Hello everyone!

Sorry it took me so long to update—so many one-shot plot lines just popped into my head.

I couldn't stop them!

I'll try my best to have them edited and posted up soon :)

Anyways, enjoy!

It's a little short, and not much really happens, but the next chap should be up in a jiffy!

Note: Kimi plays a major role in this chapter. I just thought it'd be nice to change it up.

Dedication: For my sister. She's a total bad-ass girl, just like this one ;)

Let's go!

Her friend

Kimi

Come on. Come on, come on, come on, come on, dammit, Persona, get your ass back here!

I gripped my brother's hand tightly, feeling him wince under the pressure, but I knew he didn't care. I knew he didn't mind. I knew that, just like me, all he was thinking about was our best friend... who we left behind. I knew we were both worrying over the same thing.

And it wasn't only because we were twins.

The four of us—Kouta, the parents and I—sat in the small room which was conveniently located near the hidden DA classroom in the basement of the Hanahime den. There were many of them for this exact purpose: waiting for the result of a completed mission. Sometimes briefings were done in these rooms too, as well as individual meetings. We've been in these rooms so many times, through these hallways and hidden passageways, yet Kouta and I find them as the least home-y out of all the places in the academy.

I wonder why.

"Dammit," Kouta cursed, quiet enough so that the parents in the room wouldn't hear it. But I still did. Glancing over at him, I could see his clenched jaw and his face was pinched with a growing anger. I gave him a reassuring squeeze on the hand, but I wasn't even sure if he noticed it.

Kouta, when did Persona say he was coming back? I asked him telepathically.

He glanced over. Not sure. I can't believe he just told us to wait here with the parents while Mikan is still back there.

I know, and I'm really worried. Usually she'd be back by now, but we've been sitting in this room for over half an hour. Do you think something happened?

You can't think like that, Kimi. Mikan's tough—she'll be fine.

Even through his thoughts I could feel the sense of unease.

"We're really sorry."

The voice came from the woman. We both turned to look at the parents whom we had rescued; the mother and father of some kid we didn't even know in the academy; and the people who had come back with us instead of her.

I tried to tell myself not to think like that. I knew that if Mikan had somehow heard it, she'd disapprove. But damn, would I give anything to have her safe and sound by my side, even this mission. Even me staying back instead of her.

It wasn't until my brother shot me a look that I realized my thoughts were still connected to his (since we were twins, our telepathic connection was stronger than with others, therefore meaning he practically had an all access pass to my private train of thoughts—the jerk! But still, that meant I knew all he thought about too. I don't think anyone else knows about his secret crush on Nobara...).

But I wouldn't take the words back.

"You don't need to be sorry," I said aloud, ignoring the glare Kouta was sending me.

"We do," the man replied. His face was etched with worry, as was his wife's, and I could feel his regret and sorrow in his voice as he spoke to us. It reminded me so much of how my father used to sound whenever the academy's scouts came looking for us. Before we decided to come in on our free will to learn a thing or two about our powers. Maybe we should've stayed with him and mom...

My brother didn't miss out on that thought, and he almost agreed.

"No. It's our job, so you shouldn't worry about it," Kouta told him with as much sincerity as possible.

"It's the child's job to save the parents?" The woman gave a small laugh. "How is that even fair?"

"And I can feel your worry too," her husband spoke. "You're worried about your friend, aren't you? The one that stayed behind."

"No," we answered automatically. Persona had always trained us to not make the Alice-parents worry (surprising that he cares enough, huh?).

Almost smiling, the man said, "You can't lie to me about emotions."

"My husband has that kind of Alice, the one to read what people are feeling. Didn't you ever wonder what kind we had since you were probably informed we were Alices?"

Kouta and I exchanged a glance. "Not really."

"Well, my wife Midori here has the wish Alice, and the emotions Alice is all mine."

"His name is Kanta, by the way," she added with a shy smile. Her innocence, even as a parent, made my thought about leaving this mission almost vanish. I don't know what it was—something about these two people reminded me so much of home.

"It's nice to meet you," I said truthfully. "But you really should just rest up. Any moment now, Per—our teacher is going to walk through that door, and he'll get you set up in the hidden palace to stay in for the time being."

"Hidden palace?"

Nodding, I explained, "It wouldn't be safe to send the parents back to their homes after a kidnapping attempt, so the academy has some sort of hidden palace somewhere in North America for them to stay in until we get this entire mess settled out."

"Oh," Midori said quietly. She looked at her husband, who went and asked, "Forgive me for asking, but why doesn't the academy just send all Alice parents to the palace in the first place, instead of having to go through all this trouble?"

"Don't you think we've asked that ourselves before?" Kouta responded. "All anyone decides to tell us is that they have a really good reason that we just 'won't understand.'" His finger's made quotation marks in the air, and even though I didn't have Kanta's Alice, I could still feel his complete irritation.

The man seemed to be smart enough to drop it. Good thing, too, because that was the exact moment Persona decided to walk through the door.

He just nodded at the parents before turning to us. "We have another task for you two."

