Hannah woke up in a white room. The first emotion she felt was annoyance, though she didn't let it show on her face. She looked as much as she can around the room without getting up. She could see the top of three heads in front of her. She recognized the tallest first.

"Niara-san?"

The half-Russian's head perked up at her call. She let out a large grin. "Hey, Hannah. Nice to see you up."

"I'm not exactly up..."

The other two stood up from the couch and went to her sides at once. She wasn't shocked to see Nikolai, but Muraku's presence confused her a bit. None of that registered to them as they asked her how she was feeling.

"Numb." She stated bluntly. "It's like my entire body's been paralyzed."

"Could be the after-effects from the sedatives..." Nikolai muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing."

Muraku smiled at the two. He finds many of their interactions funny really. Even if this sort of act is what they use to cover up all the secrets, it was still a part of their habits. He enjoyed watching the two have the most random conversations in the strangest times.

Niara got a phone call and she left the room for the kids. Muraku and Nikolai dragged a chair each and they began to update her on what had been going on. Not that there was much, really. They had arrived the previous day and Nikolai and Muraku had both spent the night at the hospital. Niara and Kirito had gone to Tiny Orbit after dropping them off and registering her, but then came back in the morning to check on them.

"Wataru came too yesterday, but he got a call so he couldn't stay." Muraku stated.

"A call? From who?"

Nikolai let out a sigh. "Take a guess." Seeing her eyes widen, he nodded  "Yeah. Them. It's possible that Takuya-san called the school to get their contact info and told them about your condition."

She put up a bitter smile. "And he actually thought those two would show up? That's laughable."

Muraku had an expression that's somewhere between confused and worried. "Why is it laughable? You're not close with your parents?"

She surpressed the urge to chuckle. "That's one way to sugarcoat it. They sent me to Country A when I was five to live with my grandparents just so they don't have to deal with my condition."

"Wataru told me he never met you until about three years ago... But if you were sent away when you were five then..."

She shrugged at him. "He's only a year younger than me... Neither of us remembered I guess." She shook her head. "I barely remember anything before I started school there."

Nikolai then showed a smile. "Remember when we first met?"

"You mean when I was in the corner trying to eat unnoticed and you came saying 'What's up?'?"

"And you replied with literal soulless eyes saying 'The cieling.' You were deadpanning me!"

"You can't deadpan a person."

"Well, you did!"

"Is that really how you both first met?" Muraku asked, blinking profusely.

"Believe it or not, yes." Nikolai said with a sigh. "I spent the entire day trying to get her to come out of the class to play with the others, but she wouldn't."

"He wouldn't give up until over a week later." Hannah giggled at the memory. "And then, he just sort took the seat beside mine. We talk every once in a while between the classes, and then at break time, he runs off."

"I didn't like that you basically had no friends." He said with a shrug. "And you were such a nice kid too."

"Compared to you? Yeah, I was."

"Oh come on! It was just that one time! The entire class was in on it too!"

"What did he do?" The long haired male ask, completely invested in their conversation.

"It was April Fools in our... Was it 3rd grade?"

"4th. The entire class agreed to prank our teacher and we did it with invisible chalk."

"They rubbed the entire chair with that thing and, while we couldn't see it on the chair, there was a huge, pink patch on our teacher's pants when he left the class."

"We got in huge trouble back then. But hey, it made for a nice memory."

Hannah could only shake her head at that. "I wasn't in on it, but the end result was hillarious."

"You were heaving way more than usual that day." At that statement, she punched her friend's shoulder in a joking manner.

Muraku smiled as he continued to engage them on their stories. "Were you both in the same class for the 6 years in elementary?"

"Yeah, we were." Nikolai said, his excitement only growing. "It's a crazy coincidence."

"Which was why we felt pretty bad when we went to seperate middle schools." Hannah sighed at that. "Nikolai had to go back to Russia and, since my grandparents died, I went back to Japan."

"We called a lot, right up til the part I got to Kamui." He groaned slightly. "It sucked when that happened, but I was glad I at least got to tell you about it before I left. Otherwise, you might think I'm avoiding you or something."

"And about a few months later Wataru got in, and then I did. And well, Muraku-san, you know the rest."

He nodded at that. "We spent our time fighting to protect Rossius and, eventually, Jenock. And then Seredy happened, and now all this."

It was a strange feeling. Even with the long break they had, the only thing they could recall properly was the fighting. He didn't like that.

Still, there wasn't anything they could do at the moment. They could only wait another week, when they would be able to figure out the truth.

~~~~~~~~~~

Reminisce: Recall the past

I love this trio, they're so cute :')