Mikoto was worried to say the least when she went to the hospital to check up on her roommate and friend only to find that Kuroko had made something of a jail break several hours ago. She had spent the previous evening torn between physical exhaustion from lack of sleep and the day's activities, which when combined would have usually been enough to send her to sleep immediately and the adrenaline high she had gotten from taking what she considered a major step in her relationship with Kamijou Touma. As well as no small amount of concern and guilt she felt for Kuroko. Concern for her injuries and guilt for not being there for her when they happened.

She ended up sleeping through her first class because she had forgotten to set her alarm since Kuroko usually woke her up. A rare occurrence for the Ace of Tokiwadai, but nobody questioned it under the circumstances. She was fidgety for most of the day and couldn't concentrate on anything the teachers were saying. Immediately after school she went to the hospital to check on Kuroko, hoping that her roommate would forgive her for leaving the match early without pressing too hard for a reason why she did so.

When she arrived at the hospital a nurse told her that when she had gone in to check on the patient she had found the bed empty. Two staff members were pursuing her as they spoke, using the tracking chip that was planted in Kuroko's, and indeed all of the patient's hospital bracelets. Mikoto thought it sounded rather unethical, but the nurse assured her it was a necessity for any hospital that had to deal with so many esper patients.

Despite the chip in Kuroko's bracelet nobody could tell her if or when she would return or when the staff would catch her and Mikoto knew just how good the odds of that happening were. Mikoto wondered what could have driven her friend to leave the hospital like that. What if she was in danger? Mikoto couldn't stand just waiting around, but nevertheless she could think of nothing else to do.

As it turned out, Mikoto actually didn't have to wait very long at all. She was sitting in Kuroko's empty room, since she that was hopefully where Kuroko would return to after she was done with her little escapade. The key word being 'hopefully'. If she found out that Kuroko had just gone back to their dorm and not bothered to tell anyone Mikoto was going to strangle her to death. The scary thing was she wasn't entirely sure if she was serious or not.

Just then her phone started to vibrate. Her hand shot to it like lightening, hoping it would be her AWOL roommate, but was shocked to see Kamijou Touma's name flashing on her screen. Well, she said it was his name, but in reality she hadn't used his name, what was actually flashing on the screen was the word 'Idiot'. It was much more appropriate in her opinion.

Any other time seeing him call would be enough to give her a minor heart attack, but right now she had more important things to worry about than a guy she had a crush on.

'What if he's cancelling the date for Saturday?'

'It's not a date; nobody ever used the word date!'

'You're stalling.'

Okay, maybe she still cared a little. She took a deep breath and answered the phone.

"Hey, what's up?" Mikoto asked, actually impressed at how casual her voice sounded. Maybe she was finally getting used to talking to him?

"Um…not much except that your roommate just borderline assaulted me on the street wearing a hospital gown. I thought you should know."

"…"

"Um, Biri-Biri? You still there?"

Mikoto realized she was about to snap her phone in half and relaxed her grip on it.

'Just breathe Mikoto, in through the nose, out through the mouth. Keep calm.'

She exhaled "I'm going to beat her to death with my bare hands."

'Ok. That was not calm. That was the opposite of calm.'

"Are you okay?" Touma asked, the concern in his voice making her heart melt.

"I'm fine," Mikoto sighed into her phone "just worried about Kuroko, no matter how good that doctor is she shouldn't be running around like that."

"hmm… That's debatable I guess," Touma mused "you haven't been patched up by him as many times as I have. Either way, there were some hospital guys chasing her, they had this weird scanner thing that was tracking her and they said it looked like she was heading back to the hospital. She'll probably be back in her bed soon if she continued the way she was going, I just thought I should call you in case she changes course."

Mikoto felt some of her worry dissipate and she smiled in relief "thank you Touma, that was sweet of you."

There was a moment of silence before Mikoto registered what had slipped from her mouth without her realizing it. The words had come so naturally to her that it actually frightened her a little. Only a little however, since nearly all of her was preoccupied being more embarrassed than she had ever been in her entire life.

She had called him Touma.

The feeling she had could only be described in cliché terms; she felt like a deer caught in the headlights.

"Heh, heh, no problem Biri-Biri," Touma said cheerfully "it was just a phone call after all."

"Oh…well, thanks anyways," Mikoto answered awkwardly, shocking herself for the second time in as many minutes with the disappointment that almost crept into her words.

