"Are you lonely?"

I wanted to bang my head into the mirror, those 3 words have been echoing in my mind all morning.

I shook my head and splashed water onto my face, hoping it would clear my mind somehow.

"Do you feel left out?"

My eyes snapped open.

Flashback – 6 years ago

I looked around. It was the annual school festival for grades 1-5, as a 4th grader, I was also participating,

But I had no one to talk to, no friends to laugh with, and no kids to play with. I felt strangely empty, a feeling I have grown accustom to.

I sighed and looked around, trying to find anything to do, anyone I know.

"Do you feel left out?" I snapped around towards the familiar voice.

"F-father?" I stuttered shocked. Why is he here?

"Are you that surprised? I thought I told you I volunteered to help with the organization?" I tilted my head.

"Did you say that?" He nodded.

"Last week." I thought back.

"Oh… wait a minute, you never told me that!" He raised an eyebrow.

"Are you sure?" He said with a smirk. I nodded, confident in my memory.

"Good, that means you can think independently and not just blindly listen to what I tell you, although I don't know if that's a good thing for a 4th grader." He said with a laugh. I pouted.

"Father, you know that I'm more mature than most kids." I said. He smiled.

"I know, I know. But…" He looked around.

"Are you lonely?"

End Flashback

I denied it.

I denied it back then, but back then I didn't know what loneliness was.

'What does loneliness feel like?'

'Hmm, that's a difficult question. But if I would describe it, it would be emptiness, as if someone had dug a ditch in your chest'

I sighed. I felt as if the hole in my chest just grew.

But why? Why does it hurt so much?

I've only known them for a few months, on the other hand I've known Hayami since she was born and Yoshiro for 6 years, why does it hurt?

"Tatsumi?" I turned around, Yoshiro was waving his hand in front of my face.

"You okay?" He asked, concerned. I nodded.

"Yeah…" I said. I began walking towards the door.

"Hey, Tatsumi…" I stopped and turned around.

"Hm?"

"Best friends." He said holding his fist out.

I stood staring at it. I smiled.

A genuine, thankful smile.

I held out my fist and they met.

"Best friends."

I walked out the bathroom and stretched.

I touched my chest and smiled.

2 words.

2 words filled the void in my soul.

As expected, the museum was as boring as, well, a museum.

I honestly don't get why anyone would find this entertaining.

"These guys died at this time because blah blah blah."

I stepped outside and immediately felt like a new person.

The air was chilly, but a good kind of chilly. The chill of a winter day, with no snow and the sun is out.

Today was a great day.

So much we could have done, walk around, talk, play, and relax.

Instead we were stuck in a place that made me feel like an antique. I don't think a day has passed slower in my life.

We got on our buses and headed back to school. For another 20 minutes I listened to Yoshiro weep about how sad it was.

Not how sad the stories or history were, no.

"WHY!?" He screamed in despair. My eyes twitched. Hayami could see that I am annoyed and giggled a bit.

I turned to her and gave her a disproving look. She just smiled. I turned back to Yoshiro.

"Yoshiro… Stop being so dramatic, we went to a history museum, did you expect a tribesmen to come back alive and eat a classmate? Or for an unknown couple to kiss in front of a glass display of people that look more like gorilla's? Or did you expect that the supposed 'haunted' museum to actually be 'haunted'?" He stopped and stared at me.

"You don't understand." He whispered. He continued crying. "SO MANY THINGS COULD HAVE HAPPENED. BUT… BUT." He choked.

"Stop crying, your making me look bad." He suddenly stopped.

"Since when do you care what people think about you?" I raised an eyebrow.

"I don't?" He shrugged. Then kept crying.

My patience lasted about 5 or so seconds.

"Hayami. Can you get him to stop? If there's anyone he listens so it's probably you." She just smiled.

"Come on Onii-sama, I think it's cute." Yoshiro stopped for about an instant. I saw what seemed like a hint of pink on his face before he continued, but I brushed it off as… I don't know, fake tear marks.

