Author's Note: Ah yes, another update. It's been awhile since I've been able to do these. With everything that's going on, I'm taking my final real break before June and using it as an opportunity to finish this story. Of course, I also don't want to rush the story, but it was already alost finished where I last left off, thankfully. Anyway, don't forget to tell me what you think, or reprimand me for my long hiatus. Read, Review, Rejoice!

Chapter 14:
Falling in Place

After a long discussion that ended in a surprisingly passionate semi-public quickie, Kaname and Momomi finally remembered some unfinished business they were supposed to attend to. By now they were running late. Kaname wasn't worried though, it wasn't important to her.

They arrived to their predetermined meeting spot… forty minutes behind schedule. Still, Kaname was pissed to find that her client wasn't there. She growled under her breath, "That girl…"

…

The Aoi household was silent, careful not to break the fragile moment. They were all peacefully together after their tragic separation. Yes, they were all at peace.

Or at least… that's what one would hope.

Yes, the household was immersed in silence, but it was far from peaceful. The air grew tense immediately after their guests had left.

Mrs. Aoi gave a heavy sigh before deciding to cut through the dense atmosphere. "Shizuma, I know this is sudden, but we have to talk."

"Mom, we talked about this!" Nagisa let out in an accidental outburst. Immediately calming herself, she reasoned, "Shizuma's been through a lot, could you just let her rest please?"

Yuujirou interjected, "Honey, look-"

"Yuuji, please." the elder cherry head stopped him. She returned her glance to Shizuma, who was now staring at her intently, still wrapped in the arms of her darling lover. "I want to have a heart-to-heart with Shizuma. Is there anything wrong with that?"

Even Yuujirou was incapable of challenging his wife when she got like this. Admitting his defeat, he shook his head, though he was concerned at what was to come. He knew his wife could get quite vicious when she was ready.

"I'm fine with it." Shizuma offered, sliding herself up with the usual grace, though it took more effort than usual. "Truth be told, I wanted to talk with you since the day I came here." She narrowed her eyes with the usual confidence. This was Shizuma Hanazono, confident and fearless.

Yumiko grinned to herself. "So this is the confidence Nagisa preached about. So you're showing your claws now, eh Shizuma."

"Well, I'll be blunt." The angelic cherry-head let her smile falter slightly showing a serious expression. "I don't trust you Shizuma."

"That makes two of us."

"Is that so?" Mrs. Aoi was taken slightly aback by the sudden straightforwardness. "Well, I don't truthfully want you to trust me."

"No." Shizuma laughed slightly, "I meant I don't always trust myself. Sometimes it's hard to realize how incapable I really am."

"And you expect me to trust you with my daughter?" The former MMA champ spoke with genuine concern. By this time even Mr. Aoi watched Shizuma with anxious curiosity, wondering what kind of stunt she would pull to get herself out of this. "Am I supposed to believe your feelings are real?"

"No ma'am!" Shizuma admitted with gusto, staggering slightly and placing a hand over the bandages around her neck. "Whoops, got a little too excited there." Shizuma laughed, vaguely wincing.

Nagisa internally screamed when she heard the response her silver-haired lover gave. She could see her mother ripping her out of Shizuma's arms and carting her away with them, never to return to Japan again. "Shizuma!" She scolded, "Now isn't the time to be clowning around. She'll seriously separate us."

"I'm not playing." Shizuma pouted. "I'm being totally honest. This is a heart-to-heart."

"Honest…" Yumiko scoffed. "Well, I guess I can respect that."

Their discussion was interrupted by the ringing of the doorbell. Yumiko moved to answer it.

Swinging her feet, a familiar blunette sat on a bench anxiously. Observing the artistic spectacle of the statue that stood imposingly at the very center of the park, she sipped on a can of soda impatiently.

"She's late." The girl sighed looking over at a clock near the park entrance. "But I'm scared to move." she ashamedly admitted to herself.

After a few more boring minutes of uneventful waiting, something caught the blunette's eyes, or rather, someone. A beauty with snow white hair and eyes as blue and cold as ice seemed to be approaching her. The woman subconsciously commanded attention, garnering the eyes of everyone in her range.

"Excuse me." The woman spoke softly. "I haven't been in this area for awhile and I'm a bit lost. You don't seem to be busy, but if I'm bothering you-"

"Oh no, not at all!" the blunette flailed. "So polite." she thought to herself. "If there's any way I can help, Suzumi Tamao is always willing to do so.", realizing how awkward she must have sounded only after she spoke.

