Hey guys! Yes I'm alive :D I'm sorry about the gaped updates, Junior year really didn't leave me with all that much time to type :( I just finished this chapter last night around 11 and proof read it this morning before I leave for a final(go me lol) I'm going to try my best to try and get 1-2 more chapters up before I start my Junior year 3 I hope the longer chapter suffices your needs since it's been like 3 months since I updated. Role playing has taught me how to be more descriptive with my writing X'D

On another good note, I recently started a collab fanfic with one of my friends! I'm not sure if it's going to be going up on my account or hers yet. If it doesn't go up on mine, I'll be sure to make a note on the next chapter about where to find it. If you like Big Hero 6, and angst/drama/fluffy writing, then I do think you'd enjoy this one 3

Anyways, on with the chapter~!

"Hey, Drago, do you think this set would be good for her?" Dan asked, as he turned around to the red floating sphere beside him, and showed him a pack of brawling equipment.

"Remind me why we're here again?" Drago questioned.

"Well, don't you remember what Ivy said?" Dan started, then he looked up towards the ceiling for a moment. "Well, I decided to take her advice, and see if I can try and warm up to Emily, slowly. I thought maybe by giving her a gift and an apology would be a good idea, no?" Drago floated there for a moment, before he gave a slight nod. "You think it's a good idea to trust that woman? Something about her seemed… off to me."

"Really, you think so?" Dan asked, as he tilted his head slightly. "I didn't see it. I thought it was nice that she was trying to help. Besides, I'm kind of desperate in order to get Emily to like me."

"And you think that she'd enjoy getting brawling equipment?" Drago questioned.

"Well, yeah." Dan then paused, and then he crossed his arms. "I've seen the way she acts when she's on the battlefield. She tries to hide it, but I think she enjoys spectating the matches. I've got faith she might be a top brawler one day, to be honest." He finished with a shrug as he started walking towards the counter.

"And you are sure that you aren't pushing this? She doesn't even have a bakugan yet." Drago protested.

"I know that." Dan said in a rather defensive tone, as he sweat dropped ever so slightly. "We'll find her one rather quickly, I mean how hard can it be to find a bakugan…right?"

Drago sighed as he floated over towards the counter and watched Dan take out some money from his pocket in order to pay for what he grabbed. "I just hope that you're making a good decision here Daniel. She really seems like she wants nothing to do with me."

Dan rolled his eyes, "I know that Drago. I'm Dan Kuso though, I'll get her to like me eventually."

"Wait, you want to what?!" Victoria exclaimed. "Don't you know how dangerous that is? She's still got Aura, and she's an attacker!"

"Sweetie," Ivy said with a sigh. "I don't think you understand how marvelous this plan actually is. Besides we're not going to hurt anyone, yes? She questioned.

"Well….no we aren't but-"Victoria started, but was quickly cut off.

"Exactly!" Ivy exclaimed as she stood up from her chair, and put both of her hands on the table. "Which means there's no harm to it, and we will get our prize." She then looked towards Peotas. "Darling, what do you think?"

The man sat in his chair with his arms folded across his chest, his eyes closed, deep in thought. "As long as you assure that it'll give us what we want. And remember, we can't really hurt her too badly."

The three looked at one another, and Ivy closed her eyes and hummed for a few moments, while her fingers lightly tapped on the table, her nails making what almost sounded like a clicking sound. "Hmm. Perhaps I should try to talk to the girl?" she asked, as she opened one of her eyes. "I can keep her distracted while you two start the plan and get the bait we need."

Vicky looked over, as she glanced between Ivy and Peotas, eventually looking over at Ivy raising an eyebrow. "Does Emily know you? If she does, then there might be a bit of a problem." She said with a sigh.

"I don't think she does, Victoria" Peotas explained. "I do believe that Emily ran away before she talked to Dan last time, right?" He stated, before looking at Ivy for clarification.

"Yes, Peotas is right there, sweetie." Ivy answered as she smirked. "So, how does that sound?"

The remaining two glanced over at one another. It took almost what seemed like a solid minute as they read each other's expressions, before they both nodded. "I believe it sounds fantastic, Ivy." Peotas said as he glanced over in her direction. "I will go and…get prepared for this event. I'm relying on you two to do your part with Emily, now." He stated, as he got up from the table and started to walk out of the room. "Oh, and Ivy, do try and, how do they put it, butter her up for me, will you?" He added, before he walked out of the room. The two females simply blinked and watched him leave, before they got up as well to do their parts.

