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The rest of Christmas break flew by rather quickly. The Sunes spent the rest of the weekend as family time with Mr. Sune's brother and sister-in-law; Zane's mother used that Saturday to take her two boys shopping in preparation of the upcoming semester. The two younger electric-types would later joke that these shopping trips for them always ended up with their mom doing the most browsing, though she did do a good job of keeping her purchase trigger locked - at least when it didn't involve Christmas gift cards.

On Monday, the three young teens got to enjoy a very rare Hassenburgh flurry. It certainly wasn't enough to go sledding or make snowballs/snowmons, but they definitely enjoyed being outside to enjoy the dusting of white. It was certainly an interesting experience when, after Zane and Keith convinced each other it would be a good idea to spar a bit in advance of resuming Battle Club meetings at school, the two of them had trouble keeping their footing on the snow-slicked grass at the local park.

Zane's mother hosted the three of them for dinner that night while Marc was off with his college buddies, and Zane was thankful she didn't try anything too outlandish tonight. The tried to avoid the subject of school in post-meal conversation, but it inevitably went there anyway before the Espeon could show up to pick up his kids.

Zane knew it would be a very sensitive topic for Kira, which was why he didn't bring it up - but she did when she wished them good luck for the first day back and asked them to say "hi" to a few of her friends for her. She went suspiciously quiet after that, and the Electrike could tell she was on the edge of being upset again, so he came over and gave her a gentle hug, (as did Keith,) which she returned.

"I don't know, Zane... It's just going to be so weird being home with Daddy all day, like I'm in permanent time-out or something..."

"Sorry, hun..." the Electrike responded, running a paw through her hair caringly. "When you put it that way, it sounds like house arrest."

"It kinda is, except Daddy will let me do whatever I want as long as I get my schoolwork done. Teaching myself is going to be so weird..."

"Well, you'll get an occasional meeting with our teachers as well, right? And you can bet Keith and I will help all that we can."

"I know, I know..." she said, sighing and shaking her head a bit in an attempt to clear her thoughts. "It's just going to be so awkward when, in a month or so, I'll say I'm gonna miss being in class."

"Not seeing friends will be tough, for sure. But you'll still have afternoons and weekends! At least not when the three of us are working on things and helping you keep on track."

Kira smirked a little at that. "Are you sure my brother's attention span is sufficient enough to keep us on track?"

"Oi! I'm right here!" Keith retorted with a smirk and gentle shove, which Kira returned.

"Well, maybe our science lessons will be a bit off the wall, but you can count on me to be the best history tutor you'll ever have!" the electric-type said with gusto, pounding his chest in mock machismo.

"Oh, my history hero!" Kira swooned, hanging on Zane's shoulder sappily. "Seduce me with you oh-so-LARGE... lists of dates of battles and names of generals and politicians and obscure legal acts!"

Keith's and even Zane's eyebrows went up, the young teen slowly straight-arming his girlfriend. "Okay, I like my history, but TOO MUCH!"

Kira giggled, the over-the-top moment lightening the mood until a little bit later when the doorbell rang, signaling the arrival of Kira's and Keith's father to take them home.

Zane thought school would be fairly normal, and he thankfully heard almost no teasing comments about "his baby momma" over the course of the day, but it quickly felt weird. He didn't spend any time really worrying about how Kira was doing back at home - getting bombarded with whole new concepts for the new semester was enough to keep his mind away from worry - but by the time lunch rolled around the unexpected thing to come over him was loneliness. On a normal day, he would've seen Kira in at least one of his first five classes and probably at lunch as well, so not seeing her at all was a little unsettling to him. Even Keith didn't have his lunch period this semester, though they were in science together before lunch and study hall after - not that it helped much. By the time eighth period's last bell rang, Zane was very antsy to meet Keith for the bus ride home so they could bring Kira notes and homework and such.

Mr. Sune was the one to greet the two boys at the door when they showed up. "Good afternoon, you two! How was school?"

"Hi dad! It went fairly well."

"Hi Mr. Sune, fine..." Zane didn't make eye contact, the electric-type's laser focus drawing him right past the Espeon as he looked for where Kira was. She was in her room, lying prone on her bed, staring at the ceiling with her hands over her chest. Although it wasn't big, the Electrike could definitely see the Vulpix's baby bump already at 15 weeks.

"Heeey.... How's it been?" he asked quietly, setting his backpack down gently just inside her door before padding over and gently sitting at the foot of her bed.

She was silent for a moment, then answered "It's so dull," with such a flat, deadpan tone that Zane couldn't stop himself from loosing a guffaw at that delivery. He quickly silenced it, though, knowing that Kira wasn't exaggerating her boredom for effect.

"Well, not sure what to say... What all did you do today? Did you try setting up a routine?"

"I did basically nothing. Dad suggested I try starting in on one of my textbooks, but it's really hard to motivate yourself to read when there's nothing giving you and direction on it. So I've been just lying here most of the day. I think it'll be easier to set up a routine once I start having reading assignments and homework and what else not." She sat up, grunting daintily to make it sound like that was the first time all day part of her was upright. "Did you bring me any syllibi?" she asked in that same flat tone from earlier.

Zane held back a sigh as the patted her thigh. "Yeah, I've got some class calendars for you, in my backpack over there. Do you want to just get the overview now, dive in to one of the classes, or just hang out for a little bit?"

Kira definitely sighed as she considered the choice. She then looked up at Zane, saying "Oh, dear history tutor, show me the great ways of our great nation's early history and the wider world at the time!"

