A/N: Who all is reading this? I don't know, but I'm still having fun writing it. The cover photo was made by me! (Also uploaded it to deviantArt) Things will start to pick up now, so I hope I still have some readers! Lol.

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Four.

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It ended up storming for several hours. The power went out a few times, but it didn't really bother me. I was one of the few exceptions that actually looked forward to thunderstorms. I generally would sit in bed and read a nice book under candlelight, regardless of any power outages. It was peaceful and really helped me concentrate. I especially liked when the house rattled from the roar of thunder.

Just kidding. Ain't nobody got time for that.

Instead of a wonderful, compelling book, I was stuck grading once again. I didn't exactly put this on myself, because the University required a certain amount of tests, homework, etc. to be in the lesson plan and teachers and students alike just had to deal with it. I don't think any teacher would assign that much work on purpose. If you've ever tried to grade ten page essays from a hundred different students, you knew what it was like.

This wasn't a profession for whiners, though. I knew exactly what I was getting into and I definitely would not settle for any less.

Unfortunately, stormy nights also reminded me of her. Like any other normal person, Namine was afraid of thunderstorms, and of course I had to be somewhere nearby in order for her to feel comforted. I didn't mind at all, though. I liked any excuse for cuddles. She would attempt to divert her attention from the storm by listening to the blaring TV and she always had to have all the lights on. If the power went out, automatic flashlights would illuminate instead and she would simply curl up in my arms as she buried her head into my chest.

Those were the days…

A dejected sigh escaped my lips and I, once again, was a prisoner to my own memories. Normally I would try to distract myself, but on a night like this, it was inevitable. I set my pen down and stared at the picture frame that I had put face down so long ago. I considered picking it up, but I was held back by an overwhelming emotion.

I'm not going to cry. I've left her behind…

Damn it.

With a few deep breaths, I inclined back in my desk chair and shut my eyes as I desperately battled the oncoming tears. I hated crying, even if I was by myself. It made me feel like I didn't have any control, and that was something that I definitely needed in my life. I gradually gave into the pain as I struggled to shake away her bright, smiling face. Her outline was transparent in my mind and I could no longer hold on to my pride anymore. I covered my face with my hands and broke down.

It wasn't fair. We were going to get married and start a family…

Sniffling, I opened the top drawer and pulled out a small, red box. My hands shook as I flipped it open. Inside was the sparkly diamond ring I was going to use to propose to her on her birthday, which was just a few days after she died.

Namine, why did you have to go? Why did you leave me here all alone?

I immediately shut the box and put it back into the drawer.

Okay…

I really needed to pull myself together. As much as I desperately tried to convince myself that I was over it, there were times like these where all I did was sit here and look pitiful. I could no longer deny the huge influence she still had on me and there was no way I would be able to forget the love I had for her that easily, no matter how much time went by. Flashes of her presence shot through my mind. Her bright blue eyes, the way she smiled… the way she laughed…

…the way she touched me…

"I will always love you, Ven Ven."

Her angelic voice was still loud and clear. Resting my head on my hand, I wiped the tears from my face and bit my lip as I took some more deep breaths.

There will never be another like you, Nami. I promise.

I barely slept at all that night.

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Dwelling on the past, ironically, was not something I did on purpose. Once again, I was able to put my issues into the very back of my mind and move forward, even if it was temporary. There was a time and place for everything, and sulking on school grounds only made me seem annoying and weak.

Smile, and everything will fall into place. That was what I had to tell myself to get through it. A few students waved to me as I strolled off to class.

Kairi didn't show up for the rest of the week, which meant that she missed the big test. If she had a really good reason, I may let her make it up out of the kindness of my heart, but that didn't seem likely. Sora came looking for her every time, and every time I had to turn him away empty handed. Today, however, he stalled a little before leaving.

"I haven't heard from her. I'm really worried. When I went to her house, her dad told me to piss off," Sora rambled as he paced nervously around my classroom. "She and her dad don't have the best relationship, so why would he care if I wanted to check on her or not?"

So Kairi had daddy issues. This wasn't my business, but out of courtesy, I just stayed at my desk and let him talk it out with himself.

"You're not going to fail her, are you?" Sora asked anxiously as he absentmindedly bit his fingernails.

Gross.

"I don't fail people. They do that on their own. I simply work with what they give… or don't give me."

"…fair enough," Sora said, only pondering some more as he crossed his arms. Well, good. We were on the same page. "I don't even know if she's feeling better. It's like she's specifically avoiding me… she won't answer my calls, but when I tried calling on Riku's phone, she picked up for a moment but then hung up once she realized it was me."

"Sounds like a problem," I answered nonchalantly. "Maybe you should just wait it out."

