I took such a long hiatus and well there really is no excuse. I almost gave up on my stories but reading them again, I just want to do them some justice and finish them. Hope you like it! I'm really sorry about my update patterns =S

Chapter 4: Left, right, then home?

The world seemed to freeze for a moment as her gaze met his.

"Uh, hi?" replied an unsure Yuri.

'Who is he? Way to go Sakazaki, way to go. I really applaud myself on this one. Think! okay....'

Smiling at the stranger, Yuri remained seated on the bench.

"You have no clue, who I am at all do you?" came the reply of the fair haired boy.

"Of course, I know you!" she refused to be caught in this little charade of hers.

"You could just admit you don't remember Yuri," came the amused reply of the boy.

"But I do know!" Scowling at the boy, although this really was another losing battle for her.

The boy simply shook his head at the reply of the very stubborn girl. He seemed rather amused at the situation that she was in.

"So?" he asked calmly, waiting for the answer to his question.

Laughing nervously for a second, Yuri attempted with all her brain power to remember where the hell she met him.

Let's see, taking a look at the stranger once again she noted that his jacket was primarily all white but the arms of the jacket was red. Now why did that seem familiar? Where in the world did she see him before? In her mind she began to ponder about all the people she knew and what they wore. If there was one thing that she was sure of, it was that those colors and style were similar to someone she knew.

'Terry! Terry Boggard! He has a red vest! Wait a minute,' she stared at him for a moment and felt her cheeks go red. The poor guy was one of the people that she was introduced too today. No wonder she couldn't remember him, she was too busy hatching an escape plan from the horrors that Mai Shiranui, planned for her earlier in the day. But what was his name?

"Maybe I should go?"

Maybe it was because she was staring at him intensely or maybe it was just plain awkward to stand a few feet away from someone who doesn't seem to have any memory of ever meeting. What ever the reason the reason was the fair haired boy slowly turned around and began to walk away from her.


Flashback

"Yuri, I would like to introduce you to Rock Howard." came the hyper voice of Mai.

Yuri simply nodded her head at the introduction. To many it would seem like a face of indifference but really our poor little heroin was plotting her escape.

End flashback

"Rock Howard," she muttered, still slightly uncertain if her memory was serving her correctly.

Maybe it was because she felt lonely or maybe it was because she felt extremely rude for not caring. She could still see his figure stalking away and for what ever the reason, she could not let him get away.

"ROCK!"

The thing is he just kept on walking, did he even hear her? She tried again.

"ROCK!"

A normal person would have just given up and assumed that they simply got the name wrong but Yuri was sure she was right. So off she went, chasing after the blond boy whom she guessed was Rock. This was if memory served her correct, down the street she went zooming. Till finally she caught up to him, more like collide with him. He seemed to have suddenly stopped, after hearing what seemed to be someones footsteps running after him.

'Why is it so dark?' To Yuri the world around her looked dark and to make it seem even worse it seemed like the dark room was spinning. The ground beneath her was so hard.

"Yuri, Yuri are you okay?" came the frantic voice of stranger.

Opening her eyes she met the gaze once again of Ruby.

"Pretty," she muttered thoughtlessly. The blond boy visibly flushed at the comment.

'Oh crap!' were the only sentiments that were running in her head at that moment. A hand that seemed to pop out of no where offered her assistance. Grabbing it she felt herself get pulled up by who she assumed to be rock. The word she muttered a few moments ago seemed to be ignored.

"Are you okay?" he asked once more.

"Yeah, I'm fine." she said.

"Why'd you run after me? Or maybe you're going to blame it on coincidence? That you happened to run in this direction and bump into me?"

"Like that lie would even fly with you, Rock."

He looked taken back for a moment at being called his name. She assumed though once again that she was right.

"You remembered." It was not a question, it was statement.

"Of course I remembered your name!" She smiled triumphantly.

He stared at her curiously, the stranger now officially having a name in her books.

"What?" she asked

"I was just thinking about that show you put on today," he said

"Yeah," she sighed.

The two began to walk around aimlessly in silence. There was nothing but the buzzing of the city around to fill the void. Both didn't seem to have any inclination to speak as they walked farther along the street. As they walked the memories of the time that she shared with Robert started to play all over again. The scowl on her face began to deepen.

"If you keep scowling like that it might become permanent," came the nonchalant voice of her companion.

She said nothing at this and it was rather out of character of her. They continued to walk as Yuris scowl stayed exactly where it was. After walking around for a bit they came to a diner and entered. Finding an empty booth they sat down, Yuri had no money so she decided against ordering.

The waitress finally arrived and asked for their orders.

"A chocolate and strawberry milkshake, please."

With a quick nod she was off leaving them to their silence again.

"Are you that thirsty?"

