Disclaimer: - isn't this the part that authors hate the most?

A/n: I'm sorry I channeled my boredom into the previous chapter. I admit, it was a tad boring chapter and the author itself was bored at the time of typing it…I'm really sorry…ehe =_="…I'm sorry if you did not quite have a MiyuxKanata action…but I'm trying my very very very very best in the next chapters!

well, here's the next chap…^_^..Read and Enjoy (the last time I wrote that here, I found you guys bored of the chapter, I hope not this time.)

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She was in front of the two doors that separated her and the guy that was responsible for putting her in this mess. She bit her lip as nervousness drowned out the courage she had a minute ago. She couldn't even bring her hands to hold on the door handles.

"I can do this." She chanted.

Yep, she spent so much today and the guilt she feels about what she did was welling up in her throat. Although a bigger part of the picture shows Mikan actually at fault. She cannot see Kanata again after that. She was racking her mind to find some means to make up for the uncontrolled shopping disease that took over her earlier. And she came up with a brilliant idea, or at least she thought. An idea that will in some way make up for the money she used and take her out of the isolation of the house.

She knocked hesitantly. Way to go for cowardice!

She waited for him to answer the door. She knocked again. She waited. Impatience now fell in line to replace her nervousness. Just then, the doors opened and she came face to face with a brunet who was sporting a towel draped over his shoulders. Miyu blushed as his image burned in her mind. Apparently he was taking a shower when the poor blonde came to disturb him. She wondered if he had any decency in him to wear anything to cover his bare top which was another factor in Miyu's red tint across her cheeks which she hid by looking at the floor.

"What do you want?" he asked completely oblivious to the fact that he was in front of a woman, half naked.

"I…uh…I just…" She stuttered the blonde. Stuttering, an obvious sign of nervousness, embarrassment or maybe discomfort.

She heard a groan from Kanata followed by another sound. As she looked up, she gasped as the doors were closed again. Miyu was all things but she's not stupid to realize that he had just closed the doors on her face, although she was not able to move any of her limbs due to shock. She stayed standing in front of the room for a couple of minutes, unable to grasp the reality of what just happened.

Just then, the doors swung open again revealing the man who was responsible for the rudeness, now wearing a shirt to cover his previously exposed chest. Miyu hesitantly looked at him and before long; he took her hand and pulled her inside the room closing the door behind them. The room was spacious for only one person to occupy. The dim lighting in it made it look like some expensive suite in a hotel. The bed was splendidly dressed in white bed sheets making the room appear more majestic than it already is. Kanata sat at the edge of his bed and looked at her.

"I'm sorry 'bout that." He muttered. Well, at least he had it in him to feel bad about what he did. Miyu responded my nodding her head. "So, what do you want?"

"I…I want to thank you." She started. Kanata stared at her for a moment taking in what she had just said. He was about to open his mouth to answer when she voiced out again. "And… I want to ask for your permission to go somewhere tomorrow…"

She appeared kind of embarrassed right after she said it out but kept her head high to look at him. Kanata was bewildered for a moment and wondered "Where are you going?"

"I will go back to work on my parent's day care center." She replied.

Simple, yet it was an astonishingly amusing answer. Kanata's laughter was contained and just resulted in his mouth to curve up. A day care? Like running around chasing snotty little children and putting them to sleep, right?

"Oh?" he managed to say.

"And I'm going to—"she was cut off by the sound of a phone ringing. Kanata was quick to pick up the mobile lying beside him on the bed. He placed it near his ear.

"What? No! That is total crap! Get me new ideas now or I'll fire everyone in your department!" he yelled. Fury was evident in his voice and was clearly pissed off at something. Apparently, the pissed brunet did not notice the blonde's eyebrows twitch irritably. And he clearly did not see her hand coming close to his mobile.

"Eh! What the hell!"

The blonde now has the mobile in control and glared at the brunet. She placed the phone near her ear and started taking matters in her own hands.

"Hello? Yes, I would just like to tell you that you actually did a great job! Although I would still take your boss' advice to give him new ideas but please don't get him wrong, he just wants to keep the company in good shape. "Kanata was now at wits end at what she did but nonetheless kept his composure and did not go and grab the thing away from her.

"No. He's not angry, he's…um…shocked. Oh, well then, Good luck to you all!" she finished and as sweetly as her voice could get. She knew it was rude to butt in in someone else's conversation and sure as hell the phone butted in in theirs. She turned to Kanata and waited for hell to break loose.

"What the hell did you do?"

And so, hell broke loose. Kanata lunged forward to grab the phone away from her but Miyu protected it and put it close to her chest. By now, Kanata's arms wrapped around her shoulders in hopes of grasping the object from her. Miyu squealed as he did this but never forgot to keep it away from his hands. Kanata stopped the wild child's play and went back to sit on his bed again. He has his hand over his face now, massaging it lightly. He sighed.

"Give me the phone."

Miyu clutched it further, no intention of handing it back to him whatsoever.

"No."

"Give it."

