Beta'd by crystalline'maia!

Chapter 12: Apple Rabbits

Misaki's POV

"I'm back," I called out, placing my shoes neatly inside the wooden shoe rack beside the front door.

"Ah! Nee-chan, welcome back," Suzuna greeted me with an unusually teasing tone.

"Is something wrong, Suzuna?" I asked, walking our way to the dinner table.

"Nope~" Then she was out of sight.

"Okay then…" I muttered unsurely.

"Mom, is there any…food…left…." I slowed my words down when I saw not my mom, but someone unexpected seated on our dinner table. "Why are you here?" I asked, as if he was a total stranger.

He was sitting on my usual seat, chewing a piece of cut red apple while his bright emerald eyes locked on mine. He finished his apple with a last bite and licked on his fingers.

"Well, I happened to bump into your mom when the apples she was carrying fell down. I happened to pass by so I helped her, so she asked me to stop by her house as a thank you. Am I breaking any rules?" he asked with a little playful smirk, his emerald eyes piercing into me. Some may think his actions were childish, but for me, this was his way of being serious.

Instead of arguing, I told him, "Not one that I know of. Sit and eat there all you want. I'm going upstairs."

When I was about to take the very first step on the stairs, his words caused me to freeze.

"Don't you want to entertain me with your story?" He stood from his seat and slowly walked towards me. He bent down to my ear and whispered, "Or rather, the story about the two of us." Shivers ran through my spine as he backed away, as if sensing something was about to happen.

"What do you mean?" I asked without looking back at him, trying to have a confident tone. I was quite sure I had a terrified face. I tried to compose myself, to not make any nervous gestures, but I couldn't help thinking what was on his mind right now, and what kind of trap he'll be using today.

"I'm sure you'll be interested with the things I'm about to tell you. Why are you so afraid all of the sudden?" he chuckled.

It wasn't right for these things to happen to me. What was this idiot thinking of?

"Alright," I said loudly, almost in anger. "Stop whatever you're doing and just tell me what you want to tell me. I'm sick of playing games with you."

"I think you're the one playing games with me, Ayuzawa. I'm just letting myself play along with you. Do you even know how frustrating it is to look for my past? Most people who have amnesia do something real easy – find someone who knows them from before and they'll tell them about it. But for me, it's not quite as simple as that. Everything I want to know from my past is stuck with you.

"I need you to just tell me. Why is it so hard for you to do that?" His frustration and tiredness about all of this showed clearly in his tone and expression.

But what he said was true though. I was the one who started all of this.

He was missing for four years, and now he was expecting me to just tell all of it. What if all I wanted from him was to remember his past on his own? By looking and searching about us, and not just taking information from people I think he doesn't even recognize now.

There were so many 'what ifs' in my mind right now; I didn't even know what I was expected to do. I wasn't even sure, but my mouth and mind seemed to have different opinions.

"So what do you want me to do now?" I asked, not looking at him, but I could still feel his piercing stare on me.

"Excuse me?" he asked, almost in disbelief.

"I said: so what do you want me to do now?" I finally looked at him. My patience was running out.

From utter frustration, his expression now softened. The look on his eyes became gentler.

Sometimes, I never understood this guy right in front of me. His moods always seemed to be in a roller coaster ride.

Unpredictable. It was what he said to me years before, but now I think it implied to him.

"What?" I asked, feeling the tension toning down.

"Sometimes, you're really unpredictable, you know that?" And now he was suddenly smiling at me.

A blush crept up to my face that I could feel my cheeks heating up. I quickly covered my face with both of my hands. 'Crap! What will he think of me now?' I thought. His hard gaze on me made it harder to compose myself.

"What're you looking at?" I shouted angrily behind my hands.

"Nothing, I'm just admiring your cute blushing face. It's not so often for me to see this side of you. It's worth looking at." His smile then turned into his famous playful smirk.

"Shut up!" I yelled. Not realizing the loudness of my voice, my mom came inside the room all of the sudden.

"Is something wrong?" she asked us, and I quickly shook my head.

"Nothing's wrong, Mom, just some game that we're playing where Usui's obviously cheating at." I lied to her! I didn't even think I could do that to her!

"Oh, alright." She then went back to whatever she was doing. I wasn't sure whether she believed me or not.

"What game are we playing again? Would you mind telling me?" Usui suddenly said. The distance between us somehow got closer as I stepped backward just as he took a step forward.

"Stop right there," I warned him. "I said stop right there."

He did stop, but it didn't help me in my situation at all. Then an idea hit me.

"Alright, here's the game. Its name is why-don't-you-go-home-and-entertain-yourself."

He seemed to think about it and told me something that I really didn't expect. "Okay, so how do we play this game?"

His face was incredibly serious. Wait, he's got to be kidding me. He was joking, right?

"You're not serious, are you?" I asked him.

"What do you mean?"

"You're not serious in asking that question just now, are you?"

"How could you even doubt that? I'm really serious about this. If that's what the game is called, then we'll play it by all means."

Uh, really? I couldn't believe what was happening to him.

"Did losing your memories somehow made you dumb? I'm not really sure whether that's a good thing or not."

"What made you think of that? You're the one who suggested this game. So how do we play it?"

I wasn't sure if he was fooling me or not, so I just kept up with him.

"It's really simple. You just have to go home, alone, go inside your house, apartment, or whatever you live in, then entertain yourself. Easy, isn't it?" I gave out a fake cheerful smile.

"It's not fair that I'm the only one entertaining myself. Who invented this game anyway?"

"Me," I told him swiftly.

"And the reason why this game was made is for the other player to go back home."

"Um, yeah. That's about it."

