"Struggling With Feelings"

By: Justin T. Melanson

Author's Note: So it seems Athena might be falling hard for Kensou, truth be told though, she is scared out of her wit's end, I won't say what she does next though, I don't want to spoil the surprise, for that, you'll need to read to the end of this chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own King of Fighters, or any of the characters involved in this fanfic, save for maybe Athena's mom and dad. All characters are the sole property and rights of SNK Playmore, Inc.

Chapter 10: A Hard Decision

"Robert, she said yes, huh?" asked Kensou as he and Athena hopped in.

"Ha ha, she sure did bro, but convincing her father of our love, oh man, that was like trying to pull teeth from an elephant!" said Robert emphatically.

The whole car burst into laughter after that.

"So how did you get him to give you the OK?" asked Kensou again.

"Actually, it was me who did the talking," Yuri interrupted, "I finally convinced my dad of how I felt about Robert, and he finally gave me the OK to spend some much-needed time with him."

She took Robert's hand in hers, and smiled.

"Mmmm, and what a wonderful time we had," said Robert with a grin, "Anyway, I'll take you two back home. Me and Yuri still got some time to catch up on."

So Robert dropped Athena off first, though not before Kensou took her to her door to say goodnight.

"I really had a great time Kensou," said Athena softly, "I thank you for that, and showing me what a great guy you are." as she gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"It was my pleasure Athena," said Kensou with a smile, "Maybe we can do it again next Friday huh? I'll call you sometime to find out what is going on."

"Maybe..." said Athena as Kensou walked off to the car, a twinge of doubt lingered in her voice.

Kensou was blissfully unaware as he hopped in and was given a ride home. When he got in, he immediately ran upstairs and he was in such a happy mood, he decided to clean his room, which was a total mess, he had all this happy energy building that he knew he was not gonna be able to just lay down and go to sleep.

So he went to work on sorting out his clothes, the clean stuff from the dirty and putting things in their proper place, all those CD cases laying on the floor were put into a seldom used organizer, books were replaced on the bookshelf, and all sorts of other knick-knacks were placed properly. Needless to say, his room actually had room to move around in for once. Finally, tired from all the cleaning, he curled up and went to sleep.

Meanwhile, Athena was struggling with her feelings still, she thought this was gonna be easy, but in reality, this was harder than some of the hardest exams that she had ever faced. Now that Kensou had shown her another side to him that she had never seen before, she honestly didn't know what to think anymore.

Her head ached so bad that she had to go take an aspirin to calm the pain down. The ache in her heart, however, was much worse. She had never felt something like this regarding Kensou before, she had dated other guys before, but that was different, they weren't her best friend like Kensou was. In truth, she was scared to lose that, scared that Kensou would grow to hate her, and furthermore, scared that she'd lose her sanity and ultimately herself if she lost his friendship.

She continued struggling with these feelings, but she felt it was the right thing to do, tomorrow, she was probably going to commit the worst crime she had ever committed in her life, and she knew somehow that Kensou was going to be beyond heartbroken.

"Forgive me Kensou..." said Athena to herself, "I am so sorry...but I have to do this..."

A lone tear ran down her cheek, and hit the floor below. She buried her head beneath her pillow so no one could hear her crying. It was very seldom that Athena cried, whether they were tears of joy, or tears of sorrow. Still she wept softly until her pillow was soaked, and she finally went to sleep from exhaustion.

Morning came, and Athena barely had the strength to function, she knew the day was going to be hell, but still, she was making the right decision for herself, or was she?...