Sorry ya'll for the time skip :3 Expect larger ones sooner :》

{Days Later}

After school, Kousei headed to the school's gate, not staying after school to play the piano. He figured that today had to be the day Hiroko will know; he sighed with anxiety at the thought alone.

There's only 7 days of school left until spring break, according to Kousei's calculations if he counts out the weekends. He's going to be missing Tsubaki and Watari once he moves off to his high school of choice with Kaori during the summer; how he dearly wishes he could stay where he is in Japan and still be able to be with everyone without having to be distant... But he has no choice, and with Kaori and her grades not being so well since she's been at the hospital halfway through the year...makes it all the more impossible to stay and change his high school since he doesn't want to leave Kaori after everything they've been through till now so of course she's going to be going with him overseas to America.

Wow... Kousei heaved air out his nostrils in a sigh and adjusted his bag more securely on his shoulder as he continued to walk out the school's grounds. I guess time really does fly by. But...no need for any of that kind of negativity as of now, we're still months away until the time does come.

Kousei's thoughts immediately shifted from summer break to telling Hiroko about his and Kaori's relationship and how he will do it, which had triggered a little bit of anxiety within him. Throughout his head, thoughts started to flurry around: What will Hiroko say? What will she do? Will she start asking questions or start actually interrogating me about what kind of person Kaori is to me? Oh, the possibilites are endless!

Kousei mentally groaned and dragged himself to another path that doesn't lead to his house but instead leads to the park. He's going to go clear his mind and figure out a way to calm himself a bit more about telling Hiroko about his relationship with Kaori. To him, the park somehow helps a bit more because of all the memories that can be made there; both good and bad, but overall they're all still memories and that is what's important to him.

~0000~

The young teen groaned in tire as he let himself fall on the green grass. He stared up at the sky in thought, his glasses glistening with the bright sky while he made up shapes from the clouds that were floating in the blue space up above him.

That one looks like a ball... Kousei rolled his eyes at his own discovery and at how lame it was before looking at another cloud that looked more creative. Oh, that one looks like a dragon's head, and that one looks like a sail, and that one looks like a...child...I'm guessing? Kousei sighed and shut his eyes, the word "child" ringing in his head.

Speaking of child, where's Kaori?

No more than a few seconds later, a certain blonde crawled until she was atop Kousei's head and hovered her face over his before shouting "Boo!"

Kousei screeched and sprung up but he wasn't able to even sit up because his forehead had bumped Kaoru's, bringing him back down in pain immediately while Kaori groaned and fell to the floor as she clutched her head in pain.

"Kousei, OW!" Kaori sobbed in pain and rubbed her forehead as she laid on the grass beneath her.

Kousei, forgetting about his own pain when he heard Kaori in pain, quickly moved over to Kaori's side and placed her head on his lap. He kindly moved Kaori's hand away from her forehead and gently placed his hand where hers used to be and rubbed her head in careful and gentle circles.

"Ah...I-i'm sorry, Kaori! I didn't know it was you in the abruptness of the moment and I didn't know where you were." Kousei leaned down and moved his hand away and in place if them were his own lips as he tried to kiss the pain away with words in between each peck.

"Owie, owie go away. Please don't come back another day." Kousei leaned back up to see Kaori with a red face and a stifled laughter threatening to come out.

"What?" Kousei realized what he had said during his kisses and went red too, from embarrassment. "O-oh..."

Kaori didn't want to seem rude and laugh at Kousei's embarrassment but instead she let a few giggles slip. "I'm sorry, K-Kousei!" Kaori let raw laughs emit from her mouth but she quickly reassured Kousei that she wasn't laughing at him in general. "It's just that you totally changed the saying that you used on me and I thought it was just really cute."
Kousei let out a few laughs but he looked away from the girl resting on his lap while scratching the back of his neck in a fluster. "Oh? H-hah...well...thanks...I guess?"

Kaori giggled and pushed herself up and away from Kousei to sit crisscrossed in front of him instead. She grinned in his direction when she saw him just staring.

Kousei crossed his own legs as well and stared into the eyes of the girl in front of him and decided to start up a conversation. "So, where were you at lunch? And after school, I wasn't able to find you so I just left... I was gonna call you and ask where you were when I got home but I guess I don't need to anymore."

