(A/N: Alright, next chapter. I realized that there are probably some important things that I need to address in regard to Juri and Shiori's characters, so I'm doing so this chapter. I did a very in-depth analysis on both their characters and state of mind in regard to many things, taking many cues from both the anime, manga, and the creator of the series, and you'd be surprised as to how many layers there re to both of them, particularly Shiori, and a lot of it explains her past cruelty towards Juri. I'll be glossing over it here, but will get to it more later. For now, enjoy the next chapter. I'm not completely happy with the title, but it gets the point across.)

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 4: Communicating

Shiori was feeling stressed, and her choice of lunch reflected that. Stress eating. Not something she was proud of, but with how nervous she was feeling about her new relationship with Juri, she thought it was justified.

Strangely, she hadn't felt nervous like this with her past relationships. True, they had been nerve-wracking at first too, but she had never been this anxious. And she once again wondered if it was because this relationship was with another girl, or if it was because it was specifically with Juri.

Speaking of Juri, Shiori hadn't seen her since their last talk two days ago. And, truth be told, it was because Shiori had been avoiding her. Well, not avoiding her exactly, just staying away from places she knew the orange-haired girl frequented.

A sigh escaped Shiori and she buried her face in her hands. This was ridiculous. She'd been following Juri around for weeks, wanting to repair their friendship, and now that Juri was granting her that chance, she was avoiding her out of nervousness. What an ironic mess.

But she hadn't been prepared to enter a romantic relationship with her. And, if she was honest, she was scared. Why she was scared? Well… she wasn't sure, but she was also scared to find out why. How utterly bizarre, to be scared to find out why you're scared.

She was brought out of her thoughts as another student set their lunch tray and sat down across from her, and she looked up in surprise. No one, at least not any of her friends, had made an attempt to sit with her ever since Ruka had publicly humiliated and dumped her. She was further surprised to see that the person was Juri. Usually, the orange-haired girl ate lunch with the other members of the Student Council.

As she stared, Juri looked up at her and raised an eyebrow. "Is something wrong?"

Shiori blinked. "Why are you sitting here?"

Cocking her head to the side, Juri gave her a questioning look. "Is there something strange about having lunch with my girlfriend?"

Girlfriend. The word caused color to fill Shiori's cheeks, and her eyes began darting around the room, as if she were afraid that people were watching. "I thought you said that we could keep that a secret."

"We can," Juri told her simply. "But aren't we also best friends? As far as anyone else is concerned, we're just two besties having lunch together."

Frowning, Shiori sat back in her seat. "We didn't have lunch together before. And do people think we're still besties? Everyone knows of our falling out."

Juri just shrugged, looking unconcerned. "Friends fight and make up all the time, and sometimes they come out being even better friends. There's no reason anyone should think otherwise for us." But then she frowned, looking both thoughtful and curious. "I have to admit though, I told the other members of the Student Council about us."

Shiori sat up straight in alarm. "What? Why?"

The orange-haired girl's eyes narrowed. "Because I needed to be able to talk to someone about it. I apologize for telling them, but you don't have to worry, they of all people know how to keep a secret."

On reflex, Shiori felt her gaze drawn to where Touga, Kyouichi, Miki, and Nanami were sitting. None of them so much as glanced in their direction or showed any indication that they knew of her and Juri's relationship, and Shiori relaxed. "Well… I guess that's ok then…"

Picking up her spoon, she began swirling it through her pudding cup, not looking at Juri. The orange-haired girl studied her for a short while before a look of disappointment crossed her face. "Are you ashamed of me?"

Shiori looked up at her in surprise. "What?"

"I asked if your ashamed of me," Juri repeated.

Quickly, Shiori shook her head. "No, of course not."

She watched as Juri's brow furrowed and she gave her an inquisitive look. "You've been avoiding me. Don't deny it," she quickly added when Shiori opened her mouth to respond. "I know you have, especially after how you've been following me around the past several weeks. So why have you been avoiding me?" Her eyes narrowed. "Are you embarrassed to be dating another girl?"

Shiori blushed again and averted her eyes. No, she wasn't ashamed, but she was embarrassed. Not to be dating another girl, but to be dating her. But how exactly did she explain that? "I-It's not that. I suppose I just feel a little… intimidated."

