"You and I were made for this. I was made to taste your kiss. We were made to never fall away."

Disclaimer:Mai HiME belongs to Sunrise.

Chapter 21 – Simple

"Shizuru, sweetheart, would you be so kind as to meet me in my office in a second?" The voice of her father might appear to be friendly, but Shizuru knew him well enough to sense that this was nothing more than disguised mischief. Her heart was heavy as she opened the door to the big office.

"You wanted to talk to me, father?" She always felt like a little child inside this room. It was much too big for only one person, but her father liked big.

"Yes." He made a slow dramatic pause to rub his forehead with a pained expression on his face. "I was informed that you had a guest over today." The way he pronounced the word 'informed' was proof to Shizuru that either Tomoe or one of the maids had told him about Natsuki's visit. "I thought I made myself clear about that girl, Shizuru-chan."

"Oh, you did and believe me I-"

"Silence!" His words echoed through the room like thunder. The change in his voice from calm to raging hadn't taken long. "I don't like repeating myself. So, once and for all: You are not allowed to see her again!" The words were just as deadly as his glare.

"Very well. But that would have been fairly easier, if you wouldn't have invited her to the wedding." Shizuru tried to hold composure as good as she could.

"Well, let me correct myself then. You are not allowed to see her anymore outside of YOUR wedding. I know her type. She's a troublesome individual and..." His eyes pierced Shizuru with a knowing stare. "I know that you have some special preferences that need to be stopped before they get out of hand. But here I think the wedding will put an end to this. Once you are with the right man, you should live a life in dignity and be a good wife."

The words sunk deep into Shizuru's mind. She felt sick and could hear her heart scream in terror when she thought of the consequences of the marriage with Reito. Natsuki was right, ten years is an eternity. She needed to get some air, to think up a plan, to have a chance to get out of this alive before it was too late for anything.

After she had wordlessly left the office of her father, she took out her phone and sent Natsuki a text, asking her to meet her in the rose garden tomorrow at lunch. She didn't know why, but she somehow knew that the raven-haired girl was her only chance to get out of this. It was almost as if a voice was assuring her to go down this path. Just when she flipped the phone shut her father suddenly appeared right behind her.

"One more thing, my beloved daughter. I cancelled school for you tomorrow. There's no need to overdo things since the wedding takes place on Saturday. Use the day off to make the final preparations. You shall be a beautiful bride." He let his hand rest on her shoulder for a second before he went away.

Puppet... You mean a beautiful puppet on a string... I have to meet Natsuki tomorrow, no matter what. I guess I again need Touku's help with that.

On the next morning, Shizuru was up early. She didn't sleep well and had no intention of wasting any time. After suffering from nightmares the whole night, she decided that lying around with thoughts hammering inside of her mind wouldn't help much. She wasn't even amazed that Natsuki appeared in her dreams, but what she was concerned about was the fact that the things in her dreams felt alarmingly real. In fact, she had known for quite a while that she felt different towards women, but she thought she had successfully banned these thoughts from her mind over the years. Yet, the dreams proved her wrong and she found it very disturbing to think of the emerald-eyed beauty this way. Especially, after giving Natsuki's best friend advice on how to get close to the person who had invaded her dreams just now. She really didn't want to think about that problem right now since there was a much bigger one called 'wedding', nevertheless she couldn't help but admit that the raven-haired girl was on her mind ever so often, and that she might have subconsciously not just teased her for fun. Even now, when she thought of the cute blushing face, it brought a smile to her lips; a true smile that she didn't have to fake at all. The realization hit her hard and she was ashamed of herself, having such feelings towards the other girl. Not only because it was inappropriate, but also because she originally wanted to help Nao on that matter. And now, she suddenly felt different about it. Now, the image of the childhood friends together pained her, especially given the fact that she herself might have to spend the next years with Reito while being so close to the real object of her affection. Her thoughts were racing and so was her heart. She had no idea why suddenly everything seemed upside down, but she could feel that something was off, as if her thoughts and actions are being manipulated. She had a ringing headache and she could have sworn that there was a constant hissing in the background of her dreams. The whole thing seemed too crazy to her to think about it any further and she just wanted switch her brain off for now. She had to convince Touku to lie for her once more and then she had to sneak out without endangering Natsuki with her actions. She knew her father, and she was sure that he wasn't afraid to bring some 'sacrifices' to have his ways.

