,

Tamaki is walking back to school grounds again this morning with a bored expression.

Second day of school this week and Tamaki remains occupied. He's a bit worried for leaving Maki at his place but with his dad also working as well, there might be no danger coming from it.

"Hey Tamaki~" A feminine voice calls out to him. He looks on the left side of the hallway and see girls grouped together, but the one in the center of the circle was their leader.

That leader calling him was also known as Akina Tachibana, who also was the popular girl of the school.

He waves at her with a stoic look.

"Hi, Tachibana."

She smirks and the girls giggle quietly to themselves afterwards. He left, leaving the girls to talk amongst themselves.

"Looks like Akina found a new love interest!" A girl says in the circle.

"Ah didn't you hear, Keiko? She's been having her eyes on him for quite some time!"

Tachibana looks at her,

"Yeah, my last boyfriend was some snobby idiot and I need someone a little tame." She watches Tamaki head to his homeroom class.

"Besides, he's so handsome and quite mysterious. I think I'd like to get with him, or even hook up with the guy~"

"Why don't you invite him to that big birthday bash you're having this Friday?"

She narrows her eyes, a playful smile on her lips.

"Yes, I think I will do just that."

--

As Tamaki enters the room, he's greeted by his two friends, Akio and Daichi who sat on the nearest table next to his.

"Hey Tamaki." He's surprised they've spoke to him so instantly. Lately, they haven't spoke to him since he left Kendo club. He barely had time to hang out with them, so they've distanced themselves.

Except for this moment.

Akio nudges Tamaki once he sits on his chair and he flashes a confused expression.

"What?"

"Dude, Tachibana got the hots for you!" The blonde grinned at his friend, "There's been rumors floating around who she likes and I gotta say, it sounds like you!"

"Really?" He asked with a disinterested tone as he unpacks his things, pulling out a notebook and pen.

"Yes, REALLY!" Daichi chimes in with his fisted hands against his chest. "You're going to be popular dude. That's if you get with her, though."

Tamaki scoffs and looks out the window,

"Whatever. I'm not interested in her anyways."

He thinks of Maki.

He doesn't say anything afterwards and the two looked at him shocked, then at each other.

The two let out a sigh.

"You don't know how lucky you are, Tamaki." His friends said in sadness.

-

Maki was jamming to some of the music upstairs in Tamaki's bedroom. She laid down on his bed on the opposite way, with her legs resting on the bed frame. She was reading one of his graphic novels from his book shelf as she listens to you should see me in a crown.

When the beat drops, she bops her head while focused on the panel when Dr. Manhattan shows up in all his blue glory.

She looks away from the page and then crawls over to the radio, and see which artist played the song.

"B-Billie..Eillish?"

She digs the song. She'd definitely choose this song as her musical entrance or if she ever starred in a movie.

"Tamaki has good taste." She says to Suki who rests on her lap as she scrolls down at his playlist. He was mostly into the Neighborhood, Arctic Monkeys and Billie Eillish though.

She tries to turn up the volume but her fingers froze on the button when she hears the sound of someone opening the door from downstairs.

'That isn't Tamaki!' He doesn't come out of school till three. She instead turns off all of the music and shuts the door.

He hears his father talking to someone on the phone as he settles his keys down somewhere. Maki doesn't think she should be here now. She takes the emergency exit that Tamaki instructed. She instantly opens the window and makes her escape.

She sighed in relief to find herself out of the house. She jumped down and Suki followed behind and landed right on her shoulder.

She looked at Maki curiously, awaiting where to go next.

Maki can only think of one thing,

"Let's go pick up your owner from school, Suki."

"Meow."

-

Tamaki is so glad classes are over. It felt like forever to him. He was walking downstairs in a timely manner. He needed to grab his book bag and other items before heading out.

He also had so many thoughts running through his head, such as what would Maki want to eat today or what other things they can do together.

He bumps into someone with a much smaller frame and he stops his footsteps once he made it downstairs.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" He looks and notices that it's Akina. The strawberry blonde girl looks at him with a gentle smile, putting her hands in defense.

"N-No, you're good. You're good, Tamaki!" She says with a laugh. He rubs the back of his head nervously.

"I didn't see you there."

"It's okay, you're in a rush. Perfectly understandable." She brushes off the edge of her skirt before clearing her throat.

"How was class, by the way?" She asked and he blinks at her. Why is she trying to talk to him?

"It was good."

"Just good."

"Yeah." He reinforces his answer and she looks a bit upset but just shakes it off anyways.

"Well, ahem, I wanted to invite you to my birthday party this Friday. My parents are going to be out of town, so I'm inviting a bunch of people. I would loveee for you to come."

This gets him a bit interested. He's never really been invited to a party, so this definitely would be his chance.

"And you can invite your friends too if you want. I would want more people to come after all.."

She then comes closer and tip toes, nearly whispering at his ear.

