So this is a pretty long one-shot. I'm currently working on another story, but came down with the worst case of writers block and used this story to take a break from that other story. It was kind of just written for leisure in a few hours, but thought I might as well submit it. My apologies if it's not really well written. Feel free to point out any mistakes or anything you think I should try to improve on, because that's in my best interest.

Anyways, let's hop to it, shall we?

Disclaimer: I don't own MFB.

'What the hell am I doing?' she thought. 'What the hell am I doing here? This isn't what I thought my life would be like, not in the slightest. This isn't who I want to be. This isn't who I am. I'm a… I'm… Oh God, who am I?'

She dropped the pen in her hand onto the desk; it clanked on contact and rolled off onto the floor. She lent forward in her chair and held her face in her trembling hands, her elbows propped up on the desk. She wanted to cry a little earlier today, couldn't seem to wait until she was alone in her apartment. Listening to the call of distant night birds and the soothing sound of chirping crickets, where she would wrap herself in thin sheets, let her guard down and allow the tears to form. She wanted to cry, but she knew that once she did, her weeping wouldn't stop and by no means was she about to ruin her make-up.

This time, she was too flustered, too detached from her brain to leave her thoughts unspoken. "Toughen up, princess," she ordered and felt her teeth clench together. She dug her polished nails into her flesh in a desperate attempt to wait out the duration of the storm within her that was her suppressed rage.

"Hikaru, are you alright?"

A voice shattered her train of thought like a hammer taken to glass, but she didn't yet look up to meet the owner. Strange, she didn't hear anyone enter the room however by the sound of it, the person stood right in front of her on the other side of her desk.

"Hikaru," the voice was more urgent this time, more demanding. Now, she could place a face to the sound.

"I'm fine Director, I just have a migraine," she replied through her fingers but she knew she'd fooled no one.

Hikaru sensed Ryo's movement around the desk to her side. She wouldn't have known that he'd knelt down beside her if it wasn't for the giveaway smell of his strong cologne polluting the air around her. What was the name of that scent again? 'Ah yes', she thought, 'Givenchy; Play Intense'. A quirky, fruity, outspoken signature scent for a quirky, fruity, outspoken man.

He laid his hand on her shoulder briefly, barely touching her, but yanked it away like he'd been bitten by some tiny, invisible creature. Then he grasped her more firmly. She could hear his breathing quicken and almost feel his muscles contract in severe tension.

Following a drawn out sigh, he said, "Look at me and tell me the problem. You've been moping around for days, for weeks. Your eyes have lost that sparkle, your shoulders are slumped, you've been dragging your feet along my plush carpet that I just had laid, and you've been gazing out that window consistently. I just don't know what to do. I just…" He paused. "I just don't know how to fix it."

Hikaru denied his eyes sight of her face. There was nothing he could do. It wasn't that she didn't appreciate her boss's concern, because she knew how lucky she was to have such a kind guy holding the key to her salary. But this was her problem and only she could fix it. She wanted to be someone else, someone interesting. As shocking as it may be, an office secretary whose most treacherous daily challenges were filing large stacks of documents just wasn't giving her the wow factor she hungered for. She was beginning to feel restless in her own skin. Trapped, inadequate and a little lost. To be short, she felt like a failure. What would her mother think?

What would her mother think?

That was the last straw. Somebody pulled the wrong block in 'Jenga' and now her rickety tower was about to come crumbling down.

"You can't do anything about it, it's my issues, my skeletons, me!" she pounded a finger into her chest brutally as she screamed at Ryo without really realizing it. "I don't know who I am. I don't fit all this. All this stupid paperwork," she lent forward and scattered a pile of papers across the desk with a smooth motion of her hand.

"This stupid suit," she grabbed the collar of her blazer and pulled it.

"And I don't fit these stupid, ridiculous, uncomfortable shoes!" Hikaru stood up and kicked off her high heels across the room. One of them struck the wall, briefly she worried about any damage made but continued on with her rant anyhow. "The only time I can remember feeling like I knew exactly who I was, exactly what I stood for was when I had the guts to BeyBlade. Now, I'm such a coward I can't even do that anymore."