School seemed to be just the right soporific for Natsuki, especially history was on her list of favorite sleeping times and if it weren't for Midori's loud and annoying voice, which constantly woke her up, she would have probably missed out on the meeting with Shizuru. Of course, she knew she shouldn't sleep in school, but her nightmares kept her awake at night and so she couldn't really fight the needs of her body. She had yet to successfully avoid Nao on her way to the rose garden for not giving any answers she didn't know herself by now. All she knew was that she had to go there to find out if her words brought Shizuru to terms.

Walking the hidden path through the woods, she once more felt captured in the magic of this place. She remembered her first meeting with the strange girl that tried to appear so perfect and happy on the outside, while in reality she was secretly crushing flowers in desperation. If it weren't for that garden, she probably wouldn't have come to know Shizuru and she wouldn't have had the chance to save her from this idiotic idea of her father. She wasn't one to believe in fate, but while waiting for the older girl, the thoughts that this wasn't just coincidence seemed to manifest in her mind. After all, she couldn't deny the fact that the Kyoto-girl was a catalyst to her visions and nightmares and every time she was near her, she somehow felt nostalgic. Maybe there was more to all of this and maybe it also wasn't a coincidence that Shizuru was a HiME too. Being completely wrapped up in thoughts, Natsuki didn't notice Shizuru appearing right behind her. Hence, she jumped in shock when she suddenly heard the soft Kyoto-ben next to her ear.

"Walking down memory lane, aren't we?" Shizuru whispered, sending a chill down the younger girl's spine.

Shoot! Right on the spot! Really, this woman gives me the creeps sometimes.

"I wasn't," Natsuki lied, but Shizuru could tell that she had been right thanks to the bright red cheeks of the biker-girl.

"I'm glad you came," she said, not wanting to tease the younger girl any further. She wasn't here for flirting, plus, she had to be careful with her words and actions now that she was aware of her 'feelings'.

"Yeah, no problem," Natsuki stumbled, bringing a bit more distance between them. Somehow, she felt nervous around the taller girl. "So, why did you want to meet me?"

The question was simple and yet it was hard for Shizuru to find the right answer. Deep down she knew why, but she never was one to ask for help and she had a hard time admitting that Natsuki was right about the wedding. But since this might be her last chance, she finally spilled her thoughts.

"I believe you're right... Well, in fact I know you are. It would be a huge mistake to marry him just to please my father, but I don't know what to do..." She paused, thereby locking her eyes with Natsuki's. The familiarity of those emerald orbs irritated her and she lost her train of thoughts for a second as she was enchanted by the endless green.

"You have to tell him," Natsuki said bluntly as ever, ignoring the long eye-contact and dreamy gaze of her opposite.

"What? That I'm not going to marry the son of the prestigious Kanzaki-family because..." I might be in love with someone else... She had to stop herself from saying any of those thoughts out loud.

"Because what?" The raven-haired girl could see that Shizuru wasn't telling her the whole truth and she wanted to know what the Kyoto-girl was hiding from her.

"Nothing. I just don't know how to get out of this without disgracing my family."

"You might need to take that risk in order to save your own happiness."

"That's a huge sacrifice."

"Yes, but you were forced into this. This is not your fault. Maybe you can talk to your fiancé about it. I don't know him, but Mai said he's a nice boy. So, maybe he's willing to help you."

