"I'm already awake," I muttered.

Ikuto was by my side in less than a second. "I should've stayed with you that night, Kura- chan." A face of regret and guilt met my eyes. Why was be blaming himself? It was in no way his fault. "When I saw you in the hospital, it hurt." This was the first time I've seen him like this. "The way you looked so pale and lifeless killed me." His face was coming closer and I couldn't get but stare at his lips. Those beautiful soft red lips. "I knew it was my fault. If I hadn-"

I cut him off with a kiss. This did exactly what I wanted it to do- shut him up so that he would stop blaming himself. Once again, Hoshina's complains were ignored as we kissed. His tongue maneuvered inside my mouth. I savoured the taste and the feeling of him.

Instead of Hoshina interrupting us this time, it was the doctor. He had an amused look while Hoshina had a triumphed one plastered on her face. "I see that you're doing quite well, Kurokura- san, but I need to do one last check up to finalize your condition. If everything is good, you will be able to sign out." I was excited to leave this dreaded place, so I allowed him to do his thing without question. Ikuto and Hoshina gave me the privacy I needed- truth be told, Hoshina just wanted to spend more time with Ikuto alone.

When the check up was over, I happily hopped out of bed, completely ignoring the doctor's heeds for me to be careful. This must be one of my more foolish moments. I felt the wound stretch and pain came right after. The doctor noticed my immediate discomfort. He told me to lie back down while he changed the bandages. After, he carefully stated that if I did anything rash before my wounds healed, he would hospitalize me. Not wishing to be cooped up in this place, I agreed with much enthusiasm.

"You little love birds can be heard," a person suddenly say. "Don't look at me like I'm absurd!"

Even with his exclamation, we can only stare at the person in front of us who had just come into the room. He was wearing completely white, his arms were tangled with a straight jacket- one hand was out, the other was still trapped. Who was he?

"Do you know him, Ikuto?"

"No, do you?"

"Nope."

"Utau, do you know him?"

"No," the blonde girl answered Ikuto.

"You want to know who I am. Just ask me because this is no sham!"

I sweat dropped at his words. He must've escaped from the mental asylum… "Ikuto, let's go. He kind of… scares me."

Being the ever so funny fellow he was, Ikuto pinned me to the bed and played along with the mentally unstable man. "So what is your name?"

"My name? My name? Let's play a game!"

"Ikuto! Let's goooo!"

"Ikuto, I don't want to be here anymore." I guess Utau kind of supported me this time…

"Don't leave now, ladies or you will go down to meet Hades." The way he said everything was beginning to irritate me. Physically he looked completely normal, but when he opens his mouth, all that rational impression goes down the drain. "Play my game to find my name!" He had on an eager and mysterious look plastered on his face. His name must be really difficult…

"Is it George?" Ikuto inquired out of the blue.

The man completely froze. "I… I… I…" He was speechless, but quickly thought up a rhyme. "I can fly?" He looked around wildly, wondering if someone had told the dark haired male what to say. "How did you know my name is George? How do you know that name wasn't a forge?"

Ikuto grinned at the crazed man and pointed toward him. On that George's white straight jacket was a name tag that read: George Pan.

I sweat dropped at how I was unable to see that. Trying to keep as much dignity as I could, I convinced myself that the white name tag blended in with his white straight jacket and the words were like dirt spots. This really didn't make me feel any better…

Again, I sweat dropped as the man used his free hand to cover up the name tag and told us to guess one more time with that ridiculous rhyme in every sentence. Ikuto merely repeated the name, making George disappointed that his trick didn't work.

When we were at the elevator, the man followed us. We waited and waited as he spoke to no one in particular. I was so glad that the door slid open. The four of us boarded the metal contraption with many emotions swirling amongst us. Hoshina Utau was on the verge of killing that man. That man was happily trying to get us to play with him, but only Ikuto had half the ear to listen. Ikuto was also whispering teases by my ear. And me? I was irritated by everyone in the elevator. Not one was normal enough to just stand there and wait quietly for it to go to the main floor.

