Chapter Seven: Back to Miator
After two weeks of being dragged around by Yumi and Sei, who Sakura now knew attended Lillian University, and spending some quality time with Sachiko and the rest of the Yamayurikai, it was time to go back to Miator. Due to it being a school day, only Sachiko, Yumi and Sei showed up at the airport to see Sakura off. After many hugs, good-byes and the promise to keep in touch and visit again, Sakura once again got on a plane to Miator, hardly aware of what was in store for her when she arrived.
Upon arrival at the Strawberry Dorms, Sakura managed to get to her room without being noticed by anybody, which wasn't much of a miracle as it was dinnertime. Having already eaten at the airport, Sakura entered her room, immediately closed the door, sat down at her desk and attacked the mountain of homework that Nagisa, or Miyuki, one of the two, had been kind enough to drop off for her while she was away.
Nagisa was fidgeting, more than usual, as she ate dinner with Tamao and some of their other friends. Sakura was supposed to have gotten back to Miator at least an hour ago and she had yet to show up.
"Calm down Nagisa-chan," Tamao said, trying to reassure her friend. "I'm sure Sakura-san will be back soon."
"You're right," Nagisa said, sounding sheepish. "I should just calm down, onee-sama can take care of herself." Despite her words, Nagisa continued to worry throughout dinner and as she and Tamao finished and headed up to their room to start on their homework, she kept looking around for any sign of Sakura. Just as they were passing the door to Sakura's room, Nagisa stopped.
"What is it now Nagisa-chan?" Tamao asked, stopping when she realized that Nagisa was no longer walking with her.
"There's a light coming out from under onee-sama's door," Nagisa said. "I wonder if Miyuki left the light on when she dropped off onee-sama's homework for her." Nagisa slowly opened the door and peeked inside, only to pull back and shake her head in exasperation.
"What is it?" Tamao asked, coming up to stand by Nagisa.
"Look for yourself," Nagisa said, moving away from the crack so Tamao could see.
"Is that Sakura-san?" Tamao asked, looking from the room and back to Nagisa.
"Yea," Nagisa said, looking through the crack in the door with Tamao again. "It looks like she's been there for a while. Why didn't she tell me she was here, I don't understand it at all."
Shizuma and Miyuki were heading upstairs to start on their own homework, not that Shizuma would be able to concentrate; she had been fretting over the absence of Sakura during dinner when she should have arrived back at the dorms by then. As the pair of them walked down the hallway, they saw Nagisa and Tamao peering through a crack in the door to Sakura's room.
"What are you doing?" Shizuma asked the pair who jumped and turned around at her voice. Nagisa quickly closed the door to Sakura's room and stood up to face the two older girls.
"We were checking on onee-sama, Etoile-sama," Nagisa explained. "We were worried because she didn't come to dinner and she should have gotten back by then."
"We were on our way to our room when we noticed the light under her door," Tamao continued. "We thought someone might have left the light on by accident so we opened the door to turn it off."
"And what happened?" Miyuki asked, curious as to why the two girls were looking through the crack in the door instead of turning off the light.
"They saw me," the four girls jumped and turned around to see Sakura wearing jeans and a blue, tight-fitting tank-top leaning on the doorframe. Her black hair hung down to her waist and she had a white ribbon tied around her forehead to keep it out of her face, the whole thing had Shizuma thinking about how much Sakura had grown, and how beautiful she had become, since she last saw her.
"You really need to work on being stealthy, Nagisa," Sakura said, smiling in amusement as she took in the four girls standing in front of her with shocked expressions on their faces, obviously they hadn't heard her open the door. "I could hear you and Tamao loud and clear as you spied on me. Why were you spying on me anyway?"
"Well...uh..." Nagisa said, sweat-dropping and rubbing the back of her head sheepishly. "We sort of got worried because you hadn't shown up at dinner when you should have been back an hour before. When we passed by your room, we saw the light and thought someone left the light on. When we saw you in there, we were just sort of surprised that you would go straight to your room without telling us you were back."
"Why did you go straight to your room anyway?" Shizuma asked, also curious as to the other girl's reasoning.
"Are you kidding?" Sakura asked, looking at Shizuma and Miyuki with wide eyes, and noticing a blush across Shizuma's face, but choosing to ignore it. "Have you seen the mountain of homework Miyuki left on my desk?"
