"Okay, so do you want to explain why you hover boarding miles in the rain miles outside the city seemed like a good idea?" Han asked as he brushed my hair aside and thoroughly coated my scraped shoulder with med spray. I winced at the sting. He pulled the blanket back over my shoulder to help ease the chills that were wracking my body and pushed my hair back where it was before.

"I need to be prepared for anything, don't I?" I answered without looking up from the countertop I was staring at. I sounded like I had a strange lisp because my nose was so stopped up.

I never thought I'd ever see how anyone with a bigger face rank than Hayate lived, but here I was sitting in Han's apartment. I had begged him to just leave me in the park to find my own way back to Akira Hall, but he wasn't having that. To keep the hover cams away from me, he made me ride double with him from the park to his mansion; it looked a lot less suspicious-making than if I was on his back, but I was still afraid we were going to get spotted. He pretty much told me that as long as we weren't doing something crazily not normal, no one was going to care he brought a girl home. I didn't make me feel better.

His apartment was several floors above Hayate's, near the top. It looked so much different than Hayate's; it was clean, decorated in warm colors, with a lighter colored hardwood floor. It looked so much more inviting.

"You know Airi's going to show up to race Takashi, don't you?" He asked casually. He lifted my hand and placed it on a sensor so the hole in the wall would know how many meds I needed.

I felt a cold, clammy sensation, and I wasn't sure why.

I should have been relieved. Even though I did enjoy the extra wall allowances I got when my face rank bumped, I didn't want to be famous; especially if it meant having my name attached to this situation. I would never be able to get away from that one mistake.

I'd lose my brothers; they might love me in some corner of their heart, but they loved fame and their status so much more. They'd never speak to me again, and with them gone, I'd be completely alone.

And yet, despite all of the reasons I had to be happy the egotistical bitch was taking my place, I was angry.

Hover boarding was what I did best. It was the only time I didn't have some reminder that I was family member that the others were embarrassed of. When I was flying, I didn't have to be the smartest of the most liked; I could fly circles around both of my older brothers.

"If I were you, I'd take a break and let Airi race Takashi." He continued as he set the cup of tea with meds in it in front of me. It looked kind of like mud.

"I'm not you." I muttered. That was one of the few statements I had made to Han that didn't carry sarcasm or disdain; it was just a simple truth.

"You're right; you didn't grow up the way Takashi and I did. While you spent your ugly days turning the trees in the park into a slalom course, the Crims were pulling some of the most insane stunts ever seen with a hover board. We were always giving the wardens a heart attack and a half because they were worried others would try some of the stuff we did." I swear that was the longest statement to come out of his mouth.

"But I have more to prove than he does." I replied shakily. I had no idea where that came from, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized it was true.

Han scoffed. "He's got to protect the reputation he has built up over the years." He said it like there was nothing else that could compare to that. He sounded like Hayate.

"I don't want fame or reputation. I don't want to be remembered by the city for this kid who pulled some stupid stunt." I told him slowly. I wasn't sure if I was talking or my fever was. "I want respect. I'm tired of being nothing because I'm not the smartest or because I don't have a famous best friend."

"What are you talking about?" He asked.

"I have to go." I stated bluntly as I pulled the blanket away from my shoulders and turned to get out of my chair. This was becoming really uncomfortable. Han moved in front of me to block me with his body.

"You have a fever. You were laying in wet clothes in the middle of the woods alone for over an hour. If you didn't have that heated jacket; you would have died. You do understand that, don't you?" He asked as he pulled the blanket back over my shoulders. He picked up the mug and shoved it under my nosed until I took it from him and started drinking.

"Why did you ping me?" He asked after a long silence. I stopped trying to choke down the syrupy meds and tea to glance up at him.

"Do you really think my brothers would have come?" I asked before I went back to trying to drink the meds. It was too thick to be a liquid, so drinking wasn't exactly easy.

"Yes." He answered with finality as he snatched the cup from me, put it back under the spout and added more tea.

