Hi guys! Sorry, it's been a while-and I apologize for not being able to respond to all the PMs and a few reviews that said to keep writing! School took quite the toll on me.

But enough excuses! Hopefully this next chapter can make up for my (pretty much, though unofficial) hiatus!

Enjoy! AND PLEASE REVIEWWW! teehee ~\(^_^)/~

Sanada sat next to the window, looking out to his family's backyard despite his gaze being not the least bit focused. He simply sat there while his brain completely zoned out and was elsewhere, in the clouds perhaps-but in any case, definitely not where he was currently located.

It felt like his life was suddenly coming apart at the seams. All for just one and only one person.

For the first time, he had seen Yukimura Seiichi break down and bawl like a child who had lost his mother. His parents had gone berserk with panic when their son had not come home with their new "daughter" AND mentioned "daughter" did not come home the entire night. A few days, they got confirmation that she was staying over at Tezuka's, so they calmed down somewhat, but still. It was a nightmare. Everything tied to her-which was a lot of stuff in his life-was breaking down at a record celerity he was absolutely not comfortable with.

Not to mention. He himself was losing sleep and any desire to eat over the issue at hand, as well as spending hours on end considering what his options were. His regulars had already been asking him the past couple days if he was sick; Sanada had not noticed until they mentioned it, but apparently he had developed dark circles under his eyes. Yanagi especially had been concerned about the amount of weight he had lost due his lack of an appetite. Sanada saw his friend looking at him constantly with his forehead creased in worry.

Sanada took off his cap and ran a callused hand through his hair, roughly mussing it up in his frustration. What could he do. What. Could. He. Do?

If this girl wasn't from a family equally traditional as his, or had the personality that she had, there would be no room for debate. He would just keep her from Dameon. Whether by his (nonexistent) suaveness or persuasion or just brute force dammit he'd keep her from that low-life's prying eyes and hands so that she'd stay with him. Because clearly, there was some part of her that wanted to stay in Japan.

But this was Kimiko: heir to the historically famous Moriyama dojos and a girl with a commitment to filial piety that was both impressive and overwhelmingly frustrating. Even if her heart was screaming at her to stay, as Sanada suspected, her wavering thoughts to leave with Dameon already showed that her brain was clicking in and persuading her to go back to Germany.

He didn't want to let that happen. For God's sake, by his grandfather's "decree," she was practically his fiancee now! Who in his right mind would allow a girlfriend-almost-fiancee to walk out of his life with some other dude that claims to be her "true" fiancee? Jeezus, Sanada thought with a deep frown and furrowed brows, his hand gripping his cap tightly. Give me a break! Or some better joke to laugh at.

...Perhaps he had been thinking the wrong way. It wasn't what he could do that was the issue. There was a mountain of possibilities for that question.

The real question at hand was: what should he do?

Of course, he wanted to be with Kimiko if the circumstances allowed. If that wasn't the case, he certainly wouldn't be going out with her-let alone living with her. But when things boiled down to the most basic (and most difficult) issues, his priority was going to be Kimiko's happiness. He wanted her to be happy and not regret what she was doing with her life. Heck, he'd send her off himself if she requested it of him.

Even if it meant that he would be alone for the rest of his life, after learning what it meant to be in a true relationship-because she meant that much to him. She had taught him what it meant to care for the opposite sex, to have consideration for what another party has to say, and to just invest himself in something that cannot be summed up as "training" and "tournaments," that was a heavy gamble, and that had no guaranteed outcome.
He was willing to give this special existence whatever it took to make sure that she was the happiest she could be. She deserved it.

Especially now, after so many tears (hers) and hurdles, he could say it with confidence: no matter what balance scale was used, seeing her happy now weighed much more heavily than his selfish desires. That genuine smile of hers would be plentiful payment for any gamble he took to get there.

I'm in deep, aren't I... Sanada said wryly to himself, the frustration showing blatantly in that pained smile that no one would ever see. It was probably for the best that no one did, for Sanada had never been so close to losing control of all restraint and descending into pure, childlike bawling.

A sharp rap on his door snapped Sanada out of his self-mocking reverie.

It was unlike any knock he had heard from his parents or grandfather-who was it? In any case, he drove down any lingering desire to cry and straightened his posture. "Come in."

"Sorry for the intrusion." The door opened, and the guest stepped in.

Sanada blinked at the "intruder" / guest. In his surprise, his mouth couldn't even move, and so no words were spoken, either. He just stared blankly at this boy whom he never thought he would see in his own house.

"Yo." The said boy lifted a hand in a brief greeting, grinning awkwardly at Sanada.

After a slightly rushed flurry of hospitality insisted by his mother, Sanada sat down with his guest at their dining table. Brows furrowed and an unsettled feeling in his stomach, he looked at the boy.

"So." Shishido Ryo glanced up from his cup of tea and looked Sanada in the eye, steadily. "Did Atobe want something with me? I can call Yukimura if-"

"It's not about Atobe."

"Oh?" Sanada raised an eyebrow.

"It's about Kimiko."

Sanada again sat in silent shock. It seemed like more and more enigmatic puzzle pieces came to jump out at him and jumble his mind up even more. What on earth did any Hyotei (and male) tennis regulars have to do with Kimiko? She didn't even know the difference between a lob and smash, for crying out loud!

Shishido eyed Sanada warily. "Dude, if you're making up any weird ideas, just stop right there."

At Sanada's wide-eyed look of alarm and suspicion of having his mind read, Shishido sighed. I can't believe I was actually right about what he was thinking... "Dude, I'm pretty sure Atobe mentioned this before, but Kimiko went to the same middle school as most of the Hyotei regulars. Ring a bell, man?"

