AN: A comment I am noticing a lot in the reviews for this story regards the speed in which I am updating the chapters. I don't really know what to say besides I just sit down and type them everyday. Sure it's hard to get going sometimes but I find if you just persevere you'd be surprised at how quickly it all comes. Anyway, lots of thanks to Crimson Darkness, bullsh.t, Daz Lee and De Entertainer. It's not a problem when you decide to review (if you decide to), I'm just grateful people enjoy the story. In regards to Yuka, I know her death wasn't especially shocking or dramatic..but it was never really supposed to be. I did run through several scenarios before deciding how she would have died and the one I chose was due to how closely it mimicked her death in the manga (i.e. teleporting Narumi instead of saving herself). I could never see her as suicidal though, I don't think it's in her nature. She's too strong for that...Jeez sorry for the length of this, please read on!

Serina Yamada knocked on the front door of her sister's home, unsure if anybody was home. She was about to cut her losses when her nephew Koko appeared.

"Hey Oba-san," the friendly boy greeted her, stepping forward to give her a hug.

"You've grown again," she replied, ruffling the boys hair affectionately. "Soon you'll be taller than your father."

"He's not here at the moment," Koko said, figuring she was probably here to see him, "he's at the hospital."

"I know," she smiled slightly, "I was just there."

"Oh, you're here to see me?" he asked a little surprised.

"That's correct," she said, stepping into the house as Koko held the door for her. "What are we eating?" she asked curiously. Knowing Koko it could be anything.

"Peanut Butter and Salami sandwiches," he said with a goofy grin, "they're actually one of my favourites."

"Of course," she laughed, "I don't know how you come up with these."

"The refrigerator does all the hard work for me," he assured her. "So anyway," he said after taking a huge bite from one of his sandwiches, "what were you after?"

Serina reached into her bag and placed a ticket in front of her nephew, who had already moved on to his second sandwich.

"It's the Crystal Ball," she explained, "I bought your ticket."

'Ah so that was it' Koko thought to himself. Every year his aunt and about ten other ladies hosted this event to raise money which would provide assistance to those living with chronic illnesses. Serina had been active within the organisation since her adolescence, in support of her sickly sister.

"Hey would you be able to get me another one of those?" he asked casually.

"I can get you as many as you like," she replied.

Natsume spotted Mikan the moment she arrived at school the next morning. He hadn't been able to stop thinking about her since he had last seen her. He was terribly confused about why she had kissed him. She hadn't said anything after they had separated and had insisted on making her own way home, despite his many protests.

She couldn't have known the extent of the pain she had released inside of him, she wouldn't knowingly be that cruel; to give him a small taste of what he desired only to have him realise he would never be this close to fulfilling it again. No, she couldn't have known what her kiss would mean to him.

He said goodbye to his sister, who had spotted Youichi and was now running after him to the elementary section. He wished he could greet Mikan as enthusiastically but he couldn't find the words. If only he could be sure of what her kiss had meant. If only he wasn't so hopeful her feelings matched his own.

He watched her as she sat near to him in homeroom, wondering how to best broach the topic before deciding it would be easier to just say nothing. If she wanted to talk about it, she would.

Unbeknownst to him Mikan had thought of little else since yesterday, and perhaps she was even suffering more than him. Not only was she trying to deal with why she had kissed Natsume and what she felt for him but she was already burdened by her existing feelings for Tsubasa. She wasn't sure on the status of their relationship which only led her to be more confused.

All this paled to her experiences of sharing her mother's story with Natsume yesterday. She had started to resent the old man for telling her his story. She had been comfortable being mad at her mother but now her rage felt as hollow and fake as the joy she offered her father.

To say she was a jumble of emotions would have been an understatement.

She wished Hotaru was here to help her clear her mind but her best friend was still not back at school. It looked like Mikan would have to weather this storm alone.

As the day passed she attempted conversation with Natsume a few times. However, every time she opened her mouth to say something, the words died and she was left speechless.

"Are you okay Mikan?" Sumire asked her after one such instance, "you look like you're chewing imaginary gum or something."

"Oh," Mikan said, slightly embarrassed, "I'm fine."

After that she decided to let Natsume be. After all if he wanted to talk to her he would, right?

Narumi thumbed through the dictionary until he found the word he was after.

Atonement: the action of making amends for a wrong or injury.

Narumi glared at the definition in annoyance. He had hoped it would offer him a sort of guide as to how this atonement Yuri had mentioned could actually be achieved but the little book of definitions just moved straight on to the next word.

After checking the synonyms, he looked up amends and repentance only to have similar results. He wished he could google the words but sadly he was in class and so he'd have to wait.

He knew that he wouldn't be able to just apologise and move on, he had to offer his brother more than that. He wanted Ruka to understand not only how sorry he was, but also how much Ruka had misjudged him. He could be kind, I mean surely he had the capacity right? He could be a good brother, maybe even a great brother. He just wanted another chance, he hoped that request wasn't more than he deserved.

"I wish I could just start with a clean slate," he mumbled to himself. Then it struck him. How do you get a clean slate? By cleaning the dirt away. Narumi knew what he had to do, but he certainly wasn't looking forward to it. His dirt was of a particularly painful variety.

Natsume opened the back gate to Noda's house and approached it from the backyard as usual. The rest of his school day had passed in relative silence with Mikan and himself barely saying two words to each other. It was a depressing experience. He didn't know how they could go from being so close yesterday to taking on this attitude of strangers the next.

To make things even harder, today marked the first day of his house sitting duties and he had to say he wasn't looking forward to the further solitude.

He contemplated calling Ruka but he knew he'd be with Hotaru and he didn't want to bother them.

"Looks like it's just you and me," he said, sprinkling some fish food into Noda's aquarium, watching the goldfish zip around the tank after it.

After he had completed all Noda had asked him to do, he sat down on the couch and turned on the television then quickly turned it off. He couldn't concentrate on anything other than her.

Desperation made him turn to his homework and after distracting himself with all his assignments he decided to cut his losses and head to sleep.

Noda had made the guest room up for him and he had to admit it was more comfortable than he supposed the lazy hippie was capable of but when he closed his eyes he allowed himself to imagine he was laying down in a far less comfortable place. Sitting straight-backed on that terribly lumpy couch from yesterday's library, running his fingers through Mikan's long hair, straightening it out after it had been exposed to the rain that was still pouring down outside.

AN: I know this chapter is a little on the short side and for that I apologise, I tried to make it as long as possible without moving around the place too much. Also I'm sorry if I got the Japanese word for aunt wrong. I googled but search engines can only take me so far =]