Chapter I:

"Early Summer's Present"

She sighed as the warm air of the afternoon hit her skin through her shirt. It was a warm day; a perfect day for a good game of archery. Her job, however, hindered her from doing as such. And so now, she settled with tapping her pen against the table. The steady rhythm calmed her. She felt jittery because of the big speech tomorrow. Her heart still jumps at the idea of public speaking no matter how long she's been doing it. If it's from nervousness or the thrill, she didn't know.

"Kaichou, are you going to close up?" She looked up from her chore and pressed the reading glasses back, nodding. Everything today had been a blur. She didn't know why now in particular, but her senses were so dull. She was usually alert and keen to everything (the job requires it), but why now?

"Kaichou?" She snapped back to reality and nodded strongly once more. The boy gave her an incredulous stare that was met by her glare. "Yeah, I'll go now."

"Yes," she stated flatly with her glare never faltering, "You should." She rolled her eyes as the boy coiled back at her anger and leave hastily. Some people just don't know how to read the atmosphere. Sighing once more, she picked up her pen and continued with her tedious job. It's not like she didn't choose it, so she had no right to complain. Being the student body president demanded a lot of effort, time and—yeah, mostly time. It wasn't so hard acting as the role model, as far as she cared, but her time was precious and she loved spending it with things she liked.

If only I could quit halfway.

But, no. She was and would never be like that. A quitter never wins and she happened to like winning. So, she picked up her pace and started scribbling like mad.

"I'm home," she announced. The house was up in a condo unit in the normal districts of Hokkaido. Life was normal, her family was normal, the income was normal—nothing fascinated her. Life wasn't exactly kind nor was it ever mean to her. It was just stable. It was just... staying. It was hard at first, you know, constantly trying to keep up the image of a good child with not so mediocre grades and social status. They were exhilarating to be exact. Well, as long as she has it steady then she didn't need to worry.

"Welcome home!" A voice that's all too familiar screeched. She didn't like the voice, to be honest. It was shrill, loud and very irksome. Not something she would be fond of, really. But, it's not something she hates either. That voice was the voice of her mother, the only reminder why she had to get her not so mediocre act.

"Is Keenan there?" She placed her shoes on the rack and smiled, heading down to the living room. She knew her mother tried hard to be there for the both of them, but she also needed to work to support the both of them. It almost felt too strange when her mother came and suddenly showered them with gifts and affection. She had spent so much time without it and felt a little too strange to accommodate that kind of... thing.

"Yes," her mother replied, wiping her hands on her apron, "He's upstairs playing that new and popular game since six in the morning." She smiled, waving nonchalantly at her mother's disapproval. She knew that the game was really good. She won't bother, though. She had to keep her reputation.

"Why can't he be more like you?" Her mother, sighed, "So hard-working, so intelligent, so..." She tuned her off, climbing up the stairs. Her brother was her angel no matter what her mother says. He was her own little treasure, her own strength and weakness and she'd massacre anyone who dares to harm him.

Sighing, she slowed her walking. She didn't allow her feet to make any sound as she walked silently to her brother's room.

"Aika-nee?" Keenan's voice resonated through the narrow hallway. "I can hear you." Her body tensed then relaxed, a smile forming on her lips.

"Guess what I got you?" She grinned, skipping over Lego blocks and some figures on the way. She watched him perk up and drop everything he's holding.

"What is it?" He smiled, feeling the table for a long nose. His other hand fiddled with a strange helmet on his lap, pulling wires and plugging them into another portal. She knew he loved gadgets as much as her father ever did. The two were quite the bunch, always putting new inventions together and always taking them apart. Some of them were never seen again and she had a feeling that it was always kept in the trash bin. But, the thing was… her father left not so long ago and the one who took the most painful blow was him.

"It's something you really want," she grinned, shaking the paper bag in front of him. His mouth dropped at the sound of it, hands freezing in between work.

"Is it—is it..?" She dropped the object on his table, eyes curving when his hands raced to touch her present. "Oh my god. It's—it's..!" Her lips curled up in amusement, watching him stutter and feel the sold out chemistry set he's been wanting since they started tackling chemistry. He jumped off his seat and flailed his hands around. She took his hands and wrapped it around her waist, stumbling when he hugged her and nearly knocked her over.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" Keenan squealed, jumping up and down. She smiled as he quickly familiarized himself with the set of tools.

"Now I can tweak a bit of my gadgets with Chemistry!" He grinned, sniffing the crucible and the spatula. "Did you know that if I could relate Quantum Physics with my experiment in Natural Sciences now, I could discover new races and elements that could be added in the periodic table? I could be the new Dmitri Mendeleev! Oh! And I have this prototype of a conventional…" She smiled affectionately at him and patted his head. She has to work hard because she wanted to give him everything his childhood robbed him off.

"That's right! So, you have to work really hard, okay?" Keenan nodded with a gleam in his eyes.

"Oh! I found this helmet under your bed. It's that popular game nowadays." He said, patting the helmet on his lap. "I've been trying to reroute and tweak the system to find out how it works. I've been really curious as to how they manage to control the brain cells, but I ended up modifying all of it. I bought another one, but I don't have a test subject because it's illegal and…" He was crestfallen.

"My Helmet?" He nodded. Aika looked bewildered. "You know I don't play anymore." Keenan frowned thoughtfully.

"Why? Ever since you started high school, you quit everything you love to do." Aika bit her lip, not knowing what to say.

"You won't understand—" Keenan knew that he stepped over some boundary and he was going to push it.

"I can't understand because nobody would make me understand," he grimaced, "I don't expect people to, but that does not mean that I have to like it." Aika faltered. She bit her lip and stared at Keenan's milky eyes. He didn't know and he did not need to know. Everything was for him, everything. Aika paused, but relented. 'It's for him,' she reminded herself.

"Alright," she sighed, her heart lifting when he smiled. "But you have to tell me how you got your hands on one."

"I sold one of my designs online," he simply replied. That evil twit. He knew I was going to be his test subject! Keenan smirked and knew that he had her. Aika twitched and took the modified helmet with shaky hands.

"PROGRAM INSTALL COMPLETE," Keenan squealed in glee and plugged the connector off, pulling another helmet out under his table. "Okay, I'll try the normal one and you try the modified one." How the hell..? She grimaced, knowing that she somehow always gets hooked with his experiments one way or another. Used to the pain, she slammed the helmet on her head.

"If I die, I'm going to kill you." Keenan grinned.

"Yep! I'll be Raven, if you must know." That brat. And with a resigned sigh, she settled on his bed and closed her eyes. For a moment it was all black, and then a bright light blinded her sight.

A/N: Well, hello! I've always loved Half-Prince and I thought of filling up some holes in the story. (I also happen to love OC's, so...)

Let me know what you think about them!

P.S.

I also accept suggestions about scenes and all that jig. I'm trying to know if I write better in first person point of view, so you guys might see a lot of changes. Say anything you want, I'm seriously open.