Miki mumbled in her sleep as a familiar figure slowly descended upon her. She turned away from the figure and mumbled in a half sleeping stupor, "Go away please…"
The figure gently whispered in her ear, "But I just got home, why would I want to leave you so suddenly?"
Miki stirred and turned back toward the figure slowly opening her eyes. The figure looked like an angel the way the light shown off him. She squinted for a few seconds and then said softly, "Yuu? Yuu! It is you!" She wrapped her arms around him as tears streamed down her face. "Yuu, you have no idea how much I missed you."
Yuu chuckled and smile at her, "I think I can figure out how much you missed me. Most likely it was as much as I missed you."
Miki felt whole again. Here she was in the arms of the person she loved more than anyone else in the world. She didn't want this moment to end ever. She felt like her strength had returned to her considering everything that had happened to her over the last week alone. Longing for him so much she instinctively kissed him savoring his lips that she long had forgotten. Yuu was taken aback right away but slowly eased into her lips as well. "How long will you be here for?" Miki asked as she finished her kiss with him.
"I have two weeks before I'm supposed to be back for classes."
Miki moaned, "Only two weeks? That's not enough time!"
Yuu chuckled, "It's only one more semester, and then it'll be all over, and I'll have a job, and we can get married."
Miki cooed as Yuu pulled her closer to him. "Married…to Yuu," Miki thought as she enjoyed the time she was wrapped in Yuu's arms.
"Now that you're finally awake. I think it's time you go downstairs and get some breakfast," Yuu winked at her.
Miki now full of energy nodded happily, "Hai!"
The kitchen…
Aaron sat at the table devouring the eggs that Yuu had prepared. "DAMN!" Aaron thought, "That is one boy who knows how to cook!"
Yuu came down the stairs and looked at Aaron curiously considering he hadn't properly introduced himself. He smiled and walked over to Aaron and said, "Well don't you seem to be enjoying breakfast this morning.
"You'll never hear me complaining about food this good being free!" Aaron took another large bite of the eggs as Yuu sat down across from him.
"By the way, I'm sorry I didn't properly introduce myself this morning. My name is Matsuura. Matsuura Yuu."
Aaron gulped the eggs down and licked his lips before responding, "Nice to meet you Yuu. My name is Aaron. Aaron Tsukino."
Yuu laughed lightly and responded, "I'm sorry I forgot you're from America."
"No biggie, I'm used to hearing everything in Japanese as it is."
"So where are you from in America?"
"I'm from a state called Montana."
"I've never heard of Montana. Where is it located?"
"It is located to the far west. It's inland and just south of Canada."
"I see."
Miki came bounding down the stairs and Aaron could hear her feet clomping. She entered the kitchen and said full of life, "Good morning!"
Aaron chuckled a little bit and responded, "Sounds like you got your strength back Miki."
Miki hesitantly chuckled and responded, "I guess I just needed some rest!"
"You still clomp down the stairs like a monster Miki," Yuu said sipping his coffee.
"Nani! Yuu!" Miki screamed at Yuu frustrated at his teasing.
Yuu chuckled as Miki did her best to beat up on Yuu. Aaron chuckled at the spectacle in front of him and simply shook his head as he stood up to put his dishes in the sink. "Aren't they just the cutest brother and sister you've ever seen," Aaron thought. "Wait…they don't have the same last name." Aaron stopped and pondered it suddenly like he hadn't thought about it before. He shook his head trying to forget the possibility of something and noticed Miki was no longer flailing her arms at Yuu. "Since you two most likely have a lot of catching up to do I'm sure, I'm going to head out for a while and check out the town."
Miki looked over at Aaron who was flashing a half hesitant smile as he made his way over to the foyer. "Is everything ok Aaron?" Miki seemed confused.
"Yeah! Everything is fine. I just think it would be wise to actually learn about this place. Since I've just kinda wandered around most of the time."
Miki nodded and seemed a little concerned as Aaron put on his headphones and shoes and exited the home. "Miki," Yuu snuck up behind her and wrapped his arms around her and nuzzled her cheek with his own. "No one else is home. We have the entire house to ourselves for a while."
Miki giggled and blushed, "Oh Yuu. You goof." She looked over to the door and couldn't help but feel a tingle of something else bothering her. She couldn't explain it as to why that tingle was still in her despite being in the arms of Yuu. It wasn't a good thing in her mind either.
