A/N: Ummm….so hi.

This chapter's apparently been sitting on my hard drive for a while. I have been writing this story and I never updated it. Whoops. Heh.

I am in the process of rewriting a lot of the beginning, though – taking forever to write a story really makes things complicated. Chapter 17's also almost done, so I'll try and post that one ASAP.

Trust me…I never meant this story to die! –cries-

Chapter 16

I leaned up against my locker and stared at the ceiling as Mimi continued drilling me from inside of my car. She was already on edge since I picked her up a half hour earlier than normal (the snow plows still weren't in good shape, even three days after the snow finally stopped), but the fact that I hadn't told her about Izzy staying over and us kissing until that morning was making her freak out.

"I still can't believe you didn't tell me! You're such a brat! Both of you!" She covered her face with her hands. "Why didn't either one of you tell me right away?!"

I put a hand on her shoulder. "Mimi. No one knows. I wanted to tell you in person. I didn't think school was going to be closed for almost the whole week."

She glared at me. She'd slapped her eyeliner on that morning in such a tizzy that it was uneven. That never happened with her. "I appreciate the sentiment, but for real? And he fucking stayed at your place?! For three days?! THREE DAYS?!"

At that point, I put my other hand on her cheek. "Mims, calm down. You ran into Izzy's apartment after you and Jou had sex. I would have done the same if we could have left my house." I smiled a bit, remembering the intense snowball fight we had the day before. He and I were both getting cabin fever, so I suggested it. He'd never participated in one, so I made him. He whooped my ass. "I didn't want to do it over text, or phone call, or even Skype. I wanted to be able to hug you, or, in this case, calm you down."

Mimi ran her hands through her hair. "I suppose you're right. I'm still irritated, though. Like, for real." She squinted at me. "You guys didn't…"

I started cough laughing in surprise. "No! No, we didn't. Just…lots of kissing." Lots. And lots. And lots. I never knew how romantic it would be to kiss in the snow. Amazing. "I know I don't have anything to compare it to, but I'm pretty sure he's a really good kisser."

She shook her head, jaw set. "Nope. I didn't want to know that. Not about Koushiro. Nope. Weird." Moving to the side a bit, she broke through my hold and grabbed Izzy out of nowhere. I heard him let out a surprised squeak that turned into a whimper when he realized who grabbed him. "Speak of the devil! You have some explaining to do, mister."

"Mimi-"

"You kiss my best friend and you don't TELL ME?!"

Izzy's gaze shifted to me for a split second before it went back to her. "I thought I was your best friend." He looked at me again, as if for approval. I smiled at him. Nice one.

Mimi put her hands on her hips and huffed. "Irrelevant! The fact that I was left out of this equation entirely makes me quite upset."

A hand on my shoulder behind me made me jump. "What's up with the princess?" Jackson whispered in my ear.

"She's mad that Izzy and I didn't tell her we kissed."

He used me as a push off to jump super high in the air while screaming. "GET IT, CHLOE! THAT'S MY GIRL!" I pushed him away to get him to stop. "About damn time! I was starting to think I'd have to kiss you to get the build-up out of your system!"

I shushed him. Turning my attention back to my Japanese cohorts, I discovered they were arguing with each other in, you guessed it, Japanese. I cocked my head. Rather heated Japanese. "Do you think I should intervene?" I said to Jackson as I pointed between the two of them.

"Nah, I think they're all ri – okay, no, you should. I think Mimi's about to pop your boyfriend's head off." I nodded in agreement and ran over, putting distance between the two of them.

"You two bicker more than an old married couple. I have no idea what you both were just saying to each other, or even why you're fighting, but seriously. Calm down. Mimi," she did a few hair flips to get her hair back to normal, "I already told you why we didn't tell you. In person is better. You did it for us, I wanted to do that for you." She pursed her lips but said nothing. "And Izzy, Jesus, why were you yelling at her? There's no need for that. Everyone settle. Please."

I watched the red disappear from both of their cheeks. They sighed at the same time, and then, pushing me back onto the lockers, embraced each other, all the while apologizing to each other in Japanese. I shook my head in amazement. The depth of the friendships they all had was so intense. 'I suppose that's what spending months in the Digital World with only each other to rely on would do for a group,' I thought, crossing my arms and smiling. I looked down at my shoes. My smile lessened. Yes, I had this crest thing, but I didn't have what they had. Whenever the thought crossed my mind, I felt…well, I felt jealous. I wished I could have had that experience.

