Cross Ice

by Crimrose-A-Bee

Snow Hisayuki moves to the mysterious "Lost City" of Akutetsu in search of closure for a damaging past she could never truly overcome. When she becomes faced with pure magic, friendships she feels she doesn't deserve, and the burden of her first love, she realizes just how much of her life she lost to despair. However, she soon realizes that she holds a deadly mystery of her own...

9. Chapter VIII- Closer to Her Truth

I have no excuses. I'm just a horrible procrastinator. Besides, I just went through Christmas, had exams, and now I have the flu... okay maybe a few excuses. But hey, my birthday's tomorrow on March 20, so I thought I should grant myself the gift of finally finishing this chapter. And it's damn long. Sorry. Eheh.

~Crimrose

Chapter XIII
Closer To Her Truth

-Easter Headquarters-

"So, I take it the concert was a failure?"

The two warring persons within the prosperous Easter Corporation exchanged a venomous glance. While the concert that had taken place earlier that night had been what could be considered a failure due to some mysterious technical difficulties, X-Eggs had indeed been extracted for the purpose of searching for the elusive Embryo, the magical egg of the heart they were assigned to search for and give to the Boss. But none of the extracted eggs had turned out to be the one they sought, and were ultimately destroyed by the infamous grunt, Ikuto Tsukiyomi, in the end. The question was which one of the employees would be the one to relay this information to the executive director of the company.

Each one of the persons that stood in front of the executive director's black, wooden desk was a male and female. The male chose to be the one to deliver the bad news, stooping into a deep bow in front of his boss. His expression couldn't be seen from the immense lack of light in the shadowy room, but one would be able to plainly see that he was not pleased. "I'm very sorry, sir," the employee said, the look on his face not one of repentance, but rather resentment. "The concert was pulled short due to technical difficulties, and Utau Hoshina was only capable of extracting a mere three X-Eggs."

The executive director was silent for a few ticks of the ominous clock on his desk, simultaneously drumming his fingers on his desk to its rhythm. Then he glanced up from his very own nameplate to his pitiful-looking employee and asked the question that would mean taking action or not if the answer he was looking for appeared. "Were the Seiyo Academy Guardians there?"

This made the male employee perk up. He stood straight once again with a smug grin spreading across his face as he responded. "Yes. But that wasn't all. It seems that the Guardians have recruited an extra pair of hands to combat us."

"Oh?" Now the executive director himself was intrigued. That could only mean a new opponent had appeared, one with what must have been formidable Guardian powers. He longed to hear more of this new information as soon as possible.

Completely unnoticed by the three adults in the room was yet another Easter employee- though not a voluntary one- lurking in the shadows of the room, silent as a phantom. His ears perked up on this topic of conversation, and he knew they could only be talking about one person. One person who he had unknowingly gone to extensive lengths to protect, even though he knew he shouldn't have. He shifted slightly from his rather bored stance of leaning carelessly against the wall into a straight standing position, ready to take action whenever need be.

"Her name," began the male, pulling a stack of papers from behind his back and slipping his milk-bottle glasses back on, "is Snow Camellia Hisayuki." The very name made the boy haunting the shadows tense up, and sent a thrum of something warm and strange right through his chest into the pit of his gut. "Just began attending Seiyo Academy not two weeks ago, and has already been recruited. Her grades are top-notch, and she's generally polite to all that speak to her, though remains fairly introverted." The male made a face of approval. "That could be used to our advantage."

"Anything… interesting?" The executive director asked, clearly looking for one thing and one thing only: something to use against her.

"That's the thing," said the male, narrowing his eyes at the student file in front of him. "Her background info is very spotty, dismal at best. Born January twenty-first, nineteen ninety-five, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Eighteen years of age, and weighs one hundred and twenty-seven pounds, with a height of five feet and eleven point six inches." All of this information was a valuable surprise to the shadowed boy, and he committed it to memory for reasons unbeknownst even to him. She felt a lot lighter than what he had said, and looked so small and frail, like she was made of glass and would break if not treated with care.

"But here's where it gets complicated. Her real parents aren't listed here. Her real name isn't even Hisayuki, but comes up as a blank. It says she was adopted by the Johnston family at age six."

The boy in the shadows nearly jerked in surprise. Someone like Snow… had been adopted? What had happened to her parents? Was she… all alone in the world?

"Upon further speculation," the male continued, attempting to smooth back the scattered pieces of the cowlicks he called hair. "It turns out her mother had been transported out of the country for heavily guarded reasons, and her father went missing altogether. She was hospitalized soon after her mother left, then turned over to an orphanage before adopted. At all of her schools thereafter, there has been what seems to be a record of violence. From just kicking over a few chairs to sending a senior in high school to the hospital for a broken collarbone in the ninth grade." The boy did his best to hold in a snort of laughter. Snow Hisayuki didn't really seem well-built enough to hurt anyone. The punch of hers he had received earlier that night barely even throbbed anymore. What hurt him far more deeply than that was the look of pure devastation and heartbreak on her face, something he had never expected to happen for as long as he lived.
He supposed he knew why now. She had yelled at him, cursed him, essentially, for breaking the X-Eggs of three dreamers, not knowing how much it broke him, as well. It must have been because she knew what it felt like to have her dreams torn away from her all at once, since she lost both of her parents and was transferred from place to place like some sort of package, receiving new stamps and wounds from each place she visited. Why was she here now? Had she run away? All sorts of guesses and assumptions ran through his mind, and he supposed he could never know without asking her directly. Not that she would be talking to him anymore. He had gone to extensive lengths- breaking eggs in front of her- to make sure she wouldn't feel the need to associate with him again, despite him being to one to approach her all times before. He had the insatiable and inexplicable desire to protect her ever since the first time he saw her, getting cornered and potentially violated by some random and idiotic thugs.

The reasoning he had given her was because those men had simply annoyed him as he was taking his walk. But the fact of the matter was entirely different. He had been a distance behind her, intermingling with the crowd, when he saw her get pulled away with the most stricken and offended look on her face that he laughed out loud before realizing she was in danger. Even from far away, he saw her eyes. They were rather hard to ignore, with the almost toxic violet colour and neon blue ring around the pupil. Those eyes held a strength, awareness, and humanity he had never seen before, and when he finally noticed that she was going to be harmed and possibly traumatized forever, all he could think was not her. He had rushed to her rescue before even noticing what was happening, and had conflicting opinions on the matter ever since. He was glad to have met her, to have a slight spot of light in his world consumed in darkness. To be able to see her smile that cast a sort of wondrous spell over him, one that made his worries temporarily fly away and make his heart almost stop. But knowing her meant getting her involved in whatever business he had. And now it was too late to try and do anything to save her. She was already in too deep.
He didn't know who- or what- she was, and he didn't care to know. All he could do was continue to fight the Guardians while interacting with her as little as possible. Even if it meant that he couldn't have a spot of happiness anymore, so be it. Her snow-white purity should no longer have been tainted by the very air he breathed. Okay- maybe that was a bit excessive. But he really felt that he didn't deserve to be in her presence at all.

Oblivious to the war the boy was waging on himself, the employee trudged on to yet another fact about Snow Hisayuki that caught his undivided attention. "She has two Shugo Chara that I've seen so far, the same amount as Little Blondie. But that isn't all. I have reason to believe that her powers go far beyond that."

At the same time the executive director made a noise of interest, the boy tensed. What could he mean? What more was there to the enigma known as Snow Hisayuki? It was a good thing he had skipped out on hanging out with Toma and Keigo- the two boys that could be considered his only true friends- that night; he never would've heard this information otherwise.

"You are aware that the reason of the stage equipment malfunctioning was that large clumps of ice had frozen it solid and weighed it down so much it crashed," the male confirmed. "Well, I happened to be sitting next to the Hisayuki girl as it was happening. Her expression showed that she was under a lot of strain, and also…" He looked up from scanning the long papers in his hands to stare right into the eyes of his superior, strangely serious for his usually seemingly flippant attitude. "The veins in her hands began shifting, as if working out some sort of power, and frost was freezing them to the armrests. Her Shugo Chara had been urging her to 'relax' and 'control it'. Thus I believe that there is more to this young lady than meets the eye. Something is different about her. And all of these things could potentially be used to our advantage if we play our cards right. All we need to do is be extra careful around the Guardians and they'll never be the wiser."

The boy had heard enough. Now he had new information on Snow that could- and undoubtedly would- be used against her. He had to do something about that, even if she did hate him now. Because she had moved to this city to begin a new life, he presumed, and he wouldn't let getting enraptured in Shugo Chara business take that chance away from her when she clearly deserved it. No, Snow Hisayuki was too good to get involved, and far better off absolutely loathing him than trying to understand him.

"I don't think you're a bad person either, you know," she had said to him with a light and honest expression on her gentle, effeminate face. He closed his eyes and, for just one moment, imagined the way things could be if they were different. Imagined what he would do to her, imagined her accepting it with that lilting, goofy laugh of hers…

Then he clued back into reality and began to stride out of the executive director's office, his footfalls making soft, plush sounds against the black carpet.
"Ikuto?" The executive director asked, standing from his leather swivel chair in surprise and frustration. "How long have you been standing there? And just where do you think you're going?"

Instead of responding, Ikuto Tsukiyomi simply flipped off his stepfather before lithely striding out of the room- and, hopefully, out of Snow's life. If he could find the strength within himself to do so.

}{

"Hey," Kukai-kun whispered to Yaya-san the day after the concert, a worried look drawing down his usually pointed and haughty face, "doesn't Hisayuki look like she just went through the washing machine?"

I chose not to comment and continued to stare miserably out of the Royal Garden with my chin in the palm of my hand. Satsuki, my newest Shugo Chara, was mingling well with the others, especially Temari, which was about the only highlight of my day. Last night was sleepless and agonizing for me, since all that ran through my mind was the X-Eggs shattering into thousands of hopeless little bits. And the look on Ikuto's face as he did so.

As usual, his expression clearly had a lot of work put into it to appear blank and uncaring. His mouth was relaxed and uncaring- not that I was staring at it the whole time-, his eyebrows drawn and resigned, his posture completely at ease. But his eyes looked as though they were completely suffering, and the scene of the breaking was replaying, over and over again, until he finally exited the scene to repent for his sins. It was as heartbreaking as the action itself. But I didn't care anymore. I couldn't. Because he was evil, just like the rest of the Easter Corporation.

And I would fight them.

"COMB YOUR HAIR!" Lilith screamed at me, as she and Vivian actually cooperated for once in chucking an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie at my face. I hated oatmeal with a passion forged from Hell's flames, but caught it in my mouth anyway and crushed it with a deadly crunch! and a wild look in my eyes.
"But, really, it needs to be fixed," Vivian added with a morose grin as Lilith trembled behind her.

The rest of the Guardians were obviously struggling to hold in their laughter from the way their shoulders shook and faces turned red. Nadeshiko-san stood gracefully, wiping the grin off her face with a genuinely helpful smile. "Here, let me," she said, rummaging in her schoolbag momentarily and emerging with a comb that looked to be crafted out of the finest of pearls and crystal.

Oh God, I thought in pure horror when she began approaching me with it. Please don't let that thing touch my rat's nest of hair and break it I'll die- My thoughts were proven to be in vain when she gently took a chunk of it in her hand and began combing it out, being careful not to tug too painfully- not that it'd affect me in any way, regardless.

"Th-thank you," I said nervously, folding my hands in my lap and staring at them as she worked her magic. I had woken up late that morning and hadn't bothered to pull myself together, and did in fact look like I had taken a tango with a washing machine- without any of the cleanly effects.
"So," Kukai-kun began, settling further into his chair and folding his arms behind his head. "Did you see anything worth noting last night, Hisayuki? You know, besides the stage equipment crashing and all."

Which may have actually been my fault. I chased those thoughts and the spot of pitch black that came with them away with a vigorous shake of my head. "I went after the X-Eggs," I began slowly, grinding my teeth as I spoke, "out the back door of the stage. They were attacking me, and I didn't have any time to Character Transform." Nadeshiko-san stopped her very effective brushing to give me space to strip off my black school uniform blazer and be left in the white blouse, and I rolled up my sleeve to show them my purpling shoulder. Yaya-san, Nadeshiko-san, and Kukai-kun all sucked in gasps, not expecting an X-Egg to harm someone that much, and Tadase-kun bit his lip and looked purely apologetic. "It doesn't hurt too much; just stings a bit. Anyway, when I was about to get beamed in the head, Ikuto… Tsukiyomi swooped in and…" I bit my lip. "Saved me."