Kaori's smile went down a little, but Kousei wasn't able to catch it, but she still laughed laughed and said, "Oh, sorry I wasn't there. I was held back a class so that I was able to finish some work I didn't do because I wasn't paying attention. Sorry if I concerned you."

Kousei sighed and tilted his lips in a pursed, half-smile as he used his hands as a leverage to hold him up so he could lean on them from behind. "It's okay," he said. Kousei shut his eyes and let out a closed, broad smile for his girlfriend. "...I was worried, but as to why you were missing was because of a teacher, I can understand."

Kaori breathed a laugh and reached forward to pat Kousei's knee twice before shooting up from the ground.

"Well, I gotta go home now." Kaori exhaled a breath and pushed her hair away from her face right before she reached out to the sitting Kousei and added, "And I'm pretty sure you should, too. It'll get dark pretty soon- well, for you considering you always lose track of time."

For about a few seconds, Kousei stared at the hand that was reached out to him but he eventually grasped it in his own and helped Kaori pull himself up. He laughed a little at what Kaori had said about him, but he still had thought to be able to squeeze the girl's hand in farewell.

"Alright, I'll see you when I see you, Kousei." Kaori grinned and reached forward to give Kousei a quick hug before she picked up her bag and walked off to the direction of her home.

Kousei pursed his lips in a small smile that only he will know of and breathed out with thought, thinking about how he was able to have such an upbeat, go-lucky person in his life that he could only hope to be with his entire life. But with the saying "don't get your hopes up" it brings him to ponder if what he and Kaori have will last. Kousei will diss the saying though, as of now. He's just going to be making sure everything in his relationship won't break, there will be ups and downs in it but he's going to make sure he and Kaori make it through thick and thin till death.

I'm probably overthinking it... Kousei laughed at his own thoughts and started to walk to his home. But who knows? Only time will tell because unfortunately I'm just a pianist, not a
future teller.

~0000~

"I'm home!" Kousei walked through the door of his house and kicked off his shoes while tossing his backpack somewhere on the floor.

"Welcome back, kiddo! Think fast!" Hiroko came from the living room and tossed an orange to him.

Predictably, Kousei wasn't "thinking fast" so the orange hit him straight in the face, his glasses falling to the ground from the impact while Kousei stumbled back from the impact as well but didn't end up lucky so he tripped on his own foot and fell on his bottom.

"Ow! Hiroko, what was that?!"

"It was an orange. I tossed it to you, you need your vitamin C so you can live."

Kousei blabbered until words actually came out. " W-what?! You call that a toss?! It was a throw!"

Hiroko scoffed and grabbed another orange from the bowl her daughter had. "Want another?"

Kousei became alert and he quickly scrambled up to his feet. "N-no! I-I'm good..."

In a swoosh, Kousei was in his kitchen with a cheap ice pack smooshed against his cheek. "It kinda stings, to be honest."

Hiroko laughed and pat his head in a friendly manner while saying, "Well, if you're even more confused about why I did that, here's more: imagine you're coming home and there's an intruder who attacks you. Well, needless to say I'm pretty sure you'll be knocked out by the time they even reach you."

Kousei sighed and shut his eyes, trying to imagine himself in a situation like that. He couldn't really deny what Hiroko said with what he just experienced in his own home.

His senses came back to him. "I don't understand why you randomly decide to just do that to me now...you had all those other relevant days...."

Hiroko laughed and gave Kousei a pat on the head. "Well, this morning I woke up and just thought 'Hey, what if I give Kousei a little lesson on defense?'"

Kousei furrowed his brow. "This was a lesson?"

The guardian sighed and started to walk back to the living room. "You can be so dense sometimes, little dude."

~0000~

"Is Nagi coming today?"

"Nah," Hiroko sat on the floor and let Koharu sit on her shoulders and played with her. "She's at home doing schoolwork.

"Oh." Kousei took a bite out of his egg sandwich and stared at the ground with wide eyes in thought.

Shoot, he started thinking, I forgot that I'm supposed to tell Hiroko about me and Kaori... Oh god.

"Aah...Hiroko...can I tell you something?"

