You might find the characters a little OOC here. It will be for a while, I think.

Please forgive me for my grammatical errors. I hope, somehow, this chapter would still be comprehendible.

Jquackers, thanks buddy for teaching me another lesson.

Episode Four

Continuation…

"Hey, Shizuru," the summer princess started.

Red orbs immediately found her green ones. Shizuru smiled and said in a gentle tone, "What is it Natsuki?"

"Ano, are you really a loner because of your mother's death? I'm sorry for prying; it just suddenly entered my mind. But, you don't have to answer it. I was just wondering you know…" Natsuki babbled and blushed while saying this.

The girl who was being interrogated placed her index finger to the teenager's lips that stopped her from rambling. She shook her head twice and answered, "No. I had just figured I cannot and should not rely on other people; nothing is permanent in this world," she paused and continued, "Do you understand what I'm saying, Natsuki?" The blue haired woman nodded her head in understanding. She did not talk back because she knew her companion was not yet finished talking. And, she was right when Shizuru opened her mouth to speak again, "A few months after my mother's death, my friends had left town and went abroad to study and take jobs. Some of them had asked me to go with them, but I refused, I could leave my father alone."

"So what happened? You are no longer in contact with them, right?" Natsuki asked.

"Yes. At first, we had always sent emails, whenever they have the time. But eventually, their emails had stopped coming. And that's when I start to believe that people come and go." Shizuru explained while she was smiling. But, as she kept on with the discussion, Natsuki noticed her eyes were sad and had a faraway look.

"I'm sorry for your loss," the blue haired girl said sympathetically. She was a little uncomfortable with this kind of conversation and was not use talking with something as poignant as this.

"It's alright. That's the way of life," she answered truthfully and a warm smile was shown on her face again.

"You know, you almost made me believe that you're really fine with everything. At first, you look normal. But, after talking with you for a couple of minutes, I can't say you're still normal. Maybe, a little abnormal. Hehe, just kidding," she said and laughed, showing her dimple again.

Shizuru chuckled; her new friend was trying to be funny and looked cute, and it was working very well. "Natsuki, I'm going to tell you something," she said in a very serious tone as she stared into the olive eyed girl's eyes, "I'm not like everybody else – a normal person. So, you better be careful when you are with me." Her tone was a little disturbing; it was like a threat was hidden behind the message.

Natsuki listened attentively as Shi-chan talked. And, when she had ended her sentence, the emerald eyed woman burst out laughing and then asked, "Really? Why, what would you do to poor me?" She narrowed her eyes as if she was enticing her cohort to tell her something horrible. Shizuru was truly weird but a very interesting woman. If Natsuki did not know any better, she would have believed the other lassie.

Shizuru was also thinking the same thing; no one had ever caught her interest, and even her former lover never reached this kind of fascination she was feeling right at this moment. Natsuki may be a little strange, but she was true and sincere.

The brown haired adult replied, "I don't know. Maybe, I might do something bad," she closed the gap of their faces and said with a wicked smile, "My advice for you is to not let your guard down."

"And, what is this something bad you're saying?" Natsuki asked again.

Their conversation was very amusing and she was in truth enjoying Shizuru's company. Natsu-hime did not know that chatting with a girl would be this fun. She was used with the presence of boys; for a reason that her friends were all boys, and found a lot of girls were annoying and noisy. She was only referring to the girls at her university.

"I don't know yet. You will know it once you know it," Shizuru answered and then kissed Natsuki's nose for a second. She pulled back and was not surprised to see the injured girl's face flushed once more.

"Eh?" said a puzzled Natsuki. Was the other woman joking or talking for real? And, what's the kiss for? The wonderful lady was full of surprises, she thought.

"Ara, you're a very curious girl," Shizuru concluded and was also amused.

"Probably," she would have shrugged her shoulders if only her body was unscathed. "Neh Shizuru, would you mind telling me your age?" Natsuki asked all of a sudden.

The honey colored headed was surprised. But then, she thought it would only be a norm to ask personal questions about one's new friend. However, she was not finish yet. She would like to prolong her fun with Natsuki, and see if she could produce another expression from the teenager.

"What's that question for?" Shi-chan asked, her tone was neither rude nor sarcastic. She then stood up and walked towards the window. For a moment, she took a glimpse of the outside world and then faced her friend.

"I want to know your age…" Natsuki had begun to say but halted briefly; and jiggled as she played with the hem of her bandages. "So I would know how to act and handle conversations with you," the green eyed woman explained, mumbling her words.

The older woman was in a very playful mood today. "Why don't you make a guess?" she insinuated whilst smiling.