Tadase-kun tensed so much that even his gentle eyes went steely. "What do you mean by 'saved'?"

"I mean that he, uh, picked me up and carried me out of the way." When they all began staring me down, I blushed and pressed my lips together. "Anyway, after he did that, he went and broke all three eggs."

Now Tadase-kun was actually standing, and his cheeks were a bright shade of red, like a police siren. Kukai-kun elbowed him in the leg with a warning expression, and he sat back down in complete silence. The Royal Garden was about as loud as a graveyard thereafter, the only real sound that of running water and Nadeshiko-san raking the comb through my long hair. She set it delicately on the table and began braiding it the way I liked, two on the side that connected at the back. Yaya-san was clearly uncomfortable with the current atmosphere, judging from her incessant tapping on the table with a sour expression. She couldn't take it anymore, evidently, and stood up while yelling like a maniac. "OKAAAAAAY. So basically this just tells us what we already knew. Easter are the bad guys, and the kitty-man is just one of them. So what? It's not like our goal has changed."

As everyone murmured in agreement and Nadeshiko-san resumed sitting down, I bowed my head and hid the grimace that flashed across my features. I didn't understand why I felt so betrayed. I already knew what Easter was capable of doing. And yet… I still thought that they might've had a spot of good in them.
That Ikuto was all evil.

But I couldn't let the Guardians know that. I already felt like an outsider as it was. I didn't want to give them any more reason to think that I really was a freak and couldn't help them anymore. So I sucked in a big gulp of air and let a huge grin dominate my face. "Yaya-san's right. If anything, we just have more reason to fight them now. I'm sure that if we just continue doing what we're doing, we'll be able to find out a thing or two along the way."

The angered flush drained from Tadase-kun's cheeks and was replaced with his easy, warm smile. Though his eyes were another story; there was a certain depth to them right then, almost like if you looked closely enough, you could see right into his soul and read his feelings- which were undoubtedly those of despair. "That's true. Thanks you two. You really know how to handle a situation."

Yaya-san got this haughty smile on her face and started giggling like a fool. "Snowcchi was just copying me, is all."

I rolled my eyes. "Right. Well, I should be getting to class now, considering that I actually care about my record." My challenging stare was directed at Kukai-kun, who nonchalantly kicked his feet up on the table and started whistling. Nadeshiko-san knocked them down and scowled at his innocent expression. "I'll see you guys later."

Sweeping my messenger bag up from where I ditched it on the floor next to my chair, I stood from my seat and tossed it over my shoulder. Just before I left the gazebo altogether, I hesitated, then laid a hand on Tadase-kun's shoulder. Despite what I had expected, it was still very large, firm, and warm beneath my hand, giving further evidence that he really was a guy (which I knew already, but hadn't really been entirely conscious of). He seemed surprised from the way he jerked under my touch, and looked up at me as the other Guardians idly chatted away about planning and what to do with the new information that had been presented.

I smiled at him, though my eyebrows were drawn down in something like regret. "We'll figure this all out," I told him, "and then it'll all be over before you know it."

His returning smile made mine look more like a grimace. "Thank you, Hisayuki-san. I'm… really glad you became a Guardian."

It took almost all of my willpower not to skip away from the Garden with that praise. When I reached the tall glass doors, I turned and called to Nadeshiko-san: "Thanks for helping with my hair!"

"Anytime!" She called back, waving enthusiastically.

And again, my chest was overflowing with a feeling of fulfillment, like I had found what I'd been searching for all my life. So this is what having friends meant. They- we- depended on each other, and helped each other. It seemed like such a wonderful relationship to have, and I knew I had to treasure it like nothing else.

On my walk back to the main building, I noticed all of my Shugo Chara were collectively giving me a knowing, sly smirk. "What?" I demanded, a blush running across my cheeks. "What do you want now?"

"You're so cute," Satsuki giggled, pressing her hand against her mouth in a very graceful fashion.

Though to me it was just irritating, and the flush just spread. "Whatever," I mumbled, causing Lilith and Vivian to start snickering behind my back, which turned to full-blown laughter once I whirled around and started cursing at them.

There was a reason- precisely two reasons- why I continued my banter with my Shugo Chara in my home economics class. I wasn't overly concerned about people believing that I was talking to myself in the kitchen, though it was about completely nonsensical things, like what we were going to have for dinner. In fact, I figured it would've been an insult if I didn't continue, and that was because of the presence of Deryn Sivas and William Strathmore- or as they told me to call them, just Deryn and Will. They were the only people in this school, as far as I knew, that could actually see and hear Shugo Chara despite not having any themselves. No one knew why, exactly, though it was simply suspected that both of their sixth senses were particularly in tune with the world around them. And so the worked together with the Guardians sometimes, being their eyes and ears when they themselves had others business to attend to. They were both very… eccentric, to say the least, but the second they noticed Lilith casually lounging on my shoulder the day after she hatched, they began talking to me and letting me into their two-person circle.

Once they noticed I had entered the room, Deryn looked at me and experienced a mouth-twitch, AKA what she considered a smile. Meanwhile, her male partner stood from his seat at one of the circular tables and began waving at me cheerfully with a model-like smile on his face. The pair of them were what some people considered to be more than human- and that was simply because of the way they looked. Deryn was excessively tall and thin, like some kind of supermodel, with long, wavy golden hair that cascaded into curls around her waist (which gave her the nickname Rapunzel from Will). Her face was always expressionless, making it completely smooth and untouched, and also giving it a sort of unearthly beauty. One would think that her eyes would betray any emotion she felt, and they did- but only when Will was around. Those two aquamarine orbs otherwise remained completely neutral. She was sort of like Ikuto in that way, except maybe on a much more extreme scale. Nonetheless, she was very considerate in her own way, even if she didn't like to express it often. Her full mouth was usually closed, but whenever she opened it, words of a harsh and surprising variety usually emerged, even when she was actually trying to be kind. She was just like that, I guessed, but I was completely charmed by her anyway, and considered her to be not just an acquaintance, but more like a friend.

Will, on the other hand, was like her polar opposite. While he was just an inch or two taller than his girl, he remained lanky with some definition about him, like his high cheekbones or sharp jaw. It was usually hard to see his eyes beneath his hair, which fell about to his shoulders and across his brow, and was the colour of melted onyx. However, when you did manage to see his eyes, you could see that they were always bright, kind, and very humble, and a light brown that bordered on a chocolate popsicle with bright blue flecks. I probably would've found him incredibly attractive if one, he wasn't obviously head-over-heels for his quiet partner, and two, if he wasn't a completely ridiculous goof that had a bad habit of dropping things out of nowhere and tripping over his own two feet.
How those two came together was a complete mystery to me, but I supposed it didn't matter. Despite being a very young age, it was plain to see that the feelings shared between those two were very strong, and very real. You could tell simply by observing them. The glances they shared, the way the almost hovered around each other in a permanent orbit, how one was never seen without the other- exempt from the occasional bathroom break- and how Will wouldn't be as silly when in Deryn's presence, and always had a warm and endearing smile when looking at her, with a certain heat in his eyes that always made me feel like I was… intruding. Hell, the very fact that Deryn smiled around him at all should've been proof enough that what they had was one of those rare relationships you knew they would be bound to forever. Plus their conversations mostly consisted of nothing but fluff. I told myself I wasn't jealous of their connection, and even I could tell what a horrible liar I was.

"I hear we're making stew today," Will began as I took a seat beside Deryn, who merely nodded her head in my direction. "In honour of the weather getting cooler. Doesn't that sound great? I'm so excited- we should make lots so we have leftovers for home, Ryn."

Not to mention they were cohabitating. Deryn simply shrugged her small, pointy shoulders. "I don't care. It's not as if making dinner is that hard."

Will got a laugh out of me when he got this "seductive" look on his face and batted his eyelashes. "Wanna know what is hard?"

"Fuck off, Will."

"I love you, honey."

Deryn scowled at him, but a slight smile spread across her face, which was her way of saying "I love you, too". They bickered back and forth like that constantly, like they really were married instead of just living together. Whenever they did, Deryn always seemed strangely happy about it, and when I asked why, she got a sincerity in her eyes that made them gleam like the ocean. "It may sound silly," she had said in her quiet, velvety voice that sounded like it was made for song, "but sometimes, the time I spend here with you, and with William, feels like a dream to me. I have never felt so… accepted, and liked in all my life. I get scared to think that one day I'll just wake up and I'll lose him. But when we banter like that, well… it's almost like affirming his existence, the way he gets me riled up sometimes. It proves that he- and my feelings- are real."

She had said it with the most thoughtful and sad expression on her face that it was plain to see that she, too, had some difficulties in her past that she didn't care to talk about. So much so that they only good thing in her life felt like it could break at any moment if she wasn't careful. I was only slightly older than her, but a strange, motherly-like instinct welled up inside of my chest whenever I thought about what a strange, sweet girl like her must've gone through to feel like that. But I never asked. I knew all too well that it was an uncomfortable thing to talk about your past.

The sound of the door to the school kitchen opening dragged me away from my focus, and I looked towards the sound to find Mr. Nikaidou striding on in with the same milk bottle glasses and ridiculous grin. He began chatting it up with our teacher, evidently about something funny when they both began to crack up. Seeing him made me bristle defensively. He was sitting right beside me last night and had witnessed the whole "frost" thing going on with my hands, even when I didn't know exactly what had happened. But I didn't know how to act around him after that. Do we pretend nothing even happened and just go back to being regular old teacher and student? Or will he begin to question me and what had happened?

Apparently, I wasn't the only one who had a slight issue with his presence. As Will was merrily reading recipes for different kinds of stew to make, his girlfriend was looking at Mr. Nikaidou the way a wolf looked at a sleeping rabbit.

"There's something strange about him," she muttered under her breath, so low Will couldn't hear. But I could.

I leaned in closer to her, my expression guarded and careful. "What do you mean?" I asked, my voice lowered to the pitch of a shallow breath.

"It may sound odd to you," she began, trying not to look directly at him. A lot of things that came out of Deryn's mouth would sound odd to me, apparently. "But it's like I'm looking at a chameleon. He's matching himself with his surroundings to keep something concealed. There's something underneath the surface he's showing us." She leaned back in her chair, her long bangs falling across an eye. "The question is what."

"How do you know all of this?"

For a moment, she looked as if she was about to tell me about the secret she and Will carried. It was obvious that their ability to see Shugo Chara was more than just a strong sixth sense. There was something off about Will and Deryn, about the way they were, the way they were so in tune with their surroundings. It was almost like they had stronger senses in general, like me. But she clamped her mouth shut and turned to look out the window at the sky that was dying down to the colour of the dark countertops in the kitchen.

"It's just a feeling," she said with a shrug, even though we both knew it was more than that.

Our home-ec teacher, Mrs. Kelling, stood at the front of the room with a strangely grave expression on her face, considering how animated she had been when talking with Mr. Nikaidou, who was now standing at the front of the room beside her with an out-of-character sober smile. "Class," she began, making rounds around the tables filled with students who lowered their chattering voices to hear her. "Mr. Nikaidou, the supply science teacher, has just informed me that there was another attack last night in the city. It's believed to be made by animals again. I'm not telling this to scare you; I just want you kids to be careful on your way home after school. If you see or hear anything the slightest bit suspicious, don't act brave and try to confront it; just go home."

What was with this city? First I come here and learn that little supernatural creatures can be born from eggs as your would-be selves, and now there's strange attacks going on everywhere? Not to mention that I had some weird mojo going on with my hands, the way the veins shift into the patterns of frost you see on windows in winter, and the very fact that they froze over just last night. Ever since I came here, everything about my entire life had begun to change, in ways I never thought possible. I couldn't tell if it was a good or bad thing yet.

