"Crow came in with an old gas mask and avoided me like I had the plague."

Yusei rolled his eyes as we walked into school a few days later. I haven't seen him since I met Martha, but he had texted me the next afternoon that he was okay. Martha had nearly strangled him with her hugging when his fever broke, and continued to make him stay in bed for the next two days.

I could tell that he was annoyed that he had missed school. It wasn't so much because he didn't like make-up work, (which is totally understandable, I mean you were just sick enough to be out of school, and then they think you can write an essay in two days?) but because he wasn't here for the people he cared about, he wasn't here to make everyone's day better, and I think was bothered him the most was the thought that maybe, just maybe, he had caused someone to worry about him.

It was a frustration that wasn't visible in his smile, but I could feel if dripping off of him, like I had known him all my life. Honestly, it feels like I have known him forever.

"I know you don't want to hear this, but…. I must tell you. I must get it out." He turned from his locker to look at me, with an expression that I couldn't quite place. "You really scared me."

He sighed and his expression changed to one I knew well- remorse. "I'm sorry, I really, really am." He hugged me then, right then and there. He didn't even seem to care that the girls eavesdropping on us turned away in sadness. "I swear I didn't mean to." He kissed my forehead and I melted.

"Of course I forgive you, I just want you know that… I really do care about you, and because of that, you have to be really careful."

He smiled his irresistible smile. "Okay, mom."

He tugged on my hand to lead us to our friends, but my mind stayed in front of his locker, replaying the feeling he gave me all day.

It made me feel lighter, like I was walking on a bridge made of light. I kept smiling all day, participated in every conversation, and even danced around an empty hallway.

"What's with the ear-to-ear smile?" Yusei teased me on our way to my house that afternoon, my own expression mirrored on his.

"I just feel…happy. Powerful. Like I can do anything." I swung the hand he was holding back and forth, our footsteps beginning to walk to an unheard rhythm.

I turned suddenly to face him, resulting in a surprising kiss. Our lips held for a moment, then pressed together more firmly. We stood there, in the parking lot, for a few moments. I could see myself in him. Literally, with my reflection in his eyes, but also figuratively, in the way that I could see the person I had become in him.

"I'll race ya to the car."

I took off before he realized I said it, and with him laughing behind me, the rush of the sun spiraling towards me, and the feeling that this love will never die made me feel like I had finally found my place in the world.

When we got home, the reality that school is still a part of my life hit me. The biology work the drill instructor had given me was taunting me from my backpack. It was a project that she wanted us to do in partners. Sayer had turned around almost immediately, his mouth in an open grin already on his face. But then other people asked me, and despite his obvious attempts to get my attention, I had ignored him, and opted to work with one of Sherry's friends instead.

Yusei saw what I was doing and pulled up a chair beside me. "I knew you wanted to be a doctor, but this is insane." He laughed and picked up one of the papers scribbled with notes. "I'm an honors student, and I could never do this."

"Well, I have a lot of motivation." I sighed at the amount of work I had ahead of me. "My mom wanted to be a doctor. She started schooling as soon as she married my dad. She really wanted to do it, but life with me and my dad's job got in the way. She didn't have the time anymore to go to school and take care of a family, so she just gave up. So I decided at a very young age that I was going to live her dream instead."

He was quiet for a while then, the silence comfortable between us, when the full extent of what happened a few days ago rung like a church bell in my mind. I was so overcome and dumbfounded at the moment that I didn't have time to process exactly what the meaning to the words he sang to me might be.

I knew then that I had to ask him, and with any walls that could have been between in ruins at our feet, I did.

He looked at me with a blank expression as I recited what he had sung to me, hoping none of the lyrics were wrong. He got this faraway look in his eyes as he was remembering what the words meant to him. He found it after a short minute. "Akiza, I am really sorry that I had told you that. It must have caused you to wonder about it for a really long time, huh?"

I looked at him for a moment, then told him the truth. "To be honest, not really. I haven't been thinking about it all that much, because I didn't really understand what they could mean until right now. It was sitting somewhere in the back of mind, and decided to make itself known right now."

"Well, then I guess I should tell you, then. It's about a never ending struggle with the desire to be perfect. The perfect friend, the perfect son, the perfect student, the perfect partner. Perfection is the only thing I strive to have, but it's not for me, really. I do it because I want to give the people in the world my very, very best, even if that best isn't really mine, even if it means I don't really get to be me."

It was my turn to be silent then, just staring at my work. I didn't mind, really. It gave me time to think about what he had told me, and I appreciated the warmth of his company no matter where we are. I thought about how he did seem perfect, and I was able to see him at a time of rare weakness.

I was lucky to have someone like him at my side, someone who puts on a smile for anyone and everyone he meets. Despite what he may think, that he has to strive to be perfect, he already is by just wanting to make the world a better place. I was going to tell him that, but… I realized he will find out one day on his own.

I went through the research I had planned on doing for that day before I sat back. He smiled at me and I opened my mouth to ask him if he wanted to order a pizza when the door burst open.

My dad flew in, a clear expression of rage in his eyes as he pointed out the open door. Yusei sat up, not with a threatening expression but not one that seemed overly pressing, like he was just going to wait for my dad to come to him. I wish he had just left right then, or I had known my dad was coming home, because he brought his arm down and breathed heavily. He tried to burn a hole in Yusei with his gaze as he sneered: "Who the hell are you, and what are you doing in my house with my daughter?"

"Dad!" was shock was evident in my voice, because he turned his eyes from Yusei to look at me. "Who the hell is this guy, Akiza?" his voice had a razor-sharp edge to it. I winced slightly, hurt by his tone. Yusei noticed my reaction and stood up.

"I'm sorry, am I interrupting something by being here?" he tone was polite, like he was trying to be diplomatic despite my dad's reaction. My dad kept his eyes on me, rage seething off of him. His eyebrows twitched with anger. "Who the hell is he, Akiza? What have you two been doing?"

"He's my boyfriend, dad, and we came here after scho-"

"Your boyfriend? Akiza, did I ever say you could have a boy over here?"

"Well, no, but…"

"You know exactly why I don't want him here."

"But dad, we…"

"I don't want him here ever again!"

I felt like I had been slapped. I swallowed the lump in my throat after a long silence. I could barely speak, no wait, I couldn't speak at all past the sensation of my eyes becoming watery. I was trying to think of the words to defend myself, and found them.

"Dad, you don't even know him!"

He ignored me, and instead turned to face Yusei.

"Listen, you," my father's voice was deep and dark, "get out of this house. I don't ever want to see your face again. Do you understand me?"

"Dad!" I grabbed his arm and he swung his gaze from Yusei to me. "You get out, too!" he screamed at me, unable to control himself. He was being irrational. I had honestly thought that Yusei and I would have to give into that irrationality, but then my mom came home, her eyes blazing from the words my father had just said to Yusei and me.

An hour later, Yusei held me tight as I sobbed into his chest on the couch as I heard my parents agree to a divorce.