A Golden Invitation

Chaos walked slowly back to the living room. Ikaros' emotions kept replaying in her mind over and over again. The same thought kept reentering her mind of whether this was love or not.

'What is love?'

It was this thought that so haunted her as she walked down the hallway and into the living room. There everybody seems to just sitting around. Tomoki and Astraea seemed to have called a truce between themselves after their argument. Tomoki was looking through the newspaper, Astraea was preoccupied playing with a couple of dolls in the corner of the room, and Nymph was busy watching her soap operas and eating a bag of chips quietly as she always did.

Upon entering the living room, Tomoki lifted his head to address Chaos.

"Did you find Ikaros?" he asked.

"Yeah she is preoccupied with her watermelon in her room." she replied taking a seat next to Tomoki. "Hey Onii-chan what does pining mean?" continued the young Angeloid cupping her face with her hands.

"W-what?"

"Pining. What does it mean?" repeated Chaos.

"Pining…ummm it means to break down I think…physically and mentally."

"Oh okay because I thought it meant something different."

"N-no I'm pretty sure that's what pining means." Tomoki replied obliviously.

"Thanks Onii-chan." Chaos said smiling brightly.

Putting the newspaper down on the coffee table, Tomoki stood up and dusted off his pants.

"I'm going to go next door to Sohara's house for a few moments. I think I left something over there." he said. "I'll be back in a little bit."

Tomoki got up and exiting the living room went next door to his friend's house to see if he forgot anything.

Nymph, who had been playing attention to the television the whole time, turning her attention to Chaos.

"Hey Epsilon why were you asking Tomoki about pining?" she asked.

"Oh because onee-san told me about it while she was in her room crying." replied Chaos.

"What? Ikaros was crying!?" exclaimed Astraea shifting her attention from the dolls toward Chaos. "Why was she crying?"

"Yeah it's very rare that Alpha ever cries or shows emotions in general for that matter." Nymph chimed.

"Hmmm she said it had to do with onii-chan…she told me that she was pining for him but I still don't know what that means." Chaos replied.

"Tomoki…that idiot." Nymph blurted out calmly. She knew that about Ikaros. It was so obvious to everyone around them that Ikaros was madly in love with Tomoki however it seemed like Tomoki was too stupid to notice. Although Nymph did still gave Tomoki the benefit of the doubt since Ikaros had low emotional control and did not show that much emotion. However in those certain moments when it really mattered the most, Ikaros revealed how she truly felt about Tomoki and to Nymph, Tomoki's oblivious behavior was inexcusable.

"He is quite an idiot." Astraea said following Nymph's lead.

Chaos couldn't follow what Nymph and Astraea meant by this mockingly bitter exchange.

"Hey! That's not nice. Onii-chan's not an idiot!" she said out loud to the older Angeloids.

"Well of course he is." Nymph returned. "He doesn't realize that Alpha is in love with him."

"Even I know that!" Astraea giggled.

"Oh so is that what love is!?" Chaos said quite excited.

"Well not exactly but it is close." Nymph pointed.

As they were talking, Ikaros came back into the living room which caused all three Angeloids to go silent in the middle of their conversation.

"What were you all talking about?" asked the pink-haired Angeloid with her deadpan expression.

"Oh well we were just babbling on." Nymph replied.

"Yep nothing going on here." Astraea said in turn.

Chaos was the only Angeloid not to respond to Ikaros' question. The front door to the house soon opened up.

"It wasn't my fault! How was I supposed to know!?"

"Well you were there so you're just as guilty Tomoki!"

"Ughhh you are so impossible!"

Tomoki walked into the living room with Sohara who he had been arguing with for some time before getting back to the house.

"Oh hey Ikaros there you are."

"You were worried master?" asked the pink-haired Angeloid.

"No I just mean you slipped away and I didn't know where you were." Tomoki said.

Nymph sighed and dropped her head in frustration. 'This guy is so oblivious.'

"Oh." Ikaros replied.

Tomoki looking at Ikaros noticed that her tank top was stained wet.

"Hey Ikaros did you spill something on your clothes?" Tomoki asked.

Ikaros, not noticing that her tank top was stained from her tears, quickly responded. "Oh I must have forgotten about that I'll go change." Ikaros then left to go change her clothes.

"O-ookay?" Tomoki said in confusion. "That was somewhat weird."

"Oh you think that was weird?" Sohara pointed out sarcastically.

"I said I was sorry what more do you want!?"

Suddenly there was a knock at the front door and the door began to open.

"Hellooo?" the voice of Mikako the President rang out.

"Does my house look like it is the place for a rave!?" Tomoki shouted out walking to meet Mikako and Eishiro who followed the President.

"Calm down you seem high strung today." Sohara said.

"Tomoki if your house was a place for a rave it would be much bigger." replied Mikako in a semi-insulting tone.

It took Tomoki some strength to bite down his jaw and to keep himself from insulting Mikako. The fact that Mikako seemed to live just to insult him ticked him off to the edge most times. What Tomoki found ironic was that he was the master of Ikaros who was both powerful and fast and who he could order to do anything he wanted and he still never ordered Ikaros to do anything harmful or painful to the President who stood before him. The reality, Tomoki knew was that he was somewhat indebted to Mikako for helping reunite Ikaros and him both on understanding terms. Well by ordering Ikaros to dispose of him in an ocean far away. Which Ikaros kept herself from doing because she became so attached him that when Tomoki broke the imprinting between them Ikaros broke down because she believed that she was being thrown away and that quickly made him realize his stupid way of thinking.

Tomoki, stopping his thoughts, soon returned to the situation at hand. "Well what are you doing here anyway?" he asked.

"Well I wanted to come over here to invite you all to an exclusive trip to the carnival that will be coming tomorrow."

"Carnival? What for?" Sohara asked.

"Oh just one of the most exclusive carnivals that comes to the city."

'Oh great now I know she is going to try to embarrass me in front of all the people at the carnival.' Tomoki thought with dread.

Looking over toward the stairs, Tomoki saw Ikaros descend from the staircase and went over to meet her while Mikako continued to describe the carnival to Sohara and the others.

"Is this okay master?" Ikaros asked as she saw Tomoki coming near her.

"It's fine, but you don't have to keep asking for my opinion. You can do what you want Ikaros." Tomoki replied taking her hand into his and pressing it warmly for a moment.

This caused Ikaros to blush and she began to feel her power reactor beginning to act strange once again.

"Awww well isn't that cute! It looks like Tomoki and Ikaros are having a tender moment together." Mikako said.

This caused Tomoki to quickly go red in the face and he let go of Ikaros' hand. "What! What are you talking about I was just telling her something that was it!"

Ikaros felt disappointed somewhat by her master's initial since she liked when he held her hand.

"Well okay whatever you say!" the President returned with an interested face.

Everybody in the room could see that Tomoki was trying to deny his feelings but it didn't seem to be going the way he wanted it to go.

"Well like I said you're all invited to go to the carnival with me and Eishiro if you want."

"Sure!" was the overall consensus with Tomoki giving a low "okay fine!" in response to Mikako's invitation.

Thus it was decide; tomorrow everyone who be going on a trip to the carnival. This idea was met with mutual excitement by everyone involved except Tomoki. The black-haired boy thought that Mikako was planning on trying to humiliate during the festivities in order to assume herself as she always did. Tomoki reminded himself to keep his guard up around Mikako even when she was trying to be nice.

'Ikaros is somewhat impressible so Mikako might try to use her against me since she has done that before already.' Tomoki thought to himself as he absent-mindedly listened to the president speak. 'If anything tomorrow will tell.'