The last of her fury had expired. She fell back limp into her chair, panting. Her icy hair, no longer neatly styled, hung in her eye sight and she felt the wet warmth of her own tears streaming down her face before she even realized she had begun to bawl. Wiping them away, she looked at the back of her hand and saw a thick, black smudge.

'So much for my make-up.'

Ryo hadn't let a single word fall from his lips. Not an ounce of expression did reshape his hardened face. He stared completely blank. Finally, he rose to his feet from the kneeling position he'd taken previously. Hikaru stared forward, her gaze fixed on an indoor plant. She didn't actually give a damn about that indoor plant, but she had to look at something, anything but Ryo's eyes.

"I wanna run away Ryo. I just want to get out of here for a while. I wanna run away… I wanna run away."

"Then go. Go find yourself. I trust you enough to know you'll be safe; you're a sensible girl Hikaru. I can't keep you here, can't keep you from your freedom. I'm not that cruel a man."

She looked up at him, searching for any sign of anger in his eyes. She couldn't find any, and that disturbed her more than if he'd ripped her out of her chair and thrown her face first down the stairs. After all, she'd just quit her job hadn't she?

Guilt took over as usual. "Forgive me Sir, that was highly unprofessional of me, It would mean the world if you'd just forget my tantrum, though after such a display, you don't owe me anything. I don't know what came over me; I'll get those papers done for you right away." She reached to collect the scattered documents on the desk, but a bearish hand slammed down on them and pinned them in place.

"No," Ryo said. With his eyes so comfortably closed, he appeared to be asleep. "No. The way I see you now, Hikaru is as a caged canary. Lonely and full of despair, wondering what life would be like beyond such strong boundaries. A soul cannot find peace or serenity until it has tasted the parts of life that it desires. To ask yourself 'What if?' is the worst fate you can allow yourself to have the misfortune of knowing, now go. I don't want to hear another word."

"Are you firing me?" 'Great, Hikaru. Congratulations, you've successfully lost your job. And with what utter class, might I add.'

"Everything but that little lady, you are welcome to resume working here after you've done what you need to, if you choose to do so."

Again, after zoning out for a few seconds to let the message process, she stood up. Hikaru let her gaze linger on Ryo's face a moment longer before nodding. "Thank you, Ryo."

She didn't wait for a reply, afraid of the possibility that he may change his mind. She walked towards the door without looking back. As she made her way through the executive hallways of the building, she noticed a strange feeling of change deep within her own entity. Though she'd seen the regal paintings, lounges and breathtakingly stunning chandeliers that furnished her used-to-be place of work many times before, she now saw them in a different light. No longer did these walls prove as iron cast bars caging her into a lifestyle she detested. No longer did they steal away her freedom. Hey, from the point of view of a visitor, this place looked kind of fancy.

On the wall of a corridor she was wondering through, she passed a mirror. The mirror was large, about the size of a store-front window, and it was bordered with golden carvings of cherub angels, stars and moons. When Hikaru caught her reflection in that breathtaking wall hanging, she noticed she looked strangely different. Maybe it was because of the fact that her eye-make up had melted away and slipped down to her cheeks, giving her the appearance of a circus clown who'd just woken up after a week-long bender, but she swore she saw something else unusual about herself. Her eyes looked a lot brighter, maybe even a little happier.

Quickening her pace, she came to the lobby where there was a long, semi-circle shaped desk to her left. Behind that desk stood a receptionist with the same bored expression Hikaru herself knew so well. Hikaru had passed this girl so many times, and now she realized that she'd never even asked for her name. As she approached the rotating doors that stood as the entry to the corporation, she paused, swung her body around and called to the other girl.

"Hey, what's your name?"

The girl looked up and the most peculiar expression of surprise, or maybe suspicion, crossed her tired face.

"Michelle," she called back. "What's yours?"

"Nice to finally meet you Michelle, I'm Hikaru." And then she continued out the door.

