A/N: I (should) write a lot these next couple of days because I have HSAs Monday and Tuesday; AKA no homework. Never know when I may get into a block though, so we'll see...

First and second parts are present, third is past.

Chapter 3: In-Between Moments

The sky is a steely grey outside, a stark contrast against the hot amber liquid in the cup that Luka warms her hands against. She breathes in deeply, inhaling the steam and flipping pages in the menu that the waitress had brought her. After a few moments she sets it aside. She isn't so common a customer here that the workers know her by name, but they remember her favorite type of tea and she remembers what she likes to get.

Something about the sleepy sushi place is distinctly satisfying if not comforting. There's usually hardly any people that come here, and those that do are polite and quiet. Despite the calm atmosphere, there's a sea of thoughts turning just under the surface of Luka's mind, barely suppressed. What were those words again? Did she want to repeat them? How did that song go?

There's the sudden jingle of shop bells and Luka glances towards the door, tilting her head in surprise of what she sees there. A glimpse of a worried expression and teal hair whip back behind the door; there's only one person that could be.

"Miku?" Luka calls. The girl peers around the edge of the door and stares nervously at her. With an awkward smile Luka softens her tone of voice, attempting not to feed the panic that always surrounds the girl. "What are you doing here?"

She fidgets, biting her bottom lip. "Lunch…" she finally murmurs out quietly. Luka shrugs, trying to seem nonchalant, and gestures her over. Maybe if she's got someone else with her the horrifying idea of entering a restaurant won't seem so daunting.

"Thank you," comes the response as Miku sits down, timidly glancing around the place, her big blue eyes scanning the patrons rapid pace. Luka watches, slightly bemused, and wondering what it is that Kaito sees in the mousey tealette. She pushes the menu towards the newcomer and gazes out the window as she reads through the options. The waitress returns soon and takes their orders, leaving them in silence.

The thoughts swirl through her mind again, raining hazily down like whispers of snow, her fingers abstractedly tapping out a rhythm, a tune long forgotten, on the table top.

"So…how are things going?" Luka mumbles after a moment, trying to fill the empty space. Miku glances down at the table.

"Fine. You?"

How are things going? That's a good question.

Twirling strands of pink through her fingers, Luka sighs, pondering all the things that weighed down on her at the moment. "Uh, alright I guess. Just a lot of schoolwork and…" A pause. What? What else? "I don't really know. One of my friends is just being really stupid lately." She shakes her head, trying to clear the thoughts away. The singing in her head goes silent. "Not that it's anything new."

Miku frowns slightly, furrowing her eyebrows. "No, you don't know him," Luka assures her, assuming that she's trying to distinguish who Luka was talking about. "I'm just lucky not all of my friends are crazy. Kaito and you…"

Her thoughts flicker to her other friend, a welcome reprieve from the other direction they were going. Crazy? Kaito might just be the exact opposite. The epitome of calm and collected, he always seemed to be a rock in the wild sea that was Gakupo. Whenever the purple haired maniac got them into some kind of ludicrous situation, he would always handle it, cool and unruffled.

"Why'd you say it like that?" Miku questions rather intently. Luka's eyes trail back to her and she shrugs.

""It's just surprising," she muses, thinking about the past that Kaito had shared with her and Gakupo soon after they befriended him; a boy sitting alone on the playground, drawing in the dirt. The story had been horrifying, seeing your parents die right in front of you, and she had been ready to jump to some sort of comfort mode, but he had just smiled and brushed off the story like it was just a bad dream. That attitude stayed with him now, unmoved, relaxed. "He has a lot of reasons he could've been pretty messed up." She glances out the window. Snow has begun to fall from the late winter sky.

As their food arrives Miku digs deeper, asking questions with a strange intensity that Luka almost finds embarrassing. She shuts down her prying quickly; even if Kaito didn't seem to care about his past, it wasn't right for her to just blurt out stuff like that whenever someone asks.

There are some things people don't want said.

Noise floods the college hallways as the two return from the restaurant, Luka striding purposefully towards her next class, Miku peering over heads and scanning walls. At a voice, Luka turns around to see Kaito starting towards them, his face lighting up the moment he sees Miku. Watching the girl, something about her relaxes, drops as he gets closer. Oblivious to the world, oblivious even to their own adoring actions, they focus entirely on the other.

Isn't that familiar?

She pushes it away, but it bounces back twice as fast, the memory prodding her like a red hot poker. Their connection can almost be physically seen it's so clear. It wraps around her, whispering to her, reminding her of it. Of what that bond felt like.

She lets out a quick goodbye and starts off, her breath coming faster now as images flicker through her mind, places, words, notes, a time, people.

No, only one

Just one person.

She opens the door to her new room with her foot as both her arms are filled with boxes. She sets them down on the sheet-less bed and glances around. The dorm is owned by Arden University, a prestigious college that she is lucky to have been accepted into. It is slighter larger than the normal apartments, and as such she has to pay for the usually free residence. But it is worth it. With a kitchen, a bedroom that doubles as a living space, and her own bathroom, an extra handful of green a month isn't too much to ask.

