"Emiya-chan, would you like to answer my question?"

My eyes snapped open and I picked up my hand that was propping my head up on my desk. I looked up at Kurusu-sensei with wide eyes. "Um," I rubbed my eyes. "exponential decay," I guessed. Some students giggled and I immediately knew I was wrong.

He sighed. "Right subject, completely wrong lesson and answer. Emiya-chan, please try not to sleep in my class."

I felt my face flush red and I mumbled an apology. I looked down at the empty worksheet I was supposed to be working on. I tried to focus on trying to catch up with the others, but from time to time my eyes would drift closed to try to sneak in a cat nap while Kurusu-sensei was distracted.

The school bell tolled for lunch and I quickly sat up to try to convince others that I hadn't fallen asleep again. I hid the worksheet in my bag and stood up to get ready to head down to the cafeteria. I tried to sneak out of the classroom behind some of the tall students, but I was still caught.

"Emiya-chan, can I speak to you for a second?"

I sighed and walked to his desk with my head down. "Yes, Kurusu-sensei?"

"Is everything alright? You usually aren't trying to sleep in here. Is my class suddenly uninteresting to you now?"

"No, no, it's not that." I felt myself start to yawn and I tried my best to repress it. "I just didn't get enough sleep last night. I love science, I would never get bored of it."

His eyes softened. "Alright. I'll give you until the end of the day to turn in the worksheet." He pointed at my bag that I left at my desk. "Don't think I didn't notice you trying to not turn it in."

My face flushed in embarrassment. "Okay, thank you."

"I also wanted to tell you that I set up you and Kimi to meet with one of the highest scoring students in chemistry from 1A. He's going to help you two with the two labs that you missed out on during your free period after lunch."

"Really? Thank you!"

He smiled. "You're welcome. Now go head out for lunch. Oh, and make sure you go to the second chemistry lab once you're done."

"Okay!"

I left the classroom and went out into the hallway where a couple of students were lingering about. I passed them by as I made my way towards the school cafeteria. I waited in one of the lines as I decided what to have for lunch.

"Hello, Anzai-san," One of the chefs greeted me. "What are you have today?"

I hummed in thought as I looked at the menu. "I think I'll have… one set B pasta meal and a set A salad with a water, please. Oh, and a brownie."

"Of course." I watched as the chef quickly put together my meal for me. "Here you are. Enjoy your meal."

I thanked her as I took my tray and looked around to find a seat. I see Kimi and Uki and I smile at them, hoping to sit with them. Kimi waves at me excitedly, but her hand immediately gets slapped down by Tomiya who plops herself next to her. I felt my smile wipe away and I avoided eye contact with her. I walked away from their table and sat myself down at an empty one instead. I poked at my pasta before taking a bite out of it. I ate what I could before giving up and just putting my head in my hands. I gently pressed the palms of my hands on my eyes as I felt my head swirl.

"Hey, hey, Emiya." I looked up to see Yuuma-san.

"Oh, hi, Yuuma-san." I placed my hands in my lap. "How are you?"

"I should be asking you that. You look like you just survived the raising dead." He laughs at his own joke.

I felt my face flush red. "Do I?" I rubbed my eyes and patted down my hair, hoping that would help with my appearance.

"I'm just messing with you."

I forced a laugh. "Oh."

He sat himself down across from me. "Is something wrong? You're usually so cheery and super talkative."

I sighed, now irritated. "My mother decided it was a good idea to keep me busy trying on dresses. Even when it was past midnight, she wouldn't let me go to bed until she found the "perfect" dress for me. I don't even know what it's for. Every time I would ask, she would tell me, "it's for a surprise, sweetie."" I rubbed my arms and placed my head on the table. "I'm just tired… so tired." I let my eyes drift closed again.

"Geez, that must suck."

I hummed in agreement.

I heard him lightly chuckle. "Well, I'll leave you alone so you can try to catch up on your sleep, but for payment, I'm taking your brownie."

"Okay," I mumbled.

I tried not to focus on the conversations that filled up the cafeteria, especially the loud gossip coming from the group of girls that sat behind me. Instead, I tried to focus on relaxing my body enough to where my exhaustion would easily take over.

"Hey, Yuuma-san?"

"Yes?"

"Can you speak to me? Your voice is really soothing."

He laughs. "What do you want me to say?"

"Anything…"

"Well, I'm failing history. Is that a good thing to talk about?"

I chuckled. "I don't think that's a good thing in general."

"Yeah, but it's just so boring and I can't concentrate on whatever the teacher is talking about. Plus, who really cares-"

His voice started to drown out and I started to feel myself doze off.

I felt my body jolt and I shot up in my seat. I looked around in a daze before landing my gaze on Yuuma-san. "Huh?"

He gave me a warm smile. "Lunch is over. I didn't want to just leave you here."

"Oh, thank you." I reached for my tray, only to find it not there.

"Don't worry about it, Emiya. I got our trays already."

I stood up and stretched. "Thank you, again."