"Then why don't we play a game called make-Ayuzawa-blush?" He returned to me my fake happy smile.

"We're not playing that. Not now, not ever. What makes you think that I'll play that kind of game with you?"

"Because I love to see you blush, again and again and again." He smirked, and that warning couldn't get any worse.

Alright, I had to end this. I was getting really tired.

"Okay, I'm serious now. What do you want?" I asked him. The air suddenly went back to being tense again. I wasn't really bothered by it though.

"Since you want this to get serious, then I want you to," he drew closer to me, "tell me everything. Things you know about me. Things I don't remember at all."

I thought about it for quite a long time now. If that was what he wanted, then he'll get it. It was his memories, not mine, so I made the choice to return it at last.

"Alright, if I tell you, you won't bother me anymore. How about it? Do we have a deal?" I asked.

"Maybe I'll consider it."

"Maybe?" I repeated his answer in doubt.

"Yeah, anything wrong with it?"

"I want a sure answer."

"Alright, we have a deal."

"Okay." I nodded and looked around. This place wasn't suitable for some serious talking.

"How about we go to the park near here?" I told him.

"Sure," he said impassively.

"You do know that park, right?"

"Yeah, I think I went past through it earlier, why?"

"I just remembered something. You go ahead, just wait for me for about ten minutes." I told him and darted off to the kitchen.

I ran to the park as soon as I was finished. He was already there, sitting on one of the swings. Bits of memory flashed through my mind as I remembered something like this happen years ago.

"Hey," I spoke out, taking the swing next to him.

"What took you so long?" he asked, moving the swing on his own.

"Nothing, I just needed to fulfill a promise that I made to a person from before."

I looked down to what I was holding. Inside the square-shaped light blue container was something that I managed to do within minutes.

"What's that?"

"Here."

I shyly gave it to him while my cheeks began to heat up again. His eyes glinted with curiosity as he opened the container.

"Apple rabbits?" he asked, looking at me with an expression that looked a little like disbelief.

"Yeah, apple rabbits. You told me once to make some myself just for you, so I felt like I needed to fulfill that promise."

I smiled, and for once I felt all my worries were lifted off. The sadness, the scared feelings, the anxiousness, they were all replaced by calmness and happiness.

"May I?" His hand gestured towards the apples and I nodded.

I watched him take a bite from one of the apple rabbits. Although he just ate some apples back in the house, he didn't seem to mind to be eating another one right now.

"So?" I asked, hoping he'll say something about the apples.

"I think this apple is more delicious then the ones from your house." He smiled teasingly, making me blush even more. Good thing the park was quite dark.

"How can you even say that those are more delicious than the ones my mom made?"

"I know it because my mind told me so," he told me playfully, flashing me his set of white teeth in a completely contented smile.

"Shut up!" I snapped, avoiding his stare quickly.

Then suddenly, he reached his hand out and caressed my hair. "You look really cute."

My heart beat even faster as I tried to cool my cheeks down.

"Here." I felt his hand tapping on my shoulder. I turned my head around, and was surprised when I saw that he was holding a piece of apple rabbit to me. "Eat up."

I hesitantly took a bite and munched it down.

"How is it?" he asked while smiling.

"It's not special, but uh – I think it's delicious."

We were silent for a while, quietly munching on the apples when we got back to our conversation again.

"So are you ready to hear about your past?" I asked, pushing my feet from the ground to make my swing move.

"Yeah," he said softly.

I tried to inhale as much air as possible. It was December, and the wind tonight was as cold as ever. I was wearing my thickest coat to keep myself warm.

I opened my mouth when I felt something cold and watery touch my head. I tried to touch it but it quickly melted, so I looked up and was surprised at what I just saw.

Pure white snow was falling from the sky. I've never experienced seeing the first day of snowfall in my entire life. In the previous years, I'd wake up to look at the window and see that white snow was already covering most of the street and lawns.

I stood up, looking at the slowly falling snow as if I looked at it for the first time in my whole life.

"Happy White Christmas, Ayuzawa," I heard him whisper to my ear as he drew closer, our faces inches away from each other. I couldn't move a step back because he did something unexpected.

He took off his muffler and placed it slowly around my neck, and then I noticed that this was the muffler that I made years ago.

He still has this? I asked myself in disbelief.

"This…" I tried to say before he cut in.

"You looked like you were cold," he told me softly, his breath fanning my face. "Feel free to use it."

Then he turned around and started to walk away. It was only then that I realized I haven't told him anything yet.

"Hey! I'm supposed to tell you about your past, right?" I shouted, hoping that he could still hear me.

He turned around, and without using any effort to shout, his voice was still audible enough for me to hear. "Just tell me next time. Until then, I can still bother you, right?"

I could still see him smirking from where I stood. Not waiting for my answer, he began to walk again. I knew what he meant by that – it was about the promise that I wanted him to do if I told him about his past, that he shouldn't bother me anymore if I did tell him.

Somehow, I felt the distance between us become a lot different from when we first met (again) in the university. It was much closer now, but not anything like before when he still had his memories.

A/N Hey guys! I know, I know, it's been so long since I updated, it's been 4 months since chapter 11. But at least I updated, right? And thanks to this particular person 'just a reader' who reviewed and had me feel guilty for this story and you guys that I was able to type for this chapter. Since it's the month of December I'm thinking of having the next chapter to be about Christmas, what do you guys think? Write what you think about this chapter and about the suggestion that I suggested by clicking 'Review this Chapter'. :DD

P.S If you want preview for the next chapter just click on my profile and scroll down and you'll see it, but it will be post once I've write the next chapter finish :)

P.P.S Reached 150 reviews! You guys are awesome!