I turned my attention back to Hayami. I could see she was trying her hardest not to laugh. I pouted.

"You just want to see me suffer don't you?" She laughed at my pout. Something I don't do often, if I do say so myself.

"I would never do that to you Onii-sama."

"THEN MAKE HIM STOP!" I yelled in anger.

The bus was filled with the cries of despair, yells of anger and giggles of sadism.

For 10. Whole. Minutes.

I basically crawled out of the bus.

I felt exhausted, the 20 minute ride of hell was more exhausting than training with Akame.

I glared at Yoshiro who was just smiling at me. He looked like he just had the best 20 minutes of his life, which is probably true. There was no sign he ever took the bus ride to torture me, but I could see, deep within his soul, was a demon.

Or maybe that's just me.

We headed back to the classroom. Normally I would drag Yoshiro into an empty classroom and scare the living hell out of him with threats, but since Hayami was here I would probably get into trouble with her.

That is the mystery of little sisters.

A gang of more than 10 people with dangerous weapons? No problem, beat the hell out of them.

Childhood friend with more blackmail material on me than I would ever be able to deny? No problem, beat the hell out of him.

An emotionless girl who's also the captain of the swords club that can beat me anytime, anywhere? No problem, get the hell beat out of me.

Cute little sister who is a pacifist by nature.

Hell no, I'd take pissed off gangs over angry little sisters any day of the week. Why? Because I've come to accept a fact.

I have once asked my father why I can never win against Hayami in an argument, how she is always right for some reason. His response? He laughed and gave me 3 words.

"She's a girl."

From then on I have accepted the fact that women of close relation with a man will never be defeated by said man. It's impossible.

The class ended quickly and we were dismissed, I headed to the dojo, but not for practice.

I stepped into the room and nodded at everyone.

Another gang fight.

"So? Who are we fighting?" I asked.

"A small gang that has been disturbing a nearby neighborhood, shouldn't be a difficult job."

Everyone nodded and we headed to the nearby bus station. The whole time I could feel Akame's eye on me.

Soon the bus came and everyone walked on, leaving Akame and I. I was about to followed when Akame spoke up.

"Tatsumi… I-" I immediately cut her off.

"No, it's fine." I said before walking on.

We arrived at our destination and looked around. The neighborhood seemed pretty peaceful, not counting graffiti sprayed to the side of some houses. I am honestly surprised they asked us to deal with this gang and didn't just straight up report it to the police.

We found the gang and quickly dealt with them.

By quickly, I mean they didn't even fight.

I turns out that the 'gang' was nothing but a bunch of middle schoolers who thought it would be funny to spray paint people's houses.

We just walked up to them, told them to stop or we will actually hurt them, they wanted to fight thinking we were just kidding until I sent my death glare at them and they ran off saying they will apologize.

I sighed. Recently there has been an increased number of request, as if more and more people know about us, and with the growing number of jobs, also came the problem that most of them were nothing but over reactions.

In fact, there was a request saying there was a dangerous gang that had been banging on walls and firing guns. It turns out that it was nothing but a stray cat that had been knocking over garbage cans. Our client was a 6 grader who had been watching too much mystery films and was way to paranoid.

So recently, because of these 'fake requests' as we call them, we've been more relaxed when going to deal with 'gangs'.

We headed back immediately afterwards. Akame and I got off together before everyone else. We headed towards the park we jog at and began our evening run.

There was an awkward silence. I know I am being a kid, but I can't help it. I forgave her, it was natural human instinct, but I …

I want her to apologize.

It's stupid, it's selfish, it's childish, it's embarrassing, but I just want to hear those 2 words.

I can't explain this feeling, nor why I denied her back at the bus stop.

But...

"T-Tatsumi?" I turned to her.

"Yes? I responded. It was very subtle, but I can tell she was fidgeting.

"I… About this morning…" She said quietly. I just looked at her.

She took a deep breathe.

"I'm sorry." Those 2 words. I couldn't help but smile.

I felt something land on my face. I felt that it was wet. I looked up at the sky and saw thousands of tiny sparkles falling from the sky.

