I slammed my head into the table. From beside me, Ichii watched on with polite concern. Two more solid thumps later, I was lying still, wondering just what it was about this class and all the crazy shenanigans we got caught up in that meant this kind of thing wasn't even questioned anymore. "I'm so stupid."

Ichii was kneeling in the isle. Eyes of such an alluring brown suspended mere inches from my face, soft as fur. "If you're waiting for me to disagree, it's going to be a long day." I groaned again. Slender fingers graced my temple. "Does your head hurt?"

"A little." My finger pressed against his mouth, silencing him before he could even say a single word. "Don't you even start with the whole 'you shouldn't have hit it then' talk. I know it was a bad idea."

He gave a little chuckle, gently brushing my hand away. "Well, feeling sorry for yourself isn't going to change anything."

"It makes me feel less guilty." I mumbled, sourly.

"Does it?" Of course Ichii would be the one to challenge my words. He could always see straight through everything. Curse him and his perceptiveness.

My breath was expelled in a long, heavy sigh. "No." Reluctant as I was to admit it, I wasn't afraid to look him straight in the eye. "I... I thought it would be okay. It was a little white lie, I didn't think it would hurt anyone… I just wanted you to not look so worried… and even then, I go and mess everything up."

He caught my face when I went to hit my head again, thumbs brushing against my cheekbones. "No more of that, you're hurt enough as it is."

My gaze strayed downwards, where my injured foot was resting awkwardly. "No kidding."

"Look, you're acting like you committed mass murder. It's not a big deal, really. It was barely even a lie, just a small bend of the truth."

"It still upset Pearl."

"Yeah," He agreed, lightly. "It did still hurt him. But you didn't intend it to, that's the main thing. And I appreciate that you tried to make me feel better, even if it didn't end up the way you wanted." I was still pouting like a child, sinking further into my folded arms. He squeezed my cheek between his thumb and forefinger, smiling warmly. "Cheer up. Pearl may be sensitive, but he's forgiving. And as much as he'd hate to admit it, he loves you to bits."

My traitorous lips started to twitch upwards. "He did threaten to burn people for me."

"That's right. He cares about you, so thinking you don't believe in his power must've hurt. But-" He quickly said, before I could go back to being self-deprecating. "We'll find him in no time, so you can apologise, and then this'll all be over. Okay?"

"Okay." A bit of a smile had returned.

To fill the silence, Ichii fired off a quick text the blue-haired boy.

Zero, who must have assumed there was some kind of emergency underway, arrived at a run, slamming the door back, looking paler than usual, and more dangerous than usual too. Narrowed eyes, sharp as flint, snapped to our position, and he was by my side in an instant, hand firmly clasping my shoulder, all hint of our earlier animosity gone.

"Uh… Zero?"

"What's happening?" He asked, frantically. "Are we under attack?"

"What?"

"Is it that bastard? Are they back?"

"What are you talking about?"

Zero blinked. His phone was shoved almost square in Ichii's face. "What do you think I'm talking about, idiot? You were the one that texted me! 'Come to the classroom ASAP'."

"Oh." Ichii's confusion dissipated. "Oh. No, you can relax, there's no threat."

Zero's blazing eyes dulled to plain annoyance. "You mean I flat out sprinted halfway across this damn school for nothing?"

"Not nothing." The brunette assured, with alarming swiftness. "We need to go and find Pearl. He ran off. I'm worried he'll get into trouble."

There was a long moment in which he took this all in, before Zero slowly nodded. "Alright. Let's get moving. The longer his headstart, the less of a chance we have of finding him soon."

Despite Zero's dramatic entrance, hardly any heads turned our way as we exited the classroom. Our escape was mostly concealed by the general clamour inside the room.

Mostly, because one stubborn soul followed us out.

"Hey." Hiro was standing in the doorway, looking like he was in a competition to see who could dominate the most space. And he was winning. We all froze, wearing matching expressions of guilt, but he merely pushed my bag into my hands. "You forgot this."

I looked down at the bag, then back up at him, not quite comprehending this turn of events.

"Don't go through the front gate; I saw some teachers patrolling up near there. Apparently some weirdo's been loitering around or something?" All I could really do was gape uselessly at him. Hiro, undeterred, didn't even blink. "I'll cover for you guys, so don't worry about things back here."

By then, I'd finally regain the precious power of movement, and utilised this fully by pouncing a hug on him which nearly knocked us both to the ground. "You really are the best."

"I know." He agreed, without even a moment of hesitation, squeezing me back with just as much vigour. "You know, one day you owe me an explanation for all of this."

"And one day you'll get one." That was a promise. One I fully intended to keep. Even then, my arms tightened around his neck, regret twinging at my heart. "Just… not today."

