The cold discomfort never left her when she got back inside the house, disconcerted.

"Shizuru?" her mother called; deep concern etched on her elderly face.

She looked at her parents, and her stare turned vexed when it landed on Yasuda.

"You and I have been over a long time ago. I no longer want to marry you. Please respect my decision!" Shizuru griped in a low growl.

"What is going on here, Shizuru?" Yasoshi asked, his tone full of fatherly concern.

Shizuru tried to calm her raging nerve. She looked at her father then to her mother. Her emotions a mixture fury and worry. And all she wants to do is to find Natsuki.

"I am in love with Natsuki, father" she held her father's gaze, her own looking so helpless. "I want to marry her"

"Have you no considerations of your family at all?!" Yasuda cried.

"I think you have spoken enough for us today, Yasuda-kun" Yasoshi enunciated, imposing his patriarchal authority. "You have heard my daughter. Man up and respect that!"

His voice almost thunderous around the room snapping Yasuda's mouth shut.

"It is best if you leave, now"

Yasuda's face was red with shame. Insulted. Speechless, his eyes strayed to Akemi and then to Shizuru. He smoldered with obvious anger and disappointment but chose to walk away mutely.

"What do you plan to do now, dear?" Akemi's motherly tenderness broke the silence after Yasuda left the room.

"I'm sorry mother, I should have told you both sooner" Shizuru groaned, occupying one of the single seaters.

Akemi hummed; her lips stretched into an understanding smile. "The takeaways had been pretty obvious these recent times we have seen you and Nat-kun together"

"What?"

"Somehow, we have seen this coming. Of course, that surprise from Yasuda was unexpected. After such a long time he was gone, we assumed you both have moved on already" Akemi pursed her lips "He apparently didn't"

Shizuru looked to her parents, surprise. "You're not upset?"

Akemi leaned back, her dark browse wrinkling. She and her husband shared a confused look.

"Why should we?" Yasoshi frowned "yes, what the paper says about Natsuki-san is worrisome, but we are not so naïve Shizuru. With what happened here, there is only side of the story. That hardly seems fair. This and the things she did for you, it does not add up." He folded his hands on his broad chest. "Besides, there is no dignity in winning by running your adversary's name in the mud. I honestly did not expected that from him"

Akemi embraced her daughter on the side of her shoulders. "This decision is always yours, Shizuru. We can only guide you. This is your life. It is futile to ask you to kiss a prince, when your heart belongs to a princess all along…"

She chuckled catching her relieved daughter's embrace.

Overwhelmed with love and support from her parents, Shizuru tried to make a hasty goodbye. She wanted to find Natsuki so bad and soon. The feeling that something was terribly wrong could not be shaken off. She took a cab and went straight to Natsuki's house only to find no one. The biker is not picking up her calls. Dusk is fast approaching when she got in the office to check. The pretty face she was looking for is not there either. She called Tomoe, Chie, and all other people she knew who could possibly point her to where Natsuki might be, but no one could give an answer.

"Where could she be?..." Shizuru wondered, restless. She dropped on her office chair, uncharacteristically running a hand through her golden tresses in frustration.

"Whatever happened?" Tomoe asked, sipping a pouch of juice while sitting on the office couch "why're you so worked up?"

But Shizuru jerked up, muttering to herself and not hearing Tomoe at all "Maybe I should check the mansion"

Tomoes' lips popped from the straw with comical surprise on her face "Mansion?! You've been there?"

"Yes?"

"Wow…"

"Why? Something wrong about it?"

Tomoe widened her eyes a fraction rolling it back on her laptop screen "Nobody can get in the mansion unless you're a Kruger" she said simply, sipping back on the juice noisily, pretending to read something interesting "Unless you're someone really important, probably"

She knew a pair of stunned red eyes were on her. She only spared it a quick glance before going back to the drab daily reports. She heard Shizuru bolted from her seat calling Tate to prepare the car.

It was nightfall when she reached the mansion and was surprised to see who has granted her entry. Natsuki's mother, Saiko.

