Reiko's words had done well in silencing Yuta - Amaya barely heard a peep out of him for the whole time, even as Reiko eventually bid herself farewell with a remark of 'I will see you at school' much like the final word on the matter.

A final remark that they were continuing this talk once Yuta had some time to think on what had just been said.

It appeared, that things were going to be left as they were just now. Any more words may be wasted, when the situation had already given plenty to think about.

That was probably Reiko's reasonings for stopping her talk with Yuta when she had.

The tension in the air was uncomfortable, probably the most for Amaya who was struggling with the reality that Karma had turned up just in time to hear the bulk of what Reiko had said in the end.

It was so hard for her to accept, she couldn't even look him in the eye anymore.

After an agonizing stretch of time, they'd ended up back at Amaya's apartment, though Karma seemed to have disappeared somewhere along the way.

Amaya vaguely recalled that they'd bid a concerned Isogai farewell, and then the rest was just the city bustle.

Karma could have disappeared at any time the moment they'd left Isogai's house, and Amaya wouldn't have known.

In fact, it was likely he would have done that.

They'd picked up something for dinner that could just be reheated easily, something that Reiko could do regardless of whether Amaya was awake or not.

And then after the exhausting struggle removing clothes and swelling bandages for a shower, Amaya had ended up curling up on one of the couches in as comfortable a position as she could manage.

She tumbled down into a dreamless sleep, something she desperately needed right now.

There was no space for even her memories to return to haunt her, even in the slightest.

There were stories about the origins of dreams one would have in their sleep.

In some stories, they were whispered wishes the human heart made to the subconscious, in the hope that realizing it would bring the dream closer to reality. In others, it was a reflection of the weaknesses that the human soul still held.

In Amaya's case, it was always her subconscious trying to remind her of things she desperately wanted to forget.

She honestly doubted she would ever truly experience one of these true dreams that everyone apparently had.

Not while her subconscious was so hell bent on making her suffer, in any case.

Though, like most things, she couldn't stay asleep forever.

And in spite of her attempts at staying in the darkness of slumber, the faint sounds of a familiar ringing was the call that drew her back to the world of consciousness.

The sun was shining when she'd slowly opened her eyes, bright enough to cause her to wince at the glare it cast through the window just a few meters away. Koro-sensei's collision print was still there, and would of course be there still until either enough dust stuck to the window to cover it up again, or the building finally got around to calling in a contractor to clean them.

Physically, she felt much better than yesterday, and her injuries weren't as unbearable to deal with.

Though her heart still felt heavy, and her mind was horribly sluggish.

She could hear spoken words from somewhere in the room, although she was too wracked with sleep to recognize them straight away. She hadn't noticed that the ringing had stopped, either.

She lifted a hand to gently rub it over her eyes in an attempt at ridding herself of the sleep.

The faint sounds of electronic tunes, that which belonged to an electronic game came to her notice next. She couldn't pinpoint where it was coming from, however.

For an apartment that only had Amaya and Reiko inside, it was strangely noisy.

And so she forced herself to open her eyes to take in her surroundings.

She found herself to still be lying on the couch, just as she last remembered, though a thin blanket from her bed had been placed over her since then. It appeared to be sometime after nine in the morning - The light was bright, and there was already quite a bit of warmth to the air.

It didn't take Amaya too long to identify where the electronic music was coming from however - Reiko was perched up at the kitchen counter, clacking away at her 3DS without any real care for her surroundings.

Other than that, everything was as she believed to be normal.

Her body ached as she forced herself to move, as if suddenly becoming pained would formulate the protests articulately - She did her best to ignore it all the same as she tried to pull herself into an upright position.

And then a voice spoke up, startling the living daylights out of her.

'Heh? Are you finally awake, Neko-chan?' Karma's drawling voice shocked the last of the sleep right out of her system, and she halted in her attempts at righting herself as she turned her head in response to his voice.

She found him sitting on the other couch, seeming to be fiddling with his phone for the most part - He had lifted his gaze to shoot her a smirk through.

'Okay...?' She responded, but disregarded his remark all the same as she managed to pull herself upright, albeit with a bit of pain and difficulty. She was very quick to avert her gaze as she recalled the events that took place yesterday.

