When I woke up the next day, Kaze was already waiting for me, just like yesterday. "Good morning, Aki!" Kaze greeted me cheerfully with a grin. After all that I had learned last night, though, seeing him just sent a dull throbbing through my chest.

"Morning," I muttered, doing my best to not seem inhospitable. Of course, there was no way I could get it past Kaze, as he quickly walked over to my side.

"Hey, Aki, are you alright? Did something happen last night?" Kaze was noticeably concerned as he placed a hand on my shoulder.

"How are your scars doing?" I asked without hesitation. I needed to know, and Kaze wouldn't lie to me, would he…? Kaze slowly withdrew his hand from my shoulder as he stared at me in surprise. Eventually he sighed and looked towards the ground as he grabbed at the collar of his shirt.

"Ida… Ida said something, didn't she?" Kaze murmured.

"She told me about it… about how… you can't make the turns because of me," I muttered.

"It's not bad, honestly," Kaze smiled in an attempt at cheering me up but I could see right through it.

"Please… don't lie to me," I said. Kaze blinked a few times before sighing once more and fiddling with his cap this time.

"I… I didn't want you to find out," Kaze whispered as he faced the side, apparently having trouble meeting my hurt eyes.

"You wanted to just suffer in silence?" I cried out, struggling to hold my emotions together. Kaze quickly looked back at me following my outburst though.

"It's not suffering. It's nothing I can't handle," Kaze insisted, trying to comfort me. "I'm practicing in my free time to make the turns. I've gotten better, as you've seen. With any luck, I'll be able to make the turns for when I can get my actual license!" Kaze continued with a smile. Even though he said that… if it weren't for me, then he wouldn't even have to practice. There wouldn't be the 'if' behind him getting his license, I was sure he'd already be plenty qualified. Yet, still…

My thoughts were cut off when Kaze took my hands into his. "It's fine, really!" he insisted.

"But what about your dream? What about riding a D-Wheel?" I retorted.

"I can still ride them! I've ridden with you before, after all!" Kaze pointed out. "Besides, the highway is straight enough that I can do it no problem, and worst case scenario, all official D-Wheels come with autopilot. The courses are the only things that are the problem," Kaze said. That's right, he said something like that back when he was in the garage yesterday, about the autopilot being disabled as they were supposed to be learning how to drive… So then… Kaze… Kaze really could ride his D-Wheel just like he wanted? "There you go, that's the smile that I like to see," Kaze grinned, causing me to realize that I, indeed, had begun smiling.

"You're such a teddy bear sometimes," I laughed under my breath as a blush darted across my cheeks, which only caused Kaze to smile wider. "Thanks, though… I…" I trailed off, not knowing what to say. I wanted to tell him thanks for cheering me up after all that Ida had said… Her telling me that we weren't friends and that I was a witch in her books… but I doubted that Kaze would believe me. Even though we were close, even I would have trouble believing there was such a side to Ida if I hadn't seen it. Besides, she even said she'd be acting normal, so there was no way Kaze would find out… Should I just keep this a secret then…?

"Not a problem," Kaze seemed to catch the gist of what I was implying though, which made things simpler. "Now, why don't we go get some breakfast? Ida's already waiting for us," Kaze gestured towards the direction of the dining hall with a smile, and I did my best to hide my wince. We were running into Ida already… I… How was I going to even act around her anymore? There was no way to act like her friend when I knew that she hated me, but if I treated her like I treated the people who hated me at DA, then Kaze certainly wouldn't be happy with me. Should I just avoid conversation as much as possible? That'd be the safest choice.

"Hey, Aki," Kaze spoke my name suddenly as we were making our way to the dining hall. I met his gaze, silently cuing him to continue. "I just… Would it alright if we worked on your powers today?" Kaze asked. I could see a bit of concern in his eyes, probably still worried that I was fearing my powers and hating what I did to him. Last time, Kaze told me that I had to keep my faith in my cards, but as of late… I really have been hating my powers, haven't I? Had Kaze noticed?

"Of course, that's fine with me," I said. Truth be told, I enjoyed spending time with him anyway, so it really didn't matter what we were doing. So long as I was with Kaze, I was sure it'd all work out.

And so we entered the dining room. I did my best to steel my nerves as Kaze began scanning the area for Ida. I had already felt her piercing glare from across the room, though, and begrudgingly met it. In a second, Ida's expression quickly shifted to her usual smile, noticeably because Kaze realized where I was staring and was able to locate her as well. The teen quickly pushed herself out of her chair before rushing over to us.

"Morning, Justice Brigade! How is your heroism going?" she asked eagerly.

