Hey guys... It's been a while, so I figured I wanted to write a little something. I am updating TFPD, but because it's a slow process, I figured a one-shot would be good too...

So to elaborate, this was actually an idea I had in my head after the Goddess Arc was over and Keima x Chihiro was a distant dream... I figured Chihiro and Keima would meet some day in the distant future (or 4 years, in this case) and slowly but surely fall back in love... It turned out to be less of a comedy than I'd hoped, but what the hey... I liked this.

Of course, I also came up with the trains thing long before Kaminomi on the Train came out, so just so you know...

Enjoy... I was up all day writing this.

"The doors are now closing. Please be careful," Chihiro sighed in relief, thanking the Gods that I wasn't one of the days she was late. Instead, now she could just watch the poor shmuck that had been running and barely scraped it into the train, and was panting heavily.

It wasn't rush hour, so Chihiro could extend a little kindness. She fished a water bottle out of her bag and dangled it in front of the barely standing guy.

"Here… there's a free seat here as well," the guy nodded in gratitude and half-crawled to the seat she'd pointed at.

Honestly, Chihiro knew that feeling a little too well, considering she encountered it at least once a month since she started university… considering she'd been studying for three odd years, you think she would have learned by now.

Well, whatever… she had bigger fish to fry than her perpetual lateness… she still had that midterm in a week that she'd barely revised for.

The shmuck had finally settled down in his seat after rehydrating.

"Aren't you going to sit?"

"Nah, I'm good…" she bit her tongue, angry at herself… She's a lady now… even in casual conversation, she should stop with her casual language.

"I mean, no thanks. I study better while standing…"

Yeah, she should go read over her scribbles and hope that herself in the past actually wrote something worthwhile.

"Really… you hate studying, standing or otherwise…"

Maybe it was the train jolting into motion, or maybe it was the familiarity of that tone, but Chihiro's stomach jumped. Her eyes that had been watching her bag, slowly drifted up.

There, on the seat five feet away, sat Keima Katsuragi, a face she had neither expected, nor wanted, to see. Chihiro just stared without saying anything.

"Hi Chihiro…" he smiled. Her stomach clenched at that somewhat familiar sight.

"Katsuragi…" she murmured, noting his slightly grown appearance… at least considering when she last saw him. He had grown some stubble, and his face was more angular from before. However, his hair was still as messy as before and he still had the same rectangular glasses he wore in high school.

At that time, Chihiro had memorised his features in a love-driven haze, and since then, her brain thanked her by bringing up that picture whenever there was any guy she was mildly interested in… it made sense for her… he'd hurt her badly enough that any kind of commitment scared her.

And once again, he was back, his chocolate eyes as focused as ever... except now, it was on her.

"Don't you have some game to play?" she asked, more harshly than she wanted… She truly had forgiven him for what had happened at the festival… still, why now?

Chihiro clearly wasn't adult enough to deal with this.

"You want me to play games now!?" he asked incredulously, "I thought you'd be happy to reconnect with an old classmate."

Chihiro shot him a look. Both of them knew that 'classmate' was the last word she'd use to describe him.

To put it simply, they had been in the same class in the second year of high school. He sat diagonally from her, so she'd always grab a peek of his nerdy games…

However, she also got peeks at other things he did… like standing up to teachers about said games… or effortlessly acing whatever was put in front of him… or that goofy smile he got when he reached the climax of a really good game. It wasn't much of a surprise she fell in love with him…

It took a lot within her to admit it, because he was a Class A nerd, and falling for someone like him would ruin her reputation. However, at one point, when he was finally starting to show some interest back, she went for it and asked him out, throwing all caution to the wind.

The date had gone extremely well, and she could just feel herself falling more and more. So she did it… she showed him exactly how she felt. Reality slapped her in the face then, and killed all the hope that she had in her heart: Some guy who played games all the time would never like any girl outside of them…

As it turned out, there was a lot more in the story… one night later, she was running around town with some girl who had some freaky gadgets like glowing walkie talkies that could connect to little ear pieces and invisibility cloaks that completely fit her form. Then, she summoned a scythe out of nowhere and battled some similarly weird sadist girl…

And what were they doing around town? Chasing Katsuragi, who was trying to get her best friend, Ayumi, to fall in love with him, as that was some necessary plan to save the world.

