Sorry for always being so late. Thanks to the people who are still supporting me and YUKIXHANA!

Chapter 22: The Darkened Staircase

Ayame sighed happily, thinking how glad he was that Yuki completely forgot about their other conversation—which in truth was just another version of their latest brotherly talk. Thankfully the boy was just too busy in his schoolwork to remember the things his wonderful, caring and loving brother might have mentioned, like what he planned for the costumes.

"What are you so happy about?" Hatori asked, looking at Ayame strangely as the snake looked at his sketchpad.

Ayame smiled brightly at Hatori and said, "I'm just very happy for my dear younger brother, Ha'ari."

At the mention of Yuki, Hatori frowned deeply. "What happened?"

"He's in love." Ayame swooned.

Hatori faltered before sipping his tea and looked at Ayame unsurely. Could it be…? "How can you say that? Did he tell you?"

"Ha'ari, Ha'ari!" Ayame smirked, wagging his finger at his friend. "Even if he does not profess it to his dear brother, I should know romance when I see one!"

"See?"

"Oh, yes! I didn't tell you, did I? They came here once!"

"They did…?" he wasn't really sure who 'they' were but he had a good guess who.

"Yes! Though I can't seem to remember when they left or what happened after she came out of the dressing room."

"You made her wear your dresses?" he asked, his eyebrow rose in question. He could imagine it now, Hanajima wearing a tight little French maid outfit, or better yet—and for something much closer to home—a little black nurse uniform. He inwardly shuddered and fought to push the thoughts away before they awaken anything in him he might wish never existed. At least not in front of Ayame.

"Yup! And I must say she had potential!"

"To be what?"

"To be a head-turner! If only she smiled more and put some blush on to get some color on her face. I think I would have told her that but I just can't remember what happened next."

"Hn…" Was all Hatori could say. That was not solid evidence. It wasn't enough to report to Akito. Besides, if he did report such things to Akito, how would he react? Not yet, he told himself. He didn't want to tell Akito anything at the moment. He didn't want to get Hanajima involved in Akito in any way. As much as possible, he wanted Hanajima as far from their god as possible.

------------------------------------------------------------

Yuki walked along the isles of books, scanning for one particular book he needed for his history class. He really didn't rely on books much but he wanted to get every possible detail from any source he could find since their teacher seemed stricter that usual. It was a little strange why the history teacher always seemed crankier when a holiday in school was coming up. Yuki could only guess why.

Anyway, the Halloween Ball was tomorrow and everything was set and ready and right…

Almost

He sighed, stopping from his actions, closing his eyes and taking a moment to calm down his troubled mind.

In his insane, unexplainable jealousy, he had forgotten that he was going to take Tohru to the ball.

He was such a jerk.

How was he gonna do this? Take Tohru to the ball then leave her to be with Hanajima? How heartless could he be? He really hasn't been thinking things through lately and he was very irritable too. Once a freshman asked him where to find his locker and Yuki simply exploded on the poor boy that he should have more common sense.

Of course that was really what he wanted to say in his mind but he didn't want it to be said to the boy. The aforementioned victim of Yuki's heartlessness went off to find his locker with a slightly dejected look, making Yuki feel like a bag of manure.

He really hated this side of him; the evil side. The side he always struggled to fight back and suppress. He never wanted it to see the light of day. Unfortunately…today seemed like the day of reckoning for him.

And the worst part was…

He hadn't caught sight of Hanajima anywhere today. It seems as if the normally black figure (the only thing that stood out to him from the gigantic sea of gray) had vanished into thin air. Maybe that was why he felt so cranky today.

Where could she be? What could have happened to her? He needed to talk to her. He needed to see those blank, deep, perceptive eyes of hers. He needed to see those pale soft lips twitch upwards into a small smile.

"Souma-kun?"

"?" he turned and was slightly surprised, "Honda-san." He acknowledged.

"Please, don't mind me asking…but is something bothering you? I mean…I know it's none of my business, really and I have no right to ask you since I don't really mean much and can't really do much to help you but…You seem so distracted today. Even in class. And well…Are you feeling alright?" she asked, sincere concern in her eyes.

At the thought of Tohru's kindness, Yuki immediately felt a pang in his heart. Here she was, expecting him to be her date in Kyou's place and he was going to let her down. That was the last thing Yuki would ever want to do.

"Honda-san…I…"

When his eyes saddened, Tohru quickly reacted, "EH! D-D-Did I s-s-say something wrong! G-G-Gomen, Souma-kun! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to offend you and I—I WAS JUST—I'm sorry! It's none of my business and I shouldn't be intruding and—Oh—I'm sorry!"

"No," Yuki said, shaking his head softly then looking at her with apologetic eyes. "You didn't offend me in any way, Honda-san. But…I have something to tell you…"

She blinked at him expectantly. Oh…how was he gonna break the news to her? How was he gonna tell her that he wanted to go with Hanajima now? He would sound like such a jerk.

But he was a jerk.

But he didn't want to be. This was Honda-san after all.

Whatever. He had to say it. He had to tell Honda-san the truth.

He took in a deep breath, then opened his mouth to speak, "I…" but he stopped when something black walked passed his vision behind Tohru and caught his eyes. He blinked and followed the black figure with his gaze.

Suddenly, his heart felt lighter than usual and he felt like grinning so wide he would probably look like an idiot. His mind went completely blank at the recognition of Hanajima.

"Souma-kun? Souma-kun?" his companion tried.

