The title of this fic comes from a lyric from this anime's ending song. Just in case you were wondering.

"Absolutely not." Kokonoe said when they finally got back.

Crap. I'm caught. Hisami didn't even have to say a word for Kokonoe to know what his intentions were. Lisa by his side was evidence enough.

"But, Nine…" he pleaded. Surely he could see what a state the girl was in? And were they not once as lost as she was?

"No." Kokonoe said. His expression brooked no argument. Hisami was just about to try and reason with him when a thud behind him caused him to turn around.

Lisa had fainted. Hisami instinctively bent down to pick her up. She was surprisingly heavy for someone who had looked ready to fade away. He tried to shift her weight a few times, but it did not particularly help until Kokonoe decided to assist him.

"Looks like she's decided for us, hasn't she?" Kokonoe said by way of explanation.

"Yeah, she has."

…

Lisa spent about two weeks in varying states of sleep on Hisami and Kokonoe's sofa. After the first day, she had woken up and wandered around, but then Hisami had given her a fright so bad that she had fainted all over again.

The first thing she did was have a bath, a long, hot one. She told herself that this was the only time she'd have such a long bath, and that she'd stick to showers in the future. Afterwards, she dried off and dressed in the tracksuit that had been left for her.

After that, she decided to wander around the apartment. The living room she had been sleeping in was small but reasonable, the kitchen was tiny (as was the bathroom), but the two remaining rooms were huge. One had a bunk bed and a nice view of the city, and she presumed that this was their own bedroom. The other room was windowless, and had a long table along once end, with a few chairs next to it. Two laptops and various books were scattered across the table. It was in this room she had wandered and been scared by Hisami.

The place was neat, despite the fact that it was owned by two teenage boys, but it was dark, and sad. She felt she should do something about it.

But first, she should cook something for the boys to eat when they got back.

She went to the tiny kitchen and found suitable ingredients despite the fact the fridge mostly held ready meals. She prepared them without many problems, until she went to the oven.

It was small, and didn't look like a new model. But all the same, it looked formidable, and she didn't have a clue how to work it.

Oh well, she thought. I'll just figure it out as I go along.

…

Hisami could smell fire as he came back from with Kokonoe. Wordlessly. He turned to Kokonoe, whose expression confirmed that he smelt it too.

They ran up the stairs frantically and opened the door, only to be greeted with Lisa cheerfully calling out 'welcome home' from the kitchen. She was standing at the oven, attempting to make what he assumed was a stir-fry. Black smoke was coming from the oven.

There was something sweet about the way she was standing there, smiling at them. But he had to deal with the matter at hand. Quickly, Hisami went and fiddled with the oven buttons until the smoke dissipated. They all breathed a sigh of relief.

"Well, dinner's almost ready." Lisa said. "Why not sit down? "The yellow made the atmosphere immediately lighter, even if he was the only one able to see it.

Kokonoe looked at Hisami, and Hisami looked at Kokonoe, and they shrugged. They went to sit in their living room, and soon after Lisa came with their dinner.

A dinner which was, predictably, burnt.

After a few swallows, Kokonoe pushed the plate away.

"This is terrible. You shouldn't have bothered. If you think it will make you more useful, it won't."

"Nine!" Hisami scolded. "That's harsh. But, you're right. This is revolting."

Lisa winced "You're so blunt." Hisami almost laughed at the expression on her face.

"Try it yourself." He told her. She did so, and then pulled a face.

"Fine, fine. I give in." she said. She put her fork down, and then asked.

"By the way, why do you call yourselves Nine and Twelve?" she asked. "It's been bugging me for a while."

"Well…we can tell her, right?"

Kokonoe shrugged. "It's not a secret." He said.

"Well," Hisami said "Nine's birthday is September 12th, and mine is December 9th. " He paused, not entirely sure how to explain it to her. Outside their small universe, it sounded ridiculous.

"Oh, so if Kokonoe-kun wrote his birthday in month-date-year format and you wrote yours in date-month-year format, they'd look the same. For example? Right? So that's where the names come from."

Wow. He hadn't expected her to get it so quickly.

"Yep! As it happens, the example you used illustrates our personal preferences for writing dates. Anyway, how did you get that so quickly? Are you secretly a total weirdo?"

Lisa laughed at that. And laughed, and laughed. The room was dazzling. After a while, she caught her breath for a moment.

"Pot….calling…kettle…black!" and she burst into laughter again. When she finally calmed down, she smiled at both of them.

