AN: Yes. I am a cruel cruel human being. Actually, according to some I'm not even human.

Anyways. Sorry I was away for so long. The new semester came and I needed a job so now I'm working from 11 to 4 and then going to school at night five nights a week. My weekends end up devoted to schoolwork and friends. Sorry, but I'm trying to have a life here!

Quick question, has anyone seen Ella Enchanted? And was anyone reminded of Andy, Miaka, and Ayame??? I was and it had me rolling in stitches on Anwe's basement floor!! And when asked, "Prince Char! Can you run fast?" he answered, "No, why?" and then got chased by his fan club led by Hattie. I can see Andy being stupid enough to say the exact same thing!!

looks back at chapter 17 Wow. That thing needs some serious revamping… I'll do that later. You guys have waited for this chapter quite long enough.

On with the fic!


We Will Meet Again

Chapter 18:

Yumiko Kaze

"What do you mean, 'no visitors'?" Miaka bristled as she glared at the plump nurse who was now, and had the previous five times Miaka had asked, refusing to let her into see Andy.

"Just like it sounds. No. Visitors. His manager was informed not long after Andy arrived of his condition and told us not to allow anyone not on the list to see him." The nurse, Linda from the looks of her name tag, raised an eyebrow and sighed. "Look girlie. I realize he's a famous singer and all and that seeing him would be really fun for you to brag about to all your friends, but do I need to call security on you or can you find your own way down the hall and to the exit?"

Miaka felt her temper ready to snap. She had had to drive herself to the hospital after the ambulance had come and taken Andy and Taka away to be treated. There hadn't been any extra room. Besides, someone had had to stay to make sure that Ayame didn't wake up and bolt before the police could arrest her. Miaka felt proud that that hadn't been an issue. Ayame didn't even move the entire time—Miaka gave herself a pat on the back for having clocked her that hard.

After watching Ayame get handcuffed and loaded into the police vehicle, Miaka had been questioned about the entire incident which led to pretty much the entire week (minus the juicier details) being spilled out to the police reporter and in less than half an hour the story was going to be all over the news.

"Fine." Miaka hissed as she turned and stomped down the hallway. She'd wanted to see Andy first, seeing as he was the one she was in love with and that he'd been hurt worse, but she supposed she could go and see Taka until Andy came around and started asking for her. Then she'd get to flounce past Linda like she owned the place. Hmph.

Wow did that make her sound like a brat.

Oh well. She was entitled to being bratty once in a while. Besides, she'd just been shot at and Linda was treating her like something she'd stepped in.

"Hey!" a ahnd landed on her shoulder and Miaka yelped and whirled around.

"Taka! Don't do that!" she hissed, swatting at him and growling before realizing that she'd just taken aim at his injured arm.

Taka's eyes bugged and he bit his lip as he grabbed his arm and rocked slightly, trying, no doubt, to hold back a flood of Tasuki-like language. The seishi. Not the dog.

Miaka's hands flew to her mouth, "OmigodI'msosorry!" came out in a rush of nearly indistinguishable words. "Does it hurt? I mean, did I hurt you? Er, did I make it hurt worse? I'm sorry!"

Trying to blink back the tears of pain, Taka swallowed and straightened. "It's nothing. Just a flesh wound." Taka said, moving his arm and flexing it experimentally only to wince in pain. "Okay. Maybe it hurts just a little."

"Miaka!"

Miaka and Taka both swiveled to see Yui and Yumiko running towards them. Well, okay, fast walking…

The blonde and the brunette came skidding to a halt stuttered breathlessly in unision, "Are you alright? We heard what happened on the news!"

Miaka looked at her best friends and her coworker, "Did you two come together?"

Yumiko waved a hand, "Nah. I saw what happened on the TV at work and because I'm the only one willing to drive like a maniac to get here and see what was going on… I left work early and came here."

Yui fisted her hands on her hips, "Does a best friend need a reason?"

"Of course not!" Miaka threw herself at Yui and hugged her so tightly that Yui thought her head was going to go flying.

Yumiko glanced at the best friends and then over at Taka, "What are you doing here?" she glared. "The news didn't say anything about any dogs being hurt in the crossfire."

