Lunch could not come any sooner.

The sound of pens and pencils scratching against paper ended with the bell and Ragna felt a renewed vigor shoot through his veins like a steroid. He was the first to arrive and first to step out of the classroom. He waited outside Celica's class, which took forever to dismiss, as students regarded him like more of a prop than a person. By now Ragna had grown accustomed to the staring and heard enough shit-talking to last a lifetime. At the very least he wished they would come up with better material, give him a reason to walk up to one of those snobby assholes and see if they had any bite to their bark.

A bunch of kids trotted out the front and back doors of the classroom, but Celica was nowhere to be found among them. Right when he began to head inside himself and see what was taking her so long, her head popped out of the doorway. She blinked twice, as if surprised to see him. "The hell took so long?" Ragna asked.

"Sorry. The teacher really went heavy on the material, and on the first day, too. I wanted to copy everything down before she erased it." She exited the room carrying a modest lunch box. "Ready to eat? I'm starving."

"Where d'you wanna eat?"

Celica tapped her chin with a dainty index finger. "It doesn't matter to me. You don't want to eat in the cafeteria, right?"

The contemptible gawking of strangers was no comfort, and the last thing he wanted was to subject Celica to it. "That's why I said you should eat with your other friends."

"How about we just eat here?" Celica ignored his protests and re-entered her classroom. She yanked Ragna in with her when he remained stationary and sat down at her desk. She grabbed his face and forced Ragna to look at her when he attempted to avert his eyes. "Nobody is here, so we have the place to ourselves."

Since trying to persuade her was pointless, Ragna let out a sardonic chuckle. "Here I was hopin' I could spend as little time at a desk as possible." He turned a chair around, plopped his lunch box down, then settled into the seat. Opening his lunch presented a heap of rice, fish, and a decent helping of carrots. Celica's tupperware topped him with its entree of sweet and sour pork, tomatoes, and meatballs. "Plan on sharing?"

Celica closed the lid on her lunch when Ragna reached for a piece, sporting a playful smile. "What do you have to offer me?"

Ragna examined his poor excuse for a meal. "I got, uh… this?" He picked up a piece of fish with his chopsticks as a bargaining chip. By the looks of it she was not impressed. "It tastes good, y'know," Ragna said, a bit insulted.

"Okay, let's see." Celica opened her mouth expectantly, which perplexed him. "Feed me, silly!" She didn't think she would have to spell it out for him. Seeing his hesitation written all over his face, Celica created some incentive. "If you don't, that's less points added to the tally."

"I got points now?" Sparing a quick look to see if anyone was around, Ragna quelled his embarrassment and fed her. She slowly took the food off his chopsticks and chewed even slower, definitely drawing it out for some sort of dramatic effect as if expecting a drumroll. As much as Ragna wanted to tell her to hurry up and quit the theatrics, this girl would use that as a means of docking points from his total "score".

Celica gulped the morsel down. "You pass. You can have one. But!" She parried his chopsticks before Ragna could acquire his reward. "I have to feed you this time."

His shoulders slumped. "Are you… are you serious?"

"Mhm." She nodded with great enthusiasm.

"You know I can feed myself just fine, right?" Ragna argued. That smile of hers didn't waver, and he just sighed. Now I get it. A second sigh. "I think I'm good. I'll make my own when I get home."

Her beaming smile gave way to dejection. "Aww, what?!"

He rested his cheek in his palm. "A pretty elaborate way for me to feed you. Tricking me through my stomach, that's pretty damn devious. I'll give you that."

Celica turned away, pretending he hadn't just caught her red-handed. "I'd never do that!"

"Uh-huh. Next time you want to try and fool me, don't have it written all over your face, yeah?" Ragna moved mechanically, taking the exact same piece of rice and fish into his chopsticks.

"...Ragna?" The hesitation in Celica's voice made Ragna raise an eyebrow. "Has anything changed between you and Jin?"

"...Oh." The question was out-of-the-blue. Ragna was unbothered by the topic, but it caused visible distress in Celica. He had made peace with the fact that he and Jin would never reclaim their childhood relationship. That didn't mean the reality of his situation didn't sting. "No." Ragna maintained an even tone, poking at his food. "Hasn't gotten better or worse. Why do you wanna know? Feels pretty random to ask all of a sudden."

"Yeah, I guess. I didn't know what else to talk about and that just came out." Celica laughed it off. An awkward silence unfurled and Ragna sighed.

"Celica, you know how it is. Frankly, this is for the best," he told her plainly. Although he accepted the situation, resolved to keep their distance, that didn't mean the sting had completely vanished. The only reason he and Jin lived together was because of the Kisaragi family's "generosity." In truth, Ragna was bumming it out.

"That doesn't mean I like it…" Celica grumbled, nibbling on a piece of pork. Family should be loving. Sure, fights both big and small were inevitable, but they brought a household closer when all was said and done. That's what Celica believed, but at the end of the day, her feelings were irrelevant in other family matters.

