April 1, Nerima, Tokyo

The time was eight o'clock at night.

Kaori was alone.

She had been for the last two hours, ever since she ran away from Kousei on the Courage Bridge.

Her hair was messy and her cheeks were tearstained. She was huddled in the corner of the playground where she and Kousei had met for the first time; she'd returned home for a little to grab her violin, in some vain hope it might give her some comfort and gone here, needing some fresh air and finding nothing but the cold. The playground was abandoned, save for a sparrow atop the play set, completely oblivious to the sole visitor. She'd heard brief mutters of muggers in the area, not that she particularly cared at the moment.

The memory of Kaori one year ago, playing barefoot atop the playground with the melodica for the local kids recalled nothing of the ghost of the broken girl whose eyes were welled with tears.

She couldn't stay home to wait for her parents; they already said goodbye to her a second time, to force them to do it a third time would just hurt even more people Kaori cared about. And Kaori had had enough of losing people she loved. Her mistakes had cost her so much; her lie had hurt Tsubaki and had deeply wounded Kousei, the two people she'd been trying to protect with it. For fourteen years, Kaori had spent most her life trying to reach Kousei as he'd reached her so many years ago.

And all her effort had been erased in the space of a few minutes because of one small mistake. Because of one small mistake, she'd lost one of the most important people in her life. Because of one mistake, fourteen years of chasing after her idol, her inspiration, had gone down the drain.

'He probably hates me now.'

Kaori had made her peace with dying a long time ago, she'd thought. It was okay if she died, okay that she left the world so soon after entering it, if she could just reach Kousei Arima. She convinced herself it was okay if she could leave the world with no regrets.

After meeting him, however, she'd wanted so much more; to go on, to live, to stay. She loved him already before meeting him; knowing him in all his depth made her want more, and it broke her near the end that she had come so late in her own life, too late to get to be with him. That day on the rooftop had been the culmination of her despair; she knew that, surgery or not, she had very little time left, and wanted to do so much and had so little.

And she'd been given a second chance to make it up, to do everything she hadn't done with him even if it was just for a day, and she'd ruined it all.

She'd lost him. She'd hurt him so badly, so deeply, that he'd turned on her and told her just how badly she'd wronged him. She'd lost him because of her own doing.

She didn't want to lose anyone else.

Kaori felt another sob wrack her body. She choked, placing her head in her hands as tears continued to stream from her eyes.

'This is all my fault.'

….

'I did this.'

Kousei slumped across the back of his front door, tears pouring from his own eyes. He hadn't even made it halfway home before he'd begun to cry. He had to run then, run home, run to save face and prevent himself from breaking down where someone might see.

He had made it one, maybe two steps into his own home before collapsing to his feet.

He'd made a terrible mistake.

He'd driven Kaori away.

The first time Kaori had left him, she'd had no choice, and he was powerless to stop her. He still hadn't made his peace with Kaori's death; it was as if he'd lost the other half of his soul that day, as if it had been torn from him and thrown into a dark abyss where it could never, ever return from. Seeing her body at the funeral was a punch in the gut for him; she still looked so beautiful, so angelic, but it was a hollow remnant of the vibrant girl she had once been, and had simply served as a reminder to him of things not done and words unsaid. It had taken him all his power not to break down right then and there, in front of everyone; his pillow had still been damp the next morning.

He knew, objectively, he could make it through this again; it'd taken him two years, but he'd made his peace with losing his mother, even if she had been a far worse person than Kaori had been or could ever be; as much as Kousei cared about her and understood why she did what she did, he couldn't truly forgive Saki Arima for being a terrible mother, for no mother had the right to do that to their own children. That was fine with Kousei; true, it was a poor compromise, but compromise was important in life, and not everything was a fairy tale where everything was happy and they could live happily ever after.

He'd learnt as much with Kaori. But Kaori deserved to have been different.

