Shizuo stared at the empty seat in front of him. Corvi had not come in. She never did when it was already raining. If he woke up and it was a downpour outside, he was sure she would not be there. Not that he would ever say but he missed her. He missed brushing the curly ends off his desk to put his name on the top of his worksheet. He missed the drawings of their classmates they would pass back and forth, the notes of what they would do to Izaya if they could catch him and ways to ditch Shinra. At lunch, he missed Corvi trying to eat all of his lunch since she never brought one of her own. He missed sharing- More like fighting, over his milk.

He even missed their eventual argument. It was always about something they could never remember later on. They would both shrug and say "Whatever." Then it was back to glaring at Izaya for the two.

What he missed most, he bit his lip thinking about it. Corvi would bump into him, brush against him, lean on his back to see over his shoulder. All in an innocent way but Shizuo was a hormonal teenage boy and she was a teenage girl with large breasts, wide hips, and a plush round backside. The challenge was not to rival a tomato when her body was in close proximity. So he pinched her cheek and stretched her face when it would become too much. A frown would form on her light brown features and she would leave him alone for a while. It was what he needed to calm his nerves and if that was not enough, a quick trip to the bathroom was in order.

But when Corvi did not come to school, he did not have to worry about that. He did have to worry about being bored. With his chin rested in his palm, he groaned. The math teacher was talking, his mouth was moving, the chalk was writing on the blackboard but it was null and void to Shizuo. A slight look at the clock struck him in the gut. It was the last period but still too many minutes to weather.

"Still no Corvi?" Blonde hair flopped back and forth with each shake, "Wonder if she's sick." Another shake of the yellow hair, "It was raining this morning." The torrential sheets of water had stopped around lunchtime and they carried their dry umbrellas as they walked rather slowly. Shinra's mouth formed a circle as it dawned on him. Shizuo wondered why Shinra, of all people, had not noticed the girl's obvious habit.

"Well, let's go see her! Celty should come too." Before Shizuo could stop him, a text was already sent and a reply received. Shinra smiled at his phone and looked up at his companion with the same toothy expression.

"Celty's going to meet us th- Ah! Wait. Where does Corvi live again?" Neither of them had actually seen the girl's house. They had been walking together for two months but always split up before her home came into view. Shizuo shrugged, "We could read the mailboxes, right?" Another text lit Shinra's phone but this time he read it aloud. It was an address, for Corvi's home, from Celty and that she would have to pass this time. Eyebrows rose on Shizuo's face. How did Celty know? And more importantly, Corvi lived three blocks from him. All this time and she was only a stone's throw away.

A feeling of inadequacy washed over the duo as they stood outside the four story Victorian influenced mansion. The building took up three quarters of the street and the other fourth was an expansive walled off courtyard. Smooth gray decorative brickwork created a path from the concrete of the public street to the dark wooded veranda. Shizuo was the first to move forward, the other boy followed suit after he had broken the invisible force field that seemed to surround it. The front door was another state of affairs. Wrought iron twisted around in symmetrical patterns over the frosted glass of the black double door. After searching for a few minutes, they found the doorbell. Some of the cloud of insufficiency dispersed at the sound of a normal ring. Nothing grand like expected.

An avalanche of stomping and skidding neared the door until it was deafening. A younger less voluptuous clone of Corvi opened it and stared out at the group from the vestibule. She did not greet them. She did not ask who they were. She just stared.

Shinra cleared his throat and bowed slightly, "Hi. I'm Shinra Kishitani. A friend of Corvi's. Is she-"

Without waiting, the girl backed up a few steps, turned away and screamed upwards, "Queenie!" When she received no answer, the girl walked back into the interior of the house, leaving the door open. Seeing it as an invitation, the three entered. After the vestibule, an oversized staircase with a grand railing was to their left while a giant living room with antiquated furniture was to the right. Six other inky black haired heads turned to stare at the visitors. They had paused the video game they were playing to do so. The girl who answered the door was already seated amongst them. Shinra bowed again, waved and was about to introduce them when a new voice interrupted him.

"Hey. You missed the party" Shizuo turned to his left and was met with what could have been the male version of Corvi. The boy stood at the same height and his shaggy black hair fell in front of his face in chunks. He stuck out a rough looking hand to the blonde and grinned, mouth stretching from ear to ear, "Corvidal. Sorry. This is like crazy. This never happens. She never has people over. It's kinda freakin' me out, ya know?"

Well that explained all the gawking. But what party?

Shizuo took the extended hand and shook it properly. Maybe the boy did not know who he was.

"Shizuo Heiwajima, right?" Or maybe he did, "Makes sense once I think about it." It was what everyone said about their friendship. Birds of a feather, Corvi had said, flock together. Corvidal excused himself around them and walked into the living room, "Did you find her, Conori?" The girl eyes broke from the group only to shrug.

"Probably giving Cornielle lessons on the roof." The older boy grinned again, a hint of deviousness shone in his eyes. His hands clapped together and his fingers laced, "Well then. Looks like I'm in charge then." A collective groan came from the room at the statement and they began to leave one by one. They were not willing to stick around for another one of his schemes. He screamed and chased after them, leaving the boys by themselves.

