With the passing days, Eli continued to see the frightened girl with the red curls. At first it was impossible to approach her, as she would run away and Eli was forced to chase after her again. It seemed as if her very existence frightened the girl, like if she wasn't visible, the redhead wouldn't have to admit the truth. She was dogged, however, and one day it seemed like the girl was finally tired of running, allowing Eli to actually stand next to her without freaking out.

Her name was Maki. That took a lot of effort just to get that tidbit of information, but Eli was glad to call her something other than 'the girl with red hair' in her mind. It was nearly impossible to get much more than that out of her, though. She could almost physically feel the walls blocking her out, and it would take more than the world's strongest chisel to chip a hole in those barriers. She wasn't done trying, though. No matter what, she wanted to see a smile on that face.

Maki stared glumly into the gloom, shifting around on the bed next to a sleeping Nico. She hated how weird it felt whenever she would see Eli and Nozomi really close together. It was one thing when Eli was in her feline form, but whenever she would catch them while the blonde was human, it made her stomach feel uneasy. Nico had snidely remarked that Maki was just coming down with a severe case of jealously, but she had pushed that spurious accusation aside. It couldn't be that... right?

"Just go talk to her already." Maki nearly jumped out of her fur, finding that Nico was not asleep, but instead staring straight at her. "Your constant movements are keeping me up."

"Sorry," she muttered, glancing away. "I'll just go sleep in the corner, then."

"Oh quit being such a baby." Nico sat up and grabbed Maki, startling the scarlet feline as she was lifted off the bed and into the air. "You'll be sleeping outside if you don't go talk to Eli."

"I can just get back in, you know." She squirmed around in Nico's grasp, trying to get back down to the floor as her charge carried her out of the room.

"You and your ghost powers, always ruining things."

"I am not a ghost- Oof!" They had reached the living room, where Nico proceeded to unceremoniously drop Maki on her stomach.

"I thought cats were supposed to land on their feet."

"Sh-Shut up!" She turned to glare at Nico, but the twin-tailed girl had already begun walking back to her room. "H-Hey, don't leave me here!"

"You can come back in once you've patched things up out here." Maki hissed in annoyance, but Nico wasn't budging, so now she was stuck out here. Glancing over towards the couch, she could see Nozomi was asleep, but a certain feline figure was curled up next to her, head up and blue eyes staring right at her. 'Dammit, she's awake.'

Silently and gracefully Eli descended from the couch and made her way over, looking at Maki with a confused expression. "What's up, Maki? Everything alright?"

"Uh, yeah, it's... fine." She cringed at her own half-hearted response, and from the look on Eli's face it seemed like it did nothing to assuage any worries. This really wasn't a conversation she wanted to have. What was she supposed to do now?

Getting Maki to talk about herself was like pulling teeth with tweezers. It was clear that she still had some major baggage over her lost tether to the Earth, and eventually Eli gave up on trying to learn about her previous life. Instead, she started small, initiating conversations about likes and sightseeing, trying to be an emotional soundboard for her new reticent friend.

To her pleasant surprise, it actually began to work, and though Maki was still unwilling to open up a ton, little openings began appearing for Eli to enter and learn more about her. For the longest time, she was the only person Maki would even hold a conversation with, the only one whom the redhead felt comfortable being around. While she wanted her to open up more and hang around other people as well, she felt a sense of pride that she was the one Maki would come to talk to, sometimes even without prompting.

When Eli decided it was finally time to introduce Maki to her other friends, their first meeting went about as well as she could've expected. Putting someone as shy and reserved like Maki around two balls of energy like Honoka and Rin was bound to end in disaster, but Eli was somewhat encouraged that the encounter lasted nearly twenty... seconds. Rin, excited to meet Eli's new friend, pounced on Maki to give her a hug, and the startled redhead ran away. Honoka laughed so hard she fell over, while Rin just stared after her in confusion. Now Eli would have to find her again.

"Maki, I feel like you've been avoiding me." Well, now it was out there. Maki gulped nervously and tried to avoid Eli's gaze, but she kept moving around to make sure she was in Maki's sights. "Like right now."

"I-I'm not avoiding you."

"Then what are you doing right now?" Good point. Maki didn't have a proper response to that, so she stayed silent and glanced at a point above Eli, who just sighed quietly. "Look, Maki, I know things haven't been going as smoothly as we all originally planned, and that most of it is my fault. We need to communicate better, though." Eli gave her a reassuring smile, but if anything, it only made her feel worse. "You know you can tell me if I did anything to upset you."

Maki's tail swished nervously just above the carpet, not wanting to admit the feelings that were bubbling up to the surface. How was she supposed to tell Eli that she wanted to spend more time with her without seeming like a massive hypocrite? The fact that she was... jealous of Nozomi for monopolizing Eli's time made her feel sick, and she knew that it wouldn't sound any better being voiced aloud.

Why should Nozomi get all of Eli's attention, though? Okay, so she was Eli's charge, but still... She hadn't thought far enough to give a satisfying answer to that. They'd only had their charges for over a month, though. Maki had known Eli a lot longer than that. Didn't that count for anything?

"Just... It's not you. It's getting used to how things are going now." She forced a smile, hoping that Eli wouldn't notice how strained it was. Time seemed to slow down, making Maki worry that she would have to explain further, but finally Eli gave her a nod.

"It's tough, I know, but we'll get through it. We're more than capable of doing this."

"Y-Yeah. I'm going back to Nico's room." Without another word, she padded out of the room and towards Nico's door, which she knocked on until the occupant finally got up and opened the door for her.

"You'd better have talked to Eli."

