Really sorry about the slow update, I was trying to stretch this chapter out. I have big plans for the next one. So this is more of a transition chapter. Please enjoy and review.

I don't own Sp! (still sitting and waiting for Shizuma.)

Chapter 7. The Violin

The unwanted sun beamed directly onto Shizuma's tear stained face. She was too weak to even get up from the hard floor to close the blinds. The events from the night before played in her head over and over again. Each time a pain stronger than the last pulled at her heart strings. Her once forest green eyes were now a pale grey, and her usual graceful features showed that of torment and sadness. The emerald slowly turned away from the light, finding its symbol of happiness upsetting. Her body ached as she rolled; the hardwood floor was not kind to the beauty's already hurt figure. 'This must be a punishment for all the women I have hurt in the past.' She thought to herself. A moment later her phone vibrated. The emerald reached for the phone, her heart beating quickly in hopes that it was Nagisa. A frown sailed across Shizuma's face when she realized that it was only a text message from Miyuki, stating that she heard about their breakup and was on her way over. The silver beauty just returned her body back to its original fetal position.

*Half hour later.*

Knock Knock Knock.

Shizuma barely budged from the noise. Her body was too weak to even get up to answer the door. A silhouette appeared in the window closest to the living room, casting a shadow over the emeralds body. She watched as the figure pressed its hands against the window sideways and set its face into the gap between them.

"Shizuma…please open the door." The voice said, barely intelligible.

Recognizing the mumbled voice as Miyuki's, the emerald slowly got up and dragged her body towards the door; her feet barely lifting off of the floor. The door slowly opened, allowing Miyuki to go inside. Said girl looked around the living room and noticed the turned over table and broken lamp. Shizuma was obviously in the worst shape that the blue haired woman had ever seen her best friend in. Miyuki watched as the emerald made her way over to the couch, lying on top of it and hugging the nearest pillow taut against her chest. The sapphire motioned over to her friend and rested her hand upon a still shoulder.

"I'm sorry this happened to you Shizuma." Said girl didn't respond, so Miyuki continued. "I know this feeling is one of the worst in the world, but, you and I both know that it was well deserved." The silver beauty didn't bother to look towards the voice's owner, so she continued to stare blankly. "This is something you brought on yourself; you were doing so well with remaining faithful to Nagisa. I can't seem to understand why you would ruin something that could have been a great turn out for you." She paused for a moment before speaking again, "I guess it can't be helped, it's already happened so now all that's left to do is clean up."

Shizuma then mumbled something unintelligible.

"I'm sorry?" asked the sapphire

"I can't."

"You can't what?"

"Clean this…this mess."

"Sure you can, it's just going to take some time."

"You don't understand…Nagisa will never take me back. You should have seen the way she looked at me." The emerald's voice began to squeak as she caught a heart wrenching pain in her chest. "I don't deserve to have her back; she's too good for an asshole like me."

"You're not an asshole Shizuma…just…stuck in your player ways. You can get her back."

"She will NEVER take me back Miyuki, what part of that don't you understand? There's no use in trying to get her back, it will all just be wasted effort. A lowlife only deserves another lowlife."

Nagisa sat on the floor in the guest room of Tamao's home sipping a cup of tea. She looked up towards the blunette who was sitting directly across from her, staring.

"What?" asked the red head.

"Nothing." The poet said turning away.

"No tell me."

"It's just…you seem so nonchalant about the whole thing, as if you don't care, like you've grown cold."

Nagisa stared down at the tea, "maybe."

"Maybe?"

"Maybe I have, Shizuma hurt me really badly. It cuts into me so deep that my body avoids the whole thing. My heart rejects the whole grieving process, I feel…numb."

"Numb?"

"I feel nothing. I can't feel anything, not happiness, anger, sadness or any other emotion for that matter. I'm just here…breathing."

"You can't keep your feeling bottled inside, that's dangerous."

"There are no feelings inside me, none at all."

"Nagisa…"

*A Month later*

"Come on Shizuma you have to get off the couch." Miyuki said as she tried pulling her friend up from the cushy furniture. "You've been laying on it since I got here a month ago. Now get up, go upstairs and take a shower."

"Miyuki please stop, I don't want to do anything."

"You can't stay there curled up in a ball; you'll never get over her this way."

"I'm not ready to get over her yet."

"You're not getting over her right this second; you're just picking yourself up."

"You just don't understand. I'm nothing without her."

Miyuki's faced showed one of annoyance, "Fine Shizuma, sit there and wallow in self pity. You're just keeping your self away from Nagisa longer."

