"You gave me the sunset." Misao breathed in amazement. He had taken her to the beach, and apparently gotten there minutes before the sun had fully sunk below the horizon. She felt something being pressed into her hands, and regretfully looked down. Her breath caught once more, he had bought her a new camera, and from the looks of it, she would be able to capture the sunset with it as well. She looked up at Aoshi, disbelief clearly evident in her eyes. He simply watched her.

She didn't know what to do. Was this Aoshi? Who was he? He had never spoken to her as if there was no wall between them. His hand covered hers over the camera; "Take a picture, before you miss it." He advised and moved away from her, starting to the steps that led down to the sand of the beach. And…to Misao's sceret delight, he began to take his shirt off. She quickly moved her camera and took a picture of him as he pulled his half buttoned shirt over his head, his back towards her.

She was able to catch the sunset in the picture as well. Misao felt truly at ease. Of course, being her scenery loving self, she couldn't help but catch a few more pictures of the sunset before following Aoshi onto the beach, tugging her shoes off as she went. When Aoshi turned to face her, she took another quick picture of him. He frowned at her.

"Misao, you have plenty of pictures of me." He sighed, giving her a rather disapproving look. She moved her face out from behind the camera, and glared.

"Aoshi, this is a kodiak moment." She pouted. At that he started walking towards her and plucked the camera right out of her hands. She panicked, thinking he was taking it back from her, when he took a picture of her, and she was dazed a moment before narrowing her eyes.

"I don't need pictures of myself Aoshi." She reprimanded. He meerly smirked.

"Pose." He said, his voice clearly telling her that it was an order, not a request.

Misao was embarassed, she was of course in a lovely dress and standing in front of a shirtless Aoshi telling her to pose so he could take pictures of her. Then her irrational side kicked in. What the hell was she embarassed for! So she started to dance around on the beach and let Aoshi take a few pictures of her. She was going for dramatic, and randomly hoped that some would only catch her silouettes, with the sun behind her. This really felt as if it was straight from a movie, and she was not sure what to think of Aoshi's thoughtfulness. But then again, Aoshi had always been a THOUGHTFUL person; he just didn't normally put thoughts into actions like he was now. After a little while she decided that there were plenty of pictures of her and moved to take the camera away from Aoshi.

He took one final picture of her and let her pull the camera away from his face. Aoshi then turned and headed back up the steps to the car.

"We aren't leaving yet are we?" Misao asked, her voice carrying a hint of disappointment. Aoshi didn't respond, and simply went to his trunk and pulled out a long, heavy looking black bag and started back down the stairs to the beach. Misao raised her brows, as she looked at the bag, and then smiled brightly. They were going to camp out on the beach. Oooooh how rooooooomantic. She almost snorted, Aoshi didn't know about romance. Just DOING something romantic like dinner or camping on the beach wasn't romantic unless the person ACTED romantic as well, and Misao would surely have a heart attack before then…or at least shortly afterwards.

It didn't take long to set the tent up since Misao helped. Her silk dress felt nice against her skin, especially when the salty breeze would shift it around her body, giving her goosebumps. It was now night, and the half moon gave a fair amount of light, but Misao was getting sleepy. She retrieved her bag from the car and made her way into the tent to change. Her Pjs consisted of thin cotton pants and an old t-shirt. But damn was it ever comfortable. Aoshi sat with her oustide the tent for a while and Misao had the hopes that there might have been some decent conversation…but it was only silence, except for Misao's random comments and Aoshis grunts of agreement when appropriate.

Sighing she stood up and told him goodnight. Aoshi let her leave, turning his attention back to the ocean. Misao fumbled with the zipper on the tent, found her sleeping bag and laid down. It wasn't long before she was out completely.

Aoshi sat on the sand for a long time, doing what he did best…think. But after awhile he was tempted to walk, and knowing that Misao would be safe on a private beach, began to move away from her and to the waters edge.

Misao was running down the side of a gravel road. To say that the area she was running through was deserted would almost be considered an understatement. She kept on going though, but it seemed like the road would never end, it just went on forever, and there were no turns or intersections, just one long dismal street. Sighing, she tried to stop, but her legs just wouldn't allow for it. However, this didn't really surprise her, and she just kept going, at least it was nice out. Of course, you mention one good thing, that means it's gonna have to be taken away.

"Right." Misao muttered as it began to pour rather cold rain. She shivered, feeling miserable. At least running circulates blood so she could keep warm. So Misao began to run a little faster, but the faster she tried to run, the slower she seemed to go until she was walking. Her body began to get colder and colder. She just wanted to run, to get warm, to get away from the rain and the darkness, but the effort was in vain as she came to a dead stop. Then, somehow, the ground just opened up and she fell.

Misao sat up suddenly in bed. It hadn't been a nightmare really, she admitted to herself, just a really weird dream. She shivered and noticed that the flaps to the tent were open and letting the cool night breeze in. Misao looked around for Aoshi, but he was nowhere in sight. It appeared that he had been in his sleeping bag since it was out and messy, but there was no sight of Aoshi himself. So of course, Misao got up to look for him. She pulled her sleeping bag over her shoulders for warmth and headed out of the tent.

