Sice's COMM ringed as she looked for a new way to their destined point. It wasn't easy – the battlefield was hot and the sight was blurred because of the smoke and ash in the air. A building crashed right before them and blocked the path of the alley they wanted to use and swirled up even more ash in the air.

Sice coughed. With all the background noise she had problems even understanding the information she got. Deuce on the other line of the COMM coughed too and her team had apparently the similar problems. The COMM shut off and Sice looked at the way where they came from, eying an heavy breathing Seven standing far back, who already took a few hits and had visible minor injuries.

The hot air burned in their lungs and in combination with the ash it was even harder to breathe.
Sice frowned. The situation wasn't going well for them, they already lost their third party member – Queen – to a sniper, but that setback didn't stop them from carrying out their mission The mission came always first and they would do anything to achieve that.

"We have to get back, huh?" Seven shouted to Sice, reading her right from far away. Sice wanted to reply, but she was cut off by a noise that made her cringe and shudder.

Boom!

She knew that noise, she heard it too many times and was burned in her memory, so instead of shouting a reply she turned to her right side where that noise came from and her suspicion turned out right.

"Ah shit," she huffed under her breath and inhaled deep to a shout, ignoring the pain of her lungs because of the burning air, "Seven!" she warned, but the heavy shot of the bazooka already made its way to the girl.
Everything went so fast and yet Sice could see every second very clear. Her mind went blank and her instincts began to take over; her sight still blurry, but her body moved on autopilot now. With speed she ran over to the soldier who carried the heavy weapon to keep him from shooting another time; her scythe materialized in her hand as she ran and with a growl she stroke out.

Slash! Slash!

In two blows the soldier went down, yelping for help for the last time in his life, but the groaning voice was cut short as Sice harvested the phantoma of him, crushing the body that slumbered down on the pavement. With deadly eyes she looked over the splattered form and dematerialized her weapon again. Why she didn't see the soldier in the first place was a mystery to her. He must have been hiding between the ruins of the building, Sice mused. But now the thread was gone.

She shook her head; it was just another soldier, she killed so many of those already in this war, this was nothing new. He shot Seven … or was he? She couldn't remember.

"Seven …" she turned around again and saw the girl's body lying on the ground, blood smearing her back and face, but it appeared that she was still breathing, even if it only was light and slow. She must have been hit hard and got blown away by the force of it; she coughed blood now and her life energy got lesser and lesser every passing second. It didn't look good for her.

Sice could go on with her mission and leave her behind – having a very injured member in the group would slow the mission down very much and getting it done was the highest priority they had; should Seven die, Arecia would revive her once the mission is completed – but then she remembered the message she got from Deuce over the COMM.

"Shit." Sice mumbled and ran over to Seven while preparing a cure spell on the way and when she got there the healing spell flooded right through Seven, stopping at least the bleeding. "Damnit." She cursed again and knelt in front of her as another cure spell hit Seven. This time the magic showed results and the girl finally opened her eyes now, her vision blurry.

"Mother?" Seven whispered in a rough voice. Sice looked confused, but she shook her head, getting what Seven meant.

"No, you weren't dead. You're still on mission and got bloody hit."

She prepared another cure spell; in this state Seven was now she couldn't get up let alone move away from this place – they had to move, they were still in the middle of the battleground and every minute new soldiers could arrive and knock them both out.

A feeling of relief flooded through Seven as Sice's cure spell hit her again. Her wounds were finally closed, but the exhaustion and weakness still lingered in her bones and muscles, hindering her from going on.

"Come here." Sice said and before Seven could react in any way, she was lifted up and literally thrown on Sice's back. With a grunt she pressed herself at Sice, albeit confused, but she went with it and threw her arms around Sice's neck. The girl in return grabbed her thighs left and right beside her hip to hold Seven steady on her back.

With giving Seven a piggy back she walked away from the open field, placing carefully one feet after another to get used to the weight on her back without tripping and falling over.

Which wasn't as easy as it sounds.

"Damn you're heavy." Sice grunted and lifted the girl up again, because she slightly slid off her back.

" … Because I'm taller than you."

It was just a faint whisper, but for Sice it was enough to react with a smirk.

"Look who can finally talk again. I saved your ass."

Seven nodded in understanding. " … Thanks."

"You owe me one." She huffed. Speaking while walking with Seven on her back and breathing this heavy air was exhausting; but she had to go on and find a safer place to rest for at least a few minutes, enough for Seven to catch her breath.

"Why did you save me? Without me you could have finished the mission by now already."

