Hee… everyone seemed to find that cliffie interesting; good thing, too. Sadly, I must say that this will be the second to last chapter. I finished this last week and I'll be posting the final chapter next weekend (after my first week of school—eek!!). Well, there's really not much else to say, except, arigato again for the reviews you guys are giving and enjoy!

Chapter 13: Confessions

The bright lights of Domino Hospital shined out through the pouring rain, illuminating its white architecture. From within, the sounds of doctors and nurses talking to each other and patients lightly floated through the halls, though it was still relatively quiet. A girl still in her Domino High School uniform was sitting all alone in the waiting room, her arms wrapped around her legs, her wet hair hanging over her knees with her eyes shut. She was still slightly trembling, but her mind's defenses had already set in and kept any emotions from coming out.

The woman at the reception desk was doing late night paperwork, humming a slight tune to herself as she did so. Kiseki had not moved since her father was taken in to the emergency room some three hours earlier; her mother had come in a little while later to sit with him, sporting a broken arm from running into her car door. As far as Kiseki knew, both her parents were alive, but her father had taken most of the damage, seeing as how the car had collided with his door. She had been the furthest away from the impact point and only felt a little stiffness in her neck, which the doctors in the ambulance had deemed nothing to worry about. The status of the other driver was unknown to them.

Every now and then a doctor would walk by quietly, either making clear or muffled footsteps depending upon whether they had just come out of a surgery room. Another pair came from the elevator down the hall, and she calmly listened to them come into the waiting room, pause, and make their way towards her. The person sat beside her quietly, doing nothing more. She didn't acknowledge whoever it was, merely sighing to herself and hunching her shoulders slightly. After about a minute, the person put their hand on her back, softly rubbing it over a few times before letting it come to rest on her opposite shoulder, giving it a slight squeeze.

She felt a small wave of relief pass over her, thinking it was Unishiwa; she slowly sat up and turned her head towards the person. When her eyes opened, the first thing she saw was the KC logo. She stared at it for a moment, instantly feeling completely different. Shocked… yet a small jump in her stomach could have easily been a sort of joy. Her eyes moved from the lapel of the jacket to the person with his arm around her, and she nearly yelped at seeing Seto looking back at her, his hair also slightly wet and hanging over his face.

"What—what are you—" She couldn't get any words out, staring back and forth between him and the letters upon his jacket that she had come to idolize, not believing that they were in such close proximity to each other. Her mouth stayed open and she drew away from him; he released his grip and she put a hand behind her to keep her from falling completely onto the chair beside her.

"Are you alright, Kiseki?" he asked, his arm still slightly outstretched.

Her mind was buzzing with a million thoughts, and his question multiplied them by another million. "What?" she asked in disbelief.

"I saw the accident. Are you ok?" he repeated.

She shook her head slightly, her eyes and mouth still wide open. "I—what—you—" Her mind absolutely refused to put two words together. She swallowed, finally closing her mouth. "What are you doing here?"

He frowned slightly, starting to think that the accident had somehow damaged her head. "I saw the crash you just experienced. I was the one who called for the ambulance, Kiseki."

Kiseki… he keeps calling me Kiseki… why? "You… called for the ambulance? Why… Did you go home afterwards?"

"What do you mean?"

"Why did you wait to come here? Why are you here?" She felt rather foolish letting all of her questions come out at once, but she had no idea how she was supposed to feel.

He closed his eyes. "I was delayed by the police. The person who hit you had right of way, but they discovered that he was drunk and needed me to give an eyewitness account. I agreed to it at first, but they kept interrogating me… I was kept longer when they found out something else, but they wouldn't tell me what… then the people here couldn't tell me where you and your family were. I came because I wanted to see that you were not hurt."

She straightened up, furrowing her brow slightly at him. "…why?"

The question made Seto open up his eyes to look at the floor. He wanted to tell her so badly, but he worried that the shock of what he said would cause her even more trauma than she was already experiencing.

She stood up, looking down at him."You want the card, don't you?" she whispered.

He shook his head. "No… I don't."

She blinked. "What?"

"I don't want the card anymore, Kiseki."

"Why are you calling me Kiseki all of a sudden?"

He didn't answer that question, either, so she tried another route. "But… you were so… aggressive when you were trying to get it…"

Standing up as well to peer down at her, he looked at her with an attempt at a sort of gentle expression of seriousness. "I know… I was becoming obsessed with getting it… but I didn't know what I was doing. I had always stayed up late working in my office, but this past week… I've been working in my office trying to find out what it was—"

"Are you usually the only one in the big KC building when you work late?"

He was a little surprised at the question, but he nodded.

Kiseki could feel the threat of tears forming and the looked down and to the side rather fast, shutting her eyes. "Is your office at the very top?" she asked in a voice that trembled slightly.

"It is… what's wrong?" He slightly tilted his head.

She swallowed and opened her eyes again, blinking to let a few drops slowly make their way down her cheeks. She looked up at him again, having a somewhat difficult time breathing properly. "I… for the past week…" She sniffed. "I have been watching that building… and the office window at the top… I would—" She stopped, wondering slightly why she was telling him. "I would look to it, and… and it became something like an idol to me… I can't…" She folded her arms. "I can't believe that it was you the whole time… working late because of something you were traumatizing me for… I guess crap like that never works out."

"…You would watch for me every night?" he asked.

