Zen Vincent stood  a few feet away from Aunt Rosa's Floral Studio, suddenly unsure of what to do. His sister had bullied him into picking up Mariah since she still needed to 'touch up' her make-up. He had'nt given the chore much thought, until he realised he had to talk to 'The Ray Kon' who was handling the studio that evening.  Well, he did know that the two of them stayed at the same place, but to actually muster up the nerve to talk to him wasn't something he was prepared for.  Most importantly, how was a meek guy like him supposed to pick up a female friend to a party when she's already the girlfriend of another, highly intimidating senior?

"No need to back up there. I saw you." Ray called out, not bothering to look in his direction. Zen fidgeted nervously, walking up to the entrance of the counter. Ray was preparing a bouquet of red flowers and continued to ignore him. "Those are lovely pink roses." Zen commented lamely, trying to strike up a conversation. Ray looked up at him in annoyance, as though he had heard those assumptions quite a lot.  "Those are Tsubaki, Camellia by the way, not pink roses." He deadpanned.  But to Zen, those flowers still looked like pink roses , yet he immediately apologized. He didn't  want to upset Ray before he actually came to the point of discussion. He hadn't considered that he would need a PhD in Floral Science to pick up a friend to a party... 

"You know, Camellias symbolise Humility, discretion and perfect love." Zen wondered what he was getting at before a thought struck him. Did Ray know who  he was?  What if he thought he was a customer? " I think there's been a misunderstanding. I'm not here for the flowers. I'm Zen Vincent by the way, your junior at Tokyo West." "I know who you are, Isa's little brother." Well, he was nearly as tall as Ray himself and just a year younger than his sister, so he sure as hell was annoyed by still being called little, but he nodded along. Ray's lips twitched as though he was trying to hold back a laugh. "Apologies for calling you little, but you know what I meant." Zen found himself relaxing on finding that Ray wasn't as intimidating as he looked in tournaments after all, if he could still find humour in simple conversations.

Ray continued "This is Mariah's first party. She seems to be adjusting to this highschool environment, his voice suddenly sternly quickly and I'm worr-. She never had the exposure to such things back at home and I don't really know how she will fare at this one. I don't care if you get too drunk or stoned or were busy with someone. I want her home by midnight if you want her to be going anywhere with you guys anytime soon. Have I made myself clear?" Zen swallowed nervously, meekly nodding in response. 

Zen thought Mariah was very lucky to have such a caring lover, even if they werent speaking for the moment. Because, if he did realise one thing, it was that the two of them were deeply in Love. But before he could actually voice out the sentiment, Mariah called for him. "Zen, is that you?" She had chosen a hot pick tube dress and simple white stone jewellery for the occasion. She was a bit wobbly on her feet, since she was wearing pointed heels, but other than that, she looked absolutely gorgeous. But Ray didn't spare her a glance. Zen really marveled Ray's self-control, for he didn't think anyone could ignore a beauty like Mariah dressed like she was, and especially not her own boyfriend.

 He turned to him and gave him a bouquet of lilies. "These are for you. Lovely lilies for Lizzie. I assume it's your first date? Isa bled my ears out by narrating your love story to me the other day.." Zen couldn't help but blush deeply as Ray thumped his back. Big sisters are so annoying! "We should get going then, don't you think?" Mariah called out in a small voice, sounding a bit uncertain. It must be awkward to suddenly be the third wheel in your own house and between your own best friend and boyfriend. 

"Yeah, you're right. How much do I owe you?" No need, the flowers are on me! " He assured, pushing the money back to his hands. "I hope you, Lizzie and Isa have fun!" He called out, pointedly excluding Mariah. As soon as we turned the corner, Mariah sighed in a defeated sort of way. "He really knows how to rub salt to wounds, doesn't he? " She asked and moved ahead, not really waiting for an answer. 

***

The party was, as usual, fantastic. Of course it was, given that it was being hosted by Liz Young, a junior who was notoriously known for her wild parties. And added to that, her family owned a mansion just at the end of the city with a personal swimming pool, a vast garden and a hall so big that it was the size of a dance floor and people were doing all those dangerous stunts and dares they would never dream to do in real life, but were drunk for now. They weren't really allowed to consume alcohol as it was still illegal, but high caffeine added food worked just fine for them all. The party had been in full swing by the time they had arrived there, but the crowd had more or less dwindled by half past eleven. 

Mariah had never felt this alive her whole life. She had just dance continuously since each song was better than the previous one the the crowd was so loud. Isa and Aubery were with her for most of rhe time, just chilling. Zen and Lizzie had slipped them somewhere in the very beginning, wanting a bit of space. But then she had gotten into a game of truth and dares and had somehow gotten separated from them all. She was damn tired now and just wanted to go home and sleep. She was making her way upstairs when check if she could find Zen when she bumped into something and slipped a step. But before she could tumble down the whole way, a strong hand gripped her wrist, steadying her. "Thank you for catching me. It would have been a nasty tumble.." She said airily, looking up.

