I aim for weekly update, but for some reason, I always seem to update every 2 weeks. Apologies to all the waiting readers.

Destiny and Fate Ch 20

According to his highly advanced cell phone, 3 hours had already flown by since he left the Yagami Corp building. He received at least 10 calls and 20 text messages during those times, but did not answer them. He was still roaming the busy city street, undecided of what he should do. However, there was one and only choice for Takeru. He had to return to his previous lifestyle, working part-time for minimum wage, starving couple of days to save money, and sleep under a cardboard blanket. It was evident that he had to go back to the way he was, but for some reason, his mind hesitated. He could not think properly because of the emotional pain. Trying to numb his shattered heart, Takeru purchased few cans of beers to numb his broken heart. Nobody questioned if he was legal since his appearance was mature enough.

"Maybe this'll help."

He gulped down the whole can and drank some more as he walked. He did not focus on walking as much as he did on the drinking. By the time he finished 5 cans, he was at the city park. Surprisingly, the park was empty that time. Takeru smiled bitterly, trying to erase the feeling of loneliness that the world seemed to imply. He reached into the bag and opened the last beer can. After a short moment silence and stillness, Takeru raised his arm and drank the alcoholic beverage. He planned to chug it down at once, but failed to do so because someone suddenly bumped into him from the back. Before he could turn around to check who it was, a bright, female voice was heard.

"Tk! I finally found you!"

By the time he turned around, a strange girl who called him Tk was hugging him tightly. She, too, had elegant gold hair and pale skin like him. Her eyes were teal and height equaled to that of Hikari's.

"Where have you been all this time? You could've told me if you were still around."

Her voice had cheer, relief, and happiness. A complete opposite of the cold princess he lived with for about 3 months. Shocked and confused at her statement, Takeru slowly untied the arms around him and spoke.

"I think you got a wrong person."

"What are you talking about? You're Tk, aren't you?"

"Uh…no. I'm not."

"It's okay. You don't need to fake your name. It's just me."

"I'm not faking anything. Plus, who are you?"

Takeru asked with a confused tone. The girl replied with slight disappointment, but stayed cheerful.

"Come on, how can you forget me? It's me Catherine. You know, when you were in France for couple months?"

"France?"

"Yeah. You were there because of a mission given by Apocalypse, right?"

Takeru's mind was immediately alerted by the familiar name, Apocalypse. It was the name of the website that posted a passage with ill intent and contained potential danger to anyone affiliated with Yagami Corp. He was stunned, but stayed calm in order to extract information regarding Apocalypse from the blonde girl.

"Doesn't ring a bell."

"Seriously? Come on, Tk. I mean, I know it was only for a month and wasn't real, but we used to date each other."

"…?"

"Well, I guess it's hard to remember everything, considering how many missions you carried out."

The girl took a deep breath and began explaining.

"Remember? We first met when you were in France to assassinate some mafia boss."

Takeru was startled to hear that killing was involved, but forced his face to remain indifferent and let the green eyed girl to continue speaking.

"When the mafia began suspecting you as the culprit, you became a student in our school and dated me to emphasize the point that you were just a regular guy."

"Hmm…"

Takeru pretended to look like he was thinking. The girl let out a comment.

"I swear. It was a crazy month of heavy deception and acting. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed being with you. But what I didn't enjoy was your abrupt leaving. You know how much I've been looking for you?"

The girl spoke with a sulking tone. But soon, she returned to being cheerful and hugged Takeru once more.

"I'll forgive you anyway. I can't stay mad at you more than a second."

Takeru analyzed all the information he got and came up with a conclusion about Apocalypse. It was seemingly an organization that sends out assassins to murder certain people. He concluded that this Apocalypse was quite powerful and dangerous organization. Still, there was this one part where he was lost. Who is Tk? Who is this girl? And why was she constantly calling him by that name and happily hugging him? He had absolutely no idea who she was and what she was talking about.

"Sorry, you did get the wrong person. I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Stop fooling around, Tk."

She spoke with playful voice, but Takeru answered her seriously.

"No, I'm not fooling around. I really don't recall any of those events or you at all."

The blonde girl made a shocked expression. Then, Takeru turned back and began walking away.

"I hope you find the right person. Though I'd like to advise you to stay away from criminals."

After taking only 5 steps, he was halted because Catherine grabbed his arm.

"Tk, what's wrong?"

