Nothing to say here since I'm uploading two at a time! But of course I say stuff anyway. x-x;

ENJOY! xD; And happy new year! ^^

The Pyramid of Darkness
Part II, Chapter Four: Calculus Burns

"So if you look at the derivative here, it's really… Heeheehee!"

Sora tapped her pencil against the table, burying her face in the other hand. "I am never going to pass this intro to calculus test."

"Like any of us are!" Matt said tiredly. His head had come to rest, cradled in his arms folded on the table, a long time ago. "The only math Izzy knows right now is him plus Mimi equals love."

Sora peeked out of her hand at the couple. Izzy had piles of paper in front of him and was supposed to be teaching them how to not fail the test tomorrow. Instead, he was teaching them something more along the lines of how to be sick. Mimi sat on his lap and every two seconds would tickle him or try and cuddle with him or call him something cutesy like "Beanbear," whatever that meant. And then of course Izzy would have to respond with his insane giggling (seen above), or tickling her in return, or cuddling with her, or calling her something along the lines of "Smookiebuns."

It was cute at first. But when their whole grades were on the line and all they knew about calculus was that Mimi could draw lopsided hearts on the axis of Izzy's graphing calculator? It was just annoying.

Sora felt so bitter for being irritated with their love-fest, but it was a bit difficult not to be. "It's really what?" she asked Izzy.

"Whahahahaaaat?" he replied, stretching out his word because he was laughing in the middle of it.

"That derivative crap thing!" Matt snapped, head coming back up. "Whatever the hell you were saying before you started drooling all over Mimi for the fifteenth billion time!"

Mimi giggled. "Aw, Matt, you're just jealous!"

"Ha!" was the blond's simple response.

"Izzy, pleeeease," Sora begged. "If Matt and I don't pass this test, we'll never be able to catch up in time for the next one. And then the next one will be completely impossible. And then on and on until the final. And then we'd fail. And then we would have to retake the class, and couldn't graduate, and… it'd be horrible. Do you want that to happen to us?!"

Izzy sighed. He opened his mouth to speak but Mimi cut in.

"Okay, fine, guys! I know when I'm not wanted. Give me… oh, five minutes to cuddle with Izzy before I leave, okay?"

That seemed fair. Sora and Matt looked up at the pink-haired girl hopefully, then nodded. The couple left the room, giggling.

"Whew," Sora exhaled, checking the clock to mark five minutes. "I hope Izzy can teach us this…"

"Of course he can; he's a genius, right?" Matt asked rhetorically. "He'll invent some amazing way of cramming all this stuff in our brains."

"I hope so…"

"Hey, um… Sora?" Matt asked, in a quieter voice this time.

A bit warily, she looked across the table at him. Instead of blankly staring at the table, his blue eyes were fixed on her. They were too intense; boring into her sharply. She looked away quickly, pretending she was getting her things ready for Izzy's return and teaching. "Yes?" she replied, turning to a new (doodle-free) page in her notebook and creasing the page as if it were vital.

"Have you been okay lately?"

"Mmhmm!" She began to write her name and the date on the page, moving her pen slowly, taking up time. Anything to not have to bring her eyes up and see him looking at her like that.

"No, listen to me. I know I've asked you this a lot in the past few days, but it really seems like there's something going on with you. You haven't been yourself. It's reminding me of way back in the Digital World… when the darkness almost took you over. Do you remember that?"

Sora hated this. She wished Izzy would come back. She even wished that Izzy and Mimi would come back. Even learning more pet names they had for each other would be better than this. "No darkness is taking me over," she said, laughing it off. "You're so dramatic." She still couldn't look up.

He hesitated. "Okay," he finally said. She glanced up. His intense look was gone, replaced with something else. Was it just her, or did it seem like he was trying hard to look normal?

"I do have another question, though," he said.

"Okay."

"You know that dance that's coming up?"

Oh. Oh dear.

"Yes…" was all Sora could manage.

"Well, I think I told you this? Maybe not. My band's actually playing the first half."

He hadn't told her. "Wow, really?" she gushed, trying to distract from what was going to happen next. "That's great! What a good opportunity!"

"Yeah. Well, I was wondering…"

Crapcrapcrap. Her eyes scanned the kitchen around them, then she coughed loudly. "Ugh! I think I'm getting sick." Glancing towards Matt with a cheerful-yet-apologetic smile, she asked, "Do you want any tea? I think I'm going to make some for my throat." She hopped up to rummage through the counter, knowing exactly where Izzy's family kept their tea after so many visits there.

"No, I'm good…" An intake of breath sounded, warning her that he was about to speak again.

"Here's the tea for sore throats! You sure you don't want any? Oh, not of this kind, of course. There's normal green tea too. And some Egyptian licorice, and English breakfast tea – it's not breakfast, but that's okay!"

"No thanks."

"Suit yourself!" Sora grabbed a tea kettle from another cabinet, then filled it with hot water and plunked it down on the stove, annoyingly clumsy with it. She turned up the heat, all the while humming a random song loudly. She didn't know what song it was, but it really did the trick! Then, she turned around, leaning against the sink and smiling at Matt.

He was smiling back at her. Like they were sharing a secret or something. Crap, why?!

Oh. Oh no.

The song she was humming. It was one of Matt's band's songs! It was written by Matt! And it was a love song.

Yikes.

"So you've been listening to our new album, huh?" he asked.

She had. Obviously. "Yeah…"

"What do you think about it?"

Ooh! Maybe she did seem like a stalker, but at least they were getting away from the subject of the dance! "I really like it," she said honestly. "It seems a lot more polished than the last CD… More professional, you know?"

"Which song is your favorite? The one you were humming?"

Sora didn't know, really, so she just nodded. "Yeah, I guess so!"

