"Mine immaculate dreams,

Made of breath and skin.

I've been waiting for you.

Signed with a home tattoo..

Happy birthday to you was created for."

~*~

Utena stood at the stairs leading up to the dueling arena. It had always filled her with trepidation, to wonder what she would face, who she would face. She hated dueling and yet she knew that the urge, the compulsion pulled at her. It was something apart from her that caused her feet to move, mounting each step one at a time. A look of grim determination transformed her face into the "prince" that she had longed to be ever since she had recieved that rose signet from her very own "prince"

A castle floating in the sky. It shone down on her as if she was an wingless angel.

She felt a mysterious connection but in her naivete she just didn't know now. What was she fighting for? This game was not one of her choosing yet the wind whispered that it must be played to the finish.

Honor drove her on when all other voices told her to turn back.

~*~

Anthy stood in the cage like structure where the roses were kept, continually watering them so that they would grow. Such organized beauties, they bloomed like little maids in a row and most of her free time was spent watering them, nurturing them. She looked up from her watering, watching Sayonji lurk in the shadows beyond Ohtori's own sunlit garden. Sometimes she pitied the man, pitied him because he didn't understand the "rules". How could she be engaged to a man who continually lost?

Survivial of the Fittiest.. it was the way of the world.. End of the World..

~*~

"Can't forget we've fallen apart at the seams,

Can't believe you've taken my heart to pieces."

~*~

Juri was the best, and she knew it. The sweat poured down her face into the hot white fencing uniform, clinging to her body and she knew that nothing would feel better then a hot shower... she had always loved showers, especially loved the release of standing underneath the steam and cleansing away the dirt that clung like the bitter taste of sin. She yanked off her fencing mask and sat down on the benches, wiping an arm across her brow and taking the water bottle that Miki offered her. Her crystalline continually calm blue eyes stared at the two duelers on the floor and it brought to mind a time back when life was simpler, when she had believed in 'something'

That something had been replaced by nothing.

Tightly her hand clenched the chain that had somehow worked itself loose out from under her dueling uniform.

"There is no such thing as miracles... Not when to believe in them causes too much pain.." She thought to herself even while her lips remained silent.

~*~

"Oh it will take a little time,

Might take a little cry to come undone.

Now we'll try to stay blind to the hope and fear outside.

Hey child,

Stay wilder then the wind and blow me into cry."

~*~

Miki sat at the piano, chewing on the end of his pen as he tried to write something, anything that would prove to him that he could write music. Nothing came to him and with a cry of frustration his hands came down roughly on the ivory keys of the piano and made a bittersweet cacophony of noise that reverberated through the music room.

He needed inspiration, he needed something to prove that this existance, this search wasn't futile. What was he searching for? Even he didn't know, it tickled at his soul but never revealed itself, constantly tormenting his rational mind with questions that he wasn't sure had valid answers.

"Why am I chasing after faeries when I have not even seen one?" He mused to himself and bowed his head and looked down at the stop watch that lay right beside him on the piano bench.

"1 minute.. 23 seconds.." its eerily glowing face pronounced soundlessly.

~*~

"Who do you need?

Who do you love?

When you come undone.."

~*~

Sayonji felt jealousy surge up like bile in his throat as he watched Touga walking through the halls of Ohtori. It was enough to make him sick and he wondered bitterly why he always had to take second fiddle to that bastard, that man that he had one time refered to as "friend"

There was nothing "friendly" in his hatred for the prestigious student council president.

Make no mistake he wanted Anthy but only because she was a prize that Touga desired.

In seeking something "eternal" he would find it and he would thereby prove to Touga that he was better then him.

"Life's a bitch.. isn't it, Touga?" He said under his breath, his purple eyes glittering dangerously.

~*~

"Words play me deja-vu,

Like a radio tune I swear I've heard before.

Chills is this something real?

All the magic I'm feeding off your fingers."

~*~

Nanami sat at her desk, surrounded by her fan club and basking in their attentions. The proverbial princess of Ohtori she was pampered and spoiled, having everything that her heart desired.. beautiful gowns, jewelry boxes full of baubles and the heart of almost any man she wanted.

Any man save one.

A leaking sadness filled her heart whenever she hugged her brother for as much as she loved him as a sister should.. there was part of her that wanted him to be someone that was not her brother.

But would she love him if he was not her brother? Her mind thought about that constantly and what she found there sickened her. No she wouldn't, for who she had fallen for had been there ever single moment of her life, through the good and bad times

Her prince charming was meant for someone..

And it was not her.

~*~

"Can't forget we've fallen apart at the seams,

Can't believe you've taken my heart to pieces."

~*~

Touga stood there on the balcony overlooking Ohtori. From there he could see everything, the tangle of trees that led to the dueling arena and the world beyond that. Here in Ohtori he was safe, he could be free to do what he wanted. He was prince of this domain and he had everything he wanted, everything he longed for.

He could seduce any woman.. or man, that he desired.

Seduction was a far cry from love and he realized that as he looked out at the expanse of world, his red hair blowing with the breeze, his blue eyes intently searching for something that would lend meaning to his life.

Utena would not give into him and while it frustrated him, it made the pursuing all the more sweet.

In a world full of duels and enigmas.. she was a refreshing change.

She was truth.

Truth is beauty..

Or was it?

~*~

"Lost in a snow filled sky,

We'll make it alright to come undone now

We'll try to stay blind to the hope and fear outside.

Hey child,

Stay wilder then the wind and blow me into cry."

~*~

Akio Ohtori sat behind the desk, crisp envelopes with red seals laying on his desk. His hands folded against each other in steeple fashion as he looked down at them, scrutinizing them before reaching over to ring for one of his lackeys.

Whatever he was feeling was cloaked by a wall of impenetrability. His emotions tightly closed up so that no one could see them. Behind a facade of charm there lay the decay of fallen rose petals that would never again see the stem of a rose.

"Please, have this delievered to the Student Council at once." Those words fell out of his lips in the same fashion as to have caused the fall of man in Eden.

What was the use?

Everything falls apart..

Even the petals of June blow away in the winds of September..

~*~

"Who do you need.. who do you love?

When you come undone (Who do you need?)"

~*~

"Oh poor melancholy children with the weight of the world in their smiles"

"Roses are cruelly plucked by the innocent who are unaware of their sins"

"Do they know what lays in store for them?"

"Do they really want to know?"

And the shadows played against the walls while the afternoon sun faded to dusk.

~*~

"Who do you love?.."

~*~

"Come Undone" by Duran Duran

Songfic by Nia Westphal