"You don't know my father. He's nothing of what they told you in the Orphanage about how a good father should be." She regretted her words in the same moment she spoke them out loud. But Natsuki's eyes told her that she had hurt her. She felt the need to embrace her and tell her that she was sorry, but of course she wouldn't do that. She had to admit that she had a hard time controlling herself around the raven-haired beauty. Her heart started to beat faster as she got lost in those sad green eyes again. The strange nostalgic feeling kicked in along with a low hissing sound. Shizuru tried to concentrate; she had yet to tell the hurt girl that she was sorry about her words.

"I'm sorry for saying that. It's hard for me to stay in control when I am around you."

"And that's your main problem."

"Oh, I'm sorry if I'm not well enough conditioned for you."

"That's so far away from what I mean..." She sighed. "I mean that you need to loosen up. You need to stop acting around others. You need to be yourself."

"I doubt that everyone would want to see a desperate scared girl."

"You're so much more than that. I know that you're not the perfect girl that you think you must be, but that's okay. Your real self... it's so much more beautiful than you think." The words had such a huge impact on Shizuru that she didn't even notice the warmth rising to her cheeks. She had a hard enough time to remember herself to breathe in and out.

"Ara, look who's blushing now." Natsuki teased the older girl by imitating the Kyoto-ben almost perfect.

Shizuru was at a loss of words. This girl completely swept her off her feet and she wasn't sure if she really wanted to fight back her feelings. Now she was sure that Natsuki was precious. So precious and unique that she knew that she would be stupid if she would let her slip away.

"So, why not taking a chance? It can't get worse than this, now can it?" The raven-haired girl added, trying to tear Shizuru out of her thoughts.

"If you say these things, they always sound so believable and simple."

"Because they are."

"It's not that easy. You're oversimplifying things."

"And you're overcomplicating them."

They both fell silent and simply stared at each other. None of them wanted to lose this battle of wills. The firm green eyes of Natsuki were trying to flood the fire in Shizuru's crimson ones. But before either of them could win the fight, the Kyoto-girl took a step towards the Ice-HiME.

"You want simple? I'll give you simple..."

Without hesitation she leaned in and locked her lips with Natsuki's. None of them moved for a second. Shizuru because she was afraid of losing this precious moment and Natsuki because she had been caught completely off-guard, so that she couldn't react at all. As the chestnut-haired didn't feel any resistance, she slowly started to part the soft lips of the younger girl.

Natsuki started to drown in the magic of this moment. She could taste the sweetness of the other girl's lips as she got lost in the scent of water lilies. The tenderness of the kiss flooded her body with a wave of warmth. It was now acting on its own as it shut her mind off. Her knees became weak, but they didn't give in and as if Shizuru had read her thoughts the chestnut-haired girl brought her arms up to embrace her, and brought her in even closer. Her heart was racing as she felt the movement of Shizuru's lips against hers. She didn't resist as the older girl parted her lips to slit her tongue into her mouth. It felt soft and warm and for some reason it felt natural. As if they had done this many times before. They seemed to melt into each other as their tongues were dancing. Natsuki instinctively brought her arms up to Shizuru's back, still not breaking the kiss. But in a blink of an eye, she suddenly found herself wrapped up in darkness.

