Summary: When love blooms at the expense of a despairing heart, how can one side of the triangle bear the agony of defeat on a fine Christmas Eve? RuAya / YoHaru

Disclaimer: I still own no one…

Author: Hana Rui

Pairing: RuAya / YoHaru

Revision notes: I got rid of some unnecessary paragraphs that may have been the reason Ayako turned out so bitchy. But I did that a long time ago, so that shouldn’t really be here 0.o

Anyway, while I was re-reading this (yes, again) I remembered a vaguely emphasized yet (I presume) is one very distinct fact—Rukawa is not one to hurt animals. Not physically, anyway.

Erm, seriously…after having a snippet pass through my head of that time he tried to beckon a cat to come to him, I suddenly can’t imagine him doing anything sinister to cute little furballs getting in his way--much less give one a recipe that will wipe out “eight of its nine lives”. So I had to get rid of a few more paragraphs. The idea wasn’t really original anyway…

Story’s still the same, though.

Oh, and I changed my tense to present all throughout. For consistency’s sake.

"Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end..."

--Semisonic, Closing Time

RUKAWA

There is another guy.

I just heard Captain say so a while ago. And I can't help but pity him, that poor chap. He's been fawning all over her like some desperate Casanova, tirelessly, devotedly and sometimes even stupidly doing all he could just to please her, and this is what he gets.

She rejects him because of another guy.

Well, I guess that's life. You can never expect to have everything you ask for.

Especially when it's the only thing you ever ask for.

It sucks like hell, but yeah that's the truth.

You shouldn't expect God to be consistently generous. What with a million other desperate creeps eagerly demanding for his attention. He's a rather busy guy, see. And he can't possibly make everybody lucky. At least, not all at the same time.

Here I am now, shuffling down the snowy streets of Kanagawa, shoving pass the routing teem of excitement brought about by the Christmas rush. And am I feeling lucky? Not quite. Unless you consider a bunch of annoyingly stupid shineitai shrieking, quivering, and even fainting at the mere sight of your towering presence among the crowd lucky.

"Rukawa-sama!" so goes another shriek. That girl standing by the lamppost looks like she's having a seizure. She eventually furls to her knees and makes a bigger spectacle of herself by executing a graceful nosedive on the snow.

Bravo.

Why am I putting myself through this much torture anyway? I should be home right now, nestled safely in the comfort of my room. No noisy crowds, no blinding lights and best of all, no despondent psychos resolutely fawning for my attention.

"Kaede-kun!"

Train of thoughts wretchedly derailed, I turn my eyes to the source of that cheerful call and catch sight of the answer to my unvoiced question bounding up to me, her face decked with a lovely smile that can make even the adamant folks of Rushmore blush. A slab of marble like me is no exception, of course.

After all, there is indeed another guy.

And that other guy is--

Me.