Act 29

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The cherry blossoms were in full bloom once more.

Sakura remained seated beside the same tree in which she and Maria shared some moments. She smiled at the memories as the pink petals fell on her face.

She opened up her palm to catch them, to feel them and to marvel at their beauty.

"Ah!" Sakura was shocked when two gloved hands unexpectedly caught her wrists from behind. She turned around and saw Maria smiling at her.

Sakura's heart thumped wildly, conveying a sensation that this scene had happened before.

Maria noticed how startled Sakura was. "Is there something wrong?"

"Uh, nothing," Sakura replied. "I just felt something like.. like déjà vu."

Maria gently embraced her. "Was it from your dream?"

"I guess so."

Maria half-smiled and took Sakura's ribbon from her hair. The swordswoman didn't expect such playful act from Maria as her hair went down. "Maria-san?"

The blond woman stared back at her. "You are very beautiful, Sakura," she said in her mother tongue.

Sakura didn't have any idea about what she had said, though from the way she said it... She couldn't care less about it. "Hmm… but what's with the ribbon?"

Maria looked at the ribbon then back at her. "Actually, I wanted to pull the blue one."

"The blue one?" Sakura's eyebrow arched up.

Maria crossed her arms and smiled, realizing that Sakura had no idea what she was talking about.

"What?" Sakura insisted.

The blonde pointed at Sakura's back.

Sakura finally understood. Maria meant the obi of her kimono.

"Well, if that's what you want." Sakura eyed her sexily and started to undress herself.

Maria's smile faded and her cheeks burned. "I'm not… really." Admittedly, she wasn't good at teasing games. She surrendered the red ribbon back to her.

"But you started it," Sakura said while nudging her. "By the way, what did you just tell me a while ago?"

"You are beautiful."

Sakura rested her head on Maria's bosom and…

"What!" Maria was now blushing like wildfire.

"How do you manage to stand the heat in that mink? It's not even winter."

"Ah, because it's- AH!" Before Maria could react, Sakura was already untying a knot. Maria wanted to say stop but can she really say that right now?

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Maria entered the dining room tying the knot of her mink and ignoring the three pairs of watchful eyes around her. She sat down like she always did, quietly.

Next, came Sakura, who was fixing her hair and kimono. All eyes were on her too but much to their surprise, she did not sit down next to Maria.

"Do you think they're having one of those misunderstandings again?" Kanna whispered to Sumire.

Sumire opened up her fan and whispered back. "I think so. They are not even talking to each other."

"I'll talk to Maria then," Kanna initiated.

Sumire nodded. "I'll take Sakura."

"Ack! Sakura-han! Did someone bit your neck?"

Maria almost choked on her tea.

Sakura quickly covered the mark on her neck.

Sumire and Kanna froze in their tracks.

"Ah, no, Kohran. It's just a… a mosquito bite."

Sumire raised her eyebrow. She knew when Sakura was lying. 'Mosquito bite?'

"Eh, what a big mosquito that is."

Kanna found Maria's behavior disturbing as well. She seemed to be enduring a mild pain… on her br-I mean-chest.

Sakura gave Maria a rather disturbing look. "I guess the mosquito bit too hard."

"Da, it bit too hard," Maria repeated monotonously.

Kohran was becoming more curious. "Well, let me see."

"NO!" Maria and Sakura exclaimed in unison.

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The Midsummer Night Play went fine. The Imperial Opera Troupe managed to sell out all of the tickets for the night. There seemed to be a silent tension between Maria and Sakura but that didn't affect their performance. In fact, it even helped them to deliver their lines perfectly. As if by heart, they could feel the emotions of their characters.

After the curtain call, Maria and Sakura went out of sight.

"So?" That was Sumire's first word when Kanna entered the make-up room.

"They are not in their bedrooms," Kanna said with a sigh.

"Well, if our suspicions were right, they should have been there. Or-"

"Or what?"

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Kanna and Sumire quietly snuck into the shower room.

"Dammit, they're not here either," Kanna complained.

"I guess they went out."

"You mean like a date? Are you kidding me? They haven't changed their costumes."

"Hmm... that's not impossible. Suppose they stay in a nearby hotel. What do you think?" Sumire said, followed by her trademark laugh.

"H-Hotel?" Kanna blushed.

