Yumi had just sat down with her science homework when the doorbell rang. She and Hiroki were both in the living room; a glance at her brother showed he was too absorbed in his DS to get up, even though he was closer. Rolling her eyes, she went to answer the door. She found Ulrich on the other side in his green winter jacket, Kiwi bundled in his arms.

"Do I want to know what happened?" she asked, arching an eyebrow and stepping aside to let him in.

The door closed. Ulrich knelt to let Kiwi down and slip off his shoes. The little dog immediately began sniffing the Ishiyamas' traditional shoe cupboard. She shot him a glare in case he got any ideas. "When I followed Odd's voice, I saw him being dragged off by Jim, Kiwi in his arms. So I followed them until Odd brought Kiwi to our room and left with Jim. I snuck him out before he could get in trouble."

Losing interest, Kiwi darted off into the living room, barking. A delighted "Lychee!" reached Yumi's ears. She glanced over her shoulder-yep, that was Hiroki, tossing his DS aside in delight at his friend. And yep, that was Kiwi running circles around the room before diving into the little boy's arms. Doubtless they'd start playing and knocking stuff over soon. She could already feel the beginnings of a headache coming on.

She turned back to Ulrich, who was now straightening up. Her heart did a little jump-she kept forgetting how tall he was now. And his voice was getting deeper, and that was pretty nice…

"Make yourself at home," she said, pushing back the urge to kiss him. She really didn't feel like getting teased by Hiroki now.

"Thanks, but I'm not staying long. Just to bring Kiwi here." An unsure look crossed his face, as if he was regretting his choice. His next words were hasty, spilled-out like a rushing river. "I know this is unexpected, but your place was the only one I could think of. I know your parents love the little guy, so I was hoping you wouldn't mind looking after him. Just for a little while! Until it's safe for him to come back to the dorms."

Before Yumi could say anything, Hiroki piped up, "Of course Lychee can stay here! He's always welcome, isn't that right? Who's a good boy?"

Kiwi rolled on his bark, tail wagging a mile a minute, as Hiroki rubbed his stomach. Yumi sighed. Ulrich was right-her family adored Kiwi. And it wasn't a problem to help out a friend. "Yeah, we can do that. Our parents are out for the rest of the day, but I'll tell them when they get home. They'll be happy to see him again."

He smiled, a little dimple forming in one cheek, and her heart did backflips. "Thanks, Yumi."

The temperature was rapidly plunging as twilight fell, but Sissi was still outside, taking a slow walk through Kadic's park. The snow was still thick on the ground, bare tree branches swayed in the wind, and the sky was a gradient of reds and indigos. She could see what William meant, about this being refreshing. The cold air almost seemed to sharpen her senses and purge unnecessary thought from her mind, leaving her head clear to ponder her problem.

Namely, one William Dunbar.

When Ulrich had so casually extended his hand-if in friendship and not marriage-she'd vowed she'd try to be a better person. Do that whole 'treat others how you want to be treated' thing. The first part of that had been ditching Nicholas and Herve. They'd wanted things to go back to how they used to be, when she would needle Ulrich's little gang and they would egg her on. They weren't willing to adapt and-in a moment of foresight-Sissi knew that if they caught her on a bad day, she might just listen to them. So that bridge was well and truly burned. Whatever. It wasn't like they'd really been her friends.

Over the past couple months, she'd made progress in small steps-apologizing to Milly and Tamiya and everyone she'd hurt, offering compliments in passing, being more patient, little things like that. Getting William Dunbar back in with the gang was gonna be the first big step in her 'better me' project, she could tell. Between his 'prank' and the sullenness, he'd quickly become a loner at school, and not in his previous cool, rebellious way. No one hung out with him except Aelita, and she couldn't be with him all the time. You took a loner like that, got him friends, got his life straightened out, you were well on your way to kindness, right?

So yeah, it started as a charity case. But as they hung out, she'd begun to genuinely like him, not that she'd admit it to him. He was good-looking (not as much as Ulrich of course, but eye candy was always nice), kept up with the latest trends (she loved her friends, but honestly, some of them could be so on the out), had a wickedly dry sense of humor, and hadn't treated her like she was an idiot or excluded from some secret club. Which...okay, so she wasn't completely over Those Years. So what? She would be.

But more than that, William got that feeling, of bitter disappointment and unfair isolation, except she'd escaped it and he was still in it. Ingratiating him back into their group of friends had gone from a project to something she was personally invested in. She wanted him to feel better.

Which was why it sucked that she got the feeling he was hiding something from her, too. That there was something more to his split with Einstein and company than he was saying. "I can't even tell you why," he'd said, and she'd thought he meant he didn't know. Now she was starting to suspect he meant it was a secret.

She hated secrets.

Sissi blew out a frustrated huff of air. And of course, because life never gave breaks when it could give kicks, it felt like things were reverting with the group. Her friends better not think she hadn't noticed them huddling up and whispering again, because she totally had.

Once, she would have snooped around to find their secrets, held it over William and Ulrich and everyone until they played along with what she wanted. But she was supposed to be becoming a better person.

