Disclaimer: I do not own Grand Chase. Please drink hot cocoa responsibly as it is hot. We don't want anyone running around with their mouths on fire. This fic was made for Utsuro so I guess I don't own it either XD.

Winter Memories

Arme's heart wrenched in pain as she recalled the events of her life. She sat upon the staircase outside of Kanavan's castle that overlooked a nearby lake. She wore a thick, off white, fur halter top over a thick, light gray long sleeved turtle neck dress with a very thick skirt all made for enduring the winter. Her white scarf puffed out cutely making her head look bigger than it really was. Her fur lined boots did the same. Her knees were drawn in protectively making her look small and cold. Her eyes glazed over as she recounted how the hell she got to where she is today.

"Arme, we're sending you to the new organization Grand Chase. You are our most skilled young mage and this is a good opportunity for you to learn and grow."

Arme scoffed and shook her head. What a load of bull crap. They just wanted to separate themselves from her. They feared the mage she could become and knew that her great great great grandfather was evil. She was condemned to a life of evil before she even had the chance to know what it was. Still, look at what she has done, has become. A Battle Mage responsible for having saved the world. The evil witch Kaze'aze and the Dark Anmon deceased long ago by her hands. Of course, she couldn't have done it without her friends.

'Ha, friends,' Arme thought to herself with a smile, 'when I first met Elesis, I had no idea she'd become my best friend.'

"Just try to stay out of my way," said the red headed knight, charging ahead of the group. She was obviously not happy at the thought of being paired with Arme and the blonde, Lire. Arme tried to 'stay out of Elesis' way' Elesis was ok for a while, but eventually she was surrounded and so exhausted she could barely speak. She was so far away from the others they wouldn't be able to hear her. Luckily, Arme noticed this. After pointing this out to Lire, she charged in with her saver and used reverse gravity. She proceeded to pummel the monsters surrounding Elesis and when they were all gone, she healed the little knuckle head.

"…" Elesis just watched Arme as she fixed her wounds. She couldn't believe it. This magician saved her using close combat skills. Aren't mages supposed to use long ranged attacks like archers? Elesis later returned the favor by blocking an attack made by the wendigo later in the tower. After that, Elesis was still distant, but never so far away that she couldn't quickly call for help or help someone else. That was the day she learned the true value of teamwork.

'From then on, even though we fought for a little while, we always had each others' backs,' thought the mage, 'She is the most stubborn person I know, I remember when she got sick that one time during the journey'

Elesis collapsed after performing the finishing blow to the troll in the Elven forest. Arme teleported over to catch her. Arme then set the knight's head on her lap to support as she sat. Lire and Ryan rushed over.

"What happened? Is she alright?" Lire asked in an extremely concerned voice. Arme felt Elesis' forehead and checked her pulse. She concluded that Elesis had fallen ill and worked herself too hard. She was suddenly faced with a dilemma. Arme needed to make a medicine from the forest herbs. She could either leave Elesis in the care of Lire or she could tell Lire what herbs to gather. Either one had its risks.

"Lire, which would you rather do, stay here with Elesis or gather herbs for me?" Arme asked while pulling her spell book out of her backpack, which she had taken off for that very purpose. She flipped it open the medicinal page. She found a potion spell for illness and began to make a list of herbs.

Lire made up her mind at this point and decided she'd go after the herbs. She didn't want to end up fighting something big by herself, "I'll go get the herbs, what am I looking for?"

Arme thought for a minute, "Ryan, will you stick around a little longer to help Lire collect the herbs?" He nodded, "Good," Arme took out paper and sketched things on them. She then handed the paper to Lire. It consisted of a list of herbs and the amount needed and the way to pluck them, "This is what I need. I'll stay here and protect Elesis, even if it's from herself." She and the Druid ran off in search of the proper ingredients. Arme sighed as she took her own blanket from her backpack, laid it over Elesis, and used the bag itself as a pillow for her. She gathered flammable items and ones that she could make flammable. She started a fire and found a rabbit she could cook nearby. She started to boil the rabbit and pulled out a small bowl. She made ice water from the surrounding moisture. Using her magic, Arme got to work with cooling down the burning girl. Her fever was quite high and if it got too high it would be bad for her brain. In five minutes Arme got Elesis' fever to break. She took that opportunity to stir the meat so it wouldn't scald. She returned to work on Elesis to find that she was crying in her sleep. Arme felt sympathy for the poor girl. Only about a single minute later, Elesis awoke, still crying. Arme stopped what she was doing and tried to console the child.

"Elesis, what's wrong?" Arme asked while caressing her cheek comfortingly.

Elesis blinked for a moment, "Please don't hurt me. I couldn't help it. I know I'm weak. Please don't hate me," Tears welled in her eyes again. Arme only looked at her sadly.

"Elesis…" Arme started, empathetic pain filling her heart and stabbing her eyes, "why would I do such a thing? Of course you didn't faint and get sick on purpose. I don't hate you and I don't think you're weak because of this," She did the only thing she thought of to do. Something her grandmother did to her mother, she kissed Elesis' forehead. It was as if that kiss was a key unlocking all of her bottled tears. Elesis began to sob heart-wrenchingly. Arme got down to Elesis' position and held her as she cried. Elesis fell asleep in Arme's arms.