"Not today." He echoed, with gentle understanding, finally releasing me. "You should hurry, before you get caught. One of you carry her until you're in the clear, her ankle'll only get more messed up trying to run." At this, he glared at Zero, lowering his voice to a venomous mutter. "Of course, if someone hadn't have made her hurt it in the first place, this wouldn't be necessary."

"Hiro." I admonished. "He already feels like crap about it, so don't make it any worse, okay? You know it was an accident."

With a sulky roll of his eyes, Hiro dropped the attitude. "Fine, I'll lay off. But only for you."

"Thank you~"

"Stay safe, you hear?" He affectionately ruffled my hair. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah, see you tomorrow."

Under Hiro's watchful gaze, Ichii lifted me onto his back, arms secured underneath me. "You good?" I nodded, and we were off.

It felt like something out of a spy movie.

Other students were wandering back to class, giving us strange looks as we passed. Somehow we managed to make it all the way to the sports areas without being spotted, where Zero clambered onto the wall and pulled me up and over. Safe, we settled down to decide a plan of action.

"I think we should split up." Ichii announced, fingers tip-tapping a restless rhythm against his thighs. "That way we can cover more ground."

"No way in Hell. Hikari's ankle is busted, and she's still got that freak after her. Leaving her on her own is practically asking for trouble."

Secretly, I couldn't help but agree with him.

"I'm not stupid, Zero." The older boy supported me around the waist as we made our way into a nearby alley, his head swivelling to assert that we were alone.

"Shows."

Ichii's minute glare silenced any more sarcastic commentary from the bluenette. "Bring out your most powerful flames."

The heat was too intense, appearing too quickly. Grimacing, I fell back into Ichii, skin tingling painfully. "Sorry!" Zero exclaimed, and they were gone a second later. Ichii carelessly waved his apology away, and moved me behind him a further few feet.

"Stay here, it's only going to get fiercer. Oh, and I'm going to borrow your necklace, kay?" His nimble fingers unclasped it from around my neck. The cat pendant winked from where it was collected in his palm. Appraising Zero once more, his eyes narrowed. "You're barely trying. Put some effort in."

Zero's gaze flickered hesitantly over to me. "Are you sure?"

Ichii erected two barriers. One to protect me, the other a tinted wall to block off the busy street we had just left. "Do it." He encouraged, bracing himself with steely determination.

What followed was both the most awe-inspiring and utterly terrifying sight I had seen to date.

In less than a second, Zero had become a raging inferno, his flames flecked with black soot, so powerful I could feel a semblance of heat even from behind the barrier. Ichii, his stance firm, suctioned Zero's magic towards my necklace, guiding the flames inside the material with expert precision. As quickly as the fire flared up, Zero extinguished them, and Ichii allowed his shields to drop.

They joined me, both grinning ear to ear with satisfaction.

"What... just happened?"

"I infused your necklace with Zero's magic." Ichii replied, casually dusting his hands off on his trousers.

"Oh." As you do. "Okay. Um… Why?"

Ichii swept my hair over my shoulder, clipping the chain back into place. "To protect you. It'll respond to danger, so you'll be safer when we're not around. In practise, it should hold enemies off until we get there. With flames as strong as those ones, we can detect it from a mile away, and be with you in no time. Happy now?"

He addressed the last part to Zero, who had his arms crossed over his chest. After scowling (Or thinking?) intently for a long moment, he nodded. "Do you have your lollipop on you? And the tactical pen?" I pulled them out as evidence. His gaze lingered on the bracelet he had given me, before he turned to Ichii and flashed him a thumbs up.

"Call one of us if it gets too hard to walk on your ankle."

"Will do." I promised, sincerely, watching as they dispersed, both throwing waves over their shoulders.

For a long time, I wandered around the shopping district, searching for the little dragon, and trying to stay inconspicuous. Walking around in a school uniform wasn't the best way to blend in, but it wasn't like I could go and change clothes. There was a moment where I almost found him, thanks to spotting an on-going news report about an alien spotted nearby, but I arrived too late, and he'd already disappeared.

Locating a bench, I decided to take a breather, checking through my texts to see the places the boys had already searched.

As the day drew to a close, a cold chill was beginning to creep in-

For approximately half a second, because my necklace was now hot to touch, thrumming gently against my chest. I froze, glancing fearfully around. Pins and needles pricked all over my body, making me want to claw my own skin apart. There was an intense gaze pressing down on me, yet I couldn't disconcert where it was coming from. I felt utterly naked, and not in the fun way. Shuddering, I heeded the warning, snatching up my tactical pen and putting as much distance between myself and that area as I could, even with my busted ankle.

What seemed like an age dragged by, before Ichii was calling me.

