Note: Now, I have a confession to make. I have mixed up a name in this story so far. In Chapter 9 when done from the Demon's point of view I put 'Lord Ethan'. Well, it's supposed to be Lord Edmund. Silly me for making such a mistake no? Well, for any of you that have read all my stories you'll know that Ethan was actually another male character from my butterfly chronicles and that is why Edmund became Ethan in my mind and in the story. xD Should I make this mistake again, just to warn you it's supposed to be Edmund not Ethan. Thank you, ROSEY

Chapter 12

The next morning Hika awoke bright and early. She lay in bed and thought about the last week and sighed. She was remembering all the kisses she had received form Charlie before she stiffened and thought of the brief yet exotic tasting one she had shared with Kuronue the night before. Slamming that door shut quickly, she pushed herself from her bed and went about getting ready for the rest of the day. After all, she and Inane had decided to have a girl's day out.

She was in the kitchen making a set of lunches when the front door opened and Inane's clear voice flew through the otherwise quiet house. Hika put the knife she was carrying down and peeked out the door of the kitchen down the hall towards the front door, "In the kitchen Inane," she called before ducking back in and finishing the food making.

When Inane joined the half-demon, the young woman found two small boxes of food each with a bow—one black and one green. Inane's eyes widened and she gave Hika an approving look. "Some of your cooking for today's meal? Fabulous! I never got to tell you but the lunches you made us on Tuesday were absolutely delicious," Inane said which made Hika smile with pride as she washed her hands and the utensils she had used to make the food.

"I'm glad you like it. So what are our plans for the day? We never really got to decide what we were going to do," Hika asked with a smile as she put the knife away in its proper place.

"Well first I was thinking that maybe we could go and get manicures and pedicures and then meander our way back here and we could hang out for a while," Inane said joyfully before turning her head to look at the door leading to the front hallway. Hika blinked and looked up as well. Someone was knocking on the front door and summoning one of the household to answer it.

The house was empty besides the two girls. Tyali and Noki had gone out together as had Night and Takji. Hika frowned and slowly went to the front door. They were not expecting anyone there on that Sunday. When she got to the door and opened it, the young woman stood face to face with a young man that had a pair of bat wings and the same black hair and blue eyes as Hika did.

Inane stood behind the young woman, staring at the male reflection of Hika. There was a moment of awkward silence before Inane broke it with a soft cough. "Hika, a friend of yours?" she asked gently. The young man had turned his gaze to Inane and was appraising her with approving eyes.

"So it is safe to assume that you are one of the humans that father said had found out about us demons," the young man said before pushing his way past Hika and taking Inane's hand and raising it to his lips. "The pleasure of meeting you is all mine, mademoiselle. I am Ryota Yutorio Shiroibara, son of Tyali Yutorio and Noki Shiroibara."

Inane was blinking rapidly as she blushed and watched the young man that held her hand to his lips. Hika was still staring out the doorway. She had heard her mother talking about a Ryota but she had never seen him herself. She turned to look at her friend and this new young man and simply stared. When Ryota noticed, he turned to grin at the other girl and took her hand and raised it to his lips in the same gesture in which he had used with Inane.

"And what is the name of such a beautiful creature as you? Are you a friend of my parents and my sister? By the way where is that girl, I haven't seen her in almost two hundred years and she doesn't even come to say hello?" he asked, his eyes glittering with mischief that slowly turned to confusion as Hika yanked her hand away before his lips could touch her flesh and startled out of her shock at this strange young man by Inane's laughter that rang out as he spoke.

Hika refused to look at him as she tried to fight from laughing as well. "You," she started to stay before stopping. She was trying oh so hard not to laugh. She ended up snickering a bit however. "I am Hika, you giant dolt." She finally managed to get out with laughter ripping through the words. Ryota stared at her, shocked before taking a closer look at her.

"Well, of course you are! A beauty like you could only be related to me!" he said just as their parents came running up the sidewalk to see the situation.

"Ryota! You weren't supposed to arrive until next weekend!" Noki yelled, looking worriedly between the two girls and the young man. "Please tell me you didn't a fool of yourself already?"

"We were going to tell you Hika, but like your father said, he wasn't supposed to arrive until next weekend," Hika's mother was saying at the same time.

"I got tired of waiting. It wasn't fair that Hika got to run around at a high school with all sorts of humans and I got stuck with a bunch of unruly demon thieves that wanted to go on raids!" Ryota said exasperatedly.

"Who is this idiot? He says he's your son." Hika asked.

"I'm your older brother," Ryota said.

"He's your older brother by twenty years," Tyali said at the same time before smiling at her first born. "You two didn't ever get along so we decided that when Noki went off on his own he'd take your brother and raise him and I'd take you."

"What mother is trying to say is that we literally almost killed each other when you were ten and I was thirty," Ryota explained to a gaping Hika.

All three of the Shiroibaras were looking at Hika as if she was supposed to turn around and accept this without a bit of problem. She opened her mouth several times to say something before turning and stalking to the kitchen. She grabbed the food boxes, her bag, and the bag that Inane had left in there before stomping back off. The young half-demon then made her wings disappear, and then marched out of the house silently past her newly re-discovered older brother and out the front gate where she waited for Inane to join her. However when Inane did, Ryota was with her, his own wings masked into invisibility.