Taka's eyes narrowed, trying to look angry rather than offended. "What do you mean what am I doing here, what are you doing here?" he looked down his nose at Yumiko, "I didn't think they let pets in here without a leash!"

Yui glanced at the two as they continued to squabble. "Do they always do that?"

Miaka sighed, "Pretty much. They hate each other."


Blackness. Everywhere.

Andy was confused.

Where was he?

What had he been doing, and where was he supposed to be?

Was he dead?

The questions flitted out of his head as quickly as they entered it.

And then, the blackness began to fade, and he began to see that he was in a strange ancient looking city, being carried upon some sort of platform. Andy could feel generously stuffed pillows surrounding him and reached out to touch the richly colored fabrics that hung around him, hiding him from the public view.

Beautiful. But certainly nothing that he remembered owning.

The people around him stared and he felt slightly uncomfortable under their scrutiny. Why were they looking at him? What was going on?

"Can I please have one of the jewels from your crown?"

Startled, he glanced down and saw Miaka running alongside the palanquin with her hands outstretched for said jewel.

In all his life he had never had anyone ask him for anything like that before. He was stunned speechless. There was something familiar about this situation; though he could not put his finger on exactly what.

He saw the stone before she did. He was about to voice a warning but it was too late. Miaka had tripped and had grabbed onto one of the curtains for balance. He placed a hand against his forehead in exasperation. Now those stupid overzealous guards (wait, since when did he have guards?) of his were going to overreact as usual…

Andy let out a long slow breath. His head was hurting. This was a memory, he knew, but whose memory? This had certainly never happened to him. He'd never seen a city that looked remotely like this. Why was everyone dressed so strangely? The thoughts had just entered his head when he realized that he already knew. This was the city of Eio in the country of Konan and he was the countries fifth Emperor.

The scene began to fade and he suddenly felt a sharp stab of fear lance through him. He wanted to see more. The strangeness of suddenly remembering things that he'd never remembered before and being thrown into a world of which he knew nothing was simply frightening. Where had Miaka gone? She was the only thing that he remembered from his real life and yet she somehow belonged here in these strange new memories of his. Whatever was going on he had a feeling that Miaka was at the center of it all.

His fears faded when the scene began to bleed into another one and he immediately caught sight of Miaka—and Taka? No… another name was coming to mind… Tamahome?

He glanced to each side and realized he was sitting on a throne. His throne. The throne that he secretly hoped to share one day with the young lady before him. Though she didn't know about that yet.

"Not me. I can't be the Priestess. I'm just a normal high school student. Just Miaka Yuuki."

Priestess? Miaka had never said anything about being a Priestess. He didn't completely understand what was going on and yet… more memories were flooding into his mind and supplying him with the information he needed to make sense of it all. Miaka was a girl from another world who had been chosen by Suzaku to find the ancient text of the Shinjintenchisho and become the Priestess of Suzaku—the one who had been prophesized to save his country, Konan.

Again, the scene began to bleed out and into another one and before Andy knew it he was sitting in a bedchamber, his bedchamber, and listening to Miaka tell him that one of the other Seishi, Nuriko, was in love with him. To the part of him that was Andy, things were becoming clearer and clearer all the time. And not just about what he was remembering.

"I just thought you should know. It's always nice to know that someone nearby loves you."

Before he could get a grip on anything the scene changed again, faster this time, to a mountain and he was sitting near Miaka in all the serenity that nature had to offer.

"Fly free. Go anywhere, be anyone you want to!"

Now he knew why Miaka had always had such a calming affect on him and why she'd always seemed to know exactly what he was thinking. She'd already known him—and apparently she was still trying to teach him to be himself. You think after a lifetime he would have learned something…

And then, the scene changed again, this time lightening quick to a barrage of things that Andy doubted he would have wanted to remember.

Miaka with Tamahome.

Miaka kissing Tamahome.

And worst of all…

Miaka loving Tamahome.

…and not him.

And yet, he'd never stopped trying. Faster and faster the memories flooded his consciousness. He'd proposed to her. He'd nearly killed Tamahome for her.

He'd died for her.

