Last Resort

by Skyla1

A second chance to do things right this time, it was their last way out. No one said they wouldn't screw up along the way.

17. 17

Chapter 17

Somehow between the tears and the self-pity, Tsukushi and Yuuki both to have their well deserved cathartic breakdowns. Sakurako fell into a deep slumber after being drained from all the venting, which was to be expected from the draining emotional rollercoaster she had been circling over and over in.

Groggily, Tsukushi woke up with bleary eyes trying to distinguish the numbers on the clock on her nightstand. Her clothes were disheveled and wrinkled from off angle she had fallen asleep in. seeing that is was only six in the morning, she rolled over onto her back. Her mind and body both protested in pain at the lingering aches.

Staring at the ceiling grateful for the almost moment of solitude, she thought about a lot of things. Some were happy, and some were not so much, but yet she felt the familiar warmth of the tears drying on her face. Yuuki always had that effect on her. Once she started crying, she could make anyone else start. Then the damn waterworks wouldn't end. Her hand brushed against her cheeks to wipe away the annoying moisture.

It had been years since she thought about that night. Somewhere in her mind, he had lost all the distinguishing features that used to haunt her dreams. Now all he seemed to be was a shadowed figure lost to her memory over time. He embodied everything she feared in the world, all her pain, and the reason for her sadness.

In retrospect, she always did believe that in life things happen for a reason. No matter how much you can attempt to decry that fact, in its own cosmic way, the world goes on in some preordained map. Good things will happen. Bad things will happen. All in all, life will go on. And that was one of the reasons, why she lay in her bed pondering over the plastic tube in her hand. It was a dream that had long been forgotten, but perhaps everything that had occurred recently was a sign that the time was now.

The thought alone scares me shitless.

But things were falling into place. While everything else in the puzzle could fall apart, the wheels were in motion for another part of her universe. With a loud groan, she got up form the floor and walked over to the closet in her room to pull out a blanket to drape over Yuuki as she slept on the couch. She paused momentarily to check whether her movements had disrupted her, but apparently not. Tsukushi shook her head to fight off the heady feeling from her crying, and managed to shake some sense into her foggy head.

The top of the canister came off with a soft pop, and the contents were spilled out onto the ground. Large sheet of rolled up papers spilled out onto the ground unraveling before her eyes.

What were you thinking, Susumu?

Fingers brushed against the detailed drawings of the familiar floor plan sketched out. The date in the corner marked the inception of the idea had been put to paper many years prior, perhaps to even a few months after the conception of the club. Tsukushi didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the endeavor. This would be the final phase of something that had taken years to get to. She wasn't even sure if Shizuka knew about the architectural blueprints that were hidden away in the storage unit of the basement. He always did have some strange sense of foresight. She pursed her lips studying his familiar cursive script at the top of the plans naming his less than small project as if it were some covert military mission.

There's no better time that now. What more do we have to lose than everything? I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Her resolve was in place, and there was no turning back. Everything was going to change and whether it would be for the better or for worse, no one could determine. Perhaps if she knew sooner how many more tears would be shed, the emotions that would arise, and the strain on their fragile existences, she would have taken another look at the available options.

Tsukushi would have taken a longer look at the floor plans, but the muffled sounds of footsteps approaching would not give her that. Gathering what little was left of her courage, she stood up from her position on the ground. Ready to face the world with the same steadfast conviction she had held so firmly, she went to face it all- head on.

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Rui was the first to walk in carrying a comatose Kaya. Somewhere in the middle of the fudge brownie layer of her sundae last night, she had seemed to pass out into a sugar coma last night. He winced at the probable tummy ache that would bother her this morning; therefore, causing Tsukushi to deal finding a way to soothe their daughter's upset stomach. He had been in that similar situation the after first night she stayed with him after he let her indulge in a bit too much. The little girl moaned and groaned her way through the rest of the next day complaining at the icky feeling.

Yes, he spoiled her rotten. But that was where the lines were drawn in his role in her life. With such a low maintenance child, he never had to experience the normal toddler tantrums, sulking, screaming, and crying most children were prone to. Oddly enough, Kaya had this way about her that charmed most people into giving her what she wanted while maintaining a certain degree of boundaries. His thumb brushed the small amount of drool coming from her mouth, and he cracked a small grin in amusement at how beautiful she was. She hadn't changed much from the baby he would sit and stare at for hours napping in her bassinet. Each and every day, his heart grew a bit bigger filled with more love and adoration for her. But sadly enough, he resigned himself to his status in the scheme of things.

I'm the part time father. I spoil her rotten with my candied kisses and can do no wrong wishes because in my eye she is the world, and everyone and everything revolves around her.

"She's really knocked out there. I assume you loaded her up on enough sugar to put her into a coma," a voice called out bringing him out of his revelry.

"Sorry," he whispered. "You know how Sakurako can come up with the wildest concoctions. I'm surprised she isn't diabetic with the amount of sugar she was packing in. Kaya here was closing on as a close second."

She giggled knowing it was probably true. "You can put her in her room if you want? She must be getting heavy."

She walked ahead of him to open the bedroom and door and stepped aside to let him enter. Tsukushi pensively watched him carefully place the sleeping bundle onto the bed. He worked with a practiced ease propping her up in a sleeping position to change her out of her pajamas. Kaya barely even noticed as she mumbled incoherently as he moved her arms in the air to pull a nightgown over her head. She slumped down into the soft mattress with a slight nudge falling like a dead weight.

"She's out for the count."

"Yeah, she probably won't be up for a few hours. I would prep myself for her to wake up in a few hours with a stomachache. She's going to come down from that high sometime."

"Thanks for the heads up. I usually just give her a warm glass of milk and rub her tummy. That makes her feel better most of the time."

"I know, she told me that you do that when she doesn't feel good. This parenting thing comes so easily to you, doesn't it?" He gazed down at his daughter brushing away her bangs from her forehead. His lips fell down onto the smooth skin kissing it. "Almost doesn't seem fair that I have to fumble around a bit."

Tsukushi stepped into the room picking up the scattered dolls on the floor and throwing them into an empty laundry basket. She made a mental note to straighten the place up the next day to return all of the items to their appropriate places. She knelt down on the ground on the opposite side of the bed to face him from across. Tugging the blanket under her Kaya's chin, she watched the way Rui was fixated on the sleeping child with an intense fascination.

"It's soothing to watch her sleep, isn't it? I sometimes come here in the middle of the night to just check up on her. I could watch her like this for hours." Brown irises peeked up at him beneath heavy lidded eyelashes. "Parenting is all about the hits and misses, you know? You may make some mistakes along the way, but we all have the best of intentions during the entire ride. It's moments like these that you can just step back and think to yourself what did you ever did to deserve someone like her.

"Yeah, I know."

"Come on." She nodded her head towards the door. Closing the door quietly behind her, she moved back to the couch in t he living room. She tucked her legs beneath her while resting an arm across the back.

Rui copied her position on the opposite end staring intently at her waiting for her to begin whatever it was she needed to say. His eyes would every once in awhile flutter towards Kaya's closed door wondering how much longer she would be asleep or whether now was an appropriate time for them to talk. They had had a past track record of screaming and yelling that put staying calm on the losing end.

"I've been thinking a lot about the way things used to be, ya know? With the way things are going for us now, I don't have many options left. I know I told you I wanted to talk to both you and Shizuka about everything, but I think it was more important to talk about this with you first."

"What exactly do you mean?"

"With the condition of the club, we're going under. I know we've hit some tough patches before, but not quite like this. To even get ourselves out of the red we're talking about sinking pretty low to get the crowds back in. We've probably already lost some credibility with the way we handled the fire and everything. People aren't going to come back so easily knowing that we couldn't handle a fight."

He sighed heavily, pinching at the bridge of his nose with his fingers. "It seems that being left with this place is more trouble than it seems. You know I feel about it. If it were my choice you and Shizuka wouldn't be running the damn place. I mean, yes, it has given us the chance to live comfortably, but don't you ever think it's exactly what is holding us back?"

"You know I can't leave without knowing…"

"I know, but how much longer. How much longer can you two keep the place together? Already it takes up too much of your time you could be spending with Kaya. You can't keep running on empty forever."

"I'm perfectly fine."

"Says the girl denying her hospital stay from exhaustion."

"I was just a little tired," she fought back in exasperation. She knew where the argument was heading. It was always the same one and they very same reasons for why she should let go of it all- to let it all fall apart. "And how did you know? I told Urara-sensei not to mention anything."

"I snuck a peek at your charts. It doesn't exactly take a brain surgeon to figure out that you are overworking yourself. Tell me something. How much sleep do you get at night? When was the last time you didn't spend one day in the club? You've lived and breathed for it, but not one moment was spent living for yourself. Getting a couple of hours of sleep here and there is not going to keep working."

The accusation was dead one, one she could not deny. "You know me all too well," she flippantly agreed. "You never cared this much when I was in the hospital after giving birth to our daughter."

A slew of curses were muttered under his breath. "Don't play the guilt card with me. No matter what I'll always care. Not because of some odd sense of guilt, but because I genuinely care. And don't even try to tell that I'm bullshitting you, because I'm not. I know what I feel, and you can't tell me otherwise."

Perhaps this is what needed to be said. She would be a liar if she completely denied that not once had she missed him. For he knew all of her secrets as she did his. They shared a past breaching past any divide of self. He knew her as well as she knew herself and maybe even more.

"You won't leave me alone, will you," she asked although the answer was obvious. She shook her head in disbelief.

In some ways, there were times like this where she found herself pondering over how little the relationship had changed.

Sometimes they were still the same stupid, scared teenagers.

"Then, I guess, it won't be very hard to show you this." She pulled the tube containing blueprints and the stack of letters she had brought out in the living room. It was decided that an explanation could come after he had inspected the material on his own.

His eyebrows knitted together as he quickly scanned through the letters. Some were postmarked from a few years ago, while the most recent just days ago. He never knew that she still thought about what she had sacrificed and assumed that the chance had passed. But now as he stared down at the imprinted letterhead seal, he realized how dense he was for never considering that she had not forgotten, but merely delayed her plans. The blueprints mapping out the all too familiar layout of the club were even more perplexing. Rui vaguely recalled overhearing talk of these plans, but also, this idea had escaped his mind along with many of the pipe dreams of youth.

