Hi guys, sorry I'm so late, I got lost on the road of life.

Now that my lame excuses are out of the way; many thanks to LucienLachance for following and favoriting this story and yours truly and KanameTwilight for following and favoriting, you guys rock!

And also a big thanks to Blue for reviewing, um... thank you. I think.

And also viexon for reviewing, yes, Munakata and kittens; what's not to love?

Chapter 4: Days of Red

"Hey stranger, long time no see," said Akira Hidaka cheerfully, she was much more comfortable talking to him now than she had been when they had begun their strange friendship.

Rikio Kamamoto smiled at her, "hey Hidaka, happy 2014! How was your new year?" He asked cheerily.

She sat down, "alright, how was yours?"

Rikio began to gush about the New Year's party HOMRA had thrown making Hidaka laugh with his stories of drinking, partying and general good-natured silliness.

While Hidaka was laughing, ducking her head and covering her mouth with one hand, she thought that this was how it was supposed to be between the two Clansmen, why was it so hard for them all to get along?
Yes, they had fights, yes, they had big fights; like the Ashinaka High School Incident, but they had a lot in common too, both sides were Clansmen, separate from the rest of the world, but at the end of the day: they were both still human. Did it really matter if one was Red and the other was Blue? Was that really worth all the fighting and the vendettas and the bloodshed? Really worth it?

Hidaka didn't think so at all, and she hoped she wasn't the only one.

She glanced over at a smiling Kamamoto out of the corner of her eye. No, she was sure that she wasn't the only one.

"Hey, what about that dinner?" Kamamoto asked suddenly.

Seeing Hidaka's quizzical expression, he elaborated, "we said we should go out to dinner sometime, are you free now? I know this really great Indian place that's really close by." He looked half hesitant, half hopeful.

Hidaka checked the time on her phone, "sure! I'd love to," she wasn't expected back at Scepter 4 for hours.
Kamamoto's face lit up, "great!"

They both stood, as they walked an uneasy feeling settled in Hidaka's stomach, she couldn't stop thinking about Goto and how he would feel about this.

She shook herself, Ren, and her feelings for him, had no place in this matter. There was nothing romantic between herself and Rikio, there might be the potential for something romantic, but that wasn't the same thing. And she and Goto weren't exclusive because they had nothing to be exclusive for, they had kissed a couple of times, that was it, they weren't even dating, let alone in a relationship.

So her having dinner with Rikio was completely fine. Even if it was a potentially romantic dinner. She'd never even had that much with Goto.

She knew he liked her, and he enjoyed kissing her and being around her, but that was it. Enomoto was wrong, he didn't love her, he liked her; there was a difference.

Now the unsettled feeling in her stomach had changed to become a sharp pain in her chest for some reason.

Kamamoto noticed the expression on her face, "Are you alright?"

Akira shook herself again and pasted a not entirely real yet not entirely false smile on her face. "Yeah! I'm fine! Let's get going, I'm starving," they quickened their pace.

They quickly made it to the restaurant which looked small and a little shabby on the outside but the inside was surprisingly comfortable, neat, clean and new-looking.

Hidaka, having no idea what to order, decided to place her faith in Rikio and allowed him to order for them both. The food was delicious, even if some of the time Hidaka had absolutely no idea what she was eating she was willing to try anything and the two of them thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

Afterwards, once they paid and were walking back towards HOMRA and Scepter 4, Hidaka thanked Kamamoto profusely, "I had a really nice time," she confessed, "you really know how to pick good places to eat."

"It's my one special talent," said Kamamoto with a half proud, half bashful grin.

"Well I'm glad you have it, that was delicious," said Hidaka.

They reached the gates of Scepter 4 and stopped, turning to face one another.

"Seriously, I mean it, I had a really nice time tonight, not just the food, everything, said Hidaka softly.

Rikio smiled, "I'm glad, me too," he said equally as quietly.

Hidaka leaned up slightly and kissed his cheek, "thank you. For everything." He left, she went inside.

"There you are, I was expecting you back hours ago," Enomoto said, looking up from her laptop.

"Expect the unexpected with me," said Hidaka wryly, shrugging out of her coat.

"Where were you?" the younger woman asked curiously, turning to face Akira slightly.

"Out for dinner with Kamamoto, why?" She asked idly, hanging her coat up and kicking off her shoes.

