Author's Notes:

Hey, I'm very sorry it took me so long to write, I had a small writer's block but it's all good now.

I am not sure if this chapter worked out as well as I wanted it to, but I hope you will still enjoy it and read on cause it's just a beginning after all.

Best wishes.

Riter12pl4

“This isn’t going to work.”

“What’s not going to work?” Night asked with concern written all over his face.

“I am afraid this is my last heart container.”

“Your what? Pixel come on it’s just a history lesson.”

“Ghh” Pixel grunted walking into the classroom with rest of her classmates, after some swaying she finally sat in her place, soon enough her history teacher, Lifeless Story, whose name perfectly fit his teachings methods, walked inside.

“Hello there children, so is everyone present? Stainless Harvest?”

“Present.”

“Cursed Apple?”

“Present.”

“Circus Gem?”

“Present.”

“Crystal Ace?”

“Absent.”

“C-C-Combo breaker!”

Silence fell over the classroom everyone’s gaze falling over to Pixel, the only sound came from Night face palming.

“Miss Pixel what was that supposed to be?”

“Ooo, ummm, nothing Mr. Story, my tongue slipped.”

“Well let us hope it won’t happen again.” Professor started checking students presence once again and Pixel sighed in relief, she couldn’t believe she actually said that out loud, it was just first minute of her first lesson today and she already almost got in trouble.

But she wasn’t the only one.

“Blaze dear, am I disturbing your nap or something?” Blaze’s teacher asked sarcastically earning some laughs from the class.

Blaze however had a hard time answering her question as his consciousness drifted far away into the huge land of dreams.

“mmmno….”

“What was that?” She asked again.

“Don’t you dare you…” Blaze mumbled in his speak earning a frown from his teacher and good laugh from rest of the class.

“Don’t you dare using that blue shell!” Blaze almost shouted waking from his slumber, it took him few moments to get back into reality before seeing angry expression on his teacher face.

“Oh, I’m very sorry Ms. Spark.” He said humbly slightly lowering his head, his expression was however almost emotionless like always.

“Blaze come with me.” She said and walked out of the classroom, Blaze following suit, everyone laughed at him and called him names as soon as Ms. Spark left but it didn’t bother him one bit, he got used to that.

After leaving the classroom Blaze closed the door and turned towards his teacher “I am very sorry Ms. Spark, it’s just that I didn’t get any sleep yesterday and…”

“You played whole night didn’t you?” Blaze sighed and nodded keeping his eyes on the floor, he didn’t have any problem with talking to people online, but in real life he couldn’t really handle conversation with other people.

Ms. Spark sighed and looked at blaze with expression of concern mixed with annoyance “Blaze I always somehow tolerated that addiction of yours but this is going too far, you already are pale and skinny like a living skeleton, but those bags under your eyes? With your physiques you will soon collapse.”

Blaze sighed and nodded on habit, he didn’t like debating with his teachers, no matter how good and logical were his arguments, the teachers will still think that they are right.

“Now go back inside and I don’t want to see you sleeping on my lesson again, also after you get home first thing you’ll do is getting some sleep, understood?” Blaze nodded again even though he knew that sleep will be last thing he will do after coming home.

And then it hit him.

If he will play against his new enemy in this state, she might even manage to defeat him and for some reason he simply couldn’t accept such outcome.

‘I need to somehow rest before getting home, there will be P.E so I can get some sleep in the locker-room, I hope this will be enough.’ Blaze walked inside and sat in his chair, his tired brain trying it’s best to memorize what was his teacher talking about.

‘This will be a loooong day.’

“Gosh, and here I thought water temple was boring enough.” Pixel mumbled while walking towards her next classroom in which her chemistry lesson was soon going to start.

Pixel sat down on a bench and sighed, she closed her eyes and just before she drifted off into the world of dreams she heard someone sitting right next to her.

“Here you go.” Night said and lifted his hand towards her, she didn’t understand at first then she recognized the object Night was giving her.

