Heeeyyyyy I'm back! Hope you enjoy this chapter! As always, many thanks to my friend/beta for making sure I don't make any weird mistakes or anything.

"No, mom. Stop it. Dad, what are you doing? Stop it. I want to stay with you. Don't leave me! What are you doing? Stop!"

Mika was dreaming. He was dreaming in the middle of the school day, and Yuu could hear every little cry for help he made. It hurt him, knowing that there was literally nothing he could do to help except comfort Mika afterwards, if Mika let him. Most of the time nowadays, though, Mika just shut him out.

Yuu sighed. There were times he wished he had the power of time travel instead of mind reading, because then, he might be able to go back and help Mika before he came to the orphanage. Maybe he could have gotten Mika away from his parents. It reminded Yuu of the first time he met Mika, eight years ago… Tossed into a memory, Yuu smiled slightly.

It was eight years ago, in the Hyakuya Orphanage. Yuu walked in with a scowl on his face, ignoring everything and everyone around him. He couldn't stand to see their smiling, happy faces, laughing all the time like they had no cares in the world. How could they be so happy? They were all orphans too, they had no families. So how? How could they be so carefree?

Yuu's thoughts abruptly stopped when the Director led him to stand in front of another boy. He was about as tall as Yuu, with curly blond hair and the brightest blue eyes he had ever seen.

(Well, Yuu supposed there could be brighter eyes. He hadn't gotten out that much, after all. Wait, why was he even thinking about that? Useless thoughts.)

"Good morning, Director," said the boy.

"Good morning," said the Director with a smile. Yuu was beginning to like her less and less. "Yuuichirou, this is Mikaela. He's eight, just like you. Mika, take care of Yuu here, okay? Show him around, introduce him to everyone, all that."

"Alright, Director. Hi, Yuu!" exclaimed Mika, grinning like an idiot. "I'm glad you're joining the family!"

"I don't have a family," muttered Yuu. "My family was my parents, and they tried to kill me. How could I possibly have a family after that?"

"You're not alone, Yuu! My parents pushed me out of a moving car, Akane's parents abandoned her,and there are other kids here who were abandoned too! And some of their parents committed suicide!" said Mika, oddly happy about it.But Yuu could hear his thoughts, could hear how Mika was wondering why their parents were like that. What they did wrong.

Yuu humphed and turned away. It was none of his business what this idiot thought about his parents; he didn't care about anyone anymore. It didn't matter that he now knew exactly what to say to make them all feel better about what happened to them- they would just think he was a freak like his parents thought.

Like everyone from his old life thought.

No, he knew better now, and he promised that he would never again be close enough to anybody to let that happen again.

Oh, how wrong he was.

Yuu was jerked out of his memory when he heard Mika whimper in his sleep, and he realized that he was still in his nightmare. Not to mention, about to be caught sleeping by the teacher.

"Oi, Mika," hissed Yuu, shaking him a little and poking his cheeks. There was no response. Trying again, Yuu shook him a little harder this time, and finally, Mika shot upright in his seat. Luckily, no one noticed that Mika had done anything, because the classroom was dark and the teacher was lecturing. Actually, Yuu wasn't sure if the teacher even cared if they fell asleep; he had to have figured it out at some point, right? Literally no one stayed awake in that class.

Yuu figured it wasn't his problem anyway, and in any case, it wasn't like he had never fallen asleep in the class. No, his current problem was helping Mika, who looked like he had seen a ghost.

"Hey, Mika, are you okay?" asked Yuu in the quietest whisper he could manage, putting his hand on Mika's shoulder. "You were dreaming about something."

Mika roughly shook him off. "It's none of your business, Yuu," he muttered. "I'm fine." He turned away from Yuu, paying more attention to the lesson.

Yuu pulled back like a wounded animal. He knew that Mika didn't really mean it, that flashbacks to his parents hurt him like nothing else did, but God, did he have to be such an asshole?

"Yuu, didn't you know? Mika's a complete asshole to everyone but you," thought Shinoa to him. "The ladies love his looks, but hate his personality, and that's why he hasn't had a date in years."

"Of course I knew, Shinoa," thought Yuu. "It's just that this is the first time it's been directed towards me. Kinda hurts, you know."

"God, Yuu, when did you get the Teenage White Girl Protagonist Disease? You're acting like a pussy," thought Shinoa back.

"Sorry to say it, Yuu, but she's right, you know," thought Yoichi, joining the conversation. "You're acting like one of those girls everyone thinks teenage girls are- only thinking about boys."

"What's next, Yuu? Are you going to start calling me in the mornings to ask me if your butt looks big in your jeans? The Kylie Jenner lip challenge? Man up and start thinking about more important things like the meeting yesterday. Now that we've seen Mika, we know what the Brotherhood is planning. The question is what do we do about it? Do we tell Kureto?" thought Shinoa.

"I don't know, to be honest," thought Yuu. "Kureto knows about his connections with the Brotherhood, but I don't think he knows about what Mika is actually doing with Krul. I think he just thinks Mika is some pet to her, just something to give society the image that she's a kind, caring person by adopting an orphan. If Kureto knows about Mika, what if he, I don't know, goes after him or something 'to eliminate another one of the Brotherhood filth'? Because let's be real here, that's exactly the sort of thing he'd do. And he has plans of his own. I don't trust him."

"True," thought Shinoa, sounding amused. "I guess for now, we should just wait and see. And we should discuss this with Kimizuki and Mitsuba later, too. It's too bad they're not mind readers; they miss out on all the gossiping we do during class."

"Gossiping, Shinoa? Now who sounds like the stereotype?" thought Yoichi.

"Me, duh," thought Shinoa sardonically. "In case you haven't noticed, I am in fact a teenage girl."

Yuu smiled and sat back, now only listening to Shinoa sass Yoichi at every turn. It was funny; at one time in his life, he thought he'd be alone forever, in the shadows of society. He was lucky- his life may have been a mess, but he was glad to have such good friends. Even if it meant being called a pussy by Shinoa.

"Wait, Shinoa! You called me a pussy! I'm not a pussy! Fight me, midget!"

Hope you liked it! Come say hi on tumblr at purple-dragon or violaceous-draconic-writings. I love talking to you all, really! On another note, is anyone here also a fan of Tokyo Ghoul? Because I really need to talk to someone other than my one friend who's into it about that last chapter of :Re.

Also, if anyone was wondering, I was imagining them in my biology class through this whole chapter. I'm one of the people who falls asleep every class, but I can't help it! My teacher always keeps the lights off, it's warm in class, and I'm always hungry. It's not good. I honestly don't think he cares if we sleep in class though, or he just doesn't notice. It's weird.

Wow, I really started rambling there, didn't I? Anyway, thanks for reading!