I wished I could be a part of it now.

Without me even realizing, Izzy slid beside me. He snuck his arm behind my back and pulled me to him, kissing my cheek. "Ohayo," he said in my ear. I furiously blushed. Mimi and Jackson made gagging noises. Izzy and I exchanged a glance, and then full on kissed. Mimi threw her hands up in the air and walked down the hall to her locker. We giggled once she was out of earshot.

Lucas, appearing out of nowhere, poked me on the shoulder. "Yeah, gross. Cute, but gross."

Izzy shook his head. "It's all to tease Mimi. She is so offended that we didn't tell her right away. With all of the teasing she's put me through in the near decade I've known her, it's only fair." I nodded in agreement. "Plus, outward displays of affection aren't as common in Japan as they are here. She knows I'd never do that if we all were in Japan. The shock value of all of this is rather amusing."

I leaned back into him. Jackson and Lucas walked off to their lockers, giving me a visual of the now gradually crowding hallway. A leggy blonde girl walked past us, dragging someone with her. My eyebrows furrowed together. She was dragging Eli around like a ragdoll. She was laughing hysterically. I could tell he was not enjoying himself. He eventually wrenched his wrist from her grasp, saying something to her in anger. He turned back around to walk to where I assumed his locker was (I never really paid attention) but stopped when he saw us. He stared for way too long, but looked down and walked quickly down the hallway when he realized what he was doing.

Izzy sighed and said something about it, but I wasn't paying attention. I grabbed my books out of my locker, making sure Izzy couldn't see my face.

Eli looked shocked, and then he looked…sad.

Umm.

Mimi forgave me by choir. I gushed to her and the boys about everything that happened. Miranda heard us talking about it with her supersonic hearing and, nearly knocking Jessie out of her seat and her own chair over on the floor, ran to the four of us to get the details before Mr. Moreau walked in. She ran back once he did, but I saw her writing everything down on one of the spare pieces of paper we had in our folders. Jessie flashed me a huge smile and two thumbs up. I smiled back with a little wave. This was getting ridiculous.

Izzy didn't show up at lunch. He also wasn't in English. I texted him in between classes, trying to get a hold of him, but I didn't get an answer back. When the last bell rang, I grabbed Mimi as soon as I could and pulled her out to my car, explaining everything.

"That's not good."

"He would have told me if he got sick, right?"

Mimi nodded. "I'd expect him to say something to you, for sure, but I feel like he would tell me as well."

"Right." I sighed, looking around the parking lot. No sign of him. Eli's red Neon was still there. That meant Eli hadn't left yet, so…where was Izzy? I was in the middle of shooting him another text when Mimi whispered an "Oh, hell no," under her breath. I whipped around and came face to face with an incredibly perplexed looking Eli.

"Uh, hi?" I said, not sure what else to say. I could feel Mimi's glare going through my skull and hitting Eli smack dab in between the eyes. Can't say I didn't enjoy it. "Do you know where Izzy went?"

"Yeah, uh…my mom came to pick him up about third hour. He wasn't feeling well at all." He ran a hand through his hair. "I wasn't sure if he told you or not. It came on kind of sudden."

I squinted at him. "No…he didn't tell me. Um. Thank you, I guess." I started to turn back to my car to get in when I heard him shuffle a bit in his spot. Tucking some hair behind my ears, I raised my eyebrows at him. "Why aren't you leaving?"

"Doeshetreatyouokay?" Eli had major word vomit. Even Mimi stepped back from the affect of it. He cleared his throat. "Does he…does he treat you okay?"

My eyes shifted left to right. "Um…yeah, he does. Eli, why are you asking me that?" I put my phone in my pocket and crossed my arms. "Or even talking to me, for that matter? I think this is the first conversation we've had since you dropped me."

He went white as a ghost. I hit a nerve. Awesome. "Right, well…I just wanted to check and all…I mean, he lives with me, so…" He turned around at the sound of his last name. A junior who was posed to become the football captain after Eli graduated was yelling at him to get over to his truck. The blonde girl from that morning was sitting in the truck bed with her legs crossed. The truck bed was metal, and it was 20 degrees out. She was flying her intelligence flag proudly. Eli whipped his head back to me and backed up a bit. "Sorry, Chloe, but I-"

I cocked my head. "'Sorry, Chloe, but I can't talk to you anymore?'" His eyes widened as I quoted him verbatim. "Wow. Never heard that one before."