"Unfortunately there was no heroism to speak of, but I'm going to have to say that's because most of the villains probably aren't up yet," Kaze noted.

"Ah, you've got it right, finally!" Ida cheered as she quickly embraced Kaze. I gave the two a weary eye roll. Leave it to Kaze to feed into her games… Though, were they even games? I didn't want to make any assumptions about her character anymore after what happened last night…

"Hey, Aki, would you mind leaving Ida and I alone for a second?" Kaze asked me as the teen in question released him. I was about to raise a question as to why he'd need to talk to her alone, for what could he possibly have to talk to her about that he couldn't talk about in front of me, but I quickly realized why upon meeting Kaze's pleading stare. He was going to confront Ida about what she said last night. She did mention something about Kaze not wanting her to tell, so it'd only make sense that he'd want to talk to her about it…

"Yeah, that's fine. I'll just be over here," I said, taking a few steps to the side so I could rest against the wall while Kaze lead Ida a few meters away. She skipped eagerly after him, apparently not suspecting anything or at least not feeling bad about what she had done.

Honestly, I should have just let them go, since it was their own private conversation, but I couldn't help myself from watching the scene unfold. Kaze seemed to be saying something to Ida, who just shifted a bit as she whispered something back. I couldn't make out what they were saying, but their body language alone was enough to read what was happening. Kaze seemed to tense up a bit, now moving his hands as he spoke, while Ida just reeled back in shock. He must have been telling her that he knew, based on how she shifted her eyes momentarily in my direction before looking back up at Kaze with a slight bit of fear. The fear instantly disappeared, though, as she began some kind of retort, moving her arms around in her protest as well. Her movements seemed a lot rougher, a lot more fervent, as she tried to get her point across.

Despite this, whatever Kaze was telling her seemed to win out, as Ida let out a huff of irritation before crossing her arms. They murmured a few more things to each other before Ida reluctantly nodded, and things seemed to diffuse between them. As cruel as it was, I couldn't help but take joy in the fact that Kaze managed to defeat whatever argument she had. That meant everything she said was wrong, right?

With their conversation solved, the two began making their walk back over to me. Ida certainly seemed to be worse for wear as she sat in her moody silence, not glaring at me, as she was simply staring at the floor, but she might as well have been.

"I'll go on ahead and make sure we have a seat," Ida mumbled before walking off into the dining area.

"Hey, Kaze? What did you end up saying to her?" I found myself asking.

"I just talked to her about what she said to you, that's all, and that she shouldn't have brought it up," Kaze said as he placed his hands in his pockets and took a glance to the side.

"What else is on your mind?" I asked, observing the body language that he was giving off. Kaze just remained silent for a while before sighing.

"I just… I'm not quite sure what's going to happen between the three of us now. I'm hoping that everything can just smooth out, that we'll go back to normal, but that can't happen at this point. It's a foolish dream," Kaze said. Going back to normal? So he did notice the difference in the way Ida was treating me…

Even if Kaze wanted it, though, like he said, there was no way that that could happen. Ida had tried to harm me last night, there was no doubt about it. She exposed her thoughts and there was no way I could just ignore them.

Taking my silence as an answer, Kaze let out another sigh before departing to go after Ida. Part of me felt bad that I was almost putting him in this type of situation but the other part knew that he understood. He even blatantly said that he didn't expect it to happen. The divide that was between Ida and I now… No matter what she said or did, there was just no way to repair it.

Afterwards, the three of us gathered our breakfast before sitting down to eat. At first, there was an eerie silence at the table, none of us knowing what to say. There was no way that Ida and I would want to talk to each other, but involving only Kaze would just make things worse. Kaze was clearly figuring that waiting in silence was better than trying to figure out how to get us to talk.

Soon enough, Ida must have figured that being the better person would help out her case, as she began making avid conversation with Kaze about some hero-ing or whatever it was that she did in her free time. Kaze, probably believing that some conversation was better than no conversation, did his best to take part and involve me when he could. Normally I'd be thankful for her distractions from my thoughts, but now it all just felt hollow…

I did my best to try and sink into the background until I could figure out how to deal with Ida without having some negative impact on my relationship with Kaze. Since he still had Ida around, after all, he still must consider her a friend and wanted us to at least be civil with each other. I instead busied myself with trying to figure out if it was really heroism that Ida was doing after all, or if she was this so-called anti-hero thing. I was unable to say that I was a hero, but at least I was able to admit what I was. Ida, on the other hand, was trying to justify her actions by throwing the word hero around.

"So, what do you have on your plate for today, Kaze? Any daring escapes or adventures that you'd need the amazing Dark Queen for?" Ida asked as we nearly finished our meals.

