Author's Note: It's amazing how I can manage to write this fanfiction despite my busy schedule. Aren't you guys amazed? 'Cause I am. Not until I became aware of the fact that I am the Lord of Time Management. I'm a freaking super hero, dude.

Alright, none of that is true. If there's anything super in my system, that would be lying and procrastinating.

And this note is not a necessity, I just typed this to embarrass myself.

Chapter Two

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A loud cracking sound of breaking glass had echoed throughout the tiled walls of a cafe's kitchen area. A certain red-haired girl sharply hissed in pain as blood trickled down her now injured hand. The noise caught the attention of many of her colleagues but only one of them went to her and it wasn't even because she was concerned about her welfare. The tall slender young lady stood before her in irritation with her hands on her hips, carrying a stance which implied her superiority over her. As she quivered in pain, the smaller girl gazed upon the young lady with uneasiness.

"How many plates this week, Flaky?" she said with an ear-wrecking tone. "Those things don't grow on trees."

"I-I'm so sorry, Petunia. I promise I'll be more careful next time," Flaky stuttered.

The woman—on the other hand—didn't appear to be pleased with her reply and began to walk away from her as she spoke, "I've heard that so many times before. I wonder when will you actually do it,"

Her voice had gradually began to fade away but her heart cringing words were too sharp to ignore when she added, "That girl thinks that everyone feels sorry for her, when she's actually just an annoying whinny baby who doesn't get over about her boyfriend."

The red head felt something sting in her chest after Flippy got mentioned, particularly in her fragile moment. She disliked it whenever someone brought up anything about him, especially when they talk about him in a bad way. Tears were starting to dwell in the sides of her eyes as she tried her best to fight them back. Enduring her emotional vulnerability, she knelt on the marble floor and picked up the broken pieces of the shattered plate with care. As soon as Petunia left the room, another girl went dashing towards the red haired girl with a look of worry in her face. She took a few shards in her hands herself as a form of assistance to the fidgety girl.

"I'm so sorry Flaky, you know how Petunia is..." she said in all hopes that it could somehow comfort her friend.

Flaky smiled at her friend's statement, thinking of how kind natured the girl was and then wondering why was she even friends with the former prickly girl. Petunia wasn't that sensitive about other people's feelings and would always tell them what she thinks about their actions, especially when those people weren't doing her good. Soon right after, Giggles would come running to make that someone feel better and apologise for Petunia's disconcerting remarks. It seemed appropriate somehow, complimenting each other with their diverse personalities. Flaky tried to imagine how it was like to have a best friend since she never had one all her life, probably because of her distrustful nature. The only person she was close with was her cousin, Cuddles, and she couldn't say that she enjoyed his company because the troubles he brought her—never ended well.

They both rose up from kneeling as Flaky threw what they have collected down to the disposal bin. Giggles lingered and opened her mouth yet she seemed to be battling with herself whether to speak or not. After getting over with indecisiveness, the carefully chosen words finally came out from her mouth. "Hey... Cuddles and I are going out tonight. I was wondering if you would like to join us. It has really been a while since we hung out together... we miss you, Flaky."

The idea of her going out after a long while of secluding herself didn't bring good vibrations to her. Besides, she didn't want to bother the two with their presumable date. "I... I don't think so. I mean, I don't want to go between you guys..."

"Oh, no!" Giggles said and Flaky swore she saw a hint of the colour pink creep on her cheeks. "It's totally fine. Besides, Toothy and Nutty are coming with us."

Flaky now became more uneasy with the whole idea given that she had to deal with all the awkwardness it would bring. It had been a long time since she saw those people and she knew that there would be a lot of questions they would ask and vice versa. She now realised how distant she became from people, even to her friends. The pink haired girl soon noticed that she was struggling with her decision making, so she thought that she could say something to somehow ease her agony.

With her left hand covering the side of her lips, she whispered to Flaky's ear, "Don't worry. Petunia's not coming since she's too busy cleaning her house."

A small laugh escaped her mouth and by instinct, she suppressed the sound with her palm. How Giggles could make anyone feel better without fail remained a mystery to her, but it was certainly what she would call talent. "Alright, I'll go with you."

The pink haired girl jumped in delight, making her uniform's skirt flutter. She then held Flaky's hands with her own as the grin in her face provided an invigorating sight for the other. "I'm looking forward to it! We'll go after work, OK?"

