Even though I spent all night clinging to Mo tighter than Isy’s armor, she was still cold to the touch come morning… And when she didn’t wake up, I almost started wondering if she had gone into hibernation, afraid to move lest her temperature drop even more.

As Isy moved around and made a whole bunch of noise, she still didn’t wake up, I nudged her a few times, and still no dice. In the end, I just told Isy to let the teacher know that she was sick as well, and after using my magic a bit to try and iron out more of the soreness and warm her up, I went back to sleep as well. I was feeling better… But at that point I had given in to my intense desire to be as lazy as possible, seeing as how I had the day off anyway.

Sure enough, the teacher came by just like he said he would in the afternoon. Once again he was thrust into an unfortunately awkward situation of Mo not wearing a shirt when she slept, and we salvaged the situation by giving her one of Isy’s. I mean, Mo wouldn’t have been bothered being seen like that… It was Mo, and it’s not like she was naked… But our teacher was understandably against it.

When all that was finally resolved he checked me again and had me drink more medicine before confirming I felt better, checking Mo’s pulse and temperature as well before confirming the pellets were the cause.

“The timing is pretty dramatic… I received a letter from her father to release her back to her family for important business. She isn’t an assassin anymore, so technically his contract with the school is voided, but if she’s so sick she won’t even wake up, then I’m sure he won’t make a fuss about it being a technicality.”

‘Would it be giving her too much credit to say she knew? Probably… She looked pretty embarrassed, if it was intentional she would have no reason to be.’ I sighed. “So what do we do?” ‘it sounds like he doesn’t want her father to take her away either.’

He stood up. “Normally, you would soak her body in hot water until the side effects passed, however, what you’re doing now seems to be working just fine, so if you don’t mind, just stay with her until she wakes up. I’ll check on you both tomorrow around this time again.”

I sighed as he walked out the door, once again leaving behind some food for us. I had to admit he was growing on me… But there was a fine line between sweet and creepy, and I still wasn’t sure which side he was on… Though, I suppose I had my own lack of experience and paranoia to blame for that… Of course, there was also my earth brain telling me he was a teacher… But at the same time, within context, he was acting professionally, it was his job to do what he was doing after all, so bringing us medicine was hardly inappropriate, and he never stayed very long either. ‘I thought for sure he hated me at first… So I should probably just hold off on judging him for a while… My track record so far has been pretty bad…’

Just like that another day passed, and then another night. Finally, Mo woke up again, her dreary eyes slowly opening and her voice even softer than before. I half expected her to spring up right away like normal, but instead, she groaned, closing her eyes again and hugging my arm tightly. “I’m still cold…” She mumbled.

“Drink some hot soup, that will warm you up more than clinging onto me like I’m a toaster.”

“I don’t know what that is…” She groaned again.

‘Uh… Yeah I, guess you wouldn’t… That one’s on me.’

She slowly opened her eyes again, looking down at her sleeves. “What’s this?” She asked finally letting go and picking at her shirt.

“You’ve been asleep for over a full day. Our teacher came by to check on us so Isy gave you one of her shirts.”

“But why…” She yawned, closing her eyes again.

‘I knew she wouldn’t care…’ I sighed. “Try thinking about it this way. If I was wearing what you were wearing and the teacher walked in, what would you do?”

“Huh? Oh, you’re worried I’ll take attention away from you?”

“Just… Forget it… Hurry up and get changed, moving around will help warm you up too, muscles generate heat.”

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“But I’m tired… Isy gets to sleep forever… Why won’t you let me sleep?”

‘Why do I suddenly feel so guilty about this?’ “You’ve been sleeping for almost two days… And I’ve been here the whole time keeping you from freezing to death… It’s time to get up… My legs are stiff… And my body is cooled down too, so I’m probably not a good heater anymore.”

Her eyebrows pushed together, “You’ve been here the whole time?”

“It’s hardly any different than you being here when I was sick.”

She let out another yawn so intense her eyes began to water slightly before she hugged me again, wrapping around my arm like a tired cat, refusing to move.

