If you think about it, things weren’t as bad as they could have been. Afterall, at least the fall hadn’t been bad enough to put me completely out of it. Although I had a good feeling that I might have cut my head open, at the very least I was probably getting a nice sized bump. Either way, Honey must have figured out that I wasn’t going to be able to keep a very quick pace, because he kept it rather slow and simply chattered as we walked. At first it was the usual chatter that didn’t hold much purpose behind it, but at a certain point it changed.

I couldn’t decide if that was a good thing or not.

“Nao-chan?”

“Hm?”

My head had been spinning ever since I’d stood and it was actually pretty hard to continue to focus on his every word. As such, it wasn’t until he called my name that I realized I’d zoned out.

“Oh, sorry Honey,” I added on, a sheepish smile reaching my lips.

“It’s okay Nao-chan,” he replied cheerily. “I don’t mind.”

He paused for a moment as the trail between the trees we’d been walking on split off. After a moment’s thought, we decided to take the path that seemed to go up with the idea that the higher we were the better chance we had of spotting the others.

“I was wondering…” Honey continued when we’d started walking again.

“Yes?”

“Nao-chan, you don’t love kendo, do you?”

I frowned, confused and gave him the only answer I could think of.

“I practice it all the time and participate in as many competitions as I can.”

Honey shook his head, a wry smile appearing on his face.

“I thought you’d say that. That’s not what I mean. You don’t love kendo, do you?”

I stopped walking and gave the question a bit of thought. After a moment I gave up and shrugged.

“I don’t understand,” I admitted.

Honey spun around so that he was facing me directly, his wry smile turning into an amused one. Clasping his hands behind his head, he cocked it to the side and studied me. It wasn’t until that moment that I realized that somewhere between the start of this adventure and when I’d woken up off the side of the river, Honey had lost his tube.

“I looked up Nao-chan from when you used to be in dance,” he began, and I tensed, suddenly deciding that the change in topic was a bad thing. I didn’t need to think about those days- they were gone. “You looked really happy.”

Shaking my head, I started walking again. I stopped, however, when Honey dropped his hands to his hips with a disapproving frown.

“I enjoy kendo,” I grumbled, not looking directly at him.

“But you don’t love it,” Honey argued.

Sighing, I turned my eyes back to his, unable to hold back from reacting to the topic.

“What’s your point? I play kendo now. I’m fine with it. Things change, Honey.”

My voice might have been a bit sharp, but I honestly didn’t even consider apologizing for that matter. If he could have just dropped the conversation, I would have been happy. There was no need to keep dwelling over something that didn’t matter anymore. When I’d moved in with my uncle, I quit. He didn’t approve. It was easier- and we’d made a deal. That’s all there was to it.

What surprised me was that Honey only reacted to my sharp tone with a small, unreadable smile.

“Hey, Nao-chan, you should come to my house this weekend,” he asked, suddenly closing the distance between us by gripping my hands. His smile turned into a large grin. “Pretty please? Pleeeease?”

The topic change made my sluggish mind work for a second to catch up to, but relief flooded through me as I gave a small nod. Honey giggled and dropped my hands, putting his own back behind his head as he started back up the path.

“Good! Takashi’s coming over, too! Satoshi and Chika are going to be gone on a school trip, Chika seems pretty excited about it, although he keeps pretending that he isn’t. So Takashi and his dad are coming over for dinner then Takashi is spending the night,” Honey informed me enthusiastically.

He then suddenly stopped walking, an even more excited look appearing on his face.

“Nao-chan, I had an amazing idea!”

Why do I have a bad feeling about this idea?

“You did?” I questioned cautiously.

“You should stay over, too!”

That’s why.

“Honey, I’m a girl.”

“I know that,” he replied with a giggle. Within a second he’d started walking again. “Why would that matter?”

“...”

Of course it didn’t mean anything to Honey. Resisting the urge to laugh, I simply shook my head, my earlier bad mood from his questioning completely disappearing. I trailed along behind him, running the offer through my mind. My uncle wouldn’t care- he liked anything that hinted at me being close to the two boys’ families. If anything he’d celebrate by getting me new clothing once again. Ren… well, he could deal with it. Who cared about what Ren thought?

“It wouldn’t,” I replied after a moment, allowing myself a small chuckle. “I’d love to stay over, Honey.”

