Must get ready for A-kon... must get ready for... well ignoring that hello! Thanks for reading this fanfiction I know it's pretty long but the good news is that it won't be to terrifyingly long till the end now! Anyway I hope you enjoy it and please review and let me know what you think!

Also, system doesn't like italics so it's in bold for thinking stuff...

I'd like to apologize. I got so into by Bankotsu and Jakotsu fic that I accidently wrote Ban instead of Hiro during the first posting of this chapter. The good news is that it has been fixed now. However, for those that had to suffer due to my stupidity I am very sorry.

Later!

Authors Notes:

Sakura – means cherry blossom

In the East it's a sign of respect not to look someone in the eye when speaking, in the west well most of us already know! =)

Chapter 17: Spring to summer

Her whole body was shaking.

Fear.

Worry.

Relief.

This.

The warmth of Akito's lips against her own only made her trembling worse. Her fingers tightened around Akito's kimono, trying to keep her self from falling over, but she only found herself leaning more into Akito's embrace.

Thousands of thoughts drifted through her mind. Most of them were saying things like this shouldn't be happening, or to stop it quickly, but her hands just couldn't push him away. Her arms felt like leaden jell-o and her body just refused to move at all! A piece of her wanted to admit that she just didn't want this moment to end, after all this was her first kiss, and the one doing the kissing was someone whom she didn't mind doing it at all.

"Hatori shouldn't we let them know they are being watched?" Momiji asked.

Akito roughly pushed Adrian away from him.

He was blushing.

Adrian was sure of it. His eyes refused to meet hers and his cheeks, it was impossible to hide the pink coloring his cheeks.

"Adrian why will you kiss Akito and not me?" Momiji pouted playfully. "I'm closer to your age and cuter."

"Momiji behave yourself." Hatori chided. Akito took the chance and just walked away. He knew something was wrong with his face, and to be honest he felt that if he stayed... well... he wasn't in the least bit sure what would happen.

Perhaps it was that lack of certainty that scared him. Why did he kiss her anyway? So what if she felt good in his arms that couldn't be the reason, could it? No of course not. Perhaps... perhaps...

He really just didn't want to think about it, or his own reaction to it.

He thought back to Kisa and Hiro, and how they were always together. Those two children were always playing together so innocent, and sweet, they were such good friends to one another. Akito had always felt jealous of their close relationship, he had tried his best to tolerate it and not to let them know how much it bothered him, and then when Hiro told him that he felt something more than friendship for Kisa...

Was this feeling that he was feeling for Adrian similar to what Hiro was confessing that he felt for Kisa? Akito wondered. Hiro had said that he loved Kisa. Hatori had said that he had loved...

"Love is such a stupid word!"Akito slammed his fist into an old tree that was on the path way to his house.

Damn it! It was a stupid word. A word no one had ever said to him, not even once! No one would probably ever say it to him. Nobody really cared about him after all. If they had his life wouldn't be traded for everyone else. So what if they respected him, they respected him because of the price of the curse. Damn them all!

"Akito? Do you really think that love is such a stupid word, really?"

Adrian's fingertips rested against the cool bark of the old sakura tree that he had just punched.

Why did her heart race like this when she was with him? Adrian desperately needed to get a grip on her emotions.

This was work... this was work... this was work... She chanted in her head. Her heart had nothing to do with this was just work.

"Thank you for saving me. I was just so surprised at everything... I didn't..."

Her face was so lonely and forlorn, her eyes carried a mixture of sadness, and shyness, and her eyes refused to meet his. Her cheeks were a soft gentle pink, as though she had been blushing, and he thought back to that word, yes love was a stupid word but maybe just maybe it wasn't just an illusive dream.

"This tree's pretty old isn't it?" She asked.

"No one knows how old it is." Akito looked up into the old branches of the tree. Ever since he was little he had always liked this tree. He would read under its branches when he could, and when he was really little he would hide from everyone else in its branches. During the early spring the blossoms would surround him and he would drink in the scent.

His memories of the tree were very dear to him. It was the only thing when he was little that hadn't wanted to use him. It had always just been there for him, and even now it was still just there for him whenever he needed comfort.

"Your pretty fond of it, aren't you?" Adrian asked. When he looked over at her he watched as her cheeks turned the same color as the sakura blossoms in spring.

"It was in your eyes!" She blurted. "You just looked so calm for a moment when you were looking at it." Why am I stuttering like a child!

"Yes." He responded simply.

Akito headed back towards the house. In the end he decided he was being a coward, not staying with her under that tree. Still staying with her wasn't a good idea right now. That 'L' word and her question were still running through his mind. Was it a stupid word?

"Love."

He just needed to try the word out; the way it rolled around on his lips was something to be savored, as you would fine food, or French wine. Was that what he was feeling? The idea that he was in love warmed him to the bones.

So this was what they were feeling. He thought. It was such a wonderful feeling whatever it was, and it was one that he would cherish until the day that he died. The memory of the kiss, the feel of her in his arms, knowing in his heart how he felt about her...

He wondered how she felt about him, and he went cold inside. What if she really was like everyone else, and didn't care about him?

No, she had to care, even just a little.

But care and love are two separate things. What if she didn't love him at all? Could it be possible that she just considered him a friend?

She let him kiss her! He argued with himself. She didn't struggle, she didn't even object!

Still she was still in shock over what had just happened. He did just rescue her after all, perhaps she had let him because she didn't realize what he was doing, or out of gratitude, or maybe...

Akito had never felt more nervous in his whole life. He needed to know if she cared, but he was too scared that she didn't care about him. The fear was eating away at him.

Adrian let her back rest against the bark of the tree. Her heart was still racing and for some reason she could still feel his breath and his lips on hers.

This was insane!

It was too dangerous!

What were those fan boys on anyway!

How dare they put her in that situation. She had really been in danger, and Akito...

How he had just jumped in there trying to save her like that. It was the first time anyone had ever done something like that for her.

She felt cold without his arms around her. What was wrong with her anyway? Why did she feel so hurt at his words?

Love is not a stupid word. She could feel a single teardrop falling down her cheek. Love was a dream she had always longed for and had never found. The love of a parent had been denied to her. The love of friendship had never been offered to her, and now Akito... what was it she felt for him. Was it some form of love?

She shook her head denying it to herself. She really couldn't afford it to that. Not now. Not when things were halfway completed! She had to finish her mission. When it was done she would be forced to return to her home in England, assuming of course she was going to be alive afterwards.

She couldn't stop sobbing as she leaned against the old cherry tree. She couldn't afford to love him, and he probably didn't love her anyway. Her fingertips traced the place on her mouth that he had touched.

He had probably just been trying to get her to shut up, she decided. After all, she had been more than a bit hysterical after the incident.

Still the memory of his lips on hers made her tremble inside. She felt that that this one experience had unlocked something within her heart that could never be relocked again, and deep down inside she knew that she loved him, it was just that she was too afraid to admit to it.

Chapter 18: Harvest

Let's break a few more curses, and have a confrontation between our cute couple... you know nothing much!