A/n- They need to form a support group for procrastinators... I would be like- "Hello. My name is Christy and I am a procrastinator..." So, fair warning, when I say I'll "update soon," it's more like "I'll update in the next 2 to 6 months." Anyway, just read and review please! Thanks to those who do so!

Chapter 15: A Change of Heart

The brainy brunette slammed her locker shut. Just as she was about to walk down the deserted hallway, something caught her eye. There, to her right, stood an unmistakable figure leaning against the lockers. It was her old heartthrob. It was none other than Yusuke Urameshi.

"Hey, Keiko," he said coolly and casually, folding his arms across his chest.

"Hello, Yusuke," Keiko said, snottily. She kept her head held high, but her eyes focusing down at the floor. Why the hell was he talking to her? They hadn't been on the best of terms, and still weren't, since he had started dating What's-Her-Face. In other words, that girl, Avari. That had been six months ago, too.

"How's everything been?" he said, trying to make small talk. "Still Numero Uno in the class?"

"Cut the crap, Yusuke!" Keiko yelled in frustration. She knew he wasn't here to chit-chat. He wanted something; he always did. Probably needed to cheat off of her homework or something. "What's your dilemma and how should I fix it?"

"To be perfectly honest, I'm here to get you back," Yusuke confessed.

Had he really just said those words? Or was she dreaming? She had imagined this happening in a million different scenarios, but that had only been in her dreams. She had also been highly doubtful that it would ever happen...

Keiko slightly pinched her arm and felt a pang of pain in her arm. Yep, she was awake alright. Maybe this was his idea of a sick joke. He was just toying with her to cause her even more pain. There was only one way to find out if he really meant these words... Should she dare to look him in the face?

She turned her gaze from the floor to his face, half expecting to see an ugly smirk. Instead, she saw a straight and serious face staring back at her. His cocoa-colored eyes seemed to show traces of regret and depression. This really hit her as a surprise.

All she could do was stand there, baffled. The wall of hostility for him crumbled inside of her. It had been put up when he had torn her heart in two. She realized how deeply in love with him she still was. But, she had thought he hadn't felt the same. Didn't he love Avari now? Wait... Was he going to use her?

She felt a bit more of her heart break at this realization. It was soon followed by a sense of rage. 'That bastard...'

"Did Avari break up with you?" she began to shout. "Because if you think you can just waltz up and get me to agree to help win her back, you're out of your mind!"

She was not his toy tobe used and thrown around! She had feelings, too! And before, he had crushed those feelings.

"Woah, settle down, Keiko," Yusuke said, holding up in hands. He walked closer to her. "I'm serious about this."

"Care to elaborate?" Keiko's interest was peaked. She really wanted to know what lame excuse he would come up with.

"Here's how it is," he began, letting out a sigh. "Avari's been a bit... odd lately. She has a lot on her plate right now, but I feel like she doesn't care about me anymore. It just really got me thinking about things..."

"Things? What kind of things?" Keiko pressed. What point was he trying to get across? She was curious to know.

"I realized how much I miss you and how strong my feelings for you still are... I didn't even remember exactly why we split."

"Neither do I," Keiko said, thoughtfully. Why had they broke up? Things had been going great... Then, suddenly, Yusuke had just wanted out.

"So, that's why I'm here, begging you to come back to me," Yusuke said, looking deep into Keiko's hazelnut eyes. He began to move dangerously close to her face, never moving his gaze from her. "I'm still madly in love with you, Keiko Yukimura."

Before either of them knew it, they were in lip lock. Keiko dropped her stack of books on the tiled floor, narrowly missing her feet. She let her free hands slide up Yusuke's arms and rest on the back of his neck. In response, his arms snaked around her slim waist. There they stood; in some other, nonexistent world where nothing could go wrong.

It only took them a whole five minutes to come back to reality and realize what they were doing. Hastily, Keiko pushed Yusuke away from her, breaking their kiss and his hold on her. Yusuke looked at her, stunned and confused. She simply looked down at the floor, breathing hard and taking it all in.

What was she doing? Yes, she was still madly in love with him... and he had confessed the same thing. But, how could she trust him again? He had broken her heart before. He could very well do it again. That kiss though... How she had missed those! It had been so full of passion, on both ends. He had to be serious about this...

She looked back up at Yusuke now. He looked hurt.

"Keiko..." he began.

Finally, making up her mind, Keiko spoke and stopped him from saying anything more.

"You have to break up with her first," Keiko stated firmly.

Yusuke nodded. He knew what he needed to do, but it only sounded easy. The actual doing would leave a broken heart and potentially some arguing.