“Great! I’ll tell Okaasan when I get home. She’ll love the idea! She’s been asking about when you were going to come over again- she even got the others curious about it. Chika will be upset that he missed it.”

Somehow I doubted that. It seemed more likely for Satoshi to be upset than Chika, and I was still skeptical about that idea.

“I’ll have to make it up to him somehow,” I answered instead of telling him about my skepticism.

“Chika already thinks you’re an alien,” Honey replied lightly. “It will be alright.”

For a moment I just stared at the back of his head, not quite sure what to say. His little brother thought I was an alien? And that was alright?

“...oh.”

Falling into chatter about Chika and Satoshi’s class trip, Honey led the way through the trees without approaching any uncomfortable topics again. He actually didn’t stop talking until something in the distance caught his attention. I’d hurried to close the few feet between us to see what he was looking at when Honey suddenly gripped a vine hanging off one of the trees and suddenly swung out of sight hollering something about Mori and Haruhi moving out of the way.

Needless to say, I was highly confused and freaked out. Staring in the direction he’d gone flying in, I caught sight of men in black with guns pointing in several directions. When Honey landed in the middle of the mess, it suddenly became even more of a mess as the dangerous people began going down.

As much as I wanted to join in, I couldn’t exactly fly in like Honey had. That took two hands, not just one. No, instead I ended up ungracefully skidding down the side of the incline while attempting to not end up rolling into the clearing head over heels- especially since my dizziness just made it harder to keep my balance as I attempted this.

The result was that I wasn’t surprised that by the time I made it into the clearing, Honey was lecturing the attackers who were laying in various spots all over the ground. What made it so easy to take was the fact that I’d known the stories about Honey’s family beforehand, although I guess I might have been a bit impressed after seeing it in person. He really was amazing at this sort of thing.

“Haruhi! You alright?”

I had been about to question Honey on what had happened when Tamaki suddenly flew into the clearing. The rest of the club as well as Ren were trailing behind him as he suffocated Haruhi in a  hug. Thankfully he didn’t seem to notice the fact that Honey and I were there until afterwards. The twins on the other hand noticed and began poking at the unconscious guys strewn about the clearing. Ren, seeming interested in the men as well, leaned over where they were crouched, curiosity etched into his expression.

“They don’t look weak,” he pointed out.

“I don’t know what happened,” Hikaru commented. “But it seems like everything’s fine. Honey senpai must have beat them all.”

His brother nodded his agreement as Haruhi suddenly broke in with questions. Tuning out of the conversation, I moved over to join Mori and Honey. Honey was praising Mori for protecting Haruhi. He was about to ask another question when he caught sight of me approaching. Cutting himself off, he grinned and pulled himself on tippy-toes to cheerfully inform Mori of something I couldn’t catch. I could easily guess what, however, and my guess was only confirmed when Mori’s expression suddenly looked surprised.

“Oh! Takashi, you should carry us to the exit!” Honey added as he relaxed back on his heels.

Us?

The unspoken question laid in the air and Honey grinned even more.

“Nao-chan got hurt and doesn’t feel good and I want a piggy-back ride!”

“I can walk!” I protested. “I don’t need to be carried!”

Unsurprisingly, the words “got hurt” seemed to work like magic. Despite several protests on my end, I ended up being escorted towards the exit cradled in Mori’s arms just like I’d been at the tournament. Also just like at the tournament, I was rather irritated to be there. This time, though, it wasn’t the same. My anger was stemming from that feeling that had stirred in me earlier that I had decided was like butterflies in the stomach. This time it was more like electricity. The feeling of me being held against Mori’s painfully obvious bare chest was excruciatingly strange. It was like the little air between us had suddenly become charged.

If I wasn’t mistaken from the way Mori seemed more eager than usual to put me down when we reached where we had left our belongings…. he must have felt it too.

It was definitely something to question.

_________________________________________

“Nao-chan, Nao-chan, you’ve arrived!”

I’d just barely slung my bag over my shoulder when Honey burst from the front door. Chuckling under my breath, I stepped away from the car so that the person who had driven me to the estate could shut the door. Honey flung himself into an excited hug and I had just barely enough time to brace myself so that I didn’t end up falling backwards.

“It was only about five minutes ago that I talked to you on the phone,” I pointed out.

Apparently unaffected by logic, Honey just grinned and released me.

“Takashi’s really excited you’re coming,” he informed me. “He’s waiting inside. We were watching something. I hoped you’d arrive before we were done.”

