As we approached Cream & Sugar I could see Alex walking towards the door to change the sign to closed for the night. We made eye contact and I waved. He smirked and turned around slightly. It looked like he was talking to someone behind him. I could see a rambunctious figure behind him bounce slightly. When we walked in Dylan came bounding towards and threw his arms around Hatsurin and I.

"It's been too long ladies." Alex remarks as he locks the door behind us. He then walked over and leaned on a table to watch us.

"How are you girls doing in this day and age?" Dylan let go of us and stepped back to stand next to Alex. He seemed to seep with joy at seeing us again.

"I'm not sure. Why not ask the person who gets all chummy with strangers," I frowned in Hatsurin's direction.

"Yeah, ask the one who's....wait, do you mean me?" She seemed taken aback at the look I was giving her.

"Yes, I mean you. You and that tall stranger were flirting up a storm. I almost vomited right next to the two of you."

She seemed to get a dazed look on her face, "oh, we were, weren't we? He was pretty tall too." She smiled all dreamy like as she drifted into her own little world. I could tell on her face that it probably starred the stranger from earlier.

I sighed and looked at Dylan and Alex as I sat at a shiny table, still slightly damp from more than likely just being wiped down. "As we were walking here, two guys were thrown out of that popular bar and we happened to be passing by at the exact same time. Hatsurin, here, started talking and flirting with one of them. I, on the other hand, was trying very hard to avoid the one who landed onto me. He was probably trying to flirt with me too. I don't know. My head hurts too much for this."

I sighed again, leaning forward and resting my head in my hands. I felt hot to myself, but even if I did have a fever, I didn't want to tell any of them. Especially not Hatsurin. She'll think I have some parasitic worm in my brain or something.

Dylan then interrupted my pain-filled silence, "Were they cute?"

I looked up to see Alex's hand raised as if to back-hand Dylan's arm, but instead Alex rested his hand on his head and ruffled in hot pink hair. "Even if they were, I won't let anyone else have you. You won't escape from me."

My frown deepened at the couple's flirting and I cleared my throat. They looked at me, removing their love filled eyes from each other. "I'm not sure how 'hot' they were. That part of the street wasn't very well lit. I know for sure though that one of them had long, almost black hair. The other one, the one who was flirting with Hatsurin, had short hair that wasn't as dark as the one who tried to flirt with me, and it was shaved on one half as well. The tall one kind of looked punk while my paper-weight looked almost emo."

"They don't sound too bad to me." Dylan smirked and pushed himself up to sit on the table. He scooted closer to Alex and started swinging his legs playfully. Classic Dylan. There wasn't a moment that he wasn't acting or being cute.

Alex, on the other hand, looked over at Hatsurin who was still in her own little world. He sighed in concern.

"Even if they were hot, they were still strangers." He started, "They could be rapists for all you know. Where did you two bump into them again?"

"At the bar down the street," I answered.

"Even worse! What if they were some mythical creatures. You said they were flirting a lot. They could be incubuses!" Dylan butted in with his delusions.

"It'd be incubi, not incubuses. It's like saying meese for moose. Wait, does that even work out that way?" I questioned. My voice was sort of getting rough and I had to clear it a few times. I massaged my temples, then suddenly a glass appeared in front of me. Alex held out a clear crystal cup filled with a clear liquid on ice. 

"Drink. You sound like you need something." He smiled caringly at me.

"It's just water and ice right?" I hesitantly reach for the glass.

He hands it to me and frowns. "I would never do such a thing as give the underage an alcoholic beverage! What do you take me as? Do you not trust me?"

I looked at the clear liquid and shook my head slowly, "I do. I'm sorry. I'm just sort of out of it lately."

Dylan felt my forehead, nearly jerked away. He cringed, holding his wrist. "Dear lord and savior. Girl, you need some medicine and need to get to bed. Hatsurin, I think you should take your sister home. She's burning up a storm. I don't even need a thermometer to tell you that."

Alex grabbed my chin gently and lifted my face up to look at him. The lights on the ceiling hurt my eyes. I pushed his hand away, turning my head, shielding my eyes from the light, "I'm fine. I'm fine. I'll just go to bed when we get back. Hatsurin, don't worry about me, I'll be fine."

Hatsurin came over and grabbed my wrist, pulling me out of the chair. "I don't care if you say you're fine. Your face is all red and you look more apathetic than usual."

I handed the glass back to Alex and frowned at my sister, "I care very much about a lot of things on a daily basis."

"Stop joking around. This isn't funny." She frowned back at me then smiled at the boys, "Thank you. It was good seeing you again. I'll make sure she rests until her temperature is down and she looks relatively normal again."

Alex and Dylan showed us out and after a good 20 minutes of stumbling and being pulled around, my sister dragged me up the stairs of our three story apartment building.

"Why can't we just take an elevator?" I manage to cough out.

"Amaya. Our building doesn't have an elevator." She responded, her voice dripping with worry.

"Really? I could've sworn we had one." I now had black spots in my vision and I almost trip over every step I take on.

"Are you okay? Well I mean, no you aren't, but can you make it to your bedroom?"

"I guess. I don't know." She drags me down the hallway and I see two guys sitting against the wall by our neighbor's door. 

One of them had half a head of dark green hair with what looked like red and pink tips. While the other half of his head was shaved. He was leaning against the other guy who was significantly of a smaller stature than he was. The sleeves of his blue hoodie were bunched up at the elbows. His skinny jeans, that were half white and half orange, were slightly covered in dirt.

The other guy was partially hidden under the larger man. It was clear that he had dark, almost black hair and a pale almost grey complexion. His legs stuck out into the middle of the hallway and one of his flip flops was sitting against the opposite wall.

My sister ignored them, more than likely because I had tripped and almost fallen on my face after just finishing with another coughing fit. I was wheezing heavily with every breath I took and when we approached the two men, my foot caught on something. I tripped and fell to the ground faster than my sister could react.

My vision blacked out for a moment. I could hear my sister's frantic voice on the verge of shouting, and another voice chimed in that was significantly deeper and slightly familiar. It had a thick, rich, earthy ring to it. It was surprisingly calm and I was able to relax in my sister's arms while listening to it. That was until I suddenly felt strong hard arms move under my head and knees. The arms lifted me up and cradled me against a warm, hard yet weirdly soft, body. It almost felt like I was resting up against a tree. My eyes flew open and I got a blurry sight of the same blue hue from the guy's hoodie in the hallway. I tried to blink to clear my eyes, but it was futile. It was incredibly blurry and my head started to pound.

I think I was being carried into the apartment. I recognized the familiar color scheme of off white, dark maroon, and an almost brown shade that decorated our living space. Then we passed through a threshold into a dark red and cream shaded room and I was laid onto my bed. I immediately sunk into the soft fur of my blanket and feather-filled pillows. Darkness enveloped my vision once again, and the voices of my worried sister and the man slowly grew silent.