She'd heard Reiko sing a small greeting, though it appeared the girl was refraining from making sudden movements or lunging hugs towards Amaya, which was a small blessing when taking yesterday into consideration.

Though it was as she'd managed to lean against the back of the chair when she'd come to a sudden thought.

'How long have you been here anyway?' Amaya mumbled, resuming the task of rubbing sleep out of her eyes.

For some reason, the smirk he wore made her a little apprehensive.

'Long enough.' Was his simple reply.

Nothing more, nothing less it seemed.

She almost wondered just how long that was, but of course, he always chose his wording for reasons. Either to draw her into one of his taunting jokes, or because he didn't feel like giving her a proper answer - It was usually the former, though.

There really wasn't any point in questioning him further about it, unless she wanted her patience to be thoroughly worn.

Though, there was something about how he was just sitting there minding his own business that prodded at her - Uncomfortably so.

It might just be a case of paranoia, but she was getting rather nervous about the whole thing.

Because he always took the opportunity to torment her, regardless of whether she was in a legitimately bad mood or actually feeling off-colour.

It was suspicious - Incredibly so.

Gnawing on the inside of her bottom lip out of tendencies long since become habit, Amaya made a point of wrapping the blanket around herself and rising to her feet. She didn't know why, but she was getting a very, very bad feeling about this.

As she made her careful, slightly unstable way to her bedroom, she could feel an amused gaze upon her back.

There was definitely something up.

Though, there was no sign of response as Amaya had begun to make her way to her room, strangely enough.

The paranoia was beginning to drive her insane now that she was convinced the evil had some kind of mischief in mind, and all she could do was reason with herself that she would be safer in a proper change of clothes, at the very least.

Her usual outfit for sleep was dangerous to stay in, especially if there was mischief about.

The faint sounds of snickering came to her notice as she'd shut the door behind her, a dead giveaway of the evil boy's amusement with her obvious descent into paranoia.

Though it vanished from her thoughts for just a moment as she took in the condition of her bedroom.

Apart from the items on her desk being untouched, Amaya found herself staring at a room that had obviously undergone a bit of a change since she'd last stepped inside. Her wash-basket was missing, a single set of jeans and blue button-up shirt and white tank top discarded onto her bed, and her closet was left open for a very, very obvious reason.

Almost all of her clothes had been removed, leaving just a dusty plum coloured sun dress and a chocolate brown bolero - Items that she recalled Reiko to have forced her to pick out that shopping trip a couple months ago.

Someone had ransacked her room of all her usual clothes to force her to wear the jeans and shirt discarded onto her bed, and despite her immediate response was to vent her agitation on her usual tormentor, she had a feeling this one was Reiko's doing.

This wasn't the first time Reiko had tried to force her to wear something against her will, after all - If Amaya refused at first, the girl would resort to sabotaging all her other clothes to the point of being unwearable.

But why the hell was it a button-up blue shirt and a pair of jeans, this time?

Amaya felt her confusion was more than justified, though she let out a breath as she wandered over to her desk.

'...I see how this is.' She muttered under her breath.

Well, it was obvious there was a reason for those clothes in particular, and the sun dress was obviously a means to trick her into deeming that the jeans and shirt were a better choice.

Amaya didn't bite at Reiko's attempted baiting - If she hadn't had this happen before, she would go the sun-dress just to spite her.

But of course this had, so Amaya just fished her stashed pair of denim shorts and black tank-top from the very back of the drawer in her desk.

The very second Amaya re-emerged with her blanket around her again, she noticed that Reiko had suddenly cut a comment to Karma short in preference of looking at her.

She seemed to pout quite dramatically at the lack of jeans and blue shirt, almost as if it punctured a hole in her plans.

'Amaaaay!' Reiko whined as she flung herself off of her seat at the counter, discarding her 3DS as she made her way right up to Amaya standing the hallway entrance. 'Where did you find those?!'

'Where do you think?' Amaya couldn't help but reply with sarcasm.