"Kamamoto?" Asked Tatsuya, she seemed really surprised, shocked even.

"Yeah, we went to this really nice Indian place," Hidaka's stomach felt like it was going to burst again just from thinking about it. "I think I ate too much," she admitted, wrapping her arms around her middle and groaning softly before flopping down on her bed, careful not to jostle her overstuffed stomach any more than she already had.

"Well it sounds like you had fun," Enomoto said.

"I did," Akira agreed promptly, glad that her friend's strange expression had disappeared.

"What about Goto?" Tatsuya asked.

"Huh?" The brunette glanced over, "what about Goto?"

"I thought you two were, you know, seeing each other," said Enomoto, shifting uncomfortably in her seat.

"We are, kind of, but we're not together, haven't we already have this conversation earlier?" She'd wondered, she'd definitely had it with someone, but it might not have been Enomoto, it could have been someone else, she thought with a shrug, it might have been Domyoji.

"Does Goto know that?" Asked Tatsuya.

Hidaka blinked, "of course, well I think he does. I assume he does, I mean; I do." She sounded rough and as though she was stammering, even to herself.

"Well how would you feel if he had dinner with another woman?" Enomoto asked logically.

"Wouldn't care," Hidaka said immediately, "he's allowed to do what he wants."

Huh, there was food for thought here, the thought of Goto dating someone else, kissing someone else and being around someone else was fine, but the thought of him laughing and smiling at someone else the way she had with Rikio made her mildly annoyed.

There was definitely something interesting about that.

Tatsuya smiled ever so slightly, as though she could guess what Akira was thinking, which was ridiculous.

Tatsuya Enomoto was a lot of very impressive things. But telepathic, she wasn't.

She couldn't understand how Hidaka was feeling because, perhaps, she had felt these emotions or something similar in her life before. No. That was ridiculous.

Because the emotions Hidaka was feeling were ridiculous too, no way Tatsuya could understand how she was feeling!

And now Hidaka was beginning to confuse herself, moving on...

"Are you sure you wouldn't care?" Asked Enomoto kindly.

"Yes," said Hidaka, sounding much surer than she felt.

"Yeah, Goto and I aren't exclusive," she continued, "we aren't actually boyfriend and girlfriend."
"If you had to pick, who would your choice be?" Enomoto asked curiously.

"Goto," said Hidaka with barely a split second's hesitation. But it was that split second that bothered her.

"Thanks so much for coming to see this movie with me Rikio," Hidaka said, her smile making her face glow. "I can't believe Andy ditched me at the last second!"

Kamamoto laughed good-naturedly, "stop acting like I'm doing you such a big favour by going to see a movie with you. I wanted to see this movie too. And if you hadn't asked me to come see it with you I was gonna ask you this weekend," he confessed, blushing slightly as he often did when talking to Akira.

"Really?" Asked Hidaka, her face lighting up, she had just opened her mouth to say something else when an incredibly familiar voice called out to her.

"Hey! Hidaka!"

It was Goto. He, Enomoto and Fuse were standing, dressed in casual clothing by the doors of the movie theatre. Enomoto was looking massively uncomfortable, as her green eyes flicked from Kamamoto to Goto and back again.

Fuse seemed to catch on to his partner's feelings; he glanced at Kamamoto and then raised an eyebrow at Enomoto as if to say 'so this is him?' (Hidaka had no doubts that Tatsuya had told her fiancé about the Red Hidaka herself was occasionally seeing).

Enomoto nodded, Fuse did not look impressed.

Goto, on the other hand, had been told nothing, and he looked from Kamamoto to Hidaka and back again with open confusion written across his handsome features.

"Hey Hidaka," he nodded a greeting to Kamamoto too.

"Hey Goto, Fuse, Enomoto. What are you guys doing here, you seeing a movie?" Hidaka asked, considering the fact that they were standing outside a movie theatre, the chances were good that, yes indeed, they were seeing a movie. But Hidaka still thought it a fair question to ask anyway.

Enomoto nodded, "yeah, Fuse and I are going to see Space Attack, we invited Goto along when we saw he didn't have anything on today."

A flicker of suspicion ran through Akira, "Space Attack? The 2:30 viewing?"

Goto nodded.