'Of course he doesn't notice,' she thought angrily 'why would he?' It had been a while since she had had to confront the fact that Touma didn't feel the same way she did, and it was bitter medicine indeed.

"Um, that reminds me," Touma said, sounding a little uncertain or even embarrassed "Kuroko seemed to, uh, have the wrong idea about-"

At that moment Kuroko popped into her hospital room, dressed in her school uniform and holding a bag of snacks in one hand. She froze when she saw Mikoto.

"O-Onee-Sama, I didn't realize you would be here so soon!"

"I have to go," Mikoto said, cutting off Touma's sentence, and ended the call before he could say anything else. She shoved her phone into her pocket, electricity crackling.

"You're wearing your uniform," Mikoto said, keeping her voice calm.

"Um, yeah It was here when I woke up, so I changed into it before I went out, I wouldn't want to look like a crazy person would I?"

"You are a crazy person," Mikoto snapped. She motioned to her phone "I was just on the phone with Tou- with Kamijou and he said you almost assaulted him wearing a hospital gown. That couldn't have been longer than ten minutes ago; you detoured on your way back to the hospital to get it!" Mikoto declared angrily "Kuroko, your seriously injured! You can't be wandering around, using your ability no less! Just to get something as petty as a change of clothes and a snack!"

Kuroko had started to scowl when Mikoto had mentioned Kamijou "well if your pet thug told you that it must be true now, mustn't it?" The venom in her voice actually making Mikoto take a step back in surprise.

"Kuroko, what are you saying? Why would he lie about what you were wearing?"

Kuroko ignored her "also, how would you know how injured I am? It's not like you were there to see it," Kuroko spat, taking a step forward where Mikoto took one back.

"No, you were too busy running off to go on a date with that barbarian." Kuroko's hands were clenched into fists and her body was shaking with rage. "I'm so honoured that you took the time out of your clearly busy life to check up on your bothersome roommate!"

"Kuroko…" Mikoto said softly and stepped towards her friend. Then she slapped her in the face.

Kuroko reeled back and looked at Mikoto with hurt in her eyes.

Mikoto grabbed her by the shoulders "let's get a few things straight," she said softly "one: I couldn't sleep last night because I was worried about you. Two: Kamijou Touma is not a barbarian or a thug, and he is not my boyfriend. Three: I didn't leave your match to go on a date with him, I followed him because I was concerned for his safety, and given the circumstances I would have done the same for any of my friends. I have no idea how you found out that I left after him, but I did what I thought I had to at the time, and I would do it again."

Kuroko stared up at her friend's face, shame replacing her anger. She looked down ashamedly. The two friends were silent for a few moments before Kuroko spoke again "I spent three hours this morning tracking down people and interrogating them, I put the pieces together myself," she admitted, her voice sheepish despite being obviously choked up.

"Three…?" Mikoto repeated despairingly, leaning her head upon her friends lowered one "I can commend you on your thoroughness at least," she said in a resigned tone. "I'm sorry that I wasn't there when you got hurt," she said apologetically, pulling her friend into a hug "but it really was unavoidable."

"It's okay." Kuroko sniffled a little against her idol "you said you were concerned for the ape's safety, was he in danger?" She asked, the Judgement officer in her coming to the surface.

"Yes, but not for the reasons I originally thought he was." Mikoto admitted "I did save him and his friend from being shot in the head, no big deal though."

"It scares me that someone not in Judgment or Anti-Skill could say that with a straight face. Actually, scratch that, it scares me that anyone at all could say that with a straight face." Kuroko smirked "as expected from Onee-Sama."

Mikoto snorted "get back into bed you wounded idiot." She shoved Kuroko backwards so that she fell into the hospital bed.

"Hey!" Kuroko cried indignantly "I am injured you know!"

"Injured people don't run around the city indecent for three hours playing detective."

"che." Kuroko grumbled unhappily "and I was just getting a good feel of her breasts…"

"what was that?"

"Nothing! Is he really not your boyfriend?" Kuroko changed the subject to something she compulsively wanted to ask.

"W-what? No…" Mikoto turned red and looked away "he's just a friend…"

"But you want him to be more?" Kuroko's voice lacked the jealousy it had before.

Mikoto blushed further and looked down at her shoes "we'll see," she mumbled quietly, technically not giving her friend a real answer and at the same time giving Kuroko all the information she needed to know.

