Hi guys, I promised to update my next chapter in April, but I just couldn't wait that long ^^

So here it is . . .

But don't expect the next update to be this fast. . .

There may be a few (or a lot^^) mistakes. Just ignore them or better, tell me where they are :)

Have fun reading this chapter!

Before you start reading, here are some information about my other stories:

Watch over me: Epilogue - - -Definitely (but I don't know when^^)

Healing: Put on hold

Please mend my heart: Put on hold

Chapter 7:

Natsuki stood in the middle of Shizuru's bedroom, her eyes were wide and she held a look of confusion. What had happened? Why was she still human and not a gargoyle like she should have been by now. This was a total mess. She wanted to be a complete gargoyle and not change into a disgusting human.

She looked up only to meet confused wine-red eyes. Shizuru of course wouldn't have an answer to this, because she didn't even know the reason why Natsuki was here. But what should she do now? She didn't want to be a human. She wanted for her body to change back. Better now than later.

"Natsuki. . .?"

Shizuru's question was obvious. She also wanted to know what had happened but Natsuki doubted that she wanted to know the answer as badly as herself.

"I. . .I. . ." No words were forthcoming. She tried once more to speak albeit her confused state.

"I don't know what happened. I opened my eyes and after a few seconds I realized the form I was in." She sighed deeply. This had to be a nightmare. She pleaded silently, that it was only a dream, because she didn't have any idea how to change back. This was the worst night ever.

"Mh . . . did you do something before you fell asleep? Maybe that is the reason why you didn't transform."

"No, I just laid down and then I fell asleep. Nothing special."

Natsuki's mind was on overload. All her thoughts circled around only one topic: How to change back.

There was one possibility how this could have happened. Shizuru had held her sleeve in a tight grip after she had fallen asleep. Maybe that was the reason for Natsuki's mess. All night they had stayed in close contact and maybe Shizuru's powers had been activated. She thought about this possibility and her brain told her, that everything was Shizuru's fault.

Shizuru may not know her power yet, but it is there and she unconsciously used it to transform Natsuki into a human. It was crystal clear now. She was still afraid of Natsuki's gargoyle form, so she decided to change that.

Natsuki's temper was rising. She looked once again into Shizuru's eyes, but this time with uncontrolled anger. This on the other hand shocked Shizuru. She didn't know why Natsuki now looked at her like she was the devil himself. She wouldn't say it out loud, but that look scared her. Natsuki's eyes were burning.

"Natsu. . ."

"SHUT UP!"

This sudden outburst shocked Shizuru even more. She would have never imagined Natsuki to shout at her like that.

She observed the enraged blunette, who moved from left to right in the bedroom. She wanted to say something, but was too afraid, because she didn't know how Natsuki would react. Was she able to harm Shizuru in any way? But she was so friendly and almost gentle all the time. What got her in this bad mood?

Natsuki on the other hand wasn't able to think rational. So she just did the first thing coming to mind. She went in front of the brunette and grabbed her shoulders. Shizuru winced a little bit, because Natsuki's grip hurt.

She felt the grip tighten, but didn't comment on it. She patiently waited for Natsuki to say something.

"YOU. . . !" Natsuki was so furious she needed to breathe in deeply to control her emotions for a short moment to form coherent sentences.

"You did this to me! Why? WHY Shizuru!?!"

Shizuru looked into Natsuki's eyes. She didn't have an answer, because she didn't do anything that could have resulted in such a conclusion.

"Natsuki. . .please. . .How could. . ." But she wasn't able to say anything more to the blunette, because she was slapped hard across the face. After this she could taste her own blood. Natsuki had hit her so hard, that she saw stars forming before her eyes.

"I absolutely don't want to hear your lies. Change me back, right now, or else you'll regret ever meeting me!"

Shizuru tried to reason once again albeit the unbearable pain in her left cheek.

"Natsuki, tell me how? I was asleep the whole time. And I don't have magic powers . . . I'm a mere human . . . I. . ."

"NO, you are not a human like all the others. You are something special. All your ancestors possessed magical powers and you own them as well, even if you didn't know about them up until now."

Shizuru was even more confused by this. Why did Natsuki know so much about her? She needed to hear an answer.

"Why do you know me so well?"

It didn't matter anymore, that she told Shizuru the truth. She didn't want to stay here, so she had no reason to be friendly with her.

"I searched for you for over 100 years. You can't see it, but a red light surrounds your whole body. This is a sign for great magical powers. My only goal was to find you and to get you to transform me into a complete gargoyle. If I had known, that something like this could happen, I would have forced you right away!"

This statement hurt like thousand knifes piercing through Shizuru's heart. She thought that Natsuki liked her company and that they had become some kind of friends, but Natsuki just shattered all her dreams.