She immediately regretted her decision as Reiko grabbed two handfuls of her top and blankets, and proceeded to shake her slightly, causing her injuries to ache.

'Amaaay! Go back and put the other clothes on!'

'No - And stop that!' Amaya responded as she pried Reiko's hands off of her.

'But-'

'No!' Amaya responded.

All the while, Karma just sat there without saying a word, a smirk written clear across his face as he watched Reiko retreat from Amaya to brood.

Yes, there was definitely something up, and she had a feeling she was going to find out exactly what was going on, sooner or later.

None the less, Amaya let out a breath as she made her way back to the couch she had been asleep upon, her eyes immediately scanning the room for her phone.

She realized as she was getting dressed that she was missing the device, and she probably should call Shigure to let him know what was going on.

Though she couldn't see it, and it certainly wasn't in her room.

'Amay!' Reiko suddenly spoke up from right behind her, startling Amaya out of her train of thought.

However she didn't have an opportunity to respond to Reiko's sudden call - All of a sudden, the moment she'd managed to turn her head to look at the girl, she threw the strangely coloured contents of a large metal bowl over Amaya, drenching her from the shoulders down as well as the carpeted floor in what felt like water.

Though the fruity scent told Amaya exactly what it was.

Red Cordial.

Amaya guessed she must have looked rather dumbfounded by Reiko's sudden attack with flavored water, because all of a sudden Karma started snickering over where he was, and Reiko cast her a victorious smirk.

'I'm so sorry, Amay!' She sung out in mock apology, rolling back and forth on the balls of her feet as Amaya stared down at her. 'I got your clothes all dirty!'

Amaya was silent at first, though inwardly she was very, very annoyed.

Before Reiko could even react, Amaya had dropped the blanket in preference for dragging Reiko into a hug.

'That's alright, I can share~.' Amaya forced out, forcing a drawling tone into her voice.

And in immediate response to the horrified shriek Reiko let loose as cordial soaked into her clothes as well, Karma started laughing.

'Wh-what are you doing?!' Reiko shrieked as she managed to squirm out of Amaya's grip.

'Just returning the favor.' Amaya responded with a sigh, leaning over to grab her blanket before retreating back to her room. 'You're the one who's going to clean that up, don't forget!'

'WHAT!? But why?!' Reiko whined, though Amaya had already retrieved the dress and bolero plus other necessary items and locked herself in the bathroom.

Amaya thought the answer was rather obvious, so she didn't bother to respond.

After rinsing off all the cordial, Amaya retreated from the bathroom in the dress and bolero with her ruined clothes in hand, as well as the drenched blanket, her narrowed gaze tracing the living room quickly for any sign of her phone.

Reiko was elsewhere, likely sulking after her plan didn't end up the way she'd intended, and Karma was still on the other couch.

Such a lazy person he was - He was obviously just enjoying the mayhem that he wasn't causing for once.

Or maybe he was the cause of it, but indirectly?

'What's with that look, Neko-chan?' He drawled out at the sight of her, his smirk clear in his tone of voice. 'You look like someone threw you in a lake.'

She didn't overlook the taunting word he used to refer to her as, and even worse the water remark.

If possible, her expression grew even more sour, drawing a snicker from him in response.

However, she found herself becoming more irritated with other things, as well.

The more she searched for her phone, the more she found that her whole apartment had been tampered with - drawers got rearranged, other items that were always in specific places swapped around, and what was worse was that it was done in a very obvious show as to who had tampered with everything.

The one red-haired bastard who was so at home here that he was just lounging on the couch without a care in the world.

'You know, you should probably wear dresses more often.' Karma remarked without a care in the world, looking up at Amaya with a sly grin as she checked over at the kitchen counter for her phone for what was probably the tenth time in just as many minutes.

'Why's that?' Amaya responded in bitter question.

If possible, she actually felt the sly look he was giving her sharpen in mischief, and it sent a chill down her spine.

'I'd remember more often that you're really a girl if you actually look like one.' He taunted obviously.

It was a very obvious taunt, a prod at her, but of course like the last time he'd made such a remark, it insulted her instead of riled her up.

In fact, it didn't just insult her - The remark actually hurt.

