Chapter 11 -- In the Pages of Life

Misaki awoke almost six hours later, slowly opening her eyes, wondering what had woken her. She sat up in the chair to see Oujirou watching her with a kind expression on his face. He still looked spent and pale, but even so, some color had seemed to return to his face. His blue eyes were not to their usual sparkling beauty either, but he was alive and awake and that's all that mattered. He studied her with his eyes for a moment with a slight questioning look. Misaki immediately launched into an explanation.

"Oujirou, you're at the—"

Oujirou gently reached a hand over, putting a finger to her lips to silence her, "Its okay, I remember. I know where I am and what happened. You don't have to explain." He flinched at the pain as he withdrew his hand to lay in next to his side again.

"Oh…" Misaki fell silent and took to just watching him. The awkward silence continued between them as Oujirou stared up at the ceiling and Misaki watched him, not knowing what to say.

"I…meant to thank you…" Misaki started, causing Oujirou to look at her and wait for her to finish. "If it weren't for you pushing me to the floor, I would have taken that bullet…not you. I also wanted to say that I'm sorry…I was only worrying about myself. I never once thought about if you had gotten hurt…" Misaki twisted her hands in her lap and looked at them guiltily.

Oujirou watched Misaki, now looking straight at her, "That's not true. You did think about me, but even if you hadn't…I wouldn't be able to blame you. All any of us wanted was to stay alive. It was a matter of survival...none of us thought about anyone other than ourselves."

Misaki looked up, "But you threw me to the ground and made sure nothing hurt me…"

Oujirou looked away from her, "If you remember…you were in my arms at the time. I couldn't move until you had. But I'm glad that I at least had that much sense."

Misaki caught his eye, her confused expression explained all too well everything she was feeling. She didn't know what to say. Oujirou stared back at her and another awkward silence came between them.

Suddenly someone called rather loudly into the room, making them both turn their attention to the door, "MISAKICHI!"

Tamayo had arrived with Kotarou just behind her.

"We heard what happened. I told you being a celebrity would be rough!" She waged her finger at Misaki. Misaki smiled, knowing full well that Kotarou had a look on his face that was apologizing for everything Tamayo was saying, and that Tamayo was acting hyper to lift the mood, just as she always did. Oujirou smiled too, a bit of his sparkling quality returning to him. Tamayo stepped forward and gave a huge vase full of flowers to Misaki.

"You forgot these at home. Your aunt told me to give it to you as soon as I got here, when I went by your house this morning."

Misaki frowned at her cluelessly, knowing full well that she hadn't gotten Oujirou flowers of any kind. It even felt a little odd to think of giving a guy flowers, but still…since Tamayo seemed to have went to the trouble of getting them, she thought that she might as well use them for their purpose.

"Oh yeah…thanks, Tamayo."

They were dark blue, and to Misaki, they smelled very sweet. Oujirou just smiled very calmly as Misaki placed them on his nightstand.

"So you were shot?" Kotarou finally said.

Oujirou looked at him quite seriously now, "Yeah."

"Was it bad…well, you know…like, really painful?"

"Honestly, yes…it did hurt pretty bad," Oujirou said truthfully.

Tamayo looked between the two young men, "Okay! Well, we just wanted to see how you two were doing. We really need to be going. Bye Misakichi!" She grabbed Kotarou's arm and dragged him out of the room with her.

"Bye!" Misaki called after them.

Once again, Oujirou and Misaki were surrounded by an awkward silence. It was Oujirou, however, who broke the silence this time.

"Misaki…I probably don't tell you this enough…but…you mean a lot to me."

Misaki settled her eyes on him, not really understanding what he was trying to say to her. Oujirou was looking into her eyes.

"You mean a lot to me too, Oujirou…" Misaki looked at him, still confused.

"I know…but what I meant to say is that—well—when I first met you, I would have never dreamed that I could love someone the way I love you…and I…I just want you to know that."

Misaki frowned, "Oujirou…I know you love me…and I love you too…but I still don't understand why you're telling me this."

Oujirou reached up with his hand and put it behind her neck, looking into her eyes. Misaki's confusion had reached its peak as he—

—A twenty-three year-old Misaki looked at the computer screen, staring at the words she had just typed. Oujirou gently put his arms around her from where he was standing behind her and kissed her cheek, "Honey, its late…come to bed."

"Just a minute…I'm almost done…"

Oujirou kissed her again, "Please, Honey."

"Just a minute," Misaki laughed lightly at his playful pushiness.

"Chisato missed your bedtime story tonight," Oujirou said, still not giving up.

"Did you tell her that mommy was writing down another story? And that daddy would be coming up with the story tonight?"

Oujirou kissed her on the cheek again, "Yes, but that four year-old daughter of yours is just as stubborn as you are."

Misaki sighed, taking her finger off the keys, "Okay, you win. I'll be right up."

Oujirou kissed her one last time, "Okay, I'll be waiting." With that he left the room.

"Now where was I?" Misaki stared at the screen again rereading the last sentence, "Oh yes."

—Misaki's confusion reached its peak as he leaned forward and kissed her. And somehow she knew, at that moment, that they were destined to be together.

"There, done." The twenty-three year-old Misaki got out of her chair and slowly made her way to her bedroom, where she knew Oujirou would be waiting for her, closing the door to her study where the words of the story were still on the screen.

The End