Disclaimer: I do not own Golden Sun, its characters, its Djinn, etc. If I did, Ivan, Mia, Sheba, Piers, and Felix would have all had face time in Dark Dawn.

I'm evil for posting this. The principle reason I'm evil is that there is only about a 5% chance that I'll have any time to give to this fic. Don't get me wrong: I have it all planned out; it's just that due to various circumstances, I won't have time to update until July. You can go ahead and read the first two chapters, but don't expect any updates until mid-summer.

The second reason I'm evil is because of all the horrible things I'm about to do to Felix.

A short preview for future chapters: The group is headed towards Vale to get an artifact they need to unlock the Mars lighthouse. Unfortunately, thanks to Felix's "grand exit" from before, the townspeople aren't exactly fond of him. The adepts must keep Felix's identity a secret, find a way to convince the mayor to abandon his duty and help light the last lighthouse, defend Vale from Karst and Agatio, all while dealing with a cornucopia of relationship drama.

I can't tell you which pairings I'm going to use, because that's part of the mystery. Rest assured that though Felix has been designated as the main character, the other group members will get their share of the spotlight. I'm not sure, but I might even have a pairing in here that hasn't been done yet...(By pairing, I mean hints at a relationship, not a guarantee that those characters will end up together. You'll recognize it when it shows up.).

Arg, I'm advertising chapters I haven't even written yet. See, I told you I'm evil. As proof of my utter heartlessness, read on.

Chapter 1: Misplaced Faith

The scene was perfect, as if someone had painted it just for her. The dim gold of the setting sun, the violet sheen of the water, the deep black of the starry sky overhead… a flawless gradient from dark to light to dark, without a single line in between that could definitively mark where one shade began and the other ended. The sun looked as if it was bobbing in the water, trailing a modest pink aura down into the sea.

A thin breeze sprinted across the ship, smelling faintly of sea salt and old wood. Sheba let it playfully wind its fingers through her hair. Sheba looked to her right just in time to see the wind slap Felix in the face with his ponytail.

She laughed. "You know, you should really cut that thing off."

"I like it," he muttered, roughly brushing his hair back into place.

"Yeah, but-" The wind interrupted Sheba to throw Felix's ponytail back in his face. She giggled in spite of herself.

"What? What's wrong with it?" he asked, pulling strands of hair out of his eyes.

"Nothing. You look perfectly handsome. I just thought you might like something a little more practical, like Isaac's haircut," she answered, turning her back on the sun to lean against the side of the ship. Felix's normally stoic expression fell into one of bemusement, the one he usually wore when he was unnerved but had too much pride to say so. Sheba wondered if mentioning Isaac had been a bad move. She knew the two had a rivalry of sorts, but how conscious Felix was of the friction between them she couldn't say.

"Did you just call me… handsome?"

Oh. Oh that's what he- oops. Sheba scrambled for a distraction. She didn't want to start their conversation with that. "Dashing, pleasant, whatever you guys call it. Actually, in Lalivero we'd call a man with your kind of style romanco."

"Romanco?"

"No, no, no. Romaaanco. You have to draw out the 'a'. Maaaanco."

His face softened into a rare smile. "And what's that mean?"

"Uh…aristocratic," she answered. Technically 'suave' would have been a better word, but Sheba decided the rougher translation would probably cause less confusion.

He stared at her for a moment and then pinched a bit of his worn tunic. "Aristocratic," he echoed.

"Er…okay, maybe I need a better translation, because station or wealth don't have much to do with it. It's more like…noble. Like Gregarius!"

"Who?"

"Gregarius was an old folk hero in Lalivero. The story goes that he found a magic sword one day while he was helping his father on the farm. The sword was so impressed by his good manners that it agreed to help him save the town against the evil dragon that had kidnapped the princess. He slew the beast, saved the princess, and they lived happily ever as king and queen….You don't have any stories like that?"

Felix shook his head. "So he got to marry the princess even though he was only a peasant?"

"Well that didn't matter! He saved her! You save a princess's life, of course you're going to marry her. That's how it works! Money and birth don't matter, at least not in Lalivero." Felix raised a skeptical eyebrow. Sheba corrected herself. "Well, okay, that's not entirely true. Some people…I mean….there it's based more on…" She stopped. Status wasn't based on anything, really. Your position in the town was based on whom you were acquainted with. Then again, who you were acquainted with depended on your status. To be more specific, your position depended on how many acquaintances away you were from knowing the goddess, i.e. her. But to say that out loud…even though it was true, she didn't want to sound so self-absorbed in front of Felix.

