A/N: I know that Eunice acts a bit different than she does in the game in this. However, this is slightly based off of a previous one-shot I did involving Eunice. There's no need to read that one (although I won't complain if you did) because it's actually explained in here. The two stories can be seen as independent or as together, it depends on how you readers wish to see them, but the background story is the same for both:

Eunice knew Ivan and Raguna (known as Kael previously) when they were little (the idea having been born when Eunice mentioned having lived in the city before while I was playing the game), and Eunice had loved Raguna and he loved her in return, but then his memories were erased and she was forgotten. She had kept in contact with Ivan and had learned of Kael becoming known as Raguna of Kardia. That's pretty much the background. Like I said, the reasons for her acting different are mentioned in this story, so stick with it until then at least. Plus, the fact that I'm banned from video games during the school year and so haven't played any in a while kind of adds on to why the personalities might be a bit different…

Disclaimer: I do not own the Rune Factory series and probably never will (eh, I can hope). If I did, there would be slash and the opportunity to have the characters travel to the towns from previous games. Plus, there would be an option to have the main character be a girl…

Warnings: Angst, some mental torture but not high enough to warrant a rating of 'M' and it's not graphic, just a bunch of fear. This is het, just because I feel that should be warned about as well since it 'has' to be done in regards to slash. Characters do get hurt, but that's what angst is all about. I think that's all for the warnings… yeah, that's it.

Shadow Rose

Small, pale hands gently closed around the dark blue flower bud, enveloping it but careful to not actually touch the petals. After a moment a blue light started to escape from the tiniest of cracks in her cupped hands, turning her skin luminescent and she watched in wonder as the colors contrasted before letting out a gasp of surprise when the glowing suddenly stopped. Quickly, nimbly, the hands tugged at the stem of the flower, careful not to touch the petals still since she didn't want to kill herself or the flower. Before it is plucked the Shadow Rose has a poisonous powder covering its petals, but once plucked the poison weakens from no contact with the earth through its roots and eventually the toxin goes away, leaving a powder that's used in a multitude of medicines. Eunice had been searching for the flower for weeks now and she was happy she finally found it; because it meant that she could go home and help her mom get better.

The roots finally lifted from the ground and she fell back, releasing the flower so she wouldn't contact the petals. It no longer needed to be in the dark now that it was plucked. Shadows Roses only bloomed in darkness, and yet they always grew in places with lots of light, so she had to cover it to simulate darkness before it would bloom, and plucking the flower then made it stay fully bloomed. It would have been easier to get the flower at night, but she dared not leave the safety of the inn she was staying at during the nighttime hours. This place wasn't anything like Trampoli, it was more like the city she lived in when she was younger, and so much more dangerous because she didn't have her friends here to protect her like when she was little. No Ivan and Kael-no, his name is Raguna now-doesn't even remember her from back then. Standing up to wipe the dirt off of her outfit, which consisted of a dark green blouse and brown pants as well as dark brown boots (she had been criticized for wearing manly clothes, and she wasn't very comfortable wearing them, but they were suited for the traveling she was doing), before she walked over to the fallen flower and picked it up by the stem.

"Wow…" Eunice whispered as she gazed upon the petals. The outside of the flower was a dark blue, but the inside was darker than the darkest of nights with only the stark white of the powder contrasting with it intermittently when it clumped together.

Smiling, she placed the flower inside the basket, which had many more flowers that she had picked since she thought they were pretty, and started her trek back to the inn to grab her stuff and start heading home. Her dad had been adamant about her not going to search for medicine, but she knew he mom needed him with her and had left in the early morning with a note left on her pillow. Normally she wasn't very active and hated to go against her parents wishes, but her mom's health was important and she needed to get out of the village for a little while. To know that the man she has loved for a good portion of her life is there but doesn't remember her, doesn't remember his feelings for her, is in that village dating other girls…it tears her apart. She had to leave for at least a little while, because Raguna was completely blind to her feelings and that hurt every single time she saw him.

"I need to get home, I'm sure the inn needs a good cleaning, and mom needs to get better," She told herself as she walked, convincing herself that going home was the best thing to do. As the wind blew her green hair into her face, wetting it with the silent tears that were there, she wasn't entirely sure of her motivation, because never seeing Raguna kissing Mist again sounded like the best thing in the world.

