Ayaka

Here's the second chapter hope you enjoy it. Credit to Sdregs for beta reading my first draft.

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"I'm home, " Kotaro called out as he closed the door to the dorm room behind him. The only person he could see was Ayaka who was sitting on the sofa, reading a book. He couldn't see any sign of Chizuru or Natsumi, nor could he pick up their scent. He guessed that they were still out.

"You're quite late aren't you?" said Ayaka, not looking up from her book.

Now that was strange. Whenever Kotaro would arrive home late, if Ayaka was the one to greet him, she'd tell him off for coming late. Yet this time she seemed uninterested, almost to the point of slight depression.

"Yeah. I was hanging out with those pipsqueak twins. Got busy pranking, " he said while taking of his jacket and carelessly tossing it on the floor.

"That's nice, " sighed Ayaka, who still hadn't looked up from the book she was reading.

Okay. Now Kotaro was worried. Not only was she not telling him off for coming home late, but she hadn't said anything about him leaving his jacket on the floor. She usually went ballistic whenever he made things untidy.

"What's with you?" asked the dog boy, showing once again that tact wasn't his strong suit.

Looking up from her book, Ayaka finally gave her young roommate a glare before she seemed to recollect something and went straight back to her book. "None of your business, " she mumbled.

Kotaro may have been tactless and rude sometimes but he was by no means heartless. Sure, Ayaka tended to berate him and yell at him a lot, but she was still a friend. ... Well, he considered her one, at least. He had no idea about her though.

Actually, now that he thought about it, she seemed to be rather elegantly dressed. She was wearing the type of thing she would wear whenever she was going to some special family dinner. "You going out or something?" he asked hoping to find out what was wrong with his roommate.

"No" she replied gruffly, not looking up from her book.

"Someone special coming over then?" asked the dog boy.

This question caused Ayaka to sit up straight up and close her book. She then stood up and kept her head down as she placed the book on the table.

"No one's coming over." She spoke very softly. If Kotaro didn't have his heightened hearing, he probably wouldn't of heard it.

But Kotaro, being who he is, lost his patience and decided to forgo any tact, if there was any. "Then what the hell, woman!? What's with-!?"

"I was going to meet up with Negi-sensei tonight, " interrupted Ayaka her voice not betraying any emotion, "But he cancelled. Something came up regarding the project." She didn't sound sad or disappointed. She just said it.

"That's all?" asked the dog boy, slightly annoyed. It wasn't surprising that Negi would have to cancel meeting some of his old students and friends due to the project. It had actually happened to Kotaro once or twice when he had asked to have a light spar with Negi.

Unfortunately for Kotaro, acting so dismissively about the reason she was upset was something that could easily set Ayaka off, and it did.

"Oh, what would you know!? You mongrel!" growled Ayaka, glaring at the ten year old.

"It's been a year since I last saw him and no matter what, he's always busy!" wailed the blond heiress. "But he finally got some free time, and I asked if he would care to spend it with me, and he said yes, but that ... that ... blasted project has kept me from spending time with my beloved Negi-sensei!"

"He is saving a world you know, " commented Kotaro drily.

"I know that!" shrieked Ayaka. "But still, it pains me that I can't enjoy some time with him, even though I know its selfish of me."

Kotaro rolled his eyes at how over the top his roommate was acting, though she did seem rather sad. "Hey, calm down! Geez! No need to get so worked up. Just be patient, and wait for another time he's free."

"That won't probably happen till next year, for all I know, and even then he'll probably spend his time with someone else!" exclaimed Ayaka.

"Hey! Hey! Calm down. Geez! What's the big deal!? I don't think even Asuna-nee-chan gets this worked up, " said Kotaro. This was getting out of hand, and dealing with an over emotional Ayaka was not something he was looking forward to.

"Of course you wouldn't understand!" snapped the rich heiress, showing no sign of calming down anytime soon. Turning her back to Kotaro, she added, "Someone that has always had a strong together family like you, with no worries in the world, just lounging about, would never understand!"

Ayaka was expecting a retort to come from her young roommate soon. Whenever they got into an argument, both would spend they whole tome throwing either insults or snarky comments at each other, until Chizuru or someone else stopped them. However, this time she didn't hear any retort. She heard no snarky comment. She didn't even hear that growling sound Kotaro would make when he got particularly angry.

Turning around to look ar her young roommate, she saw the dog boy just standing there, looking at her with a deep frown on his face with his hands curled into fist on either side. As he opened his mouth Ayaka expected to hear a insult thrown at her. Instead, he clamped his mouth shut, picked up his jacket, turned around and opened the door.

