Disclaimer: The usual

A/N: Finally chapter 20! OMG I've been meaning to sit down and write it for days! Sorry ladies. Well at least I finally did it!

Chapter 20: A girl for a song

Haruka looked at the frail beautiful violinist, the girl turned around to face her, the soft curls of aqua hair framing her delicate face. Standing up and walking the distance between them Haruka reached Michiru whose eyes refused to meet hers. "Michi, I'm sorry. I can't explain what happened and I know that whatever I can say will sound stupid. But I am really sorry about this. Forgive me Michi, please, I was an ass, I know it."

Lifting her ocean blue eyes and examining Haruka's face, Michiru stayed silent for a moment. "Fine."

Blinking Haruka looked into the blue eyes, and for once she found them unreadable. "Fine? You forgive me?"

Michiru nodded, and reaching for Haruka's shirt, she pulled the tomboy close to kiss her lips hard. The kiss took Haruka by surprise, she opened her lips to reply but Michiru assaulted her mouth; kissing her eagerly almost with desperation, pulling the buttons of the tomboy's shirt lose. Submerging in the passionate kiss, Haruka brushed away most of her thoughts and let Michiru take over the situation, feeling the soft plump lips over hers and the skilled violinist hands traveling along her chest.

Yet, past the passion of the moment something felt off in Haruka's head, Michiru was kissing her, everything should had felt alright, but it didn't; and as the girl reached for the zipper in her pants Haruka stopped the delicate hand and cup the girl's chin, forcing the blue eyes to face her. "Michiru, are you mad at me?"

Michiru shook her head, a knot in her throat. She wasn't mad, she wasn't upset, she was sad. A strange heavy sadness had set upon her and she was here today trying to keep a grip on what was left between her and Haruka. So what if Haruka was not just hers? She couldn't stop loving her anyway, she wasn't even going to try. Her heart was full of love for Haruka, she needed her kisses. She longed every minute of the day they were apart to feel Haruka's hand on her own; to smile at her jokes, to simply sit down and see the beautiful teal eyes smiling at her.

Again trying to hush Haruka's questions Michiru kissed the familiar lips, and she closed her eyes trying to quiet her own thoughts, the insecurities deep inside her. The fear of waking up any given day and realize that the time she had with Haruka had been nothing but a stolen moment. To find that Haruka needed an infinite amount of muses in her life to inspire her art and that she was just another number in the list: A girl for a song in an endless list of songs.

"Are you sure love?" Haruka's words came between kisses and Michiru nodded again and again. There was no point of speaking out loud what couldn't be helped. "I Love you."

"I love you too" Michiru's hand travelled up along Haruka's thigh, her own passion bursting into flaming tongues as she felt Haruka's lips on her neck.

"Are we ok Michi?" Ok? Perhaps, it all depended what ok could mean. And right now it didn't matter, no other girl in the world mattered. Kasumi, anyone, no one mattered. Just Haruka and her; and the world could come to an end after that.

Pressing her hand hard between Haruka's legs, with her blue eyes fired up with passion Michiru spoke in a whisper, almost a moan."I need you…"

Moaning softly Haruka picked the girl up off the floor and pressed her against the wall. "I love you so much…I'm sorry, so sorry…"

-0-

Playing with her platinum blonde hair tied on a side ponytail Kasumi walked slowly towards where Rain was sitting down reading a book. She fixed unnecessarily the hem of her uniform skirt and finally reached the redhead. "Hey."

Rain looked up, she fixed her glasses and gave the blonde a small smile. "Hi Kasumi, how's your day going?"

"Good. Yours?"

"Ok. Lots of material to read, I should have not left all my books here for Spring Break. Now the homework is piling up and catching up is proving to be really hard."

"Oh. Well, if you're busy I could just go…"

"You don't have to."

"Ok." Kasumi felt silent. She really didn't wanted to go, she had been staring at Rain for the past 10 minutes looking for an excuse or will power to approach the girl and ask her about what had happened with Michiru, but even now after she finally decided to talk to the redhead she was nowhere near ready to ask the girl about that infamous night.

Rain wasn't sure what to say either, she wanted to ask about her and Haruka, but her common sense stopped her, there wasn't anything Kasumi could say about the matter that wouldn't feel like a dagger piercing her heart. She felt dumb sitting down while Kasumi just stood there, looking nervous, her right hand playing with her hair just as she did every time she felt uncomfortable. "So, how long have you been working here?"

The ashen eyes blinked confused, she looked up to meet the emerald eyes. "Huh?"

Rain smiled and laughed softly. "Sorry it's something Hail says all the time when an awkward silence happens, I never thought I'll use it myself."

