With an annoying beeping noise, I am woken from the realm of my dreams. I groan as I slowly open my eyes to look at the alarm clock on the other side of the room. The red LEDs display the current time, 5:30 AM. With trepidation I pull myself to the side of the bed and start to take off my nightwear. I grab the shirt and shorts I left on the chair the night before and get dressed. After putting on my socks, I waddle to the bathroom, still half asleep. With a splash of cold water, I suddenly feel a lot more active and ready to go.

Arriving in the hallway, there is a short blond girl with twin tails waiting for me, clad in a white shirt and red sporty shorts. "Good morning, Lucas." she says, literally bouncing up and down with an excitable energy. "Hi Emi." I say with some forced enthusiasm in my voice. "I'm not sure how far I can go today. The weekend was pretty rough." I say as I try to rub the stiffness out of my neck. "That's okay, just keep going as long as you can. I'm sure you'll be fine." She replies with a hop and a skip. With a sigh, I start the tracker on my phone and grab my keys. As I unlock the door and step outside, the morning breeze hits my bare arms. "Phew, it's pretty chilly this morning. That's good." I say as I rub my arms for warmth. After a short warm-up, we start running at a slow, but measured speed. My legs feel stiff and tired after the weekend, but I can already feel them loosening up.
"Emi never has that problem." I think to myself as I watch her run gleefully before me. Emi might seem like a normal girl and she is, for the most part. But, as usual, I can't help but let my eyes wander to her legs. Beneath her knees, her skin gives way to a hard, black plastic, taking the shape of an upside-down question mark. Emi has been missing the lower half of her legs as long as I've known her. She doesn't really talk about it and I don't wanna push it.

I start getting into the run and feel myself speeding up. I try to hold back to prevent myself from peaking too early. I manage to keep up with Emi for about 5 kilometres after which I can feel my legs starting to protest and I slow down. "Okay, Emi, you can go ahead, I'm gonna start on my final stretch. Feel free to go on your laps, I'll see you at the usual point." "Okay, see you there." She replies as she starts speeding up and I quickly lose sight of her. I decide to sprint the last part towards our meeting point. As I arrive at the corner of the supermarket, I start my cooling down exercises. After a short while, Emi comes racing around the corner. "Whoa, coming through, watch out." She exclaims as she barrels towards me. I am currently standing on one leg, doing some stretches, unable to avoid her in time. With a loud thud and a yelp of surprise, we bounce off of each other. As I fall on my ass, I grunt in mild discomfort. "Ouch… You okay, Emi?" I ask while trying to get back up. "Oh yeah, I'm good. Sorry about that. Didn't expect you to be standing there exactly." She says rubbing her head and giving me a sheepish grin. "You mean, you didn't know I would be in the spot where I am every time we do these morning runs?" I say as I smile back at her. "It's all good. These things happen. Now, let's get you up and do some stretches before we head home." We spend the rest of our allotted training time doing some stretches and cooling down, before we head back home.

I decide to take a look at my phone. "Wow, 6:15 per kilometre. Not as bad as I was expecting. Not great, but still pretty good." I look over at the girl gently hopping alongside me. "You still doing good? No discomfort or pain?" I ask, knowing the response I'll get. "I'm great! Bet I could race you home!" she says with a big smile on her face. "You go on ahead, my legs probably can't take that much more. I still got work today." I say, wincing slightly as I feel my sore legs. I hand her the keys and watch her speed off. "Dibs on the shower." She calls back as she make her way towards my house. She knows as well as I that she'll be done by the time I get home and ready to shower. I ponder these thoughts as I slowly make my way back.

Once I arrive at the front door, I look behind the large flower pot and see my keys, hastily stashed there. I pick them up and unlock the front door. As I make my way upstairs, I hear something (or someone) rush across the second floor from the bathroom. "It's free." Emi yells as she races to her room, still full of energy. As I come to the top of the stairs, I go to my room and pick up my clothes before heading to the bathroom. The door is ajar, meaning it's currently not in use. I flip the switch and the lights come on. Putting my clothes on the solitary chair sitting in this room, I make my morning rounds. I walk to the first door and give it a knock. "Mooms, you up? It's Monday, you gotta get ready. Stream is set to go live in about three hours." Some muffled noises come from the other side and then a loud THUMP. I hear an affirmative groan, meaning that she is at least awake. "Great. See you at breakfast." I say to the door as I move on to the next room.

This one is Emi's, so I know she is up and ready.
Coming to the room beside Emi's is a door that's been labeled with 'Keep Out' and 'Enter at Your Own Risk' stickers. From behind the door I can hear grunting and the sound of fists on wood. "Hey Maki, you keeping an eye on the clock, breakfast is in 30." I say, trying to get her attention. "... noted." A curt voice replies.
Having gotten those two ready, I head back toward the bathroom.

I lock the door and get ready for my shower. Standing underneath the cascade of warm water, I can feel the fatigue of the weekend and this morning wash away. My legs untense as the warm water flows over them. Running in the morning can be really tough, but this ffeling always makes it worth it.
After a few minutes, I decide I am clean and I turn off the water. I grab the towel I prepared and dry myself off. After that, I get dressed in my daily clothing and unlock the bathroom. On my way back to my room, sports clothing in hand, I see the door next to mine open and a girl with short, turquoise hair walks out. "Good.. morning..." She says, rubbing her left eye with one hand. "Good morning, Fuuka. Sleep well?" I reply cheerfully, always happy to see her. "Yeah, I slept great." She says, suppressing a yawn. She stops for a moment and sniffs the air around us. "Is Nia making breakfast today? It smells really good." She says with a dreamy expression. "I believe so." I say, coming back from the laundry room. "I'm gonna go downstairs and set the table, you coming?" "Yes, I'd love to." She says as we head downstairs together

As we go downstairs, the little hallway we find ourselves in smells delicious. We make our way to the kitchen and there stands a girl in an apron working away at several pans with all sort of delicious food. The smell is enough to make my mouth water. "Wow, now that's a good morning. Hi Nia. You got off to a good start I see." I say as Fuuka and I enter the kitchen. "Well, a new week deserves a right proper start, don'tcha think?" She says confidently, her small cat ears wiggling at the sound of my voice. "Why don't you make yeselfs useful and set that there table so we can all have a good bite together?" I simply smile and reply. "Yes, ma'am." Fuuka and I head to the backroom where we have the dining table set up and grab ourselves plates, glasses, cutlery and some coasters for the pans. I also bring in a jug of milk from the kitchen and Fuuka gets handed a pot of tea that Nia had been brewing.

All in all, it's looking to be another great morning.