The guy yelled his name again, and then some sort of comment aimed at Mimi and me. Neither one of us could tell what he said, but Eli flinched, so I knew it wasn't good. "Chloe, I just…" He trailed off, backed up a few steps, and then ran off toward the truck.

It was only after I got in the car and started driving that I realized how much my hands were shaking.

"Eli's been super weird lately," Mimi commented after a few minutes of silence. I said nothing. "Like…Koushiro's said a few things to me about it."

"He never told me," I mumbled.

Mimi put her hands up. "Chloe, he knew you were asleep at the time so he talked to me about it. He feels like Eli's…he doesn't know. He just thinks it's odd." She cracked her knuckles. "I think it is, too."

I put my hair back in a haphazard ponytail to keep it out of my face. People were still driving like dumbasses, and there wasn't even really any snow on the roads anymore. The fact that I was anxious already really didn't help my driving. "Why didn't Izzy tell me he was sick?" I said more to myself than to Mimi.

She sighed, slumping down in the seat next to me. "I have no idea. Where would he have gotten something, anyway? He's been hanging out with you for the past couple of days."

I ran through the possibilities in my mind. Food poisoning, a cold from the snow, 24-hour stomach bug. He seemed absolutely fine that morning. I finished my text when I dropped Mimi off. Taking my phone off silent, I put it on the passenger seat face up. I wanted to make sure that if I didn't hear it go off, I'd have a better chance of seeing it light up.

My phone didn't make a sound until close to three hours later, startling me out of my French mindset back into English.

Izzy Izumi :):
Can I call you?

I stared at my phone. I hit the phone icon next to his name and called him instead, hoping I could hold back my irritation on him not telling me anything.

"Hi, Chloe." His voice sounded weak. My irritation was instantly replaced with worry. He actually did sound sick.

"Izzy, what happened?"

"I…well, um," I could hear him typing in the background. I closed my eyes. Izzy never stopped. Even when he was sick he was working. "I kind of…fainted in my physics class."

"WHAT?1" I yelled. I stood up from my bed and started pacing. "You…you passed out? Are you serious? What happened?"

The typing stopped. "Chloe, I don't want you to be upset by this - "

"Too late for that. People don't just…pass out, Izzy."

He was silent for a while, but then the typing resumed. "That is true. It's my fault, really. I haven't been sleeping much the past few months, and my eating habits have been lacking." He sighed. "Jou is currently berating me over Facebook messenger. I guess that's what you get for having a doctor as a close friend."

I fell back down on my bed, my head between my knees. "Yeah, no shit."

He was right, though; he hadn't been eating much…or really, at all. He ate some when he stayed over, but even then it wasn't much. I felt horrible for not noticing, but, then again, I hadn't been eating much lately, either. None of us choir kids were – we were getting way too riled up over the competition season coming up. I pulled at the right leg of my jeans. They were looser than they were when we got back from Japan.

"Izzy…didn't you sleep when you were here, though? I never felt you leave the bed or anything…"

He softly laughed. "Chloe, you never felt me get up because you are an incredibly deep sleeper. I don't think I've ever seen someone hit their REM cycle so quickly, and I've spent many an evening camping with Taichi." That made me smile. I could see Taichi being a deep sleeper. He was probably a sprawler like me. "I suppose the culmination of the strain I've put on myself the past six months caught up to me."

"You seemed fine this morning, though."

"Yes, well…" He mumbled something under his breath and started furiously typing. "It snuck up on me, is all. It always has."

My eyes popped out of my head. "'Has?' This has happened before?"

Izzy sighed again. "I do tend to get wrapped up in things and forget to take care of myself…which is what Jou is yelling at me for right now. No one really knows about it as it typically happens at home. I've never had it happen while at school."

"Izzy…" I sniffed, hoping that he didn't catch that I was tearing up. Mrs. Izumi was right. He put too much on his shoulders all at once, and it became detrimental. She asked me to watch him, and I thought I was, but, apparently, not well enough. "You can't act like it's nothing because it's not. You need to take care of yourself."

"I know, but-"

"No, Izzy. Stop. You need to breathe, eat a whole pizza, and sleep for, like, 5 days straight." I heard him chuckle on the other end. "I'm serious! I don't know how else to get you where you need to be. If you keep going like this, passing out in the middle of class is going to be the least of your problems."

