A/N: Hello again! It's been a while, yes? Well, this chapter's kinda short, clocking in at about 2300 words, but oh well. The later chapters will be much more fun to write so they'll be longer :)

First note, yes Yukina has draaastically changed from the first chapter. Considered editing the first chapter to make it more concise, but I like it this way better. It gives her more potential for backstory and reasons for development, plus it's just mysterious :p.

Second, Shigure *-* You get to see a little bit of his personality in his chapter, how he's more controlling, etc. Yukina isn't as socially awkward as I'd made her out to be in the first. Mainly, she's just awkward in general, lol, and naive. Very very naive. But it makes her like she is in the manga so it's all good.

And lastly, Akira appears! He's Yukina's childhood friend (from three years ago, lol so technically so is Shigure). And yeah it's pretty obvious he likes her. Love triangle(s) shall ensue! I wonder how well I'll be able to write them.

Anyway, this chapter really just sets up the plot for later chapters, which hopefully won't take me another half a year to write. Thanks so much for staying tuned! And a huge thanks to all my reviewers/favorites/followers :D You guys are awesome! Hope you like this installment!

The land was called Icecalia, and I was its princess – Princess Lilia.

"With the power to control ice, I can pretty much freeze everything in sight that I don't like. I'm invincible."

The proud, twelve-year-old Yukina excitedly began relaying her story ideas to her friend, Akira, who seemed to be listening intently. Since their meeting three years ago, the younger boy had always thought she was strange, but in a good way. He didn't meet too many interesting people, so when the opportunity to talk to her presented itself, he obviously didn't pass it up.

"Don't you have some sort of weakness, though?" he asked. He put a hand on the side of his face and leaned into it, trying to pretend like he wasn't interested – though he was extremely intrigued, in fact. His best friend was in the process of writing a novel, so he'd give all he had to help her. He'd always had high respect for writers.

She'd only just started out, with only one chapter posted, but she had gotten an incredible amount of feedback already. Akira had skimmed the chapter just to figure out what all the praise was about, and he could honestly say he was very proud of her. He didn't think she was capable of something so cool like that.

Yukina's face fell. "What do you mean weakness? I'm the strongest thing in Icecalia. Nothing can stop me!"

She stood up on top of her desk to prove her point, but Akira quickly coaxed her to sit back down after realizing there were a lot of perverted boys around trying to sneak a peek up her already short skirt.

Aside from the perverted looks, though, Yukina also received quite a few awkward glances from the rest of the class. It wasn't like they were in silent study time or anything – it was lunchtime – but to see a girl just randomly stand up on a desk wasn't something on any of her classmates' agendas for the day.

However, when she stared back at a few of them they quickly averted their eyes, muttering, "The snow woman's at it again" and, "Don't look into her eyes!" and the like. Yukina of course understood what they meant but she didn't really take it to heart.

"Stupid, ignorant people," she mumbled mainly to herself as she lowered herself back into the chair. She mimicked Akira's earlier pose, hand on her cheek and shoulder on the desk. At least nobody here knew her when she was still in elementary school. Well, no one except for Akira, anyway, and she obviously didn't mind him. She was extremely lucky she didn't waste time with people and instead only focused on her studies.

"Yukina-chan, it'd get boring if a hero didn't have any weakness, wouldn't it?"

She sighed. "All right, all right, I'll think of something."

Only a few moments of silence passed before Yukina groaned aloud. "Argh, this is so frustrating!" She hurriedly brought out her cellphone, flipping it open and clicking buttons in an attempt to bring up the Internet menu.

"What are you doing, Yukina-chan?"

She ignored her childhood friend for the moment, eyes lighting up as she discovered what she was looking for. "There we go! I knew there were other cellphone novelists out there. I wonder if they're having the same problem I am…"

Akira watched amusedly as Yukina glued her eyes to her screen, seemingly lost in thought and in her reading. He remembered she was a very fast reader in elementary school, so she was probably scanning through everything with ease.

"Oh yeah, Hina-chan! Did you read Dolce's update last night?"