Ragna inhaled deeply, filling his lungs with as much air as possible. His noisy breathing earned annoyed looks from a few classmates trying to listen to the art lecture given by their overly passionate instructor, but he didn't care. All that occupied his mind was the dejection on Celica's typically upbeat countenance when he left her classroom. There they'd been, enjoying a meal and the freedom of lunch break, then everything had to get all heavy.

There was nothing else to say. Family drama was one thing; the tension in a noble household like the Kisaragis that sat at the center of noble-family scrutiny was a whole different ball game of stepping on eggshells hoping not to trip a landmine. Especially when the cause of their disgrace came as a result of him. The remainder of lunch passed in awkward silence, and unable to take it anymore, Ragna left early. Once he'd returned to his own class and taken his seat did he feel like a complete asshole for ditching Celica.

The abject noise that erupted after the final bell annoyed him more than usual, hammering his nerves. After the class representative was chosen, a sociable brunette whose name Ragna couldn't remember for the life of him, the teacher dismissed everyone for the day. Pushing past the mob crowding the classroom door, Ragna jogged down the stairs and proceeded to class 3-D. Celica popped out of the back door at the exact moment of his arrival, as if waiting for him. "Ready to go home?" she asked, a bright smile on her face like always.

"Yeah."

Celica picked up on his strained tone. Her head tilted in confusion. "Is everything okay? You seem down." She paused for a beat. "Is this about earlier, at lunch?" Ragna scratched the back of his head trying to come up with something to say. Celica just wore an understanding smile. "Don't worry about it. I touched on an area I know is delicate."

"I don't know about delicate…" Ragna scratched his cheek, feeling a tinge of heat in them.

"How about this!" Celica moved faster than the human eye could follow, coiling her arms around his larger one. The stunt caused the entire hallway to cease functioning but she paid the onlookers no mind. "You walk me home and all is forgiven. Deal, mister?"

"Do you have to get so close to me?" Ragna tried to wriggle away but she gripped him tighter, sapping his strength. Seeing no way out and wanting to get out of there yesterday as people already muttered among themselves, he submitted to her bargain and left with a giggling Celica clinging to his arm.

A beautiful girl with long red hair carried a box down the hallway of the third floor toward the student council room, which boasted a spacious interior with furnishings offering more form than function. It took her four tries to get the door open. The president sat at the front desk, looking over some documents left by the other members. "I got all the paperwork you asked for." The girl put the box down with a grunt. Brushing her uniform off, she asked, "Is there anything else you need me to do, Jin?"

"Yes, Tsubaki. I can use all the help I can get." Normally Jin shouldered the workload on his own but recent events put a stricter time limit on his duties, and the more help he had, the smoother things could progress. He pointed to a box that sat right in front of the file cabinet. "Could you sort those out? I haven't had the chance to do so yet, and at the very least I would like to clear that up before I go home today."

"Leave it to me." Heading over to the cardboard box, she asked, "Did everyone else go home?"

"Some had family engagements. Others got tied up with teachers." Jin didn't sound pleased at all. Visible tension appeared on his brow as the words of the principal during the assembly echoed in his mind. "Go to him if in need of assistance when in reality he simply serves as a telephone line to us." He scoffed. Rubbing his temples and remembering where he was, Jin took a deep breath. "Apologies, Tsubaki. I know you didn't come here to listen to my childish whining."

"No, it's okay. Please, I don't mind. I'm here for you."

Squared shoulders slackened. "At least someone is. Thank you." Jin's lips quirked up in a slight portrayal of positivity, probably the first time all day. "I can always count on you."

Tsubaki felt her heart skip a beat. "Y-yes! No matter what!" She tried to maintain her professionalism, but failed miserably.

Jin chuckled at her sudden outburst. "You are a strange girl at times, Tsubaki."

She hid her flushed expression behind a blue folder. "A-am I? My apologies."

"It's refreshing." Picking up a document that profiled class 3-F's student representative made Jin tense. It had nothing to do with the unremarkably plain face of the chosen person, but the class she sat in. Before Jin could bore a hole into the profile, he put it on the stack of papers beside him.

"Jin? Is everything okay?"

Tsubaki's concerned voice brought the twinge in his palm to his attention as the echo of slamming the paper down resounded in the room. Jin forced himself to relax. "Apologies for startling you. I was going so fast I put the paper down too hard."

"After preparing that speech this morning and taking care of the teacher's work, you must be exhausted." The principal had unapologetically shoved much of the responsibility of governing the student body onto them. Was it their duty to guarantee the voices of their peers were heard? Yes. That didn't mean the person who ran campus got to kick back and relax. Students had justifiable concerns about club activities, time schedules and budgets, only for the council to get swamped with it all.

"As are you, I'm sure."

Tsubaki took the stack of documents out of his hand. With a delicate smile, she insisted, "Leave this to me. Go home, get some rest."

"That would be negligence on my part to leave you here." What kind of example would he set if he foisted the work onto everyone else? All familiar with Tsubaki's stubborn streak, he sighed and put a hand out. "Let me take half. We can file the box away together."

