“...hello.”

I leaned closer to the screen, staring at it in disbelief. The boy that had appeared in front of the woman in question was small, so small that I second guessed myself for a moment. At the same time, there were obvious feature to match him to the Takashi I knew. His messy black hair was in almost exactly the same style that it was in now. He stood stiffly and rather straight, not slouched like a normal child would have typically done.

Then there was the boy’s mother. A bright colored hat was settled firmly on her head, but unable to cover up the fact she didn’t have but a few, thin strands of hair. The woman was slightly pale, extremely thin, but wearing a bright smile.

She perfectly fit the image of the Morinozuka woman that I knew very little about- beyond that she’d died when Mori and Satoshi were young.

“She’s just a girl, she won’t bite,” his mother commented, amused. “You can speak a little louder, Takashi.”

The younger me stepped forward leaned towards him curiously.

“Are you really a boy? I’m taller than you and I’m not taller than anyone.”

“Nao!”

A voice that was a bit louder than the the others caught by the camera called out and my breath caught in my throat. The camera moved closer to the scene within a moment and an arm came into view, sitting on my head before both me and the arm disappeared from the camera’s view.

“I’m a boy…” Takashi mumbled.

“Sorry, she’s still learning to use her manners,” the voice continued, sounding slightly embarrassed. “She has them, but… well, as you can see, she’s a bit blunt anyways.”

Takashi’s mother laughed, shaking her head just a little.

“It’s fine. Children are children.”

“Well, I guess girly-boys are pretty,” the younger me announced. “I’m Nao, and I’ve decided what I’m going to call you. You can be Taka-chan.”

I scrambled for the remote and hit stop. Thoughts  and memories were crashing through my mind, entirely too quick for me to keep up with them. The sound of my mother’s voice, which I had almost forgotten, prompted tears to my eyes that I just barely managed to beat back.

All of them seemed like they’d heard of me before when I visited Honey’s house.

Mori seemed to know a lot about me.

Of course, if we’d met once he might have actually picked up those articles when they’d come out. When he read them, he would have learned those simple things I’d found interesting that he knew.

He’s surprisingly good at dance.

Perhaps he’d developed an interest because of his mother.

‘How about Taka-kun?’

I shook my head when Honey’s mother’s question pushed past the other memories.

How could I not remember that?

Even as I asked the question of myself, I knew the answer. When you combined how young I’d been at the time with the falling off the playset later that week, the memory just wasn’t clear. Racking my mind as I was, I couldn’t pull up the actual moment.

Hell, I hadn’t recognized him even faintly when I first saw Mori at school. Although, I suppose I hadn’t been paying much attention to other people in the last year. Perhaps if the contact had come at some other time I would have at least thought he looked familiar.

Even more now, I wondered how I was going to face him tomorrow.

______________________

For the second night in a row, I didn’t get much sleep.

“Nao-kun,” Ren whined when I dragged myself into the diningroom. “You know the worse thing about coming back here?”

I shot him a glare, which unsurprisingly, only encouraged him.

“The lack of appealing food. No candy. No coffee. N-”

A different, more welcome, whine cut him off and he paled.

“No, I take that back. The worse part about being here is that.”

I glanced at my feet and found Aki staring at me. Racking my mind, I cursed under my breath and gave him an apologetic smile.

“I’ll fill up your bowl when I get my bag, alright?” I informed him.

As if he’d slightly understood, Aki began wagging his tail.

“Could you please…”

I glanced back to Ren to find him staring in my direction, his lips twisted into a faint grimace. A soft chuckle left my lips despite my bad mood as I leaned down to pull Aki into my arms.  

“Hm? Did you say something, Kimura-san?”

“Nao-kun…”

“Still unwilling to admit you’re afraid of dogs?” I questioned. “Or that you had a date last night, which is why your face looks so nice today?”

“I am not afraid of dogs!” he hissed, completely ignoring the second part of my question.

“Really? Then would you like to hold Aki? He loves being pet.”