The clear, blue sky.

My eyes widened. How?

I brought my attention back to Akame, who was also staring at the sky. A chilly wind blew past and I couldn't help but stare at her.

"Snow?" She questioned, turning her attention to me. I smiled.

"Yeah."

"How?" She asked with her head tilted a bit. I shrugged.

"I don't know. But for now…" I said before laying down on the grass off to the side of the pathway.

"Let's call it a miracle."

She laid down beside me. We both stared at the sky, witnessing snowfall on a cloudless day.

There was a minute of silence.

"Thank you." I said. She turned her head to me.

"For?" I shook my head before closing my eyes.

"Don't worry about it."

I could feel myself drifting away. The sun warmed me up, but the snowflakes cooled me down.

'Thank you… For apologizing."

I shivered in my bed. I knew it was coming, I curled up in a ball attempting to warm up, I braced myself.

"RRRIIINNNGGG!" I sighed. Crawling out of bed.

I hate winter.

A lot of people disagree with me, they say that winter is fun, there's so much to do with the natural creation known as snow, but I personally hate the cold.

I dressed myself in warm clothing, hoping it would help. But to be honest, I felt no difference.

The moment I stepped out a gust of wind blew past and I felt like my blood just froze.

I am always conflicted as to what I should do to get to school. I could run, I would get to school faster, but that it is difficult and somewhat dangerous to run in snow. I could walk, but that means I would have to suffer for a longer period of time, but it is safer and takes less energy.

I could also take the bus, but that would cost money and I would have to wake up even earlier to catch the bus. It's not that I don't have money, my part time job may be boring as hell but it pays well, for a part time job, but I just don't like unnecessarily spending money.

I sighed, deciding to walk. On the topic of my part time job…

I shuddered. I thought back to what happened 2 weeks ago, a few days after the field trip…

- Flashback – 2 weeks ago –

I walked into the restaurant, the one where my boring part time job is located. I nodded at the cashier, also a waiter here, his name was Kawasaki if I remember correctly. I walked past a few waitresses who I haven't interacted with.

I stepped into my office, and walked past Esdeath, the student council president. She was more or less the assistant/substitute manager and… advisor? I don't know how to describe her job, she's like the boss here. In fact, I think she does more ordering around and problem solving than the actual manager.

But aside from that, I think I would describe her as somewhat a stalker. I can feel her eyes on me all the time, no matter what I'm doing and it is honestly creep. In fact, I can feel her eyes on me at school too.

Ever since I've got this job a few months ago, I've gotten to interact with her somewhat and yet I still can't figure out how she feels about me.

Does she like me? Hate me? Think I'm annoying? Has no real opinion?

I don't know, and that is really bothering me.

Little did I know what I was about to happen.

I went to my desk and began working. As the 'financial manger', I more or less deal with anything and everything money related. That means placing orders for supplies, calculating our budget, keeping track and studying income patterns and some other things.

As difficult as it sounds, I'm used to doing this kind of thing. Thanks to my mother.

The day continued on as normal, me doing my thing and not really talking. It would have been just another normal day if not for what happened at the very last moment.

My shift had ended and I headed outside. I shivered at the cold. It had snowed a few days ago and I could feel the temperature dropping. We are expecting 5-8 inches of snow in the next few days. I was about to walk away when a voice stopped me.

I turned around and saw that it was Esdeath that stopped me.

"Can I help you?" I asked. She nodded.

"Can you come with me for a second?" She led me to the back of the building.

"So? What's going on?" I asked. She just stared at me.

"I want you to go on a date with me." I stared at her oddly.

"What?" She didn't flinch, she just smirked.

"I want you to go on a date with me?" I just stared at her.

"Why?"

"Because I like you." At this point I was questioning her sanity.

"But we haven't even interacted at all over the past few months, why do you like me?" She looked really confident for some reason.

"Because I remember you, a few days into the school year we found the same book about love. That shows that we are meant for each other. I've observed you for the past few months at our job and school and found you to be a fitting boyfriend. So I've decided to make you mine."

