It takes us much longer than it should at our slow limping pace, but we do eventually make it to the school building. We arrive at the correct door in, then slowly but surely fumbling our way up the flights of stairs to our floor. We get to the classroom, and everyone is already there, shooting up to their feet when they see us.

“Sei! Are you alright?” Ken is already coming as he practically shouts across the room.

“I'll live,” I try to calm him down as he approaches fast, stumbling back a little on reflex before he kneels down so he doesn't tower over me, and looks me up and down, everyone else piling up behind him. Even Jen.

With Ken checking me over, I look down myself. Now that I'm actually paying attention, I'm not even wearing my uniform, I'm still in my black hoodie and ratty jeans from last Saturday. They're ripped to shit and back, not doing the best job to keep me covered, but the bundles of wrapped bandages that show through from underneath pick up the slack. But... Oh god, did I sleep in this underwear for three days? Ugh, disgusting...

“Is your arm...?” He directs the question at the sling my left arm is tied in, more or less immobilized over my stomach.

“Yeah, broken. The doctor said it's not a bad break, but I'll have to keep it still for a while.” Moving on from me, he stands and faces Leona.

“Vicca-san, could you explain?” His steely tone makes it sound like he's blaming her for this, which, I guess she did do it, but it obviously wasn't on purpose.

“Something went wrong with my powers when I used them on Seiko,” she explains, clearly still troubled by it.

“But why did you? Didn't you hurt Sei last time too?” Ken challenges her.

“Once is a fluke, twice is a pattern.” He starts to scoff at her response but she continues, “I can't use my powers on Seiko again. Not until I figure out more.”

“Fine,” he huffs. “Sei, what do you think?”

“A-ahh, it's fine,” I wave my good hand. “It seems like it's my fault when her powers don't work right, so I can't really blame her. She had a good reason for doing it anyway, so... yeah...?” I don't know how else to put it to him. Her powers are absurdly dangerous when they don't work as intended, but she knows that and already said she won't use them on me because it's dangerous.

Ken finally relents, turning and leading us back toward our seats. We're pretty late though, so I've only just sat down when class is about to start and Gon walks into the room.

“Shit,” I leak the word out when I see him and remember. I completely blew our meeting on Sunday.

“S-sorry, Gon-san,” I start as soon as he approaches, his expression stiff and uncertain. “Some, umm, stuff happened.” I vaguely gesture at all of me, broken arm, bandages and all.

“I can see...” he murmurs. “It's fine, you looks like you've been through hell. I can't get mad at you when you're injured like that, Maka-chan...”

That's all the time we have before our homeroom teacher comes in, so I groan, forcing myself up out of his seat to take my own.

“Vicca-san, Maka-san, where are your uniforms?” our teacher calls on us immediately as everyone is settling.

“My apologies sir,” Leona speaks up. “We were injured pretty badly over the weekend and have only just been released from the infirmary. We haven't had the time to return to our dorms to change clothes yet.”

“Mm, I get it,” the man sighs. “You'll be a distraction like that though, couldn't you have gotten spares from the infirmary?”

“Yes,” Leona admits, a hand to her head in shame for a moment. “I didn't think about that.” But then she perks up again. “Actually, she doesn't have any spares in Seiko's size.”

The man considers it, looking like he's about to dismiss it, but then sighs. “What about running back to the dorm? You have some time during homeroom. Then it won't be an issue the rest of the day,” he advises.

“We're injured and not very mobile right now...” she responds with a grimace and a look at me, before standing and squaring her shoulders. “Alright, I'll do it.” I watch her take a deep breath from behind, then the teacher's eyes bug out. I feel the weight from where I'm sitting, just before Leona's gone.

She... was she right? She didn't move from her spot, she just kind of vanished. Like, poof, gone. Actually, the bullies disappeared the same way the other day, didn't they? She must have teleported them away. So why does it feel like we moved when she did it with me instead?

“W-well, uhh, yeah...” the teacher blusters in useless near-panic after Leona's disappearance. Still, how much power does it take her to teleport around like that? She isn't walking too well right now either, is she going to poof herself all the way over there? Do longer distances take more power?

