#but I do think I got Miu to be further away from in-character aligned

[valmos]

Hey @neothebean, remember that horrible fanfic? Well the author finally updated!

Author’s Note: The ending of last chapter has been retconned slightly. It has been two years! :3 Sue me.

Miu took a bite out her half of Hart’s sandwich as she listened to him talk the bizarre abandon courtyard at the school. She was about to take her second bite, as Hart mumbled something about a poor attempt at drawing a parallel from an alternate dimension, when she sensed it. Someone was climbing the stairs! Are we even suppose to be up here?! Miu questioned if this dork got her in trouble on her first day as she sprang to her feet. 

A boy wearing a red plaid shirt, a jean vest, that looks it was once a jacket, and motorcycle boots came crashing through the door. To Miu’s surprise, she know him. He was on the Bergard High School’s wrestling team during their freshmen year... that is until he was kicked off for cheating. She couldn’t remember his name though.

“Figured you’d take the lost pup up here, Carhagh.” he said with a proud snarl. Hart slowly rose to his feet, he was obviously trying to stay his normal calm and cheery self, but Miu was able to see the worry underneath. “Oh, hi Perry!” Hart said has he finally stood up and placed his hands behind his neck. “Pecarry...” Miu mumbles to herself now remembering. “IT’S PERRY!” Pecarry screams with a flourish of his hands. An expression crossed Pecarry’s face that looks like cold water just trickled down his back, Miu guess he realized he shouldn’t be yelling and drawing attention to them.

“I’m here to welcome you, lost pup,” Pecarry said, much quieter then his earlier speaking voice, as he cracked his knuckles. Miu wasn’t scared; her father had taught her self defense and she was able to beat him in wrestling even with him using illegal moves. Well she wasn’t scared until Hart got between them, urging them not to fight. A sudden sharp intense filled Miu’s head and she feel to her knees, Pecarry had used the distraction to throw a rock at her. 

Perry advanced on his prey, despite Hart’s pleas. “Out of the way, Carhagh!” But Hart did not get out the way, in fact he got more in the way and pushed him. “Oh so you want to adopt the bitch, huh? We’ll see about that.” Perry grabbed Hart by the deer shirt and dragged him to the edge of the roof and dangled him over the side, over the abandon courtyard. 

Miu’s senses were starting to return to her. She could hear a mocking filled voice, demanding what someone wanted to do with her... her? Her Miu? With her vision starting to unblur, she realized the sight before her. Rage began bubbling within her. Hart had nothing to do with this. Before she could even think she was already right behind Pecarry. She grabbed him and pulled him, and Hart, to the ground, away from the edge. Miu found herself on top of Pecarry, raining blows down. She felt someone grab her left arm, without missing the tempo of her punches her right arm swung and found purchase on the one who would dare stop her. 

“...Miu...” The quietness, shock, disbelief, and pleading nature at which her name was called gave her pause. The red haze was lifting from her eyes. She looked at Hart, her fist still pressed against his stomach, pain plainly showed on his face. Hart’s hand found the top of Miu’s fist, “...Stop...” Miu glanced at Pecarry, when did she even get on top of him? She had broken his noise. The white haired girl turned back to Hart, who shot her a pain filled smile. Miu recoiled from Hart’s touch, what had she done? She was on her feet and running before she finished asking herself that question. Miu still didn’t have an answer by the time she finished running all the way to her bed.

((Meta Author Note: I had actually plotted out a Pecarry confrontation on the roof, complete with Hart being dangled and Miu saving him, for the first one of these, but I ran out of the time I set for myself. Doubt it would have turned out like this though haha))

                                           Chapter 2: The Lost Goat 

A young girl of about eight got off the school bus and waved good bye to her new friends. Her head turned this way and that, clearly looking for something, but with a shrug it was clear the brown haired girl didn’t find it. Hima was sure her sister would be waiting for her, but perhaps she had to use the bathroom? So she made the small walk home, alone. 