"Thank you very much for allowing me to stay here," Eunice said, bowing slightly in gratitude as she paid her bill at the inn. The innkeeper nodded, giving her a weird look for her actions, and she left since that was the best goodbye and thank you she was going to get. The town around her bustled with activity and she felt a little overwhelmed as she shouldered her pack, a dagger at her belt just in case, and walked through the crowds. Uzuki had "toughened her up" more so she knew how to use a weapon, but she never wanted to use it. Their training was just to help her get in shape since she thought that was what Raguna wanted, but it wasn't. Still, she stayed active because she wanted to be able to do more things, and she could clean a lot more without getting tired and eat what she wanted provided she kept exercising.

"Excuse me, I'm sorry, please excuse me," She muttered as she tried to avoid running into the people crowding around the many merchants in the market square. Shoulders jostled against hers and she held the basket of flowers, which were covered so no one would try to steal the elusive Shadow Rose (granted they would learn, like she did, that the thorns on its stem were very sharp), in front of her. Ducking under the arm of a rather large man that was holding his purchase above the crowd, she found herself in a less crowded section where a merchant was still setting up his wares. "Wow, I'm so glad Trampoli isn't like this…"

"Pardon me, Miss, but did you say Trampoli? I was on my way there to visit a few friends as a surprise, but I got lost and ended up in this town instead…" Eunice barely heard the sentence, but the fact that the voice sounded familiar had caught her attention and she looked behind her at the merchant who had spoken. Dark blue eyes meet her violet ones and Eunice gasps as she recognizes the face, surrounded by dark brown locks and holding a small smile on it, a gold headband barely visible under his hair.

"Ivan…?" She asks hesitantly, just to make sure, and Ivan seems just as shocked as she is when he recognizes her.

"Eunice! It's been a long time," he said before starting as her smaller form hugged him. "You're all grown up now, but I still see that beautiful girl from when we were little, she's just a beautiful woman now."

"I'm not pretty, if I was…" She trailed off before releasing him and stepping back to peer into his face. His features were finer, no more baby fat from when they were little, and she could see the slight aristocratic features more prominently now too. Still, that kind smile and eyes were purely Ivan and she never realized how much she had missed her past-especially when it involved Ivan. Most of the time her past revolved around Raguna and that was always filled with pain and loneliness whenever she thought about it, but she could remember Ivan teasing her and Kael and when he held her the day she found out Kael was missing. It had been so long since she had seen her friend and she had never thought she would see him in this small town, as a merchant at that. "Why are you a merchant…? Everything's okay, right? You know if you need help with something you can always come to me… Is Terrable okay? There has to be a reason why you're not with him, you two were inseparable most of the time…"

"Calm down, Eunice, everything is fine." He said, reassuring her before leading her over to some crates and taking a seat on one, inviting her to sit on the other. "Terrable is fine; we're not together all of the time. I come when he calls and he comes when I do. I'm a merchant since that's what I was the last time Raguna saw me and so it's a perfect cover, because I wasn't lying when I said I was doing a surprise trip to Trampoli. You would think that with a giant island floating over it, the village would be easy to find…"

"Oh, that's good, and the village is just past those mountains, whale island isn't that high up anymore, but it's getting higher again now that the Iris twins are together again. That's probably why you couldn't see it from here…" She paused and looked at him again, still not able to believe he was here. "I'm sorry; I'm just so surprised to see you again that I keep rambling. Sorry…"

"Don't apologize, you haven't done anything wrong. Now, why are you out here all by yourself? You were never so independent before, from what I can recall." She ducked her head in an attempt to hide behind her pale green locks and Ivan remembered this from when they were little. She had always tried to hide herself when she felt that people weren't going to like her for how she was or if she felt ashamed of something. As a force of habit he hadn't realized he still had, Ivan pushed the hair behind her ear and lifted her chin up so she was looking at him. "What's wrong?" He could see tears welling up in her eyes and he glared at the customer that interrupted them.

"Hey, aren't you going to set out your wares? I don't have all the time in the world, you know!"

"I'm sorry sir, but I have decided that I'm not going to be selling anything here, there are plenty of other merchants, so please go bother them." He had always been taught not to be rude despite his feelings and he regretted those lessons sometimes as the man muttered some rather indecent language under his breath. "How about we gather my stuff up and get going? You can lead me to the town and we'll travel there using my cart. I have some buffalos to pull it at that inn over there, in the stable." He said as he turned back to Eunice, who was wiping at her eyes with her sleeve.

"I'm sorry…" Ivan sighed as she apologized again for no reason, he had never been able to break her of that habit, and helped her up.

