Chapter 25: The Triple A (Apologies, Anger, and Acceptance)

(Third Person P.O.V.)

The boys (and Miyuki) stared through the doorway, shock stilling their bodies and numbing their senses. The inside of the house was a disaster. All the things that they had worked so hard to clean up were strewn across the floor. Luckily, Momo noticed with a sigh, nothing glass or irreplaceable had been thrown. Or not so lucky for the five people that had been in there with her, he thought after further examination.

After all, there was a knife in the doorway and one above a frozen Choutarou's head.

It looked like some of the pillows had been ripped apart due to the fluff and feathers that were stuck to the carpet. In fact, some of the feathers were still floating gently towards the ground, almost lazily, as if they wanted to stay floating longer.

The most damage caused however, was caused by the three potted plants that had been on the table along the staircase. One of them had been smashed directly onto the floor below the table it had only recently rested upon. The second looked to have been thrown across the room, narrowly missing the entrance into the kitchen, and crashing against the wall just to the left of the archway. Some of the soil was still sticking to the wall and small bits of plaster had fallen onto the floor. The third however, caused the most damage, as it had managed to collide with a mirror that was in the foyer, shattering it in a way that caused cracks to make their way towards the frame in a pattern reminiscent of a spiderweb.

All in all, it looked like someone had either: A) Had a mental breakdown, B) been attacked, or C) all of the above.

If they were going to be completely honest, it seemed more like option "A" to all the bystanders staring in shock.

Well, if the crying form of Kiseki huddled in the middle of the hallway was anything to go by.

Her hair was mussed, and her eyes were red rimmed from crying. Tears were still trickling down her face slowly, leaving trails of saline water behind. Kiseki's fists were clenched tightly to Sanada's shirt and her knuckles were white from the force of her grip. She sniffled and slowly unclenched one hand every so often to wipe away her tears stubbornly.

Sanada on the other hand was staring down at her with the most perplexed and...soft, look anyone had ever seen him give another. His hand rubbed her back ever so slowly in a consoling manner.

All in all, every one staring at the scene felt like they were intruding on something much more loving, more intimate, than anything they had ever seen.

And, despite the intimacy, questions needed to be answered. For some reason, almost every last person standing in that doorway felt like they needed to know what had happened.

Miyuki, being the brave soul she is, decided to "man up" and ask the question.

"Hey," she ventured softly, her voice breaking through the silence, "what happened here?"

Sanada gave her a sideways glance before ignoring her completely, choosing to continue to console the still weeping Kiseki with murmurs of niceties and calming words. The four from Hyotei, on the other hand, chose to walk as quietly to the door as they could, almost as if to preserve the image in front of them. Once Oshitari, who had been the farthest away, had made it over to them, he ushered them out onto the porch, so that they could still see into the house but wouldn't be heard as much.

Everyone glanced at the four who had been there to witness the breakdown, wondering who would finally explain what had happened.

It seemed like hours, when it was really a few minutes, before Shishido gave a shuddering sigh, his left hand raking through his hair that was for once, not covered by his blue hat.

"Yeah, about that..." he trailed off, clearly uncomfortable before continuing on, voice faltering ever so slightly, "It happened about ten minutes after you all left. You guys were gone for a while and it gave her a lot of time to well, blow off some steam."

"Some?" questioned Momo, "The house is in worse shape than when we were all fucking around. How is that "some" steam?"

Oshitari answered this time.

"It could have been a lot worse. She was restraining herself."

"Why don't you just tell us what happened, and maybe what lead up to it or caused it. I think we could all use some enlightenment," came the ever authoritative and stoic voice of Tezuka. However, whether or not his voice held an underlying tone of worry and guilt was something that would either be forgotten later, or wondered about in silence.

Choutarou stepped forward, his height making him look slightly intimidating considering his expression was of the upmost seriousness.

"Fine. I'll tell you. It started..."

~Flashback~

(Third Person P.O.V.)

Things were fine for the first half hour. Kiseki busied herself around the house, cleaning things up and doing menial chores like dusting and the dishes. Sanada and the four boys from Hyotei watched her work noticing almost immediately that her movements were distinctly…mechanical. However, as she cleaned a table containing five photos, her hands slowly came to a stop, placing the rag upon the gleaming wood surface. Her fingers slowly came up to rest upon the frame in the center, tracing the faces staring brightly back at her.

The picture itself was taken a week before, before the date and the disaster she had come home to, and before the Hyotei students had joined their misfit group. Fuji had set the camera she had gotten him on timer and had rushed back to the group of Seigaku and Rikaidai students that through strange circumstances had banded together and got along.

They were all in variations of jeans and t-shirts. Kiseki was standing in the middle with Sanada next to, and slightly behind, her to the right with Niou in the opposite spot to the left. They both had a hand on her shoulder and while Niou was staring ahead at the camera with a mischievous smirk, Sanada was gazing down at Kiseki with something akin to confusion. Kiseki was looking back up at him with a bright smile, purple eyes seeming all the brighter in her joy.