Suddenly, as if fate was completely against me today, the elevator blacked out and stopped moving. I was furious. I wanted so badly to just slam myself against the door, but the wound was in preventing me from doing so.

Strangely enough, George was delighted to know that he would have more time to spend time with us. "Now that it is all black, my entertainment is back. Come play another game with me. Fun it will be. It's a guarantee!"

I was about to breakdown as Hoshina dialed her cellular phone, but there was no reception. She threw the small object angrily at the walls, breaking it instantly. This wasn't happening to me. This wasn't happening to me. I'll just close my eyes and will it all away. He- George- will be gone. Hoshina would be gone. Ikuto will stay with me, trapped in an elevator. I shook my head at the thought. Would being trapped in such a confined space with him such a good thing? Looking over my shoulder, to the man who has his arms wrapped around me, I sighed. Yes, I wouldn't mind being trapped with him.

"Guess what animal I am. I go baa and I rhyme with lamb."

Everyone in the room thought for a moment in silence. I was actually confused on what he was if it wasn't lamb- unless, of course, he was stupid enough to give us the answer in the clue.

Then, Ikuto said in a rather conceited voice, "A ram?"

"Ding! Ding! Ding- a- ling! I am a raaaaaam. No, no, no it's no sham!" He tried to rap, but it came out as a tune deaf melody.

!!!!!!!

I need to get away from here!

Finally, after playing countless meaningless games with him, Hoshina lost it. "Shut up!"

"Hello? Is anyone in there?" someone's voice pierced through the hopeless atmosphere. "Hello?"

"Yo! Yo! Yo, bro! Want to play a game to find my name?"

"There's a mentally ill patient in the elevator, call reinforcements. Over," I heard the man outside say.

There was statics and a crackle before a reply came. "Roger that. Over."

Yes! We were finally free from this nightmare! I must've done something horrible in my past life because everything bad has been happening to me.

As the tendrils of light shot through a gap in the door, the darkness receded. I blinked my eyes several times, trying to get use to the brightness of freedom.

The first to leave was Hoshina. The overnight debut artist was all too eager to leave the insanity as I was. She was pulled up from the elevator that was down halfway from a floor.

The next to go was George, who rhymed animatedly to the firemen rescuers. They all ignored him and passed him on to the medics that were leading him away.

"Bye, bye, bye. Don't die!" were his last words.

Ikuto hoisted me up as the firemen pull me out. He was the last one to leave.

The heavily equipped people asked if we were already before letting up all go.

When I was finally able to go to the waiting room to sign the release form, Ikuto and Hoshina was already writing for me. We left the white building together with the singer chatting animatedly to an unresponsive male. Noticing that Ikuto was in no mood to have an idle chat with her, she walked off by herself stating that she had a television show to tend to. This left Ikuto and I also.

"Since I don't think I can trust you to stay out of trouble, I will be sticking with you until a proper home is given to you," he said with a smirk. Something told me that my safety wasn't the only thing on his mind. "We can always go back to that hotel and relax." Suspicions confirmed.

"Ikuto, I can't think about that now after what happened."

"Think about what?" He bore an innocent look on his face. In return, I gave him a knowing look, which he responded with a cat- like grin. "You need a place to stay at least, don't you?" With a sign of resignation, I nodded. "Then how about that hotel room?" Well, I had nowhere else to go, so might as well.

I didn't know whether I was happy or not when it turned out that Ikuto realized he needed to be somewhere before we made it to the hotel. He didn't let me go to the accommodation alone; instead he dragged me off to wherever he was going. Ikuto didn't bother telling me to character change this him, he did so himself and the two of us were off. When we got there, he opted to his character change as we landed in the middle of two groups of people.