As Mrs. Kelling spoke at the front of the room in her clear, high-pitched voice, Deryn got this look on her face that almost seemed a bit remorseful. Will turned his attention back to her, scooted closer, and began to stroke his hand up and down her back in a soothing way, murmuring some things to her that I strained not to hear, for they felt private. His expression was grim yet comforting, like he was telling her a truth that couldn't be avoided. She was nodding, but still looked far away from him. Despite trying to ignore them, I caught him say, "You can't help it", to which Deryn pressed her lips together and nodded again.
It was so rare to see the both of them grave that I knew I had to distract them. As soon as Mrs. Kelling stopped speaking and went to check each group's recipe and progress, I picked up the sheet of stews before us and began talking as cheerfully as I could manage. "I don't really like peppers or anything like that, but if you guys do, we could make stuffed pepper stew."

Will smiled up at me with that charming grin of his and said, "Ryn doesn't really either. How about we just make beef stew?"

Deryn nodded again. "I like meat."

"Beef stew it is." I pulled a red pen out of my pencil case and circled our option, then began recording ingredients on a separate sheet of paper. Will set off to tell Mrs. Kelling of our choice, and when he left, Deryn looked at me, with a grateful smile on her face.

"Thank you, Snow."

Despite my best efforts not to, I flushed. "You have nothing to thank me for."

"You shouldn't be so modest," Satsuki piped in suddenly, again reminding me that I was never alone anymore. She floated before Deryn and I with a gentle smile and said, "You're better at distractions and comfort than you know."

"This is the third egg?" Deryn questioned, cocking her head to one side, expressionless yet again.

I heaved a sigh. "Yep. She hatched just last night."

"And what wish is she born from?"

I tapped the pen against my chin, and realized that I had no idea. "Uhh…"

"'I wish to be strong'," Satsuki quoted, and she got this adoring expression on her face as she threw herself at my face and snuggled it like a kitten. I was thrown for a loop. Lilith and Vivian had never been this affectionate. Satsuki was so completely different from them, graceful, kind, and helpful. As I thought that, I noticed that the other two were glaring daggers at me like they could hear my thoughts. I grinned sheepishly at them.

"Good choice," Deryn responded, her expression turning to one of fondness.

Will returned from his little errand, said we were good to go, and swept Deryn out of her seat by grasping her hand and kissing her tenderly on the forehead. All of my Shugo Chara blushed and "awwwed" at the PDA, while I just looked away, embarrassed to even watch. Will grinned against his girlfriend's forehead at me and mumbled, "Even though you're older than us, you have no romantic experience, huh."

"Shut up," I muttered defensively as my expression contorted into something awful and embarrassed, like an old lady scrunching her nose up at some hooligans messing in her yard. "Let's get to work."

Each of us tied on a school-issue apron with the logo of a crescent moon and star on it, then began washing, chopping, and seasoning ingredients. With three pairs of hands, and my Shugo Chara actually attempting to be helpful for once by seasoning and stirring when no one was looking, our stew was simmering on the stove with twenty minutes left in the period. Mr. Nikaidou was still hanging out in the classroom, tasting each group's dishes, and eventually made it over to us. Will greeted him cheerfully and politely, the same nice guy as always, while I gave him a strained smile and Deryn all-out glared, her eyes melting to the cover of midnight waters.

He used a spoon and tried out our dish, chewing thoughtfully and making tasting noises with his mouth. Then he swallowed and got a pensive look on his face. "Not bad," he said carefully. He got a twisted smile on his face and stared right into my eyes, making them widen in something like fear and distrust. "But I think it's still far too cold. Almost like ice."

What was happening? Was he testing me? I didn't even understand what had happened, let alone what he was trying to do, so I was left with a loss for words. Luckily, Deryn swopped in to the rescue, stepping in front of me despite being an inch or so shorter. "Well, I guess that just means it needs to cook longer. Thanks for the advice."

Mr. Nikaidou smiled brightly at her. "No problem. I look forward to when it finally melts." Then he strode away, humming as he walked along.

Although I didn't know why I felt tempted to, I leaned closer to Deryn, my expression that of a tortured puppy, and whispered, "Thank you."

"Any time," she responded. She didn't look at me as she said it, but I caught a strange expression on her face. It was defensive and suspicious, like she knew something I didn't and was somehow protecting me. I didn't understand in the slightest. But my Shugo Chara, on the other hand, exchanged one of their secret, impressive three-way glances, each of their expressions wary and careful. These people were stepping on eggshells around me, and apparently didn't feel inclined to tell me why. But I knew something was going on underneath all of their facades. And I couldn't tell if I wanted to know what it was.

}{

"We're going."

Startled, I looked up from reading some Guardian paperwork about the upcoming sports festival and what else needed to be done, to see Yaya-san standing right beside my chair, and all of the other Guardians giving me a concerned look.

"Uh, pardon?" I asked her, directing my eyes to hers, which looked like they were jumping with excitement, a roaring fire dancing in the dark night of the atmosphere.

"You've been depressed and moody all day, and now it's getting everyone on edge. Not that it's very unusual, but today it's a bit extreme."

"Hey," I snapped defensively. "I'm not always depressed and moody."

"Oh please." She rolled her copper eyes exaggeratedly. "Don't flatter yourself. We're gonna go do something fun to get you out of this funk. Whether you like it or not."

My jaw dropped at her bluntness, and I groped for a response that wouldn't upset her. "Um, but we still have all this work to do." I fanned the papers at her, lists of things we needed to buy before next Friday. "We can't just abandon all of our duties."

She snorted, a bemused expression on her face. "Duties." She snickered. "They can handle it. Right, guys?"

Kukai-kun opened his mouth, obviously about to object, but Tadase-kun threw a hand over his mouth and smiled warmly. "Of course. It's not good to be so upset, Hisayuki-san. I want to make sure that you're happy as much as possible. Go out and have fun."

The very kindness overflowing from his words made my entire face go red. But I didn't really want to go. I wanted to be left alone with my thoughts and try to sort out the impossible jigsaw puzzle in my head of information, and then talk to my Shugo Chara about what they were hiding from me. But Yaya-san smacked the papers out of my hand, earning a strained protest, and yanked me from my seat, which was quite the feat since we were about a foot apart.

"You have a great smile," Nadeshiko-san said, grinning at me herself. "We want to do whatever we can to get it back, so don't worry about Easter or anything for now." She took me by surprise when she gave Kukai-kun a look that would terrify a serial killer and said menacingly, "Right, Souma-kun?"

The fiery redhead gulped. "Uh, sure. Whatever."

Well that was surprising. I had no idea Nadeshiko-san could be threatening like that. Before I could comment on it, or object even further, Yaya-san threw the strap of my bag over my head and tore out of the Royal Garden, dragging me behind her whilst screaming.

"Yaya-san," I called as she pulled me mercilessly through the courtyard of the school. "I really don't think this is-"

"This," she cut me off, coming to a sudden halt and making me crash into her small back. She clearly was about to topple over, but caught herself before she did, turned around, and put her hands on her hips sternly. "Is what friends are for. We help each other out. We comfort each other when we're sad. If you don't come with me to have a blast, I'm going to assume you hate me."

When I didn't respond, her strong countenance fell so much that I swore her face was melting. "Do you hate me?"

"Of course she doesn't," Lilith sang suddenly, popping out from the cover of my hair. "You know Snow. She's just embarrassed to be hanging out with a friend." I pressed my lips together and flicked her away, and her scream resembled that of an ant's.

Yaya-san made an amused sound and looked at me in a way that said she thought I was adorable. "Well, there's nothing to be embarrassed about. Now let's go have some fun."

With a roll of my eyes and a big sigh, I decided to just go along with her. Yaya-san had the trait of dragging people into her own pace, no matter how much they resisted. Besides, maybe it would be good if I had some fun. It'd take my mind off of things that I'd rather not think about.

"Where exactly are we going?" I asked her, finally not being tugged along and instead walking at her side. I imagined we looked much like a comedy duo with our height difference, but she didn't seem to mind.

"Starbucks, of course," she said with a shiver, her high voice taking on an excited edge. "It's freezing out here, and I need hot chocolate with lots and lots of whipped cream, or I'm gonna die." I should've figured she liked things really sweet like that. "Speaking of which, aren't you cold? You're really only wearing a scarf."

I supposed I did look strange next to her, since she was bulked up in an orange scarf, white pea coat, and orange mittens, but what could I do? I'd overheat like that. So I just shrugged and said, "I'm really sensitive to the heat. So I don't mind being, er, chilly." It was hard to say the word 'chilly' since I had never once experienced what it meant. And if I just said I couldn't feel the cold at all, that would've sounded slightly strange.

Yaya-san laughed at my condition instead of just thinking it was weird. "Suit yourself, but just make sure not to get a cold." She got a strangely suggestive look on her face, and she flushed even without a cold wind in her face. "I'm sure that'd make Tadacchi sad."

My expression turned wary as my Shugo Chara began giggling on my shoulder. "And what is that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, nothing," she sang, skipping slightly ahead of me. "If you don't understand, then it's fine."

I wanted to pursue the subject further, suspicious of what she was getting at, but then I decided against it. Since this was Yaya-san I was dealing with, I'd probably regret getting any more details than that.

It might've sounded strange (and I realized that Deryn's manner of speaking was rubbing off on me), but with someone so cheerful and bright and honestly wanting to be my friend at my side, the world around me seemed brighter when it was normally so bleak. School had just ended, so the sky had yet to take the passionate hues of the sunset, and was instead a clear blue that was like a single, strong stroke of aero paint. The day had been so gloomy and dark earlier, the overcast clouds making it appear as though there was only void instead of sky, but it appeared pathetic fallacy was coming into play by personifying my mood. Leaves that were about the size of the Shugo Chara were fluttering in the breeze in front of us, little helicopters the shades of flames doing a natural dance. For the first time in years, I felt like skipping. I was already forgetting all the worries that plagued me just moments ago, and I actually giggled a little when a breeze tangled through my hair and made the three girls hang on for dear life.

Yaya-san was smiling back at me with her bright teeth showing, as cheerful as a child that had yet to experience any sort of corruption. "You must really like it outside."

"I guess so," I said as I gathered Lilith, Vivian, and Satsuki, and tucked them in the front of my scarf so they didn't blow away. "I've never really liked being cramped indoors."

"Same here." She did a small twirl in front of me, her small, buoyant pigtails bouncing back and forth happily. "My parents used to always take me for walks, and they did that thing where they grab your hands and swing you back and forth."

My smile was honest and not at all strained when I said, "That sounds like fun." In my years before everything in my life began to crumble, Dad would always swoop me onto his shoulders like a normal little girl so I could pluck a bright red leaf off of a taller tree. I suddenly found myself wondering what he'd think if he saw me today. Would he get that smile on his face he always had when he saw me, as if all his worries had been washed away and that there was nothing else in the world that mattered? A small swelling began pounding in my chest, and for the first time in years, I found myself actually missing him.

Gabriel Hisayuki had always been such a happy-go-lucky guy, and had no qualms whatsoever with spoiling Mom and I. Which made the fact that he suddenly up and left make even less sense. He would always play with me, even when it was obvious he was busy with other things, and we'd sit on the warm grass in summertime eating raspberry creamsicles until our tongues were bright red, then we'd stick them out at each other. He was always, always smiling. The only time I saw him make any other expression was when he was concentrating hard on cutting his own hair, which had to occur about once every two weeks. It had an astonishing growth rate not just for a man, but for anyone. In a matter of days it would grow from just being smooth white bangs falling in his eyes and to the back of his neck to needing to be pulled into a ponytail that fell to his waist. Yet another trait of his I inherited, which is why I gave up cutting my hair long ago. Whenever I was with him, I was never sad or unhappy, or even pouty. He was the best father in the entire world. And he was so loved by all that my own mother cut me when he disappeared.

"You're getting that grumpy look on your face again," Yaya-san accused when I had apparently zoned out again. "You're supposed to smile like me. See?" A ridiculously large grin spread on her face, puffs of steam blowing from her mouth.

I mimicked her so much that it felt like my mouth was splitting, and she laughed again while practically dancing in front of me. I began giggling along, and was surprised when my Shugo Chara were strangely silent in such a hyper setting. When I glanced down at them all huddled in my scarf, each of them had a thoughtful and grave expression, their minds elsewhere.