Hiroko stopped playing with Koharu and nodded her head once, stroking her daughter's head instead. "Sure, what is it?"

Kousei went a little red in the face, his thoughts shifting as he tried to find the right way to announce the really late news. "Uh...h-how would you react if I told you I was in a relationship for over a month and I'm just telling you now?"

Hiroko stopped her hand and Koharu started to get worried when everything went still and silent.

"Mommy, what's wrong?" Koharu stood up and poked her mom's cheeks to try and get her attention.

"Nothing, sweetie, go draw me and Kousei a drawing, will you?"

Koharu brightened up and she nodded before running off to her corner to draw.

Once some time had passed, Hiroko opened her mouth.

"So...what you're meaning to tell me is that...you're in a relationship?"

Kousei nodded stiffly and his cheeks were burning up right about now. Even if just telling Hiroko seemed so simple (all he had to say was basically, "Hey, Hiroko! I know this may seem a bit weird but me and the violinist I accompany are dating!") it was still a really hard thing to do considering he's not all that confident-even though Kaori has helped him go through his insecurities and bring him up a notch-and Hiroko is a protective person, especially to those close to her.

It was silent for a minute or two, and Kousei's for sure not counting so it was probably less or even more, so it was awkward to the poor boy who had to fight through his anxieties to say just some simple words.

Chuckles started to emit from the woman in front of Kousei, which started to turn into laughs.

Kousei relaxed himself and slowly tilted his head to the side in confusion. "Uh..."

Hiroko happily spoke. "Kousei! Why didn't you just tell me earlier?"

"U-uhm! Well...it's just that I was af-fraid of how you'd act, is all!" Kousei saw that Hiroko wouldn't stop laughing to herself. "Why're you laughing?!"

Hiroko wiped away her unborn tears and leaned on her hands from behind. "Because," she started, "I'd just find it pretty surprising you told me after a long while in nervousness."

"A-and?!" Kousei was letting out all his emotions, mostly from anger because all that worrying and planning he had was all for naught. "You've known me for fourteen years! Honestly, I'd have expected you to know me by now."

Hiroko held her hand up in defense. "Now, hold on there, Mad Cow, don't go yelling at me now." Hiroko smirked. "Give me some credit, I've had to deal with you since birth but I left for two years and came back in enough time to witness you back on the piano and, well, grow up as a new person. How am I supposed to know you all that well when you slipped right out of my fingers and grew up out of nowhere?"

Kousei was about to retort but be took everything what Hiroko had just said and put it more into thought. He murmured to himself, "Have I...really changed?"

Fortunately for him, Hiroko heard from the distance.

She smiled warmly and sat up straight with crossed legs. "Yes, you have, kiddo. And it's not a bad one either, it's actually a change for the better in my opinion. Now tell me, is it the girl you're going out with who changed you?"

Kousei averted his eyes back to the ground as his thoughts shifted to a particular blonde. Memories started to flood his vision of how the girl he met in spring did all these crazy things (some with him even) to get him back on track. He smiled, coming back to the present. He looked up and stared at right into his guardians eyes. "Yes."

Hiroko started to grin, glancing at the drawing Koharu just handed to her. It was obviously the work of a toddler's. Stick figures of a boy in glasses with black hair and a woman with a cigarette who was slightly taller, holding the hand of a little girl with messy brown hair. A piano was seen in the background and around the group of stick figures were music notes scattered all around.

"A family picture," Koharu blurted out.

Kousei saw the picture from where he sat and smiled gingerly.

"Wow... Haha, this is a really nice drawing, Koharu." Hiroko smiled and ruffled her daughter's hair before handing the picture back. "Here, go place it on the fridge. If you can't, I'll come do it when you ask."

Koharu joyfully nodded and ran as fast as her little legs allowed her to the kitchen.

Hiroko let her grin die down to an earnest smile, asking one more question to Kousei.

"So, Kousei, tell me. Who is this special person in your life?"

Crap. I knew this question was coming sooner or later. Kousei sighed. Oh well. I mean, Hiroko already knows Kaori anyways.

"Sooo...you remember when I played at the recital and you came up to me and hugged me afterwards?"

"Um...yeah?"

"Okay, so do you remember when you asked who I played for, and what you said?"

