I hope everyone's New Year festivities were nice. I had this updated and mostly edited, but been so busy I forgot. But here it is.

Thank you once again for people who took the time out to fave this story and/or put it on alert. It means a lot to me.

So now onto part 2!

It was quite the spectacle the next morning to be coming out the car with Nathaniel and Amber. I hated being the center of attention, believe it or not. But I could definitely hear the whispers as I walked that familiar path to the doors of the school. Of course Peggy was the first to try to get some information on this. But if she found out the real reason, I would be in trouble.

That and I trust her as far as I can throw her.

I didn't forgive her for that shit article she wrote on me when Deborah was around.

So I gave her an excuse of me letting Amber copy my homework or something lame like that. I had more important things on my mind, like trying to help Nathaniel. The school day felt like a haze as I thought about this. Before I knew it, lunch was starting. I wandered out to the garden. I felt so confined in the school after everything that happened last night. Some fresh air would do me good I think. But even with the nice day, my mind was still clouded.

"Mir! If you keep that up you're gonna get into trouble."

I turned to hear Rosalya calling out to me. She apparently had been calling me for a little while. Talking with Lysander and Alexy made her realize that something was bothering me. But if the school found out about this, then Nathaniel wouldn't forgive me for sure. As much as I wanted to tell, I couldn't. At least not until I had a concrete plan.

"I'm sorry Rosa, just a lot of stuff on my mind." I admitted.

"You want to talk about it?"

I shook my head.

"Well okay you don't have to tell me." she said, "But talk to someone, it's not good to keep things bottled up."

An idea popped into my head then. I could talk to one of the guys about this. As much I wished I could talk to Rosalya, it's possible that things could turn about bad. It was just safer to tell one of the guys first. Now the question was who. I had mulled over the pros and cons of telling each one. My main goal was to get Nathaniel to understand how severe this situation was. One person kept popping into my head. Before I knew it I had seen him. I found him in the science lab. He looked to be lounging around to get away from the lunch crowds as well. I opened up the door.

"So what do I owe the pleasure Gallade?" asked Castiel.

At first glance, this seemed like the most horrible choice.

But I had thought deeply about it. The others would be more supportive, there's no denying that. Castiel was the only person that I can think of to get Nathaniel to seriously consider his actions, or lack thereof. I mean if the guy you hate is concerned, then it's something to think about right?

Right?

"I don't have all period Gallade."

I'll have to admit, it's a bit weird to be talking to him alone like this. Ever since that almost...whatever it was in the nurse's office I had kept myself open when talking with him. I didn't want that feeling of something to bubble up again. Especially not now.

"I need to talk to you about Nathaniel." I said.

"You finally realize what an idiot he is?"

"I'm being serious Cas!" I whined, "Listen, I stayed over his house last night-"

"No shit." he said, "You three coming in together has been the talk of the school today."

I groaned.

"Come on, let me finish explaining."

He gave me a look before nodding to go on. From there I explained how I first saw the bruises on Nathaniel's back. Without noting about how I hid in the locker room. And then how I made a deal with Amber to not "see" him anymore in order to get proof to confirm or deny my suspicions. And then I heard him get hit.

For a moment there was silence.

"Pffft ha ha ha ha! Really Gallade? You want to tell me that our lovely president gets spankings?"

My hands balled into fists at his laughter.

Before I knew what happened, I lifted my left hand and slapped him.

For another long moment, there was silence. I didn't mean to hit him. Just that I got so pissed at his laughing. And this was serious. Thinking about it, I was no better for hitting Castiel. Once he realizes what happened, he's gonna be so mad at me.

"You didn't have to hit me, again." he remarked.

"God dammit Cas! It's more than spankings! His father beats him."

His face had changed to one of concern. I had hoped that I was doing the right thing. I really hoped so.

"Are you sure Mir?" he asked.

"Yes, I got Nathaniel to admit it to me later on. I want to do something, but I don't know what. Nathaniel doesn't want anyone to know and I don't want him mad at me." I answered.

"Isn't there one of those emergency numbers you can call for something like that?"

I nodded. I looked at my cell phone. I faced a decision on my hands. Whether to make the call or not. If I make this call, he's gonna find out that it was me. The only person who knows outside of his home would be me. But he'll be safer. If I didn't then someday it's going to get serious enough to be noticeable.

And I'll sit regretting it because I did nothing.

'If you feel that you absolutely have to do it, then do it. The truth will eventually come out.'

Aunt Rieka's words rung in my head. I gripped my phone tight before looking up at Castiel.

"Okay, you mind covering for me while I do it? I feel like if I try to do this myself then I'll chicken out."

He nodded and the two of us got out of the room. Only to be met with Peggy. I tried to move away from her but she wasn't going to let me go.

"I have a feeling that you aren't telling me the entire truth Mir. " she said.

There was no way in hell she was going to use this to her advantage.

