A/N: I'm finally back from my sister's and getting back into the swing of my normal updating schedule. I apologize for it taking longer to update than usual. My plan was to only stay for two weeks and I wound up staying for three. Enjoy the new chapter! After this chapter, things will pick up a lot.

PS… For those interested, I have published my book Another Chance and it is available in a softback or e-book on Amazon (although, I have been told you should be able to order the book from major book sellers in 6-8 weeks). Another Chance by Maria Vickers. Thank you everyone!

Chapter 4 – Introductions

Standing in the shower after her run, Yui briefly contemplated what would happen if she stalled long enough. Would the gods give up and do their own thing? Probably not. They were like a dog with a bone with they had made up their mind or decided they wanted something. A perfect example would have been when they went to the ocean for their summer trip, although the seasons had turned from summer to fall in the blink of an eye, Apollo had marched straight into the ocean and refused to admit he was cold. Yui firmly believed that hell would have frozen over before he would admit such a thing…even after he and Tsukito had to be yanked out of the water by Takeru and Dionysus – Hades refused to enter the water because he believed his misfortune would cause the two idiots to drown.

Why did she not want them to go? She had prayed, begged, and pleaded for them to come and find her, and now that she had, she was trying to blow them off; and at first, she had believed them to be nothing more than a dream or a figment of her imagination. At least she had believed that until this morning. Takeru was up and waiting for her this morning so they could run together like they used to in the garden, and he even had to rescue her like he had to do previously.

So why was she trying to avoid them? Was it her running partner's line of questioning? Could be. She was still a little confused as to his end game. Was it possible that he had actually heard her pleas? Just thinking that was a possibility made her face turn bright red. She had stood in the sea multiple times and asked the Sea God how much she missed him and the others, and how much she wanted them back; and then she asked him to tell his brother that every night she looked up at the moon, she felt comforted, like she wasn't so alone. Maybe she had confessed something more, and maybe she let the ocean absorb her tears, but somehow she had convinced herself that although they may know she was there, they would not be able to hear everything she whispered into the wind.

This shouldn't be so difficult. They were going to be attending her school after all, thus they would be meeting her friends anyway. What was the difference between meeting them at the mall and meeting them during school? Nothing really. The other students were bound to go gaga over them, and the gods were sure to be popular. Did that then mean they would find another human that could teach them better than she? Would Loki force Tsukito to be bound to another girl at school? Maybe even one of her friends? She shook her head. No, not just Tsukito, any of the gods. Would her friends try to become intimate with one of the gods? Of course there was also the worry that one of the gods would do something that could actually level the mall. She still remember when she tried to describe the ceremony for the first day of school, they wanted to make a sacrifice. She shuddered.

Her mind drifted to Apollo. The memory of Cassandra was still fresh on her mind. It was a cautionary tale that the lives of humans and gods did not mingle well. They were immortal, while she was a mere mortal. Then again, there was that old saying of "better to have love and lost than never to have loved at all". Shaking her head free of that thought process, she refused to go down that road. The gods were nothing more than friends. All of them. Not one of them were anything else. And that conviction made her feel heartbroken.

"Yui, Akane-Chan and Chikako-Chan are here," her mother called out through the bathroom door.

"Hai!" She yelled back and proceeded to rush through the rest of her shower, mumbling to herself, "Either they're early or I've been in here a while. Probably early." Sometimes her friends could get a little impatient and unable to wait if it had been a while since they had all hung out together…that and they loved her mother's breakfast.

True enough, by the time she had finished with her shower and gotten dressed for the day, Yui strolled through the house and found her friends and the gods surrounding the dining room table partaking in the feast her mother had prepared. As soon as she had stepped into her bedroom to change, she had looked at the clock and knew her friends had arrived two hours early. She wasn't even sure why she was surprised any longer. She should have just invited them over for breakfast since they tended to invite themselves anyway.

Seeing his sister in the doorway, her eldest brother, Manabu said, "If you don't get in here, you won't get breakfast."

Her other brother, Jun, snickered, "That's right. Our guests and your friends will eat it all."

"You'll help," Manabu teased his younger brother.

"Hai!"

Shaking her head, Yui walked inside and stated, "Hai! I'm here." She was about to sit between her brothers, even though Apollo and Balder were trying to get her to sit next to either of them, when a seat opened up between the Moon God and the Sea God, and she took it; although, she could have sworn there was absolutely no space between them a moment ago, and was further shocked when she found a plate slide in front of her with food laid out upon it. Following the arm attached to the hand, her eyes fell upon the unexpressive face of the purple haired god, "Tsukito-san?"

"I thought you might be hungry, Kusanagi Yui. I wasn't sure if everyone else would eat it all," he replied in his matter of fact voice.

"Ari-Arigato, Tsukito-san," she managed to mutter as her eyes returned to the plate before her and said, "Itadakimasu!" There was a time when he wouldn't have done something like this, so she wondered who had planted the idea in his head. Or had he actually thought of doing this for her without direction?

"Tsuki-Tsuki!" Apollo cried out. Why hadn't he thought of doing something like that for her?

Balder yelled, "Totsuka-san!" He had wanted Yui to sit with him so he could feed her from his own plate, and now she had chosen to sit with the two Japanese gods, and one of them had even made a plate of food for her. It wasn't fair!

"Ano, Yui, when did you get houseguests?" Akane asked.

"Eh, uh, yesterday. They're exchange students!" Yui rushed to answer.

"Ehhh, so all of you will be going to school with us?"

Yui could already see the interest her friends had in the gods and hearing that they would be attending their school, little hearts practically replaced their eyes. Before she could say anything though, someone else had chosen to answer.

"If you are going to school with Fairy, then yes," Apollo grinned widely.

"Fairy?" Chikako inquired, her eyes darted quickly to her friend. "Have you known each other long?"

"NO! We met recently at the park. That's all," Yui quickly responded before anyone else could. She had no idea what would come out of their mouths and wanted to cut off any "questionable" answers quickly.

To Akane and Chikako, especially Akane, it seemed like their friend had known these men a little longer than recently, but they would leave it for now. The way they saw it, there were now several good-looking men in front of them, and that meant they might be able to get a handsome boyfriend; although, it did appear as if most of the guys had their eyes on Yui. Well, their friend couldn't have them all.

"Uh-huh," Chikako nodded and returned to eating her breakfast.

Already, Yui felt the pressure of having the gods with her, and yet, when she looked out of the corner of her eye and found the Moon God, she felt calmer. She wasn't sure what it was about him, but his presence made her feel like everything would be all right…some way.

But that feeling only lasted until they started to walk to the mall. First, it started to rain the moment they were off of the steps that led to her temple home; and then, Balder and Apollo each tried to protect her from the downpour, resulting in a tug-o-war. One of her shirt sleeves was ripped off in the process. Hades immediately decided this was all his fault due to misfortune following him. After her sleeve was ripped and fell down the arm Balder was holding, Apollo jerked her one more time towards him, and she slipped and would have fallen to the ground had Thor not been there to catch her. Takeru got mad at the other two gods and started to yell at them, calling them "bakas" during the tongue lashing. Tsukito checked on her, and when he did, she started to blush and managed to tell him she was fine. And her friends were there to witness it all, and her one thought was, "Surely it has to get better from here."