"Oh, actually, I was thinking of helping Aki with her powers today," Kaze said. If only for a second, I could see the corners of her lips twitch, but she still managed to keep her smile up.

"That so? Well, good, good, the sooner we're all in top condition, the better! I was going to try structure duels today anyway, so it all should work out," Ida spoke as she quickly gathered up her trash. "Well, good luck to you two! I'll see you later!"

"Ida seems to be dealing with it quite well. I half expect her to sit in silence the whole time, but she even tried talking to you a bit," Kaze commented as he began gathering his trash as well. I simply nodded before we got up and departed. As we made our way to our supposed headquarters, I made some small talk with Kaze, trying to calm myself down before we began our training. Thinking about Ida had my thoughts in some rather dark places, so talking to Kaze was exactly what I needed to relax. I had to trust my cards, trust my powers… They weren't at all bad like Ida said… I just had to focus on Kaze…

When we arrived at the alley, we found that the rose petals from last time were still there. It seemed that street cleaners didn't go this far into the downtown district, but that wasn't so bad, thinking on it.

"Well, I think that we've almost got your summoning down pat. We should probably work on attacks next," Kaze spoke his thoughts and I couldn't help but nod my agreement. That was the most dangerous part anyway.

"You don't want me to destroy the buildings, though, do you?" I found myself asking.

"Oh, no, no. I have Brionac, after all. He'll be able to negate her attacks if they go too far," Kaze waved off my concerns with his hand before reaching for his deck, where a white card was ejected from the top. In one swift movement, he picked up Brionac's card before slapping it down on his duel disk. I suppressed a shiver as a cold gust of air swept through the alley with the Sea Serpent's appearance in a bright light. There were better things to focus on. Taking my own synchro out from my deck, I placed it onto my duel disk. The roses around us fluttered up even more, mingling together with the fresh ones, before dissipating and revealing my dragon.

"So, um… Let's see… When I did it at Duel Academy, I just had Brionac fire off at the waterfall, but here, we're a bit more restricted," Kaze murmured to himself as he shifted on his feet, hand on his chin in thought.

"And if Black Rose fired at Brionac, we wouldn't really be able to gage if it was working or not, right? Since he'd block it anyway," I pointed out. Kaze hummed as he nodded in his agreement. Since we were in the city, we had a lot more restrictions on how we'd go about this. Firing off into the sky really didn't help, since it might draw unwanted attention, but destroying buildings, no matter how dilapidated they were, wasn't good either.

"Ah, how about-" Kaze started with a wide smile on his face when there was a soft growl. We both blinked a few times before realizing that it came from behind us, or more specifically, our dragons. When we turned to see what was wrong, however, instead of finding some kind of adversary, we found them with their muzzles brushing up against each other's. Heat quickly rushed to my cheeks upon seeing the two being so… intimate with each other. Looking to my side, I saw Kaze was just as embarrassed.

"B-Brionac! W-what are you doing?!" Kaze cried out.

"Y-you too, Black Rose!" I shouted, internally willing for the two to just separate and act like nothing had happened. Our dragons… they were…

Brionac let out what I could only take to be a huff of disapproval before flapping his wings a bit. Apparently in agreement, Black Rose growled a bit before the two resumed their cuddling.

Kaze slowly raised a hand to his face, trying to hide his reddening cheeks. "A-Aki, I'm so sorry, I don't know what's gotten into him…! I…! Usually he's better than this, but, now, he…" the brunette trailed off as he lowered his hand to meet my gaze. I couldn't help but stare at the dragons a little more.

"Well… it's fine, right…?" I murmured, taking Kaze by surprise. "I mean… we're together… so it's fine if our dragons are too, right…?" I continued. Brionac and Black Rose were our aces, they were like parts of our souls. It would only make sense that they would be together as well, right…? It was a bit childish, I supposed, but I also figured that if the two really did like each other, then that would just mean that Kaze and I would be able to spend even more time like this, just the two of us.

I turned towards Kaze with a smile on my face, which prompted him to smile too. Once again, the moment was ruined by Brionac growling once more. Only this time, he apparently said something, as Kaze reeled back as if burned, his face red once more.

"B-Brionac!" Kaze snapped as his dragon appeared to laugh a bit. Black Rose just leaned forward and nuzzled up against the ice dragon once more.

"What…? What'd he say?" I asked.

"N-nothing! Nothing! Don't worry about it! H-hey, let's go for a walk! We can think a little more on the way!" Kaze insisted suddenly as he scratched at his neck. But… weren't we supposed to be training…? And what did Brionac even say…? Though, I supposed that a walk with Kaze would be just as fine.