It turned out that we were going to where a little dispute in the between of Easter and the Guardians was forming. I looked over to the Easter team first. There was Hoshina Utau, Nikaidou, and a woman I've never seen before. Hoshina had her character transformation in play and seemed to be ready to fight the Guardians, but when she saw Ikuto, she reverted back to her usual form and tackled him with a hug, which made him drop me on to the hard stone steps. I winced as I felt the familiar feeling of a tear on the wound, however I didn't speak.

Ikuto didn't move from his position in Hoshina's arms. I wasn't as jealous as last time with Hinamori. Perhaps it was because I knew that Hoshina was Ikuto's sister. Nothing can possibly be produced in that relationship other than sibling love.

The atmosphere started to lighten as Hoshina declared her dedication toward Ikuto who was once again indifferent with her affection. She addressed most of her words to Hinamori, saying how it was going to be her who was going to get the embryo for Ikuto. A feeling of déjà vu made me sweat dropped despite the pain that there was still throbbing at my wound. After a while, Hoshina directed her threats toward me, something that I've already heard.

This all ended when Nikaidou threw another smoke bomb at the Guardians. He held out the three Guardian Eggs that belonged to Hinamori and instructed Ikuto to fool around with the persistent group, but the cat boy twitched his tail, sending a rock to the former teacher's hand, knocking the eggs away. The same pang of jealousy I felt back with Hinamori appeared again. It was more overwhelming than the pain I felt from my deep wound.

It wasn't that I wasn't glad that Hinamori got her eggs back, but the way Ikuto worked just made me feel so irritated. The way she handled his goodwill brought out the worst in me. There were even times when I wanted her gone, but I knew I shouldn't feel that way.

Hinamori did a character change the moment her pink chara, Ran, popped out of her egg. The pink- haired girl reached for the egg closest to her, which so happened to be Miki, and caught it. She made an ignorant move and merely rejoiced at the reunion of another one of her Guardians instead of concentrating on retrieving Suu, her domestic side.

Losing two of the three eggs didn't tamper with Nikaidou's mood too much, he was glad that one Guardian egg was still at his disposal, but Hinamori was angry, she was furious. Why would anyone want to steal another person's egg? It was cruel and heartless. As she expressed her most inner thoughts, Nikaidou's expression changed. Her words seemed to have affected him, triggered an emotion that he tried to bury deep within himself. The brunette decided to give Hinamori one more chance to save Suu from his grips before he walked away.

Ikuto lifted me into his arms before the smoke dissipated and soared through the sky. "Sorry about dropping you back there, Utau overreacts too often."

"I'm fine…"

"You're bleeding." I looked down and saw that he was right. My new shirt was stained with a red liquid that has been haunting me lately. "I'll bandage you up at the hotel." Without a care on whether he was true to his words or not, I took comfort into staying as close to him as possible.

On the way home, I made a decision to forget all my envy that was caused by Hinamori. It's not like it would do me any good. Ikuto feels whatever he feels. If I really loved him, then I should be glad that he was happy, no matter whom it is he's with.

Without knowing it, I had drifted off into a light slumber. "Kura- chan," I heard someone say before I felt that someone flow into my ear. A chilling shiver ran through my shine as my eyes snapped open. "Kura- chan." Ikuto's never ending smirk appeared before me. "All cleaned up." It took me a while to realize what he was talking about, but when I did, I flushed dramatically and looked under the covers. I wasn't wearing a shirt, but the bandages covered most of my torso.

"Ikuto, you!" I was speechless. He had just seen me naked!

He chuckled at my expense. "It's not like you can keep those a secret from me. I can't wait until they're developed," he purred. The red on my face darkened. How can someone be so vulgar? "When that happens, I'll be sure to make you all mine."

Squirming under his lustful, yet still teasing, gaze, I sniffed at his comment. Sex isn't everything. After my past experiences with Kanosuke, I'm not sure I would ever be able to get that far with anyone.

That day, Ikuto left my body alone. He only tampered with it to change the bandages. He still stole as many kisses as he could. I enjoyed every single one of them and even initiated some myself! As night came and went, I finally got myself to go to school. Ikuto was less enthusiastic about this than before. He wanted me to tag along with him to school, but I had to refuse. Even though I hated going to that school with that teacher around, I still needed to get the credits to go to the next year.