We had finally arrived at Starbucks, and I had never seen a human being run into an establishment as quickly as Yaya-san had. I followed slowly behind, taking the time to appreciate the civilians sitting in the tables around us, either with laptops or tablets, or simply sitting with friends and chatting without a care in the world. When I had joined my friend at the counter, she was demanding so much whipped cream that the cashier looked extremely flustered. I asked her for a cotton candy frapuccino and apologized on Yaya-san's behalf, and used my hand to keep pushing her away when she kept running back up to the counter yelling, "IT'S NOT ENOUGH!"

Eventually we managed to get our drinks without further incident, but Yaya-san was frowning deeply at hers. "The hot chocolate to whipped cream ratio displeases me," she grumbled, to which I simply rolled my eyes. She was like a little kid. Though, considering that her Shugo Chara had the appearance of a baby, I supposed that was the point.

I stuck the straw to my drink in my mouth and took a large sip. It tasted sweet, and just like raspberry creamsicle. It was delicious, of course, but the rush of nostalgia that came with it earned a feeling of melancholy.

"Can I try yours?" Yaya-san pleaded, looking up at me with big, warm eyes. I hesitated, thinking that she did look like such a cute little thing, then sighed and handed it to her. She eagerly slurped up as much as possible, and I didn't call her out on it since it was what I expected. When she handed it back, her eyes seemed impossibly wider and her smile was slightly twitchy. "It's. So. Good."

"I'm glad, I guess," I giggled, amazed at her expression. She offered me some of hers, but I flatly declined. I liked sweet things, but not that much.

A buzzing noise began to flow through the air, and I looked down on her. Her coat pocket was moving. "You're vibrating," I pointed out, and she started to laugh, seemingly catching an innuendo I did not.

She looked at the screen of her mobile, then nearly dropped her hot chocolate. With all the trouble she went to getting it just the way she wanted, whatever she saw must've been quite serious. She began making worried grunts and whimpers, floundering around on the sidewalk, which earned concerned looks from onlookers.

"Is, uh, everything okay?" I asked her, worry plaguing my expression.

She glanced at me hurriedly. Then back at her phone. Then back to me. The pattern kept occurring so often I began to think she was having a seizure, but then she groaned so loudly it came out as more of a scream, making me nearly trip over my own feet. "I've got no other option!" She hissed as she grabbed my hand yet again and began zooming away. I barely even reacted this time, nonchalantly sipping my drink and keeping pace while Lilith, Vivian, and Satsuki were nearly flying out of my scarf.

We were running so fast that I crashed into her back yet again when she came to an abrupt halt, but managed to preserve my drink by holding it high in the air like I had just won a trophy. Yaya-san was staring at the building in front of us with a very pouty and grumpy expression, a child being told she had to go to a relative's house when all she wanted was to stay out and play. The place looked nondescript enough to me, only about two stories high and made out of a material that faintly resembled a dark glass. There were quite a few cars in the wide parking lot, and some middle-aged women mingling right in front of the double-door entrance.

"What is this place?" I asked lightly, but I was desperately trying to keep my cool. Why the hell had she suddenly changed directions and brought me here? She seemed awfully winded, too, with the large puffs of white shooting out from her mouth. Not to mention that I had no idea where we even were, and it'd be next to impossible trying to figure out my way to work from here.

"We're… at…" She took a large gulp of air and let it out slowly, and was finally able to stop panting. She stood up straight again after being keeled over for a bit and smiled sheepishly at me. "We're at my dance studio. I forgot that we had a huge recital on Friday, and there was a practice today. You can watch, if you'd like." She was staring up at me with those big, hopeful eyes, and I froze in place. There was my dilemma of dyrexia and being unable to go anywhere from here, but she looked like she really wanted me to stay and watch with her. Besides, the whole point of leaving our Guardian duties was to hang out and have fun. I had never done this after school with anyone before, and I didn't really want to waste the opportunity. It could've been fun to watch, anyway.

So I smiled warmly at her, and the gesture made the two pessimists of my Shugo Chara snort. "Sure. Only until I have to go to work, though."

Yaya-san's grin was huge and almost seemed to sparkle, and she nodded so enthusiastically it looked like her pigtails were wings trying to fly away. "Of course!"

She pulled me inside the double doors, which swished automatically upon our entrance, and led me up a tall staircase made of polished wood that our shoes squeaked on with each step. They climbed into a large, open hallway, with countless doors on either wall, and Yaya-san had to count which one she wanted to enter before stepping inside. She held the door open for me with a smile, and I thanked her before turning to look at the room in awe. It was made of the same shining wood, with mirrors dominating the tall wall to my right, and the wall right ahead of me was purely made of floor-to-ceiling windows. Dancers in pastel and black coloured leotards were stretching all over the floor, or practicing moves against a bar, idling chatting as they did so.

Yaya-san closed the door behind us. "I need to go change quickly. Just take a seat over there, okay?" She pointed to a corner with four fold-out chairs set up, and I nodded with a smile. I maneuvered to keep out of the dancer's way whilst simultaneously watching them. From the way they were kicking their legs and spinning, it looked like the type of dance was ballet. This came as a surprise to me, since Yaya-san definitely didn't seem like the type of girl to get into a graceful dance style like ballet. But what could I say? I didn't really know any of the Guardians too well.

I took a chair out from the corner where they were clustered and set it up at the back of the room. The things were always awkward for me to sit in, since they were so short and cramped. But after resituating myself a few times, I managed, and had to stretch my legs out on the floor in front of me. While I waited, I figured I'd pull out some homework and get started, since I usually did it in the half hour I had at home before I walked to work.

As I rummaged in my bag that I set on the floor, Vivian was observing the ballerinas with an appraising look on her face while Satsuki and Lilith tried to imitate them (the latter not succeeding). "Very nice," she murmured to herself, making a face when a girl did the splits. "But not really my speed."

"Oh yeah?" I muttered sarcastically, trying to answer novel questions on Lord of the Flies. "What is your speed, then?"

"That's right," she began, a slight edge entering her voice as she turned to glare at me. I raised my eyebrows. "You've only Character Transformed with Lilith, so how would you know?"

I blinked. "Uh, what are you talking about? I haven't done much of that since you were born."

"And what does that say about you?"

"Well, there hasn't been any X-Eggs." Except for the concert, but the whole point of being out with Yaya-san was to push that out of my mind. "But tell me, what's your Character Transformation like?"

"How would I know?" Her voice was getting louder and louder despite the high, squeaky octave, and I looked around surreptitiously to see if anyone heard her, then realized that was stupid. "We haven't done it yet! All I know is that my powers border on 'being heard'. You want to be heard, to not have a feeling of helplessness all the time. So whatever that tells you!"

Lilith took this opportunity to make everyone else feel like crap. "Oh, Viv, let me tell you, it's so fun," she teased, a smirk spreading on her face. "It makes you feel like you can do anything. It's so great to have the feeling of being in a large body. I could step on you any time I want to. But I won't. Because I'm like your god, and gods don't do that unless they're angry."

A pint-sized fist fight broke out on the floor after Vivian threw her rabbit aside and lunged at Lilith, and Satsuki tried to break it apart to no avail. Yaya-san and Pepe came out of the change room just then, and the latter flew in to help try and calm the situation. Satsuki caught Lilith while Pepe got Vivian, and all four of them were sweating and panting like they were in a summer wrestling match.

Dressed in a purple leotard, Yaya-san bounced over to me with an excited expression. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, what happened here?"

I just shook my head. "You don't want to know."

"Snow! You have to watch me!"

"I'm watching."

"No, look at me NOW!" I lifted my eyes from my homework, and they nearly popped out of my head. She was doing the splits with her arms touching her toes and her head resting between her legs. It was impressive but gross at the same time, like watching the Cirque du Solei contortionists.

"Wow, um, that's cool," I said with a nod, trying to keep my mouth as shut as possible so I didn't lose my jaw.

She giggled. "Isn't it? I'm so flexible." Her eyes widened as she gasped and sat up straight again. "I should join the CIRCUS! It's like I totally belong there." She really did.

Just then, as we were simply sitting there and laughing at the idea of Yaya-san in a circus, a girl strode out from the changing room in nearly the same leotard as Yaya-san. Her face was pointed and severe, almost foreign, and her smooth black hair was scraped into a high ponytail with a slight curl at the end. She came to a stop right beside my chair and glared down at us. I looked up at her with a curious expression while Yaya-san smiled and waved, though it seemed slightly forced. "Hiya, Mai-chan."

'Mai-chan' inclined her head in her direction in acknowledgment, but her eyes narrowed. "Excuse me, but you're being very loud, and disrupting the practice. I'm going to have to ask you to be a lot quieter."

While my mouth dropped open at her directness, Yaya-san merely smiled and said, "Of course! Sorry for bothering you." Satisfied, the girl nodded her head sternly and flouced away, her walk so graceful that she already seemed to be dancing. I scowled at her retreating form as she went to the bar and began stretching.

"Well, isn't she just a bucket of sunshine," I muttered while I grumpily sat back in my chair. All three of my girls nodded in agreement, but Yaya-san only shrugged.

"That's the way she always is," she said dismissively as she stood to stretch her arms out. "Mai-chan is the prima ballerina around here. Her mother was a famous ballerina, so she strives to be like her in every way. Even if that does mean she has to be standoffish along the way."

I snorted, but kind of understood where she was coming from. All my childhood, I aspired to be the kind of person my father was, kind, caring, selfless, cheerful. At least she was dedicated, completely unlike myself who turned out to be a brat trapped in an adult's body. She had a dream to hold on to, and as much as I disliked to, I had to admire her for that.

Even more so when she actually began to practice dancing. I found myself right on the edge of my seat as she completed set upon set of complicated jumps, twirls, and folds, her feet flying across the floor completely weightlessly. It seemed so effortless when she danced, so graceful and elegant. She was completely mature and adult-like with her expressions, and all the other ballerinas took the time to watch her, as well. She barely seemed to mind. Mai-chan was completely lost in her cascading world of dance that was always moving, meaning that the people around her were as good as nonexistent.

When she completed the routine, I couldn't resist the urge to clap for her with everyone else in the room. Yaya-san seemed the most excited of all, judging from the way she jumped up and down like a caffeinated rabbit. She glided back over to us, for she had set a bottle of water on the floor near my chair, and I walked to her side along with Yaya-san, both of us grinning ear-to-ear.

"I had my doubts, but you're amazingly talented!" I said with a smile. "I've never seen anything like that before! You definitely deserve to be the prima ballerina."

For a moment, Mai-chan looked like she was blushing in surprise as she looked at me. But then she dropped her water and put her hands on her hips while glaring viciously up at me. "I know how good I am. I don't need some freaking stranger amazon to tell me that."

The word 'amazon' echoed in my head for almost a minute straight as the studio filled with awkward silence. I was taller than every girl here, and Mai-chan looked like she was only about five foot six. But then my patience broke with an audible snap! and Yaya-san grabbed me by my underarms as I thrashed about and tried to claw at the escaping felon.

"Let me kill 'er!" I screeched, my dialect coming out along with the angry vein throbbing rapidly on my neck. "I'll show 'er amazon! She's got no idea what she's dealing with!"

"Snow! Snow! Calm down!" Yaya-san pleaded, having a great struggle trying to restrain me. "Stop kicking! Your panties are showing! She didn't mean it, she's just a tsundere!"

"Like I care! That is tha last time I compliment a stranger!"

The room around us was filled with not only my shouts and Yaya-san's protest, but the poorly stifled giggles of the other dancers, and Mai-chan's feet thumping lightly on the floor as she practiced and pretended not to care. Two slaps in complete unison on my cheeks from both Lilith and Vivian eventually caused the angry flush to drain from my cheeks, and I began to finally breathe deeply. Being tall had never helped the whole "not fitting in" situation, so excuse me for being a bit tense whenever someone brought it up.

