apparently i can't even keep up with a 3 story schedule... heh...



Chapter 14 - Give Up





Hinako felt something warm next to her. She turned her body slowly and came face to face with Touya's profile. "Aahh!!"

Touya rolled off the bed in surprise. "Ahh!! What's going on? Huh?" He looked around, wondering where he was. Then it clicked. "Oh man..." he groaned.

"Why were you in my bed?" Hinako asked, wondering if maybe he overworked himself again and thought this was his room. She looked at him, waiting for the answer. Touya looked up, then meeting her eyes, he looked back down. "Er... well, you see, I saw you sleeping at my door..." he looked up for a second, and saw her blush. "And... er, so I brought you back here..."

Hinako smiled and nodded to show she understood. Touya sighed in relief. "Because... er, you know, I don't want you to get any um... wrong ideas and so yeah, just so you know, there's nothing, and..." Touya ran out of things to say. Hinako stared at him. He suddenly became very interested in the creases in Hinako's bed sheets. She looked down. "I guess the flower is right then..." she whispered. "Huh? Did you just say something?" Touya asked without looking up.

Hinako put her head down and tried to keep her eyes dry without Touya noticing. She put on a fake smile and said as cheerfully as she could, "Nope! Oh! I forgot to do something! I'll be back!" She ran out of her room as fast as she could.

There was a moment of silence. Touya then rose his head. 'I wonder what I have to do to make her confess to me. Though, Yuki didn't tell me either.' 'Maybe they don't know,' his head argued with himself. He shook his head and went upstairs to take a shower.

Hinako hummed as she made the pancakes. As they fried in the pan, she washed the strawberries. She then proceeded to grab a knife. As she reached into the drawer to get the knife of choice, her finger slid across one of the bigger knives and got a cut. She pulled her finger away and stared at the cut. 'Is this pain?' The dark purple blood slowly made its way toward the tip of her finger and almost dripped when a napkin was held against the finger. Her heart stopped for a moment in surprise. She blinked and looked up into the worried eyes of Fujitaka. "Are you okay?"

Hinako smiled. "I'm fine. I just have to... huh? Oh no!" There was a burning smell as the pancake turned dark brown and extra crispy. She turned off the stove and took off the pancake but it was already too burnt to be of any use. Hinako's lip started to tremble. "I'm... so sorry!!" Fujitaka laid a hand on Hinako's shoulder. "That's ok, one pancake isn't going to ruin breakfast." She smiled. Sakura's father started to cut the strawberries and fry another pancake. At first Hinako protested, but he insisted, so she sat down on one of the chairs and waited patiently for Touya and Sakura to come down.

There was a sudden explosion of noise and things crashing down. 'Maybe I should check up on it,' Hinako thought to herself, but as she stood up, a cloud of dust rushed to the table. "Am I late, am I late??" it took a deep breath and saw the pancakes. "Ooh, yummy!!" it ate them in a rush and started for the door. "What are you doing, Sakura-san?" Hinako asked. "I'm late again Hinako-san!!"

"But it's only 7:00."

"... Oh." Sakura walked back. "Why was I rushing myself?" She paused, and her eyes held a look that would burn fire. "KERO!!!!"

"Kero?" Hinako and her father asked simultaneously. "Hoe? Oh, it's nothing, it's nothing!" Sakura laughed nervously and backed away slowly until she reached the stairs, where she then proceeded to have another cloud of dust follow her all the way up. They stared and then Fujitaka went back into the kitchen with Sakura's plate in hand, as Hinako smiled to herself.

Meanwhile, upstairs...
"KERO!!!!"

"Huh?" Kero yawned and rubbed his eyes, only to find Sakura glaring at him from 2 inches away. "Aahhh!!! Scary!!!" He tried to fly away but Sakura already had a hold of his wings. Kero drooped, in defeat. "What was the big idea in waking me up early and telling me I'm late?!!"

Kero sweatdropped with a nervous smile. "Hehehehehehe..."

"You can't just laugh it off!!"

"Er... well..."

"WELL??"

"I... um, thought it was 8:00..."

"Really........"

"Yes." Kero nodded with conviction.