"I know I haven't mentioned this since Kaya was born, but there is a lot you don't know about me, Hanazawa Rui." Her fingers brushed down the curling corners of the prints. She averted his attention away from him onto the prints on the table to avoid seeing his reaction.

As much as she was her own person, she would not do this unless it was with his consent. It was all or nothing for them, but she knew the impending marriage of her ex would shift that delicate balance.

Rui swallowed down his surprise and poured through the pages of correspondence. His heart's rapid beating felt like it was about to burst through his chest. But he knew the consequences of his actions either way would weigh heavily on his head. The right choice was obvious.

"I won't hold you back," he stated wondering to himself if she caught that slight tremor in his voice. Though it pained him greatly to do so, he acknowledged the fact that with his own change others would change as well.

Tsukushi's lips curled into a tight-lipped smile. She would not be overly effusive in her elation. To do so, would be cruel.

'Thank you, Rui." Her hand hesitantly fell over his. "I may never have said this, but you are a good man."

His walls fell with the simple knowledge that he had done something truly good for once was completely gratifying. At least the score would start to even out a bit more.

At the same time, Tsukushi was feeling that same heavy burden being lifted from her. All of the years of frustrations and resentment didn't seem all that important anymore. It was rather cathartic to get it out in the open and try to really regain what was lost, not some half-assed attempt they were working with previously. The man who had broken her heart wasn't before her, but someone whom she could look in the eye and respect.

He was her first for many things. Above all, he was her first true friend- her best friend.

"I've missed you, Rui," she breathed grabbing him into a hug. She felt his body tense at the abrupt pull, but soon he relaxed sinking into her embrace. "I'm in if you're in," she laughed into his shoulder.

"I'm in if you're in," he replied chuckling at the very words that had always seemed to bring trouble with them. It was nice to begin to resort back to their light-hearted friendship. The inside joke was just the beginning. "I'm really happy for you, ya know?"

Her palms pressed against his chest, and she looked up into his face. "This has been a long time coming, but I'm sorry. I'm sorry for a lot of things, but know that I am sorry."

He nodded his head admiring her for giving him what he sought for. It wasn't the apology that mattered, but the admittance of her forgiveness that came with it. "I'm sorry, too. Although I have been saying it for the longest time and it took you a pretty damn long time to return the favor."

"You know, I forgave you a long time ago, but the chance to make you miserable seemed so much better,"

"Thanks a lot," he snorted. "I'll remember that the next time you refuse to have a civil conversation with me for five years."

Tsukushi grinned to herself at how nice it was to be in Rui's company like they used to be. Restoring that silly rapport of theirs was especially uplifting. "Then there would have been no point in torturing you." She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. A vague undecipherable expression was one her face. "You're my best friend in this world. Sometimes I love you to death, but most of the time, I hate you to the very core of my soul."

"Well, I guess we better work on switching that loving and hating part around. But we have time for that. Now the question is what will happen to Kaya?"

"I don't really know right now. It sorta depends on what you think, but we have plenty of time to figure it out. Do you even know what you and Shizuka are planning? Are you going to stay here?"

He shrugged his shoulders noncommittally. "Not really. We haven't really discussed what we would do after the wedding. We were aiming for a early spring wedding."

Tsukushi nodded in understanding. "We've always worked best when we wing it. It'll really freak out the others when they actually see us being nice to each other. We might give them some heart attacks."

"Who cares? Like they haven't mooched off the drama of our fucked up lives long enough. From what I've seen, they are going to put a new spin on dysfunctional."

"We do have such interesting friends."

At that moment, the front door swung open with a rattle of the walls at its forceful opening. Tsukasa stumbled through the door bleary eyed and semi-incapacitated. His hands fumbled for the walls as a guide to his room. Not even sparing a single hello, but a mutter of "I'll kill Akira" was heard.

"You don't have to be so grumpy!" Akira cheerily shouted bursting in behind him and shutting the door. His enthusiasm for the early hour was irritatingly offensive. His off key singing only worsened his intrusion.

"Did you manage to speak to him about what he said in front of our daughter?" Tsukushi inquired.

"Nope. I know he listens to you more than me."

Tsukushi sighed to herself and pushed herself off the couch. A few minutes later a screeching sound could be heard from the hallway as she dragged the offender inside by the ear. "Put this stuff into my room for me, please? I think we need to have a little chat about your run away mouth."

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"Damn! Do you think this ringing in my ear will go away any time soon?" Akira winced as his fingers brushed over his bruised ear. A nagging ringing sound echoed in every sound he absorbed as a reminder to Tsukushi's lecture about appropriate behavior in front of impressionable children.

"I serves you right, idiot," Rui announced not caring for his incessant whining. He picked up another case of liquor and loaded it onto the trolley. He grunted when the cardboard handle ripped straight through. "Fuck! Are we almost done?"

"Yeah, Akira, are we almost done?" Tsukasa groaned. His muscles ached from all the moving they were doing as of late.

"We've just got to move the rest of those boxes over there and were through for the day."

At this point, they had practically become slave labor moving things here and there to make room before the construction crew was ordered in to make repairs. They were all left in a wondering limbo as to what Tsukushi was planning. The only direct orders she had given Akira were to remove anything that was salvageable. Another predicament was the latest lack of cohesion among the group. All the girls went off on their own. Yuuki had seemed to disappear off the face of the earth with only Thomas as a means to her whereabouts. Sakurako was also being quite mysterious doing whatever it was she did. Tsukasa briefly recalled Tsukushi mentioning that practically everyone had second jobs that they took on during their off time when available. While they offered their time to the club helping out in any way, they still weren't reprimanded for needing to work elsewhere. Soujiro had taken to working at a few other clubs tending bar to make rent for the month. Kin was taking the time to spend with his wife. Tsuyoshi went off to play for another band that offered him a temp spot. As for everyone else, they were spotted here and there running in and out of the club to briefly check in before going off to their other lives.

Something wasn't right and it was obvious. The more time the club remained closed, the more distant and lonely he felt. He had come to rely on the motley group as a group of friends he would see everyday. Now everything was so jumbled and confusing like it was all going to fall apart.

Sighing to himself, Tsukasa chucked the last box onto the trolley and called it a day. "Look, guys, I'll see you later. I'm going back home." The grunts that were followed were enough proof that his loss would not be great.

Grabbing his shirt on the way out, he stepped out into the bright afternoon sun. Not caring much for his current state, he tossed his shirt over his head and walked down the street to stop by the nearby convenience store to pick up a soda. It felt strange to be wandering aimlessly on a Thursday afternoon. Usually he would have been busy setting up for the late night onslaught of businessmen hoping to get hammered before the Friday grind the next day. It had been two weeks since the accident and the free time was getting to him.

It was sad to say he even missed the drunken suits.

"I must be going insane," he muttered to himself.

"Talking to yourself is the first sign," a voice laughed from behind him.

Tsukasa spun around to retort with a rather nasty comment to the intruder on is own private conversation but stopped himself when he came face to face with Shizuka. "Fancy meeting you here."

"Same here," she shrugged. Her hands played across the glass of the refrigerator case. The tip of her tongue darted out at the side of her mouth as she inspected its contents. Finally making her choices, she opened the door letting the cool air hit her arm as she grabbed for cans and bottles before tossing them into her basket with some random snacks. "I thought you would still be working in the club. You seem to be there as much as Akira and that is a long time."

"Well, I've got nothing much else to do." Tsukasa silently watched her place the items into her basket taking a slow look at the woman beside him. He thought to himself that this was one of the few times he had ever spoken to her. Considering she spent relatively little time in the club only performing a few nights a week, their interaction was kept to a minimum.

"So, how are things going for you?' She closed the door and looked up at him with expectant eyes. "I haven't really had a chance to talk to you much."

"Things are going okay, I guess," he shyly answered. There was something about her that unnerved him. They way she acted and spoke reminded him much of the girls he had been acquainted with in his previous lifestyle. It was obvious that Shizuka was the type to fit into a higher society than her current set of acquaintances. At times, it almost seemed she was obviously in the wrong place. "I don't really know what to do with myself with no work to do."

She laughed at his simple answer while nodding at him to follow her to the counter to pay for her items. "Trust me, you should enjoy it now. Once the club gets back to running order you'll be begging for a break like this."

"Do you know when we'll be reporting back to regular work?"

Her hand stopped in midair reaching for the last can hesitating for a moment to think of an answer. She turned to him after handing the clerk a few bills and smiled uneasily. "I really don't know." The frustration was evident in her voice laced with a bit of annoyance.

"I didn't mean to bug you about it or anything." He recoiled fully realizing that he probably had hit a nerve.

"No, forget about it," she hastily answered. She grabbed a soda from her grocery bags and tossed it at him. Take one. I'll see you around, okay." A quick retreat was made on her part.

Tsukasa groaned wondering what the hell was going on. He popped open his soda chugging down its contents. His eyes lingered around the store observing the television in the corner. It must have been just his luck that the day would worsen when an image of his mother appeared on the television as the news anchor reported the news of an upcoming deal his mother had just secured.

"I need to get out of here," he muttered to himself.

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Tsukushi kept a careful eye on Kaya as she skipped along in front of her. She pulled the wagon that was required to carry all of the things they needed. It had been Kaya's idea to get out of the house and go for a picnic, and she was all to willingly ready to oblige. The wheels creaked as they trekked down the path to the lake. The last few days had been relatively quiet, and she had come to enjoy that fact. It wasn't that she didn't adore her friends, but spending practically every day with them does take its toll. She rarely had the option to disappear into seclusion. The only notice that had been given was that that tomorrow they would be having a staff meeting to discuss what would be done about the club.

"Mama! Let's sit here, okay?" Kaya called out staking their spot underneath the shade of a tree by the water.

Tsukushi laughed to herself at how vibrant her daughter had been lately. It was most likely the result of being able to spend this rare time as just the two of them. "It's perfect, baby. Come help me spread out the blanket."

She eagerly grabbed hold of the handle to her wagon and wheeled it to the designated spot before pulling out the old sheet. Tossing it up into the air they laid it down on the ground. Tsukushi took her time removing the contents of the wagon out. Next, came the careful placement of her work materials to the side in a secure place where her papers would not be carried away by a gust of wind.

The lunch was spent in relative ease interrupted by the occasional childish banter Kaya engaged her in. It was rather difficult to keep up with her tales of which friend at school had done this or that, but Tsukushi absorbed every detail.