Later that day…
Aaron stopped in front of the gate to the Matsuura household and made a deep sigh. A lot had flowed through his mind as of late. The ominous phone call the day he got there; Miki's reaction to his past; the way he reacted when she'd smile at him. Each of these brought questions to his mind that he didn't need to worry about nor did he need to be concerned with. He shook his head and looked at the house with one clear question on his mind, "Do I seriously like Miki? Or does she like me?" Aaron chuckled and shook his head, "No, we've known each other a week. It's not possible to like someone that quickly." Still something in his heart would twinge when he thought about Miki. He smiled and confidently walked up to the door. He opened it and took his shoes off without saying a word. He walked upstairs quietly and could hear voices coming from Miki's room. He walked over to the door but listened quietly as to what was being said. Most of it sounded muffled and even a little moaning. Aaron blinked a few times and then heard the one thing that really sent him into a head spin. Miki said clearly, "I love you, Yuu."
A chill went down his spine for some reason and Aaron decided to head back to his room. The room he was spending with Yuu. He climbed onto the top bunk and put his headphones on trying to drown out any other sounds and focus on just the music allowing him to clear his thought filled mind. "Those two…are going out?" Aaron closed his eyes trying to focus on more important things, but each time he'd try an image of Yuu and Miki happily together would invade his thoughts. "Why am I so concerned about this? It's not like I…like…Miki." He opened his eyes and looked at the ceiling pondering that thought harder. "Do I like her?" Aaron no longer was sure of his thoughts about her. Something about her made him feel different than when he was around other girls. He couldn't put his finger on it and he didn't know if it was worth indulging in farther. "She has someone you fool," Aaron shook his head thinking to himself. "However, should I still go after her all things considered?" Aaron took a deep breath and could only think about everything that had happened up to that point between he and Miki. Eventually he sat up and put his hand on his forehead and chuckled. "I need to clear my head, and I only know of one way to clear it." He jumped off the bed making a loud thump and stretched out. His mind now had become completely occupied with one thing. Basketball. It was indeed the ONE thing that allowed him to clear everything out of his head. Aaron walked down the stairs to the foyer and put on his shoes once more. The sounds he had heard earlier were no longer hearable and he chuckled, shaking his head once more. He left the house slamming shut the door and laughed heartily with a fire in his eye ready to take on the world.
That evening…
Aaron returned back to the house feeling completely refreshed and his mind clear of such worries as he had before. He entered the house and walked into the living room where Miki and Yuu sat apart from each other watching TV. "Where are your parents?" Aaron pondered curiously.
"They decided to take vacation," Yuu said over his shoulder.
"You're joking," Aaron couldn't believe what he just heard.
"Nope, I'm afraid they're serious."
Aaron could hear Miki giggle and asked, "So they just leave the 3 of us alone, by ourselves and just take off?"
"Get used to it while you're staying here Aaron," Miki said, "They've done that to us more than you'll ever know."
Aaron moaned a little and thought, "Well this is gonna be great."
"Oh by the way Aaron, dinner is on the table," Miki said.
"And you might want to be careful when you eat it. It's been known to cause stomach problems," Yuu teased Miki.
"Yuu!" Miki flailed her arms at him as he laughed.
Aaron chuckled at Yuu's comment and sat down looking at the food. It LOOKED edible, however something in Aaron's gut told him otherwise. He cautiously picked up his chopsticks and slowly started to eat the food sitting in front of him. "It's not the best, but it's edible," Aaron thought as he hungrily ate the food.
"See I told you the food was edible!" Miki said as she and Yuu had been peeking around the corner to see Aaron's reaction to the food.
"How do you know he's not just humoring you?" Yuu said.
"Because Aaron wouldn't do that!" Miki retorted.
"Oh? Are you really so sure?"
Aaron couldn't contain his laughter any longer and started laughing out loud confusing Miki and Yuu. He turned around and looked at them shaking his head before saying through his calming laughs, "The food isn't half bad Miki, definitely could use improvement, but it really isn't bad."
"See! Aaron likes it!" Miki crossed her arms.
"He's probably saying that so he doesn't hurt your feelings," Yuu joked.
Before Miki could retort Aaron responded, "No Yuu I'm afraid you're just wrong. It's not half bad."
Yuu couldn't really respond to his comment. Miki was to busy laughing at the fact Yuu had just been outwitted on something he's so used to getting Miki on that he seemed slightly irritated. Yuu slightly shook his head and headed out of the kitchen and sat back down on the couch continuing to watch TV. Miki giggled and said to Aaron, "That was very cool how you made Yuu silent."
