The room grew silent as Yasuko finished her story. Halfway through, Kitamura and Ami had stopped arguing as they listened intently. Even after she finished her explanation, the room was silent as each of them tried to take in everything they had heard.

"That's… quite the story." Kitamura started, unsure of how to respond to what he had heard.

"I agree, I guess you can't blame him, but…" Ami trailed off beginning to sink deeper into her thoughts.

As the other three returned to their conversations, Minori's phone vibrated, 'Meet back at the station in two hours, our schedule has been pushed up. Be there or you're getting left behind.'

"You're leaving, aren't you?" Ami said, not even leaving a moments silence for her to think about what she had just read. "I guess we can't blame you, it's not like you spend time with your friends anymore."

"Ami, please. She has a life and a career, it's not for us to judge." Kitamura said trying to deter her attacks.

"I'm not judging her." Ami lashed back, "I'm telling her the truth. We're her friends, and she hasn't spent more than an hour with us in the last three years. This will probably be our only chance to be together before things really begin to change for all of us. I'm leaving for Europe, you're returning to the U.S.;everyone is going their separate ways from here. This is probably be the last time we're all together for…" She stopped, realizing the gravity of what she'd just said.

With those all too real words, the room grew silent once more. Ami stared furiously at Minori who had begun to hang her head. The tension she was creating felt as if it were strangling everyone else in the room.

"Yes, this is probably the last time you'll all be together like this." Yasuko agreed calmly, "But isn't that natural? You're a group of highschool friends, each with your own dreams and ambitions. Eventually you were going to have to leave each other to achieve those dreams. While you've all done your best to stay together while realizing those wishes, it's come to the point where you have to decide if your dreams or your friends are more important."

Ami's eyes flared with rage for a moment, but they quickly grew somber and cold, "You're right." she said, sitting down in a chair in the corner, "I guess, I'm just trying to hang on to the only friends I've really had, but that isn't how life works. Maybe it really is time we go our separate ways…"

"I'm not leaving!" Minori mistakenly yelled, "I want to spend time with you guys. Everyday I'm away, I can't help but think about what everyone else is doing and why I can't be with the rest of you." She began to cry, but tried remain composed as she spoke, "If these are our last moments together… I'd give up everything just to be with all of you." She broke down and as her knees shook, she fell to the ground. "Please," she sobbed quietly, "don't let this be the end. Don't let this be it."

Kitamura grabbed both Ami's and Minori's hands, "This isn't the end, as long as we treasure our friendship, we'll find a way to spend time together again. Let's not think about what the future holds, let's just focus on our best friends' marriage."

As Kitamura finished, the door slammed open. In came running Maya, yelling, "THEY FOUND HER! THEY FOUND HER!"

"Then tell us where!" Ami yelled back at her, but Maya was out of breath from running and yelling. She was followed by Nanako Kashii.

"They didn't find her. All they know is that she is somewhere in the downtown shopping district." Nanako said in a low tone.

"Wait, you said 'they', Maya. Ryuuji left by himself." Kitamura questioned.

"Ryuuji's... Father… Helping…" she panted. Everyone froze and looked at each other, questioning how the unlikely duo had come together. After determining it must have been some kind of fate, they rushed out the door.

"I hate this silence, tell me a story." Takahiro blurted out as the two walked the streets of the city.

"What are you, a child? Don't just go around asking people to tell you stories." Ryuuji said, slightly annoyed at how casual he was still acting.

"Oh come on, don't be so stuck up. I barely know anything about you, this could be a fantastic bonding moment."

"Don't even try it, you're not willing to tell me anything about yourself right now, so I get the same choice."

"Oh yeah~?" Takahiro said grinning, and he sat down on the curb of the sidewalk, crossing his arms.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm waiting for you to tell me a story."

"It's a waste of time, I'll tell you all about myself after we find Taiga."

"Nope. And either way, we can still look for her by sitting here. She's bound to walk by at some point."

Ryuuji took in a huge breath and sighed, realizing what Takahiro had said was probably true. He also began to think that if he told a story about himself, his father might interject with comments that could hint at who he was. "I don't really think there's anything too interesting to talk about concerning me." Ryuuji claimed as he sat down on the curb too.