"Are you sure??"

"Is who sure?"

"Hoeeee!!! 'Nii-chan!! Don't scare me!!" Kero dropped to the floor. He laid as still as possible as Touya looked suspiciously at him. "You're awake early, monster." Touya grinned. "Onii-chan!!!!"

Hinako commented casually, "Here they come." Another flurry of dust came down the stairs. In another moment, Touya was calmly sipping coffee and had the newspaper open to the comic section. Sakura stomped down the stairs, and it did in fact, sound like a monster, Hinako had to admit. "ONIICHAN!!!!!!!" Hinako smiled. Touya winced as Sakura stomped on him. "Geez, *wince* monster *wince x2*, it's not like *wince* you're NOT a monster *wince-o-rama*."

"I'M NOT A MONSTER!!!!!!"

"Are you still hungry, Sakura-san?"

"Nope, otousan, I'm fine!" Hinako saw a little smile on Sakura's lips and wondered what she was up to. Soon, Touya finished his pancakes and started out the door. "Now, I'm not late to follow you, 'nii-chan!" Hinako looked at Sakura, puzzled, and decided to investigate. She walked slowly, but close enough to see Sakura and Touya. Soon, they reached the area where Yukito was waiting. 'Oh, Yue-sama!' She looked at Touya, who grinned, and at Sakura who had hearts popping out of her eyes and was blushing. 'How interesting. Well, I shouldn't be spying on Sakura-sama so I'll go back now.'

"Hinako!" Her heart thumped. She turned around and saw Yukito waving at her. She waved back, nervous at what Touya and Sakura might think. "Hinako-san, I didn't know you were outside too!!" Sakura smiled happily and looked back at Yukito. "Yukito-san, I didn't know that you knew Hinako-san."

"Oh, we just happened to bump into each other recently." Touya narrowed his eyes and Hinako was afraid of what he might know. "How recently?" Yukito, oblivious to Touya's tone of voice, started explaining when and where they met. Touya looked at Hinako and she looked back at him with what she hoped to be an innocent face. His eyes narrowed and she looked away quickly. She said hurriedly, "I have to go clean the house!" and ran back into the Kinomoto home.

The three stared after her, then they shrugged it off and biked and skated to their schools.

Back home, Hinako placed her hand to her chest to try and stop the flurry of heart beats. The look on his face scared her and she tried to keep it out of her mind, and couldn't. She was becoming more human than she wanted to be. It wasn't comfortable for her to be like this, with the complicated feelings and the incredible physical pain coming with being a human. She went upstairs to Sakura's room to get some possible advice.

Two years later...
I feel... relaxed. What a nice human feeling. I guess Keroberos-sama can give some good advice when he wants to. I looked around to see if I was still in Tomoeda. I was. He told me to just lose my consciousness for a couple of years so I decided it couldn't hurt to try. I know it wasn't a great way to handle the situation I was in, but at the time, I thought it was the best idea. I wonder how everyone is doing. At least Tomoeda still looks the same. If it didn't, I'd have to explore this world all over again. I stood up. My legs are a bit unstable from my diminished walking skills. Well, I might as well look for the people I know. I grabbed the bench just in case my legs should fail me until I felt ready. I looked around and started walking toward the direction that I remember walking away from before I came to be here. I thought my legs were starting to shake again so I looked down, and noticed too late that someone was about to hit me. We both fell down from the impact, though it wasn't too severe.

"Itai..." I looked at the person I ran into. Their wavy, lavender hair covered their face. "Gomen nasai!! I didn't see where I was going!"

"That's ok." The person, evidently a girl from her voice, looked up. "Sugoi! You have lavender eyes!!"

"So do you." The girl smiled. I think I feel lightheaded. A grin spread across my face and I asked her if she knew a Kinomoto Sakura. The girl brightened at the name and grabbed my hand and proceeded to take me to her house.




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um yeah... this chapter kinda didn't make sense... well at the end anyway... ^^; oh yeah, and i skipped over to two years later because, i can't keep this fic going on forever right? i plan to end it soon... after all this turmoil of not writing anything, my guilt finally got me to finish this chapter i started writing about a month ago...