Her fast paced stroll transformed into a full blown sprint. Feeling the dirt under her feet, she stripped her blazer from her shoulders. She didn't notice –more so didn't care about - the people on the street who shot her confused or afraid glances. Finally free, she didn't know where she was running to, but what she did know was that she couldn't stop until she got there.

She ran until the soft caress of twilight began to fade the path in front of her. Finally, she came to an unfamiliar woodland, she wasn't even sure she was still in the city. Surrounded by trees that to her, appeared rather ghostly because of the way their leafless branches twisted and resembled disfigured limbs, she found herself trying to swallow back a crippling uncertainty. She walked a little farther, ignoring painful stabs of bark underneath her bare feet, and she arrived at a ruined cottage. All that remained of what probably used to be a very pretty place was a barely standing brick wall, the rest of the cottage crumpled around it hidden by many moons of fallen leaves.

It was here that Hikaru felt she could rest.

Suddenly, an idea pressed a knowing smile on Hikaru's lips. For a long moment she stood pondering the thought, and then her hand flew up to her shirt pocket. She retrieved a shining, heavy object and twirled it in her fingers. She'd held it before, certainly, but it had been a while since she'd held it in her hands with the intent of using it. Right there, standing in the middle of the woods, she thought that using it would seem awfully right.

She touched her hand to her belt and took hold of her Bey Launcher which she did actually carry everywhere, but made sure to keep in unseen underneath her blazer.

Hikaru put the Bey in the Launcher and directed it to the wall athwart her. Her eyes darted around to be sure that nobody was watching her. "You can do this, you remember this don't you? There's nothing to be afraid of," she told herself aloud.

A bead of sweat formed on her fore head and her hands trembled slightly, but Hikaru was usually a very well determined girl, and when that pesky little voice inside of her crept up on her shoulder and told her she couldn't do what she was about to, she found herself just able to grab hold of her fear to spite it.

She launched the Bey with anticipated velocity, "Go, Aquario!"

Aquario rocketed towards the wall, finally tasting its own form of freedom. The sheer speed it gained seemed to slice the air in two, making a hissing sound barely audible. Closer and closer it got until it finally crashed into the wall, Hikaru closed her eyes, expecting a spectacular explosion on impact.

But nothing… Aquario bounced right back. Instead of a collapsed wall, a pathetic clink was made and it failed to imprint even a minor crack.

Hikaru blunk once, blunk twice. Shuffled her feet a bit and twitched. Then she absolutely lost her mind.

Screaming in such a rage that if anyone were to have heard her, they'd have called the emergency department and told them someone was being hacked into pieces with a blunt spoon in the woods, she kicked the air around her. She threw her hands up, pulled at her hair, grit her teeth and growled. She sent her fist flying into a nearby tree, only resulting in hurting herself and not the tree. She raved for a while longer before calling Aquario back to her waiting palm.

She launched it at the wall again, "Go Aquario!"

Nothing…

Launched it a third time, "Come on, Aquario,"

Still nothing…

Again and again, curse word after curse word, she kept on launching Aquario into that wall but she couldn't manage to leave even a simple scratch.

"Okay," she huffed. "We're gonna give this one last try okay? One last try."

Hikaru closed her eyes and pulled the launcher's tail. She concentrated this time; really tried to put some effort into it. "Let… it… rip."

Suddenly, the wall collapsed in an elaborate cloud of smoke. 'CRASH' the sound of it was ear-splitting, it made Hikaru jump. Aquario returned to her and she stood in a state of shock.

'We did it,' she thought. 'We took down that god-damn wall.' She stared at the pile of bricks that previously was the unbreakable wall, happiness and triumph filled her being and she felt the sudden urge to break out in song and dance, though she was definitely glad she didn't. When the smoke cleared, she laid eyes on something that glistened in the scarce moonlight. It spun on the ground before her elegantly; another Bey. It appeared that Aquario did in fact not cause the wall to crumble. Rather, this mysterious new Bey was the culprit.

"Well, that was quite the show wasn't it?" A voice made her spin around so fast she almost fell. She scanned the darkness between the trees yet couldn't envision the origin of the voice at all.

"Huh, who's there?"