However, a new voice drifted through the room that was not there before, and its nasaly pitch sent a chill screaming down my spine. Yaya-san let go of my underarms in something like confusion when she noticed that I completely froze at the sound of it, and I had forgotten that her hearing was not as sensitive as mine, therefore she could not hear the same glass-shattering octave I did whenever the voice spoke. When I turned slowly to find who it belogned to, I found that a tall, broomstick-thin woman with a tight, pinched face with few wrinkles and wilting hair nipped and tucked into a bun had somehow snuck up behind me, and was staring at me like I was underneath a microscope. I yelped slightly and ducked behind Yaya-san with difficulty considering the height difference, fear and the sense of unusualness making my heart race, but she simply smiled brilliantly and said cheered, "Good afternoon, Mimiko-sensei. I hope you don't mind, but I brought a friend to watch us practice. This is Snow Hisayuki."

This Mimiko-sensei made a thoughtful noise in the back of her throat that made me cringe, listening to the mundane version of nails on a chalkboard. She finally leaned back from her way too close proximity and looked like she was considering. "I suppose it's fine," she said loudly, but it sounded to me like she was aspiring to be a freaking opera singer, "so long as she doesn't distract anyone from practice."

Yaya-san promised that no, I wouldn't, even though I sort of already did, and Mimiko-sensei completely invaded my personal bubble again, and I became a carving of pure ice. "You have, hmmm, very long legs," she murmured, stressing the word 'long' as if she was gagging. "Have you ever considered ballet?"
It took physical effort to move my mouth and form words. "Ah... no?"

Mimiko-sensei merely grunted in response, and the effort it took to force a polite smile on my face nearly brought tears to my eyes. She seemed like the type of woman who ate children for breakfast. All three of my Shugo Chara were having identical reactions to her, by which I meant that they were all hiding in my hair even if they couldn't be seen regardless. I wished I could run and hide. So much for catching a break.

When Mimiko-sensei suddenly clapped her hands together to grab that class's attention, I jolted out of my skin and nearly ducked for cover. "All right, my little fairies," she sang, which made me clench my teeth and squeeze my eyes shut. "Nothing to see here. Practice, practice, s'il vous plais. The performance is on Friday, and we can never be too ready!"

None of the dancers so much as grumbled as they all gathered in a lineup and began twirling through their routine with a grace that made me understand why their instructor called them 'fairies'. Mai-chan, as much as I hated to admit, was the attraction of the entire show, as it seemed that she was almost trapped in the character of the ballet they were performing. Her expressions carried true emotion, her steps precision and balance. I never let the awe I felt slip into my facial expression, and instead sat back in my fold-out chair wearing a pout and crossing my arms and legs.

They went through the routine once, and then twice. Just as they began to recite it a third time, and I was checking the clock on my cell phone with the thought of leaving for work, the last thing I thought would ever happen here happened. A small cracking sound rang in my ears, and I perked my head up while bolting out of my chair just in time to see Mai-chan's face seize up in pain, her ankle bending in a peculiar way. The cracking noise that could only reach my ears was her bone twisting oddly in her ankle once she bent slightly more to the right. A sound everyone did hear, however, was the hard thump of her body crashing against the floor when her ankle gave out. The music was cut off, and all the dancers- Yaya-san included, of course- flocked to her worriedly and hovered around her. Mimiko-sensei shoved through the lot of them whilst demanding room, and asked Yaya-san to help her carry the limping girl to the changing room. Yaya-san beckoned me over just as she slipped a small, skinny arm under Mai-chan's armpit and heaved her to the other room, and I was hot on her tail, my footsteps brisk but soundless. The oblivious Shugo Chara looked up at me from the chair as if just noticing that I had moved, and only realized I had left the room by the time the changing room door slammed behind us.

By the time I reached the two benches the girls were stationed at, Mai-chan's leggings had already been stripped off and thrown haphazardly on the floor, and Mimiko-sensei was inspecting her ankle with narrowed eyes (or at least I thought they looked narrowed, it was impossible to tell with her). I didn't think that much inspection was required; her ankle was clearly done for, with purple and black blotches already blooming across her pale skin like poisonous flowers contaminating a perfect garden. Yaya-san was biting her lip in distress, Mai-chan was wincing in pain. The whole scene was like a ballerina's worst nightmare.
It was only made worse when Mimiko-sensei stood from her position of kneeling in front of the damaged dancer and shook her head sadly. "I'm afraid," she began, her voice grave but still grating on my ears, "that it is a very severe sprain. There is no possible way you can dance with this without damaging it even more."

Mai-chan's face was stricken with a torturous horror that was the personified version of shattering glass. "No!" She screeched, struggling to stand and wobbling back onto the bench again. Tears pricked the corners of her eyes, lonely diamonds in a sea of sadness, and she gritted her teeth. "I can still dance," she growled, looking up at Mimiko-sensei pleadingly. "I won't let something like this stop me!"

"Maika Himegawa!" Maika-san flinched at the sound of her given name slicing out of her instructor's mouth. I couldn't help but feel sorry for her. She seemed so immersed and passionate in her dancing, and had it all taken away from her in a single second. I knew from experience how easily things could fall apart if you weren't careful. You had to pussyfoot around life if you wanted to make it out alive. But she seemed to resent that. Her expression was one of the innermost pains coming to life as her tears broke the surface and streamed down her cheeks. I leaned against the few selection of lockers with a breath softly escaping from my mouth. I felt the impulse to try and help, to do something for this girl who had just lost what she dedicated herself to, but there was no helping an injury like that. The best thing she could do was try her best to recover quickly and not strain it to make it worse.

Yaya-san joined me against the wall, only in a much more feminine way, standing up straight with her hands behind her back while I had my arms crossed and one leg propped against it while the other rested at an angle on the floor. "I feel bad for her," she whispered to me as Mimiko-sensei continued lecturing her prima ballerina. "Mai-chan's mother was a famous ballerina before she had to retire due to a severe leg injury. Now she works as the studio's costume designer. I think Mai-chan feels the need to pick up where her mother left off, to kind of erase the regret of leaving that career behind, you know?" I nodded in understanding. "But now look at what's happened. I can't imagine what she must be going through right now."

I cast a sideways glance towards her. "Despite the way you seem, you're actually pretty mature, huh."

She stuck her tongue out at me with a sad grin. "I have my moments."

"Yaya-san!" My friend retreated from her place beside me to stand before her instructor. "Since Maika is incapable of participating in the pageant, I ask you to stand in for her."

The carrot-head gasped. "Me? Why? There are so many dancers better than I am."

Mimiko-sensei's severe (and frightening) expression softened. "Yes, but you try your hardest out of all of them. I think you'll make a fabulous prima."

While the two discussed arrangement and what would have to be done for practice, my gaze drifted over to Maika-san again. She wouldn't even look at them. Her small, bony hands clenched into white-knuckled fists on her lap, and I heard the grating sound of her teeth grinding together. She really wanted that part, and now she had to sit and watch as everything she worked for was handed over to another girl. She looked very pitiful, her back small and hunched over like she had given up completely. I didn't even want to look at her anymore, so I turned my head to the side and focused on a mirror on the other side of the room. My eyes reflected back at me, cold as ice.

Yaya-san and I were shooed out of the room as Mimiko-sensei said she was calling Maika-san's mother to come pick her up. I imagined that only added salt to her open wound. I checked the time on my phone as Yaya-san and I watched the other girls simultaneously practice and gossip, and winced. "I should really be getting to work now," I said regretfully, slipping it back into my blazer pocket. "But I'll see you tomorrow, okay? Tell Maika-san I give her my best." I hesitated. "On second thought, maybe not. I highly doubt she'd want sympathy from an 'amazon'." I practically spat the word. Amazon. Yeah right.

Her pigtails bounced, playful as always, as she looked up at me with a bright smile. Even though she felt for her classmate, it was clear to see that she was excited about her new role as prima. "Roger that," she said. "Do you think you can maybe come again tomorrow? Just for moral support."

I grinned. "We'll see. Good luck with the rest of practice."

My Shugo Chara were, naturally, all aruging once I retreated to my chair and began gathering my things. Used to the consistent bickering, I was able to tune out of it, but from the little snippets I did hear, I gathered it was something about how Lilith had improperly attempted one of the easiest moves in ballet. I couldn't help but roll my eyes. For individual pieces of myself, I didn't understand why they just wouldn't fit together. It was like they were a representation of a conflict going on inside of me, and the very thought of such caused a disturbing feeling to wriggle in the pit of my stomach.

We were almost to the lobby- only ten more steps to go- when Satsuki gracefully fluttered in front of my face, the long back pieces of her kimono appearing like wings. "Snow, we need to talk."

My eyebrows peaked as she began her little spiel. "I heard you and the others talking in the changeroom- pardon my eavesdropping- and I couldn't help but theorize. The second she was hurt, that girl's heart began to waver and become bathed in darkness. I think that if we don't do something, it'll become an X-Egg."

Hearing the very word caused my grip on the metal stair railing to tighten, and a flash of heat to slice through my body from head to toe. If there were X-Eggs around, they would surely be accompanied by Easter. And that meant the destruction of such, and of Maika-san's dreams. Rude stranger or not, I couldn't stand by and watch as someone who shone with such brilliance sputter out just because of some selfish desires for a magical egg. I'd have to try my best and protect her when I could- which was only for about half an hour tomorrow, and maybe later at night if I chose to go to the recital. That gave me very limited options. But I'd have to work with them if I wanted to succeed this time.

I wouldn't let Easter- or Ikuto- get their hands on another child's dreams again. Not while I was a Guardian, or simply aware of their world altogether. I was the nosy type. That said, I definitely would stick myself in other's business if it meant a chance to save them.

"Ease up, there, girlie," Lilith sniffed haughtily, and I turned to glare at her. While I was expecting her usual smirk, her expression was remarkably serious. "You might want to thaw a little."

For a split second, I was confused at to what she was talking about. Then, with an almost audible snapping sound, the events of last night when the X-Eggs first came out flashed through my mind, the parts where my veins changed and hands froze to the seat most prominent. I dared a glance down to my hand clenching the railing. Sure enough, panic tore through my heart like a vicious hurricane when I saw that spiky clumps of transluscent blue-violet ice had formed all the way the smooth metal surface, beginning right at my hand. It shook when I removed it from the railing, and when I lifted it to my face, I saw that it was covered in frost again, and my veins had shifted to look like the intricate patterns on a snowflake.

I nearly fell down the stairs. What the hell was this? Nothing like it had ever happened before, and I didn't know how to make it go away. I would've liked to believe that it was impossible, that the weather was so cold outside that it managed to freeze the contents of the building. But magical eggs could come from children's souls, so why couldn't ice just form out of nowhere? Not even a speck of water was in sight, and I had to sit down on the steps and put my head between my legs.

"Why is this happening?" I whispered to myself, my voice small and wavering. "I don't understand how I'm doing this. I don't even know if I am doing this. I just want to make it go away."

A very small pressure of warmth pressed itself against my hands covering my face. When I peeled them away, I saw Satsuki worriedly staring up at me with her luminescent eyes. "Just calm down and breathe," she said slowly, like talking to a child. Nevertheless, I obeyed, and eventually managed to get my quick, panicked breaths down to only being semi-panicked. "Good. Now, I know you're scared, and I know you think that some weird stuff is happening around you with this ice, but trust me when I saw that's it's completely fine."

I glared at her. "It could've killed Utau-san if she had been even slightly in the wrong direction."

"And that's exactly why you need to keep your emotions in check." When I was about to interject and demand to know what exactly was going on, and why all of this was happening around me, she cut me off. "I know you want to understand. But you can't. Not yet. Just know that this-" she gestured loosely to the frozen railing, "-this is indeed you. You're causing spontaneous flash freezes whenever your emotions get out of check, and it is coming straight from you and directed at whatever's got you distressed. So just try your hardest to remain calm at all times."

The words barely registered through my head. It really was me that was making ice just... appear? Whenever I got in a tizzy? Why had this never happened before? I wanted to rip the answers from Satsuki's mouth, but the pleading look on her face made me think twice. So instead I simply asked, "Why?"
All three of my Shugo Chara answered that time, each one sharing a knowing look that I finally understood was about me and this... thing. "Because it's who you are."