"Mama! Can I go feed the ducks, too?!" Kaya leapt up from her seat on the ground and pointed to the groups of children feeding the ducks nearby.

Tsukushi breathed a sigh of relief that Kaya had decided to take a breather from all of her stories. She had especially prepared for this moment and pulled the bag of breadcrumbs she had made earlier. "Go ahead, honey. Just don't go too far."

No response was heard except the rustling of the bag being snatched from her hand. A few seconds later the familiar sound of her daughters voice reverberated throughout the quiet park. Tsukushi had to clamp a hand over her mouth to keep from bursting. Kaya had taken to tossing fistfuls of breadcrumbs around herself attracting the ducks to her while jumping in circles squealing, "I am the queen of the ducks! Come my minions!"

She had no idea where she learned that from and choose to justifiably sweetly smile back at the other mothers sending her odd looks at her daughter's antics. It wasn't her fault their children weren't as precocious.

Decidedly picking up her cell phone, she dialed the number she pulled up on her palm pilot and set to work.

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Yuuki sat on her back porch closing her eyes to revel in the light jump in her heart as she rocked back and forth on the porch swing. There was always small rush at each up and downswing in motion. A small smile played on her lips as she looked out into her yard seeing the sight of her garden in front of her. The sunflowers in the back had sprouted and few good feet and would probably bloom in a week or two.

"I thought I would find you back here."

"I was just enjoying the rest of this afternoon," Yuuki sighed. She tipped her head back to acknowledge Thomas.

He leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed, and devilishly grinning to himself. "I was beginning to worry when you didn't pick up any of my calls earlier."

She waved her hand dismissively while faintly recalling the obnoxious ringing of her phone earlier. While the caller had been persistent, her languor won out in the end forcing her to remain in her spot on the swing. "Sorry," she apologized. "It felt too nice to stretch out here and swing."

He raised an eyebrow at her current position draped over the bench and decided to join her. Picking up her feet and placing them in his lap, he slung his arm over the back and took over the effort in pushing the swing with his feet. "I could just use some time to wind down a bit. I had a full morning of classes."

"Is it really that bad teaching summer school?" she inquired. Her eyes twinkled with playfulness at his slightly forlorn expression.

"Summer and school are two things that just shouldn't go together," he shuddered. "I'll never understand the Japanese mentality of cram school. Summer is meant for kids to run outside and get into trouble, not spending it conjugating verbs and correcting dangling participles."

"I once dated a guy who went to one of those schools. He was rather boring."

"See! That's my point exactly! School drains the life out of the youth!"

"I think you are more upset that you have to be there with them than for their own sake,' she laughed.

"Well, that could be a large part of my disdain." He innocently tapped his index finger on his chin contemplating over that idea. "Sounds about right."

"It's nice to see that you take your job so seriously."

He sighed leaning back on the balls of his feet pushing the swing back and letting it go into a more forceful rocking motion. "It's not what I really planned on doing with my life. Sometimes it's just the way things work out. It's sorta like how I just got a call from my sister this morning about finding out there's going to be a second baby on the way. I find it hard to believe she's already got one and another on the way. I never imagined her as the type to settle down and have kids. She was always the power hungry one that would most likely conquer corporate America. Now all she does is work from home as a consultant. Life always knocks you over in unexpected ways."

"So, where did you think you would be?"

"I dunno," he mumbled. "I guess, I always thought I would have made it by now in the music industry. I would have been on my third album, and maybe even married or at least in a committed relationship."

"Well, we are working on one of those." Yuuki nudged him in the side with her toe.

"What the album?' he asked.

"The committed relationship part," she grinned. "Sakurako is starting to act a little strange lately. I wonder why."

"Oh that," he groaned. "Don't even get me started on that. I called her to ask if she wanted to catch a movie before I came here. Of course, she had better things to do."

Yuuki put her hand on his shoulder squeezing it. "She really might have been busy. I think she went back to working at the studio. She mentioned something about asking about any spare classes during our hiatus."

"Maybe you're right," he weakly smiled.

He itched to ask her about what was going on within that head of hers, but it always seemed the right moment never appeared. After that Tsukushi's homecoming party, she had barely spoken about her small bout of depression. The last few remnants of that spell lingered, but she was slowly becoming a less melancholy and more like her cheerful self. He recognized that if she wanted to tell him she would, and it was okay with him.

"So, what about Soujiro?"

"What about him?" he snorted. "The guy has barely spoken to me in days. It would make a person think he was avoiding them like the plague."

"I dunno. He could just be busy."

"Apparently not busy enough to bring home a different girl every day this week."

"Ouch! Maybe we should stop talking about him. Looks like our plan isn't really working out as well as we expected."

Yuuki shook her head to vigorously deny that. "It is more or less, but not in the way we thought it would. At least we can enjoy each other's company," she smiled. "Come on, I'm not that bad to be around, am I?"

"Not at all." He stood up and offered a hand to her to lift her form her seat. "So, how does a movie and dinner sound?"

"Sounds good." She turned to lock the door, and wrapped her arm around his to walk around the house to the front where his car was parked. "Ya know, you make a pretty good date. It's nice to be treated once in a while by a handsome man."

"Only handsome? I would have preferred devastatingly handsome, maybe even down right sexy." He wiggled his eyebrows lasciviously.

And that gesture earned him a slap on the arm. "Don't push your luck."

She had been doing a lot of thinking lately about the two of them. There was a certain chemistry between them that could flourish into more if they tried. It wouldn't be one of those relationships of epic proportions that would devastate either of them if it ended, but it still was rather nice. The kiss that they shared was neither mentioned nor ignored. At times, they would find themselves blushing at a careless brush of skin against skin. In its own innocent way, it was exhilarating for both of them to find these newly developing feelings. If only they could overlook those stubborn infatuations with other people. And that always brought her back to the main reason why she didn't bring up the kiss. They were already playing with fire, but to add a growing attraction to their co-conspirator would alter all of their plans to the point of even giving them up all together.

"What are you thinking about?" Thomas asked as he buckled himself into the seat. The car engine purred to life.

"Nothing much," she breathed. "Nothing much at all."

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It was all purely coincidental. It really was. His days had become full of boredom since school ended. The offers to go hang out and party were many, but it was all well and good to fill up the night. However, the days were empty and lacking in anything to pique his interest. On the other hand, there was very little that interested other than a certain woman that had captured it.

That was the exact reason why Kazuya found himself walking past through the park towards Tsukushi's apartment. Normally, he wasn't this obsessive about being turned down. Most of the time he sucked it up and moved on. But there was just something about her that fascinated him. Ever since he saw her that first day, he knew there was something special about her.

He checked his cell phone one more time in hopes that she had returned any of his messages he had left the past few days. To his avail, the inbox was empty. He shook his head trying to figure out what kind of messages she was sending him. One minute she says she wants to be friends and gives him her number, the next she refuses to return any of his calls.

Yes, his friends would probably be laughing their asses of for acting like such a whimpering simpleton. Most guys would have just laughed off the dismissal citing her as a lost cause.

With that very thought on his mind of giving up, he called one last time. His heart thumped in rhythm to each ring of the phone. He silently prayed that she would answer.

When the sound of her voice asking he caller to leave a message came on, his heart sank as well as any of his dignity. Not even bothering to leave a message, he hung up.

I'll give her another day… or two.

At that very same moment, Tsukushi heard her personal cell phone vibrating in her bag. She glanced down at the shaking bag debating whether or not to answer it. Some part of her told her it was probably one of the girls calling her about something, and the prospect of having to listen to Sakurako endlessly babble about her newfound liking to Tsukasa or Yuuki's indecision over Soujiro repelled her from that idea. If anything was a life or death situation, they would have called her work number on the other phone.

"Go away," she grumbled before kicking the bag away with her foot.

She laid back on the blanket beside a napping Kaya. Her hand reached over to brush the hair out of her face as she watched the steady rise and fall of her chest. After the earlier incident of one of the ducks deciding to become psychotic and attacking her, thus chasing her with its hell bent intentions of getting a good bite out of her, she thought it would have taken longer to calm her down. It was only with the passing of a few tears, muffled sobs, and the promise to never chase after ducks while quacking and swinging her arms in a rendition of flight did she tire herself out into a deep slumber.

Yeah, that last part about chasing after the ducks wasn't very smart. She recalled her own childhood trauma involving pigeons. To this day, she still could not walk past a pigeon without shuddering.

Pushing that thought aside, she stared up into the thick brush of branches and leaves above her. The sunlight filtered down on them in an intricate crocheted pattern letting its rays filter in streams through the cracks and crevices. She winced as she turned a bit to feel a rock jab her in the side irritating her already damaged ribs. The doctors had already warned her to avoid any strenuous or sudden movements to allow the bones to heal.

That brought to mind another little problem she found on her ever-growing list. While she had assumed the call earlier was from one of the girls, she pretty much knew who it was from and it was the very reason she was avoiding answering it. She still hadn't grasped why she gave him the number. Maybe it was the drugs she was one, but whatever reason it was must have had some kind of hope for something.

Tsukushi had never truly wondered much about where her love life had gone. Most of the time, she rationalized that with a daughter at her age, it was only appropriate to remove herself from that part of her life. After all, it just wasn't justifiably right to play with the idea. If any relationship went further, there was almost no possibility of intimacy with her daughter in the apartment. All of those times her mother had brought men to her bed while she lay in her own bed a few doors down, had never really bothered her until she herself experienced what went on behind on those doors. It was disturbing to think she had so blindly ignored her mother's promiscuity.

Then again, a lot of her problems probably had to do with her mother. In a way, she was the min reason she had lost so much control over her own life. It wasn't that she blamed her for her foolishness of getting pregnant or having sex with Rui, but it was more of the emotional aspects that led up to those consequences. The scars were there- emotionally, she never felt quite complete. Her choices had all been based on the inflated ideals of a lovesick teenager trying to avoid the harsh realities she had witnessed her entire life. It was that blatancy that led her to ignore the obvious choices more so.

It was a fear that held her back the most. She had been fooled once into the fancy of romance and all its pretty shiny trimmings. Everything seemed to be perfect with Rui. He was everything she had never encountered in a boy- refined elegance and sophistication overshadowed by intellect. He was perfection personified, and she believed that she could be the same for him. Only she was too caught up in her own fantasies to see that he was just as fucked up in the head as her.

