~Taki?~ ~Yeah?~ ~I'll call you tonight, okay?~ ~Ah...sure... ~I don't suppose I can just show this to you can I?~ * Taki thinks hard about the night before the snowball fight. ~If you think about it, I should be able to pick it up.~ ~Not your memories, but your thoughts.~ (Ahh there it is lucky number 13, and parts of 14, and there's another one somewhere.) ~Damnit...I guess I'll start at one of the beginings...~ ~Do you remember the day we had the big snowball fight?~ ~Yeah. That was one of the few genuinely fun times we had lately.~ ~Yeah it was....you remember how I was right after school let out...and why I said I was that way?~ ~Lemme think...~ ~You were really tired, because you had nightmares.~ ~Gotta do this bit, and then about Kaede...and then back to when I first meet Kat...Yeah that was it...and that was most of the truth.~ ~So what was the other part, then?~ ~There was something that started all those off, or maybe it was the first nightmare, or just Meimi messing with me...but the way Katie's been acting...that's just wishfully thinking.~ ~And that was?~ ~See, that night I got a call from Katie, and she asked me to meet her at the tower...which I did.~ ~I'm still hoping I just dreamed all this...~ ~Hmm?~ ~When I got there...Katie asked me about...you.~ ~Me?~ ~Yeah...You...You're half of what's going on here...and don't start feeling sorry for yourself, it isn't your fault...it's all mine.~ ~I'm beginning to see where this is going...~ ~She asked how I felt about you...And I... I...~ ~I said I'd be honest here, didn't I? Even though it sorta means going back on what I told her.~ ~I still don't know exactly what I feel for you..It's...I want to be next to you...I want you to be happy...I want you to be happy with me...I want the whole world to go away and leave us alone, I feel warm when I'm near you...but...~ ~But?~ ~After I told Katie something like that, she.... She... confessed to me...~ ~That she loves you, I mean.~ ~And since she could come out and say it...and I couldn't...~ ~She *what*? Did she really say "love," or just that she was interested?~ ~She asked me to back off from you...and I agreed because... because... I....~ ~I felt about the same way for her... I think it used to be stronger... When I first saw her...I glomped Shingo of all people because I couln't realy tell where the emotion was coming from...~ ~So...So IwantedbothofyoutobehappyandIcouldn'tdoitalonesoIthoughtifthetwoofyouwerehappyto getherIwouldbetoo~ ~Whoa, whoa. Slow down. So basically you decided you'd sacrifice your own happiness for us?~ ~It didn't work out at all.~ ~No, I'd say it didn't. But why should you be the one to sacrifice?~ ~...Because I don't THINK!~ ~It's like that with everybody I've meet from the Cups...We don't think things all the way through...We just do what feels like the best thing at the moment...and right then~ ~Anyway...that's not the only thing that happened at the tower that night.~ ~Well, there's something to be said for not being afraid to take action... but go on.~ ~When I doubted that that was the real Katie...Mimi showed up and said she was the real one, and that she'd passed somebody in the elevator.~ ~And out steped Ryo...he was in another of the dreams I had that night...and Kaede caught it...which is why I left him out of the list of people I might lie to.~ ~Ryo... you know, I've never actually seen him, but I remember Kaede asking you about him.~ ~He said we could join him or rot in the tower...Katie stabbed him for it, but he just ignored it...and this weird guy jumped out..~ ~Wait... she *stabbed* him?~ ~Have you ever watched an anime called Sailor Moon?~ ~Yeah, with her carving knives. There's a reason I was able to convince myself I dreamed this whole thing up.~ ~I guess if she thought there was no escape... I don't know. But let me keep my thoughts on this for now. What was that about Sailor Moon?~ ( It needed more chicken ) (Mmm, chicken.) (How about a nice bucket of deep-fried CHICKENHEADS?) (Hmm..what would Sailor Moon be like if Luna and Artimis were talking chickens instead of cats...?) ~The guy who jumped out was dressed a little like one of the characters named Tuxedo Kamen...only in green, with a big bow...and a quiver full of even bigger swords~ ~I am trying to picture this, and I'm utterly failing.~ ~He shoots swords with a *bow*?~ (It's okay, Satoshi. Me too, and I was there.) ~How does *that* work?~ ~Very well actualy he shot Ryo a few times~ (::shakes a bucket of punctuation at that sentance.::) () (I only have a box of spare letters. Sorry.) (Could I interest you in a nice "q," though?) ~He said he wouldn't allow anybody to kill in the tower...so I guess that's his job.~ ~He told us that he'd deal with Ryo and that we should go, so we did.~ ~And then what happened?~ ~On the elivator...or after we got out...I can't realy rememer which she asked me not to tell about what happend that night...~ ~And well...~ ~So you've been keeping this to yourself all this time?~ ~Yeah...she reminded me of my promises once when I had managed to convince myself it hadn't happened...She's gotten a lot more direct since then...but today was the least subtle I've seen her since...