Aaron sighed and responded, "I'm envious though. It'd be nice to have cooking like this every day." He turned toward Miki and smiled the one smile that made Miki melt. She blushed drawn in by that smile that so reminded her of how Yuu would smile. She was unable to move due to the effects of that smile. Aaron cleaned up his place where he ate and put the dishes into the sink before walking over to Miki and said, "Yuu must be a lucky guy to get such good cooking all the time."
Miki blushed and shook her head saying, "What are you implying by that!"
"Well I mean you two ARE brother and sister and I mean he's lucky that he's got such a good little sister to cook for him." He patted Miki's head and strolled out of the kitchen and up the stairs to his room.
Miki blinked, "Brother and sister?" She made a half laugh after Aaron had left and thought, "For a minute I thought things were going to get bad. Like he knew that Yuu and I were going out. Still, why did I freeze up when he smiled at me again? I figured once Yuu got home everything would go back to normal and I'd be fine, but I still have this feeling that I can't explain that I get every time I see Aaron smile. Why?" Miki clutched her hand to her chest a little scared at the thought of her heart being split between two people.
"Miki?" Yuu looked at her from the couch suddenly seeing her not looking right. "Is everything ok hun? You seem like something is bothering you?"
"Huh? Err no Yuu, everything is fine."
"Your face is telling me otherwise Miki," Yuu said reading the expression on her face like a book. Sadly Miki was one of the easiest people to read when it came to expressions.
Miki sighed and responded, "It's nothing Yuu, I've just been under a lot of stress in school lately, and now with having the professor of my English class staying with us and then our folks suddenly leaving the three of us alone. It's just been a whirlwind of things going on."
"Wait, he's the professor of your English class?" Yuu seemed slightly surprised but was curious.
"Yeah. Well he's not our ACTUAL professor. He's more like a helper to the professor. He's still a semi-exchange student in a sense, but he's more like a professor than anything."
"I see."
"There's something else Yuu that confuses me…" Miki felt like telling Yuu was the best thing to do and took a deep breath, "When I get around Aaron, I…I don't know why, but I get this feeling."
"A feeling?"
"Like," she looked down, "Like I like him, more than just a friend I think."
Yuu's eyes widened a little but he simply replied, "I see."
Fear could be seen in Miki's face and she responded quickly, "Please allow me to see what it is that is causing this Yuu. Please believe in me." She looked up at Yuu, "Please believe in us!"
Yuu smiled at her and he responded, "Miki I trust you. I want you to do what you feel is best and I will live with what it is you decide. My honest feeling is I don't want to lose you again, but I want you to decide for yourself what it is that you want."
Miki closed her eyes tears streaming down them and she nodded, "Thank you for understanding Yuu." Miki could feel her heart ripping in two. It hurt worse explaining this to Yuu more than anything else, but she was glad he was so willing to understand. This could be nothing more than one more great hurdle in their quest to be together. It seemed that every one and every thing seemed to try to keep them apart, and Miki hoped this was nothing more than a challenge that they would overcome together. Her heart was still with Yuu, but she didn't know if that was something that would forever remain, and considering the fact that Aaron had not actually pursued her nor did he even remotely try confused her even more. How DID he honestly feel about her she wondered. She shook her head trying to forget about it and enjoyed the fact that Yuu was home for a while and that this would be the only time she'd have with him for a long time. She clung to Yuu suddenly tears streaming down her eyes even harder. Miki was afraid of losing Yuu, but at the same time couldn't ignore her feelings toward Aaron and it scared her to death. Yuu gently embraced her in her pain and allowed her to cry as long as she needed.
Yuu did say one more thing to her as she cried. "Miki do you even know how Aaron feels about you? Have you asked him or even talked with him yet? If you haven't…perhaps you should talk with him about how you feel and get it off your chest."
Miki continued to cry sobbing loudly. Aaron from upstairs could softly hear her sobs and could almost tell that it had something to do with him. He wondered if it had to do with something about her. Maybe…she liked him? He shook his head remembering she was with Yuu, and she was totally for Yuu. "Whatever it is. Hopefully she gets it off her chest before it really starts bothering her," Aaron thought.
That night…
Miki lay awake in her bed tears still streaming down her face. She was going through a crisis that even she never could have predicted would happen. She lay there trying to go over her feelings about everything that had happened up to this point and how they even had gotten this far this fast. She opened her eyes and lay on her bed for what seemed like hours unable to sleep. Eventually she heard some noise in the hallway and sat up in her bed listening to it. The noise sounded like someone was going downstairs, but when she looked at her alarm clock it said it was one in the morning. "Who would be up at this hour? Yuu or Aaron?" She heard the TV sound softly and couldn't make out anything that was being said on it. It all sounded muffled and in another language. Unable to sleep she decided to find out who was up, and maybe get a chance to talk to whoever it might be. She wrapped a blanket around her body and shuffled down the stairs toward the living room. The TV had been turned down sound wise considerably and she tapped whoever it was on the shoulder. Aaron turned around and Miki smiled meekly, "Hey, mind if I join you?"
