" I deeply apologize for my... friend, here."

Luka stood outside the door of Kiyoteru's apartment with this Gakupo fellow standing beside her.

"Ahah, it was no problem. Really!" Kamui grinned and patted Luka on the head. Luka frowned and went inside. When she walking past Kiyoteru and into the door she realized that when he had patted her head he was touching a piece of her hair again.

When Luka realized this she felt her face go red and she bent her head down so that her pink hair would cover her face.

"Well, if there is anything that we can do to make it up to you just tell us. I would pay you back the money for the gloves but I am deeply sorry to tell you that we don't have that kind of money."

Kiyoteru looked embarrassed but Kamui looked as carefree as ever. He grinned.

"No, no. Don't you worry. Hm.. let's see. You could repay me by all of you joining me at my house for lunch tomorrow!" Kamui looked like a little kid with his purple eyes shining brightly.

Kiyoteru looked taken aback for a second then he merely smiled. "Of course. Would you mind if we added one more. I have a daughter, Yuki, who is smaller. Would it be okay if she joined us?"

Kamui grinned and nodded.

Good God he might be retarded.

"Well, thank you for helping Luka out and we will definitely be there for lunch tomorrow."

Kiyoteru was about to close the door when Kamui gasped and wrote down something on a piece of scrap paper that he pulled out from his coat pocket.

"Here."

"Ah, your address, good thinking."

The two guys smiled at each other and Kiyoteru closed the door. Luka gaped when she saw Kamui wink at her before the door closed.

Goddamn Perv.

Luka turned around and was about to wander back to her room when she felt Kiyoteru grab her wrist. She stopped in her tracks but did not turn around. She knew what was coming and she was prepared for it. When her parents started drinking, getting hit was there new form of punishment. Luka turned around to face him and she flinched when she saw him raise his hand.

"You don't need to do things like stealing to tell me that you are unhappy here. If you have somewhere else that you would prefer to go, then I will send you."

Luka widened her eyes when she realized that Kiyoteru was ruffling her hair and not striking her. She closed her eyes and felt the tears roll down her cheeks. She shook her head.

"I...don't have anywhere else." Luka looked at Kiyoteru and he smiled a comforting smile.

The words stung as she spoke them because they made her come to a staggering truth. She had nowhere else to go.

"Then, I guess we are stuck with each other."

Luka smiled and nodded and wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her hoodie.

"Don't forgot Yuki!"

Luka turned around when she heard the chipper voice of a young girl. The girl, who she assumed was Yuki, was probably the cutest little girl in history. She had big eyes and dark hair that was a shade darker than Kiyoteru's brown hair. Her hair was in two short pigtails and she was wearing a red flowered jumper and blue and white striped leggings. She was smiling and she ran up to Luka and hugged her. She was about three and a half feet tall.

"Daddy! Is this Luka? My new sister?" Yuki grinned at her father and hugged Lukas legs.

"Ah, Yuki, sweetie. She is just going to be here for a little while so let's say that she will be your new friend. "

Luka watched Yuki's reaction to this and the child's smile wavered a bit but then she glanced up at Luka and smiled.

"Luka! Let's be friends!"

Luka leaned down and extended her hand. She was about to retract it when she saw that it was dirty.

Just like the rest of myself.

Luka thought about this and pulled her hand back when she felt Yuki's small hand grasp hers. The hand was so small and warm and she had a stamp in the middle that had a smiley face saying "Good Job!". Probably from her school.

"Friends!" Yuki said in her cutesy voice.

Luka was a little taken aback but she smiled back. "Friends."

"Ah, Yuki, I need to go take a shower. How about we play once I get out?" Luka looked at Kiyoteru for permission but he just smiled and nodded at her.

"Alright then."

Luka placed her hands on the wet walls of the shower and she bent her head down. She was not crying. She had faced the fact that her parents were not her responsibility any more. She no longer had to make the walk to the cafe and wonder if her parents had died of hypothermia while she was out. She no longer had to sneak into the back of the local gym and stand the cold showers because the employees had turned off the water heater before they left.

She no longer had to go to a rave club and stand next to dancing people as her only way of getting heat. She no longer had to jog to her old house and pretend that she could walk through the door, like when she was six, and be greeted by her mom.

She no longer had to tear her mind apart due to the fact that she sometimes wished that her parents were dead.

She no longer had to worry that tomorrow would be worse.

"Sometimes we are less unhappy in being deceived by those we love, than in being undeceived by them"

Luka spoke the words that she had seen spray painted on wall near her old home.

They had been there for as long as she had known and she did not know who wrote them. Not even who painted them but they had stuck in her mind.

"So, Mrs. Coudel had asked Marc to stop hitting Sarah but he did not stop so he got sent out into the hallway while the class continued free time."

"Well, I guess Marc might have had a crush on Sarah."

"Ew! Luka, no! That's gross!"

Luka was sitting crossed legged on the floor of Yuki's room. The room was pink with white polka dots painted in random places. One of the dots said " Daddy Loves Yuki!" with a smiley face on the inside.

Yuki was standing on her bed and pretending that her Barbie™ doll was flying like a superhero. All the while, she was telling Luka about her days at school. They were somehow quite innocent.

Luka was flipping through a Junie B. Jones book and just enjoying the peace.

"Luka, are your mommy and daddy dead?"

Luka stopped flipping through the book and remained silent. Of course, physically her parents were not dead. Unless they had died in two days.

"You could say that."

Luka nodded to herself.

They are dead to me. I would like to believe that they are dead and happy. I would like to believe that so much.

Luka turned around and smiled at Yuki.

"So, tell me more about Marc and Sarah, are they your friends?"

Yuki looked at her uncertainly for a moment then nodded and smiled.

The two girls stopped talking when they heard a knock on the door.

"Yuki, you should get to sleep. We are having lunch at a friend of Luka's tomorrow."

"Really?! Yay!" Yuki sat down on her bed and pulled the covers over herself.

"Luka, are you excited, too?"

"Yes, of course." Luka smiled at Yuki and was about to exit the room.

"It's sorta like a field trip!"

Luka smiled to herself. "Yeah, Like a field trip."

Luka exited the room and walked over to hears and laid down on the bed and looked at the white ceiling. She was wearing a over-sized white button up shirt that Kiyoteru had frantically bought when Luka had informed him from the other side of the bathroom door that she did not have any other clothes than what she was wearing. She was also wearing a pair of sweatpants that were also a little big.

She looked glanced to her left and saw the red gloves lying on her bed beside her. She slipped them on.

With her gloved hands interlocked behind her head and her legs hanging off the side of the bed she fell asleep.

For once in her life she did not wake up from being to cold or her parents coughing.

So warm.