Hi, Guys :3 Did you miss me? I bet your answer is "Nope, Not at all."
But anyway let me present to you Chapter 19.
Hope you guys would enjoy this... :))

Warning: Not a MxN chapter

Narumi Anju gave up on trying getting to sleep. He switched on the bedside lamp and sat, haunted, even now, by the memory of taking brown-haired Yuka Azumi to Northern Woods for the first time.

It was more than thirty years ago. Hard to believe. He'd done so much since then. Yet he still could feel his awkwardness, his sense of inadequacy, around brilliant, gentlemanly Izumi Sakura.

And he could see the look in Yuka's eyes when Izumi stood up to greet her on the front porch of the log house. He was a widower, no longer sad. He'd gone back to Japan by then but would come home for holidays, the occasional week-end. And he'd tend the family graves. His grandparents, his father, his brother, his wife. Granny – she wasn't an actual grandmother until Mikan was born and Ruka came but people called her granny, anyway – hated going to the cemetery. She'd tap the side of her head and tell Narumi that the people she'd lost were there, not buried deep in the earth.

Their college romance had been brief, not well-known even among their friends. It was before Izumi, and nothing like the kind of love he and Yuka had for each other, the kind of love Narumi had eventually found with Luna. Devastated when he and Yuka drifted apart, he had kept his pain to himself, but Himemiya and Shizune had seen it – and they'd told him, these two elderly sisters who'd never married, that there was someone out there for him.

That he and the Sakuras had remained steadfast friends all these years was as much an accident of geography as anything else – they were neighbors. They'd sit on the porch late into the evening and listen to the crickets, talk about politics and international affairs, the economy, social justice, personal and public accountability, fishing, varieties of tomato plants, and the weather. Narumi remember when Mikan was born and Ruka came, how shocked and happy Izumi was to be a father at last, and Narumi had known that Yuka had married the better man.

Luna slipped into bed. She often stayed up late reading. She was small, bold, attractive woman, more up to her role as First Lady than anyone had anticipated. People empathized with her awkwardness, the losses she'd endure.

"You can't sleep?" she asked.

Narumi shook his head. "No."

"I keep thinking about poor Mikan and Ruka. What a nightmare this must be for them. To have had that wonderful visit together in Paris, and just a few weeks later –" She shuddered. "It's hard to think about Ruka suffering. And Mikan who just got home from Scotland. Don't you hate to think about what they're both going through?"

"Mikan's back in Northern Woods."

"Luna shuddered. She'd always been ambivalent about Northern Woods. She'd never been a part of his life there nor had any interest in making Anju house her own. She appreciated Narumi's devotion to Himemiya and Shizune, but to Luna, the sisters were remote, quaint, a little unreal. She was from an upper-crust Koizumi family – she ran in loftier circles than the Azumi. Her connections had helped propel him to the governor's mansion, not that it mattered. Narumi had fallen hopelessly in love with her in his late twenties; years after Yuka Azumi had married Izumi Sakura and had the children.

But Luna was no longer secure in his love for her – he didn't know if she hadn't let him down by not being able to bear children.

"Narumi."

"What is it, Luna?"

"If you had it to do all over again, would you still marry me?"

"Of course! Oh, Luna. Don't think like that."

"I love Mikn and Ruka like they are our own, but I know they're not. I've never discourage you from being a part of their lives. The Sakuras are almost as much your family as Himemiya and Shizune were. But you can't let your affection for them cloud your judgment."

"There's no judgment to cloud. I'm on the side-lines."

She looked at him as only she could, with a frank honestly he'd come expect and appreciate – to need in his life. "Do you really think so?"

He didn't answer, knew he couldn't convince her.

"You'd do anything for Mikan and Ruka. Anything. I'm not the only one who knows it."

"Luna…"

"Our love for them makes us both vulnerable, but especially you. Just promise me you'll be careful."

Narumi sighed. She was the worrier, the conspiracy theorist, in many ways, more tough-minded than he was. He could lead and inspire, but he was the last to recognize the enemy. "I promise."

She rolled over, her back to him. Narumi turned out the light. He listened to his wife take sharp, fearful breaths, and he could almost feel her mind racing ahead, imagining terrible scenarios, working herself up into an anxious frenzy. So often, her instincts were on target.

But not this time. Narumi told himself. This time, she was worrying over nothing.

Some thug in Central Park had tried to take out two federal agents.

That was it. There was nothing more.

So what do you think?
Good? or Lousy? Do you Love it? or Hate it? Any comments? or Violent reaction? (Just in-case you have...)
Please don't forget to leave your reviews for this week's chapter. All of your opinion(s) are welcome :) Also I would like to Thank those who people who welcomed me back. I also missed you guys. To those who still read (that includes my ghost/silent readers), reviewed, followed, and added LDWAL in their favorites list... A massive thank you to all of you. :))

Short AN:
I would like to make a deal with you guys. If I received more than 5 reviews for this one (well I'm not expecting) I will post a MxN chapter tomorrow. So please, please pretty please review okay? I really like reading your reviews and opinion about this story. Do we have a deal? ;)

Sneak Peak:

She pushed back her chair and threw her dish towel at him, which he caught with one hand, laughing unexpectedly for the first time since she'd met him, at least like that. He had a great laugh. Sexy. But she was in a frame mind and all her nerve endings were such that they had her thinking everything about him was sexy.

"About last night." She cleared her throat and made herself go on. "I shouldn't have take advantage of you that way. You've experienced a recent trauma, and I should have been more sensitive to that."

He almost choked on his apricot pie.

Till the next chapter ;)
XOXO
~Claire-chan143