The spinning object flew past her head without much in the way of a warning. It ruffled her hair as it passed, and with her own fairly decent reflexes she watched it disappear into the surrounding oblivion. Not long, not long at all after that, a figure entered the clearing sporting the most unnerving of smiles.

She knew his face as the man-beast that haunted her psych during a number of her dark nightmares. In those dreams, he stalked her, watched her and appeared at every turn until he finally pounced and attacked. He would take every last ounce of her strength and destroy her, waste her until her screams would come to a sudden halt. She lived with a certain nagging fear in the back of her mind that she should one day meet him again. That fear made her cautious to walk dark alleys alone and look over her shoulder wherever she felt it necessary. Now, standing before her with his hand on his hip, he almost looked more frightening than in her imagination. The moon above only lit the angular features of his face, casting shadow on the rest of him, but his eyes reflected the light in the same way it does a cat, and they almost glowed. To Hikaru, he looked like some sort of devil.

"Don't you remember me? I'm almost insulted."

Like a favorite song from years ago can evoke memories in a person, this man's voice made horrid images scream and stab their way through her skull.

"Ryuga," she breathed.

The fear had returned, and she wanted to cower. Wanted to run the other way and get the hell out of there but it was as if she were frozen solid. As if she were petrified.

"I-I-I," she was surprised she could even stutter.

"I-I-I, I what?" he teased. He took a step towards her. Then another and before she even saw him take a third step he was in front of her, his face inches away from her own.

Hikaru turned to run but was held in place as Ryuga gripped her wrist in his large hand so tightly it hurt. Her wrist disappeared, lost in the size of his fist.

"Hold on, where do you think you're going?"

"Away from you!"

He smirked. She was completely powerless to resist as he pulled her arm back and sent her crashing into his hard chest. She put a hand up to separate herself, and through the thin shirt he wore, she could feel each defined contour of his muscles. She would have tried to struggle away if she weren't so utterly afraid.

"I just want to talk to you; we've got our wires crossed. What are you doing out here, it's dangerous for such an innocent thing to be out in the woods so… alone." His hand tightened around her wrist as he let his other gently trail up to take position on her hip.

"If you don't let me go, I'll-"

"You'll what? What could you possibly do to the likes of me?" He invaded her personal space so severely that she could feel his breath as he spoke. His own body heat was so warm, so hot against her skin that it could be assumed that he was suffering from a very bad fever.

In the back of her scattered mind, the words of her good, long haired friend and co-worker, Tsubasa, rang in her mind. 'If ever you should be attacked, Hikaru, the best way to escape is to simply start throwing yourself around like you were having a fit. Kick, punch, twist and fall to the ground. Once you have a chance to get away, run like hell and don't stop.'

She did just that.

First, she attempted to punch him. She couldn't free her wrist from his grip so she used the other of her hands to deliver what to any normal human being would be a painful right hook. It was a decent right hook, even though she wasn't able to move her body with the punch to send the strength of her abdominal muscles into the strike. Still, such a whack would definitely be painful to some extent. Yet Ryuga didn't even seem to feel it. It was as if a butterfly had lost course and flew into his cheek. He grabbed her hand and pinned that to her side as well as the one he already had restricted.

Then she tried kicking him, kneeing him, she even slammed her foot down on top of his, but doing that seemed to only hurt her own bare feet. Every humiliating second, she glanced up at his face to see if she could find any trace of pain, but Hikaru swore that Ryuga almost looked bored. His furry white eyebrows were raised in an expression that said ever so clearly, 'are you finished yet?'

Though he hadn't actually asked that question, she answered him none-the-less, "No."

This time she twisted in his arms and he let go of her just for a second. She didn't have time to think about her victory, she began bolting towards the exit out of the clearance. She'd just made it to a towering, light-barked tree when she felt hands brace her shoulders once more.

Ryuga spun her around and pinned her to the tree, his hands firmly on her shoulders. His eyes, his deep, blazing amber eyes that hid a million secrets and unspoken thoughts pierced into her own. At first, he looked angry, and then his expression softened into something a little less threatening.