She was alone and this time the pain was too great to bear.

Tears trailed down her cheeks and she silently pleaded for Natsuki to believe her that she wasn't responsible for all that.

But her message didn't get through. She just got a disgusted look from Natsuki that crashed her once and for all. She lowered her head and let her emotions run free. Never in her life had someone hurt her quite like this.

"Shizuru, stop with your fake crying. I don't believe you! So stop acting!" She reached for Shizuru's shoulder to shake her, but Shizuru abruptly stood up and without another glance into Natsuki's direction she ran away.

The last thing Natsuki saw was Shizuru vanishing through the front door.

Shit.

Her only chance to change back just ran out of the door. If she wanted or not didn't matter, she had to follow her. She needed her. So she ran after Shizuru, but as she stepped out of the door, there was no sign of Shizuru. The whole street was dark and empty.

Ok Natsuki, think. Where would she go?

But unfortunately Natsuki had no idea which direction she should choose. So she just took the right way and hoped that she would find the brunette along the way.

After five minutes of running she heard loud voices and someone crying.

Shizuru.

She looked around the corner and saw two men standing next to Shizuru. One man held her wrist, so she couldn't escape and the other one held a knife in his right hand to threaten the poor woman.

Natsuki saw Shizuru's tear-stained face and the panic showing in those wine-red orbs.

Right now she hated herself for putting Shizuru in such a situation, but her temper was uncontrollable if it got loose.

"Please release me."

Natsuki was brought back into reality as she heard Shizuru's weak request.

"Why should we little lady? First we want to have fun with you." They looked at each other and Shizuru knew what this look meant. And there was nobody who could help her.

Natsuki. . .

"Let her go. NOW!"

"Natsuki. . ." Shizuru whispered silently.

"Oh, another beautiful lady to play with." One of the men smirked and approached the blunette.

"Just try it asshole!"

"You bet."

Just as he wanted to grab Natsuki, she punched him hard in the stomach and then kicked his chin with her knee. There was loud crack and after that everything went silent.

"You bitch!"

The other wanted to slice her with the knife, but Natsuki avoided the attack and kicked him hard between his legs.

He went unconscious just like his friend.

"I told you not to mess with me!"

Satisfied with her work, she looked back at the crying woman she just saved.

"Shizuru. . ."

"Stop. . .please. . .just go. ..and leave me alone. . ." She chocked on the words, unable to look into the forest-green eyes in front of her.

"Shizuru. . ."

Natsuki started once again, but the only response she got was Shizuru shacking her head and distancing herself further.

Natsuki regretted all the things she did earlier, especially that she had slapped Shizuru hard across the face. That wasn't her intention, it just came naturally. Now all she wanted was to apologize and go back to the apartment, but there was one problem: Shizuru. It seemed that she didn't want to go back and Natsuki understood quite well the reason why.

But they couldn't stay all night here. First Shizuru was half naked and would freeze to death and second it would probably start raining any minute.

"Shizuru, I'm so sorry. I overreacted and. . . "With every word she moved a little bit closer to the still crying woman.

"Gomen. . ."

She stood now right in front of Shizuru and reached out to her. Shizuru saw the hand coming and thought she would be slapped again, so she jumped back and shouted.

"NO!"

A blinding red light illuminated the place and Natsuki was shoved backwards. The next thing she saw was a giant purple snake-like monster appearing in front of Shizuru.

She knew that this wasn't a good sign. In her current state she would definitely loose against such a beast. She could beat up normal humans, but not this.

She looked past the huge snake and saw that Shizuru was laying on the ground unconscious. This was very bad. Natsuki knew that the magician had to be awake to control his summoned beast, but Shizuru couldn't do much in her current state.

And just as she thought it couldn't get any worse, the monster attacked, but not her, instead it went right for Shizuru.

It didn't matter to this beast who it killed. If its master wasn't there, it would go wild and kill everything in reach, even its helpless master.

Shit. This is just my lucky day. . .

Without thinking twice Natsuki ran to Shizuru, grabbed her and jumped with her out of reach. Unfortunately she wasn't fast enough and the beast got her right leg. Now she was in great danger.

In her human form she was as helpless as Shizuru against such an enemy.

But she had to fight, otherwise the monster would kill Shizuru next and this was something that Natsuki wanted to prevent.

With all her might she tried to free herself, but with no success. Her current body didn't possess the power she needed to save them.

Shizuru. . .I just can't save you . . .gomen. . .

Then out of nowhere a new red light illuminated the place. She looked in the direction where it came from.

Shizuru.

She was still unconscious, but even in her current state she tried to help Natsuki.

