Hey, guys! Sorry for the long pause. I was rather distracted by other animes and I went for a camp. It was really cool! And then there's enrolment in college… *blabs on* Okay, back to the story! Sorry to keep you guys waiting!

Misaki: Home

As I reached for the knob, a nostalgic feeling washed over me. I got the key back from the nurse the day I was discharged. She told me it was found in my pocket the time I was admitted, after the accident. It sparkled dimly in my palm. I gripped the key strongly in my fist. It sent a warm and comforting surge down my body. Yet, when I pushed the door open, all those touchy emotions vanished instantly into thin air. I felt my forehead creasing into a frown and the heat of anger rising inside me like a boiling pit of magma. My mind was only filled with a single line.

'Stupid Usagi, I'm so going to kill you!'

The whole apartment was upside down, like a typhoon had just blown through. Even though I have amnesia, I clearly remembered the last time I exited the door, the house was in tip top shape. Now, it looked exactly like a rat's nest! I couldn't help but feel irritated because I knew that before the unfortunate incident, it was I who cleaned and constantly kept this house neat and tidy. And to say that the person who owns this house earns billions everyday?! It was just unbelievable! That man is really hopeless!

"Misaki-kun?" I turned to shoot an angry glare at the editor. When she cringed away, I quickly apologized.

"It really is a mess, right?" Aikawa-san said, gently patting my shoulder. I sighed. This is going to be a long day cleaning.

"Thank you for bringing me back, Aikawa-san. I guess I better start cleaning right away." I bowed politely to the pretty lady. She replied with a smile and handed me a box of cakes.

"Please DO tell Usami-sensei to finish the manuscript. I need it as soon as possible. Or else…" She trailed off. There was an evil glint in her eyes and some black aura was surrounding her body. This time, I inched away from her. But the demonic aura disappeared and a smile appeared once again on her face.

"Could you pass this to Usami-sensei as well? Thanks!" She gave me a white envelope and turned away. I stood there, watching her back as she went. Then, I turned to look into the house once again. As I had predicted, the state of the house made me gritted my teeth once again. I braced myself and stepped into it. Placing the envelope on the table, I looked around. There was a bear sitting on the sofa.

'Suzuki-san!'

I hugged the huge teddy bear. The sofa and the table were the only clean area in the whole apartment. Sighing loudly again, I placed the bear down and rolled up my sleeves. Time to get to work while the sun is still up! Though this place was practically inhabitable, it gave me safe feeling that warmed me from the crown of my head to the tips of my toes. All the tension, built up for the past week at my brother's place, slowly unreeled like a ball of yarn. I was home.

I started with the kitchen, the most seriously 'damaged' spot. The kitchen was splattered with eggs and the floor was covered with upturned pots and pans. On the counter, there was a half broken glass with dried-up black liquid, most probably coffee. I remembered seeing something similar before. It was around my 19th birthday. We came back from a trip to Hokkaido. It was a birthday gift from Usagi-san but in the end, he had the most fun. I also remembered that it was because I left him for a week to visit my brother at Osaka. It was rather a surprise that he did not blow the apartment up now that I had left him for nearly two months. Cleaning up the broken glass, I smiled as the memory of me yelling at Usagi-san for using non-heat resistant glasses to pour hot coffee into returned to me. Recalling that he once hurt himself from the broken glass, I felt a twinge of worry blooming in my chest, hoping that he was not hurt this time as well.

Once I was done scrubbing the kitchen, I switched to laundries, seeing that there were so many dirty clothes strewn around the house. Gathering them all, it came to a mountain of dirty pile. Putting the first load to wash, I went upstairs to check if there are any more laundries. The first room I entered was most probably his work room. There were rows and rows of bookshelves with a table at a corner. A laptop was sitting on the table, its page blank. The floor was covered with stacks of books. There was also a sofa with a few clothes and a towel draped over it. I had to find my way through the maze of books before reaching the dirty clothes. Picking them up, I put them by the stairs and went on to the second room.

