- A Beautiful Tomorrow - An Ambient Generation

. . . Traces . . .

Wow, thanks for all the reviews, I didn't know this story would get so many. I thought it was grade A crap. Haha. This chapter starts out before Karin beat up Alice, which is in Yuri's point of view. So you'll see some repeating words that happened before the fight and during it all in Yuri's POV…I just repeated myself… and near the end something special will happen I can't say what. Ooooh it makes me giddy!

Yuri hadn't hung out with his friends for quite a long time, and decided to hang with them at the dance for old times. They were cracking sick jokes as usual, but he found them pretty funny. For a second he couldn't believe why he ditched them in the first place anyway.

Right then his friends were criticizing every guy that walked by. It was the sort of thing girls would do, but Yuri found everything they said amusing. Halley was doing an impression of Kurando Inugami when he heard somebody shout his name.

"YURI! YURI!"

And by God, it was the geek himself--with Margarete. His date.

Yuri raised an eyebrow as the unlikely pair ran towards him. His friends started laughing.

"Kurando, my man--" Halley draped an arm over Kurando's shoulders. "We were just talking about you!"

"Huh?" He gasped, chest heaving as he fumbled in his pocket in search of his asthma inhaler.

"What? Oh--okay--Yuri." He turned to Yuri who was watching him. "Yuri—we--we need to talk to you!"

"It's urgent!" Margarete added desperately, grabbing his arm and yanking. "Hurry please!"

Kurando's mouth sagged as the idiot started pumping air into his mouth. "Yes--please, we need your help!"

Yuri was suddenly feeling a bit like his old, seditious self. "Yeah? What's that?" He asked lazily, seeing how they were in haste. Margarete's finger dug into his forearm.

"NOW! WE NEED YOU NOW!" she cried, ignoring all the looks, which were thrown in her direction. "Please, please you have to help us!"

"Jesus Margarete," Yuri released his arm from her death grip. "If it's so important, what is it?"

"It's Al--"

"NOT HERE!" Kurando said furiously, jamming his inhaler back into his pants pocket.

"Why not?" Joshua demanded, dropping his arm. "Why not man? Why can't we hear?" this aroused a few 'Yeah!'s

Yuri grinned as he watched Kurando grit his teeth, push up his glasses from the tip of his nose, and said in a would be calm voice.

"Will you please come with us, Hyuga? We need to--to discuss a few important matters."

"About what?" Halley challenged.

Yuri however, was watching Margarete, who was furiously mouthing something but doing a terrible job at it.

After a minute of not getting what she was trying to mouth, Yuri amused himself by thinking of how ridiculous she looked.

Her eyes were bugging out; eyeliner messed up, some sort of glitter shit all over her face, hair matted on her head, where she was obviously sweating. Her halter-top seemed to be a bit lopsided and he could see her bare hip.

She was obviously desperate to tell him something, he mused.

"Fine!" Kurando's voice brought him back. "Fine!" he repeated shrilly. "We're going! Good riddance!"

Yuri was about to laugh at his stupidity when Kurando's hand went to his pants pocket, and in attempt of inhaling again, it dropped from his hand and scattered in the ground, landing right at Yuri's boots.

What puzzled Yuri the most was how Kurando had dropped it on purpose. It was so obvious; you had to be blind not to notice it.

He was about to kick the inhaler so it would skid all the way across the dance floor and maybe stop at some chick's feet when Kurando threw himself on the ground before Yuri and grabbed it.

He climbed slowly to his feet, when he had risen; he was standing right in front of Yuri. Before he turned away, the short Japanese boy muttered under his breath; "Alice--Karin."

Then, as Yuri's friends started laughing, the pair left. Margarete gave him a final fleeting glance and they both disappeared into the crowd.

Yuri's mind spun. What the hell was Inugami talking about? Karin's sudden threat came back to him.

"…You don't want her to get hurt, DO YOU?"