“A coffee?! Thanks Night you’re the best.” Pixel didn’t waste any time and took a big sip, almost burning her throat in the process.

“Whoa watch out it’s still very hot.”

“Whaa you don’t say.” Pixel said while holding her tongue out trying to cool insides of her mouth, Night couldn’t help but chuckle a bit.

They say there for a few moments, none of them said anything before Night decided to break the awkward silence.

“Sooo Pixel, you have any plans for today afterschool?” Night asked with hope in his voice.

“Well that’s not really an official plan but I guess I’ll try to kick this guy ass.”

“This guy? Oh you mean that player who defeated you?”

“Yeah him.” Pixel took another sip while Night kept his gaze on the floor, another chance of meeting and talking with Pixel after school utterly destroyed by video games.

DINGDINGDINGDINGDING.

Pixel frowned and quickly finished her coffee, she stood up and patiently walked inside the class, the day went on calmly for every student, except two tired gamers.

10th bell of the day rang meaning the end of fifth lesson, Pixel walked outside the classroom, is she was just tired at the beginning of the school day, now she was completely wasted and there were still four lessons to go.

“Hey Pix cheer up, more than half of the lessons is over.”

“…”

“Pixel?”

“What huh?!” Pixel snapped and quickly looked around before her eyes rested on the concerned Night.

“Pixel are you all right?”

“Y-Yeah I’m fine, just lagging a lot.”

“What?”

“N-Nothing, I just need to emm, take a walk, yeah see you later.”

“Pixel wait…” Night said trying to stop her but to no avail, soon his friend disappeared in the crowd leaving him alone.

Night sighed and walked back to the classroom not really having anything to do ‘What am I supposed to do?’ Night pondered to himself while silently continuing his journey through the school hall, which was soon interrupted by his friend.

“Hey Night got a minute?” Icy shouted out while slowly trotting towards his friend.

“Sure, I got all the minutes, what’s up?” Night answered with a bit of annoyance in his voice and a frown on his face which didn’t go unnoticed.

“Hey man did something happened?”

“Oh nothing really, I just got beaten by a video game, you know the usual thing.”

Icy frowned and sighed “You tried asking her out again?”

Night nodded “I don’t really know what to do, maybe I should give up.”

“Hey dude, hell no, you can’t just give up on her, you had these feelings for far too long to just give up now.”

“Well perhaps *sigh*, so what was that you wanted to talk about?”

Icy frowned a bit and answered “You remember our small talk about my former crush on Whirlwind and how Echo always teases me about it?”

“Yeah.”

“I was thinking about it since then, and I am afraid I figured it out.”

“You figured out what exactly?” Night asked cocking his right eyebrow.

“Why is it always working on me, her teasing about that old crush that is.”

“All right. So what’s the answer to this question?”

Icy looked around and silenced his tone even more “W-Well it seems that.” Icy’s gaze was frozen on the ground, Night was becoming quite concerned as he never saw his confident, cool-guy friend acting like that, except for when he was….

“You/I have a crush on Echo.” Both boys said simultaneously, they locked their gazes in disbelief.

“Holy shit dude that’s awesome.” Night said with a smile on his face.

“I’m not so sure about it, I mean she’s…”

“I think she’s perfect for you, you two always hanged out together.”

“Well yeah when we were kids that is, and besides she’s younger than me.”

“Two years difference? Come on my parents age difference is bigger and Echo is going to our school next year, that is perfect!” Night was answering with a bit too much excitement in his voice.

“Dude you are starting to creep me out a bit, I mean you are starting to sound like Candy.” Silence fell upon both boys only to soon be replaced with big fit of laughter, Night completely forget about his unsuccessful attempt at asking Pixel out.

“Oh right, speaking of Candy.” Icy said trying to restrain his laughter.

“Yeah?”

“Guess who is my brother going out with recently.”

Night’s laughter stopped completely and his expression changed into shock “Prism and Candy? Really?” Icy nodded and after few moments they both started to laugh again.

