A/N: Hello everybody!! Just a quick note, this chapter is a sad one so just a heads up on that.

Taruto: Well you certainly made the idiot happy in this one.

Pai: And possibly frustrated in the end.

Tsukiko: Well that's just how cruel I am. Now then, I do NOT own TMM or the songs or the movies I use in my stories. I only come up with the ideas and changes. Thank you all for the marvelous reviews and please keep them coming! I love them all so much! Thank you a please enjoy.

Taruto: It's been a while since she said that herself, hasn't it?

Pai: Indeed.

Ch. 14: One More Night and Gone

Ichigo is leaning on the rail and she lets out a sigh of exhaustion. Shortly after leaving the ballroom, Ichigo found herself in the hallways of the school. The ballroom consists of two exits, one that leads into the school and one that leads outside. Unfortunately, Ichigo chose the one that leads into the school. So she decides to walk. She walked through many hallways, took many turns and then found her way to main entrance of the school. After exiting the main doors, she saw a walk way trail all around the school and she decides to walk through it, finally breathing in the clean fresh outside air. The walkway lead to a balcony connected to a school and she climbed the stairs to get there. If she was on the second floor, maybe she could have found this balcony but the party was on the first floor. Now she's on the balcony, leaning on the rail and staring out at the garden view by herself.

"That's some party, huh honey?"

Or she was.

Ichigo looks up and she sees Kisshu by her side. Instead of freaking out for him to just appearing out of nowhere and hitting him for that, Ichigo collapses back on the rail and groans. "Just what I need! A roommate to make me feel even more exhausted."

He still smiles as he tells her, "Well that was rude, Ichigo-kun. I just came to see you and this is the welcoming I get?" Then his hand goes to her chin. He lifts her head up to his direction and he's really close to her lips. "Maybe a kiss can repay that."

But Ichigo just shoves his hand off and looks back out to the view. She tells him, "I had enough drama for one day. That party was like a roller coaster. Up and down, up and down, bored and proud, proud and frustrated, frustrated and disbelief. I had enough of going up and down." But Kisshu looks clueless.

"What's a…roller coaster?" he asks her curiously. She looks at him in surprise.

"You're the smartest student in the whole school and you don't even know what a roller coaster is?" she asks him.

He looks out at the view before he answered. "My condition caused me to stay home a lot when I was younger and my parents were way over protective, even after I got better. I guess that's why I have such a childish complex sometimes."

Ichigo is blinking in disbelief. "For someone to realize that he has a childish complex means that you've really matured enough to know that. But for your case, I don't believe that."

Kisshu lets out a chuckle before looking back at her. "That was harsh, Ichigo-kun."

"I'm a little tired to play nice, Kisshu-san," she tells him. She lets out a sigh and explains, "A roller coaster is a giant machine that's about as big as the school, depending on who made it. It's like a ride that commoners use for fun. I guess one similarity to describe it is a train. Except the tracks don't go straight on solid ground. The tracks can be fifty feet above the ground and there is a cart full of people ready to ride on that track." Then she begins to use hand movements to describe the path that roller coasters takes. "Sometimes you slowly go up and drop down, you go through loops, and sometimes sudden turns. I tried it a few times. It's actually fun and it helps you let go but the ride only lasts for about a minute or two. But it's best not to eat before going on one. You're going to hurl. Trust me."

Kisshu took every single fact Ichigo just said and burned it in his brain. "Wow," he lets out when she was finished. "That does sound like fun. Who's the most famous creator?"

"I don't really know," she tells him. "Some people don't really pay attention to who creates them, like me. I just enjoy it for the little time I have. I was using most of my time studying to get in this school."

"But what about when you were little? You live in a world where those kinds of things exist everyday for your pleasures and you can go on them whenever you want," Kisshu points out.

Ichigo's eyes widen for a moment before narrowing down. 'That's right. He still thinks I'm a commoner,' she thinks.

She lets out a chuckle and tells him, "I guess you can say that my parents were a bit over protective with me too." Now Kisshu is surprise. He stares at her for a moment in disbelief as Ichigo looks at her hands on the rail. "Kisshu-san," she calls.

He asks, "Yes?"

"Why did you," she starts, "I mean, why did you stop at the dance?"

Now he's confused. "Stop what?"

