Disclaimer: All respective rights/ownership go to their rightful owners. I claim no ownership besides any OC. I only wish to write a story :d.

Relationships.

Just what are relationships really. They can be formed with just about anything really. A tree, dog, blankets, and humans. Really, you can form a relationship with anything, given enough time really. So, what makes your relationship with other humans so different from per say, an object? Well for one, you can interact with them on several levels compared to a blanket. You can hug a blanket and roll around in it, but a human is so much complex. We feel and interact with each other differently based on past experiences and reach a different level of understanding with each person. Heck you can even form a relationship with another human with the other party being completely unaware of it! That classmate or person you start to notice more often from afar. Then you become friends somehow and your relationship starts to level up. All of which can happen without you fully being aware of it, unless you make it your goal to change that relationship.

I guess you could say that happened to me and Lady Noire.

When I was born into this world, I'm positive that there were measures taken to instill reverence towards Lady Black Heart from my parents and everything else that I've experienced in my life growing up. It's not as if we're not free to choose who we believe in, but obviously having been born in Lastation, I'd be more inclined to put my faith into Lady Black Heart. I'm pretty sure that's what most people felt when they questioned their faith for a CPU. We grew up in the environment of the CPU and of course would grow to like it, and ensue the Goddess that governed the Nation. And the people would live like this. Giving faith to their Goddess as she did her best for them. That was the relationship every human had with their Goddess. Believers and their Goddess working in equilibrium to live in harmony, but never going past that. That was the set relationship everyone had with their Goddess. Close but far.

Except me.

When I had left the Basilicom last night, Lady Noire asked with great embarrassment to exchange contact information with me before I left. So, through a great display of embarrassment on both of us, me and Lady Noire had gained a new contact for our lists. Never in all my wildest dreams did I ever think something like this could happen. Being friends with the Goddess? It was unthinkable really and it never crossed my mind that something like this could ever possibly happen. It's felt like a sort of code that one could never get close enough to the Goddess like this, but I guess as expected the Goddess has gone past such limits. Or…I could just be overthinking this? Huh. Anyway, the night ended with us exchanging contact information and promises to message each other, Lady Noire especially was adamant if I felt different (forgot to ask what she did to heal me), and the night ended with me arriving home.

Home was such a nice thought as I made my way home. It was after all, a very exhausting night for me mentally. I had come expecting a formal dinner with Lady Black Heart after all. Guards to greet me at the door, being escorted and maybe being asked (interrogated) why I was invited, going into a formal dining room with the two Ladies, guards in the room and things of the like. What I got was the complete opposite and to really put the cherry on top, I'm now friends(?) with Lady Bla- Noire…this whole naming thing is going to take a while…that reminds me that she's going to be calling me Adam from now on…wait! That means!

No more formalities!

Oh, how I hate formalities. I know it's very important in the business world and life in general, but the whole aspect of putting up a social wall with social titles really irritates me. It's a shame, but sometimes it's a necessary shame for life. Ah well, at least me and Lady Noire (got it!) don't have to go by formalities now since we're friends now.

Friends huh…That actually reminds me of how little friends I actually have had in my life. Ever since becoming friends Kasumi, my social interactions were almost permanently reduced to just her. Albeit there was that little bit of time that me and my old friends hung out again, but that was still rather sparse considering we didn't do much. I always had the feeling that Kasumi was the reason behind my small social circle, but it's not as if I was Mr. Popular or anything. Although that's not to say that I wasn't social but there was just that feeling that people tended to avoid me. Also, Kasumi's outburst of 'only needing each other', hasn't helped my thought process whenever I think about this subject…and when my mother makes note of it.

"Speaking of mom, it's a good thing that she was asleep when I got home. Not sure if I'd be able to explain everything that happened…I can still hardly believe what happened myself." I mumble to myself as I stare at the new contact in my phone: Lady Noire.

I've been laying here in my bed for the past half-hour since 8AM just staring at my new contact in disbelief. I had honestly thought on my way home that most of what happened was a dream, more so the part with Lady Noire asking to be my friend specifically. In fact, I was so sure it was a dream that the second I woke up, I immediately checked my phone and sure enough, Lady Noire was indeed on my (short) contacts list and my doubts were immediately dashed away.

Well, not all of my doubts. The reason why I've just been staring at her contact was because I've been wanting to send a text, just to make sure it was an actual number and not a prank of some sort. I know I shouldn't doubt my Goddess (and now friend), but I think I have a right to be worried. After all, having a relationship such as 'friends' with a Goddess is completely unheard of in Gamindustri entirely. In all the time that Gamindustri has existed (and from what I know of its history), there has never been a close relationship between the Goddesses and humans. We've always given them our faith and in return they'd give us life. A relationship of you scratch my back I scratch yours. We depend on each other to survive and as such, 'friends' haven't really been a subject of possibility for us humans to have with the CPU of any nation.