"Master Peotas, Sir, do you honestly believe that you're going to make this plan work?" Denziel finally asked as the two finally hear Ivy and Victoria leave.

"All in due time, my dear partner." Peotas stated, as he closed his eyes and made a fist. "We executed the first part of our plan many years ago. This is just…phase two, if you will. Rest assured, this will work, and we will have her back. All it requires is a small…push, is all."

The phoenix bakugan didn't really seem to say much of anything after that as he simply landed on top of Peotas's shoulder. He trusted Peotas, since that's what you do, right? He knew that he would get his moment to shine, eventually. You could just simply call him, impatient. Denziel just wanted some action, not waiting around for this silly plan to take action after all of these years.

Flight. It was the one thing this young girl actually seemed to enjoy. The wind flowing through her brown hair and along her fingertips, it just felt so peaceful. Like she could do it all day. It was to no avail though, because she knew inside, that she had to go back eventually. This feeling that was tugging at her heart was starting to get on her nerves. What was the emotion? Affection? Love? Acceptance? Perhaps it was one of those, but it just didn't settle right with her. She already lost someone that she loved so much, and look where that got her. It got her to be a runaway. A stray. It made her so… alone. She didn't want to be close to anyone ever again. Not with the constant fear of losing the person she loves. It happened once, what would happen when it does twice? She wasn't really sure, and she was terrified of the possibilities. She found herself slowly landing on the roof of a small building, as she looked up at the sky. All the different hues of red, yellow, and orange illuminated the sky. It was pretty. She found it to be rather calming, as she then proceeded to hug her knees and a small smile came across her lips. Being alone, in a scene like this. It felt nice.

"Now only if this could stay this way…" She mumbled to herself. The perfect scenery wouldn't last forever. Eventually the night would settle in. The impending darkness. It was a scary thought. There wasn't any type of warmth during that time. Just cold. She looked up and found herself closing her eyes, before she thought about going home. Perhaps she should, so they didn't worry about the young girl. With a heavy sigh she hopped back up onto her feet, as she then walked towards the edge of the building, which looked like an alleyway between this building and the next. 'Good' she thought to herself, nobody had to see her doing this, nobody had to see her coming. She then jumped and slid down the side of the building, and then wrapped her brown tail around her waist as she walked out of the alley and tried to fit into the crowd of people walking by.

Her attempt to sneak through the crowd unnoticed was interrupted when she suddenly felt something on her shoulder. The touch, it was cold. She didn't like it. She scrunched up her nose as she turned around to a lady, who was fixing up her flashy boa. She definitely stood out in the crowd.

"Are you okay sweetie? You seem lost." She asked Emily, with a smile on her face.

Her voice sounded soft and welcoming, but there was something behind it. It didn't seem normal. Why would Emily get picked out in particular? The public didn't know about what she was, so she blended in pretty well. Plus, her tail looked almost like a belt. "Um, no, I'm not." Emily finally replied. "I was just…going home?"

"Aren't you a bit young to walking around by yourself? Where are your parents?" She asked.

"Um… I don't know, am I?" Emily replied back, raising an eyebrow. She didn't really think about that before. The idea did make sense. She was a kid, who was walking around by herself. She tried to avoid the second half of her question, though.

"Yes, you are. Here, why don't I take you home?" She asked her, "Oh, how silly. My name is Ivy. What's yours, sweetie?"

Emily blinked. Ivy? That was a different name. Do people have weird names around here? First that Peotas creep, and then some of Dan's friends, and now Ivy? She couldn't help but wonder about this. The lady seemed nice enough though. "Emily and, uh….yeah sure, I guess?" She said in a questionable tone. It shouldn't be so right?

"Oh, good!" Ivy practically chirped, as she quickly started walking off with Emily down the sidewalk. "So, tell me. Why were you outside alone in the first place anyway?"

"Um…well… I guess I just got into a fight with my brother so…" She stated, trailing off. 'Just keep it simple.' She thought to herself, can't give out too many details.

"A fight? What happened?" Ivy asked her as a frown drew across her face.

This woman was definitely curious. It felt weird, having someone who was so concerned for her. She hadn't felt this way in years. It felt nice. "Something with brawling, he keeps acting like he knows what he's doing." She stated, and then shrugged. "He keeps almost losing and it's just…"

"Brawling?" Ivy questioned, as she folded her arms. "You mean Bakugan brawling, yes?"

"Yeah, I do." She then paused, then shook her head. "I don't know. I just find it really, weird. He keeps trying to get really close to me and it's weird."