He spoke, "Listen, I just want to talk. I know you're afraid of me, but there's no need to be… I don't want to hurt you. Don't fight me."

Inside herself, Hikaru felt her nerves settle and her muscles relax. She realized that for some crazy reason, she believed his promise not to harm her.

"You did this to me," she began and she turned her face to the side so as not to look at his dominating glare. "You made me so weak; you made me such a coward."

He let go of one of her shoulders and gripped her chin in one of his hands, forcing her to maintain eye contact. She surprised herself when she didn't take this as a chance to run away again.

"You are no coward, Hikaru. Not at all. I know what I did to you, but it wasn't me. I mean, I had no control over myself back then, and I'm deeply sorry that I have scarred you so much."

Hikaru stayed silent. 'He apologized? This must be a trap.'

For a while, Ryuga's stare fell blank. He wasn't looking at her, nor was he looking into her, nor through her. It was like his eyes had become artificial. Unfeeling, unblinking… Glass.

Then, "So what were you doing out here in the first place?"

He let go of her completely and sat down on the bark flooring beneath them. Wary of if she should do the same, she stayed standing. His back was to her, somehow he knew that he had convinced her to stay and talk.

"I was trying to knock down that wall, but I couldn't. I wanted to feel strong again, like I used to when I could really handle Aquario, you know? But I couldn't, I tried so many times but I just couldn't do it. I think I forgot how to BeyBlade."

He sighed, picked up a piece of bark and threw it off into the distance before replying. "You don't just forget how to BeyBlade. It's sort of like riding a bicycle. Once the skill is learnt, nothing can erase it from your memory, but after a long time of not practicing the art, you do need to refresh your memory."

Intrigued by his conversation, no longer afraid, she sat down next to him, though she kept a decent distance. She thought she saw his lips curl into a smirk.

"So, how do I do that? How do I refresh my memory?"

"Like this," he climbed to his feet in one swift, coordinated movement. He lent down, grabbed her by the arm and pulled her up too, and then he went around to the back of her, put his hands on her shoulders again, and re-positioned her to face a tree. The warmth of his touch made her shiver, and she blushed because she knew that with his sharp senses, there was no way Ryuga could have missed that.

He snaked a hand down from her shoulder to her hip, where he removed her launcher from her belt. With the other hand, he let it grace slowly, steadily to her shirt pocket and plucked out Aquario, being careful not to touch her breast. He stretched both arms around her, extending them out in front. Unconsciously, she lent back a little, pressing herself into his chest ever so lightly. From her position, she could feel his slow, strong heartbeat thump into her shoulder blade; his scent was seductive in a way. Though she had no idea what the smell was, she was sure she liked it.

"Now," he began. His tone as confident and lecturing as ever, "We put Aquario in its launcher…"

"I know how to do that, I'm not a complete idiot," the fact that she was able to scold him proved that she was no longer afraid of him, even if she didn't realize that herself. She took the launcher and Aquario in her own hands, yet Ryuga held her wrists very gently. She assumed that he was going to guide her movements, like she was an inanimate doll on strings and he was her puppet master.

He chuckled, all of this amused him. "Step-by-step."

Agitated that he thought of her as so inexperienced, she went to rip Aquario right out of the launcher, when Ryuga tightened his hold on her wrist.

"Uh-uh-uh, see that's the first thing you're doing wrong. A Bey released in anger is useless. You have to pull yourself together a bit here. Surely, you've had the misfortune of knowing Ginga for as long as I have to have overheard all his ramblings about the Blader Spirit?" He said 'Ginga' with just a hint of disgust. "Turns out, the kid's on the right track. Connect with Aquario, feel it, let it become part of your own self."

Ryuga bent his head forward and whispered in her ear. "Close your eyes."

She did as she was told. With her sense of sight disabled momentarily, she was forced to recognize Ryuga's presence in different ways. His body heat, of course. The roughness of his skin, the way he breathed so purely, she couldn't be sure that he was even breathing at all. His aura was so dominant and frightening, yet at that moment, so peaceful and absolutely hypnotic to her. He was a sedative for the soul.

