Hajnalmadar and Midnight Dilemma, you are both so wonderful! Thank you for continuing to read! I'm glad you liked the last part! ^_^

The fandom may be very small, but I feel like I've really connected to the characters of Aya and Aki in this story. So while I worked hard on the writing, it also flowed very easily for me, most of the time. The kind of stuff that the twins went through, with the separation and the way their family turned on them, and the whole situation slipping out of their hands...I was never satisfied with how it was dealt with. I felt like too much was glossed over and/or ignored, for the sake of Aya's 'relationship' with Touya. Like...the death of her father was never really addressed with any sincerity or finesse. And that got on my nerves. *shakes head* So much potential for good writing/drama, never explored.

Anywho, I will get into all that later. ^_^

I will continue to try to be timelier with the updates. I can't promise I'll always be on time, as life continues to happen ^_^', but I will do my best. Reviews are great motivators, incidentally. :-D

Thanks again!!!

Steps

Aya + Aki

By: L 0 K I

Home

As clichéd as it was, Aya felt lighter as she made her way back from the little store on the corner. The dread that had been shackling her feet for so long seemed to be gone. She still didn't walk like the fifteen year old Aya, but she wasn't walking like a prophet on the way to her own doom anymore, either. And that had to count for something.

The small grocery bag swung loosely from her wrist, and she lifted her head up, smiling at the early morning sky. This is right, she thought. I made the right choice.

A concrete fragment crunched under her shoe, and she glanced down, suddenly grinning happily. She skipped over the next crack in the pavement, and then the next, ignoring the passing traffic and doing whatever she felt like.

It felt good to be alone in her own head again.

Her eyes stung a little from her earlier tears, but the confident swing of her hair and high-spirited stalk, you wouldn't have guessed that she had been weeping so brokenly not an hour ago. Others might have been embarrassed about breaking down in front of another, and she would have, too. But this was Aki. She never felt embarrassed about being herself around him. Even if being herself was being a blubbering crybaby.

It helped that he had cried, too. Usually such an event would have startled her, would have hurt her---would have made her want to do almost anything to make him stop. But these tears had been different.

They had been full of sadness, yes, but also a strange sort of relief. I needed to cry, she realized. I needed to mourn. And I think Aki did, too.

The playing had felt wonderful, too.

She donned a suddenly sly look, looking down and left. The means were different, but the end was just as she had wanted. Her brother still had absolutely no idea why she had wanted to go to the store. The plastic of the shopping bad rustled as she walked, and she wrapped her fingers around it, swinging it out slightly as she hopped over another crack.

Maybe she should try to be a little more covert, but she believed it was more effective to hide in plain sight. Sneaking people always seemed to gain so much attention. Besides, Aki said it was unlikely that anyone would notice he was gone until they came in to wake him for breakfast. Which would be...

She turned her wrist over to glance at her watch.

Roughly ten minutes ago.

They're probably in a good panic right about now, searching the building, not even thinking he might be long gone from the city.

On the flipside, Yuuhi was also probably panicking now, pushing Kiyuu-san to get the car so he could go search blindly for her in the streets. She knew he wouldn't be satisfied with the little note she left. Three sentences and x amount of words. Not any details, but hopefully just enough to bring him comfort when he finally calmed down and did more than just register that she was gone.

She sighed, her steps slowing as her heavy thoughts began to weigh down her mood.

He wouldn't be happy, he might even be angry at her, but eventually she hoped he would see that this was the best way. The only way.

She just wanted to live. That's all she had ever really wanted. To live, and to love. And because of something she and her ancestors had done more than a thousand years ago---she was just supposed to surrender all her hopes and dreams?

Ceres wanted to go home. She could understand that, she really could. But because of Ceres, Aya now had no home.

I just want to go home, Aya thought at her other self. Not at all upset when she received no answer.

Her head lifted in that stubborn set again, and she forcefully brought her mood around, pushing all other dark thoughts right out of her head.

I still have Aki. And as long as we're together, home will always be close to my heart.

She leaped up to the landing for the stairs, taking them two at a time.

Aki, we will carry home with us...wherever it is we go from here.

Home

One's own dwelling place; the house in which one lives; esp., the house in which one lives with his family; the habitual abode of one's family; also, one's birthplace. One's native land; the place or country in which one dwells; the place where one's ancestors dwell or dwelt : The abiding place of the affections, especially of the domestic affections. A place of refuge and rest; an asylum : Close, closely : To the place where it belongs; to the end of a course; to the full length : place where something began and flourished : on or to the point aimed at : to the fullest extent, to the heart

Synonyms: House. Residence. Dwelling. Habitat. Quarters. Family. Place of origin.

TBC...