A/N: Sorry for the extra alert - I'm just shifting a few things around. Nothing major.

Expect the next chapter by the end of this week (hopefully)

{X}

"Daddy, please!" Misa begged, wrapping herself around Sousuke's left pant leg. She barely even reached his knee, and for that alone, the sight was hilarious From her vantage point away from Dad's eyes, she glared at me until I half-heartedly threw myself at him too. Satisfied, she continued.

"Misa wants to go to the playground! All of Misa's friends will be there!"

A big fat lie. Little sister was simply demanding some action, that's all. But she usually helped me when I wanted more books, so I was forced to help.

"It's a little late to be going to the park, children," Sousuke said, trying to push me and Misa away because we weren't even letting him walk. After a while, he simply shrugged and began walking anyway, while we stuck like limpets to his pants.

"It isn't that late, you know…" I mumbled into his pants, noting the way he twitched. Both our parents had heartily rued the day we'd learnt how to read the time.

"Yeah! And you never take us to the park!"

Sousuke helplessly met Honoka's eyes, wordlessly begging for intervention. But Mum only smiled briefly. "You've been putting it off for a long time now. Don't blame me if the twins finally decided to corner you."

"...Traitor," Dad grumbled, before bending to lift us both up. We squealed slightly, before yelling in triumph when he said, "Fine, fine, we'll go, you little demons."

"Yay! Daddy is the best!"

"But on one condition." When we fell silent, Dad nodded sternly. "You'll have to behave yourself, okay? No running off without telling me. And absolutely no -,"

"Accepting candy from strangers," I finished for him, adding a sunny smile at the end. "We know, Daddy."

"Ah, you think you know a lot of things, my little prodigy," Dad said, finally setting us down. Then he flicked his fingers over my forehead. As I ouch-ed in slight surprise, his smile widened. "But Daddy always knows more."

I only just managed to not roll my eyes, knowing he'd probably get into his lecturing mood if I did. They sure took manners very seriously here.

In the end, the park was nothing spectacular anyway. Even Misa looked slightly disappointed - though I figured it was more because there were lesser kids due to the late time. Still, she pulled me towards the swings, jumping eagerly to get in line behind a tall boy with spectacles. The boy had this haughty air around him - as if the world wasn't good enough or something. I eyed him casually, afraid of trouble, having seen more than enough of his type before.

"Sayuli, do you want to play tag instead?" Misa whined after a moment, shuffling in boredom as the kid in front of us simply wasn't moving.

Also, my sister had a short attention span.

"We've waited for so long. We might as well wait a little more," I said, ignoring her huff. Then the the guy started climbing up and I grinned in triumph. "See? I was right."

"Nee-chan isn't always right."

"You'd be surprised."

"Eh?" She said smartly, before turning around. "Oh, look, it's our turn!"

I climbed up after her, twisting to the right to avoid her flailing legs as she missed a rung. Once inside the small tower, she clapped her hands in glee. "Oh, we're here! Let's go on the slide first!"

We moved towards it with me in lead. My cutesy pink skirt bounced alongside me as I knelt to grab the supports, when the same guy we'd seen the line suddenly pressed against my shoulder, pushing me to the side.

Stunned for a moment, I landed on my ass.

"Hey! What did you do that for, you meanie?!" Misa screeched at the guy, hands on her lips. When the boy merely rolled his eyes from behind his specs, she frowned deeply, eyes narrowing. I recognized that look. She was about to do something stupid.

Then before I could knock some sense into her, she surged forward to kick his shin.

"Ouch! You little bitch!" Unlike Misaki, this one didn't take the hit lying down. Instead, he punched her face, and as I saw my sister fall to the side, tears marring her pretty face, something snapped in me.

I rose to my feet even as my hands formed fists of their own accord. There was no time for words as I moved, intent on pummelling the little brat to the floor (howdarehehitmysister!) when -

- A soft hand grabbed my wrist.

I couldn't see the newcomer. His back was to me. He was wearing a standard black button down shirt, slightly more formal than the boys our age usually wore. From behind, I could see his hair was a pretty brown, the kind Honoka often thought of dyeing hers into.

"Akihiko." He said, his voice stern. "Do you want me to tell your parents about this incident too? I thought the last time would be enough."

Something vaguely rebellious flashed behind Akihiko's specs, as if he considered hitting the new guy too. But then a pained smile crossed his face. It was obviously forced. "Of course not. I'll leave, alright? You keep this to yourself!"

"I'll consider it," The new guy said coldly. Once Akihiko had left, he extended a hand to Misa, who took it, sniffling. As soon as she was up, I snapped into action, rushing towards her and cupping her cheeks with my hands.

"Are you okay, Misa? Does it hurt anywhere? Do you want to go the doctor?"

"Misa is fine, Sayuli! Misa isn't as badly hurt…" My sister said, before her shining eyes moved over my shoulder to the guy still standing behind us. "Because this Mister saved Misa!"

I winced briefly, recognizing the look in her eyes. I'd seen it before, whenever she watched TV with us. It was pure hero worship.

"Thank you for saving Misa!" My sister chirped, shrugging my hands off to go running forward to bow to the guy. "I'm Amane Misa! And this is my twin, Amane Sayuri!"

I turned around slowly. There was suddenly this churning, almost foreboding feeling in my gut. It was completely unwarranted, and its presence was worrying. The kind of person I was, I relied greatly on my intuition, so that meant something was wrong. Something was… happening.

Misa was still staring at the guy, her hands clasped to her chest. The shining adoration in her blue eyes was obvious.

The guy, on the other hand… He looked to be around our age, perhaps a year lesser. Cool, absolutely jaw-dropping-beautiful brown eyes took in my rapidly whitening face. His face was perfectly blank, not an emotion in sight. As my hands fluttered to grip my skirt tightly and all the color went knocking out of my face, he nodded, briefly, before turning back to look at Misa.

"Pleased to meet you, Misa-san." His voice was cultured. "I'm Yagami Light."

His pretty eyes flickered to meet mine almost calculatingly.

"And you're welcome."

{X}