At the sight of Ren when I turned Aki to face him, Aki started growling. I couldn’t help but laugh harder than before, Ren’s face turning an even paler shade.

“N-no, I’d r-rather not.”

“He’s just a sweet little puppy! Honestly Kimura-san, he couldn’t hurt you,” I informed him, rolling my eyes, then paused, putting a thoughtful look on my face. “Well, I wouldn’t let him at least. He might get some sort of disease if he bit you.”

Ren snorted.

“Please. If anything he might like the taste so much that he’d want to bite me again. I’ve been told I’m rather tasty.”

I almost dropped Aki in surprise, shooting Ren a glare.

“I didn’t need to know that!”

He blinked, cocking his head and placing it on one of his hands.

“Know what? I was referring to my good looks. What were you thinking? Hm, Nao-kun?”

“Just shut up! Does your date know you flirt with other girls?”

Ren’s cocky smile disappeared in return for a scowl as he dropped his head down on the table. As Aki began to squirm, I bent down to let him go, eyes settled on the suddenly deactivated Ren.

“Of course she knows,” he grumbled. “Just like how I know she’s a violent brat.”

“So you admit there was a date?”

“Shouldn’t you be feeding the monster?” he retorted. “There’s not much longer left before we need to leave. You got up late.”

I blinked, glancing at the clock. Cursing my luck, I seized a fruit from the table and tore from the room, quickly eating it as I went. If I didn’t have time to sit down and eat, this would have to do.

When I rejoined Ren a short time later, he had his bag lazily draped over his shoulder and his hands shoved in his pockets. That cocky smile of his had returned and he’d even positioned himself where he was practically sitting on the table, seeing as it was too low for him to lean his back against.

“Hey, Nao-kun~” he whined. “Can we get coffee on the way? You have no idea how much I want coffee. It feels like I’m going to die if I don-”

‘I like canned coffee.’

I needed to apologize to Mori, but I wasn’t about to bring up the topic we’d been on last night in order to do it.

“Yeah, we’ll stop and get some.”

“Wait, really?”

_______________________________

“This is disgusting,” Ren complained for about the dozenth time as we entered the classroom. “Why this? Also, why’d you get one if you’re not going to drink it?”

“You wanted coffee, we got it, quit complaining.”

Dropping myself in my seat, I placed my bag on the floor next to it and the coffee can in the middle of my desk, my good hand clasped around it. After a moment I simply laid my chin on the desk in front of it, studying the coffee can as if it could give me all the answers.

“Aren’t you going to drink it? Or is it a present? To your date, right?”

“I’m drinking it,” I snapped without even looking up at him. From the sound of his voice he must have already sat down. I’m surprised he’d continued talking despite there being other people around to pick up on how rude he was.

“No, you’re staring at it. There’s a difference. You know, in order to drink things you have to open that little mouth-”

Firmly ignoring him, I popped open the can and hesitantly took a sip. Maybe that would shut him up. My lips pursed in disgust as the flavor hit my tongue.

Nope. Still hated it.

“Nao-chan’s drinking coffee?” a very familiar, and slightly welcome, voice asked.

Lifting my head and turning in my seat, I spotted Honey and Mori making their way to where we sat. Not bothering to hide my distaste, I held the can out in the air.

“No. I’m taste testing it. The discovery is that it’s disgusting. Takashi-kun, do you want it?”

He blinked, a slightly surprised expression slowly appearing. A second later he nodded and easily took it from my hand. His eyes didn’t leave me, causing me to drop mine to my desk. I wouldn’t say anymore than I had. Hopefully he understood this was my apology. A second later, I lifted my eyes back to where he was.

He must of, because a faint smile appeared on his face as he took his first sip of the drink.

Wait, he’s drinking after me?

I could feel my cheeks turn red as I quickly focused my attention on my hands where I’d clasped them together on top of my desk. Of course he was. How else was he supposed to drink it after I’d taken a sip? It’s not like we were kids, no need for me to be concerned about the matter. It wasn’t a big deal. There was no way I was concerned about that being an indirect kiss.

