A/N Special mention to DschingisKhan for inspiring part of this chapter.

Uiharu yawned a little as she began to wake up, her eyes drifting open. Her cheek was stuck to the wood of the kotatsu table where she'd drifted off to sleep, causing it to peel a bit as she pulled herself off. She had her eyes half-lidded as Misaki met the corner of her mouth with a handkerchief, alarming her slightly after the drowsiness began to fade from her eyes.

"M-Misaki-sama!" Uiharu blushed fiercely as she shook off her tiredness, the older girl grinning at her.

"Really, Haru-chan. Why must you insist on such formality with me. We have been together so long, yet you insist." Misaki pouts at her even as Uiharu grows more and more flustered, savoring the ease at which she was able to tug at the strings of her lover.

"It's just… it's proper! You're so noble and a lady, and I'm… I'm just, me!" Uiharu was red and the face, so much blood rushing there Misaki thought she might faint. Misaki grinned as she pulled the shorter and smaller girl into her lap.

"You're a proper lady too, even if you don't see it. Such negative views of yourself… Tch tch tch..." Misaki said as she began to play with Uiharu's hair, Uiharu fidgeting with her hands as the older girl played. Misaki girlhandling Uiharu was not an uncommon occurrence. Uiharu simply found herself squirming in Misaki's lap more and more as her mind wandered, memories starting to come unbidden to the surface…

14 months earlier…

Four days. Four days ago, Konori sent her home early. The next morning, Konori had called her, telling her to take a week to reorient herself, get some sleep, and come back reenergized. By the end of that first day, Uiharu was already considering the pros of suicide.

Uiharu didn't have any energy, or faith in a bright future anymore. She had no hope. She had nothing. Sleep only came when her body could no longer sustain wakefulness. She did not dare look in the mirror, as the massive bags under her eyes would only give her more reasons to hate herself. Now she was repeating a routine that had become typical; browsing the internet and reading up on the least painful ways to die.

Her voicemail kept going off, and she kept ignoring it. She didn't care anymore. Nothing mattered anymore.

Unbidden and unwanted, a chat program, that she very much did not recall installing or opening on her laptop, opened a window on her screen; a friend request.

"The Queen of Academy City would like to be friends with you. Accept?"

Uiharu blinked at it incredulously, even angrily. She didn't install that. She must have forgotten to turn her laptop off and a piece of malware must have put it there. Queen of… what a stupid name.

She floated her cursor over the "No", and as her finger moved to push down, she found herself… unable. No matter how hard she tried, her finger shook violently, and she found her hand drifting toward the "Yes" before clicking down it suddenly, letting out a breath she didn't realize she was holding. She was sweating a bit as she stared down at her hand to the laptop connected mouse, her hand shaking before her eyes drifted to the screen where a chat window had opened up. Messages were beginning to be sent to her.

"Hello."

"I'm so happy to have finally found you."

"We have so much to talk about."

Uiharu felt two soft gloved hands pulling cruelly at her cheeks until they hurt, pulling her out of her memories.

"When I said negative views of yourself, I was NOT implying when you were having a period in your life when you were in a state of deep depression, Kazari." Misaki said in an angry tone, scowling down at her lover. Uiharu made a whining sound as she flailed around, her cheeks snapping back into place as Misaki released them.

Uiharu pouted as she rubbed at her cheeks. If there was one thing that one becomes remarkably numb to, it's how casually your partner tends to read your mind. Not that… that was unintentional or unknowing… Uiharu had consented to that.

"S-sorry…" Uiharu fidgeted around more, letting out a gasp as Misaki suddenly shifted her around to face her, nuzzling her closer, nose to nose, surprising her… until she realized Misaki was being spiteful again.

Mikoto had walked into the room to get some water from the kitchen and had clearly paused for a moment to see them being all lovey dovey, and Misaki, out of pure spite, had decided to amp it up purely to jab back at her. Why? Why did Misaki feel the need to escalate things with the other Level 5 constantly?

"...Sorry to intrude…" Mikoto grumbled quietly as she limped out of the room, sipping on her water bottle.

"Why do you do that?" Uiharu asked Misaki, scowling at her. Misaki turned her eyes back to her, star-filled and shining with faux-innocence.

"Do what?" She asked, smiling as if ignorant.

"You know what. You're constantly trying to antagonize Misaka-san."

"No, I am behaving in a manner that I know antagonizes her. I am not attempting to antagonize her. It's very different." Uiharu raised a skeptical eyebrow at this, but waited patiently for further explanation. Misaki smiled at her more widely, shrugging.

