Disclaimer: I do not own anything.

A crack story of a group of guild mates and days of fooling around in guild chat. There are plenty of direct speech floating around; you have been warned.

Oh. And there is Shonen-ai.

Of Guildmates and Guildleader

Chapter 1 - A Guild's Foundation

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"Yuui."

The champion stopped and turned when he heard his name. "Yes?"

"Mind having a chat?" I pointed to the guild room that we had recently acquired. He nodded and walked into the small hall, his spirit spheres' light illuminating the poorly lit room.

"Frankly speaking Yuui, I've noticed a lack of effort on your part during the last few castle raids. No, no, I'm not faulting you for that." The champion had attempted to apologize. "I know you have a tight schedule for some of your private matters, so it isn't a problem if you wish to sit out some of the battles."

"But I believe I'm not the only one who has noticed that you've been avoiding some of our guildmates lately." He tensed slightly. "Namely, Rito and Syfer. The two you're closest to."

I paused, and he fidgeted with his Garm Claw. "Yuui? Did you guys have a fight or something?"

He flinched when I stared at him. "Um... I think... yeah, or something..."

"And I assume you don't want to talk to me about it?"

"...Sorry."

Ugh. Now he'd start blaming himself again. "You are not obliged to tell me, Yuui. But you might want to talk to someone about it. The guys are worried about you three." I picked up my katars and walked out of the room. "Idy was looking for you, said something about a new fist weapon. I'm going to take a look in the castle's treasure room. Later."

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I had never expected being a guildleader to be such a headache. Castles giving useless items again and news going around about another alliance between the bigger guilds... We'd probably be bombarded and piled-over again come next war. I also had two members excuse themselves from the war due to personal matters and even one who'd just thrown a tantrum, insisting that he would help our enemies for the war.

Knocking one's head against a wall is not a good cure for headaches. It tends to make them worse.

The guild room was a present of sorts from the rulers of Midgard. Of course, it took me ages of running errands and completing quests for these gods above to get enough favour points to actually request for a private guild room. It did, however, provide a nice and serene location for our people to rest, away from the loud and noisy chaos that was normally known as Prontera.

The sound of someone entering the room shook me from my line of thought. I looked towards the entrance, and seeing our guild's sole High Wizard staring at me, threw a bag of red gemstones at him.

"Fox. What did you say to Yuui?"

"Nothing much."

He regarded me with suspicion, but dropped the subject. "We're going to have a hard time for the next war."

I nodded distractedly. The Bloody Butterfly card in my pouch had reminded me of something I was supposed to tell him.

"Ruul is going to look for the Valkyrie. He wants advice regarding skills he should pay attention to. I think you'll probably be able to give him an idea of what he could take note of." And I needed to pass the card to Ruul when I saw him.

The room echoed slightly when a voice rang out. "Fox, we're going down to Magma dungeons. Drag Rito with you, please?"

I looked at the wizard, and he sighed. "Going?"

"You say it as if I have a choice." I laughed as we trudged our way out of the guild room. "And Rito, you are the only ice powerhouse around here."

"Ruul could do it."

"Maybe after he meets the valkyrie and after he gets used to his new skills. You know he is much younger than you are."

"Fox~! Rito~!"

"We're coming, we're coming..."

"Uh guys, are we supposed to walk there?"

"Aldebaran. Cylia's got the warp."

It turned out that Ruul had already joined the party before us; in fact, quite a lot of our guildmates were there. The young Wizard waved to us when we made our way over to where they had set up camp, backed neatly into a corner to deter backstabbing monsters. Two high priests flanked him on both sides, guarding the boy from stray monsters. Yuui stood in front, lashing out at a sky deleter which had escaped the blast of Ruul's stormgust.

The champ missed a hit on the flying monster when Rito took his position in the group, right behind Yuui. The loud gibberish for greetings they used to throw at each other was conspicuously absent, along with the warmth of their usually boisterous camaraderie.

No point fretting. Nothing much I could do if they refused to spill.

"Incoming!"

A large group of moving creatures came into sight, the noise that they made echoing in the large volcanic cavern. Our resident Lord Knight rode in front of the mob, swinging his Brionac as he ran towards the party on his mount. "Gust away!"

Blizzard rained down behind him, casing the monsters in layers of ice. Weapons met the frozen monsters, and they broke from their icy prison into yet another blast of sub-zero ice spell. Sometimes, I thought of pitying these poor creatures.

After the wave of monsters, the lord knight dashed off once more into the open area, provoking the monsters that were, like most monsters, minding their own business. Monster luring was usually the default job for close range combat classes with enough stamina, which also meant that I too, was classified under this group of "monster bait" in the party. No complaints there, since our training parties did help improve our skills.

And they also provided a chance for me to talk to the peco rider.

"Syfer."

It wasn't difficult, catching up to him, seeing as he had to wait for the army of slower monsters behind him. "Any explanations as to why Rito was giving you the death glare?"

"No clue. Maybe 'cause I ran off with some of his cards."

"Right. You know that is not possible. You guys share cards like we share candy."

He only shrugged and continued towing his monsters toward our party. "Incoming!"

We stayed in the cavern until our priestess had to leave. Throughout the entire period, Yuui was silent, even as the whole group bickered and joked with each other. Several times, Rito made to drag the quiet champ into the conversation, only to have him merely return a smile and move a little further from the group. Syfer, however, chatted with the group as if he hadn't noticed Rito's presence at all.

As I had told Yuui, I wasn't the only person who had noticed the increasing tension between them. Running in and out of the party with the monsters that I had gathered, I could see more than one worried gaze on them, after which most of these gazes turned to me questioningly.

