As I walked into the classroom - actually making it to school early, for once - I noticed that my desk had a piece of paper lying face-down on top of it. In fact, as I looked around the classroom, I could see that everyone's desk had a piece of paper on it. I wondered what it was. Some other people who were here early were looking at their own sheets, reading them silently for the most part. Azami glided over to my desk as I walked more slowly over. She looked like she was going to look at it herself, but seemed to think better of it; I mean, anyone else in the classroom might be a bit shocked if my paper started moving of its own accord. Not to mention, I wasn't entirely sure if there was any easy way for anything just a couple inches high to flip over a piece of paper.

When I did make it to my desk to flip over the paper, I groaned quietly. I should've known - Nikaido had said that we would be getting our next poem for memorization today. We had just finished the last of the presentations yesterday. Now, on Wednesday, we were just going right back into it. No break for us. Taking advantage of the semi-quiet classroom, I sat down and read through the poem carefully.

Solitude

BY ELLA WHEELER WILCOX

Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone;
For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.
Sing, and the hills will answer;
Sigh, it is lost on the air;
The echoes bound to a joyful sound,
But shrink from voicing care.

Rejoice, and men will seek you;
Grieve, and they turn and go;
They want full measure of all your pleasure,
But they do not need your woe.
Be glad, and your friends are many;
Be sad, and you lose them all,—
There are none to decline your nectared wine,
But alone you must drink life's gall.

Feast, and your halls are crowded;
Fast, and the world goes by.
Succeed and give, and it helps you live,
But no man can help you die.
There is room in the halls of pleasure
For a large and lordly train,
But one by one we must all file on
Through the narrow aisles of pain.

What a surprise. Another gloomy poem. But for now, I sort of disregarded it. I could never be alone. I had Azami. And no matter what happened to me, she would always be there to give me strength. Or, at least, I hoped so.

I took a deep inhale of breath, filling my senses with the citrus-like smell of my chara-change's smoke. It was a chilly, moist evening tonight, which really is my favorite kind of night. It perhaps would've done me some good to put a coat on over my outfit (or perhaps to at least wear a long skirt instead of the shorts I had on), but I enjoyed the cold a bit too much to bother. I was sitting casually on a bench in the center of a local park, which was turning out to be not the greatest of spots for X-egg hunting. Admittedly, a few of the young couples that were walking through the park tonight had given up there eggs without a fight, but I had kinda been hoping for more.

To be totally truthful, I was getting slightly bored. Trying to get X-eggs every night was getting to be more of a task than an enjoyment. However, no matter how many times I did it, I was still getting the thrill of using my power over others. Somewhat diminished after repeated use at the same boring task, but still there.

With no one in the immediate vicinity to keep me occupied and Azami exploring somewhere (probably nearby, since my chara-change hadn't faded yet), my mind started to wander. And, of course, the first thing it came to was my newest poem for memorization. Perhaps in the morning, when everything was bright and I was still sleepy, I hadn't thought about it much. But now, it was dark out. I could see the city lights reflecting off of some low, heavy clouds - I guessed it might rain tonight, or perhaps snow if it got much colder. As much as I liked the cold and the dark, it still had a somewhat disheartening effect on me. I shivered, but more from where my thoughts were starting to lead than from the cold.

What if Azami did leave me? I thought as I kept the smoke coming from the short hair in my hand. What if I'm too pathetic for her? There's probably no way I'll ever be a true dragon. What if she just gives up on me? What's to stop her from leaving? I opened my mouth call out to her, so I could ask her if she would ever leave, but then stopped myself. Firstly, that would probably sound horribly pathetic of me. Secondly - and most importantly - I was afraid of what she might say. She was a true dragon, and I doubted a dragon would stick around with someone like me. It was probably only a matter of time. The smoke that I was creating sputtered and died out, and my character change went away, leaving me feeling even more dejected than before.

Azami sensed the chara-change fade, and was back by my side in a few seconds. "Miyuki-chan?" she asked.

"Hm?" I replied faintly, not even turning to look at her. And I had thought I had been doing so well. But here it was again - I was letting the darkness overcome me. The sad thing was, there was nothing I could do about it.

Seeing my trouble, Azami intensified her efforts at trying to get my attention. "Miyuki! Miyuki, come on! Wake up! If you go under, then you pull me down with you!"

You see, I thought to myself as hopelessness continued to crowd my mind. I'm just a burden to Azami. If she had any way of severing our connection, she would... Azami started beating on my arm with her tail, but I didn't respond. I was too far gone already, and my mind and emotions were slowly shutting down. I brought my knees up onto the bench and drew them up to my chest, wrapping my arms around them and hiding my face. I was withdrawing further and further inside of myself, and becoming more and more oblivious to everything around me.