"Where do you think you're going?!" asked Ayaka.

All Kotaro said was, "Piss of!", before he slammed the door shut behind him with a loud bang.

After a couple of seconds, Ayaka gave a, 'Humph', and went back to sit on the couch, though she was suddenly shocked by the loud thud as the door fell off its hinges and onto the floor.

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Kotaro stomped his way out of the dorm house, gritting his teeth, as he headed down the road that was being basked in the light of twilight as the day finally came to its end.

"Stupid, stuck up bitch!" growled Kotaro under his breath. With the angry atmosphere he was giving off, anyone that was out at that hour was wisely keeping their distance from the boy. "I had to sit through that sort of crap whenever I saw her during spring! Like hell, I'm going to be her emotional punching bag!"

Maybe he'd sleep in the woods tonight. He knew that Chizuru would be angry for making her worry, but he just couldn't care right now. He'd cross that bridge when he got to it.

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In most cases, 'We're home', would have been the first thing to come out of Chizuru's mouth once she opened the door to her dorm room to let herself and Natsumi in, ... but there was one problem; there was no door to open, just a rectangular hole in the wall that separated their dorm room from the hallway.

So, naturally, the first thing to come out of Chizuru's mouth was, "Ayaka, what happened?!"

Turning her gaze away from the TV, Ayaka replied, "That brat, Kotaro-san, happened!"

Shaking her head, Chizuru put down her (her what?) next to where the door should be and her coat on the coat hanger while Natsumi starred wide-eyed at the door that was set leaning against the wall, next to where it would usually be. Though considering what she saw in Mundus Magicus, she really should not have been surprised to see something as small scale as that.

"Why would Kotaro-kun do this?" asked Natsumi.

"Because he is nothing but a brutish child" replied Ayaka, crossing her arms. "Honestly, Natsumi-san, I'm surprised that you turned out how you did, while that brat ended up being nothing more but a brute!"

Natsumi gave a surprised, "Eh?!", at Ayaka's statement. "Wai ... wait! You mean to tell me that you ... ?"

"That I what?" asked Ayaka, genuinely confused, not only by the question but by the looks Natsumi and Chizuru were giving her.

Chizuru gave a tired sigh as she took a seat. "Really, Ayaka. You can be too gullible sometimes, " she muttered, shaking her head.

"What are you talking about?" Ayaka had had a stressful evening already, and she didn't need her roommates to start talking in riddles.

"Umm ... well ... the thing is ..., " stuttered Natsumi, trying to find the right words to tell the truth. Though, fortunately for her, Chizuru knew the right words.

"He's not Natsumi's brother, " Chizuru stated bluntly, causing both Ayaka and Natsumi to look at her with wide eyes. "He's not even remotely related to her."

"WHAT?!" screeched Ayaka. "Th-then who, the hell, is he?!"

"Chizu-nee and I found him him, depowered, in his puppy form, unconscious, on the street. We brought him here, and one thing led to another, and we had to lie to you, because well, we couldn't let an orphaned boy go wandering on his own, so we took him in, apparently hanyo's like him tend to get abandoned " explained Natsumi.

"Though, it is surprising that you didn't notice the lie sooner, especially after finding out about magic, " said Chizuru, giving a dainty giggle, which caused Ayaka to blush in embarrassment.

"Well, I though that maybe ..., " mumbled Ayaka, embarrassed.

"And I definitely thought you would have figured it out after finding out about him being a hanyo." Ah, that had been a shock for Ayaka, though it probably wasn't a good idea to ask if he was house trained.

"Wait! Does that mean that you thought I was part dog too?!" asked Natsumi, slightly outraged.

Shuffling her feet in embarrassment, Ayaka couldn't look at her roommate's faces. She knew that she could be easily fooled sometimes, but this was a doozy. She guessed that she didn't really know Kotaro at all. Then she remembered, 'Someone that has always had a strong together family like you'.

'Oh no', she thought.

"Now where is Kotaro-kun?" Asked the heiress of the Naba family, "I think I need to have a talk with him about a little something" Ayaka saw Chizuru's eye dart briefly to the door for a second.

"We...well Kotaro-san and I argued for a bit and he eventually stormed off..."Muttered Ayaka starting to feel a bit guilty "...and I think I might of said something rather insensitive"

Chizuru narrowed her eyes at Ayaka's last statement, "Natsumi-chan" called out Chizuru, catching her freckled roommate's attention, "Would you kindly go out to get us some take out food? Some Chinese would be nice"

"Um can't it wait Chizu-nee? I'm worried about Kotaro-kun"

"Natsumi-chan" Chizuru's voice took the tone that basically screamed 'leek' in the background of it, "I think that a good meal would do us good and I'm sure that Kotaro-kun will be fine he'll be back soon enough, for his own sake"

Natsumi felt a shiver go up her spine as every self preservation instinct screamed 'run' as well as feeling pity for Kotaro.