"I don't care who you are, go away," Hika said as politely as she could as she glared daggers at him as he smiled down at Inane. "And she has a boyfriend so you can forget whatever it is you are thinking."

"Your mother wanted us to show him around town. I thought it would be fun and would give you and Ryota time to get to know one another. We can do a girl's day out again some other time," Inane said cheerfully as she took her bag from Hika and slung it up on her shoulder. "And just think if we go shopping, he can carry all the bags." This last bit was said in a mock whisper.

"Aye, I do wonders when it comes to hauling bags around," Ryota said, sticking his head into their little group with a big grin.

Hika had been looking so forward to this day where it was only Inane and her, and she could talk about things that weren't overheard by someone that might report back to her parents. Taking a deep breath and holding it for a moment to give her time to think it over, she released it and turned away from him. "Fine," she said grudgingly and started to walk down the road.

The rest of the day went relatively hassle free until around lunch time. Inane had led them to a beautiful part with a hill in the middle that overlooked the city. This was where they were sitting when Inane got up and rushed off, saying something about having to rush to use the restroom. Ryota was stretched out next to Hika allowing the sun to sink into his skin. Hika was slowly eating her food.

When she couldn't eat any more, she held it out to the young man and sighed, "Hungry?"

The food was gone ten seconds later. She blinked several times at the empty box which had been taken and then replaced without any food in it. "I guess so," she said with a small smile before she packed up the food box and looked out over the city.

"Hika," Ryota said softly, brining her attention back to him.

"What?"

"You know I'm only here to act as your shadow."

"Because of the Demon right?"

"Yeah," he said, pushing himself to sit next to her, supporting himself with a palm placed flatly on the ground behind him.

"Ryota?"

"What?"

"Why did we try to kill each other when I was ten?" Hika asked, looking over at him. It was so long ago that she really couldn't remember it. She didn't even really remember him ever being in her life. There was silence for several minutes before Ryota answered.

"You had heard the story of Grandmother Hiromi for the first time all the way through. From beginning to end and were so scared that it was going to happen to you—that you would awaken one day not able to control your body and would kill all your friends and family. You woke up in the middle of the night crying and had decided to come and seek comfort from me. Only you didn't know back then never to sneak up on others," he told her, a sad note to his voice. Hika winced.

"I thought you were attack me—I didn't even think that it might be you because I'd just woken up when the door opened and shut. Da and Ma I guess had locked the door to their room for … recreational purposes. I thought that maybe someone was trying to sneak in to kill me. I was real paranoid back then. Yoko made sure of that. I waited until you had gotten onto the bed before I struck. I didn't know it was you—I was befuddle from sleep and my senses hadn't fully awaken,"

"I ended up nearly tearing your heart out before I realized that it was you. You kept crying and saying that 'I'm not possessed! I swear Ryo I'm not possessed!' but I didn't hear you. Someone told me that after I was brought out of the battle rage that had taken over," Ryota said, his throat thick with guilt.

"After that I stopped going near you. I was afraid that I'd hurt you again. Da and Ma finally figured that it would be better if they locked away your memories of that day and the story and that I go with Da out of the castle so as not to ruin the memory removal process. I trained the rest of the time to control my battle rages and to make sure that I wouldn't flip out as I did. Hika, I owe you so much for what I did to you that night. I want to repay you for that. I want to protect my little sis like I was meant to all those years," Ryota finished, not able to look at the young woman.

Hika had listened through all that, her mouth slightly open in awe. She had always wondered why she had a scar right over her heart. No one had ever told her when she'd asked and so she just chalked it up to a training mistake. Ryota's story though triggered something in her and she launched herself at him.

The slightly older man flinched away as if expecting a flurry of blows but instead found a young girl clinging to him as if he was the only thing keeping her afloat in an ocean. Memories of the night slowly flew at her. Terror of being possessed, fear that she was possessed and that was why Big RyoRyo was trying to claw at her heart and pull it out, sadness that she hadn't been able to resist the possession. They all came flooding back to her as if she was that small girl of ten.

"RyoRyo," she whimpered and held tight to her brother who held her equally as tight.

"Lil Hika," he murmured and rocked her back and forth as she cried into his shirt. She told him everything that had happened, letting it all just fly out at him. She knew, deep in her heart, that she didn't have to hold anything back in front of this man. That this man was the big brother that would protect her no matter what happened and no matter what she said.

Inane found them that way when she returned. Hika crying out about how it wasn't fair that she was having to pay for the crimes of her past life and Ryota making quiet shushing sounds and saying that it would all be all right. Inane watched and tears started to form in her eyes. The scene was beautiful in a way. It was like seeing a family that was shattered being finally put back together. There was no romance involved that made this scene before her beautiful—just raw emotion being released that any person with a heart could see and feel.

She made a wave to Ryota to show that she was just going to leave, before grabbing her bag and leaving the siblings. She knew in her own heart that Hika would be in good hands and she needed this time alone with a family member that hadn't schemed against her.

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Confession from author: I cried a little when writing the story about Hika and Ryota. ;o; RyoRyo is officially my favorite OC character next to Chime. ROSEY