"Intimidated?" Juri repeated, looking surprised. "Of what? You didn't seem intimidated to be dating Ruka."

No, she hadn't been. Well, maybe a little, but she had also been on a bit of a power trip back then. To have won the heart, or so she believed, of someone so handsome and so popular, who had been in love with Juri, but had then chosen her, had gone to Shiori's head, giving her a major confidence boost and made her arrogant, thus overpowering the intimidation she had felt of being with someone who was, for lack of a better word, above her.

"Y-Yeah, but…" she glanced down at her lunch tray, still stirring her pudding, "he's not you."

Juri seemed taken aback by her response. A few moments later, she sat back and seemed to be contemplating something. Shiori just continued to stir her pudding, occasionally sneaking glances at the orange-haired girl. Finally though, Juri let out a sigh and rested her arms on the table.

"I owe you an apology, Shiori," she said sadly.

The violet-haired girl looked up at her in surprise. "What? What for?"

Now Juri was the one to avert her eyes, looking embarrassed. "When you said that you wanted to be friends again and I told you I was only willing to do so if we gave having a relationship a try, I didn't really consider your feelings. That was selfish of me. I gave you an ultimatum without even considering whether you even like girls. I know you've dated boys, but I have no idea if you like girls or not." She returned her gaze to her. "Do you?"

Shiori just stared as Juri looked at her. She was trying to hide it, but there was a look in her eyes that Shiori could only describe as desperate hope, almost like a plea for her to hear the answer she wanted. It was almost too much to bear, and Shiori looked back down at her lunch.

This was actually a question she had thought about before, especially over the past few days, and she thought she had an answer. "It's not that I don't like girls. It's more like… I never considered them as a romantic option before. I always knew I was attracted to boys, but… I find girls to be attractive as well. So, I guess I'm attracted… to both…"

She still hid it well, but there was no denying the clear look of relief on Juri's face. Reaching across the table, she placed a hand over Shiori's. "So you're saying that you're bisexual? You're sure?"

The violet-haired girl blushed and gave a small nod. "Yeah, I guess I am. Bi, I mean. But I prefer boys, I guess." She frowned at that and then shook her head. "No, it's not that I prefer them, I just never actually thought about having a relationship with another girl before." She gave Juri a curious look. "Why are you only asking me this now? Would you have let me out of this arrangement and still been my friend if I said that I was only into boys?"

A frown crossed Juri's face and she retracted her hand. "No. What I told you before was true, Shiori. I don't think I can just be friends with you unless I know a romance between us won't work. If you had told me that you're not into girls… well, I guess I would have hoped that dating me would make you realize something about yourself that you hadn't realized before and that you would change your mind." She gave her a bashful smile. "People learn new things about themselves all the time. You know, the whole 'don't knock it until you try it' scenario. I also would have settled for the 'if it's you, it's ok' scenario."

Once again, Shiori just stared. Seeing Juri Arisugawa looking embarrassed was definitely a new one. She actually looked… really cute. And, truth be told, she'd always found the orange-haired girl to be very attractive, but she had pushed such thoughts into just one of the many things she had admired and envied about her.

This, however, posed a question of something Shiori had been wondering about. "Hey, Juri, I know that you never did it before because you were hiding your feelings for me, but…" she trailed off, glancing away as she felt her face heat up, "after I found out how you felt about me, you know, after I found your locket… why didn't you ever ask me out?"

She couldn't believe she had actually worked up the nerve to ask her that, but it had been something she had been wondering about for some time now. It also made her wonder what she would have said if the orange-haired girl had asked her out back then.

A deep sigh escaped Juri as she slumped in her seat a bit. "A couple reasons. One of the biggest was that I was scared."

Shiori blinked. "Scared?"

"Of course. Now that my feelings were finally out in the open, I was afraid of what would happen, and I found it easier to just pretend that everything was normal. As for another reason," she gave the violet-haired girl a pointed look, "you and I weren't exactly on the best of terms back then."