"This sucks," she said out loud.

"Your so-called friends ditch you again?"

The high and irritating voice came from behind her. Without looking, she recognized it. Herve, and that meant Nicholas was with him. Great. The last two people she wanted to meet when she was in a bad mood. She spun around, glaring. "No, and I told you, if you aren't gonna be nice to them, I have nothing to say to you."

"And I don't see why you stopped being fun and started defending that teacher's pet Jeremie! What was wrong with the good old days, when we could heckle him or Aelita or Yumi?" Herve complained.

They always did this. At first, her former minions had thought she would ditch her new friends and things would go back to normal; then, when they started saying mean things to Jeremie or Ulrich and she rebuked them, they realized she was serious. Nicholas could probably have handled that, but Herve just couldn't. So here they were, months later and still bothering her about coming back.

"Because they were the ones I always wanted to be friends with," she said. "And now that I am, I'm not gonna blow it."

She turned on her heel, but the doofuses just didn't get the message. Herve pushed himself in front of her; Nicholas followed, looking for all the world like an apologetic puppy. It had driven her crazy when they were her lackeys-and yes, she was remorseful about how she'd treated them, really. She'd made her apologies, but was she supposed to keep letting them talk to her, or her friends, like they used to?

"Even with Yumi dating Ulrich?" Okay, now she knew Herve was full of crap. He was probably enthusiastic about that-it 'freed' Sissi for him.

But, crap or no, he knew how to hit right where it hurt. Witticism abandoned her as her thorns wrapped around her heart. It took her a second too long to swallow and say "If he's happy, I'm happy."

It rang hollow in her ears. Of course she wanted Ulrich happy, but why couldn't he be happy with her?

"She's your rival!"

"And my friend." And that, Sissi thought, made it hard. She really wanted to hate Yumi for being with Ulrich-but she couldn't. Yumi made him happy, and she was cool, but it hurt, and...

Why did everything have to be so confusing?

"You really think that's not gonna change? They ditched you like a sack of rocks at a moment's notice-who's to say they won't again?! We've always stood by you-"

Sissi had stopped listening after his second sentence. A rush of memories came back-Ulrich standing her up, the unexplained cold shoulders, the way they treated her like an annoyance, the confusion and hurt and acting out so they would at least look at her. They were memories she didn't like, the worst few years of her life.

And when she was faced with things she didn't understand or like, she lashed out. Lava seemed to course through her veins instead of blood as she snapped, "They won't! Get over yourself and your stupid crush, Herve. Even if they stopped being my friends, I'd rather spend a lifetime alone than hang out with a pathetic, pimply twerp like you."

The look on his face-it was only there for half a second before he covered it up-but still-

She couldn't be there anymore. Not with him looking like that, the guilt brewing in her stomach, or the fear. She flipped her hair and strutted away.

Hey Delmas, how's that niceness thing coming along?

He started it by bringing up Ulrich.

Ooooh, 'he started it'. Are you back in preschool?!

Ugh, can you just SHUT UP?

Sissi ground her teeth. She was gonna need a way longer walk to get this little encounter out of her head.

They watched Sissi stomp off in her knee-high designer boots, a flurry of snow kicked up in her wake. Then Nicholas looked at Herve. His friend's face was red, his hands balled into shaking fists, and actual tears were in his eyes.

He knew he wasn't the smartest guy around. That was why he and Herve got along so well; Herve could handle the brainy stuff, and Nicholas the sporty stuff. But Nicholas didn't have to be smart to know that when Sissi drew a line in the sand, she would not move it. They'd been trying-well, Herve had been trying and Nicholas was just tugged along, as usual-for months, and it hadn't worked.

"Herve," he finally said. "Maybe she's right. Maybe we should let it go." It wasn't like he'd ever wanted to be mean to that group. Especially not Aelita, who was so kind and pretty...

"No!" Herve pulled off his glasses and swiped an arm across his face. "I mean...I know you're right. Sissi's always treated us like crap. But I always hoped someday she'd appreciate me."

Nicholas looked in the direction Sissi had stormed away. "I don't think that's gonna happen."

"Yeah." Herve's mouth was pulled downwards, his brows furrowed into a scowl. "But does she seriously expect me to play nice Jeremie or Ulrich just because she does? Jeremie thinks he's better than me, and Ulrich-he doesn't even care about her! Not the way I do! We were there for her, weren't we?"

"We were."

"Yeah, so why is she mad at us for being mean to them?! She's been mean to us, hasn't she?!"

"She has."

"She always treated us like dirt! She ignored our feelings and ordered us around and-and we should pay her back."

"Huh?"

Herve looked up at him, a spark of excitement gleaming in his eyes. "I mean it. Not in a criminal way or anything. That's just psycho. But something humiliating. Make her feel as small and hurt as we did."

"Um, but I don't really want revenge."

"Fine, you don't-but I do! She knew how I felt and she treated me like that anyway! She made fun of it just now!" His voice cracked. "Nicholas, please. I don't...I don't have anyone else I can rely on."