Needless to say, Chihiro didn't understand it much either. She was just some poor outsider who got dragged into it. Katsuragi, on the other hand, was slap bang centre in that insanity. It was probably best that he had rejected her…

Yeah… Chihiro was best left out from that supernatural fold… however, that had been the most exciting evening in her mundane life…

True, lots of time had passed since then… she'd passed high school, gotten into University and basically had gotten on with her life. She knew it was a fat chance that she'd forget him, but still… she thought that chapter of her life was over and closed, even though most of the questions still hadn't been answered.

"You really don't want to talk, do you?" a hurt look crossed the man's face. Chihiro snapped out of it.

"It's not that," Chihiro flattened her skirt nervously, "I was just thinking…"

"About before…" a sombre look came to his face as he took a sip from the bottle. Chihiro, who was looking at him fully, quickly averted her eyes.

It was stupid for a 21 year old woman worrying about indirect kisses. She'd kissed Katsuragi already, dammit!

"You alright?" she noticed the worried edge behind his voice, and distracted him the way she always used to do.

"Can't you play some games already!?" The train, which was already silent enough, looked up at her outburst. She waited till the attention had calmed down a bit before walking to the other side of the carriage and taking a seat there, obviously avoiding everyone's eyes.

Chihiro was horribly embarrassed at herself… he was just a guy… she knew a lot of guys, some who were cooler and smarter than him… why is it just him? Wasn't she over him by now?

Yeah, of course she was! He'd trashed her heart in the worst way possible, which just made her even more cautious towards other guys, because she wasn't able to open up like how she did back then…

Yeah… plus he could still be gathering powers like the one Ayumi had… that's extra reason to not want to be with him.

But as she glanced up towards him, her heart kept beating against her chest… she really did miss him over the last four years. They were kind of antagonistic towards each other in class, but they were friends… kind of…

And damn, that stubble actually suits him!

Chihiro shook her head angrily. This is what got her into that situation in the first place. Regardless of whether she wanted his company or not, she wouldn't give in.

"Nee-san," a paper dropped on her lap. She looked up to see a young girl, all pig-tailed up and in a cute pink dress to match, "that Nii-san asked me to give this to you."

Chihiro didn't even need to look to guess who 'Nii-san' was. In any case, she understood how desperate Keima must have been to resort to have a carrier-child take a message to her. She opened it.

"About that time… I really am sorry. I'll explain what happened if you'd talk to me…"

That completely tore Chihiro… on one side, that one chapter could get completely resolved… though on the other side, she wasn't sure if she wanted all those questions answered… and if she went back, she'd have to go back to that said chapter…

"Nii-san didn't say it, but I think he really misses you…" the girl smiled adorably, showing a missing canine. That hit the limit with Chihiro…

Cute cats and cute girls… She would do anything for them.

"Alright, I'll go talk to him," the girl's already shiny eyes got brighter as she sped off back. Chihiro didn't allow herself to reconsider. She just walk back to the hanging strap which she had previously been standing by, looking sheepish.

"You came back…" Keima said hopefully. The tone was not lost on Chihiro.

"Well, I couldn't say no to her…" she nodded to the girl, who was unashamedly watching them from a few seats away, "though mostly, I was a little curious myself…"

"I guess that's to be expected… I think it may be a bit too heavy, considering it's only been ten minutes since I got here…"

The train jostled, and Chihiro had to squeeze the hanging strap to stop herself from falling.

"Alright…" she muttered, after steadying herself, "Did you know I was going to be here now?"

He shook his head.

"Only after you gave me the bottle did I realise that… Elsie did mention you studied around here, though…"

"Ah, I haven't seen her in a while. How is Ellie?"

"She's pretty good… her cooking has gotten better…"

"Oh, so it doesn't move anymore!?" Keima nodded again.