"But I can't. It's killing me. If she really is sick, I want to be there for her."

"Sora, you're overreacting. I'm sure she knows that. Give her some time."

"You're right," Sora said, followed by a sigh. "You would do the same thing, though, wouldn't you? You would be worried like I am now if it was happening to you?"

I would have gone to the ends of the earth and back for Namine, but I didn't need to tell him that. He was my former student and I wasn't sure why he felt like he trusted me so much that he could just vent in front of me, nor did I know whether to be flattered or not.

Okay, I'm not that heartless, but there was supposed to be some sort of boundary, right? It may have just been the subject matter. Yeah, I'll go with that.

"Sora, you're still young," I said, a little surprised that I was even saying that, "Please don't let one girl control your life. Kairi will be fine."

There. I gave my two cents. He seemed to accept this answer.

…I should really take my own advice.

"I'm sorry. I bet you think that I'm a real idiot,' Sora said with a half-smile as he rubbed the back of his head.

"I don't. I'm just a little confused as to what you see in her, to be honest. No offense."

"Everyone is. Kairi is just… Kairi. Not many people have seen it, but she can actually be really sweet and caring. That's the only way I can explain it."

"If you say so," I said, followed by a small chuckle. I kind of wanted to warn him, but at the same time, I didn't want to worry him anymore than he already was.

"I'll guess I'll leave you be. I'm going to be late for my next class," Sora said as he made his way to the door. "Thanks for listening."

"My door is always open."

No, wait! I'm not supposed to encourage him! With a huge grin, Sora waved to me. How the hell could that boy stay so positive?

It was over my head. A few minutes later, my cell phone went off. Vanitas was calling.

"Yo," I answered. I could hear Lilah whining in the background.

"Dude, please come and get her! She is pissing me the fuck off and I have to go to work!"

"I'm at work. I have another class in two hours," I explained, but he didn't seem to hear me.

"Shut it, you little brat!"

"Daddy, you're the brat!"

I guess I didn't have a choice. "Fine, I'll be there soon, but I can't stay long," I said a little louder this time before hanging up. I left my stuff and locked my classroom door before departing.

The tension had not ceased by the time I got there. Vanitas was outside smoking when I pulled into the driveway and was really irritated. Not even bothering to get an explanation, I went ahead and stepped into the house. My mom was home, but she had locked herself in her room and basically left Vanitas and Lilah to work it out for themselves, which was something I probably should have done. Checking how much time I had, I looked for Lilah all over the house before finally finding her curled up in the corner of her closet. She jumped out at me and hugged me tightly.

"Daddy is so mean to me!"

Carrying her over to her bed, I sat her on my lap and pulled her hair back. "Alright, tell me what happened."

"He won't let me go outside and play with my new remote control car. He said he didn't want me to play in the street!"

"Well, don't you think he has a pretty good reason for that?"

"No! I want to play with my car!"

"Lilah, your dad has to go to work soon and he doesn't want you to be outside by yourself because he's worried about you. You could get hurt."

She thought about this for a moment, but then shook her head. "No I won't! I'll be extra careful!"

"You can be as careful as you want to, but that doesn't mean the other cars will," I reasoned. Pouting, she jumped out of my arms and went back to the corner of her closet. "Lilah," I emphasized, "Get out of there."

"No!"

"I don't have much time, but would it make you feel better if I played with you for a little bit? We can go out to the driveway."

This seemed to be the answer that she was looking for, because she instantly perked up and ran out of the closet. Grabbing the remote off of the floor, she hurried over to me and took my hand. We met with Vanitas downstairs, but she paid him no mind as she went to put her shoes on.

"We're going to have so much fun!" Lilah exclaimed as she slipped on her other shoe. Vanitas rolled his eyes and went into the kitchen. He had a short fuse, so I wasn't surprised that he called me at all. Lilah dragged me out the door before I could say anything and I watched her drive the remote control car up and down the driveway. Eventually, my mother came outside, clad in a blue bathrobe.

"You really should not have come," she said as she walked up next to me. "Your brother needs to learn how to control his anger."

"I know," I said. "Lilah seems to be okay now, at least."

"Go back to work. I'll watch her."

I knew my mom was tired from the night shift at the hotel, but it wasn't like I had much of a choice right now. Vanitas didn't even say goodbye as he got into his car and sped out of the driveway. Lilah ignored him and just continued to play. I stayed for another ten minutes before I made my way back to the university.

He had a lot of growing up to do.

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After a pretty normal weekend, I was back at school extra early that Monday morning. I finally had all of the tests graded and I was feeling really great, because the results were beyond what I expected. Nobody made lower than a C, that is, except for Kairi who completely missed the test altogether.