"And I would like to get to know more of you, Tamaki Hatsumi~"

He's shocked by her sudden actions and feels flustered a bit. He takes a step back,

"Uhm.." Before he can say anything, his friends come running to him.

"Tamaki, some chick is looking for you!!"

"Huh? Who?" It wasn't Tamaki who asked, but it was Akina who showed her true colors by booming her voice in a seriously, annoyed tone. She looks at Tamaki but he doesn't look at her.

He smiles, his heart skipped a beat to know who it is. He goes follows his friends, who guide him to the school gate.

Everyone stared weirdly at the girl who held her pole arm behind her back with a cat rested on her shoulder.

She remains serious with a hand on her hip and everyone starts to whisper to each other.

"Who is she?"

"Can she even show up with a weapon like that?"

"Hey, Maki!" Maki looks at the direction the familiar voice was coming from. She smirks with content to see Tamaki run to her with two guys follow behind.

"Heyyy Tamaki, who's your lady friend?" Akio asked, giving off flirtatious looks at Maki who doesn't reciprocate. She only looks annoyed.

"She's my friend. Her name is Maki." He briefly introduces before he comes close to her.

"What are you doing here, Maki?"

"Your dad came to your house so early. What was I suppose to do?" She shrugs at him and he understands where she's coming from.

He smiles,

"Okay, let me go grab my things and we'll be on our way. Just wait there." He says before running back to the locker room.

She watches him go and then looks at Akio and Daichi who made themselves awkwardly comfortable around her.

She wished she went with Tamaki.

-

The sorcerer and the student went out for some curry buns. Maki smiled as she bit into her soft bun and Tamaki looks at her with happiness. These were his favorite moments. He loved coming out of class and get something to eat with Maki while exploring the city.

It brought some entertainment and joy to his life more and more, each day. After they threw the wraps though, Maki had to make an unusual request.

"Hey Tamaki,

Do you want to come and see me hunt some spirits?"

He smiles brightly,

"Do I!"

The two find themselves traveling away from his neighborhood and then stopped their footing when they reached an abandoned building. A place that once was a middle school.

She unsheathe her weapon and he looks at her with awe.

"That is one cool weapon." He whistles when she spins it around and before holding it in a alert stance.

"I got to get me one of th-"

"Watch out!" Maki pushes Tamaki out of the way before her weapon comes in contact with a spirit who tried to crush Tamaki's head.

'Shit!' Tamaki staggers away as she fights the spirit. She hits him hard down and before it can react, she stabs her blade right on the head.

More spirits came out of the shrouded darkness but Maki fought them all, one by one as Tamaki watched by the corner.

He felt useless. His dad was a sorcerer, right? So where was his powers?

Maki panted to herself before coming up to him with her weapon.

"I think this building is clear now."

"Woah, that was amazing Maki!" He clasped his hands together and Maki slings her weapon, trying to be cool in front of him.

"Yeah, well it was nothing." She couldn't stop the blush coming from her face.

"Can I see that weapon of yours?"

"Sure." She says before throwing it at him. He catches it with ease before looking at its length. He starts to swing it around like Maki does, though not as fast as her.

"My father made this..I almost can't believe it."

"You know, you're not so shabby with that thing. But then again, you've played around with weapons before, no?" She asked. He goes gives it back to her.

"Yeah but with swords and smaller blades. I've never worked with particular spears or polearms."

"Ha, it's almost the same thing." She says, knowing she can master those two type of weapons.

"I'm surprised you let me come with you, considering how dangerous it is for someone like me." He said.

"Well to be honest, I haven't fought like this in awhile. I need to sharpen my skills but also, I was curious..

Could you exorcise spirits like your dad, Tamaki?"

He's stunned by the question and starts to think it himself.

He could see spirits but could he fight them? The thought sounds exciting but also threatening. But he would want to try.

"Where would I start?"

She starts to advise him,

"Hm, I'm no expert but usually sorcerers can imbue curse energy on command. But you really can't do it if you have overwhelming emotions."

"No emotions. Got it." Tamaki nods and he closes his eyes, with his hand out. He breathes a bit and tries to think nothing but of something.

'Please work, please work.' He prays to himself and feels his body fire up a bit.

He shakes in his spot,

"I-Is it working?"

Maki doesn't say anything except she slaps the hand that he puts out.

"Nothing's happening, Tamaki."

"Damn."

Now she's got him riled up. He tries and tries but it's all to no avail.

'Maybe I'm not cut out to be one' He admits defeat. He now starts walking away from the building a bit upset but Maki simply smiles, chuckles at him before putting an arm around him.

"It's okay, Tamaki. Maybe you're just like me or something."

Tamaki laughs,

"Yeah, maybe."

Who knows though, right?

"By the way, I never asked. How was school?"

"Oh yeah!" He chimed at the question before pulling out a wrinkly invitation letter out of the pocket of his school blazer.

"I got invited to a party! Wanna come, Maki?"

She looks at the invitation and narrows her eyes at it.

Why does she have a bad feeling about it?

--