EPILOGUE I: BEST GIFT, PART 1

Kouji entered Takuya's house without making much noise, walked carefully across the hall towards the living room (where it was more likely the other would be) and took a small peaking since he didn't want to be caught just yet, to realize he had been right.

Takuya was sitting at the corner of a large couch positioned right in front to the TV set (which in spite of being on, wasn't receive much attention). The boy had his legs stretched below the small table at the center and his eyes directed to a small notebook on his lap where he was fast writing on.

Kouji thought about his choices:

1. He could announce his presence now, and look at the surprised face of his divine one.

2. He could approach him more and more until Takuya sensed him.

3. He could mount a fast attack, like pushing Takuya out of the couch, or...

4. He could take that notebook away from him and finally learn why he acted so cautious every time he questioned about it.

Everything depended on if he wanted to learn what was the content of that damned notebook and Kouji already knew what he wanted. But there was a small detail, Takuya was very sensible about his notebook, therefore, if he took it and read it without his consent, there was a big risk that the owner would get upset and Kouji definitively did not want that. The boy let out a sigh after reaching to the conclusion that it wasn't worth the aggravation, he would be more than satisfied by just surprising Takuya. Later he could think about a way to find out what he wrote so much about in that damned notebook (that he suspected, was his journal).

At that, the television turned automatically off and Takuya looked up to watch the grey screen, he seemed thoughtful for a moment then decided to turn it on again. Soon a commercial started running, it was for a horror film with a suspense background music.

Kouji decided to leave his hiding place just then. He walked slowly until he stood just behind Takuya. He had decided to push him out of the couch when...

"Don't even think about it." murmured Takuya at the same time he closed his journal "I saw you in the screen's reflection." Takuya explained to Kouji who walked around the couch, and sat unceremoniously on it next to Takuya, disappointed because he hadn't been able to surprise the younger boy.

"I knew I would find you here." Kouji informed him. Lately, they had started a sort of competition to know which one knew the other better. Up to that day they were still tied.

"And I knew that you would get here early, so I woke up before the usual."

"Hn, I knew that you were going to be sitting here in spite of all the other thing that you have to do." Kouji put an arm around Takuya's back, trying to get closer to him.

"Everything? I just have to clean the house, prepare dinner, do the laundry, do my homework and..." he looked at the floor when he whispered the last part, at the same time his arms circled the other's waist. Now their faces were at such short distance.

Kouji asked "What did you say?"

Takuya moved away from Kouji and turned his attention to the television "Err... no- nothing."

"Why are you so nervous?"

"I am not!"

"Aja! I know you, Takuya. I know you're nervous." Kouji exclaimed. Takuya did not answer. Instead he stood up from the couch, notebook in hand and went to do something in his room (don't ask me, I don't know either) Kouji kept silent while he waited for the other to come back.

When he did, he sat at the same place, and back to the same position with his hands around Kouji's waist and laid his head on the boy's shoulder. Comfortable enough then turned to look at the screen that now showed a retarded robot stuffing his mouth with burritos.

On the other hand, Kouji still wanted to know "Is it because of the exams?"

"NO!"

Half day later the two of them had managed to finish all of the house shores. Kouji had prepared Mole and Orange Rice for dinner (since they had become addicted to Mexican food), while Takuya cleaned the house and put a load in the washing machine.

Now both were sitting on the same couch again. With the TV on but ignoring it in favor to pay attention to each other "Did we miss something?" Kouji asked, interrupting the quiet observation that the Takuya had been doing "You've been too silent."

"... Kouji?"

"Mm?"

"I..." Takuya made a long pause before looking at him in the eyes and ask "Could you help me with my Algebra homework?"

"That's not what you were going to say."

"But you'll help me? Right?"

"Sure." Then Takuya left Kouji alone again while he went into his room to get his papers and textbooks.

When Takuya returned, he set the notebook on the table and seated again beside Kouji and they began to study.