Azami's movements were quickly becoming lethargic and weak, and she soon stopped trying to wake me up all together. The darkness had crossed our link once again and, as Azami had said, once I was down then so was she. Her black egg with the fire pattern on it formed around her, shutting her off from the outside. She did nothing to resist.

Some people walking through the park looked at me pityingly or inquisitively, but no one bothered to help me. For that matter, I hadn't the faintest clue that there was anything in the world besides my misery and myself. Though I couldn't tell, I was like that for over thirty minutes before someone concerned enough finally appeared. The funny thing was, that someone wasn't concerned about me - he went straight to waking up Azami. In fact, that someone wasn't even a human.

"Azami? Why are you sleeping here, nya~?" Yoru asked. From within her egg, Azami did nothing to respond. Yoru, flicking his tail back and forth in annoyance, then proceeded to rock Azami's egg back and forth. A sort of groan emanated from within in response, but other than that, Azami remained silent.

"C'mon!" shouted Yoru, frustrated. "I wanna play, nya~!" Yoru flattened his ears and unsheathed his claws from one of his cat paws, dragging the sharp points along the surface of Azami's egg. The egg was perfectly unharmed, but a noise like nails on a chalkboard filled the air. I stirred only a little bit, but Azami's egg opened in a flash. Being within the egg, she had received an amplified version of the horrid sound. Her eyes went straight to Yoru, who was standing on the bench directly in front of her.

"What in the world was that for!?!" she asked, though she refrained from attacking him just yet.

Yoru, seeing the possibility of danger, backed a little ways off. Then he chuckled at the fact that he had been able to make Azami so angry. "I just wanted to play, nya~! But you were sleeping, so I decided to wake you up, nya~!"

Azami glared at Yoru for a moment, her wrath nearly causing her to chase after the annoying little feline. Instead, she waited a couple seconds and let herself cool down a bit. Yoru, seeing he was out of danger, went back to his original purpose.

"So let's play, nya~!"

Azami thought for a moment, then turned to face me. I was still curled up, oblivious to the world. "Let's wake Miyuki first. Then we can play." Azami hadn't quite forgotten her last encounter with Yoru, but she decided that the fight was in the past now, and not worth mentioning.

"But that sounds boring, nya~!" Yoru whined. "Let's play first, and we can wake her up later."

Azami thought fast, as always. "You know, I think Miyuki might still have some tuna with her. But we'll have to wake her up before she can give you any."

Yoru drooled, and his eyes lit up. "Nya~~! I love fish, nya~!"

"Then let's work on getting her up." Azami said. She was back to normal, despite the fact that I was still deep within the isolation of despair.

"Right, nya~!" Yoru floated over to me. "Hey, wake up!"

"That's not going to work." Azami said as she started to whip me on the arm with her tail. I unconsciously shifted a bit to get her off, but didn't get up from my curled up position.

"That's not working either, nya~." Yoru pointed out. Then Yoru's stomach grumbled. "I want my tuna, nya~!"

Azami looked around for inspiration, which came in the form of an small, empty styrofoam cup caught in a nearby bush. "Come on, Yoru, help me out with this." She flew over and grabbed the cup before flying over (slightly awkwardly, thanks to her cargo) to a water fountain a few feet away.

Yoru followed reluctantly, but stopped short of actually coming close to the water fountain.

"Yoru, I need you to get the water flowing. I'll hold the cup." Azami said.

Yoru shook his head. "Cats and water don't do well together, even if it is just a water fountain, nya~."

Azami was highly annoyed for a moment, but then she calmed herself. "If you don't do it, then you won't get any tuna. Plus, I'll be the only one with a chance of getting water on me."

Yoru hesitated, but his stomach growled and decided the matter for him. Together, they managed to fill up the cup about half way - Azami doubted they could carry much more than that. Azami grabbed the top of the cup, digging in with her claws for a better grip, while Yoru grudgingly helped carry it from the bottom. With a bit of a struggle - the wind had picked up a little, making carrying the water even harder - they managed to maneuver it until they were right above my head.

"On the count of three, we let it go." Azami instructed. "One... two... three!" Yoru dashed a good ten feet away, just to make sure he was completely out of the way of the falling water. Azami just hovered where she had been, watching with a slightly amused look on her face as the cup hit the top of my head. The water drenched my hair, and what run off there was drained down my neck and got the back of my shirt wet. Yoru floated back until he was next to Azami.

A couple seconds passed, in which I didn't do anything. Then, the feeling of the water seemed to break through my inner feelings, and the full effect of the freezingly cold water hit me. I uncurled myself and practically jumped to a standing position, feeling the water running through my hair and down my spine. I looked up and saw both Yoru and Azami laughing uncontrollably. I grabbed both of them by the tails, dangling them upside down.

"Hey! I was just trying to get you up! You should be thanking me!" Azami shouted indignantly.