Though a little surprised, a small chuckle broke the woman's stern features. "Thank you."

Before realizing the weight of what she had done, Tamao already found herself accompanying the white haired woman in a slick, midnight blue Lexus LF-C. What she had done only weighed upon her conscience as the two pulled away from the park. The park she was supposed to be meeting Kaname in.

"Are you alright? You look like you're sweating."

"Eh!" Tamao snapped out of her reverie. Wiping the cold sweat from her forehead she gave an uneasy chuckle, "Ah no, it's nothing. You said it's been awhile since you last visited this area?"

"Yes, I visited a friend of mine that lives in the area very often. Though I haven't done so in ages."

"Are you here to visit that friend?" Tamao probed with innocent curiosity.

"Well technically, no." the woman laughed, amused. "I actually have a daughter that moved out here recently. But I thought it would be a good excuse to see my old friend. That, and I have a few things I'm finally willing to clear up."

"Sounds like a busy schedule."

"By the way, why were you sitting around in the park like that?"

"I was waiting on someone… but it seems they were a no show." Tamao spoke more wishfully than anything. "If Kaname shows up and I'm not there, she's going to kill me!" she internally panicked.

"I'm sorry, was it a date?"

Giving a straight-man's wave, Tamao immediately fanned off the assumption. "Nothing of the sort."

The two sat quietly for awhile as the car eased its way through the traffic ahead of it. Suddenly, something caught Tamao's mind.

"Now that I think about it, I thought you said you would need help with the directions?" the blunette pointed out as they continued to cruise through the cars ahead of them.

Soon the white-haired woman realized that she had been navigating herself the whole time. "I guess my body still knows where to go and is acting on auto-pilot. I traveled this way so many times in the past, I guess even though my mind forgot, my body has it programmed. I'm sorry that I wasted your time though."

"Oh no, it's alright. It seems we're very close to a close friend of mine's home, so I'll just walk there." she spoke with her favorite cherry-head on mind.

"That's a relief." the older woman breathed, pulling into the driveway of a familiar looking, middle-class sized house.

"Eh, how did you know this was it?" Tamao questioned.

"What do you mean, this is my friend's home." the white-haired woman responded quizzically, ringing the doorbell.

"Where are we going Kaname?" Momomi whined.

Kaname sped through traffic, donning her usual cool expression. They left the park almost immediately after realizing their client wasn't there. "I had a tracker placed in her phone for such an occasion. By the looks of things, it seems she's headed to strawberry-head's home."

"You're going out of your way for her?" Momomi snickered. "How uncharacteristic!"

"You misunderstand my intentions Momomi." the genius explained. "I am simply about to teach her the importance of staying put and being patient. After all, they say it's a virtue."

"Is that all?" the brown-haired girl scoffed. "Well whatever, I expected you'd try to redeem yourself after being called soft."

Kaname smirked. "Yes, let's go with that excuse. Truth be told, I've been hoping to raise some mayhem. Today has been too sappy for my liking. Not to mention, Chikaru doesn't seem to be the slight bit interested in our game, and Mr. Hex already stuck his thumb where it didn't belong, messing up my game setup.", she sighed. "It's like having to reset a chessboard at the climax of the game, it's disheartening to say the least."

The duo turned the corner and was met by a midnight blue car in the driveway. Confirming her co-ordinates one more time, Kaname affirmed, "That's definitely the ride that brought her here. And there's the blunette now." Kaname spotted the blue blob of hair, standing just out front of the cherry-head's front door.

Kaname pulled into the driveway, jumping out of her seat as she growled, "Suzumi, Tamao…"

"Kaname, you're here!" said girl squeaked in a panic as she saw the imposing figure grow ever so nearer.

"Kaname?" The white-haired woman repeated as she turned to face the couple coming up behind them. "As in my daughter?"

"Mother-"

"Aunt-"

The ingenious couple spoke simultaneously before turning toward each other in even more confusion. "Did you just say-"

Interrupted by the sound of the opening door, the four's attention was pulled by a single call. "Ritsuko?" The angelic, elder cherry-head gasped as she opened the door.

"Yumiko…"

Author's Note: Yea, I know. A lot of confusion around the ending. And yes also the chapter was very short. It's sort of an important connector. As you can clearly tell, we're arriving to the climax of the story. I guarantee, we are going to find out a lot of answers in the next chapter, though when it will be out is still unclear, (hopefully before New Year's). Anyway, I know I'm a few minutes late, but I'll still consider it my Christmas update XP I'm sure it's still Christmas somewhere!