I yawned deeply and pushed myself up into a comfortable sitting position, regarding my mattress cautiously as the bedsprings beneath me creaked suspiciously, before dismissing the matter and stretching out my arms above me. Blinking owlishly I allowed my observant blue orbs to scour the space, searching in every crevice, every nook and cranny for anything that looked at all unusual. To my relief, everything was exactly how it should be, and that one fact made me feel fairly satisfied that no intruder had entered my sanctuary at any time during the night. Yawning again, I arched my back in a very cat-like manner and instantly smiled. I had managed to convince my mum to let me keep Tabby. As soon as she was better, she would be coming home to live with us! The thought made me beam so brightly, I was sure it lit up my whole face.

Reaching my hand out, it sliced uselessly through the empty air for a moment. My movements, still sluggish from sleep, hindered me slightly as I attempted to locate my alarm clock, though I soon managed to slam my hand down, rather roughly, on the top and after a brief second of probing, I flipped the button to cease the awful ringing. Huddled underneath a great pile of blankets, all of which were tightly wrapped around my petite form, providing me with welcomed warmth, I hesitated to leave the nice, cosy shelter. Which was a dilemma, as I really needed to get dressed. I sat there for quite a while, as I did every morning, mentally preparing myself until I had summoned up the willpower to discard my blankets and step across the plush carpet to my closet, allowing the cool air to envelope me in a rather unpleasant hug.

Pausing to rub the sleep from my eyes, I sighed softly before lazily pulling open the closet door and raising my gaze to locate my uniform.

I froze.

Froze solid, as if I had suddenly been petrified by Medusa. Which, in that moment, wouldn't be too hard for me to believe. In fact, I wished for that exact fate, since it would surely avoid the embarrassment that was to follow. My mouth dropped open in utter shock as a bare-chested Ichii who had paused while treading a belt through his trousers, and Zero... In his underwear... Reaching for a shirt, glanced over at me, appearing to be just as- if not more- startled than myself. I suppose the only change that occurred in me was the rapid escalation of the colour of my cheeks, which shot up from a pleasant healthy glow to blood red quicker than one can blink.

"H-Hikari?" Zero's hesitant voice snapped me out of my comatose state and back to my senses, which had previously seemed to abandon me in favour of getting the hell out before I could make even more of a fool of myself.

"G-G-Gomen nasai!" The power of movement regained, the first thing I did was slam my hands over my eyes and then I spun harshly around though luckily I avoided inducing whiplash despite there being more than enough force in that movement to acquire it. Unluckily, however, I instead managed to smack my head against the door frame and that lack of grace had my toppling back onto my butt. Wincing, I allowed a brief moment for a small, pained gasp to escape my lips, before I collected myself and managed to awkwardly clamber to my feet, taking the first opportunity to actually sprint out of the room and purposely ignoring the hurried footsteps that followed.

"Wait, Hikari!" Zero whispered urgently, but it was too late, since I had already ran straight into my bed and was pitched head over heels. From what I could guess, a still practically naked Zero lunged forward and grabbed my ankles, thankfully preventing me from KO-ing myself on the floor, before hissing under his breath at Ichii, urging the older boy to hurry up and pull on his goddamn shirt so he could help.

I didn't struggle as the boys inched me back on to my feet. Nor did I remove my hands as Ichii lingered behind to gently ruffle my hair and inform me that he was going to retrieve my uniform, so I was to remain exactly where I was until he had returned.

I doubted that even the fact that I was once again wearing my pink kitten pyjamas could make that situation even more embarrassing than it already was.

Clutching my bag tightly in my hands, I continued to walk a few paces ahead of the boys, even if I was forced to jog every couple of steps just to do so, cursing my stature the entire time. In times like this, I couldn't help but feel short, despite my usually unwavering insistence that I was merely fun-sized or proportional.