Shiori winced. She definitely had her there, and she thought back to the time of when she had discovered her picture in Juri's locket. She frowned as she once again found large gaps in her memory of what had happened that day, just as she did whenever she thought about it. Why did she have so much trouble remembering?

"Hey, Juri," she said carefully, "what exactly happened that day?" At the orange-haired girl's questioning look, she said, "I remember finding your locket, and I remember going to some seminar to try and work out how I felt about how you felt about me." She reached up and rubbed her head. "But after that, things start to get fuzzy. I… I think I remember confronting you about the locket, and then… something happened. But after that… I'm not really sure. Things just become a blur."

She gave Juri a questioning look, silently asking her to fill in the blanks, if she could. The orange-haired girl appeared confused herself, as if she were trying to figure Shiori out, and also appeared to be thoughtful. Shiori wondered what she was thinking, and if she wondered if she was just pretending that she didn't remember what had happened.

"You really don't remember?" Juri asked.

Shiori shook her head. "Like I said, it's mostly all a blur, just some fuzzy fragments that feel like part of a dream."

Juri was silent, seemingly mulling the situation over. Shiori wondered if she was wondering if she should tell her or not. Shiori might not remember what had happened, but she knew that whatever she had said and done back then hadn't been nice.

"You more or less mocked me and my feelings," Juri finally told her. "You acted like you had this grand power over me and that you had the right to do whatever you wanted with me because of my feelings for you made you superior to me. You even taunted me by saying that you would have given me a better picture for my locket if I had asked. Then you forcibly took my sword."

Shiori resisted the need to wince. Yes, that sounded like something she would do. Because it was true. She had felt like she had gained superiority over Juri. To have the person she always admired and held in such high regards to the point that they were untouchable and you were lucky to even be in their presence, to learn that that person actually held you in such high regards, she had most definitely let that get to her. She'd fancied herself Juri's better, after standing in her shadow for so long, knowing that Juri could walk away from her at any moment, and only stayed with her out of pity, pity that Shiori feared would one day run out, to learn that it was actually her who had the power to keep Juri with her, she'd relished in that knowledge, and did all she could to hold onto her new so-called status.

Even though she couldn't really remember what had happened that day, she still remembered how she had behaved with Ruka. Believing she had won him over after he had been in love with Juri, it had felt good. Not just because she'd finally had the boy she had been crushing on for so long, but because she had seen it as proof that she was better than Juri, and she'd rubbed her relationship with him in her face, knowing it would hurt her. After all, you could only hurt those you had power over.

She'd been so horrible; she saw that now. And having the rug pulled out from under her when Ruka dumped her and revealed that everything he had done had been for Juri, it had sufficiently torn Shiori's pride to shreds and knocked her off the imaginary pedestal she thought she had been standing on. It had also served to help her realize just how horrible she had been, and that her foolish attempt to make sure Juri couldn't leave her had been what had driven her away, leaving Shiori with no choice but to go crawling back to her, which had led to their current situation.

"I really was cruel to you, wasn't I." she said more to herself than anyone else.

It hadn't been phrased as a question, but Juri looked at her sadly and answered anyway. "Yes, you were. But… I don't really blame you as much as I should."

Shiori gave her a confused look. "Huh?"

A small smile grazed Juri's face. "You can be cruel, Shiori, but sometimes you don't realize how cruel you can be. Your words and actions, there are times you don't ever realize how they can hurt people. You're very naïve and ignorant in that regard. That's why I say you're innocently cruel."

"Innocently cruel," Shiori repeated, lowering her eyes. "Yes, I suppose that's appropriate."

If that were the case, then it's no wonder people left her. Both of the boys she had dated had ultimately only been with her because of Juri, her friends had abandoned her after Ruka had dumped her, and even Juri herself had eventually walked away from her. She really needed to reevaluate her life and how she treated people, or else she really would end up with no one and nothing.

Her eyes returned to Juri, falling to her chest. A frown made its way up her face as she noticed something was missing, and it wasn't simply tucked into her shirt. "Where's your locket?"

Juri blinked. "What?"

Shiori pointed to her own chest. "Your locket. The one you kept my picture in. You haven't been wearing it for some time now. I figured you'd put away somewhere when you decided to sever all ties with me, but I thought you would start wearing it again now that we're…"

She trailed off and glanced away. What was wrong with her? Why was this so embarrassing?