He looked at Herve, feeling torn. Nicholas didn't have anything against Sissi or her friends, really. But Herve was his friend. Someone wrongs your friend, you wrong them back, right? "Alright. But what are we gonna do?"

Herve raised a finger, and Nicholas privately vowed not to tell him it made him look like Jeremie. "We're gonna mimic her. We're gonna watch and wait for an opportunity. And when it comes...we strike!"

Bark! Bark! Bark!

Yumi grimaced at the incessant noise coming from Hiroki's room. Her headache had now exploded into full-time knives of pain stabbing her skull. Like she'd predicted, her brother's play with Kiwi created a lot of raucous and physical mess. When they'd stopped for dinner, he'd snuck the dog scraps at the table, which led to high-pitched, begging whines. And now, he was simply letting Kiwi yowl away while he did whatever.

Her parents and brother loved Kiwi, but it didn't change the fact she didn't.

Bark! Bark! Barkbarkbarkbarkbarkbark!

Fed up, she slammed her book shut and stormed out of her room. She crossed the hall and tore Hiroki's bedroom door open. "Can you please quiet him down?!"

Hiroki was lying on his bed, face buried in his DS. Kiwi was running laps around the room, but as soon as he saw the open door, he made a beeline for it. Before she could react, he darted between her legs and scampered away.

"Lychee, no!" Hiroki jumped to his feet, alarmed. "He's escaping!"

"Where would he-" Yumi stopped as the realization hit her. "Oh no."

She and Hiroki had made dinner for themselves, as their parents were at a friend's house. When they'd finished, Hiroki had yelled "nose goes!" and darted off to his room, leaving Yumi to wash and clean the plates. She'd then left the window open to air the house-the window which Kiwi was now surely running towards.

Sure enough, when the siblings flew down stairs and skidded into the kitchen, they saw Kiwi, in a bout of surprising athleticism for one his body shape, jump onto the bench. In the span between that and their next breath, he wriggled between the recently-cleaned burners and disappeared over the windowsill into the evening darkness.

"Son of a-" Yumi swore.

Hiroki was already heading to the front door. "C'mon, let's get him back!"

Without even grabbing coats, they threw their shoes on and burst into the night. Yumi shivered. An icy breeze stirred the otherwise-still air, trailing cold fingers along her arms. The windows of their neighbors' houses looked like dead eyes, dimmed and unlit. Streetlights illuminated a deserted road, flanked by letterboxes, gardens, cars-and Kiwi's small gray form, running joyously down the street.

Rubbing their arms, Yumi and Hiroki pursued him. They ended up running quite a distance; for having such little legs, that dog could sure run. Eventually, they ended up on a vaguely-familiar road, though Yumi couldn't say why it seemed such.

Then she saw the familiar, tall building ahead, and realized this was the road to the Hermitage. Usually they arrived through Kadic's park; approaching it from this angle, and at night, felt strange. She blinked, trying to shake off the cognitive dissonance.

Looking around, she realized the road was empty and Hiroki was peering into the shadows. Kiwi had disappeared, but where? Into the park, or towards the Hermitage?

Suddenly, her brother grabbed her sleeve. "Yumi," he whispered, "who's that?"

She followed his pointed finger. There was a man emerging from around the Hermitage. The light from the streetlamps was weak, revealing only a few scant details: a leather jacket, the profile of his face. The hairs on Yumi's arms rose, her instincts whispering it was best not to be noticed. Wordlessly, she grabbed Hiroki and retreated a few steps into the shadows.

And at that moment, a cacophony of barks, snarls and howls emerged from the villa's garden. Kiwi's was among them. The man turned back and Hiroki tore himself free of Yumi's grasp.

"Hiroki, no!" she hissed, black fear closing her throat as he scaled the front gate. Adrenaline pumping through her veins, she followed him up and over, dropping to the other side. The man had disappeared and the barks had died down in volume, but there were still some growls. She didn't recognize Kiwi's pitch among them.

Hiroki's white shirt stood out like a beacon. He was already running towards the garden; cursing her brother, her luck, and everything about this situation, Yumi followed. Her longer legs closed the distance between them quickly. She grabbed his shoulder and yanked him back. "Stop! Don't go running in blindly!"

"Lychee's in trouble!" he protested.

"And it won't help him if you get in trouble too! That stranger could still be lurking around; we have to be careful."

By now, the barking had died completely, leaving a thick, disturbing silence in its place. This far from the streets, there were no lights to see by; the darkness was almost completely absolute, save a sliver from the quarter moon. Yumi clutched Hiroki's hand tightly, feeling like if she let him go, the night would swallow him up.

The Ishiyama siblings slowly fumbled through the grounds, searching for Kiwi and keeping an eye out for the stranger. It took a while. But finally, when they were awkwardly feeling their way along the garage, Yumi heard something. A series of low, rapid gasps, like an animal in pain. Keeping one hand on her brother and the other on the garage wall, she followed the sound. It led her to a small, sad little bundle on the ground. A beam of moonlight illuminated blood glistening on fur.

She sucked in air through her teeth. "Kiwi…"