Chapter Seven: Dreams and the Door

Author Notes: This chapter marks the start of the second arc and we take you back to before the war started to explain what happened.

(Principal's Quarters, Garderobe, Before the Fall)

Natsuki lay in bed resting her head on Shizuru's shoulder lazily drawing her fingers along Shizuru's collar bone. She sighed then leaned over pressed a kiss to Shizuru's shoulder, and then she paused realizing that Shizuru wasn't moving. They had just made love a short while ago and Natsuki always enjoyed when they cuddled afterwards; but Shizuru was just laying there still she could feel the rise and fall of her chest. "Shizuru," Natsuki asked looking up at Shizuru seeing she was asleep, wondering how long ago she had fallen asleep. "Shizuru?" Natsuki asked feeling Shizuru start to shake realizing she was crying. Natsuki reached up cupping Shizuru's cheek and kissing her softly. "Shizuru... It's me it's Natsuki."

"You are not my Natsuki." Shizuru said shaking her head. "I won't do it anymore. I'm not yours. You make me feel so disgusting and dirty."

Natsuki sighed knowing Shizuru had fell asleep after their love making and was dreaming about something she knew nothing about. Shizuru had had this dream many times before with Natsuki only catching snips of it during the few times Shizuru talked in her sleep. Nobody would ever imagine that that Graceful Amethyst and Archmeister, Shizuru Viola talked in her sleep. Natsuki's hand reached up and stroked Shizuru's cheek softly.

"When you brought me here…. you look at me like you wanted me…. so I gave you what you wanted. I fucked you silly, so you told me what I wanted. You didn't have my Natsuki." Shizuru said her words full of fear mixed with anger.

Natsuki knew Shizuru still had nightmares about what happened when she was Nagi's prisoner. Try as much as she had she couldn't get Shizuru to tell her what happened. She debated about whether she should wake Shizuru up or keep listening. Shizuru turned in her sleep hitting Natsuki in the chest as the blue haired woman tried to hold her. Natsuki knew she should wake her up but Shizuru had never gone into this much detail.

"I don't love you." Shizuru said raising her voice as she continued hitting Natsuki. "You green haired tart!" There had been rumors about what happened to Shizuru all of them involving Tomoe Marguerite and none of them pleasant.

Shizuru started to thrash around more before she pushed Natsuki knocking her nearly off the bed, "Shizuru!" Natsuki said getting her balance and taking hold of Shizuru again this time shaking her trying to wake her up.

"Leave me alone." Shizuru said her hand striking out and hitting Natsuki in the eye.

The principal groaned briefly reaching up rubbing her eye thinking she got hit hard enough that tomorrow she was sure to have a black eye if not sooner. "Shizuru wake up please." Natsuki said ignoring the pain and stroked her hand through Shizuru's hair.

Shizuru shook her head, "I won't sleep with you again, Tomoe." Shizuru said her hand swinging to punch Natsuki again.

Natsuki grabbed out and caught Shizuru hand holding it tight as she bit her lip then she slapped Shizuru across the check. Shizuru blinked her eyes several times as she came to and realized something was very wrong. "Shizuru..." Natsuki said softly as she gently stroked where she just hit she hadn't wanted to slap her but couldn't seem to wake her up any other way.

"Natsuki?" Shizuru said starting to feel the pain in her cheek and looking up at Natsuki seeing her eye already starting to turn red. "I hit you in my sleep again?" This wasn't the first time it had happened and she was just as embarrassed as before. "I'm sorry." She said then stroked Natsuki's cheek.

"Hai, you were dreaming again." Natsuki said as she kissed her cheek then lied, "It doesn't hurt that much."

"I don't remember it…" Shizuru lied as well she vividly remembered the dream she always did though now it seemed she had been having it more often lately.

"It was just dream don't worry about it." Natsuki said even though she knew it was more then a dream this was a part of Shizuru's life that she wouldn't share with her. It made Natsuki angry that Shizuru wouldn't tell her what had happened. Every time she asked about it Shizuru would say she wasn't ready to talk about it. Natsuki wondered how long it would take Shizuru it had already been two years. Sometimes she wondered if Shizuru would ever tell her. Didn't Shizuru trust her enough to let her in on every aspect of her life? Natsuki couldn't really think of a single secret she was keeping from Shizuru aside from the Zipangese tea set that she had hidden in the storage room she used to work on her bike but that was for Shizuru's birthday.

"Puppy? What is wrong?" Shizuru said though she didn't want to have to explain it to Natsuki. She couldn't bear to tell Natsuki what had happened during the war.

"You had that nightmare again." Natsuki said not wanting to press the issue again, not wanting to start another fight but she still wanted to know. Over the last few weeks as Shizuru had the dream more often Natsuki had asked her each time usually ending in the two of them yelling and one of them storming out; Natsuki had spent quite a few nights sleeping on the sofa in her office.

