Miki slowly comes out of the Seventh Heaven... looking quite down... a bag in his hand, a red rose seal emblazoned on the side of it. Miki sits down on one of the Mass Transit benches.. Utena wanders along the sidewalk, hands in her pockets, breathing in the soft flower-scent that's carried along with the sakura petals that drift through the evening air. The moon and stars, faintly visible past the streetlights, shine down as if to bless the nighttime city. Utena's slightly inattentive, as her mind is wandering, worried about what may have become of her other friends, worried about Himemiya's disappearance.. in general, the girl's got a lot on her mind. Miki sets his stuff down, and starts fiddling with his signet ring... today being the bad days of all bad days.. from the Piano catching on fire.. to the fact that he's totally out of funds. Miki begins to hum the melody for 'The Sunlit Garden'... trying to calm himself down a bit. Utena is quite the opposite, completely at peace. The main reason she's wandering around is there was a softly nagging sense at the back of her mind that she should.. a whisper, a breath of some distant sense.. like a magnet pulling on her from across a great void. She blinks and pauses in some surprise as her mental wandering ends and she suddenly notices the young man on his bench. "..." She hurries over (it's a little dim and hard to see entirely clearly) and taps the boy on the shoulder. "Ano.. Kaoru Miki-kun?" Miki . o O ( I've got to find some sort of job... at least until Principal-san can.... ) He stops and looks up a bit, "Hai?" He then begins to turn. Miki stops... "Utena-sempai?" Utena exclaims, "Micky...!" brightly. Her face lights up, those deep-water blue diamond eyes of hers shimmering. "I don't believe it, here you are! I was just thinking about you...!" Miki lights up as well, "Utena-sempai!! I didn't think I would see any of you again?!" Utena settles down on the bench next to the musician, "What are you /doing/ out here in the evening like this? Did you just get here?" Concern wars with relief on her gentle face; she lets out a long breath. Miki shakes his head, "I've been here for over a month. I'm trying to find a way to get me some money since I've ran out of what money I had when I suddenly appeared here... " He sighs, "It's been horrible... I haven't seen anyone here that I've known since I came here." Utena shakes her head disbelievingly, sending shivers through the curly pink hair that streams down her back and shoulders. "A month... Well, first thing's first, you can crash with me.. Wakaba's here too, and we've got a place. Himemiya -was- here, but then she vanished again.. I don't know what to make of it. I haven't seen Touga, or Saionji, or even Chu-chu... " Miki nods, "Thank you, Utena-sempai. I've been at the school hoping that you all would show up there sooner or later. So, Wakaba-sempai is here as well?" Utena mmhmms, as she moves quickly to her feet and offers her hand, rose signet shimmering pale under a shaft of moonlight. "I bet you'd love a chance to shower and get some rest... I don't have a lot of stuff or space, but whatever I've got is yours... c'mon, let's get outta here." Miki nods and takes her hand.. quickly getting to his feet, the worry on his face replaced by a smile. Utena walks along beside her friend, and as we get near the Towering Apartments, Utena points them out. "That's where I'm staying.. they had this free apartment program for people who got dumped off by that weird effect. They might still have space, you could get your own place if you ask them during the day tomorrow..." Miki nods, listening. Utena stops at door 105... "This is us." As she slips her key in the door, she grins apologetically. "It's pretty sparse and a little bit messy, so don't be shocked... neither Wakaba or I are as good housekeepers as Himemiya was..." Miki looks around as he walks in, since the room is much more homely to him then anything he has seen for the past month or so.. slightly uncomfortable though since he's never really been to Utena-sempai's room before, besides the one time he was there to help Hymemiya-sempai and Utena-sempai with their studies.. Utena,perhaps sensing this on some level, smiles reassuringly. "I'll make some tea.. make yourself at home!" Leaving a faint hint of rose perfume in her wake, she strides off into the kitchenette, where you can hear water running into a metal container. Miki nods, and sits down, putting his bag in the corner of the room. "So, how did you get here, Utena-sempai? Did the.. 'phoenix effect' take you at the same time that it took me?" Utena peeks her head out, shaking her head. "Don't think so... I'd just come out of a really harsh duel with Juri-sempai...." She shudders faintly, remembering just how close that actually came- and she's still not sure she really -won- that duel, either, since it seemed like an act of God that the sword came down the way it did... "Then, I turned around to say something to Himemiya and she... wasn't there. There was a sort of warm swirl of light, and then I was on the street here..." Miki nods, "Hai.. I remember that... wow.. that was right at the beginning of the school year... " Miki then stops, "But how.. how did you dissapear.. when you were there when I suddenly came here.. because the duel with Juri was about 3 months ago..." Utena frowns, stepping fully out of the kitchen to lean in the doorway,looking confused. "What do you mean, sempai?" Miki looks over at Utena, "Because when I came here, it was during my duel with you... my SECOND duel with you." Utena blinks again, her eyes widening. "... second duel?" Incomprehension flutters across her face,quickly followed by a sort of discomforted disbelief. "... why would we need to fight a second time...?" Her voice softens, giving the sense that the idea horrifies her. Miki shakes his head, "I don't really know why we ended up fighting. But I remember that I really felt like I needed to do it after Akio-san talked with me that one night." Utena says, "... Akio-san?" Now Utena looks even MORE confused. Although she's tempted to ask just who that might be, she refrains. Instead she rubs the bridge of her nose with her forefinger and thumb thoughtfully... "Miki.. it almost sounds like... you said three months prior? ...." For a long moment she's very still. "... you're talking about .. something that hasn't happened to me yet.... I think..." Miki blinks, "But how.. " He then thinks for a moment more and his eyes widen, "Gomen! Gomen! I shouldn't of told you that then! Gomenisai!" Utena says, "... Hey, I've got an idea...Let's just.. for the sake of not driving ourselves crazy trying to figure it out.... let's just pretend that we only had the one duel and that's all?" Her mouth curves into a slanted line. "I'm not sure how I feel about someone knowing something about my future.. or a possible future at any rate... Uhm. I guess... we must have come from different times or something.. so maybe the things you experienced only happened to you...because I sure as hell can't explain howI could be gone after Juri's duel and then be there again three months later for a second duel with you!" Miki nods, "Okay, Utena-sempai. That sounds fine by me... " Besides, he doesn't want to have to explain the fact that Wakaba became a duellist.. or the Akio Cars.. or Akio.. or Nanami's Egg and well.. all the other wierd and odd stuff that's been happening on Campus. Utena fidgets a bit, shifting her weight from foot to foot, and looks relieved to hear the kettle begin a slow rising whine in the kitchenette behind her. She hurries off to answer it, while her mind races. . o O ( Akio-san... I've never heard that name before.. who is he?) And the truest, most deeply burning question, the one that sets her heart on fire before it's even finished fully forming in her consciousness: Did I meet him? Do you know if I met the Prince? But she can't ask that question, can she....can she? Miki sighs, and leans up against the wall... quite exausted. Utena brings out a lovely rose-patterned china teaset, two cups and a serving dish, kneeling carefully on the floor and offering a cup to her fellow exhausted student. "You must be really tired.." she says, "Take the bed tonight, I'll see about getting another sleeping bag or maybe a couple of cheap mattresses tomorrow." Miki takes the tea, "Aritato, Utena-sempai. It's alright. I can sleep on the floor. Besides, it's your apartment. I don't want to steal your bed from you." Utena says, "If it's just for one night, I think I'll live, and you look tired enough to drop right where you're sitting." Utena smiles gently. "It's okay, really." Miki smiles and sips the tea, "Arigato, Utena-sempai."