Juri's hand came up to where her locket once rested, a look of longing crossing her face. "I didn't take it off. It was destroyed."

Shiori cocked her head to the side questioningly. "Destroyed?"

Juri nodded. "It was in my final duel in the Dueling Game. My opponent made an attempt to strike the rose on my chest, but missed and hit my locket instead. It was completely irreparable."

"Oh," Shiori replied, not sure what else to say. She settled on, "I was jealous, you know."

She was given a questioning look from the orange-haired girl. "Jealous?"

Shiori nodded sadly. "That day in the courtyard. A few weeks after Ruka dumped me. You were playing with Miki Kaoru and… someone else; I don't remember who. Another girl, I think. Not Miki's sister, someone different."

Juri's brow furrowed in thought, and then she seemed to remember. "Oh, yes, that must have been the champion. The Engaged we called them. What did Touga say her name was again…? Arisu…? No, that wasn't it. I think it began with a U, or maybe a Y."

The same jealousy Shiori remembered feeling back then returned. "Whatever her name was, I remember what you said."

Confusion filled Juri's face. "What did I say?"

Shiori shifted in her seat, looking and feeling uncomfortable. "You asked if you could have a picture of her for your new locket. Then Miki said that that made you his rival or something since he had apparently taken an interest in her too."

Juri once again seemed to be trying to remember, and then her eyes widened as she remembered and she burst out laughing. "Oh, that? No, no, that was nothing. We were just joking around." She gave Shiori a pointed look. "I admit, I did find her very attractive, and I greatly admired her, but I wasn't being serious. Besides, she was completely in love with the chairman."

"Mr. Ohtori?" Shiori asked in surprise. "But isn't he engaged?"

The orange-haired girl nodded. "Yes, but the heart wants what the heart wants. I know that better than anyone." She shrugged. "In any case, it doesn't matter. She's gone, and I can't really remember her."

Shiori raised an eyebrow. "You don't remember her? But didn't you just say that you greatly admired her?"

Juri nodded again. "Yes, I remember that, and other small details, but I don't really remember anything about her specifically. It's something to do with the Dueling Game." She gave the violet-haired girl a pointed look. "You don't remember her either, do you?"

Shiori opened her mouth to respond, hesitated, and then closed it again. She tried thinking back to that day in the courtyard. She clearly remembered Juri and Miki, and Kozue had been there watching them as well, and even Nanami had arrived and seemed to try to start an argument with the other person. As for who that person was though, she was drawing a complete blank. She couldn't even remember their face. Was it really the Dueling Game that was the cause?

"No, I guess I don't," she admitted. "That whole dueling tournament was weird. There's so much I don't understand about what went on during it."

"I know," Juri agreed. "There was some kind of supernaturality going on beyond our understanding. We just learned to stop questioning it and go along with it."

"I suppose," Shiori replied, having pretty much done the same thing. A lot of strange stuff had happened after she and Ruka had gone on that car ride with the chairman. She still didn't have the words to describe what he had shown them, nor did she really understand it.

"It doesn't matter though," Juri told her. "I'm done dwelling on the past. Now I want to look to the future." A smile spread across her face. "Speaking of which, what are you doing this weekend?"

"This weekend?" Shiori repeated. She gave a small shrug. "Nothing really. I don't have any plans."

The smile on the orange-haired girl's face widened. "Excellent. Then how about we go out."

Shiori blinked. "Go out?"

"Yes. On a date."

"D-Date? Like a date-date?"

A chuckle escaped Juri. "That is what couples do. I'm pretty sure I can get us permission to leave the school grounds for a few hours. Is there anything you'd like to do?"

Shiori's face heated. She didn't know what she expected. She'd agreed to be Juri's girlfriend, so going out on dates was to be expected. And Juri wanted to go out this weekend? Just the thought of them spending time together as a couple had her sweating.

She must have been silent for too long, because Juri gave her a questioning look. "Shiori? I asked if there was anything you wanted to do."

Yes, she'd heard her, but she was feeling so overheated that it was hard to think straight. "Uh, I d-don't know… Um… K-Karaoke?"

