Hello, everyone :D Here we continue with this little Natsuki arc and yeah... things are getting a little dark, but worry not 'cuz the worst of it is on the next chapter hahaha...ha. I hope you enjoy tho :D

Disclaimer: I don't own Uta no Prince-sama or any of its characters.

The truth was finally out. And that mixture of jealousy and desperation Otoya felt when he saw the bite mark on Haruka's neck had been enough for him to break under all the pressure, to lose his composure. He told her about Shining's offer, about the fact that he had actually thought about it, he told her he was more and more afraid of losing her as time passed… he told her that he needed her and that he believed she could write that hit song.

They were talking in her bedroom now, away from Natsuki, from anyone that could come in between them. But the air still felt tense.

Haruka took in Otoya's words and felt a chill run down her spine. Her hands and feet felt like freezing and cold sweat formed in every covered part of her body. He told her he still believed in her and yet he considered Shining's offer? That didn't really add up. But she couldn't blame him. If what he told her was true and she could continue to be with him that way, then maybe… no, that meant leaving Starish. Despite conflicts and confrontations, she still loved every one of them deeply and she just couldn't imagine herself being anything but their composer. But then… what if leaving them was the only way of being with him? She felt sick at the thought, but she knew that if push came to shove… she would probably still…

"Would you still pick me, then?" Otoya asked, interrupting her brooding.

Against her better judgment, she looked up into his eyes. She knew he would be able to read her, but she didn't want to lie. And right, she was.

Air escaped him as if there was none left in the whole room. He turned away from her, trying to calm down, trying to think straight again, but panic had already settled. Was that it? Was that all he'd have of her? Just one month? It felt incredibly unfair: his birthday was just around the corner, for God's sake!

Suddenly, a particularly happier thought occurred to him: they still had time.

"But you can… you can still write that song, I know you can!" he said, turning towards her again.

Sadly for him, he wasn't met with as much enthusiasm as he expected. Haruka clenched her fists in her lap, stared down at them and bit her lip. It was an attempt at getting past the knot in her throat, at not letting her tears fall once more. But when he leaned in closer and lifted her chin with his right hand, the unwanted drops of salty bitterness rolled down her face. She smiled through them, her lips quivering in the fakeness of the expression. And he sat there, hand still by her face, getting wet with every teardrop. He stared at her eyes as she blinked time and time again, as her eyelashes got darker every time she did that. So, without a second thought: he started to kiss her. He kissed the trembling corners of her lips, the tears away from her cheeks, her puffy eyes, her furrowed brow and finally, her cold hands. He held onto her then, trying to warm the coldness away.

Being like that, a smile crept up on him. Haruka noticed it right away and tried to say something, but she didn't want to start sobbing, he was trying to comfort her after all. Strangely enough, when their eyes met, she could see it wasn't a fake one, and that didn't feel too good.

"You've done so much for me, you helped me accomplish my dreams and I don't think I could ever repay you for that… But I need you to grant me one last wish" he said.

She couldn't possibly voice a response, but the confusion in her face was enough for him to continue.

"Would you stay with me until the end of the week?"

New tears started forming in her eyes just by hearing his request. Everything felt so helpless, so useless.

Before he tried to dry her tears away, she stood up, dried them herself and walked around her room trying to think of something.

After a while, she turned in her heels to look at him, and simply nodded in confirmation.

She just needed to stand up, to get physically away from him… she didn't want to do something she might regret in the future. And that was all she could think about with every touch of his.

But on the other side of the room, Otoya felt anxious not being closer to her. She agreed to be with him for at least the rest of the month and yet she was standing as far as possible within the limits of the place. So he stood up and walked towards her. He saw her flinch and take a step back but that only increased his resolve.

He was barely a couple of steps away when someone knocked on the door. And, be as it may, Haruka took that excuse to rush and open it.

A worried Tokiya stood on the other side, breathing heavily as if he had ran all the way over there.

"I heard about Natsuki, are you okay?" he asked before she could even take in his presence.

"Yeah, I'm-" Without a second thought he launched forward and cupped her face with his hands. He saw the puffiness in her eyes and… the bite mark on her neck.

"Did he do this to you?" he voiced his question with such anger she almost feared for poor Natsuki's life.

"… Yes, but-" He interrupted her once again after knowing what he wanted.

"This needs to stop. We can't have Satsuki going rampant around here anymore. This is not the first time he hurts you and it surely won't be the last. We need to do something"

Making his presence known, Otoya stepped forward and replied: "What are we going to do, then?" The suspicion towards his friend could be heard in his voice, in the way he looked up and down at Tokiya.

The brunette let go of Haruka's face then and took a step back, shocked by the other man. "Oh, Otoya, I didn't know you were here"

"Clearly. You had other things to worry about, I see" he said, jealousy clouding his judgment.

"Um…"

"No, please, tell me: I've noticed that you've been spending a lot of money to get to the dorms faster. Is she the reason?"

