Thank you to ShadowSnowdapple, AkabaneKazama, a random person, Sincerely the Sign Painter, MagicalNeko, and the guests for the lovely reviews. It always makes me happy to read your comments. Now on to Chapter 3!

Chapter 3

Kitamoto groaned from his spot in the library. "My professor is evil. I can't believe how much material is on our test tomorrow. I've been studying nonstop the last few days and I'm still not done!"

Natsume, who was seated on Kitamoto's left, gave his friend a sympathetic smile. "Sorry, Kitamoto. But I'm sure everyone in your class is in the same boat, so don't worry too much."

Kitamoto rested his forehead on the table and sighed, "I hope so…"

"Is that your phone that keeps vibrating, by the way? It's been going off for a while," Natsume said quizzically.

Kitamoto lifted his head, "Huh? Nope." He looked at Yuriko who was sitting across from him. "Your phone's ringing, Ogata." He couldn't see what she was doing because there was a pile of textbooks between them, but she was so engrossed in her work that she hadn't even looked up.

Curiosity getting the better of him, Kitamoto leaned over the books, making Yuriko yelp in surprise. He burst out laughing when he saw what she was doing, "Here I was actually thinking you were working for once, but you're drawing! I knew there was something fishy!"

"This is far more important than any homework," Yuriko said indignantly, glaring at him. "There's a one-shot competition coming up. The winner of the competition will get an apprenticeship with a mangaka called Kirigaya Yuki, who is a pretty big deal. Do you have any idea what that would mean for my career?!" Her eyes were gleaming.

"Right right, Ms. Manga Artist. I was completely wrong to think you were slacking off," said Kitamoto in a placating gesture, still thoroughly amused. "Just don't forget that you have to graduate too, and homework is an annoying but important part of that. Do you ever actually study?"

"Yes, I study! I'll have you know that while my grades may be mediocre they are certainly not terrible. Hmph, underestimating me."

"Okay, my mistake," Kitamoto was grinning.

Natsume smiled at their antics, although they were being far too loud for the library. Some people were throwing dirty looks in their direction. He looked around their table as the vibrating noise began again. "Yuriko, is that your phone going off?"

Yuriko sighed. "Yeah, my mom's been calling me. I was going to call her back later, but since I already got distracted-" She pointedly looked at Kitamoto, "I guess now's a good time as any. I'll be back in a bit."

"I want to sleep early for my test, so I'm probably leaving soon. See you later!" Kitamoto called out loudly as Yuriko exited with her phone, to more stares from the students around them.

Surprisingly, it was almost an hour later that Yuriko came back, and Kitamoto had already gone home. Yuriko looked upset, Natsume noted. Had she fought with her mom? She said, "Sorry that took so long. I guess you were forced to wait since I left all my stuff here."

"No worries, I was still working on my essay." Natsume smiled at her. It was only half a lie; he had finished a little while ago, but had entertained himself by looking at Yuriko's drawings. "Shall we head back?"

Yuriko appreciated the fact that Natsume didn't ask her anything as they walked from the library to the dorms. But while she wasn't sure she was ready to talk about her mom yet, it was eating at her slowly.

"Takashi-kun, I am going to go to the shrine to clear my head. Will you come with me?" Natsume agreed.

They went to a small shrine near campus that Yuriko often frequented. While there was the occasional visitor during the day, the shrine wasn't very well known since it was tucked away on the edge of the woods. At night, the place was almost eerie, because of the way the surrounding trees cast their shadows on the shrine grounds. But if you could get past that, the location offered an excellent view of the stars. Yuriko had stumbled upon the shrine one evening when she was wandering around campus looking for Natsume. It had quickly become her private sanctuary. It reminded her of the shrine she regularly visited at home, the one where she had first stumbled upon a sleeping Natsume during middle school, and where, in high school, she had her near death experience.

Once seated at the shrine, Yuriko ventured on the topic of her mom. While it was not an easy topic to talk about, she had a very attentive listener.

Ogata Fusae had never been supportive of her daughter's mangaka aspirations, and she had made that fact plain to Yuriko. However, Yuriko had not stopped trying. She had hoped that now that she was attending college upon her mother's wishes, she would find her mom more receptive to her mangaka dream. So, a few days previously, perhaps against her better judgment, she had told her about the one-shot competition and the chance to get an apprenticeship with a renowned manga artist.

Yuriko honestly didn't know why she had bothered, because since then her mom had been hounding her about not spending enough time on coursework. Yuri-chan, you have your head in the clouds, she had kept repeating.

"Lately, I don't even feel like talking to her. I guess I've been bitter at her this whole year for not letting me go to art school. I don't see how a degree in the Humanities department is going to help me get anywhere, but my mom doesn't give a damn about my career goals."

She blinked back tears. "I didn't want to push too hard, because deep down, I knew that she was only doing it because she was concerned. She raised me by herself since I was a kid, and she worked hard to do that. She never had the money to go to college, and it had been her dream that I would be able to go. I couldn't refuse something like that… Then, of course, there's the fact that if I fail to make it big as an artist, I'll have no money, I know that. So I listened to her. Then why, when I did exactly what she wanted, can I not pursue my passion on the side? It's like I always listen to her and do exactly as she asks, but she never listens to me! She's always talking over me."

There was a pause as Yuriko caught her breath. Natsume let her talk it out. "What terrifies me is that it might be my own fault. Maybe if I had worked harder in high school for my dream, and made more progress, she would have understood."