She nodded in return and smiled. With a pessimistic thought, she knew that she would regret her choice but Giggles was too keen to be rejected. Giggles started to walk away from her to continue what she was doing before the incident happened as Flaky looked down to her wounded hand with concern. The girl couldn't help but sigh with the sight of her blood trickling down from the small opening. She hated being so weak that made her mess things up with her clumsiness. To be honest, she loathed her femininity. She envied men for their freedom and capabilities, things that were accepted in the norm. Shaking the negative vibes off of her system, she went to the kitchen sink to wash her wound with cold water. The girl watched how the colour red slowly became dissolved by the colourless liquid.

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Vintage lights were switched off before the large entrance door opened, revealing the two figures of girls who were about to leave the area. One emerging figure was a girl who seemed to be uneasy and was wearing a thick brown knitted sweater, a dark coloured hot pants, and pale brown thigh highs matched with brown leather boots. The other was looking cheerful and wore a red lacy dress that went down just right below her knees and a pair of leather shoes with the same colour. As they were walking the leave covered pavement, the two were talking with each other and the one with the pink hair was the only one who seemed to be stimulated with their conversation. Nonetheless, she didn't look like she was going to give up into brightening up her companion's mood anytime.

The same scene between them continued until they reached their destination. A few familiar faces greeted their eyes and some of them were surprised at the red head's presence, making the girl feel what she assumed she would. These familiar faces were namely: her cousin, Cuddles; her neighbour and once close friend, Nutty; and Cuddles' best friend, Toothy. The boys hadn't changed so much from the last time they got together. Cuddles still liked warm coloured clothes, Nutty's luminescent hair still caught her attention, and Toothy's buck teeth would still fleetingly stick out on his bottom lip. Her observations made her wonder if anything had changed with their personalities, given that nothing seemed to be different with their appearance ever since. The two boys welcomed Flaky with a hospitable smile, and it made her feel more confident with herself.

However, the other boy who had green brilliant hair tried his best not to pay a glimpse of the small girl. Out of them all, Nutty was the one who really took Flaky's past actions seriously and was hurt when the mentioned girl stopped seeing them. Many others thought that Nutty was somewhat weird and had the tendency to hurt people just to get what he wanted, so only a few had the guts to befriend him. Given Flaky's kind nature, she was the only one who took the time to understand Nutty's egocentric ways. They soon became close in a short span of time; and although Nutty didn't realise it, he was attached to the girl more than he thought he would be. The guy beside him noticed that he was ignoring, or better yet, was reluctant to interact with the red head. He caught the young man's attention by hitting him with his elbow and then he glared at him with dagger sharp eyes. Nutty only shrugged and went in into the Pub, leaving them without any spoken word. The blonde sighed in defeat and then met his eyes with Flaky's own crimson pair.

"Nutty just ran out of his sugar supply today," he said as he tried to be humorous with the intention of brightening the mood. "don't mind him."

The rest of them laughed as Flaky's own laughter quickly faded soon right after. Worried that she will never be able to patch things up between Nutty and herself, she found it hard to be completely happy. The girl then considered the idea of her just leaving the group, but Giggles strongly disagreed. Her red orbs glanced over the cemented ground before finally making the choice to stay. As they entered the establishment, the scent of smoke and of booze reigned the dim lit spacious room. Flaky didn't like what she saw in her surroundings, let alone the awkwardness of their company. The girl beside her became worried of Flaky's discreet yet noticeable reactions which implied that she wasn't enjoying their company, so she tried to open a conversation as soon as they found a place to linger.

"So Flaky, do you have any plans this winter?" she asked with enthusiasm. "We could go skiing together, if you like."

"Um... I think I'll stay in town," she replied.

"Why? Come on, Flaky. You need to go out," Cuddles quickly retorted.

Flaky was reluctant to open up about Flippy but then she realised that she had no choice. "I got a letter from Flippy the other day, he's coming back soon."

All of them stared in unison with a sceptical look in their faces as they found it hard to believe that the aforementioned man was still alive. Even Nutty who had his eyes glued into something else found it hard to stop himself from giving Flaky a dubious look. They were left speechless for a couple of seconds before Cuddles finally let out the breath he was holding and then he leaned his back against his chair. Although he was obviously clueless about which things could be appropriate enough to say about Flaky's statement, he decided to break the silence with a fake smile. "That's great. I knew that man was unstoppable."