No, I wasn’t concerned in the least.

Despite that, was a feeling in the air between us as he took his seat next to me and I’m not quite sure how you’d describe it. Electric, perhaps? Maybe just awkward. It was a strange, unsettling feeling that even if I had been able to pull up enough energy to focus on the lecture once our teacher came in, I probably wouldn’t have been able to anyways. It was distracting.

Very much so.

At the same time, when I’d laid my head down to try and pull my mind from the matter, I found it even harder to keep from drifting off than it was to keep my mind from that feeling in the air. Two nights of practically no sleep did not do well for my ability to function.

Which is probably why I ended up falling asleep despite my best efforts.

“Nao-chan~”

“Goaway.”

“Nao-chan~ Someone is here to pick you up.”

“Shit, Otousan!”

Snapping up from my desk, I quickly scrambled to grab my bag. It took me a full second to realize that I’d attracted the attention of most of my class, my teacher in particular.

“Oh… uh… sorry. Someone came… right…”

“Just go, Morioka-chan. It’s not like you were paying attention anyway,” Sensei replied with a sigh.

“... sorry.”

“Bye Nao-chan~ Takashi said you’d be back later, so see you after school!”

I could faintly recall explaining the diner plans to Mori when we’d been heading for my house last night. I’d conveniently left out the fact that had skipped my mind until now. When I’d said my birthday was in a few days, I meant today. It as the whole reason that Uncle pushed back leaving for his business trip so he could have a meal with me before he left.

Oh well, it wasn’t really that important.

__________________________________

“You’re late.”

“Sorry,” I replied, slipping into the car next to Uncle.

Her pursed his lips, his hands tightening around some box in his lap, relaxing a second later. Then, without a word, he gestured to the driver that we were ready to go. I buckled and settled my bag in my lap as I watched him. Another uncharacteristic move, although it was similar to the uncle I’d known before the accident. The him I knew know should have lectured me about the importance of being on time, the him from before wouldn’t have had a slight amusement to his tone when he mentioned the fact I was late. This was something in between.

It was strange.

As was usual for us, the car ride was spent in silence. It was only after we arrived at a store and not a restaurant, that I realized he was dressed in a suit. Frowning, I leaned closer to my window to study the sign on the building.

“This is a clothing store,” I commented with a sigh.

It seemed that no matter the occasion or the day, he wouldn’t grow tired of treating me like a doll. Apparently my uniform wouldn’t be good enough for the restaurant he’d settled on.

“It is,” he replied as the driver opened up the door on his side. “Are you coming?”

Grumbling under my breath, although quietly enough that he wouldn’t hear me, nodded. Without another word, Uncle simply exited the car. A moment later the driver had stepped around to open my side as well.

“A dress for lunch?” I questioned as we walked towards the door.

He glanced at me, pursed his lips, then turned his eyes to the store once again.

“I’ve heard a rumor.”

The tone of his voice was even, but I froze none-the-less.

“A rumor?”

He nodded, drawing the door open and waiting for me to step through.

“About a certain dancer and how she’d registered for an upcoming competition.”

I could only stare at him.

“A dancer?”

“Must you repeat everything I say?” he asked, irritation forming in his voice. “I’m holding the door, I don’t want to stand here forever.”

Startled into action, I stepped inside. My eyes flickered back to him the moment I had, my heart beating so quickly that it might as well have burst from my chest at the rate it was going. He knew. There was no way that wasn’t what he was talking about.

Wait, why were we at a dress shop if this was the case?

“According to this rumor,” he continued a moment later as his eyes seemed to sweep over the store. “The girl used to be a very popular dancer, but she stopped after her parent’s death. Apparently, she had a large number of fans who were heartbroken when they found out. The news spread quite quickly when her name surfaced for this competition.”