Huh, I really don't know much anything about how Leona's psionic powers actually work, outside of them breaking when I'm involved. Whatever the case, the teacher manages to pull himself together, clear his throat, and start homeroom. I awkwardly stay in my seat and pull out my notebook so I'm ready for our first class, until the classroom door opens a minute later, Leona standing there, leaning against the wall, chest heaving.

The teacher stops long enough for her to call over, “Seiko, clothes,” and wave a bag in my general direction. I stumble up out of my seat and limp across the room to the door, where she closes it behind me, and we both hobble over to the closest toilet.

She comes right into the men's room, pushing me into a stall and changing her own clothes outside. It's not like she cares who sees, she mumbles, her eyes glassy and tired.

After struggling into a clean uniform and fresh underwear, thank you Leona, we head back to the class, and I ask, “You didn't use too much power to get there, did you?”

“I'll manage,” she tries to shrug it off, but she doesn't seem to be in very good condition right now.

“Please, take care of yourself too, Leona.”

“Mm.”

When we get back, no one says a word as we return to our seats, and homeroom is already over. After our first break, our classes start properly.

The teacher who comes in goes through his lesson. I do my best, but I'm not feeling great either. My notes wind up rambling and I don't know how well I'm going to remember this material.

Halfway through class, Leona's head hits her desk, and she's out. She's literally in the front row, directly in front of the teacher, but he doesn't say anything. I don't know if he's afraid of her or just understanding because god, we really look like shit, don't we?

I don't make it much further than her. By second or third period, everything starts to run together, and the next thing I know, I'm being shaken lightly. Once I'm conscious enough to realize that, I flinch away from the unknown touch, head and eyes flying around to find where it's coming from.

Ken. It's just Ken. That eases my suddenly hammering pulse. I have to gulp down a number of breaths before the panic recedes, but I manage to overcome it pretty quickly this time.

“Y-yeah? K-Ken?” I stammer out, clutching my hands together to keep them from shaking so bad.

“It's time for lunch.” He says it soothingly. He can see I'm scared.

“R-right, yeah, lunch.” I parrot. What about lunch?

When it's clear I don't actually understand, Ken says, “Do you have anything to eat? Do you want me to get you something?”

“Eat. Yes. Food.” I have to stop, curl into a ball and breathe for a minute. That finally lets me put aside the drowsy panic-addled terror thrashing around in my brain so I can think. Wow, not so over it after all.

“Alright, lunch.” That's what's happening. “Yeah, I can't walk much, could you get me something?”

“Sure thing.” Then he reaches out, slow enough for me to stop him if I want, and he gives me a gentle rub on the head. Yeah, this is good. Ken is safe. “I'll be right back. Stay with the others, alright?”

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

“Yeah.” At his direction, I shuffle into Gon's seat, a little closer to Lucy and Amari. Leona is still passed out at her desk, so I'm worried about that, especially with a bunch of other people nearby. But the two purple haired girls should be safe, right? Lucy can come on strong, but she helped me out before we even knew each other, so it should be alright...

But, haven't both of them touched me in bad ways? They both grabbed my chest at different times. No no, that was when they thought I was a boy and didn't think it would be a problem. And they were really sorry when they realized it was wrong.

My unsteady breathing returns with my rambling thoughts, and I huddle down in Gon's seat, waiting for Ken to come back. Then, my gaze slowly turns, peeking at Jen out of the corner of my eye. What about her? She's pointedly not looking at me as she eats some bread.

I don't even know where to start with Jen. All the good times, the protection, and her teaching me the basics of being a girl. That all tells me that she would respect me and my body and I'd be safe with her.

But her betrayal says that she's dangerous.

If I told her no, would she stop?

That thought remains at the front of my brain until Ken returns with Runa and some food. “Haa...” I exhale, my whole body relaxing when he comes through the door. Safe again...

Lunch passes with a somewhat awkward air, like there's some unasked question hanging over all of us, but I'm not even sure what it is. Just a sense of tension because of everything that happened the last few days?

I don't know, I just try to ignore it and eat my food. The rest of the day passes about the same, but at least I manage to stay awake through the rest of my classes. Given our injuries, we just sit out in gym, and then school's over. We both end up back in the infirmary, totally spent even though Leona slept through most of our classes.

