Hello again! I believe this was a reasonable amount of time to get in another chapter. Thank you for continuing to read even though I haven't really updated like this in about seven months. Sorry again. Hopefully this will live up to your expectations. Be prepared because this is a long one. Seriously, I believe it's the longest one so far. Anyway, and now what you've all been waiting for. :Pulls sheet off uncovering...: Chapter 10! Enjoy!

Chapter 10

Yuuhi laid sprawled across his bed in his room reading an outdated cooking book. The subtle music from a radio could faintly be heard in the background. His foot tapped along to a catchy tune as he continued to flip through the pages.

"Oooh! I have to try this one!" he exclaimed immediately folding down the corner to mark the page.

As he gleefully continued to flip through page after page of delicious recipes, Aya appeared out of no where at his door. She knocked lightly on the frame before slowly entering.

"Umm Yuuhi, can I join you?" she shyly asked.

"Uhh... sure."

Aya gave a small smile, walked right over to his bed and plopped down next to him. "What are you reading?"

"... ... ! Pretty girl! On my bed!"

Yuuhi tensed up and scooched over to the other side of the bed to make room for her. His cheeks turned a light shade of red. Nervously he replied, "A... cooking book."

"Oh," she responded interested. "Ooh! That looks good! Could you cook that?"

"Yeah. Do you want it because I can make it right now," Yuuhi quickly answered preparing to get up and head to the kitchen.

"No, silly. I just meant could you cook it. You don't have to make it right now."

"Oh." Yuuhi felt his arm tingle from Aya's touch. He gladly sat back down on the bed next to her. His cheeks were still red, but it didn't seem to matter because Aya's were as well.

They stared into each others eyes, Aya still grasping his arm. Yuuhi leaned forward a little. So did Aya. Her eyes began to flutter shut as her lips met his. The only sound in the room was of their own breathing and the low music playing. Soon the song faded out as the kiss intensified.

Aya put her hands on either side of Yuuhi's face and ran her fingers through his hair. She continued to hold his face and pulled it closer to hers. Soon she began to lean back onto the bed bringing him down on top of her.

"Oh my g...!"

"Yuuhi!" a feminine voice called out. "Yuuhi, wake up!"

He jolted awake and opened his eyes to see Suzumi's face only six inches from his. "Ack!" he yelled as he tumbled out of bed.

"Jeez! Quit drooling all over your pillow! We're all hungry and you're the only cook around here. Will you please get up and make breakfast?" Suzumi shouted.

Yuuhi moaned from the floor lazily. Still hugging his pillow that he had dragged down to the floor with him, he whined, "I was in the middle of a really good dream! Besides, it's not like I'm the only cook around here. You cook too sometimes."

"I just said you were... Are you not listening? Wake up!" Suzumi scolded swatting him with her fan. She had brought it just in case... This was definitely one of those cases.

"Ow! I thought that thing was gone."

"Far from it. Now get up, we're hungry."

Tooya had been living at the house for almost a month now, but breakfast was still as awkward as the first had been. Yuuhi had been at the top of Aya's list, but it now belonged to Tooya. At least it felt that way to Yuuhi. He avoided Tooya at all costs, but each and every morning he would awake just to see his rival sitting at the table across from Aya.

"Damn bastard. I'm burning his eggs." Yuuhi thought as he scooped a pile of prepared eggs onto a plate. He then arranged the eggs into the shape of a heart, double checked his handiwork and then proceeded to scatter them back before setting the plate in front of Aya.

"Thanks! They look delicious," Aya replied quietly with a small smile on her face. Her eyes were tired and had dark circles around them.

"Aya! What happened to you? You look horrible," Chidori asked as she waited for her plate of eggs.

"Oh, nothing really. I couldn't really sleep last night. I had a strange dream."

"Huh, me too," Yuuhi thought right as Tooya opened his mouth to speak.

"You too? That's weird. What was yours about?" Aya asked staring at Yuuhi thoughtfully as she raised a fork full of eggs to her mouth.

"Oh, uh..." Yuuhi replied surprised.

"Huh? I didn't mean to say anything. Damn it! I'm still not awake."

"It wasn't really anything important. Just your average, run of the mill, strange dream. Hehe!" Yuuhi laughed nervously. He returned to his cooking as soon as he had finished the sentence to avoid any awkward comments on his own part.

"Oh, okay," Aya said softly a little upset that Yuuhi didn't want to share his dream with her.

"Well, I had the weirdest dream last night!" Mrs. Q. commented butting into the conversation. "There were hundreds of thousands of mutant alien rats taking over Tokyo and no one could stop them except Tooya and Yuuhi. Tooya had a macho sword and two semi automatics, but Yuuhi just had those wussy chopsticks."

"What do you mean wussy?" Yuuhi burst out with a scowl on his face as he turned around to face her in an apron holding a spatula and another plate of eggs.

