Yo, everyone! Time to update again. Just a more random chapter, though I have my reasons for writing it. But it's pretty long for a random one… seriously I need to shorten my chapters… takes too long to edit. I wrote that a week ago and just couldn't find the time to edit… =.= Even less that Fnfiction lets me update.. I needed one damn hour to upload this chapter!

But whatever! Thanks everyone for reading and also for your kind reviews! So anyway, please enjoy this chapter, and I apologize for some mistakes.

Disclaimer: I don't own KHR, just my OCs

Lost Before Light

~~~Home?~~~

Nike woke up.

"Damn that alarm clock…" she mumbled grumpily, until she realized that there was no ringing noise.

Sitting up, Nike ran her eyes through her room, noticing how comfortable that room actually was.

When she then looked out of the window, the sun began to creep up the sky, the leafs sparkling with morning dew.

"Still too early…" she thought and was tempted to lay down again. However, Nike decided against it, stood up, threw her clothes on and walked downstairs.

When she walked down the stairs, she saw Romario who was walking them up.

"Oh, good morning, Miss Nike. I just wanted to wake you," he said with a friendly smile. She blinked a few times, then started grinning lopsidedly.

"Nah, it's fine. I was awake anyway. Thanks though." Then she walked past him, leaving a rather puzzled Romario behind, but then he smiled again. Had she ever given an answer to that extend?

"This seems to get interesting."

~~~Downstairs~~~

"Morning," Nike said as she entered the dining room, where Dino and Reborn already sat at the table.

"Good morning," Dino responded with a smile and Nike sat down. "Did you sleep well?"

"Hmm.. Better than usual, I guess? Still hate waking up early, though," she said and stretched herself. Then Dino's eyes fell on Nike's right upper arm, since she wore a sleeveless top.

"What! Oi, Nike, what's that?" Dino asked panicked, jumped up from his chair and pointed at her bandaged upper arm, blood seeping through it.

"Huh?" Nike looked at him, then followed his finger. "Oh, that's just a scratch."

"That's no scratch! It's bleeding!" he protested with a nervous expression, still eying the blood.

Meanwhile Nike put her head in her hands, eying him fascinated and amused.

"What an interesting reaction," she said, blinking at him.

"Don't change the subject!" he responded. "Hey, Romario!"

"What is it, boss?" Romario asked, appearing in the door.

"Can you take a look at Nike's arm?"

"Wait a sec! It's fine!" Nike frowned and looked back and forth between Dino and Romario. "Reborn, you say something!" she jerked her head around, calling Reborn by his name for the first time. Reborn looked up.

"Okay," he agreed, looked at Dino and said: "Dino, it started bleeding even more."

"Wha-!" Dino looked at Nike. "Okay, please remove that bandage."

"No." That shot out of her mouth as dully as her expression was.

"Miss Nike…" Romario said and bend down to look at her arm.

"Will you leave me alone after you looked at it?" she asked after a short silence, eyeing them doubtingly.

"Yes." Dino nodded.

"Okay fine," Nike sighed and got up, following Dino and Romario to the sickroom.

After arriving Nike dropped on the sickbed and didn't seem very enthusiastic. She peeled off the bandage that was sticking to some of the already dried blood.

"It seems like it's already healing, but it needs treatment," Romario stated.

Nike meanwhile got impatient and simply pulled on the bandage. The wound bled again.

"Wah! Be careful!" Dino blurted out with a shocked expression. Nike, who had basically learned to ignore the pain of small wounds, found his reaction pretty amusing. She snorted, as if to make fun of him.

"Heh."

"Hey, it's not funny!"

"Really?" Nike responded, imitating the innocent look of a demon.

Dino sighed frustrated while Romario started laughing.

"Seems like Miss Nike took a liking in teasing you, boss!"

"Like I said, it's not funny," Dino said and slumped his shoulders. After that, Romario walked over to Nike. Since he knew that she didn't like to be touched, he just took a closer look at it.

"As I expected. If it doesn't get treated, I'm afraid that it'll get infected."

