A/N: Two reviews? Come on guys, where's the love here? Tell a friend or something, help me, help you.

Chapter 1: The More Things Change…

Ayu shrugged her shoulders inside her thick coat, trying to release some of the warm air trapped in amongst its layers. The coat had been a gift from Ryu the previous year, but that was not the reason she was wearing it indoors.

There was less then ten minutes left before they needed to leave and Ryu still had yet to make an appearance downstairs.

Kanna had come down a few minutes ago bristling with irritation and cursing out Ryu to anyone who would listen, so she knew the boy they were both in love with was up and in a good mood, though why that always meant he had to rile Kanna up was something she didn't understand.

Maybe Kanna-chan will just give up if he keeps acting like this, Ayu's recurring thought came to her with little hope as always. Kanna seemed to get just as big a thrill out of her fights with Ryu as she suspected he did, though she would kill with a look the first person to suggest it.

Sometimes Ayu felt a little jealous of the way Ryu and her friend interacted, though she reassured herself with the fact that he had never overtly shown any favour towards either one of them, although she remained the only one of the pair he had kissed as far as she knew.

And he is always so much more…tender, with me than Kanna-chan, she thought with a small blush, fiddling once more with the wrapping that covered Ryu's breakfast as Kanna's grumbling and pacing filtered in from the living area.

Ayu sighed to herself, though her thoughts were true, Kanna was not the kind of girl who felt comfortable or natural being anything close to intimate, even with someone she liked. It had been nearly two whole years since Ryu had made that promise to her the night he went to save Kanna, the promise to resolve his feelings for them both and give them an answer once and for all.

At first she had been quietly relieved that he didn't just suddenly pronounce his decision, taking his silence for a form of deep introspection, but over time she had begun to wonder if he truly intended to ever choose between them, as for every event that would seem to sway things in one girl's favour, something else would happen that restored the balance.

Ayu frowned at the meal set out on the table, something that had been prepared and lain out equally by herself and Kanna.

Most disconcerting of all, at times, it seemed almost as if she and Kanna were becoming just as comfortable with this arrangement.

The blue haired girl was reminded of the manga she had found while helping clean out the room that Yui and Chii still shared even now that Chii was into her fifteenth year, presumably belonging to the younger of the Su's, a romance tale that covered the blossoming love between a young girl and boy for whom her best friend also had feelings.

Strangely, unlike the shoujo stories Ayu had read in the past, this one ended with the two friends deciding that rather than lose either the boy they both loved, or each other's friendship, that they would share him, the story ending abruptly shortly there after.

Could such a thing ever work in real life?

What am I thinking!, Ayu scolded herself, such relationships weren't allowed in Japan, and besides, she still blushed remembering the implied results of the resolution in Chii's manga on the two girl's friendship.

Something like that wouldn't happen between me and Kanna-chan, I mean- Why am I thinking about that, we're not going to do what they did in that story. Ryu will choose eventually, he had to… and besides, it was almost Christmas Eve, and this year she was determined to see through her plan to give him the cake she had prepared.

"A-yu-chan"

Ayu shrieked as long, slender fingers poked the most ticklish spots on her sides in time with the syllables of her name, clasping her arms around her waist and twisting to face her 'attacker'.

Yui grinned at her playfully, the offending digits held up in front of her with no attempt to disguise her amusement at her young friend's reaction.

"My, my, all that blushing and sighing… someone was having naughty thoughts", her smile only widened, flashing her pearly white teeth, when Ayu coloured again and tried to stammer a feeble protest, "Let me guess, daydreaming about a certain dark haired resident that you and Kanna have been dribbling over for the past two years now?".

She waved away Ayu's flustered attempts to get a word in edgewise.

"Say no more, a girl has a right to dream after all", she said with a conspiratorial wink that had Ayu's shoulders sagging in defeat, "Speaking of, where's the stud in question?".

Deciding it was best to gloss over the older woman's choice of phrase, Ayu told Yui that Kanna had tried to get him up already with unknown success.

"I thought I heard her shouting about something near his room, but I figured those two had finally stopped dancing around each other and just gotten down to it", she looked on questioningly as Ayu somehow managed to choke on nothing but air, displaying far to much innocence.