A wave of nostalgia hit Chihiro… She'd actually forgotten how easily they could talk when she wasn't being needlessly pissy or just trying her hardest to not show her feelings on her face. She used to enjoy it a lot…

"Well, I may have Ellie cook for me sometimes…" she muttered, her eyes glancing back on that little girl, who was still hanging on their every word.

That kind of made it harder to talk about anything supernatural… or anything, for that matter. In any case, it was probably be better to keep to the casual kind of talk.

"So… are you working or studying?" Chihiro asked.

"Being a NEET…" he replied, his face as clear as day. Chihiro snorted.

"That sounds so much like you, it's not even funny…" he shrugged.

"Actually, I'm more of a freelance writer… I just work from home," Chihiro nodded. That was like him… both the deadpan execution and the job.

"So what do you write?"

"Game scenarios… "

Chihiro groaned at how she didn't guess that. Dude is married to his games… now he can be married to the job about games.

"Also, I act as a beta tester for certain companies…"

"You really could not have chosen a career more suitable for you, could you, Otamega?"

Chihiro laughed internally. It had been a long time since she'd used that nickname.

"So what about you? Are you studying or working?" he gestured at the blouse and knee-length skirt she was wearing, "Looks more like working…"

She laughed.

"Studying… Bachelors of Commerce, actually…"

"What, you're going to sit in a stuffy office all day?"

"Eh, I had no better ideas, and my marks were decent enough for it, so why not?"

Keima looked at his watch.

"I didn't ask, but when is your stop?"

"Oh… the next one… in about 20 minutes…" Chihiro replied distractedly…

Not that she'd admit it to him, but twenty minutes really didn't seem like anything at all. Just even thinking about it made her miss him already.

"Right…" he replied quietly, "I guess I should talk about the elephant in the room, huh?"

"Yeah…" Chihiro replied in the same subdued tone, "but that girl keeps trying to listen in as well…"

"No I'm not!" came a loud scream a few feet away. Both of them looked at the pint-sized interruption and laughed.

"You know what… I'll tell you the story of the elephant… you should probably sit down for this." Chihiro looked around, but it was an improbability, considering the seating was very close to the door.

"I can't really… I'll just stand…"

"To-chan!" the little girl loudly interrupted, despite her conversation being directed to the middle-aged man in the next seat from both Keimai and her, "can we swap seats?"

"But Erika, don't you want to sit next to To-chan and Ka-chan?"

"Nooooooo! I want to hear the story of the elephants!" Both Chihiro and Keima rolled their eyes at that… The girl was really making no effort to disguise her eavesdropping.

It was an inevitability that the girl would win, so they waited the two minutes till she was seated. However, what neither of them expected was for Erika to stand up.

"You should sit down, Nee-san…" Chihiro was touched, but obviously hesitant to take a seat from a four year old girl.

"But then where will you sit?" the girl smiled mischievously.

"I have an idea… now please sit…"

So she did it… then, Erika jumped on her lap. Erika's father gave a grunt of protest, but Chihiro motioned that it was alright.

"Now, please continue, Nii-san…" the pint-size girl, who Chihiro was just itching to hug, made herself comfortable on the latter's lap. Keima sent Chihiro a look.

"Yes, please continue, Kami-nii-sama…" Keima rolled his eyes at the nickname.

"Well… basically, there was a boy elephant named Kei, who was strong and smart, but had no friends… he had a Fairy God Mother, who would give him great things when he gave her these magic beans. You see, in this world, magic beans are amazingly powerful…"

"So he must have found lots of magic beans…"

"He did! Kei was the best-spoken elephant in the world… It was useful, because these beans were given to different girl elephants throughout the country, so if he could convince every elephant to give their bean to him, he could collect as many beans as he wanted, and he would get as many great things as he collected the beans…"

Erika jumped excitedly in Chihiro's lap at the thought of magic beans and elephants, but the latter was more conflicted… were the' beans' the Goddesses that Katsuragi had spent the night chasing after? And other than Katsuragi being the protagonist, who were the rest of this elephant cast? And Erika's hair is damn tickly!

"Kei was very happy with his many great things, until one day, his Fairy God Mother told him that the world was going to end…"

"Nooo!" Erika squirmed, now frightened.

