Yeah, it's Chan again. :P DeNice hasn't been feeling sporty lately, and neither have I. He's kinda in a low right now, so I'm writing this chapter for him so he won't have to.

Warning: LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG CHAPTER! Go use the potty now. And it's also overly romantic, and it might make you cry if you're all sensitive and stuff like me... x.x

DISCLAIMER: Rose and any other SFs belong to Capcom, Kaoru belongs to DeNice, and Yui is mine. Please don't sue us!! ;P

Chapter 7 - Good Morning...?

As Yui and I entered the kitchen, we saw Rose standing near the table, smiling at us brightly and wearing a lemon-yellow apron. All three of us sat together at the table as Rose poured us all a small glass of strong, hot tea. Glancing over Rose's shoulder, I saw a large oriental-decorated clock that read 4:30 A.M.  It would be a while before anyone else woke up, I hypothesized.

"So, Kaoru..."

I was startled to find Rose addressing me suddenly, and I nearly spilt my tea on me. Spacing was a bad habit of mine...

"Yui and you have settled some things, I believe..."

"Oh... yeah..." I said, searching Rose's eyes for any sign of a hidden meaning for her words. Yui sipped his tea silently and gazed at his reflection in it before turning his dark eyes up to my face. There was a sudden, silent link between us... One that couldn't be spoken, but I suddenly displayed it physically by spilling tea all over my lap.

"OH CRAP!!"

I jumped up and did a kind of crazy jig, because that tea was as hot as fire and it penetrated through my silk nightgown quickly. And exactly what was I doing still wearing that stupid gown, anyway? Yui and Rose were dressed in everyday clothes.

"Kuso..." I muttered as Rose giggled a little and Yui blushed down into his lap, a shy smile curling his lips without his consent.

"Kaoru, are you all right?"

"Sure... I gotta go change this real quick..."

Using the Ashura Warp, I was sitting on my bed in no time, plucking an outfit out of my bag. I grabbed a black, pleated skirt and a simple white shirt. Hurrying into the bathroom, I hastily slipped my gown off and changed into my new clothes before teleporting back downstairs, where Rose had been counting the seconds I had been gone on her fingers.

"Not bad..." commented Rose as she poured me another fresh cup of tea. Yui smiled shyly into his tea as he took a careful sip and placed it back down on the table.

"Umm... Kaoru..." he began. "Do you... want to do some... training, later...?" Yui stammered out his sentence and silently was cursing himself for sounding so stupid.

"Sure," I replied as Rose smiled at me.

"That's great that you two are getting along so well!" exclaimed Rose enthusiastically. There was a short silence before a knock sounded at the main entrance door.

"Come in," said Rose in a sweet tone, but everyone was wondering who would be knocking on the door at 4:30 A.M.

"Pa-ke-ji for Su'ang Yui," called a voice with a Japanese accent from the door, that of a weary deliveryman. Immediately, Yui rushed off to the door to get his package.

Rose and I glanced at one another in silence, equally confused at why Yui would be receiving a package so early in the morning.

After a while, he came back to the table with a small box in his hands.

"What is that?" Rose and I both asked simultaneously.

Yui shrugged as he searched for a return address, but there was none. His hands were trembling as he shredded the package open and pulled out a letter marked READ THIS FIRST. Slowly, he opened the letter and began reading it. Rose and I watched him in silence, expecting an explanation after he was done with the letter. I watched his handsome, dark eyes move from the top of the paper to the bottom, and back up to the top again repeatedly.

Suddenly, I sensed something not right. Taking a closer look at his face, I saw that tears were stinging his eyes and he was now biting his lip. He was about to cry...

"Yui?" I called his name softly and gently, but hearing no reply, I said it again, only a little louder. "Yui!?"

His hand knocked his teacup over, spilling the small amount of the contents on the table to his right. The paper fell out of his hands and near my left hand, and I reached for it as he buried his face in his hands and began to softly sob.