"No."

"I said give it."

"You're going to call them."

"Of course I would. That was something serious."

Miyu glared at him and spoke "Aren't we talking about something serious too before they called?"

Kanata snapped his head up to her.

"What? Your 'I want to go to some Day Care center' thing?" he said almost sarcastically.

"I'm serious about that And it's not just some Day Care center, it's the business my parents worked so hard for." She replied. Impatience and irritability was getting over her for his lack of enthusiasm at their conversation.

He was not able to reply at this. He looked at the hand that was grasping his phone and noticed that her hands were now on her side. What he did next startled Miyu and snapped her out of her fury. Kanata took her hand, the one which held the phone and he held it for a while.

"You aren't listening are you?" Miyu said, quite reddening around her cheeks. She could feel Kanata's hand wrap around her delicate one as he held it. Although she convinced herself that it was one of his strategy to get the phone back to him, Miyu could not help but tremble at his touch.

"I was." He rotated her hand to be able to see the phone that she protected under her grip. "Now give this to me." He said as he unlocked her fingers off the phone. Miyu sighed in defeat and reluctantly gave in and released her fingers from the phone. Kanata took the phone from her and tossed it on his bed.

"Sorry." Muttered Miyu.

A smile crept up Kanata's face as he stood up and took her hand with his again. Now the heart was a curious thing, for when he did this, it reacted unfamiliarly and leapt in bliss. He pulled her close to him but not enough for their bodies to touch. The blonde was taken aback by it as she kept her head down. She could feel the air in her lungs being sucked out of her. As the man began to lower his head towards hers, Miyu couldn't help but look further down on the floor and mightily tried to avoid facing him.

He leaned in near her ear and it made her flinch as she felt his breath brush against her skin.

"You just got yourself a free ride to your day care." He whispered. He pulled back a little to leave an ample amount of space between them.

"Wha..what?" she choked.

"I'll drop you to your day care tomorrow." He replied, the smile visible on his face.

Miyu looked at him. "I…I can commute from here. It's okay." she said softly. Her eyes trailed down to their entwined hands and her face turned a shade of red at the sight. The sound of his voice broke her gaze at their hands.

"It's good to have a detour once in a while." He smirked. "And I wanna see those snotty brats you change diapers."

Miyu heard him chuckle and she diverted her gaze at him with a kind of irritated look.

"I'm kidding. You should be ready by ten tomorrow." He said.

Miyu nodded and hastily ran away from him to get out and breathe some air. She tried pulling the handles of the door. She pulled it once but it wouldn't budge. She tried again but they still didn't open. Somehow, this situation brought back a fresh memory weeks earlier where a similar incident took place. She then felt Kanata walk towards her.

"I'm sorry. I locked it." He said as he extended his hand to unlock the door. Yes, it was very similar. As soon as the doors opened, Miyu bolted out of the room and ran towards her own room leaving Kanata staring at her wide eyed. He shook his head as he closed the doors behind him smiling at the blonde.

He plopped down on his bed and closed his eyes, his smile still not fading. For the first time in many years, Kanata Saionji was looking forward to waking up the next morning.

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They were driving at a fairly normal speed. The blonde beside him was clutching the seatbelt that draped across her chest. They haven't spoken to each other besides the occasional instructions of the blonde as to where the way towards the Day Care center was. After turning left into a market street, Kanata caught sight of a sign that said "Kouzuki Day Care Center". He smiled as he made their way towards it.

They stopped in front of the shop and he took a black phone from the dashboard and handed it to her. The blonde looked at him questioningly and glanced at the phone, remembering the incident it caused last night.

"Call me when you're done here." He said.

Miyu nodded and as soon as she got hold of the phone, he took off. Miyu blinked at the car and pouted clutching the phone in her hand.

"Take care." She whispered.

She turned around to face the building. She had been preparing herself for quite some time now on how she would be able to face them.

She should just gather all her willpower to take on a scolding from her best pals, right? But the real question was how will she explain everything to them, especially to her.

She took a deep breath and opened the door. Sure enough, two pairs of eyes widened at the entrance of a nervous-wrecked blonde and all she could manage was a small sheepish smile.

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"I'm not mad. I'M FURIOUS!"

Miyu squinted her eyes for the umpteenth time since she got inside. Fortunately, it was the kids' nap time and they had an entire hour to discuss Miyu's tragedy, as Aya Konishi would call it, partially connoting a play she wrote about something similar.

"Miyu! Just what the hell were you thinking?" the short haired woman half yelled at her. The blonde flinched a little at this. "You left us hanging! We didn't know what to do the second you rushed out! You know, I don't care about the whereabouts of that stupid moron! I was against him after all. But when I saw you run after him…" the woman stopped and looked at her. Despite the anger her speech sent out, her eyes betrayed the emotion and showed a rather opposite of it.

Without warning, two arms wrapped around the blonde and enclosed her in a tight embrace. And then another pair joined in. Miyu was taken aback by the sudden action but she managed to give back the affection that flowed out from her friends as she wrapped her arms around them.

