"Set-chan... I... I'm sorry-"

"Why, Kono-chan? Why did you do it?" tears contrasted with beautiful porcelain skin.

"I... I don't know, Set-chan. It just... It just happened."

Denial. She could have told her. They could have talked. She chose silence and mystery, and it all came crashing down in the shape of a sorrowful mess of tears in front of her.

"Liar." fists tightened. The tears couldn't stop.

"Set-chan..."

"Liar!"

Surprise. She had never screamed at her; never raised her voice in such a way. What had she done to her friend? What had she done to her love?

"I'm sorry, Set-chan. I really am sorry!" she was desperate. She felt cold and alone.

"No, Konoka. You're not sorry."

"Set-chan..."

Shock. When you realize that this is it. You can't possibly take back any actions, because what is done is done. When you regret something you did in the past. When you become a hypocrite, trying to convince yourself you regret every second of it when the truth is, you never did. Otherwise you would have never done it. You would have never thought about it. You would have never enjoyed it like you did.

"My name is Setsuna. You lost the right to call me anything else."

"Set-"

"Konoka..."

Lost. That is what you feel when you know that it's all over. The fear of being alone becomes a crushing reality. And the sadness of knowing it's all your fault does not help your beating heart, the one that's screaming at you, begging to fix this terrible, terrible mistake.

"It's over, Konoka."

Goodbye. Those were her last words ever spoken to her. One word that destroyed everything they had built in almost fifteen years. Or rather, the word that made her realize she had destroyed everything they had gone through. Everything they fought for.

Konoka fell on her knees, unable to support her numb weight. Nor far away from there, Setsuna was walking away from their life together, trying not to succumb to the same state her former lover was in. Her destiny was something she would rather not think about.

"Why did you do it, Konoka!" her best friend, Asuna demanded to know. Tears streamed down her face, making her remember of the painful scene that had acurred not even two hours ago.

"I... I don't know." the same answer. At ths point she was trying not only to convince her friends, but herself as well.

"Bullshit!" her long time friend spat at her. "That's bullshit and you know it!" the redhead kicked a nearby grocery bag, the sound of breaking eggs and bottles cut through the air like knives.

Konoka was about to repeat her answer, like a mantra coming out of her sore throat, but an opening door interrupted her. Asuna grabbed a broken wine bottle and threw it at the door in her anger. There were only two people who had spare keys. One was gone, possibly never coming back. The other...

"The fuck do you want!" Asuna roared, her voice cracking with sadness and madness. She was on her way of grabbing another bottle, but thought against it. For what reason, she didn't know. Maybe she was crazy after all. Or maybe she was so fucking tired she didn't know how to process thoughts in a correct order, if there ever was any to begin with.

"Asuna-san..." a teenager, almost man, spoke from the doorstep. He was handsome in his way, and so, so very different from the boy he was once upon a time. So very different, Asuna couldn't see any resemblance between this and the ghost of a distant past.

"Don't you dare..." she threatened. Her voice spoke of volumes of danger, and her eyes promised years of suffering. "Don't you dare come here and try to fucking calm me down!" she decided agains her former thought and threw a bottle, the only one in perfect state, at the boyish man, missing by only a few inches. It was a shame, she would have liked to crack his head with something. Anything.

"Asuna!" he seemed perplexed at her behaviour. She was known for having a hot temper, but never bad intentions. Asuna thought he had no right. No right to come and ruin everything. They had no right to hurt them. No right to destroy Setsuna. No right to destroy their friendship, their love.

"Monsters..." she mumbled. Somewhere in between saying this and throwing the second bottle she had grabbed a third one, the last one. She didn't notice that she had tightened her grip so hard, her hand was bleeding profusedly. She barely noticed the bitter taste of her own blood as she bit her lower lip without mercy.

"Asuna, I can explain-" the rests of the broken bottle flew his way, grazing his cheek, but never hurting him.

"You dare think there's an explanation for this?" she laughed. She laughed hard and humorlessly. She looked at her former friends and spat on the floor, her darkening saliva making a rather grotesque stain on the blue Persian carpet.

"Asuna-"

"Save it." she grabbed a nearby leather bag. Setsuna's old brown leather bag, she idly processed this thought. She picked up a few clothes laying around and all her savings, which was enough to survive for a month or two. Her eyes glared at her old friend, her only male friend, with hatred, daring him to stop her.

"Asuna, please! We can talk about this." the brunette at her side cried. She didn't know if she could take the departure of two of her closest people in so little time.

"There's nothing to talk about." Asuna growled. She didn't want to lash at her friend, not in the state she was in. Not with the child she was carrying. The innocent and unaware child who had no blame in this.

Negi's child.

"Asuna-san!" the teenager boy pleaded desperately. Things were getting out of control way too fast, way too early. But, then again, when could possibly be a good time?

"Move. OUT!" her crazed eyes and bloody lips made them think twice about their attempt of stopping her from walking out of their lives.