On the plus side, she had pulled herself out of it with some of her dignity intact. She did come to see that one fatal fault in their relationship, the pesky fact that he was in love with someone else.

Next came Akira. Oh god, was the Akira thing a mess in itself. She never thought much about him when she first met him. He was so carefree and reckless about life, and while it was exhilarating to watch him, she didn't even notice the deeper underlying gravity beneath it all. It was that very secret place where his obsession with her had begun. While she had shrugged it off as the same intentions many young men had given her before, she had unknowingly spurred on his interest. He would never let go of that little bit of hope that friendship would become more. Only it was far too late by the time he had made his intentions for her known. She had already walked down the wrong path with the wrong boy.

Sometimes she wondered if Akira had stated his feelings towards her earlier if she would have reciprocated them. He always did have that bout of bad luck in timing. He was always too late for the right things and early for the wrong.

Tsukushi wished that she hadn't screwed it all up by sleeping with him last year. What she had assumed to be a long buried crush was only reinforced by her foolish, drunken actions. She had used him in the worst way possible, and he had let himself be used. It was a two-way relationship of self-destructive sexual deviancy. Sure, the sex had been great. They were both two very passionate people with needs, but passion alone does not guarantee any security.

With Akira, she probably would have found something pretty damn close to happiness. He would have loved her in an unnatural sense, in a way that came out of one's own need for self-fulfillment. The reason she never yielded to his advances was the impending danger that could result from her surrender. He would be settling for a delusion that she could solve all of his problems. What Akira wanted was an instant family, a mock simulation to undo and redo the past all at once. It would have a been a perfect match for him to slide right in and take on the responsibility his guilt ridiculed him with. He could find no solace unless he was to find a place in the capacity of being needed to which he could place a value on his life. Therefore, he pursued the role greatly to give himself meaning.

Akira did love Tsukushi.

And she could have loved him.

He just didn't understand that he loved her as a means to love himself.

It's like the saying of once bitten, twice shy. Well, for her, it took two bites, the kind that take a huge chomp out of your heart and spits it back out at your feet.

Now that leads up to her current potential disastrous relationship with Kazuya. Yes, she was actually on the brink of losing her mind and considering going out with the helpless fool. Maybe it was her weakness of being too nice that was overcoming her, or even the hope, that maybe he would come to realize she wasn't all that great after dating her. Whatever it was, he had managed to weasel his way into that area of thoughtful consideration.

Damn him and his cute little rambling messages.

She had listened to every single one of them. While Yuuki had warned her a bit on the copious amounts of them being a sign of stalking obsession, both she and Sakurako, had agreed that his small one-sided conversations with his voicemails had been cute. There was a bumbling attraction about him.

He sure as hell wasn't like any of the other men she had been with. Rui had always been independent and aloof about his feelings. Akira had been overly confident in his own. Both men were never scared or intimidated in any way by her. But here, she had Kazuya who was acting like a shy sixteen-year old boy asking the girl he likes to the school dance. She had to give him credit for being persistent. He was absolutely nothing like the previous men.

That was another reason for her to give him a call back. She knew that there were very few chances in life to meet a nice guy like him. They rarely came around in the environment she lived in. She wasn't a complete idiot to not check up on his background either. A call to Hiro under the impression to ask him about his upcoming wedding plans and a congratulations had allowed her to grill him for some information. After all, Kazuya was close enough to him to be asked to be one of the many groomsmen in the bridal party.

Her brother had not been very foolish in choosing his friends. They were some of the most loyal bastards out there. Each and every one of them had vowed on his grave to protect what he had painstakingly made for himself. They were all good men, and over the years, she had come to rely on a favor or two from each of them to help her out through some rough patches. Hiro was one of them. Although they had lost touch after he had moved out of Tokyo a few years ago, he still warmly welcomed her phone call and remembered to ask about the welfare of her baby now a grown little girl. Susumu was a good judge of character, and she respected his friends words as truth and honorable.

So, it was the very abrupt halt to her interrogation that led him to disclose the fact that indeed Kazuya was very smitten by her. When Kazuya had discovered Hiro's tie to Tsukushi a few days after the accident, he had taken the same set of actions she did in checking out her background. While Hiro had kept the information to the vague minimum as he had done for both sides, he did give Tsukushi one extra piece of advice. It was that Kazuya was a good guy that she could trust and that if he in any way discredited himself he would beat the living shit out of him along with a few other guys that would gladly take on Susumu's brotherly duties.

And so, she gathered up her courage and did the very thing she had dreaded doing all week. She dialed the number, held it up to her ear, and took a very deep calming breath hoping she didn't make a total ass out of herself.

Maybe once, just this once, she could have a relationship without totally screwing it up.

"Hello," a grumble roared on the other end after the third ring.

"Umm… hi. Is this Kazuya?" she meekly asked. Her heart was pounding through her chest, and she second guessed herself on whether she dialed the correct number.

"Tsukushi?" Kazuya asked in shock. Suddenly the bad mood that had settled over him lifted and the world was looking like a much better place. The sky was suddenly an endless blue. The birds were singing a happy song. "Why are you… I mean… What the…" he stuttered. He took a deep breath and attempted to keep himself in check hoping to put on the façade of being completely in control and indifferent. "I didn't expect you to call."

That was good, he mentally noted to himself. He looked around to check that no one was around to see his internal struggle to speak coherently to a girl. Deciding to quell the small adrenaline rush pulsing through him, he continued to walk through the park.

Tsukushi wondered to herself what exactly had been the reason for her calling. Now that she had actually called, she realized she hadn't planned ahead in terms of what to say. There was little other choice than to wing it. She bit her lip, and thought up of something to say.

"I'm sorry I haven't had the time to return any of your calls. I got the flowers you sent, though. I just wanted to say thank you."

It was a good save. She congratulated herself in remembering that he had sent flowers to her home a week ago, which now sat prominently as the centerpiece on the dining room table.

"It was really nothing," he blushed. He nervously scratched the back of his head feeling utterly foolish for reacting to her voice in such a manner. "I was walking past the florist and saw a guy walking out with a bouquet. It was pretty nice, so I thought you might like one. You know, as a get well thing." At least he had the luck to be out of her view while he shoved both feet into his mouth.

Ladies and gentlemen, step back as I attempt the impossible, two, I said two feet in one mouth.

While his choice of words weren't exactly helping his cause, Tsukushi accepted them as just another fluke due to his bad case of tongue twisting in her presence. "Umm… yeah.

In response to that Kazuya proceeded to bang his head against the nearest tree silently berating himself.

"What's that noise?"

"Oh, nothing. I think some kids were throwing rocks at a tree."

"Where are you?"

"At the park."

That certainly got her attention. Sure, there were plenty of parks around the city and he could be any single one of them. And then, she spotted him not so far away hitting his head against a tree.

"Oh really?' she asked raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah…" he drawled out.

"Can you turn to you left?"

He cringed at the thought that she had just witnessed any of his idiocy. A fear crept up in him wondering how much damage had been done or whether or not now would be a good time to make a run for it citing it as a stranger she must have seen. But he was a very brave man to turn his head and come eye to eye with the other person on the line.

"Hi." Tsukushi waved keeping what must have looked like a wary smile on her face. "Fancy meeting you here."

Yes, things were looking up for Kazuya. The powers that be wanted to really fuck with him, and they were doing a real bang up job on that front. Then, they really decided to do him a big favor. He dropped his phone in shock and fumbled to bend over to pick it up. Coincidentally, when his foot moved forward the tip of his shoe collided with the phone sending it a few feet away from him landing with a small 'plop' into the lake.

Now was the time to lose it. "GODDAMIT!"

When parents and caretakers generally take children to the park, they feel reassured that it's a safe environment to bring their children to for some well monitored good ole clean fun. Generally, it's a child friendly place to be. That was until a certain flustered man decided to scream expletives at the top of his lungs while glaring daggers at his cell phone floating away in the lake in front of him and then yell himself hoarse to end it all by banging his head some more on a tree.

Kaya woke up at the sound of yelling. Sleepily, she sat up rubbing at her eyes with the back of her hands. Her mind barely registered the garbled use of colorful language being broadcast. All she saw was the horrified, yet amused expression on her mothers face, the ghastly shock on the adults around them covering children's ears, and the snickering of children watching the funny man hit his head on a tree. "What's going on, Mama? Why is that man so angry?"

Tsukushi didn't know whether to break down in laughter or run in horror. The entire situation was humiliatingly amusing. She mentally slapped herself for finding humor at Kazuya's expense. She turned to Kaya fighting off all the urges to laugh, and calmly told her, "I'm going to be right back. Can you be a good girl and stay right here?"

"Uh huh. Can I have a juice box first?"

"Sure. There should be on in the cooler." Tsukushi took one last fleeting glance at her daughter rummaging through the picnic basket and dashed down the small slope to the lake. She could feel the eyes all on her as she ran towards the man that seemed mentally deranged and appeared to be attempting to cause further damage.

"What did I do? Why? Why? Why?" he chanted over and over again. He barely noticed the pain in his head from the repetitive blows.

"Kazuya," Tsukushi hissed. Her hand fisted the collar of his shirt pulling him away from forming any further physical damage to himself. It was an all too familiar act considering all the times she had to drag Akira away before he really made a total ass out of himself. Then again, those times involved public drunkenness or nudity. Thankfully, Kazuya was neither.

He finally shut up when he felt himself being pushed down to sit on the ground. The knowledge that she was still willing to be seen in public with him was relieving, but his pride was still hurting from the massive blow. He quickly tried to regroup to scrape up any bit of his dignity in site.

Tsukushi blew a wisp of hair out of her face. The situation was now even more awkward with him in the near vicinity of her. All of the reasons she had found to give him a try were rapidly depleting.

Oh god, what have I gotten myself involved with.

Kaya blankly stared from her mother to the strange man, she vaguely recalled as Kazuya. Once again, she shrugged off the oddities of the adults around her. By now, random outbursts like the one she had just witnessed were quite normal to her. It was questionable whether or not that was a positive aspect of her conditioning by the surrounding environment.

She scrambled onto her hands and knees to dig into the picnic basket and finally pulled out a juice box. She offered it to Kazuya who in turn blankly stared at her. "You look like you need this. Soujiro always says that it's easy to tell when a man needs a good drink."