"Okay, I gotta head to practice. You think you can make it to wherever without falling back asleep?"

I nodded. "Yeah. I have my free period right now-" As soon as I said those words, I froze. "Crap, I'm late! I have to go to the chemistry lab!" I ran by Yuuma-san. "I'll see you around," I told him as I exited the cafeteria.

I ran through the halls, almost tripping over my heels from time to time, before making it to the second chemistry lab. I pulled the door open and quickly entered the room before closing the door. "I'm really sorry that I'm late, I lost track of time and-" I turned around and stopped talking when I only saw Kimi sitting at one of the tables, looking at me with wide eyes. I looked around and saw that she was the only one there. "Where is, uh-"

"He isn't here yet." She gave a half shrug. "I guess you aren't late."

I gave a sigh of relief as I made my way to sit beside her. I pressed the palms of my hands against my forehead as I leaned on the table. I dropped my arms and looked over at everything that was already set up for us. "It was… ice cream and… what else?"

"Colored fire! It was so cool when Kurusu-sensei did it for us. I wonder who's going to help us today."

"Sensei says that he's from 1A, but that's all I know. Well, besides that he's one of the highest scoring students for chemistry," I told her before yawning.

She giggles. "You know, during class whenever you would fall asleep, Kurusu-sensei would point it out to us and tallied how many times it happened."

"What? I didn't even notice."

"Because you were sleeping. I think he still has the tally marks on the board."

I covered my face. "Oh gosh, that's so embarrassing."

The door opened and Kimi and I looked towards whoever entered. A familiar boy with auburn hair walked in and I immediately perked up. I went to speak out to him, but noticed that he had a look of great irritation on his face. What was wrong?

"Oh! You're here. We're ready to do the projects if you are." Kimi spoke up.

He looked at us in alarm before looking at me and smiling. "Emiya!" He briskly walked over to us with a wide smile. "How have you been? I haven't seen you since the sporting event."

"I've been good," I told him warily.

His face twitched. "What's wrong? It's me, Kaoru! Aren't you happy to see me?"

I nodded. "Of course, but I would be happier if you were actually him." His face fell and I felt a chill run up my spine at the blank stare he gave me. "Hikaru, why are you pretending to be Kaoru?"

He averted his gaze. "That was just a lucky guess." He mumbled.

I gave a small smile. "No, it wasn't."

He looked at me angrily before grabbing one of the packets that held everything that we had to do for the labs. "Let's just get this over with."

Kimi and I shared a look before grabbing a packet of our own to start working. Kimi leaned towards me. "How did you do that?" She whispered.

"What do you mean?"

"Are you two going to talk the entire time or should I just go so I'm not just wasting my time?"

"Well," Kimi got out of her seat and grabbed one of the materials to start. "Why don't we get to work on the project together. In the meantime, let me see what I can do to help out."

I grabbed the remaining packet and followed along with the two chemistry pros. "Okay, so first you need to make sure you have the right chemicals and ingredients for the fire. For the red fire, you need strontium salts." Hikaru started explaining how the lab is supposed to be done. I tried paying attention to the words he was saying, but my mind kept on drowning them out. I leaned forward in my seat, resting my chin in my hand enjoying his voice once more. Once in a while, I felt Kimi nudge my arm, encouraging me to write down my answers.

After a bit of "listening" and writing things down, I began to notice that Hikaru's voice started to become softer and softer. I peeked up at him and saw him staring at me with his eyebrows knitted together. "If I'm just so boring to you, I can just leave."

My eyes widened at the sudden outburst from Hikaru. "What?"

"Are you even listening?" I felt my face become red as I tried to answer him. I wasn't listening, but I didn't want to tell him that. He just scoffs and moves to grab his things. "You know what, I'm leaving. I can't believe I even agreed to do this."

I looked at Kimi in alarm who also had the same expression as me. I stood up from my seat to try and stop him. "Wait-"

"I told you, I'm leaving." He stormed out.

I paced around the room. "What did I do? What do I do?"

Kimi shrugged. "You were kinda out of it."

"That's because…" I felt my body become hot. "His voice…" I shook my head. "I'm gonna go after him and apologize."

Kimi nodded. "I'll let Kurusu-sensei know what happened."

I thanked her before leaving the room and began to roam around the halls, trying to find the red-head. Where could he have gone? I have no clue who he is.

I continued to look around, even peeking inside of some of the classrooms. He wasn't anywhere to be seen. That was until I was going down one of the stairs and I saw him outside near one of the fountains. Hoping it was actually him, I quickly ran down the stairs and out the building. "Hikaru!" I called out to him as I ran towards him.

He turned around and he immediately turned sour. "What do you want?"

I tried to catch my breath. "I've been looking everywhere for you. I just want to apologize for-"

"How did you do it?"

I paused. "Do what?"

"Know that I wasn't Kaoru… that I was me, Hikaru."

