Disclaimer: And I STILL don't own Watase Yuu's wonderful characters ^^;; Please refrain from suing me as I have nothing anyway o.O;; O yea, and I changed the setting from one year to two years so that the story would flow more easily ^^; Sorry for the inconvenience! ^^;;;;;







Aya carefully placed her two year old daughter, Miku, back into her crib, smiling at her lovingly. "If your dad could see you now, he'd be so happy...", she softly whispered to the sleeping child. She quietly tiptoed out of the room as to not awaken the girl.

She leaned against the wall adjacent to her room and sighed to herself. 'I still miss you, Tooya.... I just can't seem to get over you now matter how hard I try. No... do I even WANT to get over you?' She clasped her hands and pressed them against her chest, frowning. 'I don't ever want to forget you, Tooya.... Maybe if I continue loving you forever, despite the fact that you're not here with me anymore--'

"In a way, you'll always be with me...." she unconsciously finished aloud.

"He will always be in your heart, won't he?" Yuuhi asked her in a hushed tone. He was leaning on the wall opposite of Aya, hands stuffed in his pockets. His bangs covered his sad visage from Aya's view.

Aya was at a loss of words. 'So he was here all along. I should have known....'

"Yes, I can't ever forget him.... I'd never ever forgive myself if I even misplaced one memory of the moments that I shared with him," she closed her eyes and tied to stop the new batch of tears which were beginning to form in the corner of her eyes, "he'll always be in my heart, no matter what."

Yuuhi and Aya both continued to stare down at the floor as if a force was drawing them in deeper and deeper into its very soul.

The awkward silence was finally broken as the ring of the telephone went off.

Yuuhi entered the main room to answer the phone, leaving Aya to wallow in her pain.

She made her way back into her room. Once again, she lifted the love of her life into her arms and sat in the rocking chair near her bed.

'Miku.... How I love you so.... It's been one year since Tooya left me.... No, since he left US. He loved you, you know, my little Miku. One day, you'll grow up and have to accept--to FACE--the cruelty of this world. I found out that life is unfair.... and one day, you will as well, Miku.Perhaps not to the extent that I have suffered.... The same pain that Tooya... Aki... and Yuuhi have suffered... but it will still be there.... Pain will always be there... waiting for you.... But I'll always... always be here for you, Miku. So you don't have to worry about a thing....'

"You... don't... have to worry, Miku...." she pressed her face against Miku's small body to try and drown out the deep sob that had managed to escape from her throat. "Miku...."

The young girl placed her small hand on her mother's cheek, an inkling of fear glowing from within her eyes. "Mama...."







Author's notes: Eh.... I kinda hope this story is getting better o.O;; This will hopefully turn out as a bit of a YuuhixAya match (not TOO apparent; much to my dismay, Aya really DID love Tooya... although I don't see WHY ^^). Anyway, hope you enjoyed reading this and again, I hope this is actually GOING somewhere O.o;;