This might have been a bit of a meh chapter. Sorry if it's displeasing. I'm trying to get the transitioning down before we get to the juicy stuff... Thank you Mermaid Monster for reviewing. It was so sweet to read and made me a giddy, giggly little schoolgirl. Thanks for your favorites and follows!

I also wish the chapter titles would allow punctuation.

Miyazono Kaori; Her Lie in April

To be honest, Kosei hadn't been ready at all to say goodbye at the end of that number.

But it was all tangible, the color that blossomed and weaved around his heart, a constriction that stung his eyes fiercely as he watched her essence ebb away into the ugly fluorescent lights of the piano hall.

He ran into the pianists' quarters, slid against the wall, and broke down into heart wrenching sobs. Nothing could explain the pain that tore and ate away at him, like he was being drowned in a sea of deafness, of monotonous black and white. Once again, his world was ripped in half, the iridescent core that was Miyazono Kaori melted away in the ruthless ocean.

Idiot.

Ah, it sounds just like her inside his mind.

You should be jumping for joy because of that performance, not crying like a big baby. Only a true jackass would behave like that.

"You're dead," his weak, barely resonant words fell from his lips like the sick mantra repeating itself in his deteriorating mind. The black void before him only seemed to grow larger, engulfing his bowed frame, tugging at his arms and legs.

What? Who the hell said that? I'm way too tough for that. I've still got to kick your butt for eating my caméles last time.

Kosei smiled mournfully, heart plummeting to the depths of his stomach. How could she haunt him so callously? Yet he found himself leaning toward her voice, grasping at the dwindling chance to hear those scornful, contradicting words of hers.

"I'm sorry I couldn't bring them again."

NO, IDIOT, BRING THEM NOW!

Kosei yelped and cracked his head against the wall, his world exploding with color and light. His ears stung and throbbed faintly as he stared with large eyes at the red phone held in front of his face, illuminating the fond address of 'Kaori-chan' in a current phone call.

Kosei's haggard breathing halted completely, and his gaze met Watari's watery golden-brown. Tsubaki whimpered from behind him, fruitlessly trying to hold back the tears running down her cheeks in endless torrents. Emi and Takeshi watched on from a short distance, dismayed and at a loss of what to do.

The little salvaged hope that had resided in his chest flared up and spindled warmly into every pore of his body, his heart restarting with a strong palpitation, a heavier current of tears almost completely obscuring his brimmed vision.

"Miyazono…"

Her tinkling laugh was like a field of flourishing sunflowers, bright, vim, pulsating with energy, though she had to have just gotten out of surgery.

"You've got me, you know. How many times do I have to say that?"

Just like that, she plundered the darkness swelling inside of his heart and replaced it with her light, abounding presence. He couldn't speak, but simply close his eyes and wail as something like a muffled sob trickled from the receiver in turn. Watari and Tsubaki collapsed in front of Kosei and threw themselves at him, enveloping him in the warmest hug that sent them sprawling.

Finally, when their cries had died down to violent hiccups and quiet snivels, Kaori mustered a congested proposition to sate the disbelieving silence.

"Say… I'm actually really hungry right now."

Kaori picked at her bedsheets and gazed out the window again, closing her eyes and grinning into a fragrant breeze that lifted her blonde hair into a joyous waltz.

"The sky is alive!" She laughed happily as sparse clouds drifted among the deep blue sky that surely smiled back at her, sending another cool gust that tickled her warming skin. The color was already returning to her cheeks, and the nurses constantly bragged upon the vigorous blush that filled her livening features when complimented on her miraculous revival.

A ragged growl severed Kaori's content revere and her viridescent gaze fell on her stomach. She laughed lightly and grimaced, patting away the angry hunger pains making her stomach gurgle unseemly.

"Don't worry," she sighed, eyes falling on the crosswalk that waited for three familiar feet to fall upon it's desolate lines, "they're coming."

Arima Kosei was not athletic. He was short of breath within a few lengths, lagging behind in a short spurt of time. His limbs were awkward and not muscled, and felt like spaghetti after climbing the stairway in school one too many times.

But, as he ran for the hospital, his breathing labored and heavy, he ran faster than Watari and Tsubaki. His legs pumped at a very un-Kosei speed, with unprecedented strength and sturdiness. Tsubaki's violently forced jogging sessions during their childhood were quickly becoming sacred in Kosei's mind as the hospital tumbled into sight.

His heart was beating unnaturally fast, and it wasn't because of the exert his body wasn't used to. His mind was filled with her, the look on her face when he would burst through the door, when he presented the caméles he bought in a rush, the flood of questions he wanted to ask her, the elegant thrush of her golden blonde hair that swished over her shoulders when she turned her head about, her eyes that regarded him so contemptuously, so exasperatedly, so fondly, so mystifyingly.