Even after a short amount of time had passed, I was so embarrassed about my earlier intrusion that I seriously doubted I could ever face the two boys again. In fact, I had considered pulling a Houdini and walking to school alone to give myself a little more time to clear my head. I usually found that prolonging uncomfortable situations helped me to burn off my incessant worries and deal with it in a calm manner that derived from obsessive planning. To be perfectly honest, the high colour of my face still hadn't completely dissipated. My mother had even commented on it, though she was concerned that I was coming down with a fever.

Bad Thought: They hate you now.

Shaking my head, I averted my attention in order to distract myself.

The sun, which was set high in the sky, toasted our backs with its delicious warmth, though the hint of the occasional cooling breeze that would sweep over thankfully provided some relief when the heat became a little too overbearing. The melodic chirping of the birds resting in nearby trees helped to slightly ease the tight ball of anxiety in my stomach. All in all, it was perfect. It was a shame the day hadn't started out that way.

"Jeez, it's not that big of a deal," Zero's exasperated voice rang out from behind me, though, mentally, I instantly disagreed with him and his nonchalance. "Why can't you just get used to the fact that we're your roommates now?"

"It... It is a big deal!" I exclaimed, as I mustered up the courage to face them, my locket swinging around in a wide arc from the sharpness of the movement. From the tingling of my skin, I could guess that my cheeks had immediately flushed once more, just from the mere sight of the two. By now, embarrassment seemed to be a default expression for me when I was around the two boys. "I am not comfortable with waking up in the morning and finding two half-naked boys in my closest!"

Ichii merely sighed as he stepped between us, hands held up in a peacemaking gesture. "I'm sorry, Hikari. We'll try to use more discretion in the future." It finally dawned on me that he always seemed to have the job of the mediator between us. My insides twisted with guilt. I was always making things difficult for him, and, grudgingly, by extension, I guess I was also a burden on poor Zero, too.

"But she barged in on us without even knocking!"

Zero's protest held an alarming amount of truth. I was, technically, in the wrong. Which had me lapsing into an even greater silence as I allowed my thoughts to consume me. Sure, I had been embarrassed walking in on them. But what about Zero and Ichii? In my swirling fit of emotions, I hadn't even bothered to think about how they must feel. They were, after all, the ones that had been exposed. It wound be fair to assume that the would be feeling even more awkward than me. And it amazed me how easily they could forget such a thing, dismiss it, as if it really wasn't important. Those two, despite my various moods, my flaws and terrible insecurities, had stuck with me through thick and thin. Sometimes Zero might complain, or make an insensitive remark and sometimes Ichii might be too protective, or over-look something he had assumed to be insignificant. But, if I really thought hard about it, that was exactly how friends worked. They support you in your darkest times, help you work past the negatives and together you are free. You are safe. You are happy.

And that dynamic remains unchanged even if the roles are reversed, as they know that you would pour just as much of your heart and soul into helping them, as they would for you.

So, taking all that in to account, I need to follow their example. To hold my head high, acknowledge my mistake and work past it. Nervously touching my index fingers together, I fixed the two with a gaze that remained steady, despite my hesitance. "I'm sorry... Back there, I forgot about everything. I never intended to walk in on you like that. And, I guess I was a teeny bit dramatic with my reaction. Thank you for not getting too annoyed at me."

"It's alight, Hikari. There's no damage done." His warm smile eased the tension is my body. "You know, we're only doing this because we need to be close enough to protect you." I nodded my head to convey my understanding of that sole fact.

"Remember, don't wander off again and stay close to us at all times." It appeared that Zero was just as cheerful as ever. "I won't let you out of my sight 'cuz I'm sick of you causing problems."

"Zero, that's impossible. We've got PE today and you know boys can't go to my PE class-"

The sudden, harsh movement of him spinning around had me stopping dead. "Either we go to PE with you, or you get attacked. Got it?"

