Friday morning I woke up sluggishly, but the moment I was aware that I was awake my heart began thundering again, remembering the surprise kiss from yesterday. I hadn't even had time to react, and had even half tried to pull away, yet he followed me and kissed me for several more seconds before seemingly remembering himself.

"Well somebody looks dazed this morning." Akane teased. "Good dream?"

I shook my head, blushing.

"Or did something happen in real life? Tell me!" Akane insisted, and I laughed in spite of everything going on.

"Aido kissed me yesterday."

"But I thought you guys already did that." Akane frowned in confusion. "Rei told me..."

"Yeah yeah." I waved my hand, having forgotten about that. "But yesterday was just a surprise kiss, that's all."

"Well at least one of our boyfriends knows how to be spontaneous." Akane sighed wistfully. I made a mental note to have a word with Rei about his alleged lack of spontaneity.

"I'm not sure that's what it was..." I trailed off, not sure if I wanted to broach this topic. "He apologized for getting carried away..."

"Just because you were in public, I guess." Akane said. "Let's just get through school today."

I nodded, and we finished getting ready side-by-side in the bathroom.

"You know, you've been so distant lately." Akane ventured while I brushed my hair and she applied mascara. "It makes me lonely. I feel like you have a completely separate life from me now, and now instead of sharing life with you I'm just one of the parts of it."

I turned my head sharply to look at Akane when I noticed she was crying in the mirror.

"Oh, Akane, no." Was all I could say as I wrapped her in a hug. "I know. I don't have an excuse for it."

"Does Aido just not want you to talk about anything?" Akane asked tearfully. "You know I'll beat him if he threatened you."

I controlled my instinct to laugh at the image of Akane trying to fight Aido. "No, there just isn't that much to tell. I can try and tell you more but I'm sure you'll find it all very boring."

"Nonsense. I find your life perfectly exciting to hear about. And even when it's not, I want to hear about it because it's you and I care about you." Akane wiped her face and eyed me seriously. "Let me know when things happen. We're drifting apart, Kisa."

I nodded. "Aika threatened me again yesterday."

"She what." Akane's demeanor was dark and I realized that making her angry at Aika might not be my best course of action.

"She told me that I should let Aido go to the soirée alone so he could enjoy himself." I sighed. "I feel like angering her is going to cause something bad to happen to me."

"Like what kind of bad...?" Akane was wary, and I grimaced.

"Oh I don't know. She could kill me."

"That... would be the biggest overreaction I've ever seen." Akane raised an eyebrow, as if her face was nudging me into taking this conversation seriously.

Little did she know, I was.

"I'm going to shower, if you don't mind getting out of the bathroom." Akane smiled. "Make tea?"

"Of course." I returned her smile and hugged her again.

When I went out to the kitchen and started the tea there was a knock at the door.

It was Rei. "Good morning, Kisa-chan!" He stepped inside and sat down at our kitchen table.

I sat down next to him. "Akane's in the shower."

Rei nodded. "Mhmm. She's supposed to be. Because we should talk."

That threw me for a loop. What could Rei possibly want to talk about?

"Kisa-chan, you need to tell me. Are you happy with Aido? Akane and I are worried about you. It's clear that you have feeling for him, but it doesn't look like those feelings are bringing you any happiness."

"Are you guys my parents?" I grumbled, to Rei's apparent amusement.

"Maybe." He chuckled. "Listen, I know Akane says you haven't talked about your relationship with Aido that much, but just know that if there is something you need to tell us you can tell us, okay? We're here for you and you don't have to go through anything alone."

Shocked and a little touched by Rei's speech, I could only nod. "I appreciate it."

"Now for the soirée tomorrow, is Aido picking you up here or meeting you there?"

"He's meeting me there." I remembered him telling me that after he kissed me yesterday.

"Then come with us." Rei's voice was warm, and he patted my hand that I hadn't realized I was resting on the table. "We'll take you to the soirée, and deliver you right to your... boyfriend." His voice wrapped around the word strangely, as if it was a word he'd never thought he'd use around me.

The soirée approaching and I all I could think about was how I was going to fake-have fun with my fake-boyfriend at a dance where everybody but me seemed to know what was going on. The Disciplinary Committee were still watching me as if I was going to implode. Kaname Kuran had been strangely absent, which was leaving me uneasy. And I couldn't tell my best friends about it.

I put my head in my hands. Everything felt like it was crashing down on me rather suddenly.

"Are you alright?" Rei asked, patting my cheek with his hand.

"I suppose I'm just tired. I've been helping Akane make those flowers for the ballroom." I sighed. I hadn't been helping, but I knew Akane had been staying up late making flowers to put in the ballroom to decorate for the soirée.

"Hey, why don't we do like we used to in elementary?" Rei was suddenly bright. "We could skip school, we could help finish the flowers, and we could just watch movies and lay low like we did when we were having a bad day when we were younger."

Akane walked into the room. "And now that I'm dressed!"

"Come on, sweetheart." Rei embraced her and kissed the top of your head. "Can't we all use a break?"

Akane shuffled her feet and grinned. "Yeah, I guess. But I'm not scaling the wall if the Disciplinary Committee finds us again."

I laughed, looking at them with fondness. Someday I hoped I could have a love like that.

"Yeah," I agreed, "sounds like fun."