A/N: Wow. I really, really want to update like twice a week, but unfortunately, I don't think that is possible come next week. Our nanny is leaving us for good, and I am left to do all the chores! TAT (excuses, excuses LOL) Thanks to James Birdsong, cheng, Lu and shortygirl333 for reviewing and to everybody who gave up some of their time to read this fic. :D


Act 34, Winter

"Akizuki-san is in the entrance hall with her as we speak."

Almost immediately, Tōya darted off, passing through the connecting entryways of the common room, study room and the lobby, and leaving a more confused Tomoyo to ask a startled Yukito the necessary questions. The servant only tipped his head in one side as if in thought. It seemed that he was rather hesitant to reveal the visitor's identity, her intention for coming to see Eriol, or the implication of Tōya's alarmed reaction.

"Gomen Daidōji-dono. It is not my place to satisfy your questions," he said, bowing in apology before instantly saying he had other errands to run and turning away.

The presence of this guest had stirred the young doctor from his typically relaxed attitude, which consequently made the former heiress curious.

Tomoyo reached the foyer and just stopped by the alternative entrance, internally debating with herself why she shouldn't sneak in this meeting. However, her stubborn interest won the mental argument. In the slightly parted doors, she spied Nakuru in the room, standing beside Tōya with her head slightly bowed and her gaze stubbornly trained on the floor. Eriol was a few feet ahead of his cousin and was facing the guest, whose figure was angled in a way that a part of her regal face could still be seen. Even without her stepping in there Tomoyo knew that the air must have been oppressive and infinitely uncomfortable that even a few blunt words could slice through it. Everybody looked seriously rigid and, if she read it right, stunned, but nobody was talking, not even when a full minute has passed.

"What brings you to Amamiya?" Eriol broke the silence first, sounding deceptively bored despite the hard look in his eyes. He didn't bother with the pleasantries, but he wasn't particularly rude either. His cousin had stared at the back of his head as if looking too hard would make the pianist stop whatever he was planning to say or do.

Somehow the woman didn't answer his question right away. Tomoyo wasn't sure if she was provoking Eriol to snap at her or was making a purposeful pause.

"I forget how beautiful Amamiya mansion is at winter. It didn't really snow in the past few years, did it? Maybe it did the last time I was here." She finally spoke with a smile in her voice, equally deceiving with her unassuming comment.

Everybody knew the snow had dissolved days ago.

Unmoved, the sapphire-eyed young man chose not to rise to the bait as he waited for the appropriate reply to his query. In the other hand, Tōya hated the pointless anticipation.

"Mizuki—"

"Oh, please, Tōya. Can't I be allowed to come here anymore?" Kaho interjected still with that smile in her tone as she tossed her fiery hair mischievously, her perfectly painted lips quirking into a mysterious grin.

Nakuru had visibly flinched in between the other woman's speech, and it was difficult to tell if it was because of how personal the guest with red hair had addressed the doctor or her last statement.

"Did you go see Eriol-kun perform? I didn't see you there."

At this, Eriol was finally encouraged to scowl at Kaho. His gaze was burning with something akin to disgust, but he really hadn't been the type to manifest too much emotion, not in this situation anyway.

"I was a judge in the contest. Surely you knew about that," the woman said, arching an eyebrow to the bespectacled pianist in effect, needling him further.

Tomoyo's eyes widened upon hearing this, trying to patch up in her head the significance of what Tōya had said to her a while ago and what this woman was suddenly saying. Perhaps there was a connection, perhaps there wasn't. It really shouldn't be her business to figure things out, but she was also especially treading on eggshells with Eriol lately, and the young woman didn't like how everybody was doing the same. He was rather determined to keep everyone in the dark, pushing even his only family away in the process.

"What do you want, Kaho-san?" There was a notable edge in Eriol's voice this time, and his jaw was more taut. His patience was wearing thin with all her stalling.