However she kept her silence, biting her lip as she refused to even look at him.

Why did he have to say it like that?

Hell, why did he have to pick that as a means of tormenting her?

'Looking for this?' He spoke up after a rather long stretch of silence from Amaya, a knowing tone in his voice as he lifted himself off of the couch.

She didn't look up at him, though she turned her head to look at what he held out to her.

Her agitation grew even more as she found he'd had her phone this whole time.

Without hesitation, she grabbed it from his grip and headed for the door with her soaked items in arm.

'How cold~' Karma complained, a tone of mock hurt in his voice as he wandered after her. 'Not even a small thank you?'

Silence was all that met his response as Amaya tugged on her laceless boots.

He was just baiting her with those remarks, after all.

So without waiting for him to say anything else, she left and shut the door behind her with a small bang.

She felt it should be rather obvious as to where she was going with an arm-full of material that had been drenched in red cordial.

And she needed space to not only reign her agitation back in, but also to check in with Shigure.

He'd want to know what's been going on, of course - He might even have some idea on what she could do in connection with Yuta and his current accommodation.

Amaya couldn't keep putting Isogai and his family through so much trouble, after all.

Her fingers traced familiar patterns over the screen of her phone as she stood inside the elevator, leaning back against the wall as she brought up her phone-book.

Everything was the same, as it always was, however there were new entries she found in her phone as she'd selected Shigure's number from the list of contacts inside.

There were two entries, both incoming calls, though one for just before midnight last night and one that morning in particular.

Both incoming, and both were taken...

Most strange still was the fact that the one at midnight apparently lasted for 73 minutes.

She didn't like the look of that - not one bit.

She'd been passed out on the couch for the whole time

And she knew for a fact that Reiko would never answer someone elses phone without permission - She herself got angry whenever someone would merely touch hers, let alone if anyone went through its contents.

Of course, it didn't take her very long to piece it all together, and by the time all the jumbled pieces inside her head had joined the pieces her phone had revealed, she had tossed her washing into one of the coin operated machines in the bottom floor of the building and perched herself on one of the benches.

A certain jerk had said he'd been in the apartment for 'long enough', and he was the sort to go and answer someone elses phone if he had reason to.

And for him, if he was remotely curious or in a tormenting mood, that was all the reason he needed to do it to her right away, regardless of whether she was right there or not.

Therefore, it stood to reason that he would have answered her phone.

And considering that the first of two calls went on for over an hour, it was clear that things had been discussed.

What certain things they were, Amaya would probably never know.

She found herself suddenly apprehensive about calling Shigure, though she forced herself to press 'dial' and pressed the speaker to her ear.

It felt like she'd failed in keeping her connection to Shigure secret, even though in this case it really wasn't her fault.

The phone rung, attempting to connect but the seconds ticked over with no response in sight.

Was Shigure busy, or something?

Amaya had never really thought too much on what he did now that he was in Tokyo on leave - He never implied that he did anything else, and he was always at that huge house whenever she went there, announced or not.

After what felt like minutes, Amaya hung up and pocketed her phone again.

It felt wrong on so many levels to wind up realizing that she didn't know very much about Shigure, but out of the few time she had asked, he'd always remarked that he wouldn't give her very much information.

He always maintained that he couldn't say much, because his word required it.

And because she didn't know much about him to begin with, she accepted that and let things be.

But with the very obvious fact that Karma had managed to talk to Shigure, she found herself bothered by her lack of knowledge.

Even though he told her to disregard familial circumstances, to treat him as Shigure and nobody else, she was actually related to him.

It felt wrong to consider that Karma might actually know more about Shigure than her, and they'd only spoken for an hour.

Amaya's spiraling thoughts and inner agonizing had her at a loss of her surroundings, right up to the point that her items had been run through both wash and dry, and she was making her slow walk down the corridor from the elevator.

She had tried an additional time to call Shigure, only to receive an endless dial-tone in response.

So, she'd ended up emailing him before making as good an attempt at pushing it to the back of her mind as she could.

All the while, as she walked she received strange looks from neighbors as they walked past her, questioning looks though she didn't place too much thought to it.

