Chapter 2

"Goodbye! We'll see you soon!"

Shido, Kotori, and Ean all waved to the two adults as they drove away, leaving them to control the fate of the household. It didn't entirely sit well with the foreigner, but Shido and Kotori seemed almost relaxed with the situation, so he just bit down his complaints and followed their lead.

Two days were spent with Ean trying his best to get to know the Itsuka family and his difficult integration to the household. Tatsuo, despite his mostly laid back demeanor, was evil incarnate when it came to cleaning the house. He thought Haruko's glare in the airport was bad, but was then fixed with the look that could make Lucifer piss himself. The small smiles and slightly naïve nature vanished on the spot when he realized dust had gotten into the corners of the home, and he leapt on it like a wild animal. Shido ended up hauling himself out of the room, and Ean quickly followed suit when the maniacal laughter started. When the chaos ended, the room didn't look any different, despite the deep cleaning that had positively happened.

When the man claimed that he had vacuumed the ceiling, and Ean was too confused to comment and just nodded awkwardly.

Shido seemed to quickly find his way onto Ean's short list of friends. Maybe it was because of his familiarity with his family's eccentric attitudes, but he was able to ease their new foreign housemate in. Whenever Ean found himself even the slightest bit lost, Shido descended from the heavens and guided him through what needed to be done. They appealed to one another's hobbies, mainly talking about mundane things like shows and music, but Ean would be hard pressed to say that it hadn't helped.

Haruko was the closest thing he'd had to a mother in a long time. In two short days, she'd gone from slightly terrifying to an all around pleasant person. If Shido appealed to his casual side, the boy's mother did the same for his professional side. She showed him how to make little bit of Japanese cooking on the first night, and he enjoyed it more than anything. It was like his own mom was back, just more serious and with a bob-cut.

Lastly, Kotori was the wild card. She appeared and disappeared in an instant, sometimes vanishing for hours on end, then returned suddenly with something to drag their attentions from whatever misdeed she might have committed. She liked anime and played a lot of video games that Ean enjoyed as well, but something about it was… off.

Maybe it was the glare. When she returned from wherever it was that she went to, she always had such an agitated look on her face. If anything, he could describe it as downright pissed. Besides, he was a stranger in her house. If she wanted to talk to him, she would. It didn't mean he wasn't curious, though.

He followed the Itsuka siblings back inside and was immediately caught in a crossroads. Kotori had sauntered off to her room, while Shido had stepped into the living room, leaving the boy who was technically their charge to stand awkwardly near the front door and wonder who to follow. Shido, because of his warm presence, or Kotori, because of her secretive demeanor?

Fate said neither. A pain tore through his chest that felt like he was being torn in half. It was enough to drive him to the floor, crashing onto his hands and knees. Everything was forgotten in an instance as memories came flooding back. A bright light, screaming and tearing, and then the split in his torso as his bones turned into toothpicks.

Then it stopped. The pain and memories subsided, leaving the boy whimpering and panting on the polished wood floor. His hand was gripping his chest harder than ever, expecting blood to pool in his white shirt.

With difficulty, he rose to his feet. He managed to stagger down the hall to the bathroom, his feet feeling like they were made of lead, and he slammed the door close way too hard.

That didn't matter. He made his way to the sink, glaring at his own pale reflection. He looked like shit. Again. He turned the water on and splashed it into his face, trying to keep the nausea down with something, anything. Here he was, a boy too burnt out to take care of himself properly. He could see the trails on his skin through the collar of his shirt, reddening from where he'd gripped his chest. He didn't want to look at them again. He was tired of seeing them.

His excuse to avert his eyes came when he heard a knock on the door behind him.

Shido was counting down the days left until the new school year on the calendar when he heard a door slam with such force that it caused a painting on the wall to crash to the floor.

"That's not normal."

Had Kotori lost in another one of her games? He remembered her rage on Sunday the week prior when she lost to some boss in a notoriously difficult game. The result in such a terrible thing was her screaming and swearing at the top of her lungs for about ten minutes before their mother had enough and told her off. To think the girl who affectionate referred to him as 'big brother' and usually woke him up held such rage was horrifying.