"Nice place." She turns around to the source of the voice and finds a smirking young man leaning in her doorway.

Oh right, he was accepted too.

They all did. By some stroke of luck, her group, the childhood friends, had all begun study at the same college. Was it living close? Did they have some high tests scores they weren't aware of? It doesn't matter. Now they are colleagues, grownups, architects, actors.

He swings his ponytail and whistles.

Musicians.

He stops, the note going flat, and stares at her expression worriedly. "Luka," he muses. Before she realizes it she's stepped across the room and grabbed his hands , spinning the two of them around in a circle like a child's playtime game. He laughs as they slow down and shakes his head. "What's wrong with you? You look…happy?"

She smiles and looks around the room. "Yeah?" she murmurs, pleasantly confused herself. What is it? What is this elation? There's a feeling, as if a meteor was hurtling towards her but suddenly ducked aside at the last second. She escaped something. They escaped something.

"We're," she whispers and turns back to him. His eyes are half-lidded, dark, yet blazing with a strange aura of thought. "We're all together."

He blinks, his gaze turning towards the window at the setting sun. Luka feels a warmth as he tightens his grip on her hands; she hadn't noticed they were still connected. "That makes you happy," he murmurs, more a statement than a question. He cocks his head to the side and speaks something too soft to hear, a wondering look in his eyes. Luka stares as he turns back to her, the atmosphere suddenly becoming very heavy.

"Hey," he says softly. "I wrote a song that I want to present in class." He looks out towards the sun again, seeming to find its blinding brightness easier to look at than Luka. "Could you listen to it and tell me what you think?" She nods. It was only a few years ago that Gakupo had really begun taking an interest in music. Some upperclassmen had persuaded him to join the high school jazz club and now codas and canons and minor keys are all he talked about. She is surprised people don't gather by the bathroom door to hear him sing in the shower as well as he had trained his voice.

With a grin he leads her over to a particularly sturdy looking box and they sit, Gakupo tapping out a steady rhythm on his knee. His eyes close lightly and a soft humming emerges from his lips, crescendoing into a song.

I wish we could speak in plain honesty

Like we did years ago

It's good that we can still laugh together,

Isn't there more to us though?

Will you smile at me if I act different?

Would I like it if you did?

The thoughts just go in circles

It's painful that I can't come to a conclusion

Once again at the moment when I see you

I have an unknown feeling

And even though it's just me here

What is that strange look in your eyes?

They sit there in silence, the echoes of the words hanging in the air. He gazes at her from underneath his lashes, the windows to his soul masked behind them. She shifts on the box, the distance between them seeming to close, but moving back is too far.

"That last line didn't really flow," she whispers, trying to think of something to say. He chuckles softly, his lips curling into a smile.

"Always the critic." She frowns at him, furrowing her eyebrows.

"That's what you were asking me to do," she argues quietly. "What else did you want me to say?"

His gaze suddenly lifts, steady, intense. "I…I wanted you to say it for me." She parts her lips slightly and he lowers his head again before standing up and facing away from her. "I don't have the guts to be the one to say it first," he murmurs as she sits there speechless, the picture becoming clear, a decision laid in front of her.

She knows the words, what he wants her to say. They're there, hanging almost tangible in the air. If she touches them, what will happen then? She can see two ways this will play out. An empty room and silence, or…or…

A decision.

Is it a decision?

There's no choice, no question, to need to think. This is how it has been, hasn't it? When it did start? Who knows? But now, now…

She stands, slowly stepping over to where he stands and slowly, gently, pushes her hand into his and leans against his side. She can feels his heartbeat, smell the musky scent of him, hear the way his breath hitches as she moves each of her fingers in between his own.

"I…I love you," she whispers, so quietly that she's surprised when he lets out a sigh and moves to pull her close against him.

"Always," he murmurs hoarsely, his face turning back towards her so she can see the sincerity, the passion, the excitement in his eyes. He leans down till their forehead touch, their noses brushing against each other. Their gazes lock.

"I always have," he says even quieter. His hands ghost up the sides of her neck, resting just underneath her jaw and her arms hang limp as he leans down slowly, gently, giving her plenty of time, and brushes his lips against hers.

Fire boils under Luka's skin and she gasps, pushing forward and back against him. Her arms rise up, entwining around his neck, and she pulls herself against him, feeling any space disappear. A hand moves to the back of her head, pulling her to him, the other wraps around her waist. Hot breath mixes as they move with each other, their hands pushing and pulling, until he winds up pushed against the wall. His vibrant hair falls from its hold in long strands, his lips pink and swollen from touch.

Luka moves forward, looking up, her chin resting on his chest. "Then why didn't you say so sooner?" she questions. His eyes move in a haze over her, his breath coming as if he just ran a mile. He shrugs.

"I must have been crazy." With those words he kisses her once more, softly, on the cheek and pulls her into him, holding tight with arms that seem to never want to let go.