Yoru squirmed, doing his best to get free. "I just wanted tuna, nya~! It wasn't my idea!"

I let them both go. I mean, they had managed to wake me up, and any amount of drenching was worth that.

"So do you have any tuna, nya~?" asked Yoru once I'd let him go.

I shook my head, sending little beads of water flying in the process. "Nope. Sorry."

"Awww!" Yoru whined. "You owe me, nya~! Go buy me some catnip or something, nya~!"

"I've gotta go home and dry off, since some charas think its funny to dump water on people's heads." I said. Then, something occurred to me. If Yoru was here, shouldn't Ikuto be somewhere nearby? I still wasn't sure how I would act around him, but I was pretty sure that I wasn't going to do anything in retaliation for the last time we met. "Out of curiosity, where's Ikuto?"

Yoru shrugged. "Beats me. I go wherever I please, nya~." Suddenly, Yoru softly whacked Azami in the face with his tail before he dashed a little bit away and laughed. Azami started flying towards him, but I grabbed her again. I could see where this was going - Yoru was just trying to get Azami to play again.

"I seriously do need to get going." I said. I was starting to involuntarily shiver. Being wet + chilly, moist weather = unhappy me. "No play time tonight."

"But you still owe me some tuna, nya~!" I started walking in the opposite direction, ignoring him. My nose was starting to run now, and I just wanted to get home. I let Azami go, trusting her to follow. Which she did.

"If you get me some catnip, I'll tell you a secret, nya~!" Yoru said.

I kept walking, but my curiosity had been aroused. Inwardly, I was hoping it was an embarrassing secret about Ikuto. It might help to even the playing field if I had some dirt on him. "What kind of secret?" I asked.

"It's something me and Ikuto heard some people from Easter talking about when they didn't know we were there, nya~." To make sure I definitely wanted to hear it, he added, "They were talking about you and Azami, nya~!"

Woah. I stopped walking. Just a minute - why would anyone at Easter be talking about me? There couldn't be more than a couple of people who had any idea who I was. It was probably just something stupid that Yoru was trying to pass off as a juicy secret. But what if it wasn't?

"All right." I said. "If I deem that it's good enough to be called a secret, then I'll buy you some catnip. And if it's really good, then I'll get you some tuna in addition to the catnip."

"Tuna and catnip... it's like heaven, nya~..." Yoru said, looking off into the distance as he imagined his little heaven on earth.

"Just spit out the secret already!" Azami said. Of course, she probably wanted to hear it just as much as I did.

"All right, nya~!" Yoru said. "Ikuto and I heard these three people talking about how they would finally be appreciated because of this experiment they had going. They said that this crystal they had should be able to give them control over someone, and that they only needed a chance to use it, nya~. They said it hadn't been needed yet, but once it was, then they would probably get promoted because they'd be able to keep the person in line. I guess they never actually said your name, but Ikuto said that you said that Azami had touched a crystal to get your power, so we guessed it was you, nya~."

I'm sure that whatever color I had in my face drained away. Perhaps I should have guessed it - in fact, it had seemed like only logic that Easter would try to control me somehow - but I was nonetheless shocked. I didn't know what to think. I was angry, sad, scared, and skeptical, just to name a few of the feelings that were raging within me.

"A-are you sure you heard right?" I asked, blaming my slight stuttering on the cold.

Yoru was about to answer, but then a voice sounded directly behind me. "Yoru, you wouldn't happen to be telling secrets now, would you?"

All three of us spun around to see Ikuto, standing casually just a couple feet behind us. "Uh... hehe... Of course not, nya~!" Yoru said, flying over to Ikuto.

I was still pretty much speechless from Yoru's news and from Ikuto's sudden arrival. Seeing I wasn't about to say anything, Ikuto moved on to taunts. "Could you simply not wait for the rain to come? Your hair seems a bit on the damp side."

It took me a moment to get what he was talking about, and even then I couldn't get properly angry at him. My mind was too preoccupied. I could only dwell on what Yoru had said.

"Wh-who were the th-three people who were s-saying th-this?" I asked through chattering teeth, in barely more than a whisper. Azami was staying quiet from her position on my shoulder, and I had no idea what she was thinking.

"It looks like the little dragon is a bit cold." Ikuto mocked, referring to me. Smirking, he continued, "Do you want me to warm you up a bit?" He stepped forward as if to get close to me, but I stepped back. I hardly payed attention to how he was mock-flirting with me. Perhaps that kinda of thing worked when talking to Amu, and maybe it would have made me flustered under different circumstances. But all I could do was back away in horror, not at him but still at the shock of what Yoru had been saying.

"Wh-who were they?" I asked again.

"I think the cold is freezing your brain." Ikuto said. "Who are you talking about?"

"The p-people from Easter who were talking about m-me." I said. "What d-did they look like?"

