-House Trouble-

by, Daydreamer

Disclaimer: I do not own Pretear.

A/N: This story takes place between Episodes 10 and 11 where Sasame betrays the Knights and joins Saihi and Himeno runs away from home. A three-day span is left out between these two episodes and this is a story filling in those days. We all know that in Episode 11 the Knights and Himeno are living in the Church where Takako first became Saihi, but we don't really know why. What happened to make them decide to live there of all places? Couldn't Himeno of lived at their house? Here's my explanation. Read & Review!

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"Welcome to your new home, Himeno!" Goh said cheerfully as he lowered Himeno's bag onto the floor in the doorway to their apartment building. He flashed the young girl behind him a wide grin. "It's not much I know, but hopefully this will do for the time being."

Himeno walked in and stood beside Goh, surveying the room in apprehension. It certainly looked.... Cozy. There was a couch and tv in the middle of the area, both looking as if they had seen many years, and a liberal amount of trash, half-eaten food, and laundry all scattered here in there in high mounds as if someone had taken them and shuffled them all into a pile and off into a indistinct place to make the room look less messy.

"We tried to clean up the house a bit before you arrived," Goh stated hesitantly as Himeno took another step into the room, "but Mannen, Shin, and Hajime aren't really reliable about this sort of thing...."

"Oh no!" Himeno said quickly, swinging around with a reassuring smile. "It's fine, really! My dad's and my apartment was much worse then this before we moved to StepMother's. This'll be fine!"

Goh looked relieved. "Good!" He reached down and shouldered Himeno's bag again. "Uh, if you'll follow me then, I'll show you to your room and you can get situated."

Himeno laughed. "Thanks." She followed behind Goh as he led her past the couch and TV and down a hallway in the back, next to the kitchen where four doorways were.

"This is the bathroom here," Goh said motioning towards the last doorway on the left. "And this one is your room."

He laid his hand on the handle of the door to the right across from the bathroom and opened it wide. Hemino walked ahead of him into the room, hugging her pack that she was carrying filled with mainly pictures and trinkets from home; the most valuable being a picture and pendant of her mother's.

She looked around the room noting that it was a lot cleaner then the rest of the house. The beds were even made. She paused. Beds? "Who's room is this?" she asked, staring at the two freshly made beds on opposites sides of the room from one another.

Goh looked uncomfortable. "Well, uh, this was Hayate's and Sasame's room but since Sasame...I mean.... that is to say..."

He didn't complete his words. The shock of Sasame's betrayal was still too painful to speak of.

"Sasame and Hayate shared rooms?" Himeno asked in surprise. She knew that the Knights all lived together but she had figured they would all have separate rooms.

"Er, yeah, all of use do, actually," Goh said sheepishly. "We don't make much money, you know, since our jobs as Leafe Knights demands for us to spend a lot of our time away from work, so we all can't afford a big enough apartment to have our own rooms in. Hajime, Mannen, and Shin all share the same room and Kei and I share the other. It's kinda cramped and Kei snores really loud but...."

"But if I take the room in here, where will Hayate sleep?" Himeno demanded, not liking the idea of sharing a room with Hayate at all. It was tense around them as it was.

Goh shrugged in embarrassment. "The couch I guess. Typi usually takes that place but I suppose it can go sleep on one of the chairs or with Shin or something..."

Himeno's cheeks reddened a bit. It was just typical of Hayate to give up his room for her and make here feel guilty. He had no right to be so kind especially since this was all her fault. To protect the Knights and her family she had been forced to leave her home and live in Leafina but now that Leafina was destroyed, all because of her inability to become Pretear due to her injuries, she had to go live with the Leaf Knights at their apartment. I really am such a burden to everyone, Himeno thought miserably to herself as she laid down her bag on one of the beds.

Goh place her other bag with all of her clothes next to it and gave her a reassuring pat on the back. "Don't worry, Himeno. You're going to fit in great here. Hayate will be fine. Remember that this is all just temporary. As soon as we defeat Saihi you can go back home to your family. Chin up, right? It'll all work out in the end, you'll see."

Himeno smiled in spite of herself. "Thanks, Goh."

" Himeno -neechan!" A loud voice came echoing through the hallway into the bedroom. "Hoy! Goh! Is Himeno -neechan here yet?"

"Ah! I see Mannen and the rest are back now," Goh stated with a laugh as Mannen went racing down the hallway into where Hemino and he were.