"Jou is telling me the exact same thing."

"He's a smart guy, Izzy. He's also your friend, and he's trying to help. You should listen to him."

I didn't hear a peep for about a minute. "Izzy? Did I lose you?"

"No, I'm here." His voice was barely above a whisper. "I just hate it when people worry over me…"

I wiped a stray tear from my cheek. "Then quit being stubborn and take care of yourself. The last thing any of us want is for you to get really sick." My voice was starting to sound thick. I cleared my throat to get it back to normal. "I know I definitely don't want that."

I could hear him drumming his fingers on his desk. He stopped right before he started talking again. "Jou wants to send me some sort of sleeping pills."

"Like I said. Smart kid. Listen to him."

"I'd rather not-"

"KOUSHIRO." I heard him gasp on the other end. He'd heard me raise my voice, sure, but to my recollection I'd never raised it at him. "Whatever Jou sends you, you are going to take them EXACTLY as he says. No arguing, no complaints. I'm going to be watching you at lunch to make sure you at least eat then. I know you're stressing out about everything – don't even try to argue with me, I know you are – but you can't ignore yourself because of it."

I felt him recoiling into himself, a mix of sadness, anger, and anxiety exploding in my brain. It was so weird; apparently, everyone has their own way of feeling emotions. I figured that out because none of it felt right to me. I slumped down on the wall, feeling incredibly weak and overwhelmed. "So this is what you were talking about," I thought and said at the same time.

"What do you mean?" He said weakly.

"The whole 'feeling my emotions' thing. I think…I think I'm feeling yours." I held up my hand and kept turning it around, making sure that I was still in my own body. "And here I thought I felt things intensely. Damn, honey, I'm sorry." I pinched my arm just to triple check. Yep, I was still in my body. "You're a bottler, aren't you?"

"A what?" He sounded completely lost.

"You bottle up your feelings, don't you? That's how you manage to stay so focused." I leaned my head against the wall and closed my eyes. "That's also contributing to your stress…man, I'm not doing well at keeping my promise to your mom."

Izzy started typing again. "Damn it."

"What?"

"I'm getting attacked from all sides. Too many chat windows." He let out a low growl. "Jou must have spread the word."

I softly laughed. I could feel his emotional state changing a bit – whether it was from talking to me or his friends freaking out over his well being, I wasn't sure, but it didn't matter. If this bond thing was going to allow us to feel each other's emotions, I preferred us to be happy and/or at ease. "You need rest, Izzy. Try and shut your brain down for a bit."

"C'est impossible, ma chérie. Je ne dors pas."

I hit my head against the wall a few times. "I don't care if you don't sleep on the regular, you're going to sleep tonight. I'll drive over there and make sure you sleep if I have to." The typing stopped, but I could hear him drumming his fingers on the keys. "Izzy, what are you thinking?"

"At the risk of sounding crude and being incredibly inappropriate…how are you going to make sure I sleep?"

I burst out in a fit of giggles. Did Izzy just throw an innuendo at me? "I cannot believe that just came out of your mouth, Koushiro. Now I know for sure you're exhausted."

"Maybe so, but it doesn't make me any less curious."

The giggles continued. "You're ridiculous. Go to sleep."

I could feel his happiness. "Just for you, I will try to sleep."

"Good." I chewed on my thumbnail. "Love you. See you tomorrow."

"Bonne nuit, ma chérie. Je t'aime."

I pushed the 'end call' button and fell over on my pillows in frustration. Mrs. Izumi wanted me to keep an eye on him so that this kind of crap didn't happen. Of course, I wasn't aware of the fainting thing, but still – he was stressing out like crazy and I wasn't paying attention. I felt horrible. What made it even worse was that I had no idea how to solve this. I could make him eat, sure, but you can't force someone to sleep. I was horrible enough at chemistry; figuring out the brain chemistry necessary to get that mind to shut down and sleep was too much for me to think about.

My phone vibrated in my hand.

Izzy Izumi :):
Please, do not go to bed upset. This will pass. I love you.

I smiled, feeling warmth spread through my body.

Izzy Izumi :):
That's better. Sleep. I will talk to you tomorrow.

I looked at my French textbook on my desk. My blankets were much more interesting. I curled up, held my phone close to my chest, and somehow fell asleep.