"I'm home!" Kakeru called out as he barged through the door. Within the same breath however something completely different left his mouth. "Naho! How're you feeling?!"

"Better, grandma made me some porridge and I had some medicine which helped. My fever has went down too." Kakeru seemed relieved. His shoulders loosened and his smile returned, wiping away the serious, worried look he entered the house with.

"So Kakeru, now that you're home, shall we talk about where Naho-chan is going to sleep? We can't just let her permanently sleep in the lounge..."

"How about just putting the futon on my floor? Since I'm the one who brought her here, I should take responsibility of that and do my bit by letting her sleep in my room."

"Kakeru... you know full well..." Grandma stopped for a second, and she clearly didn't like the idea, but surprisingly, the next words that left her mouth were, "Alright, I guess if Naho-chan is okay with it you can share a room, so long as you behave. I suppose it's true we don't really have anywhere else to put a futon permanently, either."

"Eh?!" Naho was flustered for a second, sharing a room with a boy in any scenario was something she'd never done, let alone with Kakeru... But she was sure that it wouldn't be bad, and having Kakeru by her side would more than likely help her sleep easier and sounder. "I'm okay with that, I'll start moving my stuff!" She said shyly then immediately ran off before anyone could notice her embarrassment.

"It's time for bed Naho, we have school tomorrow, remember?" Kakeru called to her, taking Naho's attention from the evening drama that was playing on TV.

"Right. Coming!" Naho rose and bid goodnight to grandma before following Kakeru to his room. Upon reaching his room they kissed each other goodnight, before getting into their beds and turning the lights out.

About 10 minutes passed, and Naho couldn't relax. All that the silence was doing was make her think about the situation at home, her parents, and how she felt when she witnessed that. She eventually realised if she didn't calm down she'd be unable to stay awake in school the next day. She had to do something.

"Kakeru? Are you awake?"

"Yeah, I am. What's up?"

"It's just... I can't calm down. I'm too worried about my parents. What's happening there, was running away the right decision? I'm just so scared that-"

"Wanna sleep in the bed with me?" Kakeru sternly said out of nowhere. "Only if you want to... I just thought that maybe that would help calm you down if I was right there... it's fine if you don't-"

Despite the embarrassment, Naho knew that was exactly what she wanted... the sight of Kakeru was the only thing that gave her hope recently, and saying that she didn't want this to happen would be a lie...

It was Naho's turn to interrupt him. "Yes... please..." Naho stood up and slid under the duvet being lifted by Kakeru. Naho immediately wrapped her arms around him and buried her head in his chest. "I'm scared Kakeru... I don't know what to do. It's terrifying..."

Kakeru pulled her closer, with his arm around her head and simply said the sentence that once again was a string of words which matched the exact words she wanted to hear from him.

"I'm right here, Naho. You don't have to be scared anymore."

The darkness of the night may have been terrifying, but Naho was slowly realising the boy in her arms was the light to help her through it, and knowing that allowed her to fall asleep.

Her dream wasn't a nightmare that night. It seemingly took her entire future. Some ups, some downs, but one constant. Kakeru never left her side. She finally understood, and what she understood gave her the hope that had vanished just a week earlier.

'I get it Kakeru. I finally get it. I love you too much to say because I finally understand.'

"Please don't ever leave me, Kakeru."

"I won't. I'll always be right here beside you. No matter what."

"The words 'I love you' just don't cut it anymore... just please don't ever go."

Kakeru could hear her crying from the breaks in her voice, but rather than responding he simply just held her tighter, so that she knew he'd never leave her side.

[I hope you like it so far, this new arc with Naho settling in to living with Kakeru and his family really made me think of Tomoya and Nagisa from Clannad, which made me even more determined to write it well, which I hope I did.

I also hope you don't mind that this story is starting to take a detour onto a little bit of a romance arc, but I hope you can bare with it and maybe enjoy it (if you like or dislike it please let me know so I can fix it in future chapters).

That brings me nicely onto my final point, if you guys want to see anything in these stories you can let my know in a review and I'll more than likely read them fast and try and implement your suggestion in some way!

Thanks for reading!]