Then his mind clicked the second possibility into place, one that was much more worrying. Something had happened to Ean.

He knew the barest of details when his father accepted Ean from the exchange program, something about slight physical and mental trauma. Shido had actually felt terrible when the American showed up, expecting a kid who didn't know what was happening and probably terrified out of his mind. Then they had a boy with a small smile and a boost of confidence when familiarity kicked in surprise them.

Honestly, Ean had seemed so normal that Shido had forgotten what was specifically told to them. He was in the exchange for his reasons, but if that entailed some problem that they had no clue to take care of...

Shido left the painting on the floor and left the living room, looking around the house for his new brother. He could hear water running from the washroom a few doors down the main hall, so he merely decided to wait and see what transpired.

He began to reconsider when the water stopped, but no one stepped out for a few minutes. The worst possible scenario popped into his mind, one where the redhead was unconscious on the ground and slowly dying away. Blaming his paranoia and telling himself everything would be alright, Shido knocked lightly on the door.

"H-hey, Ean, are you okay in there?"

Please answer please answer please answer.

"Uh, y-yeah. Just… felt a bit nauseous."

Shido groaned in relief when Ean replied and stepped from the room, looking slightly disheveled. The foreigner just affixed him with an awkward smile and rubbed the back of his head a bit. Shido hoped that stopping people as they left the washroom wouldn't become a habit.

"So…"

Ean was trying to fill the awkward silence. Shido could feel it.

"Is… uh… your parents leaving normal?"

Bridging that topic again? Shido could definitely see why it was constantly on his mind. His mom and dad had bounced across the world on numerous occasions for business trips and fixing specific problems ever since he was five. Of course, when they were kids, they had coworkers and nannies, but time had caused that to change. Shido picked up the mantle of parent and took care of Kotori.

"Oh yeah. They work for this company called Asgard Electronics, and it forces them to bounce around a lot. Hey, at least we get souvenirs when they come back!"

Shido felt a small pang in his heartstrings when he added the last part of a whim. It had been so long since he'd actually gotten a souvenir. He had a couple of snow globes from years ago, but the exports had slowed to a halt. It just made him realize how much he missed them when they were gone.

"Cool."

Shido hadn't realized that Ean had slinked past until he felt a hand lightly clap his shoulder. Shido affixed a smile on his face, and his new brother grinned back.

New brother… that'd take some getting used to.

"Hey, does your sister vanish often?"

Oh, Kotori's vanishing act. She loved vanishing on the spot to go enjoy herself away from the family. It did get a bit trying when it was just them, but who could really blame her? The house wasn't that interesting.

"Yep. She's normally ends up at a friend's house. I don't really know how they're always open."

Ean nodded skeptically, still wondering of what made Kotori glare so much.

"You said normally. Where does she go off to when she's not at a friend's house?"

Shido's response died in his throat. Where did Kotori end up vanishing off to? He remembered seeing her phone's GPS Signal at Danny's Diner, her favorite restaurant, but she was too young to be there alone. He had always assumed that she was visiting with her friends, but they were all fifteen as well…

Shido liked to think he knew Kotori really well. She was his little sister, how could he not know her hobbies and habits? Every day, she'd be up with a smile, munching on another lollipop without a care in the world. She enjoyed his presence, he knew that much, and enjoyed a lot of various things. She was kind, sweet, and maybe a bit immature for her age, but she was still a great person.

It wasn't rocket science. Shido could tell Ean was a little averse about talking with Kotori, ever since she barged into the kitchen with a glare that their dad would cower from, then immediately snapping a smile back on her face.

"If I knew, I'd tell you. My little sister is such an enigma sometimes. She's probably going to have people bowing at her feet one day."

Ean chuckled happily, the mental image of a bunch of scantily clad men bowing down to 'Empress Kotori' a bit too outrageous to believe.

"Wouldn't that be a sight?"

"Commander, I love you!"