"Hey." He sounded tired. From all the running around he's been doing, I expected him to be.

"Hey."

"Any luck?"

"None." I despaired, with a little sigh. "You?"

"Same, and Zero hasn't found him, either."

"Did you see that news report earlier?"

"Yeah. Almost gave me a heart attack. Thankfully he managed to escape." Ichii sighed, too. "I'll let you know if I find anything, okay? Check back with me in half an hour."

"Okay. Stay safe."

School had finished by now. I could see the uniforms of other academies flitting through the crowds.

School.

I stopped dead-

And almost immediately had someone slam into me from behind.

Take two; safely tucked out of the way, I fingered the bracelet Zero had presented me with, a gift from the Magical World. It seemed logical to me. Pearl could have returned to school. To where he thought we would be. It was a possibility that he had hidden himself away somewhere and was waiting for us to find him.

It seemed to take mere seconds for me to arrive, breathless, with my ankle throbbing painfully.

"Wow. This place is kinda creepy after hours."

It was all but deserted, looking very much like the conventional ghost town. Minus all the decrepit buildings.

The stairs, as always, were a bitch. It took all my power to prevent myself doing an impressive tumble down the main staircase. Of course, having a misunderstanding with a set of stairs isn't entirely out of character for me, but with the beating my body's already taken over these last couple of days, I figured I should cut myself some slack.

A muted, yet familiar sound emanating from a nearby room.

Head cocked, I approached cautiously.

Pearl?

Hope sparking in my stomach, I threw the door open. Zero almost jumped out of his skin, scaling to the top of some cabinets in his surprise. It would've been hilarious if I hadn't been floored with shock, hands thrown over my mouth to smother my scream.

"You scared me!" I hissed, once I'd finally recovered the ability of speech, hand fisted over my heart.

"I scared you?" He shot back, dropping down to the floor. After a second of wan glaring, we collapsed into giggles, and Zero carefully pulled me up to my feet. "Is your ankle okay?"

"Not really. I actually think I made it worse…. Uh… oops?" I added, lamely, in the wake of his disapproval.

"What am I going to do with you?" He wondered, with a teasing shake of his head.

"Are you going to kill me?"

"I'm plotting right now."

We paused. There was another noise that sounded remarkably like Pearl. "I thought I heard him!"

"Yeah… that's right. This bracelet, Zero, is it-"

"Infused with magic?" Recovering from my shock, I nodded. "It's a good luck charm. Gives you small bursts of luck."

"That explains it. I touched it, and suddenly had the idea to check here…"

Zero had been thinking intently the whole time. "Hey, Pearl! Come out, it's us!" Nothing. "Hm, we should start looking."

We needn't have done anything. Less than a second later, white powder spilled onto our heads, sending us into a flurry of coughing. Pearl emerged from where he had been dozing against the bag of lime, unwittingly pouring half the contents onto us while asleep.

I started giggling.

So this is what that divination meant by 'progressing into a mature relationship'.

Because, with the lime lining his face, Zero looked as though he were an elderly man. Having finished delivering a powerful noogie on the dragon, Zero scooped me up around the waist, heading upstairs. For a moment, I was confused. So too was Ichii, who had finally found us, likely by tracking down Zero's magic. Until, of course, I remembered what building we were in.

More specifically, what was on the roof of the building we were in.

Two seconds later, we were careering through the doors, and- hoe don't do it- jumping straight into the pool. We resurfaced together, me squealing from the cold. Zero merely laughed, and like the little devil child he was, started splashing me with more water.

Well, two can play at that game. He soon learned that I will always be the victor of every and all splash wars when I dunked his head under the water in retaliation.

He managed to wriggle away a second or so later, water dribbling from his mouth. "Hey, no fair!" He complained, shaking his hair from his face. "I helped..."

"How did you help?" I asked, giggling. From the poolside, Ichii's shoes and socks were off, his legs dangling into the water.

"You're... all cleaned up now, at least?"

"No," I returned, half serious, half playful. "I'm freezing. To Death. You may have just given me pneumonia."

I splashed him with a little more water, before allowing Ichii to lift me from the pool. Almost immediately, he switched my sopping wet shirt for his jacket, which, aside from being deliciously warm, was also far drier than I currently was.

I could only laugh when, after offering Zero his hand, Ichii was pulled bodily into the pool as well.

I wished we could stay like this forever, enjoying what little peace we had.

Unbeknownst to all of us, we were being watched.

A/N: This chapter was really hard to write. I''ve had writer's block for weeks, trying to figure out what to do with it. In the end, I managed to get this out. It's much shorter than usual, but hopefully the next update will be better.

Big thank you to Café Noir et Chats for the help and encouragement!

Merry Christmas~