"Thanks," he muttered. The straw popped through the thin tin foil opening and he took a long drag from the straw. His body shuddered in the after effects of a brain freeze from the icy cold juice filtering through his system.

Kaya plopped down beside him and patted him on the back trying to soothe him. "It'll be okay. My Mama always says she attracts weirdos, so I guess, that means you have a pretty fair shot at hanging around her," she rambled.

He stared slack jawed at the little girl wondering to himself if she was actually a five year old. Normally his conversations with children in her age range revolved around topics of playground mayhem or news of latest episode of their favorite cartoons.

"Kaya, why don't you just let Kazuya absorb a bit of what has happened?"

"Okay," she slowly nodded. Abruptly she put down her juice box and leapt up. She hopped from one foot to the other pointing at something down by the lake. "Fernando has his phone!"

"Who is Fernando?" Tsukushi asked. As an after thought she wished she hadn't asked.

"Over there!" she pointed. "He's the duck that attacked Pierre, Noel, and me! I'll get him back. He's getting away with the phone. I'll be back." Kaya grabbed a stick that was about as large as her on the ground and went running like a mad person screaming after a duck waddling at a very brisk pace with a cell phone in its mouth. The stares that were once directed at Kazuya were now redirected at her.

"Oye." Tsukushi slapped her palm against her forehead.

Kazuya was the first one to break out laughing. When you took a few steps out of the situation, it really was quite hilarious. It started with a small snort that turned into a chuckle before it burst out into a full blown gut wrenching laughter. Tsukushi held it back to try to maintain her position as the sane person, but the second her lips began twitching into a smile she completely lost it. It didn't take much with the way Kazuya was rolling around on the ground clutching his stomach.

"I swear, she gets it from her father," she sputtered out in between labored breaths.

"I've never been more freaked out by a child in my life. Are you sure she's just five?"

"We've all found ourselves saying that once or twice about her. Kaya's rather… precocious. She's always had a heightened sense of perception." Her hands fidgeted in her lap as she stared anywhere but directly at him.

"You talked to Hiro, didn't you?"

"Huh?" Momentarily she panicked at the thought of him knowing of her sudden interest in him.

"I got a rather excited call the other day from Ryo about the bachelor party. He practically pissed his pants when he found out it was going to be at your club."

"Oh that, yeah. I couldn't really turn down a favor for Hiro. We go way back. How long have you two been friends with his brother?"

He tapped his finger on his chin counting the years in his head before coming to a decisive answer. "I think for the last ten years. We always hung out together during the summer when his family came to our resort for their summer vacation. He was the one that offered me a place to stay when I moved out here."

Nothing irked her more than to meander around the main topic at hand, which she just wanted to get to. It was probably the building tension and her internal struggle to come to grips with everything going on in her life. A whirlwind chain of events and temporary loss of insanity were all factors contributing to her state of mind. Rationalized logic was failing her rendering her a befuddled mass. She swallowed to moisten her dry mouth.

"Tell me something. Do you really like me that much?"

The question was perplexing coming way out of left field. He choked down the juice he was sipping through the straw. "I thought I made myself quite clear multiple times."

"No, not like that," she admonished. "I mean, seriously, is this thing you have for me real?"

"I… uh… well," he stammered. He took a deep breath to gather his bearings and said what he had been thinking all this time. "Yes. It is if that's the way you want to put it." He silently watched for her reaction not quite liking the way her eyebrows furrowed and she seemed to drift off into her own thoughts. He was about to probe further but the interruption of a cell phone being tossed into his lap distracted him. "My phone!" Kazuya exclaimed.

"Yep," Kaya grinned. She stabbed the stick in her hand into the ground with a victorious grunt.

Tsukushi's previous thoughts drifted away with the intrusion of her daughter. Something in her mother's intuition told her not to ask, and quite frankly, she didn't want to know. A quick glance down to the lake revealed a sulking duck wading back and forth in the water. A few ruffled feathers tuck out in odd angles. It looked like she would have to have another talk with her daughter about duck brutality. Although he did look like a nasty bugger the kind that would snap at the hands of children when they tried to feed him, perhaps Kaya had done the community a great service by teaching the surly duck a lesson.

Kazuya picked up his phone and opened it to pour out a small stream of water that had seeped into it. He sighed to himself resigned with the fact he would be spending some time shopping for a new phone. Tossing it aside, he smiled at Kaya. "It's kind of useless now, but thanks for getting it back."

"It's okay." Kaya plopped down beside him and rubbed her wet hands onto the blanket. She grabbed another juice box and offered a second one to Kazuya. "Fernando was being a real brat today. Usually he's not this naughty."

He shook his head stifling the laughter at her childish insanity. "I bet he was."

"You're day hasn't been going too well huh?" she innocently asked.

"Nope. You see, I keep have this bad habit of making a fool of myself in front of your mother. It seems that I'll never win."

Kaya peered at her mother and then turned to Kazuya. She shrugged her shoulders. "Sometimes it's okay to be an idiot or crazy once in awhile. If we didn't do the wrong thing once in a while life would be boring. Plus, you were kinda funny banging your head on that tree," she added as an afterthought. "Le realite et toi, vous ne vous entendez, n'est-ce pas?"

"It's not polite to say such things," her mother scolded. She sent a pointed glare at her daughter in warning. Tsukushi clamped her hand over her mouth to muffle her giggles. "She's right. I like a little bit of stupid here and there. You don't need to try to be perfect around me all the time. It would get on my nerves."

His hand fell on over his heart in feigned shock. "This can't be right?! What about all the stuff girls are always talking about? You know, the perfect man who knows all the right things to do and say. I always wanted to be that guy for someone." His gaze lingered on Tsukushi to convey his meaning.

In return, Tsukushi leaned into him and ran her fingers through his messy hair to smoothen it. Her lips barely brushed against his ear sending shivers throughout his body only intensified by her whispered words. "I don't need perfect. No one does. But I can say, I think I like you a whole lot more than I should." Casually she pulled away. Her face gave away no hint of the enormity of what she had said. Instead, she pretended nothing had happened and started to pack up her work scattered around her into the wagon.

Kazuya's only reaction to everything was a dumb grin that grew wider with each passing second and the deep rush of warmth flooding through his body creating a slightly blushing tint to his skin.

Kaya studied him carefully with her intense wide eyes. It was a bad habit of hers to be so seemingly innocent, yet so advanced in her train of thoughts. Even at such a young age, she knew that sometimes you have to hide what you really think to adults. While she never held herself back from saying exactly what was on her mind as most children do in their lacking of propriety, she was infinitely blessed with her father's innate sense of perception.

Right now it was telling her that her mother had finally lost her sanity and decided to live, which was the exact reason why she blissfully continued to simply smile and pretend as if she knew nothing of what was going on.

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Rui impassively toyed with the strings of his guitar to get the exact pitch her was looking for. Oddly enough the instrument he least cared for had managed to make it out of the wreckage relatively undamaged. It was just one of his many obsessive compulsive tendencies. At least there was that small glimmer in hope that these idiosyncrasies might be delaying or preventing the deterioration of his mental state. He briefly glanced up taking notice of Shizuka impatiently tapping her pen against the mahogany desk with an anxious apprehension in her normally calm demeanor.

She finally snapped when her pen was tossed onto the desk. The chair was pushed back while her arms folded over her chest in an overly dramatic gesture. "How can you be so calm about all of this?" she asked in exasperation. Curses flew under her breath from the lack of reaction in him. His personality was always something that left a bittersweet taste in her mouth. It changed as much as the direction of the wind.

One moment he was the one having a freak out over the wondering of the subject that Tsukushi wished to breach on with her announcement after her release from the hospital to speak to both of them. Then, soon after he returned to her the next day completely forgetting his previous uneasiness. That was only the second sign that made her wonder what was up Tsukushi's sleeve. It was obvious she had put Rui's worries at ease, but neither offered her any further explanation as to what their conversation consisted of. All she got form Rui was a silly smile on his face and the reassuring words that she had nothing to worry over.

But oh how wrong he was. Shizuka wasn't an idiot. Something told her that the news most likely had something to do with a clandestine agreement the two women had secretly come to some years ago. No one was privy to the terms of the agreement except for the two binding it. It was an act of blind faith in the other to verbally agree to the terms, but it seemed that the time to seek the end of their bargain would be coming up soon.

"It doesn't do you any good to stress out this? If I knew any better it might seem that you are scared of Tsuksuhi." He lowered his guitar onto the empty seat next to him, and stared intently at her never breaking eye contact. "Everything is going to be fine. If Tsukushi and I can make some sort of truce to forgive me, I'm pretty sure she has stopped pondering over methods of giving you an excruciatingly painful death. She could at least do that for me. Anyway she did offer me her blessing on our engagement. I know it's killing you to know what we discusses, but it is great news, baby."

A wary laugh emitted from her lips. "Gee, that sounds so much better when you say it like that." She absently twisted her engagement ring around her finger. The stone shimmered under the light from the lamp over the desk.

If only you knew the truth, Rui. I know exactly what she wants to talk about. She's picking up the pieces of her life he shattered, and now, she'll live for herself to stand on her own two feet. Nothing can bind either of us to this life anymore. But freedom comes with a price. Am I really ready to let it go? Tsukushi might be able to face the reality of this, but I don't know if I am.

She stiffened when arms reached out from behind her resting on her waist. The last thing she needed was for him to be reassuring that things were going to be fine. In her mind, fine was far where they stood. There was no doubt in her mind that the man holding her loved her beyond belief, but even he had his limits. So, many times he had pleaded with her to just be done with this life and move on, but a simple lie had silenced those pleas. She had made used poor judgment to make a choice that could rip them apart. And she refused to be the one to rectify that mistake.

"Things always work out for us in the end," he breathed. His lips descended on the top of her head.

It amused her to some extent how it was so long ago that she was the one to tell him those exact same sentiments. Back then he was still at eye level with her instead of towering over her by at least a good head. "If only I could believe you."

The opening of the door shattered the precarious tranquility. Shizuka sucked in a deep breath and held it.

Tsukushi was caught off guard by the show of affection going on between Rui and Shizuka. She had to mentally chide herself to refrain from the automatic insult that usually came out when she saw them in those positions. A long time ago, there was a time when it was her brother holding that woman in his arms. It was also a long time ago when she was blind to a lot of things.

