Ch 11(?)

The blissful silence of night enveloped the air of the Itsuka residence, none more so than the exhausted blue haired boy who was happily passed out beneath warm blankets. The last few days had taken a number on his mind. The image of his sister crying next to him, seeing Miku shot and suffering, and knowing that Tohka could be in trouble on her date with Kurumi was all too well toying with his emotions. But for now at least, in his world of dreams, Shido could temporarily escape the harsh reality plaguing his mind.

"NO, ACTUALLY!" The voice rang through the halls before making their way into the ears of the sleeping boy. Almost instantly his eyes shot open and he quickly sat up. What were once dreary blue eyes were now taking in his surroundings on high alert, even if the mind processing them wasn't.

"What was that?" Shido whispered to himself. Being snapped awake so quickly gave his brain little time to actually process anything, but the only thing that he knew for sure was that his ears were slightly ringing.

The only problem with that was the fact that it was the middle of the night and the only people who were in the house right now were Kotori and himself.

"Is Kotori having another nightmare?" Pushing off the blankets, Shido turned his body and practically jumped out of his bed and onto his feet.

Walking as silently as possible, Shido made it to his doorway. Swiftly turning the handle, as to make as little noise as possible, he pulled open the door and peaked his head out into the hallway. While he didn't hear anything else aside from what had woken him up, he did notice that something was slightly out of the ordinary. A faint beam of light was emanating from beneath Kotori's door. A small sigh escaped Shido.

"She's still awake? If she doesn't get some sleep she's going to be exhausted for school in the morning."

Straightening his back a bit, he marched down the hall to where Kotori's room was located. Just as he was about to knock, something else caught his attention. Something from behind the door.

"Why are you going so far to be on a date with Tohka?"

"Ironic coming from the side who claims to 'save' them, is it not?"

Shido could hear two voices whispering back and forth. One of them he could distinctly make out to be Kotori's, but the other one was giving him some trouble.

"Oi, Kotori?" A few knocks followed. "What are you doing up at this hour, is everything okay?" His words were only met by the slight sounds of shuffling.

"Come on Kotori, I know you're awake in there. You should really get some sleep before school." This time his only response was the silence of the night.

He placed his hand on the doorknob and gave it a slight turn before it was met with resistance. Panicking now, Shido began to knock again but slightly harder. It was unusual for Kotori to lock her door unless she was changing. But he was sure she had finished bathing long before he had fallen asleep.

"This isn't funny, Kotori. Come on, open up." His words were immediately responded to this time.

"Geez, you always know the worst time to show up, don't you?" The sound of the door being unlocked was made apparent, for not a moment later did the door crack open and red twintails made themselves visible.

"What do you want?" The younger sister asked in a more agitated manner than Shido had anticipated.

"Ah, well… I thought I heard someone shout something so I got worried and wanted to check on you." He began laughing nervously at how silly it sounded. His stance faltered slightly and an embarrassed blush crossed his face.

"I can assure you that no one was shouting, so just go to bed already." As she was closing the door, Shido placed his hand on it to prevent it from closing completely.

"What are you doing at this hour? You'll have to wake up early for school tomorrow, you know."

"I'm doing homework, now hurry up and get some sleep so I can finish." The response came so quickly it was almost scary. While it was a satisfying and seemingly normal answer, the fact that it was being accompanied by her sudden moodiness and her pushing against him to close the door made him very uneasy.

"Then who's in the room with you?" The question cause the red head's eyes to widen. A visible attempt at further closing the door was very apparent by her sudden increase in strength.

"No one's here, now leave already!" However, Shido knew this wasn't Kotori's normal behavior and continued to push back just as hard.

"Kotori, you shouldn't hide something like this from me." He firmly stared into her eyes.

"I-I'm not…" She began to falter more with each passing second.

"Ara ara~ just let the poor man in, Kotori-san." From behind the door came the other voice again. Now that the voice wasn't whispering her could clearly make it out, and he knew without a shred of doubt who the voice belonged to now.

Casting his gaze back down until he met his sister's eyes, his mouth hung slightly open in disbelief. What worried him even more was the look on his sister's face. She immediately turned her head to face the ground in shame, but he could see that her eyes were filled with the guilt of lying.

"…Fine." Releasing her strength from the door caused Shido to fall forward into the room before quickly having his face make contact with the floor.

"Ow…" He picked up his head in a slight daze.

"Oh my~ on your knees for me already, Shido-san?" The provocative voice made its way close to him. He felt a shoe push him in his sides, causing him to flip over onto his back. As he opened his eyes, he saw the signature red and black dress of the seductress crawling over his body. His chest tightened, but he couldn't tell if it was from fear or something else.

The next thing he knew there was a pair of cool hands cupping his cheeks, ever so slightly bringing his face that much closer to hers.

"How awfully sweet of you to drop by," Her warm breath tickled his ear enticing shivers to run throughout his body. "But you should know that it is very impolite to eavesdrop on two girls at night~"

"Enough!" An unexpected shout came from the other side of the room. Even with the small lash out, the smug spirit seemed to make no attempts from leaving her new throne.

"Oh~? But I like my seat." She teased. Kotori, however, was not feeling up to dealing with her rotten personality at this hour.

"Get yourself off of Shido!" She took a step forward trying to forcibly get her to back off.