“Otou-san…”

“Personally, I hate such events,” Uncle Harou continued, seeming not to hear me. He adjusted his glasses when he paused, stepping forward to catch the attention of one of the workers. “Ever since your mother died, I haven’t  been able to listen to music, let alone attend such a competition. However, I can’t help but think… if such a girl was so… distressed over quitting that she would be willing to go to such lengths, I don’t think I’d be able to hate her for it.”

The person whose attention he caught spun on heel at the sight of him, darting towards one of the doors at the back of the store.

“Even if she might have gone behind someone’s back in order to compete.”

He slid the box that he’d been playing with into his pocket as he finished speaking. Personally, I was speechless.

“Although, perhaps the dancer had no choice. There might have been something else involved, such as a loved one who couldn’t stand to attend such competitions anymore. In that case, I don’t think it’d be her fault for hiding it, do you?”

Not seeming to really want an answer, he started across the store as the worker reappeared, a more official person at their side. I couldn’t move where I stood, frozen from the shock of it all.

He isn’t upset?

He talked with the person for a moment, then shot an irritated glare in my direction.

“Nao, what are you doing over there?” he asked impatiently. “Get over here, now.”

Forcing myself to join him, I shook my head as an answer to myself. It was impossible that within such a short time, I had my old Uncle Harou back instead of the cold man I’d lived with for the past year. He might be acting like this now, but there would be hell to pay later.

“It’s this way,” the man he’d been talking to commented the moment I’d joined them. “If you’ll follow me.”

Not sure of what else to do, I trailed behind them as they walked into a back room. The second that I’d stepped inside and set my eyes on the dress that was obviously what we were walking back there for, I felt a sense of deja vu.

“Look, look!” I squealed, tugging on Uncle’s arm with both of mine. “Look!”

He laughed, gently pulling his arm away so that he could fix the arm of the suit.

“I see her, Nao.”

“No, you don’t,” I argued. “Look at how pretty she is!”

“She’s very pretty,” he agreed.

“You don’t get it.”

I stared at the woman standing on the other side of the studio lobby. There were dozens of reporters around her, but she didn’t seem to mind. Despite how many people were there, I could see her dance costume perfectly. The underneath was dark gray and clung tight to her body, like a swimsuit like style. Above it, though, was a see-through, lighter color that fell just above her knees and had a darker collar that circled around her neck. Her hair was piled on her head in an elegant, but messy bun made of perfectly styled curls.

She was beautiful. I couldn’t pull my eyes away, until a thought occurred to me and I dropped my eyes to my own, black leotard. Like her, I had a performance the next day, but there was no one standing around, taking pictures of me and wanting to hear what I had to say. A small frown appeared on my lips as I turned my eyes back to her, comparing us in my mind.

“Is something wrong?” Uncle asked.

I shook my head, grabbing his arm to tug him towards the classroom.

“She’s pretty, but I’ll be prettier when I’m old enough to wear that.”

He laughed once again, allowing me to pull him towards the room we’d rented for my practice.

“Of course,” he replied easily. “I wouldn’t expect anything else of my little girl.”

“I’m not your girl,” I retorted, but there was a smile on my face once again. “I’m Otou-san’s.”

“Yes, yes, I know.”

“It’s the dress…” I murmured, staring at it.

Uncle, he had to have known, but instead of replying he simply stepped forward to study the dress closer. After a moment he nodded, satisfied, and turned his attention to the worker.

“It’s perfect. I expect you’ll be able to preserve it, like this, and ship it to the address I gave you?”

He received an affirmative answer and turned his attention back to me. An expectant look appeared on his face as I forced myself out of the shock in order to offer him a smile. It was probably the first, real, smile I’d given him in a long time.

“I love it.”

“I expected as much.”

My smile faltered slightly then returned with a slightly wry edge. He might be slightly like the person in my memories, but he was different, too. I could understand the change, however, and somehow it seemed more bearable than before.