She shuffled the papers in her arms and confidently strode into the room with a mumbled apology. Her hair had fallen out of the sloppy bun she twisted it into letting tendrils of hair fall into her face. When she finally looked up from her seat at the desk, she picked up an envelope and handed it to Rui. "I had to make a quick stop at my lawyer's office."

"Why? Is something wrong?" Shizuka hurriedly asked.

Rui shared the same look of concern on his face was they watched Tsukushi rifle through the papers dumped onto the desk.

"Nope. Let me just find what I'm looking for. Here it is!" she shouted pulling out a red folder at the bottom of the stack. "I need you to sign where it's marked off, Rui."

He warily eyed her checking for signs as to what she was planning. He had put his faith in her and signed the document without bothering to think about reading them over. As an afterthought he decided to ask anyway, "What did I just sign?"

To this Tsukushi smiled even wider. "Congratulations, Hanazawa Rui. You are now the proud legal guardian of our daughter."

"Wha?" he gasped in disbelief. "What are you talking about? What did I just sign?"

She handed him a copy of the documents before further explaining. "This is in keeping up with my side of the agreement. We both have a say in what happens to Kaya." Her eyes softened noting the traces of disbelief and joy in Rui. "I always regretted that Susumu made you sign those papers. What we," she paused. "What we said that day was out of the heat of the moment. I know you didn't mean to do something that stupid. Now I'm giving you back your chance."

His eyes scanned the paperwork in front of him shaking in his trembling hands. The entire process seemed almost too easy. Although it was unnerving how relatively simple it was to give up all rights or take back the rights to your own child he wasn't about to turn down the chance to get back his daughter. Tsukushi was true to her word when she wanted nothing to stand between them any longer. He stiffly walked towards the desk, yanked her up from her chair, and hugged the life out of her. Even if he could get them out no words were needed.

Tsukushi gasped for air as she patted Rui on the back trying to calm all of the emotions going through his head. This was just another act that she was required to fulfill in the list of many. She was going to set things straight before they went to hell. And the first place was to mend the severed ties between herself and the father of her child. If there was any chance she could make it out of this thing alive, she needed Rui to back her up.

"Umm… I think now would be a good time to discuss why I needed to talk to both of you," she started.

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A steady stream of smoke flew from her lips as she lackadaisically gazed out at the street to her side. She tilted her head from side to side to get the kinks out. It had been an especially rough day with the sudden private lessons he got lassoed into teaching. The last time she had gotten such a work out had not been for some time, and the idea of aching muscles the next day seemed plausible in her near future. She looked down at her watch realizing that she had to leave in a few minutes.

"Once day I'm going to get you to quit that nasty habit of yours," a voice admonished.

Sakurako turned her head to face a thin middle- aged woman. From the stern look on her face, she wasn't exactly pleased at what she had decided to do with her time when she said she was going outside for some air. Lately, a lot of people of had been giving her that look. Sometimes it seemed the world was against her in every possible way. The cigarette was smashed a few times against the brick wall of the building before being carelessly tossed onto the ground.

A victorious smirk crossed the woman's lips. "Someone in your position should be taking care of their body. We don't want any of the kids to see you out here being a bad example. The body is like a temple for a dancer. You of all people should know that."

"I don't really give a fuck," she lazily replied. She already knew which speech was about to come out. She spoke up before it went into a full out lecture. "I promise I won't smoke in front of the students, okay. I've been trying to cut back, Hitomi."

Hitomi sighed to herself. She knew that Sakurako was a tough one to break. But in her eyes it was sadly unfair that someone who showed so much promise would throw it all away and let her aspirations fall to indolence. At her age when one comes to realize that they have reached their maximum potential and let the dreams fade into something more tangible and real, there was a dull throb in her heart to see one of her former students surrender to life. She thought that giving her some space might have let her grow into the maturity that was needed to devote oneself to the craft, but it backfired on her. Even after secretly sending the audition tape without her knowledge and the aftermath of the acceptance letter leading to the horrible argument afterwards, did not help her case much.

Sakurako was just another one of those people that wanted to fall through the cracks and be forgotten. She viewed her hard earned work as nothing more than a curse to her. While it plagued many aspects of her life, it was something she could neither deny nor forget.

"How was the new student?" she asked deciding to let the subject of smoking drop.

Sakurako snorted to herself at the memory of her earlier lesson. It was an utter disaster. She hated girls like her- rich prima donnas who believed that they were god's gift to dancing. If the girl wanted to make it into the ABT, she was going to have to work her ass off. "Dreadful really. She has most of the technique down, but a bit too well. It looks almost mechanical. And don't even get me started on that look on her face when she goes through the routine. It looks like she's permanently constipated. Her classical variation needs a ton of work. The pirouette exercises look good. The petit allegro and grand allegro are a polished, but they could still use some more work. Don't even get me started on her adagio in the center." She lowered her head staring down at her worn pair of ballet slippers. The tears in the satin glared back at her in silent alarm that they were another pair needing to be chucked before the end of the day.

Hitomi placed her fingers beneath Sakurako's chin tapping it to make her look up. "That is why I told her parents and her that they needed to see you if Hana had any chance of getting into the American Ballet Theatre. I agree that the girl needs to work more on her attitude than anything to begin with, but I assumed you would be able to handle her better than me. Why would she want to learn from a retired dancer who never made it to principal? They would rather go with a someone who was offered the position of first soloist in her first year."

"Don't with me on that one. Just because I told you once about my stupid childhood ambition to dance with the ABT doesn't mean that I still do. I still haven't completely forgiven you for sending in that audition tape." She turned her head away to stare off into the distance once more. One of her feet scraped at the concrete beneath her as she became lost in thought. "Ballet was never really my own dream. It's ironic that at the last minute I realized that it wasn't what I wanted. Yes, dance is something that will always be in my life. But one day I had to grow up and see that I don't need to follow in her footsteps. Getting accepted was enough for me. I don't exactly fit that classy role as a prima ballerina."

"Fine, have it your way. Are you planning on hanging around here for a bit longer? I would like you to at least stay long enough to get Hana up to par before the auditions. I'll pay you the normal going rate for the private lessons and for any other classes you decide to pick up the slack for."

"I'll stay."

"Good. I'm happy to hear that." She crossed her arms over her chest to lean against the wall right beside her.

"Don't give me that look."

"What look?"

"The one that you are giving me right now? I'm not going to fall for it. Don't even think about brining her up either because I'm not her. No matter how hard you try, I won't ever be like her." Once again she glanced down at her watch curing under her breath. "Look, I have to go before Tsukushi decides to kill me for being late. I'll see you tomorrow for that 1:30 class, okay?" She hurriedly snatched up her duffle bag at her feet and ran back into the building to change.

As Hitomi watched the exact replica of her former friend rush inside, she thought to herself how much of a fool she really was. Nothing in this world could ever bring back her best friend. Perhaps that is where she failed in her expectations. Filling a child's head with so many dreams only to have them grow up and realize that the whole time they were being manipulated was an entirely careless act on her part. She never once asked where Sakurako disappeared those two years. A part of her was too afraid to ask, too afraid to know she had failed her friend.

"Emi would probably hate me for what I let her daughter do or not do," she whispered to herself.

Although part of the damage was not entirely on her part, there were a lot of things she had done wrong. To let someone at her age make so many of those life altering decisions on her own and acting as the consoling friend was her mistake. The generational difference was much too large. She should have remembered what a girl at her age would have done- keep the specifics to a minimum.

In that aspect she had failed as an adult learning one of the harder lessons in life. Hitomi was no stranger to disappointment and fallen expectations. The end of her professional career wasn't expected. Her own youthful arrogance ignored all the warning signs to pull back, but she was so close and too far gone to do so. She put her career on the line and lost it all in one bad fall in one bad performance. No one wanted a dancer with a knee that was almost completely shot. But she took it all in stride, never once allowing herself to feel self-pity. She left with some of her dignity intact and the warning that she was lucky her wasn't completely blown. It was the life of someone in her profession. One day you are on the top of the world, the next you are nothing.

Mediocrity suited her fine, though. When one plan fails, there is always that back up plan and the dance school was her saving grace. If she couldn't dance on stage in front of hundreds then one of her students would. That was the delicate balance to which she found purpose in life. To live vicariously through others can be gratifying in seeing your work flourish, but at the same time, it can be your downfall to see your student fail.

Sakurako was her glowing pride of her teaching career. So much promise, and that personal connection to her long time friend had clouded her judgment to let the child do as she pleased. Most likely that choice to let her make her own choices had led to the destruction of Sakurako's ambitions. The lights and glamour of the city had drawn her away from her self toward the path of self-righteous destruction. There was no one to really blame but Sakurako. She didn't possess the same passion her mother did.

You can't force someone to want something so badly until it hurts.

-------------------------------------------

Tsukushi uneasily closed the door behind her. She leaned up against the door to gather her bearings. After the long discussion between Shizuka, Rui, and her, a lot had been settled. Not everything, but most of the major details. Rui was already prepared for the onslaught of work that would come his way. He was taking it all rather well.

"Thank you for not telling him," Shizuka breathed. She collapsed onto the couch. During their entire conversation she had been on edge. Silently and anxiously she waited for the moment Tsukushi would shift from her innocuous behavior to a vengeful one wreaking havoc with the exposure of their agreement. She prayed to god that it would not come up, and he had probably heard her prayers when Tsukushi made no mention of their agreement.

The last thing she wanted was to get involved in Rui and Shizuka's relationship. Successfully extricating herself once was difficult enough. To get involved a second time would just be asking for some kind of cruel punishment. "I had a feeling you never told him," Tsukushi sighed. She turned to the weary woman. "I'm not going to be the one to tell him the truth. I don't care if you ever do, but in my opinion, if you guys have any shot in making that marriage you're planning to work, you need to tell him sooner or later. Sooner would be nice."

"I've tried. Tons of times I've tried, but it just never came out." Something around her heart constricted brining about a heavy feeling of dread and loss. "I shouldn't even be talking to you about this."

She nodded her head. "Yeah, you shouldn't. But I am willing to listen and tell you what I think from an objective standpoint."

"I really don't think objective would work out between us."