Kuroko sat back in her bed with a smirk "well, that makes a few of the things I said to him a little awkward then."

Mikoto's head shot up "eh?! What did you say to him?!" She asked, already bordering on panic.

Kuroko shrugged "oh you know, just asked if he was using condoms, how long he intended to wait before proposing, the usual stuff…"

All the blood had drained from Mikoto's face, she was fairly certain he heart had stopped beating.

"…and then I asked him to show me his goods, because of course I couldn't allow my precious Onee-Sama to be with a man without a package befitting her! I must say, at the very least he's well equipped for the job!"

Mikoto started at her in dead silence. Kuroko returned her gaze innocently. The longest moments of Mikoto's life passed before Kuroko could no longer keep a straight face. She burst into hysterical laughter.

"Oh! Your face Onee-Sama, your face! If only you could see it! I wish I had my camera!" She broke off into helpless laughter again.

"Kuroko…" Electricity started to fly off her body, barely restrained enough so that the hospital equipment in the vicinity didn't go break.

"O-Onee-Sama? Really, I was only joking! Onee-Sama, be careful of my wounds!"

A Few Therapeutic Minutes Later

Mikoto left her friend's room feeling conflicted. She leaned on the closed door heavily and sighed, closing her eyes.

Had she told the whole truth to Kuroko? She had told her that she had followed him out of concern for his safety, then played it to sound like she had been justified in her fears, but really the fact that Touma actually had turned out to be in danger was little more than a technicality.

But had his safety really been the only thing on her mind? Of course not, she had never believed that Touma's red haired friend was some Satanist-terrorist, she had no real reason to think he was in danger at all.

You could call it instinct; there might even be some truth in that. But that wasn't the only truth; she had followed him because she wanted to. Because she was tired of watching him walk away from her. Was that wrong of her? She didn't think so. Was it a good enough reason to leave her best friend's match? A harder question to answer. She knew she had done the right thing in the end, she had saved to human lives after all. But that had been coincidence and it wasn't the results of her actions that concerned her, it was the actions themselves.

She was so lost in thought that she didn't notice the tall black-clad figure in front of her until she had rammed into him. As she reeled back the smell of tobacco assaulted her nose.

"Oi! Watch where you're going you damn-oh it's you."

"eh?" Mikoto looked up and saw the semi-familiar face of the strange man who had been with Touma the other day.

"Oh it's you," Mikoto said, slightly surprised. She looked at his strange black robes that she assumed were his normal attire.

"Where are you going? There's no way you've been discharged yet. And there's absolutely no way you're allowed to be smoking in here."

He looked down at her in annoyance, taking another drag from his cigarette "I've already stayed here for longer then I should," he said, completely ignoring Mikoto's smoking comment "besides, I heal fast."

Mikoto opened her mouth, and then shut it again; she had seen stranger things then a man healing faster than normal after all.

"I suppose it's a good thing you bumped into me though, I never got a chance to say thanks for saving my life."

Mikoto shrugged "don't mention it."

"It's a good thing Kamijou had a stalker or else we really might have been in trouble."

Mikoto went red "s-stalker!? Who are you calling a stalker?"

He waved his hand in the air "well, whatever. It's none of my business anyways."

With that he turned for the exit and began to walk away. He called out to her over his shoulder "the name's Stiyl, if you keep hanging around Kamijou we'll probably see each other again before too long."

Embarrassed and perplexed, Mikoto watched the strange man she now knew as Stiyl leave. As she did so she felt her phone vibrate, signalling that she had gotten a text message, it was from her homeroom teacher. She felt her stomach sink in anticipation, since the last time her teacher had contacted her directly it had been to tell her Kuroko had been hospitalized. She opened her phone.

Hello Mikoto, good news! The planning committee has organized your first match for Friday! I hear it'll be a 5 vs 1 Boss battle. Should be exciting! See you tomorrow in class (I expect you not to be late this time.)

Mikoto sighed and closed her phone. A couple days ago she would have been enthused, but right now she couldn't see herself getting too excited for a fight. It was the day before she was spending time with Touma too, so she couldn't afford to hold back and get injured. She almost felt sorry for her opponents.

ANNND DONE! Exams are complete and my summer has started, but will that be a good or bad thing for this story? Who knows, I certainly don't. Either way, another fight incoming, which means I'll probably be taking more time than usual to write it. Don't forget to review!