"Well, talk about how you met your 'soon to be' wife." He chuckled, "I think it might be interesting to hear something about this girl."

"I wouldn't know where to begin with that. It started with each of us loving the other's best friend and somewhere along the line it…"

"It all changed?"

"Yeah. I can't really say why, but I remember waking up one morning and when I saw her, she took my breath away. At first, I thought it might be just a sign of getting used to being beside her, but then I almost lost her."

"A real eye-opener, isn't it?"

"What?"

"To think you're going to lose someone you love. That empty feeling. That pit in your stomach. The feeling of falling and no matter what you grasp at, you can't seem to stop."

"Did you lose someone you loved?" Ryuuji asked, hoping to catch a glimpse into his father's life.

"Something like that, but, if anything, it just woke me up to a truth that I had been trying to deny for too long. Anyway, keep going." Takahiro said, once again dodging any hints that Ryuuji could use to determine who he was.

"Well, after she disappeared, I realized how lonely I was. No matter where I went, or what I did, all the memories of her floated in my mind. When she came back, I thought I was going to lose it. Not only could I not stop thinking about her, but I couldn't get enough of being around her. I got so scared that I tried to push it all down and run away from it. I ended up tearing apart my friends and hurting those closest to me, but I came to accept it and I decided to stop running away from my problems."

"I can pretty much guess how it goes from there. You admitted your feelings and then you two started dating right?"

"You'd think. A perfect happy ending where the two of us have been together every day up to today. No, it didn't go that smoothly. Even after we chose what we wanted to do, even after we got all our friends support, we couldn't just run away into the sunset. We both realized that, in life, there isn't some fairytale ending and that, to be truly happy, we had to win both our parents' approval."

"I see. Must not have been easy winning the Aisaka's approval, especially with your background." His voice was low and sad, as if he regretted something about the facts of the situation. His mouth curled into a dark scowl and there was a hint of anger in his eyes which were glowering at the pavement.

"It was, but I think it was the best decision we could have made. Taiga left for a while, and I wasn't sure if she'd ever come back. I even debated going to find her and convincing her parents myself, but I knew that it wouldn't help. I trusted she'd be back when she had sorted everything out." Ryuuji paused, getting lost in the memories of his final months in High School. "When she did come back, so much had changed, but my feelings hadn't. We all celebrated her triumphant return to us and spent the whole night just talking with each other about what had happened."

Takahiro scoffed a bit as Ryuuji finished his story. "Pretty cliche, dontcha think? I can't lie though, it's a great story, you could probably turn into a whole novel."

"No one would read it though." Ryuuji laughed. The two smiled, staring off into the sky, leaving behind the problems that had plagued them not long ago.

"I'm sorry ma'am, I can't just give them to you if you can't pay for them." said the man standing behind the counter to a short girl in a torn wedding dress. "I'm really sorry, if you don't have any money I'll have to take them from you."

Taiga stared back with a burning anger behind her eyes, but the man kept a straight face. The stalemate would have continued if a voice didn't break the standing silence.

"Here, just put it on my bill and I'll pay for it all." A dark haired girl with black bows in her hair placed her things down on the counter and pulled out a card. "Just put it all on here." she said with a slight hint of pain in her voice.

While the man was putting their things in bags she mumbled things to herself like, "What a waste of good money" and "That idiot really rubbed off on me". When they finished, she handed Taiga her things and stormed out of the shop. Taiga quickly chased after her, trying to thank her for the help.

"What?" The girl said, not stopping even after hearing Taiga's call. "It's nothing, just forget about it."

"No, it is something, and would you please slow down, it's hard to keep up with you in this." Taiga was fumbling with the lower part of her dress and running after the girl.

"I'm not slowing down so you better just stop trying to keep up." She began to pick up pace and the gap between Taiga and her began to grow. Tagia decided that she wasn't going to make it in her current clothings and ripped off the bottom of her dress and took off the shoes she was wearing. With her restraints removed, she quickly caught the girl whose hair was tied in two tails on either side of her head, and tackled her onto the ground.