Yeah right, Yuri thought. Karin would never….

He searched the whole gym but couldn't spot any huge group of girls wearing orange, red or black. Come to think of it, he couldn't find Alice either.

…Hurt Alice, he finished mentally.

"Oh shit." Yuri muttered unexpectedly.

"What's up?" Halley asked, still chortling over the earlier incident.

"I uh--I gotta go take a piss." He faked, backing away from his friends, eyes still scouting the large room.

"Oh me too!" Halley said, starting to follow him. "Let's go man."

"No!" Yuri said quickly.

"No?" His friend echoed, confused.

"I--I mean--wait here." Yuri took off and headed straight towards the gym doors.

He knew Halley was following him, but obviously whatever Kurando and Margarete wanted to tell him, they didn't want his friends to hear.

Yuri pushed open the gym doors to find the two fretfully waiting.

"About time--!" Margarete started to exclaim.

Yuri grabbed both hers and Kurando's arms and dragged them down the hall towards the locker room, where they could talk privately. But unfortunately--

"It's locked." Margarete said in a matter-of-fact tone. Something she rarely used.

The gym doors opened again and Yuri could make out Halley.

"Dammit!" Yuri pushed Kurando against the wall beside him and Margarete. The frightened blonde was beneath him, ironically giggling maniacally.

Yuri dearly wanted to tell her to shut up and push himself off of her, but he didn't want Halley to spot them.

All three of them listened as Halley whistled some sort of tune and headed down the hallway, towards the men's bathroom, and towards them.

"Whoa dude!" Halley stopped, staring at them. "What are you--" a grin cracked his face. "Now I know why you didn't want me to follow." He nodded at Yuri and Margarete's form.

Yuri hastily pushed himself from Margarete who giggled again and started straightening out her halter.

"Yeah," Yuri said casually. "I was beating Inugami here up cuz ya know… he's stealing my girl."

He wanted to smack Margarete when she started giggling again. "So uh… see you later?"

Halley nodded, jutting his head back and forth. "Right man…" he gave him a thumbs up. "Score high." Before strutting away.

Yuri sighed with relief and turned back to Kurando, who was to his surprise, red with anger.

"We're wasting time!" Inugami said through clenched teeth. "Alice is probably knocked out by now!"

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Yuri followed the two of them down the hall and out the school doors.

"ALICE?" Kurando shouted, cupping his mouth. "ALI ARE YOU ALIVE--"

Yuri pushed Kurando's own hands into his mouth, causing the boy to choke. "Shut the hell up. Where is she?"

"She's over there!" Margarete cried, pointing aimlessly. "Is she alive? They didn't kill her did they? She was over— She's over there! See? See? Save her, please!"

"Where?" Yuri yelled aggressively. "Will you stop pointing and lead me there?"

"Grouchy," He heard her mumbled under her breath as she started jogging down the side of the building. Yuri ran after her.

Suddenly he caught sight of a lot of girls streaking through the parking lot, in a haste to get to their cars.

"I'll drive! Let me drive! Just get in!" A girl a few feet away shrieked frantically at her companions.

Yuri tore his gaze from them and looked back at Margarete, who had stopped and was kneeling next to a curled up body.

Alice. Yuri lurched forward and reached her just when Margarete was saying; "Hang on…"

Yuri fell to his knees. "Elliot…?"

Her pale closed eyes opened only a little bit, not fully enough to look at him. "I wanna go home." He heard her whimper.

"Who did this?" Yuri asked, although having told from Kurando already, he wanted to hear it from Alice to confirm it. "Elliot--"

"I said Karin did it!" Kurando said angrily. "Will you just help her up!"

"You said they were kicking her stomach," Yuri snarled in response, not looking away from Kurando. "What if she has some broken ribs? I can't just move her."

"Can't you do something?" Margarete asked shrilly, wringing her hands. "She--she could be dying!"

