Episode 2: A moment's respite... peaceful, beautiful days.

Serenity mirrored Collin's hands with her own on the opposite side of Zero's body. She shook visibly, and the tears flowed freely. She knew if she tried talking, she would completely break down. When asked she merely shook her head, and concentrated on her keikatsu.

Collin breathed deeply. "Lets try to disperse this electrical current going through you. Alice, focus on just making him see again. If we combine our keikatsu together, this plan may actually work." Collin smiled, nodded at Serenity and began preforming keikatsu.

Alice worked mostly on helping Zero see again. Getting rid of the electricity in Zero's body was Collin and Serenity's job. Using keikatsu, she began to heal the optic nerves first. She would work on the rest of his eyes once Zero could see again.

Zero remained perfectly still while they worked, deciding to meditate with To-Ke, hoping to better understand the whole limit thing.

Serenity focused, trying with all her might not to shake.

Phoenix wiped sweat off her brow. Repeatedly casting kido was more draining than she had expected. She eyed the now scorched rock with a frown, wondering how more experienced Shinigami made it look so easy. Lots of practice, duh! her inner hollow piped up. Phoenix sighed. "Thanks, captain obvious," she muttered, too tired to make more of an effort to block out her inner hollow.

Deciding she'd done enough training for the day, Phoenix made her way back to her quarters, hoping she'd be able to sleep without nightmares for once.

(5 minute time skip!)

Just as Zero finished his meditation, full understanding of his current limits with To-Ke reached, he felt the reishi of his companions leaving his body. His eyes fluttered open, and he checked his eyes, first left, then right. His sight had indeed been restored. "Hey, hey! Nice job! I can see again. It's still a little fuzzy and I'll need to rely on my own body at this point, but thank you very much" he said to Alice, Collin, and Serenity.

He got to his feet and walked over to To-Ke, replacing her on his back "Now. Are you guys okay? Do you need to rest up, or are any of you up for some more sparing? It seems the reiryoku from the Raigeki was also diffused" he said, knowing he was probably shocking all of them with desire to keep training even after receiving such a serious wound...

Both Alice and Collin were out of breath, gasping terribly from the effort they put into the healing process. Collin was still catching his breath when Alice collapsed onto the grass. He scrambled to his exhausted sister with worry only to see that she was sleeping. Collin looked up at Zero. "I think me and Alice should head to our room. We're both exhausted but I'm glad you can see again. The rest of the healing takes time indeed but your sight will be fully restored in no time. I think you should probably see Squad 4 for a check up in about a week. Now, if you'll both excuse me..." He trailed off his sentence and stood up, bowing low and gratefully to Zero and Serenity. He knelt down beside his sister and slid one arm behind he knees and one behind her back and then stood up again. Bowing his head again, Collin walked to their room while carrying Alice bridal style. I'm glad she didn't wake up but if she finds out about it, I'll have a headache for weeks. He thought to himself and chuckled.

Zero watched them walk off, a smile of gratitude on his face. "I take it you'll want to rest up, too, Serenity?"...

Serenity merely sat in the grass, her head bowed. She didn't respond, as it seemed she had fallen asleep sitting up.

"Uh, Serenity?" Zero asked, gently shaking her. 'Oh wow, Did she really fall asleep?' he thought, listening to her soft breathing. He sighed, and gently picked her up, so not to wake her. 'I guess I should take her back to her room' he said heading back to the barracks.

Just as soon as he opened the barrack door, he realized 'Oh, shit! I have no idea where her room is. Well... oh, no! No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! Great... I guess I have no choice' he thought, taking her to his room. Once inside he placed her on (do they use beds or cots? Christ I don't care, the hell with it!) his bed. He then grabbed an extra blanket from the closet and lay down on the floor. He hadn't realized how exhausted he was, well, at least not until he fell asleep instantly...

Serenity slept a dreamless sleep, moving not an inch as her body recuperated.

The stars were a beautiful sort, during the time following twilight. They shone especially bright in the abandoned district, not having to compete for light. The celestial bodies also seemed brighter on cold nights, too. Still, as much as she loved the stars, Kohaku had little intention to see how cold the night was going to get.

Of course, she'd have to get off her back and onto her feet to do that. Weariness was quite a difficult opponent, indeed... Her test could be tomorrow for all she knew, and lying on her back staring at the stars in the Rukongai was not going to help her pass.

Rolling over, the student pushed herself to her feet. Perhaps she'd overdone it a little... There was no ways she'd be using hoho to navigate back. Yawning widely, Kohaku started trudging back to her barrack. She'd sleep well tonight.

Serenity woke, many hours later, to a slight throbbing in her head. She resisted to opening her eyes, as the sun shone through her eyelids quite brightly, but eventually opened them. When Serenity's eyesight finally focused, she gasped. Nothing around her seemed familiar. Her heart pounded as she began to panic.

Asashi was having a great dream when all of a sudden a sharp pain shot through his... well... that. His eyes shot open in pain as he screamed a rather high-pitched voice when a familiar body slipped off his... yeah... and landed right on his chest, knocking the wind outta him.

Apparently Serenity didn't realize there was someone sleeping next to the bed. When she went to leave, her foot landed right smack in Asashi's groin...

She hadn't realised that her leaving would be interrupted by a body next to the bed. She took a step out of the bed and stumbled. She was winded, and smashed her forhead off of something that felt vaguely of chin. Serenity's hand flew to her head, a moan of annoyed pain uttered under her breath.

