A/N: Happy New Year! And 50 followers! Thank you so much for reading and following this story as well as sticking with it and my screwed up posting schedule. But now it's time to kick off the new year with a new chapter. Back in Rito's world, it's time for school!

Rito had been awake for not ten minutes yet and he was already in trouble with Mikan. He didn't know how much she knew, but he knew it was probably enough.

"Well you see… um, I w- was just… sleeping?" Rito, in his panicked state, was having trouble explaining "what exactly happened" in the room.

Mikan could only resist the urge to facepalm as much as possible while simultaneously trying not to blow up on him for doing god-knows-what with Yami.

"You were… sleeping." She looked at him with incredulous eyes, her voice even more so.

Rito began to sense danger from Mikan but didn't know how to remedy the situation without triggering an extinction level event.

"Y- yes."

She simply stared at him for a moment before turning from him and walking toward the kitchen.

"We'll talk about this after school." She called as she was walking. "You're going to be late."

He was going to call back to her, but thought against it. He shouldn't waste this temporary pass and he would indeed be late if he wasted anymore time. With that he made his way upstairs and to his room. As he was getting ready for school he began to think over what had just happened with a clearer mind.

'Yami just… kissed me.' He thought to himself. Blood began rushing to his face. 'And it felt really nice… and not only that, but I also…' More blood began rushing somewhere else in his body. He suddenly snapped out of his trance-like state.

'What am I thinking about like that?!' He began scolding himself in his mind, though he couldn't keep his thoughts from drifting. 'That kiss really did feel nice though…' He had to physically shake his head this time. 'No! I already have Haruna-chan.' This alone was enough to keep his other thoughts in check. For now…

Now in his uniform, he headed downstairs and, given the "recent events", decided to skip breakfast. At the foot of the stairs however, he encountered a surprisingly clothed Lala. Instead of being clad in only a towel like usual, she already had her uniform on.

"You're not taking a morning bath today, Lala?" He asked, confused at this break in routine.

She cocked her head, puzzled. "I already did a long time ago. And if you don't hurry we're going to be late!"

He glanced at the clock and saw that they would indeed be late if they didn't leave now.

'Looks like I spent more time than I thought upstairs…' He thought to himself.

Rito followed Lala outside and saw that Momo and Nana were already outside by the front gate. Only Momo and Nana.

"Are Mikan and Yami not going to walk with us?" Rito asked to any of the three of the girls.

Nana was the first to speak. "They went ahead and walked early." She then narrowed her eyes at him. "I don't know what it was you did, but I'm sure it was something beast-like. I can sense it."

Sensing a dangerous aura, Rito found himself gravitating toward the other two girls. 'So there are others who know, huh?' He said in his mind. "So are we good to go, then?" He asked out loud, trying to avoid contact with Nana who, after staring for a while, huffed and turned from him.

"Yup! Let's go!" Lala said enthusiastically. He'd never seen anyone more excited to go to school than the pink-haired girl standing before him.

As they began walking, Rito noticed that Momo was somewhat trailing a bit behind. This wasn't unusual in and of itself, but it looked like she was staring off into space, seemingly deep in thought. 'Does she know, too?' He asked in his mind, somewhat worriedly. He wasn't sure what she would do if she had that kind of information, but probably nothing good for him!

'I'm sure she doesn't. How would she know anyway? Nana probably heard something from Mikan, and neither of them would risk telling Momo about that kind of thing.' He eventually wrote it off and kept walking.

Momo, who was still slightly suffering from lack of sleep, was having a hard time keeping all of her thoughts together, but she managed when she thought about what was possible with these new advancements.

"We made it! And with a few minutes to spare!" Lala still held the same enthusiasm as when they left the house. They had actually made it much earlier than anticipated, even with Momo walking a little slower than normal.

Momo and Nana decided to leave Rito and Lala's company in order to get ready for class, since they were in two different classes anyway. Heading through the locker area to get ready for class, Rito's eyes landed on the purple-haired girl he'd been thinking about all morning.

Mostly.

"Good morning, Sairenji." His face turned slightly red. He walked up to her without hesitation, but the words were going to be a bit more difficult.

Haruna turned to him and smiled, but Rito also noticed a blush creep across her face. "Good morning, Yuuki-kun."

There was an awkward silence between them for a moment, and Rito knew his time was running out since the bell would be ringing soon. Lala, who was standing in the middle of the two but knew this was probably not a time to intervene, simply said "I'll just meet you two in class." in a slightly awkward manner and strode off to catch one of her friends who was also heading to class.

'Just say it. Just say it!' He urged himself in his mind. Even if they had already confessed to each other and agreed to start dating soon, it still seemed embarrassing.