If possible, all that Honey’s greeting had done was make me more confused. The first statement I dismissed as Honey’s usual deal, he always seemed to say something like that when we were talking. The second one was what had caught my attention. They were watching something that was interesting enough to keep Mori from tagging along behind Honey?

“I’m glad I did,” I replied honestly.

I’ll admit it, he’d caught my attention. As far as I was aware, there wasn’t anything that kept Mori away from Honey except for an order from Honey himself.

“Come on!”

Chuckling once again, I allowed Honey to grab my hand and drag me into the house. I barely managed to wave hello to his mother as we passed her in the hall. She just laughed, seemingly not upset over the rushed greeting. It wasn’t until we reached his room that Honey finally slowed down and released my hand.

“Takashi! Nao-chan’s here!” Honey called out as he slid the door open.

Peering into the room, I caught sight of Mori sitting cross-legged a dozen feet in front of the T.V. When we stepped it, his eyes flickered away from the screen for a moment to give us a short nod before looking back. My curiosity even further stirred, I quickly crossed the room so that I could see what he was watching.

“Wait… that’s…”

“Nao-chan looks really pretty in that,” Honey said, dropping himself down next to Mori.

I couldn’t even sit down. My eyes wouldn’t leave the screen for a moment. There I could see myself from around year before the accident. I knew because that happened to be the national competition- something that I doubt I’d be able to forget even if I tried. The music had taken weeks to pick out. I’d practiced the routine so many times that Aki had sworn I was performing movements in my sleep.

“How… how’d you get that?” I finally managed to ask.

“Otousan got it for me,” Honey replied cheerily. “It was actually pretty easy to get. That competition was apparently one of the hardest to place in, in years. The video is pretty popular among dancers.”

He wasn’t completely wrong. They’d nicknamed that particular year at nationals the year of the prodigies. There were so many people there considered to be the stars of their age in their own particular regions. When you put all of them together, people had said it showed that the future competitions for that age range were going to be harder than ever.

It was one reason that I hadn’t felt bad about only getting eighth. Uncle had used the placing as an excuse to point out that I wasn’t going anywhere in the sport.

He’d had a point. With so many gifted people in my age range I had very little chance.

“Why did you get it?” I demanded, finally recovering enough to tear my eyes away from the screen and face them.

“Because I was curious,” Honey replied immediately. “You’re really good, Nao-chan.”

I could my irritation building and I did my best to calm it. Getting ticked off in this situation wouldn’t help me.

“It’s none of your business!” I snapped.

Apparently my mouth wasn’t listening to my mind. Thankfully, Honey didn’t seem to be bothered by my outburst. The smile turned into a slightly serious look and he grabbed the remote from where it’d been tossed onto his bed. I could only stand there as he pressed the button to pause the video.

Thank-goodness he’d stopped it before that happened. Although I doubted from the way he was talking that he hadn’t already watched it, he wasn’t acting like this was the first time it’d been played. Then again, if he’d watched it all the way through he should have known that I wasn’t “really good”.

“Nao-chan, don’t be upset,” Honey scolded. “We’re your friends, it’s okay to be curious about your friends. Plus, you’re good so there is no reason to be upset anyways.”

It took all I had to hold back on my urge to snap that he had something wrong. I wasn’t good. At the same, I saw no sense in saying something that they obviously didn’t think. I already knew that both Mori and Honey were stubborn, arguing with them about that wouldn’t do me any good. Plus, the idea of pointing out that annoyance with myself just came off to me as if it would sound like some silly, self-deprecating complaint.

Taking a deep breath, I glanced between the two of them for a moment. Mori, as always, seemed hard to read. If anything, he almost seemed to be waiting for something. Honey on the other hand had returned to his usual grin, that brief, serious look having completely disappeared.

“Besides!” he added on suddenly. “You look really happy in this!”

I found myself at a loss of words.

“That’s why I invited you,” Honey added even more cheerfully. “‘cause I had a really good idea.”

At the very least, his words made me extremely wary.

 “Nao-chan, you should compete again!”

A/N: So... who thought the next chapter would come out so soon? Hehe, I certainly didn't. Anyways, I really enjoyed writing this one cause it's gotten into a plotline I've been wanting to reach for quite some time- although things didn't play out exactly how I planned them to! Also, I planned on this being a bit longer, but this is the perfect ending for it.

Hope you guys enjoyed!