Ichigo's hand goes to her lips and her fingertips gently press against it. "I felt your breathe here," she tells him. "But that's not where you kissed me. You kissed my cheek. So why did you hesitate?" When she looks back at him, he's no longer confused or surprised. His expression is a blank and that started Ichigo.

He looks away and moved some strands of his hair behind his ear. He tells her, "I just figured that you don't want to be embarrassed in front of two schools." Ichigo's eyes widen and her cheeks turn red. "You complain about how the other students keep giving you unnecessary attention and if I kissed your lips, then it would cause them to bother you even more, right?"

Ichigo stares at him for a moment longer. 'He stopped because he didn't want to hurt my pride?'

Then she looks back at the view and tells him, "Well that didn't help much." He looks at her as she finishes, "The students of both schools are talking about how disrespectful I was because I didn't know what to do when I was been chosen to dance with the prince or princess."

"Oops," Kisshu lets out. "Sorry about that. But you know it would have been very weird if I told you and you had to do it in front of the both schools."

Ichigo looks at him then. He has a point. "Yeah, I guess you're right." They both ended up laughing at that part. Kisshu stopped moments later and just stared at Ichigo. Seeing her smile and hearing her laugh like she doesn't have a care in the world. It caused his hand to rise to her face. She stopped laughing when she noticed his hand. She looks at him, a smile still on her face but her eyes show confusion.

"You're so pure," he tells her.

Ba-dum

Ichigo's cheeks turn red as her smile dissolved away and her heart begins to beat hard in her chest. His fingers gently brush against her skin, stroking her cheek and his smile is so warm and so caring. "Ichigo-kun, if you don't mind, can I ask you a question?" he asks.

She nods slowly. "Yes."

"Well, what was your life before you came to this school?" he asks. Ichigo slightly gasps from that question and panic began to replace the warm feeling she felt earlier. "I mean, what were your parents like? What they do for work? I'm curious about the commoner life."

Then Ichigo's eyes became filled with guilt and apologetic feelings. He notices that and Ichigo looks away, turning her head away from his touch and back to the view. He stares at her in surprise as she takes a moment. Was it something he said?

"My mom is a very talented cook," she tells him, not looking at him. "I told you before and she taught me how to cook many of the dishes. She didn't really needed to but she enjoyed making food for all of us. She mostly stays home and she loves to tend to the garden. One of the few things she's very proud of is her plants. My dad is, um, president of an animal shelter. He told me before that he never really liked animals. He was more of a Kendo kind of guy but my mom loves animals so he took the job as soon as he married her, along with still working as a kendo sensei."

"Wow," was all Kisshu could say, staring at her and being suspicious of her eyes from earlier. "You're mother sounds like a terrific woman and your father must really love her."

She chuckles a bit. "Well I think she's a wonderful person. She's my role model and my parents are my ideal couple. They've been in love with each other since they were my age. Mom always told me that love cannot be found by something that is forced between two people. It can only be found by two people who didn't expect to meet each other. She didn't expect to meet my dad and he didn't expect to meet her."

That was when Kisshu put on a smile grin. "You and I didn't expect to meet. Does that mean that you're trying to confess your love?"

She looks up at him and says, "Ha! You wish! Even if I did, my dad would kill you if you even step foot in our house and declare eternal love and eternal devotion to me. My dad is extremely boy cautious of me."

"Oh really?" he asks.

Ichigo nods. "Uh-huh! You're butt will get kicked before you could even say 'I love you, Ichigo-kun'."

"Well daddy's not here," Kisshu reminds. Now she's in trouble. Then he jumps on her and hugs her. "I love you, Ichigo-kun!" he cheers like a little kid.

"Kisshu-san!!" she yells out in surprise, her cheeks red in embarrassment. "Get off me, you childish complex devil! You shouldn't even joke about stuff like that."

"But I do care for you," he tells her. Ichigo freezes in surprise as his hold around her gets tighter. "You're the most important person to me, Ichigo-kun. Since the day I met you, I wanted to protect you from harm and cherish you like a precious gem, like how a real prince should treat his princess." Then he kisses her forehead again. Ichigo closes her eyes from the warmth of his lips and the pounding beat of her heart.

Still she tries to pull him away and she tells him, "That line sounds really well rehearsed, Kisshu-san. Nice try." But then his hold on her tightens. Her cheeks turn into a deeper shade of red as now she's leaning right against his chest. She can literally hear his own hear beat. So warm and so calm.