Next to Niou was Akaya who was mussing up Ryoma's hair with a cheesy smile on his face, eyes nearly closed with how big his smile was. Ryoma was looking up at him pouting but if you really looked you could see the tiny spark of joy in his eyes. On Sanada's right was Tezuka who was staring at the camera as stoically as ever with a beaming Fuji leaning onto his arm. Eiji and Marui where on the far right of the picture beaming widely at the camera, bright hair shining in the sun, and arms wrapped around each other's shoulders. And surprisingly, on the far left Momo and Kaidoh weren't fighting, but rather glancing at each other from the corner of their eyes, their shoulders touching in a friendly, non-aggressive gesture.

Kiseki stared at the picture for quite a while, her hands shaking and small blips being heard in the silence as tears started to fall and hit the glass.

Sanada stared at Kiseki's shaking shoulders before moving forward to comfort her when all of a sudden she yelled out, thrusting the glass against the ground, shards flying through the air.

Her hands were shaking and she grasped at anything within her range to throw, the three potted plants on the table in the foyer being the first to feel her wrath. The boys cringed, edging around the corners and out of sight as Kiseki started to destroy things. It wasn't until Choutarou noticed the steadily growing red spot below Kiseki that he tried to intervene. However, by stepping around the wall in an act of caring and bravery nearly killed him. How you may ask?

The knife lodged neatly above his head being proof enough.

Oshitari, Shishido, Jirou, and Sanada froze, all staring with incredulity at the knife before Sanada rushed forward and grabbed Kiseki's arms, pulling her into his chest. She dropped the picture she had been preparing to throw, the very same that had started this rampage, before sobbing openly into Sanada's chest.

Her words came out broken as she forced them out through her choking sobs.

"G-geni it's, it's just, why can't they see h-how hard I'm, I mean I-I'm trying s-so hard to h-help them a-and th-en they ju-just ask for more. I can't be a s-super hero. I can't fix e-everyth-thing. Why? W-why can't they see that? I'm tryin' to help but th-they need to help m-me too!"

And then after she had uttered he initial speech, that everyone present heard, Sanada went down onto his knees, bringing her with him as her words became more slurred and incomprehensible.

The boys all stared at her softly, suddenly understanding where all of her frustrations had come from. Of course she was stressed. She was younger than most of them and yet she was taking care of all of them, making sure that they got a good education and had a comfortable place to stay. But they just continued to make problems for her, be it almost getting her killed or trashing her house, they hadn't really done anything to help.

They sat like that, Sanada comforting Kiseki in his silent-affectionate way and the others stared on, unsure whether or not to step forward and offer comfort of their own.

However, they had no time to do so as the door swung open to reveal the shocked and stunned-to-silence teens in the doorway.

~End Flashback~

Everyone of the boys and Miyuki stared at the now closed door in silent contemplation. Had they really been that awful to Kiseki? After she had been so amazing for them?

They all felt awful, staring down at their shoes or the surrounding area in shame before Akaya stepped forward and put his hand on the doorknob.

The door swung open silently and Akaya walked into the room only to drop down on his knees beside Kiseki and Sanada to envelope her in a hug of his own. He murmured silently into her ear how sorry he was before she finally hugged him back. That one act by Akaya, for this was completely out of character for him (despite all the ways Kiseki had changed them already), led the others to slowly trickle in through the door.

The all sat down or kneeled near Kiseki offering words of apology and remorse and she stared around her (for she had gone back to sitting with Sanada after Akaya) at all the sorrowful faces. Did they really care about her so much to throw away all of their pride, the pride that they based pretty much everything off of? Hell even Tezuka, with all of his stoicness was sitting down a few feet away, his gaze staring at the wood floor, eyes reflecting sadness.

Kiseki stared around her, astonished and proud that they had come this far and liked her this much, before smiling softly and gesturing for them to hug her.

Of course with fifteen people, the hug ended up much like a mountain of limbs and laughs.

Eiji launched himself at her before everyone else went and tackled her with joy and laughter. Tezuka and Sanada of course found a way to avoid such a thing, though they were smiling minutely.

Echizen looked disgruntled at being squished between Momo, Niou, and Kiseki but his eyes were shining.

After the heartfelt apologies (as heartfelt as you can get from fourteen prideful, male teenagers anyway) Kiseki started to speak.

"I'm so glad you guys are sorry and I forgive you, but things are going to be a bit different around here now. I'm going to start setting up schedules and such for chores and shopping. Plus I need your cooperation for when I send you guys to school. Also please help Choutarou, Ryou, Yuushi, and Jirou adjust to how things go around here. I hate yelling at you guys but I have been doing everything on my own and I'm going to start needing help. Plus, if I ask for private time, I want private time, which means no stalking me. We all saw how well that worked last time."

The boys all nodded.

"Great, now things should move much smoother around here. Now please help me clean up. I know I made the mess bu-"

However, Kiseki didn't even finish because they were already cleaning and Miyuki was dancing around the debris acting as "supervisor" for the boys and telling them what to clean up.

Kiseki smiled a small smile, knowing that everything would be much better in the weeks to come, and leaned back against Sanada, who wrapped his arms around his shoulders and pulled her closer.

'Yes,' Kiseki thought,'Things are going to be much better now.'

And that is the end of this chapter. I feel horrible for the long wait and I hope the chapter is up to par with what you guys wanted/expected. I'm wondering whether or not the next chapter should be about an average day for the boys in school or if I should do something else. I'd like your input, please and thank you!

Forever Apologetic,

Naomi