The first semester went by without any further major incidents. Kouta's reputation as a 'strong' monster and his association with a vampire meant no one took him lightly. The only one to bother him was Kahlua, and her regular feedings were endured and became routine.

Working with the newspaper club was pleasant enough though Daisuke on a few occasions kept them working through the weekends to have an edition ready on time. Lucy and Kouta learned how to write articles on various topics and edit them. Sun thrived under the pressures of having to put out a weekly paper and was multi talented. She not only wrote articles she also took pictures and had a comic strip that was very popular. It was called, 'Poor Kabuto!' and featured three characters; a hapless easy going male named Kabuto, a female vampire who was always dressed in a gown named Kiyoko, and a serious girl with the name of Lisa. The strip largely portrayed Kiyoko chomping on him and Lisa grabbing his arm saying, 'Mine!' Kabuto pretty much was the rope in a tug of war between the two girls. Kouta thought it was funny, Lucy not so much, but it was harmless enough.

As the semester went along there was slow rise in the number of violent incidents committed on the school grounds. There was talk of an actual gang operating with growing impudence and strength, but nothing truly blatant or heinous had happened yet. Daisuke had mentioned investigating the rumors but had held off publishing anything in the paper as yet. Kouta had wanted to mention Akira and Akio but Lucy had cautioned him against it.

"Don't borrow trouble Kouta," she had warned him.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean they haven't bothered you since then so don't do anything to bring yourself back to their attention." She had not told him about the golem attack and so he did not understand just how dangerous they really were.

"But don't we owe it to Daisuke and the newspaper club to tell him we might have a lead?" Kouta argued.

"No," she had said. "It's just a club Kouta! Don't act as though we have some sort of duty to it. You know you can't afford to bring attention to yourself. Just let sleeping dogs lie and forget about it."

He hadn't really been happy about that, but had agreed to keep quiet.

The most challenging aspect of that first semester had been the actual classes.

Both Kouta and Lucy struggled to at least reach passing grades in all their classes. (To both their surprises Kahlua actually did quite well with minimal effort.) Kouta had always been a poor student, finding it hard to concentrate on subjects that did not hold his interest. Lucy had missed most of her schooling, not having attended since being a child at the orphanage. Six months of intense cramming and the help of tutors had let her catch up enough to at least be competent to attend High School. Now that she was attending regular classes and acting as Kouta's bodyguard she was on her own though.

She had trouble concentrating on her studies as well, though for different reasons than Kouta. Given her brutal life experiences she simply found it hard to take things like algebra or English very seriously. She was not a normal girl, she wasn't ever going to go to college what did it matter is she could find the angles' tangent or identify the adjective in a sentence? When was any of that going to help her? She considered all the subjects they were covering equally useless.

Though there was one thing about her studies she was grateful for.

XXX

Kouta put his head down in despair. "This is hopeless!" He moaned.

She reached over and patted his shoulder. "Come on, tomorrow's the last days of the final exams, then we can relax and enjoy summer break."

"Unless I fail, then I get stuck with summer school." He said morosely.

"Better not fail then," she said. She picked up a plate and held it out to him. "Have a cookie."

"Thanks," he said and began to munch on one.

Lucy was entirely content, worries about summer school and passing tomorrow's exam didn't weigh on her at all. She wouldn't have minded summer school a bit just as long as she was in class with Kouta. At the moment they were all alone together in her room. They were sitting on the floor at a mini table. Since they both had the exact same class schedule studying together had been a no brainer.

Lucy was happy. Kouta was here with her in her room eating a cookie she had baked just for him. No stupid vampires were in the way and she had him completely to herself. This was heaven. The only thing that would make it even better was if they were doing something other than studying. It was needless to say that if Kouta had made any sort of advances on her she would have encouraged them. He never had though, even though they were all alone and he was literally just inches away he had never tried anything with her.

She would have been happy to try and initiate things, but was totally inexperienced. She had no idea how men and women interacted. She had made cookies for him and sat close and was attentive to anything he said, beyond that she didn't know what was expected. She didn't dare come right out and ask him for fear of having him see her as too aggressive and pushy. She didn't know any subtle way to convey her interest. It was frustrating to have him so near and still be unable to do those things she longed for.

