Disclaimer: yeah I don't own anything 'cept OCs and plot that isn't canon

A gentle shaking tears me from tranquil slumber, and I combat it with a low groan and snuggling further into my bedsheets. A sleepy whine of my name ensues, rendering me to comply in a sluggish retreat from the covers and wink an eye open.

Still blinded by the smoke of my dreams, the light pink pajamas are the only clue I have to go on. "R…Ruka? What are you doing up?"

I begin to second guess my internal clock; perhaps it's already late in the morning. But I make no effort to check and await the answer to my previous question. The young girl watches her own thumbs twiddle together instead of looking at me. Eventually, she quits stalling and comes out with it.

"I, um… I had a bad dream and I was wondering if I could… Would you mind if…"

I grin, languid and cheesy, and scoot over without another peep. Ruka slides in and I flip the blankets over us both. I blink hard a few times, enough to gate the free-running wisps of sleep cloaking my most basic senses and turn to her.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" By the purse in her lips I can tell she gives it a thought, but overall declines. "That's alright. I understand."

We lie in silence for a period of time. I was nearly back to sleep when I hear her ask in a whisper, "Can I ask another thing?"

"Mm. What is it?" I murmur.

"Do you…maybe know any lullabies?" Ruka's voice shushed when speaking the last word, and the sheer meekness of it all elicits a smile from me. She catches onto this, most likely thinking I found her request to be a joke. "N-nevermind! It was a dumb thing to ask!"

"No, it wasn't," I reply, still smiling. "But I'm sorry to say that I don't know any off the top of my head." I snort then. "Unless you want to hear a very off-key, half mumbled version of Part of Your World from The Little Mermaid—it's the only song I know by heart."

"I think I'll pass," she chuckles, a curious glint in her eyes. "But why is that the only song you know?"

"Okay," I say, supporting my head up on a fist, "what I'm about to tell you is in complete confidence. Just between us two, got it?" Ruka nods and shifts so that she mirrors my own position.

"When I was younger, I may or may not have had a bit of an obsession with that movie. I watched it every day for two months straight and could—probably still can—recite all the lines and songs forwards and backwards."

"Why?"

"I thought it would turn me into a mermaid!" I laugh. "I mean, Ariel turned human from singing, and sure there may have been an evil sea witch involved, but I thought that if she could do it so could I."

"I don't understand," she says in between spurts of laughter. "Why would you want to be a mermaid?"

"Why wouldn't I want to be a mermaid. You get the cool tail, a cute fish sidekick, and a trident-wielding king for a dad. Is that not awesome or what?"

"I haven't given it much thought, but it does sound pretty awesome."

"Right!" I grin, proud of my act of conversion. Lying back on the sheets once more, I stare at the ceiling. "Ugh, now I really want to watch that movie."

Ruka follows, although curling up on her side. "It sounds like it's good."

I dart up with a gasp. "'Sounds like'? You mean you haven't seen it before?" The green-haired girl shakes her head. "What! I just told you, like, ten spoilers and you didn't say a word?"

"I've read the story—"

"It's not the same you have to watch the movie!" I slap down a fist into my open palm, a plan already turning the gears in my surprisingly well-functioning brain. "Here's what we're gonna do: one day, when we're both free, we're going to have an all day movie marathon and you can't say no because I'm already really excited and picking out movies in my head."

"I couldn't say no if I tried. I can't wait. Oh," she pauses, obviously thinking of something else, "what about everyone else? Should we invite them too?"

"Sure. I bet everyone could use a bit of a break these days. Though, I'm not sure how three guys would feel about watching Disney movies all day long, but there's no harm in asking."

I can envision it now—the three manly men bawling their eyes out when Mufasa dies. It may be strange to set this as a kind of goal for my friends, but I can already feel the hope settling in. We're supernatural, marked beings together and now we'd be weeping over fictional talking animals' deaths together. If that isn't friendship, then I don't know what is.

Silence follows this chain of thought. I turn my head to stare at the crack between the balcony doors' curtains, my eyes roaming across the room on the path of dark blue light seeping in. For some time I do this since I don't know what else to do until the Sandman train stops at my station.

