Frankie was still stuck in a daze, he was hyperventilating as he slowly fell to the floor.

"Have I been working too much…? What-what is this…?!" He thought to himself as the woman approached him.

"Sir? Are you alright? You look confused." She asked, squatting down to his level.

"Confused? Yeah-yeah sure, let's go with that…" He responded, still breathing heavily, making a lame attempt to back away from the mysterious girl, only to be stopped by the wall.

"Oh… I'm so terribly sorry! I didn't mean to startle you, it's just… well… this is common procedure for us, and, well- oh… look at me! Running my mouth off to someone who knows better, ack! You'll have to forgive me… it's been far too long since I've last been awakened and I just-"

"Wait-wait, stop, STOP!" Frankie hollered, causing Pyra to rocket back up into an upwards stance while he himself slowly stood back up. "Let's… let's take this… one… step at a time…" he said, at last catching his breath. When he stood up straight, he had a chance to see her at her full height. Exactly the same as he was. That just raised further questions, as if he didn't have a million right off the bat. "So… your name… is Pyra?" He asked.

"Y-yeah… that's right, um… who-who am I speaking with? Besides my new driver, of course! I already know that!" Pyra chuckled awkwardly as she stepped back a bit, allowing Frankie to breathe more easily now and to give her an answer.

"F-Frank, my-my friends call me Frankie…" he said.

"Frank? Hm…" Pyra tilted her head curiously to examine the portly man while he continued to stay pressed up against the wall.

"Is… everything okay?"

"Hm? Oh, no, no, no, everything's fine! Sorry… I guess I'm a little confused and a bit concerned myself; if you don't mind me asking… where… is… this?"

"…Los Angeles…" he blankly said.

"Los Angeles? That's an exotic language, can't say I've ever heard of that place before… I didn't expect it to be quite so dark in here, but… oh! All these devices! You're a very advanced civilization!"

"Civilization…?" Frankie watched as Pyra examined the computer monitors and keyboards closely, the longer she stayed, the more confused he became.

"I've never seen anything of this caliber before. What do you use these strange boxes for? Are they for communication purposes?"

"Well… in a matter of speaking…"

"I see… fascinating…" There was a few seconds of silence as Pyra continue to stare quizzically at one of the computers, prompting Frankie to force yet another question out of his mouth.

"S-so… are you a genie of some kind or something?"

"A genie? Of course not! I've already said before, I'm a blade! But then you would know that already, seeing as how you're my driver and all, ick… there I go again…"

"A blade? You look like a normal old lady to me…"

"'Old?!' Now that's rude! I'm only 500 years old! Give or take a few decades, as I said, it's been a while since I was last awakened! I had a dream where I married a dinosaur… and the less said about that, the better!"

Frankie didn't know whether to label this woman as crazy or just lost, though she seemed pleasant enough, if a bit ditzy, though the whole blade and driver nonsense was still foreign to him. He was about to offer her some assistance in leaving, as his time to punch out was nearing, when he noticed something.

"My cross!" He exclaimed, darting back over to his work desk. "It's gone! What happened to it?! Nonononono… oh Kaito I'm so sorry… no, what am I gonna do? That was so special, it helped me so much today!" Frankie started hyperventilating again as he rummaged through the mess of papers and pens littering his workspace.

"Pardon me, Mr. Frankie…" Pyra offered, tapping him on the shoulder to get his attention, "But you wouldn't happen to be referring to this, would you?" She gestured to her chest where a bright gleaming crystal nested itself right in the middle of her person… shaped exactly like the cross Kaito gave him.

"W-wha…? What is…"

"It's my core crystal. Don't you know? I would've expected someone of your caliber to have at least heard of blades before." Frankie didn't respond, just continued to dart his eyes up and down at her figure, just as confused as he was when she first appeared to him. "Oh… I guess you don't know." She sheepishly mumbled.

"No… I don't… you-you mentioned blades and drivers several times before… what are those?" Frankie asked.

"Well… in short, as my driver, you guide me along the field of battle while I, as your blade, share a bond with you and use that bond to strengthen our attacks in the war field, perhaps even come up with entirely new attacks with all sorts of elemental properties!"

"War field?" Frankie parroted. "Well, sorry to disappoint, but I'm not exactly trained for that kind of thing, I took Tae Kwon Do in High School once but that's about it, even then, there's only a few things I do remember, mainly for the SOLE purpose of self defense."

"You-you're not a soldier of any kind?"

"No. Just a database designer trying to work his way up in the field, some day I'll be working for the FBI, cracking the code on all sorts of cyber attacks! Stopping them before they even have a chance to strike! Or… you know… letting people actually surf the web in peace would be nice to."

"I… haven't a clue what any of that means."

"Hah… right… sorry about that…"

"Oh, it's perfectly fine! Sometimes I forget to catch myself on my own tangents… as you just saw…" Pyra chuckled sheepishly.