Okay, new plan. Euthanize Kannazuki.

Kotori glared balefully at the blond man groveling at her feel, as he should be, and stomped her dress shoe hard onto his nose. He tumbled from her platform, bleeding from every orifice in his face and still somehow still shouting happily. The man collapsed onto the ground by Reine's feet, and just in case, the analyst stomped on his head as well. As usual, the crew of the Fraxinus didn't care, remaining totally silent. This was a daily occurrence.

Scratch that, hourly.

Alright, more like every fifteen minutes. He never learned, okay?

Kotori returned her gaze to the screen before her, analyzing the extent of damage from the recent spacequake, the Spirit, and the AST's interference. Twenty casualties, none of which were Spirit or Wizard. Twenty innocent people that were gone for forever.

They had been there for hours, just going over the incident reports and initializing Realizers to take care of the damage. Her parents had left right after noon, and Kotori took off half an hour after that, claiming she'd go take a nap.

God, was Shido really so gullible that he'd expect her to sleep for five hours? They'd linked a camera in her room to make sure he wasn't going to find an empty bed, but it was a complete waste of time. Shido didn't so much as glance into the room once, leaving her to her 'privacy'.

"I'd find that moron's face in the dictionary next to the word…"

She pushed her brother out of her mind and quickly shot a glare to the masochist that was her Vice-Commander clambering up the steps he'd just crumpled down. She could feel a vein pressing out of her forehead as pain slowly spread through her skull, which she quickly identified as another headache. She wasn't getting any work done, and this was just adding insult to injury.

"I'm headed back home. You're all dismissed for the day."

The crew's silence became small murmurs as Kotori pressed a finger into her temple, asking for the headache to just leave her be. She left her chair, or as she normally referred to it as, her throne, and passed through the doorway to the teleport pads. She didn't want to think or do anything but sleep, arriving at and letting the teleporters main computer handle the location lock. The familiar hum of the machine warming up was enough to slightly jar her back to reality, and the automated voice declared that the destination was found.

"Kotori."

The voice of her trusted friend and analyst kept her from making the warp, and the fifteen year old blinked back to see Reine Murasame, looking strangely concerned.

"Yes, Reine?"

Reine looked almost frustrated, with herself or someone else, Kotori wouldn't know. Kotori leaned against the divider of the teleport pad, prompting the insomniac to speak.

"I know the plan about Shido, but what about the other boy? Ean, I believe his name was?"

Ah. She'd forgotten about him. Kawagoe had said something about him collapsing earlier, but she was so busy with digesting the recent damage support that it ended up being pushed to the side. Shit, she actually felt really bad about that. She'd need to apologize. In a way that kept him from her secret as commanding officer of the Fraxinus.

No wonder Reine had been quiet today. Even though she was a non-certified medic, she'd always been sensitive about seeing someone in pain. Whatever happened to Ean must have triggered her 'mom switch' as the others in the Fraxinus referred to it as.

"I… dunno. Mom and Dad were the ones who let him stay with us. I don't know why, considering they know all about Spirits and Shido's power, but I'm planning on keeping him in the dark."

Reine visibly flinched, and Kotori began to worry. The girl was half tempted to switch to her Weak Mode when the analyst looked back up with serious eyes.

"He's not a possible asset?"

Kotori had pondered the same question. What could the exchange student do? He didn't look to be much of a fighter, nor versed in dating advice. Furthermore, he would have to accept to help them in the first place. No reasonable human being would casually decide to throw themself into danger at the drop of a hat, and if his folder from the exchange was to be believed, someone who had been traumatized, no matter how small, would even dream of accepting.

"Reine, I barely know the guy. He's literally a stranger in my house. Unless he suddenly shows off the ability to seal a Spirit or go toe-to-toe with the AST, I'm not bringing him into our mess."

Kotori left the conversation there, stepping into the teleport zone and vanishing in a smoke of light. Reine watched silently as the young Commander left, biting down on her thumb's nail. The composed look on her face betrayed the fear in her soul.