Kasumi smiled. "Your sister is funny …in a weird way." Both the girls laughed and Kasumi sat down next to Rain feeling less uncomfortable. "So where's Hail today? Did she had to practice?"

Rain´s smile faded slightly. "I don't know, I guess."

"Is everything ok?"

Rain was sure about few things at the moment but surely she knew she preferred not to discuss why Hail was mad at her with Kasumi; at least not until she figured out how where things between Kasumi and the violinist. "Yep. She's just busy."

The singer nodded and bit her lip softly. "So, are you going to ask me?"

"Ask you what?"

"What happened with Haruka."

The redhead sighed. "Actually…no. I prefer not to ask."

"Can I tell you anyway?"

Looking back down to her book Rain spoke with soft calmed voice. "I don't really want to know Kasumi. I kind of already know what happened anyway."

"Nothing happened." The artist nodded, her eyes still fixed on the book. "You don't believe me?"

Rain fixed a loose lock of hair away from her face and tried to not look into the mysterious gray eyes. "It is really not my place to believe you or not, is it? It's Michiru you have to convince, or even yourself."

"I'm telling you because you're my friend, or I thought you were."

Friend. Well, that's what Rain thought she and Kasumi could be now that it all seemed lost with the blonde; but ignoring the void in her stomach while the blonde talked about Haruka was proving to be quite difficult. "Of course we are. I'm just saying you don't really owe me any explanation. That's all."

"I don't know what Michiru told you, she was hurt and upset."

"Yes she was."

"We're ok now, me and Michiru I mean…" The twin nodded silently and the couple felt silent again. "Did you and her…"

The question withered in the beautiful lips and Rain finally looked up from her book to face Kasumi. "Me and her what?"

"Nothing. I suppose it's a silly question of course you talked about it. But like I said nothing really happened…"

"Yeah…" Rain looked back down to her book, she wanted to ignore the warm feeling that suddenly grew in her chest after hearing Kasumi had failed in her attempts to seduce Haruka. It wasn't really anything to feel joyous about, Kasumi was probably suffering. And she had decided to let go of her love for Kasumi, some loves were just plain and simple not meant to be. "So is Michiru meeting us here?"

"I don't know…why?"

"I wanted to see her. She forgot her 'dress' in my room, I packed it and then I forgot to give it to her"

Kasumi's heart ached grandly. There was so many things wrong with Rain´s sentence that she was actually amazed of having been able to keep her calmed expression. She was here pretty much telling Rain her infatuation with Haruka was over and she was available and the redhead wouldn't even look up from her book, in fact she seemed the least interested in the subject. And all Rain had asked was where Michiru was. So Rain wanted Michiru as well now? This was starting to look like a ridiculous cosmic joke against her. And to top it all she just heard the confirmation of Michiru spending the night in Rain's room; Kasumi forbid herself to even think that it could mean they spent the night together, but it could…

"I can bring it back to her if you want."

"No, that's ok. I'll find her later."

"Ok…" Again the silence set upon them and Kasumi couldn't stand it anymore. "Ah you know Rain? I totally forgot I had to pick up a book for my Metrics class, I will see you later ok?"

"Ok. Take care Kas."

"Yeah…you too." Kasumi walked away from Rain feeling if possible a bit worse than before. Well she still wanted to make sure of what she felt for Rain was love, but now she was quite certain she was out of the race for the redhead's heart. She tried to tell herself it didn't matter, that she was not worthy of the love of someone as pure and sweet as Rain. But she couldn't, it mattered and it mattered a lot, she felt really sad; she could not inspire love in Rain anymore, she was perhaps destined to never be a muse, to not be the perfect model for a master piece, or even a girl for a song. She felt like just another pretty face, but sadness or not she was not going to lose her friendship with Rain, she had to find a way to stay next to her, no mattered how hard it could be.

-0-

Hail sat by herself on an outdoor table under a colorful umbrella in one of the lunch areas at school, she was bored. Spending lunchtime alone was something she rarely did. She knew she had to stop being so immature, find Rain and get over herself but things were always easier said than done and that was exactly why she was here sitting alone, bored to death.

The redhead sipped her bottle of juice and kept her attention on the students walking along the campus grounds, she spotted a young high school couple walking by holding hands sharing an ice cream and she smiled slightly, she wondered how it felt to have a relationship like that.

The cellist had had countless relationships over the years, some as brief as a couple hours of deep embrace, some a bit more serious lasting weeks or even months but none of them had ever been just warm or cute enough to hold hands and share a walk through a park. She was used to passion, to feverous encounters, to endless nights of discovery and lust.