Negi stood firmly in front of her, impeding her of getting away from that... What was that, anyway? A goodbye? It certantly wasn't a 'see you later'. And it didn't exactly seem like a 'we will talk later'. Asuna was in no mood for talking, and if she was, it would probably be with fists.

"Asuna, you have to understand, we had no control over-"

SLAP!

He was stunned in his place, facing the scene in front of him. In that very moment, when his old time friend, his sister of bond, his first magical partner, slapped him with so much force, so much sadness, he knew he had made a terrible mistake. He realized, after seeing his best friend crying helplessly, because of him, because of simple carnal desires and betrayal. He realized he had lost two of his best friends, his true friends, who had stood by him in every moment since meeting them.

That night, Asuna walked away from them without even looking back, leaving behind a great and important part of her past, people who had supported her in her best and worst moments of her life. People whom she had considered family by bond, the ones she had revealed all of her secrets to. She left everything behind and went in search of the only real family left.

Setsuna.

As soon as Asuna walked away, Konoka broke down. She started crying like she had never done in her life. She cried for her friends. She pleaded for forgiveness, to go back in time and fix it all; to go back to better, simpler moments in her life when everything was perfect, or at least, it seemed so. To go back and say 'no' to Negi and his kisses. Kisses she did not need when she had a perfect girlfriend, a true companion. Kisses only given out of curiousity, to remember what it felt like to kiss a boy. Kisses became touches, and touches became betrayal and raw, stoppable, passion. She shared beautiful mornings with Setsuna, and secret nights with Negi. She had only given her heart to Setsuna, but she had dared to cross the line and share their bed with Negi.

She even got pregnant with his child. And when Setsuna found her with a pregnancy test in hand she immediaely knew. Setsuna knew the obvious cause of her unborn child. Sex, with someone else. Someone who wasn't her. Someone outside of their relationship.

As anyone would, she demanded to know the whole story, and between tears and wails Konoka told her everything. From the very moment she realized she found Negi attractive to the morning sickness she had been presenting lately. She confessed, in utter shame, that she had not done it once, but many more times. So many, she had lost cound after two months. Apparently, she had been cheating for the last eight months and half and Setsuna knew nothing of it, not even the slightest suspicion.

Setsuna stormed out of their house, the one that they shared with Asuna... and Negi.

Betrayed in her own house! With her so called friend, for the last eight fucking months and half of their relationship.

Just when she was planning on asking for her hand in marriage.

"Setsuna!" someone screamed behind the samurai. She didn't turn back, didn't want to.

"Setsuna!" Asuna grabbed her arm softly and turned her body to face her. The redhead had traces of dry tears on her face and blood on her lower lip. Setsuna frowned, worried about her friend in spite of her own situation.

"Who hurt you?" she growled angrily. Asuna blinked and lifted her hand off her arm carefully, taking notice of the scratching marks on it as well, they hurt.

"I did, kinda." she was about to clean the blood of her hand with her jeans but Setsuna's hand stopped her abruptly. She looked at her friend, who was staring at her.

"You... you will only hurt yourself more if you do that." she managed to get out. "Come with me." Asuna silently followed close, an illogical fear creeping up to her nape. She didn't want to lose Setsuna too.

They stopped at a park and Setsuna guided her to a nearby bench and sat her down. The samurai kneeled in front of her and took out a piece of cloth from her right pocket. She washed it with fresh water from a bottle she was carrying around and cleaned Asuna's hands.

"You have glass in your hands, Asuna..." she commented vaguely. Asuna smiled tiredly and nodded her head.

"I crushed a bottle with it. Guess I used too much strength..." Setsuna snorted and kept cleaning her wound carefully enough to not touch the glass.

"You can't come with me, Asuna." Setsuna stated firmly. Asuna shook her tiredness off as soon as she heard those words.

"And why not?" she asked angrily. Setsuna looked at her sadly, a small smile forcing itself on her face.

"Because I'm returning home..." she stopped cleaning the wounds and tore a piece of glass from her hand. Asuna kept staring at her.

"What do you mean? You're returning with them?" she acussed lightly, because she knew it was highly improvable Setsuna would return to that madhouse. The samurai shook her head slowly.

"There are some things you don't know about me, Asuna. Things that I left behind a long time ago." she took another piece of glass. "Things that not even Konoka knows." Asuna's eyes widened at this. Konoka knew more things about Setsuna than anyone else. What could be so important, so serious, that the samurai wouldn't even tell a soul about it.

"I'm tired of running, Asuna. So very tired..." she whispered sadly, and Asuna noticed her hands weren't bloody anymore, and the pieces of glass were completely gone. She also noted how Setsuna's hands clasped her injured one lightly and caressed it's back with her thumbs. Minutes passed by as fluidly as seconds. Setsuna faced her seriously.

"I think it's time I tell someone about my past"

I know. Not my best comeback to the world of writting. But this story has been eating me alive for who knows how long. The story is slightly AU, mostly when we see their personalities in play. I have nothing against any character in the series, so their behavior is not biased on my points of view. I just had to make it fit the plot of all this.

Read and review.