So it's me again, everyone! I've got some news, good or bad, whichever which way you take it =P Here's the sitch- this is going to be essentially my biggest fanfiction project ever, something I've been wanting to do for quite a while. I'm going to try and write a continuation of Strawberry Panic! with some regular pairings and some...not so regular. My major problem, I've realized, is that I always just leap into the action. Well, this time I'm going to take it slower and hopefully portray this as realistically as possible.

Please remember that this IS high school, private or otherwise, so any pairing is fair game. But don't worry too much- I won't go all Shizuma/Tamao or Kaname/Kagome on you- every pairing will be plausible in SOME way, and most will be predictable pairings.

That said, I'm not sure if I'll find the time to finish my other fics- my newer fics, such as Thorns and The Girl is Mine have a high chance that I WILL finish them, but How Can You See With Your Eyes Closed went downhill, and I'm not sure how to fix that up exactly. Anyway, I hope you all like this, and please remember to review!

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Running From the After

Prologue: Because Chikaru is Kind of Psychic, After All

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Standing outside in the snow alongside her excited young friends, Chikaru knows that today won't end the way it probably should.

She doesn't know that two hearts- one hopeful, the other bitter (bruised)- will finally shatter today, only hours from now. She doesn't know how badly her own heart will ache after everything's back in order, and her childhood friend is ripped from her for what feels like the last time (but in reality it's only the fourth). She doesn't know that somewhere in the dorms, an unbreakable bond will be formed between two more brokenhearted girls- one broken from watching her angel fly just out of her reach, the other from loving the girl who loves the angel who's in love with another.

Chikaru isn't psychic, no matter what all the other girls might like to believe (no matter how much she would). But she listens, watches.

She knows that Shizuma still doesn't know what she wants and that Miyuki is tiring of helping her search (this much was apparent by the angry red mark on the Etoile's face several nights before). She knows that Shion will be taken to live with her father to be trained as Toumori Industry's next CEO- has known since she was old enough to understand (but who truly understands when a friend is taken from them, anyway?). She knows that Yaya loves Hikari- sees the way Tsubomi looks at Yaya when she's sure no one's looking.

Today can only end one way, and therefore, today could not possibly end the way it probably should.

For anyone.

Because today probably should end with Tamao getting her moment in the sun, her moment with Nagisa, and today, Yaya should probably realize that the right girl for her wasn't, in fact, standing before the entirety of Astraea Hill, but sitting right beside her. Today should probably end with Shion standing up to her father and turning to Chikaru, her childhood friend (and secretly Chikaru hopes maybe more), and running off into a world of unknowns in favor of a secure future as the CEO of Toumori Industries.

But probably should, as anyone who's had their heart broken even once before knows, is most certainly not the same as probably would- in fact, the two were almost always complete opposites. There are too many variables- no one can be entirely happy in this situation, Chikaru knows. Today will most certainly not end the way it probably should.

With a small, sad smile, Chikaru leans back, listening to the crunching of snow beneath shoes that weren't meant for walking in the snow. The footsteps come to a slow, determined halt several feet away. Chikaru only smiles serently, still staring out at the snowy campus. "Spica's uniforms leave much to be desired around this time of year," she hums casually.

She hears a huff from behind her; an indignant scuffle. "There's nothing wrong with Spica's uniform," Shion puffs just as Chikaru knew she would. "It may not be suited for all seasons, but at least it's sensible, unlike that ridiculous floppy thing the girls at Le Rim wear."

There's a silence- Chikaru knows Shion wouldn't have stopped by her without a thing to say, as much as she wishes such a thing were realistic. "Look, Minamoto-san," and there it is, she thinks, though her brow furrows just slightly at the formal wording of her name. "Isn't it a bit cold to just be...sitting out here?" Shion asks, her voice gruff as it always is when she's embarrassed by her emotions.

Chikaru hums absently. Her lips quirk just the faintest bit upwards when she hears the blonde huff once more, hears her shuffle her feet in the snow petulantly. "Is there a problem, Toumori-san?" she asks in a light voice riddled with just the slightest hint of bitterness, because one mustn't break character too horribly, or it would throw off the entire mood.

"No," Shion mutters, and Chikaru can feel her heat only inches away now, can smell her unique scent. Shion never believed in perfumes- said there was no time for such frivolous luxuries in the political world (her words exactly, if Chikaru's memory serves her correctly). But somehow the blonde always smells so nice, so inviting despite her stoic demeanor. "Just...here," she finally says, and Chikaru feels something land just in her lap. "You'll freeze if you don't put something on."

Chikaru sighs and finally turns to face Shion only to watch the chapel door swing closed, and suddenly it all feels so hopeless, so over, like an impenetrable barrier between them. It feels like the end. She turns back to the bundle in her lap, fingering the warm, expensive lining of the coat Shion had tossed her way. Without thinking, she raises it to her nose and breathes in, almost losing herself in the familiar scent.

"Chikaru-senpai?"

And then there it is- reality slapping her in the face as it so often does. "Yes, Remon?" she asks, pasting a gentle smile onto her features as she turns to the green-haired girl, who is frantically gesturing to Kizuna, who's succumbed to her weariness in the snow.

And maybe it's just that she doesn't remember the feeling clearly, but Chikaru doesn't think it used to be quite so hard to fake a smile.

That day, of course, ends in the tiniest trace of happiness and a dam of tears, because Shizuma always was so selfish when it came to the emotions she liked to keep pent up inside her. She is happy, and Nagisa is happy, by default, and together they run from the wasteland of broken hearts they've left littered behind them.

Maybe Chikaru is just a little bit psychic, after all.

The prologue was written from Chikaru's perspective so that I could encompass the general mood of the end of the show through her. Please leave a review!