She wasn't envious of movie like love, no not really. Her life was always exciting and she felt love and passion where one and the same thing. Yet sometimes she felt like she did today. A bit lonely a bit confused, a bit more girly than she liked to admit. Michiru Kaioh was messing with her head, she felt drawn to her like a moth to the flame. Her perfect looks and her amazing talent made her wish for more than just a passionate night, made her question if she will ever be able to have the kind of romance people read about in books, wonder if she was even cut for it.

It was obvious Michiru was in love with Haruka Tenoh and the idea hadn't bothered her so much at first, but now things were different. Haruka Tenoh appeared flawed in Hail's eyes. Hail was a flirt and she had room in her heart for more girls than fingers in her hand but she would never dare to kiss another girl while still dating another. She had a lot of bedside manners and if Michiru was in love with her, she thought, she would just blankly erase the memory of any other girl from the face of earth. Damn that Haruka and her cheating manners, and damn Rain for kissing Michiru.

Rain and Michiru, the idea simply couldn't fit in her head. She couldn't even figure out how it made her feel, at moments she thought she was angry, mad at Rain for wanting the one girl that had stolen her sleep, but at others she wondered if Rain was actually a better choice for Michiru. Her sister was everything she wasn't. She believed in true love, in all those ridiculous ideas about Love conquering it all and how the good guy always got the girl in the end. For Hail those were sad statements she refused to believe, if life was a book, if this was just like one then who was the good guy? It certainly wasn't her and that only meant she was destined not to have the girl in the end. The cellist shook her head, it was not in her nature to be a pessimist, she was letting her hormones dictate how she was feeling right now and she hated it.

There was still a chance to get the girl, who cared if she was not the hero? Smiling again and leaning on her chair Hail thought she was being over dramatic, she had to talk to Rain and make up. There was an infinite amount of girls in the world, even if there was only one Michiru Kaioh, and she was not going to lose her sister to any of them.

As the realization of the anger dissipating from her body came to her and Hail was able to put a sincere smile on her face again, the green eyes stopped on a good looking strawberry blonde girl walking down across from where she was sitting; the girl was dressed in black Capri pants and a pretty Boho white top, and she sported a seductive smile, her eyes stopped at Hail and she brushed the cellist's looks widening her smile and winking as she kept walking down the hallway.

Hail's smile grew larger as she kept her eyes on the figure who walked away slowly swaying her hips. Yep, plenty of girls in the world.

"This school is bursting at the seams with pretty girls…"

Blushing slightly as she was caught staring at the strawberry blonde's figure, Hail turned her attention to the owner of the voice with the strange accent, which belonged to a good looking brunette with dark blue eyes sitting by herself at the table next to hers. "Yeah, I sometimes even forget there are men in the school too." Hail laughed softly at her own words, she sounded like such a man-hater.

"Well ma'am, you won't hear me complaining about that for sure. I'm liking this place better and better and I've only been here one day."

"You're new in school?"

"Yes, I came to finish my art major. Texas Star, at your service."

Arching her perfect eyebrow Hail had a better look at the woman, posing her bright eyes on the discarded cowboy hat on the table. "Hail Tenki."

"Nice name."

Smiling Hail nodded. "Yep, I have funny parents, well I'm sure you know all about that… Texas."

"I don't understand what you mean, my old folks are not particularly funny."

Clearing her throat lightly Hail tried not to laugh nervously. "Yes of course. Is Texas Star your real full name?"

"No."

"Oh, so artist name then?"

"No, not artist name either, my full name is Texas Lone Star."

Hail blinked a couple times trying not to make a very bad joke about it specially because the tall girl looked friendly and it was a very bad idea to laugh at people when her own name wasn't particularly normal. "Lone is a very unique middle name…"

The brunette nodded. "Are you an art major student Hail?"

"No, music major actually, but my sister Rain is a senior in Art."

"Oh, I'll like to meet her, I basically know no one except for the headmaster's daughter and now you."

"Oh you met Michiru?" Noticing the slight change in the voice tone of the cellist Texas smiled, Michiru Kaioh seemed like a very popular girl.

"Oh yes, are you friends with her?"

"I suppose we can call it that." The green eyes looked particularly bright to Texas and the brunette smiled.

"Would you say it's her eyes? What makes her so attractive?"

Blushing slightly Hail felt a bit exposed. "I… I think it's her personality actually."

"I'm not one for damsels in distress myself, she seems sweet though, it's a shame that it is so hard to portray personalities in sculptures."

