One day, I swear, I will give this story a title. Critique is welcome! :D

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"Kana?" I asked hesitently. This girl looked like her, and she was reading in the same rapt fashion that Kana did, but Kana was still in high school, I could swear. Why would she be at a college at this time of day?
The girl looked up, eyes clouded by confusion, and looking a bit miffed at having been interupted from her book. Her hair was the same shade, definetly, though it was longer. She had the same glasses even, sitting on the top of her head, probably caught in her hair. Those same, haunting, yellow-brown eyes flickered beneath finely arched brows. Even the face was the same, with a stubborn chin and proud cheek bones built into that face of eternal childlike innocence. But it couldn't be her. Sudden recongition flitted across her face.
"Arran-nii?" She asked, surprised. So it was her. "I didn't know if I was going to see you here. I thought you might have transferred already." She pulled her glasses down out of her hair, wincing as they got caught. Definetly Kana.
"No, no I haven't... What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be at school?" Irritation flickered across her face, and was summarily squashed. So she was still doing that too.
"I am at school. I'm in college now. I graduated last June." That couldn't be right. How old was she? Fifteen? Sixteen?
"You graduated early then?"
She sighed, much annoyed. "I'm getting tired of people asking me that. I'm eighteen, damnit!" I stared at her. I'd never heard her cuss before. "And you should know better. Greg and Lynn used to bring you over all the time. I've told you my age before."
"Oh." I blinked, confused. "I just didn't realize you were that close to graduating. You seem so-"
"I act like a fourteen-year old, I know. You've said it before." She sighed, pain crossing her face. My heart constricted. This wasn't what I'd expected. She was right, I had said that before, but she always laughed it off. I didn't want her to be angry. I didn't want her to be hurt. She'd had never been that way in my presence before.
"I'm sorry." I said softly.
She sighed, and ran a hand through her hair. She usually had it cut about the same length as mine. It was nearly to her chin now. "No, I am. It's been a tough summer, what with Greg and Lynn moving up to St. Paul. I miss them. And today everyone's been asking me that question. I didn't mean to take it out on you."
I shook my head. "It's okay. Are you waiting for some one?"
"No. I just wanted to be outside in the sun for a bit. The classrooms are so cold here." She shuddered visibly.
I laughed. "I thought the same thing when I came here. Do you like college so far otherwise?"
She nodded. "I do. The classes are actually going at a pace that doesn't bore me half to death."
"Well, good." I hesitated. I needed to ask her something, but I was afraid of the answer. I'd tried to ask her once already, the previous year, when her brother and sister-in-law had been moving into an apartment. The two of us had set up the bed, and afterward, when I'd been about to say something, she had gone and said something silly. Now, she was unlikely to do that, but I still couldn't ask. I hadn't seen her since then.
She sighed audibly. "Just say it already." She told me irritably. "I know you want to say something. You did last time too, only I was afraid of what you had to say then." She would know things like that, wouldn't she? She'd always been a bit more sensitive than her brother.
"Are you in love with me?" I asked.
She winced, and looked away. "I think I was, a bit." She paused. "And for a long time. But after a while, you can't even pretend you're in love with some one you never see." There was pain in her voice. She'd probably loved me more that 'a bit'. Why hadn't she said anything? I'd been on the verge of loving her like that too. If she'd held out her hand, I would have taken it.
Did I still have a chance? Seeing her like this... I knew what Adam must have felt, looking at the forbidden fruit. If I held out my hand now, if I asked her to stand with me, would she? Or would she push me away? I don't think I could stand it if she did.
"Do you think you could love me again?" She looked up at me, those haunting yellow-brown eyes boring into me. It was like she could see right through me. I'd always loved those eyes. They had always been haunting, but beautiful, wild, bright, and uncontrollable. They held everything their owner was to me. Now, there was pain in them too. I didn't want to see that pain. I didn't want to think about the cause for it.
I didn't want the cause of that pain to be me.
"Maybe." Was all she said. It wasn't the answer I wanted.
"Yes or no?" I pressed.
"Maybe. I haven't decided yet."
I sighed. "Why not?"
She looked up at the sky. She'd always been restless, unable to keep still. I was surprised that she'd ended up at this junior college. She was very intelligent, often telling me things I had never known, and wouldn't have known if she hadn't told me. But her family wasn't very rich... And now that I thought about it, her grades had never been very good either.
She sighed again. "My heart is screaming yes. My brain is screaming no. It's a statemate. I sit in the middle. Unless I decide, it will always be a maybe."
I knelt next to her, taking her hand. "What do I have to do? I'll do anything." And I would, I realized. I would do anything, just to see her smile, to see her smile at me, to see her smile for me, and me alone.
She sighed, looking down at the book cradled in her lap. "What can you do, Arran-nii? My feelings for you faded. You can't love a memory." She looked away from me again. I wished she would stop doing that. "Not one that never loved you back, anyway." I was glad, now, that she had looked away. The expression on her face when she said that might have killed me.
I gripped her shoulder gently, but firmly. "I did love you, Kana." She didn't respond, didn't look at me. "I just..." I hesitated. "I wasn't brave enough to say anything."
"I don't know if I can believe that." She said softly. She still hadn't looked at me.
"What if I said I'd look to find you everyday? If I held you in my arms right now, and said I'd never ever leave you? If I told you I wanted to marry you?"
Her turned back to me, eyes wide with shock. "Arran-nii..." She whispered. There was something in her eyes now, something like hope.
"I don't want to be that to you anymore, Kana. I want to be something more than that. I don't want a 'maybe'. I want a yes or a no." She blinked. Then she turned away from me to look across the parking lot, drumming her heels against the ledge she was on.
"Maybe." She said finally. "I can't say more than that. You hurt me unintentionally, but the pain is still there. And Lynn would have a fit."
"I more worried about your brother." At her confused look, I explained. "When I first met you, your brother explained to me that if I ever touched you, he'd do his best to make sure I never had children." She raised an eyebrow at me.
"I was fifteen. You were seventeen. Why would he do that?" I shrugged.
"He's your brother, and you don't have a dad. It's his job to threaten any boys in a five foot radius of you." I sat on the ledge next to her. "Will you consider me?"
She looked over at me, eye's unreadable. Quick as I could, I leaned over and pressed my lips to hers. She pressed back, and we stayed that way for a long moment. When I pulled away, she was smiling. I smiled back. Her's was a sweet smile, a brave smile. I hadn't seen that smile in a long time. I'd missed it more than I thought possible. She leaned against me with a sigh.
"You will always be considered Arran." She whispered, slinking her arm around my waist. "Always considered."