"She won't like hearing that…"

Kotori had come from her ceiling abode hours after Ean had stepped out of the bathroom and right into Shido, looking disheveled and like she wanted to kill something. He didn't say a word, and neither did she, but he couldn't help but notice the bags forming under her eyes. He may not know what she was going through, but he knew what it felt like when life wasn't going your way. Silently, he grabbed a blanket on the couch and lightly draped it over her, smiling a bit when she tugged it around her with a thankful hum. It made him feel like a big brother.

He helped Shido as he made something simple for dinner, and the three of them ate together, their conversation comprised mostly of small banter and suppressed chuckles. Ean enjoyed it immensely. Kotori quickly scarfed down her meal, Shido's cooking making her tired state seem like nothing more than a hoax, and then excused herself to her bedroom. The sixteen year olds exchanged small smirks and went their separate ways with their meals finished. Ean himself had gone upstairs after Kotori to grab a quick shower, stripping down away from the mirror to avoid the same sight and pain as earlier, returning to the outside world clad in orange flannel pajamas. He made his way back to the living room, surprised at how late it had gotten so quickly.

He moved to the connected kitchen, grabbing a soda from the fridge as he did. He needed some type of justification to sit in an empty room by himself, and that resolved it. He was content to just sit silent and mull over the past few days, and with no one around, he felt he could let a bit of snark out.

"Well, here I am. Japan. Now as long as I don't disrespect an entire culture, I'm in the clear."

Ean laughed a bit into his soda, the only audience for his joke the empty room. He dropped the act and sighed slightly, tired and a bit depressed. He let himself slump to the table and just let his mind run. A new life, home, family, and everything else, but he was still the same person he was before.

He didn't want to be that person anymore. He was tired of collapsing to the ground whenever the pain became too much.

"Oh, you're still up?"

The male voice forced him to snap around in a panic, leaving the redhead to lock eyes with the bluenette of the household, who was smiling back with an eyebrow popped up, donned in a set of worn pajamas. Ean caught himself before he did something stupid and calmed down, turning back to his drink.

"Hey, Shido. I was just planning on turning in for the night."

Ean was just starting to pull himself up when his fellow male sped to the fridge to grab himself a drink, then immediately threw himself into the hair opposite of the foreigner, a smile on his face.

"You wanna sit and talk for a little bit, at least? I'd like to get to know you better."

Shido wanted to know him? There really wasn't much more to know. He'd told the family about his life the day he'd gotten into the Itsuka home, just glancing by some of the touchy issues. Shido, however, was persistent, and let his first inquiry fly.

"What made you want to come to Japan? I'm sure it's not much different from America?"

Of course, the first question had to be one of the hardest.

"I was in an accident. It just came out of the blue. I'm mostly here to get better."

Now that he thought of it, why Japan in particular? Why not Europe? Why not someplace still in North America?

For what stupid reason did he decide to learn an entirely new language?

"What happened? Why can't you be helped at your home?"

When the words left Shido's lips, he looked horrified. Ean could already tell he just worded it wrong, accidentally making it seem like he hated Ean's presence.

He couldn't really blame him if he did. He was impeding on their normal lives.

Before Shido could stammer his way to an apology, Ean grinned at him and waved his worries down. The bluenette was a bit pale, but nodded silently and went back to drinking his soda. The quiet quickly became awkward, so Ean picked the conversation back up.

"My family ended up on the bad side of chance, me particularly. Accidents piled up, and ever since the first one, I've been different. They couldn't even find the other party."

Damn it. He should've let the silence persist. He just had to run his mouth. The stress must be getting to him; he was starting to swear again.

"Other party? You got hurt by someone?"

There was the question that could make or break his entire relationship with the boy. He didn't want be vague, in case it caused some terrible misunderstanding, but he didn't want to full on give out his life story because he didn't like to bring it up. The therapists couldn't help, and that was there job.

He took a moment to digest the situation, and he looked sadly at the bluenette. He didn't want pity, but Ean glanced down and undid a few buttons on his shirt, just enough to expose his chest.

