(4,150 words) I got my laptop back! why am I saying this? You guys have no idea what I'm talking about, Well quick explanation, my four month old laptop broke. so I had to wait two months to get it back. It was annoying. It's still broken. Well looks like HP owes me and my sister a new laptop now. Fun.

I was really happy with the hits I got for the first chapter, it didn't even reach two hundred but I was still getting them each month and I wrote the last chapter in january.

Hated my writing in the first one, I didn't when I wrote it but I re-read it before writing this and was like 'Wow this is crap'. So it inspired me to do a better job on this one, and I'd have to say I sure did. I usually hate all my writing, something must be wrong here...

well anyway, enjoy me pretties!

Disclaimer: If wearing that makeshift Shiki cosplay didn't make me Shiki then writing this don't mean I own TWEWY.

2) Crack in the wall

The grey clouds above threatened rain and the exhaust from the cars passing noisily by drifted up slowly, adding more grey to the already bland surroundings of the streets of Shibuya. The morning was so blank, nobody in some kind of colourful outfit, most all cars close to black.

Neku stood at the street side, passing time until the bus arrived. He had his old headphones on and had the music blaring. It was used to ignore the voices of others, but even the music in all its loudness was falling on deaf ears. His mind was racing over what had happened last time he and Shiki talked.

It'd hurt him, it'd hurt her as well, but she was being too stubborn to admit to the pain; but he saw it in her eyes each time they passed. He knew what they'd done on that night maybe shouldn't have happened at all, he didn't know what he was thinking at the time, he knew it'd transpired way too fast. But it had made him realise his feelings for her were more than that of a friend. She'd been his first friend, and the first he had felt this way for, he hadn't a clue about it all until the hidden emotions overtook his thoughts and actions and forced him to see the truth.

There and then he knew it was the same for her, so what had caused her to change her thoughts and tell him she didn't want them to be together? Even with her the way she was it couldn't be possible that she was paranoid enough to think their friends would judge them for it. The group had always known they were close; it wouldn't be hard for their feelings to change considering the time they spent together. Was it that trip to Europe she and Eri were going on? Did she not want to have to have a boyfriend when she knew that an entire ocean was between them?

She wouldn't be there forever, and if it ended up being a long time, they could work it out. Somehow they would, they had been through worse together.

The bus pulled up, its bright yellow paint and obnoxious giant advertisements blocked all else from view. The gravel kicked up on the side of the road as it took its stop. Neku pushed past the others trying to get on as the door first opened. That way he could get away from the majority of the crowd and have a better chance of getting a seat if he was first on.

He was lucky enough to land one near the back next to an elderly woman with large white framed glasses hanging on the edge of her nose; the worn book in her wrinkly hands took up a great part of her interest ad he was virtually ignored as he took the seat by her side. Neku took off his headphones and placed them in his bag, hiding them under what little it contained. Everyone knew he only used them when something was up, and he wanted the masquerade that all was fine to continue for as long as it could. He laid his head on the tattered blue of the seat and looked to the side, not enough so that the woman might mistake that he was watching her, but enough that he still had a good view out the window.

She did however for a minute become stuck at staring at his bright messy hair, which he hadn't been bothered enough to brush this morning, like most did if this was their first time seeing him. Well it was unusual for sure, just sometimes the looks got irritating. The woman may have been more polite than others and took her eyes away and back to her book after a short amount of time passing.

Neku gazed out the window, hoping that maybe, as even his music failed this time, getting caught up by the sight of his surroundings could (though this was hoping for a miracle) take his mind off things. But as time went by, he found it was just that, hoping for a miracle. He'd thought about this far too much in the past weeks, but he had no idea what on earth to do.

Graduation had come and gone, Shiki and Eri were supposed to be leaving soon. Rhyme had said someone should throw a little 'goodbye party' for them. Eri had flipped upon hearing it and had forced everyone to make preparations for it. When he heard it, he hadn't wanted to go; he didn't want to have to face Shiki. No one had been told about what happened between them. The others already suspected something was up; having them both stuck together and obviously acting different towards each other was just going to make those suspicions pique.

He sighed at the thought, attracting a look or two from the follow passengers. This was too much for him, what was he going to do? He just wished he had some kind of an idea about that.

He was heading to Eri's house at the moment because that was where they party had been decided to be held at. Shiki's place was too small and Beat and Rhyme's place was out because their parents had been dead against having a party held in their apartment. Eri's parents would both be out at work by this time of day already, even if it was still pretty early.

Maybe he could just try to forget that night, and that argument. It would be near impossible, but he was going to force himself to, even if his mind was utterly against the thought in itself. No one needed to know, it could just be a moment to lose itself in the past.