When she finally reached her door, after pausing to look at an ant hill and some flowers, and contemplating if she should take a very interesting rock or to leave it for others to enjoy (she left it), she found it locked. She was so happy her mother agreed with Miu when she argued that Hima should get her own key. Letting herself in, she noticed Miu’s shoes were by the door. A quest to find Miu it was! But quietly, in case she was asleep.

Through the open plains, past the firy volcano, and into the cave, Hima checked to see if Miu was at watering hole like she thought she might be. Miu-less. Perhaps upstairs? She retraced her steps and climbed the arduous mountains and head into the caves to the left. No Miu here. Only the Wolf’s Den left  to check. As Hima approached she heard it... crying. If Miu was crying so openly, even if she thought she was home alone, it must be something really bad. Hima slowly pushed open Miu’s door.

                   ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Miu sat in her bed, knees to her chest, crying as she never had before. What happened to her? Why did she do what she did? It was like her body went on auto-pilot and she lost herself. ...And then there was Hart... Pecarry deserved his broken nose, but Hart... sure she kinda wanted to, lightly, punch him in the arm for being so... annoying? She still wasn’t sure exactly how he made her feel, but whatever it was, he didn’t deserve this. His face when she came to her senses... How can she ever face him again? After being so kind to her, this is how she repays him? ... Also how can she face him again, literally? Her first day at a new school and she was already involved in attacking two people, was in an area she probably wasn’t suppose to be in to begin with, and skipped her after lunch classes. She would be lucky to see him again... or maybe it was lucky that she most likely won’t. The white hair girl felt a pang in her stomach as she thought that. What was tha..!! Miu did have time to contemplate the pang as she saw her door move and Hima appearing a moment later. 

Sign. If it had been anyone else she would have been mortified, but she always felt like she could be herself around Hima. Miu dried her eyes on her bed sheet as Hima climbed into bed with her and began speaking. The words washed over Miu, calming here, grounding her. Sometimes, Hima seemed like such an old soul that Miu wondered if she was really her sister and not some mystical spirit that decided to settle down with her family. 

“...the scary lady wanted to keep her, but the agent father and daughter insisted that they help get her home.” Hima said. “Is this the same goat person that visited the bunny people?” Miu interrupted. Hima looked at Miu, “Yes, her name is Stick. Now where was I..” Miu looked at the clock, it was already so late... dinner would be ready soon. Any moment now the phone would ring to inform her parents of what she did. Dinner came and went without a single call. It was already past twelve-thirty by the time Miu decided she needed to stop staring at the clock and get some sleep. Closing her eyes and leaned back into her pillow, her thoughts drifted to the goat person from her sister’s stories, Stick, far from home and in strange lands, the unknown never seemed to bother her. She didn’t know what tomorrow ... or today, she guessed, was going to bring, but as sleep overtook her she had the feeling that she was going to get through it.

                                  Chapter 3: Getting Through It

Miu stood before the steps of the school, head held high and ready to accept her fate... at least on the outside, on the inside she was curled in a ball, mind racing trying to figure out how she could get out of this situation. With each step her heart quickened. Soon she joined her heart at the door, with a quicker inner sigh she pushed through, and standing right there was the principle. Step by step Miu progressed, ready for the blow she knew would come. “Miss Tazino,” Miu felt her blood run cold, “Try not to lose track of time today,” the principle said with a slight smile. A slight sure was all Miu was able to get out, completely stunned she made her way to her first class, not even hearing the slight jeers aimed at her. 

“Miu! Hey Miu!” And then there was Hart, she wished she wasn’t there then. “Hey Hart, about yesterday...” Miu started, but Hart cut her off. “We can talk about it later. I know you didn’t mean to get all crazy violent, and that you feel bad about, so that means you are willing to work on your angry problems! Don’t worry about it” A large smile shot across Hart’s face as he placed his hands behind his head. Miu searched his soul orbs. She didn’t understand what made him tick, nor tock for that matter. “Also don’t worry about getting in trouble, Perry is always getting in a fight and he never tells anyone with whom, and I hid in a bathroom till after school and told the principle I lost track of time... she seemed to have expected that. I still need to copy the notes I missed from my friend, Brush, but I should have them by third period. See you then! Have a good class!” 