"There's nothing to apologize for, now let's get started so we can continue talking later." She didn't look very reassured that she had no need to apologize and so he kept talking as they started placing everything back in his cart. "Plus, if you're apologizing because you think that you're inconveniencing me, you're not. I know the trip to Trampoli takes at least a day and a half from here, despite not knowing the direction from here I had to go, and I don't like the idea of you traveling alone. It is purely my decision and we're both going to the same place anyways."

"I suppose you're right! Thank you, Ivan." The taller man just smiled, happy to see Eunice's normally cheerful personality shine through whatever was causing her to be so depressed. They continued their work in silence, Eunice's items carefully being stored in the cart as well, before they harnessed the buffalos in and started on their journey.

Ivan laughed as they started setting up camp, having been sharing stories from their past on their way to Trampoli, and Eunice couldn't help but smile too. They hadn't continued their conversation from the market yet, but she was happy he had given her time before bringing it up. She knew that once they were settled into camp everything would be brought out into the open and she shivered slightly at the thought. Ivan, thinking she was cold, brought her to sit by the small fire he had started and placed his tan cloak over her shoulders before sitting next to her after he started cooking some meat over the fire using a roasting spit. She wanted to protest about taking his cloak, but he gave her a look as she opened her mouth and she protests died before she blushed and stared into the fire.

"Do you remember the time when I caught you sneaking into the palace disguised as the cook's assistant? You had dyed your hair white using flour since you knew the knights would recognize you otherwise and return you home." Eunice blushed at the memory. She had been visiting the capital with her parents as a birthday gift to her and had snuck in the palace to surprise Kael and Ivan. Her punishment after her parents found out was more cleaning, but since she loved doing that she didn't mind, they had actually just found it funny. Ivan had helped her along after finding her and they had all disappeared from the palace to go and play in the river. "I think that was the second time I had ever seen you go against the rules, the first being when we had met and you had gone into the burned meadow, while it was still burning…"

"I know it wasn't smart, but I met you and Kael because of it though, right?" Talking to Ivan about Kael made it easier than keeping it all to herself, but remembering those memories and knowing Raguna never would just hurt. He had forgotten her and everything that they had done together.

"…Do you regret it now, though?" Ivan asked quietly and Eunice sighed, absentmindedly removing the food and placing it on the clay plates, ignoring the pain as the hot meat burned her fingers. She knew this was going to come up, but she still was unsure how to go about it, and was pretty sure that the weak hold she had over her depressing emotions wasn't going to last long. She ate a little bit; sure she wouldn't be able to eat after talking, before she answered him.

"I…I don't regret meeting you, both you and Kael, because I have so many fond memories because of it, but…" She trailed off as she tried to search for the right words, avoiding looking at Ivan as she did so. "I just miss him, so much. It hurts to see him every day and know that he doesn't remember me or our feelings, no, just my feelings since his were erased…

"I hate seeing how much he has fallen for Mist, completely blind to everything I do, but I can't do anything about it because I just want him to be happy." She looked at Ivan, feeling weak as the tears trailed down her face, but she kept looking at him. "Is it selfish of me that I want him to love me again, that I hate supporting him getting with Mist and yet do it anyways because seeing him happy makes me happy? That I wish everyday that that happiness was because of me and not her? I just miss him so much, Ivan, and no one there even knows of what I'm going through… My parents didn't know how Kael looked, so they don't know that Raguna is him, so I don't have anyone to talk to and it just keeps building up, the loneliness and the pain, so much that I fear he will find out and I don't want him to hate me because I kept his past from him. I kept it from him because I didn't think I could bear watching him continue falling in love with the others while knowing of our past together.

"I probably made the wrong choice, doing that, but he probably wouldn't think a love that we had had when we were little would actually last so long. He still loved me though, right? He still loved me before he was kidnapped, because he said it in his letters…" Eunice could hardly see Ivan through her tears and she moved her hand to wipe them away, Ivan's hand beating hers there. He gathered her in his arms and she let herself cry, relieved that someone was actually there to help her through it this time. Ivan kissed the top of her head, holding her as he softly muttered reassurances in her ear, and she felt her strength leaving her. She was so tired, so very, very tired…

"You are the least selfish person in the world, Eunice. I'm so sorry he hurt you this much, but you know he would never do this purposely… Perhaps it is time for you to move on because I hate to see you so torn apart. Where's my sweet little ray of sunshine…?" Ivan whispered as he gently held her. He knew she didn't hear his words because she was asleep, but he hoped they made an impression anyways. Raguna, his little brother, was so blind to everything around him and Ivan wasn't sure if he should keep him in the dark anymore. He had hurt their little Eunice so much without even being aware of it… "I'm sorry…"