The emerald then laid on the couch for a little bit more, contemplating about her next move. She rose from her seat and had an indefinable look on her face. Her eyes slowly started to tint green, but didn't return to its full forest green color. Miyuki eyed her friend, finding her sudden actions confusing. The blunette continued to watch as Shizuma walked up the stairs as if she wasn't just sulking a few moments ago. Once the Silver beauty was fully out of view; Miyuki felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. She picked it up without looking at the caller ID.

"Rokujo Miyuki speaking."

"Hey babe, it's me. How's everything going with Shizuma?"

"Well things were pretty bad, she was sitting on the couch in her clothes since I got here, saying that she couldn't be without Nagisa and how bad she screwed things up."

Tamao noticed Miyuki's use of past tense vocabulary, "Since you said things were bad, I suppose they aren't anymore?"

"Actually, Shizuma just did the most peculiar thing. She was just sitting on the couch depressed and suddenly got up and then walked upstairs. The look on her face was unreadable."

"Sounds similar to what's going on here."

"Why do you say that?"

"Nagisa seems to have the same effect, except hers started from the day she arrived. She said that Shizuma had hurt her so bad that she doesn't have any emotion left in her. She isn't being herself, when she speaks it doesn't even have a hint of life, it's just monotone."

"This situation might be worse then we thought."

"I know, I hope this doesn't turn out too badly." Tamao stated with a hint of worry in her voice.

"Well if it does, there's nothing we could do about it, this isn't our problem."

"You're right; maybe we should give them some space."

"Maybe we should, if they really need us then they'll come to us."

"I hope so."

There was a brief moment of silence, "I'm going to go up stairs to check on Shizuma and then I'll be home later today and if not then definitely tomorrow morning."

"Ok babe, see you soon. I love you."

"Love you too."

The blunette then hung up the phone and headed up the stairs. When she stepped into the large bedroom the smell a familiar type of soap filled the air. Moments later the Silver beauty opened the bathroom door, letting out a vast amount of steam, quickly escaping from the enclosed space. She stepped out of the wash room with one towel around her body and the other around her head. Miyuki started to turn around and leave the room, but was stopped as the emerald spoke out to her.

"You were right, Miyuki." The sound of Shizuma's voice was different. It didn't give an indication of being warm, welcoming, happy or anything. It sounded more calm, relaxed and smooth. Although her voice didn't sound like the one Miyuki has grown accustomed to, it still in some way felt familiar.

"What was I right about?"

"Well not just you alone, Jackie also said a few things to me." The blunette didn't respond, hoping to signal Shizuma to continue. She got the point, "To think it would take a moment like this to come to my senses."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't think I'm ready for love, it's too fragile. There's too much you have to do and I am very lazy. The days when I didn't give a damn about anyone served the best for me."

Miyuki motioned a little closer to her best friend, watching her get dress into some tight blue jeans and a silky red top the caressed her cleavage. But she decided not to question about the outfit until she got the full story. "How were those days better, I thought you said they were too stressful?"

"They were, when I was a beginner. But once I've gotten deep into the game it became a way of life. It grew easier and easier for me. When I met Nagisa I was planning on treating her the same as I did all the other women. But something about her made me wait for her. She carried this sense of dignity and made herself seem like she was the best prize in the world, like I had to have her. Soon enough I realized that this prize came with too many directions and I definitely wasn't going to spend my time shinning it, scraping off the rust to make it feel and look important. For that, I would rather have a million trophies that I could shine once and place it on the shelf."

"What does all of that mean Shizuma?"

Said woman finished tying up her black lace high heel boots and eyed herself in the tall mirror located next to her bed. After being satisfied with her appearance, she turned towards Miyuki with an all too familiar devious grin on her face, "the old Shizuma is back."

Tamao walked into the room Nagisa was staying in and placed a hand on the woman's shoulder. The red head turned towards the touch with emotionless eyes.

"How are you feeling?"

"I'm not."

"Maybe you need something to help you feel again."

"Why?"

The poet pondered the question for a moment, "everyone needs to have emotion."

"Not me."

"Nagisa you have got to try something, I can't bare to see you like this. Please, for me."

The red head let out a deep sigh, closed her eyes and folded her arms, "fine Tamao, what do you want me to do." She stated rather coldly.

"Let's go out to the mall and see if we can find something."

"Whatever."

"Ok just be ready in fifteen minutes ok?"

"Whatever."

Tamao really didn't like the cold vibes she was receiving from her best friend. In fact it hurt her quite a bit. But she decided to brush it off; she was determined to find something to get her friend back; or at least her emotions.

