"Nekozawa?" I regretted not checking who was on the other side of the door before opening it, but too late now.

"Alexis, I…" He paused as he noticed my pajamas—a red tank top and Garfield boxers. My lips couldn't help but curl upward as Nekozawa stammered an apology for waking me up.

Did I mention it was eight eleven in the morning?

The prince of darkness kept his blue eyes glued to my face, the embarrassed blush on his cheeks blotching his pale complexion. "D-Do you want me to come back later?" he asked, composing himself. Unlike me, Nekozawa had dressed in a black suit, wore his greenish-black wig, and held an umbrella over his head to shield himself from the wicked sun's rays.

I rubbed one eyelid sleepily. "Nah. You already woke me up so why not tell me now. You and I both know it's almost impossible for me to get back to sleep after I've woken up." Tiredly leaning against the doorframe, I blinked owlishly at him. "So?"

"May I come in?"

"Oh…yeah. Sorry about blocking the door." I pushed the front door open, wiped the sleep out of my other eye, and retreated into the house to allow my guest in. "My manners haven't woken up yet."

Stepping inside my apartment, Nekozawa politely shut the door behind him and made his umbrella shrink, collapsing it back to a reasonable size. This was horribly embarrassing—almost like a nightmare come true. Opening the door in my pajamas, only to find it was my high school best friend, the one who had romantic feelings toward me… My cheeks were definitely burning with a steady glow.

Ugh, it was too early in the day for this.

"Suzuki-san told me…she confessed about her role nine years ago at that fateful Christmas party," Nekozawa stated quietly, watching me.

Being the slow person I am in the morning, it took me a good few minutes to fire up my brain and recall whatever Nekozawa was referring to. Suzuki-san? Who was that? Then, with snippets of conversation and short flashbacks, my memory slowly reminded me—the date the Montego Court, Medusa asking for forgiveness, the strange expression on Nekozawa's face as I hurriedly left the office…two days ago.

"Yeah…I already knew she would tell you," I admitted to him, my gray eyes alternating between staring at the chilly tile floor and peeking up at Nekozawa. "I figured out what she'd done during the Christmas break that year."

"Why didn't you tell me?" His voice was soft, hurt, pleading.

I smiled bitterly, lifting my head. "Would you have believed me?" Judging by the way his eyes guiltily dropped and how his body seemed to sag with defeat, we both knew he wouldn't have. Not nine years ago.

"She did a good job setting us up," Nekozawa said with his own little sardonic smile, "and like a fool, I overreacted without confronting you or investigating." Turning his back toward me, he shut the blinds and closed the curtains I'd opened less than five minutes ago. "You have no idea what a blow it was to hear her confess…On that night you learned about your parent's divorce, I agreed not to abandon you and yet I did. 'At the first test of honor, I betrayed your trust.'" He added the last part as if speaking to himself, scolding.

I recognized the quote from the movie Kirimi and I had watched not too long ago. Ever After. However, the line was out of context. Before that the prince had said, "Actually I came to beg your forgiveness. I offered you the world and at the first test of honor, I betrayed your trust. Please, Danielle…" Was Nekozawa implying something similar? Would this ugly silent treatment have a happy ending?

"It was hard not talking to you," I admitted since it felt like confession time. "I didn't realize how important you were until you dashed out of that room. Because we went to the same school and I knew your schedule, I was so tempted to talk to you but I was afraid you would reject me again."

"I felt the same but…Where does that leave us now?" Nekozawa asked, and we both stared at each other uncertainly without an answer.

I chewed on my bottom lip. "We could be friends. Rebuild what we lost."

"I can accept that." Umehito Nekozawa smiled then, a sincere and relieved close-lipped smile. "Kirimi, Shintaro and I are going to the theatre tonight. Would you like to come?"

The invitation made me smile. "Yeah. What movie?"

He shrugged his thin shoulders. "We haven't decided but maybe you can help us choose when we pick you up at five." Opening my door with a quiet hiss as the morning light fell upon his exposed skin, Nekozawa opened his dark umbrella and strode out of sight, making his dramatic exit.