My stuttered protests had him gritting his teeth, and after releasing a small growl, he marched on ahead. Zero's really mad at me... Lack of focus had prevented me from realising the force in which I had been biting down on my lip. It was true, that despite our spats, I really did appreciate Zero and, from the bottom of my heart, I didn't want him to hate me. Ichii, bless his soul, had noticed my inner-turmoil and, instead of pushing me, decided to instead wait patiently for me to pull myself together.

A loud wailing caught my attention. The two of us were standing next to a playground, and there, curled up on the floor, clutching her leg was a little girl, bawling as she started at the cut on her knee. Without taking the time to really think, I was already lightly running down the steps, and squeezing my way through the small crowd of children that surrounded her. "Ne, little one. Are you okay? What happened?"

"She fell." The oldest girl supplied, her brow creased with concern.

Tilting my head, I watched her with gentle orbs, a sympathetic smile displayed on my features. Due to my excessive clumsiness, I was all to familiar with this situation. Even now I was sure that not even a single day passed without a new band aid being issued, be that for a scraped knee, or an accident involving a scraped elbow, or cuts caused by slicing the skin on cans, or paper, or the edges of knives. Not only that, but bumps and abrasions from bumping my head against door frames, making me absently walking straight into a lamppost, or striking a limb on furniture. And even then, one would have to take account of my alarming habit of find anything and everything to trip over, be that due to my own feet, my bag, uneven pavement, loose laces, or, more often than not, thin air. It seemed I was quite talented in the area of accidental injury.

"Aw, you poor thing. You scraped your knee, huh? Does it sting?"

"A little bit." The girl managed to respond through her tears.

"Here, let me help you. I'll heal that up in no time, kay?" The girl was lighter than I expected, so lifting her up and carrying her over to the tap was an easy task, especially since she neither protested nor struggled at all. After carefully wiping away the dirt from the surrounding area, I thoroughly cleaned her wound, taking extra care to remove every single spec of grit.

Once completed, I took a moment to observe my impromptu first-aid. "There, that should stop it getting infected." Another thought struck me, and had me instantly burrowing into my pocket to locate one of the many band-aids I had stuffed in there. After applying it with the care and precision my mother had taught me, I grinned. It was one of my favourites, a little pink strip with an adorable cartoon bear. Sometimes my immaturity really got the best of me. "There we go, all better."

"Thank you so much! Now my knee doesn't even hurt any more!" The sight of that little girl beaming up at me was enough to make my heart melt like butter.

"That's great." I replied, enthusiastically, channelling my inner Zero and gently ruffling her hair. "Now, are you going to be okay?"

She nodded, her bauble hair ties jingling as she did so. "Yeah, I promise!"

"Just be sure to have it disinfected when you get to school." Another nod and one more grateful exclamation of thanks later, and she was off with her friends, running around with such joyful energy, I couldn't help but smile. "It's my pleasure, little girl." I called after her, giving her one final wave which she returned with her abundance of energy. "Just try to be more careful, you don't want to fall down and scrape your knee again."

"That was thoughtful of you." The voice, though warm and non-threatening, was unexpected, and startled me. Ichii had been so quiet this whole time, I'd completely forgotten he was here. "You have a very sweet disposition." Feeling uncertain of how exactly to reply, I smiled tentatively as I collected my bag and straightened myself up, smoothing out my skirt to hide the face that my cheeks were tinted a light shade of pink. He was smiling at me, but, for some reason, this one seemed different from all the previous ones. Warmer, brighter, it seemed to dance in his eyes and hold so much more meaning. "I think you're a very special person, Hikari."

For a moment, all I could do was stammer. I suppose I must have had a fairly enchanting expression of utter stupidity etched on to my face, though Ichii's expression didn't change in the slightest. When the line between my brain and mouth managed to reconnect, I sorely hoped that I could at least redeem myself and act like a half-way intelligent person for once. "Th-Thank you. I-" Our gaze locked, almost with an audible click, and I noticed just how short a distance there was between us, and how Ichii's ochre orbs seemed to melt in the golden rays of the sun. "I think-"

"Hey! Snap out of it you two!"