"Aoshi." She called, and scaned the area, but she couldn't see him. Misao bit her lip and walked towards the water. It was rather beautiful, with the moon's light reflecting off the surface of the ocean. Looking up she was able to see thousands of stars, many she couldn't actually see if she had been back home.

"Pretty." She murmured. It didn't take long for her to want to walk along the shore, and so she just followed the urge. And about five minutes into her walk she saw Aoshi, he was up the beach a little ways and looked like he was talking to someone. Well, it was probably more like someone talking to him. She shrugged and started towards him, but one small little detail stopped her in her tracks as she neared.

The "someone" was a girl, but that was not what had Misao stopping, it was the fact that Aoshi was KISSING her. He was bent and had his lips firmly against the other womans. Time stopped, her heart stopped, and she couldn't seem to breathe. It wasn't in any way a good feeling. And almost as if sensing her, Aoshi pulled away and turned to look at Misao. His face suddenly looked shocked, and then guilty. That was it for Misao, she turned and bolted the other way. She heard Aoshi yell for her to stop, but it hurt. Was this what she had been feeling? Had she known somewhere in her heart that he didn't love her the way he had loved the woman he had been openly kissing on the beach. He hadn't really even touched her once since they had arrived at the "camp site".

She raced to the tent. Misao was angry with herself more than anything at that moment. Everyone had been right. There wasn't anything deep between them. They were complete opposites. Misao just wanted to fall into that hole from her dream. Grabbing her bag from the tent she ran as far as her legs would carry her down the beach before she called Kaoru on her cell phone. Her best friend sounded tired, but it was probably one or two in the morning Misao guessed. She was panting for breath, had no clue as to where she was, but the second she heard Kaoru pick up the phone she started bawling like a baby, and she hated herself more for it.

"Kaahhhhoooru…he, (sniff). A-aoshi, he was…oh gods I don't know what is going on but he was kissing some girl! Just kissing her. (sob) on the beach that he brought me to on our anniversary. (bawl) I just knew…something wasn't right about our relationship. (sniff) I tho-", Misao was just blubbering everything out, some of it muffled as she bit into her sleeping bag to keep from crying so much. Why had he done that? Who was she? She just wanted to go home.

"Shhhh." Kaoru cooed, waking up as soon as she heard Misao falling apart on the other side. "Where are you? I'll come get you." She said with an air of authority that seemed to barely hide an "I'll kill him for this".

"I don't know." Misao whimpered. She picked herself up and started walking to the street. "The corner of Maybury Road and Seabreeze Avenue…Umm, " she paused, "I think I'm in South Carolina somewhere…"

"Give me a sec and I'll look up the roads. Are there any businesses?" Kaoru asked. She sounded so confident it helped Misao stay somewhat sane. She looked around at the buildings.

"There's a park. Umm…Maybreeze Park." She said, and would have laughed at the name if she didn't feel so miserable.

"I got it, I'll be there in…er…" Kaoru paused. "Well, go somewhere safe for like…three hours. Shit, I don't know where you can stay. Just find a hotel and check in and I'll be there as fast as I can." Kaoru said. Misao nodded even though Kaoru couldn't see it.

"Aa, I'll be here. Just call me when you are close." She whispered and they got off the phone. She looked around her and felt scared. She was in a strange place, barely even knew where she was, and wasn't sure which way to head in search of a hotel. On top of it all, she couldn't get the image of Aoshi kissing that woman out of her head. He hadn't even run after her either. That hurt. That even through all they had been together, he didn't care enough to run after her. And of course, as if to ruin all her ill thoughts of him, she heard him.

"Misao?" she heard him whisper and spun around to face him. She was sure she looked her absolute worst. He approached her and made a move to pull her into his arms, but she closed her eyes.

"Please don't touch me." She said, it was hard for her to say such a thing to him, when even though he had just been off making out with another woman, she still wanted to just return to the familiar comfort of his arms. She knew she couldn't. He had betrayed her. She looked up at him when he didn't say anything and saw that he was looking away. Misao just stood there for a moment, letting one word turn though her mind over and over again, trying to gain the courage to ask.

"Why did you do it?" she asked after what seemed to her like ages. His gaze returned to hers and she wished for all she was worth that he had just kept his eyes adverted. The look made her shiver. She could almost feel the guilt raidiating off of him. So he felt bad did he? Good. She mentally kicked herself for being such a bitch, but she couldn't help but want him to hurt like she did in that moment. And then he opened his mouth and she wanted to scream at the words that he offered.

"She asked me to."

Bleah, that was a really hard chapter for me to write because a part of me felt that it was very out of character for Aoshi, but I am worried that I am making him too heartless. Let me know what you think.

KyteAura- I hope I didn't mess Aoshi up for you XP And thanks for the spelling dillio, I don't always opt to use spell-check b/c I'm lazy. Ha, thanks for reviewing! I appeciate the honesty!

KC Evans- Thank you for reviewing, you always have something positive to add. It means a lot to me for you to take the time to write out what you feel are strong and weak points of my writing. Keep reviewing and I'll keep writing, and hopefully it will get better and more interesting to read as I become a more skilled writer, haha.

And thanks to all my other reviewers! I really appreciate all the comments, it really helps to motivate me to write and I am happy that you are enjoying it so far. I hope you love this last chapter and hopefully it won't take me too long to get the next one out as well.

Hearts,

Jackson