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The school bell rang, signifying the end of another school day and freedom to the students. As her classmates scrambled out the door, Avari lagged behind. She took her good old time collecting her books and slowly made her way towards the door. She almost made it out, but her teacher stopped her.

"Ms. Raji," her history teacher, Mrs. Mitsubashi called out. Avari turned around and went over to the teacher's desk.

"Yes?"

"Is everything going okay? You've seemed a bit distracted these past few weeks. Not only that, but your grades have been slipping like a car sliding on black ice. That's never happened before," the young teacher said, concerned.

All this was true. Avari hadn't been herself lately. A few weeks ago, four days after she had been attacked, Riley had some more weird symptoms to the poison. She was now in a coma and walking the tightrope between life and death. Along with all of the other stress of life, this had made Avari go into a sort of funk. Her school work and even her relationship with Yusuke were having problems. They were arguing more and he had even had the nerve to accuse her of not caring about him anymore. That had hurt. To top it all off, Genkai was off on a 6-day-long Tournament of the Masters, leaving Avari more alone than ever.

"I just have a lot on my mind right now. Things are changing a lot," Avari replied. She would have lied and said everything was fine to any other teacher, but she felt she could trust Mrs. Mitsubashi. She was one of those young, fresh-out-of-college teachers who could really connect with the students. She understood the troubles of youth better than Avari's 65-year-old, balding math teacher, Mr. Sesaki. Why would a perverted sleezeball like him, who hit on well-endowed, teenage girls, understand what she was going through?

"Well, if you ever need help with schoolwork or someone to give you advice, I'm here," Mrs. Mitsubashi said, smiling. "And I made up an extra-credit assignment to help bring up your grade." She handed Avari a packet of paper.

"Thank you, Mrs. Mitsubashi," Avari responded, making sure to smile as a reassurance of her happiness. It was nice to know that someone cared. "I'll see you in class Monday."

"Good bye, Avari," she called after Avari as she headed out the door.

Out of the classroom, the deserted hallway felt like a ghost town. Not a soul was to be seen. Avari's footsteps echoed eerily through the long stretch of lockers. All of the students must have cleared out to get a head start on their weekend plans. It was Friday afternoon, of course. Even most of the teachers seemed to have vanished.

Now rounding a corner and coming up to her locker, Avari noticed Yusuke standing next to it. As she came closer, she saw that he didn't look to happy; a stern, yet despondent look was on his face. It was probably from the fact that she had been neglecting, avoiding, ignoring and anything along the lines of those words, him lately. It had really put a damper in their relationship, or what little of one they had at the moment.

The guilt of her ill treatment to him was now getting to her. Boy, did she have a lot to say to him! She owed him a serious apology, a big explanation and about a million hugs and kisses. She really cared about him and knew he really did not deserve to be treated that way. It was time that she restored the peace and made things go back to the way they were. It was what she wanted, and probably what he wanted, too.

"Hi."

"Hi," Yusuke's voice echoed.

Avari couldn't help, but notice how nervous he looked. He kept switching his gaze from her, back down to the floor. Back and forth, back and forth. Not to mention, that he was wringing out his hands. What could cause him to be this preoccupied?

"Are you okay? You look really fidgety," she said, eyeing his now shuffling feet.

"Uh, we need to talk." For a quick second he looked at her, but quickly switched his attention back to the exceedingly interesting floor tiles.

"I concur to the tenth degree times Emc2. I'm sorry for how I've been treating you, but I want to make things right..." she started, but Yusuke cut her off.

"You're making this really difficult."

"What?" She didn't get it.

"I think we should break up," he blurted out.

This hit Avari hard, like a wrecking ball hitting a house. She stood there, dumbfounded by his words. All she could do was stare at him. Had he heard him right? Or

was she just hallucinating? Daydreaming?

"I'm sorry. Could you repeat that?" She wanted to be sure of what he was saying.

"I think we should break up," he reiterated.

Yup, her worst nightmare had been fulfilled.

"Woah! I knew we were having issues, but I didn't know we had to resort to such drastic measures..." she responded, still completely flabbergasted by the situation.

"It's not really that..." he began.

"Then, what is it?

"I still have feelings for Keiko," he confessed.

Ouch, that was a big pang in the heart.

"You're just telling me this now!" she cried in disbelief. Had he ever truly cared for her? It sure had felt like he had... He had even promised to protect her. Did she mean anything to him at all? Pain filled her heart even more.

Guilt overwhelmed Yusuke from her outburst. He knew he was hurting her big time. This wasn't going as smoothly as he had anticipated, or hoped.