They seemed to glance up at the top of her head more than look her face, an oddity that didn't quite make sense to her.

Just as she rounded the corner to head towards her door, Amaya ran her free hand through her hair in order to push loose strands out of her face.

Or at least, she tried to.

Her fingers snagged along the side of her head, where a strangely furry material had been braided into the hair there.

In fact, as she stopped dead in her tracks and dropped her cleaned items to the floor at her feet, she soon discovered that there was a matching one on the other side of her head, and they were supposed to be ears of some sort.

She immediately recalled that Karma had been calling her a Cat all morning

Hell, he'd never once used her name.

Damn it! They were trying to manipulate her into cosplaying as a cat-girl - A very particular one, too!

Those clothes were obviously a part of the whole set.

Amaya hissed to herself as she struggled to untangle her hair with the strange pair of ears that had been woven in.

It took her a good few minutes just to untangle one, let alone start on the second, and all the while her mood was getting worse and worse.

And by the time she had gotten both out of her hair, her mood was almost volatile.

Here she was just minding her own god damn business sleeping, and they decided that today was the best time to mess with her like this?!

Everything was rather quiet as Amaya made her way inside her apartment, eerily so, if Amaya was one to be spooked by silences.

She guessed Karma had left since his shoes were gone now, and she could only pinpoint where Reiko was by the sound of running water in the bathroom.

Considering that she'd left two hours ago to wash her clothes before they became stained with red cordial, she thought Reiko would have gotten herself washed up sooner than now.

Regardless of that, Amaya returned her now-clean clothes into their hiding place and plucked two of the large books she had sitting on her desk. She also grabbed her headphones while she was at it.

She'd been meaning to read these for a while now, and she felt like now was a good opportunity, since she was mad and wanted to make it clear that she wasn't in the mood for their mischief anymore.

She bundled herself up in her blanket, setting herself down on the couch closest to the window as she opened the largest of the two books, her headphones in place as she listened to the scarce music she had on her phone.

The Lost World by Michael Crichton, the book was called. An English book that had been translated.

She remembered she had been interested enough in it to buy it, but she hadn't had a quiet enough moment to actually start reading it.

She guessed now was her best opportunity.

Reiko had come and gone almost without Amaya noticing - She'd been about to launch into a complaint over the cat-ears being taken out of Amaya's hair when she'd actually glimpsed the rather volatile look across her sisters face.

Amaya heard the rather distinct sound of the girl squeaking as she ran and hid.

Though before long the sound of electronic tunes and giggling echoed, a sign that the girl had resumed her play-time with her 3DS.

The first sign of movement within the apartment was many hours later, when the sun had set completely and Amaya had gotten only half-way through her book - She had glimpsed Reiko come wandering out.

'Ne, Amay.' A suddenly present Karma spoke up sometime after that, though Amaya made a point of ignoring him as she turned the page.

It was a few seconds later when she felt him yank her headphones off her head.

She let out a breath, though she didn't lift her gaze from her book.

'What do you want?' She questioned.

'Heh, are you mad?' He spoke in question, though he didn't sound the least bit curious.

In fact, he sounded thoroughly amused.

'I'm not mad.' She responded honestly.

It was an honest answer, because she was still rather agitated, but not to the point of being mad.

'She's definitely mad ...' Reiko whimpered from somewhere in the kitchen.

Amaya didn't respond to that - Even if she was definitely mad, it should have been more than obvious as to why she would be mad.

'You haven't eaten yet, have you?' She heard Karma remark, a knowing tone in his voice.

'I don't want anything.' She responded.

'Really?' He responded in mock surprise, leaning over the back of the couch to get a better look at her face. 'I think you're just being stubborn, Amay.'

Wordlessly, Amaya turned the page of her book.

She heard him snicker slightly to himself as he straightened up, tugging her headphones hard enough to unhook them from her phone.

'Was that even necessary?' She complained with a sigh.

'Nope~'

And yet he didn't give them back, much to Amaya's displeasure.

He just wandered off, leaving Amaya alone on the couch to resume her reading.

Or so she'd thought.