"I don't think Michiru is a damsel in distress, she's very talented. Her hands can weave the most amazing music and her beautiful looks are a compliment to all the beauty inside her not the other way around."

"You seemed quite passionate about her beauty."

Why was she telling this stranger all these things? Hail felt a bit silly but it was kind of late to try and pretend she didn't have strong feelings for Michiru. "I guess…"

"I prefer other kind of women though, less frail more earthly looking. I enjoy the sight of beautiful brittle girls but I rather have a fully developed smart woman riding off to the sunset with me."

Hail smiled, she could definitely picture Texas and her earthly looking belle riding into the sunset, with western romance music and all. "Well we can't all like Michiru Kaioh can we?" Texas smiled. "Are you busy right now? Like I mean are you waiting for something? Do you have a class?"

"Not particularly busy at the moment, why?"

"I'm wondering if you want to go meet my sister Rain, if you want to know someone passionate about frail beauties you definitely must meet her."

"Sure why not, let's go meet your sister. Rain you say ah? I fancy your names."

"Well for twin unusual names I guess our names could be worse."

"Twins?" Texas smiled brightly. "Red head twins, I'm telling you, liking this school better and better…"

-0-

Kaimu Kaioh looked across the small dining table to Michiru who sat quietly staring at a full cup of fragrant jasmine tea. "Is something wrong with your tea?"

The girl lifted her gaze and gave her father a small smile. "No, it's good"

"You're awfully quiet today Michi."

"I'm just tired dad."

"Tired enough not to talk of your Spring Break at all? You're usually a chatter box after any trip, should I be worried?"

Michiru looked down to her cup of tea, shaking her head softly. "No, no you shouldn't the trip was good…great."

"Hmmm. Did you girls do anything fun? It was your friend Kasumi's birthday right?"

"Lots of swimming, we took the boat out a few times, we had a bonfire for Kasumi's birthday."

Kaimu picked his teacup and took a long look at Michiru, he didn't spend a lot of time with the girl , not as much as he had wished anyways, but he was not completely unaware of his daughter's sudden change of mood. Michiru was always full of stories to tell, always smiling and their evening tea was never a quiet event as it was tonight. "Is there anything you're not telling me Michiru?"

"No, not really." Michiru sighed involuntarily and to distract her father from the fact she picked the tea which she really didn't fancy and sipped it slowly. She didn't feel any better right now, even after her love embrace with Haruka that morning; Michiru hadn't found the courage to ask the tomboy if she would care to be her girlfriend or if their relationship was exclusive. Life wasn't particularly fun at the moment.

"Michiru, do you have boy troubles?" Blinking perplexed Michiru looked at her father, she couldn't help but smile at the thought. "You can tell me, I'm not an old fashioned man, I know you're seventeen and there is probably a long line of boys at your doorstep."

Michiru smiled and looked down to the amber liquid in her tea cup, the soft perfume of the jasmine always reminded the girl of her mother. "Will you be surprised if I said it's more like girl troubles?"

Placing the teacup down Kaimu met Michiru's eyes, the girl looking at him with a quiet calmed expression. "I guess not."

The Kaioh's stayed silent for a moment after that, Akira walked into the room to ask if they needed more tea and disappeared quietly through the double doors again. "So you don't mind then?"

Michiru's dad cleared his throat and looked back at the girl. "Love is an expression of the soul, just like art and music, dictating what is right or wrong in art will make it fake and unexpressive, wouldn't you say? If you feel your love takes you to a person you should follow it no matter the gender of that person."

"Ok."

"Is it your friend Kasumi?"

Blushing suddenly Michiru shook her head. "No. Dad…erm… I rather not talk about it. But it is not Kasumi."

Kaimu nodded, he was a modern man but he was actually relieved by not having to address the situation too much, girl or boy, he wasn't too comfortable discussing his beloved daughter´s love life. "Things are ok though? Right?"

"Yes…yes. Nothing that can't be fixed dad. It's ok."

"Good, good. So how's Miss Tenoh anyways?"

Michiru prayed she didn't suddenly blushed and even more she prayed her father would not notice her hand shaking and the tea cup clinking against the tiny saucer. "Huh?"

"I meant did she have fun at the trip? Do you think it was too much of an imposition to make her travel with you on the Spring Break?"

"I'm sure it wasn't."

"Good, good, any progress with her?"

"Huh?" Michiru almost face palmed herself she was being so obvious, her dad however didn't seem to notice much.

"You're too absentminded child. I meant the duet. Whoever is making you so distracted must be quite the catch."

"Oh dad…you have no idea."

(A/N: Review! ^.^ thanks)