"That line I just said," he tells her, seriously, "I meant it. There was never a student who I wanted to rescue from Tasuku, there was never a student who I wanted to spend time with, and there was never a student who I wanted to kiss and hold every day. Just for one moment, can we just stay like this?" After that, Ichigo didn't argue. She had already fallen under his spell and she was snuggling closer to his chest. He didn't need an answer of words. Her relaxing in his arms was all he needed to tighten his hold on her.

'Even if it's just for one moment, I want to hold you right here in my arms. Away from danger and the world. You belong to me and me alone, but…I can't have you, can I Ichigo-kun?'

'Kisshu-san's never been like this before,' Ichigo thinks. 'He's always joking around so it's hard to take him serious at times. But now he seems…different.'

"Ichigo-kun," he calls softly. She lifts her head up and he pulls away to look down. Then he leans closer to her face and he gives her the most gentlest kiss she has ever felt. A sweet and gentle kiss was created from his lips pressed against hers.

'And yet, I don't care.'

Ichigo closes her eyes and completely melts under his lips for the first time. One of his hands goes behind her head and pushes her closer as her hands slide their way up to his neck. She circles her arms around his neck and pulls him closer as well to deepen the kiss.

I want him to hold me. I want him to hold me close and tight and never let go. I don't want to be free. Let me be chained. As long it's by his chains, I don't care if I never fly again.'

Then they broke the kiss. Kisshu leans closer again but his lips stop right at her ear. He tells her, "I don't want to go back to the party."

She nods. "Me neither. Can we go back to our room?" He pulls away to stare at her face and all he sees is a fragile young girl, ready to give herself up. He ends up smiling.

"Alright, my princess."

Then he teleports both him and Ichigo back to the door of their room.

n-n-n

"Princess of La Cielo, Zakuro Fujiwara!!"

As soon as Masaya announced the name, Zakuro came walking out from the side of the stage and she walks to the throne chair on the stage, the one in colors of grey and red. Sitting right next to her is another throne chair but it's a black and white throne chair. Zakuro's guardians accompanied Zakuro as well but they just stood behind the throne so that the students of both schools can see her and scream her name. This time, Zakuro did not smile or anything. She just look blank as she stared out into the audience. No one else noticed but Lettuce and Pudding who are sitting quietly at their own chairs as they clap.

Masaya gets their attention when he announces, "And finally we have the prince of St. Ange, Kisshu." Everyone was waiting for him to just come walking out as casually as he could with Pai and Taruto by his side, but he didn't come. Masaya and Deep Blue look at the wing in confusion as the students look just as confused as well.

Then they hear running.

Coming out of wing is both Pai and Taruto. They pant for a little bit before Taruto tells them, "Oji-sama is not here." Now the students are gasping in surprise as Pudding's first reaction is looking at Lettuce.

She whispers, "Where's Ichigo onee-chan?"

Lettuce whispers back, "I don't know." They look back at the two empty chairs beside them and Lettuce asks, "You don't think…"

"I think, na no da," Pudding answers, nodding her head.

Deep Blue takes a step closer and Masaya covers the mic. Deep Blue asks, "What do you mean 'not here'?"

Taruto answers, "As in 'we can't find him'!"

"You're his guardians! You're suppose to watch him at all times!"

"Deep Blue, please!" Masaya pleads. Deep Blue looks at him angrily as Masaya puts on a smile. "I'm sure the prince will turn up soon. We just have to wait." Then for a quick moment, he looks at where Lettuce and Pudding are sitting. When he sees the two empty seats, he couldn't help but put on an evil smile.

Zakuro didn't see that but she did see Ichigo's empty chair. Zakuro lets out a sigh and thinks, 'So while I leave on bad terms, you leave on good terms. Be grateful prince.'

n-n-n

"Ichigo-kun, are you alright?"

"Uh-huh. I'm just really tired."

On the ground, there are clothes, a wig, and glasses. Clothes that both Ichigo and Kisshu wore to the party are now discarded and on the floor, leading to the bed. On Kisshu's bed, Ichigo is in the arms of Kisshu and he's holding her, his arms circling her neck and one hand playing with the strands of her real hair. Her arms are leaning against his bare chest. Both of them are naked and his sheets cover at least up to their waist, protecting some things.