"It's been a long time since I laughed like that,"She told them. The statement was innocent enough, but carried enough sadness for them to all feel. They stayed silent for a while. Then, Hisami got up.

"Say, Lisa. Should I teach you how the kitchen appliances work?" he asked. She looked at him, grateful, and irrationally, it felt as if he had been given the world.

"Yes, I think that would be good."

…

After a small while, it felt as if she had been living there forever.

With Hisami's help, she was now able to cook a meal without burning it. She cleaned the windows, and made sure the curtains were pulled in the daylight hours to bring brightness into the house (although Hisami liked to tell her she was light enough). Although the boys did their own chores, she helped whenever she could. She visited the library, and went shopping often, and later managed to find herself a summer job at a café that specialised in being child-friendly. With Hisami's Saturday job as a shelf-stacker in a convenience store, and Kokonoe's regular job of being a pizza deliveryman in the evenings, she felt as if she was contributing to a family life.

This feeling was complete when one day, Kokonoe came home with a large parcel, which he took into what Lisa had come to think of as the workroom, and then worked on for a while. It turned out to be a camp-bed, which Kokonoe suggested Lisa could use instead of having to sleep on their sofa. He didn't say much more than that, but Lisa knew this meant that he finally accepted that she was staying with them, and didn't mind in the slightest. Of course, it wasn't really like a bedroom, as the boys worked at the desk often, but she didn't really care.

Occasionally, after work, she would hang out with Hanayo, and sometimes Kotori would come too. They had fun together, and they enjoyed showing her the wonders of a girly day out, but not once did she tell them about her current living situation. She knew she would one day, because they were closest she'd probably ever have to female friends, but she didn't want to do so just yet. Perhaps she was still afraid of it all falling apart.

…

Lisa liked the view from the rooftop so much that she didn't notice Hisami coming up until he spoke and made her jump.

"Oh! Twelve! You scared me. I was just hanging up the sheets."

"And day-dreaming in the process, yeah, I know."

Lisa pulled a face, and went back to hanging the sheets up on the many washing lines she had strung up earlier.

"But you know, I don't really blame you," Hisami said. "I really like the rooftop too. That's kinda why we chose this place."

"Oh, I see."

"Are you worried about something, Lisa?"

She thought about this. She felt settled, and happy-a marked contrast to the life she'd had before-but occasionally the question she'd had before still surfaced in her mind, so she decided to ask it.

"Why do you do all this for me?"

Hisami didn't pretend to misunderstand.

"We're friends, right? That's what friends do for each other, isn't it? I mean, for the longest time me and Nine have only had each other, so I don't really know, but we're friends, and we help each other. "

Hisami paused, and then added.

"Besides, you make us happy. Having you around is nice. Nine thinks so too, I know it. Even if he doesn't really show it. Like I said, it's only been just the two of us for most our lives, so he tends to be a bit frosty. "

"I thought it was something like that. He wouldn't have got the camp-bed otherwise, would he?"

"Exactly."

Hisami ducked down, and disappeared. Then, he poked his head between two sheets she had hung up.

"Boo!" he said, chuckling. "Let me help you."

"Idiot. You're not going to be much help if you insist on using the washing as a hide-and-seek playground."

"Fine, fine!"

…

On evenings when Kokonoe was working, Hisami got Lisa to read to him. The quietness of her voice somehow managed to bring the worlds in the novels to life, and in addition to that, he got to see the pale yellow, everywhere.

"Twelve, what are you looking at?" jolted out of his reverie, he looked at Lisa, who had stopped reading and was giving him an odd look.

"Ah, caught out." Hisami said. He paused, trying to think of how to explain his view of the world.

"I have a condition called synaesthesia. It means that I can 'see' voices as colours. Nine's is blue like one of those ridiculous energy drinks. Yours is a pale yellow, a really nice, hopeful colour. A rare one, too. Really."

Lisa gave him a crooked smile.

"Hence why you make me read to you. "

"Guilty as charged!"

"So then, what colour is your voice?"

Once again, she had the capacity to surprise him. Not even Kokonoe had asked him that question.

"Well…I can't really see it that clearly, as it's my voice, but it's kind of a green. Like the shadows on the ground in a sunny forest. If that makes sense. "

Lisa nodded, wide eyed.

"You're kind of lucky. You don't need a mind-set to make the world beautiful."

"It's not quite that simple." Hisami told her, secretly thinking her enthusiasm rather cute.

"But it helps, right? If mum had a voice in a nice colour…it would have been easier to deal with her…I like colours…"

Lisa's face crumpled, and she started to cry.