"I would watch for you to help myself get over what you were doing to me at school," she said somewhat harshly, glaring up at him. "All of which is in vain now… the card blew away yesterday in the storm… I don't have it anymore."

He shook his head. "That's what I've been trying to tell you, Kiseki. I don't want that card now. I haven't wanted it for a while now… it just took me some time to figure out that my intentions weren't what I thought they were."

"What are you saying?" she asked again in a whisper.

"Kiseki…" he murmured, reaching out to take her hands in his. "Ai shiteru."

5She stared at him for moment, not recognizing the words that had left his mouth. "I… I don't know what that means," she said, shaking her head slightly, keeping her eyes fixed upon his.

Seto cast around in his mind, trying to remember back to his English lessons. "It means…" He vaguely remembered learning its counterpart in the language and spoke the words in his accented English. "I love you… Ai shiteru, Kiseki…"

A silence passed over them as they stood, looking at each other, Seto still holding Kiseki's hands. Time seemed to slow down; Kiseki's mind had completely shut off, leaving her helpless to cope with the simple phrase, not knowing what to say or do. "I….I…"

"Kiseki!"

Both of the students jumped a great deal and whirled around to see Unishiwa coming towards them; Seto instinctively let go of Kiseki's hands. The teacher stopped a few feet away from them, glaring at him. "Get away from her," he growled.

The blue-eyed teen looked back at Unishiwa for a moment, not reacting at all. Without another glance at Kiseki, he walked past Unishiwa to the elevator, getting on and disappearing. She still stood looking after him, her hands coming up to her chest. Unishiwa came to her and led her back to the chairs, sitting them down.

"Are you alright?" he asked her, turning her face to him.

Looking back at him, her mind slowly started coming back. She shook her head.

"Does it have something to do with Kaiba?" he asked somewhat angrily.

"It does… but—"

"What did he do?" he cut in. She jumped, and he shook his head. "I'm sorry…"

"He—he just—" She sat back in her chair heavily, staring at the ground. "I don't know what he did, sensei… I'm confused…"

Unishiwa decided that it would be best to not pry too much, and instead put a hand on her shoulder. "The doctors looked at you, right?"

She nodded. "My parents… my mom broke her arm and… I don't know how my dad is, but I know he's going to live…"

He looked slightly relieved and sat back in his chair also. "Thank God… I was watching the news and recognized your car… the driver of the car that hit you was killed, did you know that?"

Her head dropped again to rest on her knees. "No… I didn't…" she whispered. "Sensei…"

"Hm?" He sat forward slightly.

"Why is all of this happening to me?"

The question was practically dripping with agony; he could hardly bear it. "I don't know, Kiseki… the most we can do now is to just bear it. It's the tragedies in lives that make us grow stronger." He closed his eyes, quoting Confucius. "Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but rising every time we fall."

Kiseki gave a quiet laugh. "That sucks."

"Life sucks, Kiseki. It's how we react to it that matters." He gently took her hand in his and she sat up to look at him again.

"You know…" she said. "You don't have to sit here with me. The words aren't helping me with what I've had to endure."

"I know… that's why I'm choosing to comfort you in the only other way I know how." He brought her into a soft embrace much like the one he had given her the first night in his apartment.

She placed her arms about him as well, her chin upon his shoulder as she stared out at the waiting room behind him. He slowly rocked her from side to side, lightly stroking her hair again. "You are much too intelligent and beautiful to even think about giving up on life," he whispered to her.

"Sensei?" She sat up, letting go of him.

He looked her straight in the eyes. "I mean that, Kiseki. I've seen you as a woman ever since we first met. No matter how much I tried, I couldn't think of you as just a student."

"Are you… saying that…"

"I don't mean to put any more of a burden on you than you already have, Kiseki; I really don't. I just wanted you to know that you are very precious… to someone other than your parents… I don't want you to sink into something you can't pull yourself out of."

She merely sat, looking at him as his words sank into her. She took in a deep breath, turning away slightly. "I… I would like to be alone, sensei… please excuse me." She stood up slowly and walked down the hall, leaving him behind in the waiting room. At the edge of the building she found an empty hospital room and closed the door behind her, shutting out all the light except for that which was shining in through the window.

Kiseki leaned on the windowsill, staring out through the rain in the now darkened sky. There was nothing to see as the noisy drops hit the window, and she buried her head in her arms as she began to quietly sob. Her emotional barrier had begun to loosen, and she could no longer hold in everything she was feeling from the past few hours. As her sleeves dampened, her mind replayed everything that had been upsetting her, forcing her to push out whatever she felt.

She cried for nearly twenty minutes before she quieted herself, sitting up and wiping her sleeve over her face. Looking out the window again, she still felt despair, and her body was weak. She felt like giving up. To just put up with whatever came her way. If I keep myself sad like this… everything won't seem as terrible when it happens… that's it… if I don't get happy… if I never feel happy, things won't be so hard for me—

Her thoughts cut off immediately when she saw something in the distance. A small speck of colour had flicked on as she looked out into the downpour, and she paused in her breathing as she realised what it was. Her already red eyes became wet again as her mouth opened slightly, her lips turning up to form a small smile.

Seto stood with his hand upon the windows covering the wall of his office, his other still outstretched next to the light switch as he stared out into the night. His arms dropped limply to his sides and he gazed out for a few more minutes before leaning his back heavily against the windows, sliding down to the floor, the empty KC building quietly creaking to itself.