Yes. I was responsible for all guild problems; I was supposed to know about all the guildmates' troubles. God help me.

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When I returned to the guild room, my second in command was sitting there, reading his book.

"Tet." Dropping my katars, I sat down heavily beside him, catching a glance of the open tome. War Defense. My partner, it seemed, was already preparing for the next war. "Do something about those three. They're getting on my nerves."

We had an unspoken rule in the guild. That is, if you do not have a solution to a problem, ask Tetsu. I figured that this rule applied to me as well, since I was also considered a member of the guild.

Another reason was that I happened to be married to this man.

He closed the book and stuffed it into his small bag. "Did you manage to find out what happened between them?"

"Obviously not."

"Then what, exactly, can I do about it?"

"Whatever you deem appropriate?"

He gave me a pointed look. Apparently, he didn't have a solution to this either.

"There ought to be something we..."

"Fox! Bad news!" The female assassin cross was already in front of us before we could respond. "The Rets have declared that they want our castle for the next war."

"Calm down, Feroce. They've been antagonizing us since the Babe used that emperium. Declaring it doesn't really make much of a difference."

Barbara, nicknamed "the Babe", was the female assassin cross leading our enemy guild. The girl had been stubbornly laying siege on our territories every war, successfully taking over on a few occasions. While it was true that they posed a threat, it wasn't something we had no chance of fending off.

"It would be good if screaming in town is all she can do, but it seems that Celeste has been convinced to enter their alliance."

Ah, now that was bad news at its worst. "Well. Shit?"

"That was exactly what I was thinking." Feroce tapped her foot on the floor impatiently. "You guys have any plans to fight that entire mob off?"

Beside me, Tetsu looked pensive. "Actually, we do." He took a notebook from his pocket. "But we're going to need a few more items specifically..."

And I have to admit; this promise of a victorious war very quickly pushed all other guild problems out of my mind.

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The battle was fierce during the following war. Even with our preparations and the large number of guildmates present, it had not been easy fending off the group that had begun chipping away at our defense since the open war announcement was made. Several times, there had been assassin crosses that went dangerously close to our castle core; the golden Emperium.

Occasionally, I had to scream at Rito when he left his position as the Storm Gusting door guard to help the group of melee fighters, throwing his thunder spells to push away the Assassins attempting to attack Yuui. The spells, however, seemed to be pointedly ignoring the Whitesmith trying to ram his heavy cart into Syfer. I had no time to comment on this, as almost immediately I had to scream at the Lord Knight in question for allowing an Assassin Cross to sneak past him into the wizards' camp.

Thank goodness for that accurate Asura Strike from Yuui. We would have been in big trouble if the Assassin Cross had gotten to Rito.

We barely managed to hold our castle, nearing our limits when the call to end all combat was finally issued. There was a slight cheer from the group for our successful defence, after which Syfer left the castle without a word after throwing a dark look at Rito.

Rito mumbled something in response, too soft for me to hear, but the group positioned near the wizard camp turned to him with various surprised stares. Before I could walk over to them, however, Yuui shocked the room; he threw a fist into the wall beside him, the stone crumbling slightly where the metal fist-guard dug into.

"Damn you."

Before anyone could respond, the Champion pulled a Butterflywing from his bag and disappeared from the room.

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Irritating, that so many of my guild mates were able to hide themselves so disgustingly well whenever I tried to look for them or needed to talk to them. I spent hours looking for the three antagonists of the whole escapade, finally giving up and returning, only to find Yuui sitting alone in the Guild Room, staring forlornly at his bruised hand.

"That usually happens, Yuui, when you try to punch rocks."

He looked up at my dry comment, attempting a small smile before slumping back against the wall with a sigh. "Sorry."

"It's your hand, not mine." I took off my Infiltrators and sat down beside him. He nodded uncommittedly as he moved his uninjured hand to start Healing the bruises.

"So. What crawled up all your asses?"

He winced at my crudely phrased question. "It's nothing..."

"Come on, Yuui, that's bullshit. You actually cursed. That can't be nothing. Idy is still out there trying to get used to the idea that you know how to swear."

Silence, as he stared at his boots.

"Yuui?"

"How did you and Tetsu get... together?"

"What...?" Now that was out of the blue. "Us?"

"Yeah..."

"I told him he looked gay wearing the red ribbon." I grinned. "He responded that he felt insulted being called gay by an Assassin Cross wearing pastel purple."

"..."

"Well, we go back a long way, Yuui. I knew him even before I started this guild, and we hung around each other almost all the time after. I guess it just got to the point where it seemed natural for me to drag him to the Prontera church."

"..." He sighed.

"Relationship problems?"

"I guess you could say that."

That came as a surprise. There weren't many girls in our guild. Unless...

"Shit. Tell me it isn't the Babe."

"What? No!" The champion looked so genuinely shocked by this suggestion that I was tempted to laugh at his expression.

"Well. You can tell me, if it's something I can help you with."

"It's... those two."

I looked at him expectantly.

"Rit... he told me he liked me." He fiddled with his claw, taking it off and re-equipping it. "But Syf saw." Here, he grimaced. "He punched Rit."

I winced. Syf's punches weren't something one took lightly. "He doesn't approve of it?"

The depressed champ nodded.

"He can't be homophobic. He never had a problem with Tet and me." Something wasn't tallying up, and I had a naggy suspicion that I'd missed an important clue somewhere.

"He's not homophobic..." Yuui sounded tired, running a hand through his chocolate brown hair. "He cornered me yesterday and told me to reject Rit." Here, he paused, looking like a lost puppy.

"Syf... he also told me that he loved me more."

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~End. Part 1~