A/N: This is pretty much just going to be a bunch of studies of the possible romantic relationships between the characters of Golden Sun. There are several that I definitely plan on visiting: Isaac/Mia, Piers/Jenna, Felix/Sheba... and this next one.

Spikes

She couldn't remember much about what had happened.

She remembered breaking out of the fusion, badly wounded and just barely alive. She remembered Saturos kneeling beside her, bleeding profusely from a dozen wounds. She remembered those four children, watching her apprehensively, hoping that they would not die, hoping that, somehow, they would live.

She remembered hitting the water. She remembered the odd, artificial light filtering down through the waves to her from the top of the Lighthouse.

She remembered strong arms lifting her from the water.

But other than that, Menardi could remember nothing about what had transpired atop the Venus Lighthouse. Even what she could remember came in flashes, barely enough to even be called true memories. Now, as she lay somewhere, completely numb and blind and deaf, she was unable to understand how she had survived at five-hundred-foot drop or being underwater for what must have been hours. Not even an Adept could do that, and certainly not one who was on death's doorstep.

She was conscious, but it seemed that her body was separate from her mind. She could get only snippets of feeling from her body, and she couldn't open her eyes to look around. She was covered by a blanket, a soft, warm blanket... but that was all she knew.

Menardi was forced to pass time by sleeping, something she didn't like to do any time but at night, when she absolutely needed to.

Saturos was dead. She knew that, she had come to terms with it. He had been her best friend, almost her lover, and she missed him terribly. She wasn't sure how she knew this; after all, she had lived. But there was a flash of Saturos spiraling down to the bottom of the ocean that was prominent in her mind. She wasn't sure if that was a dream or a memory, but either way, she was alone, wherever she was.

Menardi's body was getting steadily less numb. She now could always feel the blanket covering her. She could feel a thin cotton dress around her, a stark contrast to the thick leather clothes she had worn while in Prox and while traveling. She could feel the warm of a candle nearby... she could feel the gaze of another human watching her steadily, not looking away. She could feel the bed rock beneath her.

She was on a ship, being watched by someone.

Soon, she was able to summon the strength to open her eyes. She looked around. She was, indeed, on a ship... She could see an endless expanse of blue beyond the porthole on the other side of the room. There were three other beds around, two of which looked completely messy, the third neatly made with a staff resting lightly on top of it. Her bed was soft and warm, worn in by someone far larger than herself.

She looked up. Big brown eyes were staring down at her, looking a little concerned, but not overly so. A tan face with a broad nose and a strong chin was framed by dark red hair was what drew her in. She recognized that face.

Garet...?

"You...?" she whispered, her voice raspy from a long time of nonuse. "How...?"

"I could ask you the same thing." Garet replied. "I want to know how you survived the fall into the Lighthouse, and how you survived floating around on the ocean for two weeks while unconscious. You should be dead, Menardi."

"You think I don't know that?" Menardi asked. "I don't know how I survived... I'm not sure that I'm glad that I lived or not."

"It's a gift." Garet said simply. He reached down beside the bed and lifted something that dripped. A wet washcloth. He put it on Menardi's forehead, and immediately it cooled the fever that she hadn't known she had. Garet noticed the questioning expression on her face and said, "Mia wanted me to. It's not like I've got any love for you or anything that I'd want to help you."

"Right." Menardi said, feeling a slight tinge come to her cheeks. "Why are you guarding me?"

"Isaac wanted a watch on you at all times, 'cause he didn't trust you to not try and kill us if you woke up without our noticing." Garet said matter-of-factly. "I just volunteered 'cause they had put you in my bed."

"Right." Menardi said again. She closed her eyes and savored the cold washcloth that was cooling her forehead. After a moment, she said, 'Thank you..."

Garet blinked. He hadn't expected any gratitude from her. "Uh... you're welcome."

---

Two or three days passed, and gradually Menardi felt herself get stronger. She still couldn't get out of bed, but she could sit up a little and eat and drink, and read, and talk more easily with Garet. She was surprised to find that he volunteered to keep watch on her full-time, but she didn't really mind. She felt a little lonely without Saturos, and a Mars Adept was always a welcome companion, even if he had tried to kill her.

They talked quite a bit. Garet told her about Vale, and the things he had done as a child there. He told her about the pranks he would play on the other children... and he also told her about how, one day, Isaac challenged him and told him to stop. Garet fought him, and was thoroughly beaten, and since then (a hefty twelve years), he and Isaac had been best friends.

She told him about her youth in Prox, about training with her beloved little sister, about running through the wilds with Saturos. She told him about the fear she had felt when they had assigned her to go to Vale, about how much Saturos had needed to calm her down when they had first triggered the storm... and about how she could remember fighting him and Isaac. She told him how afraid she had been when the Doom Dragon had broken apart...

