thank you to ryomaeijiarehot, Sai the Black Rose, Kevan Starks and thatfrenchgirl for reviewing, they are what keep me writing sometimes!

Chapter Fourteen: Forgiven

There were sounds all around me, some I recognized some I did not. Shouting, screaming, panicked voices. People kept saying my name but the blaring of sirens obscured their voices. Echoes, hurried foot steps, something prodding at my face, my neck. Dull pain, a pinch to my arm, and then, nothing.

Just Darkness. Soundless, empty darkness.

This feeling, this nothingness around me, I've been here before. The feeling of floating, of calmness, I'm completely at peace here. But why am I here? My mind raced as I tried to find the answer to that question, but for a long time I couldn't find anything, and so I drifted in silence, not knowing how much time had or would pass.

Then they appeared to me breaking apart the endless darkness with their presence. Bright, vibrant teal, the color of the Caribbean ocean, that's how I'd always seen those eyes, as if they held that water in them. They were staring at me now and as they did, I did not feel the calming sensation that the ocean always gave me.

Instead, I felt a deep and unchangeable fear.

I hated those eyes. I wanted them to leave. They had caused everything.

"Go away!"

My scream was deafening to me, as if the world around me had been glass. It cracked and then shattered, pieces of the eyes falling and glittering in an unseen light.

I panted, feeling a cold sweat on my face like I had been running. I felt dizzy and I knew that if this world were more then endless darkness I would see it spinning.

Then it was gone, the eyes, the dizziness, and I was back in the darkness from before with no sound or feeling in it. I continued to drift and time continued to pass, before finally I heard something. It was a sound I knew my mind had not made, it was drifting into my ears from beyond my dark world. But what was it? I stilled in my drifting and listened.

'…But if, god forbid, fate should step in and force us into a goodbye…'

Music? I was sure I new that song, but why would I hear it now? Maybe I was just dreaming, but I don't want that to be it. I want to wake up; I'm tired of this drifting.

I forced myself to listen to the song and as I pushed forward in the darkness it got lighter turning gray and eventually the music was accompanied by a hi-pitched 'beep' at a steady pace. Then without warning I was through and suddenly I was staring at the dark red of my closed eyelids.

'…I was screaming long live all the magic we made, and bring on all the pretenders…'

Yeah, that would defiantly be my music. With a small grunt at the piercing light that hit my eyes as I opened them my gaze was met with a white tile ceiling. The steady 'beep' was very prominent now and between that, the white ceiling, and the IV stuck in my arm I found when I lifted it to rub my eyes, I knew where I was.

I was in a hospital room. Again.

God I hated the smell that came with this place. It made me feel slightly sick with how clean it was. Sighing I rolled onto my side, and regretted it as my head throbbed like a hammer had hit it. Wincing I grumbled lowly at the pain before my eyes slowly found the square of black connected to my head phones currently playing the music that had woken me. Frowning I reached over to press the off button.

'…I had the time of my life fighting dragons with you–'

A low chuckle made me twitch and then wince has my brain seemed to rattle around in my skull. Eyes sifting up from my bed slowly I found the raven-haired Shadow King sitting in a chair a few feet from the bed I was laying in. He looked well… tired really. His hair was messy like the day I'd watched him sleep when he'd been sick and his gray eyes looked a bit unfocused.

"I should have pegged you for an American country music lover." He muttered lightly.

Well, maybe he wasn't as tired as I thought he was. I frowned at him before looking back down at the music player.

"Your brothers left that here, said they found you asleep with your music on a lot, thought it might help I suppose." He continued answering my silent question.

I blinked slowly at the information before smiling slightly. They really were sweet, and of course that was a true fact. I did tend to fall asleep when I was laying around listen to music.

"Are they here?"

"Not at the moment. I sent them home a few hours ago to get some sleep. Everyone has dropped by a few times since you came out of surgery. I believe you father is here somewhere, getting something to eat."

I sighed again and closed my eyes. Everyone must have been worried. "How long have I been out?"

"Almost two days."

I groaned. Great way to start vacation. Opening my eyes again I eyed him carefully. "How long have you been here?"

Shifting in his seat he leaned forward leaning on his knees. "Minus a few hours? Almost two days."

I felt my eyebrows rise with mild shock. He'd been here the whole time? "But…err… Why?" This was just like when he'd come to my rescue after I'd fallen. Why was he here? Was he having fun making me feel worse? After all he'd made it pretty clear he didn't want anything to do with me…

"Because I was wrong."

I swore my mouth almost popped open in astonishment. "What?"

He sighed rubbing the bridge of his nose, his glasses sliding down ever so slowly. He looked at me straight in the eyes then and I felt the urge to shy away from that look. "I'm sorry Masami… I really am. You were right." He ran a hand over his tussled hair, frowning. "Last year during the festival I told myself I wouldn't let my father rule me again, but habits are not easy to break and I fell back into… my role quickly. Pleasing my father and taking over his company was my focus, my living dream. That day you yelled at me you woke me up, it took a long time to sink in, but it did."

It's a good thing that he has good self control because if not he might have very well be shouting at this point, if the expression on his face was anything to go by. Something told me he was very tired and the only reason he wasn't being his usual low blood pressure self was because he knew it would just make the situation worse.

So in turn I did my best to look at it from his perspective and after a deep breath I reached out my arm and touch his hand that was at the moment clenching his knee. His hand twitched and I smiled slightly at him.

"Didn't I already tell you it was okay?" I grumbled.

"Yes but I was rather sure it was because you were only half conscious and suffering from blood loss."

I rolled my eyes. "Nice to know you have so much faith in me."

