"Why am I here?" Kotarou whispered to himself. This was probably the eleventh time he asked himself that night.

He was at a large party that was being held in celebration for another one of Natsumi's Oscar bait films at the leads actor's house. He couldn't remember the titles of the movie but he knew that it had something to do with some sort of guy slowly going crazy as his psyche was created physical representation of his insanity and sanity. Natsumi played both the man's wife and the embodiment of the man insanity.

Kotarou really didn't care much. He like watching Natsumi in movies and all but the more complex the movies were, the less interested he became. Of course he would never say that to her directly.

At the moment, Kotarou was doing what he usually did at parties where he knew nothing about anyone here; support the wall and occasionally reach for drinks or snacks passing by.

He lamented being dragged here but he had nothing else do to do and this was probably better than staying at home and watching TV.

Originally he would be playing poker with others; Negi, Rackan, Nagi, Takahata, and Evangeline when she decided to come along (which was usually when there was nothing for her to do at her boring organization). They didn't really play much poker as much as they would talk to each other and get into heated conversations and arguments about things. It was fun but for some reason, they had all cancelled two days ago. Maybe he shouldn't have mentioned the whole party thing.

He was really wishing that they hadn't cancelled or that he had scheduled a job for today. He was really only here putting up a smile for the people that walked by for Natsumi's sake. He would have left by now but he was worried for Natsumi and her habits of drinking more than she could get together.

Natsumi was a nice girl who was one to never turn down gifts or free services. However this was one of her downfalls as since the party was prepaid, she would never have an empty glass and she felt obligated to drink whatever was given to her. This may not seem such a terrible thing but Natsumi was quite a light weight. It would only take one drink and a half for her to start slurring her words and start stumbling while it would take another drink for her to almost completely lose self-restrains. After drink number 5, she will get very loose with her hands and is very perceptible to suggestions. Another half a drink will make her more or less forget the rest of the night but still keep her open and very open to any suggestion.

Kotarou had only seen her at that point once before and it was scary in the kinda 'I don't want to see someone I care for looking like this' mind frame. It had been on another one of these parties. He had been set up as her emergency contact if she needed a ride home or was unconscious. When he was called to pick her up apparently she had already stripped down to her underwear, had fell into a large cake and was swearing at a painting that, to her, had looked at her funny. The way back was something that could be considered both enjoyable funny with an added pinch of being cruel.

Kotarou couldn't drive a car. He had never learned how nor did he see the purpose in doing so. When you could run faster than a car and then have the added benefit of being able to jump over most 'traffic problems', the car became a hindrance more than anything else. As he couldn't drive nor did he own a car, he had to take Natsumi back the only way he knew possible. Jumping and running.

The enjoyable parts were her cries of fear as they soared through the air, shrieking her head off as they derailed bird formations. The other parts tended be when he was waited for her to throw up or when she was berating him for things he was probably not attached to in anyway.

Luckily at that party, there were many of Natsumi's close friends from work who knew how bad she was with alcohol and knew how to keep her away from the guys with impure intentions for her. They had manage to keep a perimeter around her to stop any guy that looked as if he had too much to drink or was looking for a prize for the night and it had worked perfectly. However, she didn't have that luxury this time. This time, only about two of her work friends were here at the time. Both of them were hanging near Natsumi and they seemed to be sharing looks between each other, one more serious and grave then the other.

Kotarou took a swig of the drink that he had grabbed from a passing server. It takes bubbly and was to sweet for his taste of alcohol. He frowned at it, then dumped it into a nearby potted plant while looking for anything else to cleanse the taste from his mouth. After a bit of time had passed, He decided to move out of the cramped place and get out on the balcony. He breathed in the fresh air and attempted to drown out the party behind him. It wasn't that hard. Because of his magical enhancements he received from Delphi, he had become more in tune with his demonic heritage and so was able to control it with more ease. He began to focus on the musical intonation of a couple of birds nearby. He closed his eyes and imagined the birds as the almost bickered about something or other.

Someone broke his reverie.

"Hey." Someone said behind him. He turned to see a guy he didn't know too well. He nodded his acknowledgement of the guys presence and continued to star out at the landscape. The guy seemed to press on, "I'm Bolin. Can I ask who you are?"

"Kotarou" he replied with a small bit of annoyance thrown into his tone.

"Cool." He said. The guy seemed to lean on the balcony facing the party and continued, "So you came here with Natsumi right?"

Kotarou's ears twitched a bit at the mention of her name. Now he was interested in this person. Why was he interested in Natsumi? Was she drinking too much again?

Instead of voicing his curiosity he nodded instead.

"Just a question, you her brother?" Bolin asked.

