Hello,

Here's the next chapter.

Hope you enjoy. Read and review! :)


Akira was nice enough to drop Miyu at the bus stop, all the while still convincing Miyu to ler her drive her home. Finally winning, Miyu stepped out of the car and bent down to wish Akira a safe drive.

"Really, thank you for everything. I will pay you back, please let me." She said.

Akira gave her a huge grin and nodded quite enthusiastically, "Yeah, I mean. It would be a good idea to meet again soon. I enjoyed today, Miyu." She finished.

Miyu noted how her smile, no matter how wide, complimented her features. The flick on the sides of her eyes made her look a little bit catlike, but with the air of necessary propriety. She has a smooth eyelid that covered her pupils so prettily. Her nose tipped slightly upwards, and hung from a straight and slender bridge.

"You okay?"

Miyu quickly stopped staring and shook her head, "Yeah, sorry. I better go. I'll call you up as soon as I can. I'm really sorry. And of course, thank you."

"No hurries. Take care!"

Akira waved and sped up, leaving Miyu to think about the past afternoon and the whirlwind of events and circumstances that seem to plague her lately. She thought of her purse and how stupid she was to get mugged inside a near-empty supermarket in broad daylight. Or maybe she wasn't mugged. Maybe she was just careless as usual and dropped the money somewhere. Either way she needs to find a quick way to pay up. And soon.

The bus was taking too long, she thought. Ten minutes have passed and people have piled up on either side of her, waiting for their ride like she was. The bag of groceries were getting heavier by the minute, pulled down further towards the ground. She set them down and exercised her hand in an open and close motion to encourage blood to flow through them.

BEEP! BEEP!

Miyu, as well as two people beside her, jumped at the loud noise. She looked up and saw a familiar car pull up about five steps to her right, just beside the bus lane. At recognition, she snatched up her grocery bags and skipped to where the car was. The passenger seat window was pulled down, revealing a rather worked up young man in a plain white button up.

"Kanata!" she involuntarily squealed. The man looked up at her with a questioning look. She held the stare with him for a few seconds before noticing Kanata's eyebrow twitch in irritation.

"What are you standing there for? Get in the car." He spat, ruffling his hair in obvious annoyance.

She shot him a glare in disbelief of his sudden outburst but nonetheless did as she was told and got in quite haphazardly. The grocery bags made a rather unpleasant noise as she made herself and the bags fit inside.

"Put those things at the back." He ordered.

"Yeah, sorry." Again, Miyu did as she was told and shoved the bags behind her, immediately regretting doing so when he heard a soft thud. The vegetables have surely died now. But she can't help but feel the same as Kanata, his fury and irritation being so contagious.

"Why are you around here?" she asked, prodding cautiously. It was only around half past four, surely that was not the usual time he leaves the office.

"I should ask you the same thing. Why aren't you at your day care and instead prancing around town?"

Miyu frowned and slumped in her seat, cursing inwardly. Wasn't she the one asking questions? "Well, it's Sunday. We're closed on Sundays. You could use the break too. Do you even have a break?" she fired.

"Yes, I do. I'm off on Sundays, too."

"Oh." He always went out every day and Miyu always thought it was for work. Silly, of course he also had a break. He was not superman. She cursed at herself for being too slow to come to that conclusion on her own.

"So why are you around here?"

They turned left and Kanata cursed at the sudden heavy traffic on the road. "Are those more supplies for the day care?"

"No. It's for the house. I volunteered to get some groceries."

Miyu flinched at the unexpected sound she heard from the man next to her. She had never heard him laugh and hearing so was a spectacle. His voice was full and strong, and it was more than pleasant on Miyu's ears. She relished at the sound.

"Why are you laughing? What's so funny? You think chores are funny? What, because you're a very busy man who is above doing chores? What?" she rambled, failing to hide a bit of annoyance.

"Are you angry? Why are you angry?" he answered rather loudly

"I'm angry? You're the one who's angry and all, I don't know, shout-y and annoyed eariler. Why are you angry?" she said, turning her body in an angle to look straight at the young man.

Kanata merely shook his head slightly and kept quiet, focusing on the road. "Met with a friend for lunch then checked in with some clients on the way home."