Hiroko nodded. "Yes, yes. I asked who the lucky girl is, long or short haired, and said your playing practically screamed 'I love you.'"

"Uh-huh, and you remember when I told you I'd like to be a weirdo-pianist because of the weirdo-violinist I met in April?"

Hiroko nodded again, slowly putting the pieces together.

"And lastly...you remember K-...M-Miyazono? Miyazono Kaori? The girl I accompany and the one who missed her own concert so I had to play for her?

Hiroko gasped, finally getting it all. "Wait, the girl who means so much to you is-"

Kousei nodded feebly with pursed lips, putting everything together. "Yes. The girl who I played for, the one I said 'I love you' to, and the weirdo-violinist I met in April is indeed Kaori."

Hiroko nodded. "Ah...I see, you two even go by first names already?"

Kousei blushed. "W-w-well I mean...we always have..."

Hiroko grinned.

Kousei panicked. "B-but those times we were just friends! We just got closer by the day so we just suddenly, I dunno, went along with it. B-besides we've known each other for a year already."

Hiroko laughed and stood up from the floor, staring down at the boy sitting down in front of her.

"I was just teasing ya, it's okay, Kousei."

Kousei smiled and the two just stared at each other until Hiroko spoke again, softer this time.

"So she really means a lot to you, huh?"

Kousei looked down. "Yeah..."

"You've stuck with her until now, even when she went through surgery you still didn't stop believing, did you?"

Kousei looked up with a confused face. "Huh? What do you mean?"

Hiroko smiled and sat down beside Kousei.

"What I mean is, the only reason Kaori is okay and alive right at this moment is because you never stopped believing. She, herself, knew that you were going to be waiting for her after her surgery, so she fought and fought through it so that she can survive...for her family, friends, and you, Kousei."

Kousei fiddled with his fingers and stared at them. Is Hiroko right? I did believe she'd make it back to us okay, but what was it that I saw back at the Gala? Was it all my imagination to keep me even more sane about Kaori, or was it all real? Did Kaori see what I saw too?

Kousei inhaled, moving his thoughts away to clear his mind. Maybe...but if not, I guess Hiroko is still-

"Right." Kousei smiled and gave Hiroko a toothy smile. "Guess you're right."

"Alright now." Hiroko gave Kousei pats on the back and stood back up, making her way to the kitchen to check up on Koharu. "Be sure to bring her when she has the chance, buddy. I'd really like to get to know her if she was able to do all that to Monotone Kousei." Hiroko grinned and disappeared to the kitchen.

Kousei waited a few moments, hearing Koharu and her mom make some sort of talk in his kitchen, before standing up and walking over to his room.

"I'm gonna go shower," Kousei mumbled to himself as he walked up his stairs, dragging a hand over his face in tire. He adjusted his glasses afterwards and sighed once more, mumbling again. "All that stress from before is all gone, but I still need to wash away what's left of it." Kousei groaned as he opened the bathroom door and shut it right when he entered, getting himself ready for an afternoon shower.

~0000~

Time was was 11:17 PM and Kousei had no idea what to do at that moment. He and Kaori chatted a bit by message but ended up calling a little while after but that was a little more earlier at like 9 or 10 o'clock.

"Should I just maybe go to sleep? Hm..." Kousei cupped his chin and laid his head on his window, sitting on his bed as he tilted his head upwards to look at the stars up above.

Kousei gave a tiny smile. "The stars are shining bright tonight."

"Mozart's telling us from up the sky, 'Go on a journey,' he's saying."

Kousei smiled as he recalled that little memory and sighed in content. "Maybe he is... I promise you, Kaori, well go on that journey soon-"

Kousei stopped his mumbling, jumping a bit when his phone vibrated in his shorts and his ringtone started playing. He scrunched his brow in confusion, slipping his phone out.

Who would call me in the middle of the night?

"Hello?"

"H-hi, Kousei..."

Kousei felt his breath catch in his throat, but he spoke anyways. "O-oh- Hello, Tsubaki."

"So...there's two reasons why I'm calling you."

"Alright, what are they?"

Kousei heard Tsubaki take a breath on the other line before she spoke out saying, "One and two: I wanted to make up with you and just say I'm sorry about what happened earlier. I just got...I don't know, jealous, y'know?"