Emily heard Ivy hum. "Getting close to you? Aren't you two well, family? You should already be close, yes?"

Emily couldn't help but laugh at that comment. Close, to that guy? Sure, they were brother and sister, but they aren't family. Not even close. "No, we're not." She stated.

"Hm. Why not?" Ivy asked, as she placed a hand on Emily's shoulder.

"Cuz we aren't." Emily said rolling her eyes. Jeez, why isn't no enough of an answer? Why must everyone require some sort of explanation as to why something is the way it is.

"That's not a very good answer. Listen, sweetie, why don't we find some place to sit? Maybe I can help you figure out this problem of yours." Ivy suggested.

'A problem?' Emily thought to herself. That was a problem, since she didn't really think so. She was used to being alone, and pushing people away. It was second nature. Then again, maybe the fact that it was so instinctive to her was the actual problem at hand. "I mean… I guess?" she replied. She really just wanted to go home, but who knows, maybe this would help or something.

"Fantastic! I think I know just the place!" Ivy said in an excited tone, as she took Emily's hand and started leading her in some direction she wasn't exactly sure of.

The young girl couldn't really help but wonder, why? Why was this lady doing this, it was really weird. Is Emily really that…special? She didn't think so, certainly not. Emily's just a simple girl that doesn't like being with many people. She came and went, so this whole idea to 'settling down' was pretty foreign to her. She definitely didn't like it, being too confined to a house, with people, it just….brought up that emotion again. That emotion that tugged at her heart, telling her to be comfortable. She couldn't help but wonder, could she really leave them? Probably not, she remember her mom's dying words having something to do with finding her brother. Only if she could remember them now. Her gaze met the sidewalk below, not really registering the fact that they entered the part, since the grass was gently blowing in the wind as she looked down.

Her thought process was broken though when she felt herself suddenly stop walking, and she looked up. It was a picnic bench, right, they had those there in the park. She remembered one time Dan tried to take her here, but it didn't exactly turn out so well, she just wanted to go home. Then again, isn't that what she always wanted? To go, 'home'. Home was a word that was foreign to her. She really didn't have one anymore, at least from her perspective.

"I personally come here whenever I need to think" Ivy explained, as she took a seat and rested both of her arms on the table, "I love the breeze, and the view of the bay is simply fantastic. So, tell me sweetie, what's on your mind?"

What was on her mind? That was certainly a good question. The young girl's drifted out towards the bay as she watched the sunlight hit the water, causing it to shimmer. It was a pretty, Ivy sure did have a nice taste in places to just allow all of her worries to simply just wash away. "Well…I guess it all started when I first met him…he was really…pushy, I guess you could say" Emily replied, after she took a moment to try and find the correct words to form her sentence.

Ivy paid close attention to how the young one acted, taking notices of her tone and especially her gesture while talking to her. The poor girl had no idea that Ivy had a whole separate agenda with this conversation. In the short term it was going to indeed help Emily's relationship with her brother, but in the long term, well, she had plans so to speak.

"Well sweetie, what do you define as pushy?" Ivy asked her, as she then looked in her direction, tapping her nails on the picnic table. She needed to try and get this conversation to draw as much information as possible without the young girl getting suspicious. Ivy was good at this though, so she had a lot of hope that she would be able to pull this off.

Emily sighed and then pondered at a moment. That was indeed a good question, what was her definition of pushy? She looked up towards the sky, and the different shaped clouds and it made a small smile come across her lips as she thought about the topic. "Well…it's usually trying to get close to me. I'm not exactly used to…social interaction so…when something suddenly sprang on me it's just so…like I don't want to deal with it?" she replied. She was hoping that somehow, her statement made sense.

Ivy let out a quiet hum to herself as she went to process this information. Of course, Peotas did indeed fill her in that Emily's mother was dead and she was on the run on her own for a few years, but she still required the story from Emily's perspective in order to try and give her the best possible solution to her…problem. "So, you don't really know how to react when people are trying to be nice to you?" Ivy asked, for clarification purposes.

Emily flinched at the term. Nice, it was a term she...well she wasn't really used to. Was this just Dan's way of being nice? Maybe it was, and maybe she was just pushing him away. She never really thought about it like that for, from his perspective. "Nice? Um…I guess you can say that." she shrugged. There were so many different possibilities at the moment. Her eyes gazed back towards the bay that was in front of the picnic table. She looked out to the blue water that rippled when boats passed by, or a calm wave, or something similar. It was almost as if the water spoke to her, because it really caught her attention. The sound of the waves, the reflection of the light of the water, and the sky above. "Actually…I think…" she mumbled to herself slowly.

