A/N: I feel I should apologize *again* for being so extremely slow with updating… -_- And I hope there's still some people out there left who remembers this fic! Yeah well, anyway… Here it is: (*finally*…) :D

Fallin' to pieces part eleven:

{~Matt's POV~}

"I…" Mrs Kamiya hesitated. She looked at her husband and then turned to us again. "Could you wait here for a while? We… we need to discuss this." She finished.

My spirits fell. There was probably no way that they could take Tk and me in. No way. It was probably the best not to get my hopes up, or at least the most lenient.

Tai, Kari, Tk and I waited in silence for the Kamiya parents to come back. Their hushed voices were heard from the kitchen and out into the hall right by the living room where we sat.
I rested my head in my hands, a killer headache starting to develop inside of it. I think I had really been under a lot of stress and pressure the last weeks. More than many teens ever have to go through. And I guessed that pressure just needed to take out its toll. Still being rather sleepy, the time went by faster for me, or at least that is my guess, as the others told me they thought it was one of the longest whiles they've ever gone through before afterwards.

Mr and Mrs Kamiya finally came out of the kitchen again. I tried to read the answer off their eyes, but their faces were sort of strange, 'mixed', or whatever, so I couldn't tell.

Mr Kamiya's hand crept to his wife's and held it firmly. He took a deep breath.

"We have decided," He made a short pause, swallowing, and looked at Tk's face and mine with slightly uncertain eyes, "that you two can stay."

At first, there was nothing. Not even one breath. But next, Tk let out a small ease-filled laugh. The tentative expressions of the adults disappeared and left behind only relieved, and maybe even thankful, faces.

"Oh my GOD!" Kari then screamed and jumped up, dragging Tk up with her, and dancing around with my somewhat dazed brother. "You're going to be living with us!" After those words, he broke out of the trance-like state he had fallen into and began beaming the sun itself.

Tai grinned crazily at me, ear to ear, his mouth almost covering his entire face, and I smiled back, feeling laughter bubbling up inside of me, and knowing I must've looked just as silly as my friend.  
Then two sets of arms wrapped themselves around me and I got the sudden urge to cry instead. It just felt so extremely, tremendously… good, to get a hug of someone older and bigger and wiser than me. Just to be little for a moment. I shyly hugged Mrs and Mr Kamiya back, silently repeating 'thank you' over and over again to whatever, or whoever, would hear it.

{~Tk's POV}

Things have worked out pretty fine. Matt and I live with Kari, Tai and their parents now, and I love it here! They are very nice to us, even though Tai and Kari had to give up their separate rooms so that Matt and I would have someplace to sleep. But we're planning to switch soon anyway, so that Kari and I get the same room and our brothers get to share instead.

We went to our old apartment today and picked up some of our stuff. There was a good deal of things in there that were only junk too, so we had to throw many old gadgets away.

It was kind of hard at the start, to just walk in there. I mean, would it look the same as when we lived there? Would dad's bed still be unmade, like it had been when Matt found him? Would the blood he had coughed up still be on the floor? I was dreading.

But when we got in there, we saw that someone had been there and cleaned the place up. That certainly was a relief.

Mr and Mrs Kamiya (though they've told me and Matt to call them by their first names), helped with getting the larger furniture, like the beds, down to the van we rented, that was standing on the street. So now, we have our ordinary things in out bedroom, and that's nice.

And Mrs Matsuoka… Though she was critical and stern about it, she agreed to breaking that stupid contract she signed. Stupid cow… I still loathe her for what she did, and I can't understand why she did so, but I think it's the best for all of us to just look forward. To leave the past behind us. All we can do is to hope for the future, ne? So that's what I'm going to do.

I shut my journal and lay the pen down beside it as Kari opened the door and walked into the bedroom.

"Are you going with us to the market?" she asked. "Tai and Matt are already out somewhere."

"Sure." I answered, getting up from the desk I'd been sitting at.

I put the journal in one of the drawers I had marked with 'Tk'.

"Come on then. We haven't got all day," Kari smiled. "The car is leaving in one minute,"

"I'm coming!" I smiled back.

Kari grabbed my arm and we hurried out of the house.

{~Matt's POV~}

I was standing on the bridge, leaning on the banister. In my hands I held a slightly crumpled piece of paper.

"What is that?" Tai asked. He was standing by my side, eyeing the paper curiously.

"The contract." I unfolded and folded the paper over and over, looking at it thoughtfully. Then I ripped it into two.

"Wha- Matt! Why did you…?" Tai started, staring in me in shock.

"It's not like I need it or anything. Or like I even enjoy having it." I said, tearing the contract in smaller and smaller pieces. A feeling of ease followed with the actions. I let the small confetti-like bits of paper go and Tai and I watched them sail through the air, tossing and tumbling around as the wind wanted, until they landed in the river.

"So…" Tai began. He fiddled with the sleeves of his sweater and it wasn't hard to notice that he was trying to say something. "How was your dad? I-I mean, you haven't talked anything about him since he… y'know, past away… and… it's not good to keep stuff like these locked up inside and… Well, you know, I'm here for you and all that stuff." Tai finally blurted out.

I looked at him.

"Thanks, Tai, that's good to know." I said at last, giving him a smile. I then turned my face back to the water. I too knew that it probably was for the best to talk about it, but I had blocked it out for such a long time now. I feared it would just be like scratching an old wound open again. I bit my lip.

"I know you don't want to talk about it… But I'm not going to leave it." Tai said. That was one of the reasons to why we always fought, and one of the reasons to why we were best friends. "So, how are you?"

Silly choice of words.

"I'm fine." I said simply.

"And how was your dad?"

I froze.

My breathing got heavier and a dull sort of 'ache' set in my chest.

"He was fine…" I said, my voice coming out a bit strangled. Tai waited. "I know he loved me, even though he wasn't very good at expressing it." I licked my dry lips and cleared my throat quietly. "Tk told me that dad had told him to let me know that. He had said that was sorry for all the times he had forgotten about me during holidays and other times. He had so bad conscience about it, and the fact that he couldn't make it up to me because he was too sick to even get out of bed the latest time, when his work didn't stop him from thinking and looking back at things that had happened. He told Tk to tell me when he was gone. And now… he is, and Teek've told me." I screwed my eyes shut to prevent the hot tears that were burning inside of the lids to come out.

Tai put a comforting hand around my shoulder.
"Let's go home." He said. He was right. We could talk more there.

I nodded shakily, and while we started walking, I couldn't stop a few lines of a song to flicker by inside of my head....

"Though it's breakin' down and fallin' to pieces,

I'll see the sun, feel how the pain eases

You'll never know what tomorrow will bring you

And all that you really can do

Is to wait until new morning light comes

Is to wait until new morning light comes…"

A/N: Phew… There you go! The last chapter of this is finished, and with that, the whole fic^_^

So… what did you think about it? Good or… *bites her lip* …bad? Please tell me in your Reviews!

(I wrote those sucky song lines… Just thought I'd tell you that, in case anyone's wondering… *though I doubt it!*^_^)

/ThatGirl