Ikuto's eyes turned serious. "Apparently, someone has been telling secrets." And yet, I noticed that his look and demeanor hadn't changed all that much from before. Despite his teasing, he had been serious beneath it all the time - almost as if he had been expecting this.

"Just answer the question." Azami said flatly.

"It was those three idiotic scientists Easter employs in its search for the embryo." Ikuto said, his face grim. "They said that they can control you."

"How?" I asked immediately.

"They didn't say." Ikuto said. He seemed genuinely sorry for me. Or, at the very least, he could probably sympathize with my position. If he was working for Easter, then maybe something along the same lines had happened to him.

My mind raced through several thoughts at once, none of them coherent. I looked to the ground and my gaze flicked from one stone to the next, as if in search of an answer. But if there was an answer lying there on the path somewhere, then I couldn't find it. I could see no easy solution to this. I couldn't believe it was true.

"No..." I mumbled, half to myself.

"What'd you say?" Ikuto asked.

"No!" I shouted, jerking my head up to look at him. I clenched my fists as anger bubbled to the surface, pushing back all my other emotions. Mixed with the anger was the darkness that was always present inside me, now fueling my anger and making it greater. "You're lying! That can't be true! If so, why wouldn't Easter have used it against me yet, to keep me in fear? You work for Easter yourself! They probably ordered you to tell me this!"

"And why would they do that?" asked Ikuto defensively. "Do you think I actually do anything they tell me to? And what reason would I have to lie to you about something like this?"

I hardly noticed that Ikuto was acting differently than usual; being this defensive wasn't like him. "I don't care! You're lying! I know it!" Not even bothering to chara-change, I ran forward to tackle Ikuto. My tackle met only air as Ikuto's cat ears and tail appeared and he jumped up onto a nearby tree branch.

I stopped slowly, then turned and looked up to him. The tears that were now falling from my eyes mingled with the first drops of rain that were beginning to fall. Ikuto looked at me stoically from where he was standing in the tree.

"I hate you!" I shouted. "Just leave! Why do you keep on bothering me, anyway! You stupid cat! I never want to see you again!"

Ikuto gazed at me for a moment longer before jumping off through the branches, leaving me alone with Azami. All others had left the park long ago, anticipating the rain. I shivered uncontrollably as the condensation increased to a freezing drizzle. I simply stood there for a while, my mind blank.

"Let's grab your X-egg bag and go home, Miyuki-chan." Azami said. She, too, was getting wet, but she didn't seem to mind too much. I nodded mutely, grabbed my bag, and started to walk slowly home. Azami didn't bother snapping me out of this daze - she knew that it had nothing to do with the X-energy within us, and thought it best to let me be. She endured the cold as I walked, lost in my own thoughts. Every now and then, I would slip and fall due to the icy sidewalk. But each time, I got up without word. The wetness from the rain, the soreness from falling... nothing like that mattered right now.

* * *

Sitting in a gazebo back in the park, Ikuto took shelter from the cold rain. He stared off into the drizzle, apparently lost in thought. Yoru was asleep, curled up on his human's lap.

"I'm sorry..." Ikuto muttered under his breath. Then he shut his own eyes and fell asleep.

With that last part about Ikuto, did that seem alright? I mean, in the sense that I/Miyuki wasn't actually there, and hence wouldn't know that it's happening... I don't want to confuse by lapsing over from limited first person (where the writer doesn't write about anything she doesn't know about) to omniscient third person (where the author knows everything about the story). Just let me know if it sounds okay or if I should avoid that in the future, since there could be much larger instances where I do something like that in the future.

Once again, I'm requesting that anyone who hasn't taken the poll on my profile yet to please do so. So far, I think I'm seeing that I might need to work on pacing and characterization of characters from the anime/manga. I'll admit, I have sort of been relying on the knowledge from the anime/manga and therefore not bothering to go too in depth into other characters (though I've been attempting to stay as true to their personalitise as possible). I'll try to work on that, but chances are that I won't go too out of the way. I'm just happy to hear what people think of my story. And, of course, while polls are nice, the best way to let me know that is to review!

Also, quick thanks to Orangesz and Hippi the Hedgehog for reviewing, as well as to all my other reviewers who are keeping up with the story [note - don't worry, I try and get out as many chapters as quickly as I can! :) ]. And thanks to everyone who has been favoriting, putting my story on alert, and even just reading my story. Just seeing that 30 people have (so far) actually taken the time to read to chapter 19 is encouraging!

It's Spring Break this week for me, so I'm hoping to get out as many chapters as I can! (however, note that I do have homework to do, I'll probably be taking a trip and will probably not have internet to post, and the trip involves staying with family which means less computer/typing time and more 'family time': bleh.)

*you know, I said I was gonna stop doing these author post-chapter comment things all together... oh well. That's not working out too well for me. O_o*