Hello guys. Sorry about the late update. You know, holidays. Belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year y'all.

So here's the next one as promised. Warning, you might find a major OOC-ness and angst up ahead. You have to expect that, because the characters are older, and dealing with more different issues.

Read on and hope you enjoy.

II

You are the dream that I never knew I had.

Thank you, for being very, very patient with me. I know I was never the sweetest bride you could have asked for, what with my obsession with karuta and my overall strange antics.

I have made you wait. For the longest time, I had been blind… and an incredible airhead. To this day I still could not believe that you are standing in front of me, promising to be with me until the end. I consider myself as one of the luckiest women in this world right now, for you have never given up on me and my tomboyish, strange mind.

I love you for that. For everything that you did – for every encouragement you've given me at my weakest, for every minute that you have loved me, know that I appreciate you. Thank you for being stubborn enough to hold on to me, and know that I thank God he has given you the gift of patience and immovable will – aside from intelligence.

I love you too, dearest. For richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, I will grow old alongside you, and we will laugh and cry together until the sunset of our lives.

'Til death do us part.

She didn't like dreaming.

Especially if the dream was a memory she had tried to bury far into the recesses of her mind, something that she knew which would cut deeper into her heart, replacing old scars with new ones and only digging a deeper hole each time it does.

He was standing in front of her, expression dark and grim… and more than a little hurt.

"I don't understand why you are accusing me of this."

"Don't misunderstand me. I was asking you to tell me the truth; that was far from accusing you."

She remembered in perfect detail how she had gazed at him that day; already impatient and more than annoyed. She was about to be late for a train, she had a competition to attend and win and she simply couldn't afford to miss it. "For someone who's a genius at everything, I think you're spouting nonsense."

"One question; one answer. Are you still happy?"

He sat down at the couch in their living room, dressed in his white dress shirt, his rimless spectacles in one hand. His usual white med coat was slung over the edge of the other couch, almost haphazardly. She knew he was running late as well and that he was trying to tell her something, but she couldn't concentrate on it and her focus on the supposed conversation was all but out the window.

"What kind of a question is that? Of course I'm happy! I'm in the challenger match, I'm one step closer to my goal."

"Chihaya – "

"Please, let's just talk about this some other time. I'm running late and so are you. I'll see you when I get back, and then you can tell me what it is you wanted to tell me, alright? Bye, love you!" She hurried over to kiss him, recalling how at the time, she noticed how he had seemingly turned the other way making her lips land on his right cheek, but failed to actually process if the action was deliberate or not.

She realized how she had failed at seeing the significance of such a simple action as well; of what it might be possibly bringing into their marriage.

Her dream was a blur of memories, each more hurtful than the last. The time he had tried to talk to her and console her, she had simply snapped and in volcano terms – just blew up.

"What do you want me to say? I just lost another international championship. Why the hell are you so intent on finding out how I'm doing? Of course I'm not happy that I lost!" She exclaimed at her phone, not pleased that they were in opposite continents of the world – her being in Australia and him in Japan.

On hindsight, she knew it was wrong. He had wanted to come with her to the other end of the world but she refused his company; reasoning out that she simply didn't want to burden him with her goals. It was not his fault that they weren't together at one of the most important times in her life. Venting her frustrations out at him was not the correct way of talking about things. But she was like a rubber band; one so stretched to the point of snapping in half. Nothing just seemed to be going well in her life right now. She had dropped out of the international qualifiers – her abdomen had the audacity to start aching even though she knew she had eaten well which had cost her the match – the team she was coaching from their former school lost in the semifinals, and she still freaking needed to train the members of Shiranami karuta society as soon she went home.

"I'm trying to tell you to take it easy. You're not a superhuman, Chihaya – "

"I don't have time to take it easy!." Her ugly, unreasonable side was showing, but she felt too angry and relieved to control whatever was coming out of her mouth. She was too frustrated, and she unwittingly made him the perfect target for a human stress ball.

"You need to take a break – "

"I don't need a break! I need to train! Will you stop trying to hold me back?"