When it was rather clear she wasn't going to bite at any of his taunts or baiting remarks, Karma found other ways to try and torment her with instead.

Over the period of an hour, there were many instances of annoyance that were sent her way by a presumably bored redhead - the flinging of elastic bands from across the room, dropping blocks of ice down the back of her dress, even going to the point of trying to bait her with food.

And all the while Amaya maintained her silence, reacting only enough to fish ice out of her clothes when needed.

Her lack of reaction seemed to amuse him at first, but eventually he seemed to get rather bored with that, too.

Reiko had disappeared to her room at some point, emerging just long enough to retun the clothes she'd hid from Amaya's room.

She'd become so engulfed in her book that she didn't know how long it had been since Karma had apparently decided to leave her alone, but it honestly felt like a minute at most before he decided to remind her that he was of course, still here.

That was of course, in the most infuriating way possible.

'You had enough of being a Moody Cat, Amay?' He questioned her, his tone that telltale tone of taunting as he leaned over the back of the couch to dangle a raw fish in front of her face. 'How about this? Will it cheer you up?'

Without a word, Amaya lifted a hand and swatted the fish out of her face, her gaze not once lifting from her book.

'Heh? Someones in a bad mood.' He snickered as he straightened up on his feet, appearing amused with her reaction. 'I thought all cats liked fish.'

With a sigh, Amaya decided to humor him just this once - It was clear he wasn't going to leave her alone, since he was dangling the fish in front of her face again.

The term 'Fishing for a Bite' came to her mind and exasperated her even more.

'What do you want?' She gave in, turning the page of her book.

She was at the part where the group were trying to call for help at the old communications centre, and Velociraptor had just started to reign hell, so she wasn't interested in being annoyed.

'About time.' He remarked, seeming to discard his so called cat-bait now that she'd finally responded with words.

'So?' She quipped, her patience severely worn by this infuriating boy. 'What is it?'

'You're in my spot.' The redhead remarked, almost like he was stating the obvious.

She was in his spot?

A glance at the clock showed that it was 11.23pm, and provided enough of an answer to her.

On the very rare occasion she actually saw him asleep here, it was coincidentally this couch in particular.

Though she wasn't amused by what seemed to be a petty complaint.

'There is the other couch.' She responded without lifting her gaze from her book.

'Heh? But that's my couch.'

Wait ... What?!

He claimed ownership of one of her couches?!

'If you don't like it, you can always go home.' Was Amaya's response as she turned the page.

'What if I don't want to?'

'Then the other couch is right there.' She reaffirmed yet again without lifting her eyes from her book, earning silence in response.

She had thought that maybe she had won just this once against him, though she had kept a blank face none the less.

But then before she even knew what was going on, he decided to something she hadn't expected - With an overdramatic sigh, he dropped himself onto the couch and stretched out so that his head landed in her lap.

And immediately, Amaya froze up from fright.

'Wh-what the hell Karma!?' Amaya squeaked out as she attempted to shove him off of her, though all she managed to do was jostle him. 'Get off!'

'Then get off of my couch.' He remarked easily, his amusement written clear as day across his face.

'The hell?! There is another couch right there, you moron!'

It damn well looked like he was going to go to sleep right there!

'Oi! Are you listening?!'

There was no response from Karma in the least, and it actually irked her.

Fine! If he wanted to play it that way, she was going to make it as uncomfortable for him as she could.

So, with a forced smile, she dropped her arms so that her book landed flat on his face, earning a flinch from him in the process.

And held it there as she merely resumed her reading.

Undoubtedly it would be uncomfortable for him to stay there with a large book there.

She'd be lying if she said she wasn't enjoying the opportunity to squish a book against his face.

In fact, it was a novelty she was relishing in, because it was unlikely that she'd ever manage it again.

After a few seconds however, it appeared he'd grown tired of having a rather heavy book pressed against his face - She barely had a chance to blink before he'd grabbed the book and ripped it right out her hands.

Though thankfully he didn't hurl it across the room this time.

'Oi! I was reading that, you jerk!'

'Too bad~' He hummed in response.

Unfortunately, Amaya wasn't happy to deal with 'too bad' as an answer.