"Okay then. See ya" She said as she rushed out of the shared room.

Once their roommate was gone Ayaka felt very awkward with Chizuru just sitting there calmly not even addressing her, she knew what was coming whenever Chizuru had something important to talk about with someone she would want some privacy.

After what seemed like an eternity Chizuru finally broke the silence, "Sit please".

She didn't even have to take a commanding tone, she didn't need to, Ayaka felt like she was going to be scolded by her mother so when Chizuru told her to sit, she sat.

After another few seconds of silence Chizuru finally addressed Ayaka, who was sitting next to her on the sofa "I take it that Negi-sensei canceled your meeting right?"

Stiffening slightly Ayaka nodded, currently not trusting her own voice.

"Did you and Kotaro-kun argue over that?"

Shuffling her feet Ataka answered, "Somewhat,, he asked what was wrong with me and one thing led to another..." She trailed off.

"And you said something rather insensitive to Kotaro-kun" Finished Chizuru, "At which point I'm guessing he stormed off and left our door in the state it currently is in"

"Basically; yes"

"Ayaka" Said Chizuru with a level of sternness in her voice. This caused Ayaka to stiffen somewhat. "Did you say, whatever it is you said, because Kotaro-kun angered you with a disrespectful comment?" Chizuru leaned in "Or was it because you were venting out your anger at Negi-sensei?"

That last question caused Ayaka to blink a couple of times and she had to think it over a few times to make sure she heard it right, "I'm sorry, but angry at Negi-sensei?" Not possible, she could never hold any ill will towards her beloved sensei.

"Ayaka you spent three months picking out that dress alone" Stated Chizuru flatly, "You made reservations at a five star restaurant five months in advance and suddenly Negi-sensei, though I'm sure he had his reasons, cancelled your appointment. I'm pretty sure that even you are feeling a bit sore at that"

Chizuru's voice took a softer tone as she saw her friend stiffen even more, "And that's okay, you have a right to feel angry and try to sort out you're feeling. However..." Then her voice regained it's stern tone, "Using our young roommate or any other of our friends as an outlet for your anger is something I won't tolerate, am I clear?"

Ayaka nodded once again not trusting her own voice, but there was conflict inside her going on as well. She couldn't possibly hold a grudge against Negi-sensei, sure it stung when he cancelled, but he saving a world he had a very good reason, yet in spite of that a tiny voice in the back of her head kept screaming; 'One day! Am I not even worth one damn day?!'

"I'm sorry" Guilt was eating her up "if...if I had known that Kotaro-san had such a past I wouldn't..."

"Wether you knew or not doesn't matter" Interrupted Chizuru, "Nor does it matter whether Kotaro-kun has had a hard past or not, what matters is the now"

"Understood" Said Ayaka dejectedly and she thought, or rather hoped, that would be the end of it, but that was not the case.

"Ayaka we've been friends for quite some time and I care for you deeply but I'm starting to get worried" Said her busty roommate whose voice had taking its more calming nurturing tone.

Yet again Ayaka was confused by something her roommate said, but before she could say anything Chizuru continued.

"You are becoming too...clingy to Negi-sensei and I don't think that's good for you" She smiled warmly at Ayaka "We are all surrounded by people that are important to us wether we know it or not, so we must learn to understand ourselves better. You should try relaxing a bit more and learn to let go and open up your heart to let your friends help" As she said this Chizuru embraced her friend letting the blonde girl rest her head on her shoulder.

Returning the hug Ayaka felt a smile cross her lips, no mater what Chizuru always knew what to say to make things better.

Breaking from her friend's embrace Ayaka wiped away a small tear that had gone down her cheek.

"Feeling better?"

"Yes, thank you" Answered Ayaka this time being able to answer a question with her voice.

Happy to see her roommate feeling better, Chizuru stood up, "Okay then I'm going to start getting the table ready" Looking down at Ayaka her smile didn't falter "And once Kotaro-kun comes back you two are going to have a nice chat, understood?"

She was planing to anyway she felt a bit guilty about what she said, so she nodded and smiled at Chizuru as her roommate went to set up the table. Now that she thought about it would probably do her good to get to know Kotaro better, after all she didn't know enough of Natsumi to be fooled by a story of her family despite being class rep, so it only made sense to get to know her roommates better.

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The second part should be coming soon, hold on tight.