I felt uncomfortable. Basically, what she just said could be translated to –

'I think we are connected by the pink string of fate so I stalked you for a few months and I like what I saw, so now you are mine…'

"Sorry, but I am not interested in dating at the moment." I replied.

"Then when will you be interested?" I shrugged.

"Maybe a few months, maybe a few years." I said before turning around.

"See you around." I said before I began walking away.

"Tatsumi." I stopped and turned around. I could see a confident smile on her face, with a hint of pinkness on her cheeks.

"You will be mine eventually."

- End Flashback –

From that day forward, she had tried multiple times to get me to date her, but each time she didn't really persist or force me to date her. She was really odd.

Not to mention…

I shivered, from both the cold and the thought. I could feel her eyes on me more and more often, as if she is learning the patterns of my movements through the school. I felt like I was being stalked and it really creeped me out.

I haven't told anyone because I don't think it is that big of a deal as of right now.

I reached the school and entered as quickly as possible.

I relaxed as warmth filled my body. I could feel a layer of ice melting off my skin. It felt good.

I went to my classroom and sat down at my desk.

I sat back in my chair and relaxed. I was early, very early. Akame's the only other student in the class and I had already greeted her. But something seemed off about her, like she wants to do something but not sure if she should.

We waited for ten or so minutes before people started coming in. Akame was still sneaking peaks at me every once in a while.

It was about 10 minutes before the bell rang when something happened. Leone came into the room and basically dragged Akame out. I saw that Bulat, Lubbock and Mein were also outside, but decided they probably had something to discuss.

My theory was proven wrong when Akame entered the room and came up to me.

"Tatsumi, can you come with me for a second?" I raised an eyebrow but nodded.

We walked away and she led to the nearby stairwell where everyone else was waiting.

"What is this? A gathering of some kind?" I asked. Leone nudged Akame, she stepped forward.

"Tatsumi, we need your help for something." I stared at them.

"What do you need?" Akame looked at me seriously.

"We need you to hack into Empire Hospital's Patient Database."

…

Everyone was silent, waiting for my answer. I stared at them like they were stupid.

"What?" Mein looked impatient.

"Did Akame stutter? Or are you too much of a blockhead to understand her?" I just looked at them.

"You want me to hack into a hospital's database? Why?" They looked hesitant but Bulat spoke up.

"It's about Sheele." I was more confused now.

"What happened to Sheele?"

"If you agree we will tell you." Leone said. I looked skeptical but sighed. They were my friends, so I guess I have to agree?

"Fine, I will help, so tell me why." Leone smiled.

"She-"

"We will tell you later when you start hacking." Lubbock said.

What is going on? Why don't they trust me?

I sighed, no point in arguing.

"… Fine." They nodded.

"Alright then, we'll see you later, Akame will tell you the rest." Bulat said before they rushed off to their class.

Akame and I just stood in silence. I turned to her.

"Why did you guys think I can hack anyways?" She shrugged.

"You managed to break into my locker. I got the feeling that you would know how to hack." I stared at her indignantly.

"What do you think I am? A criminal? A hacker? A creep? What did I do to deserve this? And also, don't say the first part out loud! People will get the wrong idea!"

She tilted her head.

"Wrong idea about what? You broke into my locker, that's what happened right?" I was speechless.

"I-but-you-it." I stopped trying.

"The real question is why you know how to hack."

I wanted to push myself down the stairs.

I chuckled in a very depressed manner.

"That's a good question…"

"Let's head back to class."

I dragged myself back into the class and sat down. I had only just started to question my the meaning of my existence when Yoshiro literally came bouncing into the room.

"Hey Tatsumi! I've got great news!"

He stopped in front of me.

"What's wrong?" He asked. I chuckled darkly.

"Nothing, what's the news?" He grinned.

He pulled out four pieces of paper.

"Do you feel like going on a little skiing trip?"

There we go. We are back where I left off.

Hope you enjoyed!

Latre - BzS