"I don't know - that's why I'm asking," answered the summer child and added with a huff, "And hey, I'm no psychic here," she was thinking of crossing her shoulders, but it would only cause her body more pain.

Shizuru still urged her, "Go on, give it a try."

The shorter of the two finally gave in. She carefully looked at the woman who was taking care of her and studied her under her eyes.

Shi-chan saw how their visitor gazed at her features, and was pleased to see her friend was premeditating instead of giving an answer right away.

Natsuki finally answered, "20?"

"Guess harder," Shizuru said.

The cherry orbs owner could not be so much older than the younger one, so she tried again, "21?" she asked or rather guessed.

Shizuru giggled as she covered her mouth with the palm of her hand, "Do I really look that young?"

Seriously, the woman was not making it any easier. It did not occur to her mind that her friend might be as playful as she was right now. She could have just told her name in lieu of laughing at Natsuki's answers. "Then why don't you tell me?" she complained. Shizuru was about to retort, but the teenager spoke first, "Wait." She looked circumspectly at her now irksome companion as she calculated her last answer. "I'll make a wild guess," she said with a tone of finality and continued while hoping it would be the correct answer, "22?"

The scarlet eyed adult beamed at the other gal. She put her hands together and clapped them repeatedly for her friend's correct answer. "You got it right," she said cheerfully.

The younger girl sighed; she was happy to know the age of the other lass. Then, she calculated mentally their age gap and spoke, "Wow, finally I got it correctly. So, I'm two or three years younger," she was telling it more to herself.

The older one was intrigued once more, "When is your birthday?" she asked.

Natsuki contemplated first; it would not do her any harm in revealing her date of birth, right? After all, she was a very bad liar. And, she knew Shizuru would know when she was telling the truth and not. "On the 15th day of August."

"Ara, within six months, you are going to turn 17, yes?" the more matured adult said and teased.

She was shocked to hear the statement/question. Sure, she was still a teenager, but an older one. "What! No, I'm turning 20," Natsuki replied proudly while pointing her thumb to herself.

"I now know you are 20 years old but what is your point then?" Shizuru asked, who all of a sudden wondered why the other girl was so pompous to inform her age. She couldn't remember herself being as proud as Natsuki when she was her age. She had grown and matured into a fine woman. And, she had accomplished a lot of things, but never boasted any of her achievements.

"The point is… you should treat me like an adult." Natsuki explained.

"Why, do your friends treat you as if you were a child?" Shizuru inquired.

"Not really, they just kept on following me around. Sometimes, one of them stalked me to make sure that I'm always fine. And, once I spotted someone was following me… I ran as fast as I could or hid up in the trees or behind the bushes. Man, what a pain," she explicated. She sighed as faces of her friends entered her mind. Somehow, she missed them, but it would be better if she was away from them once in a while.

So that was her reasons. Natsuki must have been a very important person, Shizuru thought. "Are they your bodyguards or admirers?"

The azure haired girl shook her head slowly as she answered, "No. They just don't have anything to do with their lives. And, I was the only girl in our group."

Shizuru could almost see herself in Natsuki. She was not the only girl in her group of friends, but her buddies were very protective of her. The crimson eyed maiden was once hurt because of someone; and that was one of the reasons why her friends were always with her. But, that was when they were still living in town, when she still had someone to lean on. And, now that Natsuki was here, she did not want to get used to her presence, but she would enjoy and appreciate their time together.

She gave a warm and friendly smile at her companion. "I understand. Would you like to eat something?"

Natsuki answered her while yawning and rubbing her tired eyes, "Can I sleep for a while? I'm really tired." All the talking and everything had drained her body a lot more. Her olive green eyes were already drooping slowly, and then, she finally closed them. She was already asleep before the other woman could answer her.

Shizuru pushed the covers over Natsuki's torso and stroked the girl's hair for a while. Before she left, the room owner kissed the now sleeping young adult's forehead. Her lips lingered for sometime as she smiled warmly at her.

Note: I'm running out of adjectives here. Kindly suggest something for me to use instead of using the same adjectives for Natsuki and Shizuru. I cannot use the most common ones, yet.

I don't know if you would find this chapter comical or entertaining. I hope I still make sense here. My late sleeping habits were getting into me. This may be my last update for the week, not sure yet. I need to get ready for my thesis defense and focus my attention on my photojournalism projects.

I'll try to find time to write and update.

Should I still update? I don't think most readers enjoy this story because of the few reviews I read.

Sorry to disappoint you guys.

You can help make my performance better by giving advices, constructive criticisms or comments.

I would like to thank zaki-kun, pinuyat niya ko nung isang gabi, haha.