If this was happiness, then Hayato really didn't want to give it up. For the first time in his life since his full heritage became known there was someone who didn't shy away from him the moment they found out his head wasn't fully attached to his shoulders.

And then Honoka brought out the same brush he had seen before, but never really got to experience. Not even the school groomers would go near him the second they learned he was half Inugami.

He would never admit to positively melting under that brush, but that was what happened. He turned into a happy puddle of goo under her hands.

So he was quite unhappy when the teacher finally found out she was still a first year and thus not supposed to be in the class. Either that or he was finally clued into who the dragon actually belonged to.

"I guess this is goodbye, huh?" he said disappointed.

Summoned familiars were only allowed to stay in the human realms for three years without a master and he was rapidly running out of time. Soon he'd have to return to his father's realms and be miserable until he was summoned again. As if he would be that lucky.

He was not looking forward to seeing his sister again. Bianchi specialized in poison attacks, and because of his heritage the pack hadn't seen any issue with him being her test dummy. He still couldn't stand to be anywhere near her.

"Why?"

"I only have two more terms left before I have to return," said Hayato unhappily. "If I had a master then it would be a different story, but I've been here so long that the odds of finding one before the time limit is up are next to zero. It was a miracle someone managed to summon me the first time, even if he broke the contract the second he found out I wasn't a full hell hound."

Honoka looked thoughtful.

"You can still hang out with me until the time limit is up, right?"

Hayato blinked, before he grinned a little at that.

"Yeah, nothing in the rules keeps us from being friends," he said.

She was the only person who wasn't afraid of him and actually wanted to spend time with him.

In the dorm room...

"Hypothetically if a summoner wanted to keep a familiar without having to perform a new summons and wanted to make a contract with a demon that's already here, would that be against school rules?" asked Honoka to Hibari.

He didn't even look at her.

"You want to make a contract with the puppy."

She didn't say anything, he could see it in her eyes.

"School policy states that new students are not allowed to summon demons of either type for at least one year. However exceptions are made if a summoner and demon 'click' and are compatible enough that the demon will follow orders until a proper contract can be made between them. The demon can also file for an extension if necessary until the summoner has a high enough level to be able to sustain them."

"So if I were to try and make a basic contract with Hayato that would let him stay here as my familiar..."

"You would need to find a jewel compatible with his magic. If he accepts the binding, then he would be considered your familiar for as long as the contract is in place, though the odds of finding one that would suit his unstable nature are very low," he informed her flatly.

Honoka nodded, accepting his warning. She still had a couple of months before the deadline.

What had been a few short months before the deadline quickly became a scant handful of days. She had not been idle, but she still hadn't found any gems that called to her, singing in the same song as Hayato's fire.

She had just about given up hope...until her hand snagged a gem that sang. It was a Rubellite Tourmaline, though it had a few flaws that made it worthless as jewelry. There were several microscopic cracks in the gem, too small to be seen by the naked eye.

But for a jewel summoner, she could still feel them. With some time and a lot of love, those cracks could be fixed and filled with power waiting to be unleashed.

Honoka didn't even think twice. She picked up the odd gem and paid for it with her limited spending money. It was easily the most unique jewel she had, save for one other that she couldn't exactly wear yet. Mostly because she still had no idea what happened to the one who had given it to her.

Hayato looked at the odd jewel in his hands with an unreadable expression.

"What's this?"

"A flawed Rubellite Tourmaline. It seemed to suit you when I found it. Try pushing some of your power into it."

Hayato channeled just a little bit of his special hellfire into it, unwilling to damage the tiny gem with the almost acidic nature of it.

The gem absorbed it almost greedily, and to his fascination it began to glow from an internal flame. That internal light didn't dim even when he cut off the flow.

Honoka beamed at him.

"I knew it would suit you!" she said happily.

"Suit me?" he repeated.

"I know your time at the Academy is almost at an end because you haven't got a master. Hibari told me it wasn't again the rules to make a contract with a pre-summoned demon so long as you're compatible. It's why I haven't been able to hang out that much with you... I was trying to find a jewel that would be able to handle your fire magic without breaking."

Hayato was staring at her, eyes wide and in shock.

"You want to make a contract...with me?" he said slowly, not willing to believe what he was hearing.

"I'll understand if you don't want to, but you're one of the few actual friends I have here and it seems ridiculous to make you return to a place you feel you aren't wanted."

Hayato's face was shaded by his hair, as he began to shake. Honoka panicked.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to offend you!" she said quickly.

Fon decided to speak up.

"He's not upset with you, little kitten. If anything I think he's crying because someone actually wants him for the right reasons and genuinely cares about him," said Fon from on her bed.

Honoka had her arms around Hayato, who really was crying. The way he wrapped his arms around her side in an almost painful tightness was a pretty big indicator how he felt about her offer. No one had ever wanted him because they really cared about him after all.

She let him get it out, while threading her fingers through his silver hair.

Once he had let most of the shock out, he looked at her with a sense of hope he hadn't had in a long time.

"Are you serious about making a contract with me?" he asked.

"I wouldn't have spent several weeks worth of searching for a gem that would fit you if I wasn't," said Honoka. "The only thing is that I have no idea how one forms a familiar contract with an already summoned demon, since I wasn't really paying attention when the teacher dragged me into class."

Fon flew to her shoulders and preened when she rubbed his head.

