~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Neko came home alone, leaving Mi-chan and Jian-wa behind after she had decided that she was being too much of a downer to accompany the couple any longer. Mi-chan had sent her concerned thoughts, but Neko had brushed them off, telling her she just wasn't in the mood for a picnic and didn't want to intrude on their current happiness. So Mi-chan had reluctantly let her go.
She drove her motorcycle slowly back home, not really in a big rush to be anywhere. She knew she should probably tell someone everything. Confiding in Mi-chan had never been much of a problem for her before this year. But now she found herself struggling with feelings she had never really faced before. First, Neko had had trouble figuring out her sexual orientation and didn't want to talk about that until she knew for sure what she felt. She had originally hidden Tenshi from Mi-chan, and then conveniently forgot to mention that Tenshi was female for a while. When Mi-chan had gotten amnesia, Neko had hidden Jian-wa's betrayal and Mi-chan's attempted suicide from her twin. And now that she had broken up with Tenshi, Neko wasn't sure she could tell Mi-chan that either. Not because Mi-chan wouldn't understand her reasoning - Mi-chan had had her share of prophetic dreams dealing with her love life - but because Neko just wasn't sure she could talk about it yet without breaking down and crying for the rest of her life. And the horrible part was that she didn't know if there would ever be a time when she wouldn't feel this way.
As she turned onto her driveway, she went through the emotional roller-coaster of seeing Tenshi standing by her front door talking to Kimahou. She parked her bike in the garage and tried to figure out if they would let her go inside without intercepting her. She half hoped that Tenshi would run in and sweep her off her feet, and at the same time she hoped that she could somehow escape confronting Tenshi at all. But both hopes were soon dashed away as Kimahou entered the garage.
"Neko-chan, Tenshi-san's here to see you. You have to talk to her, onegai! She still loves you," Kimahou pleaded with her. Who would've guessed that she would be such the romantic?
Neko knew that she could just walk inside the house. Certainly, that would make the statement that she didn't want to see Tenshi. It would be hard on both of them, but certainly seeing her wouldn't be any better. Yet she couldn't ignore the pleading in Kimahou's eyes. "Okay," Neko reluctantly agreed.
"Good." Kimahou pushed her towards the garage entrance and then ran through the door that led into the house, so that Neko couldn't think she was spying on them.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Once he had gotten her to stop worrying about Neko, Jian-wa and Mi-chan began to relax a lot more. Mi-chan laid belly-down on the thick blanket they had used to cover the ground, resting her head on her hands. As she talked to him, her feet kicked into the air, not inclined to remain still for even a second. The chilly breeze didn't disturb any of her long dark-green hair, except her bangs, as she had it in a braid today. He had only seen it down a couple times. However, that was just as well, since Neko usually wore hers down, and it was a good indicator of which twin he was looking at.
She noticed him looking at her hair. "What?" she asked him.
"Nothing," he answered quickly. "I was just noticing how beautiful you were." She was. Besides her gorgeous hair, she was tall, thin, and athletic. She also had lovely violet eyes, though, when he looked into them, he could tell that her feelings went much deeper than she ever let on to anyone, even Neko. He also thought she was one of the most compassionate people he knew, although he might have been a little biased because she was so willing to forgive him after he had tried to kill her.
"How'd I get so lucky to get you for a girlfriend?" he asked, truly wondering about this miracle.
She beamed at him. "Guess you just did everything right in your life."
"But I didn't," he protested. "I was a terrible person for years. I lied to you and your sister for a long time, and somehow you still managed to overlook that and fall in love with me. I honestly don't understand what I could have done to deserve you!"
"Jian-kun. You didn't choose to be evil. You weren't evil! You were told lies your entire life. Lies that justified what you were doing. But when the time came for you to choose, you chose me over everything you had been taught your whole life. That is what you did to deserve me!"
Reassured by her words, he leaned over and kissed her. "I don't know if I really am worthy of you, but I'm glad to have you here with me," he told her.
Suddenly, she jerked back. "What?" he asked, alarmed by her sudden reaction.
"I don't know," she said slowly. She closed her eyes, concentrating on some psychic force he couldn't pick up on. Then she got up and started picking up the stuff from their picnic hurriedly. "Gomen nasai, Jian-kun. I need to go home."
"What's wrong?"
"Neko-chan's really upset. I don't care if I have to tie her up and force her to talk, I am going to find out what's upsetting her, and I'm gonna make sure that it stops," she answered resolutely.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Neko slowly walked towards Tenshi, dreading every moment, every step. Her eyes were down - she refused to look at her ex-koibito. She knew that if she did, it would be a million times harder to stay in control. And she needed that control. Neko somehow needed to convince Tenshi that she didn't love her, and somehow make Tenshi stop loving her as well.
Tenshi, meanwhile, suddenly felt anxious. If Neko wasn't even willing to look at her, what chance did she have? She didn't even know what she had done to upset Neko. Why had Neko so abruptly decided that they needed to break up? Tenshi needed to know. How else could she make it up to Neko?
"Koneko�" she started.
"Stop," Neko interrupted her quietly. "Whatever you're going to say, don't."