Nike shot up instantly, turning her back to a wall. Her expression slid down as if she'd seen a ghost.

"I'd rather have my arm falling off then getting sewed."

Dino looked at her with wide eyes. After seeing her reaction and her wary, nervous eyes, he realized that she must have had some bad experiences before.

"I wonder why she's so scared of needles," he thought concerned, then stepped in front of her and leaned down to be on the same eye level as Nike.

"He just wants to disinfect and bandage it properly. Don't worry, it won't hurt," he said, a warm smile appearing on his face. Nike looked at him and started to become utterly nervous out of unknown reasons.

"I… I'm not really afraid of needles… Just don't like this whole 'libratory, needle, whatever' thing," Nike responded kinda annoyed at herself after realizing her reaction.

"Libratory? This is just a sickroom!" Dino had to hold in a laugher.

"And I've never said anything about sewing to begin with," Romario interjected laughing. Nike looked like she had made a fool out of herself.

"And I think that's not funny," Nike grumbled.

"It won't take long," Romario said with a smile and turned around to search find the things he needed to treat her. Nike only sighed. It was nice of Romario, but she still didn't like the thought of being touched by someone. Then suddenly, Dino's voice called through the room.

"Romario, can you give me the first-aid-kid?"

Nike looked at him and raised an eyebrow.

"What now?"

"Huh? Sure but…" Romario started, but after seeing Nikes expression, he nodded and handed him the wanted first-aid-kid. "Sure, here you go, boss."

Dino took it and sat down beside Nike, who had meanwhile slumped down on the bed again.

"Is it okay if I treat you? I won't do it as good as Romario, but I'll try to do it properly," he told her, quite charmingly on top of that. Nike eyed him doubtfully, scratching her head while doing so. She obviously doubted his abilities to bandage someone without making him look like a mummy. Not long enough, though. As soon as she looked at his gentle expression, the corner of her mouth lifted up.

"Okay."

He nodded and repeated her words gently. "Okay."

"Then, I'll be downstairs," Romario now said, walked out of the room and closed the door behind him.

"Oh damn it, now I'll really end up looking like a mummy…" Nike thought. But it wasn't enough to make her back down. Somehow, she didn't really care how it would turn out, as long as Dino was the one treating her.

He cleaned her wound and disinfected it. It burnt quite a bit, but Nike didn't mind. In fact, it made her more nervous than anything else. Whenever his fingers brushed against her skin, she noticed how warm his hands were. Nike didn't mind him touching her at all, which confused her almost more than her strange nervousness. Actually, she really liked it a lot. No bad memories would turn up in front of her inner eyes, no cold shivers went through her body, but a very warm and nice feeling. Even his presence alone made her feel at ease somehow.

"Sorry, does it hurt?" he asked after a while, wanting to make sure if she was fine. To be honest with himself, his heart almost jumped out of his chest whenever he touched her accidentally while adjusting the bandage, wanting to make sure it wasn't too tight.

"Nope, it's fine," she simply answered.

"Okay, but tell me if the bandage is too tight, or anything."

"Don't worry. You're the first person that gives me treatment so nicely."

"What? How is that?" he asked surprised. She just shrugged.

"Rika is really rough and understands something else under 'treatment' than others, like all those stupid psycho scientists," Nike scoffed, remembering Rika's libratory. "And we soldier don't receive any treatment. If we don't survive our injuries, well then we die and get replaced. That's just how it is."

"That just cruel." Dino furrowed his brows. "Listen, if you're hurt, come to me immediately and we'll treat it. Though it would be better if you wouldn't get hurt to begin with," he commanded with a grin.

"Hey, now you're getting bossy with me? That's not fair," Nike said jokingly. He looked embarrassed and tried to hide it.

"Just don't get hurt, okay?" he smiled, leaning his head to the side.

"If you stop nagging, fine," Nike responded wryly.

"Say.." Dino stared after a short silence.

"Hmm?"

"Since when do you have that injury?" Dino asked seriously.

Nike blew some strands of hair out of her face and narrowed her eyes, thinking about when it happened. "Got it about two days ago."

