When I woke up the next morning, I found myself sprawled on the floor of my living room with a blanket wrapped around one of my legs. Popcorn was on the floor, soda cans were sitting on the table, and a few empty bags of candy were strewn on the floor. I groaned as I took in the mess Ace and I had left the night before knowing that I would have to clean it up when I got up the next morning. I lifted my left hand and saw that the ring Ace gave me was still there and and very much real. It gleamed in the mid-morning light that shone through the window.

After I tore my eyes away from the thing, I grabbed my phone and checked the time. I nearly screamed as I noticed that I had 30 minutes before my parents came home from their morning run and gym routine to get the place to look at little decent.

"Well, it's time to clean this shit up I guess," I mumbled as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes.

The popcorn on the floor and the soda cans on the table were the first things taken care of. I threw the blanket in my room to take are of later and pushed the furniture back to its proper places. I took one last look at the place before I started for the stairs and that's when it hit me. The warm, sweet smell of Ace was still lingering in the house. I resulted in the last minute decision of air freshener to mask the smell.

Click

The door opened and my parents walked in. I quickly and silently darted upstairs to my room before they had closed the door behind them.

I slipped under my covers and gripped my favorite pillow that I've had for years. It's a kishin soul pillow that I got when I was little. Actually, my parents bought for me at a fair we went to. I was probably around the age of 3 and wouldn't stop crying about how much I didn't want to be there. I whined so much that they eventually had to take me to a small kiosk and buy me something so I would shut up. I don't know why, but it caught my eye immediately and I pointed and repeatedly said "I want that!" as I pointed at it. I guess I liked it so much because it has this soft orange color around the soul that kind of mimics the glow of an actual soul.

"Annalin?" called my mom.

I let out a low groan in response.

"Ann, it's time to get up. It's almost 9:30 and you have school at 11."

I gave my pillow one last, tight squeeze before I got up and made myself look somewhat decent. I had recently gotten into the thing where I don't care what I wear as long as it kind of looks good and my hair isn't crazy. It's nice, but gets really annoying when ever I see Ace at school and I look like I just rolled out of bed, threw on clothes, and brushed my hair.

"Oh, and Ann, Ace said he'd come by to pick you up for school before he left this morning. So you might want to hurry a little bit," called my mom.

"Okay," I replied, a little bothered that I now had to choose clothes that actually looked cute.

I didn't recall Ace having told me that he would come by and pick me up last night. But my mind naturally decided that he had told my mom not to tell me that he was going to stop by and pick me up before he left. Oh mom, why can't you just let him surprise me for once in your life. She was the smartest in her class when she was at Shibusen, with my dad near the bottom of it. She's told me about all her adventures and how she finally managed to make my dad into a death scythe for Shinigami Sama. She even thought it was necessary to tell me about how dad asked her out and then how he proposed to her a year or so later. Like, mom thanks but no thanks because I really didn't want to know that kind of stuff.

"Babe?" I heard Ace's voice as he walked up the stairs.

"What's up?" I asked, not thinking of using a nickname that I had come up with for him.

"Just here to pick you up for school."

I smiled as I realized he was standing behind me as I smoothed out my skirt and tucked my shirt in. I looked at myself in the mirror that had found it's home on the back of my door before I turned around and felt myself begin to blush madly.

"You ready?" he asked.

"Mhmm," I hummed.

XXX

We got to school 30 minutes before school actually started. It was nice because hardly anyone was around.

He gave me a full tour of the place even though I had told him a million times I already knew the whole place by heart because of my parets having taken me with them when ever they were called to go on a mission. I vaguely remember sitting in the death room as Spirit whined over my mom not having time to spend with him. The man is lame beyond belief if you ask me. After a bit of walking and me acting like I didn't know the place, we went out to one of the balcanies and sat on the wall, over looking Death City.

"So tell me, Ann, why is it that you chose me to be your partner and not some guy who would be drooling over you and sending you fan mail?" he questioned after a while.

"Well, uhhh. I don't know. It could be because of a number of things. But I think the real reason I chose you is because you've always been there for me when ever I needed help," I replied as I looked out at Death City.

"Hmm."

"What?"

"Nothing. Just thinking."

"Oh."

He wrapped his arm around my waist as he kissed my temple. I was lucky to have stollen his heart because I've begun to notice the amount of girls that crowd around him when he's walking down the hall with his eyes clearly locked on mine. But now it's more entertaining than annoying to watch them drool over him and then suddenly have zero interest in him when they find out he's dating Shinigami Sama's favorite partnership's child. Mom and Dad are truely two people who just, I don't know, had instant chemistry with each other or something.