It had barely passed 15 minutes when Kouji realized that the other wasn't solving any of the problems on his book, even worse, the page was still blank "TAKUYA!"

"Hey! Takuya!"

The other boy looked up to him and asked a question that had nothing to do with the equations he had been trying to do "What do you want me to give you for your birthday?"

"Eh?"

"Your birthday is the next week and I still don't-" "Takuya..." said Kouji with a bored tone as if he was repeating his words "Stop worrying about that, you can give me any book you want as soon as you have enough money to buy it, it doesn't have to be exactly my birthday."

After listening to that, Takuya couldn't help but feel offended for several reasons, but vocalized just one:

"You don't think I can give you something else?"

Kouji let out an exasperated sigh, why his divine one always had to be so serious about gifts? Weren't those things supposed to cause joy? "Takuya, how many time do I have to say it? Your you are my best gift."

End Epilogue I

CHAPTER 17: MY FAVORITE PART

KOUJI

He is like a fragment of sun, hot and luminous...

... he's also a divine one with brown eyes, dark brown hair that is usually covered by a hat and goggles on top of everything else. Takuya is one year younger and attends to the same school I do, but in a different group and grade. Cheerful, charming, gentle, friendly with everyone, a little naive, loves to read books (just not textbooks), advanced mathematics are definitively not his strength, neither is to understand women, suffers a rare case of phobia to cats (like my brother). Loves to be the center of attention, to laugh... and to hit me (making it look like an accident), but specially he believes in fate and that is fate which puts together two people...

I saw him for the first time at the library carrying a pile of books that he dropped for some reason and I called him 'idiot' for that. Since then, Takuya became the reason of my happiness for one semester, where we turned from strangers who ignored each other presence at work to the best friends. But then everything happened too soon, time and circumstances made sure to separate us.

This is a really brief summary of countless pages of ridiculous things I've written. I know, usually you describe first the one you're going to talk about before starting a story about them, but I though it would be more suitable to have it at the end because if I had begun praising Takuya before you could know him through my eyes, it wouldn't be clear to understand why I think and I feel this way about him.

Three months had passed since the last time I saw him and when I finally dared to ask my brother about his whereabouts, his answer was unexpected...

Koichi looked at me confused then my stomach started churning and my face fell.

"You didn't know?" This time, Koichi wasn't lying.

"... Takuya doesn't work at the library anymore... " and I wished that he would be.

The next day I went straight to the library only to find the place... very quiet. I guess that without Takuya, the place that once ago was so familiar and pleasant, had returned to be the same boring place, it had lost its charm.

The atmosphere of the library had changed completely, the old boss had retired, the lady at the office had been promoted, Zoe and Jumpei had left too (I don't know why). Now there was a new group of kids with bored faces sitting outside the cubicle watching their life pass before them while they did nothing. They didn't read, didn't study, didn't even put the books back in their place, so the tables were overflowed.

'it was never like this with Takuya...'

I left the library determined to find to Takuya and convince him that he had to come back to that place. But then, my doubts assaulted me becoming gigantic barriers that made forget about it.

'Did you alredy forget?'

'You haven't seen him in centuries... months it in fact, but still it's been too long.'

'If he had wanted to see you, he would have looked for you.'

'But he left the library without telling you instead.'

'What's so difficult to understand? It's obvious that he doesn't want to see you...'

I came back to my house crestfallen and depressed by those thoughts "He doesn't want to see me..."

"Who?" Koichi.

"Hi Koichi." I told him with a doubtlessly un-cheerful tone,

"Hi-" which must have disturbed him a lot because he turned around to look at me with worry. "Kouji, do you feel alright?" I think he followed me into the living room and I am sure that he asked more questions but I can't remeber those since I chose to ignore him and kept walking to my bedroom dragging a heavy cloud of depression with me.