‘I guess we're going to be here for a while longer then…’ It felt like her eyes were leaking a bit too much to be from her being tired… But I figured it was better not to ask. I hardly even noticed considering her breathing didn’t so much as change. ‘

After a moment she abruptly got up and changed, her body moving around stiff and groggy, instead of precise and graceful. It was like she was a whole other person. It wasn’t until after she had gotten fully dressed that she finally woke up all the way, the last of the drug's effects finally wearing off. “I think I’m ok again.” She said confidently.

‘It’s a bit ironic that her voice gets colder when her body gets warmer…’

“Right, now drink your soup.”

“I told you, I only eat–”

“That weird drug that almost killed you… Your heart would have stopped for sure if I wasn’t keeping you warm you know… I bet you were half thinking you shouldn’t even bother me that night, weren’t you? You could have died… And than… We would have all been really sad you know…”

“You're trying to guilt me into drinking soup…”

“Is it working?”

Her eyes slowly turned to the side, her body staying still as she paused for a moment. “Yes…” She took the thermos of hot soup and slowly drank it, shuddering, presumably from how good it felt, considering the satisfied smile that followed.

“Was it good?”

“I’m not as cold anymore…”

“Your dad called for you while you were asleep.”

“I’m now colder than I was before drinking the soup…”

‘This girl…’ “Sense you wouldn’t wake up the school said you were sick and couldn’t go.”

“I’m slightly warmer now…”

‘And yet your voice is unchanging…’ I sighed. “You're going to have to face him eventually… So… How do you want to do that?”

She slowly looked down, and then wistfully out the window for a long time until I started expecting her to give some deep and almost philosophical answer. “I could stab him.”

‘I feel like she’d really get along with Finlo…’ “That’s not what I meant…”

“Oh, poison? That would work too, but he’s imune to most of them, so I’d have to make a new one.”

‘I can’t tell if she’s joking…’ I nervously smiled to try and hide my worry. “Are you really going to try and kill him?”

“No…”

‘Could have fooled me…’ “So…”

“I don’t know…”

‘I figured as much…’ “Ok, well, do you want to use the smart plan or the stupid plan.”

She slowly looked back over at me. “The stupid one.”

“What…”

“It sounds more fun.”

“I don’t understand you at all…” ‘Turns out she really is a kid.’ I scratched my head, pulling my hair back and suddenly trying to flush out what was originally only a half-baked idea. Thoug, I was able to finish it by the time I was done putting up my hair. “Ok, first, we put you on stilts and give you a trench coat to make you look super big, since you’d be huge you wouldn’t be a perfect partner anymore and he’d let you go.”

“Ok, yeah, let’s do that.”

‘She… She’s taking me seriously right now isn’t she…’ I sighed. “I was joking. Really what we do is you give me your armor and I pretend to be you. Then he takes me away instead and while I’m out pretending to be you with him, you go and find Kai and Air. Then the two of you can come to rescue me and accuse him of kidnapping. From there my family uses that as grounds to demand that he hand you over to us, and from then on I think you'd legally become like my sister, so, after that he really wouldn’t be able to touch you, legally speaking. Considering I’m currently withholding all the money I received from winning the guild war, I’m sure I have plenty of sway over my family right now, so I should be able to convince them to follow along.”

She stared at me blankly. “What’s… The smart plan?”

“We gather together a bunch of guys and beat him into submission. From what I understand he’s on thin ice with the king, so I’m sure no one would mind if I took away one of his weapons, I.E. You. Of course, that’s just the summary though.”

Her eyebrows pushed together. “That won’t work… No way we would win.”

‘Right… Unless I just so happen to have Finlo, or better yet I called in my father. Although, I admit I do like the other plan better. It would help me gather information and it’s much more flexible, among other things… I sighed “So we go with the stupid plan then.”

“I feel like that’s both of them…”

“Hey… It hurts when YOU call them stupid…”

She hung her head to the side with a slight groan. “Sorry… You haven’t failed yet… So… There is no reason to stop trusting you now…”