As while living in space, it is difficult to determine morning from night by simply looking out the window. Looking out the window, one would just see the planet Earth that the Arc is orbiting around and the moon along with the many stars that litter the sky. But around the time of what is morning, Maria begins to stir in her sleep and her eyes open sleepily. She looks at the digital clock next her bed to check the time and decides to sleep for a little more. Today she feels a little weaker than normal. Maria closes her eyes and wonders if today is one of those days that her NIDS will be dominant. If it is, she will have to take it easy today. It is about 9am. Not a whole lot is expected of her at this time anyways. With her delicate state, Maria is usually left to decide for herself when it is time to get up.

She moves her body to roll over so that she can lay on her back for a while; she had been laying on her side all night. But then she can`t move very much due to heavy weight on her. Odd, where did the extra weight come from? Maria lifts her head up to look down at herself to see where the extra weight is coming from. Her eyes immediately widen upon seeing Shadow on top of her. He still has his head laying on her waist with his arms draped over her and he is still sleeping. Maria pauses a moment looking at him. He almost resembles a pet right now, a pet that has returned to it`s master.

Maria shifts a little more under her blankets to try and stir Shadow into waking up. Unfortunately, she can`t move around all that much so her attempt fails. So, Maria gets another idea to wake Shadow up. She reaches behind herself and grabs one of her pillows. She takes aim and throws the pillow at Shadow. It hits him on the back of his head and bounces a little before it rests on his head. This method works. His eyes pop open upon the pillow making impact with his head.

Shadow turns his head and looks at Maria from under the pillow. His mouth parts open a little in surprise once he realizes that she`s awake. He scrambles up from laying on her and expects that she would scream because there was a boy sleeping in her bed all night long. As he does so, he begins to regret falling asleep on her like that and also mentally scolds himself for intruding in on the territory of this sweet angel. Sure she had told him that he could come in when he was done with his work but she was asleep when he was able to come see her. Then he decided to just stay the night over in her room in self-invitation. What was he thinking??

What`s not surprising is that Maria grabs another pillow and smacks Shadow with it. What is surprising, is when she announces the beginning of a pillow fight. At first, Shadow is utterly confused. Is she that angry that she wants a fight? He certainly could never hit her even after she were to hit him a few times; he would never throw a punch in her direction. Maria giggles at her friend`s cluelessness and gives him a quick brief on the game. It is, after all, just a game. With pillows being used, no one would really get hurt from it either. Shadow quickly picks up on the game after the explanation and a short demonstration. He grabs the first pillow he was hit with and engages in this game with Maria. It takes a moment or two of playing this game where he finally sees the fun in it and begins to enjoy it, though he still does not fully understand it.

This is a moment where Shadow begins to see where his strength is in comparison to the strength of others, in this case, Maria. When he nearly knocks Maria off the bed with the pillow, he softens his strength down significantly to about the same level as Maria`s strength that she puts into swinging her pillow. It scares him at first when he almost causes Maria to fall off the bed. But she quickly bounces back from the hit, seeming to have no ill-will towards the act. She is patient and understands that it is Shadow`s first time playing the game. Maria laughs it off and happily resumes the game with Shadow.

Unknown to the two of them, Gerald has walked inside Maria`s room just in time to see the pillow fight begin the two of them and to watch Maria teach Shadow how to play the game. He notices the change Shadow makes in the strength he puts into swinging the pillow. Gerald can`t help but smile. An important skill of a protector is to be able to judge the strength of his opponent and quickly adjust his own strength accordingly. He watches his granddaughter and his creation with their playful pillow fight. His hands place themselves behind his back as he is, unknowingly by them, entertained.

Maria and Shadow laugh back and forth as their soft battle ensues for a while until finally Maria succumbs to exhaustion. Maria plops down on her rear on the mattress of the bed and lets her pillow fall from her hands to landing beside her. She exhales deeply, giggles a bit more and remarks to Shadow that the pillow fight game was a lot of fun. Seeing that Maria is tired, Shadow drops his pillow and sits on the edge of the bed and immediately turns his head to looking at her. He smiles and agrees with Maria that the pillow fight was enjoyable even though he doesn`t quite understand it.

Seeing the two together, one can see the differences between them quite easily. Their differences lie in more than just Maria having a bright appearance to her while Shadow`s is quite dark. Another difference is how Shadow appears like an older teen, about maybe seventeen or eighteen, while Maria is of a younger teen, fourteen. Coupled with her seemingly younger age and her small frame, Maria is quite petite in comparison to her male friend.

Their laughter stops when the two of them notice Gerald standing in the room. He quietly stands there with his hands behind his back. They feel slight embarrassed by their discovery of being watched by an audience. Maria gives a small wave,"Morning, grandfather."

Gerald nods his head to the both of them,"Morning, you two. Ready for a new day?"

Maria smiles and re-adjusts herself in the bed, scooting to the edge of it. Temporarily, Shadow turns away from Gerald and looks to Maria as he notices her moving. A protective instinct is kicking in him, wanting to make sure that she doesn`t fall or hurt herself as she moves. Once she settles down, Shadow turns back to Gerald. She`s beginning to feel a bit of excitement,"Yes, we are."

Gerald smiles and nods his head,"Good. We have a big day today."

Maria becomes curious and tilts her head to the side a little,"Really? What is it?"

"Well, I am going to do a few tests with Shadow-"

Maria`s expression changes to a sad one,"So early in the day?"

Gerald adjusts his glasses,"Not to worry, Maria, you`ll be coming along this time. That is, if you want to."

Maria brightens up and her happy smile returns to her face,"Really? I can?"

Gerald nods his head,"Of course. Why don`t you change into your day clothes, Maria? After that, you can meet us in the downstairs level. Come along, Shadow. We need to give her privacy time so she can change and get ready for the tests."

Shadow nods,"Yes, professor."

Shadow nods back to Gerald and he turns back to Maria, almost as if looking for input from her as to what he should do. Maria looks back to Shadow with a smile. She nonverbally tells him that he should go with Gerald, then she reassures him that she will meet up with him in a little while. With hesitation, Shadow climbs off of Maria`s bed and follows Gerald to exiting Maria`s room. The two males will be on their way to the downstairs level to get prepared for the tests that Gerald mentioned.

In the meantime, Maria climbs out of her bed and goes to her closet. She picks out her blue dress for the day and changes into it. Then she brushes out her hair and puts her signature blue headband on. After she slips on her shoes, Maria leaves her room and leaves the sleeping quarters to go to the lower level where she will meet up with her grandfather and Shadow. She isn`t sure of what kinds of tests Gerald performs on Shadow but this must be an interesting one as her grandfather is letting her be part of the audience for it.

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