It seemed like Zero, even with his remarkably short temper, could ever abandon us for long. "What are you doing? If we don't all get a move on then we're going to be late for school!" I chanced a small glance at Ichii and managed to catch the fleeting flash of fondness in his eyes. "Stop staring at each other and get over here right now. Let's go!"

"Hai!"

When we were faced with the immovable wall of squealing girls, my first thought was to back away and bail as quickly as I could. Too much attention, too little space, too much noise. Everything I was worried about, all packed into one tight, noisy, unpleasant package. So, when I merely collided with Zero and stumbled enough to have to grab his arm to steady myself, wasting my last precious seconds to escape, my worst nightmare became personified.

It seemed as though, for the most part, I was ignored. The girls were more interested in shooting all manner of questions at the poor boys, who didn't appear to be able to catch much in the relentless barrage of noise. Deciding to lend a hand, which always seemed to backfire on me, I summoned the courage to speak up. Well, stammer up, I guess. "I... Th-They don't- Please l-leave them-"

"Get out of here, Hikari!"

With that, I was ejected rather roughly for the middle of the group, coming to an unsteady halt at the feet of Kei and Ayumi, both of whom were wearing matching sympathetic expressions. "Those guys are always surrounded by a big group of girls, huh?" Kei commented, gently offering me her hand. I brushed off the dirt from my palm before accepting it and remained motionless as Ayumi easily removed the persistent stones clinging to my socks.

"Are you hurt?"

After taking a moment to inspect myself, I carefully shook my head. "I'm okay."

Ayumi hummed in acknowledgement and spared a glance towards the commotion. "You guys have all been the talk of the school lately." She said, thoughtfully. "So, I guess all the attention makes sense. And, they are pretty cute."

"Not planning on cheating on your boyfriend are you?"

She feigned a hurt expression as Kei nudged her in a playful manner, but replied in a serious voice. "I wouldn't dream of it. He's such a sweetheart, I would never do that to him." She pursed her lips together for a moment, and studied me intently. "Speaking of boyfriends, I've been wondering about your relationship with those two... Are you three going out?"

Startled, I took a step back as my cheeks flushed with embarrassment. "N-no!" I said, shaking my head so hard, it was a furious blur. "No, definitely not. They're just my friends!" Behind me, it seemed like Zero and Ichii had decided to forcibly remove themselves from the situation. And by that, I mean they just simply started running away. A chanced a glance at my friends and winced as I saw their identical smug expressions and raised eyebrows. Sighing, merely shot them a half-hearted glare. "I'm going to have to go deal with that. See you in class."

When the door was rather unexpectedly blasted straight off it's hinges and flew across the other side of the room, I, along with many of my classmates, couldn't help but scream. Though I suppose none of them were so startled that they reeled backwards and promptly acquainted themselves rather well with the floor. Zero face-palmed at my clumsiness before offered a hand to help me to my feet and when I did, I noticed what all the commotion was about.

Standing there in the centre of the room was a rather busty teenage girl.

"My darling! I've been looking everywhere and now I've found you!" I blinked in confusion as the girl began running down the isle towards us. Ichii seemed completely unfazed, but Zero looked as if he wanted to drive his head through the nearest wall. "How I missed you, Ichii! How about a kiss?" My jaw dropped open as she lifted herself on tiptoes, caught hold of his collar and kissed him. Right. On. The. Lips.

The rest of the class also appeared to be going through various stages of shock, though as the girl whipped their heads around to stare at me with fire burning in their eyes, I realised that they must have stumbled along the thought that I was the much needed solution to this new problem. "You have to do something, Hikari!"

Mind completely devoid of all intelligent retorts, all I could do was gasp uselessly for a couple of seconds until Ichii gently but insistently moved her by the shoulders so a barely acceptable distance was between them. "Rokka, what do you think you're doing?" The girl was staring lovingly into Ichii's eyes, and was no leaning against his chest, looking quite comfortable indeed. This intimacy only fuelled the rage from the female population even further. I, on the other hand, could see how Ichii wasn't exactly reciprocating her feelings, but common sense didn't seem to be one of their top priorities right now. "You're not alone, are you?"

