Yeah, Chad and Izar are about to show their stuff. It's on Mr. Hollow, prepare to be faced with tons of monstrous strength and the girl with the power of a supernova.
Disclaimer: I don't ownBleach. I only own Izar, Cyrus, and Thoth.
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Chapter Ten: Take Down the Hollow
Izar went to sleep with Chad's arm across her. She fell asleep listening to him breathing, remembering the words he spoke to her earlier.
"You can stand up to whatever threat arises. You just have to believe you can do it. I do."
'Thanks for believing in me, Chad.' She thought as she had drifted off to sleep.
She awoke to a soft nudge of her shoulder.
"Izar." She heard Chad call her, "Izar, wake up please."
Izar groggily sat up and rubbed her eyes, "Yeah?"
"We have to leave. Come on," he told her buttoning up his shirt and grabbing the cockatiel cage.
"Chad, you are in no condition to be up and about right now." Izar said her face set.
"Izar, please. Just come with me." Chad said pleadingly, "I need you."
Izar's heart fluttered at him saying that. He needed her. That was all the ammo she needed to follow him without any more questions. She swung her legs over the side of the bed, put on her sneakers, and jumped to her feet.
"So, why are we sneaking out of the clinic and not staying?" she asked as Chad opened the window.
"We have to solve this cockatiel thing once and for all." Chad said determinedly. "Get on my back."
"What?!" Izar, cried in shock, "There's no way I'm doing that with your back in the condition that it's in."
"Fine, I'll jump out and I'll catch you when you jump." He said.
"No, I'll jump on my own." Izar told him strongly, passing him to get into the window with her back to the outside.
She let go of the edges and let herself fall towards the ground. Twisting herself she landed on her feet and popped straight up. Chad had landed right in front of her. A few inches over and he would have landed right on her.
"Aiming for me, Chad?" she asked a little irritated.
"Come on, let's go." He said running off.
"Damn it, Chad. You shouldn't be running." Izar nagged, running after him.
The twosome kept running until they came back to the construction site where she had first bumped into Chad again.
"You're really nice Mister. But I need to apologize and make you understand something. Every person who has owned me has had bad luck." Yuuichi told them repentantly.
"So that explains a lot." Izar said in between breaths.
"I know." Chad said evenly.
"You knew, and yet you still took it with you." Izar said not believing how kind he was.
"Yeah," Chad started into the run down warehouse on the site.
"I'm sorry, I should have told you. It's not…"
"Don't worry about it." Chad cut off his apologetic tirade.
"So please forgive Mister and abandon me. Just leave me here and go away." Yuuichi kept on.
"No, I can't do that to you." Chad told the little bird who looked very worried, sad, and guilty.
Izar was so touched at Chad's endless compassion.
"What about you Miss?" Yuuichi said turning his sad bird face to Izar. "You would leave me, right?"
"No, of course not." Izar said indignantly. "Believe it or not I was in your shoes not too long ago with thinking I bound to bring bad luck to whoever took me in, but I was told by a very nice guy, this one to be exact," she pointed o Chad, "That I shouldn't take the easy way out. If you like the person you think you're going to bring harm to then you just have to protect them. Simple." She looked up at Chad and smiled.
He returned the smile with a warm look in his eyes.
"You're very nice too. Miss, but I know you're only doing this so you can watch over Mister."
Izar felt her face heat up from embarrassment. The second time in less than twenty four hours her feelings towards Chad were put in her face. This time by a bird.
"Well, yes. I do care for Chad." She said shakily, "But I care about you, too. You're just so cute." She gushed at him.
Chad walked over to take a seat under a battered window off in the distance. Izar followed but didn't sit on the floor with Chad. She still had the dumb skirt on and she wasn't used to sitting down and worrying about whether her underwear was showing or not.
"What are we doing Chad?" she asked.
"I think we somehow ditched him." He said simply.
"Ditched who?" Izar wondered but somehow she felt she already knew the answer.
An image flashed through her mind of the horrible skull faced beast that they had encountered.
"Listen you two, you're in danger here." Yuuichi warned.
"Don't worry about it. We'll be fine. Besides I think I'm sturdy enough to handle this." Chad said with a cocky smirk that Izar found irresistible.
"You sure about that big guy? Sounding a little cocky there." Izar snorted, trying to hide how handsome she was finding him just then.