Of course. It was still work. Work on a break. How busy your life can get, she thought. He drove calmly, and carefully as if fearing he might run out of control. The scenery outside was not the blurry course Miyu was used at seeing but a clear rush of activities instead. She pasted her head towards the window for quite a while before deciding to break the uneasiness between them.

"How are you?"

Kanata shifted in his seat and sighed, "What?"

She looked at him and noticed a tense and rigid mass of features instead of the calm and collected set she knew was usual. "You're kind of off. You know, not okay lately."

"What made you say that?"

She felt so. But she would not dare tell him that, "Well, you're distant."

"Distant?" he said, intrigue coating his voice.

"Are you just going to ask me things back?" she answered this time making him know that she is irritated.

Kanata took his hand off the steering wheel and replaced it with the other. He reached it towards where Miyu's hand was resting on her lap and held it, and then gave it a gentle squeeze. Miyu jumped slightly at his touch and turned a shocked face towards him and finding a now relaxed expression on his face. She felt herself warm up at his touch. Another pleasant feeling. Looking down, she involuntarily smiled as she found their hands suddenly intertwined.

"I'm okay, Miyu. Thanks for your concern."

They stayed that way until they got home. Kanata was the first one to let go, leaving Miyu feel strangely dismayed. She climbed out of the vehicle and turned towards the backseat to retrieve the groceries but found Kanata lifting them out on the other side. She followed him into the pantry and leaned on the counter just beside her, watching his companion effortlessly bring the heavy bags onto a tabletop.

"Thanks" she muttered as he wordlessly passed by her and disappeared into the hallway. As soon as she was sure she was alone in the pantry, she slapped her hand to her forehead quite forcefully in hopes of disentangling her confused and incomprehensible feelings for both her life and the man who made them so.

Making the quiche was surprisingly too tedious as Miyu would have liked. It was coming a bit soggy and not as firm as what it should be. Perhaps there was too much cream, egg, and cheese mixture and too little pumpkin. Or perhaps she did not fold it as thoroughly as was needed. Whatever the reason may be, the quiche was not fit to be served for dinner, she decided. Her desire to help around the house consumed the more crucial fact that she can't, no matter how hard she tires, cook.

Nevertheless, this…inability to fashion raw ingredients into delectable dishes did little to stop her from contributing whatever else she can. She took the quiche from the mold and inspected it once again, sighing in defeat at the realization that it was nowhere near okay.

"I'd better take that to the table, Ma'am." A woman called behind her, jolting her out of her frustration. She turned back and gave the woman an awkward smile. She was dressed cleanly in off-white where the seams were involuntarily close to bursting at the joints. She was a rather plump woman old enough to be Miyu's mother, or grandmother. The woman returned the smile to her and glanced at the sad excuse of a quiche in between her pale hands.

"Well, frankly, I, uh…I don't think it will be a good idea to do that," she replied, too quickly for her taste.

She watched as the woman gave her another friendly smile as she made her way towards her to take the quiche from her hands. "I suppose we cannot judge it until we had a taste."

They were nice to her, almost a bit too nice, she mused. It could have been for the fact that she was, in many sense, the lady of the house but crediting that status to the way she was treated left Miyu to think that that's all she were and will ever be in this house. It made making friends and interacting with their helpers a bit mechanical and worse, pretentious. She watched the woman sashay out of the kitchen into the dining room, wary of what she might thought of the blasted quiche.

Good thing Kanata would not be able to join them for dinner. She dreaded the thought of him tasting her culinary failure. He had been skipping dinner too frequently lately, always going straight to his study and never coming out. Hours after, she would find him fast asleep on the bed, and then she'd be too. For the most part, it was not as if it was a big change as he was almost always been that way since, well, their marriage. But Miyu can't help but look back at the recent events. How they briefly changed how he interacted with her, as if he…cares about her well-being. Which he did, Miyu believed. But why?

Well he kissed her, for starters.