They talked for many hours. Menardi was surprised how warm and caring Garet could be once he got used to someone. He had seemed, on the three occasions when they had met previously, to be a warmongering, dunderheaded fool. And while she now recognized that his head was indeed made of lead, she understood that his heart was of gold.

"... so I went like this, ha!" He used a knife to show her his parries and strikes in a particularly violent battle with a monster in Suhalla Desert. He raised the knife to demonstrate a block. "But then he tried swipin' me with his tail, so I jumped over it and stabbed him like this!" He aimed the knife downwards and then thrust upwards, as if attacking under something of the monster's.

"Fascinating." Menardi said tolerantly. She was, however, impressed by his skill with a sword. "Your swordplay is good."

"Yeah, Isaac says so, too." Garet said with a nod. Then he looked troubled. "He always beats me, though."

Menardi chuckled. She said nothing, because anything she said would have merely hurt or annoyed him, and for some reason... she didn't want to do that to him. She looked at the wall and smiled, but then she felt something against her bare arm. She looked down and saw Garet running his fingers over the spikes and scales that ran the length of her arm. She blushed; no Proxan would ever consider doing that to another. It was a gross breach of personal space.

But... she didn't really mind.

"These are weird." he said, leaning closer to inspect the purple spikes. "I've never seen a human with stuff like this on them before. It's like a lizard's scales..." His fingers accidentally brushed the pink flesh on the top and inside of her bicep. Menardi blushed deeper, but didn't pull her arm away.

"They're... they're the sign of a Proxan." Menardi said quietly. "The power of the Mars Lighthouse, when it was lit hundreds of years ago, warped us slightly. It made us all stronger, for one thing, but it also changed us physically. It gave us pointed ears..." She raised a hand to the deep pink, double-pointed ears on either side of her head. "Odd skin color..." The hand ran along her cheek, which was bi-colored: deep pink around her eyes, but a lighter pink between her eyes and down to her chin. "And the spikes and scales on our arms." She put her hand on his, causing him to look up and blush.

"Menardi..." he said, looking a little confused.

"Proxans don't touch each others' spikes." Menardi explained with a smile. "It's like touching someone else's privates. It just isn't done."

Garet blushed deeper and pulled his hand away from Menardi's arm. "M-menardi, I'm sorry, I didn't realize... I-"

"Don't worry about it." Menardi said, shaking her head. "You didn't know."

Garet still looked embarrassed. "I didn't mean to embarrass you."

"I know."

They sat in silence for a while, neither looking at the other. Menardi knew that Garet was embarrassed beyond belief, and she couldn't really blame him. In retrospect, though, perhaps comparing the spikes to genitals was a bad idea. She cast Garet an appraising glance, but he didn't look back at her. He stared fixedly down at his feet, probably berating himself for touching her anywhere without permission.

"Garet..."

Garet looked sheepishly up at her, and even then, didn't meet her eyes.

"Do you think we can put the past behind us...?"

He looked at her, confused. "What do you mean?"

"All that conflict we had..." Menardi murmured, hugging herself slightly. "The fights we had, the hatred we held for each other... Can we let that go and become..." She stopped in mid-sentence, unsure of what exactly it was that she was about to say. "Can we just let it go?"

Garet watched her for a few seconds without saying anything. He leaned stood and leaned over her, his brown eyes boring into her red ones, making her feel... odd. His face was close to hers, and she could feel his warm breath against her skin. The hair on the back of her neck stood up.

"We've already let it go." he said quietly. "Haven't you been able to tell? If I hated you like I did while we were chasing you and Saturos all around Angara and Gondowan, then I wouldn't be in this room with you right now. I wouldn't... I wouldn't think you were so great." He paused one more time and looked directly into her eyes. "I wouldn't be in love with you."

Menardi's breath left her. She looked up into that great tan face, and she felt something... the thing that kept her from making fun of him, that had let her keep her temper around him, that let him touch her spikes without her minding... She said nothing, but merely closed her eyes and leaned closer to him, letting this gesture explain her feelings for him.

Their lips met tenderly.

---

A/N: OK, so it's a little weird, but the Garet/Menardi pairing (what would that be called? oO) is one of my favorites. I used it in my first (and admittedly worst) GS fic, and I liked the way their personalities contrasted so much. I found it hard, though, to convey Menardi's rather Jenna-like personality in such little space though, so if she seems a little... OOC, sorry, I didn't have much choice.

By the way, to those of you who will say that "Menardi was dead! Garet's a necro!" I say, "Nyah!" Golden Sun's story never decides conclusively whether Saturos and Menardi died, even though Karst is pretty well obsessed with her big sister being passed on. True, they fell into the Lighthouse, but they may have had some Psynergy that allowed them to survive, or catch a floor or something on the way down. You never know. (Agatio and Karst's fates are similarly clouded.)

Oh well, all things aside, I hope you enjoyed!