Kousei sighed and tilted his lips in a face. "I mean...sure, I guess I get why, but I wanna apologize too, for you know, for yelling."

"Also that too, hehe."

Kousei smiled, this was like old times. Where the two would just talk and not have a worry in the world.

"Hey hey, open your window."

Kousei did what Tsubaki suggested and slid open his window, facing a wild-haired Tsubaki across from him in the window ahead.

"I'm sorry but...your hair..." Kousei started to snicker.

Tsubaki huffed on the other line and said, "Shut up! I just couldn't sleep so I woke up and called you to get the weight off my chest."

Kousei laughed quietly and faced the window more better and crossed his legs on his bed as he apologized and suggested, "Why don't we just talk to each other without the phones?"

Tsubaki shrugged and took her phone off her ear and ended the call she and Kousei were having. She leaned forward on her forearms after tossing her phone somewhere on her bed and grinning at her best friend. "Hello, Kousei. How are you this fine day?"

Kousei closed his phone and placed it somewhere in his bed before he shrugged and said, "Guess I'm okay, but it's actually night not day."

Tsubaki pouted. "Okay okay, you're no fun."

"Wha- hey!"

Tsubaki laughed and shushed the boy across. "Shh! People are sleeping."

Kousei sighed and rolled his eyes, a small smile showing up nonetheless.

Tsubaki sighed and hesitated with what her next topic was going to be, she was really close to not even bringing it up but she needed things cleared.

"So, Kousei?"

"Yeah?"

Tsubaki took a deep breath and rested on her bed on her knees, clenching the window sill as she asked, "Do you really, only see me as like a sister?"

Kousei faltered, but he smiled sadly as he looked genuinely sorry at Tsubaki. "Yeah...yeah I do, I'm sorry, Tsubaki."

Tsubaki nodded in understanding looked down for a moment, but she looked back up with a visible smile. "It's okay, at least now everything's completely cleared up."

Kousei smiled and nodded too. "You're right."

There was silence as the two stared each other down, but Kousei was the first to break it because he wants to start a real convo.

"So...Tsubaki, with all that crap we fought about back then, let's just throw it under the rug? I think it'd be for the best if we want a healthy friendship because I don't want to keep going on about it in the near future when that's one of the worst memories the two of us have created in our friendship." Kousei looked at Tsubaki as he waited for a response.

All Tsubaki did was sigh before leaning out her window and holding her hand out. "Deal."

Kousei grinned and leaned forward as well to grasp her hand in a short shake before breaking apart and sitting on his bed again. He shifted around until he was seated closer to the window and rested on the wall beside the opening.

"So," he started, staring at his dressed ahead of him, "what high school will you be going to?"

Tsubaki felt the last part of Kousei's question ponder in her mind. She moved so that she was sat on her bottom and shrugged, toying with her oversized shirt that stops at her mid-thighs.

"I'm going to go to Sagano. For one, it has a nice campus and it's not far away, and for two, they have a nice softball field."

Kousei chuckled softly, his shoulders visibly shaking to Tsubaki. He turned his head so that he was able to see her through the corner of his eyes, his eyesight a bit blurry since his glasses don't reach that far. "You really love softball."

Tsubaki laughed lightly and nodded, staring down at her knees. "Well, of course. It's one of my favorite things in life. Just the feeling of being able to get a hit on a ball is just...a really great feeling. And making the friends you make on the team is another great feeling because most are nice."

"Most?" Kousei turned his head a little more so that he was facing her and used his hands as a leverage. "What about the others?"

"Cocky and rude."

Kousei gave a cheery grin and sniggered. "Of course. And are you one of them?"

"Of course not, you idiot!"

Kousei laughed again and dodged a thrown pillow, not laughing anymore when it almost broke his glasses.

"Ah! What the hell, Tsubaki? You're lucky that pillow didn't fall to the ground in between us because I'm for sure not going to get it at this time of night."

Tsubaki growled and looked away and crossed her arms like an angry child would do. "What a gentleman. I'm surprised Kaori is even going out with you."

Kousei bluntly laughed. "Ha-ha, very funny. I'm lucky enough to even be in a relationship with a person I love. Hopefully...it lasts for a long time."