"I can help with that. I know the basics, but to start with you'll need to write up a formal contract in the language of demons...mostly so the school is aware that you have at least learned proper protocol."

It took them several hours, and enough grammatical mistakes to make a senior summoner cringe at trying to make sense of the document, but eventually they had a working contract.

Honoka had to talk Hayato out of several clauses and conditions. She wanted him because they were friends, not because she wanted a servant or a slave. There were even a few loopholes that Hayato could easily exploit if he felt she wasn't being a good summoner to leave without causing a backlash from a broken contract.

(Considering almost unholy amount of devotion coming off the hybrid, Fon highly doubted the canine would ever use them.)

After that came the actual binding.

It was simple enough... the two had to fill the gem with their power until the binding ritual either snapped into place and the contract was accepted, or it fell through entirely. Usually resulting in the gem breaking or exploding.

Fon made sure to monitor the entire thing closely. Mostly because with how unstable Hayato's natural magic was, the contract could very easily fall through.

So he was quite surprised when it not only fell into place naturally, but that he couldn't sense any instability that was inherent in the bond. It took him a moment to realize Honoka's magic was naturally acting as a stabilizing catalyst that leveled out Hayato's own magic.

That was rare enough to perk his interest. But not as much as what he felt from her bond.

"Little kitten, why do you already have an active familiar contract on you?"

"What?"

"I can sense a second, older contract on your magic. Though it seems to have been damaged by something. Your records said nothing about you already having a contract already."

With how old the contract was, she would have been a child when it was formed. Such a thing could be either good or bad, considering most children had trouble regulating their powers. A demon could very easily drain a child if they managed to trick them into a bond.

Honoka looked baffled at that, before a thought occurred to her. She pulled out an odd orange-colored gem that had the shape of a lion cub's head with an odd armor. The gem sparkled with internal light, though it was rather dim at the moment. A clear sign that something had damaged the contract or more likely the familiar.

"Where did you get that?"

"Natsu gave it to me a few years ago. He went missing two weeks before I was due to start the school and I haven't seen him since. It thought he went home, since he probably thought he wasn't needed anymore," admitted Honoka. That had hurt, but she had accepted it.

Fon examined the gem.

"From what I can sense it was more likely he picked a fight with something much stronger than he was at the time and is currently in recovery. Though I would advise against summoning him through your contract until the light is much brighter, or until I find out where this cub came from. Demons aren't supposed to contract with summoners under thirteen for a very good reason, and this one is old enough that you would have been very young."

"I found him when I was twelve. Mama was just happy I had a pet, especially since none of the summoners who came to stay at the inn claimed him after a few months."

"Most would have sensed the active contract and not said anything," said Fon. "Still the fact he bonded to you so young is very concerning."

Enough so that he would definitely have to take time out to track down where the cat came from and what the intentions were behind it.

Not right away though, the light was dim enough that the lion could do no actual harm to the little kitten for a few months at least. Enough time to let the bond between Hayato and Honoka settle properly.

Some time later

The news that Hayato had managed to find someone "stupid" enough to make a contract with the hybrid spread like wildfire, especially among the demons. The humans were easily cowed by the dog's glare and the fact he could blow them up without leaving much of a trace.

Honoka had been passing by when she heard the demonic hounds start in on Hayato. Most of them were being quite cruel towards the hybrid.

Hayato bore it all with a snarl on his face and grit teeth. He didn't want to jeopardize his new contract.

So he was very shocked to feel warm arms around where his neck would be, and the comforting feel of his new master against him.

"Hayato, are these little yapper mutts bothering you?" she asked calmly.

"What did you call us bitch?!"

"A yapper dog. You know, one of those specially bred dogs that are more for show than anything that act as pampered little lap dogs with a tiny bark and tinier... well you get my drift. The kind of useless dogs that are generally owned by useless females who prefer to have an adorable little puppy rather than a real dog," said Honoka with an innocent look.

Hayato, once he realized what she was comparing some of his worst tormentors to, had to fight back his laughter.

He had seen some of those little dogs that were more like walking puffballs than real dogs, and a 'yapper dog' was a perfect way to describe them. They were all bark and no bite and easily taken out by a real dog, though they had more attitude because of it.

It made ignoring the insults they threw at him that much easier, because what she called them was far worse.

Mission accomplished, Hayato happily followed his master away from the fuming mutts that had tried to get a rise out of them. He didn't think he'd ever get that image out of his head now, not that he cared to. It made looking down on them easier.

"Now you know my trick to ignoring what the other looser girls say about me behind my back. It's so much easier to forget their comments when you compare them to those useless pampered puppies."

"Best. Master. Ever," grinned Hayato, and something loosened in his chest.

"So how is the bond settling?" asked Honoka, changing the subject.

"Its... different. Not in a bad way, but more like something is finally calming down in me," said Hayato after a moment. Once he knew what to look for, every time he felt the darkness in his soul that came from his Inugami blood would calm down once it came into contact with Honoka's magic. It was like there was something about it that managed to soothe and settle something in his soul. Almost like a spiritual glue that was slowly seeping into the cracks and making him whole in a way that was hard to describe. All he knew was that without fail every time he looked at the flawed gem Honoka had found to bind him to her, he could see it slowly beginning to take another shape while glowing from internal fires.

From the looks of things, the gem was possibly going to be the shape of his head in his true form. Or just a canine in general.