About fifteen minutes later Tamao arrived down stairs wearing a simple light blue summer dress, grey flip flops and a grey sweater. She called for Nagisa and waited patiently for her. In roughly another five minutes the red head walked down the stairs. The way she looked made Tamao a bit afraid on the inside; she had never seen Nagisa dress in such a way. The strawberry was wearing a pair of tight black skinny jeans that were ripped at the knee, a black and white long sleeve shirt, black lace arm warmers, and a medium sized choker with spikes sticking out, and a pair of dirty black and white converses. Her outfit was completed with her in two messy pigtails with skull barrettes and heavy black eyeliner and shadow. The dark ruby noticed her friend staring at her outfit.

"Are you ready or what?" she spat.

Tamao just nodded and lead the way out the door. Soon they found themselves at the mall walking to various stores seeing if Nagisa would get a vibe from anything…nothing. A tint of red appeared on Tamao's face from embarrassment of all the stares that were being shot her way, due to, according to others, the outrages outfit her best friend was wearing. She looked at Nagisa and noticed she walked with a bit of a slouchy and careless attitude. The shopping continued for a couple more hours. It wasn't until they were about to past a music store that sold instruments when Nagisa spoke up.

"Let's go in there."

Surprised to hear her voice, Tamao just blankly stared at Nagisa, not really sure if she was actually talking to her.

"Let's go into the music store." Nagisa said again.

"Ok, sure."

The duo walked into the music store and looked around for a bit. Tamao walked off in a different direction and began to play with a pretty blue drum set. Nagisa on the other hand was suddenly drawn to the strings section and walked inside the controlled temperatured room. She looked around at all the guitars, ranging from bass to electric to acoustic. But for some reason she didn't care too much about them. In fact her interest was piqued by the lonely Violin laying off in the corner of the room. As if the instrument had a magnetic pull; Nagisa slowly made her way over to the musical device. She stared at the instrument for a moment, then picked it up not being able to resist. The red head placed the body of the Violin near her collar bone and rested her chin on the end piece that was meant for the purpose. After placing her fingers on the strings, she picked up the bow and slowly stroked it against them, rewarding her with a long beautiful deep sound. Nagisa continued to play a slow melody; her fingers moved to the different places on the neck of the Violin producing more beautiful notes, each one seemed to lighten her heavy heart.

When she paused she noticed a man standing near her, she assumed he was a worker for the store. They stared at each other for what seemed like hours, until finally the older man with a long silver beard spoke.

"That was very nice. How long have you been studying?"

"I haven't, this is the first time I've even picked this up."

The older man had a look of shock on his face, "you have a gift."

"I guess," stated the red head nonchalantly.

"How does that instrument make you feel?"

Since the ruby hasn't felt any type of emotion for the past month, she wasn't sure if she was really feeling anything at all. The only thing she was sure of was that she never wanted to part with the Violin. "How much is this?"

A small smile sailed across the older mans face. He knew exactly what her answer really meant, even if she didn't herself. "Well that particular Violin was brought here from another store who had too many of them. It was sitting on the side there because this store didn't think it would sell well, seeing as it looked old and incapable of making any music. But you have definitely proved us wrong. So since we were going to throw it away anyway, I'll give it to you for fifty dollars, it comes with a complementary case."

Nagisa knew the deal was too good to pass up, "I'll take it, but can I buy that case instead." She pointed to a black case that had silver skull heads for latches in stead of the usual gold plated ones like the other hard shell cases.

Another grin showed on the older man's face, "of course you can, in fact that case will protect it through pretty much anything."

The red head looked down at the Violin and for the first time in a month…smiled.

Shizuma: You can't help but make things worse for me can you?

Cuzo: I have to make my readers happy.

Shizuma: What about making me happy?

Cuzo: (blushes) I wish I could.

Nagisa: I kind of like my roll here. Who knew I could be so cold, he he.

Shizuma: Sweetie it's impossible for you to be a cold person, you're too sweet for that.

Nagisa: Cuzo made it happen!

Cuzo: Yeah, she could be anything she wants to be.

Shizuma: Shut up Cuzo you're making it worse.

Nagisa: Hey don't talk to her like that.

Shizuma: Don't stick up for her.

Nagisa: Stop telling me what to do, you're not my boss. (Stomps away)

Shizuma: Ugh! Cuzo if there was even a remote chance of being with me you blew it.

Cuzo: T_T

Hehe…apologies again for shortness. Please review ") (Warning following chapters will contain quite a bit of sex.)