A/N: So sorry for the huge gap in posting. Finals is now upon me and I've been scrambling to make sure I am prepared. We're pretty close to the end of this years long project. Thank you for putting up with me. I hope you have a great week a head and please remember that I'm always rooting for you! See you next Sunday~

It was hard getting back to Shizuru's home, but Natsuki felt relief roll off her shoulders when her eyes laid on Duran, parked and well- behaved beside the machiya.

"Oh thank everything in the universe you guys are back," Reito called out from the doorway. "I've been trying to reach you both for days- Wait. Where's Shizuru?"

"She's still at the cabin."

"You left her there alone?"

"She's been alone in the cabin before Reito," Natsuki's shoulder shoved passed the frantic man.

"You haven't heard the news? She can't be out there at all!"

"I'm trying to get to my room. Besides, what are you babbling on about?"

Reito made a frustrated noise in the back of his throat and pushed his hair back. Natsuki watched as the Japanese man aggressively fished his pockets for a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. He took a long drag that took a good quarter of the cigarette tip. Reito held the burning smoke in his lungs, before releasing the foul air from his nostrils."I know." Reito pointed a cigarette holding fingers in Natsuki's face, "I know all about what happened between you two back in high school. And whatever happened while you guys were in the cabin is your business. But this winter storm is the worst this country has ever scene. Just look." Reito rushed back to Shizuru's sitting room to turn on the only television set in the whole house.

"Reports have been coming in from those stuck in this vicious winter storm. Both power and telephone lines have not been able to withstand the wind and frost created by the storm, and many are left without the ability to use their electricity and phones."

"Natsuki," Reito took another short drag of his cigarette then pointed the cancer stick toward the television, "We need to get her out of there. She will die."

"Ah, we've just been informed that all roads are being closed in affected areas because of the storm until further notice."

Natsuki's arms and legs went numb, and Reito fell to his knees, the cigarette hanging loosely from his fingertips.

There wasn't anything they could do now.

Reito had left the house for more smokes after the last weather report. Natsuki had stayed in the sitting room for hours, until she caught sight of movement out of the corner of her eye.

"Oh Kiyo, I'm sorry."

The king cobra lifted its head to lazily taste the air when Natsuki's hand hovered over the tank.

"Perhaps you should eat before I change out your water."

Natsuki grit her teeth after returning home with a small quivering mouse from the local pet supply. Natsuki hastily dropped the rodent into the tank, and walked away. It had been about an hour before Natsuki peeked her head into the sitting room. Seeing that the rodent had vanished and Kiyo had gone to sleep in a beautiful spiral, Natsuki took the opportunity to change out the water from Kiyo's dish quickly and quietly.

Placing the lid back over the tank, Natsuki stared at the cobra, "What am I supposed to do with you now?"

"You act like she's already dead."

Natsuki jumped when she heard Reito's voice from the doorway. "Shizuru's a lot of things, and a fighter is one of them. Even a winter storm as bad as this one won't bring her down. I brought snacks."

Reito and Natsuki moved their way into the kitchen, setting a pot for tea on the stove. The silence that fell between them was different than when Shizuru and Natsuki became quiet. It was a lot less pleasant.

"You told me that you know what happened." Natsuki's heart thudded in her chest, and her hands were clammy. This wasn't the best topic of conversation, but the blunette needed to know, and the silence was worse than talking about this anyway.

"I do."

"…How much do you know?"

Reito lifted his eyes to Natsuki before heaving himself up from the kitchen seat, "Follow me."

Natsuki followed behind Reito until they arrived inside Shizuru's dilapidated study. "You see this, right? How beat up this part of the house is compared to the rest of it?"

Natsuki nodded, her gaze traveling over every bit of Shizuru's things, her nostrils flaring up to take in more of the older woman's pleasant scent.

"We got super drunk one time after a book signing. I was so drunk, I had to stay here the night," Reito snorted and shook his head. "So, while I was getting ready for bed, I found Shizuru sitting in the center of the room in seiza. I walked in here, told Shizuru to stop being so freaking weird and to go to bed, when a cold wind passed through the gaps in the walls. I said, 'Geez, you have the money to fix this part of the house, why haven't you? I know a guy if you're looking for one.' And you know what she says next?"

Natsuki hadn't smelled it earlier, but now that they were in a room that didn't reek of cigarette smoke, the tang of alcohol assaulted her nose. "What did she say?"

Reito rubbed the back of his hand over this nose.

"She said, 'I can't.'"

Reito shook his head harder and Natsuki wanted nothing more than to pull his body out of Shizuru's sacred place. His wretched smell was tainting the perfume that would forever be Shizuru.

" 'Can't?' I said. What was that supposed to mean, right? And then she told me how she tried to force herself on you. That she was so blindly, and selfishly in love with you that she hand't realized what she was doing, tried to do, until you woke up and pushed her off."

Natsuki took a step back when memories of the ruby lips that tried to kiss her body without permission. Bile burned a hole in her stomach when Natsuki remembered being shocked and scared to see Shizuru's naked body above hers. And it wasn't that Natsuki had never seen Shizuru's naked body before, but it was the type of naked, the intent behind the nakedness that Natsuki had never experienced before.

Hearing Reito sniff, brought Natsuki right back into Shizuru's study. "She told me that she'd never renovate this room because she doesn't actually think of this as a study. It's her penance."

When Reito saw Natsuki look around the room with a wide set of eyes, he could see that it made sense. "Natsuki, I don't know why you came back and why Shizuru stayed back at the cabin, but I just have one question to ask you. Does her cabin look the same as this room?"

The blunette's heart stopped, her tongue glued to the roof of her mouth. "No," her voice came out like a breathy croak. She shook her cobalt head of hair, while turning away from Reito.

Reito didn't say anything more, and Natsuki walked over to her room, but the rest of the night, Natsuki tossed and turned in her bedsheets. The nagging question repeated like an unfortunate carousel every time her eyes laid on the sliding doors leading to the study, Will Shizuru be alright?