Feeling somewhat caught, Tokiya almost felt like confessing again his feelings for Haruka so that his friend could make an informed decision about the whole thing, but before he could do anything he felt a small hand on his chest. He looked down and saw Haruka there, newfound determination in her eyes. And the next thing he knew, she was facing her boyfriend once again.

"Otoya-kun, I don't want you to do this. Ichinose-san has been helping me write songs for Shining. We've been spending a lot of time together because of that, but I don't think I would be still here if it weren't for him" she said, standing her ground.

The redhead clenched his fists then, and she feared he'd say something hurtful in response to her. But what she saw instead was his anger slowly watering down, being replaced with an emotion she couldn't quite figure out. He looked vacant, almost as if he wasn't there anymore.

"I see" was his only response.

After some silence, Haruka decided to speak up, she couldn't take not knowing what he was thinking about. "Otoya-" She couldn't even add the honorific to his name when he looked up at her again. A grimace graced his face and his eyes still looked as opaque as a dead fish's ones.

"You would be a better boyfriend than me, wouldn't you, Tokiya?" he asked.

"Wha-? What are you talking about?" the other boy responded.

"You love her, don't you? And you-" Before he could finish his pitiful speech, a couple of small arms pushed him. He was so surprised at her that he almost fell on his back.

"Stop" she said.

"Haru-"

She was looking down at her feet, but it wasn't hard to guess by the movement of her shoulders that she was clearly crying. "Don't make decisions for me" she said.

"I- I'm sorry I…" he stopped himself, find it hard to do anything but feel at fault. Regardless of that, she walked closer and wrapped her arms around him, hugging him so tightly it hurt.

"I. Love. You" she mumbled against his chest. "I want no one but you"

And now he felt like tearing up. He hugged her back and stood there, feeling his heart ache at the thought of not being able to hear that again anymore.

Out of the sudden, Tokiya spoke: "You were right. I do love her. But I won't do anything unless she wants me to. Unless I know you two are through. And I know that's not gonna happen any time soon"

~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~

At the end of the day, Otoya and Haruka reluctantly went they separate ways, each to their own bedroom and tried to think over what they could do in the future. She decided that the moment she got some free time she would try to talk to Syo, try to see if there could be a way for her to have a civil conversation with Satsuki. She thought it necessary in order to feel at peace in her own living space.

And once those thoughts faded away, all she was left with was uncertainty. She knew she had written incredible songs during that month, she'd felt the same way she did when she wrote Maji Love 1000% more than once. Yet it seemed Shining was purposely rejecting her every input. Not that it would be the first time. When she was trying to write Maji Love 2000% something quite similar had happened, but during that time she had a particular type of writer's block. One that was completely eradicated once Cecil joined the band… But now, now she had a lot of time and help to do it right. Even when she struggled with the stress of such a constrict deadline, she worked better under pressure, and creating happy memories with her friends and boyfriend always inspired her to write more.

There was only one week left and she felt more positive of not making it in time than she had ever felt for anything before. And for the first time in the whole month: she didn't blame herself for it.

Newfound determination loomed on her as she contently started to doze off. The warmth of her bed sheets and the softness of her pillow welcomed her to the land of dreams right as her somnolent eyes caught the sight of a shadow creeping right outside her window.

~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~

Soft knocks on her door caused her to involuntarily sit up on the bed. There was barely any light outside, so before getting up, she turned on her nightstand's light and then put on her slippers.

Right outside her door she saw Natsuki and she had to cover her mouth in order not to scream. What had happened the day before was still fresh in her mind and she hadn't prepared herself to see him right there on her own. But he was thankfully wearing his glasses so it surely would go smoothly.

"Shinomiya-san?"

There was something off about his smile, maybe the way he was tilting his head. Her first instinct had been to scream, but now that she was calm and she could actually think over what was going on… well, she felt like screaming again.

"I didn't finish with you earlier, did you know that?" he said, in a tone quite unfitting for Natsuki.

Realizing what was going on, she quickly grabbed her door in an attempt to close it right in his face, but he had already planned for it. His foot was blocking the doorway just as his arm was pushing her inside the room. After that, he locked the door behind him, securing every exit she could've had.

Following her instincts, she rushed towards her window, cold be damned. Sadly for her, there was no way of opening it, someone barricaded it somehow.

A macabre laughter sounded behind her and with her every hair on edge, she turned towards him.

"You have no escape, Ha-ru-ka" he sounded out her name slowly, syllable by syllable as if he were savoring it. It freaked her out.

And so she finally did it: she screamed at the top of her lungs. She made as much noise as she could until her throat got soar.

"You do remember you're the only one staying at this side of the building, right? No one will be able to hear you"

He smiled as if he had just won a game she hadn't even had a choice to play. He was eyeing his prey, walking towards her as if she was his little toy.

"But you still have your glasses on! You shouldn't- Shinomiya-san wouldn't-"

He took off the aforementioned item and pointing towards it, he said: "Oh, these? I'm afraid Natsuki won't be coming back for a while. You've really wounded him, all of you fakes have. Now it's finally time for payback"