Chapter One- -Yuki.

"Awe, come on! Who ya kidding?"

Squeezing the Louisville Slugger tighter in his clenched fists, Tohru Honda replied by spitting into the dirt two feet in front of him. Kidding? About baseball? Ha! Tohru never kidded when it came to kicking Kisshu Haragani's butt! The air was stifling hot, the sun beating down on their faces. Ten to twelve year olds surrounded the field, the diamond, watching with tired eyes. It's the same old thing with these two. Tohru goes to join the game, Kisshu complains, she ends up staying, he ends up losing. Bada Bing, Bada Boom . . . the day's ruined for poor Kisshu. I slumped closer from where I watched, sitting in the windowsill of my house. I've gotta give it to him, the guy was stubborn. Even if I was impressed by his gutsy-ness, especially when it came to challenging twelve-year-old Kisshu, others had biased feelings.

Tohru swung the bat, impatient now. Kisshu took his sweet time, tossing the ball up and down in his hand. "Get outta here, Honda," he sneered. How mature. I shook my head slowly, though no one was around to see my irritation. Such a jerk. The biggest, even.

"Give it a rest, Haragani," Tohru spat back, "either lose with dignity or go home."

That set the game in motion. I suddenly had the urge to get down there—where the action was. Not because I'm a twelve-year-old boy and, therefore, love to see someone be set into their place. And definitely not because I wanted in on that game. Come on, taking one look at me, you'd know I wasn't cut out for the big times. I was too quiet, too cautious, too distracted. They'd kick me out two minutes into the game. I don't know what was pulling me there now. "Master Yuki, where are you off to?" Her voice was kind, soft, but suspicious. I cringed, turning to face my older brother's nanny, putting on my best innocent face. Don't even go there either! She doesn't look after me the way she's paid to look after Ayame. Ugh. Devil's spawn. But she is always treating me like her own. We've got a nice friendship going, if I do say so myself.

Kyoke Honda regarded me with lively blue eyes. I noticed, peering closer, they were shaded a bit darker. She looked exhausted. Yeah, if you had to keep my brother occupied and busy so he didn't get into trouble all the time, you'd be outta here by now, like all the other nannies. Kyoke's the only nanny I know who's still here after a month. Bless her.

I tilted my head back a little, noticing she looked similar to her son. Not saying that offensively. The resemblance was there, though, in the big blue eyes and the bright, warm-your-tummy smile. Tohru must've taken after her father with his light brown hair. You could barely see it, him always wearing a baseball cap and all, but sometimes his bangs peeked from under. Kyoke had blonde hair, the color of the sun. "Morning, Kyoke," I replied cheerfully, "to the field, naturally." When she first got here, I decided right then and there that she was too young to be called some stuffy name like 'Nanny Honda' or 'Mrs. Honda'. So I instantly took to first names and, when her guard was down, Kyoke could easily slip up and call me plain 'Yuki." I don't mind. I prefer it that way. It's my mom that doesn't.

"You better not let your mother hear you, Yuki," Kyoke said, seeming to read my thoughts. I smiled back. Nice woman. She flicked something at me and I caught it easily, to her delight. It was a plain blue baseball bat and I had to chuckle softly. She always got a kick out of testing my reflexes, since I'm in training and everything. "Tell Tohru I said hi."

"Will do."

"That's game, Kisshu!"

Guess I'd better get going. I slid the door open and paused, breathing in the beautiful day appreciatively. Maybe I should get out more. It's basically a prison cell in this house. Exaggeration much needed. I could see across the field, the plates were loaded and some kids hung to the side, against the fence. A new thought occurred to me. School. School started pretty soon now and they all must be dying to use up the rest of their summer. Understandable. To me, it was heaven to be able to go back to school. Not because I LIKED the homework and the studying. Just the simple fact it was, exactly, four blocks away from home. Seven hours, four blocks from home. And away from Akito.

Seven hours. Four blocks.

Pure Heaven. I crossed the road and could have laughed at the sight that greeted me as I got closer. Tohru and Kisshu were in each other's faces, arguing about foul balls and sore losers and cheaters. Everyone looked pretty uncomfortable, maybe even irritated. I felt for them. Who wants to come out on a day like this and watch two people fight over a game rather than play one?

"Look, Honda! If you wanna play dirty—fine!"

Uh oh.

"What do you mean by that?"

This is bad.

"You can leave!"

Aw, fudge.

And Tohru did just that.