"S- Sairenji, would you like t-" As he began his sentence, the loud chiming of the bell filled the hall. 'I… was too late.' He thought sadly.

Haruna, still blushing, nervously tried to dismiss the conversation. If you could call it that.

"Oh, it's time for class. Maybe we can talk later?" She turned to leave.

Rito nearly began walking to class, but steeled himself and his mind instead. 'No, I won't wait around anymore! I have to stop her.'

"Haruna-chan!" He yelled out on accident. Haruna turned toward him again, her mouth slightly open since she had ever heard him refer to her that way before.

Rito quickly tried to cover up his mistake. "Er- Sairenji…" He began. 'Way to screw it up.' He added in his mind. "Would you like to… um-" He started trailing off.

Haruna tried to help him along, now sensing where this was going. "Would I like to what?"

Rito continued. "Would you like to go out tonight?"

"Yes!"

She answered immediately in an excited manner. She quickly realized how she reacted, however. Rito stood slightly dumbfounded.

Now it was her turn to cover up her mistake. "I mean… yes. I would like to go out tonight, Yuuki-kun."

Even though they had already agreed to start going out, Rito felt his heart do a flip at this answer, and he even forgot that he accidentally let his name for Haruna slip.

"R- really?" He asked relieved and a bit joyful. The very thing he had been wanting for so long was finally happening. 'A date with Haruna-chan…' It was the best feeling ever. There's totally nothing that could happen in the near future that would feel better than this.

"Well, yes." Haruna responded. Most of her timidness had melted away and she was slightly amused at Rito's reaction. "So… where and when?"

"I- err…" A sudden realization struck Rito: he hadn't thought that far. He had been absorbed with the actual asking that he hadn't considered what would happen if she said yes. Knowing that he couldn't admit this, however, he tried to think on his feet.

"How about… 5 o'clock?" He began. "At… our old spot in the park?" He thought it was pretty good for having to come up with something immediately.

Haruna smiled sweetly. "That sounds good." She suddenly whipped her head around in both directions. Rito didn't know why at first, but followed suit when he realized it: there was nobody around at all. They were probably incredibly late to class by now.

"Uhh… we should probably get going." Haruna advised.

"Yeah, let's go." Rito agreed. And with that, the two walked together to class, now with something to look forward to later on.

The first part of the day came and went without much note, other than occasional looks from people who had noticed the two walk in late together. Most notably, Yui. Now that it was lunchtime and there was no lesson going on, she was free to speak her mind.

"What exactly were you two doing together that caused you to be so late to class?" Yui began while taking her signature pose and pointing at them. "It had better not be anything shameless!"

Haruna, who for some reason did not expect this, was stunned silent, leaving Rito to do the talking.

"We were just- um… well…" Rito began, though he was having trouble coming up with an excuse. He wasn't about to tell Yui the real reason for their tardiness. He was saved, however, by a familiar brown-haired girl that Yui had yet to notice.

"Why don't you lay off of Yuuki and Haruna, Yui?" Risa said with a giggle as she snuck up behind Yui and began groping her breasts rather lewdly.

"M- Momioka-san, stop that right now!" Yui reprimanded Risa, who had taken her by surprise during what was supposed to be a serious moment filled with discipline and-

"Oh, alright." Risa surprisingly stopped and stepped around Yui so as to fully come into view. When she stopped however, she turned her head to Rito and, unbeknownst to Yui, gave him a wink.

"So I bet you wish it was you out there with Yuuki instead Haruna, right?" Risa said to Yui, leaning toward her, hands on her hips.

"I- I would never do something shameless with him!" She defended herself, now avoiding eye contact with any of the three of them.

Risa kept it going, though. "Think of all the possibilities. You and Yuuki all alone in the hallways…" She continued with one hand over her mouth.

"Don't s- say things like that" Yui's face was burning red now, and she walked away quickly to avoid further teasing from the master herself.

Seeing this, Risa turned to Rito again and grinned. "Mission accomplished. You owe me one now, Yuuki." She said that last part with a slightly mischievous tone of voice. Rito gulped at hearing this. Risa began walking away, past Rito, but stopped by his ear as she went.

"Maybe we can pick up where we left off." She whispered into his ear, possibly a little too loudly, before rejoining Mio and the group she was in. The redness in Rito's face was accompanied by the incoherent noises and stuttering spewing from his mouth at hearing this. He called back to the memory of Risa's "visit", and how he was saved by Mikan at the last second. 'So she still wants to finish that…' He thought, which didn't help his flustered condition. 'What did you do, Nemesis?'

"U- um… what was that about, Yuuki-kun?" Haruna asked Rito in a low tone.

Oops.

'Maybe I shouldn't have let Momioka do that in front of Haruna-chan…' He thought worriedly.