Wuts good?

Um… I'm not barred from the Regents after all :) so yeah, I'm happy about that.

I like going to bars, though.

Yeah that's pretty much it

Me: I know, I use my words as I please too, I'm a NEW YORKER, but I don't do it in print to people I don't know. In person is fine, but in print is just rude. I like you though. You think like me :)

Okay, did anyone else notice that whenever you do a smiley, Word always changes it to an ugly round smiley? That annoys me.

Miori: Um, darling, you reviewed chapter one. There were twelve more chapters :P

There's Beauty in the Breakdown

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Mahiru was in her room, dancing furiously. She had picked the piece she had done for Akito that day as what she was going to perform for her audition. But she seriously doubted that after that morning she would be able to pull off acting as the light-hearted Swanilda, ready to marry her true love, with not an obstacle in sight. She stopped, knowing that her dancing was horrible. She had already signed up, saying she was doing a dance of Swanilda's from Coppélia. It was not appreciated when dancers switched their pieces at the last minute. The panel usually had a description of the dance in front of them, so they could compare what the dancer was doing. Mahiru sunk to her knees. 'What am I going to do? I can't dance this happily now… I feel more like a scorned lover than a bride… Wait, Swanilda is a scorned lover!' Mahiru stood and immediately started practicing Swanilda's dance from when she found out that Franz had been trying to cheat on her, a dance full of hurt and wounded pride. She pulled it off flawlessly. She figured it would be fine. It was from the same ballet, and she was the same character. She spent the rest of the day perfecting her new piece.

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Haru was in his room when Mahiru burst in, spinning and singing. He jumped up "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine!" she sang to him "I'm IN!"

"Huh?"

Mahiru stopped spinning. "The Transcends offered me a place. They want me to do solo callbacks for characters! With solos!" Mahiru shrieked "That like, NEVER happens!" She pulled Haru to his feet and spun him, laughing.

"Good job, Onee-chan." Haru bear hugged her, and then forced her to do her dance for him.

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Mahiru stood by Akito's door, breathing deeply, and wondering where the girl who had been offered a star position in a really good dance troupe had gone. 'I can't do it.' She turned and walked away. Then she reconsidered and walked back to the door. She walked away again.

Hatori walked into the Main House to find Mahiru, in her pajamas, pacing in front of Akito's door.

"Um… Mah-chan?" She jumped.

"Oh, hey, Haa-san." She looked at Akito's door "I'm trying to go inside."

"How's that working for you?"

Mahiru collapsed to the ground "It's not."

Hatori sat down next to her "The nurses told me what happened last night. They're all fired."

"Good." Mahiru said vehemently. She disliked them. They were all paid, very well, to take care of one man, and they wanted to leave him alone, uncomfortable and helpless. She turned to Hatori "Guess what."

"What." Hatori replied automatically.

"The Transcends want me to be a character. With a name. And I've got almost no experience in shows, and I was turned down by the Astrals."

Hatori smiled at her "That's great. And you want to tell Akito, but he yelled at you, so you don't want to go in?"

"Yeah. Pretty much. How did you know he yelled at me?"

"He told me."

"Are you serious?" Mahiru had a hard time believing that.

"Yes." Hatori seemed to be telling the truth. "He didn't look well, and I asked him what was wrong, and if it had anything to do with that morning, and he said yes."

"What?" Now Mahiru was confused.

"I think he felt bad for whatever he said to you. I know Akito's symptoms, and he really only gets like he was after you left when his mother visits."

Mahiru got the feeling that Hatori didn't like Mrs. Akito Sohma's Mom. "So, you think it would be fine if I went in and talked to him?" Mahiru hazarded.

"Yes, I do." Hatori smiled. "Most people don't go in there unless they're forced. You, Shigure and I are really the only ones who go in and talk to him of our own free wills."

"Well, don't you go because you're his doctor?"

Hatori looked at Akito's closed door "Well, there's that. But also… I don't know."

"Yeah, he's God."

"And Shigure goes because he likes screwing with people. But you… you just do. You're not even called to him." Hatori stood. "If you're going to go in, do it now. I don't want him up all night."

