August 25, 2001

5 years, 2 months, 29 days prior to Incident

4:44 AM

Knock-knock-knock.

Sakura groaned and turned over.

Knock-knock-knock-knock.

She jammed a pillow over her head.

Bang-bang-bang-bang-bang.

"Chibi-chan! I know you're in there!"

Sakura expelled a wordless scream into her blanket before dragging herself out of bed. She stomped to the suite door and yanked it open, snarling, "It's five in the morning. This better be good."

Beatus's face was arranged in some approximation of a grin. "Ooh, chibi-chan is fiesty. I like it."

Urg, too much creepy too early in the morning.

"What do you want," she yawned. The anger drained out of her shoulders. She was too tired to maintain it and resist the effects of the foreign chakra at the same time.

"I wanted to play with chibi-chan," he told her cheerfully. At least, she thought it was cheerfulness. She couldn't really tell.

"Go away."

She tried to slam the door in his face but he stuck his foot in before it could close. All joviality slid away like water, leaving his voice low and dangerous. "I don't think so."

"I want to sleep."

"Then sleep!" The cheer - or whatever passed for cheer in his twisted mind - was back.

Sakura paused. That… wasn't a bad idea, actually. It wasn't like he could do anything to her; she was a kunoichi, and she was stronger than him even in sleep. Her ingrained reflexes would keep her safe, and a nice little compulsion genjutsu would keep him away from the children. No matter how creepy he was, he was still just a civilian.

She heaved a heavy sigh and grabbed Beatus's hand. "Come on then."

Sakura pulled him into the suite and padded over to her room with the young teen in tow, pretending the happy quirk of his lips didn't make her want to run for the hills. She reached her room, quickly did the genjutsu when he wasn't looking, and then pushed him on her plush bed. Beatus flopped onto it gracefully.

Sakura crawled into bed beside him, shoving him away from the center so she could settle into her little nest of blankets. She closed her eyes and let the gray chakra wash over her, snuggling into the closest source of warmth.

8:29 AM

Mikuro quietly cracked the door to her onee-sama's door open, hoping to ask if she and Kaito could go play.

"..."

She silently padded back to her room and got her camera.

9:13 AM

Knock-knock-knock.

Sakura twitched.

"You should go get that," a raspy, drowsy voice in her ear told her. She nodded absentmindedly and slid out of bed, wondering why her shoulders felt so heavy as she stumbled to the door.

"Yesss?" she sighed as she opened the door. "Ah, Watari-jiisan. Why are you here?"

Quillsh Whammy had expected any number of different things when the hotel door was opened.

On one end of the spectrum was the hope that Backup was not in the room, and had gone down to get breakfast. On the other end was the fear that Backup had somehow ended up scarring the other children for life in the few hours that he had been out of Quillsh's sight. Between lay any number of events, such as an annoyed Backup or a crying little girl or something on fire.

The sight that greeted him had not even entered his mind.

Backup was draped sleepily over the shoulders of a cutely yawning Sakaki, both children blinking up at him with matching dazed looks. Quillsh huffed in amusement.

"It appears I need not have worried," he said. Sakaki scrunched her brows in confusion. Whammy clarified for the poor girl, who looked as if she would topple over at any moment. "I had wondered where Beatus had disappeared to."

"Oh… him…" She looked around. "Where has he gone off to?"

Apparently realising something, she tilted her head back.

"Hi," Backup said, his head bent over the girl's. Strands of black hair fell forward and tickled her cheeks.

Green eyes blinked slowly. "When did you get there?"

As Backup had a conversation of incomparable levels of normality, Quillsh contemplated leaving these two alone.

And then he realised that Sakaki was only 10, and likely would not share any of the sentiments Backup seemed to have. Though, he often wondered about that boy...

"When will your mother come pick you up?" Quillsh asked instead.

"Today."

Backup froze. His hands, currently gripping Sakaki's forearms, tightened to the point of making the girl whimper.

"Ah, sorry," the boy said, pulling his hands away. He did not sound sorry.

Sakaki's pale arms were marred with red, hand shaped bruises, as well as crescent shaped marks where Backup's nails had cruelly dug into her skin. One of the marks was bleeding.

Quillsh sighed and gave Backup a reproachful look as he ushered the girl into the bathroom. He pulled out the first aid kit stocked in every suite and began cleaning up her wounds.

"I apologize for Beatus. You must understand, he does not make ties with others very often, so he was very distraught at losing a new friend so soon."

Sakaki nodded. Despite her injury, she still looked very sleepy.

As Watari-san led her back out, he said, "Perhaps if you maintained correspondence with him, it would give Beatus some peace of mind."

Beatus perked up. Sakura nodded again and, without thinking, told the both of them her real address.

Fuyuno Sakura - age 11, 1st year junior high

BB - age 14, formal education unknown

Fuyuno Miku - age 5, kindergarten

AN

Uh-oh. Sakura... Sakura is not a morning person.

BB is a crazy crackpot. I really like this kind of fictional character, but please note that I don't endorse such behaviour in real life. Purposefully hurting other people in no good! Intimidating others to get your way is no good!