Hiya! Long time no see! Well, this author's been shifting to a scientist these past few weeks and she really is sorry for keeping everyone for so long. T_T Research studies are sometimes just bummers. Anyway, here is the chapter I promised. And WARNING. Read to find out. :D

Just enjoy!

The Rose in Between

by four-eyed 0-0

CHAPTER SEVEN

Inoue subconsciously folded the cuff of her coat as she skidded to a halt by the car that had been waiting for her in the parking lot. Her watch displayed a good quarter after four. And Hiro was out of school two hours ago. She should have been out of office, driving him home before attending to another meeting. But she was late. All because of a board room meeting.

Shaking her head, Inoue unlocked the car's door and hurriedly slid into the driver's seat, nonchalantly tossing her bag onto the passenger's. She quickly revved the car and pulled out of the parking lot, before she began speeding to the main road. Hiro's school was a good thirty minutes from her office and the jammed traffic helped not in easing her nerves. What was he doing now? Was he safe and sound? With a heart drumming so wildly, Inoue sped through the roads of the city.

By the time the car screeched to a halt by the school gate, the mother threw the door wide open and slammed it shut, so that the glass window trembled menacingly. Upon the sight of the quiet and stillness of the school, a throb in her chest began to build itself, as though about to poison her. Every time her son heard her car he would be running to meet her up. But no Hiro was trotting to her now.

"Guard?" she half shouted, so that the addressed had a panic across his face when he showed up, running. Before he could open his mouth, she asked, "Akihiro, my son, the one with the red hair who always wait for me by your post, where is he?"

The guard scratched his head and shifted his weight from one foot to another. "Ma'am, someone had—"

"What? Fetched him just now?" Inoue screamed, clutching at her skirt. "Didn't I tell you to never let him get out of your sight? And when was it that I had given you the authority to entrust my child to a stranger without my consent?" She was now flailing her arms in wide angles and was so aggravated that she grabbed the collar of the poor employee. "I thought you were supposed to be a guard. How stupid of you!" She pointed a finger at him. "Should anything happen to my son, I'll let you pay for that!"

The man held up his hands. "Ma'am…" he started nervously, "your son had been crying. We called your office for more than five times but the secretary said you're in the middle of a meeting and then the boy took out what looked like a beeper."

"Beeper?" She was still appalled.

"Yes, Ma'am," the guard replied in such a shaky voice. "Then minutes later, a man with red hair and green eyes like your son came—"

Inoue's eyes widened. It was surely Kurama. "And you gave my son to him, you fool?"

"Ma'am, I thought he was your husband. The two of them are carbon copies! And your son was ever glad to see him."

"That doesn't count as an excuse! That just proves how stupid you are! Not just because a redhead with green eyes comes trotting over can you tell he is in anyway related to a young boy!" Inoue bellowed. "I'll see you after I sort this out, you jerk!" And before the guard could argue once more, she had pulled the car to the street and was dashing toward their house.

What had he been thinking? Giving Hiro a beeper? What was he up to? She thought he had made it clear he would not bother them with that little act of his giving a rose to her. But hell, he was still the fox she knew so deeply. If only had she known this was going to happen, she shouldn't have agreed to Hiro's wish of being civil to him.

She knew she was being selfish and all, but the prospect of losing her son all because of him made her feel scared. No way was she letting him take her son away from her. She bore Hiro in her womb for nine months and raised him all by herself, without even him knowing. He had not even known he had a son after all these years. And who did he think he was, waltzing back to their lives and then grabbing his first chance to take Hiro? She would not let that happen at all.

She did not wait for the guard to open the mansion's gate before hopping down the vehicle and dashing into it. Her eyes almost popped out of their sockets at the sight of her son and Kurama happily talking while munching on some biscuits and hot chocolate. Hiro was the first one to see her and he jumped out of the couch to wrap his arms about her middle.

"Hello, Mum!"

Inoue did not take her eyes off Kurama's who now stood, watching them apprehensively. Without looking at her son, she said under her breath, "Akihiro, go to your room." Her face was stony.

"Mum?"

"I said, go to your room."

"Are you—"

Inoue yanked his arms off her and screamed, "I demand you to go to your room NOW!" The boy's eyes welled up with tears and he went running, wailing, up the stairs. Inoue bowed her head as a tear fell from her eye. She wiped it away before looking gravelly at Kurama.

As the slamming of the door of her son's room echoed through the house, Kurama said, "Inoue-san, I can explain—"

It happened in a wink. She strode toward him and slapped him across the face with an open hand. Soon, her voice was heard, thundering. "WHOEVER SAID YOU CAN PUT A TOE OUT OF LINE? I WAS OUT THERE, ALMOST GOING INSANE WHEN I DID NOT FIND MY SON IN SCHOOL! AND THEN I WILL SEE YOU IN MY HOUSE, SNACKING WITH HIM? WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, HUH? YOU ARE NO ONE! YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO MEDDLE WITH THE TWO OF US! HOW THICK OF YOU!" She paused, glaring at his deadpan expression. "It hurts, doesn't it? It serves you just right. You shouldn't have gone that far. This is none of your business. Akihiro is never your business, you heard me?"