She asked with a saddened tone and expression. However, Takeru responded with somewhat irritated attitude.

"What is your problem? Nothing's wrong with me. I'm just not who you're looking for."

"Stop saying that! Why are you pretending as if you don't know me?"

"It's because I really don't know you."

He said as he tried to shake off her hand, but couldn't do it. She held his arm firmly and was determined to not let him go.

"If you're worried about me being followed, it's okay. I made sure that I wasn't followed."

"Seriously, I don't know you. Now, please let go of me."

His voice became lower and rough because of the growing tension. Finally, he broke free from her grip and began walking away again.

"Tk!"

Catherine chased after the blonde male. However, a thunderous roar behind their backs stopped her before she could reach him. The two turned around to see what caused that huge noise. Both were stunned upon seeing the source of the deafening blast. A hazel haired girl in a beautiful white dress was pointing a gun towards the two blonde people's direction.

"…Hikari…"

Takeru softly spoke her name in shock. Feeling the deadly aura hovering around her, Takeru remained dead silent.

"You must have gotten tired of living to ditch me."

Hikari's current voice had power which he never felt before. The tone was heavier and more menacing than the tone she had with Sora. He tried his best to look calm and tried to speak, but he was interrupted by Catherine who was angry at Hikari's arrogant attitude towards Takeru.

"Just who the hell are you?"

"I'm his master."

"Are you crazy? I don't know what hospital you broke out of, but you can't walk around and saying weird stuff. Go away, your doctor should be worried."

Then, Hikari pulled the trigger once more and landed a bullet on Catherine's right thigh. She fell on the ground and cried in agony. While suffering an excruciating pain, she stuttered a sentence out.

"W…what…are you…doing…?"

"Wow, you're really dumb, aren't you? Doesn't your leg tell you what just happened?"

"You…you bitch!"

"I thought you'd be happy for what I've done for you. Now, when you go to hospital to get yourself fixed, the surgeons can remove some fats from your bloated thigh."

Her force was overwhelming. Catherine shivered and trembled in sheer fear.

"Shouldn't you hurry and get that thunder thigh fixed? Or are you waiting for more?"

Immediately, Cathrine took off, holding her leg injury. Once she had enough distance, she yelled one last sentence before escaping.

"Just wait until I tell them about you!"

"Good luck!"

Hikari yelled back and finally, she faced Takeru who was stupefied by incident that just occurred. She slowly walked up to him and spoke.

"Was it fun, playing with a hooker?"

"…Uh…"

"Shut it. I don't want to hear it."

Takeru stayed silent and Hikari resumed talking in furious manner.

"Are you really that stupid?"

"…"

"Why the hell did you leave? I thought I told you that you were mine on the party date!"

Her anger knew no bounds. She was screaming at Takeru on top of her lungs. Though the anger that Hikari demonstrated was frightening, Takeru was unbothered and even chuckled. His action fueled Hikari's anger further.

"What's so funny?"

After few moments of laughing, Takeru answered her question.

"The irony of you saying that."

"What?"

"Think. Do you really think I left you first?"

Hikari immediately realized that Takeru was implying to the incident involving her and Taichi. She, then, realized that she was the one at fault.

"Given the circumstances, I'm the one who should be angry."

"…"

A logical counter argument, it was something Takeru always excelled at. Hikari couldn't say anything back to this perfect counter.

"Also, can you guess why I left you two alone?"

She thought about it for a brief moment. It wasn't hard at all to figure out why he did that. It was Takeru being kind and generous once again, allowing Hikari and Taichi to develop their relationship. Once she realized this, she felt terrible and extremely guilty for being angry at him.

"…Takeru…I'm…"

He remained silent and stared at Hikari's rich, brown eyes, waiting for her to finish speaking.

"…Sorry…"

Takeru, however, didn't look like he was appeased. His facial expression was still dead serious and Hikari became afraid.

"T…Takeru…?"

"What, you expect me to smile and forgive you just like that?"

"…I thought you weren't…"

"Angry? Never said I was, but I never said I wasn't either."

"…"

Then, Takeru walked up to Hikari, closing the distance between the two. Hikari, feeling embarrassed from being so close together, tried to step back. Before she could even take one step, Takeru grabbed her arm and firmly held her in place.

"…Wait…what are you doing?"

"If I belong only to you on the party date, I'd like to have you only to myself as well."