}{

Saying that I was distracted during work would've been a gross understatement; I was a mess. And I meant that literally. Everywhere I went, disaster seemed to loom close behind, like tripping over my own two feet and sending food sprawling everywhere, letting the water in the sink overflow when I was thrown into kitchen duty, burning food when the chefs left me to watch it to take a bathroom break. I was surprised Mrs. Garrett didn't give in and bitch-slap me with all she had like I knew she wanted to. The lecture I got was like the verbal equivalent, though.

What could I tell her? I had a lot on my mind, and was basically having an existential crisis. She was completely right when she screeched that my personal life shouldn't effect my work ethic, and so I carried on as usual, busying myself with orders and dishes and basically just not breaking things everywhere I went. On my break- that had been lovingly shortened by my beautiful boss- I sat at the bar inside the kitchen and tried to make sense of everything that was happening around me. My Shugo Chara were trapped in the locker room so they wouldn't pester me while I worked, and I was essentially alone to work out the details in my head so long as I ignored the other employees around me.

It was admittedly difficult to try and sort thoughts out in your head in a kitchen overflowing with the smells of Italian delicacies; there was no escaping the smells of chicken, tomatoes, spices, and alcohol. My stomach was screaming in protest, not having anything to eat since, well, that drink at Starbucks. The sounds of sizzling meat hitting pans and whatnot swarmed around me, as were the clinking sounds of ice against glass that made chills race down my spine, the yells and orders of chefs to their subordinates, and the all-around chaos that one could expect from a busy kitchen.

However, I was able to drown out all the noise and do my best to concentrate. Okay. So the facts were as follows: somehow, I could make ice out of nothing. That didn't help my current mental state whatsoever. All that needed to happen was a slight trip in my emotions, apparently, and that was the end of whatever was in close enough proximity to me. Why? How? What happened if this thing froze a person next time? I didn't know how to even do it, let alone un-do it. Whatever it was I had in my grasp, whatever power it was that the only three people I trusted most in the world couldn't tell me about, was immensely dangerous if I wasn't careful, that much was obvious. Utau Hoshina was mere inches away from ebing crushed because of it. It was clear that I was indeed the one who had caused the technical malfunction at the concert, considering that the crash had evidence of that strangely coloured ice, and I had lost control of my emotions because of the X-Eggs mere moments before. The same thing happened the first day I came here; those thugs had gotten close to er, ravishing me, and I lost my temper. Ice had started forming on their legs just before Ikuto swooped to my rescue. Just thinking about him sent a poison barb straight through my chest, so I did my best to ignore that incident.

This was somethign I clearly had no control over. I didn't even know what it was. And I thought that was the first step to understand it- and getting rid of it. I didn't want this, whatever it was, because all it did was hurt the people and things around me. That was the last thing I ever wanted to do again. And so I'd do whatever it took to either solve this and dispose of it, or just ignore it all together and pray it went away. There was no chance I could save Maika-san in her pre-X-Egg phase if I was wavering and freezing things like this.

I surprised an unsuspecting co-worker beside me by shuffling out of nowhere. He nearly dropped his tray, but my hand darted beneath it with a swiftness that surprised even me and I handed it back to him with a forced smile. "Sorry about that," I said.

"Oh, it's no problem..." He glanced down at my name tag and looked slightly confused. "...Craig." Since I hadn't even been working here for a month yet, Mrs. Garrett thought there was no point in making me an "official" nametag, so she stuck the one of the guy who previously worked her right on me. I heaved a sigh.

"Snow," I corrected. But he had already fled the kitchen, leaving me smiling stupidly by myself, and I could hear the murmurs of the chefs around me, which consisted of, "the new kid?", "she's kind of strange", and the ever-popular "is she an albino?". No. No I was not. As far as I knew.

Grumbling to myself, I slid the notebook intended for taking orders out of my apron and the East Side Mario's issued pen. I tapped it against my chin thoughtfully at the counter, thinking hard to myself on how I could rationalize what was happening. Then a sudden thought occurred to me. In all the years I had taken science, I learned that there were certain factors around the world that could cause flash freezes, or at least drastically dropping temperatures. One of those things was a change in a surrounding ocean current, thus causing cold airs to blow up from the ocean and freeze the land around it.

Maybe my situation was a bit like that. I snapped the pen cap off quickly and began swiftly writing agaisnt the small page, line after line of theory and loopy handwriting. There were also theories out there that all humans were capable of some degree of psychic activity, in which they could affect the area around them subconciously when their emotions and desires got the best of them. If I combined the two, I had a theory on what was happening inside of me: like an ocean current, I took the change in the environment around me, such as colder temperatures, and transfered it into a solidified form of a psychic ability. Psychic flash-freezing.

I sat back in the stool, proud of myself. There were many flaws in the hypothesis, being impossible, for one. But it was the closest thing I had to making sense of a jumbled mess, and it gave me the smallest sense of security that'd help me sleep tonight. But an ugly, squirming disease of doubt wormed in the pit of my stomach, like I was somehow way off-base. But I had to ignore it to give myself peace of mind.

Satisfied, I was able to slip the notepad back in my pocket and get back to work. An hour or so of flawlessly taking orders and delivering them, much to Mrs. Garrett's dismay, I was able to clock out and step outside into the fresh night air. I relaxed for the first time all day once I smelled the dampness against the asphalt, a slight drizzle coming down and dampening my bangs. I really had to start wearing a coat of some sort to at least stop from getting wet. The refreshing and mundane sound of cars swooshing through the wet streets gave me a sense of familiarlity in a strange place, which further helped to ease my mind. My Shugo Chara noticed the change in my countenance and exchanged grins with each other.

My steps cracked as I began walking home against the small pebbles scraping off the cement. And then they came to a sudden sliding stop when something occurred to me. The best way to prove a theory... was to test it, wasn't it? Maybe I could try and see whatever this power was by attempting to use it on purpose. By trying to control it. And maybe if I learned to control it, I could get rid of it. I could be normal at last.

Vivian probably had to be the most perceptive of my Shugo Chara, because she almost immediately understood my sudden halt. "What are you planning to do?" She demanded. My gaze had traveled to the alleyway right beside my work place, the one where Ikuto and I had spoken once. It was dotted with puddle from the rain in an unorganized pattern. And I knew that the way to make ice was to freeze water.

"Snow," Vivian warned as I ducked into the alley, my hair flying out behind me. I kneeled in front of the nearest puddle possible and stared at my wavering, murky reflection. I watched as a smile slowly spread across my face. My heartbeat was quick and fluttering, a baby bird taking off for flight for the very first time. I had to admit that I was kind of excited to see if I had some mystical ice mojo going on with me, but that didn't mean I wanted to keep it. I'd do whatever I could to become normal after this. I just had to see exactly what it did first.

"I just want to try something," I told her, slowly dipping my fingertips in the water. It was strange just feeling its surface lap over my pale hands and not feeling its cool temperature, but then again, I never felt the temperature of water. Just like wading through silk.

"You don't know what you're doing," Vivian warned, Lilith and Satsuki cautiously watching from behind my hair. "You don't even know what this is."

"Which is why I have to try," I snapped, flinging my head up to glare at her. "I can never accomplish anything if I don't try. If I understand it, I can get closer to getting rid of it."

Vivian opened her mouth to say something, then snapped it shut just as quickly. Her expression seemed like she regretted even mentioning the ice in the first place. She remained silent as she sat on my shoulder, but I could feel tension roiling off of her, a heavy stone weighing me down. But I steeled my shoulders and returned my gaze to the pool of water. How did I go about this? The way I had done it before was completely unconciously, when my emotions got away from me. Now all I could do was try and focus on my theory. Try to feel the cold around me and channel it out of my hands. But I can't feel the cold. Oh, don't worry about that, just try it anyway. Even if you can't feel it, you know it's cold around you. Try to imagine what it feels like. But how can I do that if I don't even know what cold really means? I don't understand the concept of it! OH STOP IT AND JUST FOCUS.

I thought of people shivering out in the streets. I thought of passerby blowing puffs of steam from their mouths. I thought of falling snow, frost covering the windows. I thought of my father.

And suddenly, something seemed to fly out of my fingers. It felt as if something had always been building up inside of me, like the feeling of unshed tears, and everything just burst out at once in a spontaneous fit of crying. Somethign felt like it was flushing out of me, and I looked down in shock, wonder, and fear, to see that my hands had gone that strange aurora colour of bluish-violet. The veins in them were shifting again, and it actually looked like blood-vessel blue snowflakes were falling on the backs of my hands. But it was just my hands. The actual water hadn't frozen.

I braced my knees against the pavement and physically pushed myself even further. Like cutting the string off of a balloon and setting it free to the eternal sky, glittering alice blue, intricate patterns began exploding on the surface of the water. They spread out and spread out, lace being tugged and loosening, and wherever they left, solid aurora ice was left in their wake. I sucked in a shocked gasp. I had done it! I was actually making real ice!

But it didn't stop at the puddle.

The patterns exploded all over the ground of the alley, completely covering the black asphalt and leaving not a trace behind. My breath came out in quick, panicked bursts, my heart crashing straight through my chest. I felt feverishly hot from pushing myself that much, and the fear wasn't helping the stinging headache forming in my temples. The ice was completely sheer and untouched. It was like staring at a postcard of the arctic tundra. When the entire ground was covered, it began to claw its way up the walls, like demonic hands devouring everything they saw.

I stood on the ice underneath my feet, and found that it was the slipperiest I had ever experienced. I didn't know how to stop the ice. What if it just kept going and going and covered the buildings? The streets? I had to do something, anything.

It was halfway up the brick walls now, and I clenched my hands into fists. Not knowing what else to do, I threw my arms up in a protective 'X' formation, and tore them apart, crying out, "Please, stop!"

And shockingly, it did. But the ice didn't just halt in its path. It stopped and flew outward into the open air, still attached to the wall, and forming into deadly spears of blue and violet that twinkled in the moonlight. They glinted dangerously, the edges of sharpened knives or teeth. They completely blocked off the alley in a tomb sort of cage, any hopes of getting through completely botched. Raindrops had solidified and frozen in the air, and dropped to the ground with the sound of tiny shards of glass shattering against a hard surface.

The whole scene appeared to be something you'd witness in the Arctic tundra; not right in the middle of Akutetsu city. And I had done it all. My entire body shook and quievered like I was being physically shaken vigorously by someone, but I was alone besides my Shugo Chara. Yes, I had mystical ice powers alright, being a reflection of the weather or not. And I had no idea how to control them or what to do about them. If I wasn't careful and unleashed it, even accidentally, I could hurt someone- perhaps even freeze them to death.

"What..." I breathed, though it came out more like a sob. "What should I do? I don't even know how to make this go away! I'm like a walking bomb that could go off any second if I get mildly pissed off!"

"Snow," Satsuki hedged gently, and I turned my trembling gaze to her. She floated right before my face, a small smile playing on her lips- though her eyes looked sad. "We knew you're scared. But there's nothing you can do about this. Just go home and forget that it even happened."

My jaw almost hit the ground. "Forget it even happened? How can I possibly do that when there's some kind of ice trap right in the middle of an-"

"Listen," she enunciated, more stren than I had ever seen her. "Everything will be alright if you just go home and forget. Tonight, you'll finish your homework and go to sleep. You'll wake up tomorrow, eat breakfast, go to school. Then you'll go to the recital and do what you can to help Maika-san. Nothing will change if you just forget."

"Satsuki, that doesn't make any sense!" A hysterical edge had taken to my voice, and I clutched at the hair on the top of my head. "Going home and forgettting won't make this ice go away! It won't make me normal again!"

"You've never been normal," Lilith interjected, her small arms crossed and tense. "But Satsuki's right. Just leave for now. You can try coping with this when you're ready and not being a brat."

"I'm not-"

"Home," Vivian hissed, pointing in the direction of Crystalshire apartments. I clenched my jaw and glared at the three of them, wondering why they were so insistent on just abandoning what I had done, but turned on my heel and began marching away. People on the street glanced twice at me when they saw the look on my face, like I had just lost something very important to me. But I kept walking. My steps got faster and faster the more I knew I was going in the right direction for once, and I finally found myself standing angrily before the sparkling towers, fists clenched at my sides and shaking. Whoever walked by that alley would think it bizarre and freakish, and they'd call other people around them to advertise it. They'd probably tweet about it. But could they ever know a person did that? That I had done it?