Chad's face came to life then. This was the most animated Izar had ever seen Chad. His eyes that were wide now looked up towards the ceiling. A creaking sound caused her to look up too seeing the monster coming down from the ceiling at them.
"Izar, move!" Chad shouted cradling the cage to his chest and bolting to his feet.
Quickly Izar jumped backwards as Chad jumped forward. The beast landed with a huge thud that sent dust and debris flying everywhere. Izar spun around and caught up with Chad who was now heading for a window. The two of them broke through and landed outside. They both got back onto their feet and started running off with the creature in hot pursuit. While they ran the twosome came upon Ichigo and Rukia. Izar came to a slight stop when she caught sight of them, but Chad took her hand quickly and continued running.
"Hey!" Ichigo called to them, "Stop running away from us."
"Keep going." Chad ordered.
"Alright." Izar nodded still running.
The two kept on running. After a while Izar heard the sound of somebody else giving chase. She turned her head to see Rukia chasing after them. She had to give her an 'e' for effort but she knew from her pace there was just no way was she going to catch her. That's when she saw Rukia stop running. Appearing right behind her was the huge skull faced monster. Izar let out a gasp and tried to pull her hand free from Chad, but he was so much stronger than her physically. He only stopped running when they had rounded a corner.
"Chad, we have to go back. That Rukia girl's in trouble." Izar said fiercely.
"What happened?" he asked.
"He's attacking her. The young woman who was chasing us, he's going to eat her soul all up." Yuuichi said sorrowful.
"See?" Izar cried pointing her hand at the bird.
"Alright." Chad nodded putting the bird and its cage on the ground.
"Wait Mister and Miss. He's very bad and will eat you all up. I don't want anything to happen to you. You're both very nice people." Yuuichi begged.
"Don't worry about us, little guy." Izar assured the bird.
"Yeah, it'll be fine." Chad placed the cage on top of a wall they were standing in front of.
"Okay, let's go." Izar said going to run but Chad put an arm in front of her. "Huh?"
"Stay here," Chad ordered.
"Oh bull crap!" Izar snapped.
"I'll handle this myself. You stay back here and protect Yuuichi."
"But…"Izar whined.
"Listen to me, please." Chad had pleaded with her.
She couldn't disobey him with him using that tone. With her face tightened with bottled up annoyance at Chad's sudden protectiveness Izar put her head down and said through gritted teeth, "Okay, I'll stay," She said defeated.
Chad gave her a reassuring smile before running off. Yuuichi went on a high pitched tirade begging and pleading for Chad to come back. Izar took her fist and drove it hard into the wall with the bird. The blow caused a huge crater in the wall and knocked the cage from its perch atop it. Yuuichi's cage toppled forward but Izar simply held out her hands and caught it, no sweat.
"C'mon Yuuichi." She said to the bird determinedly, "I'll be damned if I sit this out." With that she started running after Chad.
When she happened upon the scene she was just in time to catch Chad driving his fist hard into the side of the monster's face, the blow making a thunderous clash as it connected, knocking him sideways and away from Rukia.
"Wow," she gasped, "He knocked that big thing down. But I thought he couldn't even see it." She thought aloud.
"They're in danger." Yuuichi squealed, "They're going to be hurt."
"Not on my watch." She assured him, sticking a finger inside the cage and stroking his feathered head.
Just then she heard another thunder blow. Chad had knocked the monster down again with another mighty blow.
"My word," Izar gaped with both amazement and amusement, "I knew Chad was pretty amazing but his endurance and strength is beyond my expectations. That's really hot." Izar then made a face at what she just said, "I seriously just said that. Never again." she promised herself.
'Too much of that airhead girly girl TV shows.' She thought.
Izar saw the monster sprouted ugly, webbed wings from his arms and retreat into the air. He seemed as though he was preparing to launch an attack from the air.
"Okay, now I gotta step in." Izar narrowed her eyes and set the cage.
She looked up again to see Chad's next amazing feat. He had his big, strong arms wrapped around a utility pole. With a loud cry and a sharp tug upward Chad had broken the pole off from its stump and was wielding it like an oversized mallet. He took the pole and brought it down hard onto the monster, crushing him like a fly with a fly swatter. Izar found herself stuck. She really had nicknamed him appropriately as the warrior boy. Only there was nothing boyish about him now, he was all man.