Ivy looked at the girl closely. She was making sure that she made mental notes of her tone, her words, her body language. She quietly hummed to herself as she watched. "I think what?" Ivy asked calmly. "To be, honestly. You seem to be, well, scared."

"Scared?" Emily muttered to herself, trying to grasp the concept of the word. She took a moment. She lost her mother at a young age, who was close to her, and she lived on her own hopping around from city to city for the new few years. Now she's here, and living with her bother, who's trying to get close to her, and she's pushing him away because she's….afraid. She paused, to allow the statement she formulated to settle. It…it actually made sense. She nodded as she stared blankly in front of her. "That…that actually makes sense." she mumbled under her breath.

"It…does, doesn't it?" Ivy quietly stated as she ran her fingers through her boa, the fabric flowing under her fingertips. "Deerie, I personally believe that this type of relationship could be good for you." She then looked over at Emily with a very faint smirk on her face and adjusted her hat "After all…. Wouldn't you enjoy having a relationship with someone important to you? Sweetie, bottling up all of your emotions isn't healthy. You need to…be able to let everything out."

Emily tilted her head at the wording that Ivy seemed to choose at the moment, let everything out? Did she have something to even let out? Perhaps she did that she wasn't even aware of, there were many secrets that this one girl holds, some that she isn't even aware of herself. "Well….I guess your right" Then, by natural instinct, she found herself practically hopping on top of the picnic table as he tail gently looked back and forth, much to Ivy's surprise. "You think I should talk to him?"

"Of course I do!" Ivy practically chirped as she then found herself standing up as well as she looked up towards the young saiyan. "Why don't you go home now? I'm sure you have…..things to go and do now, yes?" she asked Emily with a faint smirk on her face. Oh how she was so excited right now! She couldn't wait to tell Peotas about this, he would certainly be pleased. She fixed her hat and tilted it over one of her eyes. "Well, I must be leaving now as well. I have somewhere to be, I hope I was able to help you a little bit, Emily." she said with a bit of her hum in her voice at the end of her statement, and she started walking off down the path, her dress blowing slightly in the direction of the wind.

Emily looked back at Ivy as she left and laughed a bit to herself. She laughed, it was so weird for her to laugh at this point, and she rarely ever did it. Perhaps though, she was ready to get over her fears. She made sure that nobody was around, and Ivy was far enough away, before she jumped off the table and started floating, with the aqua glow surrounding her body faintly. She then took off towards the skies again, yet this time, she wasn't going out to think, she was actually going to go home, and have a conversation with her so called brother.

"Okay… apologize, give her the gift, and then talk to her?" Dan questioned himself in his room as he sat on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. He was, rather impatiently, waiting for his sister to get home. He couldn't wait, he had so many things to talk to her about. Letting out a sigh, he glanced over in the direction of the alarm clock in his room. It was starting to get late. 'Where the heck is she?' he thought to himself as he took a deep breath. He was starting to get worried, especially since, she really shouldn't be out like this. She just left, and how was he expected to find her? The gift that Dan got her, some brawling equipment he begged that she'd enjoy, was on his desk. He managed to get the clerk to wrap it up in a nice box with a dark purple ribbon round it too. He wasn't really sure what to think at the moment, his emotions were all jumbled up though. His attention though was redirected to what sounded like footsteps shuffling out from outside of his door, which caused him to sit up on his bed and raise an eyebrow at the door.

"Um…Dan?" he heard a voice say, which he quickly recognized, which caused him to practically jump off his bed and walk towards the door, and open it to reveal his younger sister "Hey um….can we talk?" she asked him, her gaze was in the general direction of the floor but she still looked at him from the corner of her eyes.

Dan couldn't help but look at her and raise an eyebrow. 'She…wants to talk?' he thought to himself. Weird. Dan had his suspicions of what she could have possibly wanted to talk about but…why? "Um, yeah. We can. Sure." He stated, backing away from the door to the side, holding onto the nob, opening it further for Emily. He shrugged, not exactly sure what was going to happen. "What do you want to talk about?"

"Ummm." She paused, as she entered the room and glanced around. When was the last time she was in his room? Probably a while ago, if she remembered correctly. She folded her arms apprehensively, allowing her tail to fall and gently flick back and forth, as if she was desperately trying to avoid the conversation entirely. 'You can do this Emily. You just have to say it.' she thought to herself, then let out a soft sigh. "I…wanted to talk about my um…behavior." She said softly, turning her head around slightly, just enough to allow her to glance in her brother's general direction.