Heavy footsteps, as if whoever was carrying something, and crying came from above. They seemed to go on for a while until Corvi, with a sparkling tiara on her head, emerged holding a small variation of herself by the arms. The younger girl was bawling her eyes out. Trails of snot rolled down from her nose and mixed with the tears. Corvi passed her friends without so much as a "Hello" and plopped the still crying girl on one of the vacant couches. She left without a word, walked past the two again down the hallway and through an open doorway. When she returned, each of her hands held cookies. They were presented to the girl, who immediately stopped, wiped her face and glared at the older girl.

"How fresh are those?" Corvi sucked her teeth at the question, "Seriously? You're getting cookies for crying. That's like the biggest present life can give you." The glare became a pout, eyebrows were furrowed and arms were crossed.

"Sur-lis-lee." The oldest had to stop herself from snorting at the pronunciation. It would only make things worse.

"I made them this morning, remember? You wanted to help and I said no but you cried-"

"I didn't cry! I'm not a crybaby!"

"Never said you were. Now take the cookies or I'll eat them a-"

"No! They're mine!" And with that, the girl snatched them up and stuffed a whole one in her mouth.

"Don't eat them like that. You could choke. What did I tell you?" What sounded like muffled words struggled to escape a cookie filled mouth, "Ah-fff joo chek, joo mmf-oak anf cr-ohs go k-ah" Corvi sighed and hung her head. The "If you choke, you croak and crows go caw" had stuck but not the "Don't speak with your mouth full". Taking care of a six year old was tiresome. She was well aware that Shizuo and Shinra were watching. She just did not have time to deal with both. With Cornielle occupied for the moment with cookies, Corvi finally turned to the two.

"Hey."

They should have known better. Corvi was technically an heiress and that was common knowledge. It was not like it should have been a surprise. What they did not expect, she was the oldest of thirteen. And it appeared that being the oldest in the Karasu brood meant having the best. Her room was exhibit number one. Only two rooms sat on the top floor. One was Mister Karasu's and the other was Corvi's. Getting to the top floor was almost like going through a maze. Apparently, the stairs next to the door only went up two floors. After that, they had to walk down the hallway to either end. More steps to the third floor, past a regally furnished seating area and a walk to the middle of the hall awaited them. Shinra huffed as he was presented with even more stairs to the fourth floor. Corvi had assured him that it was the last flight of stairs he would have to go up. Cornielle cheered him on from atop her sister's shoulders.

At the top, the hallway was also the side of the house. Open windows let the sunlight flood the hall and the light breeze the rain from the morning brought wafted in. Shinra sighed in pleasure as the sweat he had worked up from all the steps cooled his forehead. Corvi lead them to her door and pulled out keys to unlock it. Shinra had asked about the lock and Corvi answered, "To give me some sort of privacy from the rest of them." It was not much but she would take what she could get.

The pearl colored carpet went well with the shades of pink and black furniture strewn about the room. Shizuo, who had stayed silent, felt a blush creeping up his neck. He was in her room, not entirely alone with her but still. Maybe if he could find her underwear drawer in her black cabinet, he could finally put at ease the nagging question of what her cup size was.

"So what's with the tiara?" The question made Corvi freeze mid-step and reminded Cornielle she was finally close enough to touch it. Small fingers laced through the metalwork and yanked up. After stifling a yelp, Corvi placed her sister down and the girl took off sprinting to the closet door in the farthest corner. Her hands had to reach up to fumble with the knob before turning it. She vanished through the opening as she talked about cake.

"It's your birthday, huh?" Coal eyes turned to Shizuo, "You didn't tell us." His statement made her suddenly feel guilty but she brushed it off quickly and motioned for them to follow. The closet was actually a doorway to even more stairs. The only thing that stopped Shinra from crying like Cornielle was that they went downward. Another door at the bottom and they were in another living room. Wooden black bookcases filled with foreign comics lined the back wall. Next to the bookcases, a sizable desk held a closed laptop and a completely filled ashtray. On the opposite side of the room, a plush sofa sat in front of a modestly sized television and a dark coffee table took up most of the space between. Behind the tv, a sliding glass door that led out to a covered veranda. The two boys had to collect their jaws from the floor to notice there was no door to the outer hallway. The room belonged to one person and one only.

"I just-," Corvi stopped. Her eyes rolled around like marbles as she searched for the right words. Nothing came to mind. She could have always lied to them but that just seemed so-

"Corvi! What's this?"

Oh fuck.

Cornielle's hands held up the one thing she had wanted to forget more than anything. And her guests had turned around to look. The lace, the floral print, the slight sheerness, the boning that lightly squeaked when moved, the adjustable garters were less than two feet away from Shizuo's face. The images rose slowly like the sun in the boy's mind. He already knew Corvi owned thigh high stockings. She had worn them on occasion and he found it was hard not to stare at the bare skin in between her skirt and the top of the stockings. But with the corset, it would have fit together so perfectly.

"I'm not sure what this is but Ee-zak left it outside this morning." Shinra was the first to turn back to Corvi, a knowing grin in place of his usual peppy smile.

"Yeah. That's why I didn't say anything."