Disclaimer: Not mine.

Chapter Five: Second Chance?

Sanae opened her eyes carefully, her head still a little groggy with sleep, before she noticed a firm hold on her left hand. Sitting up, her eyes softened at the sight of the sleeping cook hunched over by her bed, she felt guilty for having him sacrifice so much for her.

Gently, she peeled her hand off his and draped a blanket over his shoulders, then she said to herself she would be the one cooking him breakfast this morning.

--

Izawa nuzzled the phone between his ear and shoulder, before he took out a pen and tore off a sheet of paper from his notebook. Genzou was waiting outside the booth, hands shoved deep in his pockets and eyes trailing suspiciously on a girl that just crossed the street.

Izawa ignored him and focused on the numbers that was given to him.

"Right, got it. Thanks man, I owe you one."

"No problem." The voice on the other line said. "Just give my well-wishes to the captain."

Izawa chuckled. News travel fast indeed.

"How did it go?" Genzou asked automatically when he opened the door. Izawa gave him a thumbs-up, and the keeper breathed a sigh of relief, than lifted his head as if he remembered something.

"How did Nakazawa look like, actually?"

"Uh… brown hair, I suppose." He began.

Genzou shifted. "Chestnut?"

"Exactly! Small face—" Izawa trailed off, or rather, was cut off.

"Petite, white skin, small feet and dark doe-like eyes, chocolate with a tint of red and black." Genzou angled his head at his teammate, smirking. "Isn't that right?"

Izawa swore he felt the ground scrape his jaw from falling so hard. "H-how the hell did you know that?"

Genzou pointed at the edge of the market area, where a certain girl was looking at some string beans, and Izawa was suddenly glad that their phone lines had been cut the day before. Every cloud has a silver lining after all.

--

When Taro woke up, he had two disappointments. One, Sanae was nowhere to be find. Two, he felt like the street after an hour's stampede.

"Son of a…" he trailed off, wincing as he stretched his back. It wasn't good for one's posture to sleep hunched like that, he knew, but he had been too preoccupied with Sanae's illness to really care at that time.

He walked out of the room, confirmed Sanae was not around, and went to the bathroom to take a bath. He knew Sanae like the back of his hand, and knew for certain that she wouldn't forgive herself if she didn't do anything to pay him back. And seeing as she wasn't in the servant's chambers and their masters were still fast asleep in their beds…

…she had to be in the market, he was sure of that.

Krizzie: Wah! I'm so sorry for the late update, but I totally forgot about this story because I had been so focused with WTTLT! Anyway, I told Yuki we'd talk about this once classes resume. Hopefully, we'll still be in the same class together to prevent any problems. grins Review?