"Because," Sice shook her head. It wasn't true; without Seven she couldn't go on. "Because I need you."

"Need me?" Seven raised an eyebrow. This was the last thing she expected for Sice to say. She thought about things like "yeah I saw you were still breathing" or something similar, but not something … something interpersonal. Or was is it even interpersonal? Or did she just wish it was that way?

Seven sighed. Sure, the two were good friends, they shared a lot free time together. Seven was the only one who could put up with Sice's harsh words and opinions without telling her to shut up, since Seven wanted to know and understand what was going on in her head. And because of that Sice might think that Seven was the sanest person around Class Zero and that was the reason they were considered close. Sice might be a lone wolf, but she knew that Seven would be there for her in case she needed it.

But maybe Seven just interpreted too much in it now, because she couldn't believe that this was the real reason she saved her.

She laid her chin on Sice's shoulder and closed her eyes for a few moments. There was it again, this little aching in her heart she encountered in the first week upon arriving Akademeia whenever she was around Sice. It was … like a little flame that stayed inside her and burned stronger whenever Sice made such innuendos which probably weren't even innuendos at all. Thinking about it now terrified her; she didn't know what to make of all of this.

I should ask Mother what is wrong with me.

"... I needed to save your ass because without you I can't finish this damn mission and I would gladly do that." Sice said after a while and huffed as Seven slid down her back again.

These words drew Seven's attention. Wait, did she just said that because she noticed what she said before? How … wrong it sounded in her ears?

"Look," Sice continued when no response from Seven came, "Deuce told me they got big problems of their route with snipers and warned me about them. You know how I can't deal with those ranged cheaters when they are too high up in buildings. And that is why-" She stopped walking when they reached a corner of an alley, hidden behind ruins of wrecked houses that blocked the sight from potential appearing soldiers. She let Seven down and placed her against a wall. "-that is why I need you, because with your strange sword-whip-thing or whatever this is you can knock those idiots out and we can finally get the hell out of here. Because I'm sick of this air."

Seven slumbered against the building when Sice finished talking. Now she understood the reason why she saved her. Why else would she have done it. You're thinking about this too much again. Focus on the mission and get going.
She sighed and closed her eyes to embrace the slow healing magic that flooded through them whenever they rested up. It was a blessing from Mother, or so she told them, and Seven was more than glad that this kind of healing actually got rid of the exhaustion, because this is the only thing that still hindered her from going on. Or so she thought.

And that constant pacing from Sice in front her didn't make things going faster, as much as she wished.

Being around her didn't help much either. There was still that flame in her chest whenever she even looked at her now. It was ridiculous how fast this flame spread in her body; it was scary to her.

All she wanted to do was to react on the feeling, a feeling she didn't even know what it was, but it felt good and it was distracting her from the nasty things around her.

Seven lost herself in the hot feeling and with every passing second her thoughts wandered more and more around the person that was the cause of this whole mess inside her. She wanted to reach out to her, touch her hair, make her smile. Even thinking about it made the flame grew stronger and Seven couldn't do this anymore. She had to go on, they were still on the mission and this was way too distracting.

Minutes must have passed, because Sice got impatient and tapped her foot on the ground now, arms crossed. She hated waiting – especially relying on other people strength – but it was necessary and she knew that. Even though she could see that Seven's exhaustion got lesser and lesser, she had a feeling that there was something else that kept her from going.

She tilted her head as the girl finally pushed herself up and took a deep breath, her purple eyes looking dead serious.

Sice smiled. Now this is what she wanted to see, her companion was finally ready to knock everything down whatever they got in the way.

"Ready to kill some White Tiger brats?"

But instead of an "yes" or something close to it, Seven walked over to her, suddenly a hair breath away from her.

Everything went so fast, but this time Sice couldn't really recall what exactly happened. Seven must have tilted her head and placed her lips on her cheek, because she still could feel a warmth radiating from there through her body. Her eyes widened. Of all the things she imagined this wasn't what she expected. She still stood dumb fooled on the same place and Seven walked already away, drawing her weapon with a smile on her face. "Now I am."

Sice turned around and wanted to shout something to her, because she didn't want to drop this topic now and she wanted an explanation, but Seven was too far away by now and ran along the alley.

"What the hell. Get your ass over here and explain yourself … Seven!"

Seven heard her of course and chuckled at the attempt of calling her.

She didn't want to explain. She only reacted on the flame inside her which now was satisfied and gave her a nice warm feeling in her chest, instead of the painful heat she had before.

At least for now.