"I wasn't trying to hold you back – "

"But you are! You're just trying to meddle; it would just be better if you don't. I wish you would just let me do things my own way and stop interfering with my life!"

My life. What an incredible idiot she was.

"You think I'm meddling and trying to hold you back."

It was not a question, it was a statement spoken with certainty. If she had tried to listen better, she would have detected the pain hidden behind the words.

She was too busy feeling dejected to pay heed into what she had spoken next.

An exhale sounded from the other end of the line, shaky and inconsistent, as if he was trying hard to remember how to breathe. "You finally decided to be honest, Chihaya."

When she had gotten enough of her senses back in her, she finally realized what she had said and the gravity of it. Immediately, as if she was doused in cold water, she became aware of her surroundings – she was in her hotel room, speaking to her husband who she had left back in Japan and had not seen in six months, and she had basically told him that he had nothing to do in her life, speaking as if…

… As if she hadn't married him.

"N-No… no that's not what I meant… I…"

She couldn't say anything. How? She couldn't take her words back, words she had spoken in anger.

Words can cut deep. Deeper than any knife and sharper than any blade, as the saying goes. She knew that, but she felt too sorry for herself to look past beyond her anger and disappointment and to heed the warning she had heard countless times. No amount of apologizing can fix what she knew she had broken and hurt.

The silence from the other end of the line spoke more volumes than any response needed.

"We need to talk when you get back." He said, tone betraying no emotion. She had gotten used to being attuned to his emotions that she was starting to panic at the total blank she was drawing from him when he had responded.

"And perhaps… I can help you decide what to do… about us. If there is even an us anymore."

She had dropped her phone, she recalled with perfect clarity. By the time she had picked her phone up, the line was already dead.

The talk had been… a bit of a disaster. He had tried to wait, she knew. He had tried to let her rest, when she got back, but she knew she had crossed the line when he had found her passed out for the third time in Shiranami society after not going home for almost a week since she was in training camps.

She had collapsed. According to the doctors, she had been terribly dehydrated and without proper rest and meals, it had been a perfect recipe for the collapse.

The pressure and despair had gotten into her, but she knew that it was no excuse to hurt him deliberately when he was trying to look out for her and fulfill his duties as her husband.

"No. You can't go back out there to train without taking a look at what you're doing to yourself – "

"I am not a child! I can look out for myself!" She remembered yelling at him with a dextrose attached to her wrist.

She knew he had just about had enough. "Really? Then will you please stop acting like one?"

"I don't need you to run after me with food and water."

"This is not about doing that – "

"All I just want was to win! I can't do that if you keep on hovering over me like you're my father – you'll just get in my way."

His tone had changed. "Get in your way?"

"Yes."

And then there it was again. The moment she realizes she had spoken too much without using her brain at all.

Silence. The kind where a pin can be dropped and it will sound like an explosion. She remembered him sitting down at the side of her bed, but he was not touching her, and he was just looking at her with his eyes hurt, though still gentle as they gazed upon her.

"First, I'm meddling. Then I hold you back. Now… I'm getting in your way."

She had looked down on her fingers. She wanted to cry. She wanted to hold his hand and tell him that she hadn't meant any of what she said. She knew that he knew her inside out; that sometimes she speaks before her brain can think, but she also knew about a saying about speaking whatever comes to mind first means it was the actual truth.

The damage was done.

"Tell me what you want, Chihaya. If you tell me to leave you alone, I will. Perhaps it's just better for you… for me to stop holding you back that way."

Her mouth had run off again without her permission. "If what you're saying is what I think you're saying, then perhaps it is better that way."

Later she had justified that the decision she had made in a spur-of-the-moment was correct because she knew she had not much left to offer him, not when the doctors had informed her about their findings about why she had collapsed as well.

Chihaya finally woke up, feeling thoroughly disgusted with herself. Her vision was blurry, probably because she was crying, but she recognized the pristine whiteness of the room she was in. She was once again in a hospital.

She was startled when a voice beside her said, "Finally. You sure took your sweet time gettin' up."