She'd tried to fix him. She'd built him back up with the short period she'd been in his life and broke him down again just as quickly when she died, and ever since he'd been regretting not spending every waking moment at her side. Kousei didn't want to compromise and simply have to accept the hand he'd been dealt; he wanted a fairy tale ending, the one where they walked off into the sunset to live happily ever after.

But he knew well enough that wasn't how the real world worked, even with what had happened the day before yesterday. At least, until today, until Kaori had returned from the dead.

Now he had her back, and then just as quickly lost her again, and it had been because of him.

'She won't come back this time.'

And why would she? He had been the one who had turned on her. She hadn't started it, not on purpose anyway; she'd told him already in her letter that she'd told the lie for his sake. But he had certainly finished it.

This was his doing.

'But that lie was to protect him,' Kaori heard her own voice reassure her, though it had not been a conscious thought.

The lie had been for Kousei's sake and for everyone's else's sake. After all, Kaori was justified in wanting not to hurt others; it would be wrong of her to cause such pain to people for her own selfish sake. She needed to tell the lie. She needed to do all that.

'How else were you going to get that coward to come out of his shell?'

The idea of the world of music losing someone like Kousei incensed her. How dare he run away? Suffering was the god of muses, and he had suffered more than anyone, so that meant he ought to have stayed. His abandonment of the world of music was an act of supreme cowardice.

Leaving her alone was an act of supreme cowardice.

'He came for us when it suited him. Never when we needed it most.'

He had avoided her. He even admitted it; Kousei didn't want to see her because he didn't want to see her suffer, to relive the pain he'd gone through already. A real friend, a real partner would have stayed to the very end.

He'd given too little, he'd come too late. He'd come at the penultimate hour, but only after being prodded hard.

In her despair, Kaori began to slowly understand this new train of thought, this new entity in her mind that was framing Kousei for all his flaws. She saw Kousei in a new light; not the wounded man she'd nursed back to the world of color and sound, but a skulking craven who wallowed in self-pity.

'This is Kousei's fault.'

He was a coward, a deserter, a traitor.

….

She was a liar, a manipulator, a tempestuous bully.

'She lied to us. She led us on.'

This was true, Kousei had to admit. For a year, he pined after Kaori, staying out of Watari's way; no matter how much he loved her, Watari was too much a brother to him, too much his friend for Kousei to dare jeopardize his happiness. And yet after all that, she had the gall to claim she loved him all along after leading him on for a whole year.

'Someone who loved us wouldn't have lied.'

Weren't lovers supposed to be honest to one another? If Kaori really loved him, she wouldn't have lied. That was an unspoken rule of relationships; honesty was the best policy. Most relationships were founded on trust; businessmen trusted each other to keep up their sides of deals, friends trusted each other to have their backs, and lovers trusted each other to stay loyal.

How could Kousei trust Kaori when she did that to him? This was on her. She had initiated the lies, after all, not him.

'Don't blame yourself. This is Kaori's fault.'

Kaori was no angel; she was flawed, dangerous, tempestuous. Lies slipped easily from her mouth and flowed over her tongue like water. Her flaws overtook his mental image of her, twisting her into his enemy, his opponent.

What she had done was selfish, for her own gain, for herself alone. What did she matter to him now?

'Come on, Arima. Forget Kaori.'

…..

'So what are you waiting for, Kaori? Let him go.'

The voice drummed on in her head, egging her on, nudging her through despair. Kaori felt cornered, surrounded as her despair continued to set in.

It had a point. Kousei had been a coward, scared to watch her suffer.

Kaori mulled over her current circumstances. Now, with only four hours of her life left, she had one clear, obvious path; forget Kousei and live her life as she wanted. It wasn't worth it to redeem him.

'…do I really throw away our relationship…..because of that?'

…

'Yes, Arima. Do it. It was all a lie anyway. What's stopping her from lying again?'

Kousei held his head, distressed as his own thoughts turned against him in his anguish. Like a cornered rat, he turned, looking around, hoping for some escape, some way out of this situation.

It was logical. Kaori had lied to him once. What would stop her from doing it again?