 "Kai! Is that you? What are you doing here?" She asked, surprised. It indeed was Kai Hiwatari himself, wearing a black shirt with swirls of fire arising from the cuffs. And the stranger thing was, he looked kind of panicky and vacant ar the same time. The only emotion she had seen on Kai's face was indifference, grumpy or exceptionally pissed. "Hm" He said, before continuing down the stairs, as though he hadn't heard her at all. Mariah was one of the few people who  never let him get away with his rudeness. "Honestly, what is so difficult about holding a conversation for you?" She demanded.

 "That seemed to bring a bit of color to his pale face. If she didn't know better, she would have thought he was blushing, but this was Kai she was talking about. This was him getting angry when drunk. "Want a piece of my mind, then take it. I'm done with putting up with your cranky boyfriend. You can't just trigger of a childhood anguish and expect him to talk to be the one to talk to you. So, stop being so difficult, talk to him and get the bloody problem solved. It's been a bleeding month! Happy now? " He asked, looking angrier than before, before pushing her aside and heading out. Mariah stood stunned for a moment. Kai might have as well as slapped her for everything he said. Tears threatened to spill down her eyes.

 It was a cold moment of clarity. She had hurt both her brother and boyfriend when she double crossed them. Ray was hurting because of her. The reason he wasn't speaking to her was not so as to punish her, but for her to apologize, comfort and assure him that it would never happen again. How could she have forgotten how he had lost more or less his entire family, which all started with an aunt sowing discord between his father and his brother?

"Mer, is that you?" She heard Lizzi asking. She and Zen were making their way down. Mariah tried to act normal. "Gosh, I was just looking for you. Can we please go home now? I'm so tired." "Yeah, we were just coming to look for you. Isa's waiting for us at the gate." Since everyone was tired, they slowly walked down the road, while Isa narrated her entire evening in detail. The rest of them just injected whenever we had something to add. 

Suddenly, Mariah turned around, staring at a seemingly empty road. She had the strangest feeling of being watched. She waited for another second before shaking her head. She must be super tired and high on sugar to imagine such things.  

They bid Lizzi farewell at the metro station. Zen offered to drop her, but she waved him off by quickly kissing him on the cheek. "I'll be fine, Zee." She said, both of them heavily blushing as she and Isa ohhhh and awwed them.

A few minutes after that, everything can crashing down on them. They were halfway  home when they were suddenly surrounded by four strangers in masks. One of them just grabbed Zen by his neck and slammed him against a pole repeatedly. Isa was quick to react, "no!" she screamed as she tackled the man, making him let go of Zen. Isa started punching the guy so hard in the face that he lost one of his front tooth. The pain made him fall unconscious. Mariah quickly whipped out her beyblade Galux, sending sending her at one of them, while she whacked another in the head with her bare fists. He grabbed her wrist and twisted her hand, making her howl in pain. But she quickly head butted him, escaping his grip. Galux sliced through the other guy's shirt, drawing blood, before hitting him in the head. 

She was momentarily distracted when the fourth guy kicked Isa to the ground. And before she could recover, he quickly injected something into her neck. The effect was immediate. Isa fell to the ground, unconscious. Zen, even in his dazed state, tried pushing that guy away from her, only to be hurled into another wall. He didn't get up this time.  She threw are series of kicks and punches in the way of the forth guy, taking him down in what seemed like seconds. A quick glance told her that all four of them were down. 

"Zen, Isa!" She cried out,  running towards them. Zen's hair was sleek with blood and he had lost consciousness by then. She didn't know what drug Isa had been injected with. Both of them needed medical attention immediately. She quickly dug for her phone and was about tro call for a ambulance when she was pulled up by her hair. Her eyes watered in pain. It was the guy who had tried at twisting her arm. This time, he broke her right wrist, her dominant wrist in a snap. It was a pain like no another. She might have shrieked, but she couldn't remember about it. She must have blanked out for a few seconds because the next thing she knew, the guy had pushed her against a wall and was fumbling with a needle. And before she could even prosess the thought that she should try escaping his grip, he slammed the cold metal of the needle where her neck and collar bone met. She panicked. What if the drug killed her? She didn't want to die like this. This far from home, not on talking terms with her brother and Ray, the two most important people in her life and not being able to save her friends atleast.  And then she remembered nothing at all. 

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A/N: So, how was this? It was quite unexpected, I'm sure. After such a long time of quiet and peace, I sprung this on you with no prior warning, sorry for that( you know I'm not!!)Just so you know... This is just the beginning. Things are going to get much more interesting from now on. A kind of peace before two storms was what this was!! Forgive any grammatical mistakes/spelling mistakes. I was too excited to post to bother with checking again!