Author's Note: Once more, my sincere apologies for the delay in getting this out, but here it is at last. I hope you all enjoy!

X-X-X

Tomorrow Today

Rating: T

Chapter 4: Tomorrow Evening

X-X-X

Dear Shizuru,

I know I can't say anything romantic to you that would compare to something your Natsuki would say, so I won't even try. I want to tell you how much you mean to me as a friend.

I'm not the type to make friends easily… or, at all, really. After what happened with my parents, I decided not to rely on anyone else. I'm sure you know the story there. I tried to keep anyone from getting close to me, but you ignored all that. When I was at my lowest point, you walked into my life, sat down and starting sipping tea. You acted as if you were meant to be there all along. Which… I guess you kind of were.

My plan to never rely on anyone ever again was kind of derailed when you made it so obvious that I could always count on you that I never thought to question it. Maybe I should have questioned it. Maybe I would have figured out your feelings for me sooner. Maybe we could have had even more time together. Maybe we still can, if I go back now after all I've learned.

But even if I never remember any of this, I know that once I'm back to the Natsuki I was yesterday, you'll be the best friend I've ever had, and the one person I could truly always rely on.

Thank you, Shizuru.

Your friend,

Kuga Natsuki

X-X-X

"Um… Shizuru?" Natsuki said. It had been almost ten minutes since Shizuru had started to read the letter. That was more than enough time to read it, multiple times even, but still Shizuru hadn't even looked up from the paper. Her expression was inscrutable right now, so Natsuki couldn't tell if she was flattered, amused, touched, or something else entirely, and not knowing was beginning to get to her.

Shizuru's eyes fluttered for a moment, and then she shifted in her chair and glanced off to the side. "Ara, forgive me, Natsuki," she said. She looked up at Natsuki and gave her a soft smile. Natsuki met her gaze, and couldn't help but melting into the couch a little from something she saw there. "I was just thinking about… well, how sweet it is of you to say things like this, even though before today you never even thought of me as more than a friend. This just proves how much of a good person you are, that you could say such things even when you're in such a situation, and, well… it makes me appreciate you even more."

Natsuki could feel herself melting even more at these words. "Well, it's just…" she said. She stumbled for a minute trying to find the words. "You've done so much to help me get through this, and, well…" Natsuki shook her head. The right words just weren't coming. She met Shizuru's gaze again and simply said, "Thank you, Shizuru."

For a moment, Shizuru shifted as if she was about to stand up, but she held herself back. Instead, she gave Natsuki a soft smile and a slight nod. "Of course, Natsuki. I would do anything for you."

Natsuki wondered for a moment why Shizuru might have been about to get up, but she decided not to question it. She gave Shizuru a nod in turn and said, "So… can I open my present now?"

A wide grin filled Shizuru's face. "Ara, of course you can, Natsuki," she said, a twinkle forming in her eye. She reached out to the coffee table and picked up the gift - where and when she'd been able to wrap it up so nicely in the space of this afternoon, Natsuki had no idea - and she handed it to Natsuki.

Natsuki chuckled softly at this gesture. The gift was already within arm's reach of her; she hardly needed Shizuru to pass it to her. She wasn't going to complain, though. "Thank you, Shizuru," she said.

Natsuki took a moment to inspect the gift. It was a square box, about a foot across, and it was quite light for its size. She didn't feel anything moving around within it as she took it from Shizuru. After peeking over at Shizuru for a moment to judge her expression - inscrutable as always - Natsuki began peeling open the wrapping paper and opened up the box.

Inside the box awaited an adorable plush dog, whose big black eyes nearly made Natsuki let out an involuntary squeak before she managed to suppress it. The blue color of it reminded her immediately of Duran, and she was certain that had to be why she (or perhaps Shizuru) had bought it. Plucking the dog out of its box, Natsuki brought it up to her face and looked into its eyes. Yes, this was definitely Duran.

"Woof!" came a faint sound.

Natsuki blinked. She knew that bark very well. It wasn't the softer, higher-pitched sound of Kiyoran's bark. That sounded just like Duran's bark to her. Natsuki looked from side to side, spotting Kiyoran curled up at the other end of the sofa, where she'd last seen him. No, she hadn't just misheard one of his barks. Maybe… No. It must have just been another dog in the neighborhood who sounded like Duran.

"Did you hear him?" Shizuru said.

"Huh?" Natsuki said, turning to face Shizuru. "Wait… what was…?"

Shizuru smiled softly. "I told Natsuki that her present was going to be a story, didn't I? I think that will help you understand."

Natsuki blinked. And again. "Right," she said. She tried to relax a bit in her seat, giving the plush dog a suspicious look for a moment before she placed it on her lap, and then she turned back to Shizuru.