But one question didn't want to leave him alone; what could have changed in the time of less than two days that would make her let him make love to her than to her deciding they just couldn't be?

…

When the bus came to a stop, Neku waited for anyone else getting off before making a move for the door, avoiding the crowd. When he jumped off the last step, a cold wind brushed past his face sending shivers down his spine. He zipped up his blue jacket all the way up and adjusted his clothes to make them cover as much as possible. The temperature had come down during the bus ride. The grey clouds loomed ever closer, deepened to an ominous black. There was going to be one hell of a storm soon. He knew then it was best to hurry, he was frozen to the bone already and all he felt was the wind flowing by.

As he walked the well-known concrete path, the hoard of people rushing along pushed and shoved him hurrying to their destination. He didn't mind, it was all the usual for a busy day in Shibuya, the roaring cars and stink of petrol to his side were more agitating than that ever could be, and he couldn't care less about that either. The traffic was a normal part of life in the city; he didn't even know what this place would be without it.

His pace was hasty as he headed in the direction of Eri's apartment. A part of him wanted to go, and the other half wanted to run away. They were his friends, of course he'd want to see them; but all that'd happened lately was too much. His inexperience in such matters had just made it all that much worse, he cursed the day when he'd reluctantly agreed to come to the party. But after all, he was trying to hide the pain and hurt that day had left him, same for Shiki. They didn't want anyone to know, and that was that.

Why burden them with something that wasn't any of their damn business?

Neku waited at the lights for them to go red so he could cross the street which would lead him onto the one directly on the path to Eri's flat. He found himself whistling a tune, from a song heard previously in the day firmly stuck in his head. His head leaned against a pole and he twiddled his fingers on it, it clanged and was like a piece of ice against his already cold face, but he didn't care.

The cars stopped and the crowd around him poured onto the street moving briskly to the other side, he followed in their footsteps, doing his best not to be pushed around again. But in this city it got hard on days like this. The pedestrians, in fear of the impending storm, were hurrying home or to their destinations at a faster pace. He too walked faster than he'd originally intended but not at the pace everyone chose to. He didn't want to be caught up in the rain but at the same time feared having to face Shiki again, where he knew he had no choice but to talk with her, at least once. He still felt an averseness that he knew wasn't going to leave.

His feet touched the concrete path and half the people that surrounded him walked off in the opposite directions scattering like bugs. He himself headed forward, as to his destination. For the last part of the walk at least, he could take part of his mind out of his secret problem and let it concentrate on staying warm. The wind spun harshly around his form, biting at each piece of bare skin it could reach. And as if to curse his bad luck of already being stuck in this horrid weather, the clouds holding up the rain could no longer do the task and it poured down on him and every person in the neighbouring area. He bit his lip at the first droplet to land on bare skin. It was worse than the snapping wind. He quickened his steps and pulled up his jacket's hood over his mess of orange hair, his hands wrapped around himself to stay dryer and keep himself as warm as possible. Instinct told him to run but he knew that in the end most likely, as he still had a way to walk, leave him being even more wet.

Lightning and thunder roared over the horizon, and he had to hope, that maybe, the weather would lighten up for at least some part of his remaining walk. But, even that, was just a hope. And from the looks of the dark clouds above, it was going to get worse before it ever got better.

…

Neku shook the drops of water off of him as he got under the cover of the apartment building's roof. An elderly couple eyed him from the aged red leather seat on the other side of the room, next to a wall sized window giving a nice clear view of the pelting rain.

He got here right before it really started pouring down; the drops fell so fast and heavy that the scene outside the window was painted grey. Oh just like my god damn emotions right now, he mentally sniggered. He would have slapped himself if he didn't have others eyes on him, he couldn't let himself get angry about this right now, not if he wanted to hide what happened from the others. He just hoped that Shiki could hide her feelings on seeing him while the party was going on. For sure she wanted it to be hidden just as much as he did.

He took the elevator, as Eri's place was halfway up the building and in no way would he dare take the stairs after walking through all that bad weather. The metal walls were a light grey and brown on the edges. A repetitive obnoxious tune played as the elevator made its way up, as annoying as it was this moment was still one kept quiet enough to give him time for his mind to have a moment of peace.

Thanks to the happenings of late he found slowly everything was beginning to bother him. It was the littlest of things, from the sound of a dogs bark to the high pitched laughter from a group of over-exited school girls. He could barely explain why that was so, it just was. He was so bloody confused at the moment, he didn't know what to do and if he could he would go and run off never to return. He felt so stupid for feeling so irritated, and it was made worse from his attempts to keep it all inside, he felt like any second now he would explode. He hoped to god he wasn't going back to his old self because of this, even he hated who he used to be.