Nutty rolled his eyes in frustration while the others forced themselves to say encouraging lies to the girl. In all honesty, he found it hard to believe that the man was still alive. Soon enough, the young man finally lost it and hit the wooden table with his fist to gain their attention.

"Stop it," the angry tone pierced through their ear drums. "I know damn well that all of you don't think that way."

"Flaky, Flippy's gone. He's dead." He added after a pause.

Toothy, being the kind fellow that he was, tried to stop Nutty from his sudden outburst. "Hey, man. Don't be like that,"

"What? You want me to say the same things you guys said? Fucking force lies into her head just to make her feel better?"

Cuddles redirected his glaring eyes to Nutty as he finally lost his nerves, "Nutty, stop it!"

The other young man opened his mouth, ready to say something to prolong their argument. But before the painful words came out from his mouth, it was soon halted with a familiar sound of crying. He then returned his attention to Flaky who was now weeping as her hands tried their best to conceal the tears beneath. The longer he watched Flaky, the more he realised the damage he had done not only to the girl but also to their night. Everyone threw fierce glares towards him, even Giggles who was too gentle to even hurt a bug. Flaky didn't know what to feel about the words thrown at her, and it felt too overwhelming that she needed to let it out by crying. What hurt her more than anything else was the fact that nobody believed her. Nobody believed that Flippy was coming back. Nobody believed that Flippy was still alive. Even though it didn't kill her hopes, it somehow made her feel alone. With all her might, she wiped her tears away as she left her seat. Her decision to leave became solid from everything that had happened; besides, she didn't want to cause any more dilemmas for her friends. In her self-pitying belief, she knew that none of this would have happened if she weren't there.

"Wait!" Giggles yelled but with a soft pitch.

Regret soon conquered the young man's conscience; he didn't mean to hurt her. He held himself responsible yet his arrogance convinced him that he didn't actually do anything wrong. In fact, he thought that what he did was just for the benefit of the girl's welfare. She needed someone who would tell her the truth instead of someone who would boost her delusional wishful thinking. Flaky—on the other hand—was already halfway to the exit and was trying her best to hide her face from the unknowing crowd. She could hear Giggles' fast paced footsteps behind her but was too devastated to care. All she wanted now was to escape—like what she always did before.

Both of the young girls found themselves outside the crowded room as Giggles finally caught up with the other.

"Flaky, I'm so sorry about Nutty." She once again tried to vouch for her friend. "He didn't mean to say that, he's just concerned."

The red haired girl sniffed before answering, "I know, it's alright Giggles. I understand,"

"You know..." by the way she spoke, she seemed to be hesitant with what she was going to say. "...maybe Nutty's right. It's really been a long time since we heard anything about Flippy. Maybe he—"

When Flaky heard the words she threw even if it was in a subtle manner, she felt something brewing in her nerves as it slowly drained out her sanity. She could take everyone else to say those things to her, but Giggles? She had always been the one who comforted her and cheered her up in her most vulnerable moments. She was one of the reasons why she could endure the stress everyone had inflicted upon her. But now that Flaky was aware that Giggles had secretly thought the same things other people did about Flippy, she realised that everything was a lie. They were all liars.

"He's coming back," the girl shot back. "I don't need you guys to believe that, but he IS coming back."

The shorter girl was then convinced that there was definitely something wrong with Flaky as she beheld the girl's expression. She was somewhat mentally disoriented. It seemed like she was... losing it.

Flaky then began to walk away from her without even turning back, no matter how many times she heard Giggles call her name. She knew that she was being inconsiderate of their efforts, but she thought that she didn't need it. Although others might disagree, she saw herself as an independent woman who knew that she can carry on without anyone's help. Also, she was so full of everyone trying to convince her that Flippy was gone. She was so full of everyone trying to control her decisions and almost her life.