"I guess he really didn't need my help." Izar thought watching as he and Rukia went to the battered monster's side.
Speaking way too soon the monster got back on it's feet just as Chad and Rukia were knocked and held on the ground by hideous little monsters that looked like deformed toads who had sprung from literally nowhere.
"Okay, that does it. I'm going in." Izar sparked up her powers. Her started glowing the brightest it ever did and she became outlined in her fiery white starlight aura, only this time it was shining brighter and rose above and around her like fire coming from her body, even her hair came to life as it started floating and flowing about her head. "C'mon, I need to be at full power."
As if to egg on her power growth even more Izar heard another cry from Chad.
"I'm coming Chad!" she shouted just as her four, iridescent black, star speckled wings sprouted from her back and ripped through her shirts.
"Time to kick some monster ass." She growled looking at her opponent who had at this point retreated back into the air.
"Wow Miss, you're beautiful." Yuuichi said in awe.
Izar turned her intense gaze to the little bird, "I'll be back, Yuuichi."
"The air is my specialty." Izar relished at the upper hand she just spotted, "You're going down, buddy."
She expanded her wings to their full length and with one mighty thrust downward she was thrust into the air like a torpedo or more along the lines of a shooting star, aiming right for the beast. Letting out a strong, powerful war cry she went in to take a shot at the monster.
Rukia's POV
Rukia found herself actually glad that Ichigo's giant friend, Chad showed up when he did. Without him she might have been a goner by now. His feats of strength were impressive and he seemed to have the hollow shook. If only he could actually see the thing. At first they appeared to be goners when the hollow summoned his small little minions to attack them and hold them down, but Chad had managed to use his brute strength to free himself and get Rukia back to her feet too. Now the hollow had retreated back into the air where he seemed untouchable but being the smart woman that she was Rukia quickly formed a plan.
Rukia was curled into a ball in Chad's arms as he aimed her at an enemy he couldn't see.
"Hey new girl," Chad said, "If you ask me there are some problems with this plan." His usually stoic voice oozed with his skepticism.
"Don't worry, combining your brute strength with my intelligence is our best chance here." Rukia assured him.
"Well, you must be pretty smart because this seems really stupid to me." Chad countered a little sarcastically.
"You just let me do the thinking for both of us. I'll tell you where he is and you aim me." Rukia instructed.
Right when Chad was aiming her (but was having more than a little trouble doing so) Rukia eyes caught the sight of something beautiful beyond words. Heading towards the hollow as fast as a bullet was a ball of fiery white light that left an equally brilliant trail behind it. Focusing more closely Rukia saw that inside the ball was Izar, only this was nothing like the ordinary, oddly beautiful girl that she met yesterday at school. Now she was a warrior goddess that personified the beauty, strength, and power of a star. The beautiful, graphic, and intricately designed star mark on her left eye was glowing brightly, her face was focus, intense, and determined. Contrary to her spunky yet bright and friendly face from yesterday, and the four wings that looked like the sky at twilight, protruding from her back sealed the deal as Rukia uttered the words that had been on her lips since she first seen Izar and felt her raw, uncontrolled power.
"The Star Empyrean Angel." She gasped.
"Izar?" Chad said a little surprised.
They both watched as Izar drove a hard and fierce drop kick right into the hollows side. The blow sent him tumbling across the sky until his wings managed to catch the air and set him straight. Yet no sooner had he recovered from this Izar pounced on him again. This time grabbing his face, swinging him around, and tossing him up into the air. She flew up into the air to catch up with him. Once there Izar held her hands together and a blast shot from out of her hands. This sent him falling towards the ground where Rukia and Chad were still standing, frozen by Izar's amazing escapades as she tossed the hollow around like a toy.
Chad, move. He's falling towards us." Rukia ordered.
Chad got a better hold on Rukia and jumped back out of the way as the hollow crashed into the ground. Dirt stirred up everywhere. When it cleared Rukia saw the hollow had left a crater where it landed. She also saw standing there, with her back to them, at the edge of the crater was Izar.
'Damn she's fast.' Rukia thought.
Izar half turned her head so she could look over her shoulder at her and Chad.
"Chad, are you and Ichigo's girlfriend alright?" she asked, her voice seeping with power.