"Now, listen for Aquario's voice."

Surely enough, she could make out some sort of communication from within her psyche. It wasn't as if it was actually a voice, yet something called to her and told her it was beside her. She could feel it.

With her senses much more alert, she could hear the faint sound of slow moving water. There was a river nearby.

She opened her eyes, "I think I've got it."

"Excellent," he whispered. "Now take aim, but do not take control. Let Aquario aid you, trust it." He released his hold on her wrists and let his palms fall to Hikaru's hips again.

She inhaled, filling her lungs with air and maxing out their capacity. Then, she pulled the launcher, sending Aquario into aviation so fast she didn't even see it leave. The tree exploded as did several others behind it in Aquario's path of destruction. As the trees fell from there standing positions, their tops which once blocked the silvery light of the moon from the clearing she and Ryuga were standing in came crashing to earth as well. Now, Hikaru could envision most of her surroundings, it was like she stood under a soft spotlight. The stars above, in all their magical wonder, glittered down. Everything from the collapsed wall, to the still-standing trees, to the rough bark carpet beneath her was tinted with a metallic filter. All in all, this was quite a pretty view.

Aquario returned to her and she caught it effortlessly. She put it back in her pocket and reattached the launcher to her belt. Then she swung around to face Ryuga.

"We did it…"

"Not so scary anymore huh?" his hands still placed on her hips. The new light erased the shadows that previously disfigured his face, and now that she felt no fear towards the man before her, she was able to see him as something different. Something kind of… beautiful.

Again, he sat down where he stood. He lent back and put his arms behind his head. Hikaru felt no awkwardness as she proceeded to do the same, this time she lay much closer to him than before.

After a bout of comfortable silence, Hikaru proposed a question. "Hey, what were you doing out here?"

Without removing his gaze from the night sky, he said, "I'm not sure. I was walking as I often do during nights like these when sleep doesn't come easily to me, looking for a new area to camp since I was getting bored of the mountains, and I felt compelled to take a wonder through these woods."

"Oh,"

"I suppose my quest to find new ground turned out to be a nice surprise of serendipity. How strange it was that I should come across you, throwing some sort of tantrum that would embarrass a toddler. Sometimes, curiosity gets the better of me; I just had to see what was going on."

"Well, I was getting frustrated; I couldn't knock down that wall."

He smirked, "Ah, but you always have had a temper, haven't you? By the way, where are your shoes?"

At this, Hikaru blushed. She looked down at her feet. Her toenails were well kept but you couldn't tell, not with the amount of dirt that covered her bare feet. "I quit my job… I think."

"So when you quit your job you also have to quit wearing shoes?"

She decided not to go into detail, instead she said, "Something like that."

Ryuga shook his head a little and under his breath, Hikaru thought she heard him mutter, "Women…"

Again followed another silence, yet it wasn't the awkward type in the slightest.

"Ryuga," she began.

He didn't say anything, but he turned to look at her eyes, giving her the go-ahead to say what she was about to.

"I just want to thank you… for teaching me how to Blade again. I was feeling kind of low about myself, but you came along and well, I don't know. I don't feel scared anymore."

He removed an arm from behind his head and used it to pull Hikaru closer to him. In return, she pushed herself into his warmth, placing her head on his chest. She felt his heartbeat again; it lulled her and seduced her to a near slumber.

"I didn't do anything. That was all you; I just refreshed your memory, as I said."

With a slender finger, she traced patterns unconsciously on Ryuga's abdomen. Her finger rose up and down as she smoothed over each muscle.

"I never thought you could have a side like this, Ryuga,"she said Her voice was weaker, lazier.

"A side like what?"

"Nice. I never thought you had a nice side. You always seem so mean and unemotional."

He smirked again, just barely. This time, he made a small snort. Their voices were so quiet that the soft gushing of the unseen river now seemed to blare at high volume. "I'm not unemotional, I just don't hand affection out on street corners like it's the morning paper. I've lost my trust factor, and I'll admit I like being cruel if I'm in the mood for it. But sometimes, just sometimes, it feels kind of good to talk to somebody. As they say, still waters run deep."

