Disclaimer: Fushigi Yuugi doesn't belong to me!……..wish it did……..but it doesn't.

Authors Note: next chapter! Sorry it took so long, but here it is at last, hope you like. Enjoy!

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Misunderstandings

Ch 1: Dreams, Stalkers, and Elevators

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The rays of sunshine crawled into the dark room, slowly making their way towards the bed, where a young brown haired woman lay in slumber. She lay on her side, hugging a pillow to her chest. She groaned as the sun light hit her face, pulling her from her dreams. Rolling away from the offensive light and she pulled the covers over her head. Lying in her warm cocoon Miaka blinked the sleep away from her eyes and sighed, she'd had the dream again. She didn't have it often but when she did it made her feel depressed.

It was always the same. She stood with a large crowd as they observed the two faceless people before them. The woman was dressed in a beautiful white dress, a wedding dress. She was in the arms of a man dressed in a black tux. They where dancing. After a few minutes the dream changed. The couple turned and her heart would break when she recognize them. Taka and Yui. They continued to dance, having eyes only for each other, as the crowd disappeared, leaving Miaka to stand on her own on the sideline as tears ran down her face. And that was the rest of the dream, Taka and Yui happy in each others arms and Miaka a bystander with a broken heart.

Sighing, Miaka pushed back the covers and sat up. There was no point in wallowing in self-pity, she told herself, she had to put it behind her, and it had been 6 years now, time to move on. But she couldn't, she still remembered, still loved, still hurt.

Sighing again, Miaka stood up and got ready for another day.

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Making her way down the crowded street, Miaka was one of the many making the commute to work this morning. As she was jostled into, Miaka tried to keep her depressing thoughts at bay. She could already tell today was going to be one of those days. She had ran out of her favourite shampoo, her favourite skirt was in the wash, it had taken her 30 minutes to find her other shoe (which had ended up being behind the couch, how it had gotten there she had no idea), and it looked like it was going to rain and she didn't have an umbrella with her.

Pushing her way out of the crowd, Miaka entered the small café she had found a while back. Hopefully a large French Vanilla would help. Or maybe not. Great, she thought, there's a line.

So she spend the next 20 minutes standing in line trying to push away her treacherous memories and wondering if Ryuuen would fire her for being late again. There was an important meeting today and he had told her to come in early to set everything up. Well, she thought, looks like it's not going to happen now. When it was finally her turn to order Miaka was already an hour late for work. After paying for her next sugar high, she took a sip and sighed, sweet sweet sugar.

Turning to leave, she never noticed the man that was walking by so she ended up walking into him. As soon as she felt the contact she shut her eyes and prayed, 'please not me, please not me!' taking a deep breath she lowly opened her eyes to examine the damage. 'Nothing? Nothing! Yes!' It must have been luck that Miaka was able to elude spilling her hot drink all over herself or the stranger. She smiled proudly at herself, maybe today wasn't going to be so bad after all. She looked up at the man to apologize, only to have the apology die have way out her mouth, he hadn't been so lucky. He had been holding a cup of coffee, which was all over him now. To make matters worse was that he was wearing a really expensive looking suit, which was ruined now.

"Oh man," Miaka groaned. "I am so sorry. It was my fault, I wasn't watching where I was going."

The man just smiled and shook his head. "It's okay, I wasn't paying much attention myself."

Wow, Miaka thought as she took a really good look at the man before her, he's gorgeous. That was one of the many words that came to mind. He stood around 5'11/5'12, which was a lot compared to her 5'1. He had long brown hair and magnificent brown eyes. As Miaka looked up at him he smiled back at her. All Miaka could think was that he was obviously out of his mind if all he could do was smile instead of screaming himself blue at her, not that she was complaining, he had a stunning smile.

"Are you sure," Miaka asked trying to make amends. "I could pay for the damage if you want."

"No," the stranger answered, staring at her attentively now. "It's fine…." He just trailed off then and full out stared at her.