Aaron scooted over to make room for Miki and she sat next to Aaron, and then scooted closer to him. Aaron looked at her and curiously asked, "Miki?"
Miki looked at how close she had sat next to Aaron and laughed lightly scooting away. "Gomen, I'm not sure why I did that."
"It's fine," Aaron smiled warmly, "So you having troubles sleeping?"
Miki nodded, "Yeah. I've been preoccupied with a lot of things lately and it's starting to come to a head I guess."
"Well I know how stressful college can be," Aaron turned his attention to the TV and sighed.
"What about you Aaron?" Miki asked him.
"Hmmm?"
"Usually you're out late. It seems like you didn't head out tonight."
Aaron chuckled, "Yeah, I've had enough time to think about some things that have been on my mind."
"I see."
"Do you really want to know what was bothering me so much?"
Miki smiled slightly and replied, "Well since you offered."
Aaron looked back at the TV and sighed. Slowly he got up and took a deep breath trying to relax his tense body before he sat back down and started, "Well, it all began about a year ago. I was just being myself playing a good game of basketball when I met someone. Now this was completely by accident mind you that we met. She didn't play basketball, but when I looked up and saw her my head did a double take. I found out her name was Heather and she graduated from the same school I had back in high school. So we hung out from time to time and we never really thought anything of it. I mean I liked her honestly from the first moment I saw her, but I was going to make sure I didn't rush into anything. So for about the next 9 months we got to know each other better. I mean it was becoming more and more apparent to everyone else that there was something going on between her and me, but we never actually became a couple. Then one day when I finally had gotten the gall to ask her out, something happened and it changed our relationship forever. She told me she had met someone and that he had asked her out last night. I was devastated beyond belief but I decided I'd let her know how I felt nonetheless. Needless to say she was waiting for me to ask her out, but when I hadn't for a long time she wondered if I really did care for her. She told me she wouldn't break up with her boyfriend because he was really sweet, and honestly, I can say he is a great guy. We kept in touch over the next couple of months, and then when the phone call came, she decided that it was too hard to be friends with me with the way she felt about me still, and the fact she was torn between her boyfriend and me. So…we just both agreed to end our friendship there. So I've been a little…I guess you could say stressed about a few things going on." Aaron looked at Miki who was crying and sighed and responded, "That's one reason why I didn't want to say anything to you about it. I had a feeling it'd make you cry. I already made you cry once before, and now here I've made you cry again."
Miki shook her head, "No! Thank you for telling me, and I'm sorry for your loss."
Aaron shook his head, "It's ok Miki. Going out and just being able to be myself has really helped me through this, and honestly…being around you has helped a lot too."
Miki blushed and looked away from Aaron, "I haven't done anything Aaron."
Aaron chuckled, "Maybe you don't realize that you have done a lot to help me out. Don't get me wrong; I'm not saying anything other than thank you for your help."
Miki scooted closer to him again and Aaron looked down at her quickly, "I…was feeling a little cold, is it ok if I stay close to you?"
Aaron smiled and nodded, "Yeah that's fine."
Miki could feel the warmth coming from his body and thought with a calming smile, "He's so warm…he reminds me of Yuu when I'm this close to him." Aaron chuckled and shook his head. Miki's eyes were getting heavy quite quickly and before Aaron knew it she had fallen asleep lying next to him.
"Miki?" Aaron asked quietly.
Miki mumbled a few things and snuggled up closer to Aaron. Aaron sighed and said, "You don't have to worry Yuu, and I don't have any intention of taking her away from you."
Yuu appeared from behind the wall next to the foyer and replied, "I told her she can decide who she wants to be with. I won't stop her."
"So you trust her then?"
Yuu smiled, "Of course I trust her."
Aaron sighed, "You really know how to put pressure on someone, you know that?"
Yuu blinked and shrugged, "It's not like I forced anything. It has nothing to do with me."
Aaron shook his head as Yuu went back upstairs and headed to bed. Miki mumbled in her sleep, "Yuu…I love you…"
Aaron moaned and realized that moving would be a bad thing so he decided to just turn off the TV and fall asleep the way things were. Aaron closed his eyes trying to relax and thought, "Yuu, I don't want to take Miki away from you, but when you talk like that…you make me want to try."