"No, the the other one is for you. Unless you want the chocolate one." he said

"You didn't have to get me anything,"

"I'm not going to drink a milkshake by myself when someone is here with me." he said in a matter of fact tone.

Moments later the orders were placed on the table. Yuri made a grab for the strawberry one, leaving Rock with his own. They drank their drinks without speaking to one another.

Maybe it was the whole setup but this void was getting to her and someone had to speak.

"It's a beautiful night," she commented.

Nothing, there was no reply from her companion although his gaze from her never wavered. Till finally he spoke.

"You were crying earlier," he said softly.

Yuri bit her lip and looked away, ashamed that he caught her crying. Closing her eyes she tried to focus on the sweetness of the drink.

"Why?"

Such a simple word threw her off balance. Why did she cry? Why did she care so much? It was a simple question with such a complicated answer. She loved Robert but it was one-sided after all and it was having to deal with the rejection. But the way that he handled it was unacceptable, cheating and lying to her face all this time.

Yuri glanced at her companion and saw that he was still waiting for an answer. She wondered if she could really tell him about her woes and troubles. This was exactly what she had run away form earlier. She wanted to run away from having to tell them her humiliating tale. Finally, she settled with a partial truth.

"I was just thinking about a lying prick," her voice held an icy tone.

"What did he do?" prodded the curious blond.

"Why do you even care?" she snapped.

"I don't like it when girls cry," he said without hesitation. His eyes holding hers, it was too much for her and so she looked away. She smiled to herself at the answer and finally met his gaze again.

"And if I told you the full story, what would you do?" she asked. Now curious at what he would say.

He paused and for a moment, he did not speak. The words he wanted to say seemed to finally come as he voiced out his answer.

"Find him and make his life hell,"

There was something about him that Yuri wanted to trust and tell him about it but what if he laughed? What if he didn't understand? Her gut told her to tell him and so she did the only thing that popped into her mind.

She held out her pinky finger and gave him a pointed stare.

"What are you doing?" he asked, amused at the change of events.

"I'll tell you all about it, only if you promise not to laugh and not to tell anyone else." It was childish but pinky promises were one of the few things that she took seriously.

"Are you serious?"

She nodded her head.

"If you don't promise, I won't tell you."

"If that's what it takes," he said, linking his pinky with hers.

"Now remember, if you break your promise you owe me a finger. Plus it was believed in the past that the pinky was connected to heart." She said softly.

"I promise," he said in a solemn voice. Finally their pinkys unlinked and he waited for her to speak again.

"It's a long story, well maybe not so long but lets take a walk and I'll tell you the horrors that I had to put up with," she sighed.

Rock, put down some cash and the two made their way out of the building and walked aimlessly around SouthTown. As they were walking, Yuri began to recount chain of events that eventually led her to where she was now.

"You screamed at Kyo Kusanigi and dissed his girlfriend?"

"I was pissed okay?" she said trying to justify her actions.

"That was kind of mean though,"

"Well excuse me for having huge flaws that I don't work on!"

"Did anyone ever tell you, that you're rather over dramatic?" he said grinning like Cheshire cat.

Yuri scowled at him.

"I go with my gut instinct most of the time,"

"Well look at the situation you put yourself in,"

He just smiled at her again. Why did it seem like this guy just thought of her as just one big joke?

"You think I'm a joke, don't you?" Her question almost coming out as a whisper. She wanted nothing more than to avoid his gaze because if there was anything that she wanted avoid, it was humiliation.

"I never said that, you're just very whimsical. A nice change from what I deal with besides I made a promise and I don't usually break them." this time his smile seemed to comfort her.

"You know, it's getting late. Aren't you going to head back to Mais place now?"

Yuri groaned at the mention of her circumstance. King and Mai were going to kill her and that just wasn't something she was looking forward to dealing with.

"Don't remind me,"

"How about I give you another alternative? You can stay with me and Terry tonight. And to help soften the blow, I'll go with you to Mais place tomorrow."

She bit her lip for a second and began to weigh her choices. There was her avoiding Ryo because he was Roberts's best friend and his rage towards Robert that she would have to deal with. Now there was her avoiding her psycho friend Mai and her love schemes. Then there was Rock and his offer.

"Why am I avoiding so many people?" she growled in an exasperated manner.

"Because you never think things through properly," he said in a smug manner

"Yeah, thanks for the info sir knows a lot,"

"And Terry won't mind?" She voiced out.

"I'll give him a brief summery about the situation,"

"Which would be?"

"Mai is being a love scheming psycho," came his answer in a calm voice.

"I believe this will be the start of a beautiful friendship," came Yuris cheerful answer.

He simply smiled and led the way. She followed him closely, relieved she found another ally in her time of crisis.

R & R =D