"Well, I can give you a hand with it if you want," Shizuma offered, her blush turning deeper when Sakura looked at her.
"Thanks," Sakura said, smiling. "But I'll be able to manage. However, since I have you here, I do need to talk to you for a minute Etoile-sama. Is that alright?"
"Sure," Shizuma said, ignoring the look Miyuki gave her. "I actually had something I wanted to discuss with you as well."
Sakura nodded and moved to the side so Shizuma could enter her room. "See you tomorrow Nagisa-chan, Tamao-chan, Miyuki-san," she said, bowing to the bewildered girls before following Shizuma into her room.
"What is it you wanted to talk to me about?" Shizuma asked as Sakura entered the room and closed the door behind her.
"I could ask you the same question," Sakura said, motioning for Shizuma to take a seat on the empty bed across from Sakura's own.
"Well...I...umm...that is..." Shizuma started stumbling over her words for no apparent reason and it made Sakura sigh in exasperation, before deciding to breech the subject herself.
"I know who you are," both girls said simultaneously, Shizuma sounding a bit rushed and Sakura sounding slightly defeated, each gaining a look of shock and surprise from the other.
"How long did you know?" Sakura asked, getting over her initial shock.
"Since before you left," Shizuma answered. "I had a hunch of who you were that night in the dining hall, that's why I left Nagisa-san alone and went after you instead. You just looked so similar to the friend that I used to tease like that non-stop just to get a reaction from her elder sister. Then you told me that Sachiko was your older sister and I figured it out from there. You?"
"Same," Sakura answered. "I felt a strong connection to you the first time I saw you face to face and couldn't figure out why, until I got Youko's letter. I ran out of the dining hall and read it in one of the lounges, I didn't realize I had been crying until Chikaru-chan came up from behind me and hugged me. After I had calmed down, I let Chikaru read the letter as I flipped through the photo album Youko had sent me with the letter. Chikaru asked about a photo with me and Sachiko in it and I explained it to her. I sort of spaced out for a minute after that and only was brought back to reality when Chikaru asked me about another picture. This one had me, Sachiko and another girl with silver hair in it. Wondering who the third girl was, I read the caption on the back of the photo and found out that the girl's name was Shizuma-chan. It took me a minute to place the name, but when I did, I realized it was you in the picture and figured out why I felt that connection to you."
"Why didn't you say anything then?" Shizuma asked, wondering why Sakura, who had figured it out before Shizuma had, wouldn't say anything.
"Because, I wasn't sure if you remembered me or not," Sakura said, looking at the floor. "It's been so long since last we saw each other. If you didn't remember me it would have turned awkward, if you did remember me, well, I wasn't up for answering all of your questions right away. I'm still dealing with my past myself and don't want to dump it on more people than I already have."
"I see," Shizuma said, unable to think of anything else. "If you don't mind my asking, why did you disappear like that on me?"
"Didn't Sachiko tell you?" Sakura asked, slightly surprised. "I was disowned after a hearing the day after the last time I saw you."
"YOU WERE WHAT?!" Shizuma asked, unable to believe what she had just heard.
"I'll take that as a 'no' then," Sakura said, smiling amusedly at Shizuma's shocked expression.
"Well that explains everything then," Shizuma mused to herself.
"What do you mean?" Sakura asked, curious as to what the older girl was talking about.
"Well, when I asked Sachiko about where you were, she got all mad and snapped at me," Shizuma explained. "After that, I dropped the subject and never mentioned it again. Sachiko had become incredibly moody and even more withdrawn and cold than ever before, but sometimes that hard mask of hers cracked."
"Meaning...?" Sakura asked, wondering where this conversation was headed.
"Meaning I would come over and go to her room, expecting to be snubbed or snapped at, only to have her open the door, drag me inside and collapse into my arms in tears," Shizuma explained. "Now I understand what happened to her. She lost one of the most important people in her life, you."
"Huh," Sakura said, crossing her arms and thinking. "Are you sure that's what happened? Not that I doubt you or anything, but when I met up with Sachiko at school last year, without seeing her in many years, I didn't think she remembered me, let alone cared for me that much. Boy was I proven wrong."