The low, even breathing aside me is a giveaway that at least one of us is asleep. I pull the blankets up higher around Ruka and, when I'm done leaning over her, feel the slight tug of an unconscious embrace at my waist. I chuckle lightly and try not to move so much as to wake her, deciding that lying on my back would be the best way to go about this.

"Maria?"

I stiffen, ninety-five percent sure that the voice I'd heard sounded much like my sleeping friend beside me. So, she isn't asleep…? No, her deep breaths couldn't mean anything else.

"Uh, yeah?" I respond, uncertain if it would make much of a difference to.

There is a lengthy stretch of inhales and exhales, so long that I'd begun nodding off too, but not before catching the mumbled slur spoken into my midsection.

"Please don't…leave again."

She awoke to the sound of an agitated yelp. Or had she? As her topaz irises blink open, Ruka couldn't decipher if the yell had occurred in her dreams or out here in reality. She waits still, only moving slightly when Maria shifts her torso deeper into the plush mattress.

"Ow ow ow," came a harsh whisper outside the door. "When did this table get here?"

Too comfortable to move (between the four-digit thread count sheets and the heat of her teenage friend, Ruka had nestled into a perfectly warm and secure space on the bed) and still too dazed to have all her wits about her, all Ruka could do was stare at the black space across the room.

Her gut didn't give off any waves of caution, so she assumes there's no need to be on the ready anyhow. Soon enough, the nameless individual hops out of the shadows on one foot. Not very shockingly, it's her twin brother.

"That really hurt," she hears him whisper again.

Her brother, if ever he turned into a bad seed and start robbing houses, would lose more money than he would gain it.

For the sake of letting him save his embarrassment for himself, Ruka keeps quiet and closes her eyes again. The sounds of him shuffling across the laminate flooring perks her ears but she remains indifferent. Not even when she feels the shadow casting over her does she face him, too stubborn to get back to sleep.

"Aw, no fair," he whines, "why wasn't I invited to the slumber party?"

Finally, she decides to step in. "What are you going on about?"

Her quiet, yet sudden query was enough to make him jump from his own skin. "R-Ruka? What are you doing awake?"

"I asked you first," she yawns back. Rua flicks his gaze to the ground, his sister guessing that nervous habit of making circles with his foot grabbing hold of him. So she supposes, "Bad dream?"

Rua's lips scrunch to one side; he didn't want to admit it, hoping to keep up the protective big brother image at all times but Ruka already knew. The younger twin sits up.

"What was it about?" she pries softly.

There were only two things the siblings ever had nightmares about: the more prevalent, violent ones tended to revolve around the world they had suddenly been pulled into. The darkness that nipped at their toes. The very, very real impossibilities that the markings bore upon them. The monsters that lived under their beds and hid in their closets and watched from their duel cards.

And the other horrid dreams? …Well, those often concerned the cold, vacant room just a couple doors down. A room with a closet full of clothes, a neatly made king size bed, and a mirrored dresser with items from makeup to business proposals scattered from corner to corner. A room that was certainly occupied once, but was not so surely going to be occupied again.

Rua never clarifies which. Instead, he leaps into the sea of cotton and wraps his arms around Maria too, whose movie marathon elation had dulled with the arrival of a nearly comatose state.

"If you think you can keep Maria all to yourself, then you've got another thing coming," is all he utters.

Ruka rolls her eyes. Sometimes her sibling is just too much of a…Rua. But as his hand squeezes around hers, Ruka can't deny that she wouldn't want him to be any other way.

Something smacked me. Not hard or forceful enough to leave a bruise, but definitely enough to wake me up. I lay still a bit longer, breathing in and out, recovering from a good night's rest. That's when it hits me. Figuratively, this time.

My nose wrinkles at the major funk inhaled through my nostrils. I look down and find a bare foot laying on my chest; higher up the leg is the end to a blue pair of pajama bottoms. I don't even care that the boy snuck in unannounced, just the fact that it was his smelly foot that kicked me from a serene slumbering the first place.

"Are you kidding me right now," I mumble, gently pushing the appendage to the side.