The most direct path was to forget Kaori, to let her run off to wherever, and let her be someone else's problem.

'…can I really just….forget Kaori?'

….

At that very moment, Kaori and Kousei struggled with their doubts, both about each other and about themselves. They were faced with the truth; the people they idolized and loved weren't perfect people; they were flawed human beings, who'd done the worst to them, who'd broken each other's hearts.

But they still loved each other. That was a fact they could never bring themselves to deny. It hadn't even crossed their minds until now.

Even in that darkest moment, their hearts beat as one as the same question, the same temptation faced them.

Are you willing to give up on your partner knowing they're flawed?

And even in that darkest moment, they answered in their minds as one, a small candle-light shining out in the darkness, one small whispered word against a cacophony of despair.

Though they did not know it, it would not be the first time.

No.

And like that, the clouds seemed to clear over Kaori's heart as she refused the temptation of throwing away her relationship with Kousei.

She was right. She didn't know how she was right, but she was right to stick to her path.

Kousei mattered too much to her to just give up on him.

Yes, he was a coward. He was cynical, negative, passive and all manners of the word 'weak'.

He loved milkshakes and egg sandwiches, and she wanted to know everything else he liked.

He was kind. He was patient. He was tolerant. He was sweet and loving and sincere in his feelings; he was careful with her, tolerated her shenanigans, and the only reason he'd gone off on her was because of an honest mistake on her part; even then, even at that darkest moment, he couldn't bring himself to deny that he loved her.

Yes, he had flaws, but there was so much good in him, so much that if they tried, they could work past their flaws, both her own and his. She loved Kousei too much to simply let him go.

Kaori had fallen in love with Kousei Arima the man, not the Human Metronome, not some flawless robot.

And Kaori would not have it any other way.

….

Kaori Miyazono was no angel. But then Kousei didn't want an angel. He didn't want a perfect woman.

He wanted Kaori.

She was tempestuous, hyperactive and made the worst impression. She had lied to him, pushed his buttons any more than any other human being on this earth had pushed them. She had put him through quite a bit in her pursuit to return him to the world of music.

She loved sweet things of all kinds, but she loved caneles the most. And he wanted to know what else she liked.

She was the sweetest, most passionate woman he had ever met. She lived life as she wanted it, and to hell with the consequences. She was vibrant and loveably manic. She had devoted her life to a person she barely knew, for their sake. Yes, she had lied to him, but she had been, most of the rest of the time, as sincere to him as he had been to her. The fact that she loved him had not been a lie, either; that meant that, after all this suffering, maybe it might be possible to earn the happy ending they both deserved.

She had pulled him from the dark ocean he had been submerged in, and for that he loved her dearly.

He had to try to trust her. One lie wasn't enough to make him forget Kaori's good side, too. They had to make it work; nobody was perfect, but Kaori was too important for him to cast her away over both his and her mistakes.

Kousei felt himself breathe freely for the first time in two hours, a weight lifted from his chest. He breathed in deeply and freely, leaning against the door as he looked upwards.

…..

Kaori stood up, brushing her hair from her face, trying to straighten herself up. She picked up her violin case, slinging it over her shoulder. Her eyes were still tear-filled, but those were clearing away. She was resolved.

She knew what she had to do.

The stars were high in the cloudless sky and the breeze picked up again, blowing some fallen sakura petals along in the direction of the Courage Bridge. The sparrow atop the play set flew away as Kaori stood up, fluttering in the same direction.

The fire began burning in her heart once more, as it had when she had first resolved to meet Kousei.

Kousei meant too much to her for her to lose him over a stupid argument.

'I don't care if I have four hours or four hundred years to fix this, but I'll make it right. I have to.'

She sprinted off as fast as she could, almost stumbling on a fallen branch. Kicking it away reflexively, Kaori regained her footing and ran as fast as she could towards Kousei's house.

She didn't have much of a plan as to what to do once she caught up to him. The only thing she knew was that she had to not screw this one up.