Sanada was already a bit miffed by Shishido's casual language-what with the "dude"s and "man"s. But he was even more irritated to be reminded that he had forgotten that very important link between Shishido and Kimiko.

"If I remember correctly, you're cousins?" he said gruffly.

"Bingo."

Something struck Sanada as odd. It couldn't possibly be true...

"Wait, you're a cousin of Tezuka?"

"...Technically speaking, yes. Not by blood though. There was some weirdo marriage thing so we're, like, second-removed or whatever nonsense there is. But yeah, I guess so." Shishido got midway through a shrug but then suddenly slapped his hand to his forehead. "I didn't come to talk about this. We don't have much time, we gotta go. Come on!" He attempted to start dragging Sanada out the door, but the latter resisted.

"Where are you bringing me?"

"Like I said, it's about Kimiko! I don't have the time to explain nice and slowly here in your house, get in my car and I'll explain along the way!"

Sanada let himself be dragged outside...and into one of the fanciest and shiniest black limousines he had ever seen. Not quite as impressive as Atobe's, but already far past Sanada's comfort zone. Darned rich Hyotei kids and their everyday luxuries...

Sanada's discomfort in the expensive-looking limousine aside, he knew that if Shishido (he knew the other boy mainly for cutting his hair a few months back; even Sanada was impressed by how serious he was and how far his dedication would take him) came out to find him and basically abducting him in this expensive-black-limousine, then something was definitely up.

"So." Shishido turned towards Sanada when the latter spoke. "I'm listening," he said expectantly.

Shishido sighed. He abruptly twisted his body towards his driver and ordered, "Airport, please. Stat." After waiting for the limousine to rumble to life and they began flying down the streets of Kanagawa, Shishido turned back to Sanada.

"I'm not good with long, indirect explanations, really, so I'm just going to get straight to the point."

At Sanada's nod of approval, Shishido thought for about three seconds, and then blurted out, "Kimiko's at the airport right now with Dameon. She's leaving with him to Germany. They're leaving in-" he glanced at his watch, "an hour and a half. We can barely make it in time at this point, but it'll be barely, for sure..." he looked at Sanada, and all words that he had been about to so disappeared from his mind.

"Hey. Dude, Sanada. Wake up." He first waved a hand, then snapped his fingers, and then just resorted to all-out shaking Sanada's shoulder. "Oi, don't zone out on me now, man! We've got our work cut out for us!"

Sanada drifted out of his cloud of shock back into reality. His forehead creased and his eyes narrowed with determination. "All right. What do you want me to do?"

"I'll explain that as well as I can in a bit." Shishido remembered that he had almost forgotten something. He fished something out from his backpack, and handed it to Sanada.

The latter stared at the bright pink and poorly-wrapped object in his hand, and then looked at Shishido. "A present?" His expression was guarded as usual, but Shishido could detect a trace of utter confusion as well.

"Don't get any wrong ideas, man. I'm straight." He chuckled despite himself. "It's from Kimiko."

Sanada stared at the present once more. After a lot of urging from Shishido, he unwrapped the present as neatly as he could-which was unexpectedly difficult due to Kimiko's ingeniously horrid method of wrapping-and found a cap and card in his hands. Turning the cap and examining it from front to back, he found it to be awfully similar to the one he was wearing at the moment. (Wasn't his cap's model already not manufactured anymore?) Sanada lightly touched his own cap currently sitting on his head, as if he felt the need to confirm that it was with him. He opened up the card.

To Sanada Genichirou-
Genichirou, if you're reading this right now, then that means my silly clown of a cousin safely delivered this to you.
It feels like it's been forever since we last spoke...and the last time we spoke was basically the last time we'll ever see each other for a long, long while.
I'm leaving with Dameon today, to go back home to Germany. As much as I hate his guts and essentially the very air he breathes, well, you know me well enough- I can't abandon my parents' will. I would come to hate myself and regret it so much, I just know it.
I love you so much, Genichirou. The past couple of days, as I was deciding what to do, I realized that I really really do, and I hope you know that. And that's why I pray that you will come to forgive me for leaving you behind.
The cap is customized for you, in case you haven't noticed. I peeked at the manufacturer and gave them a call. Turns out that the president's daughter is actually one of my school friends from Germany, so he was super nice about doing me a favor. Anyways, consider it a farewell and apology gift. You might not have noticed this either, but the back of your cap is starting to wear thin. So, just wear this when you feel like switching it up? Or something? ...Ugh what am I talking about. It's really my selfish hope that you'll remember who I am even after I'm gone. I'll come back to you someday, when everything's finally settled. I'm not asking that you'll wait for me, but I just want to tell you somehow, that you'll always be in my heart. Hah, I'm so cheesy.

Well, I guess this is goodbye. Take care. I love you.
Moriyama Kimiko

Sanada closed the card and then gripped it in both hands; his vision was beginning to swim.

"That. Idiot." He bit out.

It took everything he had in order to hold his consciousness together. He could only sit there, bent over in despair over the card, the suppressed emotions from before now threatening to erupt like a volcano and spill over out of his control.

Beside him, Shishido did not say a word, but just politely turned away to look out the limousine window, when he saw the incoming sunlight refract off the first drops of wetness that fell silently from Sanada's eyes.

A/N: OKAY WEEEEE WE'RE GETTING CLOSE TO THE END!

This is totally unedited, so if there's any mistakes, please feel free to PM/review me about it ^^

Otherwise, I hope this sufficed as requite for my hiatus, and a huge thank you to all my lovely, dedicated readers for sticking with me all this time! If you actually read the entire thing up until here, I think I can say for real that you're set to be one of my best friends in the entire world :3

Until next time~ PLEASE REVIEW! xoxo hime-chan