Kotarou almost laughed out loud due to the bluntness of the question and its relevance in his history with Natsumi. He was about to answer yes, to see what response he would give but something stopped him. Would Natsumi get angry if he called himself that? Did he really want to? There was something within him that really didn't want to say that. He cared for her greatly, but he wondered if it was the same way a brother would. He didn't have family and she was his first real family he ever had so did he feel for her like a brother would his sister?

Again, instead of revealing his true thoughts he replied with, "No, but she like family."

Bolin nodded in understanding even though he was sure that he had no idea of what he meant. He took a swige of his drink and looked at Kotarou for a while, as if assessing his chances of winning in a fight. Kotarou felt the anylitical stare and smiled inwardly, hoping against hope that the guy decided to be the idiot and give him a good reason to get into a fight.

Instead, Bolin took another swig from his drink and asked another question, "So, I can assume you guys aren't going out, right?"

Kotarou mentally stumbled at this. That would be absurd! Him and Natsumi in that kind of relationship?! It wouldn't make any sense correct? Kotarou felt strange inside now. It was something that he really wasn't accustomed to feeling. He felt as though he wanted to attack the guy beside him, more than he would any other annoying person yet he couldn't explain it. As he pondered the feeling, he replied, stumbling with the words a bit, "N-n-no. Not at- not at all."

"Ok, that's cool too." He said as if he had tread on places that shouldn't be tread on which he kind of did. He took another swing of his drink and said, "She is pretty cute right? I mean, she is drop dead gorgeous but she has more of cuteness to her. I don't know, man. You agree right?"

Kotarou didn't really know what to say at this. He agreed. He agreed whole heartily but he didn't want to admit it. Especially to this guy! Kotarou gave a chuckle and replied, "Hmph"

The guy seemed to understand this as an agreement and so smiled and finished his drink. They stayed there for a bit longer in silence, one looking at scenery while the other watches the party. Bolin continued for a bit before he got up and stretched before a voice called to him, "Hey Bolin! Someone's asking for their key back, I need you to check if their ok to drive."

"Coming! Make sure he stays away from any breath mints!" He replied to the guy and he turned back to Kotarou. He gave Kotarou a smile and waved as he walked off back to the party.

Kotarou watched him go and huffed out indignantly. He went back to starring out on the landscape and ignoring the party as best as possible. It wasn't much to look out sadly; kind of like he set his place up above a small town.

Then someone broke him out of his reverie again, this time however it was more direct and less patient.

"Hey! Kotarou right?" a female voice form behind him called. Kotaoru groaned a bit before turning around to meet this new person. She was a young woman, probably around the same age or older than Natsumi, in a red dress with long black hair. Kotarou recognized her as one of Natsumi's friends, though he didn't know her name.

"Hmm. You are definitely cuter when annoyed." She said, more to herself than to Kotarou. However he still heard it which surprised him a little as that was never a comment he heard. She continued despite his surprise, "Anyway. I am sorry but I have to go, kids need me at home and the party is becoming a bit to testosteronie for my taste. You need to make sure that you keep an eye on Natsumi ok? She has had two drinks so far, and maybe one shot of some whiskey. I trust I don't have to tell you how bad she is behaving." She didn't and Kotarou's ear dropped slightly at the thought, "Keep an eye on her and watch out for the guys around her because she is definitely a bit grabby today." She through her purse over her shoulder and gave him a cute smile and said "Well, have a nice night. Please be careful for her."

He nodded and as she walked off, his face turned into a snarl like disgust.

"I guess this is why I'm here." Kotarou said to himself for the first time that night. He turned to face the party, fixed his blazer and gave a sigh as he walked into the party for the time, willingly.

XXXX

Kotarou was walking home with Natsumi in his arms.

It was not pleasant.

She was still drunk and was quite active at the moment attempting to wrestle herself out his arms. Her attempts however were so uncoordinated and wild that they seemed more like violent flails instead of escape attempts.

"We gotta go ~ack!" she yelled, swigging her arms around like some sort of whip or club.

Kotarou didn't listen. He really didn't want to go back. He hated parties, yes, but that wasn't the reason for not to go back. The reason was flailing in his arms and complaining to go back.

Kotarou decision to get out of there wasn't purely based on selfish reasons. In fact, it wasn't based on any selfish reason what so ever. Or at least in the mind of Kotarou it wasn't.

It had taken around 40 minutes for Natsumi to get obscene.

Kotarou had decided to take a close but not too close approach to watching over Natsumi. This meant that he was in the party and would come in to stop or attempt to persuade her out of doing something embarrassing or something disrespectful. He had managed to stop a good amount of things before they happened but there were the ones where he couldn't do anything about which was when it involved another person. He could stop her if it involved inanimate objects but when it involved other beings it became hard.

