The next morning comes yet it is more accurate to say it is night. Takumi wakes at a time described ungodly for an average person. Sweat streaks down his face and Takumi finds himself short of breath. He throws the covers off of him and sits up. Hastily he tries to calm down his breathing and steady his fast paced heart beat. This is a common occurrence that happens to him. A night terror he never remembers will always come when he sleeps if there isn't another nightmare to take its place.

Takumi had grown accustom to them despite the haunting pain it leaves on his body. The pain can be described to be similar to the phantom pain a person with severed limbs would feel. Once Takumi tried to investigate why he is plagued with these dreams but stopped after being convinced that they were meant to strengthen his mentality. The Rainbow Sage was the one who said that to him. The only thing Takumi could do was accept it, after seeing the sadness in those unreadable eyes of the older man.

A muffle sound of coughing reaches Takumi's ear as it echoes throughout the house. The direction they come from was Kamui's room. Taking care to walk around in silence he goes to Kamui's door. He knocks a few times before calling out her name in a whisper, "Kamui... Kamui?"

He waits for a good three minutes before trying again, "Kamui? Do I need to grab Mikoto?"

Sound of coughing continues and it seems she hasn't woken up. So Takumi not wanting to enter the room since it's his sister's gently walks to Mikoto's door. This time he knocks on her wooden door. He waits for another good three minutes before knocking again, "Mikoto?"

He can hear the soft ruffling of sheets moving and light steps coming towards the door. Takumi taking a step away from the door sees it crack open, revealing a sleepy woman from the ajar door. Her face trying to wake up but to no avail so she tiredly asks, "What's the matter Takumi?"

"It's Kamui. I think she caught a cold," Takumi explains. This makes Mikoto open her door fully to walk pass Takumi. Her eyes slightly tire but more focused now. She travels to Kamui's door as she's now aware of the sound of coughing coming from it. Without a single thought slipping through her mind she opens the door and enters, closing it behind her. Takumi leaves them be and goes to shower before dressing into his school uniform. Then he descends downstairs while hearing a retching sound from Kamui's room. He decides that Mikoto wouldn't be able to come down soon so he'll prepare breakfast for today.

The confidence Takumi has in the kitchen is average but this'll be the first time he'll cook for the family. Putting the blue apron on and rolling up his sleeves he looks around to see what he can make. The idea to make croissants taps his mind since he has around three hours to use with an extra 30 minutes. The Rainbow Sage was always fond at anything involving creation so naturally Takumi picked up some of the man's interests when he lived with him. It just so happens baking was on the list, though Takumi would admit he's terrible at cooking if he doesn't have a recipe to follow. He checks his memory for the recipe and make sure he had the proper ingredients. Then he starts off with measuring all of his ingredients.

A long while later, Takumi is now pulling the tray of croissants out of the oven. The heat created by the oven warms up the room and the scent of the pastries brings Sakura down. Unexpectedly Takumi had finish baking with an extra 10 minutes to spare and was around the time Sakura usually got up to help prepare breakfast. Her head of pink hair pokes in the kitchen, curious at who is in the kitchen.

At this point Takumi already started the rice porridge for Kamui, letting the croissants to rest and cool down. Sakura walks in, still wearing her pajamas, and looks at the croissants in amazement, "Big brother did you make this?"

"Hm?" Takumi looks over at her and blushes, "Yeah, but some of them I deformed them by accident."

Sakura affirms his claims while she still looks at the more perfect croissants with sparkly eyes, "It'll all taste the same."

Takumi stirs the porridge and sighs, "You can't have them yet. They're still too hot."

Sakura's face falls at his words and finally notice the pot of porridge he is making. Takumi sensing her question explains, "I think Kamui caught the flu so I'm making this for her."

"Your amazing big brother," Sakura smiles happily at Takumi. Her praise makes him blush even harder and makes him turn away from her. Quickly he asks Sakura while facing the other direction, "Can you grab Mikoto? The porridge will be done by the time she gets here."

Sakura nods with energy before going to complete Takumi's request. Takumi smiles at the sight of his little sister and see that her love for sweets hasn't gone away. He remembers how she would get the biggest parfaits possible and finish them when Takumi finishes a regular size one. Not forgetting about the rice porridge he turns off the stove and sets it on a tray with other necessaries require. He takes extra care that the tray is visible for Mikoto to see before proceeding to clean the dishes.

Halfway through the dishes he hears Mikoto entering the kitchen, he continues on. Mikoto smiles at Takumi's diligence and says, "Thank you a lot Takumi."

Takumi takes a small glance at Mikoto who is dress in casual clothing now. Reaching for another dirty dish he responds, "It's nothing."

His ears ting a slight red and he hides his happiness in the action of cleaning up. Mikoto lightly laughs at this sight, thinking how similar Takumi is when her husband acted the same. She then chooses not to tease him and takes the tray upstairs.

Sakura returns to the kitchen when Takumi is setting the table. He can hear her frying something for today's lunch then her voice asking, "Um Big brother? I am going to use some of the croissants for lunch."

"Go ahead. There's plenty," Takumi smiles at her. Walks over to her and points at some of them, "These are plain. These have a bar of chocolate in them. And these have some fruit in them... Probably why they're so odd looking."

Takumi lets out a dry laugh at his careless and messy handiwork. Sakura picks up a chocolate croissant, still able to feel its original warmth from being baked, and asks, "Big brother shall we eat?"