Hisami floundered, clueless in the art of dealing with crying girls. Then, almost as if by instinct, he shuffled across the sofa and wrapped his arms around her, drawing her close. He watched the jagged yellow spikes in the air, and then he just closed his eyes and rested his chin on her soft head, waiting for her shaking to subside.

He could smell her scent from this close. It was a sweet, childlike smell. It wasn't, however, a distinguishable one like the smell of strawberries or chocolate or roses. It was her own scent. And although his synaesthesia didn't extend to smells, he didn't feel anything odd about thinking that her scent was a melody.

Finally, she calmed, and pulled away slightly so she could wipe her eyes.

"Sorry…" she said, floundering "I...I just…"

"Shhhh. There isn't any need to explain." There wasn't. He was well versed in waking-hour nightmares.

She looked at him, emotions dancing in her dark eyes.

"I…erm…Twelve? Could you…could you hold me again?" she asked, timidly. He smiled at her, and obliged. On an impulse, he kissed the top of her head lightly. He didn't think the gesture was noticeable, but she twisted herself around a little so that she was looking at him, their faces very close.

Hisami went red, but Lisa just smiled, looking a little melancholy while doing so. They stared at each other for a moment, and he vaguely thought of the book they had abandoned.

Then Lisa closed the remaining distance between them, and all thoughts of the book disappeared.

…

First day back and I end up bumping into Yuuko Nakazawa and Tomoko Sawano. Great.

Hisami and Kokonoe had gone slightly ahead, but they stopped at the first indication that she wasn't with them, and now they seemed to be combining walking back to get her with working out what the best thing to do was.

"Liiisa, how was your holiday?" Yuuko asked snidely.

"Haven't slit your wrists yet?" Tomoko followed up, laughing crassly.

Lisa stood there, feeling small. Then, for the first time in a long time, she felt angry at them.

"Leave me alone!" she said. "I don't want to have to talk to you."

"What the hell? Why so rude?" Tomoko asked.

"Exactly. No need to get rude."

"If someone you didn't like was talking to you, wouldn't you tell them to leave you alone?" Kokonoe and Hisami had reached them, at last.

Yuuko and Tomoko regarded the boys with confusion.

"Yeah….so?"

"You realise Lisa's doing the same?" Hisami told them. "You've never been nice to her, so why should she be nice to you?"

Yuuko and Tomoko blinked at them, and then they both showed the middle finger to the three and walked off.

"Thanks." Lisa told them both, gratefully.

"No need. Where are we going to go before school starts?" Kokonoe asked.

"Our classroom," Hisami declared. "Lisa and I are in that room, but you aren't. Two against one!"

"Twelve, this was never a competition…"

"So?"

"Good grief." Kokonoe face-palmed.

They headed to the classroom and chatted a while. Soon, Hanayo arrived, tanned from a trip to Spain.

"Hi guys! Good holiday?" she asked.

"Yeah." They replied, in unison, before laughing at each other.

"Okay, that's scary," Hanayo declared. "Have your minds like, fused or something? "

"Nope." Lisa told her "I've actually been living with them."

Hanayo's eyes looked as if they were falling out of her head.

"FOR REAL?!WHEN, HOW, WHY? And why you no tell me, Sacchan?" Hanayo pulled a mock-dissapointed face to complement the fake-Spanish accent she had decided to give her words.

"Trouble at home, Hanayo-Chan. Sorry." She said.

"Ah, its fine, its fine. " Hanayo said, using her normal voice. Then, she stared at Lisa. "Hey, your hair is a bit longer, you know. "

"It is?" Lisa felt her hair. "Perhaps I should get it cut this weekend?"

"No, don't," Hisami said unexpectedly, reaching out and twirling a strand of her hair around his fingers, looking at her intently.

"Why ever not?" Lisa asked, finding herself blushing a little. Although she knew that really she shouldn't be.

"It looks nice like this. "

"Oh…well, maybe I will leave it then. But I'm not going to have it that much longer. Maybe up to my shoulders. Maybe. No more."

"I agree with Hisami-kun." Hanayo declared "But anyway, what else have you not told me about, Sacchan?"

"Oh, Midpoint hasn't said anything that doesn't need saying." Hisami told her. Lisa giggled at Hanayo's look of confusion at the nickname Hisami liked to use on her from time to time, on account of her October 11th birthday.

"That doesn't even make sense. Hey, where did Kokonoe-kun go?"

"Talking to Endou-san from the school paper." Lisa pointed.