Hidaka smiled, "cool!" She looked from her current companion to her friends, the 2:30 viewing of Space Attack, the latest Sci-fi, was what they had come here to see too, but, despite Hidaka's suspicions, there was no way Tatsuya and the others could have known that as Hidaka hadn't told any of them her plans for today and she doubted Domyoji had either.

She wanted to suggest that they all go see it together but she wasn't about to put Kamamoto through that.

As it turned out, she didn't have to, "um, why don't we all go in together?" Kamamoto offered hesitantly, "if you guys are okay with that, that is?"

The other members of Scepter 4's expressions ranged from wary (Enomoto), to hostile (Fuse), to downright baffled (Goto), but the first two knew that Kamamoto was alright, thanks to Hidaka telling Enomoto stories, and when Goto raised no objections, they accepted.

"Well," said Hidaka cheerfully, "that was awful," despite her honest assessment of the movie she was grinning. Space Attack had been so bad it was almost good and, though almost three hours of her life had most definitely been utterly and thoroughly wasted, the entertaining cheesiness of the story had been enough to make her happy.

Fuse muttered a heartfelt agreement and Goto nodded emphatically, but Enomoto caught Kamamoto's eye and looked away, she bit her lip and he turned his face away from the blue clansmen to hide their smiles.

They'd both really liked it, cheese overload and all.

They hung out for a little longer and then went their separate ways, when they separated Hidaka hugged Kamamoto and Goto felt like a dagger of ice had stabbed him through the chest.

He'd known they were close, but how close was 'close'? He should have seen this coming, he knew how much time Hidaka was spending with the red clansman and he'd never made his real feelings clear. Hidaka didn't have to choose just yet but she would eventually, provided they all didn't screw this up, and if she picked Kamamoto then Goto had no one to blame but himself.

He chewed the inside of his lip thoughtfully, so preoccupied with his attention that he wandered off without saying anything to Fuse, Enomoto or Hidaka.

Fuse bid the two women goodbye, kissing Tatsuya gently and touching Hidaka's shoulder before following his roommate.

Tatsuya's spectacled gaze followed Goto's meandering before she gave Akira a look that said quite clearly 'well now you've done it.'

Hidaka opened her mouth to protest that actually, she hadn't done anything but closed it without saying anything and sighed through her nose. Enomoto wouldn't get it, she and Fuse were so monogamous that the idea of liking anyone else at all, let alone liking someone else at the same time would be completely foreign to the bespectacled black-haired woman and her fiancé. They just wouldn't understand. It was cute and endearing, in a way, but Hidaka wouldn't ever tell either of them that.

To Enomoto, either Akira liked Ren so much she didn't see anyone else or she didn't like him at all. Hidaka, on the other hand, was aware that it was rarely that simple.

Tatsuya shook her head, her hair, loose for once, swung around her face and shoulders "this is going to keep him up all night and I'm the one who has to work with him tomorrow." She gave Hidaka a flat look, "sort yourselves out," she ordered before turning around and walking back towards their dorm.

"Yes ma'am," said Akira meekly, following behind her younger friend.

If only it were that easy.

A week later clamoring woke Hidaka, just as she cracked her eyelids open the door slammed open and Enomoto tumbled through, nearly killing herself.

Hidaka sat upright, concerned, but not overly, Enomoto had a tendency to overreact to things, it probably wasn't that bad. Whatever 'it' was.

"It's Benzai, she's just been taken into hospital, she was trapped in a burning building, she's unconscious." Enomoto said.

A chill shot through Hidaka.

They got the whole story from Akiyama.

He and Benzai had been investigating a claim that 'strange people in bright green motorcycle helmets' had been causing trouble by a convenience store at the corner of two nearby streets.

When they got there they found that people in green helmets with metal bats were indeed causing trouble, they hadn't hurt anyone but they were threatening to and destroying property, destroying it with green fire, right in the middle of the day in public.

When Benzai and Akiyama had shown up the Greens had bolted, the pair had given chase and followed them to an abandoned building by some construction work, the building was actually part of the construction work, or it would be, once they knocked it down. Now that would no longer be a problem, the whole building was ash.

When the Greens had fled inside the building Benzai and Akiyama had needed to speak to each other, they knew what to do, they had been each other's work partner, their backup, the person they trusted to watch their backs in a fight since before they came, together, to work for Scepter 4. They didn't need words.