"We were so worried, Miyu. We went looking for you everywhere." Nanami Tenchi sobbed. Pulling back, she looked at her with such emotion that showed relief, happiness and contentment that Miyu felt her own tears well up in her eyes.

"I'm really sorry…" she said.

"All that matters now is that you're safe and you haven't been raped, thrown out near the creek and left for the sharks to eat." Aya tried. Although that was intended to lighten up the situation, the pigtailed woman's broad imagination caught the best of her and subconsciously uttered undesirable things.

Miyu tried to keep a straight face at her comment and nodded in half hearted agreement.

"What happened then?" Miyu asked. Nanami sighed and caught her cheek on her palm.

"It's a good thing that we kept the guests limited. I gathered all the courage I've got and managed to apologize and convince them to leave the place and I told them I'll update them about you two." Nanami narrated with closed eyes.

"It was quite troublesome because Chris' nearly went berserk when she found out that your wedding's foiled. She hurriedly went back to Japan and ordered a search for Mizuki." Aya added.

"It was a shoot-at-sight order actually." Nanami said. "We managed to convince her that there's no need for that though and then she went to divert the search to you."

"We told her there's no need for that too because we know you'll be coming back. Although there was still this worry hanging over us as the days passed." Aya piped in.

Their duet continued until Miyu cut them off.

"Mizuki…I wasn't able to get to him." Miyu started yet another topic the two refrained from bringing up for fear of recalling memories better forgotten.

Silence enveloped the duo at the short but significant fact Miyu had thrown. They looked at each other silently and Nanami went to hold Miyu's hand and gave it a tight squeeze.

"I'm really sorry Miyu." She whispered. Miyu lowered her head trying to hide the tears that threatened to fall from her emerald orbs. Fate was with her then and the tears dared not fall from her eyes.

"Oh, by the way, I retrieved your luggage from the hotel. I was able to persuade the receptionist a key to your room and then brought your things at home." Nanami said. "I'll bring it tomorrow."

"Thanks Nanami." She replied.

Nanami narrowed her eyes towards something on the blonde's chest area. She studied it for a moment before speaking. She sighed and looked straight into the blonde's eyes.

"Miyu, I know you love him so much. But…you won't be able to move on if you won't let go of something that may remind him of you."

Miyu looked at her with a confused stare and her eyebrows burrowed.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

Nanami reached out for the lone jewelry that adorned her neck and held onto the pendant. She held the pair of rings that were skewered on the silver lace to Miyu's face. Miyu stared at the rings and her eyes automatically flew open at the sight.

"What's the problem?" the brunet asked as he drove their way back into the house. When he did not receive a reply, he looked at the blonde who was looking down on her fingers and he followed where her gaze rested. Twinkling on her left ring finger was a silver band that bored minimal carvings.

The brunet sighed and reached up to the back of his neck and unbuckled a silver necklace. He gathered up the rest of the chain on his left hand while focusing the other on the steering wheel. He held out the necklace to the blonde whose head shot up at him.

"If you're uncomfortable wearing it, attach it to this." he said. She eyed the silver lace with both eyes and glanced up at the man.

"It's not…I'm not uncomfortable…it's just that…"she stuttered.

He dropped the necklace on her lap and went to take off his own ring. He held it again at her face.

"Take mine too. You're in charge of them." He said as he placed it in her palm.

She shot a nervous glance at the women in front of her and hurriedly snatched away the rings from Nanami's hand. She was at it again. She actually left out another integral part of her current situation. Her heart began thumping hard against her chest threatening to throw her out of consciousness.

"It's not what you think it is." She tried. Maybe avoiding explanations for now will buy her some time to sort this out. Yes, another explanation about another so different subject does not sound appealing right now.

She clutched the rings that were dangling at the mid part of the silver chain as she hoped that fate will side with her.

"Miyu, they look exactly like what we think they are." Nanami stated as-a-matter-of-factly.

"No they're not." She opposed. She knew deep inside that they were not going to buy this act of hers. She dumbly wished it would.

"You can't tell us off just like—" Nanami was cut off as a sound of jingling bells startled the three signaling someone entered. Their heads automatically turned towards the front door.

A ponytailed young woman entered and trailing behind her was a blonde boy. The woman turned back and dragged the blonde boy. The boy's eyes were puffed and red, indicating that he had been crying.

"Ruu?" Miyu called as soon as she saw the blonde boy. Her mouth twitched into a smile as utter glee enveloped her at the sight of the boy. "Ruu!" she called again and ran towards the boy who also stopped sniffing and looked up to the sound of Miyu's voice.

His face brightened as two arms encircled him and a tuft of blonde hair blocked his eyes.

"Mama?" he called.

"Yes, Ruu." She answered. "I missed you!" she said as she hugged him tighter.

"Mama!" the boy squealed in delight.

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A/n: I'm sorry but I might be uploading at a slower pace. School's starting. ^_^.

-LightEclairs