I glance down at the snoring boy, then to the other side where his silent twin rests curled into the fetal position. I breathe in and breathe out a smile, now facing the large glass doors of the balcony. The sun had only half-risen, painting the sky with an inordinate amount of orange.

Slinking off the bed and tiptoeing out the bedroom, I make my way to the front of the flat between the living room and kitchen. I'm not too sure of what time school starts but it shouldn't take much time to whip something up for the twins. I rummage their kitchen, closing each cabinet and drawer with care, and pluck ingredients that will add up to pancakes once cooked.

An alarm screams from somewhere along the hall, startling me into dropping an egg on the floor and rousing a clamber of footsteps through the halls. The noise still blares throughout the home and probably through the walls to neighbors in the adjacent apartments.

"Sorry," Rua calls after the howling stops.

I shake my head and chuckle, all thoughts of stinky feet wiped from my brain. And soon, as I tentatively swipe up the egg innards, even the thoughts of the pair of chubby-cheeked twins is replaced with a hand brushing over my mouth. I retrace the spot with my own fingers and pull them away with my other hand.

No no no, you need to stop. You already said you don't…no, you won't like him that way. After all, he thinks of you as a friend and, if anything more, a sister. You've been siblingzoned so get over him for crying out loud.

"Maria."

I shriek and lose balance, knees landing the yolk and shells I'd yet to discard in the trash. I glare at the ceiling as if I can see straight through it and curse the high heavens.

"Ah! It's burning!"

I shoot up, being sure to tell Ruka to stay back, then flick off the stovetop and throw the pan in the sink, running the tap for good measure. It's like everything within the flat pauses, only to restart at the end of a pregnant breath between the both of us.

"That was a close call." Ruka smiles, a hand to her heart. "If the fire alarm were to go off everything in here would be soaked head to toe."

I scratch the edge of my scalp. "Sorry about that. I just wanted to make you guys breakfast."

"And burn down our house," Rua jumps in, both figuratively and literally.

A pang in my heart stiffens my body but before I let it run its course through my veins and up to my face I smile, as awkward as it may come out. "Yeah, we wouldn't want that," I say after turning back around.

"Anyway," I start over, "here are the good pancakes, not burnt to a crisp or drowning in water."

I stack some on each of their plates and wipe the egg off my pants as the twins chow down at the table. Sooner or later I join them with a plate of my own.

"Why even bother with pancakes? Drink the syrup straight from the bottle, why don't you." Rua sticks his tongue at his twin and she returns the gesture easily. I laugh; god, they're so cute!

"Oh! We should get going," says Ruka after a glance at the clock.

"Do you need me to walk you or...?"

"Nope! We can go on our own!" Rua hops up from his chair and grabs his and Ruka's backpacks off the couch.

I frown. "You sure? How far is it?"

"Maria, don't be such a mom," he whines back.

"Sorry!" I raise my hands. "But this city is so big, and you two are so small. You can't possibly blame me for worrying and I refuse to feel guilty for that."

"Well, you won't have to worry much longer." Rua crosses his arms while a smug grin sits upon his lips. "I'm hitting puberty soon."

I choke down a snort. "Aren't you a lucky one."

"Anyway," Ruka cuts in, thankfully, "are you going to be here when we get back? School ends at 2:30."

Please don't leave again echoes about my head. "Um...should I?"

Rua answers, "No one's gonna stop you. After we come back home, we'll all go to the guys' apartment!"

"If you get bored, the television's right there. There's also a computer and books to read in the office, the second door on the left upstairs."

"Second door on the left upstairs," I repeat. "Got it."

"Better get going."

I nod and wave them off as they run out the door and down the hall. Once back in the flat, I clean up the remnants of our breakfast then collapse on the couch. All it seems I'm able to do as stare at everything. So shiny and new, I kind of don't want to risk touching anything. Maybe I shouldn't even sit on the couch. Gah, I'm being stupid! It's not like I'd make things spontaneously combust with a flick of my wrist.

I glance at my hands. Could I...?

I shake my head. Again, stupid.