Thank you.

Within seconds the monster disappeared and she landed on the ground. The only injury was her bleeding leg, but it was a small price to pay. If Shizuru hadn't stopped her summoned beast she would have faced death for sure.

She slowly walked to Shizuru and with some effort she scooped her up and carried her bridal-style back into her apartment. Summoning such a giant magical beast was very exhausting and Shizuru was still weak, so it wasn't very surprising that she fell unconscious right after summoning.

Natsuki placed the weak woman carefully on the bed and covered her with a blanket. Then she grabbed a pen and paper and wrote a small note for Shizuru.

Shizuru,

I'm really extremely sorry about what I did. I hope that you can forgive me, even if my actions were unforgiveable in my eyes.

Uhm. . . I carried you back home and. . .if you need anything I'm waiting in the living room.

I can understand if you never want to see me again.

But if you want, I'll tell you the truth, absolutely everything you want to know.

Natsuki

After writing the letter, she placed it on Shizuru's night stand and left the room silently. She was exhausted, so she just covered her wound with a towel and laid down on the soft couch in the living room, hoping that the next day would be better.

Shizuru's POV:

A few hours later, it was still night, Shizuru awoke with a big headache. She tried to remember what happened, but her train of thought was interrupted as she saw a small piece of paper laying on her night stand.

Natsuki. . .?

Carefully she picked the note up and read it. Indeed it was a note from Natsuki.

After reading, that she was still there, Shizuru wasn't sure if she should be happy or afraid about this fact.

So she took a moment and underwent all the things that had happened hours ago. The harsh words from Natsuki and the allegation. But before all the other things she remembered the slap across her face. She never thought that Natsuki would hurt her in any way. Now she knew how wrong she had been.

One moment she remembered very clearly. It was the moment, where those two guys tried to rape her and Natsuki came to rescue her. Instead of being thankful, she backed away, afraid that Natsuki's uncontrolled anger would resurface and she would get hurt in the process once again.

But what happened after all that, she was not sure. She remembered a blinding red light and then . . . nothing. Her whole world went black.

I think I have to talk to her to fill in the blankets . . . sigh . . .

She was afraid, of course because her trust in Natsuki was almost completely gone. The person she thought she knew didn't exist in the first place.

Unfortunately her curiosity won over her fright, so she stood up and walked bravely to her still closed bedroom door. Breathing in deeply she opened the door and walked through.

Normal POV:

The whole room was dark, not the slightest light illuminated it. But Shizuru could clearly see the figure sleeping on her couch. She knew that Natsuki had to be fast asleep because otherwise she would have said something or at least sat up and looked away.

She moved carefully closer. At all times aware, that the sleeping woman could awake at any moment.

The blunette looked so peaceful in her sleep. It was a shame, that she always looked so angry when awake.

Sigh. . .I should probably wake her up. I want to get this over with as fast as possible.

With this thought in mind, she slowly reached out and shook Natsuki slightly to wake her up. There was no response, so she tried it once again.

This time there was a small movement and she heard the woman groaning.

"Natsuki. . .?"

Slowly she opened her eyes and green eyes looked at slightly fearful red ones. Immediately Natsuki felt guilty, because she had placed that fear there.

"Shizuru. . . " It was a silent whisper, but Shizuru heard it nonetheless and her body reacted automatically. She moved away a little bit and noticed the sad look appearing on Natsuki's face. She didn't say a thing, because she just couldn't.

Natsuki on the other hand tried once again. She sat up and beckoned Shizuru to sit next to her. Hesitantly she obliged, but sat down on the other side of the couch.

Natsuki sighed deeply, but it was her fault after all. She couldn't blame Shizuru for her actions.

"We need to talk." This was Natsuki's first real sentence and all the time she gazed deeply into Shizuru's eyes. Trying to read her emotions, but she covered them up quite well.

"I read your note and . . ." Shizuru didn't know how to end her sentence or what she wanted to tell Natsuki actually. So she just hoped that Natsuki would understand her silent questions.

Natsuki looked down and sighed. This was a rather delicate topic for her and up until now she hadn't talked to anyone about it.

"Ok, I think its best, if you tell me what you want to know. Just ask anything that's coming into mind."

Shizuru nodded and thought about some questions. She wanted to start, but another more important question appeared. Why did Natsuki act so hostile towards her? She wanted to know what changed the gentle woman like this.

"Why did you slap me?"

Natsuki was speechless. She knew that the answer to this question was inevitable but she had hoped, that Shizuru would ask it later.

"Sigh. ..I couldn't think clearly at that moment. I'm so sorry." Natsuki looked into red-wine eyes and reached out to touch Shizuru's cheek softly, but Shizuru stiffened, so that Natsuki stopped her advance and let her hand fall down.