"Always the one to be straight-forward, aren't you, Eriol-kun? I like that about you," Kaho said, insensitive of his irritation. Her amusement could be clearly read in her face that even Tomoyo cringe at the spectacle. The air was thicker with so much tension anyway, and no one dared to budge. Tōya looked more stunned though than the he had been when Yukito first announced her arrival, while Nakuru bit her lip in anxiety, and if Eriol had been glaring at the guest, he now settled for an uninterested stare again.

"I should have known you are not going to say anything worthwhile. I am leaving," the young man had heatedly stated before he resolutely stalked to the foyer. Tomoyo, who was spying by the entry, should have sidestepped him before she was discovered, but she was seconds too late when she realized what was actually happening. Eriol had slid the doors apart sooner than she could react, and she stood there face to face with him, his shadow dropping on her like a dismal shade of suspense. She couldn't stop herself from flushing deep red in mortification for being caught eavesdropping.

The young man was equally shocked to see her there, mouth dropping in muted question. His hesitation to make his complete exit caused everybody in the room to look in their way. The former heiress could only anxiously blink.

"Anō—"

"Remember that Hamamatsu piano competition they were telling you about? Why don't you participate in that contest? Another award will make your performance portfolio look really promising. I can be your mentor if you like," Kaho interrupted again, inadvertently saving Tomoyo from explaining why she was standing there. "The training should be to your advantage. Even if I may only serve as a substitute, it was your father who taught me a lot himself after all."

The offer and her last words, which were misleadingly genial, were meant to stab him straight where it really hurt. His eyes promptly shut close, dark brows meeting in a crease. Eriol visibly struggled to recoil, yet he fell short anyway. In this dangerous proximity, the former heiress could plainly witness the barely contained agony written on the lines of his unusually blushing face, and her heart tumbled to the pit of her stomach at the vulnerable display of emotion.

"I think you have said what you really came for now, Mizuki." Tōya finally found his voice again, annoyed, and the nurse had shifted her concentration from the ground to glower at the unlikely morning visitor.

In a sudden jerk, Eriol opened his azure eyes again without actually seeing Tomoyo, fixed a blank face on, and instantly left his spot, dragging her dazed self along with him.

"Matte Hiiragizawa-san! Where are we going?"

Both of them were marching along the extended hallway in long strides and were fast approaching the main entrance. Despite the rising protest in her voice, the pianist didn't hear any of it, merely tightening his firm grip on her arm and trembling in controlled anger.

"Please, Hiiragizawa-san," Tomoyo pleaded as she tried to wrench her arm free from Eriol's hold. Tugging proved to be a futile feat. Only when she determinedly stepped in front of him and cautiously laid an empathetic hand on his warm face did he cease from moving, as if the bespectacled man just realized what was actually happening. Never mind if her arm was twisted in an awkward angle at the effort.

"Daidōji-san?"

His eyes were round again when they had settled on hers, taking in all of her concerned expression like it had been the first time he was allowed to really look at her. In the last three days he hadn't been responsive to anything, and now he was reacting like he was going to burst from too much feeling. It was a demonstration of extremes that Tomoyo didn't know what to make of it.

They were both drawing in air from all the exertion to get to where they were now lingering.

She noted the dark rings under his sapphire eyes. Eriol hadn't slept much, and it was sadly manifesting.

"It's about time you tell someone what really happened a few days ago. I am your friend, Hiiragizawa-san. You really can't keep everything to yourself like this," she urged gently as she sustained her even gaze. He had already released his claim on her arm, but only when he nodded to what she had said did she remove her shaking hand from his face. She couldn't figure why she had to result to such intimate act because there were so many other ways to calm him down. Tomoyo decided that she would deal with her foolishness later. Thankfully, there was nobody in the area to see what had taken place. She would be damned if she was to go through another embarrassment one more time.

