Author's Note: Here's part two! I still think there's a lot of work to be done on it but I figured I'd post it anyway. Hope you like it!

II

"Makoto! It's so good to see you!" Auntie Witch exclaimed as she threw her arms around her niece. She backed up and held her at arm's length, her aging grip tight, "How's college been? Still having problems in math?"

She shook her head and inhaled the familiar scent of peppermint and paint, "College has been great and no. Kosuke helped me out a lot." A nervous chuckle left her lips and a smile spread across Auntie Witch's face. She moved to stand to Makoto's right, right arm dropping to hang by her side and the other coming to hook in the bend of Makoto's arm.

"That's good. And how is Kosuke?" They began to make their way up the stairs and through the halls and galleries to her office.

The bag of peaches bumped against Makoto's leg with each step they took, "He's doing fine. He's actually thinking about proposing to his girlfriend soon. Took him long enough, right?"

A knowing smile spread across Auntie Witch's features, "I suppose." They came to stop in front of her office, "You know your mother and I had a nice chat about you the other day."

Dread trickled into the pit of Makoto's stomach and twisted into a knot. Chats between her mother and aunt never meant anything good. Especially when she was the subject. Auntie walked into the small office and commenced to making tea. Makoto could do nothing but watch from her position in the doorframe, thoughts flying through her head at the horrible plots her relative and parent had concocted.

She gulped, the strength in her arms and legs returning enough to get her through the door. Makoto flopped onto the familiar blue couch and placed the bag of peaches on the table in front of her. The sounds of crinkling plastic added to the awkward silence as the peaches shifted inside.

"What did you talk about?" She asked, narrowed eyes following her aunt's every move.

"Oh… nothing in particular" Auntie turned from the small counter, a teacup in each hand and an innocent smile upon her face.

"If it was nothing, then you wouldn't have brought it up," Makoto replied smartly as she took one of the cups from her aunt's outstretched hand.

Auntie Witch turned and sat in the worn Victorian chair across from her and shifted her attention back to her niece, expression and eyes serious. "We're worried about you."

Makoto leaned back and let a smile slip across her features, "Why? There's nothing to be worried about. My grades are fine, I haven't missed many days of class, and I visit and call frequently. So what's the problem?"

"When's the last time you had a boyfriend?"

The color drained from her face and the smile fell away. Makoto placed her teacup next to the bag of peaches and looked down at her shoes, "What does that have to do with anything?"

Her aunt ignored the question and lifted the teacup back up to her lips, "Tell me, how do you feel about Chiaki?"

Makoto's head shot up in shock, "F-feel? Like… feelings? You don't honestly think that I… liked him, do you?"

"No, I know you liked him. What I think is that you still like him. Maybe even love him," Auntie Witch replied, a playful smile replacing the serious expression from a moment ago.

"L-Love him?!" She shot up from the couch but immediately fell down with a cry of pain as her knee banged into the corner of the table. Unsettled by the hit, one of the peaches tumbled over the lip of the bag and tumbled to the floor near her shoe.

Auntie Witch chuckled at her niece's display, "Still clumsy as ever I see."

Makoto glared and continued rubbing her knee, "Gee I can just feel the concern coming off of you in waves." Putting her leg back on the ground, she bent down and picked up the stray peach by her shoe, passing it from hand to hand, before continuing, "Even if I did like Chiaki, which I don't, nothing would or can come of it. He's gone, remember?"

"What if he came back? What would you do then?"

Makoto's movements faltered for a second and she glanced back up at her aunt, "I don't know. It doesn't matter anyway. He's not going to." She grabbed her cup back up from the table and drank it quickly. The now cold liquid crawled down her throat and calmed her nerves as it got closer and closer to her stomach. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of the clock and she sent an apologetic smile towards her aunt, "I'm sorry. I wish I could stay longer but I gotta finish a paper for school and Kousuke wants me to stop by his place."

Auntie Witch merely nodded her head in acknowledgement and watched as Makoto began to leave the small office.

She was almost out the door when her aunt spoke again, "I saw him the other day. By the painting." She stopped, hand tightening on the door knob ready to close it behind her as memories from this morning flooded her mind.

"He's not happy Makoto. I only saw him for a second, but I could tell," Auntie Witch continued as she watched her niece for any sign that this was getting through to her, any sign that she cared.

Makoto's throat tightened and she gulped to try and loosen the words that were caught in her throat, "Why now? Why, after all these year and after everything that's happen, you choose to do this now?" Her arm fell from the doorknob and came to rest back at her side and she looked back at Auntie Witch over her shoulder.

"Because I don't want you to end up like me. You have a chance to fix this, and that is some thing that I never had. Please, don't waste it. If not for yourself, at least for me," Auntie Witch replied, eyes flickering over to the picture frame on the bookshelf, edges worn by time and hands.

Makoto gripped the peach in her hand tightly and nodded before walking out of the office and back into the sunlight.