AN: Friendship fluff and general Seo antics. You've been warned.

x

Chiyo returned home to find Mikorin out, and his scarf gone. She sighed in annoyance. That guy could be a real pain, and one of these days he was gonna get caught by the wrong person and send them both to jail. Slipping her own basket of fruit onto the floor, she laid down and stretched her tired legs. Without realizing, she drifted off into a light sleep, exhausted from the toils of the day.

When she woke, it was late. Very late. And Mikorin still wasn't home.

Wherever he was, he should have returned by now. Even he wasn't stupid enough to miss dinner when they barely got enough food as it was. They just barely got by, even with Yuzuki's help. Chiyo couldn't help but worry- what if he really had gotten himself into trouble? No amount of flirting (and subsequent crying) would be able to sway the courts.

Biting her lip, she grabbed an apple from the basket beside her. As she gnawed on it slowly, to make it last, Chiyo pondered her options. She could wait here until Mikorin finally returned, make the half hour trip in the growing darkness to Yuzuki's place and ask her for help, or she could go into town to search for him there.

Chiyo knew there wasn't really an option. Mikorin was her best friend, and she wouldn't be able to live with herself if something happened to him and she just sat there. Yuzuki was her best bet.

Grabbing another apple in case she found him on the way, Chiyo pulled on her warm boots and exited the shack. She shivered- despite it being June, the night breeze still brought forth a chill. She walked as quickly as she could, which, alas, was not very quickly at all. Short legs do one no favors when one is in a hurry.

As she neared the tall pine tree which marked the halfway point of the journey, Chiyo sighed in relief. Fifteen minutes is a long time when you're worried and cold. She paused against the tree for as brief of a rest as she could manage.

But as she continued her journey, she noticed an odd silhouette coming toward her. Silhouettes? One was very obviously a person, but the other was so obscured by something very large. As she quickly approached the figures, she realized that the first was none other than Yuzuki!

"Thank god, Yuzuki! I was just on my way to your place. Do you happen to know anything about where Mikorin-" Chiyo halted as she saw Yuzuki's somewhat disturbing grin. "Uh, Yuzuki?"

"Yeah, I know where he is. He's actually been a huge help to me today. Haven't you, bud?" Yuzuki nudged the other person- clearly a person now, the face still blocked by several extremely large bags- roughly in the side with her elbow.

The responding grunt of pain was one Chiyo was unfortunately very familiar with. "Mikorin... what on earth are you doing?"

Mikorin practically threw the bags down at his feet and ran to hide behind Chiyo protecting himself from the monster of a duchess. "I'm so sorry I'll never try to steal anything again how about this I'll even go join a monastery and live a life of peace and joy or whatever but please don't let her anywhere near me again!"

Yuzuki laughed, the sharp sound brutally cutting through the white noise of the summer cicadas.

Chiyo looked between the two, confusion and shock written all over her face. As Mikorin's confession-plea finally processed, she pushed his hands off her shoulders and faced him fully. "Mikorin, did you try to steal from Yuzuki?"

"Haha, yeah, he did!" Yuzuki responded, an absurd amount of glee present in her tone. "It was hilarious, actually, he kept wheezing as he tried to scale the wall, I could barely keep myself from falling off from laughter." She clutched her stomach, laughter pouring out. "And man, you shoulda seen the look on his face when he realized I was there! Ah, good times, good times."

"Mikorin." Chiyo said his name with a deadpan voice, clearly illustrating her disappointment and disbelief.

"I'm sorry! But I saw the invitation to the ball and I knew you would really wanna go and so I figured maybe I could scrape up enough money to buy you a nice dress and some dancing shoes but this lady is a demon and I'm so sorry!" Mikorin burst into tears as Yuzuki's laughter only increased.

Chiyo could do nothing but look to the sky and wonder why she had such weird friends. Where had she gone wrong?

But she felt a pang in her heart as she realized that Mikorin was only trying to help her, even if she didn't need it, and she also noticed that his outfit had been changed into something more deserving of a handsome guy like him, obviously Yuzuki's doing. On second thought, where had she gone right?