That got both of them chuckling. It certainly seemed to start bringing Kira out of her funk, at least, as Zane went over to pull the appropriate material out of his backpack while Kira got her textbook and notebook from her dresser as well.

Keith joined them a few minutes later, brining snacks with him for them to munch on while the studied. The three of them jaunted through history their history reading, then grinded through math, before soon enough it was time for Zane to head home for dinner. As they walked down the hall, Zane took Kira's hand comfortingly.

"I missed you today," he said quietly. "We don't have that many classes together anyway, but going from just a few to zero was... weird. I don't like having to wait until after three to be able to say "hi" to you in person."

Kira leaned against him as they continued. "I - I missed you too," she said, changing whatever her original train of thought was.

"I know it's probably worse for you," the Electrike continued, taking a guess at what she was thinking, "stuck away from everyone without any real motivation. Just wanted to let you know that I - and all your friends, but particularly I - missed you."

The Vulpix gave a tired but grateful sigh. "Thank you, Chris."

"You're welcome," he responded, giving her a quick kiss on the forehead before letting go of her hand and separating as they reached the door, Marcus' car waiting for him out in the street in front of the Sunes' house. "Well, hopefully now that you have lesson plans and such, tomorrow won't be nearly so boring. I'll see you tomorrow afternoon, okay?"

"Okay."

The next day went mostly the same for Zane, though he gave Mr. Sune a much nicer greeting that afternoon. Kira was on the living room couch this time, clearly not entirely enjoying her schoolwork, but she looked up and smiled when Keith and Zane appeared, waving and looking relieved to have an excuse to close her books for a moment while she got up to hug them both.

"Hehheh better day today?" Keith asked, sitting down on the easy chair while Zane and Kira took the couch.

"Well, definitely not as boring! Even went out for a bike ride after lunch. But BLECH! School is that much worse when it's literally 100% homework!" She made a face to go with her decree, making everyone - including her father - chuckle.

"Watch your tongue, little lady, I don't want to hear BLECHcing under my roof!" he teased on his way back to his studio office.

"Yeeessss, daddy!" the Vulpix replied in mock sweetness.

The three teens got to work after that, answering a few questions for Kira but otherwise focusing on homework since she now was getting most of the lessons on her own during the day. They didn't get it all done, but that was only because they were mostly on top of it and took some time to just have fun joking around and checking Facebook and what else not.

Kira's mood for the rest of the week stayed relatively high, even if slightly exasperated, as she got set in her studying/living routine. Keith and Zane didn't show up Thursday right after school as Battle Club had their first (non-battling) meeting of the semester that day - which meant the two boys stayed up rather late that night, as by the time they got off the activity bus and joined Kira later that evening, she was having nothing to do with school work, and they were both excited for the next semester of battling anyway. Friday would have been Zane's history bowl, but they didn't meet that first week of the semester, so he and Keith just came home to entertain and inform Kira of what all happened in their classes that day.

The second week of January was when the grind essentially set in. The novelty of Kira's schooling for the semester was wearing off, which combined with the fact that Mr. Sune was out of the house two of the five days of the week meant that Kira slid back a bit toward a more bored, I'm-being-punished state of emotion. After-school activities also started up that second week of school, which meant that Keith and Zane didn't show up until around five in the evening Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

The poor Vulpix started seeming tired all the time again, without much excitement for anything, either when her brother and boyfriend came home or when someone suggested to do something over the weekend. The prospect of two tests next week was at least a little break in the monotony of her in-home studying, but of course no student liked being tested, so it wasn't much consolation.

Zane just cuddled with her that Friday while Keith showered (Zane had decided that he would simply skip Battle Club each Friday so he could practice with the history bowl team instead).

"I don't know, Chris, I just..."

"I can't imagine how hard it must be, being cooped up all alone every day. I think we should've fought a bit more to try to find a way you could - "

"I don't think I want to be around all of our classmates every day..." Kira cut off, a paw resting on her belly.

"Still. I think something should've been worked out so you're not basically under house arrest. We've got another 18 weeks of school year to go."

"Ugh, don't remind me..." the Vulpix groaned, burying her face in the side of the Electrike's chest.

He petted her shoulder as they sat in silence for a moment, their science lab books having been ignored for several minutes now. "I know it'll be torture," the electric-type finally said, "but you'll make it. Just promise me you'll come out the other side smiling, and please let me know if there's anything I can do to make your days a bit more bearable."

She 'hrrmed' a bit into his shoulder at first, as if a little dismissively, but then sighed and angled her head up to nuzzle his cheek weakly. "The texts you've sent during lunch the past two days were really nice."

He could tell she was genuinely appreciative, even if it was just one step forward versus a marathon of solitude back. "You're welcome, hun."

"So mushy!" a voice teased from just outside the door; a moment later, Keith's damp head and shoulders popped into view, just enough to not be able tell if he was still naked or not.

"KEITH!" Kira yelled, heaving a stuffed Pidgey toy at him, Zane chuckling a little at the fact the Vulpix still had her fiery spark left - the two weeks of solitary confinement hadn't broken her after all. Keith cackled, his head ducking out of the door to dodge the plushie before all of him dashed past the door, clad only in a towel. Kira gave an angry "Urgh!" but then started laughing a bit as well, making Zane smile as he hugged her. "He knows just the right times to get on my nerves, you know?"

"That's a brother's job," Zane quipped back.