This room was occupied by a train model, chugging quietly around the room. A few bears sat among the tracks. I laughed quietly at his childishness. The third room was filled another model of the Great Wall and a couple of bears too. In another room, a few tanks of marimo were set near the window. Those algae balls were bought during that trip to Hokkaido too. He had claimed that they were the fairy of the lakes. I laughed to myself again. Next to the algae tanks, a tank that looked rather empty caught my sight. I blinked, as I knew there was supposed to be some kind of weird thing living there. Something long and black.

The eels!

I rushed forward and opened the tank's cover. Indeed, with their bellies showing, two black eels floated lifelessly. Their eyes were crossed. Quickly, I threw in food to the poor starved creatures. Aikawa-san might have fed them a few times for them to survive until now. A vein popped up.

"Stupid Usagi!" Muttering to myself, I watched the long, slimy creatures gobbled up the food pellets, "Don't buy things when you don't look after them…"

The fourth room was his bedroom. I knew what was in it before I went in. When the door was opened, it revealed a toy paradise. There was a large bed in the middle surrounded with toys of all kinds. The bed was unmade. The sheets were tangled along with a few clothes too. Straightening the blankets and pillows, I gasped and dropped the dirty laundries I had just picked up when a stabbing pain hit my head. My visions blurred a little as I massaged my head a little. A hazy memory came back to me when my head was still aching. It was a memory of the first time I entered this room. I was angry at something and had burst into this room, shouting at Usagi-san. I tried to remember the reason that made me mad but it only worsened the headache. When I dropped the attempt of trying to recover my memory, the pain subsided. Sighing, I collected the dirty clothes and went out of the room.

The last room was locked but I did not try to open it, being too distracted by sudden headache. My head felt so heavy and I wobbled to clean the remaining laundries. Hanging the first load and putting in the second load of laundries into the machine, I headed to the storeroom and got the vacuum cleaner out. I was careful to avoid a particular room, the teddy bear room. I knew I would be buried in a teddy bear avalanche if I opened that door.

'I'll clean that room some day else.' I told myself. As I vacuumed the penthouse, my mind was thinking about the blur memory, trying to recall completely the missing parts. But no matter how hard I tried to search in my mind, I couldn't think why.

"Done!" I exclaimed loudly after folding and putting away the second load of laundries. The sun was already setting. It had been nearly 8 hours since I started cleaning the large apartment. The wall clock told me that it was nearly 7. I cooked a simple dinner out of whatever unspoiled items I could find in the refrigerator and ate in silence, alone. I was dead tired when I cleaned the final plate. As I could not find another bed except for the large bed that was Usagi-san's, I laid my exhausted body down on the long, comfortable sofa, using Suzuki-san's leg as a pillow. Relaxing my mind, I wondered what happened to my bed. I also realized that Usagi-san was not home yet though it was getting late. Where did he go? Did he have his dinner already? A slight feeling of worried grew inside me.

"I wonder if he's alright…" I mumbled to myself. Perhaps that locked room was my room. But why did he lock it then? And what is this loneliness feeling that I'm feeling? As my mind pondered on these questions, my eyelids grew heavier and heavier until they eventually closed. My brain was beginning to slowly shut down too. I wanted to stay up to wait for him to return, ask his the questions and ask for his permission to live here again. But the answers to those questions will have to wait. Now, all I care and knew was I was finally home.

…….

Dee-san seemed to be busy so this is the 'not beta-ed one'. I'll replace the beta-ed one once I received it back. Once again, sorry for the delay! I promise Usagi-san and Misaki would be reunited in the next chapter but that doesn't mean there is going to be sex. I've never written anything of those before though I've seen quite enough and read quite a lot. Maybe I'll try someday but not now. Perhaps in the later chapters…

Well? Review please!

Twilight Cherry