Juri smiled and nodded. "Sure, that sounds fun. Anything else?"

A small squeaky sound escaped Shiori. "I… I don't know. You pick something."

Looking amused, Juri sat back in thought. "Hmm. Very well. How about bowling?"

Bowling? Yes, she remembered that Juri enjoyed bowling. She would play every so often too, but she was average at best while Juri excelled at it. It was just one more thing she was better than her at. "I… That's fine."

"Perfect," Juri declared happily. "Then we can bowl for a few rounds before going to dinner, then do karaoke until we need to head back. Sound good?"

Shiori nodded, perhaps a little too enthusiastically. "Yes, sounds like a plan."

"Ok then," Juri replied and stood up with her now empty lunch tray. "Then I'll be at your room at 5:00. Is that fine?" At Shiori's nod, she smiled. "Great. I'll be looking forward to it." She made to leave, but paused. "By the way, lunch is almost over. You should eat before the period ends."

As the orange-haired girl walked off, Shiori looked down at her lunch that she had barely touched the whole time they were talking. She'd been too distracted by her thoughts when she first sat down and then too distracted by Juri's presence and their conversation when the orange-haired girl had joined her to eat. And now she had a date with said orange-haired girl, and the thought of it had her stomach doing flips.

It also brought on a very important question. What was she going to wear?

(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)

The big day had come and Shiori still hadn't decided what to wear. Well, no that wasn't exactly true, she had decided what to wear, she was just constantly second guessing her decision and changing her mind; she'd done so at least twice every night since she and Juri had made their plans.

Except for today. Today she had already changed her mind five times, and now she was debating for a sixth if she should go with something else. She stood in front of her mirror, holding up outfit after outfit, dismissing each one and tossing it on her bed before doubling back later and taking another look.

"Ah! Nothing is good enough!" she complained, throwing yet another outfit on the bed, not caring that it would get wrinkled. "Why does everything look so horrible!?"

It was strange, she hadn't thought that any of these outfits looked bad before. Some of them had been good enough to wear on her dates with Ruka. So why were they not good enough for her date with Juri? And why was that thought making her blush?

With a grumble, she began going through her pile of clothes again. Perhaps she should just go with something more causal. They weren't going anywhere fancy, just bowling, dinner, and karaoke. And while she didn't know where they were going for dinner, she doubted it was anywhere that sophisticated in light of the other two events they would be doing.

As she struggled to make a choice, a sudden thought occurred to her. This whole arrangement she had with Juri, it required them to give having romantic relationship a chance. Juri had said she couldn't be friends with her unless she knew it wouldn't work out. Shiori understood that. But Juri had also said that if things didn't work out that she would still try and be friends with her; she just needed the closure of knowing that they had given being a couple a chance.

By that logic, Shiori could just 'make sure' things didn't work out if she wanted to. No, she didn't even have to do that. After a few dates, she could just tell Juri that this wasn't working out for her, and that would be the end of things. Then they could go back to being just friends. That was what she wanted after all.

For some reason though, Shiori didn't want to do that. She didn't know why, but the thought of things not working out between her and Juri made her feel… sad? Yes, perhaps that was the best way to describe it. Which was strange since she had only agreed to this because it had been what Juri had demanded. Well, maybe demanded was a strong word, but Shiori hadn't exactly harbored such illusions of going out with her before.

A glance at the clock had her letting out a squeak. Juri would be picking her up soon. She needed to get ready. She just had to pick an outfit and stop second guessing herself, otherwise she might as well just go in her school uniform.

Somehow, she managed to come to a decision, and by some miracle, she was just finishing up when she heard a knock at her door that had her jumping. Another look at the clock told her that it was most likely Juri.

"Just a moment!" she called as she scrambled to finish getting ready. Then she was practically tripping over herself to get to the door. A groan escaped her as she saw the pile of clothes that were still on her bed, but there was no time to worry about that.

Rushing over to the door, she stopped in front of it and took a deep breath, taking a few moments to compose herself. Swallowing nervously, she reached for the doorknob and opened the door.

There stood Juri, dressed in casual clothes, making Shiori glad that she too had decided to go with a more casual look. She watched as the orange-haired girl's eyes gave her a once over before she flashed her a smile, and Shiori felt her cheeks heat up.