In the other far corner of the room, two girls began talking about something or other. Because it was quieter than usual – and the girls were being louder than the rest of the class – Yukina couldn't help but listen in, but she wasn't too interested.

The other girl tilted her head to the side and smiled. "Kyaa! Yes, I did! It was super amazing, wasn't it? All the lovey dovey situations between the two made my heart beat really loud!"

Yukina was a little bit intrigued now.

"I know!" the first girl replied, similarly enthused. "To be honest, I don't really care much for the plot… I mean, it's great in its own way, but I love the romance!"

"Yes, yes! I know exactly what you mean! When a chapter is released and it's just all about that boring political stuff I usually can't read it, but now that the romance is developing, I can't stop wanting the next chapter to release already!"

Yukina's ears perked up fully now, understanding. So these eleven-year-old girls, who were probably her own readers as well, liked to read about romance? Romance… That was the same thing as love, right? And romantic love meant something entirely different from the love that one would share with family, right? So what did that mean…

"Ah! I need to go see Shigure!" Yukina suddenly burst out, slamming her phone down on her desk and standing up.

"What? Why, Yukina-chan? That guy…"

Akira couldn't' do anything but watch helplessly as his friend ran out of the classroom and to the right, towards the high school division. He sighed, putting a hand on his face, glancing at the seat she left behind.

…

"Shigure! Shigure!"

Yukina sprinted around several corners, ignoring all the dirty looks from older students and shouting from teachers telling her not to run in the hallway. She almost ran into quite a few people, but they were smart enough to move out of the way once they saw her coming.

"Shigure!"

She scanned the hallway, searching for the familiar face, but when she didn't see him she figured her last resort was going to his classroom. He was probably there.

Yukina turned another corner until she came to the 2-B classroom. It was weird to think that she was friends with a high schooler four years above her, but it was Shigure so she guessed it didn't matter. As long as it wasn't anyone else, right?

She slid the classroom door open and stood there, slouched over and panting. "Shi… Shigure…"

Everybody in the classroom stopped and stared at the small twelve-year-old girl who randomly showed up, each wondering why she was here.

"Yukina?"

The brunette glanced up, still out of breath, and grinned at the boy several feet in front of her. He had longer black hair than he did when they met three years ago, but he still carried himself in the same way, and the way he wore his uniform constantly reminded her that he hadn't changed at all.

"Shi-chan!"

Yukina ran over to him and attempted to tackle him, instead pushing him back a couple inches. She dangled her arms around his neck and hung from his body like a clingy baby would.

Shigure flushed a brilliant red, glancing over to his friends on either side. "Uh… Ahaha," he laughed nervously, the mask on his face unsuspiciously happy. "Yukina, what are you doing here?" He awkwardly returned her embrace but pried her arms off of him so he could properly see her face.

She just grinned like an idiot. "I ran all the way here to see you!"

Shigure rubbed the back of his neck. "Y-yeah, I know." The girls on his left and right sides giggled, reminding him they were there. "Just a sec, ladies," he told them. "Yukina-chan, should we go outside and talk?"

"I just need to tell you something!"

He smiled at her but continued dragging her with him outside of the classroom. "I know, I know. Let's just go somewhere more private, all right?"

Yukina pouted but otherwise stayed quiet, not understanding why the other boys in the classroom kept winking at Shigure and telling him not to "get in trouble with that underage girl." She ignored it, though, focusing instead on Shigure and what she was going to ask him.

Shigure led her outside the building to the small courtyard, knowing there were only a few minutes left of lunch so he couldn't afford to take her anyplace else.

He sighed. "All right, Yukina, what do you want?" His mask was off now, replaced with an utter look of annoyance and anger.

"You look mad…"

"Of course I'm mad! You keep bugging me and asking me stupid questions! I'm not your mom!" He put a hand to his head. "Ugh. I didn't mean that. Just… What do you want?"

Yukina frowned for a second after hearing his short scolding, but then returned to the task at hand. "Can you teach me what love is?"

The boy coughed and glanced down at Yukina like she was crazy, a red tint coloring his cheeks. "W-what?"

"I wanna know what love is!"