___________________________________

Lunch was surprisingly easy to handle. His gruff attitude continued, his temper slightly easier to hit a button on, although it just might have been from hidden embarrassment. I got the idea that his polite action with the dress was harder for him to make than it might appear. It meant admitting he’d been wrong about forcing me to quit dance. If there was any trait that Uncle and I shared, it was our stubborn pride. Apologizing, or admitting we might not have been right, it just wasn’t in our nature.

A bad trait, I knew, but one I was aware I held none-the-less. A prime example would be my inability to directly apologize to Mori for shutting the door in his face, but instead giving him the coffee.

My uncle’s coffee was the dress for the competition. A dress I’d dreamed of wearing when I was younger, a dream that I now realized hadn’t completely died, just been buried behind everything that had happened.

“Order whatever you want,” Uncle informed me after the dessert menu had been sat in front of us.

A faint smile appeared on my lips, I was fully aware that I would probably have a tougher training menu when he returned from his trip to make up for this little treat now. He’d already informed me that he’d made an appointment to have my cast removed within that time. Training would turn brutal now that I could completely participate in it.

Still, I’d take this chance while he offered it.

After I’d ordered dessert, that box seemed to suddenly reappear in his hands. The one I’d noticed earlier, a small thing wrapped in pristine white paper, which was still pristine despite how he’d been turning it over in his hands constantly whenever I saw him holding it. Within a moment he’d suddenly placed it on the table and pushed it forward. Surprised, I glanced to him in time to find my uncle with a firm scowl on his face.

“Happy birthday.”

I barely kept myself from laughing, knowing that would have irritated him. At the same time, confusion filled me.

“Happy birthday?” I echoed. “Aki and the dress… weren’t those my presents?”

“If you don’t want it,” he grumbled, reaching out to pick the box up again.

“No,” I interrupted, taking it before he could. “I do, I was just curious.”

Pulling the box closer, I easily slipped my finger underneath an untapped edge and pulled the wrapping away. Beneath it the box was black and obviously meant for jewelry. Once I’d flipped it open, I paused in surprise. There was a necklace sitting there, a heart locket to be exact, which I recognized instantly. My eyes shot up to my uncle as a lump seemed to form in my throat.

“This was…”

It was Mom’s. She’d barely ever taken it off. When she did, it was just to send it to the jewelers to have it cleaned and checked to make sure it was still in perfect shape. If it was here, then that must have been something that she’d done before the accident. Still… I should have seen it before now.

“I gave it to her,” he muttered and I looked up to see him studying his hands. “A long time ago, so when she died… well, the jeweler called about returning it, and I kept it despite everything.”

He paused, his hands clenching where he’d woven them together. If anything, that just made it harder to breathe.

Yes, I knew why he was so hard and why he’d changed so much. All of those rumors about before my parents had gotten together, they weren’t rumors. No one ever discussed it in our house, but it was obvious well enough and I’d managed to put together the details from little stories here and there. Before my parents had gotten married, my uncle had been engaged to my mother. An arranged deal, but something my uncle had agreed to happily. They were childhood friends and it was obvious to everyone they were a bit more than that.

During all of the preparations, however, my dad came back from studying overseas. It was the first time he and my mother had met in a very long time and it seemed that the meeting changed everything. The marriage was cancelled and a new one arranged in its place. My father was almost disowned, but it didn’t happen when my uncle called his parents a couple of fools, saying that his and my mother’s engagement had been arranged in the first place. He said that they got what they wanted, a marriage between the families, and that they should be happy enough with that. That he didn’t love her in the first place, so they might as well go with a marriage that would last and leave it there.

It would seem that even in the past my uncle was a man who would deny things that everyone else could see. As a kid I’d questioned it, why he seemed to be just as happy around my mother as my father did, but then would be sad when we’d turn away. Why he’d take me out places and we’d have so much fun, but then when we got back he’d turn slightly cold around my father. It was obvious when I grew old enough to understand. He’d loved her.