"Well, that is if they are not crazy enough to do it inside the library," Sumire winced at the idea.

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Library.

"I'm sorry about the other day," Sakura whispered gently into Maria's ear. Her hands moved upwards to the Russian's golden hair. Maria was sitting on the floor, leaning back against a shelf of old language books. The younger girl was lying down sideways playing with her hair.

Maria turned to her. They hadn't changed from their outlandish clothes from the play. The smell of the theater was still on them.

"I love thee not therefore pursue me not. Where is Lysander and fair Hermia? The one I will stay; the other stayeth me. Thou hold me they were stolen unto this wood. And here I am I and the wood within this wood. Because I cannot meet my Hermia. Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more."

Sakura followed suit. "You draw me, you hard hearted adamant! But yet you draw not iron, for my heart is true as steal. Leave you your power to draw, and I shall have no power to follow you."

Maria stared boldly into her eyes as they continue their play. "Do entice you? Do I speak you fair? Or rather do I not in plainest truth tell you I don't nor I cannot love you?"

Sakura touched the side of Maria's robe as they both stood up slowly. "And even for that do I love you the more."

Sakura's hand slid to touch her partner's. "I am your spaniel, and Demetrius the more you beat me I will fawn on you. Use me but as your spaniel. Spurn me, strike me, neglect me, lose me, only give me leave unworthy as I am to follow you. What worser place can I beg in your love and yet a place of high respect with me than to be used as you use your dog?"

Maria walked away. "Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit. For I am sick when I do look on thee."

Sakura embraced Maria from the back. "And I am sick when I look not on you."

Maria looked sideways. "You do impeach your modesty too much to leave the city and commit yourself into the hands of the one that loves you not, to trust the opportunity of night and ill counsel of a desert place with the rich worth of your . . . virginity."

Maria gasped but was not surprised when Sakura pulled off her robe.

"Your virtue is my privilege." Sakura turned Maria around facing her. "For that it is not night when I do see your face. Therefore I think I am not in the night. Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company. For you in my respect are all the world. Then, how can it be said I am alone when all the world is here to look on me?" Sakura tried to kiss Maria but the latter resisted.

"I'll run from thee and hide me in the brakes and leave thee on the mercy of wild beasts." Maria turned around and began running. Sakura chased after her from behind.

"The wildest hath not such a heart as you. Run when you will, the story shall be changed: Apollo flies and Daphne holds the chase; the dove pursues the griffin; the mild hind makes speed to catch the tiger. Bootless speed when cowardice pursues and valor flies!"

Sakura caught her and pinned her down. They were in the mathematics section of the library. Maria knocked down a book about erm… subtraction.

"I will not stay thy questions. Let me go. Or if thou follow me do not believe but I shall do thee mischief in the wood." Even though the lines said so, Maria wasn't even struggling from the grasp. Instead, she was the one who initiated the kiss.

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Washroom.

"If then true lovers have been crossed, it stands as edict in destiny. Then let us teach our trial patience. Because it is a customary cross, as due to love as thoughts and dreams, sighs and wishes and tears, poor fancy's followers."

Kanna opened up an eye from the corner of the bath tub they were both in. "What? Sumire."

"Nothing, just practicing some lines."

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Sakura gasped for air when they broke the kiss. "Stay though thou kill me, sweet Demetrius."

Maria gasped as well. "I charge thee hence, and do not haunt me thus."

Sakura held her tighter. "O, wilt thou darkling leave me? Do not so."

Maria rolled on her back as Sakura sat down. They were now at the physics section of the library. Sakura accidentally nudged a loose book from the shelf and it fell on Maria's head. The Russian winced in pain.

And the book fell open, revealing the chapter on … friction.

"Sorry," Sakura apologized.

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Several minutes later.

Kohran went up to check on Iris and found her sitting on one of the chairs in the lobby, reading a book.

"Iris," she greeted.

Iris looked up from the book she was reading. "Ah, Kohran."

"Ah, what are you reading about?"

"The universe," Iris answered. "I'm interested in the Milky Way."

"Ooh, that's fun. What topic are you now?"

"The Big Bang."

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The End.

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A/N: complaints are very welcome. This is rather silly but I have an omake chapter in mind… but I guess it's all up to reviews if I'm going to write it down or not. :P