For my buddy Brittany.

…

A tall, lanky boy with short dark blue hair sighed as he pulled on the black school uniform jacket over the white collared shirt. He looked in the mirror so that he could see as he buttoned up the jacket. His miniature, a chibi with dark blue hair and cat ears in a black tank top and shorts, floated beside him with its dark blue furred front paws underneath its chin.

"You look weird in that," it said with a short, single chuckle.

"Shut it Yoru," he said with an annoyed tone. The look in his eyes was one of as equal annoyance as the tone of his voice suggested. He looked around his single dorm room, unopened and half-unpacked boxes were still scattered around the room from when he moved in two days ago. The only thing that was even remotely unpacked was his violin and sheet music, which was scattered near where he was standing.

He picked up his school schedule from where it had been sitting on his pillow and looked at the top of it as he plopped down on his bed.

Tsukiyomi Ikuto – Day Class

Day class? What was that even supposed to mean?

Ikuto didn't know much, if anything, about his new high school, Cross Academy. The company he worked for, Easter, had managed to get him into the school because they believed there to be an X Egg with one of the students at the academy. Whether or not there really was an X Egg, he didn't know for sure and he honestly didn't care, he just wanted to focus on his school work this time around. And he felt he could since Easter wouldn't be looking over his shoulder twenty four-seven.

The oak door of his room swung open to a brunette girl in a black sailor suit with a white band around her left arm. She looked directly at him through tired eyes - he noticed the bags immediately, as if she'd been up all night. "Ikuto Tsukiyomi?"

He nodded. "That's me."

"Yuki Cross." Yuki looked over at the violin and scattered sheet music. "So you're the one who was playing last night." She looked back at him. "You're good."

Ikuto shrugged. "I've still got a long way to go." He stood up. "Are you here to show me to my class?"

"Yeah." She jerked her head to one side as she turned to leave his room. "Come on."

He slowly followed her, ignoring Yoru floating beside him as he left his room. He wasn't sure if he wanted to ask Yuki about why his schedule said "Day Class," but found his questioned partially answered when she asked, "Were you told about the Day and Night Classes?"

"No," he said simply.

"There's not much you need to know except that when classes end, you should head back to your room. The Night Class comes out at sunset and I don't want to have to deal with one more person trying to catch a glance of them."

He sighed quietly. This girl was kind of boring. "Are you part of the disciplinary committee or something?"

"Yeah. I'm up most of the night with Zero trying to keep everyone in their dorm while the Night Class is in their classes." Yuki stepped outside of the dorms and kept walking towards the main building, where classes were held, Ikuto still following her.

"Huh," he said with a tone that said he was uninterested. He was actually beginning to miss Tadase, a rival of his back home, at least he was interesting. Okay, so maybe this girl was saying something interesting, but he assumed it was just her that made what was being said so boring.

Instead of listening, he looked around as they walked. There was snow on the ground, covering the normally green grass. The stone walkways had been cleared of the snow - probably by Yuki and the Zero kid she told him about, Ikuto thought - keeping the other students walking or running to the main building from falling down. He noticed that the main building, the Sun dorm, and the Moon dorm were all made of white marble, allowing them to look absolutely beautiful in the sun. The marble mixing in with the reflection of the pure white snow was only helping that.

"Zero…!" Yuki suddenly yelled, catching his attention again.

"What?" Ikuto asked, having completely missed everything she had just said.

"Ugh," she groaned, "not again."

Ikuto looked over where she was looking and saw a boy with pale white skin, silver hair, and lavender eyes. The boy was wearing a uniform like he was, though he had a white band around his arm like Yuki had and bandages around his neck as if he'd been injured. He stopped to take in how this boy looked, so beautiful and soft though the boy had an air of anger and mystery about him that probably sent away a lot of people.

As Yuki turned to run over to the boy, Ikuto followed seeing as he had no idea where he was going. "Zero, what're you doing?"

"She was trying to go to the Moon dorm," the boy said calmly.

It was then that Ikuto noticed the sobbing girl in front of Zero. Ikuto turned his eyes back to Zero as Yuki continued yelling at him, seeming to just drown out her words. Ikuto's eyes traced the contours of Zero's face; his sharp angled chin, the shadowed curves of his cheeks, his small, sharp nose, and his narrowed eyes.

"What?" Zero asked when he saw Ikuto staring at him.

Though he was a little embarrassed that he'd been caught gazing at Zero, Ikuto just shrugged and said, "I zoned out."

Yuki looked between Zero and Ikuto and then said to her friend, "This is Ikuto Tsukiyomi," she pushed Ikuto to Zero "and you'll be showing him to class."

"Me?" Zero didn't seem to like the idea of it.

"Yes, you." She grabbed the sobbing girl by the arm. "I'm going to take care of her, now just show Ikuto to class."

He sighed. "Fine." He turned and began walking towards the main building, Ikuto followed closely behind him. "Ikuto, right?"

"Yeah," Ikuto said, staring at Zero's back.

Zero glanced back at him over his shoulder. There was something strange about the blue-haired boy that caught his attention, but he wasn't sure what. "Man of few words. Good."

Ikuto stared back into those lavender eyes and nodded. He hadn't felt anything for anyone since he'd last seen Amu, though he didn't want to say those feelings were coming back. It was probably just a feeling of loneliness that was hoping to be taken away by Zero. Maybe they'd become friends, but surely there'd be nothing else beyond that.