The silence gave him momentary calmness; he didn't have to worry about the hustle and bustle of the outside world even if it only lasted for a minute in all. Cold hands, still partly wet straightened out locks of his hair, he must've looked like a mess. He was starting to develop patches under his eyes from lack of rest, and his hair was knotty from a night of rolling sleeplessly around a bed. He could try and blame it on being caught up in that storm, but he was just too much of a mess for that.

The doors opened wide with an insufferable 'Ding' to the hazel-brown walled corridor, with his mind in a trance like state he stepped out and almost hit Eri smack-bam in the face. Two surprised faces stared at each other stupidly for a second before Neku did the smart thing and sidestepped to avoid her, and also to get out of the elevator before it closed on his face.

"Probably not so smart to stand right in front of an elevator door next time, hah?" He tried to joke. He didn't know if Eri saw through his little façade, and if she did she didn't say it, instead she chose to go along with it.

She folded her arms loosely behind her back with a cheery smirk. "I'll keep that in mind then. Almost hit me there, where on earth did your mind go just then?"

To somewhere you'll never need to know. But he couldn't say that, after all, she didn't need to know, so he settled with. "Um, somewhere?" He replied dumbly.

The girl eyed him suspiciously for a minute, but then dropped the look and put the smile back on her pretty features. She took a step towards and ruffled his untidy hair, beaming cheekily. "And you got caught in the rain, how nice." She laughed and strode past him, reddish ponytail bouncing. She knew his mind was thinking about something serious. Both him and Shiki were acting differently, especially to each other, when best friends suddenly didn't speak then something had to be up. But it wasn't her place to pry, if her own best friend wouldn't tell her how did she expect to get it from someone who she was only friends with thanks to a friend in common? So she stayed quiet on her part, even if it meant having idiotic conversations to fill in the spaces, she'd do it, for their sake. It seemed to be something they had to fix up by themselves.

"Come on kitty everyone's there already." She skipped all the way back to the apartment. Ignoring him when he asked what was with the 'kitty' remark. Well it was his fault that his name sounded like a cat.

If anything Neku felt worse at seeing Eri's happy actions, she was so blissfully unaware of what he was going through, not like he wanted her to know. But seeing people being joyful when he felt like crap just further showed him how bad his current emotions were. And it made them, as hard as it was, worse.

He followed her along the hallway, keeping at a reasonable pace behind her prancing self. He understood why she would be feeling so happy at the moment, but the skipping just seemed over board, wasn't she eighteen? They reached the door in a minute or two, Eri now making giggling noises to herself. It bordered on the annoying.

She grabbed his arm tightly as she swung open the door, looking as happy as ever. She dragged him through the entrance, not seeing him almost trip over, as he fixed himself up before she turned back towards him. He could hear the others from here but his sight was blocked at this position.

Eri had a broad smile on her face, she was laughing a little but was doing her best to hold it in. "How tired are you right now!" She burst out suddenly. Did she have to be so loud?

"I would have no idea; I just had a little trouble getting to sleep last night." He pulled away from her grip; he couldn't stand being near her when she was being that loud. His hearing wasn't brilliant (blame excessive headphone use) but it still hurt when a screaming girl yelled in your ear.

"Really? Cause you look more tired than it being one night." She crossed her arms, and gave him a scrutinising look. He had to hide his shock at her asking the question straight-out, a feeling like he'd been caught out hit him.

Her expression changed to its opposite; with the unexpected sad emotion shining out of her eyes.

"Shiki's been tired lately," She paused and shrugged with a sad smile, "but that's partly my fault, I've been ringing her up at crazy hours since we first got the chance for this trip." She made another pause and looked at him deeply; he had to force himself not to look away under the dejected stare she gave him.

"Did something happen between you two?"

He felt like he'd frozen, should he answer that? She was important to Shiki, they were very close, but should he say it? Finally he failed at looking her in the eye and lowered his gaze diagonally to the floor. The second he did he heard her sigh outwardly. Looking back up at her she smiled at him with the same sad look.

"You don't have to answer if you don't want to; I didn't get anything from her either." She sighed, squeezing her arms slightly, but that was her only outward show of annoyance. She shook her head and forced out the negativity, replacing the sad look with the smile that had left.

"Ah, never mind. Best not talk about it if it's nothing good right?" She grinned and stepped back, leaving Neku to stare. He was glad she'd dropped it but now he felt bad at trying to hide it. It was pretty clear they were all aware something was up; it made a pang of hurt hit him knowing he was trying to lie about something so obvious to his close friends.

