Woo!!! Back again! I bet readers sure are surprised, considering my 3 month break. I just had a surge of ideas so I again stayed up writing. LoL! I seem to get most of my writing done at night… go figure. I thought my brain would be asleep then, but I guess not. This is one of my longer chapters. I was gonna stop at a different spot, but then continued to write for a whole other page. LoL! Well, enjoy!

Chapter 7

Thoughts in italics

Mrs. Q. stood huffing with her umbrella still raised above her head next to an unconscious Tooya. He now had two giant red marks on his forehead, and was probably missing a few brain cells.

"Well, I don't think you could have handled that any better," Yuuhi commented sarcastically.

Mrs. Q. wore a strange smile on her face and gazed at Yuuhi almost adoringly. "Oh, Yuuhi, you do care!" She lunged at him nearly tackling he and Aya to the ground.

"Geez! Don't read too much into it, I was mocking you!"

"But you care enough to mock me! And besides, it was just constructive criticism for me to acknowledge one of my very, very few flaws."

"Mrs. Q., you're overanalyzing again," Suzumi commented.

"I thought it was sweet…" Chidori said shrugging her shoulders.

"Being the nice people we are, I think it's about time we got Tooya home and take care of those bruises. It really can't be good for a memory loss patient to be hit in the head with a blunt object… twice," Suzumi pointed out. "So, Yuuhi grab Aya and everyone pile in. It's gonna be a tight squeeze."

"But…" Yuuhi began.

"I said carry her!" Suzumi yelled standing only inches from his face. Yuuhi's eyes got wide from fear, and he backed up from her. Then he proceeded to scoop Aya up into his arms and high-tailed it to the car.

"I'm not carrying the woman of my dreams! I'm not carrying the woman of my dreams! I'm not carrying the woman of my dreams…" he repeated over and over in his head.

When they made it to the car, Yuhi practically ran straight into it, but when the time came, he gently set Aya down as carefully as he could. He wanted to prevent any further injury to her ankle.

"Okay, there is just not enough room here. Someone is just gonna have to sit on someone's lap or something," Chidori complained.

"I volunteer to sit on Yuuhi's lap!" Mrs. Q. yelled.

Yuuhi shuddered.

"You're the driver!" Suzumi exclaimed.

Aya hadn't been paying attention since Yuuhi had set her down. She had that same familiar feeling again when he was carrying her even though it was only for a short time. All of these feelings were frankly confusing the hell out of her. She was getting so frustrated with herself. How cold she say one thing out loud so everyone could hear and then change her mind? …possibly.

"I don't know what I'm gonna do. I love Tooya. I'm in love with Tooya… I was in love with Tooya. Then there's Yuuhi… I love Yuuhi too… I don't know what to do!" Aya had a million thoughts running through her head at once. She was remembering all of the times Yuuhi had comforted and made her laugh, and even made her mad, but she was remembering all of her happy memories with Tooya as well. He had taken a piece of her that could never be given back.

"Well, it would only make sense that Aya be the one to lay across us all so her ankle can be propped up," Suzumi said.

Aya snapped back into reality when she heard her name said, "Huh?"

"Haven't you been paying attention at all?" Chidori asked.

"No, sorry. I was zoning out a little," Aya said with a weak smile. "That's all."

"Well, we've settled the seating issue. You'll just kind of lay across us all so your ankle will be okay," Chidori explained.

"Um… well, okay I guess?" Aya answered a little uncomfortably.

"This is the price I pay for not paying attention…"

"It's only for a little while. The drive here took all of five minutes. You'll be fine, right?" Suzumi asked.

"Yeah, yeah. Of course," Aya replied hesitantly not wanting to cause a problem.

She got out and braced herself with the side of the car while the other three sat back down and buckled their seatbelts. Then she sat blushing on Yuuhi and stretched out her legs on the other two as Suzumi instructed.

"How humiliating!" she thought.

By then Yuuhi was blushing as well and uncomfortably held onto Aya so she wouldn't tip over when Mrs. Q turned. The only way he could think to handle his awkwardness was with humor so he desperately racked his brain for a joke to crack, but couldn't get his mind off of Aya.

"Something about her weight maybe. No! I used that already… uhh… something about her bony legs. No, her legs are perfect! Who am I kidding? Wait! She's too pale. Hah! There's a joke."

"Aya, get a tan!" Yuuhi suddenly yelled interrupting the previous conversations that the others were having. The car went silent and everyone was staring at Yuuhi with confusion.

"What?" he asked.

Suzumi shook her head. "What a bozo."

Finally to Yuuhi's relief, they arrived back at the Aogiri house. He dutifully carried Aya back to her room and layed her on her bed. Then he retrieved an icepack for her ankle.

"Are you feeling better? How's your ankle?" he asked.

"I'm feeling better already. I bet I'll be able to walk without needing you to hold me up by tomorrow. Thank you for your help today by the way," Aya answered with a small smile on her face.

"Oh, well it was no problem. I'd do anything for you, Aya."

"Ahh! Not acting like before I knew I loved her! Quick, an insult… Damnit! I've got nothing. Why does she have this power over me?" Yuuhi thought.

"Oh… um, s-so how's Tooya doing? Did he wake up yet?" Aya replied trying to ignore Yuuhi's remark.

Yuuhi's eyes once again looked downcast. "No, he's still asleep. Chidori's taking care of his bruises though… icepack and, uh… all." He could barely concentrate on what he was saying.

"Oh."

"Well, I'd better start getting dinner read. I'll, uh, call you when it's, um… ready."

"Even still, Tooya's all she can think about."

"It's better this way. I need to talk to Tooya again and find out for sure…"

"Why can't it be me?"

"But I do love you, Yuuhi."

"Why can't it be me?"

::sigh:: A bittersweet ending for this chapter. I thought the end was pretty cool myself. LoL! Funny how the thought process works. Looking at it now, this chapter doesn't seem as long as I thought it would be. Hmm… Well, I hope you liked it, and if you did please let me know! Review! See you in chapter 8!