Dino remembered that Rika had dragged her on a mission. But it actually surprised him. As far as he knew Nike, she was always on her guard.

"Sorry that I didn't notice it yesterday," he apologized suddenly. Nike stared blankly at him.

"Why the heck are you apologizing for that?"

"Because I should have noticed," he said more firmly. Nike let out a short, amused laugh, surprising him. Then she said teasingly, trying to avoid the topic and wanting him to stop feeling bad about something trial:

"You really are a retard, Pipsqueak Dino~"

Dino flushed nervously. That she knew his former nickname made him want to be swallowed by the ground. "How-! How do you know that name!" he asked, almost spluttering it out.

"Aww~ Don't tell me you're embarrassed?" she grinned and… poked his cheek. When she realized what she did, she drew her hand back and thought that she would get an heart-attack, since her heart jumped.

"What the hell am I doing? I'm the one who hates to be touched! And now I'm just touching him out of nowhere!" She wanted to smack herself. Dino, after realizing what she did, was shocked and stared at her.

"Calm down you stupid moron!" he thought and noticed his fast beating heart.

Now that was awkward.

"..Sorry.." Nike apologized and didn't dare to look at him, then thought: "Really… I'm acting like an idiot.. And here I thought it would get better after I had apologized to him."

"No, I don't mind." he said with a smile after he somehow managed to calm down.

"He doesn't mind..?" Nike thought puzzled, but was glad he wasn't mad.

"But now please tell me why you know of my former nickname," he said, still a bit uncomfortable that Nike knew of it.

"I read a few documents about you before I first came here. There stood that you had a former nickname before your current one," she answered, looking how Dino took care of her arm again.

"I see." Dino sighed.

"And since there wasn't anything specific, I asked Reborn yesterday before I went to sleep," Nike suddenly confessed. Dino almost dropped the bandage. He knew that Reborn would only end up putting weird ideas about him in her head.

"Why did you ask him?" Dino asked her, scared to find out what else Reborn must have told her. Nike was silent for a short moment.

"You said that you wanted to know more about me. I want to know more about you as well. Sorry."

Now she felt like the queen of idiots. She should have gotten a medal for being stupid. However, it did not change the fact that she wanted to get to know him better. For some reason it even made her uneasy that she didn't know enough.

The awkward silence continued. Dino was awfully happy, so much that he had to surpass the wide grin that almost stretched across his face. Then, to relax the atmosphere, he said with a smile as he fixed the bandage:

"Thank you, but next time, just ask me, okay?"

