Shoutout to Sarkle4 and DiCuoreAllison! :)

I ended up passing out some time on the roof, I woke up feeling heavy and sore, today, I honestly didn't feel like going to school today, but I still ended up going, due to Reiji's orders, I tried to relax, overnight, my eyes had returned to their normal color, but now, it's really easy for them to change.

"So can you explain to me the science of you eye color changing? I didn't know that's a part of heterochromia iridium," Reiji glanced at me in the car, I was staring out the window.

"Genetics," I muttered.

"What's with the attitude today? You're usually not like this," Subaru growled at me.

"Yeah, Misaki, you've had a drastic change since last week," Kanato clutched his bear closer to him.

I studied everyone closely, Subaru was agitated, Kanato was just having another mood swing, Reiji was now ignoring everyone, Laito didn't really care, Shu had his eyes closed, and Ayato, was just sitting silently, I gave a small sigh.

"Oi! Misaki!" I closed my locker and looked next to me to see Ace, cheerful and waving.

"Let's ditch, I'm honestly not up for classes right now," I pushed my hair to the side.

"Huh? Really? Great! Let's go! But your relatives..." he looked around.

"Tch, they don't really care," I rolled my eyes.

"But we do, Kaiju-chan," Laito whispered into my ear, my eyes widened and I reared around to hit him, he dodged easily. "Hey now, don't get rough,"

"Leave me alone, Laito," I murmured under my breath, I grabbed Ace's arm and lead him down the hallway to the staircase.

"Whoa now! Shouldn't you listen to him I mean-"

"Shut up!" I hissed as jolts of pain came from my side. "I had a rough conversation yesterday, I'm slightly aggravated now, so please, just ignore them for now, Ace," I lightly punched him in the chest, he smiled.

"I understand, I won't question it," he promised, and we walked up the stairs and opened the hatch to the roof. I set my stuff down next to me and lay down, the sun beating on me. I looked at Ace, he put down his backpack.

"Well, I was going to ask you if you wanted to cut today, but you asked first, so... you know... me and my old friends have this ritual of promising our friendship to each other," he opened his backpack.

"Ritual?" his blond hair was covering his eyes, so I couldn't see what he was thinking, he took out a small black box and brought it over, he sat down next to me, he opened the box.

In the box was a knife, it was about 16 centimeters long, and it was polished so well, that the moon's reflection on it hurt my eyes, there were characters engraved onto the blade, however, they were written in Hiragana, so I couldn't read it. He picked up the blade and pressed it to his palm, drawing blood, he cleaned the blood of the blade with a cloth and handed it to me, I looked at his hand, and I saw multiple scars, I looked at his face, his wavy blond hair was still covering his face, however, his mouth remained a straight expression, so I knew he was serious. Gingerly, I picked up the blade by the handle and dug it gently into my right palm, blood instantly covered the blade, I winced slightly at the pain.

"What now?" I asked, he extended his hand and looked at me with a soft smile, I blushed.

I took his hand and shook it firmly, I looked into his eyes, this ritual meant that we were becoming friends over blood, we entrusted each other that much, he had done the same thing for about ten other people, which explained the scars on his right hand.

"Tsukino Misaki, I am honored to be your friend," he bowed his head down low, I closed my agape mouth and did the same thing.

"I knew I smelled blood," I let go of his hand and whipped around, Shu was standing there with a slight frown. "Misaki, what are you doing with him?"

Blood dripped from my hand.

"I'm making a friend, you have a problem?" I asked.

"Why are you sharing blood like that? It's unnatural," Shu crossed his arms, I glanced at Ace, he was sitting at the edge of the school, ignoring our conversation.

"It's a ritual, don't mind me," my eye twitched annoyingly, Shu gave me a dirty look, but then vanished.

"How is your family so long distance like that? My family always stick together, help each other out when we need it, you all act like acquaintances that are emotionally sensitive, why?" Ace looked at me and handed me a roll of gauze, I wrapped my hand in it.

"I was adopted by them, I'm not that close to them, but ever since I came to live with them, life has never been the same," Ace reminded me heavily of Shu, his eyes were just a shade darker, and his hair seemed on the border of blond and platinum colored blond, judging by appearance, he was off the scales, his eyes were quite narrow for a foreigner, almost like he was bored all the time, but that could be true though...

"How so?"

"huh?" I glanced at him, I had completely forgotten what we were talking about.

"You said they changed your life, how?" he repeated.

"It... just made me look at life from another perspective, I felt things I never thought I could feel before, I learned things about myself that I never knew, I encountered things that comforted me and scared me.

"Cool, anyways, I'm tired, I only get five hours of sleep a day, my father works twelve hours every night, which is why I have to go to night school, plus that new family member, he's extremely quiet, and he gets sick a lot as well, so I have to watch over him," Ace explained.

"May I ask his name?" I asked quietly.

"We changed it since he agreed to come with us to England, so his name is Zak Briggs now," he said

"Then what was his name before?" I asked, looking at the stars.

"Oh, it was Sora," Ace shrugged, my eyes stretched wide beyond belief. Pain in my side again made me snap back to reality, so, this was Sora's fate now, he was about to become a junior, so another year and I may see him, but Ace said that they would only be staying a few months.

"Misaki, are you okay?" Ace looked up at me, I looked into his eyes, there was definitely a sick Sora behind them, he had gotten a fever and has had it for a while.

"Oh-! Yeah, I'm fine," I gave a small smile he looked at me, surprised.

I may never be able to see Sora again, but at least I know where he is, please, let this be a good family in alternative to mine I thought of my escape plan, I'll do it sometime this week.

"Anyway's I'm tired," Ace turned to his side and his breathing steadied, I gritted my teeth and I poked him with the end of my pencil, nothing. I guess I'll just let him rest, but what about me? I spun the pencil and lay at the edge of the school roof.

"I'm getting worried now," I looked over at the end of the roof, oh yeah... third period just ended, Ayato was standing there.

"How long were you there?" I flicked the pencil off the roof where it landed in some bushes.

"The whole time," he replied, I gave him a 'tch'. "Don't share blood with foreigners, they're diseased," he glanced at my hand.

"What do you have against it? It proves friendship, apparently you prove friendship by drinking blood, or something of that nature," I crossed my arms.

Ayato looked down at Ace, narrowed his eyes, and left.

"I honestly don't care what you do now," he looked back at me, I ignored him staring up at the almost full moon

"Good, keep it that way, I won't worry about you either,"

Ayato's eyes narrowed, he left.