Shizuru couldn't determine the look in her olive eyes. Somehow reserved and guarded. But she could see that Saiko knows the reason of her sudden visit.

"I wish to speak with Natsuki, ma'am"

But the look Saiko gave her was little regretful "I don't think now is a good time, Fujino-san"

They looked at each other, as though communicating desperation. Shizuru's face fell when Saiko gently shook her head. "I think you both should give it some time to calm things down, whatever it is. My daughter… has been pushed a little too far this time. We'll fly back to Munich at dawn"

"What?" Shizuru whispered, horrified. "No"

Why this all of a sudden?!

It suddenly became difficult to breathe. The thought of Natsuki leaving… unbearable!

She fought back to the haze of fear and uttered a quick apology to Saiko before rushing past her and towards the room she shared with the dark-haired girl before. It was empty.

She was breathing hard ignoring one of the servants calling after her in worry as walked through the hallway and unceremoniously opened the doors of the other rooms in search of Natsuki.

She turned a corner and found a wide, elaborate, and sophisticated Fusuma door. The extended walls are unlike the other rooms and curved around what looks to be a very wide space inside. It was probably one of the master suite and might have belonged to the master of the house, Saiko, but she took a chance anyway in the hopes to find Natsuki.

She pried it open with a little strain as it was not as lightly made as the others. She stopped when the door opened over a foot and half wide when she found how dark the room was. No light was lit. and would have moved on searching on other rooms when her frantic eyes caught sight of a silhouette of a head peaking over a backrest of a single wingback chair. It was facing the open veranda that leads to wide Zen garden. The moon was apparently bright outside, it's gleam deflects to portions inside the room. It was quite a picture with the season of fireflies floating in and out of a well-maintained bush and Chinese bamboos.

"Natsuki?"

The head stirred. The servant by the door next to Shizuru kneeled and uttered apologies, but the master on the chair merely raised a shadowed hand, stopping her, a signal for her to leave.

There was silence when the grey-haired lady in kimono left after a last bow and closed the door. Shizuru took a step forward, her stomach felt like floating. "Natsuki" she called again in dimness, a hint of relief and longing in her voice. It felt like eternity not seeing her and fruitless searching. But Natsuki never moved from her chair nor looked at the other woman.

"What are you doing here?"

Shizuru doesn't know where to start. She hasn't seen this side of Natsuki before. And she felt cold fear every second that ticks by. As though something is slipping off her fingers. She opened her lips but before words could come out, Natsuki's face turned to the side, face veiled by a shadow from the twilight reflected from outside.

"I will destroy him" She promised, and Shizuru was stricken by the cold threat. "No one will be spared"

Natsuki stood and faced her. Her whole stance so domineering. All Shizuru could see was the sharp glimmer of her eyes. And all she wanted to do amidst all this tension was to reach for that pretty face, and feel it melt in her hand again, just like each time.

"Don't leave… Please, Natsuki"

The smirk and sinister chuckle were not what Shizuru had expected. And each sound feels like Natsuki is drifting farther and farther from her reach.

"Haven't you read the papers at all?! Are you blind?! Your dad can't even take it!"

"You're wrong"

Nastuki scoffed, she reached for a square bottle of liquor from the table and a small glass.

"Go home, Shizuru"

"No! What is wrong with you?!"

Natsuki dropped the bottle and the glass back with a fury. She glared at the other woman in the room. "Don't test me…" she groaned, enunciating each word "get out"

The scathing words hit Shizuru like bullets like hot knife, stunned with this sudden rage. Her eyes misted, bleeding pain. She tried to glare defiantly at the biker from this frosty attitude, but her eyes are starting to betray her, the tightness in her chest ascending to her throat, no words coming out.

She turned, her back on Natsuki, taking a deep breath as she dashed a few tears that escaped her eyes her hand like a child. Then she frowned. Something is definitely off. She paused trying to look past this chaos and rage. She slowly turned again, glaring back at Natsuki.