"I'm sorry, what?" Dan stated, as he then shut the door as Emily entered the room completely, before leaning against the door, crossing his own set of arms. 'She…wants to talk about that?' Weird, he wasn't expecting that of all things. He paused for a moment, to think, "Funny you should say that, because I wanted to do the same." he said, before he pushed himself off the door and walked over to his sister, placing a hand on her shoulder. "I wanted to apologize for being so pushy earlier."

"Ha. I guess we both wanted to apologize." Emily muttered to herself, before letting out a nervous laugh, avoiding his gaze. "I guess I just-"she paused, and big her lip. 'Why is it so hard to admit you're wrong?' she thought to herself, before she shook her head. "I'm not used to being…around people. Sometimes I question if I really want to or not…but I figured that I should probably give it a chance?" she said in a nervous tone, glancing up at her brother out of the corner of her eye.

Dan raised an eyebrow at her statement. 'Wow, she's actually apologizing. What the heck came over her?' he mentally questioned. Considering they were fighting earlier that day, this definitely wasn't something he expected. Not in the very least. He laughed, before he walked away for a moment, to grab something. "I wouldn't put it past you honestly." He shrugged, "You said you lived on your own for a lot of years. I can't even imagine what that'd do to someone." he then turned his head around and smirked. "I mean, you were trying to shoplift when I found you at first. Clearly that showed your situation." He then joked.

"Hey!" Emily suddenly snapped, giving him an annoyed look, "It's not my fault I needed to EAT something!" she huffed, as she then cross her arms and looked away for a moment, before tapping her foot. "Besides, it's fun messing with the police. They have a hard time catching me anyway. Especially when-"she paused mid-sentence and blinked. "Never mind." she finished, deciding it wasn't worth the explanation.

The male just shook his head, deciding to dismiss the previous statement; he'd just question it later, or something. "Here, catch." he then said, as he threw the box with the purple ribbon around it in Emily's general direction, which caused the female to let out a 'yip' sound as she catches it with her reflexes.

She examined the box curiously, putting it over her head by extending her arms upward, and then bending them so it was in front of her face. She turned the box left, right, up, down, 180 degrees, all angles. Pulling on the ribbon the bow shrunk with ease before there was a long piece of purple ribbon between her fingertips. The girl shrugged, letting the ribbon fall as she then proceeded to open up the box. She first raised an eyebrow at the contents inside. She placed the box down on the nearby table, and the first thing she took out was a pair of fingerless gloves, she placed one, then held her hand out in front of her at Dan. "Is this…..brawling equipment?" she asked, curious. She recognized this from the several battles she has seen, watching her brother battle in.

"Well, yeah." Dan shrugged, as walked over to her. "I've seen how you acted while watching me, and I've noticed you're usually invested in the battle. I figured well hey, maybe you'd want to try it out." He said, in a rather causal tone. "Maybe we'd go out and find you a bakugan sometime soon, and then I could show you how everything works while you're in a battle."

Emily then glanced back and forth between the box, the gloves she currently had on, and Dan. Her eyes were moving at a rather quick rate, trying to focus on listening to what her brother had to say. 'He did that...for me?' She realized that he bought her this before she even apologized, obviously. Better yet, he wanted to apologize of all things, as if it was his fault. She looked away for a moment and closed her eyes with a sigh. "I..." she mumbled under her breath, to the point where Dan couldn't really hear her speak. What was she supposed to say? She was just so…so shocked. Her tail flicked back and forth, as she gritted her teeth. She was supposed to be trying this whole 'family' thing for a change, right? It's been so long since she had; ever since her mother died, actually.

She shook her head back and forth. This was just too much for to handle right now. Before she knew it, despite not exactly telling her feet to she suddenly rushed up to Dan, and gave him well, a hug. She gripped his coat tight, and then proceeded to bury her head into his chest. It was fairly obvious that she wasn't going to let go anytime soon. "Thank you." she said, rather muffled. She felt him tense up for a moment, but she couldn't really blame him. She didn't even know she was going to do that, how should he have been able to? Alas, that wasn't really the main focus on her mind at the moment. She felt an arm wrap around her, and it felt nice. She didn't bother to look up, just stayed in the position that she was currently in. Everything seemed perfect, absolutely perfect. Nothing could ruin this, right?

Where will this rather happy note lead us? Well, I know. You'll just have to wait until I post again :p (which hopefully will be sometime in July)