'Then again, the plan that got me into this mess didn't particularly work anyway. Might as well go for broke, right?'

….

Kousei adjusted his glasses and fixed his collar as he pulled himself to his feet. Almost stumbling on the way up, he steadied himself by throwing his arm out to catch the wall, before continuing to pull himself to his feet with a grunt.

He had to make this right. Kaori was worth too much to him to lose twice.

One month ago, Kaori had gone where he could not follow. Ever since, he'd been regretting not following her as far and as much as he could.

Now she was back. And now he would follow her to the ends of the earth as long as it took to make up for when he hadn't, no matter where she would go.

Kousei's mind steeled itself.

'I'll find you, Kaori. Just wait for me, okay?'

He whirled around, throwing the door open, and ran as fast as he could towards Kaori's house, the most likely place she could be. Sakura petals flew in his wake, as the young man raced unknowingly raced against time and fate itself to reach Kaori.

The street was empty. The path was clear. The stars illuminated Kousei's path, as they had on that night so long ago, when he had ridden with Kaori underneath the star-lined night sky.

She'd cried then, and he didn't know why. If she was crying now, then he would do his best to sweep whatever troubled her away.

Kousei ran.

It was half past nine at night.

Kaori leaned by the side of the Courage Bridge, breathing heavily. Even without her illness crippling her, Kaori was no endurance athlete, and running around Nerima at night looking for one person was a difficult prospect for someone of decent health when they didn't know where their target was.

She'd checked at his home, but Kousei didn't seem to be there; the lights were off. She'd passed by Ma Fille to give it a look-in, carefully avoiding her parents and assuming he might have gone there for whatever reason, but he hadn't seemed to have gone there either. She even doubled back to the playground where she'd been, but to no avail. Kaori had decided to go check the school, being another likely place for Kousei to be.

She gasped for breath, hunched over as she leaned against the railing.

"How do people even do this for a living?" Kaori exasperatedly gasped out, adjusting her case's strap, trying to pull it from her shoulder to stop it digging into her side. "Good grief….."

The young woman pulled herself up, her limbs aching from running so far and so long. Her eyes searched the bridge for other pedestrians walking it with them.

"If I don't find Kousei soon, I might as well-"

She stopped mid-sentence, as her blue eyes met Kousei's own.

Kousei was on the opposite side of the bridge from her, caught like a deer in the headlights, staring straight at Kaori.

Time seemed to stop as they caught sight of each other. A breeze lightly ruffled their clothing, as a flock of sparrows flew overhead.

It was an eternity encapsulated in a moment.

Then within a second, the pair began walking towards each other, then sped up, and then ran…..

…..and collided with each other rather with little elegance, Kaori almost stumbling over. After all, she was rather light of weight.

"Ah!" she squealed, fumbling for something to grab. The young man she had bumped into managed to grab her quickly, hugging her to his chest to keep her from falling.

"I got you!"

"Thanks," she breathed out, her cheeks a little red from how close she was to Kousei. Kaori peered up into his eyes again. "I….well, I thought it'd work like in the movies where, you know, the couple runs and leaps into each other's arms."

Kousei couldn't help but smile at that. In a situation like this, of course she'd pull something like that. He relinquished her suddenly, as if only now realizing how close he was holding her. He rubbed the back of his head, rubbing the back of his head.

"Uh….sorry about that," he sputtered out. "….I didn't realize I was….well…"

"…..you know…..it's alright if you hug me," Kaori gently chided him, a small smile on her face. "…it's not like we both don't know how it is, Friend A."

After all, both of them knew perfectly well they were in love with each other. How odd was it to not want to hug the one you loved?

"...and…..I should apologize first, really," Kaori confessed, looking away. "…I'm sorry. I'm sorry I lied to you. I just….I didn't want you to hurt when I left, Kousei."

She paused, stopping herself to push down the tears that were beginning to form in her eyes.

"I…..I love you too much to want to see you suffer because of me."

"That's….that's what I have to apologize about too," he replied, shaking his head. "...I should've been with you more. I should've been a better friend than I was…."

