"Hey. Inugami Isuzu, right?"

I don't know what I was thinking, walkin' up to Wanko out of the blue, face and clothes still bloody with bruises everywhere and my hair sticking out every which way, asking her to be my partner. I musta looked a damned fright, and I wouldn't have blamed her for runnin' off when I stopped her.

"Look, uh, sorry about all that stuff before."

Maybe it was 'cause I'd just lost Rio-nee, or 'cause my head was still spinning like crazy from losing all that blood. Mighta been exhaustion from taking a beating that put the ones Kurogane takes to shame. Or maybe I was still reelin' from that unhesitatingly cruel announcement from our beloved Kaicho. (That still kinda rankled, honestly.)

"I mean, the running away and all. I didn't need to do things like that. I guess I just wasn't in any mood ta listen, ya know? Not that that's a good enough excuse for anything."

All I know is that when Kurogane told me what Wanko said during the fight, I had to do something about it. Truth told, I hadn't exactly planned to ask her to partner up with me. I didn't even know why I felt the need to talk to her. Just knew that I did.

"Anyway, yeah I just wanted to say thanks. I guess. You were, uh, really worried about me, so Kurogane says."

I figured that I wanted to say "thanks for the concern and all it was nice" or somethin' similar. But then I did and it sounded right stupid. Thanks? For being worried? How lame is that? This weird, scary girl had spent the last few days chasing me just ta warn me, not giving up in spite o' me making every effort to avoid her the past few days. That took guts and persistence. I don't think I coulda done it if it was me. If someone were too stubborn to take the help I was trying to offer out of the goodness of my heart, I woulda just given up and let them fall. Don't want my help? Fine. Don't say I didn't warn ya.

"So look. I obviously didn't get what I wanted. That's fine, I guess. I tried and that's what matters. But see. I wanted to, well. Gah! You wanna partner up?"

I don't know who was more surprised, between the two of us. Soon as those words popped outta my mouth we both stopped. Hell, if it'd been possible for a girl to melt into the ground, I woulda been a puddle on the mud in five seconds flat. Poor Wanko looked like she'd gotten the full brunt of Mr. Nailbat she was so out of it. Then I thought for a second and realized, yeah hey this could work. This girl was Weird, Creepy, and Scary with capital letters and probably some dozen neon signs and a lot of me was sweatin' at the idea of willingly puttin' myself in with someone like that, but it could work.

"It's alright if you don't. I wouldn't blame ya for hating me after the last few days."

How would it work? I didn't know anything about her, except for memories of a scary looking girl who was all bows and apologies and just plain shy stuttering out that my towel wasn't actually mine and a whole lotta other nonsense that I waved away at the time. But I did know that she was a person who cared about a complete stranger enough to try and warn her from doing some stupid thing for an even stupider reason. Someone like that wasn't scary. Well, she was. Definitely, undeniably scary, and even a blind person could see that, but not where it counted.

"I wasn't exactly friendly and all, and I know we never talked before, but how 'bout it?"

I was nervous as I waited for an answer. I didn't get much of one either. Knowing her like I do now, she was probably too surprised to speak properly for hours after I fumbled around with that mess of a partnership suggestion. At the time, I took the quick nod and mumbled "I'd like that" as simple shyness. Even though I had just asked her to be my partner, there was still a lot 'o me begging to be away from there. I blame the hairstyle, personally. That was the reason I gave her the damned makeover in the first place. She's been a lot more outspoken since we changed it.

And a lot less scary. Seriously.

It was rough, in the beginning. We didn't really understand each other at all, and neither of us was good at talking about feelings or emotions. I couldn't even recognize simple jealousy around her! We were trying to make each other fit into the worlds we knew, and it just wasn't workin' out, until loser Kiji interfered. As annoying as Otoha is, at least something good came outta that mess.

Wanko had said she didn't have friends before, and I was even willing to put up with loser Kiji if it meant that Wanko could count two more people in that small list. Much as I hated it, Kiji understood her way better than I did sometimes, even if they were on completely different levels where their powers were concerned. Michi, at least, was a good influence, and she seemed to like dragging my partner around. Wanko needed that, needed more people to not care how creepy she could be, or how shy she was. Kurogane and Mudou and Kuga too. Six friends may not sound like much, but compared to having none before, that was a lot.

Learning how to fight together was...interesting. Our fighting styles were complete opposites, and we didn't have a single damned clue as to how we were supposed to fight together. I expected her to back me up with her sword, and she expected me to stand back and let her use her abilities first. There was lots of frustration on my part, and spell mishaps on her part. I still cringe when I think back to that one week I was caught in four of her spells, out of the five fights we'd had. I think I coulda counted the hours of sleep I got that week on one hand.

The worst part was that I couldn't really tell her what was frustrating me until it got to the point where it all came spilling out angrier than I really was. Rio-nee used to say that I'm too hardheaded and impulsive to deal with things all subtle-like. Well I definitely wasn't subtle then, and I was harsher than I had a right to be. I'm more careful now. I wasn't really fond of hurting people's feelings, and hurting Wanko's had suddenly become the one thing I didn't ever want to do again.

Eventually I had this genius thought. If I wanted to understand Wanko a little more, I needed to look into her magic stuff and figure out what the hell I was in for. Aside from the stuff I already knew, and had the bad luck to get up close and personal with. I'm really glad her aim has improved. Only the wide area spells catch me off guard these days.

Well. It was harder than I thought. Why the hell were there so many different kinds of magic?! Strange words bounced in my head and then bounced right back out. I was nearly kicked outta the library for slamming books, and people started givin' me funny looks 'cause I constantly glared at whatever unhelpful text was stuffed in my bag. Frustrated I finally came across something somewhat useful. It said that seeing auras or whatever was the most basic skill. I couldn't remember exactly what kind of magic this was, but it sounded decent. Kiji complained about people's auras all the time, and Wanko could usually agree. If the both of them could do it even if they had different kinds of magic, then it had to be worth lookin' into.

I lost interest a few days later. I had kinda gotten it when it started mentioning colors and stuff. It was sorta like a mood ring, only instead it was just a cloud thing around people that only some could see. I didn't read until later that seeing the colors was the advanced level. After two days of annoying the hell out of Kiji by staring at her blankly, I gave up. I was getting kinda tired of Wanko constantly asking if I was okay, or hitting me upside my head to snap me out of my dazes. That and Michi started to round on Kiji for testing her hypnosis on me, which made the girl even more annoyed with me. It was safer to stop.

I would just have to learn the good old hard way. I only hoped my soul would survive until graduation.

~End~

I know it's short. Don't kill me. I don't play with them often after all, and I can't just dive in there and pull a ten page story. That may yet come in the future however.

Don't hold your breath.

Anyway, lighthearted stuff is a bit difficult for me to write at the moment, and anything like fluff makes me physically ill. I'm not exaggerating in the least. I wish I was, 'cause then I'd be able to read half of my books I've got waiting on my Kindle. It is curious though. Romance has always been That Thing That Happened To Other People, but I've never actively disliked it. This is probably why the last two fics I've gotten to rough draft stage are depressing and hardly fluffy at all.

OH YEAH! And don't be afraid to let me know where the hell my (lack of) editing skills missed something! Please. I assure you, the typos don't happen because I'm illiterate or just don't know proper English. More like because I am impatient and skim through things.