Woohooo! Chapter 4 is up. I don't own anyone

Chapter 4: Under the Cherry Blossom Tree

Yami had been waiting under the Cherry Blossom since he had gotten to the dance. As he was looking around, wondering where Rose was, he spotted a man with a girl. She seemed to be trying to get away from this guy, but he just kept coming right at her. Yami looking hard at the girl noticed that she had long wavy auburn hair. "It can't be," he said to himself. He started forward and he could soon here their voices. The male sounded like Prince Kaiba, and the girl, "Rose". He sped up and listened as he was walking what was being said.

"Look, I said I have to meet my date, why don't you understand that?"

"Yeah, and I'm your date. So why don't we just take off this mask and go inside-"

"Get away from me!"

Rose tried to break out of his hold, but he kept a firm grip on her arm.

"No, instead you'll come with me and you shall be MY date." He turned her around and untied her mask. It fell to the ground. He turned her towards him and was just trying to kiss her when,

"Hold on Kaiba."

Kaiba twisted around to find Yami right behind him. He was so surprised to see him that he loosened his grip just enough so that she squirmed out of his hold and rushed behind Yami. Yami was looking daggers at him.

"And just who gave you permission to touch my friend," he asked with malice prominent in his voice.

Kaiba fell back amazed. 'He . . he has . . . a . . Girlfriend? This can't be! But the look in his eyes…'

He gathered himself and smirked at him saying, "Well, Well, isn't this quaint? Yami has finally found someone. Why don't you just forget about her and let me have her? She'll be too much for you to handle."

He reached for her, but Yami stepped in front of her to protect her from this freak. Kaiba pulled back with a look of frustration on his face. "You will regret that you didn't hand her over when you did." He turned and went up towards the castle.

Yami turned and looked into Rose's eyes. He could tell that she was still scared, so he pulled her into a hug and tried to calm her down. "Don't worry Rose, he won't be coming around anytime soon. You're safe now." He whispered this to her as he held her. While he held her, she held onto him tightly. She was just so scared that she could hardly do anything. After she had calmed down, which took a long time, she looked up at him and said, "Thank you Yami." He looked down at her and nodded. "If you ever need any help, don't hesitate to ask for it." He looked at her more closely and then he remembered, "Oh," he released her from his hold, went over, and picked up Rose's mask. "You might want this." He handed it back to her. She held it delicately in her hand.

"Rose,"

"Yes Yami."

"Would you come with me to the place where we were supposed to meet."

She looked up at him and nodded. He took her hand and, slowly, walked to the tree. Once underneath, they sat down on the small wood bench that was placed under there. She was still tense; she wished that Yami would just hold her until that horrible occurrence passed by and she felt all right once again. Sensing her tension, Yami placed his hand onto hers and, with his other hand, lifted her face for her to look into his eyes. "Everything will be all right. I promise." He took her hand off her face and took a flower from the seat next to him. He presented it to her, and she smiled at him and he lit up inside. She couldn't believe it, but by him giving her this flower, she felt comforted knowing that he was there to help her in her need. When she held the flower, she felt his warmth in it. Happiness flooded through her and she smiled up at him.

"Could we just stay out over here for tonight, I really don't want to run into him again?"

He nodded. They sat there in silence, each not wanting to spoil the time that they were sharing. They were close enough to hear the music, yet far enough as not to be seen. Little did they know that not to far from them, was Tomoyo with her date Eriol (they had met the night before), Yugi with his girlfriend Anzu, Joey with his date Mai, and Tristan with Joey's little sister Serenity as his date. They were all hiding in one of the mazes closest to the couple and they were on the verge of having a nervous collapse from all the tension in the air. They watched what had happened between the "Rose", Kaiba, and Yami. It took allot of Eriols' magic just to keep Joey from lunging out after Kaiba. Not to say that all of them were really pissed at him for hurting her, they all breathed again when Kaiba walked away from them. Then all the girls sighed as Yami brought Rose into his arms. Eriol smiled, but the other three just gaped at him. They had never seen Yami act this way. In a way, it was really nice to see him with someone, but really weird at the same time. They had all thought that Yami was going to remain a bachelor for the rest of his life.

"Oooh. I can't believe it, she finally found someone to take care of her." Tomoyo was just so happy about it that she could have just burst. But seeing as on how they were supposed to be undercover, it had to whisper her excitement.

"Yeah, I kind of know what you mean Tomoyo. Before this, my brother was always going on about how he wanted to find the perfect girl for him. I always thought he was kind of joking around, but now I see that what he was saying was true."

Eriol could feel that Sakura and Yami just wanted to be together alone, so he said, "Come on you guys, let's get inside. I think they reason why they aren't heading inside is because they want to be alone for a while."

Most agreed, but some still wanted to stay behind and find out what was going to happen. Namely Tomoyo.

"Come on Tomoyo, let the two be. If they want to come inside, they will of their own accord. But let them stay together. They're happy right now, so let's not ruin it." Eriol placed his hand on her shoulder. Tomoyo looked back at Sakura, reluctantly nodded her head, and left with them.

Back under the Cherry Blossom, the two were just looking at each other, and saying nothing. After a few moments, Yami said, "You look beautiful tonight."

And indeed she was. That night, Tomoyo had outfitted her in a pink dress that had a small trail in the back and really short sleeves. Her necklace had a small piece of pink quartz in the shape of a heart. Her hair had been pulled into a very loose ponytail that was tied half way down her back by a pink ribbon.

"Thank you. I'm sorry about before though. I should have come straight here instead of going inside to let my father know where I was going to be."

"It's not your fault that that sleaze ball followed you and tried to hurt you. You had a right to let your father know where you were going to be. So don't say that."

Sakura looked down at her hand that was underneath Yami's. She felt his warmth and sighed. "I guess you're right. But what should I do if he comes at me again?" Yami smiled and took her into his arms. "He won't because I'll be protecting you from him and any others who ever try to force you to do something against your will."

As he was saying this, Sakura was starting to blush furiously. 'Maybe Yami is my prince charming. Oh how I hope so; he is so kind and gentle.'

"Rose, will you dance with me?"

Sakura, who had her head pressed against his chest nodded. As they were getting up, the song had changed. It was now an old folk song that was sometimes sung to younger children. It tells of how two people met and fell in love. Kind of appropriate for now, don't ya think?

They started to slow dance; Yami had his arms wrapped around her waist and Sakura had her arms wrapped around his. It kind of looked like they were hugging each other while dancing.

The song was over and they just continued to dance, but at intervals they sat down and talked. They enjoyed each others company that night. They really didn't want to leave at the end, but knew that they had to. So, when it came time to lift her up into the carriage, they both looked extremely down at having to leave each other again, but they promised to meet each other either by the doors to the garden, if it wasn't going to rain, or by the maze where he gave her the rose.

A/N: did you like? Hope you did. R&R pleez!