'Damn it why am I crying?' Ayanio asked herself as she sat thinking in her room. She knew that there was a reason for the tears streaming down her face, but the only thing she could think about was the next day, which was Valentine's Day. One day of the year that Ayanio wished didn't exist. It reminded her of when she was a teenager, and the man that she loved had left after she had learned all that he could teach her. She sighed as she watched members of her family come and go from the room where she sat watching the snow fall. 'That's why I'm crying,' she thought as she closed her amber eyes. 'I miss him, who would have thought that three years after he left I would still be thinking about him when Valentine's was coming.' "Nee-san," a deep male voice called from behind Ayanio who didn't turn her head she knew who it was, and looking at him at the moment was a bad idea. She didn't want to show him the tears that still fell from her eyes.

"What is it, Ren," she asked keeping the emotion out of her voice so that he wouldn't know that she was hurting. She had been doing a great job at keeping people from realizing that she was a mess on the inside even thought she presented a face of complete peace, she was broken.

Before Ren could answer though a voice that she never thought she would hear again answered, "I'm back." Ayanio froze. Her eyes wide as she kept her back to the two males that were her father's third cousins.

"What do, you want Yagami-san," Ayanio asked in a tired tone, still not turning to face them. She was also being overly formal to hide her pain. She wasn't about to let in the man that hurt her again.

"Ayanio, I…"

"Just leave," she whispered she didn't want to deal with this. She had enough to take care of other than dealing with the feelings that she felt floating up from the part of her heart that she had thought had been sealed tight.

"Can't do that, Hime," he said as he grabbed her arm and spun her around to face him. When he saw the tear stained face before him, his heart broke. This was a face he had hoped to never seen, and somehow it was only made worse by the fact that he knew he was the cause of it. "Ayanio," he whispered as he gathered the twenty year old woman that held his heat into his arms. "I never meant to hurt you."

She struggled to get out of his embrace, it brought back too many memories for her, and she felt as though her heart was being torn to shreds again. "Let me go," she said brokenly as she stopped fighting. "Just let me go Kazuma."

Kazuma was surprised, not to mention that he had never seen Ayanio like this. She was usually the one that would jump down his throat for doing anything stupid or perverted, but this Ayanio this wasn't the girl that he had fallen in love with. It was an imitation, and a bad one. "Where's Ayanio?"

"I'm right here Kazuma," she whispered as she slipped out of his arms. "I'm me, just broken."

"How are you broken, I mean what happened to the short-tempered girl that I knew three years ago?"

"People change, Kazuma, especially when they've lost something they care about. You should know how that feels." She wasn't looking at him again. Her eyes seemed flat to him as though she was stamping any and all emotion down, and it seemed as though she had been doing it for a long time.

Suddenly he couldn't take it anymore. He pulled the girl that he had been thinking about none stop since he left to go and put his feelings for Tsui- Ling to rest. "I'm sorry," he whispered as he held her to him. When he said those words it was as if a dam broke inside her and she started to cry, sobbing into his chest. "Ayanio, why are you crying?"

Kazuma was answered by his brother, "She's been an emotionless void since you left. The only time someone would get her to talk was if Cousin Jugo or I were in the room, not even Yukari and Nanase could get her to open up. She never said anything, and whenever we would mention your name she'd freeze up and not move, almost exactly like she was when you spoke."

Kazuma's arms tightened around the crying girl as he silently berated himself for hurting her again. He had only left because he thought that it would be for the best. "Why would she shut herself down like that," he asked.

This time he was answered by Jugo, "Because she loves you. The only reason she's still a live right now is because we force her to eat. She was going to starve herself so that she wouldn't have to go through the pain of you leaving. She was in the hospital for six months before she even spoke a word."

Now if Kazuma hadn't been chewing himself out in his head he was now, the girl that he had worked so hard to protect had tried to kill herself so that she wouldn't have to deal with the pain of her love for him, "Can I talk to her alone, Jugo, Ren? I have to tell her some things."

"Of course Kazuma, come with me Ren." The two men left Kazuma with the sobbing Ayanio.

Once the two young people were left alone in the room Kazuma tilted the girl he had loved for four years' head up so that she was looking into this deep red brown eyes. "Kazuma," she breathed as she stared up at him, partly in disbelief, she had thought that she would never seen the man that she loved so much ever again.

He didn't say anything as he leaned down and kissed her. "I'm sorry for leaving you Hime," he whispered a hair's- breathe from her lips. Ayanio's eyes were wide as looked at him with amber eyes so full of emotion that she couldn't speak. "I only left because I thought that it would be for the best. Who would want me, I'm the family black sheep. I was disowned by my own father. I left because I thought that you would be better off without me around to hurt you."

"Kazuma, you idiot," she breathed as she rested her head against his chest. "You hurt me by leaving, and on the exact day that I was going to tell you how I felt too."

"Ayanio?"

"Yes," she whispered as her amber eyes met his burgundy.

"I love you."

Ayanio's eyes went wide as she gazed into his eyes, searching them for a sign that what he was telling her was true. He smiled down at her, and that soft smile was all she needed to raise up onto her toes to kiss him. The kiss quickly became heated as the two erstwhile adults let their pent up feelings out through the kiss. "I love you you too, you idiot," she said when they came up for air, some of the fire that Kazuma remembered returning to her amber eyes.

They started to kiss in earnest, letting all the loves that they felt for one another, as well as the desire that was starting to build up guide them. The two then proceeded to go into Ayanio's room and continue what they had started as well as show the abundance of their love for one another.

The next morning when they woke next to each other it was to find that they were both smiling and Kazuma held out a velvet ring box, inside was a silver ring with a sapphire the color of his eyes when he was in contractor mode. Looking into her eyes Kazuma asked, "Ayanio Kannagi, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?"

Ayanio's eyes filled with tears as she threw herself at him crying, and then she kissed him, when she released him from the kiss she said with a wealth of emotion in her voice, "Yes, Kazuma, Oh! My Kami yes, I will marry you."

Fin

Moon-chan: This was written by a request for something that had some more…*blushes* hot & heavy stuff in it, but since I'm not comfortable writing outright lemons here is a cute little story that has one implied. I hope you enjoyed it and Happy Valentine's Day! Please R&R, thank you.