Yujiro had run into the building after the Greens while Akiyama had run around, cutting them off from taking the back exit or jumping out one of the back windows.

Then the whole building had gone up in flames.

The fire didn't start small. It was like the whole place had been covered in gasoline or some other flammable (which it genuinely might have been but neither Yujiro nor Himori had noticed or smelled anything) and then someone had struck a match... or used supernatural fire to start off a very unsupernatural, uncontrollable fire.

As a Clansman, Benzai had a naturally high resistance to fire, but that only went so far. And it certainly didn't apply to smoke inhalation. Her lungs were burnt.

Looking down at his oldest friend, practically his sister, Himori's expression was devastated, Andy came up behind his chair and wrapped both of her arms around his neck from behind, holding herself close to him, Himori's expression mollified but the broken look in his eyes remained.

Sitting on Benzai's other side, holding her hand in both of his, Ryuho's face, like Himori's, was expressionless, but unlike Himori his grey eyes blazed.

"I'm sorry, I'm the one who messed up, I couldn't protect my own partner," Akiyama said so softly Akira and Tatsuya barely heard him.

"It wasn't your fault," said Kamo, he never took his eyes from Benzai's face.

"The doctors say she'll be alright. And Benzai is so strong! They have no idea," Domyoji ran her hands through Himori's hair. "She'll be fine," she whispered.

Enomoto ducked out into the hall, it was less of a silently sneaking away and more of a hysterical dash to get out of the room.

Hidaka caught the pregnant woman's arm and gently lowered her before she collapsed into a chair, "what's wrong?" Akira whispered, knowing they had only seconds before Andy came to check on them.

Enomoto's hands were shaking as well as she tried to hide it, "I'm probably overreacting but another building went up in flames too, right in the middle of the area Goto and Fuse went to scope out. And," the trembling in her hands, "I can't contact either of them."

Hidaka's heart skipped a beat, she pulled her own phone out and hit Goto's number.

Ren Goto you pick up the phone right now! Hidaka yelled mentally but didn't say it out loud; she didn't want to worry Enomoto any more than she already was, she shook her head dismissively, this wasn't going to work, they'd both tried contacting them multiple times and hadn't gotten a response.

"I'm heading over there," she told Andy and Tatsuya, "stay here," that was mostly directed at the six months pregnant woman who had been opening her mouth to say she was coming along. Hidaka levelled a glare at Domyoji that said they younger woman was to keep Enomoto here no matter what. It was likely Goto and Fuse were both perfectly safe, but if they weren't then Enomoto and her unborn child couldn't be anywhere near there.

Hidaka turned to leave, she spun around just in time to see Fuse and Goto almost run through the door.

Fuse's left arm hung uselessly by his side and a huge bruise obscured the usually flawless skin of Goto's cheek.

But they were both conscious and breathing, and that was what mattered.

"Daiki!" With surprising agility Enomoto jumped to her feet and ran to Fuse, heedless of his injuries his good arm went around her and he held her close, "sorry," Akira heard him murmur against her hair.

Goto walked up to Andy, "how's Benzai?" He asked, face hard.

Andy's green eyes filled with relief, "unconscious, she passed out from smoke inhalation, but alive. Doing better than those idiot Greens in any case." She stood, "I'll tell the others that you're here," she offered and left, shooting a meaningful look at Hidaka. Andy just got more and more perceptive as she got older.

Ren and Akira looked at each other, "are you alright?" Hidaka asked, her voice went raspy as relief swamped her. Until she saw him she hadn't fully understood how worried she'd been.

Goto nodded, "we'll be fine." He looked at her then, really looked at her and a thrill ran through Akira.

Ren hugged her tightly for a second before pulling back, he didn't need to say anything, his expression said it all, but he did anyway.

"I love you."

Hidaka just hugged him again, Red Clans, Blue Clans, Green Clans, Silver Clans, romances and friendships, who cared about any of it? Goto was safe. And that was what mattered.

Done!

Well, just thought you guys should know; the poll I mentioned last chapter, Mikoto and Fushimi are tied in the lead but Munakata, Izumo, Hidaka, Neko and Klaudia Weismann all have one vote each. So if you don't think Mikoto and Fushimi are the two best looking characters in K (or even if you do) vote or drop me a review telling me who you think is the most attractive!
Next chapter is the last chapter guys, hope you enjoyed.

Bye!