"Yui-senpai!", Ayu pouted in spite of herself as she realised her reaction had been exactly the one the older woman had sort to provoke.

"So tense, if you keep this up both of you will get worry lines and then he won't want to date either of you", Yui teased, smiling in a sickly fashion when she saw the blue haired girl's shoulders slump, the sudden cloud of depression over her at that suggestion almost palatable, "Hey, I was only joking…Erm, say, you haven't seen Chii anywhere have you? She was gone when I got up".

"She left already", Ayu said dully, still a little put down by what she knew had only been a joke on Yui's behalf, but still it hit close to something that was weighing heavily on her mind at the moment.

"Again?"

Chii had been leaving early for school for a number of weeks, though none of the residents quite knew why, and the not knowing was driving Yui crazier than seemed necessary.

It was understandable. With Mizuki studying abroad at a university her parents donated to, and Natsuki having left to return to Okinawa, Yui's two best friends were gone, leaving her with only her cousin as close company. Kanna and herself distracted as they were with a mix of university and personal matters, Ema being anther to Yui's natural, chaotic personality (a strange transformation of the flake known as Ema Maeda that only occurred in the presence of Molmol's eldest princess), and Ryu being Ryu when it came to matters of fun or prolonged conversation.

Because of this, Yui had focused all her considerable efforts and attention onto the younger princess, with the result that without Chii around, she seemed almost lost at times.

"Perhaps she has someone to meet", Ayu suggested, mentally kicking herself as she saw Yui's emerald eyes light up.

"Yes..yes, that's it! She's meeting her secret boyfriend and trying to hide it. Sneaky girl", Ayu smiled weakly as Yui rubbed her chin and nodded proudly, apparently pleased by her cousin's imagined deviousness.

"I never said it was anything like that", Ayu pointed out while Yui began reciting theories about the mystery boy's background, his appearance, how he and Chii had met and so on, seemingly oblivious to the other girl's gentle protests.

"Why not? She's growing up, and getting cuter by the day. If she keeps this up she might even get close to me", Yui struck a pose with one finger against her cheek and winked, "There's nothing to say I'm wrong".

But there's nothing to say you're right either, Ayu pointed out silently even as she conceded the point.

Chii had indeed grown and matured, blossoming into a beautiful young woman. Already she had surpassed Ayu's development at that age, though that wasn't hard as the women of her family it seemed were cursed to be slow developers, late bloomers was the oft used term, and she was still young yet.

She currently stood a little under Ayu herself in height and matched her in figure, Ayu's only growth in the past two years having been an extra inch and a half added to her bust-line though that was easily hidden by her current apparel.

She had cropped her hair short and slightly ragged, more practical for working with her machines, her face had lost most of its childish roundness though her eyes still remained naturally wider than the almost slit like lids of her cousin.

She still spoke infrequently, though when she did it was in more than one or two word sentences. However the slightly…drab, quality to her voice remained, the tone that made her seem vaguely disinterested or sleepy, something which had caused trouble with her teachers at school, and alienated her from some of her class, but fortunately not all.

Amongst the young blonde's few true friends was the most unlikely of candidates. Of all those one might have pictured as Chii Su's best friend, Satomi Sagura would have been at the top of few lists.

Bubbly and excitable, and as deeply fascinated with the supernatural as Chii was with science, Satomi sort to explain everything in terms of spirits and super powers, something which Chii openly dismissed no matter how many times she saw either the red headed girl, Kyosuke or Ryu in action, steadfast in her view that all she had to do was figure out the right frequency to scan and all would be explained logically.

How they had become such close friends despite their varied world views and sporadic contact time, Satomi usually visiting with her brother, the only person Yui seemed to dislike more than Chii's dog Chiho-chan, was anyone's guess.

"…whoever he is, he just better behave himself", Yui was saying when Ayu rejoined the conversation.

"I'm sure Chii-chan can take care of herself", Ayu said, thinking of the many strange and dangerous devices invented by the girl genius over the years. The only things she could recall Chii making that didn't have some hidden destructive purpose where the things she had given Ryu.

"And if she needs any help, Chiho-chan is with her", that was another sore spot between Chii and her teachers. The young princess had been smuggling in her pet since he was a puppy, though she had been caught and warned numerous times, and as he grew to his current size, just a little below Chii's waist level, he was becoming increasingly difficult to hide.