"Already?" I sighed. We hardly ever got much of a break these days.

"No," Kouta growled, surprising me. He never protested or complained to the teachers. Only to me.

And to her.

Oh, and Sora, but that's practically it.

Persona didn't even react to his jump in. All he did was look my brother in the eye and waited for an explanation.

"We just got back from the mission, and may I remind you that Kimi is still bleeding—" I looked down to my mission attire. He was right. "—the least you bastards could do is heal her before you send us on another assignment."

"Kouta!"

But our trainer just smirked. I swear, I saw it! The little upturn of his lips that Mikan had once swore he was able to do, but we never believed her—Yoshiro once suggested that he got some sort of permanent botox—and yet there it was. As I gaped, he said, "You're getting bolder, Gold Crow." He turned back to the parents to say, "We'll be one second," before stalking out of the room. We had no choice but to follow.

As soon as the door closed behind us, Persona said, "This is just a small assignment inside of the academy and Imai is on his way to heal you before you go."

"Oh," I said. "What are we going to do with the parents then? Are you sending them to the HP right away?"

"No, they ship off in the morning."

"So are you going to watch them?" Kouta asked incredulously. I couldn't blame him; Persona never once had to do that job, and most of the DA class was already out on missions, so it didn't leave much options.

"No," he said again. "Only the Gold Bird is up for this assignment; Crow, you're staying here."

"What?" we both screamed. If there's something everyone needs to know, it's this:

Kouta and I never did any missions without each other.

Like, ever.

Ever, ever.

No jokes.

So why this one would be different? I'm not sure, though my guess would be that Persona is too lazy to be up for some babysitting.

When Kouta heard this thought, I swear he almost wet himself.

And now he's just all pissy again.

"We've never done a mission without each other before, Persona. There's no way we're starting now," I declared for the both of us.

"Don't think of this as a mission," he answered without missing a beat. Then he did that little smirky thing again (I should've had a camera with me!) and said, "You're both babysitting, just different people."

"Babysitting?" I echoed.

Sorry, Kouta apologized in my head. I forgot I was on connection with him, you know, to call him to the room. So, uh...

Ugh. Thanks bro, you're a huge help.

Now I know why Persona had been glaring at me for the past minute and a half.

"Okay, fine. So who's the lucky person who I'm looking after?" I asked, changing the subject.

He looked at me. "The black cat."

-xox-

Crouching on the tree branch, I wanted to curse Person for putting me on this dumb assignment—seriously? Watching Mikan's bf? Yeah, no—but I couldn't since he made me promise to keep connection so he could watch the progress.

...Oh, what the hell! He's gonna get it sooner or later!

Hey, Persona?

Yeah, well you suck.

A lot.

I could feel him roll his eyes.

Love you too!

Jerk.

Across the field I could see the cat boy walking towards the middle school building. With the presence barrier on me so he couldn't sense that I was there (thank God for Yoshiro's Alice! He's a damn lifesaver!), I jumped to the next tree to follow. Honestly, that boy everyone always gossips about is only okay. Maybe he is extremely hot, but his eyes are just creepy.

Red.

Like blood.

Reminds me of too many missions. I wonder how Mikan can stand it.

The boy glanced around him to make sure no one was following (smart, but not very efficient), and when he thought no one was there, he kept moving. Persona had just assigned me to watch this boy because he was looking around the school for one particular girl, since he checked around after class and no one had seen her. It was actually pretty sweet for him to be worried about her (Mikan does deserve a boy who'll care for her), if only I didn't have to be the one to throw off his trail.

At ten o'clock at night.

Seriously, what kind of crazy boyfriend was this guy?

He was about to enter the MS building, and I was supposed to prevent him from going in without making it too obvious that we were trying to keep him away. It may sound simple, but in reality, it wasn't. Why?

Because this idiot used to be the top operative for our school.

Yeah. Damn.

I moved quicker through the trees, now trying to get to the building before he did. A small plan was forming in my mind, but it revolved around looking normal. With another quick glance down at my battle outfit, I realized that I looked anything but normal. The golden outfit and mask just didn't scream "I'm a regular student at the academy!" Nothing about it did, but I've learned to do with what I had.

As I landed on the roof of the building, I took off my mask and ponytail, sliding the metallic band onto my wrist (these unbreakable hairbands are so handy for not just missions!), and I left the mask on the floor. I was about to slide off the gold jacket, when I glanced over the edge of the building and noticed he wasn't there.

Panicking, I took another look over the grounds. Nothing.

"Dammit," I swore aloud. He must've already went inside. Fast, for a non-DA student. Well, I guess he kind of was one before, but still.

Aw. Persona is totally going to kill me.

I was about to jump off to go look for him, when a hand grabbed my arm, twisted it back and pinned me down to the ground. I gasped, more from shock than from pain, as a voice said in my ear, "If you don't tell me who you are in five seconds, I'm going to burn you."

And all I could think about was, Man, does this boy have abs.

Hope you liked it :)

-Starlight Curse