"Yes… If Kei ever wanted his ordinary life with his great things, he'd have to fight the bad guys who were trying to kill all the Elephants… And do you know what he needed!?"

"Magic beans!"

"Exactly! They were these special kind of magic beans… they were so rare that only six of those beans exist…"

"Ooooooohhh! Did Kei find them and win?"

"Well… Kei did find them eventually… it was just very difficult for him…"

"So where were they?" both Chihiro and Erika asked simultaneously…

"You see… The new kind of magic beans were special, because they always made friends with the other magic beans… In fact, the new magic beans were with the same girl elephants that had them before…"

"All of them?" Erika cocked her head, which sent her pigtails straight across Chihiro's face.

"Not all… there were only six new magic beans, so only six of the girl elephants could have them…"

"So what happened to the other girl elephants that had only one magic bean?"

"Simple… Kei didn't become friends with them… The magic beans made the elephants want to be friends with Kei, so without that, they couldn't be…" a sad look appeared on Keima's face, which only piqued Chihiro's interest… The climax was coming.

"You see… Kei discovered that the beans… the new beans, I mean… were given to elephants that he was really close to. Kei obviously knew which elephants he was close friends with, so he found the first five beans easily…"

"Wha-what about the last bean?"

"It gave Kei a lot of trouble, because Kei had two girl best friends… both of them had given him a magic bean in the first place, but only one of them could have the new magic bean… and Kei learnt a valuable lesson from that…"

"What was it?" Chihiro could feel her chest clench…

"Just because it's the easier route doesn't make it right…" he sighed.

"Did he choose the wrong elephant to ask?"

"Yes… girl elephants don't like it if you ask for magic beans, especially if they don't have any…"

"Why did he ask her then?" Chihiro asked pointedly. Finally, by this point, the story was starting to sound a bit familiar…

"Because…" Keima leant forward so he could watch his sneakers, "Kei… he just wished that his best friend would have the bean… "

For a moment, neither adults could say anything, with their own head dredging in memories… Keima got a grip first, once Erika started poking him to continue…

"You see… Kei held a 'best friend' ceremony with the girl elephant, hoping that she would give him the magic bean… when he discovered that she wasn't controlled by the magic bean to become close to him, he knew that saving the world was more important… That is why he told her he didn't want to be friends…"

"No…" Erika started tearing up, mimicking the same feeling that slowly stabbing into Chihiro's heart, "No! Why did he do that!?"

"Well… Kei had to save the world… He had never had friends before, and he didn't need them now… in the end, he went to find the other girl elephant and finally get the magic bean from her…"

"Ke-kei is the worst!" Erika punched her thighs angrily, while tears spilled down her cheeks, "Why couldn't Kei see that the first girl elephant was his one real friend…"

"Kei was the worst… that's why he didn't deserve that friend… instead, he found the last bean and saved the world, so he could get back to his great things… Now that he had it, he just wasn't happy… For all time he had been making friends… now that he'd lost them all, he just couldn't be happy…"

Erika sniffled.

"Did Kei make up with his friends?" Keima shook his head sadly.

"No… he moved to a new country, but after the pain he had inflicted on his friends before, he decided to never make friends again…"

By this point, both of Erika's parents were listening into the story. As adults themselves, they could pretty much tell it wasn't a story…

"Erika… it's just a story, so you don't have to cry… let's go wash your face…" Erika's mother lifted the crying child off to the toilet, and the father obediently followed. Once the three of them were out of earshot, Chihiro spoke up.

"So is that what happened?" a poker-faced Chihiro asked quietly.

"Yeah… Keima discovered too late what Chihiro meant to him, and by that point, the bonds between them were so broken that they were impossible to fix, so he just left them…"

"You… are in idiot, you know!?" Chihiro had her own hands in fists, "why didn't you tell me about that whole 'new jelly bean' thing!?"

"It was a magical bean…" he said weakly, which only fuelled Chihiro's anger.

"I'll call it whatever I damn want!"

Also, she'd never admit that her anger sparked her appetite too.

"And even if you couldn't tell me about it, why couldn't you ask me to wait!? Or why didn't you break up with me any other way!?"

