A/N - RL issues. Mainly college/work. Just to confirm, I still write for this, but I take a lot of my time putting the right pieces together. Thank you all for your patience! - h-k

Chapter 21: Quiet Heart

Nagi laid on her futon with her eyes open. Staring at the time on her phone, she couldn't believe it.

It was around five in the morning and she was wide awake.

She smiled proudly. All the effort she put into sleeping earlier has finally paid off. Nagi jumped out of her bed and ran to the kitchen.

"Maria! I can finally wake up on time! Let's celebrate with a big breakfast!"

The kitchen was empty.

'Wait...' Nagi thought. 'I don't think Maria gets up around this time!'

She stared around the kitchen, unable to recognize its setting. The usually bright and colorful interior were dark and unsaturated at this time.

"Ah, Ojou-sama is awake."

She turned around and smiled at her butler.

"Hayate! Good morning!" she said.

"Good morning," he replied with a smile. He went around the kitchen and opened some windows. Nagi watched in awe, as lights hit the entire room with brightness and saturation.

"Since you just woke up and are in the kitchen, would you like me to make you breakfast?" Hayate asked.

Nagi nodded happily. "Yes, please!"

She sat in front of the kitchen counter-top and watched him take out ingredients from the fridge, light up the stove, and heat up the pan.

She watched his back as he began the cooking process. The sound of oil drizzling against the eggs fallen against the pan felt refreshing to her ears. The sound of the fans turning on to rid of the oily smell spreading in the kitchen seized her. Nagi was almost going to back to sleep, as the sight of Hayate changed into a figure she once knew

"Sunny side up, dear?" her mother asked.

"Ojou-sama," Hayate called Nagi.

Nagi shook her head and immediately looked at the figure in front of her. It wasn't her anymore.

"I know you like omelettes best," Hayate said. "But I forgot and made you sunny side ups by accident. I don't know why I forgot..."

He placed the plate of fried eggs in front of her. Hayate stared at her master looking at the plate, as if something was wrong with it.

He panicked when he noticed something glisten in her eye. 'Crap!' he thought. 'She really wanted an omelette!'

"It's perfect..." she whispered.

"Eh?" Hayate responded.

"It's perfect." she said to him. She grabbed her fork and ate her eggs with a smile. "Thank you, Hayate."

The butler watched her eat amusingly, just when he thought she was going to break down for unknown reasons. He nervously laughed in silence. 'Ojou-sama... stay strong,' he thought. 'I'll always be here as long as you need me.'

That's right. Hayate reminded himself once more that he has a life to protect with his own. It was a realization that has made him feel somewhat sad, yet happy at the same time.

"Hayate, won't you eat with me?" Nagi asked.

"Eh? But by the time I finish cooking for myself, you'll finish yours," he replied.

"No, I won't. I can wait," she said.

"But your food will get cold, Ojou-sama."

"Then hurry up and cook your eggs, Hayate."

Hayate chuckled at her witty replies. He quickly made his own sunny side ups, then sat down next to her on the counter-top.

"Amazing!" Nagi said, as he set his plate down. "You finished cooking eggs in two mere sentences!"

"Heh, I'm a butler, after all..." he muttered with pride.

They ate in silence on this peaceful morning. They would often glance at each other as they ate, then they would laugh.

Hayate smiled at her master. Life like this was just good enough for him.

Right?

'As long as you're fine...' he thought.

"Maria should be up soon, right?" Nagi asked.

"Yes, by six," he answered.

"And Hinagiku would return from her daily run afterwards, right?" she asked.

A fork dropped loudly against one's plate. Nagi looked at Hayate with a questioned face as he picked his fork up again.

"Sorry about that," he said.

She could tell that he did not look to eager too answer her question.

'Did I something happen between them?' she thought. 'Is he mad at me for asking?'

They went back to eating, but this time, Nagi did not feel comfortable about her question not being answered.

Hayate noticed Nagi staring down on her plate. He mustered up some courage to tell her.

"Hinagiku-san isn't here today," he lately answered. "She said that she went to stay with her parents last night."

"Oh..." she muttered. She could not help but sense how much her butler's mood has changed since mentioning her.

'I've been curious... I've been really curious...'

"Hayate."

He looked at her. Her face was no longer smiling and was serious.

"Hayate," she repeated. "Do you love Hinagiku?"

He knew this was coming. A great sense of pain had taken over him. Glimpses of hurtful events occurred in his mind. Glimpses of a beauty crying right in front of him.

But when he looked at his master, he feared the same could happen to her if he answered truthfully. 'What was the right answer?' he thought.

Hayate gulped and bit his lip. It was one of the toughest decisions he ever made.

But when a pair of small, warm hands covered one of his, all of his tension dropped. He looked at his master, with worry in her eyes, and a smile that made him feel in no danger.

"You love her, don't you?" she asked.

He could not reply. He was rather amazed of this child. Amazed not to get hit like before.

"My my," Maria commented. "Kind of too early in the morning for you two like this?"

His amazement vanished as she went back to her unsurprising reaction. Her cheeks went full red as she let go of his hand.

"It's not what it looks like, Maria! I swear!" Nagi said.

The staff both laughed at her. Morning became awfully colorful. And yet, the butler still has not seen any color throughout the day, but he will continue to pretend to do so.

Because that is what a butler does for the sake of his master.

It did not take long for the entire residents of Violet Mansion to realize that something went wrong between Hayate and Hinagiku. After she came back the next day, the two would act just fine around the others. But around each other, they would neither talk nor stare. On some days, Hinagiku would excuse herself and go back to her home with her parents.