Felix leaned in, concerned. "You miss it, don't you?"

Sheba snapped out of her reverie. "What? Lalivero?" He nodded. "Well…yes and no. I mean, when we're fighting in the woods and we've run out of food and Garet forgets to pack the tents, yeah, I kind of miss the goosedown pillows and the chef-prepared meals." She looked down at her feet. "And I'll always miss Faran and Larenna…but when I'm out here, traveling under the stars, learning about the world and psynergy and maybe even my home…" She looked at Felix. "No. No, I don't regret anything."

Their eyes met, and Sheba felt like his gaze almost had a pressure to it. She tilted her head back to examine the stars. They twinkled encouragingly. "And besides. If Babi hadn't kidnapped me, I never would have met you."

"Tsh. I don't think I'm so worth knowing that your getting held hostage twice becomes a good deal."

"Sure you are. You're brave and smart and strong-willed. And romaaanco," she purred, grinning. Her eyes found his again, only this time she willed herself to hold his stare. "And…you saved me."

Did the color in his eyes darken? Or was it just the fading sunlight? For some reason Felix broke eye contact first, staring deeply into the ocean. He wasn't smiling anymore. He looked almost…nervous. "Sheba, why did you call me up here?"

Sheba shuffled her feet. "Well…I have a question."

She had a question, but she already knew his answer. Not because she had read his mind, though. He got angry whenever she tried to get answers from him like that. But there were other ways of knowing. There were signs. Like how he had always made sure Saturos and Menardi treated her well, or how he'd listen to her ramble on and on and never get up to get a drink of water right in the middle of the good part. Or how, besides his sister, she was the one he smiled for the most. Or even how…well, he dove off a crumbling tower to save her, for crying out loud. She didn't need to read minds to tell that he cared.

The problem was, she couldn't stop smiling. She tried to set her face into a decently serious expression, but her mouth kept popping back into this goofy little grin that didn't suit her at all. So she turned her face away, as if she were too nervous to look him in the eye. It would be better to look coy than childish.

"Felix, we've been traveling together for a while, right?"

"Yeeessss," he said. She peeked at him without turning her head. Felix was staring at her blankly, unsure why she'd ask a question with such an obvious answer. To tell the truth, Sheba would have rather skipped all the rhetorical questions and dove straight into the important one, but this was how it was done. Or how she heard it was done. Besides, it was nice hearing his voice, so that she didn't feel as if she were making some sort of speech.

"Well…um…we're close, right? I mean, not physically close. Like, emotionally close. Urm…" If Sheba had been reciting a speech, it would have been a very poor one. She knew she had lines planned, pretty phrases to make her confession sound eloquent and romantic, with lots of metaphors and imagery about…about…

Something about how those hazel eyes were staring at her made Sheba forgot how to talk. Twelve years of copious experience flew out of her head, leaving her with only the ability to babble and go on tangents. "What I wanna know is, if…we…we have an understanding…that…we understand each other.

Felix sighed, and his shoulders slumped. "Sheba, you're not making any sense."

A cold tingling began to grow in Sheba's stomach. She was losing him. Perhaps she should just get straight to the point. It might not be the most romantic of beginnings, but it was what happened after the confession that mattered, right?

Sheba stared as deeply into Felix's eyes as she could and put on her most elegant, serious expression. "I'm asking if you want to become lovers."

Sheba had read that when you confessed to a crush, he would likely be very shocked, and so she wasn't too disappointed when Felix didn't immediately shout his love for her to the heavens. Felix was a quiet boy who had difficulties expressing his emotions, so that fantasy had probably been a tad unrealistic. But she hadn't expected Felix to be so surprised that he would stop breathing. She'd anticipated him to blush or stammer a little, but instead he'd, irony of ironies, frozen like a stone.

The sun was almost past the horizon now, so Felix's eyes no longer caught the sunlight, and it was hard to read his expression. He was staring hard at her now, but not with a look of awe or ecstasy. He looked more as if he hadn't seen Sheba in years and was trying to remember her name and how she fit into his life. He was so quiet that for a moment Sheba wondered if he hadn't perhaps gone into shock. Felix was male, after all, and they tended to overreact whenever girls mentioned the l-word.

"What?" Felix whispered.

