Thea and Samantha were out buying new leathers as a distraction when Samantha got the text message from Kaguya, and because she was changing in and out of leathers she hadn’t been able to check her phone immediately. By the time an hour passed after the initial text time, they were only just checking out what Thea decided was the best leathers of the lot Samantha tried on, and it was another twenty minutes before their bags were in the car and they were pulling out of the parking lot. And that was when Samantha finally saw the message, and her heart dropped. She read it to Thea, and even Thea looked disheartened.

“Maybe she’s not breaking up with you,” she said hesitantly.

Samantha glared at her. “We weren’t really even dating, Thea. She can’t exactly break up with me.” Thea shrugged. “But she can tell me never to talk to her again. And delete her phone number. What if she’s under orders to kill me? Actually, that wouldn’t be that bad… I mean, at least I’d die after seeing her again.”

“You are so dramatic!” Thea exclaimed, unable to do anything else since she was driving. And the grip on her steering wheel told Samantha what she’d be doing if she hadn’t had to keep them on the wheel. “I doubt she’s going to kill you. And even if she was, I do not expect you to just accept it and die! Jeez… As for the other stuff, just don’t delete her number and just send her texts all the time anyway.”

“But that would get creepy after a while, wouldn’t it?”

“Well… Probably.” Samantha slammed her face against the front dash of the car. “Hey! Be nice to my car! It’s not her fault Kaguya is dumping you!”

“I don’t care.”

“Have you even sent her a response to explain why you aren’t there yet?”

Samantha jolted and grabbed her phone to quickly type out a message.

Sorry, went shopping with Thea. I’ll be there as soon as we get back on campus! - H

Come to my dorm instead. The window will be open. - K

“Kinky,” Thea said, looking over when she was stopped at a light. “Maybe she’s not dumping you and you’re getting laid instead.”

“I don’t know which room is her dorm. What if it’s on the third level like ours?”

“It’s not. Besides, that’s what Souma’s for isn’t it?”

Samantha stared at her stepsister and watched as some color started to appear on her cheeks. The longer she stared, the darker those cheeks became until Thea growled at her. Samantha cleared her throat and opened a new text with Souma.

Kag’s room # - H

Kinky. 1st flr, last rm frthst frm entr. - S

Bk of bldg. - S

Tell ur beautiful sis ignoring me hi. - S

“Souma says hi and that you’re beautiful,” Samantha told Thea in a deadpan voice.

“What? No he didn’t! And you’re supposed to ask about Kaguya’s room, not talk about me!”

“He did, and he told me that first,” Samantha said, offering to let her see. Thea focused on the road in front of her, and they let most of the ride out of town towards the academy pass in silence. As they got close, Samantha found herself too keyed up and started to bounce her knee. “What if she’s really breaking up with me?”

“I doubt she’d do that in her room.”

“Well, it should be pretty private. She would get her own room like we do, right?” Thea just gave Samantha a glare, and turned back to the road. It was starting to get dark, though dinner should be only just about to start. “We’re missing dinner. Wasn’t it pizza night? It’s probably good we’re missing dinner.”

“I’ll make you macaroni and cheese in the common room after your not-breaking-up meeting with Kaguya.”

“Why do you sound annoyed?”

“I’m not!” Thea parked her car and quickly got out of it. Samantha was fast to follow suit, and then realized there was someone standing in the shadows.

“Yo!” the shadow said, raising an arm. “I’m here to help lead the maiden to the other maiden’s room!” He stepped out and revealed that it was Souma, who was only really smiling at Thea even though she was ignoring him and walking right past him. “She is so sexy.”

“That’s my sister,” Samantha pointed out. “And while I can agree to beautiful, I draw the line at agreeing she’s sexy.”

“I guess I can get that,” Souma agreed, nodding. “Anyway, let’s go. I’ll be in the shadows for most of the trip once we get close to the dorm, because the girls there find me creepy when I’m outside the building for some reason.”

“I’m sure it’s only because they don’t know if you’re going to try and follow their shadows into their room and peep on them or not.”

“I would never!”

“Not even with Thea?”

“I think I’ll beg for silence on that one.”

“You may need to beg for mercy if she ever finds out.”