"Well, as Natsuki is probably well aware by now, given what's happened to her today, it would seem that HiME, Childs, and Orphans aren't the only sources of magic in this world. Years ago, it looked like all the magic had faded, and we were all separated from our Childs, but that wasn't quite the case. The magic was still there; we had just all lost our connection to it.

"Of course, Natsuki found herself quite sad at losing Duran. She knew at least that he was alive and hoped he was doing well, but even so, she found herself missing him. She confided this to me after I'd bought her this toy, which reminded me of Duran. Kiyohime and I didn't have the same connection that Natsuki and Duran did, but I certainly understood it.

"I recommended to Natsuki that perhaps we could take an opportunity for her to officially say her goodbyes to Duran, in hopes that he might hear him wherever he was. He had disappeared so suddenly that Natsuki hadn't gotten the chance to do this the first time. Even if he couldn't hear, it would be good for Natsuki to say it. Natsuki… well, I think she was mostly humoring me, but she agreed.

"Natsuki and I went out to a place that was special for the both of us, and Duran and Kiyohime as well. It was the place where Natsuki revealed to me that she knew about my feelings for her and really didn't mind them, as I had feared. It was also the place where…" Shizuru looked away from Natsuki for a moment. "Well, I don't suppose this will make much sense to Natsuki, but it was where we died and were reborn. Natsuki can thank Midori-chan and Miyu-san for the 'reborn' part, by the way."

Natsuki blinked. "...right," she said slowly. There was probably another long story behind that. Perhaps she'd ask Shizuru about it later.

Shizuru smiled softly, and she continued. "At my urging, Natsuki took out the plushie and said her goodbyes to Duran, using it as a proxy for him. She gave him a pat and a kiss on the head, and just before we were going to leave, she heard a faint howl coming from it. Natsuki thought she was imagining it at first, but when Duran howled again and I heard him as well, we knew it was real. Perhaps it was the lingering magic of that location that helped him find us, but even after we left there, Natsuki has often been able to hear him through that plushie. We might not be able to see him any longer, but he's still there, watching over you from wherever he is."

It was only after Shizuru stopped talking that Natsuki realized that tears were beginning to form in her eyes. "Um, right…" she said, her voice nearly cracking as she spoke. She turned away from Shizuru and looked back at the plush dog. For a long minute, she simply looked at it. Finally, once she could trust herself to speak, she whispered, "Duran?"

"Woof!" came the reply, even louder now. Natsuki pulled the plushie to her chest and hugged it tightly. It was too late now to stop the tears in her eyes, but she wasn't going to waste thought caring about that. Duran was here for her. Even when her mission as a HiME was over, he would still be here for her.

"Thank you, Duran…" she said softly.

Natsuki closed her eyes. For a minute, it was just her and Duran again… like it would have been five years ago today. It wasn't much, but it was enough for her… at least, back then it was. Things were probably different for her now.

Natsuki peeled open an eye, and she looked over at Shizuru. She hadn't said a word while Natsuki was cuddling with her Duran plushie, and her face betrayed nothing but patience right now. Natsuki moved her hand from the plushie and patted the empty space on the couch next to her.

Shizuru raised an eyebrow at this, but only for a moment. She smiled and got up, coming over to take a seat next to Natsuki. "I take it Natsuki likes her gift?" she said.

"Very much," Natsuki said, a smile crossing her lips. Her eyes met Shizuru's for a moment, and it was quite obvious to her right now just how happy Shizuru was. The night wasn't over yet, though. "But now I'm wondering… you'd normally do this in the morning. What would you and Natsuki normally be doing Christmas evening?"

"Hmm…" Shizuru said. She brought a finger up to her chin as she thought. "I suppose we might cuddle up on the couch - much like this, in fact - and watch a movie together."

Natsuki nodded. "Sounds perfect," she said. She glanced at the coffee table in front of her, spotting the multiple remotes laid out on it. "Um… do you want to maybe handle putting it on?" she said. "I kinda haven't figured out the remotes here yet."

The gained her a soft chuckle from Shizuru. "Of course, Natsuki," she said.

X-X-X

After Shizuru tried for some reason to convince Natsuki that Die Hard qualified as a Christmas movie (it did, but Natsuki wasn't going to let Shizuru win that argument), and Natsuki tried to counter with Love, Actually to see if Shizuru's taste was as sappy as she suspected, the two of them eventually compromised and put on a generic Christmas special. It… well, it wasn't Die Hard, but it was good enough to pass the time. Plus it gave Natsuki a good excuse to cuddle up with Kiyoran for an hour straight, getting in as much quality time with him as she could today.