And she'd never loved him.


"Miaka!" Andy's eyes flew open. He rolled over, thirsty and looking for the porcelain water pitcher that was always by his bedside.

And paused.

This wasn't the royal bedchamber!

And it wasn't his hotel room either!

Where the hell was he?

Oh. That was right. He'd been shot.

Where was Miaka? Was she alright? What had happened after he blacked out?

Thanks to his newly returned Seishi senses, he could tell that wherever Miaka was at the moment that she was fine. That was enough to put him at ease for the moment, although it didn't mean that he was any less excited about wanting to see her.

He glanced down at the ugly paper gown that the hospital had provided and grimaced. Pulling at the neck of it he inspected his shoulder and winced at the red stained bandage that was wrapped around the wound. He poked at it to see how much pain he'd be in and was pleasantly surprised to find that whatever pain medication they had him on was definitely working.

Still a tad disoriented from his recent Matrix like memory download, Andy sighed and flopped back down to lie in the extremely uncomfortable hospital bed.

If Miaka hadn't loved him before, then why was she with him now? The part of him that was Andy Wong thought that the answer was completely obvious; however, the part of him that was Hotohori and remembered exactly how much Miaka and Tamahome had gone through to be together just couldn't fathom why they weren't still together.

He would be the first to admit that he was just a little bit of a romantic at heart. Yes, he would like to believe that love lasted forever. It was how he had survived growing up in the palace with so many cold adults surrounding him. He'd outwardly learned to act like the little adult that they wanted and needed to have as their ruler. On the inside though he'd coveted and protected the part of himself that was still very open and very childlike and very ready for love. He had thought that Miaka would be the one to give him that.

But it was not to be.

Hotohori knew that he was in love with Miaka. Knew that he always would be. But he also knew that Miaka was not in love with him.

They say that if you love someone you should let them go.

Well that's what he had done.

He jumped a bit, jolted out of his thoughts, when the door opened to reveal a nurse in green scrubs and carrying a clipboard.

"Oh hello! Is the pain medication working?"

"Very well, thank you." Andy nodded and then peered at the door. "Where's Miaka?"

The nurse pursed her lips and then patted his foot condescendingly. Andy looked at where she'd touched him and made a mental note to clean himself later. Who said she could touch him? (okay, our little Emperor is having way too much of a relapse here…) "The Doctor says you shouldn't have visitors for a few hours. We need to see how you're doing. We didn't have your medical records, so we have to monitor you to make sure that you don't have any bad reactions to the medicine."

Andy nodded like he understood before asking for some paper and a pen. He knew that Miaka would be in sooner or later. While he waited he'd write. After all, it wasn't everyday that a man remembered he had a past life. Nevermind one where he was in love with the same girl he was in love with now. The whole concept was giving the part of him that was Andy the songwriter something entirely new to write a song about.


"What do you mean no visitors?!" Yui half screeched as she and Miaka tried to covertly peek around the corner to where Andy's room was.

Mimicking the nurse from earlier Miaka made a face and repeated "His manager specifically told us, no visitors!!" while shaking her finger menacingly.

"Well that's stupid!" Yui growled, trying to ignore the sounds of Taka and Yumiko arguing behind them.

"Are those actually guards?" asked Miaka as she stared down the hall toward Andy's room. "They actually put guards outside his room?"

"I guess they'd have to, with nutcases like Ayame running around." Yui answered.

"So how do we get in?" asked Miaka.

"Why are you asking me? I'm the good student that's never done a thing wrong in my entire academic career!!" Yui hissed.

Miaka wracked her brain for the solution to their problem. Neither she nor Yui knew how to sneak into anyplace, and Taka was practically up for citizen of the year award so….

"Yumi!" Miaka hissed.

"Eh?" distracted from her constant bickering with Taka, the other girl finally gave Yui and Miaka her full attention. "What?"

"You've been suspended, right?"

Yumiko looked confused for a second, "For fighting, yeah. Why?"

Miaka glanced back down the hallway at the guards. "Do you think you could take those guards?"

Yui rolled her eyes and smacked Miaka on the head, "You moron! She's as short and as tiny as you are! There's no way she could take them! Right Yumi?" When Yui didn't get an answer she blinked and then realized what had happened.