"No." Uiharu crossed her arms, huffing. "Not good enough." As Uiharu got defiant, a glint in Misaki's eye looked proud.

"Fine, fine… Mikoto is a prideful, overprotective, and stubborn girl who refuses to dissuade herself from her initial opinions when she feels strongly on something. And I will not, for one moment, budge on my affection for you just to make her more comfortable because she had preconceived notions." Misaki explained, her gloved hands returning to play in Uiharu's hair, adjusting the flowers in her lovers locks.

"And because you enjoy teasing her." Uiharu added in flatly, staring into Misaki's eyes with a sort of deadpan expression. Misaki paused in her hair-playing, her breath catching in her throat as she felt like Uiharu's words had stabbed her in the stomach. Sometimes, just every now and again, her sweet and angelic little Uiharu was just… so… insightful.

"Well… sometimes… there is that."

Insightful...

14 months earlier...

Uiharu groaned as she blinked herself awake. When had she fallen asleep? Her memory was kind of fuzzy. She pushed herself off of her floor cot, rubbing her face. She felt… good. Better than she had in awhile. She didn't really remember her dreams… in fact, she didn't remember waking up at all last night.

Slowly, she found herself standing up, glancing down and noting her pajamas, another thing she did not recall. When had she changed into those?

Shuffling over to her kitchen she began to make herself breakfast for the first time in what felt like forever, some rice and eggs and toast. She took a moment to grab her laptop and put it on the kitchen counter and play some quiet music as she cooked. She glanced at the time on her oven. 9 am. She'd really slept in late… though not really. When she did sleep lately, which wasn't often, she slept into the late afternoon due to exhaustion.

Ding.

A new message?

She glanced to her laptop at the screen, where that chat program from the previous night was. She barely remembered last night… it was all kind of blurry. Her eyes skimmed the messages…

They were chaotic. Her responses to this… Queen... were not calm. They were neurotic… angry. Paranoid. Hostile. Through it all, this Queen seemed remarkably patient. Her latest message was what Uiharu was most focused on rather than the specifics of what appeared to be hours of paranoid rantings of a sleep-deprived and suicidally depressed mind.

"Good morning, Uiharu-chan. More well rested today?"

Uiharu found herself staring at the message. The only reason she didn't burn her breakfast was the hypervigilance that seemed omnipresent these days. Uiharu found herself shaking. She was frightened by this situation. She took a moment to check the door locks and the windows again before rushing back and getting her breakfast into a bowl and a plate and returning to a table, getting herself situated as she stared at that message.

Eventually, she had the bravery to respond.

"Yes."

She typed out the response and went back to eating her food, staring at it nervously. Normally she wouldn't be able to bear the thought of eating right now, but she couldn't help it. She had quite the appetite this morning, even if she didn't know why.

"Excellent." Was the response that came several minutes later. Uiharu stared at that message, eating her food until it was gone before returning it to the sink and cleaning it, her hands still violently shaking before she returned to the table, waiting for another response. None came. She decided to say something.

"Who are you?" Was the question she felt was most pressing. This person, whoever it was, knew her name. It was conceivable that she knew more about her.

"That's not important right now. What's important is that we get you to a point that you stop visiting such unpleasant websites, and considering such dark thoughts. Consider me… a very well informed individual."

Uiharu felt her heart rate skyrocket. She was on her feet in an instant, feeling very much claustrophobic. How? How did this person know so much about her? This… This was…

"Relax, Uiharu-chan. I mean you no harm. I approach you here, in your world."

Uiharu began to calm, but there was a pause before she stared down at the computer and leaned down and typed on it rapidly.

"No, you aren't. You're watching me. I know you are. How do you know I am panicking?!"

There was a long pause as Uiharu waited for a reply, such a pause that Uiharu knew she'd said something accurate.

"Insightful. I am not watching you in the manner in which you are thinking. Think less watching you as much… watching over you. To me, people are like books. And I am fluent in all languages."

Uiharu found herself calmed down, though more because she was puzzled by how her mysterious online companion was speaking in riddles.

"I can promise you, you have nothing to fear from me. I understand that trust must be earned however. Make a request. If it is within my power, I will grant it."

Uiharu found herself staring at the screen again, pulling her legs to her chest, hugging them tightly. It was true that she felt better, physically and mentally, than she had in weeks, but she was frightened. Even through a computer screen, the authority in which this mysterious individual, or individuals, wielded was intimidating.

