Takumi sighed as he pushed the door open. "What am I going to do with that boy?" he whined to Kamui as he helped her into the bedroom. "All day and all night, the only thing I've seen him do is sit at that desk and pine over that letter he's writing." He paused as he lowered Kamui onto the bed. "Who do you think it's for?" he wondered out loud.

"Hmm…dunno," she answered finally. She smiled. "I'm…sure Kisaragi…knows who he wants to write to," she sucked in a jerky breath, "in his heart," she finished.

Takumi chuckled to himself as he unbuttoned his shirt. "Guess so," he replied mirthfully. "I wonder if Kanna will act the same when he's older." Upon not hearing an answer for a few moments, he looked back at Kamui to find her asleep on the bed. He ruffled her hair as she opened her mouth in a silent snore. "Honestly, stop being so cute," he said softly as he settled down next to her.

"There," Kisaragi remarked softly as he shoved the letter in an envelope. He marked it with a heart on the front and signed his name in cursive on the front. He smiled to himself as he set it down on the table. Now what? he wondered. Perhaps I could slip it in his locker? He dropped the letter in his bag and shut it so no one would see it. Sitting on the couch quickly, Kisaragi flipped through channels.

Takumi put his arm around his son. "Kisaragi," he said cheerfully, "I want you to go get your stuff packed for school."

"Can't I do it later?" He grumbled.
"No. Do it now." Takumi smiled to himself wistfully as his son scurried off to the kitchen. Sighing to himself, Takumi grasped the remote and turned the volume up.

"There we go," Kisaragi muttered as he positioned the letter right above the locker slits. His heart thudded in his chest. In fact, he wondered if anyone could hear his heartbeat, as the hallway was dead silent besides him. Will Foleo like it? he wondered to himself as he started to push the letter forward. What if Leo finds it? The thought struck him so suddenly, he dropped the letter on the floor. As he struggled to pick it up, he heard footsteps approaching.

"Yo," Takumi said cheerfully as he approached his son. "What are you doing out of class?"

"D-D-D-Dad?!" Kisaragi sputtered, scrambling to grab the letter. "What are you doing here?!"

"You forgot your lunch," Takumi said with a smile as he handed Kisaragi a brown paper bag.

"You know you would've just left it at the front desk," Kisaragi replied casually.

"But I wanted to tell you something. I need you to head over to the hospital after school. The money for the bus is in your lunch bag. Your mother wants to go shopping and she needs someone to push her wheelchair. She'll be out of physical therapy at 4:30." Takumi stopped as his eyes drifted towards Kisaragi's hands. "What's that?" He asked, gesturing towards the letter.

"Uh, it's a letter," Kisaragi said quickly.

"But who's it from? And what's it about?"

"Er, it's from," Kisaragi glanced around and caught a glimpse of Ophelia's locker slightly down the hallway from his. "It's from a girl," he said quickly, averting his eyes from his father's.

"Ooh," Takumi said. He winked. "I'll just leave you to it then." He walked away briskly, leaving Kisaragi by Foleo's locker. Kisaragi glanced at Foleo's locker, unsure of what to do. He already knew Foleo didn't like women. He had confessed it to Kisaragi over the summer. However, Kisaragi still wasn't sure if Foleo liked him that way.

He paused over the locker for a moment, before sliding the card in the slits and walking away quickly. He put his hands in his pockets nervously as he went back to class. The teacher pushed up her glasses upon seeing him walk into the room. "You took quite a long time going to the bathroom, Kisaragi."

Trying to tread carefully, Kisaragi sat down at his desk and looked down. "I ran into my father in the hallway. He brought me my lunch since I forgot it."

"Look at Kisaragi needing his daddy to come save him!" Lutz shouted from the back. The whole class cracked up. Immediately after hearing the words, Kisaragi looked down in shame, his ears burning.

Foleo leaned over. "There's nothing wrong with your dad helping you out. In fact, you're braver than a lot of people in this classroom to admit that."

Kisaragi smiled, still keeping his gaze fixated on the desk. "Thanks, Foleo," he said softly. Foleo laughed and the teacher continued the class for the last 15 minutes.

"What do we have next?" Foleo inquired.

Kisaragi flipped through his schedule. "History." He snuck a look over at Foleo. Kisaragi's breath caught in his throat. If things keep going on like this, surely, surely…

Foleo suddenly bumped into Kisaragi. "Ah, I'm sorry."

"It's fine," Kisaragi muttered, lost in thought. He noticed Foleo approaching his locker. "Uh, I have to go downstairs," he announced quickly. "I left my bag downstairs."