Souma smirked. “That may be what I want to happen, Samantha. Ah, a fiery mad Thea, stomping on me! That would be-”

“Gross. Why are you my guide again?”

“Because Kaguya sort of trusts me. She’s still mad that I told you about our father and the killing thing, by the way. Which is why I’ve been promoted to sort of trustworthy. I used to be barely trustworthy scum before, by the way.”

“You’re still scum, though.”

“You’re mean.”

They finally made it to the window that Souma had described, which meant that Samantha really didn’t need a guide, but she thanked him anyway before he disappeared into the shadows of a nearby tree. She walked to the window and knocked before sliding it open and climbing inside.

“Kaguya? I’m here!” she called, though she was trying not to be too loud. As soon as she was on the floor, she turned and closed the window, locking it back up after a moment. Then she turned and looked at the room. It took her a moment, and then she realized that she could hear water running. Her head turned towards the doorway on the left, and her cheeks went red. But she still stepped forward and knocked on the door, cracking it to say, “Kaguya? I just wanted you to know I’m here.”

There was a long silence, and then Kaguya cleared her throat. “Um, thanks for letting me know. Can you get the clothes laid on the bed and lay them just inside the door? I am almost done, and I wasn’t expecting you this soon.”

Samantha’s face got hotter, and she quickly did as she was asked before sitting on the floor next to the bed.

Several minutes later, Kaguya emerged from the bathroom with her towel still drying her hair. “I’m sorry that you were kept waiting, Samantha.”

“No, it’s fine. I’m sorry I was early?” Kaguya smiled a little, and Samantha cleared her throat. “Oh yeah, so… What did you need to talk to me about?”

Kaguya’s face darkened, and she slumped a little, pausing in drying her hair. “We need to stop seeing each other for a while. Probably need to stop texting as well.”

“I… was afraid it was something like that,” Samantha mumbled, her head dropping a little. Kaguya had seen the fear and doubt in her aura when she first came into the room, but now it was a lot darker, and even still it was overwhelmed by grief. For some reason that bothered her more than the fear and doubt did, especially as the green that was always so strong in Samantha’s aura also seemed to dim.

“That’s… I mean, that was why I asked you to come here,” Kaguya said. “I made sure Souma led you here so you knew how to get here.” Samantha looked up, confusion all over her face. “We can meet here, sometimes.” Kaguya seemed to realize something as she put away the towel and turned to Samantha to tell her about the window and her plan. And Samantha was treated to the rare sight of Kaguya blushing brightly, making her want to tease her. “I can leave the window unlocked when it’s safe to come in, and you can come-”

“I won’t take advantage of this to come sniff your panties,” Samantha said suddenly, interrupting Kaguya.

That succeeded in distracting Kaguya, and her face cooled a little. “Wait, what?” she asked, sure she misheard Samantha.

“I said I won’t come sniff your panties just because you’re letting me come into your room,” Samantha said, making sure she spoke clearly. “I mean, I’m not a pervert or anything, though I am curious about what they, uh… Well, don’t worry about that train of thought. I mean, I don’t need to know what they look like!”

Kaguya was still confused for several moments, and then she started laughing, turning around when she started to feel the pain in her ribs again. “You are amusing, Samantha. And if you really want to know what my panties look like, I store them in the top drawer,” she teased when she could breathe easy again, pointing at the tall dresser next to the bathroom door. Samantha stared at that drawer for a long moment, and Kaguya started laughing again.

“Well, I guess we’re not having a friendship-breakup,” Samantha mumbled, which made Kaguya look at her and realize that the doubt was starting to fade from Samantha’s aura. It made her sad that she had made Samantha doubt their friendship like that, and the wording hurt which seemed odd. She stared at Samantha for a long moment before nodding to herself. It was good to see the green starting to fill Samantha’s aura again. Kaguya closed her eyes and took a deep breath before opening them again, the aura that usually surrounded Samantha fading away.

“No, I don’t think I could handle it if you were totally out of my life now, Samantha,” Kaguya said softly. “You have this… presence to you that seems to calm me.”

Samantha smiled, and relaxed as she leaned into the bed behind her. “Yeah. I understand what you mean. I feel the same way around you.”

