School was getting close to finishing for the day and Rin found himself actually regretting it. He and Aelita sat beside each other, their backpacks in their laps as they shoved their toys and school books inside them.

"Hey Aelita?" Rin asked.

"Hm?" she responded as she tried to zip her stuffed backpack closed.

"Why did you start school so late?" he asked.

"Oh! Because my family moves around a lot for their work," she stated.

"Really? That must be fun!" Rin said, images of huge adventures popping into his head.

"Well sometimes it's fun, but because of it I don't get to make a lot of friends," she said as she plopped her backpack on the floor beside her, giving up on getting it zipped.

"Oh…" Rin said, "Where have you lived?"

"Lots and lots of places! I was born in Paris, that is a huge city in France where people speak funny and they have this really huge tower!" she spread her arms wide to show Rin how big it was before continuing. "Then when I was two we moved to Germany, and then when I turned four we moved from place to place around the world, never actually living in a house. We stayed in a lot of cool hotels and also some really small ones in the middle of nowhere before coming to Japan this year! We've lived here for a few months now, and we just finished unpacking so my parents decided it was about time I started school," she said, planting her hands in her lap.

"Wow! You must've seen the whole world by now!" Rin exclaimed.

"I think I'm close, but I don't wanna travel anymore," she pouted.

"Why?" Rin asked, tilting his head to the side in confusion.

"That's obvious dummy! Because I made a friend here," she said, poking him on the forehead.

Rin swatted her hand away gently with a laugh, "Okay, okay! I get it."

"Good," Aelita said, putting her hands back in her lap.

"What are your parents' jobs?" Rin asked.

"They don't tell me, but I think they must be secret agents! Why else would we move around so much? It must because we're on the run from bad guys," she said quietly, just in case some bad guys were nearby.

"No way! That's so cool!" Rin exclaimed.

"Sssh!" Aelita covered his mouth, "Not so loud!"

"Ffffmmm!" Rin mumbled.

Aelita uncovered his mouth, "What?"

"I said, fiiine!"

"Oh," she giggled.

Aelita looked over at the door and noticed that some of the kids were being picked up so she sat her bag back in her lap to try and zip it up again.

"Here, I'll do it," Rin said as he grabbed Aelita's back pack.

"I don't think you'll be able to, it's really hard," she said.

Rin zipped it easily and grinned, "I thought you said it was hard!"

"Whoa! You must be really strong!" she exclaimed, staring at her bag in disbelief.

Rin laughed and flexed, "I don't see any muscles."

Aelita poked his arm, "There's gotta be some there!"

As the two prodded Rin's arm they were engulfed by the shadow of a tall man, his eyes hidden behind a pair of glasses.

"I don't know, he seems sort of scrawny to me," the man said.

Rin crossed his arms and huffed, "Shut up, dad! I have muscles, they are just hiding."

The man laughed, "Why are they hiding? Are they scared of your ego?"

"Ego? Like the waffles?" Aelita asked Rin in confusion. [1]

Rin shook his head and tried to explain what ego meant but was interrupted by his father.

"Hello there miss," Rin's dad chimed in. "I'm Rin's dad, father Fujimoto, and who might you be?" the man said, crouching down to get a better view of the children.

"O-oh, I'm-" she was interrupted as Rin butted in.

"Don't bug her you old geezer! Aelita doesn't like strangers!"

Rin's dad just laughed at Rin and the confused girl beside him.

"Hey Rin?" Aelita whispered, "Why is your dad wearing a dress?"

Father Fujimoto looked at her, feigning hurt, "This is no dress! This is my priestly attire!"

Rin laughed as Aelita spluttered out an apology to Father Fujimoto who just patted her on the head saying, "Don't worry about it!"

Then he turned to Rin, "Are you ready to go?"

"What? No way! We have to wait until Aelita's parents pick her up!" Rin whined.

"Ooooh, so is she your new girlfriend~?"

Rin punched his father in the stomach, "NO! You weirdo!"

The man just laughed and agreed to wait for Aelita's parents before going to talk to the teacher.

"Pfft, that man is so stupid," Rin grumbled.

"Why are you so mean to your dad?" Aelita asked.

"I'm not being mean! He's the mean one!" he pouted.