When asked to stop bringing him along with her by the headmaster, Chii had simply responded by saying, "Chiho and Chii should always be together".

Apparently, something in the solemn surety of her tone had touched the elderly man and he had just warned her not to bring Chiho onto school grounds in the future.

Yui shuddered visibly, she was still not entirely comfortable with her cousin's canine companion, and was probably as unhappy with the idea of him accompanying her as the 'mystery boy'.

"Ayu, we're going", Kanna stuck her head around the door, her face twisted with impatience but still pretty.

"But Senpai isn't ready yet", was Ayu's automatic response, drawing an eye roll from her friend.

"The big jerk isn't coming down, we'll just go without him", she explained.

"That's not a very nice thing to say", Ryu's voice came from behind her, making her jump, knocking the door open in the process, "And me using my morning off just to keep a promise… I'm hurt".

Kanna's stance as she recovered her wits clearly said 'Not yet, but keep pushing pal', but Ryu seemed to be missing the warning signs as he gave her a minute smirk that tweaked a dangerous smile across her own lips.

"Something the matter Kanna-chan?", Yui said, glancing at the younger woman's clenched fist.

She was the only other resident other than Ryu and Ayu who knew about Kanna's probation, and she drew more pleasure teasing her friend about it than Ryu did even on his rare creative days.

"Huh?", she asked following Yui's gaze and quickly flexing her fingers to relax her hand, "Something the matter? What do you mean, nothing wrong here, nothing at all".

No one commented further, and Kanna brushed past Ryu, making sure to elbow him 'accidentally' as she passed despite the suspiciously wide birth he gave her as she made her way out of the room, flicking her hair so that it struck him in the face for good measure. Quite a feat when your target stands near a foot above you in height.

"Senpai", Ayu sighed, Ryu turning a raised eyebrow to her, as close to a playful look of innocence as such a dignified man would permit himself, but still it made her smile.

"I'm leaving!", Kanna's shout galvanised Ayu into motion.

"C-coming!", she hurried to the door, checking her coat and scarf before almost whispering to Ryu, "I'll try to get her to wait a while longer. If you're quick you should be able eat something".

Giving Yui a quick goodbye, the blue haired girl retreated into the living area, her placating voice vanishing as the wooden door swung closed.

"You're towing a fine line with her these days you know", Yui pointed out as Ryu inspected the meal Ayu had left behind, sampling as few mouthfuls and sighing.

Delicious as always.

"I know", he responded, forgoing the usual jokes and barbs. One simply did not joke with Yui when she actually became serious about something.

"It's coming up to that time again… do you know what you're going to do this year?", she asked, taking a seat over from him.

"…I…I'm working on it. Things are… complicated".

"True, you've kept those girls waiting on a decision for two years now… I suppose it says a lotabout how they feel that they have waited that long", she mused, keeping a careful watch on him out of the corner of her eyes, looking for even the slightest twitch.

His mouth pulled up in one corner, a faint smile, his artificially blue eyes twinkling with mild amusement.

"I'm not giving you any hints as to what my plans are for this year Yui, you'll just have to wait like everyone else", he deadpanned, humouring her comically innocent expression.

"Who? Me? Ryu-kun, I was just trying to make conversation, I'm shocked, really, I am… but if we're talking about Christmas, any chance I get a sneak peak of what you brought me?", she said, his face betraying his surprise at her sudden disarming tactic.

"You're just a big child really, aren't you?", she laughed at his reply, resting her chin on one hand.

"You know Kei actually asked for a signed photo of you this year", Ryu said, referring to the geeky, but energetic young man who had somehow ended up as his best friend.

"Some men have very good taste", she said, practically preening where she sat.

"… Just be gentle with her", Yui added after a long pause, her tone shifting back to seriousness.

"Which one?", he asked almost as if talking to himself rather than her, but she answered anyway.

"Both, Ayu isn't the only one who's delicate".

Ryu thought back to the time he and Kanna had become linked within his mind, some sort of backlash affect from her touching Enishi, or at least, that was the best explanation they had been able to come up with when either of them gathered the courage to broach the subject.