Although none of this really changes the fact that I have no idea how to act with a Goddess as a friend, let alone how to initiate a conversation with one in the best way possible without possibly sounding like a creep…never thought this'd be something I'd end up doing.

"Bah, I won't get anywhere by brooding over it." I say to myself as I lay my arms to my side laying up and giving up on trying to text her for now. It really doesn't help that I don't have much experience with friends to begin with..

"Adam, you awake dear!?" And that's my mom calling for me. Guess I've been laying here longer than I thought.

"Yea I'm awake! I'll be down soon!" I respond back to her as I get up to finally begin the day. I do have some things planned to do today, and if the first appointment goes the way I hope, then that will set the tone for the rest of the day well.

It's with these thoughts that I'm able to courageously go towards my first appointment of the day and most likely the most difficult: My Mother.

My mother has always been one of the most important people in my life and vice versa. Although that can be said about anyone's family. I like to believe that it has more meaning for us considering the past we share.

My mother used to be an energetic and outgoing person. She'd always wake up my father and me in time to be prepared for the day ahead of us with an infectious energy that was sure to make us prepared. The way she moved and spoke showed just how happy of a person she was. After all, she had her career, was with the love of her life and had a family with said love of her life. A dream that most people share in life aim to achieve, a dream that she had happily fulfilled.

That was horrendously shattered in a split instant.

With the sudden death of my father came a new dead leaf in the life of the Aoi household. My mother became extremely protective of me. You could actually say that she was borderline obsessed, as she'd just stand and watch me most of the time without saying anything. I didn't mind it at the time since I never really did much in the first place to warrant being alone. I never really went out much due to my lack of friends at the time. Not to mention…I felt better knowing that she was there. It was really jarring, having to suddenly try to take care of my mother, all the while I was suffering on the inside.

At first, we never left the house after my father's death. We'd only ever went out to go buy groceries, but aside from that we never went out for anything else. My mom had a big fear of leaving the house and was so sure that something bad would happen if we left it. This sort of behavior really proved to me that if we stayed inside then nothing would ever change, we'd just slowly stagnant with grief on our minds until death. So, with a ton of convincing, I got us to go to the expo that year. Which proved to be a horrible idea with me getting hurt and only increasing her fear of me getting hurt or being taken away. Of which only increased with Kasumi's timely proposal.

So, it was from there that me and my mother began the slow and lengthy healing process. Through a different number of exercises and trust building were we able to begin to be separate (luckily sleeping wasn't affected by this). At first, we couldn't be apart for long as my mother would begin to have flashbacks of my father's death and a gripping loneliness would seize her. In one of the few times that we were separate at this perilous time, I had found her in a corner of the living room in fetal positions mumbling to herself about being alone forever in tears. It was reality smacking when I saw her like that. Before that, I'd never truly seen the effects of my father's passing had on her, but obviously after seeing that, it was clear that she couldn't function without me. Although that isn't to say that I was fine myself…I was just able to control it better than my mother.

One of us had to be strong after all.

After going through the events in my head that has led me up to now, it's a little jarring to see how much has changed. Especially the women that is in front of me. She used to have this bright energy around her, but now it's much more subdued, as much as pretty much everything was about her. Although her 'mom' aspect did increase. Not entirely sure if that's a good thing or not.

After having come down for breakfast, my mom immedietly started her interrogation of how the dinner went. I didn't tell her word for word what happened exactly, but I told her enough to satisfy her curiosity. To summarize how she felt, it'd be surprised. She didn't think the Goddess would bring me in herself like myself, and was even more surprised when I told her I was bought into their private dining room. I had opted out of telling her about me becoming 'friends' with Lady Noire and the more embarrassing parts of that night. Until I'm more sure about my relationship with Lady Noire I'm not going to tell her about that tidbit, I don't want to say anything that could cause a possible misunderstanding after all.

"Hmm…" My mom has just been sitting here thinking about the information she's just gained. I have no idea what she could be thinking about. I'm just going to keep eating…mmm pancakes.

"Did anything else happen Adam? I feel like you're not telling me everything." Damn she's perceptive.

"No that's everything. Trust me, if anything extraordinary happened at an event like this, I'd totally tell you." Lying is fun. Hopefully she won't notice my nervousness.

"Hmm…" Don't detect my weakness please. "Well, if you say so. Otherwise it sounds like you had a lovely time with the Goddess." Yes!

"It really was, the dinner was really good and I was treated well by the Goddess and her sister."

"It's strange though…I would have thought she'd have given you something in return for the service you did. A medal or something you know?"

"Ah well, I told Lady Black Heart that I didn't want or need a reward. Just knowing that I did good was enough for me." And not to mention I got something completely unexpected instead. Although, I don't think you can qualify friendship as a reward…others might though. Guess it'd depend on your perspective.

"Well, I would have preferred if you had gotten some sort of physical reward. That way you could have used it for any sort career in the future, it'd help having physical proof of the Goddess's favor. It'd certainly help with getting out of this hunter business." Ah, this again.