Rukia would have been awestruck by this girl before her if she didn't know that horror stories and tales of what this girl had done and was very capable of doing that surrounded her. That and the fact she was peeved that she called her 'Ichigo's girlfriend.' Seeing her in action herself she knew her thoughts yesterday were true.
"Izar, I told you to stay behind." Chad said taking a stern tone with her.
"Yeah, you two had everything under control alright." She said sarcastically, turning all the way around to face them, "Look, just let me handle this guy." She said arrogantly, "You two just stay back because I tend to get a little crazy when I use my powers."
"So I've heard." Rukia muttered smugly.
"What?!" Izar asked.
"Behind you." Rukia pointed, diverting Izar's attention to the hollow about to attack her from behind.
Izar cupped her hand up and thrust it forward sending a wave of a blast at him. It knocked him back a couple of yards, making him skid the rest of the way. Izar ran towards the monster. Rukia, jumped out of Chad's hold and followed her. She heard Chad following behind before he full on past her.
'She keeps this up she'll destroy it flat out.' She thought annoyed.
Soul Reapers never fully destroyed a hollow. That was the last thing they wanted done, they had to exorcise the spirit out of it first. She caught up with Izar just as she struck a stance, her aura was glowing to a blinding point as was her mark, her hair whipped wildly, and her wings were fully extended to their limits. A threatening stance that seemed to lead up to a big attack. Rukia knew any big attack this girl was probably packing would end this for sure.
"Izar, don't!" she shouted at the girl.
"Huh?" Chad said stunned, looking at Rukia questioningly.
"What?!" Izar cried spinning around to face Rukia, her powers subsiding slightly with her concentration broke.
"Don't destroy it! We need to exercise the soul out of it first." Rukia explained.
"That's stupid! What soul does this have?" Izar demanded.
The hollow had got his feet shakily. Izar must have sensed it because she turned her attention back to him and was preparing to get in another blow at him. The hollow produced one of it's many offspring from his shoulder. Speedily the little creature came at Izar's face. However, Izar was lucky and fast enough to dodge the thing. Rukia on the other hand wasn't so lucky and the thing spewed a disgusting substance from it's mouth, covering her. Rukia cried out as she hit the ground.
"Ew, what are these things? Leeches?" Rukia cried disgusted, trying to pry the purple, leech like creatures off her body to no avail.
"Rukia, you okay?" Izar said appearing at Rukia's side in a flash.
Chad came over to her side too.
The hollow got to it's feet and walked over standing only a few feet from them, laughing evilly.
"Exactly," he said.
"Those damn things talk?" Izar curled her lip up at the hideous monster in distaste. "Let's get these things off of you." She tried to pull the leeches off of Rukia.
"Try as you like, but they won't come off." The hollow jeered, "And you'll find out that they have a nasty habit of exploding!" as soon as he said that he stuck out his oddly shaped tongue that started vibrating wildly, sending out strange sound waves.
Him doing this caused the leeches on Rukia's body to burst open with the force and sound of a firecracker. Pain racked her entire body as she fell to the ground.
"Oh no, new girl!" Chad cried.
"Rukia!" Izar shouted. "What the hell kind of leeches are these?"
"You really don't know. They're remote leech bombs. Whenever I produce a certain frequency with my tongue thy explode on whatever they're attached to." He explained having a hearty laugh.
"Then how's about we just ripped out that tongue of yours." Izar growled.
Chad and Izar cast hateful and firm glares at the hollow. Falling into step beside each other they started to approach the laughing hollow.
"Hold on there, angel girl and tough guy!" the hollow held up its hands, "Before you two continue to wail on me mercilessly I got a little surprise for ya."
He moved aside to reveal the caged cockatiel being held by two of his little minions.
"Y…Yuuichi," Izar stammered in shock.
Chad's eyes went as wide as dinner plates
"The cockatiel. He's gonna use him as a hostage." Rukia thought out loud.
The little bird's head was hung low as he said sadly, "I'm so sorry. I tried to call for you."
"That's okay." Chad assured.
"Yeah, it's okay baby." Izar replied soothingly in a maternal tone. "I'm sorry I left you alone." She apologized.