"…Why?"

She thought for a second. Only Akira knew about her novel, and if Shigure knew about it, he probably wouldn't help her, telling her to just figure it out on her own… Of course, he'd probably do that right now, too, but there was no sense in giving up before she asked!

"Because I can't ask Akira."

He sighed. "Why not?"

She bit the inside of her cheek, not anticipating his rebuttal. "Well… I just can't! First off, he's younger than me. I can't learn from someone who's younger than I am." She resisted the urge to put a finger to her chin as she thought of another reason, knowing she didn't have much more than five seconds to think of it. "And secondly, you're more mature than he is! I'd rather learn from someone who has experience, and Akira doesn't but you do."

Yukina stood her ground, staring at Shigure, proud of her answers. He wouldn't be able to see through those, right? Besides, she'd have another one if he still refused…

"You're four years younger than me, Yukina," Shigure explained, voice sounding exhausted. "It would be wrong and foolish for me to do something like that. Why do you need to know so suddenly, anyway?"

"It'll just help me!" she yelled, stamping her foot on the ground. "And it's only three years and a few months." He was so frustrating! Why couldn't he just help her? She guessed she had to pull out the big card, then…

"Besides," she started, "if you don't help me, I can tell people aaaall about your pretty little secret, Mr. Masked Shigure."

He scoffed, though he did pale a little. "That's no big deal."

"Oh, really?" Yukina smirked. "How about telling all the girls in your grade that your goal is to 'conquer' them, making sure that each of them falls for you? Would that be considered a big deal?"

Shigure sighed. "Damn it… How is it you have me at such a disadvantage…" he muttered under his breath, covering his mouth with his hand as his cheeks heated up again. He cleared his throat. "What if I were to tell all your classmates what you were like three years ago?"

Yukina didn't budge.

"Poor, sad, little Yukina-chan, broken glasses and crying face all the time. I remember the first time I went to your house for dinner, you instantly broke down at the table and told your mother everything that happened, from breaking the glasses to needing someone to show you the way home."

Yukina ignored that, too. Her mother wasn't mad; she was just a little disappointed. Besides, her mother wasn't around anymore anyway, and they both already knew that.

Instead she grimaced, knowing now that she had Shigure right where she wanted him. "How disturbing would it be for first-year middle schoolers to hear a high schooler talk about a little girl in that way? You're disgusting."

"Damn," Shigure replied without thinking. He clenched his fists. "How about that Sensei? You know, 'Sensei, Sensei!' was all you would say when we first met. You were practically in love with him!"

"Kirishima-sensei isn't here anymore. You know that as well as I do."

A few moments of silence passed and Yukina grinned while Shigure looked horrified, defeated.

"You've got nothing on me, Kitami Shigure. And I've got everything on you."

He turned away, not knowing what else to do. "…You've really changed, Yukina. I'm surprised."

She ignored that.

Shigure sighed in defeat. "All right. What do you want me to do?"

The bell suddenly rang, signaling that lunch time was over and students were to return to their classes within the next five minutes unless they wanted to be marked tardy. Yukina groaned angrily, wanting more time, but Shigure looked positively relieved.

"I'll send you a mail later explaining where to meet me. My birthday's next week, you know, so don't be expecting to get that day off!"

Shigure scoffed. "You can't possibly keep up blackmail for more than a week."

She walked up to him smugly, putting a finger on his neck. "Just watch me, Kitami Shigure."

And before he knew it, she had started to run away, waving over her shoulder and shouting "Bye!" as she ran in the opposite direction, back towards her middle school.

Shigure sighed, figuring it was time to put his mask back on. He made a neutral expression but kept it just a little upbeat, knowing if anyone were to see him without it they'd be suspicious. Kitami Shigure was everybody's smiling friend, and he wasn't going to let Yukina ruin that. He was stronger than she was.

Especially since she was just a held-back middle schooler.

"You're so annoying, Yukina," he thought in just whispers aloud. "You really don't know what you're getting yourself into. I'm going to make you fall in love with me."

He clenched his fists. "And then I'm going to crush you."

~CGA