"No way! He stared a convo himself? The world is ending!" Hanayo said dramatically. Kokonoe heard, and glared at them, sending them into fits of laughter.

Eventually, his gaze softened, and he smiled back at them.

…

Kokonoe came home to find that the house was in complete silence.

"I'm back. And I have FIVE mistake pizzas," He called. Lisa didn't reply with a friendly greeting, Hisami didn't deliver a witty retort.

Concerned, he looked around the apartment. They weren't in the kitchen, or the living room, or the workroom.

They were, however, in the bedroom. Fast asleep. Together.

As soon as he saw them, he walked straight out again. Then he registered that first, they were in Hisami's bunk, second, they were still clothed, and third, even if they weren't, the quilt was covering them enough for that to not matter.

Warily, he went back in, and stood in the doorway, watching them. He observed the way they seemed to hold each other in their sleep, limbs tangled. In a way, this was inevitable, he reflected. It had been inevitable right from the beginning.

And he didn't begrudge them it. Hisami had always been the affectionate, tactile one. It wasn't so impossible that he'd fall for someone before Kokonoe did.

And that was fine. At first, he had thought her arrival would make their years of friendship count for nothing. But how wrong he had been. Lisa had enhanced their friendship, not broken it. And he, too, considered her a friend in her own right. Of course, things had changed. But Hisami would always be there, no matter how far their lives eventually took them. They didn't need to have such a strong hold on each other to survive. So he didn't envy Hisami's happiness.

But, he thought as he left the room, I'm going to have to establish some ground rules here from now on.

…

Now that everything was stable, Lisa allowed her thoughts to turn to her mother more often. She had eventually stopped receiving messages from her, but she had changed the SIM card regardless. There really was no going back, and she didn't intend to entertain that particular notion for long. But she also came to the realisation that she didn't hate her mother. Not really, not truly. It was just they could never be together in the way a typical mother and daughter might be.

So, as September became October, she wrote a letter to her mother and posted it. She didn't include a return address. Even if she wanted to make amends, she didn't want to be found.

A few days later, she wrote another letter, enclosing an email address. Her mother sent her an email the next day, long and rambly and very sad. Lisa cried a little as she replied to it, but she managed to be concise and to the point, explaining her reasons for running tactfully, reassuring her that all was fine, but that she couldn't come back, but that didn't mean she loved her any less.

And so, eventually, they sent each other emails on a regular basis. Neither asked the other to meet-feelings were still fragile for that-but at least it was something.

…

And all of a sudden, it was her birthday.

Another thing all three of them had in common was the way they'd celebrated their birthdays. Or, rather, the fact that they hadn't done so. When Kokonoe's birthday had come around the month before, he had seemed overwhelmed by the thought of any kind of party, so they had just bought a cake and made him blow out the candles on it, before eating way too much snack food while watching movies for the entire night.

Today, however, they were going out to eat, and she had invited Hanayo and Kotori as well. It was a school day, so they'd had to go home and change. Lisa chose a yellow dress she had bought a few weeks ago, and she had clipped back part of her fringe with a simple silver clip. She found herself irrationally pleased when Hisami told her that what she was wearing matched her voice, for if she was being perfectly honest, that had been part of the motivation for buying it in the first place.

When they got there, Kotori was already waiting.

"Hanayo's going to be late. Swim team's holding her up." She told them.

"If she's swimming, how do you know that?" Kokonoe asked.

"Because I went there to check. Duh."

"Why don't we just go inside and start ordering stuff? She'll come soon, right?" Hisami suggested.

"Should do. Anyway, it's Lisa's choice. Whatcha think?"

"It's fine by me." Lisa smiled. They went in and found a free table. A waitress found them soon after, and asked them if they wanted to order something, so they did so, enthusiastically. Hisami informed the waitress that it was Lisa's birthday, which embarrassed her somewhat, but she didn't mind, not really.

They chatted while waiting. Kokonoe had a lot to say about newspapers and journalism-a topic he had become passionate about. Kotori talked about anything and everything, and Lisa and Hisami filled the gaps whenever they could, although Hisami did this more than she did. Most of the time, she just soaked up the atmosphere and enjoyed it.

They were sipping on their just-arrived milkshakes when Hanayo arrived, cheeks red and hair wet.

"Sorry I'm late! Happy Birthday, Sacchan."

"You told me that already, but thanks." Lisa laughed.

"Hey, but she's only told you so twice!" Hisami pouted "How many times have I said it to you, Lisa?"

She laughed. "Many times, Twelve."