"But your bag's right here!" Foleo called out, though his words fell on deaf ears. Kisaragi had already turned the corner and disappeared downstairs. Foleo shrugged to himself before opening his locker. As the metal door swung open, a tiny note fluttered down to the floor. Foleo bent over and plucked the paper off the ground. "Kisaragi," was written in large, scrawling letters. He opened the letter and read along the lines, his eyes growing with each word. "Kisaragi…" he said softly, folding the paper up. His eyes drifted towards the floor.

Kisaragi's breath thudded in his chest as he bent over. Over the summer, the stairs must've gotten taller at school. Or at least that's what it seemed to him as he panted for breath. What did Foleo think? He wondered to himself as he finally straightened up. He ran a hand through his scruffy, white hair. Can't really be helped, he thought to himself. I have next period with him too. He pushed his bag to the side as he strode past. As he jogged up the stairs, Kisaragi tripped on his shoelace. In a second, the stairs rushed up to meet his face eagerly as he fell forward. A strangled cry exited his mouth as he tumbled forward. A sudden, feminine-sounding voice reached his ears.

"Huh? What's going on?" Kisaragi felt himself slam into someone on the stairwell. "Ouch!" Foleo cried out as the two hit the bottom of the stairwell.

"F-Foleo!" Kisaragi exclaimed, looking at his best friend. "I'm sorry for that! I must've tripped at the top of the stairs."

"Oh, it's fine," Foleo said timidly. His voice faded away as the two looked at each other for a few moments. "Um, Kisaragi, I…"

"I mean, we don't have to talk about it if you don't want to," Kisaragi broke in hurriedly.

"No, I think you're the one who doesn't really want to talk about it," Foleo chuckled. He pushed a lock of curly hair behind his shoulder. "Kisaragi, is that letter really what you want?"

"Um, I…" His face turned a guilty red, thinking of what his father would say. "It is," he admitted. "I do want it, Foleo. I…I like you. I have for a long time. But it's just that things have been so complicated recently. My dad doesn't approve, and my mom's recovering so I don't want to put stress on her. I just… I just don't know what I'm supposed to do."

The blond-haired boy sighed. "You're always doing this. You're torn between what's right for others and what's right for you. I know being selfless for others is the right thing to do, Kisaragi," he looked the boy in the eye, "but you need to start indulging yourself more. Frankly, you shouldn't give a damn what your father thinks about your preferences." He giggled slightly, as he had never said something so vulgar before. "And I know Kamui and she would definitely approve. It may stress Takumi out, but Kamui will be there to calm him down." Foleo smiled and grasped Kisaragi's hand. "You need to follow your heart. Stop telling yourself not to do what's best for you because someone else wouldn't like it."

"I…" He swallowed. "Oh, Foleo. I love you." He leaned closer to the blond. "I don't want to ever stop," he murmured.

Foleo smiled. "Now that that's over with, do you wanna get coffee after school?"

Kisaragi thought a moment about his father, but then pushed that notion away. "Sure!" he said happily.

Fin

Hey, everyone! I'm not dead, in case you were wondering. Just a lot of writer's block and homework. It's the last month of school and I haven't had any free time lately. Hell, I'm supposed to be working on my essay in class right as I type this. But I just wanted to say, thanks for everything. It's been two or three years since I first started. Through the ups and downs, quite a few of you have been with me, writing reviews, favoriting, following, etc. As I wrap up this last chapter (sorry it's not more action-based or whimsical or anything), I just want to say I've figured out where I'm going.

I'm retiring.

It's been a very long ride, and I'll be going to high school next year. I don't have time for fanfiction anymore, and I have other writing I need to do for Scholastic and stuff. Nevertheless, maybe one day I'll come back, maybe not. I can't really say for sure. Hopefully I'll write a one-shot or two over the summer. I want to think this isn't the end. But maybe it is. I'm dragging along here, and at this rate, trying to write fanfiction is like beating a dead horse. I need to focus on my other stuff for a while and hopefully I'll come back. And who knows? Maybe I'll make it big one day. I mean, 10k views on some of fics feels pretty good as it is. But I want to keep working until I find something that'll really be popular. I know people who've written fics with 100k views or more. I want that for myself. So for now, or maybe for forever, I'll just fade away and quietly work on the stuff I need to. But I'm grateful to every single person who wrote a review, followed, or favorited any of my stories. Or even if you just read it and liked it. I can't tell you guys how many times I would think about just giving up and then I'd see that someone reviewed one of my stories, or someone followed/favorited something. It's kept me going for so long, but I can't take it anymore. My work's crawling along. And for now I just need to drop it.

Bye to all of you. Maybe someday I'll come back. Maybe on a different account so I can write other stories that aren't Fire Emblem one-shots, etc. But I'll always be here reviewing stuff and reading. So I just have to say, thanks for everything. And perhaps for the last time, I'll say it; hope y'all enjoyed~

It's been fun…