"Right!" Tsubaki pulled up a chair next to Jin, splitting the documents fifty-fifty. She swiftly got to work, a decent distraction from her close proximity to him. She only hoped the evening sun camouflaged her flush instead of accentuating it.

"We're hoooome!" Celica sang as she stepped through her doorway, still clinging to a displeased Ragna. Light footsteps approached from the corner and she smiled at the twin-tailed feline that strode up to them on his hindlegs. He cast a surprised look at Ragna.

"Wasn't expectin' to see you today, son. Should've called. Woulda set a plate." A coy smile split his whiskers at their joined arms. "But I s'pose you weren't neither."

A heavy sigh. "No. No, I wasn't. Sorry to show up unannounced, Jubei. I won't be staying though." Ragna removed his arm from Celica's grasp and turned to leave.

"Aww, come on!" Celica latched onto him again. "Can't you at least stay for dinner?"

"Real roundabout way of asking me to cook you dinner." That was always how it ended. Ragna never liked being a bother or overstaying his welcome. The least he could do was some basic kitchen work and take a load off the man, or cat in this case, kind enough to host him anytime he planned to stay.

"No matter how hard ya try, always a hostage to crocodile tears, ain'tcha?" Jubei laughed. Ragna refused to dignify the cat's accuracy with a response and remained silent. "You're always welcome at our dinner table. Ain't gonna force you, but nothing beats good food like good company. Sure Celica and Kokonoe'd like that a lot."

"Is Kokonoe awake?" Celica asked.

Jubei pointed upstairs with his spatula. "Yeah. Was out like a light with the television watchin' her. Once she smells food, she'll be down in a few."

"I take it she's gonna continue online?" Ragna asked.

"Yeah. Last thing I want is to force her to attend in person if it's a bother. Grades come in high, just wish she interacted with people more." It was the life of an introvert, or so Kokonoe kept telling him. "So, how was yer first day? Still at the center of attention?"

"Not really." Ragna got the quintessential leers and whispers, but compared to his previous years, he existed in the shadows. Everyone collectively decided that he was just someone not to bother with, though the jawing never stopped. "A little better, and yet the same." He shrugged.

"I made a new friend today!" Celica tried to veer the conversation away to something more positive. "He and I play the same mobile game."

Jubei scratched his head. "Guess the days when people's connections were a bit more personal than pixels on a screen 'ave come an' gone."

"Is that steak?" a groggy voice shouted from the top of the stairs. Her grumbles and swears grew louder as she walked down the steps and turned the corner where all three of them gathered. Her disheveled pink hair and disarrayed cat-printed pink pajamas were evidence that she had just woken up. "Oh, you're here? Gonna have dinner with us again? If you are, I'm not washing your plate this time."

Ragna rolled his eyes. "No. I was on my way out."

"Well don't let the door hit your ass."

"Slept rough, Kokonoe?" Jubei asked his still-yawning daughter.

"Shit dream, nothing else." Kokonoe stretched her body, hearing a few cracks and creaks as it woke up from a four-hour power nap. "So. Scale of shit to sucked, how was it?"

"Sucked." Ragna shook his head.

Her golden eyes showed a bit of shock. "That right? Anyway, I'll be at the table. And Ragna," Kokonoe pointed at him as she turned around, "I need that rematch next time you come over."

"Still salty about that win?" Ragna wore a cocky smirk.

Her limp twin tails stiffened. "Mashing your ass off isn't what I call a win."

"Call it whatever you want, the game said I won." Ragna shrugged. Rolling her eyes and flipping him off, Kokonoe disappeared around the corner. Seemed she was too tired and cranky for her usual in-depth explanation of why mashing Dragon Punch never counted as a win. To him, it was just the cries of a sore loser.

"Should go check on the meat now. Celica, make sure the door's locked when he leaves. See ya same time tomorrow Ragna?" Jubei wondered.

"Hopefully of my own damn free will." Ragna answered, giving Celica a kind of reprimanding look that she stuck her tongue out to. Jubei just laughed with a "you kids" as he vanished into the kitchen. Stepping out into the yard, Ragna faced Celica. "Should I put a lock on my door?"

"I'll just bang on it."

Yeah, that sounded ten times worse. Waking up with a blaring headache on top of having to get up in the first place was not how Ragna wanted to start his day. He turned to leave. "Later."

"Goodnight. And go to bed early!" Celica told him as he walked through the gate. Although she couldn't hear him, she assumed he responded with his typical "yeah yeah."

Glad to see the reception of this story has been positive! Although I certainly cannot promise anything, my plan is to try and get a chapter a month out, at least. With Tales of Arise releasing in a few days, I posted this as my time will be dedicated to it. By the way, I stream for fun. YouTube name is the same as my FF name - DripGodRagna - so once Sept. 10th hits, you can find me streaming Arise if there's interest. I'll also leave this portion for responding to any guest reviews that pop up, since I can't reply to them otherwise.

Guest: Quite different, if the first two chapters are any indication. Good to know you're liking it so far.

Beta-read by the best: Wild Blue Sonder.