Noticing Kousei's thoughts wander somewhere else, the short-haired brunette got the attention of Kousei by giving him a thumbs up and bright grin, saying, "Don't worry! You and Kaori will have a relationship that lasts till death do you apart."

Kousei brightened up a little more after hearing those words from his friend, so he grinned with closed eyes and relaxed as he responded with, "Thanks, Tsubaki. That gives me a little more hope, to be honest. But even if death does us apart, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna still be with her, but in here." The young boy gestured to his heart.

Tsubaki nodded with a warm smile and sighed in bliss, her emotions faltering when she asked Kousei a question regarding school.

"Kousei. So now that you know what high school I'm going to, mind telling me which one you're going to?"

"I..." Kousei laid back on the wall again, closing his eyes. "I'm going to the overseas for high school. It's in America and the high school is called Music Education Centers of America. It's in California, to be exact."

"America...? B-but that's across the world!"

"Well I did say I was going overseas, right?"

"Well, yeah, but-"

"Tsubaki." Kousei stared straight at the panicking girl. "What's going through your mind right now?"

"When you move to America how will we meet again? Will we all be able to keep in touch with you? Have you told Kaori you're going there?"

Kousei smiled sadly at how worried Tsubaki was being, knowing he's going to be leaving his friends pains him but he has to if he wants to have a future for himself.

"Okay, to all your questions: Kaori is going to be coming with me since she's also been convinced by me to become a teacher for young musicians, so we're both going to try and keep in touch with you all until we come back and see each other again. We're hoping we can come and visit during summer breaks, y'know? Hiroko is coming too since part of this was her idea."

"Oh..." Tsubaki felt a little better knowing that she has a way to be able to see Kousei again, and Kaori too knowing that they'll both be gone.

"So...yeah. That's the plan."

"Wait, but...what's the whole purpose of going over there? What is it that you wanna do?"

Kousei moved so that he faced Tsubaki in general and said, "I wanna be a composer."

"Ooh, so you a composer and Kaori a teacher. Ya know, I can see that work out if you guys ever become a family."

Kousei blushed but he laughed anyway and scratched his head. "Yeah."

Though she wasn't aware of it, Tsubaki had thoughts going through her mind. She finds it completely ridiculous how she and Kousei are talking about this right now. All she can remember is when she and Kousei first started hanging out and playing with all the other kids when they were younger and meeting Watari in the 3rd grade. She remembers having Kousei and her agree on helping each other and sticking together through thick and thin, but now as if in a flash Kousei is already in a relationship with her friend and they're both heading to America to get their future in place.

Future... Tsubaki smiled but a tear slid down her face as her chest tightened. Guess time really does fly by.

"Hey, Tsubaki."

Tsubaki discreetly wiped her tear away with her finger but she paid full attention to Kousei. "Hm?"

He smiled. "It was nice having this talk with you. It's been ages since we last spoke like this."

Tsubaki nodded her head, agreeing. "You're right. And I'm glad we were able to clear everything up."

"Yeah..." Kousei sighed and moved onto his knees as he leaned over and waved. "Well, see you tomorrow at school."

Tsubaki closed her own window right after she waved back. "Bye, Kousei."

Kousei closed his own window and sighed in tire. Again. He flopped down onto his bed, too lazy to try and turn off the light but he wouldn't be able to sleep if he didn't so he got up and flipped the switch off and took off his glasses right when he tossed himself onto the bed again and laid, feeling sleep engulf him.

:D

How was this chapter? I'm not so sure about this one but I'm actually proud of how it turned out for once ;D I did it all on my phone by the way so sorry if there's typos or anything like that because my computer keeps crashing so ya.

I get worried that sometimes most of you guys don't like something I do in this fanfic because it's not like in Japan and stuff so I do research every chapter and that's mostly why I take a while to get chapters out. I was going to have the time be 24 hour but it all just seems too confusing so it's going to be 12 hour time.

I hope this was decent, at least there was a Tsubaki and Kousei moment ;D they needed it.

Hopefully they weren't too OOC, I try so hard to keep them in character.

It's 3 AM I stayed up to finish this.

Goodnight/good morning/good evening/good afternoon!