"Are you in pain, Ali?" Kurando shoved Yuri aside and leaned towards his best friend. "Are your ribs broken? Did they hit you hard? Your lip is bleeding. Do you want me to go get something to wipe off the blood? Are you okay, Ali? Are you--"

"Yes." Alice croaked. "I-I-I'm fine."

"Move," Yuri pushed Kurando aside, sending the poor skinny boy flying. He didn't glance twice at him.

"Elliot, I'm going to check if you have any broken ribs okay?" She didn't answer and he continued. "Can I… can I lift up your shirt?"

She said something, but Yuri didn't hear her, due to the fact that the sound of the school doors opened and someone walked noisily out. Yuri looked up and caught Margarete's gaze. They exchanged looks and Margarete quickly climb to her feet to go see who it was.

"KURANDO! KURANDO! Are you out here!" judging by the oriental accent, it was some Japanese girl.

"Kurando! Oh, there you are! Kurando you promised you would dance with me!"

Yuri looked over his shoulder to see the short haired girl he had seen earlier that day, Alice's roommate or whatever.

"Yo-Yoshiko?" Kurando's voice stuttered. "What are you doing out--"

Yoshiko ran over to him where he lay on the ground, grabbed his arm and pulled him to his feet.

"Oh please dance with me! I've been waiting all night for you!" she tried dragging him back up to the school.

"You promise." She whined. "Please?"

"I can't." Kurando apologized. "I'm in the middle of a crisis right now--"

But Yuri thought it was a great idea to get Kurando away from here and off his back. "Go dance, Inugami." He said, ignoring the furious glares coming at him from the boy.

"Yes! You have to dance with me." The Japanese girl then dragged scrawny Kurando Inugami back into the school building, ignoring his protests. Margarete returned and squatted once again beside Alice, patting her unnecessarily on her head.

"There, there Alice. We'll help you." She whispered. "Don't worry."

"While I look at Elliot's--" Yuri started.

"Alice." Margarete hissed.

He ignored her and decided not to continue what he was saying and turned his attention back to huddled girl.

"Can I lift up your shirt?" he asked her once again. Yuri had to lean towards her to hear her answer.

"Okay…"

Using his thumb and index finger, Yuri pushed her shirt up. Margarete leaned forward to look.

"I can't see anything." She complained. "It's too dark. How are we supposed to tell?"

Yuri ignored her again and started feeling around her stomach and hip area. One too many times, Alice would flinch every time he touched an obviously bruised spot. Besides that, her ribs felt fine.

"I think your ribs are bruised…I'm going to help you up okay? We're going to…" he scanned the school courtyard. "We're going to go sit on that bench over there under the light so I can see if you're hurt anywhere else, okay?"

"Okay…" her response came the same.

"Should I help?" Margarete asked as she watched Yuri trying to maneuver Alice's shoulders over his arm. "Maybe I could carry her legs or--"

"Don't be stupid," he cut her off darkly. Out of the corner of his eye he saw her purse her lips and stepped back. He felt a twinge of guilt for being so snappish towards her. The girl was only trying to help obviously.

"You can--you can…" he raked through his mind, trying to think of something Margarete could do that would be helpful.

"You can uh, talk to her just to see that she remains conscious." He nodded as he gently pushed Alice into a sitting position, watching a weird expression come across Margarete's face from the corner of his eye.

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Alice gritted her teeth as her ribs cracked with pain from sitting up. She was about to slump back into the ground but Yuri's strong arm prevented her from doing so.

"I don't want to go." She rasped. The taste of blood was somewhere still in her mouth. It made her want to retch.

Alice turned her head away from Yuri and spat on the ground a few inches away from Margarete, who leaped aside. "Sorry--" She whispered, knowing her voice was barely heard.

"Yech!" Margarete said, examining what Alice had spitted out from a good distance. "That's… blood! Are you like… bleeding inside?"

"Internally bleeding." Yuri corrected Margarete through gritted teeth.