This argument goes back to when we were still making improvement in the wake of my father's passing. At the time, we were just using my every once and while walks to get past being separated. It was working at first, but it wasn't good enough for us. We, or I, needed to do something more drastic, not to mention I knew our financial situation was going to get bad eventually with no steady income anymore. It's not to say we were struggling, as my parents had good jobs and saved money often. They were never ones to spend money frivolously often but we weren't well off for sure as my parents had to work hard for the things that we had. I knew this as my parents had given me access to the family funds at the age of thirteen and have kept me updated on their earnings. It was their way of teaching me on the workings of the adult world that I'd have to live in eventually.

So, from that knowledge I knew me and my mother couldn't last on our savings for long, and she wouldn't make a recovery for quite some time, and even then, find a new job. I didn't exactly have a career thought out, so that led me to thinking about hunting.

It fit our needs very well honestly. It'd let us gain an income, separate us for long periods of time, and I could learn to protect myself better so my mother wouldn't have to worry about me losing me as much. I had thought about the more finer details before I proposed the plan to my mother, of whom sharply wanted to reject the idea instantly. She hadn't even let me finish the word 'hunter' before she said no. It toke some time, but she eventually saw the benefit of it all and begrudgingly agreed to it, but not without dropping hints that she hated the idea of me being a hunter every day and wanting me to do something else. Her hint dropping has only grown more and more frequent as Lastation's state has improved as well.

I understand her reasons, but I've grown to like being a hunter now. Of course, it was difficult at first as I wasn't very skilled and was a low level. Got a lot of wounds that nearly scared my mom half to death but it eventually pulled through as I came home with less and less wounds, and my mother grew to trust me more. This change proved to really help us move forward as my mother suffered less from her episodes, but she still hates the idea of me being a hunter as she believes I can do so much more. What more exactly does she mean? I have no idea.

*Sigh* Oh the eternal woes of life.

Oh wait. She reminded me of something just now. Good thing too, I forgot to ask her about it before and now is the perfect chance. It'll also work in steering this conversation into a different direction, not liking where this one is currently headed to.

"Speaking of hunting, what happened to my armor by the by?" My breakfast is long done by now and we've just been sitting here conversing now. Although I think it's getting a little late. At least maybe eleven? I need to get going eventually if I want to get done the things that I have planned.

"Well, after you were bought to the hospital and everything was getting settled they asked me if I wanted the armor to be mended, of which I of course did. I also told them to have the armor upgraded so in case something did happen to you again-"she pauses and gives me a pointed look "-you wouldn't be hurt as badly the next time."

"Hahaha…yea. Thanks Mom, but uh, where is it?" I laugh while she keeps her pointed look. It's as if she's trying to drill a hole in my body with her gaze alone. It just might be working with the goose bumps that are forming on my skin…scary.

"Well, it's at Chian's place for the repairs. It should be done by now so if you're going to be going out, then you should stop by there and pick it up."

"About that mom…"

"Hmm?"

Well, here goes nothing.

"I was-uh, thinking about going back to hunting today. I don't really want to stay idle for long and I feel completely fine now. So-"

"It's fine."

"-I mean, I know you might be afraid to let me- wait your fine with it?"

"Honestly? No. I'd prefer that you became too scared to ever go out hunting again after this incident. I'd prefer that you didn't ever have to swing a blade around at all, even before your…father's passing. It was one thing I hoped you'd never do. But obviously now we're past that, and I know you wouldn't want be stuck around here doing nothing anyway." She gives me a gentle smile and I'm amazed by her understanding. Moms truly are scary.

"Thanks mom, I know I really worry you when I go out and I know promising you that I won't get hurt won't stop you from worrying, but I can tell you now I certainly don't plan on getting roughed up like that again. One miraculous deal with death is enough for one life time." She merely smiles at that.

"Well, go out now before I change my mind. I'm already starting to change my mind after what you just said young man." Oh, that glint in her eye. She's totally serious.

"Yes ma'am! Don't worry, I'll text you when I leave and what kind of quest it is. I'll only do one quest today just to test the waters alright?"

"Alright, now go!" And with her permission, I make my leave towards my first destination of the day: Chian's.

A/N: Hi! Terribly sorry for the incredibly LONG lapse in updating. I won't bore any of you with the details (writers block was the biggest issue), but know that even now I probably won't be going back to the schedule for now. Life has been a fun course :D

Buuuut! I haven't been completely idle! For those new or bored, every previous chapter has been updated. No plot changes have been made, but every chapter has increased in quality, especially Ch. 1. Wonder how I even thought it was okay to upload that as it was... Anyway, I hope not to have a long lapse in uploading again like this as I've gotten my steam back but I can't make guarantees sadly =.=.

As always thank you all for reading, my apologies again to any of you who've been waiting, and have a fantastic day!