"I did. We're fine." Well, at least part of it was true. Jumping onto the bed, she curled up in the top left corner and closed her eyes, prepared to claw holes in the bedspread to avoid Nico picking her up and dumping her outside again. Luckily, there was no fight needed, and the night passed by them uninterrupted.

"Have you talked to Maki, Elicchi?"

"Last night, actually." Eli and Nozomi were spending the afternoon at the local shrine. Out of necessity of course, considering Nozomi's work. While she went around making sure everything was as it should be, Eli would follow her around, occasionally nuzzling her leg to receive pettings.

"Did she seem... mad at all?" The question caught Eli off-guard, and she stopped in place to look up at Nozomi curiously.

"No. Well, she seemed slightly off, but we talked about getting through our assignments and that seemed to make things alright." Strangely, that didn't seem to placate Nozomi. Rather, her frown deepened as she stopped sweeping and moved closer to Eli.

"Elicchi... At the Halloween party, Maki seemed to be... well, annoyed with me."

"Huh? Why would she be annoyed with you?" Rather, how could anyone be annoyed with Nozomi. If there was anything close to a flawless person, it was her. Besides, Maki never mentioned anyone else's charges all that much.

"Well, when I asked if I could borrow Nicocchi so we could get something to eat, she got mad and said that I had 'taken' you." She bit her lip nervously, not feeling entirely comfortable with revealing such a thing to Eli, but considering everything that had been going on, maybe it needed to be said. "Are you sure that everything's alright?"

"I... thought they were?" Now Eli was more confused than ever. What could that have meant? "I don't understand. You haven't 'taken' me or anything." The two of them stood in silence to think on it, Nozomi even stopping her work to better concentrate. After a few minutes, her eyes lit up with realization.

"Elicchi, we've been spending a lot of time together, haven't we?"

"Of course. You're my charge after all."

"That's not what I meant." Nozomi gave the still-confused Eli a soft smile, leaning down to pet her again. "I mean that we spend a lot of time together being really close. Maybe Maki misses you." Eli hadn't considered that. Of course, it hadn't even seemed like a consideration at all, but maybe it should have been. It wasn't like Maki was very open with her feelings anyway.

"You really think so?" Nozomi nodded, leaving Eli to ponder further on it. "Maybe I need to go talk to her again."

Maki was not expecting Eli to come up to her while their charges were in school. She was spending less and less time with her friends, but today she had decided to go back up, though she chosen to wander around rather than sit at their usual table. Somehow, despite what seemed to be random wanderings, Eli had still found her.

"Maki, can we talk?" They could, but Maki wasn't sure she wanted to again. It was becoming more of a chore to keep her wayward emotions in check lately.

"Didn't we talk this week?"

"Do you only talk to your friends once a week?" Eli laughed softly, trying to lighten the mood a little.

"Do you only kiss Nozomi once a week?" Coming to a halt, Eli could feel her face burning. Okay, so maybe Nozomi was on to something.

"Wh-What?"

"Eli, I literally found you on top of her." Maki stopped as well and faced Eli, crossing her arms. "I hope she's worth risking our wings for."

"Maki..."

"No, I get it. She's pretty attractive, right?" She twirled her hair idly, no longer looking at Eli. "But hey, you're our leader. You can do what you want."

"Th-That is not what's going on and you know it!" Things were starting to get out of hand, and Eli could feel her composure slipping slightly. Why did Maki have to be so difficult all the time? She was only trying to help!

"Oh? Then what is going on, exactly?"

"Just... I..." Words were failing her as she tried to explain herself, which was made somewhat more difficult by the fact that she did kind of screw them over. Nozomi was special, though. Like, amazingly special. If Maki felt the way about Nico that she did about Nozomi, she'd understand. "If you hung out with Nozomi and I, then you could see that she's..."

Eli let her sentence die a slow death, feeling a chill coming over her. Right away she could tell that she had only succeeded in making things worse, if the look in Maki's eyes was anything to go by. There was rage: unadulterated anger, and a flash of hurt that she only noticed way too late.

"If you want to be with Nozomi so bad, then just be with her." Maki's sentenced was hissed through gritted teeth, her hands curling into fists. Reflexively, Eli took a step back, but Maki didn't make a move to go after her. "You go spend all your time with her and have fun. You don't even have to leave her side. Honoka and Rin can come to me if they ever need anything."

"Maki, it's not-"

"Don't talk to me." Despite wanting to do anything but that, Eli clammed up, eyes wide as she stared at her visibly-shaking friend, Maki's facial expression hardening into one of stone. "And don't you dare try to find me again." Maki vanished after that, and Eli was left standing there, frozen, staring at the spot where her friend had just been standing.

Once again she had attempted to patch things up with Maki, and once again she had failed in spectacular fashion. What was she supposed to do now?

It took some time, but in the end Eli finally found Maki again. Surprisingly she was able to convince the redhead to come back with her, and this time she took the social steps a bit slower. She had Maki meet Honoka and Rin separately, which went better after she had convinced the two of them to not jump right into Maki's personal space.

Eventually Maki seemed comfortable enough to be around the three of them more often, to Honoka and Rin's great delight. She was happy about it as well, even if their new friend was still ever-reluctant to talk about herself. They wouldn't push her, since Eli was just glad she didn't have to be wandering these gilded halls alone.

Maybe they'd get to a point where Maki felt at ease enough to talk more, to let others in. For now, Eli was complacent with how things were, and she smiled knowing that Maki had become her friend. She wanted to make sure that the redhead always had someone to go to if she needed her.

Author's Notes: So normally these don't take two weeks, but here we are. XD I've been having trouble getting words onto the computer, so it's been taking longer as a consequence. It could be that each chapter may take more time as I try to figure out where I want to go with them, but it will still continue!