I locked myself in there, thinking about (you already know). Obsessing about wanting to see him. But at the same time stopping myself from going to look for him because of the same pessimistic ideas that fought my stubbornness. If I could have split in two back then, one side of me would have gone running to Takuya's house, meanwhile the other would have crossed his arms and stayed locked in the room for the rest of the day. However, what I did was pick up the book that I had been reading, turned the radio on with the volume to the top, turned the TV on but muted, turned on the computer (by instinct), put "Finding Nemo" on the Dvd player (Tommy had rented that and watched it in my room during his last visit), then I started to read.

Why read? Don't know, I suppose because it was an activity that made me think about him, which meant that I really wasn't reading so much as staring at the same page for hours while my mind wandered, think about... you already know.

'All I want is to see him one more time.'

'..and who's stopping me? I can look for him at school, I just need to find what's his schedule and then...'

'...then what? What am I going to do when I see him?'

'I could tell him...'

Finding him would be very easy, the school we both attended to was small and there were not many places where he could be. Besides his classroom there's the cafeteria, the computer lab (not likely), the sport fields, the art rooms, the school library... that's it!

The next day I ran towards that place where I was almost certain that I would find him, with his head bent on a book that didn't have anything to do with school. But when I arrived and saw him exactly in the position I had imagined (only with his back to the door), I remained still at the door. I didn't come closer, nor spoke to him, nor did any of the thing I had planned for hours in my bedroom. Instead, I just stared at him from a distant spot, then I walked out of there and back to the computer lab (where I was supposed to be).

'stupid, stupid, stupid...' it didn't matter how I called myself, whenever I saw him I kept doing the same thing over and over again for two weeks. I saw him arrive at school, at the cafeteria with his friends, at the library accompanied by a book, always leaving school in haste... always from a safe distance. And when he turned in my direction I had to disappear from his eyesight, hiding wherever I could (but that's another tragedy).

And of all the places and all the opportunities he had to catch me, he did't do it until we ran into each other by coincidence in the bathrooms.

I wasn't even following him, so facing him so suddenly startled me a lot. And it surprised him as well, but that didn't stop him from talking:

"Kouji!" unlike me, who had lost that specific ability at the moment along with the ability to do (em you know, what we go to the bathrooms for):

"err... hello?" – 'Heeeeeeeeeey is somebody there? Kouji!'

"Huh? Oh! Hello Takuya..." - 'So, you're still alive.'

But after that neither volunteered to talk first. Until my mouth spoke without thinking and without consulting to my sarcastic conscience:

"You left the library." – 'What the hell – is wrong with you - KOUJI?'

"Eh... Oh! Right, like a month ago... " - 'Oh?.'

"Yeah..." – 'Why?'

"You know what, I'm sort of late for... this test, next period and I just have a little time to study" – 'Oh?'

"Eh? Right, good, see you later."

"Good bye." – 'Good bye, Takuya.'

&&&&&&&&&&&&&ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"Now what?"

"Eh?"

"I don't like seeing my pretty face so sad."

"No really, tell me what's wrong."

"I saw to Takuya."

"Oh? You're still with that? Kouji one of this day..."

"And we talked."

"Ah! So he finally caught you?"

"NO! We just ran into each other by coincidence..."

"Right, I believe you..."

"In the bathrooms"

"You wasn't following him?"

"No"

"And? what happened?"

"We..." then I realized who I was talking to "Why am I telling you this?" I said and I ran away to lock up in my room.

"And what happened! Kouji Minamoto get out of there and talk to me for once..." – 'blah, blah.' I turned on the radio volume as high as it could to block out his shouting and let myself fall into the chair in front of the computer.

When I came out for supper, Koichi appeared behind me and followed me all the way to the kitchen repeating the same words with his most annoying voice "tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me..."

But I ignored him, that is, until he started thinking more strategically and threatened me with "if you don't tell I'm going to ask to the other only person who can".

"NO"

"Tell me."

"I have my fingers right on it!"

"Okay, alright! Alright! I am going to tell to you..."