To Alice he said; "We can't just sit here forever. You need to stand up okay? I'm going to help you up so we can walk over there, unless…" he cleared his throat unnecessarily. "Unless you want me to carry you."

There it went again: the same expression on Margarete's face. Alice took no notice but Yuri frowned.

"No, that's okay." Alice mumbled quietly as Yuri started to slowly climb to his feet, bringing her body up with him.

She was almost standing upright when a familiar pain struck her right knee and she let out a yelp of pain, leaping off of her own feet and crashing hard into Yuri's chest, almost knocking the boy off his feet.

"What the--" Yuri grabbed her shoulder and righted himself up as Margarete cried; "What? What is it? Is something wrong? What's wrong?"

"My knee," Alice tried to explain through clenched teeth, trying to block out the sharp pain.

"What happened to it?" Margarete fretted. "Is it broken? Dislocated maybe? Sprained or bruised, perhaps?"

Was it Alice's imagination or did Margarete sound a bit bitterWhatever it was, she couldn't tell as she looked at the blonde girl through parted strands of her own light, tangled hair.

Yuri said something but Alice was still watching Margarete in wonderment. The look on her face was sort of sullen and when Alice realized what it was, she almost laughed through her pain.

Margarete was jealous? Alice wasn't surprised. A lot of girls tend to become jealous when they spotted Yuri giving another girl a lot of attention, but Margarete didn't have to worry.

This was her for god sake. Alice Elliot. There was no chemistry going on between Yuri and her anyway... She found Margarete's jealousy childish and stupid and averted her attention at last.

"Elliot? Hello? You okay?" Yuri waved a hand in front of her face and she quickly snapped out of her daze.

"What?" her voice didn't sound as raspy as it did earlier and she felt herself flush when Yuri shifted his weight. She was still leaning against him and she was probably really heavy. Too heavy for Yuri to stand. Man, she was probably heavier than he was.

Quickly pushing herself away from him, Alice attempted to walk by herself towards the vacant bench a few yards away, but her bruised knee gave away and she stumbled, the familiar stabbing pain returning.

Alice avoided Margarete's eyes even more when Yuri's arm encircled around her waist and prevented her fall. She still could however, hear Margarete mumbling something

"…he can't…no, you're being stupid. She's not as pretty as you are." She tried vainly to block out the cheerleaders' miserable murmuring.

"Sorry." Alice muttered indistinctly.

"We can't wait here all night." Margarete said, "Why don't we drop her off home so we can go back to the-"

Alice was about to agree that they should drop her off right now but Yuri cut Margarete off first. "We? There is no 'we' Margarete."

Her pale eyes glared at him. "Oh yes there is! I'm the one who showed you where she is! Without me, there would NOT be a YOU, so instead there's a WE!"

"No," Yuri disagreed. "I could've done it with Kurando. He would've shown me."

"Kurando?" Margarete scoffed, "I'm the one who CALLED Kurando, mister! You STILL wouldn't have found her without me! In fact I think I can help her myself! You don't have to help her. You can go back and make fun of people with the rest of your obnoxious friends!"

"As if you don't make fun of people, that's the only thing you and your snobby friends do. And what do you mean YOU'RE the one who called Kurando? If you called him, who called you?"

Margarete raised her chin. "I was with Alice!"

"Oh really," Yuri remarked sardonically. "I wonder why you didn't get beat up. YOU probably set it up!"

"Guys--" Alice's feeble attempt to regain calm was pointless. She could barely be heard over the other two's heated argument.

"I set it up?" Margarete yelled, "How could I have set it up? Alice and I are like--are like BEST FRIENDS! Lucia came to me and told me she wanted to talk to us, so I led Alice out there where Karin was waiting! But we didn't know--"

"Wait a minute," Yuri cut her off, sounding serious now. "What do you mean you led Elliot out there where Karin was waiting?" he narrowed his glowing brown eyes. "So you did set the whole thing up."