Rose and I stole one final glance at one another, and nodded at me and I slowly picked the letter up. I looked at the hastily scrawled writing in smudged black ink, and recognized it as being Korean writing, which I couldn't read. I passed the letter onto Rose, who stared at it in confusion. She turned it upside down, and began to chant out something that I couldn't understand. Then, she translated it to where I could understand it.

Dear Yui,

Bud, it's me, Xai-Lehn. I just have a few final things to say to you. You've been my best friend for years, and I miss you lots. I really wish I could see you once more... But my life's turned into hell. Mom, Dad, and my baby brother got killed on the airplane when they were going to Hong Kong a few days ago. I just found out about it, and I can't take it anymore. Look, in this package is my last gift to you. It's that pendant you bought me when I turned 16... It's meant so much to me these years... And I'm returning it now. Consider this my last gift to you, bro. This is the final goodbye, and I wanted to make sure that you knew I still care about you as my friend. I'll remember you even in death... Farewell, buddy.

~Xai-Lehn

It was a letter from his best friend... the worst kind of letter. It was a suicide farewell letter. Rose met eyes with me and I realized that we both were teary-eyed from the sincerity of the letter. Both of us felt the pain that Yui was feeling.

A crumpling sound brought our attention to Yui as we saw his hand blindly searching through the box's bubble wrap for the pendant mentioned in the suicide note. His hand stopped moving, and Rose and I watched in awe as Yui drew out a long, silver necklace with a red dragon pendant on the end. Immediately, Yui broke down again and dropped the pendant on the table. His chair hit the floor on its back, and Yui raced out of the room, leaving Rose, me, the note, and the pendant in the kitchen.

"Yui!"

I found myself up on my feet, chasing after him.

("What... am I doing...?")

My feet seemed to have a mind of their own. I tried to stop running, but I found that I couldn't. They were taking me outside onto the vast grounds of Rose's yard. Yui kept running on without slowing down at all; instead, he accelerated his speed and flew behind a large oak tree near a dark, motionless pond.

"Yui!!"

It was almost completely dark outside, but the sky was beginning to lose some of its darkness near the east which enabled me to see where I was going. Soon, I reached the trees near the lake and tried to figure out which one Yui was behind.

Stopping and ceasing all of my motion, I listened hard and heard soft sobs coming from a tree to the right of me. Slowly, I walked towards the tree and found Yui standing behind it, his forearm pressed against it and his face pressed on it. He was sobbing himself hysterical.

Silently, I walked behind Yui and observed him in his moment of total despair with high sympathy. After all, I'd had moments like this before. I knew what he was going through... But no one close to me had died recently, so the pain was fresh for him.

"Yui..." I murmured and placed one of my hands on his shoulder, which he jerked away.

"G-g-go... a-www...away..." he choked and turned his back to me."Leave me... a-a-alone..."

A frown formed on my face as I removed my hand from his shoulder and stared at the ground. What could I do?

Yui landed a hard punch on the tree, and choked on a sob as blood began slowly dripping down the tree's bark. My heart began to break for him, and I suddenly realized how much it hurt me to see him hurt. What the hell was going on with my emotions?

"No..." I whispered as I once again reached out to Yui, who swatted my hand back away from him.

"Kaoru!"

He turned his pain-contorted face up to me and let another loud wail escape from his mouth.

"You... you wouldn't understand..." he coughed and struggled to get his breath as I stood there, my hands hanging down at my sides and my fingers brushing the sides of my thighs, gaping at him.

"Yui..."

I walked up to him and wrapped my arms around his waist and stared up into his eyes.

"I know what pain is, too... And I know what you need..."

"Stop it..." Yui whined as he tried to pull away.

"Yui, you need a friend to help you cope..." I whispered gently. "I just want to help you, that's all..."

I tightened my grip on his waist and gave him a small smile, knowing that smiles are contagious sometimes. But I stopped as I realized that he was in more pain than I had thought. He couldn't smile; all he could do was sniffle and brush tears out of his eyes. Suddenly, I felt really bad. I couldn't explain it, but I felt my stomach tie itself in a knot and become painful.