Nike looked at him. "Gotcha!"

~~~2 weeks later~~~

"Where do you come from?" Asking Nike those kind of questions became a lot easier these days. After they had spoken to each other after Nike had returned from her mission, she opened up more. A lot. Her behaviour slowly changed as well. Before, Dino wouldn't ask something like that out of concern, not wanting her to remember anything she didn't want to. But now, she somehow didn't seem to mind.

"I don't really know. I only know that Rika picked me up somewhere in Italy," Nike said and slid down in her chair lazily, staring down from the garden terrace with a hot glass of chocolate in her hand.

"Did she never mention anything?" He looked at her and supported his head with his hand.

"Well, my memories are blurry before I entered Genesis, but… I remember that I grew up in an orphanage until I was 5 and Rika took care of me afterwards," she responded, but then repined: "Though 'taking care' isn't really what I'd call it.."

Dino let out one short chuckle. "Me neither. But then you don't know when your birthday is, right?"

"Nah, I don't. Never celebrated anyway." Nike shrugged, then suddenly said, looking at Dino:

"Okay, but now is my turn to ask. Why did you become a Mafia Boss?"

"Now that's a long story," he said and leaned back.

"Well, I only plan to go to sleep if your story is boring," she responded with a shrug.

"All right." He smiled at her. "I actually never wanted to become one. I hated the Mafia, but my father wanted me to take over the family. I mean he even hired Reborn to tutor me, and that alone was hell."

He laughed when he thought about all the things Reborn had put him through.

"Understandable," Nike muttered when she thought that Rika never made it easy for her, either. And even that was way to understated.

"Well, but I decided to become the boss because I care for my family," Dino continued and smiled softly. Then he looked at Nike and stopped when he noticed that she just stared at him.

"Wow, you're such a softie," she said and it really sounded like mockery.

He nodded. "That's the kind of guy I am." Nike sighed and looked from the terrace again, her expression seeming distant.

"I didn't mean it to insult you. Being a softie isn't necessarily a bad thing. And it's a way better reason than I had for joining Genesis." Nike pulled her knees up to her chest, leaning her chin on them. Dino hesitated to ask, but really wanted to know.

"What was your reason for joining?" Nike followed his voice and shifted her eyes over to him slowly.

"I probably just wanted a reason to continue living. But instead of getting out of hell, I simply stumbled into another one."

Something in Dino's chest clenched. If he could, he wanted to make her feel better. He really didn't like whenever Nike seemed sad.

"I shouldn't ask anything else," he thought, but Nike continued on her own.

"I lived in an orphanage until it burned down, so in the end, I was just a stray. If Rika wouldn't have found me, I would have died miserably. So I kinda owe her, I guess."

Dino didn't know how to comfort her. It was hard to predict what kind of words he needed to cheer her up. But it didn't matter anyway, because suddenly both of them shot their heads up. Both of them felt something, and knew it couldn't be anything good. They starred into the darkness. Everything was quiet besides the rustling of leafs that were touched by a soft breeze.

But suddenly, something appeared in the distance, standing on a tree branch.

It seemed like a creeping shadow, silencing the things around it, seeming to look over to Dino and Nike. But it disappeared as soon as it had appeared.

Dino narrowed his eyes, his expression serious. "What was that?"

"I probably know, and I don't like it," Nike told him, serious as well. Then she leaned back in her chair again, her arms behind her head. "It's probably better not to go anywhere tonight."

"What do you mean?" Dino asked, turning around to look at her. She glanced up at him and didn't seem to like the idea of answering. "No one's going to eat you, so you shouldn't bother with it."

Dino sighed. That wasn't the answer he'd expected. Then suddenly, the glass door to the terrace opened and Reborn walked outside, jumping on Dino's shoulder without saying anything, looking into the direction the shadow-like creature had appeared.

"She's right. If those things wanted to kill you, they'd do it without you noticing it. I'm surprised that it even showed itself," Reborn told him, and Dino looked creeped out.

"Don't tell me it's a ghost!"

Nike looked at him with wide eyes before a mocking smirk stretched across her face.

"Don't tell me our cute, little mafia boss is afraid of ghosts?"

"I-I'm not!" Dino shot his head around, but then calmed down. "But what was that?"Reborn's face turned dark. Nike was awfully silent as well, seeming to think hard abut something.

"Why are these guys here? I don't get what they'd want in this area. There is nothing but the Cavallone here… But if they wanted to attack, they'd have already done it without showing themselves. And now they even disappeared…. What's going on in Genesis…?" Then suddenly, Nike spoke up.

"Those things are called Bloodhounds. They're directly under Hades' command. They're human, or at least that what they were once called. I don't think they have anything left of their humanity, though," Nike said seriously, but then looked at Dino with a grin, not seeming to be bothered all that much.

"Hey but as long as they're not after you, you can sleep tight tonight!"

"Why does that sound as if you're trying to tease me?" Dino asked and looked at her doubtingly.

"But Dino, what she said is true. Try not to get their attention, because they're said to kill anything that gets in their way," Reborn interrupted him.

"Fine…" Dino gave up. Arguing against both of them was even more hopeless than Reborn alone.

"Nike, why don' you wait here? I'm going down to check something."

"I wasn't planning on coming along," Nike responded and made herself demonstratively comfortable on her chair.

Dino twisted his mouth before laughing. "Okay fine. I'll be back in a sec."

Then he disappeared through the terrace's glass door.

Nike looked after him for a few seconds, but the thoughts that came her distracted her. Her actual too eased expression darkened.

"Why are these guys here? I don't get what they'd want in this area. There is nothing but the Cavallone here…"

Then she got up and jumped from the terrace.