She couldn't move as two yellow orbs were dangerously glistening in the distance. A deafening hissing echoed through her head. 'Shhss. You'll be the death of her... again... sss. Leave! Leave!' After the voice died away a beam of light led her eyes to a figure she had seen before. She remembered the bloody face with the dull and empty brown eyes and although she knew it was Shizuru, her mind refused to believe it. The stained girl was swinging a big naginata slowly walking away towards the yellow eyes as if they were calling out for her. The scenery started to blur and thousands of images started to appear in the darkness. There wasn't even a chance to take in all of them. It was like a movie-stream that showed random scenes from places that filled her up with a strange nostalgia. She could see her mother and those cliffs outside of the city. Even people from the school were flickering in her mind's eye. She saw the Orphanage and Nao and also Duran fighting against an army. The stream suddenly slowed down and she could see the church's school bell as it fell down. The campus-grounds had been destroyed and the howl of her Child was filling the scenery. She saw herself, holding Shizuru in a tight embrace while Duran and Kiyohime were tangled up in a battle. A huge explosion destroyed the church and the stream started to go faster again. There was an empty stage with a guitar, followed by a large mansion that looked a bit like the Fujino-Estate. Again the cliffs became visible, and again she found herself standing in a close embrace with Shizuru. The pictures flew by so fast that she had trouble in seeing more than just blurry edges. A lot of the following pictures showed herself together with Nao, although she couldn't remember any of the places. The stream started to fade into darkness and the last images were merely shadows. She wasn't sure but she thought she had seen Shizuru standing on a window at night with a bottle of pills in her hand. The stream died away in the blackness of her mind as soon as it came, but the terror of it remained in her thoughts. Her vision once more became blurry before it changed into the image of the rose garden. It looked exactly like seconds ago only that she was now seeing it from high above, like she was floating in the sky. She could see Shizuru lying in a puddle of blood next to the flower bed where they both had first met. Natsuki gasped as her eyes caught sight of the figure that stood beside the bleeding girl. Her mind refused what her eyes already knew. It was herself, hands bloody and head low. She closed her eyes in terror and attempted to scream but nothing came out. When she opened them again, she found herself back in reality. She was still wrapped up in Shizuru's arms, but her mind went on alert as she realized that their 'interaction' might have triggered that vision. She immediately broke the kiss and pushed Shizuru away. She could tell that the older girl obviously didn't know what just happened as she looked into those puzzled red eyes.

Afraid of having scared Natsuki away with her actions, Shizuru carefully reached out for the younger girl.

"Natsuki, I..." Her voice was weak.

"Don't!" Natsuki said as she took a step back.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't want this..." 'Sss... Liar... ssss' The voice in her head was distracting her for a second before she let her arm sink. "I'm sorry, I made you feel uncomfortable. I better go now."

"Wait!"

"It's not..." Telling her that it's not about the kiss wouldn't help, wouldn't it? Shit, this would be a lot easier if it wouldn't have felt so... good. What am I supposed to do now? The vision was clearly telling me that not the wedding is the problem, but me. Maybe I should stay out of it as much as possible... I don't even know what this was myself. It can't be that I have such feelings towards her...

Shizuru was waiting for Natsuki to end the sentence, but seeing the struggle in the emerald eyes, she knew it was in vain.

"Give me one reason not to marry him," she said in a broken almost pleading voice.

Natsuki looked into those stunning crimson eyes and she could feel that something deep inside of her was screaming to Shizuru what she wanted to hear, but she knew that it would be wrong and she didn't want Shizuru's life at stake.

"For yourself," she said as cold as she could, trying not to break the eye-contact for making herself as believable as possible.

"It's not enough."

It was only a whisper but she could see the hurt in Shizuru's eyes and it pained her to no end to lie to the other girl; to turn her down while feeling differently. But she simply couldn't ignore what she had just seen in her vision. She had to do this to keep the Kyoto-girl safe.

Shizuru gave her one last longing glance before lowering her gaze and turning away. Natsuki didn't hold her back this time. She looked after the broken girl before starting to walk away herself.

The rose garden was wrapped up in silence again, swallowing the secrets of the two girls in one strong breeze.

A/N: Ugh, long chapter. I am amazed how much I pulled out of my brain this week. Other than that update here I have started the NatTom I was talking about and the number of reviews blew me away. I wasn't expecting any. So the story maybe is worth a read. Just in case any of you is interested in unusual parings. It's called "Loving the Enemy". Okay, back to A Fine Line. Things are starting to become dangerous. Next chapter we will have the pleasure to attend a wedding...or maybe not...who knows...I wonder.