"Ara ara~ you leave Shido-san in the dark as you speak with your enemies, and yet you feel that you can tell me to not speak with him as I see fit?" A cat-like grin spread across the nightmare's face while a severe look of distaste spread across the little sister's.

"You know it's not like-"

"If I am wrong, then maybe you can explain to Shido-san why you agreed to talk with me then?" Mildly curious about the situation, Shido couldn't help but perk up slightly to hear her side of things.

"Well, I was just…"

"Or maybe you'd care to explain to Shido-san why you haven't been helping Tohka-san with her recent stress?" The largest grin spread across Kurumi's face when she saw Kotori's eyes widen in horror as her brother looked at her with a panic-ridden face.

"Wait, Tohka's stressed out, Kotori?" It was clearly visible that Kotori's mind was rushing to come up with something to tell her beloved brother, but looking at his heartbroken eyes left the little sister unable to even render a response.

It was hard to tell because of the lighting, but her face had turned slightly pale. All of the little things she kept from Shido recently to make his life a little easier were slowly being leaked and used against her. Catching on to the density of the air, Kurumi ever so gently pushed herself off of Shido's chest and stood back up.

"Maybe I teased you too harshly. I did, after all, come here to try and negotiate, but I really do detest being told what to do by a child, you know." She began making her way to the door. Her face was no longer the smiling tease it was earlier, but seemed to have been replaced by a flat expression. And yet, her elegant air never seemed to fade.

"I suppose I have overstayed my welcome. However, Kotori-san, may I ask what you would like to do about our compromise?" Shido jumped to his feet after the weight of another person was taken off of him.

"A compromise?" Shido turned to Kotori yet again hoping for an answer.

"Get out of my home, Kurumi." Her voice was only but a whimper, yet it contained to intent to kill behind it.

"If that is your response, then so be it." A small sigh as she opened the door was heard by Shido.

"Wait, Kurumi! What are you talking-"

"If you wish to know, ask your lovely sister. I do not feel that it is my place to say what she may or may not have wanted to do at this point. After all, it's the least I could do. I never expected her to personally thank me for assisting with the mess of that diva not too long ago." With that she exited the doorway. Shido could feel his arm wanting to extend, to tell her not to leave again, but this wasn't the time to try to save her and he knew it. With no one left in the house but its original residents, Shido turned again back to Kotori.

"I really hate that woman, you know." A nervous laugh escaped the little sister's now shaking body.

"Kotori…" Shido walked over to his sister and gave her a heartfelt hug. The warmth of her brother seemed to cause Kotori to relax a little.

"I'm here for you, okay? If something's bothering you, please don't keep it from me next time, alright? Just tell me so I can be the one to help you. You do enough for everyone." While she wasn't crying, Kotori felt like she was going to soon from her brother's sweet words.

"Thanks. I think I need some sleep for now, but I'll tell you about some things tomorrow, okay? I promise." With a small smile she walked over to her desk lamp. She looked at the papers crumpled up and thrown everywhere. She still had no idea what to do with the date. Would she leave it up to Kurumi, or would she risk getting on her bad side and making her own plans? Whatever she wanted to do, she knew she wouldn't be able to think of anything now.

"Goodnight, Onii-chan." Even though it seemed that Kotori wasn't in the mentality to sleep right now, he knew that staying here wouldn't help right now either.

"Goodnight, Kotori." He opened the door. "I love you." With the door slowly closing he thought he saw a small smile grace his precious sister's lips.

"I love you too." She whispered.

Now staring at the dark hallway, Shido's mind had no idea what to make of what just happened. So much had happened so quickly that he almost was hoping that he was dreaming, but somewhere in the back of his mind he knew that everything was all too real. As he walked back to his room, he stopped next to the stairway.

"I think I need some fresh air…" Taking the stairs down, he reached the main door to his house before quickly exiting.

The night air felt amazing against his face. The cool air helped his body heat to cool down a little, not to mention the fresh air allowed him to wake up a little more. Walking over to the rail across from his house, he leaned over it and gazed at the night sky.

"I wonder what will happen when all of this is settled…" After briefly closing his eyes and taking in a few more breaths, he turned back around to go to bed and hopefully relieve some of the new stress on his mind, but something in the corner of his eye caught his attention. A small light was lit in one of the rooms in the apartment complex next to him. Taking a closer look, he noted that it was Tohka's room, to be exact.

"She's still awake, huh?" His mind rushed through the conversation from but a few minutes ago. "Well, if she's stressed out maybe spending some time with her will help." Changing course from his home to the neighboring tower, Shido prepped himself for some things to talk about until he was standing before the door of Tohka's room. As he reached out to knock, he felt something, or rather the lack of something, which he wasn't expecting. Snapping back to reality from his thoughts, he noticed that the door was wide open.

"Tohka? Are you in here?" He cautiously entered the girl's room, but after looking around for a few seconds, he could tell that no one was here whatsoever. Taking a few more steps around the apartment, he heard a crinkling sound following one of his steps. Looking down, he noticed that there was a fairly elegant note laying on the floor. Curiously picking up the note, he opened it and began reading.

'Borrowing this for a little while, hope you don't mind~' A surge of anxiety tore through his veins. Crinkling up the note, he ran back to his house.

"Damn it, Kurumi!"