Yuya stared out the window, but she didn't see anything out there, all she could see was her best friend's tear strained face when she'd said goodbye.

Sakuya had moved away.

Yuya was in no mood for this family outing. Her neck was beginning to cramp from facing the window so long, but she ignored it. No way she was going to let Kyo see her all misty eyed. Did he really have to come along? she thought, miserably. Yuya might have complained to her dense mother for having Kyo come with. After all, she was at that age where girls got more "fresh", but she lacked the energy. Her heart throbbed every time she saw girls laughing and smiling together. Sakuya was her best friend, and now she felt profoundly alone.

Yuya nonchalantly helped put up the tent then decided to wonder off; time to herself was long needed. Her entire skull ached from the effort not to cry.

"Hey, where do you think you're going?" Kyo asked.

Yuya pretended she didn't hear him and kept on walking. The leaves and twigs crunched beneath her feet, as she ducked branches and clambered over rocks. Yuya continued trudging on as her tears streaked down her cheeks, finally breaking free. Perhaps if she had felt closely connected with someone else, it would have softened the blow of Sakuya leaving, but Yuya didn't feel like there was anyone else. She even felt isolated from her own family.

Yuya halted and slumped down on a tree-stump to catch her breath. She wiped her nose and more stray tear drops. That's when she realized she didn't have a remote idea of where she was. Yuya panicked, it was already almost sunset and she was utterly lost in unfamiliar territory. She looked around, trying to catch her bearings when she suddenly heard the sound of sticks snapping and swishing leaves. Her heart pounded as she braced herself...

She spotted the red eyes first, then the dark hair second.

"Are you stupid dog-face? Only idiots go marching off in a place like this--" Kyo said, while violently kicking at a vine to entangle his leg from it. When he successfully freed it, he looked up.

"You're crying." he stated.

"I am NOT crying. Why don't you seriously just leave me alone!" Yuya choked out. She brushed off her tears with her sleeve so roughly, she chaffed her poor cheeks.

For a while, the two were both silent.

Kyo finally spoke, "Geez, it's not like you're never going to see her again. You can even call and message that mutt."

"You don't understa--" Yuya stopped herself after recognizing that solemn expression of his. Of course he understands, she thought, Kyo's mother is gone and he's never going to see her again.

She flushed with shame. her pain suddenly felt extremely insignificant. Kyo figured out what she'd just realized and yet another awkward silence descended upon them.

Yuya's eyes roved around her surroundings, perhaps an attempt to formulate something to say, when she froze.

"Kyo, it's gotten really dark..."

"We shouldn't try to go back at this point, instead, we should try starting a fire. Your brother will probably find us."

"So you don't know how to get back either?"

Kyo glared at her.

That's a no.

"Hey dog-face, you aren't getting scared are you?" he grinned, transforming into his usual self.

"N-no! I'm not scared, don't be stupid!" Yuya stammered. She stomped around snatching anything flammable. The two bickered over how to light the fire:

"No! You should put my leaf there!" said Yuya.

"Why? it should go here. I know my fires better than you do." remarked Kyo, moving her leaf.

"Well, we should definitely use my tissues then, you freaking Pyro!"

"Ew dog-face, they probably have your snot all over them..."

"They don't even!"

However, when the fire from the match caught onto to Yuya's leaf and then Kyo's twig, and then grew larger and larger, Yuya momentarily forgot she hated him and gave him a triumphant high-five.

She stumbled back, appalled at what she'd just done. She looked at her hand like it was purple with green spots. A high-five? She turned away to conceal her embarrassment.

"Hey dog-face, lets play a game." said Kyo, crouching down near the fire.

Yuya sat down too. "What kind of game?"

"I'll think of a noun, and you can ask twenty yes or no questions to guess what it is. If you don't figure out what noun I'm thinking of after twenty questions, you lose."

"Fine." said Yuya, turning on every part of her brain to get ready.

"Is it a person?"

"No."

"Is it a place?"

"No."

"Hey wait a minute," Yuya said, something dawning on her, "how do I know you're not gonna just keep changing the noun in your head so I can't win?"

Kyo's blood-red eyes pierced hers.

"I wouldn't do that." he said.

For some reason, Yuya blushed. She felt herself getting trapped by his gaze, but before another awkward silence could ensue, she heard someone calling.

"Kyo! Yuya?" a figure hobbled towards the fire and sighed.

"There you guys are. Where the hell did you go? Mom's totally freaking out." said Nozomu.

"Hold on!" Yuya cried, "Do you know how to get back!"

Nozomu patted her on the head and smiled. "Of course, your brother is a genius you know."

Regardless of what he said, Yuya still felt it took much longer to get back than it did to get there...

During the rest of the camping trip, Kyo continued challenging her relentlessly. The punk managed to catch the biggest fish. He could stay underwater the longest. He somehow knew her noun each time after only five questions. However it wasn't till Yuya got home that she realized (rather guiltily) she'd forgotten her sadness over Sakuya, and it was all because of Kyo. She also realized she could in fact, call and message Sakuya,

and she did.

Perhaps, Yuya was feeling used to Kyo's character, or perhaps Kyo himself was letting up a little, or maybe the planets were strangely aligned. Nonetheless, over the next weeks after that camping trip, Yuya found herself in Kyo's company more and more, and she found she wasn't particularly hating it either.

Kyo often wound up in her room and Yuya didn't try to kick him out. They still challenged each other of course. Kyo proceeded to beat her at all types of card games, chess, Monopoly, and battle ship...

Whether she acknowledged it or not, Yuya even snuck snacks from the kitchen and stored them in her room so they could snack on them. It didn't surprise her that her mother seemed to never notice Kyo was there. Her brother may have noticed, but he never said anything. Kyo sometimes stayed past her bed time too. It made Yuya feel kind of cool and rebellious. Occasionally, Yuya went to his room to play video games. The first time, She observed his room closely. It was quite plain and simple, and not remotely as messy as she imagined it would be. Yuya spotted a photograph on his bed stand. She knew immediately the woman in the photo was his mother. Yuya concluded she was a lovely woman, and she knew Kyo missed her more than he showed.

His room harbored another occupant as well--Kyo's cat. She was a petite calico named Indara who only trusted Kyo. Every time Yuya tried to get near her she'd hiss at her, even when Yuya got too close to Kyo. Though Kyo found this amusing, it annoyed Yuya greatly. You dumb cat, she thought, don't you know just what kind of person your owner is? However, when she saw him petting Indara, she changed her mind. Yuya never thought it was possible for Kyo to be that gentle. For some reason, her heart beat faster.

Once, an epic neighborhood Water-Warfare challenge took place, and this time, Kyo and Yuya were on the same team. Though the other team had many more kids as a handicap, Kyo and Yuya still had total domination. Yuya would never admit it out loud but her face conveyed her excitement. She loved the fact that she was wearing war paint. Her heart raced with adrenaline, and her eyes glazed over. Kyo had even agreed to some of her strategic plans, which oddly, flattered her. As it turns out, when Kyo and Yuya worked as a team, they were pretty much unstoppable.

The li'l ones trembled in awe.

Kyo even had a unique sense of humor that Yuya caught on to eventually. Many boys might've described his humor as sick, but Yuya must have missed that part. When they were together, Yuya knew he found something funny because he laughed in his eyes. His mouth would curl in a smile and his crimson orbs would flicker like two flames.

Though he'd still openly laugh out loud at her....

If someone asked Yuya about Kyo, instead of referring to him as her arch nemesis, at this point, she might of actually called him her friend.

This lasted until one fateful day.

But that fateful day was yet to come.

For now, Kyo and Yuya were 13 years old.