Even so, she draws out every bit of power she can muster, and checks me again. She's so exhausted afterward, she actually collapses on top of me.

“Heavy...” I mutter from underneath, groaning and barely supporting her weight until I manage to call the doctor over to roll her off. Leona fumbles blindly for her mobile, eventually managing to send Mejja today's results, before her arm flops down on the bed and she falls asleep again right next to me.

I don't last much longer, and soon we're both out cold.

“Mmmm...” I mumble as my eyes squint open. Right, still in the infirmary. The ceiling is colored like sunset. I drowsily rummage around until I find my mobile and check the time. Huh, I've been out for like five hours. Yeah, the sun's going down.

I roll over a little, remembering Leona is right next to me. I'm still drowsy, but I don't feel so unbearably tired like this morning, and I know we still have stuff to do. Eating, getting our homework done, and most importantly, a shower... It's been days and I feel disgusting.

I shake Leona lightly, until she rouses. “Seiko?” she asks sleepily.

“Hey.” Once she wakes up a bit more, we call out, but the doctor doesn't come. I guess she already left for the day. After we talk briefly, we get up and head back to the dorm. I still ache all over and Leona is weak from using way too much power in her condition, but we're not drop-dead tired now, so the trip back isn't all that bad.

Leona slept through lunch, so we decide on food first. We go into the girl's dorm since I'm still feeling really shaky around men. We take the lift all the way up to the fifth floor, and it takes forever with people coming on and off all the way up, all staring at us and wrinkling their noses. It's making me wish I could take a bath, not just a shower. It's so unfair, they have such nice baths here but I can never use them...

When we finally arrive, I tell Leona that I'll cook, since she actually seems more tired than I am. I'm good enough now to cook us up a couple plates of eggs and sauteed vegetables. I figure we could really use the nutrition. Although, Leona does have to step in to help a few times since I can only use one hand right now.

As I cook and plate everything, I'm aware of the eyes of all the other girls in the common room watching us, but it's so different from the men. Like... curious or wary rather than hungry and jealous. They see me as a guy in their space, don't they? The thought makes me feel sick, so I try not to think about it.

After we eat, we head into Leona's room. I'm tired and it's right there. “Don't worry, I don't have a roommate,” she waves a hand at the empty bed across from hers. That's... weird. “I'm going to take a shower, just give me a minute.” She disappears into her wash room, and I flop down on the spare bed.

Why doesn't she have a roommate? It seems like too much of a coincidence to be random. Maybe because she's a psion? They just gave her a room for herself? On one hand, it must be nice, but...

Wouldn't it be lonely...?

Leona finishes up her shower as fast as she said, returning to the room with steam rolling off her skin and a towel wrapped around herself. She clearly isn't concerned about modesty at all, but I avert my eyes anyway as she throws a loose nightshirt and shorts on. She falls into her own bed with a contented groan.

“Can I...?” I ask quietly.

“Sure.”

With her permission, I hesitantly enter her wash room. I look around a little, but... “Umm, Leona?” I peek my head out through the door and call her name. “I don't see much in here.” She only has some soap and shampoo. “There's no conditioner or anything.”

“I don't use it,” she waves it off. “Military habit, I guess. Too much work. Long hair, and all that.” She rolls her head to look my way. “Right, you would need that with hair like yours, I'm sorry, Seiko.” She moans tiredly, pushing up off her bed. “Let's go to your place then.” I nod a few times, and we leave her room.

More eyes follow us across the common room, to the lift, and the other girls who get in all give off a weird atmosphere. I stick closer to Leona's side until we make it out of the building. Then we have to go through it all over again on the way back up through the men's dorm. When we finally arrive in my room, I let out a long sigh of relief.

The room is empty, so Leona crashes on my bed while I grab a change of clothes from my dresser and head into the wash room. Once I'm inside, I pull off my clothes, and finally get in the shower.

“Ahhh...” I moan, wonderfully content as I let the hot water pour over me. But just that isn't good enough. I grab my shampoo, scrubber, and everything and finally wash my filthy body for the first time in like four days.