Takumi nods and before they sit down for breakfast Takumi welcomes in Hinata and Oboro. Hinata and Oboro over compliments his skills with pure admiration, making Takumi blush and eat in silence. Unable to refuse or retort at them to stop. Then being sent off by Mikoto they leave the house.

They all arrive to school when the stream of students entering is few. There's still time left to casually take care of any business so Takumi decide to go to the library. Separating from the others he makes his way to the library excepting that the hallways there will be less crowded.

Less crowded is an alright description of the hallway but in reality it is empty. It seems that not many students walk along this path. This works perfectly for Takumi as he prefers to be alone over being in the presence of unfamiliar faces. But this ease is short lived as Hawkeyes activates again. A frosty breeze that belongs with winter strokes his expose skin as he can sense a vampire coming in fast. He tries to keep his bearings and keep walking casually.

The impact is sudden as someone slams into his side, coming from the window. He'll have to remind himself to train with Hawkeyes so this doesn't happen again. Never mind that, the collision of him and the vampire was strong enough to knock him off his feet and he falls on top of his book bag. He cringes at the sound of plastic breaking and concludes his lunch is unsalvageable.

Hoping that his books and papers are okay he lifts himself up and looks to see a girl on top of him. Her frame is petite just like Sakura's and her blonde hair is neatly tied up into two twisted pigtails. He can see hints of lilac streaks but he isn't in the position to debate if those were dyed or natural currently. Rubbing his face he growls, "Get off."

The girl who he now notice is wearing the school uniform scoots off in a hurry. She's still sitting on the ground and she apologizes profusely, "Sorry!"

Her large pink eyes tearful and apologetic with a hint of fear. Takumi sighs, he didn't mean to make her cry, however he deduces that she's apologizing because she thinks she had injured him. Though if he wasn't trained for such incidents he would expected a fracture if not a broken bone so he can see why she acts this way. He lifts himself up from the ground and picks his bag up. Dusting his pants off he release another sigh, before extending his hand out to her, "Here."

She looks up at Takumi's hand, surprise colors her face, as she hesitates to takes his hand. She keeps her arms wrap around herself protectively. Takumi then notice the bundle of fur she cradles. He ask, "Is that a cat?"

Her mood lightens up and she responds, "This buddy got stuck in the tree so I climbed out from the building to save it."

Takumi keeps his eyes on the kind girl and once again offers his hand, "Are you hurt?"

This time she takes it and Takumi pulls her up. Once she is standing Takumi introduce himself, "I'm Takumi. Takumi Hoshido."

The moment he said his name her expression brightens to an unbelievable amount. While keeping the bobtail cat close she excitedly exclaims, "I'm Elise. Elise de Nohr, a friend of your sister Sakura!"

Her sudden change of behavior perturb Takumi in how he should act so he hesitantly says, "You're a friend of Sakura?"

She nods with vigor, "Yeah! Me and Sakura are in the same class... Oh! And I also know Big Sis Kamui too."

"'Big sis'?" Takumi questions in confusion but shakes that off with, "Never mind that. I think you should get that cat outside before it escapes."

Elise looks down at the struggling cat before letting an 'oh' come from her mouth. She waves a bye before turning to leave for the closest exit. Watching that petite body disappear makes Takumi realize how much energy he used from interacting with her. She's most definitely the type to still be energetic after a heated spar. He then decides to go to the classroom since it'll be a waste of a trip to the library if he could only be there for a small five minutes.

With ease the day quickly pass to lunch and just like before many dashed to the cafeteria. Takumi learned that the kitchen sells limited special products depending on the day but the regular food was also to die for as well. After the encounter with Elise, Takumi as predicted found his lunchbox broken beyond repair and the food covered in plastic shards. Luckily the cloth that wrapped the box prevented any of the edible solids to ruin his schoolwork. Not taking the risk of eating plastic Takumi promptly tosses the container away and nearly folds the cloth back into his bag since it can be wash. Thus he is without a meal to subsidize him. Maybe he could dare attempt the chaos today since he's without a lunch but refrains cause he remembers some words of wisdom from the Rainbow Sage, humans are the scariest creatures on this planet. Fortunately he is accustomed to skipping meals so not eating is also an option.

As he thinks about how he'll explain the broken lunchbox container to Mikoto, someone rudely calls to him, "Hey."

Takumi didn't resist the urge to ignore the person besides him. He continues occupying his thoughts as he mindlessly think about why Sakura is late. Just like before she promised him that she'll meet him at his classroom for lunch today.

"Hey," the boy persistent in getting Takumi's attention continues, "Hey can you not hear me?"

This is getting annoying so Takumi glares at the speaker, "What?"

The blond is equally frustrated at him but didn't shout, instead maintain his cool. Owain who is sitting across Leo gives both of them a smile. Leo folds his arms and ask, "Did something happen to Kamui?"

Takumi stare at him and smirks, "What? She didn't text you?"

"So she's sick. That's all I need, continue daydreaming," Leo concludes and waves Takumi off. Takumi is stun at Leo's acumen and feels even more frustrated with the vampire. His emotions getting the best of his wit he snaps, "How could you possibly come to that?"

This time it is Leo who smirks and outright ignores him. Owain who is witness to this looks confuse and is trying to think of a way for the tension in the mood to lessen. However the only idea he could do is to continue eating his lunch. However he couldn't get another bite when a certain pink haired girl comes crashing in.

"Big brother!"

Author's note:
The cliffhanger