“I’m still mad at you about all the time you spend with Gianna, by the way,” Kaguya murmured, still standing there and starting to feel a little awkward about it. She chose to sit on the edge of the bed instead of joining Samantha on the floor, and Samantha got on her knees to turn to her, putting a hand on hers. After a moment she gasped and grabbed Kaguya’s nightshirt, pushing it up and knocking Kaguya to her back to see her abdomen.

“What the heck happened?” Samantha asked, not even registering that she could see Kaguya’s panties as she ran her fingers lightly over the dark bruises that mottled the skin before her, focusing her energy to the areas her fingers touched until they lightened immensely. There were other bruises that she could feel, but she was quickly realizing their position and jumped away. “Whoa! I’m sorry! I uh… I mean…”

Kaguya sat up and hugged her stomach, looking away with a scared look on her face. Samantha knelt back down and put a hand on hers again. Softly, she repeated, “I’m sorry,” and planted a kiss on Kaguya’s cheek. After a moment, Kaguya relaxed and shook her head.

“It’s not your fault. I should have said something earlier,” she murmured. Then she realized she was in far less pain than she should have been, and gave Samantha a confused look. “Did you do something when you looked?”

Samantha winced and looked down. “Yeah… I’m sorry about that. I mean, I’m not sorry about doing it, but I probably should have warned you first. And I probably should have said something before now, too. My ability is to heal, see. I can heal others, and I can heal some mental pains as well as most physical injuries. It even works on my own injuries.”

Kaguya smiled softly and gripped Samantha’s hands. “Mine lets me see auras,” she said, raising Samantha’s head. “Lay down with me for a while?”

Samantha stood and let Kaguya lead her onto the bed so they could snuggle together. “What kinds of things can your aura sight tell you?” Samantha asked, her voice quiet.

Kaguya hummed, and focused her sight again. “I can see moods, mostly. Occasionally I’ll get glimpses of feelings.”

“Wait, so you can like… see feelings?”

“Mhmm. So I can tell how much you care for your siblings, for example, when you’re with them.”

“And when I’m with you? What does my aura tell you?”

“It’s always very green when I look at you, which is probably your ability now that I think about it. But there’s also a lot of affection, happiness… And there’s a new one today, but I’m not very familiar with this one. I’ve seen it with others at times, but never with those close to me,” Kaguya said as she reached out and caressed a finger through the air around Samantha. “It’s similar to affection but more radiant.”

Samantha blushed, but didn’t say anything. “That’s really cool. I’m glad you can see all that from my aura.”

Neither girl saw the pair of eyes looking in from outside the window. The eyes narrowed as they took in the sight, and then left the area to walk around the building and into the light to reveal Monica’s form. She pulled out her phone and called for a driver to come pick her up at the Kazegami dorms so she could go report to the Familia’s head. It took only twenty minutes before a car pulled up, and she was on her way to the manor.

Outside of the office she was led to, Monica shimmied her dress around until she had as much of her chest showing as possible without her boobs actually falling out, and then she knocked on the large door in front of her. After a short pause, she heard a gruff, "Enter," and pushed the door open. Sitting at a large desk inside the room was an older man, his gaze down at something on his desk as she walked further into the room.

"What is it?" the man asked, while Monica continued to walk around and sit on the desk right by his arm. She crossed her leg over the other so the already short dress rode up a little further, and bent over a little. She was awarded with his gaze moving up her legs and to her chest, before he met her eyes. "I assume you have something to report?"

"Of course, darling!" Monica said happily. "I finally figured out why Kaguya is acting so weird, and probably why she didn't kill her last opponent. Apparently she's got a romantic entanglement going on with a Thomas!"

The man frowned deeply, and then asked, "Who's our Second?"

"Hmm… I believe that's Erin. Do you want me to give her the order?"

"No, Erin is too soft. Third?"

"Willy. He’d be hesitant to kill too."

"Useless, all of them." The man thought for a moment, and then looked at Monica. "How do you think you would fare against this Thomas?"

"I play for keeps, and they don't," Monica said, laughing. "It would be fun to play with one of them myself for once. I think it’d be more fun to play with the brother though, torment them all a bit. He’s soft so it would be more like playing than fighting."

"Hm… Sounds good. Do it, and you shall be rewarded."

Monica grinned widely, kissed him on the cheek, and then left the office with a skip to her step.