"Masami…"

His hand twisted and gently held mine. I frowned giving him a confused look. "I never stopped caring about you. I was just…" He trailed off pursing his lips and I smiled, a bit sadly.

"You were trying to make your family proud of you. But the truth is Kyoya, there's a certain point where you need to stop trying to be perfect and just do what's best for you and nothing else."

"You sound like you know that feeling."

I sighed. "No, but as you have pointed out I won't really have any of the responsibilities of inheritance, unless the twins don't want dad's business." He flinched a bit and opened his mouth to say something, but I held up my hand to stop him. "But I have other things that people expect me to do. If you remember, I said toward the beginning of my stay at Ouran that I would probably be married off to someone at the school. That is still very true, and, though my father would never force me, I know it's something expected of me. Sadly, because of my family placement, I wouldn't really have anything to give to my future husband, so I'm not very sought after. It's a bit of a predicament." I looked down frowning. "No one likes letting down their families, but some times there's nothing you can do about it."

His hand tightened around mine and that made me smile just a bit. "I know that now, I suppose I always did. Thank you for telling me the truth, like you always do, and I'm sorry for what I said, your wisdom is more then worth it."

I gave a shaky laugh. " Mom use to say I was born with an old soul, but really even though I was mad, I did it because … well because I care about you." I fumbled around my words as I spoke, and I saw a relaxed smirk appear on his face as he saw the blush I felt appearing on my face.

Leaning forward he kept his hand enclosed around mine. "You are one of the most interesting girls I have ever met. If you'll let me, I would like to know more about you, and if possible have you as mine."

I couldn't help the nervous laugh that bubbled up my throat at the possessive edge to his tone before I smirked right back at him regaining the confidence I had lost the day of our fight and quickly snatched his glasses off the bridge of his nose making him blink as he tried to refocus his gray eyes.

"Fine, I'll let you, but I'm taking these first. It's not fair hiding behind these when you're apologizing." I said lightly. He raised his eyebrows before smiling.

"Very well."

And then he was kissing me and my world went dark as my eyes slide shut, my hand grabbing at his neck as I kissed him back. There was no way I could ever really hate him, I realized then, because when I really thought about it, his arrogance was one of the things I'd come to love about him.

That was it, I admitted to myself, I loved him and that's why I was able to forgive him.

I opened my eyes again as he pulled back and stared at the gray eyes I seemed way to attached to before pulling my hand back as he reached for the glasses in them.

"I didn't say you could have them back." I teased and he sighed.

"You do realize I can't see very well without those"

"Why would you need to, after all you're here for me, right?"

He gave me an exasperated look and I smiled sweetly at him making him shake his head. "You are impossible." I shrugged my shoulders before winced as it jarred my head. That seemed to catch his attention. "I guess the pain killer wore off, didn't it?" He muttered and I sighed before nodding as much as I could. He abandoned his chair to sit on the edge of my bed; somehow keep his hand around mine the whole time. "I'll call someone to bring you more in a few minutes if you can stand it."

I nodded slightly again. "Yeah it's not that bad really… What happened any way?" I asked after a moment. He looked away at that question, his eyes staring at my hand as he used the hand holding it to rub his thumb over it soothingly.

"When you fell your helmet fell off and your head smashed into the wooden fence you were close to. By the time I got to you, your head was bleeding pretty bad." He paused for a few moments and I thought about what I could remember, about the half terrified look on his face. It occurred to me then, that he might have thought I was dying. "Things weren't as bad as I thought they were though. You got a pretty bad concussion and you're skull cracked a bit at the point of impact but there wasn't any un-reparable damage." He looked at me then and smiled a bit. "You got lucky."

I smiled back at him before thinking. "But… why did I fall? What happened to Jūdai?" I recalled the cries of pain I'd heard from him in my half dazed state.

Kyoya shifted a bit before sighing. "That is where things become…difficult." I was startled to hear a touch of anger in his voice, but kept my mouth shut letting him continue. "Masami, someone… someone shot Jūdai with an arrow. The reason you fell is because an arrow pierced his left shoulder."

I felt shock run through me, and then panic quickly followed it. "Is he okay? Oh god, can Jūdai walk?" The last thing I wanted was for my new friend to have to be put down because of an injury like that.

Kyoya's thumb ran over my hand again and I looked at him for an answer. "He's fine..." he said soothingly but looked a bit annoyed by my concern for a horse's life rather then mine. "It damaged his leg muscles and he shouldn't run for a while but he'll be fine. Takashi made sure to get him to a good vet." I let out a sigh of relief at that before he continued. "The thing is Masami, we have no idea who or why that arrow was shot off, because our Archery team was across town in a tournament, and no one saw anyone around with a bow and arrow." He squeezed my hand. "But I'll find out who did this. You could have been killed, I won't let them get away with it."

I tilted my head a bit, looked at him, the fire in his cool gray eyes, and tried to fight back the terror I was feeling right now. The sickening feeling that I knew already what had happened, why those teal eyes haunted me. But that couldn't be true, I told myself. There was no way; it had to be some weird misunderstanding.

Reaching up I rested my free hand on his shoulder "Thank you Kyoya." He relaxed a bit when he saw the smile on my face and nodded his head. Pressing the hand he held to his face he closed his eyes and I smiled even more.

It was kind of funny, being in a romantic relationship with the Shadow King; it made me wonder what that made me, the Shadow Queen? I sure hoped not, I'd never been a fan of really dark things. Still, it was kind of ironic to think in terms of royalty when the song that I had woken up to had to do with kings and queens as well. Off hand I shifted a bit. Closing my eyes I hummed out the rest of the song hoping that the last line was true of us as well.

"We will be remembered…"

the Song "Long lived" is copy writed to Taylor Swift