"If someone wants to thank you," she panted, "you should at least let them." Her head began to droop though and her stomach rumbled loudly as she laid atop of the dark haired girl.

"Hey would you get off of me already? You said your thanks, now just leave me alone." She said, trying to nudge Taiga off without hurting her, but she remained unresponsive. Her stomach continued to grumble loudly and she began mumbling something faintly.

The dark haired girl sighed heavily and picked up Taiga in a piggyback style of carrying. "That good hearted idiot must of rubbed off on me. That, or I really do have a lot of flab on my mind." She said to herself as she began to walk with Taiga lying limply over her shoulders.

"Is that…" Ami said, staring across the street at a dark haired girl with what seemed to be a child in a torn white dress strewn across her back. When she got a clear look, she sighed in relief and grief. "I go through all that effort to make her a nice dress and she just goes and ruins it."

She ran across the street to the dark haired girl and explained the situation that she had just been drawn into. "This girls getting married? That's gotta be illegal or something." The girl asked after hearing the explanation.

Ami sighed and chuckled a bit at her response. "She's a lot older than you'd think." Looking down at the passed out girl, Ami smiled with relief. Even if she would never admit it, she admired Taiga's ability to never act any other way than as herself. Even if the world was against her, she would never change who she was just to appease it. But something was different. Today, she wasn't acting like herself. She was running from something and Ami was ready to do anything to help her get back to normal.

"So, do you want to take her? I don't mean to be rude, but I have other things to do." The dark haired girl asked.

"Oh, yes, that would be the polite thing to do, wouldn't it miss…"

"Tohsaka."

"Ah, Miss Tohsaka. I'll take her, thank you for helping her." Ami said as she reached out to take Taiga off of her shoulders. But something unexpected happened.

"Not yet…" Taiga murmured, "I can't go back yet." and she clutched to Tohsaka's back.

"What does she mean, not yet?" Ami said aloud, pondering what her words meant. As she thought, a voice called out to her.

"Kawashima! Oh thank god you found her." Ami automatically recognized the voice to belong to Ryuuji.

"Oh shit! I'm sorry Miss Tohsaka, but I need you to do me a favor."

"You're not taking your friend back yet, are you?" she questioned, slumping her shoulders in the process.

"I'm so sorry. I promise I'll make it up to you, but please get her somewhere and clean her up. If at all possible, help her complete whatever she has planned." Ami said as she twirled around to face Ryuuji and his father approaching them. Just as Ami finished, Tohsaka began to run down the street, catching Ryuuji by surprise.

"Hey! Stop her!" he shouted, but he hadn't reacted yet. Takahiro, on the other hand, bolted into action immediately. Even before Ami could react he was sprinting past her and after Tohsaka and Taiga. She attempted to reach out to stop him, but she just couldn't get a grasp on his jacket.

Ryuuji began to run too, but Ami was prepared and tripped him to stop him from pursuing. "Oops, guess you should be a bit more careful about where you're walking Ryuuji." she teased.

As he picked himself up, he glared back at Ami, not appreciating her uncooperative attitude. "What the hell Ami?! If you're not gonna help me, at least have the decency to get the hell out of the way."

"Huh, so you can be a bit rude if you want to. Well, I'll be heading back to the church now, if you wanna keep wasting your time chasing after the little animal, be my guest." She said, waving her hand as she walked past him. Even if on the outside she seemed to feel nothing, her mind was worried for whatever Taiga had planned. 'Please, come back soon.'

A/N: I am so sorry to every person who reads, has read, or follows this story. I've been distracted and lazy so this chapter has been finished for almost 3 months and I just never wanted to edit it. I also felt it was missing something, but even after reading over it 6 or 7 times, I couldn't find a good way to add something without either spoiling future things or completely rewriting parts of it. Once again, I am so sorry about the long wait, and I'm so thankful for the people who take the time out of their day to read my stories. As for chapter 6... hopefully I won't do what I did with this chapter. I can't make any promises, but I'd really like to get two more chapters out before the end of the year as well as release a horde of brand new one-shots that all need a bit of work. Well, that's enough of a rant, thank you once again and hope you'll come back again to read what I write next.