Disclaimer: I still don't own Hana-Kimi or any of the characters, dammit! I'll get on that.

and comments make me happy. :-)

Chapter Two—Two Days

"Shit! Shit! Doctor!" Mizuki burst through the door to Umeda's office. The sight that confronted her was a shock—Kujo, half-naked, with Umeda's arms around his head. "Ah! Sor—oh... right... chiropractor..."

"Hello, Mizuki," Umeda said, unsurprised at her entrance. "Let me finish up with Kujo, then we can talk."

Five minutes later, the door to the health center shut behind Kujo's broad back. Mizuki burst out in tears. "Oh, shit, Umeda!"

"Kami, Mizuki... what'd you do now? You never swear!" Umeda straddled his chair and sat, has head on his hands, watching Ashiya Mizuki break down with a steady, unnerving stare.

"Shit—I really made Sano mad! Now I don't know where he's gone and—we need to find him! I'm sure I can get Noe and Sekime and Nakatsu and—"

"Whoa, wait, rewind. Just... start over, okay? What happened?" Umeda took off his glasses and cleaned the lenses. "Take it from the top and... well, do me a favor and try to calm down a little."

"Well, you know how he is about Shin. And you know about Shin's accident, right?"

"Accident? Oh... you mean when he fell in the high jump competition and hit his head? How is he now?"

"Comatose," Mizuki said sourly.

"Oh, dear. Well, there's not much we can do about it," the doctor said matter-of-factly. "Go on."

"Wel, Sano was... uh, crying about it, so I went over to comfort him—"

"Oh, hell, baka! What'd you DO?!"

"I... well, I knelt in front of him and wiped away his tears. I was just trying to help, but..."

"Kami, no wonder! Poor, poor Sano!" Umeda appeared to be in pain. He covered his eyes. "Go on, though. Apparently that's not all."

"Like I said, I was just trying to help, but he turned me away." (At this point, Umeda nodded understandingly and said, "What else was he to do?") "He, like, shut his eyes and sort of... turned away... like, shrugged off my efforts to help him." Mizuki paused to wipe a tear from the corner of her eye. "I told him Shin would be okay, and he got mad."

"That hurt you and you exploded, am I right?"

Mizuki was too miserable to wonder at the fact that Umeda knew how it had gone. "Dead on. I told him he should go see his brother instead of staying here and crying over spilled milk. He told me Shin hated him and he couldn't fix it that easily. And... and I told him to try." Mizuki blinked back tears. "And then..."

"He left," Umeda finished for her.

"H-hai," she hiccuped. "He just took his wallet..." She mimed taking a wallet. "And... he left." Her foice cracked on the final syllable, and she dissolved into tears.

"Well, maybe he went to see his brother. Or maybe he just went for a walk. We can't be sure. But Sano won't just leave you hanging. He'll either come back or contact you. I'm sure of it."

"So... What do I do?"

"You wait. It's the only rational idea we have, is it not? Don't say it, Mizuki—leaving is a stupid idea. Don't try to follow him—two moving souls will never find one another. He'll find you—you don't need to find him."

"How do you know?"

"I just know," Umeda assured her, ruffling her hair slightly—an uncharactersitc action, but Mizuki appreciated it. "Give him two days. If, by the 3rd morning, he has neither returned nor contacted you, let me know. Now get out, I've got stuff to do."

Mizuki nodded. "Arigatou, Umeda," she mumbled as she pushed open the door.

"Poor, poor Sano," Umeda muttered as Mizuki left.

Sano pulled on Yujiro's leash. "Leave the cat alone, Yujiro," he reprimanded the dog. He wasn't exactly in prime dog-walking mood, but he had needed SOMETHING to concentrate on rather than think about Shin—or, now that he'd hurt her again, Mizuki.

"I'm pathetic, Yujiro," he said sullenly. He shoved his left handin the hip pocket of his sweatpants. His wallet had a lot of money in it—deffinately enough to live off-campus for a little while, at least until he was sure Mizuki would have forgiven him.

The dog and the raven-haired youth walkedin silence for a few minutes, until Yujiro crouched to do his business.

Sano looked around. "Crap, Yujiro. Where'd you take me?"

Mizuki was crouched on Sano's bed with a can of peach juice and a box of strawberry pocky when she realized that Sano's other friends didn't know he was gone. She knew they should know, yet... she just didn't have the heart to tell them.

You have to tell them sometime, a voice in her head reasoned. Why not tell them at dinner?

"Why should I have to tell them at all?" The girl snapped at herself. Then, realizing she had spoken aloud, she sighed exasperatedly into her hands. "Am I really so lonely that I talk to myself?"

The answer came immediately. Yes, the voice in her head told her.

"No, I'm not," she whispered. Clenching her eyes shut around the stinging sensation in their corners, she thought... but...

"Fine," she said bitterly. Let the tears come. No one's here to see them anyway.

And so she cried. Each tear was a worry, sliding from her brain to oblivion—at least, she envisioned it that way. It made her feel better, but only marginally.

By the time the door to the dorm room was opened, Mizuki was sitting on the bed sobbing for all she was worth.

Nakatsu stuck his head in the door. Ashiya was gorgeous, even sitting alone and in tears. Finally, Nakatsu thought, noting his friend Sano's absence and Mizuki's tears, my chance!

"If Izumi made you cry," Nakatsu threatened, "I'll—"

"No, you won't." The object of Nakatsu's fancy looked up, her face red and splotchy from crying. "You'd have to find him first."

"Well I'm sure if he's not here he's at the training fields, like he always is."

"Oh my God! Why didn't I think of that? Nakatsu, you're—you're a genius! C'mon!" Suddenly Ashiya had hope. She was a ball of energy as she pulled on a pair of sneakers and pulled Nakatsu along with her in the direction of the high jump field.

"Of course Sano will've gone there," she gushed. Maybe he's not really gone! Maybe he doesn't hate me! "I mean, he always goes there! He practically lives there!" The Japanese-American student was radiant and giddy with energy and hope. Kami, let Sano be there, she thought desperately.

Nakatsu pushed open the gate to the training field and looked around. His love (Mizuki, whom he thought was a boy) seemed to depend so much on Sano being at the training fields. The blonde boy suspected there was more to this than met the eye, but he wasn't sure what. Nevertheless, he wanted to protect Ashiya's feelings at any cost.

There were a few fanatics running the track or dribbling soccer balls—even one or two practicing high jump—but Sano's black hair and surprising grace were not present.

Mizuki's head popped in under his arm before he could stop it. He felt his one love's entire being deflate upon her observation of Sano's absence and forced himself to push back the feelings of jealousy. Why couldn't he be this way about me? With a firm mental hand, Nakatsu eschewed that line of thought. Right now, I'm here and he's not. Make the most of it, he told himself roughly.

"Sano... he's not here." Mizuki's voice pushed out through her tears. I'm acting like a girl, she acknowledged. A guy wouldn't cry over this. Or maybe he would. She couldn't help it, though.

"Maybe," Nakatsu paused to clear his throat. "Maybe he's in the changing room." He didn't really think so, but anything to make the other happy. I hate myself, Nakatsu thought bitingly.

"Maybe so." It was obvious that Mizuki had no real hope, that she just forced herself to say it. "You can check if you like, but I'm going to bed."

"But—but you haven't had dinner!"

"I'm going to bed."

Mizuki made herself walk back to her too-empty room, thinking, The sooner I end today, the sooner it'll be tomorrow. Maybe... just maybe... Sano will come tomorrow.