“That’s also amazing, well Icy I’ll get going, want to hang out after school since I don’t have any other plans?”

Icy chuckled “Sure why not, just the two of us.”

Both boys smiled and bumped fist before parting, Night was again walking towards his classroom but now his previous sad mood was replaced with joy and excitement.

‘Come on Pixel, wake up!’ Pixel thought to herself while walking through the corridor with her eyes constantly trying to close themselves ridding her from her vision.

After few moments of dodging other students she bumped into someone which resulted in her landing on her behind.

“Sorry, are you all right?” Pixel still had her eyes closed, she didn’t recognize the voice that called out to her.

“I-I’m fine thanks, and I’m sorry too I tried to look where I’m going but my eyes didn’t.” Pixel answered mentally face palming on how ridiculous her answered must have sounded, she opened her eyes and saw a hand aimed towards her, accepting the help she quickly got back on her legs and finally looked at her victim.

It was a skinny boy with very pale skin, his unkempt hair was crimson red with black highlights, he was very short, even Pixel was slightly taller than him.

“You’re having a hard day?” Boy asked.

“Yeah, how did you know?” She asked rhetorically when she noticed his bloodshot eyes and bags under eyes.

“Rough night?” Pixel asked.

Blaze nodded and yawned Pixel quickly following suit.

“How many lessons do you have until the end?” Blaze asked, not really understanding why did he even bother talking with her.

“Four, you?”

“Three.” Blaze answered.

Pixel frowned but soon smiled again and lifted her hand towards him “Name’s Pixel Bit.”

“Morning Blaze.” He answered and his eyes widened in shock when he realized that throughout this whole small conversation he had with her, he was smiling, his usual poker mask was thrown somewhere in the corner.

“So what did hold you up whole night?”

Blaze frowned, he didn’t really care what other think about him but for some reason this time was different, he didn’t want to tell her that he stayed up whole night just to play video games, but in his current state he didn’t have enough brain power to think of something else than the truth.

“I got hooked up with one particular game, it happens from time to time but I don’t usually play whole night.” He answered emphasizing word WHOLE.

Pixel’s eyes went wide and she immediately smiled wildly before starting to laugh like crazy, Blaze frowned not really sure why did he expect any other reaction.

Pixel soon stopped and breather heavily for few moments before saying “Duuude, that’s so cool, I actually did the same.” She said with wide smile.

It was Blaze’s turn to express shock as her answered stunned him, he soon felt his heart beating slightly faster and once again he didn’t have any idea why.

“So you’re a gamer?” Blaze asked.

“I sure do! And let me tell you this day is going slower than Yiazmat battle.” They both laughed before their conversation was interrupted by a ringing bell signalizing start of another lesson.

“Well I got to go, see you later Blaze, we have to play together someday!” She said while quickly trotting away, he stood there for a few more moments thinking about what just happened, smile slowly left his face as he turned back and started walking back to his classroom.

“Hey honey, how was your day?” Sweetie Belle asked he daughter when she walked inside the house, the only answer she received was a huge frown on Pixel’s face.

“Oh my, what happened?”

“Nothing, really nothing.” Pixel stated blankly, her battery was almost completely out and even though she wanted to go up there and play against her “rival” she needed some sleep, at least one-hour long nap.

“Sweetie you want to eat something?” Her mother asked with a concern in her voice.

“No it’s okay the cats got it with the salad.”

“W-What?”

“I-I already put, I, I… the French toast.” Pixel answered and quickly ran towards her room leaving her dumbfounded mother in the living room.

“Button, do you understand any of this?”

Button stopped his quiet chuckling “Not a clue honey.”

Blaze sat down on his chair waiting for steam to start, this hour of sleep he managed to get on P.E managed to keep him up, he logged onto his account only to notice that the player he wanted to play against wasn’t online.

Blaze frowned before something caught his eye.

His nick.

“And you should think about changing that nick, it's lame.” Her words echoed in his head, he pondered for a few minutes before shrugging.

“Perhaps this needs a little change.”