Back in Iori's apartment, Kiki and Iori unpacked groceries from their supermarket trip and stowed them away in their proper places. Kiki remained silent as she put packages of meat and fish in the freezer. Though she babbled excitedly about Kyo and Iori's fight earlier when they were resting at the park, Kiki didn't say much during their time at the supermarket or on their way home. This sort of silence was relieving for Iori, but the fact Kiki was so quiet did raise some flags for him.

"Something on your mind?" Iori finally asked.

Kiki jumped slightly from her train of thought coming to a sudden halt, "Huh? Oh, yeah." She closed the freezer door and leaned against it. "Just thinking about what Kyo said to me when we were at the park."

Iori grabbed a package of noodles from one of the plastic bags, "Go on."

Kiki looked up to the ceiling, "It's just… I dunno. Kyo seemed to be acting weird the whole time. Honestly, I pegged him as a cocky bastard who didn't know when to shut up."

Iori snorted and put a plastic bag full of chips and cookies by the fridge, "Well, you're not wrong."

She snapped and finger-gunned him, "See, exactly! And that's the thing. Earlier, he just seemed more… gentle. And that last thing he said. I…." She trailed off.

"What?"

She shook her head. "Never mind. I'm probably just imagining things. Still, so weird! The Kyo I met was not the Kyo I saw on TV last year."

"Fridge," Iori said as he handed a carton of milk for Kiki to put away. As she did, he said, "Say, humor me for a bit. With Kyo being Kyo, why did you want to learn from him in the first place?"

"Well, with him not graduating from high school and me being a college drop-out, I felt like we could connect, y'know?"

Iori whipped his head around and narrowed his eyes at her. "You went to college?"

"Yes?" Kiki cracked a wry smile at him, "Is that really so hard to believe?"

"Yes," Iori replied flatly.

Kiki pouted, "Oi, I'll have you know I could've gotten an engineering degree."

Iori's brow furrowed, "Engineering? Really?"

"Do I really not seem the type?" Iori opened his mouth to answer, but Kiki stopped him, "Don't answer that."

The two of them finished putting away groceries, so they moved to the couch in the living room to continue the conversation. Kiki plopped down on one side and sat cross-legged on her seat while Iori sat on the other end, resting an elbow on the arm of the couch.

"Just saying," Kiki continued, "if you've got some gadgets that need fixing up, I'm your girl!" She laughed nervously, "Though, to tell you the truth, the stuff I learned in college leaned more towards the 'making' aspect of working with gadgets rather than the 'fixing' part. Still!" Her whole face glowed as her excitement grew, "I'm awesome at fixing stuff! I was basically my family's repairman, after all!"

"That so?" Iori gazed at her expectantly.

Kiki's eyes lit up, "Got something for me to work on?"

"Actually, yes." Iori rose from his seat and headed towards his bedroom. Kiki hopped off the sofa and followed him. She climbed onto the bed and observed Iori as he rolled an amplifier out of his closet. "This thing can't turn on anymore."

Kiki slid off the bed and examined the amp closely. She put a hand to her chin as she circled around the machine, "I see, I see…." She turned to Iori and rubbed the back of her neck. "So, good news and slightly less good news. Good news is I brought my tools with me so I shouldn't have a problem popping this baby open if need be." She averted her gaze, "Slightly less good news is that I've never worked with something like this before, but I'm sure I'll figure it out!"

Iori frowned, "You'd better not break it even further."

Kiki stood tall and saluted to him, "Worry not, Mr. Yagami! Your amp will be in tip top shape in no time. I'll get to work right away!"

"Good," Iori left the bedroom and called out, "Again: don't break anything."

"Yup!"

For the rest of the afternoon, Kiki worked on the amp. Getting it open was one thing, and understanding its inner workings was a whole other thing to tackle.

Iori popped back into the bedroom once to give Kiki food for dinner.

"Thanks, Mr. Yagami," she said without taking her eyes off the mess of wires she was fiddling with. As he left the room, he heard her say, "Alright, that connects to the speaker. Shouldn't touch that. That's the volume, those are for the transistors…." Iori just stood in the hallway for a moment, taking in Kiki's mumbling. So focused. Just like that night when she moved in, he thought. With that final thought, he went to the living room, picked a novel off his bookshelf, and laid on the couch to read.

It was approaching 9 P.M. when Iori noticed that there was no longer any noise coming from the bedroom. He put down his book and approached the doorway. Lightly tapping against the door, Iori listened for Kiki, but there was no response. Cracking the door open, Iori saw Kiki resting her head on top of the amp with a pair of pliers in her hand. The back cover of the amp laid on the floor beside her along with a small plastic bin with screws inside it.

Iori sighed, "Damn woman. At least get yourself into bed first." He tiptoed around her, grabbed a thin blanket from his closet, and draped it over her shoulders. He flipped the lights off and returned to the door. Before leaving the room, he looked back down at Kiki and mumbled, "Night, Kiki."

A/N: So uh. Fun fact about the last chapter. Kiki was NOT supposed to call Kyo by his first name. Like at all. But hey, that little mistake actually helped me in getting this posted so I guess it was more of a happy little accident. Also, Kiki only calls Kyo "Mr. Kusanagi" when she's actually talking to him so her referring to him by first name here IS supposed to happen.