"No. I'm not leaving here unless you come with me"

"Ridiculous. Don't make drag you out woman!"

"Go ahead!"

Shizuru could see the perfect white teeth even in the dark, smirking diabolically at her.

"Don't try me Shizuru"

Something is definitely wrong and Shizuru wouldn't want to stop at nothing to bring back the Natsuki she had known.

"Do your worst"

Natsuki approached her like a devil hot from hell. Her voice was deceitfully sweet close to Shizuru's face. "Do you want me to destroy you too?"

The wide red eyes held her gaze. And a flicker of pain in them before she spoke.

"You're breaking me now, Natsuki" her voice almost trembled, but she managed to repress "Now, unless you let me understand why you hate me so much, I will not leave"

"You're stupid"

"No, you're stupid! Stop acting like baby!"

"What?!" dark emeralds burned on her "How dare you!"

Shizuru surprised them both by grabbing the lapels of Natsuki's shirt, crushing their lips together. Her kiss was demanding. Lips searching for the taste of the girl she longed for behind all this rage. Natsuki stood frozen. Fighting. Fighting back the urge to give in to those sweet velvety lips on hers.

But the smell of Shizuru's breath. The taste of her. It's all too consuming. As it always does ever since the first time.

A low growl escaped her throat as she grabbed the honey-haired woman by the waist, lifting her and slamming her back by the door. All reasons left when those slender legs locked her locked around her waist and towards that familiar territory, she would shamelessly mark each time, as they try to dominate each other's tongue. The sound of Shizuru's mewl on her lips blew away all reasons.

She threw her on the bed and roughly dragged the red cotton pullover and that halted on Shizuru's wrist when her hungry green eyes found what's underneath. Or the lack thereof.

"You're not wearing a bra?!"

"What?" Shizuru panted, momentarily confused.

"You were in a room with him, and you are not wearing a bra?!"

Red eyes glared in frustration, but her hands were held captive over head by Natsuki's strong ones.

"You're really a stupid dog! It's for you! Nobody asked him to be there!" she barked; in such ferocity she had never done before.

But Natsuki groaned and managed to tie both her hands to a bedpost on the corner. "Natsuki!"

She whined but her voice was drowned out when Natsuki crushed their lips again. She wanted to cry, yet she thirsts for the lips on hers now, spreading fire all over her skin. She feels the familiar stirring in her belly radiating down to her core with carnal longing. The heat of Natsuki's hand on her breasts, massaging almost crushing them. Her back arched as though pressing them against those hands as hungry lips trailed kisses down the side of her face, her jaw, trailing down her neck until it found one of her needy overheated nipples, paying homage with savageness. Her back arched again in synced of her repressed needy moan. Her body couldn't fight back, overtaken by need and surrendered to Natsuki's ruthlessness. She couldn't help letting lose a sudden cry of pain when the kisses turn to a bite. Alternating between sweet suckling sensation, the teeth grazing around her skin, then the wet and warm tongue twirling around her other nipple, sucking hard, twirling and lapping again, and sucking hard again.

It was a heady sensation. Natsuki had never been this ruthless to her before, yet she couldn't find it in herself to deny the woman raving her. Natsuki needs her. Natsuki hungers for her. It feels like a combination of weakness and power.

She gasped loudly in sync with Natsuki's throaty groan when a hand slip past her wrinkled skirt, deft fingers slithered through her damp lacy satin and into her hot core. Her eyes rolled heavenward, groaning as she felt the fingers in and out. In and out.

"Yes… that's it" she heard Nastuki whispered on her face. It sounded like a devil enjoying her torment.

The ministration stopped and she whimpered at being abandoned. Suddenly, her skirt was ripped apart, her silky lingerie tore like a piece of paper. And Natsuki was inside her again with a vengeance, expertly hitting her to the core that would soon fill her in to the brim. Another finger slipped in and Shizuru could no longer contain her lustful moans when a thumb rubbed on her wet and swollen nub in time with the penetrations. Natsuki was looking at her as though relishing her torture.