'It wasn't until later that we found out everything about her abusive father and suicidal mother,' Arme thought with sadness, 'I think of all of us she's had it worst. I never knew my family until I was shown the past in the crystal ball. Lass, Ronan, Mari, and Sieghart can't remember them. Ryan killed his family. Lire's was killed in the attack. Jin's raised him normally but pressured him to be a Silver Knight. Amy's were nomads and left her with the oracles to be raised into one. None of those really truly abused them except Elesis. Ronan was so enraged when we confronted him,' Arme thought with a smile.

"Get your filthy hands off my Elesis, you degenerate!" Ronan exclaimed loudly at a tall man wielding a sword. Elesis lay on the ground, unconscious in front of this man. He was her father. He didn't let go fast enough for Ronan apparently. Ronan charged at the man using his Tyrfing. Said man, obviously drunk, dodged and swung at Ronan. Ronan got a slice on his upper torso, just beneath the color bone. This enraged the Abyss Knight even more. He stabbed the evil bastard in the stomach and cut upwards.

Meanwhile Arme, Lire, and Ryan rushed over to Elesis. Everyone else went to watch/participate in the destruction of the 'degenerate'. Arme tried to attend to Elesis' wound as best as she could while her eyes were glistening with tears. Nothing seemed to be working until Arme felt something warm touch her knees.

'BLOOD,' Arme thought with utter horror, 'So much of it!' She flipped Elesis over and discovered the source of the bleeding. The victim had been stabbed in the heart from the BACK. Her skull was broken and bleeding as well. She must not have seen it through her tears. Arme looked to Ryan and he automatically knew what to do.

"Resurrection!" Elesis was going to die, there was no avoiding it. But on the bright side, there was a chance she could still be reborn. Resurrection was known not to have a perfect success rate but it was better than nothing. The life faded from Elesis. There was no movement from her body, no beating of her heart, no breathing of her lungs. Lire started openly weeping. She knelt over Elesis' dead body

"Elesis! Come back! We need you 'lesis!!!" Lire was screaming at the dead body. Ronan immediately stopped beating the father and rushed to Elesis' side. He practically jumped down on top of everyone trying to see her. Everyone came to see Elesis because there was obviously something that needed immediate attention. They all saw her dead body. And then as they saw that resurrection had apparently failed, one by one, they started expressing their emotions. Amy was the first of the new comers, followed by Jin who wrapped Amy in a warm embrace, trying to comfort them both, followed by Seighart and Mari who both cried silently, Lass ran to a distant tree. Ronan cried last. He couldn't believe Elesis would get herself killed. Arme still couldn't fathom it. She couldn't believe that Elesis was dead.

'It's not…possible. She can't be dead. Elesis doesn't give in,' Arme paused for a moment looking oddly at Elesis.

'Come on, wake up. Can't you see we're all worried?'

"WAKE UP DAMN YOU!!!" Arme screamed.

Then the impossible happened. Elesis breathed a shuddered breath. She coughed blood but the color returned to her face. Everyone started screaming, crying, hugging Elesis, or blinking in disbelief at once. Arme, Lire, and Amy started squeezing Elesis until they were afraid of killing her again.

"Geez, I die for five minutes and you all act like it's the end of the world. Calm down, I'm back." Elesis said with apparent relief in her features. Lass came back and smiled lightly. He then realized that there was one more matter to attend to. He walked over to the man who was desperately trying to crawl away. Lass picked the man up by his collar and whispered to him.

"So you are the one who put Elesis through this. Let me show you how it feels. Except there won't be anyone to save you and I will make sure you feel every last bit of it."

With that being said, Lass took the frightened scum ball and disappeared into the shadows.

'Yeah, Ronan never let her out of his sight after that. It shook us up pretty bad but none so much as him. He really loves her,' Arme thought blissfully, 'I wonder if anyone will ever love me that way.' She thought mournfully to her childhood.

The annual guilds' ball; attendance was mandatory and Arme was not pleased. She sat in a chair watching all the guilds of Bermesiah dance with one another in the giant ballroom of the Mage's guild. She felt out of place with her mother's old dress and everyone's shiny, new ones. It was loud and she was not allowed to bring a book with her as to block out the sound. She was bored and annoyed. Besides it's not like any one wou—

"Would you like to dance with me?" A cherubically faced knight boy around the age of twelve asked; hand outstretched. Arme, age eleven, was shocked beyond words. His hair was a dark brown, eyes green and pure. He looked nervous and had a smile on his face. Arme rose her hand to take his, but paused. Did she really want to take a chance on this one? Her wings crumple easily when she hopes. It was worth it, she decided. She took his hand and a slow song came on. He smiled more when she finally placed her hand on his. They danced together. Of course it had to be a romantic song. Feeling comfortable she placed her head on his chest. He stiffened for a moment before relaxing, forcing his emotions down.