That’s why he couldn’t be around me, the person who was exactly like my mother. I could understand it, tolerate it even, but it’d been hard.

Yet here he was, with a necklace he’d given to her, probably when they were together if his behavior was any indication, and he was offering it to me.

Why?

Didn’t he hate me because of her? Because I was my father’s child, yet I was here when she wasn’t?

“Well,” he continued after a moment, clearing his throat. “It will look nice enough with that dress. I imagine that it will finish the outfit off quite nicely. A beautiful piece, really.”

I nodded, slowly shutting the box and holding it close. For the first time in a long time, I felt comfortable sitting near him. I didn’t feel guilty, or even irritated. None of those underlying feelings were getting in the way.

I just felt… happy.

“Thank-you.”

________________________

“Ooooh, Nao-chan! That’s so pretty,” Honey declared as I sat myself down at his table.

I blinked, raising a hand to the necklace. I knew it wasn’t school policy to allow such altercations to the uniform, but these were club hours afterall, I figured it wouldn’t matter.

“Thank-you,” I replied.

He nodded, happily taking another bite of his cake. It seemed that I hadn’t needed to hurry back to the club after my meeting, it was one of the days that they didn’t host guests- their planning day. At the same time, I had plans to go to Mori’s house after club hours to work on my dance, something that I now felt needed to be perfect. I couldn’t wear this necklace and that dress and not do it perfect. Therefore, it’d be worth it, waiting here for the hours to be over.

It’d also be worth dealing with how awkward the practice was bound to be.

“You look awfully happy, Nao-senpai,” one of the twins commented from across the way.

“Yeah, it’s weird,” the other added.

I scowled in their direction, twisting the heart in my hand. My attention was almost immediately stolen from them. I’d never been able to figure out what was inside the locket, only that whatever was there had been important to my mom. I was curious, but also wondered if looking in would be invading her privacy.

“Where’d you get that necklace, anyways?” the twins asked together.

Seemingly at least slightly interested in the conversation, Kyoya seemed to decide that he should inject his unwelcome opinion.

“Perhaps it was a birthday present?”

Everyone in the room seemed to freeze.

“What?”

“Birthday?”

“Wait, really?”

“That’s it!” Tamaki suddenly annouced, jumping to his feet. “We’ll have a bir-”

“Come on,” I cut in, quickly grabbing my things and stepping over to Mori. “Takashi-kun, I think he’s about to do something stupid, so why don’t we leave to get more practice time in?”

He seemed surprised, but Mori nodded anyways, and stood as well. Shocked by my reaction, I guess, Tamaki retreated to his corner as I followed Mori towards the door. The twins on the other hand stepped over by Honey, who’d turned to Kyoya after the annoucement. A suspicious group if I’d ever seen one.

“Are they dating?” I heard someone question from behind me.

My temper flared as we reached the door and I spun around, Mori holding it open so that it didn’t close on me.

“We’re not dating!”

Then, without waiting for a response, I turned once again and stepped outside of the door.

“Honestly. Why does everyone seem to think we’re dating?” I grumbled as it fell shut behind me

Mori shrugged then held out his hand expectantly. I frowned at it for a moment before sighing and shrugging my bag off my shoulder before placing the handle in his hand. Seemingly satisfied, he walked beside me as we started down the hall.

“Honestly…” I repeated despite myself.

It couldn’t be that obvious, could it, the feelings I’d begun to discover? If it was, then had Mori noticed? No, impossible. There had be another reason. Perhaps they knew how much the question irritated me and had just said it for that effect. That didn’t sound as impossible as the other.

“Is something wrong?” Mori asked quietly as we made our way out the front doors and towards his vehical.

I shook my head, my hand once again beginning to fiddle with my necklace.

“No. It’s nothing.”

A/N: Hope you all enjoyed this chapter! And just so you know, there's only about two/three, maaaybe four chapters left in this story! It's been really fun writing this with all the encouragement I've gotten from you all!

<3