"I did?" Shizuru said feigning ignorance hoping Natsuki would buy it again it had worked so many times already Shizuru feared it wouldn't very many more.

"Yes, Shizuru, what happens in your dreams?" Natsuki said feeling the words leave her mouth before she realized she had said them. She was tried after from their love making and tried of fighting with Shizuru. She just wanted things to go back to how they were before the Wind Uprising.

"I don't know, I just wake up not remembering anything," Shizuru said as she continued to lie it burning inside. She hated lying to Natsuki but she couldn't tell her, she couldn't tell her most important person what she had done she was too ashamed and knew it would hurt Natsuki.

"With how many times you've had that dream you can't tell me you don't remember it." Natsuki said getting frustrated knowing Shizuru knew. Just as Shizuru could tell when Natsuki lied she could when her lover was lying. You can't live with someone as long as they had and not get to know little things like when the other was lying. Natsuki thought she was probably the only person on Earl that could tell if the Graceful Amethyst was lying, no one else could see through her mask.

"I don't." Shizuru continued as she leaned into Natsuki wrapping her arms around Natsuki while she kissed the base of Natsuki's neck thinking she might be able to distract Natsuki away from this line of questioning like she had many times before. She loved Natsuki more then anything but couldn't let Natsuki know her dirty little secret.

Natsuki frowned, "It was about Tomoe." Shizuru pressed her face into Natsuki's shoulder while she looked away, "Shizuru."

She stayed like that for a while then looked up when Natsuki lifted her chin, "Natsuki, you know that I would do anything for you." Shizuru said stroking Natsuki's cheek trying to calm the younger woman.

"Would you?" Natsuki asked not fully believing her. Normally she would lean into Shizuru's caresses but this time she held still not moving hinting to Shizuru that everything wasn't alright.

Hai," Shizuru said cringing at what would be asked of her next.

"Then you wouldn't lie to me." Natsuki said coldly letting Shizuru know that she knew she was lying and that she wasn't happy about it.

Shizuru started to cry realizing that she couldn't keep it from Natsuki any longer, "No, I wouldn't." She hated lying to Natsuki but was afraid of what would happen if Natsuki knew the truth.

"What happened during the Uprising in Wind?" Natsuki said breaking the questioning that she had asked so many times before wondering if she would actually get an answer. "What happened when Nagi took you prisoner?"

"Tomoe had me taken to some room." Shizuru started cringing as them memory was still fresh. She could still feel the eerie feeling she had being lead down that hallway. At the time she had thought Nagi was going to torture her for information but then she was led into a bedroom where Tomoe sat on the bed. While Tomoe had been a student Shizuru was aware that the girl had a crush on her but what Coral didn't?

"I thought you were held in the dungeon." Natsuki said remembering a small part of the story that Shizuru had told her.

"I was but that monkey boy had an incentive program for his Dark Otome. Tomoe wanted me, so I was her reward." Shizuru said as tears started to form in her eyes. Her skin seemed to burn as the memory of Tomoe's lips on her was brought to the front of her mind.

"She wanted you....h...how?" Natsuki asked several of the rumors she had heard coming to her mind. Tomoe's glances as a student hadn't gone unnoticed by the principal. Natsuki paid attention to everyone that watched Shizuru. You could say Natsuki was a jealous lover even if she didn't show her anger. She never liked it when Shizuru flirted with other girls and it had been a problem in the beginning of their relationship before Natsuki realized that Shizuru wouldn't stray from her and only did it to get a rise out of her. There had been many times when Shizuru would press Natsuki's patience too far and the principal would politely excuse them then take Shizuru back to their room and remind her who she belonged to.

Shizuru looked away ashamed, "In every way. I did not know if you had gotten away."

"What did she do to you?" Natsuki asked not aware that she had her fist tightly clinched nor that she held it above Shizuru.

"I had sex with her willingly she was hemorrhaging information the more intimate we got." Shizuru said staring into Natsuki's eyes waiting for a reaction mentally bracing herself for Natsuki's clinched fist to hit her even though Natsuki had never hit her out of anger before. She continued to stare into Natsuki's eyes as the fist came quickly down not hitting her but the bed next to her. Natsuki hit the bed several more times then stopped just breathing hard.

It was several minutes before Natsuki pushed away from Shizuru sitting up and wrapping the sheet around her. The action worried Shizuru; Natsuki hadn't been shy around her since she was a coral. Her covering her nudity meant more then her unleashed rage on the bed. Natsuki felt naked but not in a physical way. "So what you just put out? For what? A few facts, that were useless to you?"

"I put out for the key to their undoing and to your success." Shizuru said watching Natsuki walk across the room the blue haired girl standing with her back to her as there was another long tense silence between them.

Natsuki quickly spun around, "I've never seen a more skilled negotiator then you and you are telling me to deal with a psychotic pervert the only thing you could do was fuck her to pump her for information?"