"There was a time when you felt you could tell me almost anything. Well, anything except you and Rui going on behind my brother's back." The last comment came out more as a joke than an accusation to lighten up the mood. "I'm not really mad anymore about you and Rui being together. Seeing you two together for so long seems sort of natural now. Seeing you with my brother seemed right, too, at the time. It's hard to explain really, but something makes you work with them. I don't know. I'm just rambling now."

"Sometimes you find yourself at that crossroads. You can distinctly see that two paths are right in front of you with their vague foreshadowing of what life would have been. In some respect, I'll never know what lay ahead on either road with which man I could have gone with. Rui and I got together more on default. I don't regret loving him, but sometimes I think about what life could have been like."

"I could have seen you and Susumu working on at least a second or third child by now," Tsukushi laughed. "Remember how he had that absurd idea about eight to ten children. He always wanted a big family. He needed some kind of security growing up by himself with only a father and Tama for most of his childhood."

Shizuka giggled recalling the repetitive requests on Susumu's parts for tons of children. Although he was partial to the process of making children to begin with, so that didn't really much dampen his plans. "He always was so understanding about everything. He knew how much my career meant to me. All he asked was for one child that would come from both of us, and the rest he wanted to adopt. His plan was to be the stay at home dad if it required. He would have moved heaven and earth to make me happy."

"I could imagine him with an apron on in the kitchen humming to himself while making lunches for the kids. Whatever role he placed himself in, he could do it."

"As crazy as it sounds, I would have gladly given him ten children. I would have been the mom and the wife. I know when I'm selfish when I say I wouldn't give my life right now up for Rui. He's just like Susumu wanting a family of his own. I just don't think I can give that to him."

She could feel the raw stinging sensation in the back of her throat. The barrage of memories overwhelmed her. It was her fault that Rui developed his needs for family and all that. Kaya was just one of the few reasons why Rui settled down and recognized his role as a father. He wanted more, though, something that Shizuka couldn't and wouldn't give him. Looking at Shizuka in the dimly lit room, she could see the same traces of sadness that brushed her brother's features.

Tsukushi knew that look very well. It took her years to figure out what that small hint of something amiss was. That was the day she learned not to hate Shizuka, but to pity her for the poor wretch she was. Yes, her brother had sworn that he would do everything in his power to make Shizuka comfortable and happy for as long as she stayed with him. He undeniably adored her, but love was an entirely different subject. She pinpointed it all back to that day that everything became crystal clear as to where he stood in his feelings. There was no preamble to his violent outburst of raw emotion. The fact that it happened was enough proof as to where his intentions lie.

Shizuka brushed away the straw tear that managed to fall. "Susumu loved me, but never as much as he did her. You were always smarter than me in that aspect. At least you were level headed enough to realize what Rui was doing. I wasn't. I didn't want to believe it. It's harsh to realize you'll always be second best to someone else. But I would have taken it for what it was because he was my first. Life's cruel like that, ya know? We're always competing in a game we can't win."

Her admission was openly frank and honest. It was the first time Tsukushi had ever recalled Shizuka confessing to the knowledge of her brother's past and her own relationship with him. It was hard to hate her now. She would never fully comprehend what her brother was doing when he refused to leave a woman that cheated on him. He believed so strongly in marrying Shizuka that he had even outright refused his sister's requests to leave her. Perhaps in retrospect, it all made sense.

Susumu wanted her back because they were even. All along he carried the guilt that his heart silently cheated on Shizuka. He did learn to love her, but at the drop of a hat, he would have gone running to his first love if the opportunity presented itself. Shizuka wasn't his first choice. As was Rui not Shizuka's and Tsukushi was not Rui's. They all crept around those minor details letting them secretly taint all the relationships.

As if her meager words could offer any consolation Tsukushi offered them anyway. "He would have loved you enough to marry you and build a life with you."

"I know he would have," she replied with a tearful response. "Why else do you think I agreed to not give up the club sooner. I'm such a fool. I couldn't even let go of the club because it as all I had left of him."

"Are you ever going to tell Rui, then?"

"I have to. It is the right thing to do, but not now. Not when he's so happy. He still believes I refused to sell the club because it was leverage to allow Rui to gain some custody over Kaya. All along we've fooled him into believing our ruse. I could have let the club go to you at any time, but I didn't. I knew you wouldn't let it go either. I always assumed you would never do this. Now you spring this on me."

"You can't say you didn't see it coming."

"I can't, can I? I'll tell him when I'm ready, and it will be the right time." She resolutely stood up and firmly nodded her head. "I won't make the same mistake twice."

"I hope not."

"No, Rui deserves to know what he's getting into. He's going to be hurt by this, but it's to be expected."

The voice inside her head screamed at her not to ask. To ask would leave to the inevitable answer, which she didn't want to know the answer to. However, her curiosity would always get the better of her. "Before he… he asked you something. Did you ever answer him?"

Shizuka sighed to herself. She had been doing a lot of that lately. It was a heavy loaded question. From the edge in Tsukushi's wary voice, it was obvious that either answer would be hard to stomach. So, she chose to respond with a sad look upon her face and walked away mumbling, "It doesn't matter now."

"Do me a favor?" Tsukushi weakly asked.

"What?"

"Don't love my brother."

She nodded her head and ducked out the door. A wordless gasp escaped her lips to see Rui standing in front of her. "Hi," she breathed. Panic overtook her wondering if he had managed to overhear any of the conversation going on inside the office.

"Are you okay? You seem a little shaken." He reached forward and noted the slight hesitation she took to his touch.

"I'm fine," she answered brushing past him. She winced realizing her mistake from recoiling from his innocent gesture. Somehow she mustered a barely decent smile to reassure him.

He raised an eyebrow studying her. Although she was repeatedly trying to show him she was fine something was amiss. However, her manner of behavior and the one of her voice warned him against pressing her any further. He settled for kissing her on the head whispering a muffled, "I love you."

"I love you, too."

-----------------------------------------------

They all gathered around the small table in the center of what once used to be the dance floor. The club was eerily quiet for a Saturday night. Normally the place would be alive and teeming with drunken patrons grinding and swarming the room. The music would be pumped up at full volume deafening the senses. The lingering smells of alcohol, sweat, cologne, and perfume would be wafting through the air. Now when it was just their small party, it seemed so empty and lonely.

"I kind of missed this," Akira spoke up. He glanced around the table with his arms folded across his chest. "One big, happy dysfunctional family back together. Let's all have one big group hug."

"Keep your hands away from me, Akira," Soujiro warned. He shifted his chair away from him. "You always try to find some excuse to get your hands on my ass."

"How did he? Why would he touch your ass?" Tsukushi asked incredulously.

"I don't know why. All I know was that he was into some pretty firm as grabbing."

"I did not grab your ass!"

"Oh, I remember that. He was trying to steal his wallet," Rui interjected. "That was the time I dared you to try to steal Soujiro's wallet."

Tsukushi turned her head towards Rui. "Why did you dare him to steal Soujiro's wallet?"

"That was after he dared me to grab Sakurako's breast. Although it wasn't that hard."

"Oh man, I remember that!" Akira howled. He bowled over into fits of laughter. "That was after during the time we dared Thomas to lick Tsuyoshi."

Yuuki bust out in laughter after hearing that one. "I think I remember that. You guys were daring each other to do stuff?"

Thomas groaned and covered his face with his hands. "Junpei was the one who started it when he dared me to spank Rui. So, I dared him to pants Akira. And that led to…"

"Okay, we don't need to hear anymore!" Tsukushi exclaimed. "Where's Sakurako?"

"Here I am!" she screamed running through the doorway. She dropped her duffel bag at her feet and slid into the empty seat beside Tsukasa all while flashing him a brief smile.

Tsukasa shifted slightly in his seat. There was something unnerving in the way that Sakurako was looking at him lately. He didn't know what the look meant, but it oddly resembled the look she got before she was about to devour something tasty.

"So everyone's here now." Shizuka counted the faces around the table to make sure.

"Yeah, this is everyone," Tsuksuhi agreed. She took a deep breath preparing herself for the pandemonium that was about to break out.

Might as well get it all out.

"So, as we've all noticed, the club is not temporarily out of order at this moment in time. You might have also noticed that most of the furniture and perishable goods have been cleared out. There sis a very good reason for all of this." She pulled out the detailed sketches the contractor has gladly supplied her as a visual to the construction job. Unfurling it for the first time, she awaited for the response.

"Shit!" Akira cursed. "What is this?" Like a kid on Christmas day he jumped out of his seat and leaned over the drawing pouring over each and every panel.

Everyone else followed with the same interest.

Shizuka decided to step in and explain. "This is what Last Resort will look like in three weeks from now. I've only seen these plans a few hours ago, but if I can recall how Susumu described to me back when he first thought this grand scheme up, we are looking at expanding our current space by a few hundred square feet." She pointed to the elaborate drawings of different rooms. "These here are the new rooms that will be rebuilt on the second floor."

"But we closed off the second floor a long time ago."

"Yes we did, Jiro," Tsukushi continued. "But if we are in any way going to pull off Hiro's bachelor party, then we are going to need to open up those rooms to accommodate his needs."

"Shit! We're doing the bachelor party," Akira excitedly yelped. "Oh man, this is gonna be great." He was beginning to practically salivate.

"What party?" Yuuki asked. She furrowed her eyebrows, but inside she was becoming more anxious by the second of what was coming.

"You remember Hiro. Shimizu Hiro. I think he used to come in once a week with a bunch of other guys Susumu hung out with."

"Oh, I kind of recall him. He was the only guy I ever met who liked to drink windex."

"Windex?" Tsukasa asked with a look of distaste.

"Not that kind of windex. It's a mix of lime juice, blue curacao, triple sec, and vodka."

"Gah," Sakurako moaned. "Those are nasty."

"Can we get back to the point?"

"Let's try to keep on track like Thomas suggested," Tsukushi sighed in exasperation. It always seemed that whenever they gathered in large groups disjointed tangents ran rampant. "I've already set up plans with the contractor and his crew will be working nonstop the next few weeks to get this place up to par. It shouldn't take so long considering the exorbitant amount of money I'm paying him and the foresight my brother had in terms of the minor construction and demo work involved. The first thing that needs to be fixed is the bar and the floors in here. The electricians and plumbers have already cleaned up whatever was falling apart from the accident. From the plans in front of you there are going to minor changes such as the fact the bar will now be located over here." She pointed to a space on the south end of the room. "To improve the flow of moving inventory during the night, there's going to be a trap door built into the ground connecting to the cellar. That is why you boys so graciously were ordered to move all the inventory down there."