Looking down at her watch, Miaka saw that it was 30 minutes before the meeting started, if she didn't get to work soon Ryuuen was going to skin her alive for sure. Looking back the man before her she saw that he was still staring at her. It was as if his eyes bore into her, trying to find an elusive answer and she was the holder of said answer! Okay, she thought, this is starting to get a little freaky and I'm overreacting just a little too much. "Are you sure there's nothing I can do about this?" Miaka asked with a wave of her hand. When he gave an absent minded nod, Miaka started to back away. "Very well then, I must be going, I'm late as it is. I'm really sorry about you suit, good-bye," Miaka said, trying to make a quick get away.

"Wait!" he said as he snapped out of it and took a hold of her hand, preventing her from leaving. "Do I know you?" he scanned her face trying to remember where he had seen her before.

"No," Miaka answered, starting to get scared now. "Not that I remember." She tried to tug her hand back but he had a good hold on it. "Listen I really have to go now." He just kept staring at her. "Okay, listen here buddy, if you don't let me go now I'll dump this in your face," she indicated to her hot coffee. "I don't think you want to ruin your pretty face now would you?" This seemed to work because he let her go and took a step back. Seeing her chance Miaka quickly turned and fled from the coffee shop.

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As Sai watched the woman all but run from the café, he berated himself. He had scared the poor woman, he'd seen the look of fear that had passed her face when he wouldn't let her go. Because of this he had believed her when she'd threaten him with her hot coffee. She probably thought he was a stalker of some sort now.

He normally didn't scare woman like that, but there was something about her that had seemed so familiar. He was sure he'd seen her before, the question was where and when.

Looking down at himself he sighed, now he was going to be late. He was never going to make it in time if he went back to his hotel and changed , but he couldn't show up at the meeting like this. Shaking his head, Sai made his way back to his car outside and pulled out his cel phone. He called Willow Publishing's and left a massage informing them that there was going to be a delay in their meeting, then called his partners to inform then as well.

One thing was for sure, Taka was going to have a good laugh at his expense when he found out.

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Miaka quickly ran from the elevator and ducked behind one of the plants that were placed on the side, on the look out for Ryuuen, she was dead meat if he caught her coming in this late. Not seeing him anywhere, she hurried to her desk. 'Almost there! Almost there!' after a few more loo outs she finally made it, sitting down she breathed a sigh of relief, home free. That is till she heard a voice behind her.

"Well well, look who finally showed up."

Miaka looked behind her to find her purple hair boss standing there. "Ryuuen! I have a perfectly good reason, I swear!"

"Don't you always?" he replied with a shake of his head. "You're lucky this time." That said he turned and walked back into his office.

Miaka set down her things and hurried after him. She knew that he really wasn't mad at her, but lately he was under a lot of stress. She knew that he was dreading today's meeting. Konan Empire was really pushing him to sell Willow Publishing's present location and he was really reluctant to do so.

Willow publishing's was a well known publishing house that had been started by Ryuuen's grandfather. A grandfather that Ryuuen hadn't known existed till about 3 years ago. He felt that this was the last link left to his long deceased family. And Miaka was the only one that knew the truth, everyone else just thought that Ryuuen was there as a representative for the owner. Ryuuen had told her that he'd done this so he could keep the people from his past where they belonged, in the past.

Ryuuen and Miaka had met at the University Miaka had run to after the Taka/Yui episode. Ryuuen had been a year ahead of her but new as well. They had ended up being roommates. They'd hit it off right away but it'd taken them a while before they had truly trusted each other. Because of this Miaka had been the first one that Ryuuen had told he was gay to and the story that centring on his old best friend and his rejection, like wise she had been able to talk out all her pain and feelings about Taka with him.

In the 6 years that they had known each other they had come to regard each other as brother and sister. When they had left the University they had stuck together to the point where they work together. Miaka was Ryuuen's assistant. She could get a better job, she did have a major in English after all, but working with Ryuuen gave her time to do what she loved the most, write. She was currently on the Best Seller List, under the pen name Akaim Tamakins, but no one knew that except for Ryuuen, who had helped her come up with the name, not even her own family knew.

Walking into Ryuuen's office she found him sitting at his desk, his head in his hands.

"What I'm I supposed to do?" his voice came muffled from behind his hands. "Everyone's telling me to do this or do that, but I can't make up my mind." Looking up at Miaka standing at the door he asked, "What do you think I should do?"

