As Yamato woke up, the first thing he felt were fingers brushing through his hair, softly playing with single strands while keeping it put against their chest. It was without a doubt Yuki. Yamato had already gotten used to this routine, yet it felt different today. She felt especially clingy and caring, possibly due to the events that occurred yesterday. Or maybe something else was up? It was hard to tell with her sometimes. She had one leg thrown around him, and the hand that wasn't in his hair was on his back, quite the intimate hug. He had not opened his eyes yet, though he stoll feeled that Yuki noticed that had woken up.
"Good morning, Master…"
"How did you know I was awake?"
"I'm always listening to your heartbeat… It's easy to tell when it increases, even though it never seems to race."
"How very observant of you."
"Mhm~ I have to know when you are conscious at all times, Master."
Yamato made no attempt to leave her grip yet, though he uncertain if she would let him in the first place.
"I'm sorry, I haven't made breakfast yet…"
"That's okay."
"Mhm… You're so kind and understanding, Master… I luv you…"
"Are you alright…?"
"I'm great, Master. How about you, are you feeling comfortable?"
"I'm alright… You seem off though."
"Perceptive Master! I feel jealous and uncomfortable with Lily and Andrew, and I wish it would stay with just us."
She tightened her arms and legs around him, wondering how he would respond to her direct honesty.
"…I'm not sure what to tell you. I was hoping to do something in particular with them, and it would be best if you don't know any details. Can you trust me with that?"
"Hm… I trust you, Master. And I think I know what you have planned."
"And what's that?"
"I won't tell you~"
"I see… But since you trust me, can you push your jealousy aside for the time being?"
"I might let myself be persuaded by extra attention…"
"What kind of attention?"
"Any kind."
Yamato moved up close to her face, the sun shining through the window behind her partially in his face, but he focused on her. Their eyes were staring deeply into each other, Yuki's blue eyes like the endless sky, Yamato's black ones like space without any stars. He too was listening to her heartbeat as she had placed his face right up against her chest up until now, so he knew she was both calm and excited. He remembered back when they kissed a couple of days ago, right in this room next to the very bed they were on. Though at the time there was an unconscious body next to them, making it less romantic than he imagined she had hoped for. Would it be fair to be the one taking the initiative this time? He was sure that would make her happy. But would it be sincere? If he could not identify the feeling of love in his heart, was he allowed to kiss her? However, he did feel like he had changed in his feelings towards Yuki. If he pictured her dying, he could tell he did not want that to happen. But he felt it would be a stretch to call it love or affection, or even any emotion for that matter. It was difficult to identify, but he decided it was good enough for the moment, pressing his lips onto hers which she, though initially surprised, welcomed with passion.
Both Lily and Andrew were waiting at their agreed meeting point, where Yuki and Yamato arrived right on time.
"Alright, let's get right to it. Yuki, you said you prepared something on the way to test him?"
"Yes! Something very great!"
Her mood was at an all time high, she didn't even mind that Lily was watching together with Yamato from the side. Though she didn't like it either of course.
"Alright, Tommy."
"It's Andrew, you slut!"
"Your insults mean nothing to me. Your test is simple. Try to kill me."
"…Lady, now you lost it completely, huh… Maybe I shouldn't have called you a names after all. I didn't think it'd affect you like that."
"Fuck you… If you can land one hit on me thag I can feel, you win."
"Eh… I'm not- Haha, jokes on you!"
He suddenly kicked against her leg and grabbed some dirt from the ground to throw at her face. However Yuki didn't move an inch, and the dirt just flew up in the sky and even dodged her face.
"Wow, tried to cheat and still a loser."
"Tch… You suck!"
She jumped and used rhe same trick Lily used when she was escaping Yuki, changing the direction of gravity. He was now falling sideways onto Yuki, who could have dodged but instead grabbed his foot and spinned him around, only to throw him in a near by tree.
Lily poked Yamato to get his attention, as he seemed to be quite interested in the fight.