"Spread your legs" she heard demand through gritted teeth, but a flicker of her defiance nonsensically fought back. "You really wanna fight me, do you? I can do this all night" she felt the pumping slowed down a fraction, the thumb left the delicious weakest spot. It was a threat. And she mewled in complaint.

"Spread your legs for me Shizuru" She heard the rough whisper again. She would have fought back in anger at this treatment when suddenly she felt the pumping harder and hitting right at the core, thumb expertly ghosting over her eager wet nub, round and round, agonizingly pleasurable. She could see Natsuki's smug and evil look in the haze of her pleasure in this dark room as her body surrenders to this newly born devil. Their face so close, groaning and panting, the warm hand on her breast, flicking and twirling a nipple, as she spread wider, openly relishing Natsuki's sweet and rough torture, building her up higher and higher and it wasn't long before she spilled over and reached a cathartic climax, the sound of her uncontrolled lustful moans as she twitched and ride the orgasm dashed all her reservations. She cannot fight it. And through her teary and hazy eyes, she could see the look of satisfaction on Natsuki's face. She's completely at the mercy of a dark Natsuki.

Sated and exhausted, a tear rolled down her face. She knew something is still wrong when she saw an evanescent sadness on on Nastuki's eyes watching her. She groaned when her hot-tempered lover had gently pulled out from her, holding up her glistening fingers. It brought hot shame on Shizuru's face and would have looked away if not for the picture of fascination on Natsuki's countenance. Shizuru nearly combust when she saw how the dark pair of eyes looked at her with delight as she sucked on the juice from her fingers.

Natsuki leaned down and gave her still panting lips a smoldering kiss, passionate and solicitous where she taste herself.

"Untie me please…" Shizuru begged "I want to touch you"

"Not yet" Nastuki whispered. Her eyes never leaving the naked goddess on her bed as she undressed. Shizuru looked at her longingly, tugging at her hand as the body she desires slowly gets unveiled before her.

She watched as Natsuki kneeled before her and slowly spready her legs again. Her silver strapped stilettos were removed and tossed away. She groaned when the dark-haired woman bit on her small toe with enough pressure to enjoy the pain before she felt Natsuki connected to the pulsing apex of her legs. She could feel her, and she lifted her pelvis to feel more of her as they started to rub against each other. She heard the agonized groan from Natsuki as they keep pace, her wrist getting sore as she tugs on her arms all the while swirling on the new heady sensation setting fire again between her legs.

"Natsuki"…" she moaned the bikers name who groaned again listening to her. Natsuki picked up the pace and it wasn't long before all the excitement and confusion brought them both over the precipice again.

Both of them were panting. Natsuki dropped on the crook of Shizuru's neck who could hear her breathing on her golden tresses. Their bodies pressed together, misty with sweat. Shizuru was still trying to catch her breath, sapped and exhausted, when she heard the sound that ripped such painful would in her soul. She tugged hard on her arm until she finally managed to set her hands free and wrapped it protectively around Natsuki..

"Please tell me what's wrong… Natsuki" her own voice choked as pure pain resonated through her. Her own eyes couldn't stop streaming, cradling the dark crown between with her cheek and her hand when she heard her frail voice croaked her name in supplication. "I am here…" she cooed, "please tell me what is it… Natsuki… I love you… please tell me"

She held her safely through the night, gently rocking them both from this unknown affliction Shizuru so desperately want to understand. She waited until Natsuki would be ready to speak. She waited patiently but to no avail until the woman in her arms drifted off to a dreamless sleep. She kissed her profile in the moonlit night. She waited… just staring at Natsuki sleeping so close to her. She waited until her own exhaustion won her over... And when the first beam of the morning light invaded the room, she reluctantly pried her eyes open. She blinked as she adjusted and felt utter desolation. Fresh new tears distorted her vision when she reached to an empty and cold pillow.

Natsuki…