Serenity's forehead smashed right against his chin, sending a sharp pain through his jaws, causing him to bite his lip, drawing blood and, surprisingly, making him forget about the pain in his groin. He quickly looked up to see what hit him, when he realized the awkward position he was in "Um... Serenity... C-could you kindly get off me. P-please?" he stuttered a little, after all, he hadn't had a girl on him since his wife, and even though this was only an accident it didn't change the fact that he was still a guy and Serenity was kinda cute... (No, I'm not hinting at anything further. But if a cute girl fell on me... I'd react much the same way. Get her off before things get... well... hehe)...

Serenity pushed off his chest, pushing down slightly, and rolled to her knees. Her head was in her hands, which rested in her lap. Looking up, her eyesight was blurry and a headache was ensueing.

Asashi was merely happy that disaster had been averted "So... um... Good morning. Are you feeling better?" He asked, trying to keep the conversation light...

Waking up to the dawn of a new day, Higgins left for his morning constitutional.

Serenity swayed on the spot, and looked at Asashi. "Uuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhh, i don't know........" A large angry welt was forming on her forhead as she tried to stand.

Gently stirring from her slumber was Alice, whom felt a lot better today than she had been yesterday. Rolling onto her back to look up at the ceiling, she suddenly realized that she was in her room. Sitting up quickly, she searched the room from her brother. Looking to the bed across from hers, she didn't see Collin so she started looking around the rest of the room, more importantly the floor. Sure enough, Collin had rolled out of his bed and fell onto the floor. Noting that Collin probably didn't notice he was on the floor and woke up sometime in the night to drag his blanket down with him. Alice got up, walked to her brother's side and kneeled down to wake him. "Collin? Collin, it's morning..... GET UP!!!"

Collin shifted and awkwardly rolled his head to look at his sister upside down. He mumbled something that sounded like morning as he rubbed his eyes. They were red and seemed to agitate him a lot. Rubbing his eyes still as if trying to hide them, he spoke sleepily, "Why are you up so early...?" Alice frowned at her brother and shook her head.

"Early? It's not that early. You just didn't get much sleep last night as usual." Alice smiled lightly and Collin turned away to pout.

"Not my fault I can't sleep.... It's a condition." He stated, trying to sound logical. Alice sighed frustratingly and got up, walking to her bed again. She began thinking things through about what had happened yesterday.

Training, getting hurt, getting injury patched up, that really weird dream that Collin was in too, going back to training, healing Zero... Wait, what happened after that? Healing Zero and then waking up in our room... Collin must've been awake, right? She hummed lightly as Collin had got up and neatly made his bed. "Hey Collin...?" She started, wanting to see if her brother was wake enough to comprehend anything this morning.

"Mmm?" Collin seemed to still be half asleep but cognizant enough to answer questions. Alice was still turned around as she continued.

"How did I get back to our room? You passed out after healing Zero too, right?" Alice queried as she began to turn around. She had turned halfway only to see that Collin had just ran out of the room and had enough sense to close the shoji door after him. Alice growled lowly as she heard the soft running footsteps of her brother quickly disappear into silence. "COLLIN!!" she shouted with disregard of the other people that were trying to sleep. Throwing open the door and stepping out, she closed the door behind her and felt around for his reiatsu. Smirking, she jumped onto the dorms roof and began running up to the top and down for momentum to catch her brother.

Collin was still sprinting away from the dorms, just getting past the last door and, literally slipping to go down a long hallway. "I knew she would come after me! I'm going to have a headache after this..." He stated still speeding past rooms and down halls.

Serenity heard the ruckus and head to the door. Shaking her head, she pulled the door open and stepped into the hall. She turned with enough time to see a streak coming at her, and bowl her to the floor.

Collin slipped on the floor but this time lost his balance and face planted. He sat up and began to rub his now sore forehead and turned around, wondering whom he had run into and probably hurt. His eyes widened as he saw Serenity, his and Alice's new friend lying on the floor too. He began crawling to her but was suddenly tackled by Alice. They rolled around until she pinned him on his back. Just as he'd expected, he was about to get the worst headache ever as he watched Alice raise her fist and hold him down with her other hand. Tightly closing his eyes, he braced himself for impact.

Serenity paniced when she saw how violent Alice was acting towards Colin, and booted her in the side, sending her flying off of Colin. She held a hand down to him, the other over the place on her forhead that had contacted with Colin's head.

Alice coughed as the foot made contact and lay still after she was sent flying. She groaned and held her side, just under her ribs tightly. Collin opened one eyes and gasped as he saw Serenity standing over him. He sat up slowly and turned to his sister whom still lay motionless. "Umm..... Sorry for running into you. Are you alright, Sen-chan?" Collin was more concerned for Serenity and Alice more than his own well being. Alice finally began moving again but she was dragging herself across the floor with one arm. Closing her right eye in pain, Alice made it the Collin and weakly punched his face. She then affectionately lay down onto Collin's thigh and and began to breathe heavily. Collin stroked Alice's hair and she mumbled an apology to both of them. Collin smiled and chuckled a little. "She got you good, Sis. Sen-chan was like 'Oh no! BLAM' and you were all 'I'm flying and in paiaaaaan.... ugh...' It was so funny!" He recapped the small scene and chuckled a little more, earning a pain-filled chuckle from Alice.

"Your gonna get a headache if you tell anyone about this Collin." She smiled and glared up at her brother whom gulped in response.