It wasn't long before she found herself walking in a dark alleyway that she didn't feel comfortable to use as a route to her home. Indulging herself with thoughts made her become oblivious to her environment. It made her groan in disbelief when she realised where she actually was. The girl was ready to turn back and take another route when she noticed something peculiar—a shadow of a man, walking right behind her. Reminiscent of her paranoid senses, she felt uneasy with the presence of an anonymous being. What made her predicament worse was that nobody else can be found in that area. The pace of her steps accelerated into hasty walking, and then into running. Noticing that the shadow was nearly approaching, she closed her eyes in fright as her feet began to betray her faithful body. To her demise, a strong arm pulled her backwards and threw her on the near wall to finally put a stop to her escape. Every part of her body began to hurt, specifically the head and spine area.

As she panted for air, sounds of struggle found their way out from her dry mouth. Everything became dark as she noticed that the man was covering her line of vision with his body, and it gave excruciating chills down her spine. The strong smell of alcohol made her stomach churn and thought that the man before her must be drunk. This observation made her more terrified and made her tremble uncontrollably. Every second she spent staring at the silhouette brought morbid images into her restless mind. When she hoped it couldn't get any worse, a loud cracking sound of glass breaking made her jolt upwards. The man had harshly broken a bottle of beer against the brick wall and pointed one of its remains against her neck. Refusing to open her eyes, she felt the beverage trickle down her palm, travelling with the shards of the destructed item.

And, she didn't like this—not one bit.

The aggressive stranger stared down at her quivering figure with such disdain and began to lean closer. She looked at him like he was someone who represented fate's cruel vengeance. A symbol of her punishment from the sins she had committed towards what she had come to abandon. Their distance was stressfully getting shorter and shorter as the man's stench became stronger and stronger. She put her arms in front of her face as a form of defence against the man. With a sharp gasp and eyes shut tight, her destiny awaited to be revealed underneath the protection of her eyelids.

'Oh god, please... no!'

Seconds had passed and she remained unharmed. Her other senses provided her information about the situation as she heard the sound of skin being stabbed and then followed by the man's groans. The sound was too quick and passed by like the breeze on her skin. It was that moment which made her wonder about what was really happening. Something made her feel that the man's presence was gone as the hint of alcohol and breathing had vanished. Not far from her location, she heard the same grunting and its intensity became greater then soon—faded into nothing.

The silence brought a comforting atmosphere to her even though it didn't clarify anything at all. So then the girl thought, she had to be courageous enough to open her eyes and find it out herself. The moon revealed itself from the visage of dark clouds and provided a good amount of light to help her see what she needed to. A few yards away from where she sat, there stood a man and before him was a gory chaos that he obviously had caused. The figure soon felt that he was being watched and turned his gaze upon her quivering figure. He took slow steps towards her direction as the girl—on the other hand—searched for something which she could use to defend herself. Her hands flailed and in their panicky search, she found sharp glass shards from the ground. She took the largest one in her hand and held it in front of her, pointing the sharp edge at the man who was now a few inches away from her.

"Don't come any closer!" she exclaimed.

"Hm... I've heard that before," he replied with a sly smirk creeping on his lips. "Put that sharp thing down, Flaky. I don't want any more scars,"

That deep voice was surreal, it wasn't possible—or so she thought. The glass shard dropped when her fingers set it free; reuniting with the cold ground it once laid on. Her trembling became greater but it was no longer because of fear, but because of anticipation. Tears distorted her vision and she felt the need to quickly wipe them away in order to actually see his features. Could that moment be a dream? Could it be actually him?

The man reached his hand out to help her get rid of her tears and as soon as Flaky felt that warm familiar hand, she pushed herself towards those broad shoulders and held him with a bone wrecking squeeze. She no longer stopped her tears from flowing down her tear ducts for they no longer signify anything else but joy. He rubbed his cheek against hers and then inhaled her Strawberry scented perfume as he wrapped his arms around the small lady.

"I'm home,"

-To Be Continued-

Another Annoying Author's Note: Oh yeah, I just wanted to clarify that Nutty had no romantic interest in Flaky. Just throwing it out there. I tried my best to keep their personalities, really I did. But what the hell mate, I'm not really used to writing about these guys so... forgive me if they seem to be out of character.

Now, I just wanted to say that I am quite anxious about the next chapter. Mainly because somehow I can't stop myself from writing M rated materials, or it just can't be helped. So what I'm going to do is to separate that scene so that this story could remain Rated T. Alright, are you guys cool with that? Yeah, nevermind. I'm gonna do it anyway.