"…Wha…"

She couldn't speak further. Her mouth was tightly blocked by Takeru's lips. Already, Takeru was rampaging and kissing her fiercely. Shocked and surprised, she constantly pushed against his chest, attempting an escape. Unfortunately, she found not even a single chance of escaping. Takeru was holding her firmly and Hikari's senses were going numb from the passionate lip smacking. Though they stood in a public city park, Takeru held nothing back and vigorously kissed Hikari with every single bits of affection he had for her.

"Mmp. Ngh…"

Her words of resistance were gibberish and only aroused Takeru further. Soon, she gave up on speaking and focused solely on breaking free. She struggled with all her strength, but stopped resisting when she felt a strange flavor with Takeru's kiss. His lips tasted a little bit salty. Then, Hikari looked where Takeru's sapphire eyes were. They were closed, but Hikari could see that crystal clear liquid was flowing out his eyes. It was her first time seeing it, Takeru was crying. Upon seeing him cry, she also realized that he was also shaking. He looked fragile like a thin glass. Worried that he might shatter, Hikari parted her lips as carefully and gently as possible.

"Takeru…?"

"…"

He spoke nothing and simply gazed at Hikari with his drenched eyes. Usually, a guy would try to hide his tears because of pride issues. She couldn't understand why he was staring directly at her while crying. It was not Takeru, but Hikari who eventually got embarrassed. Takeru's azure eyes were keen and felt as if they could see everything about her. Despite being embarrassed, she could not turn her eyes away either. She was afraid that he might disappear if she had averted her vision for a single second. Neither of the two moved for a long time. If one were to see these two from afar, they could've been misidentified as statues. It seemed as if the entire world had stopped. The breeze that they felt on their hair vanished and all the sounds were muted. All stood still. The spell that froze time was dispelled when the ground received a drop of water from the dark sky above. It started soft and small, then, the sound earned power as millions of rain drops hit the ground simultaneously. Takeru took a silent and small step backward, trying to gradually move away. Almost immediately when Takeru's shoe hit the ground, Hikari grabbed his hand and forbade him from moving any further.

"…Where are you going…?"

She asked with a soft voice. He didn't respond. Every time when Takeru made even the slightest movement, Hikari strengthened the grip in her hand.

"I'm not letting you go."

"…"

"…You still have 9 months. Until then…I'm not letting you go…"

He smiled, mixed with feelings of joy and bitterness. It was not love that stopped Takeru from leaving. Hikari merely wanted him to fulfill the agreement they made in the very beginning. But Takeru was happy because of the simple fact that he could still stay with Hikari.

"…9 months…"

Takeru whispered silently. Then, he leaned forward, wrapping his arms around Hikari and embracing her with a warm, lightened heart.

"I'll stay."

"…"

A surge of relief rushed through Hikari's mind. Just by hearing those two words, her heart was brightened. However, there still was one dark place in her heart where light couldn't reach. It was Hikari's lament and dislike she had for her own cowardice and inability to express her honest feelings. She predicted that Takeru would become much more than just a person, companion, or friend. No, deep down, she already knew that Takeru was a significant person in her life.

"I can't live without you. I want you to stay with me forever."

She could only speak those sentences in her mind. Now, because she didn't speak her mind, Takeru would leave after 9 months. What excuse could she give next time to make him stay? There were none. Sad and frustrated at herself, Hikari cried. She hoped that Takeru would realize that she was crying, but it was impossible to differentiate tear and rain. The fake lovers wept together in each other's arms. Coincidentally, on that particular day, it rained twice as hard as usual.

For Reviewers:

kiara: Rest assured. I could never and would never separate Takeru and Hikari. And I completely agree that they make a cute couple.

Kistune8757: Yeah, Takeru takes a lot of beatings. Only he can endure all that. Your rooting will not be in vain.

SparrowBird98: Yes, so sad. Hopefully, things will lighten up for him.

geldragon: Yup, they're very selfless. Those two need to learn how to be a little bit selfish.

puasluoma: Not an incest supporter. Don't get me wrong. Hope nobody thinks that I am.

Ougon 22: Not a lovey dovey chapter, I agree. It will get lovey dovey in the future.

I can't apologize enough for constant delay in updates. I'm sorry for empty promises of quick updates.

Time doesn't allow me to write as much as I want. I blame my occupation as a student.

I hope to see you all soon.