Shido looked ready to vomit. The foreigner couldn't blame him. It wasn't everyday when you saw someone with such gruesome scars covering their chest. They zigged and zagged like designs, drawing pale white pictures in what was once healthy flesh. An indent was over his right pectoral, accompanied by an almost comical scar, right down the center of his torso, where they had broken open his rib cage to remove the shrapnel in his body. He let Shido have his look, then quickly buttoned up his shirt once again, clarifying the origin to his wounds.

"A hit and run in the suburbs. It's not something you see everyday. Nor is a fourteen year old with a punctured lung and a license plate smashed into his torso."

His grip tightened on the table, not wanting to look and see the pity in his eyes. He hated every second two years ago when every doctor and nurse looked at him like he was some victim. He just wanted life to be normal, damn it! He wanted life to be the way it was, where he'd just been another face in the crowd. Where he wasn't the one barely coherent in a wheelchair! Where he didn't have to see the sympathy from people who just didn't understand what he needed!

He couldn't have that from Shido. He was trying to help him become acclimated, despite his sudden entrance in his life. It wasn't his fault he wanted to know more. It wasn't his fault that Ean was too weak to change their perspectives.

"I'm physically fine. Mentally… not so much."

His mouth was running on autopilot again. What he just thought could have easily been vocalized. It was just another reason to keep his eyes averted.

"Phantom pains?"

He could hear his nails breaking as his grip on the table tightened tenfold. The sympathetic tone of voice was mocking him.

"A lot of them. They were so often that it made me seem like a freak. My parents decided I needed a change of scenery. Then came the exchange program and me becoming fluent in Japanese over the span of two and a half years."

His parents. Son of a bitch, why did he always end up here?! Why did he torture himself with bringing them up every step of the way?

Why did he have to lose them?

"They're gone now."

"Oh… I'm sorry to hear that."

You and everyone else buddy. You still had parents.

"I was in the hospital for my last session of physical therapy when the carbon monoxide detectors failed. A pipe had burst in the furnace, and while the house didn't burn down, it took them."

It hurt so much when it happened. It was a complete and utter accident, possible to happen to anyone. He remembered when he got the news the next morning. He cried for days, begged God to bring them back, begged to take their place. Life just continued and left him behind.

"They went in their sleep, which I guess might've been better than anything else. My sister's currently alive, but she's comatose. Has been for two months."

He saw her before he left. How weak and frail she was. Life support was only prolonging the inevitable, but he just couldn't stay. He couldn't watch her lose her life without him able to do a thing.

"Where did you live?"

"Family on Dad's side got me through it. Mom's side is… for the lack of a better word, screwed up. A gold-digging widower of a grandma, dead grandfather, and a psychopathic divorced uncle. Hurray…"

He preferred not to think of them. He loved them, but it was the worst family he'd ever seen.

"At least you can joke about it, right?"

Shido's smile was telling. Ean had totally just said that out loud.

"It's how I cope. Make bad jokes, and if someone laughs along the way, it's not like it'll stop me."

Shido gave a small smile, and the room fell back into an awkward silence with Shido not knowing what to ask and Ean not knowing what to say. This time, the feeling was lighter. He didn't feel so self-destructive now that he had time to vent.

Shido didn't seem to feel the same.

"I'm sure you can tell that I'm adopted?"

Shido's tone was slightly timid as he asked the question, more to the air than anyone. It was obvious he wasn't expecting much of an answer in the negative, especially since he glanced to a family photo on the fridge. Ean swore at himself for bringing up family again, but was kind enough to at least acknowledge the attempt.

"I wasn't going to bring it up."

Something of a thankful hum escaped the Japanese boy's throat as he took a sip of his drink, leaning against the side of the kitchen counter. When he pulled back the aluminum can, Ean was slightly surprised to see a smile on his face.

More thankful than he thought, huh?

"It's fine. It would've happened sooner or later. I was really young, probably five."

Ean drained the last of his drink and resisted the urge to crush the can. They'd abandoned him? The boy who was so serious about putting his family first. God, irony was so damn unforgiving...