He had seen a side of Kanna only hinted at previously, not just then, but after their return also before it had vanished under her protective abrasive attitude once more.

It reminded him of Ayu in the Cave, which brought forth a whole other set of emotions.

The two girls were like negative reflections, one; steel with a soft, vulnerable core, and the other a china doll encasing an inner fire even she was barely aware of most of the time.

"I have to go, they'll be waiting", as he left Yui called out to him one last time.

"Take care of them, regardless of what happens".

Ryu paused for a moment, something about the way she had said that striking him as odd, but he didn't have the time to dawdle over it.

"…Yeah…".

As the door closed once more, Yui sighed, running her hand through her thick, light blond bangs.

"Secrets and intrigue, or false alarms", she muttered, fingering the letter that resided in the pouch in the front of her ankle length winter skirt, "This cloak and dagger stuff seems so much cooler on TV…I suppose I'm due to write back…".

Thinking of Kei's apparent request, a tantalizing idea crept into her head.

"I bet it would make his day", she chuckled to herself.

This time she'd have something interesting to send back along with her latest letter. All she needed was camera.

Ryu glanced back and forth between Ayu and Kanna, the latter refusing to meet his eye while the former looked on as if waiting to step in between them at a moments notice.

Ryu shrugged and quickly donned a white coat over his black shirt and trousers, stomping on his boots and hastily tying them as Kanna opened the door and began walking when he was only half done, Ayu smiling apologetically and stepping outside to catch her up.

Finishing his preparations, Ryu jogged lightly outside, his pace slowing to a standstill as he found what awaited him.

Snow.

It must have fallen in the night, for there had been none of it when he went to sleep the previous day, and now it covered the ground several inches thick.

He crunched out into the courtyard slowly, his gaze drifting around his surroundings slowly.

Had this winter landscape followed him from his dreams? It sounded ludicrous and yet, he had dreamed of snow and here it was, the woodland near the Hinata Sou now barring an eerie resemblance to that in his dreams.

Speaks of white danced lazy and sporadic across his vision and he held out his hand, catching one of the infinitely fine crystals on his palm, the feeling of it melting exactly as he recalled in his dream.

"Ryu! Stop daydreaming, we're late already because of you, jerk!", Kanna's reproachful tone broke him out of his reverie and he looked up to find her tapping her foot impatiently near the top of the stairs, her hands tucked beneath the armpits of her simple red coat with the white collar, something passed on from her mother.

Normally he would have shouted something back, but the presence of the snowfall had him feeling strangely disorientated, so, with one last glance at the grey, cloud covered sky, he caught up to the two girls.

Perhaps sensing something was wrong from his distracted countenance, Ayu took his hand cautiously in her own and smiled at him brightly, whispering, "Don't worry Senpai, we're not that late, Kanna-chan isn't as mad as she's pretending".

Unable to hear what they were saying, Kanna frowned as she saw Ayu take Ryu's hand without protest, even drawing one of the small smiles form him that even they rarely saw.

Kanna bit her lip as a wave of emotion she refused to admit was jealousy surged through her, hesitating for a few moments before holding out her own hand toward Ryu without looking back, and feeling herself blush a little when he took it, though luckily the artic bite of the air on her cheeks hid the worst of it.

Ignoring the looks they garnered as always from passers-by, the trio set off to the train station in silence.

Ryu sat a little way away from the two girls on the train that day. He was lost in thought and both women could tell that there was something he was working through and had wordlessly opted to leave him to his own devices for the time being.

In all honesty, his troubles were neither as dark, nor as dire as he was projecting. Although his dreams still clung to the back of his mind like a malignant cancer, they had been pushed aside once more by more pressing matters.

Namely, what he was to do this Christmas Eve.

The previous year, he had been spared the task of either choosing or refusing to spend that special day with either girl when he had come down sick, instead spending his time with all the residents being force fed the cakes from Ayu and Kanna by the ever helpful Yui, who had appointed herself mistress of holiday cheer in light of the two girls sullen disappointment at the ruination of what should have been a glorious day for one or the other by the common cold.