~~~Meanwhile~~~

"Can you show me the videotapes from just now? The observation cameras should have recorded something", Dino said shortly after arriving at the control room. Ivan and Bono did as their boss asked and searched around the videotapes.

Reborn was already there as well, looking rather stern.

"It was even too fast for the slow motion," Romario answered.

"Nike at least doesn't really seem to care," Reborn suddenly pointed out and nodded over to one monitor.

Dino's facial expression slid down. "What did you say?" He took a step forward to take a look at the monitor, only to see Nike running outside through the gateway.

"Damn it! Why is she going outside in this situation?" Dino said restless and worked up.

"As if she'd listen to you. And don't be so worried just because Nike is acting on her own. She can take care of herself," Reborn told him, obviously having fun while doing so.

"…I'm not…," Dino wanted to deny it, but he stopped halfway. He knew Reborn was right. He was worried. But he still had hoped she wouldn't act on her own.

"All right I'm going after her," he just said before disappearing through the door again.

"Wait, boss!" Romario hurried after him. Reborn looked at the videorecording for a last time before heading out as well.

"This isn't good… What if they're really here because of the Cavallone? But why should they? And even if, these guys would have attacked already… They wouldn't wait.. So why are they here?"

The ominous feeling inside Nike's stomach wailed up again. She knew that going after them, alone confronting them face to face was insane, but she couldn't sit still. The thought that they could be after the Cavallone family, alone Dino, made her feel like throwing up.

She jumped over buildings, already having a feeling where to find them. Then she stopped, jumping down a house and walked inside and through an empty alley where even Jack the Ripper would have felt at home.

Suddenly, out of the shadows appeared 5 people muffled within black, long and worn-out coats, capes over their shoulders, hoodies covering their heads. Their Venetian masks that covered their faces were bloodstained and each of them individual, flaps of skin decorating them.

They jumped down the stonewall they had been standing on and stopped in front of her.

With a voice that sounded like a sharp and dark hiss rather than a normal voice, the tone cold enough to send shivers down a normal person's spine, one of them said:

"What a surprise to find the lieutenant of the 7th squad here." One of them crept around Nike like a shadow, ready to swallow the last remaining light in a room, like a bloodthirsty, unhuman being that tried to kill its prey without a noise, eyes glowing in a strange way beneath its mask.

Nike didn't move. She stood there with crossed arms and a cold frown, always keeping an eye on him from the corner of her eyes. Even she knew that giving them a reason to attack wasn't a good idea.

"Why are you even here? There shouldn't be any mission for you around here," Nike asked, her seemingly unfazed voice not showing any sign of her actual concerns.

"But master Hades gave us one. So step aside and do not hinder us," their leader hissed.

"What mission?" Nike asked again. She just hoped not to receive the worst kind of an answer.

"Why should we answer someone like you?"

Nike's eyelid twitched. She knew that they wouldn't bother to give her an answer, but still irked her a lot.

"I don't care anymore. Just leave."

"You dare to order us ?" they hissed and the atmosphere became heavy.

"Can't you see that you're bothering the neighbourhood?" Nike said with a light scoff, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Master Hades gave us a mission. So don't hinder us and step aside. And don't dare to mock us either!"

Nike threw her hands in the air and shrugged, not even bothering to sound serious when she remarked:

"Me? Mock you? Never!"

"Silence her!" he shouted and jumped forward, his cold hands that were wrapped around with cold metal about to grab her throat.

"Damn, that wasn't planned…" Nike clicked her tongue. She knew the situation was critical. A fight was a last thing she wanted. All Nike ha wanted was to find out wherever they had a mission that involved Dino and his family or not. But she knew that she could have known better. They always attacked anything came in their way.

His boney hand with disgustingly long fingers and long nails followed Nike's movements, who was jumping back.

However, even though Nike was considered an Class-A soldier, handling 5 Bloodhounds at once wasn't an easy task. Everyone besides the Generals avoided them.

