(Alright)

Blake saw the two exchange some words and was curious as to what was going on between the two of them. Shrugging her shoulders lightly, she headed out of the cafeteria with everyone else.

Swallowing all the food in his mouth- which was quite a lot- Naruto went to leave the cafeteria as well. In the crush of people, he ended up almost shoulder to shoulder with Blake. "Hey, Blake-chan. See you around?" He asked.

"Yeah, I'll see you around," Blake said as she headed to a different part of the school.

Naruto smiled and headed back to his room.

Hikari arrived shortly behind him, sighing as she sank onto her bed. "What a day." She said.

"No kidding," Amaya replied as she flopped onto her own bed, sighing softly as her head hit the pillow. "Between your 'fight' with Weiss, Naruto's date with Blake and everything else in between, I'm surprised it's only been one day," the Aura user stated.

Hikari hummed in agreement. "If every day here is going to be like this, I have a feeling I'll never be bored." She said.

"That's not always a good thing. At least we'll sleep well." Naruto added.

"Yeah...sleep," Areku said as if something was bothering him.

Hikari sat up. "What's wrong, Ark-san? You sound troubled." She asked, concerned.

"It's nothing, not really anyways," Ark said as he tried waving away the question. Sometimes he would have a nightmare about what happened to his clan and the great fire that was caused by Fire elemental Dust. It wasn't that he didn't trust them with the information, it was just something that he didn't like talking about.

Sensing the subject was off-limits, Hikari let it go. She understood what it was like to have something you simply didn't want to talk about. "Oh, okay. Well, if you need to talk..." She said, just to let him know she was there for him.

"Thanks for understand Hikari, and if I ever feel like talking, you'll be the first to know," Ark promised. It really was hard to talk about his past, especially with what happened.

Hikari nodded and smiled, giving him a quick salute. "No problem." she said, and flopped back down onto her bed.

Ark chuckled lightly at her actions before laying down on his bed. He may not be able to sleep, but that didn't mean he couldn't mediate or something along those lines.

A few hours later, when she was sure the others were asleep, Hikari snuck out of their room and went to where Ark had told her to meet him. She silently wondered why he wanted to talk to her.

Areku saw Hikari sneak out of the room, before sneaking out of the room himself. He just hoped that what Naruto said was true...and if he had to...he would tell her about the Fire Mage.

Hikari waited for a while, looking up when she heard footsteps approaching. It was Areku. She smiled and walked to meet him. "Hey. So, what's up?" She asked, a smile on her face.

Areku made his way to the roof, and saw Hikari waiting for him there. "Hey yourself. I just wanted to ask if you were doing alright without you having to worry about others overhearing you. I know you put up a mask earlier today when you said nothing was wrong and well...I know what it's like to hold onto pain like that," he admitted.

Hikari's smile faded, and she bit her lip. "I...okay, you got me. I am fine- physically, at least. There were just some...memories brought up that hurt a little. I know that compared to some people, I've been really lucky. I'm healthy and strong, and my family is alive, but...sometimes I just can't help feeling sorry for myself. I know it's selfish, but I can't help it." She said, looking at the ground. "So...was it that transparent? I thought I'd done well keeping it hidden." She added, wondering how he'd known.

"For people who haven't had pain in their lives, I think they won't see the pain that you hide. Naruto, myself and Amaya, I think we've all had some sort of tragedy in our lives so as to see through our masks," he replied as he told her about the fire that took his clan from him.

Hikari wiped away one stray tear that traitorously defied her efforts to hold it back. "Areku-san...I'm so sorry. Here I am, complaining about the petty things that go on in my life, when you're standing there holding so much more pain...and I never bothered to think...I'm so sorry." She said, unable to thing of anything else to say.

"You don't have to apologize, just...don't hold it in, okay? We're your friends after all, or at least that's what we're trying to become," he replied. He didn't understand exactly why he was telling Hikari all of this, but at the moment, he just mentally shrugged. It was more important to help a friend.

Hikari sniffled, but managed to hide it. "I- thank you. I really couldn't have asked for better friends. And the same goes for you, if you ever need anything, even just to talk, we're here. I'm here." She said. Then, before she could really think about what she was doing, she stepped forward and hugged him.

Areku blushed as Hikari hugged him, but returned the hug all the same. "Thanks...and someday I'll tell you about my hidden pain, I promise you as the last member of the Tenjin Clan," he said.

Hikari nodded, still hugging him. "You don't have to unless you want to. Take your time." She said. Sudden;y she realized that they were still hugging, and gently stepped away, cheeks flaming. "Um...thank you. It means a lot that you took the time to talk to me."

Areku nodded, knowing that she was being truthful about the whole thing. As she gently stepped away, he saw that her cheeks were a flaming red and wondered what was wrong. "You don't have to thank me," he started to say before his senses alerted him to someone nearby. "Alright, show yourself! Who's there?!" he asked as he growled lightly, subconsciously tapping into his Aura.