A look down the hall confirmed it. Yumiko was actually going to try and take down two men that were at least three times her size. What kind of gene pool had she and Miaka come from?

"Cripes, Miaka! You didn't tell me she was as stupid as you too!"

Taka raised an eyebrow as the three of them (the cowards) watched Yumiko head towards what would surely be the death of her. They watched as Yumiko increased her speed, actually jogging right up to the bigger of the two guards, tapping him on the shoulder and….

"Excuse me, Sir. Can you direct me to the bathroom? I don't feel so-" suddenly Yumiko grabbed the man's arm for balance and blinked rapidly a few times before her eyes rolled back in her head and she fell limply to the ground. The guard knelt to check her pulse just as she began to jerk and writhe on the floor.

"Yumi?" Miaka squeaked, starting forward to see if her friend was hurt or not only to be stopped by Taka. "Hey! What are you doing? She could be hurt! I think she's having a seizure or something!"

Taka rolled his eyes, "That girls head is so hard it'd take a house falling on it to give her a headache." He looked at both Yui and Miaka who stared at him as though he'd grown a second head.

"What are you saying?" asked Yui.

"I'm saying that that was so fake! I've never seen a worse acting job in my life!"

Faking it? Why was she faking…?

Oooooohh.

"I get it!" Yui grabbed Taka's hand and snapped, "Play along." And drug him towards the writhing Yumiko. Over her shoulder she hissed, "Use the distraction to sneak into Andy's room!"

Miaka nodded, waiting by the corner as she watched the four of them trying to hold down Yumiko as she thrashed—no doubt trying to kick Taka at least once. While all of them were focused on Yumiko, Miaka began to sneak towards the door.

Closer. Closer...

She was almost there when…

"You!"

Miaka froze and looked to see who had spoken.

Of course it was Kimoto.

"When did you get here?! Why haven't they kicked you out of the building yet?" Kimoto scowled and stormed up to where Miaka was standing, not seeing—or not caring—that he had just stepped on Yumiko's hand on his way there.

Momentarily forgetting that she was supposed to be acting, Yumiko sat straight up and whacked Kimoto on the leg (the only part of him she was close enough to to smack) and snapped, "Hey, you jerk!"

Miaka's heart stopped. Damn. They were so busted now.

Yumiko didn't seem to realize what she'd done until one of the guards hauled her to her feet and clamped a big hand on her shoulder. "You're coming with us miss." He then turned to Taka, Yui, and Miaka. "And so are you three."

Taka sighed as he and Yumiko were led away by the same guard and turned to look over his shoulder as the second guard began trying to herd Miaka and Yui towards the exit.

Miaka tried to dig her heels into the smooth linoleum floors as the guard started to drag her away by the arm. "Wait! Wait! Mr. Kimoto! Can I at least just see him? You don't even have to let me talk to him. I just want to make sure that he's alright! I mean, he got himself shot trying to protect me from Ayame! He'll think I'm an ungrateful cur if I don't see him and at least say thank you!"

Kimoto's chest puffed out as he sucked in an angry breath. "Exactly the point! All of this is your fault! I knew you were trouble the moment Andy told me about you! Stuffing the boys head with all those silly ideas of yours! Do you have any idea how this is going to affect his career? How is he going to be able to hold a guitar at tonight's farewell show?" Kimoto's small shark like eyes bit into Miaka's and she flinched.

Since when had there been a farewell concert? Miaka hadn't heard of one being planned. At least Andy had never mentioned it. Unless of course this was one of those things that Kimoto had planned without even so much as informing Andy what was going on.

"I suppose that he'll just have to grin and bear it. I mean, over two thousand tickets have been sold already. I can't just cancel the show. What kind of manager would that make me?" Kimoto prattled on while he followed the guard as he escorted Yui and Miaka out of the building.

As soon as the four of them had been thrown out of the building, Miaka snorted and started towards her car. No way in Hell that Kimoto was going to keep her from Andy. Oh he might have succeeded for the moment, but she was going to see him before he left. She had finally made her decision. She was going to go on tour with Andy. She was going to be with the man she loved. And nobody was going to stop her.