"Don't remind me," Tsukasa griped. He stared with keen interest at all the plans to make between use of the space. His innate business sense told him it was an ingenious idea to maximize the real estate and would probably bring up the value a few grand. "So, how are you going to pay for all of this?"

"That leads me to the next part of the changes that will taking place. We still have a little bit left in the rainy day fund to pay for the first installment of the construction. I also have a meeting scheduled with Hiro's best man to discuss the logistics and price of his party. I've already talked Hiro into giving me a small advance when we agree to the terms the party alone should cover most of the bills if we play our cards right. Junpei, I need you to increase security. That is a primary need as we've seen from our previous mistake. Akira, I need you to make a few calls to the girls. We need to get some dancers in here for the party. Soujiro, I can rely on you to make a few deals with our liquor supplier. Yuuki, I need someone to go shopping for the new furniture. I already have a rough sketch that Susumu made in terms of décor. Tsuyoshi, Kin, Rui, and Thomas, you four need to work on our sound system. Shizuka will be working on getting the word out that we're back in business. I think that about covers it."

"What am I doing?" Sakurako asked.

"Oh, right. I need you to screen the entertainment. I was planning for an open call next week to see what we've got." She flipped open her palm pilot and jotted down a few more notes. "Tomorrow I've got a meeting with the insurance people about seeing if we can get some money to pay for the damages. After that I have to meet with Amon."

"Fuck no are you meeting with him," Akira protested. "You can't go to him."

She was expecting him to quickly argue over her decision. "I have no choice, Akira. He's got the best dancers in the city."

Akira petulantly refused to be change his assertion. "The guy has some weird thing for you and I don't like it."

"I can handle, Amon." Her tone set a finality to the argument. At the moment, pleasing Akira's childish desires was not on her high end of priorities. "If it makes you feel better I'll take Tsukasa with me."

"Me? Why me?"

"Because if Akira shows up, he won't be able to control himself around a guy like Amon."

"The guy gets under my skin," Akira groused. "The bastard knows exactly the right buttons to push."

"And you let him push them knowing that," she argued. "Onto the next order of business. We need to really pull in as much cash as possible in the next month to pay things off. We're going back to our old ways."

They all looked on expectantly secretly becoming more and more excited by the changes Tsukushi was enforcing. Everyone except for Tsukasa knew exactly what that meant. It was a matter of returning to running the place the same way Susumu had. This involved in a collaborative group effort. There were no rules. They made them, so hell would break lose.

"We're all in this together. Any ideas? The floor is open."

"We can do a open mike night," Thomas suggested. "I know a few bands have been begging for a chance to play here with the volume we get. We can sort of force the bands to pay a small fee for the time slots. It works out both ways. We get paid and they get some play time in one of the most exclusive clubs in the city."

"Okay. So, I assume you'll be taking care of auditioning the bands. Anyone else?"

Yuuki raised her hand when an idea came to mind. "We could do some kind of contest thing. You know, charge people a fee to enter and give some kind of prize from a percentage of the takings. How about a karaoke contest?"

"Oh god, imagine all the bad singers we would get?"

"Wait a second, Kin. That could work. If we charge the person who pays has got to be pretty damn good to put their money where their mouth is. What if we put all of the entrants against one of our own? Then the crowd decides who wins."

Thomas' grin widened. "Hands down that is easy money if Shizuka is who they're up against."

"I'm game," Shizuka announced.

"We have plenty of time to think of other ideas," Tsukushi interrupted. "I think our first priority is to get people back in here and maneuver around all the construction work. Our sound system is shot, so for now, how about we do some music unplugged. Thomas?" she pleaded. She put on a pathetic wounded puppy dog face.

"No way!"

"Come on! Gah! Get that face away from me."

"Thomas!" she whined. "You know you want t play unplugged. It's been so long since you actually performed."

"What? Thomas used to sing?" Yuuki asked. Her interest was piqued. She turned to him. "I don't remember you ever playing for the club."

"That's because he stopped playing a short time after we got you and Sakurako."

"I want to hear you, Thomas. I want to see you in action."

"You're really missing out, Yuuki. Thomas used to bring the house down."

"I'd love to play some of your stuff, Tom," Kin stated.

"Yeah, it's been a while since we played some decent stud. No offense, girls" Tsuyoshi added.

"Why do I feel that my band is turning against me?" Thomas vehemently shook his head refusing to fall for their trap. An idea to get out of it began to quickly form. "Okay," he smirked to himself. "If I do this, then I want you to sing too, Tsukushi."

"Ooooh! He's got you."

"Do you think I'm scared by that, Soujiro? You got a deal, then. If you sing, then I'll sing."

"What?!" Thomas stammered. Never in a million years did he think that plan would backfire on him. He knew for a fact that Tsukushi was adamant about never singing in public again. Then a again, she did make it seem that whatever events they planned were on a do or die basis. "I think I just screwed myself over."

"You did big time," Rui snickered. "So is that all. Is this meeting adjourned?"

"Rui! I'm supposed to say that."

"Sorry."

"Okay, that's about it. Meeting adjourned.

The sound of chairs scraping against the ground and animated whispers set the tone for the building excitement in the air. A few stayed behind to straighten out some details with Tsukushi. Akira had already run off to make his calls for favors, but first rushed to drop Sakurako off at home. Thomas was dragged out by Yuuki, who attempted in vain to warm him up on the idea of performing. Soujiro followed them from behind with a scowl on his face at seeing them getting along so well. Rui and Shizuka lingered a few moments to talk over some final plans.

Soon it was just Tsukasa and Tsukushi alone in the darkened club. They walked together in companionable silence as she made her rounds turning off the lights and locking up.

"Something makes me think that all this talk about going back to old ways isn't going to be pretty," declared. His arm reached over her to push the light switch before she could touch it. "You won't strain yourself, will you? I don't feel like being the one to lug your body around like last time. You are quite heavy."

"What?! I am not heavy."

"Sure, whatever you say. I swear, I almost pulled something when I had to pick up your unconscious body."

"I may have one arm in a sling, but the other is perfectly fine to smack you with." As a warning she lightly slapped him on the arm. She pulled her car keys from her pocket and tossed them at him. "You drive," she ordered.

"How did you drive here to begin with? You only have one good arm."

"It took me some time."

"You know you could have gotten yourself killed."

"So I've been told many times by you. One might come to think you care for little old me. Is Tsukasa getting a widdle crush on me?" she teased.

"Please, like I would like a mad woman like you."

"Come on. I know you dream about me knowing I'm sleeping only a few doors down from you."

She stepped aside to let him open the car door for her. When the door was opened, she nodded in thanks and got into her seat. She leaned over and unlocked the driver side door.

"More like I try to imagine how those ungodly sounds come out of you when you snore like a blow horn." He slid into the driver's seat and started up the car. He noticed she hadn't buckled her seat belt and leaned over her to buckle it for her.

"Thanks. And I do not snore. If it's any one of us, you are the one who snores. God, look at what I endure. The man snores. He scolds me all the time like a mother hen about safety. Plus, he ate the last ho ho this morning. Don't even get me started on how he uses up all the hot water in the bathroom."

"I do not. Stp talking about me as if I'm not here. I have a separate bathroom from yours, so the amount of water I use shouldn't matter."

"The plumbing is connected throughout he entire apartment. The genius who built the place thought it would be okay if everything shared the same pipes. I thought only women could spend so much time in the bathroom. What the hell do you do in there? Strike that. I don't want to know." She cast a cautious look in his direction.

"If you don't stop arguing with me I might crash this car into a pole and kill both of us. Geez, do you like arguing with me or something."

"Yes, I do. It's quite good fun." She then proceeded to hum to herself.

"It's times like these I'm reminded to stay away from women like you."

"Women like me?"

"Yeah, the kind that will suck the life right out of you, you succubus."

"Trying to intimidate me with name calling doesn't work."

"Can't you be quiet," he growled gripping at the steering wheel.

"My car, so I can talk as much as I want. Did you know that when you get annoyed this vein pops out at the side of your forehead?"

"Where?!" Tsukasa immediately began to look in the rear view mirror while the car was stopped at a red light.

"Such vanity."

"I should toss you out of this car right now."

"You should, but you won't. You need to loosen up once in awhile."

"You need to get some sanity."

"That's the key to everything, Tsukasa." She grinned to herself. "Spend all your time trying to get some sort of sanity and enjoy the insanity it brings."

"That makes no sense."

"I don't need to. But you like my banter. I have to make up for ignoring you these last few days. I won't shut up until I've gotten it out of my system."

"Please, shut up," he begged. "Now I know why you're kid can be so annoying." He pulled the car to a stop as he parked the car into its parking space in the underground lot. Automatically he ran to the other side of the car to open her door for her. "I just want to go get some sleep."

"So you can dream more about me?" Tsukushi slyly asked. The doors to the elevator opened and she stepped in.

Tsukasa followed in after him. A brief silence ensued between them as the elevator ascended.

"Back to your first question. You're right what we are going to do is not going to be pretty." Tsukushi stepped out of the elevator and walked ahead to open the front door. Dropping her things on the coffee table, she tossed her shoes off next to the couch.

"I had a feeling it wasn't." Tsukasa flopped onto the couch. Although he was tired, his hand reached for the television remote and turned it on. He thought a few hours of watching mindless television wouldn't hurt him.

Tsukushi walked over to the television and lowered the volume. She briefly checked in to see that Kaya was asleep as well as Tama in the spare futon on the floor. She decided against waking Tama up to walk her back to her apartment a few floors below. Turning back to the living room she walked past Tsukasa who was deeply immersed in watching the news.

"You should really get some sleep. We have a big day tomorrow we have a big day."

"Sure."

She shook her head. He was probably going to stay up all night watching junk on television before she would have to come out in a few hours and turn off the television while he slept soundlessly on the couch. It had happened the last few nights. As she prepared for bed, she thought back to everything to that occurred that day. It certainly was a strange on at that.

However, as she burrowed under the covers of her bed a smile overcame her.

"Sometimes change can be good."

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AN: Thus, ends another chapter that I think really had no point but useless banter towards the end. I've been away too long. I forgot how to write. Please ignore the typos. There are probably tons of them. I posted this unedited to get it out faster. Next chapter will hopefully be finished next weekend.