Miaka sighed and walked to him. Going around his desk and chair, she stood behind him and pulled him back into the chair. Once he seemed comfortable, she started to massage his tense shoulders, she hated when he got like this. He was bound to either shut down or snap soon, it could go either way and none would be good for him or those around him. "I think," she answered his question. "You should do what you think is best. What you want to do? No one can make this decision for you."

"That's not very helpful, you know," Ryuuen replied as he melted into the chair. There was one thing he was sure of and that was that Miaka had magic hands. "But I appreciated it." Miaka just made an agreeable noise and continued working the tension out of her best friend.

After a few minutes of silence Ryuuen spoke up. "So let's hear this perfectly good reason for being late of yours."

Miaka sighed, rolled her eyes and told him about her run in with the exquisite but creepy man from the coffee shop. By the end he was almost falling out of his sit with laughter. "It wasn't funny," Miaka said in exasperation but glad that Ryuuen was out of his grumpy mood. "For all I know he wanted to abduct me or something."

This just drove Ryuuen into another round of laughter. Miaka just glared at him and started to walk toward to door. "Fine, laugh all you want, I'm going back outside." But Ryuuen wrapped his arm around her waist and dragged her down to his lap and into a hug. "I was only kidding, don't get all worked up. You know I love you." He then gave her a quick peck on the mouth, which meant nothing considering the fact that he was gay and considered her to be his sister.

They were so engrossed in their moment that they never noticed the door open or the stunned man that stood there till he awkwardly cleared his throat and they both turned to find him there.

Miaka couldn't believe her eyes. It was the man from the coffee shop. What was he doing here? Had he followed her here?

Ryuuen was flabbergasted. He couldn't think of anything to say, death would've been less painful as memories and the pain they had caused grasped him and slapped him in the face. This couldn't be happening. He wanted to close his eyes and will the man before him to vanish but he couldn't tear his stunned gaze away. He wanted it all to be a dream, like the numerous ones that hunted him but knowing the perfection was too Sai, to be a dream. After six years of his ghost hounding him it looked like the demon himself had coming looking for him, he just couldn't be shunned away

"S…Sai…?"

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The man sighed in exasperation as the lift slowly ascended, it was taking too long. At this rate he would be an old man before they got there. Maybe if he tried pressing the button again? You never know with these contraptions. He reached forward to do so but his hand was slapped out of the way. "Hey! That hurt!" He brought his hand to his chest in a guarded gesture. Women sure could be violent, he thought to himself.

"Taka stop it! That's not going to make the elevator go faster!" an equally exasperated Yui snapped. "I swear it's like you're a little kid that need to be constantly watched. We're almost there so keep your pants on!" Yui started to massage her temples, she was going to get a head ache, she could tell. She hated it when Taka got like this, he was like a kid on a major sugar rush and like always she was the one stuck looking after him. She hated her job.

The third occupant just rolled her eyes and sighed. It was going to be one of those days and the day was only starting too. "Taka start acting your age would you? Today's an important day for Konan Empire and we have to be on our toes if we're going to persuade the owner of Willow Publishing's to sign over to us."

One minute he was the immature kid that they loved but could hardly tolerate and the next he was the slick business man that he was proclaimed to be. He could sweet talk anyone into doing what had to be done and leave them thinking it was their idea to begin with. He was one of the reasons that Konan Empire had gotten as far is it had. "The owner? But I thought we were meeting with the representative?"

"We are," replied Houki. "No one knows who the owner really is or what he really looks like. He could be a she for all we know."

"But," jumped in Yui. "If we can convince the representative, word well get back to the owner and the deals ours."

"Good," Taka stated with a glimmer in his eyes. "I'm up for the challenge."

Yui and Houki shared a smile; the deal was as good as theirs.

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A.N.: so there you have it, what did you think? Let me know, review! I like those. Thanks to ShyGirl1988 for all her help! Thank you! There happy now?

And thanks to:

ShyGirl1988: look up there! I thank you again, so please stop being so mean, hehe

FlonTed: okay for some reason I felt dizzy after reading you review…but I loved it and I agree with you! Thank you!

sami: thank you! Hope u liked this chapter!

Nagem: thank you! Here it is!

Ayan Kitsune: thank you! I'll try and do my best!

dimonyo-anghel: I agree and I wrote it. Thanks!