Kisshu asks, "You sure? You did say that you wanted to take a bath after the party."

"If you want a bath, then go and take it. I'm too tired to really care," she tells him.

He only chuckles. "I'll stay." Then he kisses her forehead.

"Sorry," she tells him softly. He looks down at her as she opens her eyes. She tells him, "I was probably terrible. I'm not used to this kind of stuff. Really over protective dad, remember?" Kisshu chuckles again at how silly she sounds.

"I believe that," he tells her. "You were ready to tear my skin off in the middle of it."

"Sorry about that then," she tells him again.

"Don't be." He lowers himself so that he can look at her directly. She looks at him and she sees his sincere and understanding smile on his face. "It was your first and I understand that. Besides," he stops in the middle because he leans closer to her face so that their nose lines are touching but their lips are still an inch apart. "you were wonderful, Ichigo-kun. You never fail to amaze me."

"Maybe one day, you'll be disappointed," she told him, dryly.

He whispered, "Never." Then he kissed her passionately on the lips and she had enough energy to kiss him back the same way.

XxX

The next morning, Ichigo woke up to the sound of the alarm clock. She groaned from the sound of it and tightened her eyes.

"Kisshu-san, get the alarm!" she moaned in irritation. But she notices something.

Since the alarm clock woke her up, her senses came back and she felt nothing against her. She opens her eyes and she sees nothing besides her. She looks down and she sees the sheets covering her whole body instead of only half of her like last night. Kisshu's arms kept her warm through the whole night.

Ichigo sits up, holding the sheets to her chest and she looks around. There's nothing. She sees only the objects of the room but not another person. She doesn't even smell anything funny coming from the kitchen or hear anything in the room besides the awful, annoying sound of the alarm clock. Ichigo ends up turning around to the clock and she slams it quiet. The alarm stopped and now she does hear nothing. But she sees the time on the alarm clock.

"7:40?!!" she screams in surprise. "No wonder it's quiet!!"

Ichigo jumps out of the bed and runs to the bathroom. She only has time for a quick five minute shower to wash off the dirt and sweat from the party and last night. School starts at eight and she still has to change, make lunch, eat breakfast, and run to class. But as soon as she enters the bathroom, she sees a note on the window.

Ichigo looks at it curiously and reads it. She reads, "'I told the teachers that if you came to class late, it's because you weren't feeling well because of all the excitement from the party. From Kisshu.'" Ichigo takes the note and holds it close to her chest. "How sweet."

But that wasn't the only note. After Ichigo took a quick shower, she went to the kitchen to make her food and she sees not only a note on the microwave but also a note on a bento waiting for her on the kitchen table. She picks up the note on the microwave and it says, "Since you would be in a rush anyway, I thought I help and leave you a hot breakfast and an already made bento. Don't worry! I didn't make it. I asked my parents to deliver this for you. Half of the breakfast is in the microwave. The other is in the frig."

Ichigo opens the microwave and the note was right. She sees hot cakes, scrambled eggs, bacon, and sausages. Then when she goes to the refrigerator, she sees a bowl of fruits and a full glass of orange juice and milk.

All she could say is, "This is a lot of food, Kisshu-san."

XxX

It's lunch time and Ichigo lets out a sigh as she puts her books away.

'Finally! Class is over!' she slightly cheers in her head, putting her books away. After closing her bag, she looks down at the ground and she sees the lunch box she found this morning. She picks it up and then puts on a small smile while chuckling in happiness

"You seem awfully happy for someone who came three minutes late."

Ichigo looks up in surprise and she sees a surprising sight. She sees Ryou Shirogane standing by her at her desk. She yelps, "It's the rude guy from the activity!!"

He looks a bit angry as he says, "Hey! I'm not that rude."

Ichigo tries to relax and calms down her nerves. "What are you doing here?" she asks. "Or how did you get here? The school bell only rang two minutes ago."

"I got here before you did."

Ichigo eyes went wide and her mouth opened in shock. "You're kidding," she mutters. "You're in my class?!"

He just dryly says, "Now I really feel insulted. You never noticed that I'm in your class?" He raises his hand to his hair and ruffles it a bit. "But yet again, I am in the last row and I'm closer to the door. Not to forget that you always have a crowd of boys crowding you."