Eri turned around, a smile which may as well be fake now planted on her face. At the end of the tiny hallway at the apartment's entrance she almost ran into Rhyme who had suddenly appeared at the start. She jumped back quickly before their heads collided. Rhyme burst out laughing with a broad smile on her face, "Close call there hah?"

The older girl folded her arms with the fake smile ever present, "It was worse before, almost hit Neku because I was stupid enough to stand too close to an elevator." She chuckled.

"Neku?" Rhyme tilted her head past the girl standing directly in front of her to see the boy watching them blankly in silence.

Neku noted she was wearing rather boyish clothes at the moment, thanks to her mother that was getting harder but she was finding ways around it. The dull orange tank top wasn't very much, but that was outnumbered by the brown shorts and grey converses knotted loosely. Topping that off with the white jacket, that was most likely actually boy's clothes from the looks of it and the same black beanie she almost always wore. With her hair tied up into a high ponytail and half tucked into the bottom of the tattered beanie, it would take a second to even notice she was a girl.

"Didn't see you there." She stated idiotically. She smiled for one second at him before standing up straight to look at Eri properly, a short conversation passed between them, too quiet for him to hear. He couldn't see Eri's expression as her back was turned but Rhyme's was easy to see, she looked serious. What were they going on about? And why did they have to make themselves so quiet? Why didn't they want him to know?

He caught Rhyme saying, "Got the same." And they pulled apart and Rhyme walked out of view. Eri looked back at him meeting with his curious eyes; her smile was gone for less than an instant before she put it back on.

"Come on, ain't going to stand there all day are you?"

He looked blank for a second longer before silently nodding and following her out of the hallway to where the others were.

…

The lounge room was small, containing one three seater couch and one smaller chair in the corner close to the TV. Beat had taken the chair and was engrossed watching the movie on the TV while Shiki and Rhyme sat on the larger couch, Rhyme quickly having restarted a conversation with her.

Shiki had been laughing quietly over what the chat was about, but Neku, from coming in mid-sentence, didn't understand it properly. She was happy in that moment but that ended when she saw him walk in.

She momentarily froze in shock as she saw him, but then forced herself to calm down, visibly at least, knowing that the others would suspect something was up if she acted that way considering she knew he was coming.

Eri twisted her head back to him for a second; giving him the sad smile she'd given him before. It felt like a knowing smile, but he knew she didn't know what had occurred between them; if she did she wouldn't she have asked.

Turning away from him Eri changed her expression back to happy and gave Shiki a playful whack, giggling childishly, "Jeez, girl how tired are you? What's with that face?"

Shiki rubbed the space, with the small red mark Eri had given her. "Very, now whose fault do you think that is?"

"Yours for not sleeping." The red head flung herself down on the couch beside her, she knew where her friend had been going with that but she decided instead to give a wrong answer and act oblivious to the obvious.

"Wha?" Shiki looked at her with a puzzled look over the stupidity of the answer, but didn't receive a reply.

Neku was trying to keep his mind off what'd Shiki had said those weeks ago to him, but having to be stuck in the same room as her made it hard. And what the hell was with Eri blaming her for being tired? Wasn't she the one that said it was her fault only a moment before?

Or maybe it was Shiki's own fault that she was tired, hell she was the reason he was right now. Surely what she'd done was bothering her just the same as it was with him. Even if Eri hadn't been ringing her up at insane hours she wouldn't have gotten to sleep anyway. Eri suspected something was up between them, everyone else probably did too; maybe she honestly did think that it was what had happened between them that kept Shiki awake.

Shaking the thought from his mind he hopped up onto the arm of the couch on Rhyme's side. Eri and Shiki were having a less than smart conversation thanks to Eri turning right back into her usual cheery self, Rhyme was trying not to laugh and Beat was yelling at the TV.

It wasn't much of a party but that didn't matter, having his friends there was what counted. But if only he could reverse the past, he knew things could never be the same between him and Shiki again.

Shiki for a second only let her eyes wander over to him before turning them back to Eri to concentrate on what she was saying only. Being tired was the least of her worries, not when she knew the girl next to her was suspicious to an extreme and she knew she couldn't dodge the questions forever.

This was too much, she was making herself sick. Literally.

Well this was originally going to be longer, but I cut it off because I was getting bored. Got the attention span of a two year old you see, that's why I'm writing eight stories at once.

Hopefully that better description I gave to this story is going to help it gain popularity, but I'm not going to try and get my hopes up.

If anyone wants to be nice enough to review, you'll help that little paranoid voice in my head (Who I called Arianna) To shut the hell up! she's annoying!

Jya ne,

~Serah Villiers Vanlentine.