She sighed and brought her knees up to her chest, and buried her head, "I don't know what to do, Takashi-kun. I hate this."

Natsume said kindly, "You're being too harsh on yourself. It's true that you slack off on schoolwork sometimes, but you work harder than anyone on your art. You have the talent and the determination to make it, I know it."

He put a hand on top of her head, "If I can see that so easily, so can your mom. She raised you to be who you are after all. So maybe, the problem is that she hasn't seen your work the way I have? I'm sure when she sees it, she will understand."

Yuriko shook her head. "I don't know if she would understand, even if she saw it. I've shown her my work before."

"But it can't hurt to try again, right? You can send her some of your recent work, that's the first step. Or maybe when you're home next you can show her yourself. She is probably thinking about what's best for you, and can't see it from your perspective."

"Maybe you're right…"

They sat quietly watching the stars. Yuriko felt a lot calmer and happier now after getting everything out of her chest. But Natsume usually had that effect on her, without even trying. When she could feel the warmth of his smile, or smell his distinct earthly smell, she was content.

When had she begun to feel this way? While she fully did not understand her feelings, she knew that since she met Natsume in middle school, there was a magnetism that drew her to him. It had faded as time passed after he left, but now that they were together again, it was growing stronger with each passing day.

In her daze, she had not noticed that Natsume was staring at something on the edges of the shrine, and slowly shaking his head. With a start, she realized that there was some liquid (water?) dripping from his hair. But where did it come from? Before she could ask him about it, Natsume had gotten up abruptly. "Sorry, Yuriko, would you mind walking home by yourself? I just remembered something I have to do."

Her heart ached. Again, it was that part of Natsume's world that she did not understand. "Yeah, I'll see you later."

He gave her a distracted wave as he walked away. All Yuriko could feel was a sinking feeling at the pit of her stomach. She felt… betrayed. She had shared a very private part of her life with Natsume, but she was no closer to him confiding his secret with her. Not that she had told him about her mom with the hidden agenda to make him obligated to reveal something about himself. She had told him because she wanted to, but it still hurt. Why did she always feel like she and Natsume lived in two parallel worlds that sometimes touched, but never really intersected?

The desire to know the truth burned within her. She had a sudden and desperate urge to follow him, despite every bone in her body suggesting she shouldn't because it could be something dangerous, not to mention an imposition on privacy. But surely, if her theories about Natsume were wrong and it was nothing out of the ordinary, then she wouldn't be putting herself into danger at all, or imposing on his privacy. And if instead, her suspicions were confirmed, well, she had known anyway, right? It was a logical fallacy, but she managed to convince herself.

Her decision made, she ran into the woods in the direction Natsume had gone. He had not gone far, and finding him was easy. She maintained a large distance, hiding behind trees. In the moonlight, she could see that Nyanko-sensei had appeared from somewhere, and was on Natsume's shoulder. It seemed like Natsume was talking to him, but from her distance she couldn't hear anything.

Yuriko peeked out from behind her tree. Her heart rate doubled as a twig snapped loudly under her feet. For a moment she feared that the cat had spotted her, as he jumped off Natsume and began to trot a few steps in her direction with a glint in his eye. However, Nyanko-sensei did not continue, and eventually went back the path he came.

Natsume tore a piece of paper from a green notebook, folded it and put it in his mouth. His hair rustled in the soft breeze, gleaming silver in the moonlight. Her heart thumping, Yuriko went as close as she dared so she could hear him.

His hands were together, almost as if he was praying. "Amefurikozo, I return your name to you, please accept it." The paper in Natsume's mouth disappeared. Yuriko shivered as the wind suddenly intensified.

Things were quiet for a few moments, during which Natsume stood stock still with his eyes closed. Then he grabbed Nyanko-sensei and pulled on his cheeks. "Some bodyguard you are. Where have you been all this time, while the little spirit followed me around? I couldn't do anything because Yuriko was with me."

It seemed like Nyanko-sensei replied to Natsume in a haughty tone of voice, but it was muffled somehow. Was she imagining it? Although, if Nyanko-sensei could talk, she couldn't say she would be surprised.

Her blonde-haired friend was pointing at something in front of him now. "And you spirit, you should have known better than to nag me when I was with humans. Did you really think I would have been able to return your name then?"

There was a pause, and Natsume put his hands in front of his face in a disarming gesture. "Okay, okay, it's fine, don't cry. It's alright."

Afraid that Natsume or Nyanko-sensei would stumble upon her, Yuriko stealthily made her way back. She had heard more than enough anyway.

The ache in her heart refused to go away. It wasn't the confirmation about Natsume's involvement in the spiritual world that upset her; she always had strong suspicions about that already. It was the realization that she barely knew Natsume. Back there, he had felt like a different person. Commanding, assertive, and powerful, in a sharp contrast to how he appeared to her a daily basis. Well, it wasn't that he was timid in normal life, but he certainly didn't have such a commanding presence. He was contemplative, thoughtful, and so unimposing he could easily fade into the background. Which one was the real Natsume?

What really bothered her was that she was not important enough for him to shed his mask around her, or share his secret with her. He was still completely out of her reach, with the distance to his parallel world seeming even farther than before.

That night, Yuriko barely slept. She stayed up most of the night and drowned herself in her art.

Notes:

Amefurikozo is a Japanese rain spirit that takes the form of a child.

I made up the name Kirigaya Yuki, but notice the (slight) resemblance to the author of Natsume Yuujinchou, Midorikawa Yuki :P.

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