We took both of our cards off of our duel disks, returning them to our decks before leaving the alley. I couldn't stop my thoughts from returning back to our dragons, though…

Brionac and Black Rose… I already had said that I was fine with it, and I really was, but… they were really affectionate with each other, weren't they…? The furthest that Kaze and I had gotten was holding hands and a kiss on the cheek… Was… I supposed to do something more…? Should I do something more? What exactly did a couple do?

That was when a drop of water hit my nose, drawing me out of my thoughts. "Ah, it's raining again," Kaze commented as he held his hand out, catching a few droplets in the palm of his hand.

"What should we do? The Movement isn't too far from here, we might be able to make it back before it gets worse," I suggested. Kaze hummed a bit as he apparently debated it internally.

"Hey, why don't we head over there to the underpass under the highway? I don't think it'll last very long, and we can still hang out together for a while before we go back," Kaze said. I wasn't about to turn down more time with Kaze, so I nodded my agreement. The brunette then took my hand before leading me over to the underpass in question a little ways away. Luckily, there was a bench there and no one else was around, so we could sit down right away.

I looked out into the rain, which was steadily pouring now. Every time it rained, Kaze was always there for me…

"I never thanked you for what you did back home," I said as soon as it occurred to me. Kaze turned towards me, confusion lacing his expression.

"What…? It was nothing, really. I was happy to help," he said.

"Even so… you've done so much for me and I haven't done anything in return," I muttered as I looked down at my lap, unable to meet his stare. I found my hands balling into fists, taking some of my uniform with it.

"That's not true," Kaze insisted, causing my tightening fists to slacken their grip. "You've done so much for me, Aki. You believed in me when I didn't even believe in myself. If you weren't here, I… I…" the brunette beside me trailed off.

"If I weren't here, you wouldn't be wounded… you wouldn't have had to go back to the arena… you wouldn't be here. I'm really just a burden," I muttered spitefully. That was when Kaze suddenly took hold of one of my fists with his hands, startling me.

"Aki, you're not a burden. You're anything but a burden. You're beautiful, both inside and out," Kaze whispered. I felt my cheek heat up, and the intense gaze that he had as he met my eyes didn't help. He was so close…

"Flattery will get you nowhere," I said the first thing that came to mind to try and give myself time to recover.

"It's not flattery, it's the truth. You're an amazing person, Aki. I'm glad to have met you. There's nowhere else I'd rather be than by your side," Kaze tightened his grip on my hand lightly as he spoke, not helping my blush nor the warmth I felt inside.

"You're the amazing one… You're so strong, so courageous, so kind… You've saved me from myself… You've been here for me when everyone else ran away…" I murmured.

"I could say the same thing about you."

My heart was throbbing like it was trying to claw its way out of my chest. Had it ever beaten this fast before? I found myself just staring into his eyes. Had they always been this blue? They seemed to be drawing me in, dragging me down under like the ocean, threatening to strangle and suffocate me… but at that point, it really didn't seem like that bad of a thing.

The heat was growing in my chest to the point where it felt like I was about to burst. All I was thinking about was Kaze, his warmth, his smell, his aqua eyes, and the overwhelming desire I had to feel his lips against mine.

The longing became unbearable. I found myself reaching out and taking hold of his hat, meeting his hand and pushing it up together as we both leaned in. Then our lips met. The warmth of his mouth sent shivers down my spine and made the butterflies in my stomach go wild. I found myself getting lost in his tender, soft lips.

It was nothing like the movies made it out to be like. There was no way they could capture the fireworks going off inside of me, giving me a high that I never wanted to come down from. It was sweet, everything that I had imagined and more…

But just like that, the kiss was over. I leaned forward into his chest and wrapped my arms around him, not wanting to leave Kaze's warmth just yet. Kaze didn't seem to have any objections, either, as he pulled me close and rested his chin on my head.

"Kaze, I… I love you… I really do," I murmured into his chest. I felt his grip on me tighten a bit.

"I love you too, Aki."

I wasn't sure how long we remained like this, basking in the afterglow of our first kiss, but I eventually became aware of where we were and that we'd need to get back to the Movement before night fell. Reluctantly, I dislodged myself from his grip and looked around us. "It stopped raining," I commented. Kaze looked to the side, seeing that it indeed was now sunny out, a rainbow high in the sky. Without any more words, we both got up, holding on to each other's hands with light blushes. We really did just kiss… My body still felt warm…

"Hey, Aki… I…" Kaze trailed off as he fidgeted a bit. "I meant what I said. About everything. So… I just… please don't worry about my wounds and what Ida said anymore. We'll get past that and everything else… together," Kaze insisted as he met my gaze. I found myself smiling wide, unable to help myself. Together… That was right… Kaze and I… we'd be together from now on… Always, just the two of us.