"What's your name?" Arme asked lightly. She might as well have a name to go with the thoughts that she was having.

He hesitated, "Brandon, what's yours?" he asked after replying.

"Arme," her cheerful nature was coming back to express itself, "It's nice to meet you Brandon."

He gave an awkward smile. As soon as the song was over he ran away from her and went back to his friends. Arme followed him a little ways. She started eavesdropping.

"Okay, okay, I did it. Now pay up." Brandon said to a taller boy, maybe an upperclassman.

The boy contemplated this, "Hmmm, No. You didn't kiss her."

"What!" Brandon exclaimed angrily, "that was not part of the deal! I could have gotten killed. The deal was to dance with the demon! NOT kiss her!"

One of the other boys saw Arme and his eyes widened. He poked Brandon who promptly yelled at him, inquiring him as to what it was that was so important to interrupt his rant. The boy pointed at Arme. Brandon turned and saw her. His face softened and he seemed to be trying to tell Arme something. Arme couldn't hear him, suddenly it was too loud. Her ears felt an immense pressure. She ran through the crowd out of the ballroom. Her vision was getting blurry and she realized she must have been crying. She ran all the way to her bedroom, launched herself upon the mattress to cry. No one came for her, no one tried to comfort her although she knew everyone had seen her. For the next three months people would pick on her about that event. All she could do was accept the pain until she couldn't feel anything anymore.

'A Dare! He only did that because of a dare!' Arme's eyes began to water at this memory. She had been so foolish to think that anyone could ever like her! She didn't want to believe the people but she had no other choice. She might not be a demon but she was undesirable. Her ears started trying to blot out the silence with more silence. She curled in closer trying to keep the pain from fully surfacing. Whoosh, someone sat beside her. Startled, she came out of her pain educed stupor. She heard a plate touch the step right next to her. She looked over to see Lass at her right. She looked down to see a plate of warmed cherry pie and hot chocolate! She looked back up at him. He looked at her.

"What's wrong?" Lass asked as he turned back to face the lake. He took a bite of steamy cherry pie, "You don't sit out here in silence very often. Especially not in the dead of winter."

"I'm just remembering everything. It's the anniversary of my parents' death so I feel a little nostalgic…"

Lass didn't say anything. There was dead silence filled with expectations when he broke it, "So are you going to tell me what you remembered or are we going to just sit here in silence? You can eat that by the way, I brought it for you." He stated indicating the plate on the ground.

'WHAT IS THIS!!! Lass sharing his cherry pie?!?! What kind of blasphemous world are we living it where Lass is willing to share this delicious cherry pie!?! And the hot chocolate? Oh yeah, he knows there's something wrong. He wants to be gentle about it and not force me to spill my guts but…' Arme thought to herself.

"Oh," Arme started, carefully forming the corset to hold her emotions in, "it's nothing really. Just my memories," Lass knew better.

"Care to explain?"

Arme paused a moment. She then grabbed his hand and put those events all into his head except for the very last one. She was afraid that he would reject her like Brandon did. She couldn't handle her heart in pieces again. He smiled at funny parts and frowned at everyone else. When it was over he looked at her.

"That's it? That's what you are concealing? I don't think so," He turned his body to face Arme, "what's really wrong. You're usually more cheerful than this, even when you're sad."

Arme waited for his gaze to turn. She waited a little longer. He was not going to look away until she showed him. Arme sighed and proceeded to show him the memory. His eyes went from confused, to enraged, to distressed. He stood up quickly and held his hand out for Arme.

"Let me show you a real dance," Lass offers. Arme looks up, completely surprised. Her eyes glisten and she looks away. Lass reaches down and holds her hand gently. She does not refuse so he pulls her up.

"Lass how are we going to dance with no music?" and wouldn't you know it, along came all of grand chase, including Amy. She held up her violin and waved. Arme blushed seeing everyone, "There's no dance floor," She protested.

"We'll use the lake," Lass says as he drags her out onto the thickly frozen water.

Arme becomes quite alarmed at this proposition, "That's dangerous! What if it breaks?"

Lass smirks, "It's not dangerous at all, not with me around." He gets into position and waits for Amy to start playing.

Arme almost said something but then the music started. Arme was quickly swept into the air by Lass' graceful motions. His feet barely made footprints on the snow as he glided across the lake. Arme's apprehensions fell away as she felt the rhythmic beating of his heart. She rested her cheek against his chest just as she'd done with Brandon but there was no stiffening coming from him. If anything he curled around her and continued to move. She felt safe and warm in his embrace. All of her memories started playing through her mind from as young as she could remember up to that very moment. She wanted to embed herself in Lass' chest and never let him go. Her heart synchronized with his and Arme's mind came in unison as well. Nothing could make her distressed after this, nothing. The music stopped and she was afraid of what happens next. He stepped away half a step and she knew she was going to be left alone again. Lass did something Arme never thought he'd do. He grabbed her chin and kissed her lips.

"And that," Lass started, "is how you end a proper dance."