I ended up explaining everything, not just what had happened at the bathrooms, EVERYTHING. Why I was spying on him, why I was so scared to talk to him, why I hadn't returned to the library for a month, why I had decided to leave the library in the first place and in the end I realized just how stupid I had been.

"Really, really stupid." Koichi confirmed.

"Yeah..."

"At least now you know what you are going to tell him when you see him again, but this time try starting from the beginning"

"From the beginning? But-"

"What?"

"He doesn't want to talk to me!"

"Why do you say that?"

"The last time I saw him, he didn't seem very happy to see me." when he heard me say that, Koichi let out a mocking laughter "Why are you laughing?"

"You suck as a storyteller..."

"Huh?"

"Now pay attention, I am going to tell you a story that perhaps you're not very familiar with..."

End Chapter 17

CHAPTER 18: SUNNY & GLOOMY

TAKUYA

He is like a beam of the moon, beautiful and full of mysteries...

He's also a singular individual (note the sarcasm) with blue eyes, dark hair over which he wears a badana to tell himself apart from his clones. He is a year older than me, which means that he's in a superior grade at the school that we both attend. Intelligent, serious, amiable and just a little grumpy, fanatic of felines, his favorite pastime are computers (and Internet), he's like great with math and in any other school-related subject. He used to hate reading even if he got paid to do so but that changed, the first impression that anyone have from him is that he likes to be alone and doesn't like to be bothered. But the more characteristic of him is that he believes that there is no such thing as destiny and as much of the good or ill is personal merit... sounds boring, no?

I saw him for the first time at the library. Very stupid of me to think he was someone else and very clumsy me ended up dropping the books to the ground in front of him. One week later, he came back to keep me company for as long as one semester, throughout which he inspired me fear (at the beginning), curiosity, disagreements and happiness when we finally made friends (although it was never voiced, it was something that we both knew). It was then, when everything was going so well, that it ended up so suddenly. Almost at the same time that I discovered that I felt something more than just friendship. Now I realize that never before I had taken the time to just write about him. That's odd since all I meant to do was talk about him...

"Kouji" - "Are you sure?"

Before I could hide it, deception became visible in my face, but not for too long. Just seeing Koichi smiling face caused a joyful sensation that made me follow his example.

"What are you doing here?" – 'Idiot'...the was the best adjective I could call myself with for confusing Koichi with his brother, or for having said the name of the one I really wanted to see at my doorstep.

But it was not absolutely my fault, the stupid twin had the fabulous idea to wear a badana just Kouji usually does. Of course at the end I realized that he wasn't Kouji just by his attitude. Whereas kouji starts fuming in anger, Koichi is always amused by the confusion and always answers humorously that I can't get him out of my head, which strangely he didn't do either... but it wasn't as weird as the lack of Kouji's anger, thus I decided it had to be Koichi.

"What do you think I'm doing here?" - or perhaps I decided too fast? Because that didn't sound very friendly... "you want to know something? Takuya, I thought you liked my brother"

"Whaaaaat?"

"And you know what else I believed? That you were my friend!"

"Huh?"

"But no! your never tried to help me!"

"Sorry? What are you talking about?"

"Kouji! Remember him? Or are you just not listening? because you don't care anymore?"

"I do not understand, what are you talking..."

"Obviously that's the problem!"

"Huh? Koichi, I have no idea what what are you-"

"What am I talking about? eh? About Kouji and Koushi! Who else?"

"Kouji and Koushiro? What about them?"

"Them! Together! Don't even mention it!"

"Are you still jealous?"

"Ah! but now I DO have a reason to be. Did you know that recently Koushi dumped me in favor of my brother?" – 'What?'

At first I doubted it, but as Koichi did not stop repeating the same thing over and over, I ended up believing that it was true... because, What could Koichi gain from saying such lie? So it had to be the truth...

It all had to be true. That it was the same to him if he saw me again or not, that if I looked for him I would just be a nuisance to him and that I wasn't smart enough or interesting enough for him...