'Yeah,' she thinks. 'There was no way I could have noticed him.'

Then Ichigo picks up her lunch and tells him, "Well I do feel bad for not noticing you." 'Even though you're a bit too cute for me not to notice.' "But I'm not going to say sorry." Ryou raises a brow from that as she explains, "Because you were very rude when we first met and you only just met me. So until you say sorry, I won't say sorry." Then she stands up from her desk.

"That's a little childish," he tells her.

"This maybe a very matured school," she tells him, "but we're still only kids." Then she walks away with her lunch in hand.

But right before she was going to leave the room, Ryou tells her, "He's not going to pop out of nowhere and take you away for lunch today, Ichigo." She stops walking there and turns around to look at him. He completely faces her and says, "I've noticed that he keeps disappearing every time you disappear and figured it out."

She eyes him and asks, "What are you? Physic?"

"No," he answers. "I just pay attention and use common sense like most people." Somehow, she feels insulted but what he said before still grasps her attention.

"About what you said earlier, what do you mean by that?" she asks. Then she remembers that Ryou is supposedly one of Kisshu's most trust friends so maybe he knows something."Is he in a meeting or something?"

"You really don't know, do you?" he asks.

Now Ichigo is even more confused as she shakes her head to answer 'no'.

"Oji-sama is not here anymore."

Ichigo's eyes widen at that as Ryou begins to explain.

"That party last night was a 'Goodbye' present to both hime-sama and oji-sama. They leave at the same time every year because of family occasions and it gives both of their parents time to try and arrange their marriage. It's amazing to me that oji-sama didn't tell you these things."

"What's the party for anyway? Why hold a party?"

"It's a farewell party."

Kisshu may not have told her but there were signs.

"For who?"

Now Ichigo begins to understand that expression when she asked that question at dinner time.

"For the students who have family business to take care and will be gone about a while the next day."

And now that Ichigo continues to think about it, when she first entered her room for the first time when she got here, she saw Kisshu packing up but she was so shocked that he was in there that she didn't make a big deal out of it. So Kisshu was leaving and he didn't tell her. He just used her and left?

Ichigo looks devastated. Ryou sees that and he's a bit surprise by this reaction. It took a couple of minutes before Ichigo spoke and when she did, her bangs were covering her eyes and she has a weak smile on her face. "Must have slipped his mind. Excuse me." Instead of walking outside the door, she walks over to the teacher's desk where the teacher is eating his omelet. "Sensei!" she calls.

He looks up at her and asks, "Momomiya-san, what is it?"

"I'm sorry," she tells him, weakly. "But I'm really starting to not feel good. I tried to bare with it but I think it's getting worst."

The teacher examines her and says, "Yeah. What time did you go to bed last night? You're eyes are blood shot and you look a bit feverish." Ryou's eyes widen for a moment as he stares at the back of Ichigo's head. Ichigo lets out a soft chuckle.

"I wasn't able to sleep at all. The excitement of the party kept me awake all night."

The teacher mutters to himself, "I told them we should have let the students have the day off." He says louder for Ichigo, "Alright then. I'll ask your roommate to send your homework up to your room so that you don't get left behind."

"My roommate is gone," she told him. The teacher looks at her surprise as Ichigo bows. "Excuse me."

Then she walks over to her desk and grabs her closed bag. She was going to walk to the door again when she stops behind Ryou for a quick moment. "Answer me something."

"Yes?" he asks, as calmly as he can.

"How long are they usually gone?"

"About a few months."

Crack

The only one who heard that sound was Ichigo. But she softly says, "Oh, I see then." Then she begins walking out of the classroom, Ryou watching her leave. It didn't take long till he heard running footsteps in the hall.

XxX

Kisshu stares out of the window from the airplane and his eyes look so deep in thought. When Zakuro looks at his face, she notices his far off eyes. "Kisshu!" she calls.

He looks up at her slowly and asks, "Yes?"

She asks him, "Something on your mind? You've been staring out of that window since we left."

He puts a half smile on his face. "I'm fine, Zakuro. It's nothing for you to be concern about." After that he looks back out the window and Zakuro continues to stare at him before relaxing on the airplane chair and letting out a sigh. Her eyes begin to look far off too.

'Ichigo-kun…' Kisshu thinks, nearly seeing his red hair kitty. 'Be safe.'