Hello, loverly readers! To answer your question: Yes, I'm at it again! There seems to be no end to the random things that bounce around in my brain... Which means I have yet another story to work on, and therefore for you to read. Pretty good deal, eh? I do the work, you reap the benefits... Yeah, works out great for y'all! So anyway, this is the result of a semi-permanent obssession I have with both Soren and Shinon. At first, this was just supposed to be about Soren, but somewhere along the line, my imagination said "What would happen if Shinon was there, too...?" Well, I got started writing... and this happened. Whether or not 'this' turns out to be worth anything depends on the feedback I get, so please, if you like it, let me know!

Hm? What's that?

Karai stood up and brushed the dirt off her skirts. She looked around. "Where's that coming from...?" she murmured, tilting her head this way and that. At last, she chose a direction and started off in it. The sound got louder as she walked, which let her know she was on the right track, but she still couldn't be sure just what it was. She stopped and listened...

"It's a child!" she exclaimed. "Crying their heart out, it sounds like!" She hiked up her skirts and ran as fast as she could, and within moments, she had located the wailer.

He was a sorry sight, that was certain. The boy, very young, sat by the roadside, indeed sobbing his little heart out. Tears streaked the grime that covered his face and dropped onto his filthy garments, which Karai imagined had once been white, though they were not remotely so now. His dark hair, not quite black but very close, was greasy and tangled and covered in dirt, just like the rest of him. And there, on his hand... what was that? Was it blood? Karai wasn't sure. But whatever it was, it was irrelevant. There was a child in need, and Karai was going to help.

She knelt down on the ground beside him. "Are you all right?" she asked loudly to be heard over his keening. The boy jumped, not having heard her approach, and tears began to fall anew from his fright. Karai slapped herself mentally. "Calm down, calm down! It's alright," she cajoled, reaching toward him. She frowned worriedly when the child scooted away from her, looking like a scared animal.

"Hey, I'm not going to hurt you, I promise," Karai said gently. The boy looked up at her with distrustful crimson eyes. "I promise," Karai said again, and tried reaching out to him once more. He didn't run this time, and the burgundy-haired woman gathered him into her arms. The child froze at the contact.

"Calm down," Karai said soothingly. "It's alright." She stood up, intending to carry the boy back to her house, but she ran into a complication. "Um... you've got to hold on to me if I'm going to carry you," she informed the child, who was currently just... hanging. It wasn't uncomfortable for Karai, as the boy only felt about as heavy as her cat, but she certainly couldn't walk like that.

Hasn't this child ever been held in his life...? "Put your arms around my neck and wrap your legs around me," she told him. To her amazement, he obeyed almost instantly, though he was still tense. "There you go!" Karai said cheerfully, trying to calm the sniffles that still came from the boy. "Alrighty then, let's go home and get you cleaned up, huh?" As she walked along, patting his back soothingly, the boy's tears actually ceased, and he relaxed the tiniest bit in her arms. Karai wondered what he could possibly have been through to make him so wary of other people...

"-know good and well WHY!"

"Stop shouting at me."

"I'LL YELL IF I WANT TO, YOU LITTLE-"

"SHINON!" Ike roared, slamming his hands down on the table. "That's enough! You and Soren BOTH need to stop it!" The pink-haired marksman's glare could have frozen the Kauku Caves over, and the look Soren gave Ike made the puppy-dog face look weak in comparison. The vanguard himself sighed. "Look, you two," he said, rising from his seat. "Every night, we go through the same thing, and I don't know about the others, but personally I'm sick of it. Either get over your issues, or take them outside. I don't want to hear this anymore."

Soren squeezed his eyes shut briefly. Ike could have sworn he was forcing back tears, which worried him. That sort of sensitivity wasn't normal in Soren... Surely Shinon hadn't gotten to him that badly? He didn't have long to think on it, as Soren, his face now perfectly composed, picked up a few tomes off the end of the table and offered Ike a small bow. "It won't happen again, Commander," he said. Then, before Ike could reply, Soren scurried away down the hall.

"Cheh," came Shinon's voice from behind Ike. "Don't count on that." Ike turned toward him just in time to see Shinon snatch the half-empty bottle off the opposite end of the table and stalk outside, leaving the door wide open just for spite.

Ike sighed again, though it was more closely related to a growl this time. "What am I gonna do with them?" he asked, falling back into his chair. He glanced around the room at the other mercenaries, most of whom had already gone back to whatever they'd been doing before Ike's explosion.