He smiled warmly. "Okay. I'll make sure to play it at the dance, then. But about that…"

"Oh, cool!" she exclaimed. Lame interruption, but all she could come up with on such short notice.

"Um, yeah. But Sor – "

The tea kettle began to whistle! Sora could have married it for that! She turned to the cabinet that housed the tea cups and got a cute little one, then plopped the sore throat tea bag in it, hoping it wouldn't make her feel like she actually was sick (funny how certain tastes did that). Returning to the stove, she turned it off and grabbed at the kettle stupidly, forgetting in her gratefulness that it would be more than just a bit hot.

"Ouch!" The next thing she knew, the fingertips of her right hand were throbbing with heat, quickly turning red. Tears collecting in her eyes from the sharp pain, she heard the sound of Matt's chair scooting back.

Suddenly he was behind her, moving her to the sink. His arms encircled her on either side, one hand taking hold of the wrist of her burnt hand, the other reaching to turn water on. She could feel him pressed against her back, and his face very very close to hers, hovering somewhere over her left shoulder. "You should be more careful," he said in a low, quiet voice. He was so close it didn't need to be louder. He moved her fingers under the flow of water, and she winced a bit at first. It stung. But it contrasted so much with his hand around her wrist. His touch was soft and cold, unlike the heat of her fingers.

They stood like that for what seemed like a long time but couldn't have been more than a minute. Sora was all too aware of Matt's breathing; his every movement. Her cheeks must have been as red as her fingertips, but at least he probably couldn't see her face.

"Why are you so distracted?" he asked her.

If only she could tell him.

"Does that feel any better?" His next question. She bent her burned fingers, rather unnecessarily (though she had realized she hadn't been paying much attention to the pain in them) and nodded truthfully.

The water continued to run over her burn. "A few more minutes; then we'll bandage it," he told her. She nodded, relieved. At least now he'd stop standing so close to her!

Except… he didn't. Oh, great. She could think of at least a trillion (er, where had that number come from?) people who would do anything to be in her position right now. Not that she was hating it or anything, but that wasn't the point. Things would just be a lot easier if he left and went to sit back down at the table; simply breathing would be a lot easier!

"Anyway."

Oh. No, no! Not this again! Sora didn't think she could dodge the question this time. Damn girly hormones! Er, hurry now, think of an excuse! Ignore the fact that he's so much warmer than you thought he would be, except for his hand… Hm, is all his skin so smooth like that? Oh crap! Stop it! Right now! Oh no, but how to stop anyway? He was breathing out again. How come nobody ever told her that breathing out was the most effective form of seduction ever?? It definitely was. Gaah! Think of… of… umm… grass! Yay, grass. Happy grass.

"I'll be playing the first half, but I was wondering if you'd go with me anyway."

…while she was busy thinking about grass, he'd somehow found a way to ask her anyway. Oh, lovely.

"I…" she began.

Any excuse. Anything. Any distraction, any freaking love noise of Mimi and Izzy to break the tension!

"Um… would…"

Dear god, whoever you are, I'm sorry for my previous non-worship of you, but if you just give me a little more time with this whole thing I promise to… do something nice! For orphans or something!

Wow, Sora. What an effective prayer. She could have kicked herself, but she didn't have much room to move since Matt was right there. Yeah, like she needed to be reminded of his proximity.

"Would… love…"

Bzzt. Bzzt.

It was her phone. Vibrating.

I love you phone! I love you god!

"Ah, hold on!" Sora said airily, sliding out of his grip (darn?) and racing over to her bag. She fished out her phone with her hand that wasn't burnt, about to welcome any call, any text, anything!

This is Shinji. Kari should be coming to get you and the others soon. You are needed in the Digital World.

As her eyes widened from reading it, her phone vibrated in her hand and another text came in, this one from Kari: S called, sorry this is short notice, Z and I coming soon!

Uh oh. She looked up at Matt. He was leaning against the sink, trying not to look so eager. "You would love to what?" he asked impatiently.

Oh. Right. Crap! "I would love to answer that question tomorrow!" Sora answered cheerfully. "I actually have to go now… Bye!" She grabbed her bag, shoved all her things into it, and ran out of the room.

Sorry Matt. I promise I will answer tomorrow. After all… She sighed. If I don't pick one of them, they'll get tired of me… I'm not independent. I need someone's love. And if they can no longer love me as a friend, then…

"Wait!" he'd called after her, but she'd ignored him. Or maybe she was already gone. Matt turned off the water in the sink. "The bandages… and the calculus test…" he said, to no one.

Not to mention the tea.

In the empty hallway of Izzy's apartment building, Sora was running towards the corridor when all of a sudden there was a distortion of light and two girls fell nearly on top of her.

Kari looked ordinary enough, but Zoe was wearing huge heels, a slathering of make-up, and some sort of tiny red dress.

"No time to ask," Zoe said darkly, at seeing Sora's expression.

Kari giggled. "Let's go get Rika!" They reached for each others' hands and then they were off.

End of Part II, Chapter Four: Calculus Burns

Please review! Only three more chapters until Part II is over!

Because Kari's part is coming up soon, I'd like to know all your ideas about the Kari/Shinji pairing. Any thoughts? Would that be interesting or not? I'm not saying like "oh that will definitely be the final pairing!" but a lot of you have said Kari/OC and I'm wondering if you mean Shinji by that.

Even if you haven't voted for that I'd still like to know your feelings about the pairing, independent of your Takari/Daikari loyalties. xD

For example: "Although I support Takari, it would still be interesting to throw Shinji into the mix and see how he interacts with Kari..." or something. o-o; Okay, stopping now because I'm just patronizing you guys by treating you like second graders. xD! Sorry.

Anyway, please review and tell me what you think (about anything)! 8D