It took Natsuki longer than she cared to admit for her to realize that while she was stroking Kiyoran's back, Shizuru was doing the same to her. Natsuki tried to pout at this, but she couldn't quite overcome the smile on her face. Damn this woman; she was too sweet to be mad at her. Natsuki let out a sigh and decided to simply let herself enjoy it. It did feel nice, after all.

It wasn't long before Kiyoran let out a yawn and adjusted himself, resting his head on Natsuki's leg. "Mmm…" Natsuki said. She brought her hand to his head and gently rubbed it as she spoke. "I'm really going to miss you tomorrow, Kiyoran. You better still be here when I get to the future the long way, okay? I don't want anything I do differently in the past to keep you from being born. Even if it means I have to go back without any memory of this. If that's what it takes, I'll do it for you, puppy."

"Natsuki…" Shizuru said. Sometime while Natsuki was speaking, her hand had stopped moving, and she'd reached her arm out to wrap it around Natsuki's torso.

Natsuki turned her head to look over at her friend, only realizing belatedly that tears had started to form in her eyes. Why was this getting to her so much?

"It's going to be alright," Shizuru said. Her gaze was firm right now, and there was no doubt in her voice. "Trust me."

"How can you be sure?" Natsuki said, narrowing her eyes. "You know the science. He was made from a particular combination of sperm and an egg. If I so much as breathe differently once I get back to the past, it could be a different sperm, or he might not be born at all. We might still get together in the future and adopt a dog, but it won't be him and… I want him."

Shizuru's expression was unwavering through all of this. "Natsuki," she said simply, and somehow the sound of Shizuru's voice saying her name helped Natsuki calm down a bit. "Let me ask you a question. What do you think is more likely: That five years ago, a magic spell transported you five years into the future for a day, or that yesterday, a spell erased your memories of the last five years for a day?"

Natsuki blinked. "Um…" she said, trying to let her mind process this. It probably would be a lot simpler to erase someone's memories than it would be to enable time travel, but… "No, I remember yesterday - my yesterday. There was that woman I saved from an Orphan. She did this to me then, not now."

"Ara… I've been thinking about that, actually," Shizuru said. "Natsuki told me a story about her chasing down an Orphan on the sidewalk after it attacked this woman. While for me, just yesterday Natsuki chased down a mugger after he attacked a woman on the street, and after returning her purse, the woman said something to Natsuki that she later told me was quite strange, though she just brushed it off at the time. The two stories sound rather similar, don't they?"

Natsuki blinked again. "Well…" Okay, she couldn't exactly argue that they sounded similar. But even so… "Okay, well… you don't know that for sure," she said. "I still feel like I came from the past. It just doesn't feel like I've simply lost my memories."

Shizuru nodded slowly. Her gaze held steady, and she waited until Natsuki's eyes focused on hers once more before she said anything more. "Natsuki…" she said. "Do you trust me?"

"Huh?" Where did that come from? Natsuki blinked again a couple times, trying to process the question. "Wha- no, that's it. I don't mean to say you're lying, I just-"

"Natsuki," Shizuru said again, and the sound of her name caused Natsuki to immediately focus on her friend's face one more. Was it just her imagination or had their faces gotten a bit closer? "Please," Shizuru said, "just answer. Do you trust me?"

"O-of course…" Natsuki said. "What's all this about?"

A moment of silence, and then Shizuru spoke. "I want to try something. I don't know if it will work, but there's a chance that this might help you figure out what's going on here. I can only do it if you trust me though, so I had to ask."

"Oh…" Natsuki said. It certainly seemed like Shizuru's face was getting closer, though Natsuki certainly hadn't noticed her moving. She tried to push that thought out of her mind for now though. "What do you want to try?"

"I think it's time I claimed my reward from our bet earlier today," Shizuru said, a sparkle forming in her eye. "Or is Natsuki going to pretend she forgot about that so she doesn't have to pay up?"

"Wha- I'm not! I remembered!" Natsuki protested, her cheeks filling with red as she spoke. "I just… thought… you forgot… and wasn't going to remind you…" She could feel her face scrunching into a pout as she said this, but she couldn't stop herself.

A melodic chuckle came from Shizuru. "Ara ara… If this were any other day, I might have to punish Natsuki for that. But I think I'll let it slide today. Either way, I still have yet to claim my prize: It's time that I do something for Natsuki that she needs most right now."

"O-okay…" Natsuki said. Either Shizuru definitely was getting closer, or Natsuki's vision had contracted to the point that she couldn't see anything other than her friend's face. She definitely wasn't moving away though, and that wasn't just because she had nowhere to retreat to on the couch.

"Okay," Shizuru said. "Now, I want you to close your eyes, and just trust me." She moved her free hand to the side of Natsuki's face, brushing a few strands of hair to the side. "Try to let your mind empty, and just follow your instincts, okay?"

