worry about your own. Sei was able to bottle up her own despair and focus solely on the pain of the girl in her arms right then. She should have focused on the eyes that suddenly turned up to her with a raging fire burning brightly.

"Alright? ALRIGHT? You were just going to leave me behind to deal with your mess? YOU BITCH!" Yumi screamed at her and started railing against her body. "What gives you the right to go off the deep end and take the easy way out? The coward's way out! If you wouldn't let ME do it why the HELL should you get off the hook so easily?"

Sei took the blows and the pounding of tiny fists against her shoulders and chest as she pulled Yumi even tighter into her embrace. She knew she deserved every bit of the girl's anger and pain. She had been thinking only of herself; her own pain. It had been Sei that had found Yumi sitting in a pool of her own blood, her wrists slashed haphazardly with a kitchen knife as she leaned against the bathtub in her parent's house. She had been going over to check on her shortly after her breakup with Sachiko only to find the young girl crying softly, nearly unconscious on her bathroom floor. The ensuing panic, hospitalization, and slow recovery should have impressed upon the grey eyed blonde how those left behind would be impacted by one brief moment of insanity. The scars on those thin arms were still noticeable against the paleness of her skin even after so many months.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Yumi-chan," she whispered as the small girl continued to pound her. Her own tears slipped down her cheeks to fall and hide within the thick strands of Yumi's brown tresses after her hair towel had come loose and fallen into her lap. Yumi's face now lay buried against Sei's chest, its owner sobbing into her breasts.

"You're all I have left," Yumi whimpered as she finally began to run out of steam. "You can't leave me too, Sei . . . please . . . please don't leave me. I . . . I don't know what I'd do if you left me as well. You're . . . you're all I have left."

"What do you mean?" Sei asked quietly, surprised at the fresh pain she heard in Yumi's voice.

"They're all g-gone. As soon as I finished my th-therapy and moved here they all s-stopped talking to me. Yoshino, Shimako, Noriko, even Touko and Y-Yuuki . . . I guess the shame of a suicide attempt was too much for them to handle. They were nice enough to hang around to see me through the worst of it and then they simply faded away. None of them will even answer the phone anymore when I try to call them."

Sei was shocked speechless. Yes, she herself was guilty of not having spoken to Yumi in a while. The girl had usually called when Sei was out partying or, less often, studying at the library and she had a bad habit of leaving her cell phone in her dorm room. She only had her own laziness to blame for not calling her friend back more often. Even still it had only been a month or so since the two of them had last spoken. But for even her own brother to ignore her after they had been so close . . . that was just too awful to think about!

"Yumi-chan, Yumi, why didn't you tell me? Why did you keep it to yourself?"

"You didn't need to have to deal with my problems, Sei-san," Yumi sniffed, her fingers tightly clutching the lapels of Sei's borrowed robe, refusing to look up again. "You had your own issues to deal with. You didn't need mine as well."

"You know I would have been there for you, Yumi," Sei cried. "I should have been there for you. I was too wrapped up in my own problems that I didn't even take the time to see yours. I'm so sorry!" she sobbed.

The two girls cried, holding each other close, each with a desperate need to simply feel the warmth of another body, a caring soul. Sei couldn't remember who had kissed whom first; whether she had kissed the top of Yumi's head or Yumi had kissed the sensitive skin between her breasts, but she suddenly found her lips pressed heavily against those of the younger girl, a soft but needful tongue dancing tantalizingly with her own. She pulled back quickly, shocked at herself for taking advantage of someone that was in so much pain, but Yumi's whimper of hurt and loss as she abruptly ended the kiss told her that it was alright; that it was something they both needed at the moment; just the simple sharing of love and caring; two hearts reaching out in need and meeting that need with their own. She brought her lips to Yumi's again, and she could feel the sigh of relief from the other girl; the sure belief that Sei would not leave her, at least not right now.

She was sure that it was Yumi's hand that first made its way inside her robe to tenderly and timidly begin brushing the bare skin of her stomach. She moaned into Yumi's mouth at the feather light touch and that was all the permission the younger girl needed to move her right hand higher as her left slipped inside the robe and made its way tentatively down her body.

-oo-

The bright yellow Volkswagen Beetle was conspicuous as it sat parked across the street from the large church as the bells began to ring and the newly married couple exited the doors to loud cheering and thrown rice. The sun was doing its best to pierce the overcast sky, but the muted light was barely enough to color the world in shades of grey. Even still, Youko looked especially beautiful in her white satin and lace wedding dress. Sei even had to grudgingly admit to herself with a soft sigh that Hiroki-kun looked good in his black tux as they made their way through the throng to the limousine that was waiting for them at the curb.

Following the couple down the steps was a statuesque, raven haired beauty with sapphire blue eyes in an elegant, midnight blue gown. Holding her arm was an equally tall and handsome, dark haired young man. The two projected an aura of deep happiness and love that seemed as fake as their smiles to those that truly knew them. Yumi wouldn't have believed that Sachiko could be such a consummate actress if she hadn't seen it for herself. She must have been taking lessons from Yumi's former petite soeur.

Touko, Shimako, Yoshino, Rei, Noriko, and Eriko were all in the wedding party and calmly followed the happy couple down the stone steps towards the waiting limo. The photographer stopped everyone and had all the girls from the wedding party gather together for one last photo. Rei stood on the far left while Yoshino took the far right position. Shimako stood beside Rei while Noriko took her place next to Yoshino. Sachiko stood next to Youko with Eriko between the bride and Touko. You could almost see them all leaning slightly away from each other. It was painful to watch.

"You good?" Sei asked her girlfriend of two years, giving her hand a gentle squeeze as they leaned against the side of the car and watched the end of the wedding festivities.

"Yeah, I'm good," Yumi smiled up at her, returning the squeeze. "It still hurts a bit, but nowhere near as much as it did. And now I know that it's something that I can live with until it disappears entirely. Especially with you by my side," she told her lover with a much larger smile. "How about you?"

"Yeah, I'm good too," Sei replied with an attempt at a smirk that failed miserably. "Like you, it still hurts a little," she admitted ruefully, "but having someone beside me that loves me as much as you do makes it easier," she smiled and then turned more fully towards the shorter girl. "Shall we go?"

"Yes. I think we've both seen enough," the brown eyed girl sighed but followed it up with a shy grin. "For some reason I suddenly find myself wanting a long, hot shower."

Sei felt slightly unclean herself after watching the spectacle, but then she chuckled at the thought of what the two of them might end up doing after that shower . . . or even during.

The little yellow Beetle's tires gave a brief chirp as the car quickly moved away and down the road. Eight pairs of eyes looked up in time to see a woman with short blonde hair lean across the seat to give a quick kiss to a brunette in pigtails tied with ribbons. Eight pairs of eyes leaked an ocean of tears later that night as they remembered what they had had at one time and, for whatever reason, had mistakenly or stupidly given up.

While two pairs of eyes, one brown and one grey, looked lovingly at each other as they held each other close and promised to stay together forever.

Sometimes, in finding true happiness, timing is everything.

A/N: Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed this story (or not), please let me know with a review or PM. You know I always love hearing from you ^_^

Take care all,

CX