"I'm... Yui... If you would talk about it..."

"I CAN'T... I can...'t... I can't talk a-a-about i-i-it..."

"You can..."

"Just leave me alone!"

I would never leave him in his time of need. Never. And now, he needed me more than anything else. I glued myself to him and rested my forehead onto his warm chest in the spot right above his collar bone. To my surprise, he didn't resist anything. He simply let his hands stay on my shoulders where he was trying to wrench me off of him before. He let his head fall forward as silent tears dropped down onto the back of my head, into my jet-black hair.

For nearly 15 minutes, we stood like this as he finished up his grief cry, but I knew it would come back to him later. A soft, shuddering breath from him declared the end of his crying, and I gently released him from my grip. Neither of us said anything for a while, until Yui sat down and leaned his back against the tree and stared into the dark lake. Dawn was beginning to break over the horizon, and it was a beautiful sight.

"Kaoru... you can sit here... i-if you want..."

"Ok..."

I sat close beside him and tucked my skirt underneath me to keep dirt from sticking to my bare legs as I gently placed my arm around his back. Both of us stared at the sunrise in silence, until he broke the silence in a gentle, controlled voice this time.

"I'm sorry I was being so unreasonable before.... I didn't mean what I said..."

"Don't worry about it. Grief does that to you..."

"Thanks..."

I felt his arm very slowly weave its way behind my back, as if he were timid to even touch me. I accepted it, and let my head rest on his shoulder. A few more silent moments passed as both of us wondered what we could say to the other.

"We... We sure seem to have a lot in common..."

"Yeah..." I replied, my eyelids getting heavy since I was so comfortable and warm.

"Yeah... and I was... thinking..."

I turned my eyes up to his and noticed that the cute, familiar blush was returning to his face.

"What were you thinking?" I asked, feigning surprise.

"Um... Maybe that you and me... Maybe we could..."

I saw him gulp. A million thoughts were probably churning in his mind, about what to say, and what not to say.

"Well... You like me, and I really... really like you... So maybe you could... Be my girlfriend?" Yui stammered before blushing madly.

I can't really say that this came as a shock to me at that moment, but I can say that I was surprised that he asked me that so early. Guys never paid attention to me because of the way I acted and looked. Yui, he was different... He was such a trustworthy boy... And only two years older than me...

"Yui... I'd love to be yours."

"That's... That's... great..." Yui slurred his last two words together before giving me a small, cute smile.

To be honest, I was ecstatic. I think it was right there and then that I fell in LOVE with Yui. It was such a strange, new emotion for me that I didn't know what to do. I wanted to laugh, I wanted to cry, I wanted to scream, I wanted to jump on him and kiss him... I could do nothing but sit there and stare at nothing blankly.

"You ok?" he asked me, gently putting his other arm around me and pulling me closer to him.

"Yeah..." I smiled at him warmly as I raised my head off his shoulder once more to look at him. This was the happiest I had ever seen him, and it made me feel so good inside.

Before I even knew it, I felt a sudden warmth on the left side of my face. Yui drew his face away and smiled once more at me as I realized that he had just given me a kiss on my cheek. This time, it was my turn to blush wildly. No one, I say, NO ONE had ever kissed me. No one found me good enough for a kiss but Yui. It made me so happy that he felt me worthy, I wanted to cry. Instead, I simply laid my head on his shoulder and stared at the motionless pond before my eyes closed and I fell into a deep, peaceful sleep in his arms.

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Ahh I love this chapter!!!! ^______^ It's all emotional and stuff... *wipes tear* Those are real female feelings, not just something crazy I made up. I've felt some of those emotions before and I'm surprised that I could portray them well with words. ^_^ Now give me your support... YOU KNOW YOU LIKED THIS CHAPTER!!! Give me a review and I'll get back to you all with the next chapter!!!

~Chan Yoruyamatiha