"I have to be at work soon, though." She winced upon remembering, the anti-climactic statement hanging between them like an ill-timed rain cloud. The young woman was about to head for the library when Tōya unexpectedly came to speak to her.

"I'll drive you there," Eriol gallantly offered, swiftly opening the main door for her after grabbing his wool coat on the peg in the corner.

Warm rays of the sun had immediately traced her face before she could reject his sudden offer. Maybe it was his way of warming up to her again, Tomoyo thought pensively. Or perhaps it was easily the perfect excuse to get away from the house, where the commotion was probably still brewing. She briefly wondered if Tōya and Nakuru would be able to catch the next train on time.

After a few half-hearted protests, she stopped fighting against Eriol's idea.

They didn't talk, nevertheless they shared a comfortable silence in the entire length of the drive. The customary awkwardness that she thought would exist between them didn't even thrive, and she was in some way reassured that things were turning more hopeful.

Almost an hour later, the bespectacled pianist had practically walked her to the town library before he resolutely followed her in the public building.


He watched the raven-haired girl speak to her aged superior the moment they arrived, hunching to him in apology for being late.

Eriol lifted his right arm and checked the time in his watch. Tomoyo Daidōji was only behind for a few minutes.

The old man had only nodded noncommittally before he handed her a pair of gloves from behind his table and sent her off to do her responsibilities. The grey-eyed assistant, Aya, bowed to him again before making her way to the pianist, who was standing among the tables and chairs.

"My first break will be in two hours," she told him with a shy smile. "I have to catalogue the books that arrived yesterday, so I may be too busy to even speak to you once in a while."

He appreciated her tolerance with his temperamental disposition in the past few days. He knew he didn't deserve her respect or attention, not when he behaved so poorly, stubbornly desisting interactions because they would never understand why he would never get over his father's rejection even if they tried, ultimately forgetting he wasn't alone. He had his cousins, Syaoran, Nakuru. He had Tomoyo.

"Hiiragizawa-san?"

It was pitiful to peer at cloudy eyes instead of clear heliotrope orbs. Even so the faint glow from the window that was playing on her petite form only made her eyes seem like smoky ice.

"What are your interests?" He suddenly blurted out, not really knowing where that thought came from. He was probably going mad, but at this time he couldn't really care less.

Her face registered disbelief at the bizarre question. The way she tilted her head reminded him of a curious pet, wondering what its foolish master was up to again.

He supposed she was unaware of this endearing habit of hers.

"Well," Tomoyo started with a pretty color on her porcelain face, uncertain of his intent to know. "There's the story of the twelve zodiac animals, fireworks, stargazer lilies, Rachmaninoff's music—"

She kept her eyes on his when she said that part, but looked fairly apologetic for some reason. One way or another she seemed guilty to have mentioned it especially when it was a sore topic at the moment. Yet her unyielding understanding moved him, and Eriol was glad he chose to spend his day with her.

"—and cookies."

"Baking cookies, or eating them?" He asked, amused with this bit of information. He didn't peg her as someone so uncomplicated with such naive fascination, mainly because he knew that she was born from an affluent family, who managed a large textile business for a very long time.

"Both?" Her self-conscious expression made him genuinely smile for the first time in days.

"Do you have books about cookies?"

"Hai, they are in the homemaking section."

Tomoyo led him to the same bend, where he found her the night before his final competition, and showed him the rows of volumes of similar field. With another smile he said his thanks and minded his own affair so that the library assistant could finally start her work.

Eriol sighed to himself when the girl was out of sight. He was exhausted from all the recent events, and particularly from his father's apprentice's unexpected visit this morning. Maybe he was lucky to have the former heiress to keep him sane.

He would have to read about baking cookies of all kinds to keep his mind off Mizuki Kaho's wicked grin and Tomoyo Daidōji's beautiful face.


A/N: Do you guys think I made Kaho a too vindictive b*tch here? hahahahaha I really hope that it gave you that impression. :D