Special day

"Stop this, Etsuko!" he was authoritative, but kind, putting his palms on her shoulders. As he looked her right in the eyes she suddenly became calm.

"They are horrible, horrible!" she said with eyes full of tears.

"Everybody has the right to like somebody, Etsu-chan. Those guys did nothing wrong."

"They did! They were going to take her away! I don't want to lose my friend! I don't want her to be taken away!"

Etsuko started crying, hugging Akira tight.

"I will take her with me. Sorry for the mess, girls."

"Akira, I want to talk with you!" Azusa yelled.

"Come to the tree after midnight. I want to tell you something too." he looked down, and doing this, he quickly took Etsuko by palm, who still cried.

Mugi was sad, really. She hated when somebody else got hurt because of her, she felt responsible for the pain of those guys. But not in a single moment she thought that Etsuko was wrong. In Mugi's mind and heart, Etsuko's actions were caused by something from her past, and everybody has their own sadness.

And Azusa... well... she was really shocked. Whole thing with Akira, his ignoring and everything went for a full month and suddenly he wants to talk? She didn't know what to make from it. Still, her feelings were strong, and she felt she was the only one who can make his sadness go away. No matter how strong that sadness was, no matter how big. For it, she would risk getting hurt. She even forgot her main objective of getting close to him to protect her friends.

"What's with that Etsuko girl?!" Ritsu suddenly got angry.

"She was never like this, Ri-chan!" Mugi protected her friend.

"I don't care what she was like! Look! Look what possessiveness can do! I don't want you to be hurt! In the end, she will start hating us and then what? She is just selfish!"

Ritsu was breathing shallowly, with her eyes full of anger. Her whole body was trembling.

"Ritsu..." Mio looked at her friend. Of course, Mio remembered how bad Ritsu struggled with her own possessiveness, and how she got angry at Azusa few times before in the past. Ritsu never wanted to do it again.

"I just want to go home." Yui sat on her stool, kicking her feet, looking somehow depressed.

"This place is really going nuts! First that guy Akira who killed other guy just because he was attacked, then Mugi getting ill, and now her! What is wrong with this place?!"

Ritsu protested. Nobody saw her angry like that before. It seems like she held a lot of it inside.

"Akira protected me! He did nothing wrong!" Azusa yelled.

"Protected?! Look at you! He ignores you all of the time! We are friends; we are team, for God's sake! And those people make a gap between us!" Ritsu was out of her mind in anger.

"In the end, we always had only five of us." Mio said silently, sitting down on her stool, looking at the heap of unconscious bodies.

"Wow… This is depressing." Mugi said.

"I don't care for this place. I don't care for Nara! I was born in Kyoto prefecture! I am proud Kyotan!"

"Kyotan?" Mio smiled a bit.

Yui suddenly stood up. Her face went dark, she looked down to the floor and then she looked up. Her eyes were different, full of determination. Nobody of them saw her like this before.

"I had a dream. In it, Azusa protected me from the horde of monsters. She sacrificed herself for me. In my dream, I was sad because she died. But in reality, she is here. I was so sad when we had to leave her, this whole year, I missed her so much! Four of us were never truly whole when she was not here. Azusa is our glue, which keeps us together. As long as we have her, and as long as we are here, we will never break apart. I don't care who this guy is. If Azusa loves him, that's fine with me. I want her to be happy. I don't care who Etsuko is. Mugi is not a kind of girl who will leave her friends just because of somebody else! I trust in all of you. Can you please trust in each other?"

Yui ended her sentence, bursting into tears, crying a river.

Mio and Ritsu looked down, embarrassed, especially Ritsu.

"Yui is right. I am foolish." Ritsu smiled, coming close to Yui, hugging her tight. Yui still sobbed, but her tears stopped falling.

"Nothing can break us apart. We are friends." Mugi said, smiling, joining their hug.

"We love each other." Mio smiled, joining others, and in the end, Azusa bashfully joined them too.

"In the end, I love any place as long as I have four of you." Yui said, brushing her tears.

Later, Azusa was alone again in her room. Waiting for midnight, she could not sleep. Nor she wanted to sleep. Somewhere around 10 pm, Ritsu got in her room, of course knocking first.

"Azusa, are you in there?"

"Yes! Come in!"

Ritsu came inside. Azusa's room was a mess, something which will be more similar to Ritsu than Azusa, and she was a bit confused by the state which things were in.

"I'm sorry for the mess..." Azusa blushed a bit.