"Vintage was after me… I was trying to protect you!"

"Protect me!?" Chihiro stood up, the first of her angry tears brimming in her eyes, "You f#$%#* broke me!"

The carriage fell completely silent, but politeness was not something Chihiro was aiming for today. She calmed down enough that she wasn't screaming anymore.

"You know, it's been four years since then, and I have yet to have any kind of meaningful relationship, because I'm too scared that it'll hurt me again…"

"I'm sorry! At the time, it felt like the best solution…"

"You know what… maybe it was for the best…"

"The doors will now be opening on the right… please be careful…"

Chihiro sighed, the tears rolled down as she blinked.

"You know what… thanks, Otamega! I'm glad I took my pick back…"

And before he could say anything, she stepped out of his life once again. Keima was too mad to care though…

Who the hell did she think she was!? That breakup hurt him equally as hard. He acknowledged it had been a bad choice as well. Couldn't she just accept his apology and they'd start over?

"Whe-where did Nee-san go?" Erika came running up to him.

"She left already…" he replied grumpily, pulling out his PFP from his bag.

"Why aren't you following her!?"

"The same reason I didn't follow her last time…" Besides, he was getting off in about two stations. Why would he follow that unreasonable woman? She may have gotten more mature looking from high school, but she was still annoying and unpredictable.

"You know… do you know how old I am?" Erika asked… When Keima shook his head, she held up four fingers.

"And do you know when my birthday is?" he shook his head again…

"The fifth of November…" Keima's eyes widened… he remembered that date.

"So you remember that is the day that Kei told Chi, the girl elephant, that he didn't want to be friends with her?"

"Ye-yeah… but how do you know that?"

"I just do… besides, girls are smarter than boys, which is why they always win…"

Outside, Chihiro was having second thoughts about running away… true, it was her stop and she hadn't forgotten anything… just, there was no way it should end like this…

After that date, Chihiro had promised she'd never let anyone break her heart, and the irony was is that someone did… and it was the same person as before…

It was her…

Last time made sense… she was seventeen, and in love for the first time… she didn't want him to see her break down from within…

But this time… they weren't even dating… she wasn't even in love with him…

No… she wasn't… He should have just acknowledged it was his mistake and apologized for what it had done to her…

Still, she was running back to the station, where the train was leaving…

"Take some responsibility, damn you!" she screamed at the train, before she toppled down to her knees, "Damn you!"

And for once, she wasn't sure who she was cursing at… herself or him…

A half-full bottle appeared in her vision, dangling in front of her face. Her puffy eyes drifted to the side, where Keima was waiting.

"I will…" he promised, "take responsibility, I mean…"

She stood up and snatched the bottle, seeing that it was hers, and washed down her parched throat…

"Don't scare me like that, you jerk! You could've waiting in sight…"

"I know I could have… I was wondering if you'd come back…" Chihiro closed the bottle angrily.

"I did come… I wanted my bottle back…" She wanted to walk of angrily, but the jerk had grown two inches since school and was easily keeping in step…

"You're not honest at all, huh, Chihiro," he held an arm out to get her to stop. Chihiro admitted defeat on that, her eyes dripping frustrated tears.

"You just make it difficult!"

"You're in luck then… I've known from the start that you were difficult, and that makes it all the more interesting…"

"So what, you going to confess or something!?"

"Nope!" he smiled, despite his words, "we both have a bit more growing up to do, so that can wait… however, this will suffice for now…"

And he stole the bottle back from her, taking a good swig, while Chihiro's face climbed up a few shades on the redness scale.

Romantic... pretty much...

In character... I hope so...

Fluff... no way in Hell!

What the hell... when I started this, it was going to be fluff... Apparently everything with Chihiro has to be deep and kind of depressing...

I dunno... this chapter both reminds me how much I like the pairing and how much I worry of it working... both of them are pride-filled (though Keima moreso) and suck with being honest (though Chihiro moreso) Not to say either of them are unsuited, but I see a lot of headbutting, both or love and of wanting to kill each other...

Well, in any case, I hope the payout was worth it... the part with the water bottle was gold.

Read and review please... man, has it been long since I've said that.