As I shut my front door, I couldn't help but wonder if Tamaki had been involved behind the scenes.

O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O

Epilogue:

The spring of next year…

Standing beside Kanazuki, I beamed as Ranka and Haruhi walked down the rose-petal-strewn aisle. A quick glimpse at the altar showed me that Tamaki had only eyes for Haruhi. Surprisingly, the King wasn't fidgeting nervously, hyperventilating, or acting obnoxiously happy; instead, he stared at his soon-to-be wife with a happy, dazed expression. Haruhi, on the other hand, seemed nervous and happy, blushing whenever she looked up at Tamaki. Her father, dressed as a woman, patted her arm, blinking away tears.

With a slight resentful scowl sent toward Tamaki, Ranka gave Haruhi's arm to his soon-to-be son-in-law. The glower warned Suoh to take care of his daughter or else. Tamaki gave a slight nod to express his gratitude. Ranka's scowl transitioned to a wistful glance at his only daughter, the one who was leaving him for another man. He seemed torn between happiness and sadness.

The minister began his speech. It was kept short and sweet. Tamaki had never been a patient man, and Haruhi didn't like to waste time.

Everyone applauded, whistled, or clapped when they kissed. Many took pictures. Ranka cried. The other members of the Host Club cheered. Fangirls wept. Other students, friends and strangers alike, wished them well. I myself had to blink away happy tears, my cheeks aching from smiling too hard.

The wedding reception was even better.

It took place at Ouran in the Third Music Room, and when I stepped inside, it felt like time had graciously returned to the past when we had been in our teens. Of course, people took advantage of this fact during the toasts. Memories, jokes, and tears filled the room.

I smiled to myself, amused, as I watched Tamaki try to feed Haruhi a forkful of the wedding cake; however, Haruhi evaded the fork, leaning forwards and backwards and sideways to avoid it, protesting to being fed like a baby. Tamaki pleaded with her, and after a few minutes of consideration, Haruhi grudgingly ate the cake from her husband's fork. Tamaki smiled.

'Maybe that'll be me one day,' I mused optimistically. 'Maybe one day, I'll walk down the aisle to stand beside the man I love.' Nekozawa rested his hand on top of mine, his fingertips brushing my palm, distracting me. As a result, I missed Haruhi smear frosting on Tamaki's face.

"Hmm?" I raised my eyebrows slightly, questioning.

"You look beautiful today," Umehito said quietly, smiling, and I found that his baby blue eyes had an unusually strong magnetic effect on my stare. The white suit and baby blue vest enhanced the color of his eyes.

I smiled back, and after a moment of hesitation, I stroked the back of his hand with my thumb. "You don't look half bad yourself, Prince Charming," I teased, my heart beating a little faster when he flushed.

"I'm hardly charming," he protested, trying to frown or scowl but when Umehito was embarrassed, it was difficult, if not impossible, for him to glower. He looked cute when he tried.

I immediately detected what he had ignored. "So you admit you're a prince."

"Kirimi was right about that," Umehito admitted, lifting my hand. Shifting his hold, he raised my hand to his lips and slowly brushed his lips against my knuckles before kissing each one. His blue eyes hadn't left my face once. What emotion was making his eyes gleam like that?

Caught off guard by the sudden role reversal in our teasing, I'm afraid I actually blushed like a schoolgirl and found that all my wit had abandoned me. "You've really changed in nine years," was the first intelligible thing that tumbled out of my mouth. Even then, my voice was pitched a little higher than normal.

"So have you," Umehito pointed out softly, amused. I stuck out my tongue at him.

Maybe…just maybe that 'one day' wasn't as far away as I thought…

Fin

AN: if you didn't figure it out before, the last patient Alexis was waiting on was Nekozawa, who chickened out. Btw, I forgot to mention this in the story and kinda didn't have room for it in the flow, but Nekozawa removed the curse on Alexis. He gave the curse to her out of ill will, but revoked it when he fully understood the situation (think of the curse as a grudge).