I stared up at the moon, which was just edging away from its previous full phase. The sky had finally given in to the pressure of rain and let it all pour down onto the streets, causing a sound like that of crashing waves and the soaking of anyone unlucky enough to be outside. It completely soaked through my clothes now, made my hair stick to my phase and block my vision. The girls hid behind my hair, shaking slightly from the dropped temperature, but I didn't. I'd never be able to feel it. I'd never be like other people.
All I'd wanted was a place to belong.

}{

"Are you ready for this?" Yaya-san said menacingly beside me, rolling her shoulders back and forth as if she was about to charge into some final battle, not her ballet studio. I nodded in response as we both peered around the doorway to see the practice in full view, trying to get a good idea what was going on right then, and of Maika-san's condition. She sat in my fold-out chair from yesterday, curse her, watching the dancers with something like contempt in her eyes. Crutches were stationed on the wall beside her, her ankle wrapped in chunky, precise gauze. In summary, it was a picture of pure bitterness, and while I did feel bad for her, I also felt tempted to laugh at how ironic it was.

"How should I go about this?" Yaya-san wondered aloud, standing and leaning against the wall we were previously peering around. "'Hey, Mai-chan. Sorry about your leg. But don't worry, I'm prima now, and I'll do a great job in your place!'"

"Don't say that," I warned with raised eyebrows. "That'll make things about a thousand times worse. Just go in and act normal."

She nodded firmly. "Right." She shoved off the wall, walking like a wind-up toy, and tripped the instant she crossed the threshold. I smacked my palm against my face and let it slide down slowly, rolling my eyes simultaneously. That was kind of impressive, even for her.

Nonetheless, she got up and dusted herself off as if nothing had happened, marching straight towards the changing room without looking back. Maika-san was looking at her with something like disgust, and I resisted the urge to smack her across the face. People who just took their bitterness out on others weren't only cruel, but just plain irritating. She was lucky I was only planning to pop out in the case that she unleashed an X-Egg. I was to remain incognito until then, because according to Yaya-san, my presence would probably only antagonize her. Right.

Which left me sitting out there for half an hour, simply watching and waiting for something to happen. Their practice was progressing like what I assumed to be normal, the girls murmuring amongst themselves as they stretched and perfected their moves. Maika-san watching completely silently, brooding alone in her sad little corner, the look on her face darkening more and more as the time moved on. I probably would've been suspicious of that if I hadn't been lying on the floor, holding my phone up to my face looking up things about ice powers and whatnot. I kept my expression carefully blank as I read and read, always reminding myself not to get too worked up about anything anymore. My Shugo Chara had fabricated some sort of game to pass the time that was similar to hide-and-seek, only it was done in my hair.

The numbers on my phone's clock just kept increasing until it was nearly four o'clock. I would have to leave for work soon, then come back for the recital. All of the girls in the room were gathering in the change room to begin preparing and discussing, leaving Maika-san sitting in her corner, and Yaya-san lingering while gazing in that direction. I sat up properly, the little people falling out of my hair, and watched as Yaya-san approached her with a smile on her face. I didn't even have to strain to her their conversation.

"Um, Mai-chan," Yaya-san began, the smile never falling from her face. "Are... are you coming to the recital tonight?"

"Of course I am, you dimwit," the recipitent snapped, glaring up at my younger companion. I dug my nails into the space between two floorboards, having to keep myself from marching in there and... oogh. "My mom's the designer, so I have to come."

"Oh... that's good then."

Maika-san gave Yaya-san a look that made her jump back a step. "Good? Of course it's not good. I should be going as the prima, not you. I'm far better, and I worked way harder. All you do is goof off and laugh when you should be practicing." Her fingers grasped the edges of her chair until her knuckles turned white. "It should be me."

The expression on Yaya-san's face was heartwrenching, like she was watching a glass figurine fall apart before her into millions of fragments. "Mai-chan..."

"I guess hard work..." Maika-san lowered her head so she was just staring into her lap. "Hard work is just... useless."

"Uh-oh," I said aloud, making my Shugo Chara stop glaring at me for dropping them for a second and focus on the issue at hand. "There's a word we don't like. Is it happening now?"

Each of them focused on the girl curling further and further in on herself, then nodded in unison. "It is," Vivian murmured. "Right now, in fact."

As soon as she spoke the words, a dark sort of fog began spilling from Maika-san, her body growing limp until it slammed on to the floor with a thud that earned a grimace from me. Yaya-san squeaked and ran towards her, shaking her shoulder and calling her name. In the middle of the mist, an oval shape began forming and swirling until it finally became a physical thing, an X-Egg floating above them. "Useless..." It hissed softly, a snake waiting to pounce on its prey. Yaya-san was struggling to pull up Maika-san and drag her out of there, but her brittle arms couldn't take it. "Useless..."

Before I could even think of standing, I had to inhale and exhale multiple times to calm my racing heart. I couldn't let my emotions get too out of hand. I didn't want Yaya-san to even witness a tiny bit of what a freak I was. So I counted to ten, waited until the angry flush drained from my cheeks, and stood from the floor with the crack of my knuckles. "Let's go save Maika-san's dream," I said to the three tagalongs, and for once, they didn't argue, but grinned at each other in unison.

Stepping out of my hiding place would've been too soft a word to use; It would have been more accurate to say that I bolted out of it with a squeak of my red and white sneakers against the floor and flew into the room with a sharp turn and a slam of the door. The X-Egg was flying right at Yaya-san's head, and she was too preoccupied taking care of Maika-san's unconscious body to notice until the very last second. This left me to swoop in and be the hero again, knocking them both out of the way before it could give her a concussion. She made an obscenely loud noise of protest, but piped down when she saw that it was only me righting myself on the polished floor next to her, not some random stranger who got the urge to knock her down.

"What do we do?!" Yaya-san demanded, still cradling Maika-san's body. Her condition seemed to be worsening from the laboured rate of her breath and the sweat beading out on her forehead. I had no idea having an egg become an X had that effect on people. Not to mention that Maika-san had the added injury of a sprained ankle. She had to be in a lot of pain. And the X-Egg spazzing out in midair wasn't helping anyone.

Huge cracks tore into the sides of its shell, which earned a gasp from both Yaya-san and I. The egg was hatching already, which meant even greater difficulties for us. Seeming to sense as such, Yaya-san hefted Maika-san over the other side of the room, gently resting her head on the floor. She then returned to my side, and we both exchanged a brief look of camaraderie. Then a smile.

"Pepe-tan!" She called, and her Shugo Chara jumped into the fray as per her request. The egg popped apart with a snapping sound that made more than my ears bleed, and a small character the size of the others popped out, a giant red 'X' on its head and a small tutu on its waist. "Useless!" It screamed with a wicked grin on its face that spelled all kinds of trouble. "Useless!"

Yaya-san took me even more by surprise when she started laughing like- well, like Character Changed Tadase-kun as she called to it, "Is that really all you have yo say?" I almost laughed with her at her audacity, but she was already getting right down to business. "Pepe-tan, Character Change!"

The little baby character immediately obeyed her master with a cheesy little salute, and creeper me out just a tad when she seemed to seep into Yaya-san's chest. A little change followed, in which Yaya-san obtained a baby bib, bonnet, and... giant rattle. I'd have to remind myself not to get her too angry with that thing.

She swung said giant rattle, decked out in designs of pink and colourful stars, high into the air with the most hilariously concentrated expression I couldn't help but snort a bit. "Giant Rattle Attack!" She screeched, like it wasn't obvious enough. I brightened at the thought of not having anything to do myself, beamed with pride for Yaya-san, but that all pretty much fell to pieces when the X-Character simply poked the top of the baby weapon and it collapsed on top of my companion. I was stunned speechless as I economically kicked it off of her and across the room, and she immediately started to whine and ball her eyes out.

Seriously? I thought, my mouth a straight, irritated line. I had only done this purification thing once, and I wasn't even sure how. I just wanted, with all my being, for Weiss-san to realize that she did have control of her own life. That nothing was "useless" without even trying. And that was how I managed to stand straight in front of my tiny yet threatening enemy with a new kind of determination.

"No matter what becomes of us," I began while I gritted my teeth. "Nothing I'd useless when we haven't even tried to overcome it. Isn't that right, Maika-san? What reason do you have to just let your dreams pass you by now?!"

Her voice, strangely thin and fragile, flowed through the air, as if we were in a dream. I would've thought it was just me who could hear her, but even the weeping Yaya-san lifted her head slightly to catch a glimpse of the temporarily calmed X-Character. "It's all pointless," the ballerina murmured, her airy voice congested with what sounded to be sobs. "With an injury like this, I'll become just like Mama. Her hard work went all to waste because of one little mistake, and now look at her! She's been reduced to making the costumes for the very passion she used to pursue! What kind of way to follow up success is that?"

I could only shrug. "Dunno. I'm not exactly 'in the know' with ballet'."

Even in its dream-like state, her voice was clearly pissed off at me, something I was sadly growing accustomed to. "It's downright shameful, that's what!"

This time I couldn't help but smile. When I had come with Yaya-san earlier, I witnessed the girls fawning over their costumes for the recital tonight with a very beautiful woman- most likely none other than Maika-san's mother. She was smiling at the girls with all the hope and pride in the world, like they were all her children- dancing on a sparkling stage just to make her beam with pride. "Didn't seem that way to me," I said, more to the X-Character than to the transparent voice so I wouldn't feel, you know, completely awkward. "Your mother seemed to be happily living the dream to me. Your dreams aren't just your own, you know. You share them and wish them for those you care about."

Now the X-Character just looked confused. But I had to a say I knew what I was talking about. Maika-san's mother was fully aware that her time to dream had passed- now she was dreaming for all the ballerinas around her. And wasn't that a true virtue of being a dreamer? Being able to share it with others?
I turned to face my Charas, always floating nearby. Always supporting me from the very time I learned of their existence. And even when it seriously ticked me off, protecting me in ways I couldn't understand. Especially from myself. "Hey, Viv," I called to the gothic lolita, who was so surprised she dropped the ever-present distressed rabbit to the floor. "Wanna know what Character Transforming feels like?"

For the very first time since I met her, Vivian smiled a whole and pure smile, the kind I always wished I could form on my own face, forever frozen in sourness. "Of course!" She squealed, which left the other two to sigh in disappointment and simply watch.

And for the very first time, I held out my hand to them.

They may have been annoying. They may feel the need to keep important knowledge from me- like having some freak ice powers. But this wasn't for nothing. They weren't useless. My Shugo Chara were born when they were to tell me something- I understood that now. Their presence meant, don't give up! Not just yet! Even when everything seems pointless, we'll always be here to take your hand!

Vivian rushed forward and placed her small hand in mine. The Humpty Lock- perpetually trapped in my blazer pocket- began shooting out sunny rays of light. Once again, I found myself in that water-like space, coruscating shapes floating past me and Vivian. The hues of the "water" were violet this time, and the way they shifted colours made the entire experience seem like a slow, aching dream. But it wasn't a dream. It became all the more real when Vivian began to shine in a blinding gold light, and disappeared altogether into my chest- which would probably never stop creeping me out.

I felt the shift and shuffle of fabric sliding over my bare arms, a weight on my head that must've meant a hat. My chest felt light and fluttery, hundreds of butterflies taking off in a long-awaited flight. It felt like I was free to breathe in the first the very first in a while, as if Character Transforming gave me clean air to breathe. And finally, when I opened my eyes again, I was back in the ballet studio with excess violet sparkles dancing off of my body. Everyone that was present had their eyes popping out of their head and jaws dropping to the floor, Lilith and Satsuki included. Even the unconscious Maika-san had her eyebrows raised instead of contorted pain.

When I examined my new Character Transformation for the first time, I could understand why. Standing in the mirror wall across the room was my reflection that resembled some kind of gothic ringmaster of a circus. A deep violet silk shirt covered my arms and ruffled out at the neck, two triangles of the same material falling over the short, fluffy, light purple tulle skirt over my legs. Admittedly the most adorable lace-up high heeled boots I'd ever seen protected my feet, with two giant black bows sprouting at the top. A large, black and purple silk top hat rested on my head, leaving my bangs to press against my eyes. Thank goodness for small mercies, because my legs were covered by toxic purple tights. And in my hand was- ho-LEE shit- a neon purple bass-axe.