There was one thing that did occur to her, but it was such an unreasonable request. There was no way this person had the power to find out something that even she couldn't figure out… while it was true she hadn't been at the top of her game…

"My best friend is Shirai Kuroko. She saved this city. She was taken to a hospital, but it was classified for the foreseeable future by the Board… I just want to know if she's safe… if she's stable. Could you do that?"

Uiharu knew it was the epitome of unreasonable. This individual, there was no way-

"Here."

Within fifteen seconds, pictures flooded Uiharu's computer screen of a hospital, a floor plan, one room in particular highlighted, with markings on it labeled "Shirai Kuroko - Isolation - Maximum Security"

"You won't be able to see her. No one can right now. As far as I am aware, she is stable, however, though comatose still. That bit of the news report is accurate."

Uiharu fell onto her rear on the ground as she stared at the screen. The speed at which she had this, she must have already knew. How… who… who was this person?

"Does this help you trust me?"

Uiharu paused, staring at the screen before crawling over to it and typing slowly.

"...For now, yes."

Misaki broke out of her daydream as Uiharu rested her face against Misaki's shoulder, sighing a bit, nuzzling her face deeply into her. Misaki raised an eyebrow suspiciously at her.

"I feel like you're trying to tell me something." Misaki said with a grin as she looked down at Uiharu with a most mischievous Uiharu made a mumbling sound but otherwise said nothing, which just made Misaki more amused and less interested in making this easier for Uiharu.

"No, no. We express ourselves when we want things, Kazari." Misaki said with a grin, knowing full well from her in-depth telepathy exactly what she wanted.

"Oh, I know!" Misaki pulled Uiharu off her lap and placed her down onto a sitting pillow, standing up. "I'll go see if Saten can help you express your thoughts, I'm sure her and Frenda, based upon my… observations… have some experience on the matter." She grinned as she turned to leave. Uiharu turned beet red and nearly tackled Misaki to the ground as she grabbed at her legs.

"NO! PLEASE!" Uiharu yelled, her face red. Her friends could not know. She wouldn't be able to live it down. Misaki grinned as she leaned down, pinching Uiharu's cheek.

"What's wrong, Haru-chan?" She grinned, before whispering in a conspiratory fashion. "Afraid your friends will find out that you've been sexually active for months? Oh, I wonder how your friends might react that little Uiharu was the first out of all of their circle of friends?"

Uiharu looked like she could just die right then and there as she curled up into a tiny ball of embarrassment.

"Nooo…" Uiharu whined quietly as she desperately tried to pretend that she wasn't a teenager ruled by hormones.

"You're so precious!" Misaki had the largest smile of mischief as she picked up a Uiharu broken by embarrassment, though only to get her to her feet. Misaki was many things, but capable of physically carrying Uiharu was not among them. Uiharu whined pitifully as Misaki led her by her hand to the foyer and then up the stairs. "My precious Haru-chan."

13 Months earlier...

"UIHARU!" Saten nearly crushed her in a hug as she saw her friend for the first time in two months after a sudden invitation to meet her at the hospital to visit Misaka, who'd recently been transported there from her previous facility.

"H-hey… S-Saten…" Uiharu squeaked out.

"I've been so worried about you! Why didn't you return my calls? Are you OK? What happened?" Saten barraged her with questions much like Uiharu expected, and the Uiharu fidgeted with her PDA in her pocket in a comforting gesture.

"I'm OK, I just… I had to figure some stuff out. Still am, and I'm getting better. So let's just… go see Misaka, alright?" Uiharu asked, wanting to focus on that. Saten, who very much didn't want to leave it at that, frowned, opened her mouth seemingly to argue, before dropping it.

"Sure… yeah." She nodded, the pair turning and heading down the hall toward the room that now held their comatose friend.

Several meters behind them, a blonde beauty smiled into a remote, invisible to them, a hint of pride in her starry eyes at the progress of her little project. She looked at the cellphone that held a long-going conversation with a contact labeled "Haru-chan". An affectionate nickname she'd picked only recently. Since they'd begun communicating this way, Uiharu had left her house freely. She'd become more open, less dependent. Good… Good. Maybe she could start pulling back soon.

Ding.

"Hey! We're going to go see, Misaka now. Maybe later tonight we can… do something? If you want. That is."

Misaki smiled despite herself.

"Of course. Talk to you then."

Maybe. Maybe… But… it wouldn't hurt to keep this going… a bit longer.

...Right?