"Excuse me for a moment, please…" he muttered absently before going off to follow the black figure, leaving Tohru to stare and blink at his strange behavior.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hanajima slightly quickened her pace. She knew Yuki had seen her and was starting to follow her. She had dreaded it. She didn't like the way Yuki simply forgot about Tohru like that but…something inside her fluttered at the thought of distracting Yuki so easily. But that was what she dreaded in the first place.

She could hear his footsteps quicken so that he might catch up to her. She quickened her pace as well. She was running away—so it would seem—and he was chasing her. What a strange thing…

A few weeks ago, she would never have thought that Yuki would be the one following her around, trying to get her attention. The boy who had everything he could ever want; fame, fortune, intelligence, Tohru…was following her—the girl everybody was too afraid of to even talk too. They used to be worlds apart and now…now there they were.

When did Hanajima-san turn into Hana-chan?

When did The Prince turn into Yuki-kun?

When did the Witch start eating cheesecakes with The Prince?

It all happened too quickly. And it was all too complicated.

"Yuki-sempai, excuse us, but we wanted to ask for your help in some things." A few voices interrupted her train of thoughts and for a moment she paused. Those sounded like his fan members.

She could sense jealousy, anger and protectiveness. But most of all, she could sense great irritation. From Yuki? She turned out of curiosity and was not surprised to see a swarm of fans trying to distract him and surrounding him to block him from going anywhere else. He looked torn and turned his head here and there to look at the faces of the many girls that tried to get his attention.

This was the job of the fan club members: to protect Yuki from people like her. To keep him from making a mistake and ruining his perfection with nobodies like her. They were The Prince's Knights and they were willing to do anything to protect him and keep him locked up, safe inside his tower. For a moment, she pitied him and felt proud of herself for being so free.

But then his eyes met hers. Her heart stopped at the desperation in them and her wandering thoughts faltered. He needed to talk to her, his eyes said. But she kept her neutral façade. She didn't want to taint that which is pure with her darkness, her ugliness. She started to turn and leave when suddenly,

"Saki!" she stopped. Everything stopped. The screeching voices of the fans, the noisy squeaking of the sneakers, the chirping of the birds outside…everything stopped.

She turned around only to see him squirm his way out of the shocked hoard of girls towards her. And in one swift motion, he took her hand in his and swept her off into the distance. She had little time to react and found herself being pulled gently to God knows where, with a warm, soft palm enveloping her cold as dead hand.

He pulled her along in a sprint down the halls until they reached a staircase that led to somewhere that seemed familiar. He tightened his hold on her hand as they climbed the stairs that seemed endless to Hana.

At the end of the darkened staircase, there was a door. And—as if everything was in slow motion—Yuki pushed the door open and light flooded in, bathing her dark form and silhouetting Yuki's figure. She was seeing stars for a moment but she didn't close her eyes. She was too bewildered.

They were at the roof deck now and the sky was blue. The clouds were thick and made many strange shapes in the sky. The sun was calm and steady. Everything seemed so peaceful.

Yuki panted as he leaned forwards, resting his hands on his knees. He had a pained look on his face for a moment before breathing deep and standing straight again. "Gomen…" he said before turning around to face her with an apologetic smile—completely different from what she saw earlier. "I didn't mean to be so rough with you. I don't know what came over me."

She simply kept her silence for a moment before speaking, "Souma-kun…should be happy to know that so many girls care for him…" Yuki faltered at that. "But he isn't…is he?"

He smiled truthfully this time, putting his hands behind his back in a sheepish manner she didn't know he could pull off. "No, I'm really not." He turned around and looked up at the beautiful sky. "In fact, I'm always annoyed when they're around and I just want to shout at them whenever they take out that stupid Prince Yuki banner. I hate their stupid plots to try to seduce me and I get really mad whenever they try to look like innocent school girls. I hate it whenever they scream 'Long live Yuki-sempai' or 'all hail Prince Yuki'. And I hate it the most when they videotape me from across the halls thinking I don't notice. I hate it when I open my locker to find stupid, poorly written, grammatically incorrect and perfume induced love letters or poetry in it. I hate it when they pick on genuinely kind people, like Honda-san, so that she'll stay away from me. I hate it. I really do." He finally finished.

Everything was silent.

He turned back to look at her with a bright Prince Yuki smile. "Thank you for asking. I feel better now."

She nodded softly before mustering a smile. So he wasn't so shallow and self-centered after all. That was good. And to think that he was actually being truthful for once, showing her his true colors…it made her admire him only a little.

"Hana-chan…" he started again. "I'm really happy to see you again… and I'm sorry for troubling you this whole time. I didn't know how much trouble I was causing you. All I knew was that…I wanted to be with you." Her eyebrows furrowed. "I was being selfish and I didn't even try to understand where you were coming from. And so…you really don't have to go with me to the ball tomorrow. You don't have to go if you don't want to and I won't bother you anymore from now on."

She watched him with blank eyes and a misty mix of indefinable emotions inside her. She couldn't really describe what she was feeling right now. But if she tried her hardest…she would describe it as foreboding.

"So I suppose…this is thank you for your time and…goodbye." With that, he smiled his last smile and started to walk past her. She didn't move and kept her blank gaze forward.

"Yuki-kun…" she heard him stop. "Please make sure that Tohru-kun has fun tomorrow night."

A sad smile graced his lips. "Hana-chan…is so much kinder than she thinks…" with that he left.

It was ironic that just a few moments ago, she was running from him. And now…he left her. The misty mix of emotions only intensified…but this time, it was darker…