Mia, Mist, and Rolf sat in floor playing some sort of game. The idea of it was to pretend you were something else, and give the other players clues without speaking as they attempted to guess. Ike couldn't remember the name of it, and as he was fairly pathetic at it, he couldn't say he really cared. Oscar and Boyd sat nearby, laughing as Rolf attempted and failed to impersonate King Naesala of Kilvas. In the corner of the room, Gatrie snored loudly, a bottle of brandy still in his hand.

Ike shifted his gaze to Titania and Rhys. The two sat across from Ike at the table, troubled expressions on their faces. "I mean it," Ike said, quiet this time. They looked up at him. "What am I going to do with them? I realize that some people don't get along, but... After all these years, you would think that it would be at least little better! I don't understand why..." He trailed off, the beginning of the night's argument replaying in his mind.

"You're useless."

Soren didn't appear to acknowledge Shinon's words. He sat at the end of the common room table, thumbing through a book that looked suspiciously like a Worm tome and looking increasingly frustrated with it.

"You're pathetic."

Ike threw a warning glance in Shinon's direction. "Don't start," he said threateningly.

In answer, Shinon took another large drink from the bottle in his hand and made a face at Ike. "Don't tell me what to do."

Mia distracted everyone by standing up hurriedly. "Hey Mist, Rolf! Why we don't we go play a game, huh?" she said in her normal cheerful tone, but Ike could tell that her brightness was forced. She knew what was coming as well as he did. He made a mental note to thank her later for trying to get Mist and Rolf away from tonight's drunken rant.

"You playing that, uh... you know, that... umm..." Boyd said, furrowing his brow.

"Charades?" Mist giggled.

"That's it!" Boyd exclaimed. "Yeah! That what you're gonna play?"

Mia shrugged. "Sure, we can. Why? You gonna join in with us, Boyd?"

His eyes widened. "No way! I just like to watch Rolf mess up."

Rolf scowled. "You are so mean, Boyd!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Uh-huh!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Uh-huh!"

The argument migrated across the room as Mia and Oscar herded Mist and the two warring brothers away from the table. A tense silence settled over the five who remained. Titania was watching Shinon with an unreadable expression; Rhys looked decidedly concerned as he fiddled with the jewel on the end of his Heal staff. Ike simply shifted his gaze back and forth from the glaring marksman to the silent archsage, waiting for the fight he knew was coming.

Suddenly, Soren made an aggravated noise and closed his book roughly. "I can only read half of the words," he grumbled to Ike, propping himself up with one hand. "It's not in the Old Tongue; it's something else entirely that I've never seen befo-"

"Stupid."

Soren raised icy crimson eyes to meet Shinon's. "What?" he asked darkly.

"You," Shinon answered, taking another swig of his brandy.

Ike stared at the Worm tome as it flew past his face, landing in front of Shinon. Normally it was Shinon who got violent first, not Soren... This could get bad. "Why don't you try to read it, then?" Soren challenged, his voice low and dangerous.

Shinon didn't appear to be fazed. "That's right, you big baby, throw a tantrum," he said bitingly. "Go ahead. Kick and scream and cry 'cause you're not getting your way. Go ahead. See who cares."

Soren sat stone-still, glaring at Shinon with red eyes full of hate.

"What?" Shinon asked. "Not gonna pout, baby? You scared to find out that nobody cares?"

"Shut up, Shinon," Soren hissed, his eyes narrowing to slits.

Shinon stood up slowly. "No," he said, returning Soren's hate-filled gaze. "I won't. You can't order me around. You're just a stupid little brat that no one loves. No one. They all hate you. I hate you. I hate you, Soren."

Soren rose as well. Ike saw his hands clench into tight fists at his side. "Really?" Soren asked sarcastically. "I didn't know that, Shinon."

"Yes you did," Shinon said, sending him the most malevolent look Ike had ever seen. "Yes. You did. And you know good and well WHY!"

Ike came back to the present with yet another heavy sigh. "I don't understand why Shinon hates Soren so much," he said finally, looking to Titania. "Do you know what makes them act like they do?"

The red-haired woman suddenly looked uncomfortable. "Well," she began, then changed her mind. "Ike, there's... You have to understand that they... Soren and Shinon... They..." She stood up. "I'm sorry," she apologized sincerely. "I... I can't... ...Good night, Commander."

Ike stared in annoyed confusion as Titania walked away. She knew. Why was she hiding it...?

...Thus ends the first chapter. Are you curious yet? Have I got you wondering what happens next? ...Dang, I sure hope so. Let me know, folks! I need encouragement! ...That's actually a lie, because I love this story so much that I'm going to write and post it whether anyone else cares or not, but it really would be nice to know what you think. So, until, next time (which isn't far away, as chapter 2 is more than half done already), ja ne!

~destinykeyblade