"I know that I really sound like a bastard, but we're young. We experiment with things. It's good for us to date other people," he said, trying to make a point. "Besides, it's not totally over... We can still be friends."

"The classic line..." Avari mumbled. After that, all she could do was bore her gaze into Yusuke. He was just going to give up...just like that! With a snap of the fingers! In the blink of an eye!

"Don't you still want to be friends?" A perplexed Yusuke stared at Avari.

"Just leave me alone!" Avari shouted and then took off down the hallway.

Desperately, Yusuke tried to go after her, but she was a fast one. He would never catch up to her.

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Avari ran as fast as her legs would carry her- past the school gates, roaming people, bustling stores, delicious-smelling roadside stands, sleeping hobos. It all went by in one big blur. Life was too much right now, too much to handle. She just needed to get away...

It wasn't until she reached the town's park that she eased into a walk. Aimlessly, she wandered down the brick path. Her surroundings were positively gorgeous that day- radiant sunshine, blossoming flowers, lush trees and greens. However, she did not bother to stop in awe of nature's splendor, as usual. Physically, she was there, but mentally, Avari was millions of miles away.

Avari felt puzzled. Had the sheer shock of Yusuke's words still not worn off? It was partly that, but it was just... How was she supposed to react to something like this? No boy had ever broken her heart this bad. Yes, she had had her share of boyfriends, but none of them had ever meant this much to her. Should she be furious at Yusuke? Or should she cry her eyes out like a sous chef chopping onions? Was there a happy medium between the two?

All Avari knew was that she was not going to cry. No matter what, no tears would fall. She had done too much crying lately with all of her added stress weighing her down. Were there even any tears left to cry?

She plopped down on an empty bench underneath a blooming dogwood tree. Eyes closed and body relaxed, Avari let everything soak in. She was a porous sponge. She would let everything in and see what would come out. Oh, the possibilities- Anger, sorrow or peace?

It took a while, but suddenly, it hit her, like a dart hits a target. The unfortunate thing was that it collided with a tender spot, her heart. It felt like someone had torn her heart out, diced it with a machete and made it into sushi. That someone had been Yusuke.

'I'm not going to cry...I am NOT going to cry...' she continually told herself.

Despite all of her pleading, her eyes filled with water. 'Hold it back...' The waters continued to rise. 'You're stronger than this...' It was no use! The dams broke. Hot, steamy tears began to flow down her flushed cheeks. They fell so hard that even Hurricane Katrina would envy the amount of 'rainfall'.

'No guy should be worth this much emotion...' she told herself. Then again, this was Yusuke. Her strong, masculine, yet caring and cuddly Yusuke. He was like a crab- tough on the outside, but soft on the inside, once you cracked the shell. The thoughts of him should have helped to soothe her, but they only made the tears rain harder.

For what seemed like an eternity, Avari sat on the bench, hugging her knees to her chest and wallowing in her misery. Everything that they had been through replayed over and over in her mind like a video tape. Their first kiss, their first date, their numerous sparring matches (which she had won), cuddling under the stars, his soft words, his caressing touch, his smile that seemed to freeze time... Oh, how he had captivated her body, mind and soul! And her heart, of course. How could such a deep relationship been washed away, broken into pieces by six little words? 'I think we should break up...'

At that moment, in the dogwood tree, a mother bird returned to its babies with a scrumptious worm. They proceeded to chirp with joy. Avari lifted her head to glare at them. She felt the sudden urge to climb up the tree and staple their beaks shut. Then again, a vegetarian, animal protection activist might walk by and call the ASPCA (It's an animal protection agency) on her. That meant getting in trouble with the law... But, those damn birds! She felt they were gloating and bragging about how carefree and happy they were. Their happiness was an utter annoyance to her heartache.

Driven by aggravation and envy, Avari jumped up from the bench and proceeded to shout her lungs.

"SHUT UP!"

Horror struck by the abrupt interruption, the birds ceased their singing. With that done, Avari felt a bit better. It had helped to relieve some of her frustration. She had forgotten how much fun shouting was.

Realizing how little light was left in the sky, Avari decided it was time to go home and walked off in the direction of Genkai's temple.

---To be Continued---

-A/n- WAHOO! I finally updated again! Drinks all around! It took me about 3 or 4 months, but it's there. I will truly try to finish up this series this summer. I have an outline saying that this will only be another 4 chapters long, so it's getting there! I just hope I still have some readers! Well, tune in next time to see what other surprising events will take place in The Power Locked Within!

Reviews are always appreciated! XD