Now, call me biased, but I found this outfit far more comfortable than Lilith's. No bare skin was exposed, and I was a fan of the steampunk bustier that covered my torso. Like she could hear my thoughts, she stopped gawking for a moment to give me the glare of a venomous snake. Whoops.

Are you ready for this? Vivian asked me telepathically, the excitement evident even in a voice in my head. I nodded in response, a wicked smirk spreading over my face. I felt like I could do anything. With that in mind, I let loose an ecstatic breath and brandished the bass at the floating Character, who seemed to flinch back in surprise. It recovered quickly and began to twirl, around and around, until lashes of darkness began whipping off of it and towards us. While Yaya-san screamed like a little girl and ducked out of the way, I merely leapt up and over them, landing gracefully on the ground with a click of my heels.

"Character Transformation," I automatically recited, and struck a sassy pose for the heck of it, "Dancing Pierrot!"

"Oooh!" Yaya-san crowed from the other side of the room, as she picked herself off the floor. "You look awesome, Snowcchi! Show 'em who's boss!"

I stopped grinning with self pride for a moment to whip a glare at her. "If you really feel that way, then do something!"

"I don't want to steal the spotlight." Bull.

What now? I asked Vivian, while I watched Maika-san's body jerk and seize up in pain as her X-Character lashed out another attack.

What you did last time, she rattled, clearly pleased with herself. Talk to it. Tell it what it needs to hear to calm it down. Then we can purify it once it isn't so busy bitch-whipping us.

"Right," I said aloud, and jumped- or rather, flew- to dodge another attack. My body felt completely weightless, a feather being carried along by a careless breeze. It didn't feel as free as it did with Lilith, but I supposed that was just a difference of ability. Vivian said she was born from my wish to be heard, and I supposed that explained the bass in my hand. It would be loud and unable to be ignored. I wondered what exactly I was supposed to do with it...

Once I had landed safely again, I turned my full attention to the glaring X-Character. I let loose a breath that had been congesting me, and began to speak as steadily as I could. "I know it feels like your hard work was all for nothing. But it definitely wasn't. You may be hurt now, but I know you of all people will be able to stand strong and proud again." I felt my serious expression soften into a smile. "Your dancing was beautiful. Even I was captivated. And if you just keep pushing yourself, if you just keep working hard, you'll get even better. You'll shine even brighter than your mother soon. And if I know you, even a little bit, you'll become a prima on the world stage."

It surprised me to see that the X-Character had indeed calmed down, and merely speculated me with curiosity and- and regret. While it temporarily drew in on itself, as if repenting for its actions, Vivian began reciting directions haughtily to me. Hold your guitar as if you would a normal one.

I did so, one hand on the sleek, black neck, and the other pressing it to my stomach with my fingers rested on the chords. It felt familiar and comfortable in my arms, as they were already used to cradling the instrument carefully but confidently. Jack was taught to play the guitar by his father, so he was insistent on teaching it to me as well a few years after they adopted me. For years we would gather in the den to look over sheet music and finger chords together, both our fingers eventually blistering and aching. Mary would bandage them up in a way only a mother could, then we'd go right back to playing. My heart swelled at the memory and in a bout of loneliness, but I pushed it aside. Maika-san needed to hear it right now.

Now play it, she stated simply, but the pride beaming from her disembodied voice made me roll my eyes. She was so superficial. Nonetheless, I slid and positioned my left hand along the neck, while I used my right to curiously strum the chords. The sound that came out was unlike any I've heard before, a melancholy twang that seemed to pass right through your eyes and inflitrate the depths of your chest. However, I nearly dropped the thing when quick, bouncing, bubble-like multi-coloured musical notes shot right out from it. But I was reassured by Vivian that they were justa part of the purification process. Right. Although I really started to believe that as I watched the X-Character close its eyes in a strange sort of peace, and slowly rock along to the melody.

A huge grin broke out on my face as I kept playing, and I observed as Maika-san's pinched and pained expression softened and settled into a peaceful smile. Like sucking them into a black hole, the musical notes were absorbed right into the X-Character until a subtle glow began emanating from it, sunshine breaking through the clouds on a miserable day. I strung the final chord of a song that I had never learned, simply one that I knew, and it was finally engulfed completely with a shining light that seemed to be the trademark of Shugo Chara magic. The light blinded me and reflected against the mirrors and windows, leaving the studio to shine like a beacon in what was once nothing but negativity and darkness. Once it slowly ebbed away, where the X-Character once floated was a mini Maika-san, with her hair done up in an elaborate up-do and clad in a white tutu with feathers and sequins.

"Merci beaucoup," she said with a small bow to me, a sight to see even if it wasn't really Maika-san doing it. Nonetheless, I smiled at her, exceedingly happy to have saved someone, even just one person, from having their heart crushed. "I don't ever want to regret giving up on my dream. And I won't dance with red shoes anymore. I'll learn to dance with my own toe shoes." She smiled gracefully, and just then her expression really reminded me of the truly happy one I saw on Maika-san's mother's face. "Bonne nuit, Snow-chan. I'm sure we'll meet again someday..." And with that, she slowly melted back into her owner's chest, protected by a pure white egg.

Maika-san's eyelashes began to flutter, a sure sign she'd be waking soon. I tried to quickly evacuate the scene, but tripped and fell over upon discovering I had shrank a few inches. That was only because my Character Transformation had come undone, and I was no longer in high-heeled boots, but just my red sneakers. Yaya-san silenced her incessant cheering and whoops to start laughing mercilessly at me as I flushed beet red and cralwed over to the doorway, and my Shugo Chara so no harm in joining her. Once I felt the door close safely behind me, I heaved a relieved sigh and settled back against the wall. I heard muffled voices from inside, meaning Maika-san must've awoken, and I smiled despite myself.

But it immediately fell away when I heard someone cluck their tongue, as if in disappointment. It must've been said to themselves, but I was able to hear exactly what they muttered thanks to my large ears. "Another one failed," they said, their voice filled with contempt. "Maybe I'll have to try turning eggs into X's on a bigger scale..."

Screw sitting. I was immediately on my feet and darting towards where the voice was coming from, down the hall and to the right. But the person was already melting into the shadows, chuckling to themselves, like it had been entertaining to watch a child suffer and fall apart.

"Whoever you are," I called after them, completely livid to the extent of shaking, "I won't let you keep doing this. If you've been putting X's on those children's eggs..." Ice began spreading on the wall beside me, like a window that had been delicately painted on the wall, terrifying me but also emphasizing my point. "You've just made a horrible enemy."

Moments of silence ticked by, so much I began to wonder if I was just imagining things. But then the disembodied voice chuckled again, and I could tell from its low pitch that it belonged to a man. And it also seemed eerily familiar... "I look forward to meeting you again," he murmured dangerously. "Miss Snow."

Something told me that he wasn't simply calling my name; he was also referring to the frost covering the wall beside me, mist roiling off of it as a sign of contrasting temperatures. I narrowed my eyes and said nothing more, burning on the inside with rage and the ability pouring out. Whoever this man was, he was pulling out X-Eggs on purpose. Could he have been with Easter? There was really no telling, since I hadn't bothered to chase after them. But something deep inside, something wriggling and poisonous like an insect, told me that this wasn't the last time I'd see them.

We'd meet again. And when we did, I'd put a stop to him. No matter what.

The ice speared out from the wall again as a sign of my rising temper, stopping only inches from my furious expression. I didn't even bother wondering how I'd get rid of it, since Satsuki merely reassured me that it'd "take care of itself". Whatever. I'd take care of it, too, eventually. Even if that meant harming myself in the process.

I'd do whatever it took to protect others from myself again.

}{

Despite her falls, protests, and grumblings, Yaya-san made a truly impressive prima ballerina.

Lucky for me, the recital started later into the night, so I was able to rush from work to the dance studio (despite getting a tad bit lost on the way- and by a tad, I meant I ended up right where I started). I was able to make it, regardless, and was exceedingly happy that I did. The other Guardians were there as well to support our bubbly junior, and I swore Kukai-kun was almost in tears as he watched Yaya-san dip and twirl like a true fairy. She slipped and fell, and seemed to miss a few turns, but would always pick herself up and flawlessly carry on the show without a change in expression. Despite witnessing the practices, I was almost able to believe that they were a part of the show. And that had to require some skill.

The viewing hall erupted in thunderous applause from scouts and parents, and Kukai-kun was actually sobbing by the time it was over. I leaned closer to him and tauntingly whispered "Drama queen", which earned me a jab in the ribs. But I was able to laugh it off. Whether I liked it or not, the ice threatening to come out if my emotions ran out of control was keeping me more reigned-in than I'd ever been. And that was something to be thankful for.

After the show, we all visited Yaya-san backstage. Nadeshiko-san handed her a bouquet of beautiful white and pink flowers that made a sickeningly sweet scent tickle my nose. Kukai-kun hugged her like she was his daughter going off on a life journey or something, which simply made the rest of us laugh. It almost seemed like we were normal kids congratulating a friend on a job well done.

When in reality, we were all grateful for at least saving one more dream today.

I was shocked into silence when Maika-san hobbled up to us on her crutches. Despite everything that had happened, her expression was as defiant as ever. She tilted her nose up at Yaya-san with a smug little smile. "You did good,"she said, which made the former and I gasp in complete surprise. "But you made seven mistakes and even fell twice." That sounded more like her. "Look out, because I won't be missing the next recital."

That got a smile from me even with my rising temper. It seemed she really heard my words about not giving up and all that. I had really helped someone else. That made me feel more accomplished than anything.

"And you," she grumbled roughly as she turned to face me. I raised an eyebrow as I watched her face slowly begin to flush. "I don't know why, but it feels like I should thank you. Even if you are annoying, you must've said something to lift me out of the dumps. So... thanks."

I smiled smugly at her and bent down to ruffle her hair until it came loose from its high ponytail. "You're very welcome," I giggled.

She swat my hand away. "Don't touch me, you amazon."

And suddenly I was being held back by my comrades again. "DON'T CALL ME AN AMAZON!"

Crimrose: Yay we're done! *dances like a fool* We're dooooooone!

Snow: Yeah, but not anywhere close to the end. If we're going by the manga, this is only volume two out of twelve.

Crimrose: Don't ruin my good time.

Snow: Ruin YOUR good time? You give me some kind of freak ice powers and I'M RUINING-

Crimrose: Speaking of which, this has nothing to do with Frozen. Just saying.

Snow: With WHAT?! Are you making fun of me?!

Crimrose: *smiles pityingly* So naive.

Snow: I WILL HAVE YOU KNOW-

Crimrose: Well, even though it's long and took me, like, two months to finish, admittedly a lot was revealed in this chapter. Like a bit more about Snow, about her strange abilities, and even two new OC's were introduced! Say hello!

Will: *waves enthusiastically* HI!

Deryn: ...

Crimrose: You'll eventually find out why they're here and what significance they have. But let me just say they're from a story I'm writing on the side. I just threw them in here for fun and... drama.

Snow: How dare you just ignore me? I WILL FREEZE YOU.

Crimrose: You don't scare me. I am your god.

Everyone: ...

Crimrose: Okay. So stay tuned for next chapter, which will more than likely be finished more quickly than this one because I'VE BEEN LOOKING FORWARD TO WRITING IT FOR SUCH A LONG TIME. THE LONG-AWAITED SPORT'S FESTIVAL ARRIVES, AND THAT MEANS FIERCE COMPETITION AGAINST THE TWO RIVAL ACADEMIES, SEIYO AND MAYOSU (WHICH WAS ADMITTEDLY NAMED AFTER MY HORRID SUNBURN IN THE SUMMER)! THINGS HEAT UP BETWEEN SNOW AND IKUTO (NO PUN INTENDED) BUT ALSO WITH TADASE AS WELL! GASSSSSP! THAT TRAMP!

Snow: SHUT THE HELL UP!