"No." She said lightly, with a girlish giggle as she traced her finger along his chest in an idle, nonchalant motion that caused a brief flicker of uncertainty in Ichii's ochre orbs. "Gou is travelling with me."

He gave a microscopic sigh. "Why are you here?"

Nestling her head in the crook of his neck, she smiled happily and lowered her voice enough for only the three of us to hear. "To follow you into the human world, of course. We both became exaimnees for the final Sorcery Test so I could find you."

"Are you serious?" Zero hissed, his eyes narrowed dangerously. "You've got to be kidding me. This isn't some game, you know. This test is important and I won't let a stupid girl like you mess it up!" Rokka returned Zero's glare with an equally furious one of her own and ignored the tight fists balled up at his side as he struggled to reign in his rampant emotions.

"Lady Rokka." Startled, my gaze shifted to the young man crouched on the ledge of the open window. Do any of these people actually know how to use a door? I supposed this was the aforementioned Gou that was supposed to be accompanying her. "Long time no see, Ichii. I apologise, Lady Rokka was extremely excited to see you." He turned to address the girl in question. "We should be going now, Rokka. Ichii seems to be busy and it's not nice of you to bother him." Why does he sound almost as if he's talking to a child? A little hesitant, but holding an authoritative edge... I suppose he could just be cautious of causing her to fly into a tantrum.

"No!" She protested. "Ichii doesn't mind. I can stay, can't I, Ichii, my love?"

The boy wisely chose not to immediately reply and blurt out something insensitive.

"Ne, Hikari. Who is this girl?" Ayumi had her arms crossed and was surveying Rokka with curious eyes. Kei looked somewhat disinterested, so I suppose she had just wandered over for the hell of it. "She's not Ichii's girlfriend, is she?" It seemed odd that she was so concerned, though when she turned sad, sympathetic eyes on me, I realised that her interest was not towards Ichii's availability for her, but for me.

"No. Not quite." Rokka's reply snapped me back to reality and helped distract me from the rising colour to my cheeks. The way she was beaming was enough for me to know that the next words out of her mouth would decimate almost half the class. "I'm actually his fiancée." I was right in my assumption. Fiancée? I haven't heard anything about that before. Wouldn't Ichii have told me if he had a fiancée? ... Maybe he was too embarrassed to? That would be adorable. Ichii's usually so calm and collected, I can't even imagine him getting all flustered-

"That isn't true." Gou's calm voice instantly derailed my train of thoughts.

"I hope not." Zero snorted and the glare he directed at the girl was laced with poison.

Ichii raised a warning eyebrow and hushed the younger boy, before hurriedly looking for a way to politely extract himself from the girl. Unfortunately for him, Rokka enveloped the boy in another crushing hug, knocking the poor boy off axis and causing him to grab the nearest desk to regain his balance. "Ne, Ichii, my love. Stop wasting your time with them." She lowered her voice once more, and tightened her embrace. "Let's hurry up and get back to the Magic World so we can get married and live happily ever after."

"Rokka!" The chiding note in his voice was very apparent. Evidently, it seemed even the ever patient Ichii was beginning to reach the end of his tether. The poor boy appeared to be quite exasperated by now. I averted my eyes as our gazes locked. The apologetic look he held in his eyes spelled disaster. Please, don't say anything to me. This will not help to diffuse the situation at all. See sense! Don't speak! "I'm sorry about all this commotion, Hikari. I'll get them out of here as soon as I can."

My heart plummeted to my feet. I desperately hoped I wasn't as screwed as I felt I was. All I could manage to do was laugh nervously and wave my hands as if I was dismissing the entire matter. "It's not a big deal, really. Don't worry about it, Ichii."

Rokka, with fierce intensity smouldering in her eyes instantly snapped around and fixed with with the epitome of venomous glares. "And just what do you want? Are you making moves on my man? If so, you're in big trouble missy."