"My parents abandoned me. I don't even know why. I have little to no memories of that time. The first thing I do actually remember is my mom, dad, and Kotori."

He put a sympathetic smile on his face. Lord, he was a hypocrite. He just went on and on about how he couldn't handle the sympathy and pity, yet here he was doing the same thing.

But… it wasn't the same, was it? He knew the pain Shido had; he was living the same experience.

"I came close to crossing a line back then. It's only because I was adopted that I'm here now."

Crossing a line… oh.

Oh god.

Shido tried to kill himself?

"More ways than one?"

He didn't imagine the pain in Shido's eyes time and time again. It was there, no matter how small. No one deserved that. Whatever happened back then kept appearing, cutting him off from the others.

"Yeah. More ways than one, huh?"

Shido gave a small smile and nodded. Ean wasn't having it. He rose from the seat, sped over, and wrapped an arm around his buddy's neck, grinning as brightly as he could muster. If Shido couldn't be happy for himself, then Ean would help him find something to pin that happiness to.

Screw the world, and all the people who didn't know about how they were! If he was supposed to suck it up and move on, he would, but they could go to hell if it wasn't full of kicking and screaming!

"Well, you know what? We may be messed up, but we're messed up together! As long as we're together, nothing can stop us! Two miserable teens against the world!"

He heard something of a snicker from the bluenette before the mask cracked and he let his laugh bellow out. Shido's laughing made Ean start laughing, and the two were left as messes of mirth and tears. Ean ended up doubling over and hitting the ground as Shido tried desperately to pull him back to his feet. The Japanese boy caught his breath first, not even fighting the smile across his face as his brown eyes scanned the boy laying on the ground.

"What are you, a bad anime protagonist?"

Ean managed to flop himself over to face the boy's question head on, throwing a triumphant fist into the air with his goal completed for now. He'd made the bluenette happy.

"One who can't shut his mouth, of course!"

Shido grabbed his hand and pulled him back to his feet with surprising ease on both of their parts. They managed to brush the wrinkles from their pajamas, but couldn't quite get their smiles to leave.

"Ean, if you ever need to talk, I'll be right here, ready to open up, okay?"

"Yeah. I got it."

The boys walked side by side as they left the kitchen behind, prepared to finally end the day. They stopped at their rooms, the doors side by side, and Shido gave his friend a pat on the shoulder.

"Get some rest! School starts in three days."

"I'll be sure to. Night!"

They separated for their rooms, turning in for a new day. The two depressed souls slept easy that night.

Kotori listened as their conversation had gone on for a while, her back against the connecting wall as she pondered over the things said in the room behind her. Shido hated talking about being adoptive, one of the only things he actually despised bringing up. It normally set him into a bad seclusion that only time could mend.

This was different. Shido was completely open about speaking of it, and judging from the tone in Ean's voice, his own injuries were a topic he rarely pursued openly. The hesitation they had only made the other listen harder. Kotori smiled at the display.

"They're good for each other."

She made her way back to her bright room, threw herself onto her pink bed, and just glared at the ceiling. She found herself too rude over the past few days. How did she barely talk to the boy who would be living with them? She couldn't justify that with anything, not even using the Spirits as a crux.

"I'll do better. For his sake and Shido's."

She listened as the boy's shared one last laugh and separated for their rooms, signaled by their doors shutting. The girl shifted herself over in her bed, looking at the wall her mattress was pressed up against. Her chest was hurting again, the hot bubbling of the Angel in her body. She didn't even need to question why the feeling was there: her answer was the AST being a bunch of jackasses. They tried to kill another Spirit, which thankfully became lost, but it was putting pressure on Ratatoskr. She didn't want to think about doing it, but Shido's induction was likely the only way she could get any headway.

Camael was burning inside her, a constant reminder of what she was. She didn't want to force her big brother and their new family member into the fray, but they were running out of time. The board of directors wanted something right for once.

Kotori Itsuka, Efreet, was inclined to agree.