At first it was just getting to close to people, throwing her arms over the others shoulder to an uncomfortable extent. Then she would grab inappropriate places with gusto, seemingly by accident. Kotarou was bothered by her action and was annoyed the almost repetitive nature on how these events; someone would get close to her, if female she would hug and get to clingy to which Kotarou would have to apologize for her. If male, she would cling to him in a more and grope them as if at random.

Kotarou always felt a strange and very volatile rage whenever Natsumi got close to guys because she seem to either give him a dirty look or them a strange look that he could not describe. He couldn't understand this phenomenon as much as he could understand those housewife shows. However, most of the guys held faces of obvious discomfort. He would have to pry Natsumi off them, apologize to the guy then, tell off Natsumi for doing so and then sit back before the process begins anew.

Kotarou had had enough after the fifth time this has happened.

He decided that it would be enough for one night and so picked up Natsumi and began the long trek home. He would started jumping and running but he was sure that this would lead to more annoying flails and jeers from Natsumi.

"We gotta go~ ~ack!" she complained again.

"Why?" He decided to ask. Maybe this would get her to think about something which was really hard and required all of a drunk person's power.

"Be~ause you~ didn't ma~e a friend!" she said readily.

"Why would I need a friend? I already have friends." He said, actually questioning the girl in his arms.

"Be~ause you~ don~ have friend~ tha~ are mine~ ~oo." She said, her face getting serious, "I ~ant you to~o have fre~inds thaa~ we ~an both share. ~Fre~inds we ~an both say hi too ~hen we go out ~o the mo~ies."

"And Negi, and Eva not those friends?" Koratou asked, still trying to understand what she wanted.

"N~~O. They're ~r~ fre~inds, but they ~r~n't wha~ I mean. I mea~ new fre~inds, for ~the both of us~." She finished, poking a finger in Kotarou's face. He slowly thought about what she was asking. Were all the parties she had dragged him along to for this purpose? Could he really make friends like she wanted?

He was a man he used his fist to do the talking, which him such a great friend to Negi. Negi was always too smart for his own good so he needed to be reminded that, occasionally, the best way was the more direct way. All the people at the party were people who he would have to be very careful about his true strength with.

He thought about his other friends in the business. They were all people he didn't have to hold back with. As he warmed up to the idea he found the flaw, they were people who Natsumi could call friends. They were all pretty violent or battle worn which would turn her off.

He figured he would have to think hard about this new development. He wanted to make her happy but he also knew that it would be almost impossible for the both of them to have friends that they could both want to hang out with. Natsumi's friends were to pompous and full of themselves for Kotarou's taste and all of his friends weren't what you could call 'model citizens' and all. Could they find friends who they could both enjoy being in their company or was it a futile effort? Even if it was he would try anyway!

He looked down at the drunken girl and found that she had passed out in his embrace, using his shoulder as a sort of pillow. He smiled at the sleeping face and began jumping and running back home.

Hey guys. Sorry about the wait for this but college starting rolling and I was slowly being drained of time to do what I want. But don't think this means that I have stop, its just that I have had a few other side projects.

Anyway. What did you guys think about this small bit? I felt as though giving someone to contest for Natsumi here would develop those seeds of love in Kotarou's head a well as attempt to reassess what he thinks about her without it being clear why. I felt that Kotarou wouldn't enjoy parties unless there are people he knows there and can easily relate or talk to them (remember the ball they had in the magical world, how he was only truly seen talking to the people he knew?) I also felt to give Natsumi a weakness to alcohol becuase it would make her and Kotarou different in that regard and would give Kotarou something to worry about that wasn't just 'When can I get out of here?'

Also the last bit was something that hit me a bit last second and I admit to myself that it does seem a little rushed in there. (Let Me know if you have any problems deciphering Natsumi's drunk speech.) This is something that makes sense to me; Who would they keep as friends and would they be able to have friends that they can both click with? Think about it. If Natsumi becomes and actress, she is going to have very high-class friends who she can talk to about what ever she wants to, but Kotarou can't do the same with her friends as he was raised as a street thug and wouldn't understand high society stuff. The same with Natsumi who would have a hard time speaking with Kotarou's friends who would be thugs of their own kind and would trade stories about the lastest job they did or the way they managed to swindle money out of there employer.

Anyway quite rambling me!

So please, Read, Review, Repeat.

And here is a summary of the next one that I am making;

Taken from the view of one of Natsumi's friends, she invites Natsumi and Kotarou to diner and we see their relationship from an outsiders perspective. Kotarou has to hide his job but the climax of the small scene has Kotarou's job following him to the house and him having to protect the house and the family.