I smiled. "Well, when you first walked in, I knew something was off. I may not know you as much as I've come to know Kaoru, but Kaoru tends to suffocate his emotions, which is bad by the way. Whenever he feels a big emotion, like anger, he just goes blank. If anything, he'll show it with his eyes and maybe speak up, but you can always tell that he thinks about his emotions, but you," I watched his face carefully. "you burst your emotions, whether or not you want them to show." When I said that, his face contorted in confusion before he became irritated.

He huffed and crossed his arms. "Okay. Is that it?"

I shook my head. "You also called me "Emiya.""

"Isn't that your name?"

"It is, but Kaoru doesn't call me by my name. He usually comes up with some nickname like princess or honey."

"He does?" He voice broke and I felt my heart drop.

I hesitated before continuing. "Those are just two little things, but they speak volumes on who each of you are."

He started to bounce his leg as he stared at the ground in concentration. "Okay."

"Did I say something wrong?"

"I want you to stay away from Kaoru."

I looked at him, stunned. Is he serious? I slowly nodded before smiling at him, clasping my hands together to keep myself calm. I started to choose my words carefully. "Okay." Maybe I can convince him to change his mind.

"Really?" He asked me, doubtful.

"You're his brother, Hikaru. I trust your judgement in what's best for Kaoru. If you want me to stay away, then that's what I'll do."

"Okay, since you trust my judgement so much, I want you to everything to avoid him." He grabbed my wrist and I winced. "I have just the thing."

He started to drag me across the courtyard, ignoring my pleads to let me go. He stopped in front of the school board and let go of my wrist. He motioned towards it. "Pick a club," he told me, sternly.

I looked at him with wide eyes. "Why?"

"Just do it."

I bit my lip and looked up at the board, scanning the colorful posters. I carefully pointed at the Culinary Club poster. "The Culinary Club."

Hikaru scanned the poster and shrugged. "Okay, I'll just keep Kaoru away from the school kitchens."

I looked at him again, shocked he would go this far just so I couldn't see Kaoru again. "Are you serious?"

"Hurry up and pick another one. I don't have all day."

I huffed and look back at the board. "I don't know. I have to think about the other clubs."

He sighed heavily. "I have to go. I need to get back before I get into trouble. It won't be hard figuring out what you pick." He told me before briskly walking off.

I watched him go before turning back to the board. I sighed and continued to look at posters for openings at other clubs besides the Culinary Club. My eyes were drawn to a bright red paper with two masks - one happy, the other sad. The Theatre Club. That sounded promising. I fiddled with the corner of the poster, considering whether or not to join them.

I looked down and began to think about what had just happened with Hikaru. I was hoping that I could change his mind, but I only made him angrier... He was scary. I felt myself begin to tear up and I placed my forehead against the board. So, one twin hates me and I can't see the other again. Great, this day couldn't get any better. I began to silently cry, feeling my shoulders shake and hearing how sharp my breath was.

"Emiya." I looked over my shoulder to see Hikaru once again.

"Hikaru." I quickly wiped my tears and turned to face him properly. "You're still here? I thought you needed to get back before you got in trouble."

"They can wait." He sighed and looked up towards the sky.

I waited for him to do something, but he continued to watch the clouds pass by. "I was thinking about the Theatre Club. All you have to do now is to steer Kaoru clear from the-"

"One of my jobs is to keep girls like you happy. That's one of the rules." He clicked his tongue and looked at me. "I'm sorry. You don't have to leave Kaoru alone."

I blinked, surprised. "That's nice to hear, but what made you change your mind?"

"I didn't, I…" He stopped himself and took a big breath. "I… I just…" He pauses and looks away with a pained expression. He scrunches up his nose before looking back at me with furrowed eyebrows. "Thank you… for being there for Kaoru." His face reddened a bit. "We haven't really been seeing eye to eye lately and I know that whatever's bothering him, you're gonna be there for him."

I smiled. "You're welcome, Hikaru. You know, if you ever want somebody to talk to or just to be there, you can come to me anytime. I'm not just going to be there for him, but for you too. If you want me to, of course."

His gaze softened. "If… you need something, a favor of any kind, you can come to me." I felt my smile widen. "But only one."

"Of course."

"I'm only doing this because I care about my brother and... you seem important to him." A look of distraught flashed through his face.

I carefully placed my hand on his forearm. "I'm not as important to him as you are. You're his brother, his twin brother. I'm sure you two have been there for each other since birth and there's absolutely nothing I can do to break that bond," I pulled my hand away. "not that I want to." I smiled to myself and turned back to the board, fiddling with one of the club posters. "I don't think whatever you both are fighting will tear you two apart, maybe it will make you stronger." I shrugged and pulled off a tab to locate the room for the Theatre Club. "But what do I know, right? I don't have a twin myself-"

"Yeah, you don't."

"But, I do have a family that I care about." I patted his arm. "It may not be the same, but both bonds have a similar love to them." I moved to walk around him. "Thanks, by the way, for showing me the different clubs. I really appreciate it, Hikaru. I'll see you around, yeah?" I waved him goodbye as I reentered the school. I can't believe that worked in the end.