He carefully adjusted his glasses, hoping his own tears would be fought back.

"But…..I suppose I…..just didn't want to see the girl I loved slip away from me where I couldn't follow."

It was one thing to see it in his eyes, one thing to see it in his mind, but to hear Kousei admit it, that he loved her was entirely different.

It was truly out there now, the words an irreversible contract. She loved him, and he loved her. Those were not immutable facts, but they were as close to them as possible.

The two of them stood there, just taking each other's presence in as much as possible, as if either of them were to disappear any minute now.

They were flawed, broken people, people who had nonetheless been drawn to each other, despite seeing the best and worst of each other. Kaori had lied to him, Kousei had abandoned her; but she had saved him from depression, and he had made her short, pointless life worth living.

They would not have it any other way.

"…..we're a couple of broken young fools, aren't we?" Kousei wistfully noted, after a few moments passed like this.

"…it is what it is," Kaori simply replied, accepting it.

"It is what it is," Kousei admitted, agreeing. "And…..I wouldn't have it any other way."

After a brief pause, Kaori nodded. "Me neither."

They paused for a few moments, each passing second lifting more and more weight from them.

"We'll make it work, somehow," the young woman promised.

"We're going to," he concurred. "…I'm not letting you go as long as I can, Kaori. We'll make it work."

"…..even if you knew I was going to die in three hours?"

That surprised Kousei, but only very slightly. After his initial shock, he simply nodded. At least he knew how long Kaori had left this time.

He'd said goodbye to her once, but now he could do it with little regret. At least now he could atone for what he hadn't done before.

"I don't care if you have three hours, or three hundred years. I'll stay with you no matter what."

That did it for Kaori.

She suddenly hugged him tightly, dropping her violin case at her side as she leapt at Kousei, pressing into him, sending him stumbling back a few steps with her.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" she uttered rapidly, tears streaming from her eyes as she gazed up at him.

"…..you promise you won't leave me?" she asked with the plaintiveness of a young child asking for reassurance.

"On my life, Kaori."

She smiled sweetly, despite it all, despite her impending doom, because she knew she'd have him when he needed her and because she'd removed the last lie, the last deception, between him and her.

For the first time that day, Kaori didn't care so much that she was dying.

At least this time, Kousei would be with her when she left, and she'd go with truly no regrets.

"….then that's all I need to not regret anything."

Suddenly, a pair of shouts emerged from behind them.

"Thief! Give my bag back! Give it back!"

"Out the way, asshole!"

Kousei barely managed to pull back out of the way as a hoodie-clad man carrying an expensive designer handbag swiped past him.

He watched in horror as the man continued running and smacked into Kaori hard, sending her tumbling over the railing of the Courage Bridge with a scream and into the waters below.

His eyes widened in terror.

"KAORI!" he yelled as he leaned over the railing to see where the young woman had landed, hoping he'd catch her; maybe she'd landed and she was fine, about to wave at him from the water like she had a year ago.

The waters betrayed no sign of Kaori.

Kousei's mind filled with dread, all the most dreadful scenarios running through his head at once.

'Kaori…..no….'

The time was forty minutes past nine at night, and Kaori was missing.

April 1, Nerima, Tokyo

Two hours and twenty minutes remaining.

Eurydice

Winter

A/N: I felt like the people who criticize Kaori did have a point in terms of her behavior; however, I also felt like that just made Kaori a realistic person. She isn't some sort of perfect angel, she's a flawed human being, one with her own good and bad sides, and that goes for Kousei too. And therefore for a relationship between her and Kousei to work, in my opinion, they'd have to both understand they're dealing with imperfect people and decide whether they want to be with them anyway. And because I ship this pairing stupidly hard, of course they do.

Tune in next time for the conclusion to the story. There will be an epilogue chapter after that, however, to clear up a few things that will need explaining.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed that, leave your ideas, comments, criticisms, suggestions, thoughts and reviews, and I hope you have a GREAT day! Until next time!