This year however, things were going to be different, they had to be. As had been pointed out to him, both by himself and others, two years was a long time to keep someone in suspense, though he was vaguely aware that his was not the longest tale to live itself out inside the walls of the Hinata Sou, as Ema would occasionally mention someone named Keitaro whenever the subject arose within earshot.

He had brought two different cakes for the twenty-forth, one for both girls, one for each possible choice…

A lock of raven hair broke loose from where he kept it bound loosely at the nape of his neck, tickling his face as it fell over one eye, but he made no effort to move it, instead gazing listlessly out of the window of the train, his eyes lighting on a familiar bob of blond hair stepping out from behind a series of bushes in the distance, followed swiftly by a large white dog, almost perfectly camouflaged by the snow.

Chii?

He always seemed to have trouble recognising her of late, as if her gradual change from the solemn girl that used to follow him with those overly intelligent green eyes, to the striking young woman, destined to be a great beauty when she grew to maturity, had taken him by surprise, though thankfully, Chiho's presence always kick-started his recognition when he forgot.

What was she doing out there? True that this train passed the road she would have to walk to get to her school, but why had she been in the woods rather than walking the path?

Chii was an unusual girl, but nature had never seemed to interest her much so he couldn't really see her deciding to take the scenic route to school.

The train carried on, and soon she had receded into a dot on the horizon and was gone from view a second later.

He spent the rest of the trip puzzling over her sudden appearance and strange behaviour, on some level aware that he was just putting off thinking about the two most pressing matters on his mind, the night of the twenty-forth, and the dreams that still plagued him with the mysterious girl and her female stalker, the one who always struck him down with a deep sense of satisfaction, and whose face in all his dreams he had never once seen.

The call for his station sounded over the speakers in a woman's perky tones and he stood on autopilot, hands thrust deep in his pockets.

Dates and Dreams.

Enigmatic illusions of a stressed mind or thoughts of hotels and Christmas Cake.

If nothing else, Ryu thought as he stepped off the train, belatedly remembering to wait for Ayu and Kanna to join him, his morning off was certainly going to be a busy one.

He glanced across the rooftops tops to the huge onion like structure in the distance, the pinnacle of one of the institutions largest domed buildings and his destination.

"Tokyo U", he muttered with a small shake of his head. It was hard to reconcile the image he still held of himself after all these years with that of the more or less average student at one of Japan's most prestigious universities.

Perhaps that was what these dreams were about, a reluctance to let go of his tragic past, as though, sad that it was, it was all he knew.

Did I just imagine you so that I would have something new to torment myself with? He wondered, picturing the dark haired beauty in his mind's eye, amazed that if true, he could imagine something so real and so stunning.

Ryu drew a deep breath of refreshingly cool air.

No, he would certainly not want for something to do this morning.

"Today?", Ema asked incredulously as the voice on the other end of the phone repeated its message.

"No, no problem I suppose, I just wasn't expecting this so quickly, I haven't told the others anything yet, I… why not?…Oh…Ok, sure I suppose…", she adjusted her glasses, a nervous habit and pulled gently on one of the many ribbons woven into her hair, a childish extravagance she had never really outgrown.

"Ok, I won't tell anyone, I promise… yes, goodbye".

The wavy haired woman put the phone down carefully, rubbing the bridge of her nose wearily.

"Well, that makes two unexpected guests, though at least this one called first", she said, turning a meaningful look upon her visitor who just smiled brightly and covered her mouth with one hand.

"I suppose we better move all your things up to your room… I wonder who else will show up", she half joked.

A thundering crash shook the house, sending the already uncoordinated manager sprawling, coming within a hairsbreadth of gashing her forehead open on the corner of her desk…again.

Perhaps she should get around to moving that one day.

"Hello! Anyone home!… Ka-chan?", a familiar voice echoed up from the lower floor followed by an angry sounding female voice.

"I had to ask", Ema said, her voice muted by the mat her face was pressed against.

Her guest just giggled.

---Authors Notes---

Ooooooo, mysteries left and right and it's only the first chapter! Lol
Coming soon Chapter 2: Friends Old and New: Parents, Gifts, Secrets, Groupies and Twenty-year-old martial arts masters… yeah, just a normal day at the Hinata Sou…

Warning: Chp 2 contains much Chii goodness.

Till Next Time, Betweenheavenandhell