"Say what you will Natsuki. Lines are blurred in war. A fan is useless against the inferno of hell." Shizuru said, she had spent her time ever since the war trying to justify that to herself wondering if she didn't believe it how Natsuki ever could.

"What about us? Did that just go out the window? We all went through hell during the war but only one of us decided to be a whore." Natsuki snapped her fist balled again, this time her knuckles splitting as she hit the wall leaving large dent into it.

"You can't understand. Nor should you, that is why you deserved ignorance and I deserved to bear the heavy cross." Shizuru said only able to stare at the blood dripping from Natsuki's hand onto the floor. She wanted to leap from bed and take Natsuki's hand and wrap it but knew Natsuki would never let her. So instead she just stared at it the wound being easier then looking Natsuki in the eyes. Eyes she knew held so much anger right now all of it aimed at her.

"Bullshit and you know it. Have I ever meant anything to you? Or am I just another good fuck?" Natsuki shouted when Shizuru didn't answer she growled staring at her noticing that Shizuru refused to look at her thinking she was focusing on the dented wall rather then her hand. "Look at me!"

"You are everything to me. I did the unthinkable so that you would never have to." Shizuru pleaded her eyes snapping up to look Natsuki straight in the eyes seeing that anger only grow.

"Oh yeah you slept around because you care for me. That's the most screwed up thing I've ever heard." Natsuki said grabbing her pants and pulling them on then pulling a shirt on not caring if she got blood on them.

Shizuru began crying unable to look at Natsuki again, "Then leave me. I will make it so you will not lay eye on me again."

"Don't be here when I get back." Natsuki said slamming the door behind her.

She sat on the bed for several minutes staring at the door unaware that she was crying. When it was apparent Natsuki wasn't coming back she stood up and walked the distance to her own dresser changing into not her normal robe but a simple dress. She retrieved a long cloak and draped it over her pulling the hood up as she looked at her reflection in the mirror. "Forgive me, My Natsuki." She said reaching up and taking her GEM out setting it on the night stand before packing a small bag then leaving.

(Roof Top, Garderobe)

Natsuki had stormed quickly out of the bedroom so angry she wasn't really paying attention to where she was going until she was walking towards the stairs to the roof. She opened the door and walked across seeing Nao quickly flick a cigarette off the roof. "Hope that wasn't your last." Natsuki said leaning against the wall.

"Shoo puppy. I'm not on company time." Nao said pushing herself up on the wall crossing her legs and taking another cigarette out lighting it. It had been quite some time since she had been in Florence or since Shiho had been to Garderobe and Nao was feeling very much in need of some company. She hadn't realized it but it had been quite some time since she had been with anyone else or had she realized that she didn't want to sleep with anyone else.

"Neither am I. Now hand one over." Natsuki said reaching for the pack but Nao pulled it away looking at Natsuki wondering when the lecture about smoking was going to come. She stopped realizing that Natsuki had asked for a cigarette not tried to take the pack from her like she usually did.

Nao flicked one from the pack at her, "Good bye Kruger."

Natsuki put the cigarette in her mouth then reached into Nao's pocket taking a lighter out and lighting her own throwing the lighter back at Nao before sitting on the edge of the wall. "You know I should punch you in your pretty face for reaching into my pants. But it seems someone beat me to it."

"Back off Zhang," Natsuki said taking drag off the cigarette coughing a little she didn't smoke and thought these things tasted gross wondering how anyone could find smoking one relaxing still she took another puff.

"What did you do to piss off the Archmeister enough that she decked you then threw you out?" Nao smirked.

"Don't mention that bitch's name." Natsuki said.

"Worse then I thought. What? Did you and the snake have a tussle again?" Nao pressed even though Natsuki obviously did not want to talk about it.

"Snake isn't a harsh enough word." Natsuki hissed.

"Oh." Nao said nonchalantly.

"Oh what?" Natsuki barked.

"Not a surprise." Nao scoffed. She had seen what was going on between the Principal and Archmeister wondering how long it would be before they had a melt down. From the looks of it they had. She didn't know the full extent but by the looks of Natsuki's face and her hand it had come to blows. It surprised Nao that they would actually fight. Sure Natsuki had a few black eyes before but Nao believed her when she admitted Shizuru had hit her in her sleep. Natsuki wouldn't blush that bad at the teasing if it wasn't true.

"Shut up spider." Natsuki said jumping off the wall flicking her barely smoked cigarette over the edge. She looked down to the ground seeing Miss Maria looking at the butts. She leaned back hoping that she hadn't been seen. Nao looked over the edge seeing what Natsuki was looking at waved at the older woman then turned away. "You wouldn't understand anyway." Natsuki said walking back to the door.

"Don't care what you and she do behind closed doors." Nao said as she leaned back, "Kruger next time you take a smoke from me you better finish it."