Miyu blinked hard at the thought although unable to stop the weird fluttering feeling in her stomach. He did kiss her but that does not mean anything, does it? Just a spur-of-the-moment thing. Nothing much. But the intensity in his eyes, she could not unsee. They expressed an emotion so raw and sincere that there was no other interpretation but his determination to keep her with him. They burned inside her mind, coiling into a protective barrier around her. Oddly enough, it was not intruding to her rather she welcomed them. She enjoyed it.

She lifted her apron over her head and slipped out her head, exhaling quite hard. What has happened to that feeling? Reluctantly, she let herself miss it knowing full well that the chances for something similar to that to happen again was near none. Maybe it was just indeed how she interpreted everything, after all she tended to overestimate everything. Nonetheless, she cannot help but wonder what's happening with him.

Hanging the mildly dirtied apron on the hook on the wall, she made her way towards the marble dining counter to retrieve the tray with the freshly mixed lemon juice as well as four cups resting upside down on a white towel and proceeded to bring them to the dining room. As expected, Mikan was furiously scribbling on her week-old-late drafts on the left side of the dining table, munching what Miyu made out to be a long lollipop.

She set the tray on the middle part of the table and distributed the glasses, two for Mikan; one for the juice and another for water. She placed one on her side of the table and the other one on Kanata's seat as was customary even when the man would not join them.

She caught a glimpse of her failure in the form of the quiche and winced at the part of the pie facing her. She sighed and plopped on the seat opposite Mikan.

"I heard you enjoyed your time in the kitchen." Mikan started, not lifting her eyes from her papers.

Miyu shrugged, lifting her left arm to Mikan showing a patch of gauze beneath her sleeves, "I burned myself wiping the counter."

At that, Mikan stopped and looked at the outstretched arm in wry amusement, "How did that even..?"

"Exactly."

Two helpers each positioned themselves at the head of the table, still and awaiting orders from the women in front of them. Miyu never was very fond of having people wait on her but understood that part of the job of these people is to do exactly what they are doing at the moment.

"So which one did you make?" Mikan asked as she surveyed the platters on the table, taking in the aroma the miso emitted and wished life would be as calming as the enveloping scent.

Miyu winced at the question and reluctantly pointed a shy finger toward the quiche, "That one."

"Why do you look like that?" The redhead asked with an amused smile. She immediately turned her head at the quiche and did her best to keep the smile in place, noting how un-quiche the supposed quiche appeared before her. "Well!" she began, "it looks very…unique, I must say."

Miyu silently groaned, "I know, I know. I'm sorry about it. But, you know, maybe it has a decent taste?"

"Meh." Mikan shrugged as her lips pulled down in an unsure manner but got herself a slice of the quiche anyway. Surprisingly, the crust was intact although the filling was, as what Miyu saw earlier, soggy and not as firm. Mikan took a bite and chewed on it carefully, all the while staring intently at Miyu and her worried face.

"Yeah. It's decent. A bit creamy but manageable. I can eat this." She declared, bringing a couple of spoonfuls more to her mouth and chewed delightedly. Miyu sighed and decided to get a slice herself. As she brought down the wedge to her plate, a figure plopped down between her and Mikan. She nearly broke her neck at the speed at which her head turned. The woman opposite her looked in amusement as the man of the house motioned for one servant to his side.

"A glass of the coldest water we have, please and thank you." He asked.

"Well, well, well. Look who joined the party." Mikan teased, waving her fork in circular motions in front of Kanata's face.

"Quit." Kanata told her, rolling his eyes.

"Miyu made dinner." She declared, an unhealthy amount of enthusiasm and delight evident in her tone. She shoved the quiche toward Kanata and eagerly waited for him. "That's pumpkin. You like pumpkin. That's pumpkin. You know. Pumpkin. Your favorite. You love pumpkin."

"Ugh. Shut up, please." Kanata snapped at his cousin who never erased the big smile on her face. He turned to Miyu and pointed at the sad-looking quiche. "You made this?"

Miyu scrunched up her face and tried her best to summon the courage to affirm his suspicions, "I'm sorry. I tried." she answered.

Kanata raised his eyebrow and sliced a small wedge from Mikan's plate. He brought it to his mouth and chewed slowly. Miyu searched for any sign of displeasure on his face but found it quite difficult to read his features.

