Masaki watched the news with an unreadable expression as the reporter listed the names of the casualties from 'Scorched Halloween' as they called it. He'd never been so scared in his life; his heart was running laps in his chest waiting to see if her name would be included. The excruciating wait for the reporter to move from R to S felt o long and so short 'Shiba' the youth echoed in his head 'Please don't say her name.' Sa...Se...Sh. This was it. Masaki couldn't care less about the names that came up, if anything, he resented them for making the list longer, why were there so many people who's last name started in Sh?

"Hey Masaki, how are you doing?" George asked from beside him,

"AAAH! W-where did you come from?" Masaki stuttered, startled by George's intrusion.

"Ha ha sorry to make you jump, you looked spaced out and serious which is unlike you. Is something wrong?" Masaki looked away and back to the TV screen but the list was now in the Ts. He scowled. "Oh I see. Casualties from the attack..." George trailed off bringing the mood back to the melancholy state it was in before. Masaki's face however was bursting with anger and impatience.

"WHY DID YOU HAVE TO COME IN AT THAT MOMENT?" He demanded, furious. George didn't know how to answer that.

"Huh?" Was the only thing he could let out; nothing was more terrifying than an angry Masaki in his eyes.

"The reporter had got to the S list of casualties. Because of you I don't know if Miyuki is even alive...," he trailed off with less anger and more sadness appearing in his tone the further he went on until he was talking in a husky whisper with tears sliding down his face.

'Masaki's crying? I've never seen this before, what should I do?'

"I need to be alone," Masaki hinted, turning the TV off and headed towards his bedroom. George was left stunned where he was before getting the idea to check online to see if the Shiba girl was alive which was annoyingly hard because the news hadn't posted it yet but after about an hour of starring blankly at a screen, he was able to search the list.

George knocked on the bedroom door, mentally preparing himself for delivering the news. No answer. "Honestly, why didn't he think of searching online?' He thought to himself and pushed open the oak door open. In contrast to the well lit hallway, Masaki's room was dark with no lights on with only a slim bit of moonlight and the hallway to light it which was enough to identify a wallowing, half asleep Masaki lying fully dressed on his bed. 'The idiot really didn't think of looking it up,' George confirmed, walking over to his best friend and started speaking in a lackadaisical voice, putting on an act that he didn't care (when secretly cared very much).

"The one called Shiba Miyuki-" This instantly caught Masaki's attention as he sat up and glared George down with green eyes that seemed to glow in the dark room like a cat. "She is alive."

"I promise," Masaki started, eyes burning a green fire, "I'll be the one to protect her and make her fall in love with me."

"That was um sudden," George said, taken aback by his friend's expeditious resolve. "Anyway, why didn't you look online?"

"That's obvious, because I knew that you'd do it," Masaki chimed, energy returned.

"What? I'm not your servant, you know," George retorted but smiled. "Whatever, I'm glad you're OK"

End of chapter 1 :P I was planning to make this chapter longer with both Masaki's and Miyuki's PoV but I thought that this was an OK ending because how would I even end it with Miyuki?

In this story, I'm planning to use a word of the day (I wonder how long this will last. I only came up with the idea because it fit when I needed a word)
lackadaisical - without interest