I flinched and took a step back, cheeks tinted a pleasant pink. "N-No." I said, while all I could think was how I walked in on him this morning. "I-It's not like that-"

"Leave her alone, Rokka." Ichii commanded, in a calm voice, which calmed the tight ball in my stomach. "She's an important person to me."

"Wait a minute... She's more important... Than me?" The whole matter seemed to have momentarily broken her as she collapsed on to her knees. Though, as my gaze flickered uncertainly up to the brunette, the girl was instantly back on her feet, a vein throbbing menacingly on her temple. "That's it! You better stay away from him! Do you hear me? He must be pitying you, there's no other explanation. There's no way he'd see anything in your flat chest!"

Colour rose to my cheeks as I quickly crossed my arms over my chest and averted my gaze to the other side of the room. There was no doubt I was lacking in that department, something that didn't seem to be a problem for her. I noticed that Hiro seemed utterly furious, but was completely baffled as to why. He usually was so goofy and cheerful, seeing him like that was a little worrying.

My embarrassment was enhanced even further as she continued to sing victoriously and strike a couple of poses that displayed her prominent bust. "No boobs! No boobs!"

Ichii slammed his hand down hard on a nearby desk, creating a loud bang which resonated throughout the whole, silencing every single person present. He looked fairly annoyed as he folded his arms and stood before me, protectively, fixing Rokka with a disapproving expression. "Stop it right now!" He ordered in a firm, authoritative voice. "I don't want you saying any more rude things to my friend. Do you understand?"

"But Ichii... She was... Trying to steal you from me!" Rokka promptly burst into tears, which had Zero rolling his eyes in utter contempt. "You belong to me, Ichii! Me alone. And I won't let anyone take you away from me, my love!" She buried her head in perfectly manicured hands as she continued to sob. "I just can't stand to be without you for even one moment longer!" And with that, she ran out of the room with Gou dutifully chasing after her. Though he quickly backed up and handed my sensei a check to cover the cost on the damages, bowed to the class and apologised for the disturbance, before he finally left.

Ichii raked his hand through his hair and frowned at the doorway. "What a mess. Rokka's completely infatuated with me and Gou, as he butler, carries out her every wish. This is going to be complicated. " He said, with monumental understatement. "I'm sorry about this Hikari, but I think you're in danger again." Oh joy. He must have seen my downcast expression, since he gently used his index finger to lift my chin and smiled softly at me. "But don't worry, okay? You have my word that we won't let any harm come to you."

Zero hastily nodded in agreement. "No matter what we're up against, we promise we'll protect you." It was endearing how determined he looked. "You're safe with us."

"Oh yeah," Ichii said, gently smacking his head. "It completely slipped my mind earlier, but-" After taking a secret glance around to make sure no-one was looking too closely, a lollipop materialised in his hand. Fairly big, with bright pink and yellow stripes, it looked pretty cute. "I got this for you."

"For me?" I echoed, a tentative smile creeping up my lips.

"Yeah," He nodded softly, orbs melting in an array of swirling rich ochre that seemed to emit a warmth that was almost tangible. "I thought it would fit your image. See? It's cute, just like you are."

I could distinctly feel the blush tingling at my cheeks as I carefully took the lollipop from him. "You... You think I'm cute?" Despite the fact that it wasn't the first time I'd been called cute by a boy- my father often used to say the very same thing, and in a rare moment of seriousness, Hiro had unexpectedly done so as well- but this time it seemed different somehow. Embarrassingly intimate, almost. For some reason, being called cute by Ichii was the highest compliment I had yet to receive.

"Of course. I think you're very cute, Hikari." My blush deepened at his words and I swear my heart almost missed a beat. Whoa, calm down, Hikari. It's not a big deal. He's not declaring his undying love for you, so you're good for the moment. Just stop being a dork and answer him.

"Th-Thank you, I-Ichii."