Oh thank goodness. He'd recovered. Sheba had been considering calling Mia for medical attention. She'd hoped her confession would be dramatic, but she hadn't expected to give poor Felix a heart attack. Maybe she should lead Felix through the steps, to make it easier for him. "I love you. You love me too, right?"

With that, Felix seemed to melt. His shoulders slumped, his eyebrows slanted outward, even his eyes seemed to droop. "Sheba…"

She'd expected a heartfelt yes, but uttering her name in a breath of longing seemed an appropriate enough response. "I figure the next logical step is courtship." Sheba turned and gazed dramatically out at the horizon, even though the sun was mostly gone. Hopefully the remaining sunlight would make her look as if she were blushing. She didn't want to appear too forward, after all. "I know it's a bit unusual for the girl to initiate the relationship, but you weren't making any moves, and our journey together's almost over. Time was running short, so I had to take things into my own hands."

"Sheba, I'm so sorry."

She turned back and faced Felix. "Sorry? For what?"

Felix's eyes stared into Sheba's own. "I…don't think this is a good idea."

Sheba blinked. She hadn't expected that. "What? O-of course it is! If we don't get togther now, then when? I mean, sure, we could wait until we finish saving the world, but I honestly don't think our relationship would interfere with lighting the last lighthouse."

"No, Sheba. I mean I don't think this is right for…us." Felix's gaze seemed to grow deeper, darker. As if he were trying to tell her something. Sheba considered mindreading him, but then she realized what he was referring to.

"Oh, you mean the others? They wouldn't mind. They know we can enjoy each other and still handle our responsibilities." Sheba stepped forward and smiled encouragingly. "And Jenna knows how I feel about you, so you don't have to worry about her reaction either. Actually, she's the one who encouraged me to do this."

"She what?" Felix said, his eyes wide. He shook his head in frustration. "N-no, wait. Sheba, you're a very nice girl, but I can't-" He paused, worrying that he might have offended her.

Girl? Sheba stepped forward again, closing the distance between them. "That's what was holding you back? Our age difference? Felix, you don't have to worry about that. We're only four years apart." She took a third step, so that they were now just a hands' width apart. She fluttered her eyelashes. "And I'm very mature for my age."

Felix gasped sharply and then sprang away, as if Sheba had pricked him with a needle. "Sheba, no!" He backpedaled clumsily until he was a few feet away. "It's not any of those things, all right? It's…I can't…" He stared at the air in front of him, as if he were searching for the right words. Suddenly his head swiveled back up in Sheba's direction, and his eyes bored mercilessly into hers. "I don't feel the same way. I'm sorry."

The wind slapped the backs of Sheba's knees before it blew through her, making her feel hollow and feathery on the inside. "Oh."

Felix didn't… Of course. That had always been a possibility. Why hadn't she considered that? Sheba found that her head had become very heavy, and that it was getting increasingly difficult to hold Felix's gaze. She let her eyes fall to the floor. "Are-are you sure?" she asked. The words sounded thick and jagged, as if they were the pieces of whatever Felix had broken, tumbling out of her mouth. "B-because I've read sometimes that people don't realize they're in love un-until they hear the other person say it first, and then it takes a while for the feelings to sink in, so…so…"

Damn it, she was crying. Sheba opened her eyes as wide as she could, hoping the tears would drip back into her sockets. She'd just made an absolute idiot of herself. She didn't want to look like a child too.

The tears weren't stopping. They were oozing down her cheeks, pooling on her chin, and then dropping onto her shirt. And now her nose was dripping. Damn it, damn it, damn it. Is it any wonder Felix only thought of her as a little girl?

She felt like she was shrinking in front of Felix's eyes. As if her feet were melting onto the floor, and she had no choice but to stand in front of Felix and get smaller and wetter and louder. She needed to escape. She needed to leave before he started hating her.

"It-it's really...cold. I should go," Sheba muttered. She swiveled her body around, and her feet followed. She stumbled towards her room, trying not to trip over the floorboards. Now that the sun had set, it was hard to pick out which ones were caved in, but she managed to make it to the stairs without falling.

When Sheba opened the door to her room, Jenna and Mia were already inside, sitting on Mia's plush blue bedding.

"Hey, it's the girl of the hour!" Jenna shouted. She turned around to face the door and grinned. "So, when's the wedding? Are we-" Jenna saw Sheba's face. "Sheba? Sheba, what's wrong?"

Well? What did you think? Reviews and constructive criticism are always appreciated.