Miu was speechless. Wha... what just happened... She realized how much of an idiot she must be looking like just standing in the middle of the hall and quickly rushed into her classroom. Spotting her, very tired looking, teacher at her desk, Miu goes over to find out what she was responsible for. Taking the desk the teacher pointed out, unpacks, and pulls out a book to read while waiting for class to start. 

The bell rings. Miu puts her book away and starts taking notes. About three minutes into class, her desk is kicked from behind. Thinking nothing of this, Miu continues absorbing her lesson, but then thirty seconds later, another kick jostled her desk. Again and again, nearly clockwork, every half a minute her desk would be hit, and just like clockwork, tick by tick her annoyance was raised. She didn’t dare look back, knowing if she did the chance of her making a scene was too great. No, she bottled it up and hope whoever was doing it would get bored. They did not.

When the bell rang to signal the end of class, the teacher was the first one out of the door. Miu swung her head to look behind her to see a bored looking girl with dark hair, except for a streak of firetruck, packing her bag. She paid no mind to the girl in front of her staring daggers in her direction, and started to get up. 

“Why did you keep kicking my desk all class?” Miu demanded. “Oh, was I?” she replied with a tone that said she knew what she did and dared Miu to do something about it. With gritted teeth, “Yes, you were.Please don’t do it again,” Miu manged to say. “Sorry about that,” without a trace of being sorry, “I was trying to think of a new cheer routine for next week when we beat you red-eyed puppies next week. I guess I got carried away.” She paused for a second to study Miu’s face before flipping her hair and exiting the class to join two girls who were waiting at the door for her. 

Miu realized who the kicker was now: Cari, Cheerleader Captain of Bergard. A powerful enemy to have on the High School battlefield, but she wasn’t expecting to have nothing but enemies coming to this school.

She made it through her second class of the day without incident. When she was done talking to her third teacher and turned to find a seat, Hart was already flagging her down to sit next to him. With a large internal sigh and a small external eye roll, Miu made her way to the seat next to Hart. “Hey! How were your first two classes?” Hart greeted her with a lazy smile; Miu replied with a shrug. 

“Brush missed class do to football practice, so I had to ask Mouse...” Hart’s expression darkened for just a moment, but it was enough for Miu to catch. He then offers her a notebook, “Anyway, here are all the notes you should need. Feel free to take a few days to copy it.” She accepted it, noting the cover was filled with stickers of animals, mainly deer and otters. Her expression must have changed because Hart chimed in, “Oh those just represent people I like. A little silly I know...” Hart trails off into one of his big grins that she ... “Okay class, please open your books to page 123, today we will be studying...”  Saved by the bell.

                               Chapter 4: It’s Better Than Without A Light

And so she got through it. A couple of weeks go by without much incident, other than an ever more antagonizing Cari and mean glares from Pecarry, Just school stuff and Hart’s enigma iron-willed attempt at being her friend. She meet Hart’s friend, Brush, who was the quarter back for the Bergard’s football team. He seemed okay the few times she meet him, except he always seemed like he didn’t want to be around her. Which was fine with her, she didn’t need friends, if only Hart would feel the same way. ...And she meet Mouse, Miu would have gladly taken a hundred Cari’s over a single Mouse. 

At lunch, Miu’s phone goes off, “Now open your eyes, put yourself together. Now you should accept this, it is over. Now keep your eyes on this confusion. C’mon, yes, you should watch this transformation,” she checks said phone. It was a text from her father reminding her to pick up her sister at school at 4:00. She looked up to see Hart’s questioning face, “Oh that was my dad...” “No, not that, that is none of my business. Was your ringtone from The World Ends With You?” Hart interrupted. “Yeah it is, Transformation.” replied Miu. 

Quicker then she has ever seen Hart move, he pulled out his Nintendo Switch. “Have you played the final remix version? It has co-op, would you want to play during lunch?” Miu only got an, “Um, sure.” before she had a joycon in her hand. “Remind me later,” Hart requested,” to show you an amazing easy-listening cover of Calling by Secondhand Sharks.”