I scrub away the sweat and dirt all the nasty dead skin, lather my hair with conditioner, and feel wonderful doing all of it. It's especially helpful that the hot water eases the bruises and aches all over. By the time I finish, I feel kind of tingly all over from scrubbing my skin, and the one arm I had to do it with is tired. But I'm clean and happy.

Once I'm dry, I put on some lotion like usual. But, it's the lotion Jen gave me, isn't it...? I frown when she comes back to mind. I know why she did it, but every time I think about it, it still hurts... Trying to push past that, I relish the silky softness of my skin instead. I'm surprised it feels this nice even though this is my first time getting a decent wash lately.

It's a long and tedious struggle to get into my clothes with one arm like this. And when I finally do, they feel unpleasant and prickly. Maybe I scrubbed a little too hard. Trying to ignore the sensitivity, I leave the wash room. Leona is already asleep on my bed, so I go over to my dresser and search through it again.

“Do I have anything softer...?” Something not so scratchy... It's all my old guy clothes though. Overused, threadbare, or just plain beat up. I barely replaced them since the beginning of middle school since I've hardly grown. Even the uniforms I have are the same kind of rough feeling fabric.

Then I find it. “Oh...” Buried underneath my other uniforms, there's a different one. The girls' uniform I got from the nurse that one time. It ended up stuffed in my bag, then buried in my dresser ever since.

I pull it out with nervous hands, but find that the fabric really isn't any better than the men's uniform. There's an instant stab of disappointment, and I sigh. Maybe I could try it anyway...?

I glance around the room, but it's still just me and the sleeping Leona. I've worn a number of girl's clothes at the cafe the last few weeks, but a regular uniform is different. Like... real clothes, I guess. But now that the thought is in my head, I can't stop myself. I slowly pull off my uncomfortable clothes and toss them aside, then slip carefully into the girl's uniform.

Yeah, it's a little big and the fabric is scratchy against my skin, but I still like it. I go into the wash room, looking myself over in the mirror.

“Hmm?” Do I look different? How? I practically press my face against the mirror, but I still can't place it. There's definitely something about my appearance that's different.

“-!!” With a startled gasp, I shove my good hand between my legs.

“Haaa....” I sigh out in relief. No changes there, so I haven't suddenly changed back or something. Once I manage to stop panicking, I move on. “Then what is it?” I return to looking at myself. I feel like I should be able to recognize a change in my own appearance, it's my own body after all, but I totally can't place it. I do look cute in the girl's uniform though...

“Maybe...?” I pull up the top. I'm not wearing a bra right now since I figure I'll be going to bed soon and it isn't worth the struggle, so I take a closer look at my breasts. Still about the same size, no changes there either. My nipples are hard because the fabric keeps scratching against them. Something to be careful about, I don't want to get them all chafed again. Still not what I'm looking for though.

“I give up.” I straighten out my clothes and take one last look in the mirror, smiling at myself. Even if they aren't comfortable, they're cute. They make me feel good.

I leave the wash room again, taking a seat at my desk so I can work my way through some homework before I'm too tired and don't get to it. For a while, silence rules, my focus on the papers in front of me. Nothing but the scratch of my pencil and the soft breathing of Leona next to me. I sink into the work, mind hazing over as I stretch my thoughts to all our different school topics. Math, biology, history...

I actually get through a variety of assignments, before the door behind me swishes open. “Hey, Ken.” I mumble over my shoulder to him.

“Hey Sei.” He comes and peers over my shoulder for a second, then, “Haa, I guess I should get to my homework too...” He plops down at his own desk, and starts working. The quiet returns.

After a few minutes, without even looking my way, Ken speaks up. “Hey, that looks good on you,” he compliments me casually.

What does? I sit there, blinking for a second, before I remember what I'm wearing. I only have a moment to panic, before I tell myself it's just Ken. I can wear things like this around him. Just... need to be more careful. What if he'd brought someone back with him? God, I wasn't thinking about that at all...

But for right now, I'm safe. I can be myself here. I can't help smiling like an idiot. “Thanks.” We both keep on with our homework.

Yeah, this is a nice atmosphere...