Hikaru sighed. "I like this side of you," she said. And then, Ryuga felt the weight of her head increase slightly as each of her muscles relaxed. He watched as the tracing of her fingers on his stomach slowed, indicating that she was falling asleep.

"I like you too. I suppose an enemy can sometimes be a... friend in disguise."

Hikaru did not answer. She had already passed from this world to a dreamland, and Ryuga felt no need to remove her from it. Unfolding his other arm from behind his head, he stroked her nose with his finger, his touch light enough so as not to wake her.

"Hikaru, how did you get in here?"

Hikaru was woken by Madoka. Madoka rubbed her eyes, and stared at Hikaru bewildered. She was wearing a nightgown and in her hand she held a cup of steaming coffee.

"Uh, what?" Hikaru quizzed, observing her surroundings before anything else. Instead of majestic woodland, she found herself stretched out on Madoka's sofa. The Bey themed posters, scattered tools, and a bunch of Yuu's toys that were piled in the corner proved to Hikaru that she was inside the B-Pitt. She rubbed the back of her head.

"How'd you get in here?" Madoka pressed further, but there was no sign of anger in her voice. Simply mere curiosity.

"I, I don't actually know."

A good three seconds passed, and then Madoka took a sip of her coffee before nodding, "Alrighty then," she turned to leave the room. "Do you want coffee; you'll be needing to get to work soon. You can get dressed here, it's a good thing you left a few spare work uniforms here a while ago."

"Yeah, it is..." Hikaru said absentmindedly. At that moment she couldn't really give two cents about work or coffee, she wanted to know where Ryuga went. Was he even with her at all? Were the happenings of last night simply a dream, a lapse in her subconscious mind, devoid of any reality? She hoped dearly that it wasn't so.

Madoka poked her head back into the room, "Hey, I really like that jacket on you, it looks very professional. But it reminds me of someone," she put a finger to her chin. "Someone else I know wears one exactly like that… never mind, I'll remember later." Madoka walked off again, talking to herself.

'Jacket?' Hikaru thought.

She looked down and instantly saw what Madoka was referring to. Draped over her shoulders, and large enough to be wrapped around her body as a protective blanket, was Ryuga's white jacket. She held the material to her nose, it smelt just like him.

She stood up from the couch and took the jacket off, attempting to fold it gently. Something crumpled inside the pocket. Retrieving the object in question, she discovered that it was a note written on pink, flower cluttered paper that matched the stationary Madoka always had lying around the B-Pitt. The lettering itself was possibly even prettier than the paper, whoever had written it had a wonderful hand concerning classic calligraphy.

The note read:

Hikaru,

I took you back to the B-Pit because it would be ungentlemanly of me to leave you in the woods. I apologize for the fact that you will have to wake in solitary, but I must continue on my travels.

You looked rather cold, so I dressed you in my jacket to keep you from falling ill. You can return it to me the next time we meet, which I do believe will be soon.

I enjoyed your company last night, as did I enjoy our conversation. It will not be the last we share.

Don't quit your job, you are an ambitious girl, and I hope to see you go far.

Until next we meet,

Ryuga.

P.S, you mumble in your sleep.

Hikaru put the note away with a smile. She went upstairs, showered in Madoka's bathroom quickly and got dressed in the uniform Madoka had laid out for her. When she came downstairs, she found that she was not the only visitor that morning.

"Gee, thanks Madoka. Pegasus looks good as new, as it always does after you run repairs in it."

Ginga stood at Madoka's work bench with Pegasus in his hand. When he became aware of Hikaru's presence, he turned to her and swung his arm over his head giving a very exaggerated wave.

"Good morning, aren't you supposed to be at work?" he asked, the goofiest of grins was plastered on his face.

"I'm going there now, but seeing as you're here, I think I can be a little late."

"Why's that?" he asked, tilting his head to the side. He was clearly puzzled.

Hikaru reached into her shirt pocket and held Aquario up in front of her. "Well, I was thinking… What do you say to a Bey Battle?"