That was why when I met with Kouji (at the bathroom, how nice) I was a little... cold. I was the one of the monosyllables and the one who left the place running. I didn't have a test nor did I went to study like had told him, I skipped school for the rest of the day and went to hide in my house.

And I cried.

I am not very sure why, but I knew that it was just what I needed, just like I needed to be alone, just like I needed not to be interrupted, just like I needed to ignore the phone ringing, just like I needed not to answer it, just like I needed not to press it against my ear, just like I didn't need to say hello, just like I didn't need to hope that it was Kouji, just like I didn't need to feel disappointed when I knew that it was Koichi, just like...

"... so, are you coming?"

"Where?"

"to my birthday party."

"but... what about Kouji?"

"What about him?"

"I don't want to see him" - "Why?" - "I don't know."

"... Well... you don't need to worry about him. He probably won't be here anyway."

"Why?"

"Because lately he comes home very late, their project is almost finished and they're working on it more to be over with it as soon as possible, they're even staying to work on the weekends, so you really have nothing to worry about."

"..." - "So, are you coming?" - "Why do you want me to go?" when Koichi decides he's going after something, he gets all determined to accomplish it and it can be very annoying. He didn't stop repeating "Are you coming? Are you coming? Are you coming?" until I promised I would go to his celebration that would take place at his - and Kouji's - house. A few days later found me at the porch of the fore mentioned house. It was Koichi who answered the door and invited me in. Immediately he made sure to introduce me to everybody in the room, friends and relatives alike (what else could be the brats running after Bella and Siam). Koichi stood by my side until he sensed I was more confidence and felt comfortable around the strangers, then he disappear to make a phone call (later I learned that he had called his brother to tell him to hurry and come back to the house, grr).

Kouji arrived one hour later, but by that moment I was having a panic attack. Don't think that I was nervous because I would see him again, not as much as the fact that Siam had approached me and, at first he was rubbing his furry body against the fabric of my trousers and when I asked Koichi to take him away from me, the coward took several steps back saying that he didn't get along with cats. One of his friends took it in her arms and started patting him softly, but then Tommy - one of Koichi's cousins - said that he also wanted to hold the "pretty kitten", but the kid treated him so badly that the animal chose to attack the poor kid and went back to rubbing against my trousers. That was when I began to hyperventilate because when the same girl tried to take Siam away from me again, the cat showed his teeth to her growling in a very unfriendly way.

Then Kouji arrived.

The owner of the beast – I mean cat - watched my tearful eyes and the obvious terror reflected in them, and called his cat with a simple... "prrr, prrr, Siam come here."

As soon as the mini-tiger realized that his owner was calling him, he ran after Kouji who was already on his way to the kitchen.

It was not until the cat had left the room, that I let out a noisy sigh of relief. Then I could also realize that I had the attention of everybody in the room and turned quite red with embarrassment. "Takuya? What are you doing here?" - 'Huh? Davis?'

"Errr..." it turned out that Kouji had not arrived alone. Along with him came the whole team that works in that project with him - and Davis. "... what are YOU doing here?"

"But I asked first!" he said.

"Koichi invited me. Now you tell me what are you doing here?" I insisted.

Davis seemed confused by that and had begun to say: "But I thought that Kou-" when Ken covered his mouth and answered for him: "He came with me."

I kept watching suspiciously at Davis and Ken but soon I let it pass. Kouji had returned to the room, with the monster asleep in his arms 'Maybe he had beaten him into sleep.' But seeing as Kouji treated the beast assured me that he hadn't done something like that.

I listened Davis' voice again protesting about something, but my sight was nailed on the boy who was causing a weird feeling in my stomach? - "Ken! I don't understand, wasn't it Kouji who..." then I could help but turn to see the pair thinking 'I didn't know that Davis and Kouji knew each other' - Ken had covered Davis' mouth again while leading him outside of the room 'What was that about?'