We began making our way back to the Arcadia Movement in a comfortable silence. Being with Kaze truly was enough, but with the warmth of his hand… It really felt like nothing would go wrong.

Only it did. As we began ascending the first few steps of the Arcadia Movement, I felt Kaze stagger a bit beside me, grasping for the railing with his free hand.

"H-hey, Kaze! Kaze, what's wrong?" I cried out in a panic as I stopped to face him. Kaze let go of the rail in favor of grasping at his head, almost as if he were trying to keep it from splitting in two. Was this the migraine thing that kept happening from the first day on…? No, that wasn't important! Kaze was in pain!

"I… I… It…!" Kaze struggled for his words with labored breath as I released his hand in order to take hold of both of his shoulders to try and steady him. It was a good thing that I did because Kaze's body suddenly lurched forward as he collapsed.

"Kaze…? Kaze! Come on, Kaze, wake up!" I insisted as I struggled to keep him upright, but it was an uphill battle. Suddenly the weight of Kaze's limp body was lifted, but before I could be hopeful that he had awakened I saw that it was Divine, taking one of the brunette's arms over his shoulder.

"It seems like I came by in perfect timing. It looks like Kokoro isn't doing so well," Divine muttered as he readjusted his grip on Kaze's arm before taking his free arm and wrapping it around Kaze's waist. "I'll take him back to his room, so you don't need to worry about him," Divine said as he began walking up the stairs.

"But I'm worried! If he's sick, someone needs to take care of him!" I tried to argue.

"And that someone doesn't have to be you. I have a nurse that can watch over him, it's not worth you getting sick over," Divine said as I went ahead and opened the door for him, to which he nodded his thanks.

"Even so…! I want to be by his side!" I insisted. Divine stared at me for a few seconds before sighing.

"Very well. Come along then," the man acquiesced. So I lead the way for him, since he was already carrying Kaze, opening whatever doors that we came across. We finally entered Kaze's room and Divine gently laid Kaze down, where the brunette still seemed to be in a bit of pain with his face scrunched up.

"Thank you, Divine. I don't know what I would have done if you weren't here," I smiled. If he hadn't come around, there would have been almost no way for me to get Kaze back to his room without using my powers.

"Of course. I'm always happy to help a member," Divine smiled back at me before waving and departing. Now by myself, I sat down beside Kaze on the bed, placing my hand over his, hoping that even in unconsciousness he'd know that I was there for him. Slowly his fists began to unclench as his expression shifted to a content one. I let out a sigh of relief, but I still didn't release his hand.

What had just happened? It was too sudden to be a sickness, but what else could it have been? A sudden headache…? He didn't show any signs of it all day, so it couldn't be something with his health, and my powers didn't even affect his brain, it'd only be his skin if anything, so…

As I tried to wrack my brain for what could possibly be wrong with Kaze, his fingers slowly wrapped around my hand, taking me by surprise. "A-Aki…" he let out under his breath as he shifted a bit. I smiled softly before placing my other hand over his, gently rubbing the palm of his hand with my thumb.

"I'm here, Kaze. Don't worry, I'm not leaving you anytime soon," I spoke even though I knew he probably wouldn't hear me. Seconds later, I could have sworn I saw his lips slowly form a smile.

Whatever it was, it would be alright in the end, right…? Because like Kaze said… We'll be able to get past everything together…

Reviews:

Lion Heart Leon: I'm afraid, like Aki, you were outside of Kaze's conversation with Ida, so for now all you have is that he's noticeably displeased but doesn't want them to go their separate ways. Everything else is slowly going to fall in place as we progress.

Rush: I'm glad you enjoyed this chapter. As for the duel thing, this arc is officially the 'Drama without Duels' arc xD There will be a duel in the next chapter, though, but until then, the duels have been minor/off screen stuff, since they've been off from training.

SilverFlameHaze: I did go with them, and thanks again for the help that you give ^w^

AzureKing: Thank you, though I do feel the slight need to point out that I'm not a sir, just to clarify it. As for OC's, I'd be more than happy to hear you out in a PM, but I can't guarantee anything at the moment. As for OC decks, I'd prefer not to, though, as I use an actual dueling program for my duels, so that's complicate things more than they already are, sorry. As for how many chapters until Misty appears, I'm afraid that giving you the exact amount isn't really possible at the moment as it's still in the works, but it's still a little ways away.

Tyler Nator: That's totally fine, I enjoy hearing that you like it xD I'm also glad that you like where the story is going. As for your hypothesis, our last scene in this chapter may just suggest that~