That was lunch for the next couple of weeks. They would talk and found out more about each other. “So you mentioned your dad earlier, what does he do? My mum is a cop and my da is in construction,” Hart asked. “My mother manages some sort of coding project from home, she is still getting set up at our new house,” Miu hesitated, “and my father works at Phoenix.” Hart turns to look at Miu, “Phoenix? That research place a few miles out of town?” “Yeah, he is part of the staff there. In fact that is the reason why I changed schools, he wanted to live a few minutes closer to work.” Hart was quiet for the rest of the day. 

                                         Chapter 5: Fuzzy  

Miu was sick; she had been for a week. It was Friday again, she had felt well enough to go to school that morning, but her mother insisted she stay home and fully recover. Besides you might still be infectious, she had told her, I will not have the school asking why I let a sick child go to school. So in her room Miu stayed, trying to keep her mind off the mountain of school work she was sure had accumulated during the week. If only she could have gone to school today so she could tackle it over the weekend...

Ding-dong. Blinking, Miu’s eyes fluttered open, must have fallen asleep. What time was it? Judging from the light it was about mid-afternoon, glancing at her clock she confirmed this as it was 3:33. Did Hima forget lose her key? No, she reminded herself, her sister was going to be sleeping over at a new friend’s house tonight. She could hear voices downstairs, her mothers and one that sounded familiar, but she couldn’t quit place with the distance and her still being sleepy. She heard the door close, but their conversation did not. Miu sat up slightly in bed as she heard her mother climb the stairs.

With a soft knock, Yumari slowly opened the door, “Oh good, you are awake. There is a boy named Hart here to see you,” she paused and raised a single eyebrow as her daughter suddenly sprang fully into a sitting position at the mention of Hart, “He says he brought over your school assignments. Should I send him up?” With a small smile on her face, placed by watching her daughter’s vigorous nod, Yumari left to fetch Hart. 

In an even gentler voice than normal, “Hey there Miu! I brought over this weeks school work. How are you feeling? Are you okay?” With a huff, “Do not talk to me as if I were a wounded animal! I am perfectly fine, I just had a little stomach bug,” but gentler, “But thank you for bringing my assignments... Did the principal ask you to deliver them?” “No, I asked if I could bring them. I know you were stressed about having to make up work when you transferred. I wanted to bring it over after just three days, but was told that you or parents slash guardians had to request it. I guess after a couple more days of nagging them about it, they decided it was simpler this way,” Hart smiled widely as he pulled out a folder and his notebook and handed them to Miu, “The folder has all the worksheets and assignments in it and the notebook has... well notes. haha” Trying, and failing, to repress a smile, Miu thanked him.

Miu was flipping through the loose pages in the folder, giving them a quick scan to see what was required of her, when Hart said, “Hey, um, you said you were feeling better, if you are up for it, and if you think your mom would be okay with it, would you want to play some The World Ends With You? We are super close to the end!” With a smile, Miu closed the folder and put it and the notebook on her nightstand and made a grabby hand motion at Hart. 

They played for a little over an hour, Yumari “casually” checking on them a couple of times. When they finally beat it, Hart noticed the time, “Oh bother! I need to get going! I had told my Ma I was going to come over but I didn’t expect to stay this late. ... Hey Miu, thanks. I really missed you this past week...” Miu stared into his blue(?? What color are his eyes? The wiki is down and I am too lazy to get up to get the book. Someone tell me down in the comments) orbs, the windows to his kind, gentle soul. She started to feel lightheaded... her mother was right, she hadn’t fully recovered from her illness. “Yeah.. I missed you too.” With that Hart was gone, she heard him talking to her mother downstairs, and the door opening and closing. 

She sat there for a couple of minutes, afraid to move, in case the sickness flares up again. Eventually she grabs the folder and notebook and starts going through them again. After getting a good idea on what she needs to do, she starts turning to the section for this past week’s science notes.. but she doesn’t get to them. She stops. There on the divider between sections, amongst the other stickers was a fuzzy white wolf sticker. She sat there, just looking at it. Then, gently, she reached out and gave it a little pat and smiled.