~ ~Well, she probably wants me to make a decision, too.~ ~...When I told her I would back off...I said I would because you could make up your own mind and that it was up to you... It hu...No, you need to think, and I've said my bit. I'm sorry I put you into a spot like this...and remember...it just might be Mimi messing with all three of us.~ ~No, I'm fairly certain this is real. And... you should hear my side of it too, I think.~ ~...I...You....You're right.~ ~This does explain a few things... like when I thought you were really interested in a while and then you seemed to cool off.~ ~Is that why you turned me down and said you were busy? I mean, being busy is a legitimate reason, considering everything we've gone through.~ ~It is, but...I wasn't.~ ~I was hoping you and Katie would...~ ~Get together if you expressed enough disinterest?~ ~Remember what I said about not thinking things through all the way?~ ~Yep. Well, to be honest I had no idea that Katie was even interested in me until she said something the other day. It was after we left the arcade, and you went off somewhere else.~ ~I'm glad she got to tell you before I did.~ ~Well, I'd been wanting to talk to you about things for a while, and that definitely made it more urgent. Because ever since she told me, she's been a lot more... blatent about it.~ ~I think she was hoping you'd cave in before my will power failed in the other direction...which it has...~ ~You haven't failed.~ ~I've gone back on my word, lied to Kaede, Gotten both you and Katie even more tangled up and complicated when we have so much else going on just because I can't make up my mind!~ ~You know I'm not exactly the model of decisiveness myself.~ ~But you go out and do things! I just run away!~ ~Do I? I've spent a lot of time *avoiding* decisions just because I don't want to hurt someone's feelings.~ ~I want everyone to think well of me.~ ( Outside, God laughs at Satoshi ) (Further confirmation that I am, in fact, doomed.) ~I've been doing that since my mother died, I spent half of my life with no friends because I was afraid people would find out I was different. Normal people can't vanish from one place to another, and they don't grow hair like this.~ ~I like your hair, though.~ ( They did in 1945! ) ~Thanks~ ~And at least you're not apparently gods-only-know *how* many years old and have had your mind messed with and your mother pressure you to be something you don't want to be at all but you do anyway and then you fail and she leaves.~ ("My life is worse than yours!" "Is not!" "Is so!") ~That's true...My story isn't anything compaired to yours...or Kaede's...I'm sorry.~ ( My life's worse than all of yours, so shut up.) ~No, no, please don't apologize. That's not what I was trying to get at...~ (::gives Kaede an official AngstBoy hat::) ~I shouldn't be complaining at you. It doesn't help anything.~ ~It makes you feel better for a moment to get things like that off your chest. I actualy feel a lot better now that I've told you...it probibly isn't going to last past the doors to this room, but it is true.~ ~I'm glad you did tell me. I'm sorry you had to keep this to yourself all this time.~ ~It'd be hypocryical of me to say you don't have to apolgise for something that's not your fault after I just did, so I won't. Won't stop me from thinking it at you though.~ (And as soon as Satoshi gets outside, Temperance wipes his memory of this whole conversation. Again. Whoops!) ~You can think whatever you want at me. It's your head.~ ~It makes me wonder, though. How sincere *is* Katie? Does she mean anything, or is she just playing with us? Before now, I wouldn't even have thought of such a thing, but... I don't know. That's the bad part. I really *don't* know.~ ~I don't know either...and the sad part is I'd still throw myself past the gates of Hell to try and help her out.~ ~Because we might be all we've got... not that we were the picture of friendship and stability already.~ ~I wonder what holds all the other groups together...we keep loosing people.~ ( What other groups? :P ) ~Fear, maybe? Or one of them has something the others all want?~ (The Band?) (The band, whoever else Sho's managed to get together, same for the old man) ~Probibly...everthings a giant mess.~ ~I'm really damn confused. Which isn't anything new, honestly. Just when it looks like we might actually have an idea of what's going on, or we're getting a handle on things... it's like trying to climb out of a mud pit.~ ~With people at the top armed with a pair of backhoes to shovel more on, just in case.~ ~Exactly.~ ~I guess we'll just have to try and do one thing at a time until we manage to wear down the tractors.~ ~They can't last forever, yeah.~ ~I suppose I'm going to have to talk to Katie about all this now. Not looking forward to that... but she's also not going to let me get out of it. Probably a good thing overall. I guess.~ ~I can't help you with that...it's between you and Katie...but if you need to talk to me again...I'm just a phonecall and a landing place away.~ ~Thanks. And no matter what comes out of this... the two of us are at *least* still going to be friends, I hope.~ ~If you're willing to put up with me.~ ~Only if you're willing to put up with me.~