"With these three leech bombs on him you'll all do what I say, because if I detonate any of those there won't enough of your friend left to spread on a cracker." He teased. "So with that settled let's play a new game. The muscle head and white angel girl stay put, while I play tag with the soul reaper."
Rukia stood to her feet valiantly, "Do as he says you two."
Chad and Izar looked at Rukia.
"Don't think for a second that he won't hurt the bird. At least if run I can take him away from here. So all of you can be safe." She explained.
"But what about you, new girl?" Chad asked concerned.
"I'll be fine. I can take care of myself." Rukia reassured.
"That's really cool of you, Rukia." Izar praised her with a big smile.
'This girl is so charming, it's hard to believe what I've heard about her. Yet that's what I heard is the first reaction felt towards her.' Rukia thought still sizing up Izar.
"I made a promise to someone. I'll be fine." Rukia said smirking.
"Good luck." Chad told her.
"Thanks." Rukia answered before finally running off the hollow and his little buddies on her tail.
Izar's POV
"This sucks." Izar complained turning off her powers. Her aura evaporated, her hair fell down to frame her face like always, her mark returned to normal, and her wings furled up until they disappeared, leaving two rips in the back of her uniform. "It's like fighting alongside Cyrus and Thoth again. I'd have to hang back and wait, while they went off and did all the work."
"I don't like standing aside either." Chad agreed, "But I hate risking the well being of another even more."
Izar could only smile at Chad's never ending supply of compassion and protectiveness.
"You're a really good guy, Chad."
"You're an amazing fighter. You were incredible." Chad admired.
"Me? How about you? I knew you were made of some strong stuff but you took it a step further." Izar gushed back. "But we can talk about how awesome the other is later. You think that thing's far enough from us yet? I'm want those things away from Yuuichi." She said seriously.
"Right, Yuuichi." Chad nodded.
He ran over to the cage and quickly batted the frog things aside. Chad picked up the cage and gave Izar a nod, "Let's go."
"Good." Izar and him took off running.
They stopped and turned a corner to see Rukia, bleeding, standing using a pole for support and Ichigo laying face down on the ground.
"Ichigo? What's wrong?" Chad asked worriedly, his expression one of distress at the sight of his best friend's current position.
"Is he dead?" Izar wondered.
Rukia turned around to them, "Don't worry about him. Just get that cockatiel out of here." She ordered.
'She's mighty bossy.' Izar though slightly irked.
"What's going on? What's with Ichigo?" Chad kept asking.
"Don't worry about him. Ichigo's fine. He's fighting to protect us all." She said with confidence. "Now you guys stay here, I'll go find Ichigo." She told them running off again.
"I swear we must look I must look like a dog or something because I'm always getting told to stay put." Izar said exasperated.
"You know you don't look like a dog." Chad told her, "You've more than done your part today. Now we just have to stand aside and let the others do there's."
"If you say so."
"Izar," Chad said coming over so he was standing really close to her.
"Yes?" she answered locking gazes with him.
"You told me last night you left to protect me. Today you saw for yourself I can fight for you. So will you let me?"
"Huh?" Izar said stupidly, feeling her heart beating faster.
"I asked will you let me protect you, instead of you wanting to protect me all the time. Even when you want to get in on the action yourself, which will probably be all the time, I'll still be right there beside you in the fight. So can I?" his eyes were so big and beautiful, having the most heart wrenching look of pleading in them.
"Yes, Chad. You can protect me from now on." Izar answered mesmerized.
"I also wanted to ask you not to leave Akiko and Kenji. You can protect them and not run away from them. You may not notice it but I saw from that one time I was there that Akiko really cares about you and I'm pretty sure her little boy does too. Don't break their hearts by leaving them, please." He finished but Izar felt there was more he wanted to say.
Especially in that last sentence. He was wrong, she did notice how attached to her Akiko and Kenji have gotten. She thought back to how much Kenji smiles when he's around her and how Akiko often says how she loves her when think Izar is out of earshot. She's noticed alright. All too well.
"You don't have to worry, Chad. I won't leave them." Izar said sitting on the ground by Ichigo's body and leaning her back against the wall.
All of a sudden she realized how tired she was. She could barely keep her eyes open. Chad sat down next to her, placing the birdcage on the other side. He must have sensed how tired she was because he gently took her head and placed it against him. She wrapped her arms around him, nuzzling into his shirt, letting out a soft moan loving his strong, warm body.