"It's alright. Look, Azusa, I want to talk with you."

Azusa got up, closing the door behind careless Ritsu, then going back to sit again.

Ritsu looked out of the window, and then turned her attention to young kohai.

"Azusa... I am foolish, sometimes. I care for all of you, and I want the best. It's hard to me to think straight in the situations like that, when emotions get the better of me. I did not mean to hurt you by my words... I know how much you like Akira. When you played, your eyes searched for him all of the time, trying to get his attention, trying to talk to him. Since we met him already whole month passed. You are still trying. Everybody knows that already. Even Yui, and she understands your feelings too. But often we are too concerned with ourselves. All of this times, we quarreled between ourselves, paid attention only to our problems, our troubles. And you were all alone in your pain. Even on this day, especially made for you."

"Ritsu-senpai, you didn't have to..."

"It's alright, Azusa."

Suddenly, rest of the girls came to her room.

Mugi had a large cake in her hands, made of chocolate, with strawberries on the top. Yui had a pair of paper bags in her hands, Ritsu carried bunch of cd-s, and Mio carried guitar.

"Azusa... We are sorry for not being there for you last year. We want to make up for the sadness it caused to you. You will never be lonely again." Mio smiled.

"What's this about?" Azusa asked.

"Oh my, she does not know. Look, Azunyan. We wrote a song for you and we want to sing it tonight." Yui smiled, taking Giita. It was freshly fixed, back from the music shop.

"Yui, keep a rhytm." Mio smiled, plugging her bass into little amp in Azusa's room. Mugi took a little keyboard, plugging it in, keeping a little, cute melody on it. Mio stood up, taking a microphone.

Special day

On the nights like this,

We have held on to the star,

We have tried to catch the dream,

Shining far on northern sky.

On the nights like this,

We have looked far to the sky,

That alone could make us cry,

Because you were never nigh.

But know that we love you,

No matter where you are.

And now that we care,

Even if you're somewhere far.

Because dream's are not over,

If one's got wings to fly.

Oh show us wings, our angel,

Tears of joy we want to cry.

We want to wish you happy birthday,

Because you are here with us.

We want to wish you happy birthday,

We are shining like a stars.

Show your wings, our little angel,

Stop your tears, oh, don't you cry.

Because nothing really matters,

As long, as you are nigh.

(Song is written by me, it's not a part of the K-on series)

Azusa broke down in tears. She remembered her birthday, but she thought everybody had forgotten about her. She never was the one to go around, yelling about her feelings – rather, she waited for others to notice her feelings.

"Azunyan, why are you crying?" Yui dropped Giita to sit next to her friend.

"You remembered! You all remembered!" she hollered through tears.

"Of course we did! You are our friend!" Mio said, sitting on the other side.

"Now dry your eyes, Azusa! You will extinguish those candles before you make a wish!" Ritsu smiled, holding a big cake in front of her. With white letters on the top of the cake was written:"For our dear Azusa, happy birthday!

Azusa took a deep breath, making a wish inside of herself, and then she blew them away, smiling, clapping her palms like a little child.

"What have you wished for, Azunyan?!" Yui asked.

"I can't tell you! It would spoil my wish! But, girls... Akira called me. What should I do?" Azusa looked worried. Of course, she would never leave her friends because of some guy, but they understood her. Even more than she thought.

"We knew that something like that would happen. So we arranged something." Mugi smiled, secretively.

"Come with us to the cafeteria." Ritsu added.

They first ate a cake. Azusa was given all of the strawberries, as additional gift for her birthday, even when she protested. In the end, she ate all the strawberries from the cake, alone. Then there was present exchanging. Azusa got cd of her favorite group from Ritsu, huge bear plushy from Yui, beautiful black dress from Mio and from Mugi she got sunscreen, and hidden beneath it was a black, little box with a beautiful, diamond pendant.

"Mugi, you did not!" Azusa was completely shocked.

"Come on, try it!" Mugi was proud.

"Mugi.. Now all of our presents look poor." Ritsu said.

"Don't talk like that, Ri-chan! I like all of those presents." Azusa smiled, putting on a black dress which she got from Mio first. She looked really elegant and beautiful. Now she took a pendant, with the real diamond and put it around her neck. In the end, she was given a large plushy and in the other hand, she held cd.

"Now let us make a photo of you, Azunyan!"

"N-no!" Azusa protested.

"But you look beau-ti-ful!" Yui insisted.