"Yes, Doctor-sama." Mahiru rose and saluted him and confidently marched to the door. And then meekly knocked on it.

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Akito heard the knocking on his door and ignored it. He struggled out of the new, clean blankets on his bed. He was burning. He buried his face in a pillow, trying to soak up its coolness. All he succeeded in doing was making the pillow hot. He groaned and rolled off of it, burying his face in all his pillows in turn, until the last one had soaked up his heat and he lay on his bed sweltering. He felt a hand on his forehead and brushed it away, meaning to tell Hatori to leave, but no sound came out when he opened his mouth. He turned away from the hand and tried to go back to sleep. Apparently the hand didn't like that. It replaced itself on his forehead. It was cold. He allowed it to remain there. It brushed his hair back so it didn't tickle his closed eyelids. Slowly the hand began to heat up, and when it was the same temperature as him he struggled out from under it again. He felt his bed sink slightly as Hatori sat on the side of his bed. Akito was beginning to get irritated. Why didn't the doctor take a hint? He turned over and forced his eyes open, intent on telling the Dragon off. The words died in his throat. It wasn't the doctor.

It was the girl.

She was perched nervously on the edge of his bed, one hand nervously fixing her tank top, with the other smoothing her sleep pants where she had rolled the waist band down. Akito was distracted by the fabric. It was sleek and shiny, and caught the light coming from his antique oriental lamp. He kind of liked that lamp. That's why it was still there after four weeks.

The girl caught his eye and gave him a shaky smile. "Good evening, Sohma-sama." She looked at him for a second more, then at his bed, and jumped up, blushing furiously. "Sorry. Again. I… sorry." 'LAME LAME LAME.' She took a few deep breaths. "For right now and… you know… last night." She bowed. "Sorry." She shivered and hugged herself. It was freezing in his room.

Akito watched the girl. She was cold. She didn't feel the infernal heat. Well, then, they made a good pair. "Go get that book." He ordered her.

"Huh?" She looked confused.

"The one you're reading." He annunciated.

"…Alright." Mahiru turned and walked out, thoroughly confused. She saw Hatori in the hall. "It's freezing in there." She informed him.

Hatori signed and ran one hand through his hair. "Akito doesn't like having a fever sweated out of him. And you just can't convince him that he should bundle up when he's sick. So he insists on trying to cool off by taking cold baths and leaving his windows and doors open." Mahiru ducked into her room and came out with a novel she was reading for school. "What are you doing?"

"He said to get my book."

"…Why?" Hatori was just as confused as she was.

"I dunno. He just told me to." Mahiru shrugged, then darted into her room and came back out holding her teddy bear. He was almost completely flat, with mismatched eyes, no nose, and many darns and seams, all in different colored thread. One of his legs was noticeably shorter than the other.

"Nice bear." Hatori smirked.

"Thanks. I call him Mr. Perfect. Or Pear for short." She cuddled him. Then she looked angry "Hey, you were being sarcastic! Where's your childhood keepsake and thing you love more than anything else, huh!"

"…that made no sense." Hatori informed her "And you'd better get in there." He nodded to Akito's door. "Before he gets mad." Mahiru turned to go, then spun quickly and shoved her bear in Hatori's face.

"HAHA YOU'VE BEEN PEAR KISSED!" She dashed into Akito's room.

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Hopefully you all will remember where this ends when I post the next chapter, because otherwise it will make no sense. It should directly go this chapter, ----- thing, and then next chapter straight into it, but I can't post all that because otherwise I would have to write faster. The next twenty pages or so were all written as one chapter so bear with me for a while. Um… Yeah.

Review now :)

Oh btw Kristi's fine, she just has a mild concussion or something. And her face looks like she was run over with a RV.

That bitch annoys me.

Oh, also the rating is gonna go up a few chapters in the future, so if you're like... I'm gonna say 12 or under, buh-bye. But I'll leave that up to personal judgment.

Um… if you don't own Decemberunderground yet, I suggest you go buy it. The Killing Lights and Prelude 12/21 are amazing. YAY A.F.I.