Greetings!

Sorry it took me so long to unload this... University level chemistry is killer. My exam is next Friday, so this will be the last update until then. But, I do have the next chapter completely finished, and the sixth one is in the works...

The challenge I introduced last chapter is still open (see authors note at the end of Chapter 3) and it now has prize; I will write you a one-shot of you choice. I do have a couple of giudelines, which I will post as a sepeate chapter in a moment because they are rather long.

That being said, this was written in memory of my grandfather, who would have turned 77 today. He died when I was five. Admittedly, this is a bit of a filler chapter, because I was having a bit of trouble with the next chapter... It introduces the torture mentionned in the summery. I had a large issue with that...

Anyways, enjoy the chapter anyways!

Disclaimer:I own nothing. The song used is "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again" from The Phantom of the Opera. The music belongs to Andrew Lloyd Webber, and the lyrics to Charles Hart.

Chapter Four

There was no clock in the room, so Kaoru didn't know exactly how long Julie had been gone for, but it had to have been at least a couple of hours.

Idly, Kaoru wondered how long he had been there for, and when dinner, or breakfast, or whatever, would be served. His eyelids felt heavy, and he didn't want to give in to the urge to close them and sleep, because he wanted to talk to Julie when she got back- no to mention he might end up sleeping through mealtime. He couldn't resist the lure of sleep for long, though, and soon it engulfed him in it's beautiful nothingness.

o0O0o

He awoke to the sound of someone landing on the floor, presumably Julie. Something inside of him kept him from sitting up and talking to her, or even fully opening his eyes, though he couldn't fathom what, or why.

Through the tiniest slit between his eyelashes, he watched as she moved around the room. She appeared tired, no, exhausted, and the way she held herself wasn't as strong as before she left.

As Kaoru watched, she opened a drawer in the small dresser that he had failed to notice before now, and pulled out what appeared to be a round piece of silver on a chain. She pressed a button on the top, and Kaoru realized that it was a watch.

Julie slid to the floor, clutching the watch to her chest.

"Hi, Grandpa," she said quietly, "how have you been?"

"I got a new roommate; his name is Kaoru and he's Japanese…" Her voice trailed off, then she whispered, so softly that Kaoru had had to strain to hear, "I miss you, Grandpa. I miss you so much!" She drew in a shuddering breath. "Even now, eleven years later, it still hurts."

She raised her voice slightly and started to sing.

"Whishing you were somehow here again
Whishing you were somehow near
Sometimes it seems
If I just dream
Somehow you would be here"

He had heard that voice somewhere before…

"Whishing I could hear your voice again
Knowing that I never could
Dreaming of you
Helped me to do
All that you dreamed I would"

It was so familiar… Kaoru tried as hard as he could to remember, but nothing was coming to him. It was really quite infuriating.

"Passing bells and sculpted angels
Cold and monumental
Seem for you the wrong companions
You were warm and gentle"

He had been so close to figuring it out when she started to cry, deep, heart-wrenching sobs that made the next words of the song near impossible to understand.

"Too many years fighting back tears
Why can't the past just DIE!"

She had been sobbing violently, and then suddenly she wasn't, and she had jumped to her feet, screaming the last line to the heavens above. The sudden loudness startled Kaoru, and he almost lost his train of thought. Her voice barely decreased in volume as she sang the next line.

"Whishing you were somehow here again"

She took a deep breath and continued quietly, in a broken sort of voice.

"Knowing we must say good-bye…"

There it was again… That fantastic sense of familiarity that Kaoru couldn't quite place.

"Try to forgive
Teach me to live
Give me the strength to try!"

Her voice grew stronger as she sang, and Kaoru got closer to remembering where he had heard her voice before, but the answer still sat tantalisingly out of reach, like a half forgotten memory… or a dream…

"No more memories,
No more silent tears
No more gazing across the wasted years…"

Yes, a dream… That was when he had heard this voice before. Today, in fact, she had sung him to sleep at his own insistence. So, it hadn't been a dream, then?

As Kaoru mused on this, Julie sank back to the floor, the pocket-watch open in her hand. Softly, so softly that Kaoru barely hear it, she half whispered, half sang;

"Help me say good-bye…"

With more strength this time, as one of her tiny hands closed around the watch, shutting it in the process, she sang the last line of the song.

"Help me say…
Good-bye…"

She leaned her head back against the wall, and for a moment there was silence.

"It was you." Kaoru said suddenly.

"It was me who what?" she replied, not sounding surprised in the slightest that he was actually awake. Kaoru decided against commenting on this fact due to the gut feeling that told him that it wouldn't end well if he did. Or perhaps it was the look on her face, that wary, guarded look that was so much more intense than usual. It hurt Kaoru a bit that his stupid curiosity had caused this rift between them so soon after he had met her. There was just something about her… Kaoru couldn't place it, but it was drawing him to her, and he didn't want to screw it up.

Her irritable "Are you going to answer me?" snapped him out of his thoughts.

"What?"

"What did I do?" He looked at her in confusion.

She sighed I exasperation.

"You said 'It was you.' So, I'm asking it was me who what? What did I do?"

Oh! Right… It was you who was singing earlier."

"Yes, it was… What of it?" she snapped, sounding as if she was still rather irritated.

An awkward silence fell and Kaoru hesitated to break it… What if what he wanted to say didn't go over the way he wanted it to, and drove them even further apart?

Kaoru decided he was going to have to risk it; the silence was getting unbearable. He took a deep breath to settle his nerves, and opened his mouth to speak…

No sound came out.

Kaoru sighed, slightly irritated with himself. He'd never been so nervous about talking to somebody, or saying something to someone before! And it was something so stupid too!

He resigned himself to the most awkward silence he had ever experienced in his life, opening his mouth, then closing it again a moment later every once in a while. Julie continued to sit on the floor, head tilted back to rest against the wall, eyes closed, pocket watch up against her ear.

This silence was going to kill him, it really, truly was.

"You have a really nice voice." Kaoru blurted out suddenly, surprising both himself and Julie.

"What did you just say?" she asked him, shock written all over her features.

Kaoru looked down at his hands, which had become inexplicably fascinating. "I said that you have a really nice voice." he muttered, cheeks burning. What was happening to him? What was it about her that made him feel like such a blundering idiot? Kaoru made sure to file that thought away for later, because right now he needed to focus on the situation at hand, lest Julie punch his lights out. She certainly seemed strong enough to…

He risked a glimpse up at her. She had a mix of emotions on her face. She looked pleased, flattered, puzzled, shocked, wary, and slightly troubled, all at the same time.

"Thank you." she replied softly after a minute.

Once again, silence fell, bit it was a different sort of silence; comfortable, as opposed to tense. And Kaoru thought that maybe, just maybe, things would turn out okay after all.

So... Thoughts? Leave a review. Honestly, a bunch or people have favorited this, which I appreciate, but I really enjoy the feedback. Anyways, off to watch Harry Potter... Catch you later! ~JM