"Jeez, how many times to have to explain myself before you understand? There is nothing more to the story than what I told you. Amber's dumber than a sack of bricks. I helped her out because Nathaniel wants us to play nice. Now leave me alone before I have to report to the teachers your harassment at me."

Castiel did a good job of getting her away from me too.

"You heard Gallade, move it along and find another story."

Until she looked at the two of us.

"Hmm interesting...you two have fun alone then."

She was already gone by the time I realized what that look meant. I huffed in response.

"Why do people think I'm a two-timing hussy?" I asked to myself.

"Probably because you hang around me too much, the supposed enemy of your president." Castiel remarked.

I smacked my hand against my forehead.

"Me falling for the 'enemy'? Sounds like one of those dating sims."

"What?"

"Nothing." I stammered, "Lets go."

Anyway we got downstairs to the main floor. Castiel kept an eye out for peepers while I went in the basement to make the call. After being on hold for a bit, I talked to someone about what I saw. My heart felt a little lighter in telling someone who's trained in handling these situations. They told me that they'll send social services out to check on the situation.

But I felt a great relief that they assured me that this call will stay anonymous.

I gave Castiel a small smile when I finished. Even he smirked a little. We did a good thing, I hoped.

"Thank you Cas, I appreciate this. And I'm sorry for hitting you earlier. I overreacted."

"Don't worry too much about it Mir." he waved it off, "This is out of your hands now, so I suggest you take a step back and let the professionals handle it from here on out."

"Right. Well I'll see you later."

That feeling of doing something great quickly went away to paranoia. Days passed since I made that phone call. Nathaniel and Amber hadn't been to school in those days. I grew worried that something terrible had happened. Despite my needing to know, I didn't try to visit their home. I did try to call and text Nathaniel with no luck. It was to the point I was jumping at sudden noises. I kept thinking that somehow they found out it was me and wanted revenge.

When I thought I couldn't feel any worse.

My stress was getting to reach a peak before I had heard that Nathaniel was back in school. There was whispers all around. I wasn't sure what was going on. I just wanted to get this day over with. I could have just not showed up, but I had to keep going. Just in case I saw Nathaniel.

"Did you hear?" asked Rosalya.

"No. What?" I replied.

"Nathaniel and Amber came back to school today. But them and their parents were called into the principal's office. There was word that some professional people were at their house too."

My eyes widened at the news.

Someone did check up on them.

I ran off without a word. I knew I had to go see what was going on. Despite everything, I had to know.

"You!"

My feet stopped at the voice. Standing in the middle of the hallway was Nathaniel. And he looked pissed. I had never seen him glare with such contempt at anyone before. Much less have it directed towards me. My heart seized up at seeing him look like this.

"This is all your fault." he spoke in a low voice.

"Nathani-"

"No shut up and just listen!" he shouted, "I told you not to get involved with this. I told you in hoping I could trust you to not tell anyone. Because of what you did, social services came over. Do you know how embarrassing it was for my parents to have them come in? And now Amber realizes something is going on and she's confused and scared! Can't you follow with what I asked just once?"

"I did it because I love you!" I shouted back.

I took a deep breath. I wasn't ready for this.

"I can't stand by and watch you get hurt like that." I explained, "I wanted to protect you. It's not right what he's doing. What...what if he goes too far one day? I can't think of that happening. I-I wanted to help."

"Well you did a fine job of doing that. Did you ever think about what would happen? My dad could lose his job. Everything he worked for, gone. Just because of you. Next time when someone says that don't need your help, heed that. It's not like they are going to find anything anyway."

I ran up to grab his hands.

"You can't be serious right now. You don't plan on telling them anything? That's stupid! You're gonna protect the man who hurts you!"

I felt him shove my hands away from him. The action froze me in my steps. He never pulled away from me before. Tears were already threatening to fall. But I was trying not to cry. Not in front of him. I needed to be strong.

"Ami, I can't do this anymore. First you peeked at my records, then you sneaked into the boys locker room, and now you do this! You lied to me about staying over. You did it just for this."

I looked down, there was no point in denying it any more.

"You betrayed my trust. I just can't anymore."

He walked down the hall towards the entrance. But then he stopped when he was beside me. He whispered something in my ear. My eyes widened at the words. I covered my mouth with my hands to suppress the urge to scream out. This couldn't be it.

He couldn't be.

"Nathaniel!" called out his dad.

I looked over to see his dad coming out of the office. The way he glared at me could have killed me . But what Nathaniel had just told me was overriding any feeling of hatred for the man. His mother and Amber soon left the office and the family left the school. I watched Nathaniel's back as he disappeared from my view. The less I saw him, the more the tears wanted to fall. I blinked a few times, but that only made it worse for the tears.

What he whispered to me?

"We're done."

And thus why I said MC/Nathaniel was kinda~

I was hesitant on this part because of this. But the bunnies made me do it ; o;

Reviews are awesome to have and totally makes my day~!