She didn't show up today, either. Oh well, not my problem.

It was the perfect day for an outside class, and I actually checked the weather this time. I took my students out to an open area in between the History building and the library. The breeze was simply perfect and it just made me feel even better not to be cooped up in that darn classroom. Like elementary students, we sat Indian-style as we formed a circle in the grass. Some of the girls weren't too fond of this, but they obliged as they reluctantly sat down.

"Alright! Story time!" I started, clasping my hands together excitedly. "Who here has ever been to a historical landmark? This includes haunted sites. Anyone?"

My class was a little less than enthusiastic today, despite their test results, but my mood didn't falter. They exchanged glances with each other as they waited for someone to speak up.

Finally, Pence raised his hand.

"Yes, you've been somewhere interesting?"

"Yeah. In my hometown, there's this haunted mansion. It belonged to the mayor and the many generations before him, but all of them died a mysterious death. One time I went there with Olette and a few other friends and we found this weird document that stated some proposals one of them was coming up with, like how he wanted to put a stop to crime by making criminals work in bee fields and whatnot."

"Oh, that's pretty neat. What did you do with this document?" I asked, actually intrigued.

"We sold it to the museum. They said it was a really significant find," Olette answered. "They put us in the newspaper and everything."

"They thought that it was written by someone in the early 1910's," Pence added.

It was things like these that made me look forward to coming to work every day. History was all around us; it just took a little adventure and digging to go behind it all.

Selphie raised her hand next.

"Yes, Selphie?"

"Two summers ago I went to the museum in Radiant Garden with my family."

"Oh, really? That's a pretty nice place. What did you learn from it?"

"Well, apparently it went through some dark times, but due to a huge battle the righteous were able to take over once again and the country returned to a state of prosperity."

"That's right. Actually, we're going to study about that next."

I got several other stories out of them and time just flew by.

"What about you, Mr. Ishida? I bet you've been everywhere," Olette asked.

"My fondest memory had to do with a battlefield I visited with my family one time. We haven't gotten to that chapter yet, but many of the wielders once clashed on those grounds, and it was just interesting to see the barren wasteland that they left behind. We wouldn't be sitting here as comfortably as we are today if it weren't for them," I said, taking a moment to reminisce before continuing. Some of my students seemed pretty fascinated by what I was saying. "That brings me to my next topic: your semester project."

They weren't too thrilled about that part.

"Now, now, it's not as bad as it sounds. The subject of it will be you. Specifically, how do you want to be remembered? How are you going to make history?" I paced around the circle. I knew this was corny as hell, but there was always a method to my madness. "Even if you don't really know exactly what you want to do in your life just yet, you have to be here at this university for a reason, right? Start it off with your interests and that should give you some sort of direction. At least ten pages, double spaced. This will be due the day of your final exam."

I felt pretty good about this. I had never done a project like this before, but in my opinion, it was one of the easier ones that I had come up with. I knew how difficult it could be for some people to figure out what to do with their life, but if I could indirectly help them out by making them write it, they may be better off in the long run. Also, if I could prevent another 'Axel on welfare' situation, by all means, I would be doing them a huge favor. Of course, this wasn't just for me.

As class neared its end, I saw Sora swooping around to the building once again. He spotted me and his eyes lowered as he realized Kairi didn't come today either.

I felt sorry for that kid.

"That concludes today's lesson. See you all on Wednesday," I said. Walking up to Sora, I informed him on what he already knew.

"If Kairi isn't here by Wednesday, I can't let her make up the test, nor can I keep her in the class. It's University policy and she's already missed over three days without any validated reason."

"I know, but can you please just wait? I'm still trying to get a hold of her…"

"I'm sorry, kid. I can't. I have to be fair to—" I stopped when I surprisingly saw Kairi coming up behind him. As usual, her eyes were glued to the ground and she looked upset. However, something was different today, and I wasn't sure what it was just yet.

I wished that she would just smile for once.

"Hm?" Sora noticed my attention had diverted and turned to see what I was looking at. "Oh my gosh, Kairi!" He rushed over to her and hugged her tightly. Kairi looked to me as she shakily put her arms around him, then hid her face as she buried it into his chest. "Kairi, how are you feeling? Where have you been? Why didn't you answer me? Oh, it doesn't matter. I just hope that you're okay now…"

The way he cared for her was astounding.

"Sora," she said weakly as she pulled away from him, "…we need to talk."

Uh oh. Those four words were never good. Welp, it was time to take my leave. I walked past the couple and toward the University Center, but I stopped as soon as I heard Sora yelling.

"You're what?!"