"Okay, look, it's quitting time for me, and, well, I don't exactly want to leave you here all by yourself, and it's getting late, so I'll take you home and… I'll try to see what we can do about trying to find you a place to live, I don't exactly have the budget for two people in one household…"

"Oh, yes... about that… I've already said before that you and I have a bond, so… it'd be a little hard staying separate from each other for long periods of time. Should a month pass without being by your side in any capacity, I'll return to my core crystal, and the cycle will repeat all over again."

"Oh… I see… well… we can talk more about this in the morning, for now, let's go back home."

"Of course! Lead the way, driver of mine!" Pyra and Frankie walked side by side out the establishment as Frankie clocked out, much to her amazement, he did have to admit, there was something mighty charming about her, it brought out a chuckle from him every so often and now was no exception. And that's when he saw the security camera up above waving back and forth.

"Oh boy… the cameras are gonna have a field day with this one…" he sighed as he and Pyra left the building at last.

—————————————————————————

It was a fair drive home, Frankie lived an hour or so away from his job, so it was the same old sort of night for him. He worried that Pyra would start messing around with all the buttons in his car, as she was already taken aback by the "metallic beetle husk on wheels" as she called it when she first laid eyes on it, but to his relief, and amusement, all she did was stare at all the wonderful lights that illuminated the city. He couldn't quite tell if she was scared or in awe, but from what he could gather from her reflection, she was at least enjoying herself.

Finally they had reached Frankie's humble home, a simple little house tucked away in the corner of the city.

"Here we are. It's not much, but it's nice and cozy… barring Summer months of course… still need to upgrade that unit…"

"Aww, it's a nice little place, you shouldn't sell yourself short on it at all, it looks like a good place to raise a family in, at least." Pyra said as she looked around the yard.

"Try two. My grandpa had this place built when my mom was little. She was raised here, and so was I, then they all either flew the coop or… went home… so to speak." Pyra looked at him sympathetically before she raised her head towards the sky.

"You mean… up there…?" She asked. Frankie sighed heavily in response.

"Yeah…" he admitted.

"Hah… I may not know a lot of things about this strange new world I've awakened in, but I know a man of faith when I see one." She teased innocently. Frankie's downtrodden frown changed to a slight smile as he went to unlock the door, allowing Pyra to enter first.

"This is only the dining room. The living room is right there, I'll show you to a bedroom." Frankie introduced her to what used to be his mother's room when she was a kid. "Sorry if it's a bit too stuffy in here, but then, I didn't expect company."

"Oh, no, Mr. Frankie, it's perfect, nice, cool, and most of all…" Pyra sat on the edge of the bed to get a feel of its consistency before looking back up at him, "cozy."

"Well… it's all yours, Pyra, I'm gonna go take a shower now. You make yourself at home, okay?"

"Of course, thank you, Mr. Frankie, I appreciate it a lot, truly… good night." She said as she crawled underneath the covers. Frankie smiled in satisfaction before leaving her to rest peacefully, quickly turning around as a thought crossed his mind.

"Wait, don't you want to get into some pajamas?!" No response. "Pyra?" She was out cold, he could see her breath deeply under the covers, only her head sticking out, resting soothingly on the big fluffy pillow it laid on. Guess it didn't matter to her. He left to go get himself ready for bed, but what he couldn't see was the big content smile plastered on her face as she hugged her pillow tightly… slowly entering dream land.

—————————————————————————

12:00 AM. Thank goodness tomorrow was the weekend. Frankie crawled himself into his own bed, bringing out his phone immediately to try and find something to lull him to sleep. At least, he would if this was any normal night. He opened up his messages and immediately started texting Kaito.

"Baby bro?"

"Big bro?"

"Did you decide on a restaurant yet?"

"Miko says if she doesn't hear an answer by the time we get up tomorrow she's picking for herself."

That was a decision he hadn't made yet. He would have to include Pyra, but he'd be the one paying for her, he decided. But then what would she enjoy? She certainly didn't seem like the kind of girl who liked big heavy meals and definitely not anything drowning in peanut oil and breadcrumbs. Better keep it on the lighter side just to be sure.

"Sushi?"

"Great! We're there!"

"I'll let Miko know in the morning."

"Thank you baby bro"

"…hey Kaito?"

"Yes, Frankie?"

"I… have a visitor…"

"Oh… so you finally found yourself a partner?"

"That's great!"

"Can we see him or her tomorrow?"

"No, it's not anything like that, she's just… interesting."

"Interesting how?"

"If I told you, you'd think I was crazy"

"Awww, it's okay big bro, I can take a lot."

"No, trust me."

"You'll have to see her for yourself."

"Well, either way, I can't wait"

"Get yourself some rest, big bro."

"We're gonna celebrate your birthday in style."

"Goodnight big bro. I love you."

"Gn baby bro. I love you more."

Frankie at last set his phone down and just stared up at the ceiling in disbelief. Would he wake up the next day and just find her gone? His cross back at work? Well, all of that would have to wait. It was bedtime now, and just like Pyra in the other room, fell fast asleep as the cool air enveloped him in a wistful cocoon.