"The chance of Kaede looking up from whatever mod he was working on to check a ping was really close to zero. Even if he did, he had no way to get to me." I answered between gulps of tea. It tasted nasty, but it felt so much better on my sore throat.

"Hayate?" Han pressed.

"He's ashamed of me. That's what we were arguing about and that's what got me in this whole mess." I said.

"You've lost me." He commented as he took the chair next to me.

"I told him there was more to life than a number. He told me that someone like me could never understand; that I didn't belong with his people. I told him I could get an invite to a Crim bash. " I filled in quickly.

"So you pissed off their leader?" Amusement permeated his voice. I chuckled bitterly.

"Well, that wasn't my plan." I half joked. I still felt like I could fall over dead at any second from the cold I had gotten, but I was in a much better mood. I was either delirious with fever or the meds were too strong for me.

"What was your plan?" I went back to staring at the spot on the counter with a yawn.

"I didn't have one. I was hoping that if I went to where the people I needed to see where, than something would come to me." I answered honestly. I sounded really stupid when I said it out loud. I thought I heard Han chuckle.

"And what were you going to do if nothing ever happened?" It was meant to be a serious question, but I could clearly pick out the amusement in his voice.

"Then I'd do something completely, shame-makingly crazy and tricky as a publicity stunt. It'd probably never be crazy enough for the Crims, but I'd have to try." I answered honestly.

"Trying to get into the Crims is not for the faint hearted." He replied dryly.

"I don't want into the Crims." I told him slowly. "I just can't let him win this argument."

"You'd rather be dead than wrong." It was a statement instead of a question.

"I'm not wrong this time." I answered confidently.

"You're not. You have my personal invite." He told me. I felt his eyes boring into the side of my head as he waited for my reply. I knew I should have been grateful, but I wasn't.

"Thank you, but this is a little bigger than that now." I politely declined. I saw his eyebrows raise a tiny fraction. "I got myself into this because I was trying to take up for myself. Now I can't just let Takashi and Airi-" I trailed off, unsure of how to voice my feelings.

"You don't stand a chance." He told me honestly. "Takashi and Airi are two of the best."

"You're a little biased." I commented bitterly. His eyebrows shot up. "I know I probably can't beat them, but still; I have to try."

His lips pursed together in thought as he took in my statement. Without waiting for him to respond, I pulled the blanket off of my shoulders and refolded it before placing back on the counter. I put the mug back under the spout and filled it with cleaner before I took off his hover ball sweatshirt and put it on top of the folded blanket.

I felt his eyes follow me as cleaned up. He didn't try to stop me as I dragged myself out of the chair and started getting ready to leave. I knew this probably wasn't the smartest thing to do, especially with the migraine behind my eyes and the aching of my muscles.

"I can make you good enough to hold your own." He finally spoke when I was almost to his door. My eyebrows shot up as I turned around to face him.

"In three days?" I asked in disbelief. He nodded.

"I saw part of the footage from the hover cam. You're not bad." He complimented.

"Thanks." I returned uncertainly.

"We'll start tomorrow. I know some places outside the city where the hover cams can't find us." He continued.

"Okay. Thank you for saving me." I turned back towards the door, only for him to clear the distance between us in a few long strides before I could reach it. He gently wrapped one hand around my bicep to keep me from walking off.

"I can't let you walk home after almost dying." He told me firmly. I glanced over my shoulders.

"I need a hover board." I reminded. "Hayate is the person I go to for that, and he's just a couple of floors down. I'll stay with him." Han's grip slowly loosened until he wasn't touching me at all anymore.

"One more thing." He called me back yet again after I had made another step to the door. I glanced back over my shoulder to see his eye screen layered across his vision. "Crim invite." He supplied as he blinked and the eye screen went away. I heard the ping in my ear.

I grinned lopsidedly at him as I finally made it through the door and into the elevator. Apparently not all the famous people just saw a number.