" Himeno -neechan!" he said joyously once he saw her. He wasn't alone for long. Soon two more 'Himeno -neechans' were added as Shin and Hajime appeared next to him.

" Himeno -chan! Himeno -chan!" Shin pipped, grabbing Himeno's fingers with his tiny hand happily.

Himeno giggled. "Hello, Shin...Mannen.... Hajime," she greeted.

"We're really glad you're going to stay here," Hajime stated. "Even if it is only for a while, this is going to be so much fun!"

"Baka!" roared Mannen, bonking Hajime over the head in a very Goh-like fashion, which Himeno found adorable. " Himeno -neechan isn't here to have fun! She's here to protect her family, remember?"

"Yeah, well there's no reason why she can't have fun while she's here, is there?" Hajime said obstinately, rubbing his head.

"Much as I hate to break up this loving conversation," Goh said in an authoritative like voice, causing the little ones to snap into attention, "but where's Kei and Hayate? They came in with you guys, right?"

"Ah, Kei's in the kitchen with Hayate setting up dinner. Pizza's ok with you, right, Himeno -neechan?" Mannen asked.

Himeno nodded. "Pizza's fine." She tried to keep her tone even, but the mention of pizza caused her stomach to let out a very inopportune growl. She reddened and grinned uneasily. It had been such a very long time she had eaten, and as her dad used to always say, her stomach was something that didn't like to be ignored.

Goh raised an eyebrow at her. "Hm, well we'd better go eat then. Himeno can always unpack later, right?"

"Uh, right."

They left the room with Mannen, Hajime, and Shin bounding ahead of them and entered the kitchen. The kitchen looked a lot like the living room to Hemino. She took in the many pizza boxes, Chinese-food containers, and paper plates that had all been stuffed hastily into a plastic trash can, spilling over onto the floor. There was still some trash they had missed around the sink area and speaking of the sink area.... Himeno couldn't believe how high they had stacked all of the dirty dishes she was seeing. It was like a great mountain of intricately placed Tupperware and glasses all situated to support the weight of the eating utensils above them, but looking like one slight tap of a finger or puff of wind could send them all crashing down.

Goh noticed her gaze resting on the dishes. "Oh, er, we're still in the process of cleaning the kitchen up. Hayate was suppose to do it but..." He sent a powerful glare at the dark haired Wind Knight that was sitting comfortably at a table where three large, opened pizza boxes were laid opposite of the sink area with his arms crossed. He gave an uncaring grunt and kept his eyes glued on the table in front of him.

"Hayate," Himeno said hesitantly to the silent Knight. "It's, uh, nice to see you."

Hayate switched his gaze from the table to her. The look gave Himeno a funny feeling in her stomach that she was pretty sure wasn't from her hunger. She felt the heat rise in her neck and she quickly looked away from him.

"So you guys are ready to eat, are you?" Kei asked, holding a paper plate filled with pieces of pepperoni and cheese pizza. "I took the liberty of getting you a plate before all the other guys could get to it, Himeno," he said coolly, handing the taken-back girl the food. "You don't want to be around when Goh and Mannen try to both get pizza at the same time. It's a little scary."

"Hey! I resent that remark, Kei!" Goh said angrily, balling his fist at the golden-haired Knight of Light. "It's not my fault the little brat's a greedy pig!"

"Who you calling a brat, huh?" Mannen shot at Goh furiously. The foot came swinging around towards Goh's shin until....

"Ow! Why you little--" Goh tried to make a grab at Mannen, but the little Ice Knight dodged out of the way.

Kei, Hajime, and Himeno broke into laughter as Goh lost balance and toppled over on a chair.

The weight that seemed to be weighing on Himeno's heart lessened some as a slight fight broke out in the kitchen between Mannen and Goh. She giggled as Mannen ran under Goh's legs and fled into the living room, Goh following madly behind him. If only every day could be like this, she thought. Her smile died some. If only Sasame could be here with them.....

Her eyes lowered. "Sasame....." she said in a hush. She looked up again to find Hayate's gaze on her, giving her an understanding look. They stared at one another for a while, not looking away until a loud crash came from the living room, startling them both.

"Those two had better not of injured my computer!" Kei said in worry, laying down his plate and hurrying towards where the sound had come from.

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I realize this is short, but I don't want to write a whole lot unless people are interested. I usually write relatively long chapters, so please review if you want me to continue. No Hayate dialogue yet, but rest assured there will be if I decide to continue. ^__^