Aelita just laughed in response, "You guys have a weird relationship!"

"Well isn't that what parents do? They like to make fun of their kids?" he asked.

"I don't know, my parents are always nice to me. I guess they do tease me sometimes," she agreed.

Rin and Aelita continued to talk about their families as they waited for Aelita's parents to show up. Rin told her all about his twin brother, Yukio, and how he was sick today. "Which is weird, because he wants to be a doctor. You would think he'd know to wash his hands and stuff," he shook his head, "He's got some learning to do, but I think he'll make a great doctor one day."

"Wow, you must really care about him," Aelita smiled thoughtfully, "I wish I had a brother or sister."

"Maybe you'll get one someday?" Rin offered.

"Maybe," Aelita shrugged.

Not wanting to dwell on the subject, Rin urged the girl to tell him some stories of her adventures. She agreed to tell him a few, but they were all somewhat exaggerated.

"That's when we slid down the snowy mountain into the sea! It was hard to swim with all those baggy snow clothes, but my parents had a life raft," she finished, a large grin tugging at her lips.

"Wow, weren't you scared?"

"A bit, yeah, but my parents are super cool and they protected me," Aelita said. "Now how about we go outside and I'll show you how to mountain climb!"

Rin nodded in excitement, and the small brunette grabbed his hand, pulling him outside to play. To their disappointment, there wasn't a mountain to climb, so they played hide and seek until they ran out of hiding spots. Then they dug around in the bushes in search of snakes. Being unsuccessful in their search, they decided to climb a nearby tree.

"Climbing trees has to be somewhat similar to mountain climbing," Aelita thought aloud, "They're really tall."

This tree was rather short though, so instead Rin made tree climbing into a game. Whoever made it to the top first would win. It sounded like fun so they tried it out, but Aelita quickly got sick of it since her dress kept getting snagged in the branches. Instead of climbing trees they decided to lie under the tree, looking up at the sunlight peeking through the leaves.

Just as Aelita thought of another game to play, Rin's dad came out of the school and called them over to him. The two got up and raced to Father Fujimoto.

"I win!" Rin cheered as he came to a halt in front of his father.

"No fair! I tripped!" Aelita whined.

"Then don't trip next time," Rin teased.

Aelita stuck her tongue out at him and Father Fujimoto laughed at them both.

"Well you guys don't get bored, do you? You've been playing for an hour," he notified them.

"A whole hour?" Rin asked.

His dad nodded.

"Maybe my parents don't know what time to pick me up yet, I'll just walk home then," Aelita shrugged.

"Oh no you don't! Not unless Rin and I come with you," Father Fujimoto said.

"Yeah! You could be captured by those bad guys if you go alone!" Rin added.

Aelita put her finger to her lips to remind Rin to keep quiet about bad guys before agreeing to let them accompany her.

"I'll lead the way!" Aelita said as she skipped ahead.

She didn't live too far away from school, it barely took five minutes for them to reach her street. But five minutes was long enough to make Aelita tire herself out with skipping. So as they grew near to her house she slowed down to walk with Rin, Father Fujimoto following behind them quietly.

"Aelita?" Rin whispered.

"Hm?" she responded, looking curiously at the boy beside her.

"Will you be coming back to school tomorrow?" he asked, glancing back nervously to make sure his dad hadn't heard him.

Aelita noticed Rin seemed serious about his question so she stepped in front of Rin who stumbled to a halt a few inches from her. She then proceeded to stick her pinky finger in his face. He just looked at in confusion.

"I'll be back tomorrow, pinky promise," she smiled.

Rin hesitantly stuck his pinky finger out and Aelita took it in hers. "Then it's settled, I'll see you tomorrow!" Before Rin could say anything Aelita took off running towards her house across the street.

Rin could never tell what she would do next. Whenever he was sad or too serious she would brighten the mood by doing something that he would never expect. Of course, he couldn't say he cared all that much about how weird she was. He was just glad Aelita could always cheer him up.

Rin watched her run off, a small smile making its way to his face. When she got to her front door she turned back around and waved before disappearing into her house. Behind Rin, Father Fujimoto was also smiling; he could tell Rin really liked this girl but he decided not to tease Rin about it for a while. He was just happy to see that he made a friend.