In fact, she wasn't happy at all about her current predicament - She really wouldn't, even if she wasn't in such an aggitated mood right now.

She fidgeted, struggling to keep a straight face as she found herself quickly becoming more and more uncomfortable.

'O-okay, I'll move! Just get off me!'

'Nope~' Was his immediate response.

'D-damn it - Karma!'

And yet, all her complaints and attempts at shoving him off of her did was cause him to smirk.

'Are you embarrassed?' He questioned, his amusement obvious.

She bit down on her immediate retort, instead putting more effort into trying to push him off of her.

'Get off!'

'Answer the question~'

'Damnit just get off of me!'

With the most obvious of smirks, he dragged himself upright in what seemed like compliance with her rather insistant demands.

Seemed being the appropriate word, for the moment she managed to scramble half-way off the couch, he'd grabbed her by the elbow and dragged her straight back.

The jostling didn't agree with her thoroughly bruised insides, though she had bigger things to worry about - Like the fact that he was still invading her personal bubble by keeping her on the couch with him.

He hadn't let go of her elbow, and what was worse was the fact that he had managed to pin her to the couch.

Unfortunately, her patience was almost worn completely by now.

'What do you want now?' Amaya seethed, making yet another attempt at pushing him away.

However, unlike any of the reactions she might have expected to her hissed words, the one she got was not it.

He didn't seem to find it amusing, nor did he seem to get annoyed, which was the reaction she expected the most.

All he did was fix her with a rather wry smile as he grabbed her by the wrist of the arm pushing him away and pin it to the couch at her side.

'There's a lot I want.' He responded to her seethed words, a small edge of a smirk in his voice. 'I just don't feel like telling you.'

'Then let go.'

'Heh? I don't want to.'

She maintained her silence, if only to stop that wave of frustration from pushing her to snapping.

Though thankfully it seemed to be in her favor.

'Look, I get you're still bothered by what happened yesterday. You haven't looked me in the eye since, after all.' He began, a breath escaping him as he let go of her arms. 'I spent a lot of time thinking about what I overheard, and I think I understand why it would bother you.'

Amaya bit her lip to maintain her silence, though all she wanted to do was flee.

'You frustrate me, though.' He muttered, and it was this moment that he actually grabbed her by the sides of the face to force her to look up at him. 'Would it really hurt to have a bit more faith in me?'

'... I'm sorry ...' She managed to whisper, trying her best to not look away.

'I'm not looking for an apology, so don't bother.' He muttered with a sigh in response, glancing away as his brow furrowed in frustration. 'Its not like I don't get why...'

She found that he was fixing her with a rather humorless look, though it wasn't as sharp as a lot of the other times he'd fixed her with such a look.

'Just to make it clear - I don't care what anyone else says or thinks about you.' He muttered beneath his breath, his grip of her face shifting slightly. 'We've got the idiot who destroyed most of the moon teaching our class, and everyone accepts him just fine.'

She nodded meekly in response.

'Now, are you done worrying over nothing? Or do I have to prove that I honestly couldn't care about what I heard?' He questioned her, an edge of mischief seeming to return now that she wasn't being so difficult.

She honestly didn't understand what he was implying by that, but she decided he had just resumed his favorite passtime of messing with people.

'No ... I believe you.' She mumbled, though she had made a move to look away from him.

Had being the appropriate word.

'How many times do I have to tell you? You're a terrible liar.' He responded with a smirk, though he didn't wait for a response from her as he leaned towards her. 'Oh well~'

Amaya's breath hitched as his grip of her face shifted ever so slightly.

And then her heart stopped working completely as she felt something press against her forehead.

---=[Authors Note]=---

Heheh, here's a chapter for you guys :) Did you enjoy it? I hope you did xD

Dedication is for Kaga-chan (Yander3RedQueen) hope this amused you as much it amused me to write it :D

Neko no Hirune - This in particular translates as Cat Nap, which is written as 猫の昼寝 in Japanese. Chosen moreso for the actual 'Cat' than merely a catnap or a siesta, which would be karine, if I'm not mistaken? Karine would be 仮寝

All the best

<3 Loki-Roki