However. Nike noticed that something was off. She could avoid him with ease. Not just because she was fast. No, the Bloodhound didn't seem to make much of an effort to kill her.

But Nike prepared to defend herself if she had to. But before he could reach her, he suddenly stopped and was yanked back abruptly, like he was restricted by something.

"Eh?" Nike looked puzzled. Then she realized who had helped her.

"Dino! Why are you here?"

Dino had yanked him back with ease, then drew his whip back when the guy that had gone after Nike almost choked.

"Seriously, going out even though I asked you to take better care of yourself," Dino responded and shook his head.

"Tha-! That doesn't matter right now! You shouldn't have attacked him, stupid!" Nike did not know what to say and just pointed at the Bloodhound that got back on his feet.

"You dare to-!" the Bloodhound shot around, his eyes flickering with rage beneath the mask when he saw Dino. He charged at him immediately.

Dino's whip cracked like lightning and they clashed. The other Bloodhounds simply watched and their leader seemed to be hesitating for some reason.

Nike wanted to run over to Dino. The weird, sore feeling in her stomach was horrible, and for some reason, she wanted to charge forward to help Dino get away from that cold-blooded creature.

"Wait!" Reborn suddenly appeared next to her.

"What! Don't you know who they are? He'll die if I don't do something!" Nike surpassed the urge to shout at Reborn, but he simply pointed at Dino. When Nike looked over to him she saw that he was grinning, and Nike just stood there taken aback.

"Why..? He's in danger, that idiot.."

"Dino may be a klutz but…" Reborn started smirking. "He's my student after all." Nike looked from Reborn at Dino again. He seemed to enjoy battling, though Nike couldn't sense any feeling that Dino wanted to kill his opponent at all.

Meanwhile Dino drove his whip forward and hit his enemy. He snarled at Dino, blood spurting out of a wound beneath his coat.

"You should surrender. You've got no choice," Dino told him. Nike started gaping at him. Not only that he sounded confident, he had the right to be!

Genesis-soldiers avoided Bloodhounds by all meaning, knowing that they were even more corrupted than any of them. Even Nike didn't like to be near them, but Dino fought against that creature with ease.

"I don't believe it.." Was everything Nike managed to say. She simply gaped at Dino disbelievingly.

"Like I said, he's my student after all," Reborn told her confidently.

"Stop it already!" A loud hiss suddenly cut through the air. Nike jerked her head around and saw how the leader of Hades little troupe called its team-mate back.

"What..?" Nike couldn't believe that even less. They never surrendered. "Just what the hell is going on here?"

"We have our strict orders from master Hades. That Mafioso and the girl are unimportant!"

"Che!" the one who had attacked Dino growled and jumped next to its team-mates.

Before they disappeared into the night, the leader turned to Nike once again, then to Reborn. Its eyes that glimmered threatening in the faint moonlight were haunting. Reborn however, stood against his glare until they disappeared.

"What was that…?" Nike just looked after them. "And where the hell is my answer!" she yelled.

"Woah! Oi, Nike, don't provoke them again!" Dino appeared behind her.

"And you? Who told you to help me anyway? I was trying to get them away from the mansion, and surely not that you'd attract their attention!" Nike said angrily.

"Hey! If you wouldn't have gone out, and would have stayed where I asked you to, this wouldn't have happened in the first place!" He argued back, and Nike wasn't getting out of all those surprises.

"He's arguing back?" Nike was puzzled. But she noticed his worried tone.

"Nike, this idiot was worried about you, so don't be so hard on him," Reborn said with a slight teasing tone.

"Yeah, Mr. Reborn's right, Miss Nike. The boss was really worried," Romario, who had followed his boss out of worry, told her with slight amusement in his voice.

"Don't tell her that!" Dino snapped at Reborn and Romario to prevent them to say anything further. Nike bit her underlip. Somehow, a really tingly feeling wailed up in her stomach.

"He came for my sake….?"

Dino suddenly noticed Nike's somehow dejected and confused expression and tried to calm her. "You know, I was just worried. I asked you to be careful. What if something would have happened?"

