Disclaimer: Nothing's mine but the plot! Enjoy and Review, por favor!

A/N: This chapter is quite…angst ridden, but it is necessary lol I promise it won't be sad!

Chapter One

"And this is Maria-sama. We pray to her every day before school," Yumi finished, tilting her head up to the wavy-haired girl, whose head was cocked to the right as she thought a short prayer.

"It's lovely," the older girl replied and was about to continue when a shorter, feirce looking girl was drill-like pigtails came up beside Yumi and fixed her with a glare.

"Ah, Touko-chan," Yumi said slowly, resigned to the younger girl's attitude.

Touko nodded, her gaze fixed on the new girl who just barely resembled her cousin's petite souer. (notice, Touko hasn't accepted the rosary at this point)

"Ano...," Yumi began awkwardly, "Touko, this is Himeya Yamato and Yamato-chan, this is Touko, a friend of the Yamayurikai."

"Good day," Yamato said, smiling and giving a little wave. Touko's expression hardened as she nodded again and latched onto Yumi's arm as she had been wont to do once she and Yumi had gotten closer. The younger girl was reluctant to admit it but she had become rather attatched to the somewhat aloof girl and she had her cousin's temper and possessive traits. The difference was that Sachiko preferred to control these qualities...to an extent...that didn't involve Satou Sei, the previous Rosa Gigantea.

They stood there awkwardly for a moment before Yamato took charge and began walking towards the academy before they were late. Yumi followed with Touko still attatched to her arm.

Touko glared at the new girl's back- there was a closeness between Yumi and Yamato that she couldn't exactly place, but the aura between them felt familiar. Affectionate but distanced, loving and no boundaries to separate them because something seemed to stand in the way. She tightened her grasp- she didn't like the closeness between the two.

Later, at the Rose Mansion...

"The newspaper club is asking us to participate in the winter festival," Rosa Chinesis and Yumi's onee-sama, Ogasawara Sachiko was saying as the final members of the Yamayurikai arrived.

Yoshino and Yumi had been held up by cleaning duty in their class and Touko was simply not governed by others's time schedules, so the three hurried and strolled (respectively) in late. Sachiko sighed inwardly as her cousin slumped reluctantly into the seat beside the tall Kanako-chan but was quickly distracted by the pretty girl who had entered with her petite souer. "Yumi?" she asked, her gaze settling on the other girl.

"Oh, yes, I'm sorry," Yumi stuttered, her face red and her eyes wide in her traditional embarrassed look. "This is Himeya Yamato, everyone, and this is the Yamayurikai, the student council, onee-chan," Yumi babbled, using her half-sister's nickname in her rush. While Yamato smiled down gently at Yumi, Sachiko's eyes had narrowed ever so slightly, and her aura had become icy. Only Hasakura Rei, Rosa Foetida, noticed, and tried to control the situation by smiling warmly at Yamato and gesturing towards the table. Relieved, Yumi sat down in the first seat she saw and Yamato took the seat beside her. Yoshino headed for Rei before realizing that she was surrounded by Sachiko on her left and Kanako on her right- she wisely chose to only send her angry glare towards Kanako before plopping down heatedly on the other side of Yumi. Rei sweat-dropped, her mouth stuck open in a dopey smile as she feared for Kanako's life.

"Welcome, Himeya-san," Shimako stated warmly, smiling back in her soft, kindly way. "Of course you are welcome at any time as Yumi-chan's guest." Then quickly, "Ah, the newspaper club-" She took over Sachiko's speech, as Rosa Chinesis seemed dangerously close to entering what the Yamayurikai had come to know as 'hysterical mode'. Her hands were gripping the stack of papers in front of her so tightly that her knuckles were paler than usual and she was so rigidly calm and her aura was so frozen that both Rei and Yoshino visibly cringed.

After the meeting had gratefully concluded, Yumi and Yamato left together, walking towards the bus stop.

"I don't think Ogasawara-sama liked me too much," Yamato stated thoughtfully, though it obviously didn't faze her very much. She was quite like Shimako in her temperment, though not as mysterious.

"Onee-sama's just...quiet," Yumi said, obviously having been on a completely different planet for the entire meeting or just very, very oblivious. "She's really the kindest, most beautiful, caring girl in the world. I don't understand why she chose me when she could have had any other girl as her petite souer but I'm so glad she did. It takes her a while to warm up to someone but...what?"

Yamato was grinning down at her half-sister slyly. "You're so obvious, Yu-mi-chan," she said stroking Yumi's pigtails fondly. Yumi almost lost herself, remembering how Sachiko-sama had done the same only a week before. "You love her, don't you?"

Instantly Yumi jumped to her defenses, but her crimson blush gave her away. "No! That would be wrong because she's my onee-sama and I'm her petite souer and she's so perfect and I'm so...me." Yumi dropped her head. Yamato pursed her lips- the fact that Yumi had begun by naming their relationship and then skipped straight to excuses hadn't escaped her notice. Yumi's final answer was so quiet that the older girl almost missed it. "Yes."

It was impossible to lie to Yamato, even though she had been off in America for the better part of two years. Yumi bit her lip and stared down at her feet- she knew Yamato would accept her no matter what but would onee-sama? She was afraid of not being able to hide her feelings from Rosa Chinesis- was she really so obvious? So when Yamato wrapped her arms around Yumi's trembling form, the younger girl allowed herself to fall apart before the elegant Maria-sama.

Yumi sobbed into her half-sister's arms and her sobs only became harder and more painful because no matter how hard she wished and no matter how much she loved Yamato, these arms weren't onee-sama's.

And Yamato rested her chin on top of her half-sister's head and tightened her hold on Yumi as sthe sobs increased because she knew why. I'm sorry, Yumi, she thought sadly. I'm sorry but I'm not her.

From a few meters away, a certain Red Rose stopped in her tracks- she had followed Yumi to formally introduce herself and perhaps do just a little more than offer a kind 'Good Day' to 'onee-chan', but right as she had been about to call her petite-souer's name she saw Yumi fall into the pretty girl's arms. She stood frozen for a moment before qalking quickly in the opposite direction. She was Ogasawara Sachiko, and she would not stand there and watch as another girl embraced her petite souer. And if she had been anyone but, she would have stormed over and interrogated Himeya-sama anyway, because it was her right. But she was, so she simply walked away.

She didn't hear Yumi's muffled sobs- Yamato had seen Sachiko out of the corner of her eye and decided that the last thing her little Yumi needed was to be embarrassed in front of her onee-sama, so she had tilted Yumi's head into her shoulder to cut off the noise.

Sachiko didn't feel Yumi trembling against her as Yamato did- she was too far away, even at a mere few meters to notice her petite souer's tremors.

What Sachiko saw was another girl embracing her Yumi as she never had, and she told herself that she was walking away because she was above the petty emotions but in reality because she knew that Yumi would never cling to her like that. She was walking away because she was not Touko, and though they shared the same temperment and possessive tendencies, she would not- could not simply stalk over to the two girls and attach herself firmly to Yumi's arm to show the intruder that Yumi was hers first, last, and everything in between.

She wished that she could rush over and steal her Yumi back but the truth stabbed her like a shard of glass to her heart. Yumi would never let Sachiko hold her like that- or she would, but only because she firmly believed in 'anything to make onee-sama happy'. I'm sorry that I'm not her, Sachiko thought bitterly.

And if she'd paused for a moment, she might have realized the significance of the thought that had occured to her only moments before because Yumi really would do anything to make her happy and she knew it. She just needed to see a little bit further.