Natsuki gulped heavily. She could feel her heart beating in her throat right now. Her brain wanted to jump to a conclusion about where this was heading, but that would have meant disobeying Shizuru's request to empty her mind, so she forced herself to try not to think about it. Instead, she closed her eyes and tried to focus simply on calming down her beating heart.

"Just breathe slowly, Natsuki," Shizuru said, speaking with a slow, calm voice. "Just focus on your breaths. Breathe in, one, two, breathe out, one, two, three… In, one, two, out, one, two, three…"

Natsuki allowed herself to follow Shizuru's guidance, slowing down her breathing to match the pace of her friend's instructions. She wondered for a bit about why she was doing was this, but that thought soon left her mind. Soon enough, there was just her, her own breaths, Shizuru's voice, and Shizuru's lips pressed tenderly against hers.

It was a bit harder to breathe like this, but Natsuki didn't find herself complaining. Their lips had met just as Shizuru was asking her to breathe in, so she was hardly struggling for air as they kissed. And as she felt Shizuru's tongue trace along her lower lip, she could even spare the air to let out a soft moan. Her body seemed to be adapting to this quite naturally, in fact. She was able to breathe in at just the right times to keep herself going, so this kiss didn't have to end prematurely.

Eventually though, it did have to end. Shizuru pulled slowly back from the kiss, almost reluctantly. Natsuki's eyes blinked open, gazing questioningly at Shizuru. "Why'd you stop?" she said.

A wide smile crossed Shizuru's face. "Because I think that was long enough to prove my point," she said.

"Huh?" Natsuki said.

What point was Shizuru trying to prove? Natsuki tried to trace her thoughts back to before the kiss, trying to remember what they were talking about. Shizuru was asking her to close her eyes and breathe slowly, and before that saying that it was time she got her reward from the bet earlier, which she brought up as a way to test her idea that Natsuki had just lost her memories instead of having traveled through time from five years ago…

"Gah!" Natsuki said, trying to scramble back away from Shizuru as she felt her cheeks rapidly fill with a blush. "Y-y-you… you! Baka! What was that supposed to prove!?"

Frustratingly (but not unexpectedly), Shizuru didn't seem at all put off by Natsuki's sudden outburst. "It was supposed to prove that deep down, Natsuki is still my wife. When operating on instinct, she kisses back just like she always does."

"Wha- I…You-no, I… Um..." Natsuki sputtered, finally turning away from Shizuru when she realized words were failing her. She looked down at the dog pressed up next to her leg, silently pleading with him to come to her rescue somehow. He did seem to get the message to look up at her, but all he ended up doing was licking at air in the direction of Natsuki's face. Letting out a low growl at her defeat, Natsuki muttered, "Did you have to steal my first kiss to make that point, though?"

"Ara?" Shizuru said. "I don't think Natsuki's one to complain. She stole my first kiss after all."

"What? No I didn't!" Natsuki said, turning her head back to look at Shizuru. The expression on Shizuru's face didn't make it look like she was teasing, though… "...did I?"

Shizuru nodded. "It caught me quite by surprise," she said. A soft smile crossed her face. "But I certainly didn't mind. To this day, it's one of my most cherished memories."

Natsuki blinked. She could feel a warmth in her cheeks again, but she didn't look away. "Oh…" she said, giving Shizuru a weak smile. Her mind was still racing as it tried to take in all of this. "I… well…"

Her eyes drifted back toward Kiyoran, who'd pressed his head against her side as he looked up at her. He was the one who'd started all of this, making Natsuki worry about losing him. But if Shizuru was right, she didn't have to worry about that. He'd still be here tomorrow, and Natsuki's memories would return as well. The only drawback was that she'd be five years in the future… or well, what felt like five years in the future. She wouldn't be able to go back to what she felt was her present.

She'd have memories of it, though. She still would have experienced it. And she'd get to jump forward to this life with Shizuru, their beautiful puppy, and even with Duran hanging around to keep an eye on her.

Natsuki's eyes slowly drifted closed, trying to hold in tears once more. "Thank you, Shizuru…" she said. With a smile crossing her face, she opened her eyes and looked back at Shizuru. "I really do love you… well, I mean… how could I not?"

An expression of utter joy filled Shizuru's face, and Natsuki could feel her own heart warming in response. She only had a second to decide that yes, she did indeed love Shizuru, before her lips were once again claimed in a passionate kiss.

The End… for now

X-X-X

Author's Note: Thank you everyone for sticking with this until the end. I really appreciate each and every one of you who takes the time to read this (and doubly so if you leave a comment). Rest assured, I don't plan to stop writing about our dear friends, even if my pace might have slowed down in past years. Stay tuned for whatever I might have coming next! (Which just might include a bonus chapter for this fic, but we'll see.)