Nike tried to swallow the heavy feeling. "I'm sorry…"

"Don't be hard on her either. Nike just wanted to protect the mansion, right?" Reborn jumped on Dino's shoulder.

Dino looked surprised from Reborn to Nike, who was quiet and faced everything besides Dino.

"Is that true?"

"Yeah.. I thought that they were here because of you or something… It's not unusual for Hades to let Mafia-related people get assassinated," she responded, first mumbling, then facing Dino.

"Oh.. I see…" Dino didn't know what to say, but he was really touched and felt happy. "She was willing to fight her comrades for me?" he thought, then sighed. He suddenly put one of his hands on Nike's shoulder.

"You know, we have an alliance. They can't just attack like they want to.""… I know," she answered after hesitating. "But it's not like Hades cares about that…" she thought, and at least Reborn seemed to know her thoughts.

"But thank you," Dino continued and smiled.

"Don't thank me for that," Nike answered. Dino almost chuckled. She tried her best to sound and look annoyed, yet it was obvious that she was simply embarrassed.

"Nike?" Dino asked after a short silence, his hand still on her shoulder, which she didn't seem to mind. But she noticed it. His hand was really warm, even through her clothes.

"Hm?" She looked up at him.

"Let's go back."

Nike simply nodded and walked silently next to Dino. She too deep in though to actually start a conversation.

But why did I do it, actually? When I thought that something could happed t him… I just ran outside.. It's suicidal to fight against them, yet I still confronted them.. And Dino too… he… he came for my sake.."

She couldn't deny it. Nike was way too happy that he came for her.

"ke..ike…Nike..?"

Nike finally looked up. Dino's warm voice called out to her.

"What?"

"You're so quiet. Were you injured?" he asked.

"No. And you?" she asked.

"No."

"Better so. If you were, I'd kick your ass. You shouldn't help me when it comes to this," she sighed.

"Hey, I told you already, if you would have stayed-" he was about to argue back again, but Nike cut him off.

"I get it. Thank you for coming for me…"

Dino's eyes widened and his heartbeat quickened. ".. You're welcome."

Then they walked beside each other in silence again. Romario and Reborn, who waled behind them, just grinned.

After a few minutes, they finally arrived back at the Cavallone's mansion.

The door was opened from Dino's subordinates and they stepped inside, exhausted and tired. But before Nike could walk upstairs to her room, Dino stopped her, remembering something.

"Oh, now I remember…"

"Huh?"

Dino stopped in font of Nike and ruffled her hair. Her heart jumped in surprise.

"What are you-?"

"I just remembered that Is till have to say it."

"Say what?"

"Nike.." Dino started.

"Yeah?" she looked annoyed and a bit wary, but the smile on his face eased her.

"Welcome home."

Nike's eyes widened after realizing what he'd said. She was completely caught off guard. "What… why…?"

"Well, you live her now. I thought that it would be nice to say it?" Dino shrugged innocently. Romario and some of his subordinated laughed.

"Yeah, welcome back, Miss Nike."It was an incredibly feeling Nike couldn't describe. Her voice was gone somehow, but she managed to say, somehow now really embarrassed, yet happy:

"I… I'm back."Dino chuckled, his hand still ruffling her hair gently. His hand was so incredibly warm that it was really comfortable. Yeah, those were the words to describe Nike's confused, nervus thought. His presence, his hand was calming, was comfortable.

She glanced at Dino, then thought determined as something clenched painfully in her chest:

"I won't make the same mistake twice… I'll protect him!"

*dies* hope you enjoyed this chapter!

Anyway, I have (I don't know if good or bad ones *laughs*) news for you guys.

For everyone who's interested in the drama CDs and Hidden Bullet Novels.. I won't translate all of them, but I think those that include Dino at least.

My next chapter, for example, will include some parts from the Drama CD: "Haneuma to Same" (Bucking Horse and Shark). I'll divide this one into 3 parts. More information about that next chapter.

So, after the next chapter, I'm done with my own Arc (the "Introduction + pre-time Arc"). After that, we can finally go on with the "Daily Life Arc" after a time-skip.