When that pair left the room I turned my head, gliding to look for Kouji, but I almost jumped when I found him right in my face looking at me nervously and I felt my face burning for no apparent reason. "Sorry about Siam, if I had known that you were coming I would have kept him outside of the house."

"Huh? Oh No! That would have been cruel, this is his house after all."

"Yes, but you're allergic."

"I'm what?"

"You told me you were allergic to cats, remember?"

"Eh... oh, yeah! That, errr... I would call allergy exactly, rather call it phobia, actually."

Then again I began feeling uncomfortable. It did not seem right for me to be chatting with him, because it made me feel like before.

'But it's not like before, because Kouji and Koushiro...' - after thinking that, I decided that I it was best to go now, before I actually had to see some KouKou that would definitively hurt me unnecessarily. I began looking for Koichi around just by sight, but I couldn't find him anywhere, so I decided that I would just say a short good bye to Kouji, just - "I'm sorry but I have to leave already." - said someone else. I turned around to find out who had said that. Who had stolen my words? That someone was Koushiro.

... and hanging of one of his arms was Koichi.

"Then I'll walk with you to your car..." – 'What the?'

Wordlessly, I walked towards them but then I changed my mind and ran to look outside of the window. I saw them leave the house together, I saw Koushiro climb into a light blue beetle and kept looking as Koichi leaned in to give him a goodbye kiss. My eyes went wide and then Kouji asked me what I was looking at but he didn't wait for my answer and looked for himself at the couple which blatantly continued their immoralities at public sight.

Kouji smiled when seeing this and turned to look at me.

Then I understood that I had yet again fallen in another of Koichi's lies of and all the blood concentrated in my head. Very slowly I came back to normal: "Is just that, I thought... I thought that you..."

Kouji was watching me with such a serious expression that I couldn't help but laugh like a maniac "You and Koushiro never..." and to explain him what I meant, pointed with my eyes at the couple outside.

"No." He answered very serious. I closed my eyes at the same time let out another sigh, and laughed again.

"Kouji, is it really your birthday?" then I opened my eyes to look at him in case he answered me with signs, but today it seemed that he had eaten canary seeds.

"Not in another two weeks."

"Really?" I bent my head down while I tried to control that tremendous desire to cry, to shout and laugh at the same time. The best thing I could do was keep the smile in my face for the rest of the day. "I should be mad at him, but I am not." I said in low voice, I didn't think that Kouji had listened to me.

"Why not?" and for his tone, I could tell he was really curious and expecting a good explanation.

"Because I am looking at this on the good side, I no longer feel so bad for not buying anything for you." Kouji smiled when listening to that.

The rest afternoon we spent talking and I didn't know anything else of Davis and Ken (which I didn't think was as suspicious as I should). Koichi however, had the imprudence to approach me with a wide smile as his white flag, but when he noticed that I - in spite of what I said to Kouji – looked like I wanted to murder him with my glare, he quickly walked away from us with the excuse to go haunting for food.

I stayed at their house for as much time as possible, but somehow time seemed to be going faster and soon came the time when I really had to leave and Kouji walked with me to the bus stop, and immediately I thought that it could be sort of the equivalent to what Koichi did with Koushiro and my cheeks colored again.

While we waited for the bus to arrive, we continued talking for a bit more, but the conversation soon. I guess we both were thinking about something at the moment, at least I was. Often I turned to look at Kouji, but whenever I saw him, his eyes were fixed somewhere else, a place far more distant from there. I wanted to say something then... but somehow it didn't felt right, so I kept silent.

But when Kouji said my name... The lights of the bus shone over us and he just said "Good bye."

End Chapter 18

Darla: Yep, this fic is almost over, there are no more chapters left. And yes it will have another Epilogue, two more in fact :P
Err... one more thing, I am pretty sure I'll bug you with this "point out my mistakes at me" thing, but could you please? I know you're probably laughing or don't know where to begin...