CHAPTER ELEVEN: A promise

Tuesday Morning

Ritsu woke up and found herself all alone in her hotel room, she was pretty much sure that Mio came last night and now she's nowhere to be found. She rolled to the other side of the bed and it emanated the vanilla-like intoxicating scent of Mio's skin.

She looked around and saw a used bathrobe hanging in a rack, she was not dreaming after all, the raven haired girl did visit her. She turned towards the bed area to get her phone from the side table to message Mio then saw an opened application after unlocking her phone. It was a voice message from Mugi saying: "By the time that you're listening to this message, it's probably already morning there; so good morning! Just so you know, I'll be going there so that you'll have company on the trip back here. I love and miss you. Oh, and I'm speaking in French because… I have a feeling that somebody may listen to this message aside from you…" the message from the blonde girl started off cheery and ended in an uncanny tone.

"Shit." Ritsu's brain almost summersaulted, which basically gave her a migraine. "Geez, just woke up and now my head hurts!" She grumbled as she searched her belongings for some pain killers.

This amber eyed girl was always honest and carefree, it was her nature but due to unavoidable circumstances, she had to somehow stray away from it. Only, it never occurred to her that she had to choose between lying and being truthful to the two people that weighed so much in her heart. But either way, lying and being honest was all the same, either will just end up badly. Ritsu shook her head at the thought and decided to call the missing raven haired girl.

"Ring ring!"

No answer

"Ring ring!"

No answer

"Tsk, why is she not answering?"

"Mio. Everything ok? Where'd you go?" She texted when talking seemed impossible. "Hmm.. maybe she went to work. I better go to Tokyo U to make sure she's ok."

Mio woke up with her head resting on the amber eyed girl's arm. She felt secured, she felt whole despite all the things she'd been through. She checked her phone and saw the time, it was already 5'o-clock in the morning and she has to go to work.

She stood up and dressed herself with her used clothes; she had to drop by her apartment, which was closer to where she worked, to get a set of clean apparel. As she finished up, she looked at the still sleeping amber eyed girl. She looked with love and thankfulness in her eyes and even though the sleeping girl has secrets, it doesn't matter. Whatever that is, she's willing to accept it. The girl owned her in so many different ways after all.

"(Sigh)… So I guess, Mugi is your angel now, huh?" She whispered to herself with a sad smile. "It's ok Ritsu, I understand if you choose her over me…"

With a kiss on the amber eyed girl's forehead, she left.

In Tokyo U

The clock was not short of an hour and 30 mins before time when Mio arrived at the university. Aside from her, there is only Mrs. Yamada, a sweet 60 year old professor, in the faculty room.

"Ohayou Mio-chan" she greeted with a smile. "You seemed early"

"Ohayou gozaimasu Yamada-San" she greeted back with a small and a little bit forced, smile. She did not expect to have company this early at work. "Just woke up too early today and decided to just go to work" she finished with a small bow.

Being a very observant person with added years of experience, not to mention that she is a professor in psychology, Mrs. Yamada noticed the strain in Mio's small smile. "Everything ok Mio-chan?"

"Eh? Um y-yeah" the raven haired girl was a little surprised to be asked about her wellbeing especially at work and a timely manner.

"Hmm, is that so?" She asked in an interested tone. "You know Mio-chan, I've had my shares of troubles in life and as little as it may seem, I can see that you are bearing a heavy heart"

Mio was surprised at the accurate description of her state and the thought of Mrs. Yamada being a mind reader crossed her mind but shook it off easily when she remembered that the senior was a doctor in psychology.

Seeing the shaking of the raven head, Mrs. Yamada broke the short silence and said while bowing "oh my, I'm so sorry my dear, if I'm being too nosy"

Having caught her attention, "Eh? Um, no Yamada-san. It's totally fine, not a problem... It's just that you are quite accurate actually, in your assessment of me."

"You can tell me anything Mio-chan, maybe my experience in life can help" she said with a kind smile

"T-that would be nice, please"

After settling her things in her locker, Mio sat down next to the older lady, who was pouring tea from her thermos.

"Would you like some?" She offered

"Yes please, if you don't mind" she accepted with gratitude.

After one full sip, the lady asked "so what can I do to help?"

After hearing Mio's entire story including the return of Ritsu and her possible secrets the older lady sighed. "Oh my. What a predicament- but! Not impossible to solve" she said with a motherly smile. "You know, I never liked that Tetsuro guy. All these times I was wondering if I'm the only one not fooled by his charisma"

"You're right; you're the only one who was not fooled. Look at where it got me now Yamada-san" the raven haired girl said with a tone hinted with shame

"Don't worry child. You still have a choice and like you said; your knight came back. Maybe she's here for a reason even if her motives were different when she decided to return."

"I wonder Yamada-san" She said in an uncertain tone

Lunch time came and the raven haired girl is found sitting alone in the cafeteria in the college of humanities building. She pondered upon her conversation with Mrs. Yamada a while ago. She really has to end this once and for all with Tetsuro.

Still deep in thought, she did not notice the amber eyed girl approaching.

"Ey. Mio." She said waving her hand to get her attention.

"Eh? Um. Hi Ri-kun" she said in surprise with a deep blush forming.

"Ehh.. -kun?" The amber eyed girl said with a cheeky grin.

Realizing her unconscious change of honorifics, she bowed her head several times feeling embarrassed for almost the first time in front of Ritsu. "G-gomen."

"Hehe, no big deal. I kinda like it" she said in a very dashing smile (in Mio's opinion)

"What the hell is happening to me? A while ago I'm so down, BUT it was reasonable! Now I'm being like a flustered hormone overdosed teenager." "Hormones...!" She mumbled and was struck when she realized the reason behind. She forgot that she was fucking pregnant. "Shit" and now she's angry.

"Um, Mio?" The Amber eyed girl was confused upon witnessing the immediate changes in Mio's facial expressions. "You ok?"

With that question, a sudden rush of all the emotions she'd been feeling crashed on her and started to tear up that eventually turned into a stream of tears in a matter of a few seconds.

Seeing this, Ritsu immediately closed the gap between and enveloped her in a securing embrace.

"Shhh… it's ok, it's ok.. I'm here." The amber eyed girl said while gently stroking the raven mane.

"P-promise?" Mio stuttered while pulling back a few inches to get a glimpse at the amber eyes. That action resulted to a surprised expression in the amber eyes. Surprise, then sadness, and lastly resolve.

"Yes Mio. I promise"

After hearing the confirmation of a promise, Mio felt guilty. She totally forgot about Ritsu's situation and just thought about her messed up life and her selfishness for obligating the other girl to step in the same storm she's in.

A/N: A very, very overdue update. Sorry about that, life just happens. I'm not promising constant updates but I feel like I can continue and actually allot time for this. Besides, I want to finish this but it would probably take long since I have a lot of things to unravel from the past just to get to the present state of the characters. Well, as always thanks for reading and reviewing. :)