And he was presented with these possibilities as he stood before the door marked 'Miyazono Kaori', his chest heaving, sweat soaking his hairline, eyes racing porously over every detail of that stifling room the second he opened the door, stepped inside, and closed it behind him.

Everything was in slow motion as she turned away from her open window, offered a brilliant smile, and shouted an excited, "My caméles!"

"My caméles," fell from her lips once again, but out of irritation as Kosei dropped the package onto the ground out of astonishment.

She was so bright. Vivid. The light in her eyes was real, the vexed quirk of her eyebrows, the contort of her lips, the healthy blush returning to her cheeks…. It was all real.

Watari and Tsubaki burst in behind Kosei, panting contrived as they grasped at the wall to remain on their wobbly feet.

More tears sprang to all of their eyes as a silence fell over the room that smelt like cherry blossoms and spring and antiseptics, that tasted like salty tears, that shone with an entire world full of new feasibilities.

Kaori gripped Kosei's hands tightly, his dark azure eyes running over her fragile body in anxious circuits. She trembled and grunted, screwing her eyes as she came to an unstable stand.

"Don't force yourself, okay? You only got out of surgery a week ago—"

"I can do it." Her stormy grey eyes cleared for a moment, forgetting her strain and sweat beginning to bead at her hairline. "I can do it."

Kosei bit his lip to refrain from saying anything further just as his gaze rested on a sealed letter on Kaori's night table, brow furrowing in curiosity.

"Who'd you write to?"

Her blonde hair tumbled in rivulets around her face as Kaori jerked her head to the side, quickly losing balance as panic ensued when Kosei made a move toward the pristinely white envelope.

He yelped as she fell backward, hands falling on her shoulders to push her far enough to land on the plush billow of her bedsheets. Kosei fell forward, miraculously missing the bed by a hairs width and slamming his forehead onto the metal frame.

"Ow, ow, ow…." He clutched a hand to the madly pulsating abrasion as Kaori gasped and, naturally, fell into a fit of uncontrollable giggles. Kosei glared up at her through tilted lenses, pursing his lips to fit back a grin through the stinging ache. Honestly, he couldn't help it as he allowed the laughter bubbling up in his chest to seep out of his mouth.

Her movements, her breathing, her smiles, her laughter, everything was so much more fluid and graceful, even if she was as unstable as a newborn deer on her feet. But, day by day, he got to experience the endless wrath and perseverance that was Miyazono Kaori as she took another step, activated more dormant muscles, flashed him that rewarding smile that sent his heart in a flurry of uncontrollable shutters.

She was amazing, she was strong, and she was closer to him than ever.

He would visit almost every day, bring by her violin, a tape and stereo that played his sessions on repeat so that she could scrutinize every little detail for him to correct and punctuate. To help her build more strength in her weak little legs, to depend on him less each and every day, to slide her bow against the barren strings of her violin and create the resonance she loved most.

The way she would mash her lips together when he prodded about the letter and avert her eyes, how she would laugh and lean on him, her fingers accidentally brushing his, the way she pushed her bangs out of her face and sent him little smiles here and there when he brought her work from school and explained the criteria. Little things brought them closer, and Kosei felt his yearning grow clearer and bolder. There were moments where they flung apart when Watari, Tsubaki or a nurse entered the room, blushing indiscreetly and avoiding prying gazes.

It was starting to eat at him. Kosei was resolved to confess his feelings for Kaori the day she came out of the operation room and lived, but the situation proved too overwhelming for him to choke out those sacred words, much less in front of her parents and their friends. The time wasn't right, and he didn't know when it was. He couldn't read signals, her mood, or her swinging temper that knocked him straight off his feet.

Arima Kosei, the patient, passive pianist, was growing restless and terse.

He was early. He hadn't bothered practicing piano after school; he would visit Kaori shortly and head straight home for his daily sessions with Seto and Nagi.

Kosei took a breath and tucked his fingers into the slit of the door to slide it open, preparing himself for Medusa's spleen as he stepped into the brightly lit room. He found it vacant, but was unsurprised. Kaori tended to be with the doctor at this time of day in the Physical Rehabilitation room.

Setting down the parcel of treats, Kosei turned to leave before catching the bright sheen of white blaring like a beacon from Kaori's bedside, and he turned a intrigued eye on the familiar, untouched note.

Kaori would be very, very angry if he touched the letter. She specifically said not to even give it a second glance or thought, but that made him all the more tortured to reveal its contents. Kosei was tired of secrets, especially after the serious episodes with the maniacal girl he loved.

Taking a quick glance at his surroundings, he tentatively peeled off the black kitten sticker sealing the letter and unraveled her lie in April.