Kurama exhaled and closed his eyes. "I am sorry."

"Sorry? As expected! If anyone can say they're sorry and be forgiven, what's the use of implementing laws?"

"Look, I know it's all my fault. Please don't hurt your son."

Inoue smirked. "Who are you to tell me that? He is my flesh and blood. I can reprimand him when the necessity comes."

"I am a concerned friend of the young boy whom you are planning to reprimand, that is."

"Huh. A friend. I thought friends are supposed to not influence you to doing bad things. Like doing things without permission. Like what you just allowed my son to do, mister." She tilted an eyebrow and glowered at him.

Kurama heaved a weary sigh. "I have no choice. He, in truth, was crying his heart out when I arrived in the school," he said, looking her straight in the eyes. "And you did not notice his swollen eyes at all. You were too mad about what happened. And tomorrow, it will be no wonder if he would not be able to open his eyes, what with the crying he's doing now." He put his hands inside his pockets. "I thought parents are the best friends of their children, that they ought to consider their feelings, their own good, and that they are able to see through their children's eyes."

Inoue's hands clenched to tight fists that her nails dug into her palm. "What are you trying to tell me, mister? That I am a good-for-nothing mother? I don't give a damn about what people say. Especially when I do not get them. Why does it matter to you that much? What does Hiro have to do with you? What does my family have to do with you?"

"Everything." His emerald-green eyes looked glassy. "Hiro has everything to do with me. Your family has everything to do with me. You, Inoue, have everything to do with me. Everything about you has everything to do with me." His tone was beginning to get cold. She did not like that.

"Wow," she remarked cynically, clapping her hands. "I'm under the impression that we've met barely two months ago. You do not have any point at all." She cocked her head and stepped to the side. Without looking at him, she lazily pointed at the gaping door that he was facing now. "And I bet I have to end this pointless conversation. Out. Of. My. House. NOW," Inoue ordered, rather calmly. "And do NOT consider going back or else I'll call the police for a trespasser on-loose."

She heard quietest footsteps and then he was in front of her, staring at the door. "Do not hurt Hiro. Otherwise, I might as well do some trespassing for his sake. That's a warning, Inoue."

He turned to go but she yanked his wrist as harshly as she could, grabbing his collar and pulling him down so that his face was barely two inches from hers. Through gritted teeth, she hissed, "Do not speak to me like that, Kurama. You are no one to me. You are no one to MY son. A complete nobody."

He chuckled. "Then who's the nobody whose rose is held by the vase on the tabletop? He is a great man. Not all can take good care of fragile things. Like a woman, I suppose. Like a woman whom a man thinks worthy of his love, his care. Too bad, I think the great man was and is still mistaken. Sad he still can't see how unworthy the woman he loves so much of his undying faith. I pity him. He is pathetic." His hands descended on both of hers, which were holding his collar tightly. He squeezed them as he looked down, freeing himself of her firm grasp as he murmured, "I wish he would open his eyes and look into hers the same way he does with his child's."

Inoue let her hands fall to her sides as he gazed at her again with that sad look on his face. His eyes were glassy. Almost beady. A freezing wave travelled down her spine and the hairs on her nape stood on end as a very painful throbbing in her chest made her eyes heat up, tears threatening to fall. How could he say all that? How could he?

"Just get out. Get out of here. GET OUT!" She screamed, pushing him toward the door. He succumbed, but when he was out of the threshold, he cradled her head with his hand and swiftly brushed his lips on hers before walking away.

The brunette let the tears fall from her brown orbs now. She leant on the doorframe for support as sobs came out from her throat. Her knees gave way and she lay there, sprawled upon her door, the barricade between them, the barricade he crossed to kiss her, the barricade he was willing to destroy to tell her everything he felt. He was hurting inside because of a woman he always knew. A changed woman wearing a façade to cover up her past, a past she did not want to be reminded of.

She was a changed woman. She was Inoue, not Anikka. A woman whose heart, however, had not changed at all.

With a nasty realization, she hugged her knees as the now acknowledged truth was driven through her pained chest like a knife.

She still loved him.

He still loved her.

He was Hiro's father.

Nah. Another evilly-done chapter. Yay. Secrets are being "acknowledged," just as what Inoue said. Haha. Poor thing. Just what should I write next? GRINS.

KuramaMustangElric: And yet another upsetting chapter. Haha. Tell me what you think. AND FEEL. LOL. :D

Anyway, please give a review pill for all the stress I'm having. LOL.

Cheers!

~four-eyed 0-0