"Miaka!" Yui called, immediately dashing after her friend, leaving Yumiko and Taka by themselves.

Yumiko eyed Taka curiously. "Aren't you going after her too?"

Taka stared after Miaka and sighed. Turning his eyes to the ground he scuffed his shoe back and forth. "Nah." He looked up, eyes meeting Yumiko's and smiled, showing a touch of a humorous side that Yumiko had never seen before. "I'd just get in the way. Besides." He winced. "The pain medicine they gave me is wearing off and I need to go to the drug store."

Yumiko nodded like she understood his thinking, "Ah." and headed towards her car.

When Taka didn't move from where he stood Yumiko looked at him and frowned. "You just gonna stand there all day?"

Taka blushed and muttered, "A-actually…I kind of need a ride."


Andy glanced up when he heard the door open and inwardly groaned when he saw who it was. He glanced behind Kimoto, hoping to see Miaka and was vastly disappointed to see that his manager was alone—though looking strangely out of breath; like he'd just given a long and windy lecture to someone.

"How are yeh, feeling my boy?" Kimoto made his way over to Andy's bed and seated himself at the edge of it. "It looks like that girl did a pretty good job on you." He said, eyeing Andy's bandage and frowning.

Andy made a face and experimentally rotated his shoulder. "I suppose she did, but it doesn't really hurt. The medicine they gave me works wonders. I can't feel a thing."

"Great!" crowed Kimoto, "that means you can still play at tonight's farewell concert! I was just about ready to cancel it! So many fans of yours would have been so disappointed! You're a real trooper, Andy!"

Andy blinked. "What show?"

Kimoto hit himself on the forehead with a palm, "Oh that's right! You were spending so much time with that Miaka girl this week I never got a chance to tell you about it!" and thus, Kimoto flew into a long and drawn out explanation of what he'd planned out for Andy to do for the next three months or so.

"And then we'll go to Rome. Some sculptor might even make a statue of you. Isn't that exciting?"

Andy sighed, "And when do I get to go home to see my family? You said I was going to have time off to spend with my family. I haven't seen my brothers and sisters for nearly a year! And I wanted Miaka to meet them too."

And I really don't want to go to Rome. I don't want to go to Spain. Or France At least not singing the crap that you've forced down my throat.

Well. Miaka had been telling him to stand up for himself and tell other people what he wanted. He supposed that that was a good enough start. He had omitted the second half because he hadn't wanted to press his luck.

"By the way, where is Miaka? She hasn't been in to see me yet. I'm getting kind of worried."

Kimoto steepled his fingers and heaved a deep sigh, "Son, I'm sorry to have to tell you this…but the girl was here earlier. I saw her in the hallway. She was with some blue haired lad. Her old boyfriend I expect from the story I've heard. In any case, I saw her leaving with him as I arrived."

Eyes glinting strangely, Kimoto smiled, "I asked her if she'd seen you yet and she said that you were still under anesthetic and that she'd call back later after you'd had time to come around. I think the whole incident was just too much for her. She said that she was going home to take a nap and that she'd call you after she woke up."

Andy nodded. So that's why she hadn't been in yet. It made sense.

"Is that all? I have a few things to take care of before tonight's show. I'll be back later to pick you up."

Satisfied, Andy laid back and again picked up his pencil and paper, waiting for a phone call that would never come.

To Be Continued…


Next Time, on WWMA: The Startling and Adorable Conclusion to our story! (followed by an Epilogue…)

rolls on floor I'm almost done! Almost!

AN: Also, someone sometime asked me in a review if I was a professional writer. Sadly, no I am not. sigh Though I very much want to be. wracks brain I think it was Chepot that asked me that? BTW thank you very much for thinking I'm that good. Makes me feel all loved and fuzzy inside! Just curious, but if I went through with some plans I started to rewrite this fic as an original story and somehow actually got it published, how many of you would actually buy a copy and would you recommend reading it to other people??

Just curious. Cuz if I could get it published that'd be awesome. holds out a hat Come, come, just put your money right here… it'd be paying for my college education!