"I won't leave them, just like I won't leave you ever again." she promised before drifting off into a quiet nap.
Chad's POV
All Chad could do was stare at the beautiful girl resting against him. She was amazing beyond words. He kept thinking back to everything she had done just for him in the past hours. How she carried him to the clinic when he was hurt, how she wouldn't go home as long as she knew he was hurt. She jumped out of and through windows with him. She fought for him, she cared about the bird because he cared about it. She's done so much to make up for hurting him by leaving almost a year ago. He then thought back on how beautiful she was when she fought that hollow. Everything about her was strong, brilliant, and bright like star. Yet her physical form took on a dark and mysterious appearance like that of night. Last he remembered the last words she muttered before she fell asleep.
"I won't leave you ever again."
'I won't ever leave you, Izar. And from now on, I'll protect against everything, I'll protect you until I die.' He thought putting his arm around her and pulling her closer to him.
He loved how cool her body felt next to his. It felt just as good as it had last night when they slept in the same bed and Izar was stroking his arm that she had willingly draped across her.
"You love her don't you Mister?" he heard Yuuichi ask.
Chad looked at the little bird he had come to care about so much in the last couple of days. With a small smile he nodded.
"I hope you two are really happy together." He said, sounding the happiest he had all day.
"I hope so, too." Chad agreed.
He turned to stare at Izar again. His gaze turned towards the view that they had of Karakura Town from where they were. It was beautiful view, but nothing seemed as beautiful as Izar was to him anymore. Chad sat in silence with her bird companion until the sun had started to set off in the distance. Only then did Rukia come back along with Ichigo who was dressed in an outfit like that of a samurai's with a long, big sword. Chad saw the look on Rukia's face when she saw him and Izar cuddled up the way they were. She had not only one of disapproval but of slight distaste mostly aimed at Izar's sleeping figure.
'Why does Rukia always eye Izar like that?' he thought.
"Well, aren't we cozy?" Ichigo said smugly.
The sound of his voice cause Izar to stir and her eyes fluttered open. She unwrapped her arms from Chad and started stretching as Chad pulled his arm away.
"So I see you're back." Izar said looking from Ichigo to Rukia.
"Yes, we are." Rukia said flatly, "Chad, I need to see the bird."
He nodded and handed her the cage while standing to his feet. Rukia held her palm in front of the cage for a moment as the rest of them watched. A few minutes later she said grimly, "There's nothing I can do here. With his chain of fate severed I can't return his soul to his body."
"Oh no!" the bird cried sadly.
"Aw," Izar gushed.
"Yuuichi." Chad said, his heart sharing in the bird's sadness.
"Don't be afraid. The Soul Society is a wonderful place." Rukia said brightly, "You'll be hungry and you grow old. Actually it's a lot better than this place."
"So suddenly you're an expert on this world." Ichigo shot at Rukia.
A comment that left stumped for a witty comeback.
"You're forgetting the point that you'll finally be reunited with your mother." Ichigo told him softly.
Yuuichi perked up when he the mention of reuniting with his mother.
"We may not be able to bring her back, but she is waiting for you on the other side. This time we're telling you the truth."
With every word Yuuichi's face became brighter and happier. Yuuichi nodded and cast a look in Chad's direction.
"Mister Sado, Miss Chaosi, thank you both so much for everything. You carried me around with you everywhere, made sure I was safe, you even faced a horrible monster to protect me. Thank you so much."
"Don't even mention it." Chad said dismissively.
"Yeah Yuuichi, it was nothing." Izar assured him.
"Hey Yuuichi, when I die and pass on, too, you wouldn't mind if I still carried you around with me?"
As Chad was talking the spirit of the little boy appeared behind the birdcage in human form.
"Oh, he's such a handsome little boy." Izar smiled.
He smiled too and nodded his head yes to Chad's question.
"Well," Ichigo said, approaching the spirit, "If you're ready let get this consul done."
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Bye Yuuichi! (sniffle, sniffle) Well, that's the "The Cursed Cockatiel & Defeat the Invisible Enemy" episodes of Bleach with my character Izar in them. Now with this out of the way I can focus everything back onto Izar and her story. Believe me, it's going to get good! Does the words 'Lost friend showing up and providing some romantic mayhem' gets you excited?