Everyone sitting at the table stared at him with unconvinced looks upon their faces. They eyed the apron he was wearing, Mrs. Q. sparing a quick extra glance or two, before finally looking back at him in the eyes.

"I didn't want to spill anything on... Never mind!" Yuuhi shouted trying to defend himself from the peanut gallery. He angrily put the plate on the table in front of Suzumi and went back to his cooking. He left the remainder of the eggs just a bit too long on the burner before setting the plates in front of Mrs. Q., Chidori and Tooya.

"Anyway," Mrs. Q. continued. "As they were out killing all of the mutant alien rats they ended up getting into a fight, and for some reason there was a pit of chocolate pudding right there. So there they were wrestling in the pudding and Tooya kicked Yuuhi's ass! I mean he punched him back into the past! He didn't stand a chance!"

Tooya chuckled slightly and a tiny, smug smile appeared on his face as he picked at the burnt eggs on his plate. Yuuhi glared at him, his temper rising. He clenched his fists in anger prepared to duke it out should the opportunity present itself.

"I could kick his ass any day!" he boldly stated.

Aya glanced nervously back and forth between Tooya and Yuuhi. A worried look was permanently engraved upon her face as she silently wished that nothing would happen.

Suzumi stood up in preparation to end a fight early. "Yuuhi, we all know that you're a macho guy. No need to prove it. We've all..." she quickly glanced toward Tooya as a warning. "..seen you fight. We know that you're brave. Now, just take a seat and eat your breakfast."

Yuuhi didn't know where this sudden rush of anger had come from. Usually he'd just take the insult and brush it off. Luckily Tooya made no further comments and Yuuhi just let the whole ordeal slide.

Later in the day Chidori and Suzumi had decided to head out on a shopping trip, something that they hadn't done for a very long time. Aya was still feeling a bit drained from lack of sleep and the incident that morning, and decided not to go along with them. That left the other four at home.

Aya was sitting back in her room thinking about the strange dream that she'd had last night. "I wonder why I dreamed about that. It was so weird even if it was just a dream..."

Tooya quietly entered her room and sat down next to her without a sound. Throughout the month he had been living there, he remembered all of the precious moments he had shared with Aya. After spending more and more time with her, those memories and the new ones he had now convinced him enough to want to continue having a relationship with her. He had secretly called and broken things off with Miori a short number of days ago from the pay phone by the park. It was a horrible way to tell her and she didn't take it too well, but it was something he had to do.

"Hey. How are you feeling?" Tooya asked her as she took notice of him.

"Um, I'm fine. Just thinking," Aya replied nervously. Here for a month or not, he still made her stomach fill with butterflies anytime he spoke to her. Now here he was sitting next to her.

"About what?"

"Oh, um, just about that dream that I had."

"I see," Tooya replied making himself comfortable. He laid back on her bed with his arms folded behind his head. "What was it about?"

Aya's heart began to race. She blushed a bit and hoped that he didn't notice, but by the look on his face she could tell that he had. "It was nothing really. Just a dream," she replied repeating the same old answer as everyone had been doing that day.

"Aw, you don't want to tell me, do you?" Tooya responded flirtatiously as a smile broke out over his face.

"He has such a great smile!"

"I guess you caught me," Aya flirted back as she weakened to his smile. Her lips turned upward to form a shy smile back to him.

"What am I doing? There's no way a smile can just do that. He can be so adorable sometimes though."

Tooya moved his arms out from behind his head and braced himself as he sat back up. He moved closer to Aya until their arms were touching. "You know that I like you, right Aya?"

She mumbled out something along the lines of a yes.

"And I know that you loved me before. I loved you before too..."

"What's happening..."

"... I know that this is really awkward now, but I can remember everything. Everything."

"I remember it too," Aya thought as she closed her eyes.

"And I want to try and start things over. Right back where we left off. I want us to be together again."

"I do too, I think. But... Yuuhi."

Tooya was leaning closer now. Their faces were only inches apart. He was staring into her eyes. She was staring back. Their faces continued to get closer until Aya could feel his breath on her lips. His eyes were closed now, hers began to. It was the perfect moment, almost. If only for one second she could stop her mind from wandering and just fall into the moment, this would be it. She couldn't though.

A tremendous guilt fell over her, and all she could picture was Yuuhi... and her dream. It seemed almost a given that Yuuhi would pick that very moment to walk by the open door.

I kind of made Tooya the bad guy there for a while. Breaking up with Miori on a pay phone. Who does that? Oh, and the reason behind the pay phone is that she can't trace his call then. That's assuming that she has caller ID. Heh! Even though a lot was said and done in this chapter it still feels like it's missing something... So don't be surprised if you notice that it's been edited later. Looking forward to writing chapter 11! I've got one specific idea in mind. :big smile: Until then!