Glancing at him as he munched away she fantasized about how wonderful it would be to have him look into her eyes and finally see the longing that was there. He would turn to her and take her hand gently into his own and whisper her name. Then he would begin to lean close, his lips approaching hers. He would look deep into her eyes and in a lover's voice he would say…

"I just can't do this," he snarled in frustration.

"Yes you can Kouta! Do whatever you want with me!"

He looked up from the text book startled. "What?"

She suddenly snapped out of her daydream to see him looking at her blankly. "Ah, excuse me?"

"What did you just say?"

"Ah, I said you could do it."

He sighed. "What's the point? I mean does it even make a difference whether I pass or fail? Even if I pass I can't go anywhere I'm stuck here until I graduate right?"

"No, you can't go to the human world until you graduate. You can still leave the campus like all the other students. If you want to go somewhere I can get permission from the Chairman to clear it."

"But where else is there to go?" He asked in frustration. "I'm human it's not like I can go to a place filled with monsters right?"

"That's not true," Lucy told him. "A lot of monsters like being in human form and prefer it to their true selves. There are plenty of places you can go where no one will notice you, especially if you're in the school uniform." She looked at him more closely. "Are you wanting to go somewhere?"

"Well yeah, I've been stuck here for four months now. Don't you feel confined too? Don't you want to go somewhere else?"

His asking her that proved he had no idea what the word 'confined' really meant. After her years at the research facility she still felt exhilarated just getting to walk outside under open sky. She had no desire to go anywhere, she was at Kouta's side and that was the only place she had ever longed for.

"I'm fine, but if you want to go somewhere else all you had to do was ask Kouta. How about we go somewhere the day after tomorrow? Tomorrow's the last day of classes for the semester and we don't have a newspaper due. It'll be a Saturday and most of the students will be leaving to go home for summer break any way."

A thought suddenly occurred to him. "What about you? Are you going home for summer break too?"

She shook her head. "I don't have anywhere to go Kouta." My place is with you anyway.

"You don't have a home? Or at least any people you want to visit?" Given his own background he was naturally sympathetic.

"This place is home for now," she told him. "And I've always been alone." He gave her a sad look and she shook her head at him. "Its fine, I'm used to it."

"Yeah, but its awful being alone," he said in a small voice.

She couldn't really deny that. "I'm used to it," she repeated.

He surprised her then by taking her hand and looking intently into her eyes. "You're not alone though, you have me Lucy. I won't let you be alone any more, I promise."

She was startled by the sudden and unexpected promise and by the intensity with which he spoke the words. His hand felt very warm and very strong. It gave her the sense that he was keeping her safe.

"All... all right," she said in a hesitant voice. "I won't let you be alone either. Let's always be there for each other so that we're never alone again."

He nodded and held his hand up with his pinky extended. "Here, it's a pinky promise."

She remembered the only other time she'd made one of those.

XXX

"Let's always be friends!" An eight year old Kouta had told her. He held out his hand with his pinky extended.

Lucy had just looked at him strangely. None of the other children had ever interacted with her except to bully her. She had never made a pinky promise with anyone. "What are you doing?"

"You have to hook your finger with mine and then you have to say, 'Cross my heart, hope to die, eat a thousand needles, if I lie.' Now you have to keep the promise or eat a thousand needles."

"That's just stupid," an eight year old Lucy had told him. "There's no way anybody could make me eat a thousand needles."

"Aw, come on, it's a way to show I'm really serious about my promise."

Even though she'd thought it kind of silly she'd hooked her pinky with his and together they'd sworn to always be friends.

XXX

Lucy hooked her pinky with his and together they chanted the childhood promise.

Afterwards Kouta laughed. "I guess it's pretty silly to still be doing that at our age."

"No," she said quietly. "It's just a way to show you're serious about the promise."

XXX

As she always did she walked him back to his dorm.

"So we can really go somewhere this Saturday?" He asked eagerly.

"Sure Kouta, just bring some money with you," she told him. "We can make a day of it."

"Okay," he said with a grin as he headed towards the stairs. "It's a date then."

She was turning to go when she froze and suddenly snapped her head back around. "A… a date? Is that what it is?"

Kouta didn't hear her though and was already headed up the stairs.

She stood there a moment just staring at the empty stairwell.

"A date with Kouta," she said out loud. Her heart was starting to beat at a fast clip and she wondered if there was any way she could get a dress to wear before Saturday.