"Yuri," Alice started.

"What?" Margarete blinked, not shouting anymore.

"Huh--" she gasped, "No! That's not what I meant! I swear!" her voice changed from angry to upset, "I didn't! I promise--no! It wasn't what I meant to say!"

"I'm sure," Yuri said harshly, suddenly grabbing Alice's arm and steering her away from the trembling cheerleader. "That's not what you meant. I believe you. Just go back and dance, okay Margarete?"

"No!" Margarete cried, almost tearfully. "I--I want to help!"

"Fine. Be helpful and fuck off." Yuri growled back.

Alice thought he was being ruthless and inconsiderate. Margarete was practically in tears!

"Yuri.." Alice sucked in her breath, watching Margarete's pretty face crumble. But Yuri just turned Alice and himself away from her.

Alice looked over her shoulder as Yuri began dragging her somewhere--maybe to the bench. She tried called out to Margarete, feeling her insides clench guiltily as Margarete suddenly bolted into the school.

Alice struggled against Yuri's grip and finally he let go, not looking at her. "She didn't do it, you know." She said a bit nervously and a bit angrily, wobbling dangerously on her injured knee.

Yuri slumped onto the bench, "I know." He admitted still not looking at her. "She was just so annoying. She gets on my nerves." His evident amber eyes finally glanced in her direction. "I can't believe you actually made me go on a blind date with her, Elliot."

Alice finally cracked a small sheepish smile and slid down beside him gingerly. "Yeah… she sort of… asked me to." She confessed, now grinning at his expression.

"She asked you to?" Yuri repeated incredulously. "And you went along with it?"

"So," Alice shrugged, rubbing her kneecap. "It didn't bother me."

He glanced at her, but she didn't notice, still leaning forward massaging her knee, trying to subside the ache. When she sat back he was still looking at her and she finally noticed when she glanced back at him.

Her mouth went dry and Alice searched for something to say, but nothing came to mind. Alice was aware of how close his face was to hers.

Unexpectedly he leaned forward and her large blue eyes widened when she realized what he was about to do and drew back an inch.

Yuri's thumb tilted her chin up. Their faces were only an inch apart, not to mention lips. His deep amber eyes penetrated into her azure ones and…

He pulled away at the last second, swallowing hard. "I better get you home." He said abruptly.

"Yeah..."

You guys are going to kill me for leaving it at this point huh? I can't wait to see what you all think about it!

I'm tired from finishing up my final paper due tomorrow so sorry my comments aren't long.

fireinu – Your style of speech cracks me up!

Aegis – cool your jets! And yeah Kurando's stupood for going in there and so is Margie.

Yaara – Ah, thanks!

Asnee – Hey you! You knew a girl like Karin? That sucks. By the way man pixels are sexy.

Allie Cat 2381 – I'm still thinking if Ana and Kurando should meet…hmm..

Lil Doro – Love your comments, thanks for reading!

SonChan – XD Mystery voice. I just had to do it, even though it was lame.

Unknown Heart – Wow I hope everything is okay! And I'm glad you love my story so much, both you and your friend Rita. Thanks, it means so much.

F-chan1 – I sure am evil, you know it.

Kingleby – Kurando the savior! Or not. XD

Kendra – Hi! You always enjoy my fic and it makes me filled with glee, thank ya!

Sweet Heavens – Thank you for your constructive review I'll work on what I can. You always put me in a spotlight and I get nervous! Haha

A Rose in the Night – Hope you liked this!

Anime-Alee – Just for you! Some YurixAlice moments:D

Aliceelliot – Yes, yes I am insane. –rolls eyes-

Moric – arigatou!

Roxsheena – You like like:D Get online more often!

Starling94 – Yay new reviewer thanks for your support!

Lord Kain – Thanks for your kind words

ChoaticArchangel – Aahaha thanks!