A quick skim over the room and I don't find the television remote anywhere. I rifle between the couch cushions and find it on the third try, along with some spare change. Throw the coins on the coffee table and flick on the morning news. Snuggle up against a decorative pillow and scrape the dried yolk still on my pajamas. I'd have to wash these, no doubt.

"...Sector Security has found two bodies so far, in addition to the two they found last week."

Bodies? I turn up the volume and hug the pillow closer.

"It's uncertain that there will be or have been more victims, but in the meantime, officers are still investigating the scenes of the murders."

Were murders popular in New Domino? I mean, maybe I shouldn't be so surprised—this is the high-speed whirlwind of a city after all. But there always seemed to be more reports on duel gangs and illegal card dealings and everything having to do with duel monsters and the like rather than violent crimes such as this.

"There isn't a distinct pattern in the killer's victim choices. Sector Security says it may be a simple coincidence that all victims are males, since there is not a distinct age group or specific characteristics shared among them. Victims were also reported to be out past curfew. Sector Security has yet to have made any statements on whether or not this will affect New Domino's current curfew."

Flashes of that night at the factory clog my vision. Something animal and deranged, screams of the now deceased, floating orbs concerned more with our lakeside business meeting than the dying criminals nearby. My head hangs between my hands, tingling similar to the sensation I felt as I fled the the peril of the two men. Yet this wasn't a whirring reminder from my mark, but an average headache and I think I'm going to be sick.

That was Zephyrus' voice emitting from the orb back then, that much is clear to me. But what isn't is the the murderer itself. Whatever it was that I saw...er, didn't see but heard, I guess... Was that really just some lost zoo animal that wandered in at the wrong place and wrong time? However for me, it is probably safer to say it was the right place and right time considering that those men wouldn't have simply let me run free if that beast hadn't clamped its jaws around them before they bit into me.

I felt a frantic sense of relief that night—glad to be safe and sound, but horrified to be where I was and of what I'd been a witness to.

"While Sector officers say they currently have no suspects in custody for the homicides, they are certain the killer is the same person. Which brings us to the strangest part of these cases..."

That tears my attention away from my own memories. Strange hollers mine and anyone of the Signers' names.

"Medical examiners determined the cause of death to be organ failure, though all victims had average, if not exemplary, health before they died. Examiners hypothesize the method of killing could be through consumption of a new underground drug circling its way through city streets. Moreover, odd abrasions were left on the skin in areas where organ damage seemed most prominent. We have an image to show viewers watching at home."

My breath catches in my throat and hands cover my gaping mouth. "No... No, no!"

This was my worst nightmare come true. It was happening, maybe not to the people I feared it would, but if I could help it not one person would have to suffer through this. Nevertheless, it seems my hopes weren't enough, because the image they show onscreen is the exact replica of the Lichtenberg figure I had on my shoulder after my escapade in the woods.

So yeah. Remember how I told you to keep the Lichtenberg figure in mind? Well, it's back with a vengeance! Woohoo, first update of the year!

Oh, so on the news of YuseixMaria ship names I think I like MaYu or MaSei the best so feel free to use those interchangeably, or y'know whatever you want to call them is fine. BUT I also forgot to mention that in Latin Maria's name means "star of the sea"…so basically she's a starfish! I accidentally named her Starfish and paired her with a Craaaaabb (it's 2 am as I'm writing this btw so everything is really funny rn)! So if you want to do something like CrabStar or CrabFish, or StarCrab (my personal fav) then feel free to do so as well.

AND in other news (not related to JaG so skip over if you like) I'm thinking about writing another story which in other words means that I have already written another story but I don't know if I should post it yet. I'm thinking I should at least get close to finishing one of the two stories I have posted now and use that time writing more chapters/developing the plot for this third story, but who knows.

I'll give you guys a hint as to what anime/manga the story belongs to: there's a bunch of guys on a team who are friends and these guys all may or may not have girly names *wink wonk*

So if you're interested in reading yet another fanfic by moi based on that anime (did you guess it yet?) maybe leave a review and tell me? Or leave a review about anything? Pretty please with cherries and sprinkles and whip cream on top?

TTFN cuties, and may 2015 be good to you all!