"What do you mean?" Now it was Shizuma's turn to be curious.
"Let's just say there was an incident, a couple of them actually, that brought us back together as sisters. By the way," Sakura said, casting a slight smirk in Shizuma's direction, "I told her that you were the Etoile here."
"And?" Shizuma asked, slightly worried.
"And I wish I had a camera, or Tsutako-san, there to take a picture of her reaction," Sakura said, smiling at the memory.
"Why is that," Shizuma asked, a number of different ideas going through her head about what Sachiko's reaction might have been.
"She started choking on her tea," Sakura said, trying not to laugh at Sachiko's misfortune. "When she looked up at me, the look on her face was just priceless."
"I can imagine," Shizuma said, also trying to stifle her own laughter as she did indeed imagine the look on her old friend's face.
"She didn't like the idea of me being anywhere near you," Sakura said, growing solemn and looking away from Shizuma. "She wanted to make sure that you never figured out who I was for fear that you might...well...you know..." Sakura trailed off, unable to finish her sentence.
"Become a bad influence on you again?" Shizuma asked, finishing Sakura's sentence for her while Sakura merely nodded.
"Something like that," Sakura said. "So," she said, turning back to face Shizuma, "now what?"
"Well for now," Shizuma said, crossing the room to sit beside Sakura who looked at her a little warily. "I want to do something that I haven't been able to do for ten or eleven years."
"Which would be...?" Sakura asked, not sure whether she should be worried or not.
"This," Shizuma said, pulling Sakura's face right up to hers and kissing her on the cheek before pulling her in for a tight hug.
"Sh-Shizuma!" Sakura exclaimed, caught off guard by her old friend's actions.
"Shush," Shizuma mumbled as she buried her face in her friend's hair, inhaling the scent of cherry trees and strawberries that was purely Sakura that she had missed for so long. "I missed you, Sakura," she said, hugging Sakura tighter.
"I missed you too Shizuma," Sakura said, relaxing in Shizuma's arms and returning the hug in full force. They stayed like that for a while before Sakura pulled away and Shizuma, immediately missing her warmth, pouted at her.
"Why'd you move?" Shizuma whined, pouting as Sakura shook her head in exasperation at her.
"Because it's almost ten and I still have tons of work to do," Sakura said, indicating the pile of homework she had left to do. "Also, I have to prepare myself."
"Prepare yourself?" Shizuma asked as Sakura stood up and began to unpack the bags she had taken to Lillian with her. "For what?"
"For Sachiko's arrival," Sakura stated simply, putting the last of her clothes in her closet.
"Sachiko's coming here?" Shizuma asked, paling slightly.
"I wouldn't be surprised if she got on the next flight right after mine," Sakura said, putting her bag under her bed. "Now that she knows you're here, who knows what she'll do?"
"So she's not coming?" Shizuma asked, getting more confused as she watched Sakura straighten out her room.
"Honestly, I'm not sure if she will or not," Sakura replied, turning to face Shizuma. "However, if she does decide to pay me a surprise visit, I don't want to be caught unawares. Would you?" She asked, raising an eyebrow at Shizuma who immediately shook her head.
"No way!" Shizuma said. "Sachiko can be really scary when she chooses to, especially when it comes to you."
"And you of all people would know that fact the best," Sakura said, smirking at Shizuma as the two made their way to Sakura's door.
"Yeup, and I would prefer not to see Sachiko furious again," Shizuma said, returning Sakura's smirk as she left the room. "Good-night, Aoi-san," Shizuma said, nodding her head at Sakura before walking down the hall to her own room.
"Good-night...Shizuma-chan," Sakura whispered before closing the door with an odd feeling in the pit of her stomach and a nagging in the back of her mind that she dismissed and went to finish her homework, the feeling not going away until she slipped into the land of dreams around midnight.
A/N: hey guys! sorry it took so long to update! i was getting grinded by readers of "A Rift In Time" for not updating for a while so i had to get over my writer's block and finish the next chapter for that first. not much to say about this chapter as it's kind of a filler but i promise that there will be a meet-up of the lillian gang soon. on that note however, i am having issues deciding what obstacle to throw Sakura's way in this story (besides the obvious Sachiko vs Shizuma war) so if you have any ideas post them in a review. Thanks! Don't forget to R+R!