"Is someone ever going to explain what's up with the weird nicknames you all give each other?" Kotori asked.

"Nine's birthday is September 12th, Midpoint's is today, mine is December 9th. " Hisami said. He looked at Lisa, and they grinned at each other in knowledge of the private joke.

"I don't get it." Hanayo said.

"Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve?" Kokonoe said slowly. Both Hanayo and Kotori gave him a confused look.

"Never mind," Lisa told them.

"Ah, whatever. Can we still call you guys Nine and Twelve or whatever?"

"No." Kokonoe and Hisami stated simply, in unison.

"Unfortunately for you, Lisa's the only one granted that privilege." Hisami explained alone.

Hanayo pouted, and Kotori simply chuckled.

"I wonder why that is." Hanayo mock-glared at Lisa and Hisami, then laughed.

Hisami seemed ready with a retort, but then their food arrived and they ended up distracted by it.

…

"I'm going to bed. I'm shattered. The Sasaki sisters are too much." Kokonoe declared as soon as they got home.

"Ah, they're not that bad. " Hisami said.

"That's because you're a lot like them." Kokonoe retorted.

"Meanie!" Hisami then checked his watch. "Anyway, we're going to the roof for a moment. Sweet dreams!" he took Lisa's hand, and dragged her up the stairs.

"Er…what? What are we doing and why?"

"You'll see. " Hisami turned to grin at her, but revealed nothing. He could not wait to show her what he had planned. Well, it wasn't his plan, really. Just his luck that random internet browsing had allowed him to stumble on this perfection. He just hoped that she liked it.

They got to the roof, and they found themselves distracted by the scenery. The sun had already gone down, and it was only a matter of time.

"Not long to wait now, Lisa." He told her, taking off his green blazer and draping it over her shoulders before putting an arm around her. It was getting cold, after all.

"What are we waiting for?"

"You'll see." He said cryptically. He loved the way she somehow managed to get him, but he still enjoyed having the capacity to surprise her. He held her closer, breathed in her Lisa-scent.

"Any second now…" he murmured, catching a glance of his watch. "Look at the sky."

They stayed silent for a few moments. Nothing happened.

Then, a burst of gold interrupted the darkness. Then red, green, blue, more gold, silver, pink. Colours, and then some. Even without synaesthesia, it would be a rainbow.

"Fireworks!" Lisa gasps, amazed.

"Yeah. Some big corporation is hosting a party on the other side of town. Saw an announcement of the internet. Figured that we have the best roof ever, so why do we need to travel for no reason, you know?"

"Hmm…" Lisa is entranced, and he is glad.

"So," he whispers "Do you like your present, Lisa?"

She turns to look at him.

"You know, whenever you say my name, it's like a song." He blinks at her, confused.

"I mean, when we first met you completely disregarded etiquette, called me by name right from the beginning, but for some reason it was nice. Soothing. Not like the way others used to call me…but yes, I do like your present. Thank you."

"No problem. That was a very roundabout way of telling me though, I have to say."

"Oh, like you aren't obscure yourself?"

"Touché." He says. They focus on the fireworks again, watching them illuminate the sky.

…

They are hanging out by the school swimming pool because they arrived at school too early and there is nowhere better to go. The pool is covered on account of it being winter, but all the same, it is a nice place to be.

"This is where it all began, wasn't it?" she mused. "You, me. Nine. "

"It could be argued that it all began when we were born, that everything was leading to this moment." He replied, smiling.

"Could be, but for me, looking back now, it felt like that this is where my life began, when you were an idiot and jumped into the pool in front of me, grinning all the while. " Hisami pulled a grin in response, making her laugh.

"I'm glad, you know. "She told him. "Glad that you came, just at that moment. Glad that you kept on coming after me. My life's so much better for it."

"Well, so's mine."

"No, really. I feel as if things would never have got better if you hadn't been around to make it so."

"Hmm…" Hisami adopted an expression of deep thought. "If it hadn't been me, it would have been someone else. There's something fiery about you, even back then there was. You'd have been saved, some way or another."

She considered this. Then, she smiled, and reached out to take his hands, lacing her fingers with his.

"Be that as it may," she says a little grandly "I'm glad it was you who found me, and not someone else."

Hisami mirrored her smile, and leaned his forehead against hers.

"Be that as it may," he said, echoing her excessively formal phrase "I'm also glad that I was the one to find you."

Their laughter sends out a rainbow across the sky, one as bright as a song.

I hoped you enjoyed that. Please leave feedback