The Fukui accent was one she would recognize anywhere. "A-Arata?"

True enough, the raven-haired former Meijin sat beside her, wearing a blue collarless shirt with his usual glasses sitting askew on his nose bridge. He looked as if he was roughly pulled out of sleep, his hair almost standing up in different directions. He noticed her staring, and his left hand raised to his head to try to get his hair to behave. "Sorry. I just came home from school."

He was studying to get his master's for architecture, if she remembered correctly. "Uh… w-what's going on? W-Why are you here?"

He narrowed his sapphire eyes at her jokingly. "Is that any way to greet someone who rushed you here as soon as he heard you've fainted?"

"Sorry. I mean it was really good to see you. You've rushed me here? But I remember I was in Kana-chan's…"

"She called me."

"O-Oh."

Her eyes flitted around her. She didn't know if she should be relieved that Kana-chan called him to help her, if she should be honest. "H-How is Kana-chan? I hope I didn't cause her to give birth prematurely…"

Arata pursed his lips, looking as if he was biting back something better left unsaid. "Komano-kun is with her outside. They were gettin' somethin' to eat. She hasn't left your side ever since yesterday."

"Y-Yesterday!? How long was I out?"

"More than twenty-four hours. Like I said, you took your sweet time gettin' up." At her panicked and worried look, he tried to reassure her. "Don't worry, we made sure she rested. She refused to go home immediately, so we kind of scolded her to rest properly."

Arata was giving her a worried look; and she just felt the atmosphere getting more awkward. "T-Thank you. For coming to Kana-chan's for me when she called you."

"I arrived a little late. They were about to leave for the hospital when I came. You were lucky that he came earlier than me."

Her heart just about jumped out of her chest. Something about Arata's tone and what he was implying made her nervous. "'H-He'?"

"Who else would I be talkin' about?" He raised an eyebrow at her, almost amused at the way she was reacting at his statement.

No. No, no, no, no, no –

"It's good to see you awake. You had everyone in a panic."

She felt compelled to raise her head towards the direction of the doors. Mashima Taichi closed the door with a soft 'click', which sounded so loud at the sudden silence which sprang up in the room as he walked towards her.

After three years, she was meeting his eyes once more. She couldn't believe she was seeing him again after what was seemingly a long separation; something which she knew she had punished herself with. His mocha-brown hair was cut shorter than usual – it barely grew past his collar, but he still radiated the warmth she had usually associated with him.

She failed to notice how Arata had nodded at him quietly, and he stood up, patting her on the shoulder. She caught herself staring and glanced at one of her best friends with pleading eyes, silently willing him not to leave her alone with him, but Arata shook his head minutely.

"You two needed to talk." He whispered quietly, and with those words and not even giving her the time to react, turned and left the room just as quietly as he had come.

Taichi remained standing, and she didn't like how her heart raced at the sight of him there, gazing down at her. Kami, he hadn't changed. He just seemed to have grown more good-looking, if that was even possible.

"You… you were my attending physician?" She asked incredulously, not wanting to believe it.

He removed his white coat and threw it aside, his expression morphing into one of silent anger… and hurt.

"I'm not here as your doctor, unfortunately. I'm here as your husband… or your estranged husband, if you want to correct me." He invited himself to sit down, pulling up a chair beside her and fixing her with an unforgiving, heated amber gaze which never failed to turn her knees to mush whenever he gazed at her like that.

All this she knew even though there was nothing pleasant behind it that she chastised herself for even feeling it. Now was not the time to get all tongue-tied in front of the man she had loved... and still loved even after a long time of telling herself that what she had decided on was the best for the two of them.

She still couldn't meet his eyes, but she knew that he knew that he had her attention all the same. He exhaled a deep breath out, before his tone hardened when he opened his mouth to speak.

"I believe we had a long overdue conversation. Let's talk, Chihaya. Let's talk about the things you were hiding from me."

As always, let me know what you think. If you can me give me some ideas about this, let me know in the reviews. That will be helpful.

Lovelots and see you in the next one,

Michiko