In the end, Azusa decided to take a photo, and they've promptly sent it to Ui, who wished her happy birthday too, expressing how beautiful she looks.

"Can I take those off now?" Azusa asked.

"No! Of course not! Come with us!" Ritsu pulled her by wrist, and they've taken her to the cafeteria.

There, it was dark in this time of the night. Even the lights which were usually on now were out.

"What are you girls doing?" Azusa was confused.

"Hang on for a bit more." Mugi smiled.

Mio walked towards one of the lights, turning it up. Light fell on nobody else other than Akira. He had a black suit, black shoes, his usually spiky, green hair now was neatly combed back, and he wore same Lennon type sunglasses. When he saw her, he put them down, smiling.

"Azusa, happy birthday!"

Azusa looked at him, and then looked to her friends, and then looked at him again. Her lips started fluttering, she started shaking a bit, and then she screamed and started crying.

"Fool! You're a fool, Akira! I hate you so, so much!" she cried, but hugged him tight, without wanting to let him go.

"I'm sorry, Azusa. I'm sorry for making you go through so much. I don't care how sad my fate is. I don't care how sad my dreams are. I don't care what will happen. Touched by your feelings, I want to show you my feelings, if I'm even allowed to do it after all of this. I won't run from myself anymore. If you're by my side, even if my dreams are sad, I will not care." he told her, going through her hair with his fingers.

She grabbed him by his arms, looking him right in the eyes.

"Why have you closed yourself?! I wanted to show you my whole self; you're the first person in my life who I was able to trust so fast! I opened myself to you! I don't care what will happen, can't you see? I know how you are, Akira, Kodama! I know that you will probably fade and disappear, because your tree is cut down! But I don't care! Even if it's for the short time, I want to be with you!"

"You... how do you...?"

"It does not matter! I know everything, Akira."

"Azusa... I never wanted to impose my fate on anybody. But you tried so hard, you always wanted to meet me. Now I'm sure... but are you sure about this?"

"I'm hundred percent sure!"

Akira sat down on the stool, being shocked.

"Even if I bring you sadness once?"

His expression looked blank.

"I don't care! If you bring me happiness it's enough!"

"Then you have my promise. I will do everything which I can to bring you happiness in the days to come."

In the end, his eyes became full of conviction.

Touched by their feelings, Mugi and Yui cried. Even Mio teared down a little.

"This was the most wonderful birthday I've ever had!" Azusa smiled.

Later, they were sitting in Azusa's room, all six of them. Azusa was sitting in Akira's lap, and he made a long braid of her hair. He obviously knew a lot about hair, and girls assumed somebody of his relatives is a hairdresser or something.

"But Akira, where is Etsuko?" Ritsu asked him.

"Yeah, well... there are some things which are better left unsaid." he was secretive again.

"Come, come, we are friends!" she insisted.

"Well, the truth is that I am Kodama, as Azusa said. There is no point in keeping it a secret anymore. But we live in the world really different than yours. I would never even get close if... never mind."

"Yeah, but we might surprise you." Mio said. She was still slow in trusting him, but if Azusa liked him, she was alright with it.

"Isn't it obvious?" Azusa asked.

"Azusa?" Akira was a bit confused.

"Etsuko is also a Yokai. But a different type. Judging by her strength and her fangs, probably Inugami."

"Enough, Azusa!" Akira suddenly grew angry.

"Aki-kun, what's wrong?" Azusa turned around.

"It's still too early for some things. Trust me!"

His eyes were determined, but with good intention. It seemed he was concerned.

"I will trust you in this. But don't keep it a secret if it will endanger any of us." Azusa said.

"As an answer on your original question, Ritsu, let's just say that she's on the job, and leave it at that."

"Oh, she's a hard-working girl!" Mugi smiled.

"That she is." Akira smirked.

"Akira, isn't she adorable?" Yui crawled to the Azusa, pinching her cheek.

"Like an angel."

"Isn't she? I say that too." Yui nodded her head.

And they haven't seen large, orange furred dog below the window, slowly making his way across the fields. His fur was stained with blood, as was his snot. Crawling across, he was on his way to find another victim.

Three days after birthday party, Etsuko is taking a shower in her room. After getting out of the bathroom, she founds out that Mugi is there. Their argument explodes into fight. Still, fires of anger are still there, and they change into something else. Inside Etsuko's room, girls, for the first time, experience the flames of passion.

Next Chapter: Under the light of a cloudy sky