"Hm? What is it?"
"He won't geg hurt by this, will he?"
"No, not at all. But just in case, Yuki can heal almost all injuries, so don't worry about it."
"Okay… If you say so."
Andrew pulled himself up on the tree that he was thrown into, visibly annoyed. Yuki seemed to have a lot of fun, as if she had dreamed of this since the moment they met.
"What's wrong? Not so tough anymore, are you?"
One could almost forget she is fighting a ten year old. But at least she waa holding back.
"Ugh… I will show you…"
He threw a hidden knife at her which she just flicked away as she walked towards him, then another one and another one, until she was directly infront of him.
"Out of knifes~?"
"No, just have you where I want you too…"
Suddenly Yamato was catapulted into the air, away from the small forest they chose as their training field. He flew about as fast as Lily ran, so barely faster than Yuki could fly without her wings.
Lily was shocked, about to yell at him, and Yuki was about to snap his neck, but prioritized Yamato's safety. She had no choice but to use her wings but since he was so high up, no one from the city would see them. Only Andrew and Lily were, but that did not matter to her right now. Moving at the speed of light, she was able to catch Yamato and hugged him in the air.
"Master! I knew this was a bad idea. I will take care of him immediately once I brought you back!"
"Phew… What a rush. But that won't be necessary. He did exactly what I hoped he would."
"What?!"
"Bring me down and I'll explain."
"…If he doesn't apologize I will kill him anyway…"
He sighed, but did not add anything further. Back down on the ground, he looked at andrew who was forced onto the ground by Lily, bowing as deeply as she could.
"I'm sorry for my brother's actions! Please don't abandon us! I promise it won't happen again! Ever!"
"There is no need to worry… He did great."
"He… Did?"
"I did? Haha, of course I did! What do you have to say now, miss-"
He stopped himself as he saw that Yuki did not share Yamato's praise at all and instead gave him a stare of pure death and terror. Any bystander would be able tell that the thing she wanted to do most right now would lead to casualties. In her mind she already planned out Operation-ByeBye-2, but since Yamato seemed pleased she would not act until further instructions. Then Yamato continued.
"He understood that he was no match for Yuki and instead tried to play dirty from the beginning. When that didn't work either he did the only logical thing, and tried to hurt her by hurting me, identifying me as her weakness. He had no problem hurting me to win, which is a great quality to have."
He bend down to Andrew and patted him on his head.
"I'm proud of you, Andrew."
"…"
Everyone was silent, especially Yuki, wio had been in such a great mood before they came here… Lily was rather happy about how it turned out but unsure if she was mad at Andrew or should praise him. And Andrew… Felt weird. He had never been praised before. It was always him and his sister against the world, and even she wasn't very nice to him, even though he could always count on her. Which he always saw as necessary to survive. They didn't know their parents, neither how they ended up as thiefs. It just felt like their only option, as they came from literally nothing. He always thought it had to stay that way. That they didn't deserve better. That all they deserved was each other. But now… He felt as though that could change. Maybe Liky was right about Yamato being their chance for a better life… Maybe they could trust him. Maybe they should trust him. It was then when he formed a bond with Yamato, that put him next to his sister. A form of loyalty different from Yuki's, but just as unconditional and unwavering. A bond that was… Artificial. Invisible to anyone but Andrew and Yamato, who saw that what he tried to create was a success by the shine in Andrews eyes as he looked up at him. Eyes that previously had been hostile to him, to everyone. Eyes that saw the world as a cruel place with only cruel people inside. Now eyes that see the world as still cruel, but with cruel people and Yamato inside.
Yamato's evaluation was complete, and the next stage could begin. He was confident that he could get them into class 1, and control it from within. Since Yuki had come up with a funny name for her latest "project", which Yamato actually found a little cute, he chose to follow her example and call it "Operation Child's Play". He felt like it would be weird to call it that when telling Yuki about it, so the name would only remain in his head.