"Hey! At least take me with you this time!" Alice said to her. Hinagiku, after all, is the wielder of Shirosakura, Alice's source of power to recover to her original self.

After negotiating with her parents and their misconceptions about her "irresponsible behavior" after seeing Alice, they let her stay.

"But only if you promise me to take a DNA test to prove that she is not your child," her father said.

"Oh my goodness, she isn't my child!" Hinagiku repeated for the fifth time.

"I think I believe her, dear," the cheerful mother said. "Because if she really had a daughter, Alice-chan's hair would be blue instead!"

They watched their daughter's cheeks match the color of her hair. She then immediately ran up the stairs with the little child guest. Mr. Katsura sighed, as he heard the door upstairs shut a little harder than usual. He walked outside and stood in front of the open doorway, pulling out his box of cigarettes out of his pocket. Just before he lit him up one, he saw his wife walk up to him. Expecting her to take it away from him, he put away his lighter. To his surprise, Mrs. Katsura pulled out another cigarette out of his box.

Without question, he lit her's up when she placed it her mouth before his. They watched the little street they live in, the peaceful street where the two had worked so hard to live in.

"Just like the old days," Mrs. Katsura said.

Mr. Katsura chuckled. "You know, you look significantly younger ever since you stopped smoking," he said.

"Really?" she responded. "I thought it was just the second season change."

"Why smoke now?" he asked.

Mrs. Katsura smoked with a relaxed face. When she looked at him, her cheerul smile came back. "Because my husband and now my little girl will both be gone," she said. She stared at the hand she is smoking with. Her smile vanished as the cigarette slowly burned down to her fingers. "I wish she could stay," she muttered. "I don't like seeing her come home like this..."

Her husband gently pulled her cigarette from her fingers.

"So do I..." he said.

Alice watched the older couple below her, from the window in Hinagiku's room. Love, it was something she could not really understand. She wondered if her original self had discovered love.

"Hey, did I have any boyfriends?" she asked Hinagiku, who just completely stopped herself from doing anymore homework and gave Alice a stunned look.

"I mean, look at me," Alice said. "I'm already perfect. Ten years later, I would be no different. Wouldn't I have dated someone like H*nry-sama or Bieber-san?"

Hinagiku lightly laughed. "You're not very realistic, are you?" she asked.

"Well, if I were realistic," Alice responded. "I would have dumped them."

"That would make you shallow..."

"Well, then I'd date the Sanzenin butler."

Hinagiku's eyes widened to her surprise. "H-Hayate-kun?" she asked. She knew Athena dated Hayate, but does not want to confirm.

"Yes," Alice said. "I can tell that he was raised to be able to protect and support someone, even financially, no matter how much hardship he puts up with."

Hinagiku gulped.

"I was just kidding," Alice said. Hinagiku fell off her desk as the little girl grinned.

"Why must you make such jokes?!" Hinagiku asked whiningly.

"Because it amuses me to see your reaction," Alice replied. "Besides, you look like you could really lighten up lately."

Hinagiku stood up and brushed her shoulders. She knew Alice was right.

"I know," she muttered. "But..."

Alice looked at her face reverting back to sadness.

"But that's why you love him, right?" she asked.

Hinagiku did not respond.

She sat back down on her desk and resumed on her homework. Alice watched her, feeling a little bit of guilt, as she observed at how much longer it had taken the student to solve all of her problems.

The next day was girl's day, spent at the Cafe Donguri. Ayumu, in her work clothes, sat across her love rival and friend, who came in dressed in her standard Hakuou uniform.

"It's pretty amazing that you get to experience the American life," Ayumu said.

"I'm just gonna be there to study," Hinagiku replied. "Nothing crazy."

"But I'm really gonna miss you," Ayumu said. "I wonder how the others will react."

Hinagiku did not comment. She slowly took a sip of her tea.

"I wonder how Hayate-kun would react," Ayumu muttered. She noticed a strange silence coming from the student council president.

"I have something important to tell you," Hinagiku said. "It's about Hayate-"

"Stop," Ayumu interrupted. "I know."

Hinagiku paused. She knew what was coming to her was to be expected.

"I saw," Ayumu said. "I seen it all."

'She saw Hayate-kun and me together?' Hinagiku thought. A great feeling of embarrassment was about to burst.

"From the look of his eyes... I already knew that I had lost to you."

Hinagiku blinked a few times. "Eh?"

Ayumu turned her head to stare through the window next to them.

"When Hayate-kun looks at me, he would have no problems to look into my eyes before disregarding me. But when he looks at you, Hinagiku-san, he stares at you longer than usual, and even do things with you he'd never do with me. Things that not any butler would do."

Hinagiku felt guilt, but needed to ask. "Like what?"

"Ask you for advice, open up to you about Tennousu-san, have you help him with his journey to get curry..." she elaborated. "But, it wasn't that he did so many things with you..."

Hinagiku noticed Ayumu clenching her coffee cup tight.

"It was that... he looked really happy to be with you."

The hands clenching the cup was embraced by the hands of another.

Ayumu looked at the girl trying warm the hands in front of her, as she noticed how pale and cold those hands actually were.

"Hayate-kun and I were together," Hinagiku said. Her hands trembled as those next words were brought out. "And then we broke up."

Ayumu had a blank expression on her face, unsure of what she just heard. Yet, she could not forget about how cold those hands felt. Ayumu slowly freed from her grasp and covered Hinagiku's hands with her own.

"What happened?" Ayumu softly asked.

From the worried look of her friend, that is when Hinagiku realized. She will always have a good friend. A friend that she had long betrayed.

"I'm so sorry, Ayumu-san..."