"Gomen. . ."

Once again she couldn't face the hurt brunette.

"I think I should tell you the whole story, but. . .it's just too painful. You know my past was not the brightest moment in my life."

She half-heartedly smiled at Shizuru.

Ok Natsuki, this is probably your last chance to get on Shizuru's good side. Don't say something stupid.

Natsuki opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted because of the loud knock at the front door.

One part of her was thankful for the interruption, the other one wanted to scream at whoever showed up this late.

Shizuru gracefully walked to the front door and opened it. A very panicky looking Mikoto stood on her doorstep and worse, she was crying.

"Mikoto-chan, why are you here and where's. . .."

Before she could even finish her sentence Mikoto grabbed her in a bear hug. She cried into Shizuru's shoulder, mumbling something about Mai, Takeda and kidnapping.

She got a bad feeling. If this was what she thought it was, then Shizuru was to blame for the situation. This was obviously Takeda's way of revenge.

She closed the door and sat with Mikoto down on the couch. Natsuki choose to sit on a nearby chair. She didn't want to disturb them.

"Mikoto-chan, tell me what happened."

Mikoto slowly lifted her head and looked with teary eyes into Shizuru's.

"Takeda. . .he. . .he kidnapped Mai and. . . and he left a letter. . ." Mikoto handed Shizuru a piece of paper.

Letting go of Mikoto she took the letter and started reading.

My dear Shizuru,

you are just unreachable for me, so I decided to get you with a little trick. I want you to come tomorrow to this address alone.

Baker Street 50 / 8 pm

If there's anyone else, I will kill your dear friend. This time there's no escape for you!

I'll see you soon.

Takeda

What should she do now? Risk Mai's life and ask the chief? No, definitely not. Her decision was to go alone and to ensure Mai's safety. Even if it meant her certain death.

"Don't worry Mikoto-chan. I'll save Mai. So please stop crying."

Mikoto only nodded. She was exhausted from all the crying and Shizuru told her to sleep a little bit. With Mikoto out of reach she heavily sighed.

She had one day to plan the rescue. But one thing was for sure. This time all of Takeda's men would be there to keep her imprisoned.

"You are going, right?"

Shizuru had forgotten about Natsuki for a few minutes, because she had been so worried about Mikoto.

"Yes, she's my friend. I would risk my life for her." She gazed deeply into Natsuki's eyes. Her own ones burning with a passion Natsuki had never seen before.

"Then I will accompany you."

"No, I can handle that myself."

"Yeah, you proofed that the last time." She looked disapprovingly at Shizuru.

"It's not your place to tell me that."

"Don't you understand Shizuru? I'm worried."

This was the last straw for Shizuru. Now was her turn to get angry at Natsuki.

"YOU are worried? Why? Because your only chance to be a complete gargoyle is risking her life. And if I die you have to stay human? Is that your reason why?!"

Natsuki was taken aback by Shizuru's hard words.

"No. . ." She looked into the angry red orbs. She felt like Shizuru tried to burn her alive, but she summoned all her courage and told her the real reason.

"I'm not worried about that. I'm worried because I like you. You know, you are my first friend in years and I don't want to loose you."

Shizuru wanted so badly to believe her, but her mind told her otherwise.

"Sigh, Natsuki, tell your stories someone who believes you. You can't fool me again. I now know your real reasons for staying by my side."

She then stood up and went into the kitchen to make a delicious cup of green tea. She needed all her energy for this mission and green tea was her source of power.

Natsuki on the other hand was stunned. Shizuru didn't believe her one bit. She acted not like the friendly woman she met. She acted cold and distant. The blunette didn't like the new Shizuru one bit, but she knew that she was responsible for this behavior.

She would have probably told Shizuru the same, if she had been in her place.

But even if she wasn't a gargoyle anymore, she would accompany Shizuru and would be hidden in the shadows if necessary. If Shizuru needed her, she would definitely save her. She wanted to proof her wrong. She wanted that Shizuru saw how sorry she was because she acted like a complete ass.

She would take down hundreds of men and risk her own life, if it meant for Shizuru to live.

She felt stupid. If she hadn't hated all the humans for so long, she could have had friends throughout the years. Only her stubbornness was responsible for her loneliness and she wanted to change that fact as fast as possible.

Now, that she got one real friend, she wanted to be able to save her. Suddenly it wasn't so important to become a gargoyle anymore.

She had lived in darkness all these past years and meeting Shizuru was like finding her light.

Shizuru, I'm so stupid. I wish I had met you earlier.

That was chapter 7!

Please leave a review :)

Thanks a lot.