I didn't bother changing my clothes as I made my way to school. My schoolbag was left forgotten at the house. I wasn't ready to go back there. The school will have to make due of my inconvenience.

"Kura- chan, good morning," I heard a soft voice that has been missing in action in my life lately.

"Haven't seen you in a while!" Beside Nagehiko was Kukai.

"Morning, Nadeshiko- san, Kukai- san," I greeted. I was surprised that they weren't acting any different around me.

"How have you been, Kura- chan?" After Kukai obliviously inquired such a question, Nagehiko stomped on the soccer player's feet with his sweet smile still on his lip. "Ow! Why did you do that?" It was amusing watching him jump around on one foot.

The two Guardian members walked with me to school, one on each side. I didn't quite understand why until I saw the staring faces again. The rumours never got old when it came to me. It seems as if my life is perfect for the personality of this school. There's always something new to gossip about me.

Nagehiko and Kukai just needed to stare at the nosy lot of people to shut them up. If I joined the Guardians, would I have the same effect on people? This got me pondering for the rest of the way to class.

When I went in, I was surprised at who I saw. Nikaidou was back with his usual happy demeanor, which surprised me. Didn't he quit only months, weeks ago because of the rivalry between him and the Guardians who always got in his way? He didn't look like anything happened. I glanced at Hinamori and saw that she had a smile on her lips. Everything must be settled then. Nikaidou is on the good side now.

"Since it's such a nice day, let's go outside!" he suggested. I sweat dropped, comparing him to how he was only days ago.

The entire class walked out in two straight lines and out the school building. We sat on the soft green grass, listening to Nikaidou describe an art assignment to us. It was to draw a picture of our favourite place at school.

I walked around, wondering what to draw. It didn't seem that I was here long enough to classify somewhere as my favourite place. Everything was foreign to me. With a proper look at the place, I saw that there wasn't much to look at. I guess I'll just have to make something up.

"Misaki- san!" I heard Nikaidou call out to me. "Misaki- san, there you are!" I sighed and looked at him. "Well! I looked at your attendance sheet for the past month or two. Not only that, you so happened to make your first return with me around! Is it because…" I waited for him to continue, thinking that he has an intelligent explanation for my disappearance, but when it came out, I was completely baffled. "You think I'm the best teacher in the world!" I sweat dropped.

"Nikaidou- sensei, that's not that case…" I retorted. "I'm also not a Misaki anymore."

"Hm?" he said, already walking away.

!!!!!!!

How irritating… I wandered off again without another thought about his ridiculous conclusion. After a while, I seemed to have ended up in front of the planetarium again. Was this a part of the school? Doesn't matter, I might as well draw something that catches my attention. I walked inside and settled myself on to one of the rows of bleachers. It was dark and quiet, just like how I liked it.

Beside me, Kara was also drawing with the small piece of paper I gave her and a fraction of the graphite that belonged to my pencil. We drew in silence, both in our own worlds, interpreting the environment in our own ways. My peace was undisturbed until the man from before made his entrance before me. Amakawa walked over to me with a pleasant smile.

"I'm glad I have the chance to see you again," he said. I ignored him and continued to sketch. He didn't give me a very good first impression last time. "Are you angry at me for being so vague?" Again, I acted as if he wasn't there. Amakawa frowned at the lack of attention and continued to try to get me to just glance at him. "You must understand that you have to realize it on your own."

When I thought I was done with my composition, I left the round structure without acknowledging the man beside me. School was already about to end. I didn't' realize how long I had been in there, but the short time I had alone was relaxing.

Once inside the school, I handed my work to Nikaidou and left as the bell rang. As I made my way to the hotel that was now my temporary home, a person I knew all too well approached me.

"You must know why I am here."

Looking down at my feet, I nodded and followed him.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXx

Hope you enjoyed that...