"Meh." He said, mimicking an earlier expression of his cousin. "It's decent enough to be eaten."

Mikan slammed both hands on the table, "That's what I said! People, that's what I said!" she declared proudly, patting herself on the back. Miyu nodded in acknowledgement and gave a wry smile, wanting to disappear in embarrassment but relieved her food was fine enough for them at the same time.

They ate silently and finished the same way, with Mikan muttering about how she intends to spend the entire night finishing a specifically difficult panel and Kanata quickly excusing himself once done. He would retire to his room, Miyu guessed. She would find him fast asleep on the bed once again a little later when she as well would retire.

After spending a few minutes on the porch dealing with paperwork for the day care, Miyu decided to go up to get some rest. Dashing towards her room where she kept her belongings despite not spending the nights there anymore, she changed quickly into more comfortable clothes and went out, aiming to help the servants store some of the food she bought earlier. The sight of the two doors in the hallway made her stop, as if the massive slabs of wood and metal were beckoning her forward. Kanata's in there and he's surely tired. He's maybe resting. She should probably not intrude.

She believed that was her plan, but trashed it altogether when she found herself opening the doors and stepping into their bedroom. Sure enough, the man that occupied her mind was lying on the bed, one arm over his head and covering his face. She noticed his breathing, heavy and exasperating.

"Kanata?" again, she prodded cautiously.

The brunet lifted his hand slightly and turned to her. "Hey."

"Are you sure you're okay?"

Instead of answering, he stretched his arm out to Miyu, motioning for her to come forward. She took his hand and let him guide her towards the bed. He shifted and moved further back to allow enough space for Miyu to sit on. She did so with worry and anxiety in her heart. He was acting strange; as though something bothered him so immensely and he cannot do much about it.

"What's wrong? Hey, I'm getting worried." She said softly, bringing her hand to his hair and stroking it slowly. She liked this setting. Him and her not minding how often they touched. But she did not like him like this. It made her feel very, very worried.

Without warning, Kanata pulled the hand that held hers towards him, bringing Miyu down on the bed with him. He wrapped a strong arm around her waist as he kept her near his body. Miyu gasped as she felt herself make contact with the soft sheets as well as Kanata's broad chest. Her arms were imprisoned in between their bodies as Kanata showed no sign of letting her go.

"I'm sorry, Miyu. For whatever I might do to you." He whispered to her ear.

"What?" she asked, trying to pull away from him and when failing to do so, looked up to his face instead. She found he was staring straight, but not at her. "What are you talking about?

"I'm not the nicest person in town. You know that first hand. And I think it's better I apologize for any future insensitivity and rudeness I might show you." He finished, still not looking at her.

Miyu gave her a puzzled look but tried to understand what he meant. "Whatever's happening, I know it's going to be okay, Kanata. Don't fret."

"We can never tell. But thank you."

"Of course. Come on, cheer up a bit for me?"

Kanata let his lips slightly curve into a smile, "You've grown on me already, Miyu. And few people have done that." He said, pulling her up to bring her at his level. She stared at the tan circles of his eyes, noticing the specks of yellow in them. He looked so tired and just overly worked up. She brought her hand on his face and gently ran her fingers across his cheek. His eyes closed at her touch and opened again to reveal the same auburn eyes.

"I'm glad I did." She answered, her voice fuelled by the desire to let him know she was with him.

"I'm sorry." he muttered before burying his head on the crook of her neck.

Instead of talking, Miyu wrapped both of her arms around his neck, pushing him closer to her as her face rested just above his forehead. Kanata answered by tightening his grasp on her waist, holding her close and breathing in her scent until the both of them fell fast asleep in each other's arms, relishing how good it felt to be so close and realizing how badly they both needed reassurance and someone to get it from.


Hi, hopefully I can finish this story in a couple more chapters. I could already see how it will end and I hope it would be as pleasant and satisfying an ending for you as it hopefully will be for me. As usual, updates won't be as regular as I would like and I apologize for that but I will of course do my best to update when I can. Thank you to each and every one of you who continues to support this story and never gives up on it no matter how long it takes. You guys give me strength.

Again, thank you and I hope you enjoy this chapter.

~Light Eclairs