"Are you ready?" Juri asked.

For some reason, this simple question only caused Shiori's cheeks to heat up further. "I, uh, yes, I am."

Juri's smile widened and she suddenly held out a rose to her, a purple rose. "I decided against a whole bouquet since we decided to be discreet and thought that that would be a little too obvious and noticeable."

A shy smile made its way up Shiori's face. "Oh, thanks."

She accepted the rose, and as she took it, their fingers brushed against each other, and Shiori felt her heart skip a beat at the contact and she tensed up. She glanced at Juri to see if she noticed, but she didn't seem to. Or if she did, she pretended that she didn't.

She brought the flower up to her nose and inhaled its lovely scent. "Thanks," she said again.

Juri's smile widened even further, becoming fonder. "It matches your hair."

Shiori blinked, somehow not having made the connection, and glanced down at the flower. "Oh, I thought you might have chosen it for what purple roses symbolize." She blinked again as she realized that she didn't actually know what purple roses represented. She knew that typically red roses meant love, yellow meant friendship, white meant purity, pink meant admiration, and black meant death, but she wasn't sure what the other colors symbolized. "Um, what do purple roses represent again?"

Juri cocked her head to the side in thought. "Well, it can mean a couple different things, depending on the situation. But purple ones are known to stand for peace, serenity, adoration, enchantment, and splendor. Purple is the color of royalty after all."

Shiori's eyebrows rose. "It is? Why?"

The orange-haired girl chuckled. "Because it's the rarest color in nature."

"It is?"

"It is." She took a step closer and reached out, gently stroking the rose's petals. "However, in a relationship, purple roses are used to symbolize love at first sight."

If the rose had been red instead of purple, Shiori was sure that her face would have matched it. Her grip on the flower tightened, and the thorns would have surely pricked her fingers if Juri hadn't been considerate enough to have removed them already.

In light of Shiori's embarrassment, Juri's smile became almost playful. "But in this case, I simply got it because it's the same color as your hair. Or the closest I could find to it anyway."

Once again, Shiori felt her heart skip a beat. Was Juri… flirting with her? That was certainly new. She couldn't ever remember seeing Juri flirt with anyone before, let alone with her. She was being so… bold lately. It was making her feel flustered.

Subconsciously, her hand came up to touch her hair. While it was more of a brownish-violet than purple, she found it almost touching that Juri had gotten her a flower to match her hair. But then her gaze went from the rose to Juri's own hair, and she couldn't help asking, "So what do orange roses symbolize?"

Juri looked somewhat surprised by the question, then reached up to finger the curls of her own hair before giving her a smile. "They too have multiple meanings; all roses do. Orange can represent energy, enthusiasm, admiration, fascination, strength, hope." Her smile widened and she leaned in to whisper into Shiori's ear. "But they primarily stand for passion and excitement."

If Shiori's thought her face had been red before, then it surely must be an even darker shade now. And how did she even remember what all the different color roses stood for anyway, let alone the different meanings for the same color? Shiori herself only knew the main symbolism of the most well-known ones.

Still smiling, Juri stepped back. "So, shall we go?"

Swallowing, Shiori wet her lips. "J-Just a second."

Heart racing, she retreated into her room. She rushed over to her bed and set the rose down on her pillow, then she rushed back to the door and stepped outside, closing it behind her.

"Ok," she said, "let's go."

(A/N: Ok, so, things have progressed. Shiori's has had some time to come to terms with her situation with Juri and think about what their relationship will be like. She's also been able to self-reflect some more, and got to have a bit of a heart-to-heart with her. But talking is good, it's always good to communicate. As Juri herself concluded last chapter, a lack of communication was one of their biggest issues that led to a lot of problems between them, so it's good that they're communicating, hence why I named the chapter that. That's partly a lie, I really just didn't have a name for this chapter. Speaking of which, if you didn't know, yes, it was canonically confirmed that Shiori is bisexual, and now that's been clarified with Juri too. Like I said, communication is important. And now they're going on their first date. So, we'll get to see how that goes next time, it's sure to be interesting.)