I turned my head slightly. I don't know why I cared enough to eavesdrop on their conversation. Kairi was trying to shush him.

"How is that possible?!" Sora went on as he clutched her shoulders tightly and looked directly into her eyes. "How can you… how can you be… pregnant?!"

Wait, what?

"Sora, I'm… I'm sorry…"

I guess they didn't seem to care that they were discussing such a private matter out in public. Letting my sympathy get the best of me, I found myself retracing my steps back to them. Sora now had his hands on his head and was acting like he was going to rip his hair out as he paced back and forth. He didn't even notice that I had come back. Kairi just looked down in shame.

"So… so hold on. I'm… I'm over here worrying my ass off over you and you have the decency to go and sleep with someone else and… and get pregnant?! Because it's obviously not mine!"

"Do you two need a place to talk?" I intervened, although I really shouldn't have. Sora was still trying to come to terms with it all, and even I felt a little uneasy.

"We weren't together at the time…" Kairi said quietly, glancing over at me for a split second.

…oh shit.

"Oh, so that's a good reason for you to go have sex with someone else?! We only broke up once in the last three months, and that was for what? A week?!" Sora was really worked up now and I didn't know how to calm him down, but I didn't want other people to hear their business, either. Grabbing both of them by their arms and not caring how ridiculous it looked, I forced them into the History building and led them down to my empty classroom. Surprisingly, neither of them fought with me.

"Talk it out in here," I said as I shoved Sora in there. Kairi went in behind him and closed the door. Seriously, some people just didn't have any dignity. At the same time, Kairi's sudden revelation really freaked me out. Unless she slept with someone else within the last month or so, which was likely, there was a chance that I…

Oh… no... HELL NO!

Panic engulfed me as I nervously strode in circles around the hallway with my sudden realization. It was definitely possible, but it was so incredulous that I was having trouble even comprehending it. I could hear Sora yelling, but I couldn't quite make out everything he was saying between the outrageous implications that surrounded me.

"Whose is it?!"

Okay, I heard that much. I stood next to the door, praying to any god out there that she wouldn't mention me. The last thing I needed was some sort of scandal, especially with the reputation that I had. Although we were both legal adults, a teacher impregnating a student, whether he wanted to or not, was taboo no matter which way you put it. I was physically shaken by this, and I definitely wanted to know the truth now. Peering through the small window in the door, I saw that Kairi was in tears once again while Sora continued to yell at her. They were so loud that it didn't matter if a door separated us; I could still hear every word they were saying.

"I've done everything I possibly can to make you happy!"

"I was drunk, Sora! You really upset me that day!"

"Oh, so when you're upset, you have to go to a club, get wasted and sleep with someone?! You're a pretty emotional person, so is this how you solve all your problems?! Huh?! How many others have to slept with?!"

"No one else! I swear! Geeze, Sora! I feel like shit!"

"That's not half as bad as I feel," Sora let out an exasperated sigh.

Could this really be happening?

I quickly moved out of the way when I saw Sora marching over to leave. The door flung open and he didn't even look at me as he stormed down the hallway. Did he know? I took a moment to compose myself before entering my classroom. Kairi was sobbing uncontrollably, so I shut my door as quietly as I could and locked it. As soon as she noticed I was there, she tried wiping her tears away and hiding behind her wavy, auburn hair.

"K-Kairi… I…"

I didn't even know how to start. Equipped with this new and baffling information, I put my hands on my hips and watched her as I tried to come up with something—anything—to say.

"Please leave me alone…" she mustered. "Just… just go away…" Kairi buried her face in her hands and trembled.

No, I couldn't just walk away from a situation like this. As crazy as this was, we did engage in some sort of sexual activity last month. The time matched up and even the fact that she mentioned she wasn't with Sora then…

"Kairi," I paused as I collected my words, "is this why… you've been skipping my class?"

She didn't respond. I really didn't know how to react right now. I guess I should get to the question that I really wanted to ask, but all I could do right now is stand here, at a loss for words. Kairi only cried more, and somehow, I felt awful.

"There's no one else's that it could be," she whispered between sobs. "I haven't… slept with… anyone else… not even Sora…"

Alright, you can wake up now! Nightmare, over! Very funny! Be gone!

Upon pinching myself, nothing changed. When she looked at me with those grief-stricken eyes, I just knew that she was serious.

I wasn't sure if I should believe her or not… this girl has been a roller coaster since I met her and I wasn't really able to understand her.

"I found out a little over a week ago…" she added.

…whoa…

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A/N: All I can say is… review! Also, let me know what you think of the cover photo! Sorry this chapter was a little shorter than the others, but there really wasn't anything else that I could add!

'til next time!