A/N: So my first reaction to the Masamune sidequest and the Dario/Riddel/Karsh love triangle was the desire to make an incredibly strained and difficult situation even more incredibly strained and difficult by adding Glenn issues into the mix. (ﾉ*｀▽´*)ﾉ︵ ┻━┻

Also, no need to point out the futility of writing slash for side characters in a game that nobody has played in ten years, if ever. #winning

Prologue

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Everything had gone pear shaped over at Fort Dragonia. First the General had been gravely wounded. Then Serge had turned violently on Kid. And after that, Zoah and Karsh had burst into the room shouting angrily (Gods knew where Marcy had gotten off too!), Lynx had disappeared amidst the pandemonium, and Serge and Kid had disappeared as well. That left Glenn and a dozen other misfits running about the fort, the teleporter having apparently malfunctioned before disappearing off the face of the earth.

Karsh and Zoah had disappeared quickly after that, in an attempt to save General Viper. And to report back to Miss Riddel, of course.

Glenn had huffed angrily. Even without Riddel in the picture, when had Karsh ever thought to look back at him, check on him?

And then the entrance to Mount Pyre caved in.

If it wasn't chaos before then, it was at that point.

Doc seemed to lose all hope and spent his time sitting with his head in his hands and kept muttering about all the people he couldn't save. Pip and NeoFio ran around in utter terror. Luccia gave disturbing speeches on the historical record of cannibalism. And the rest of them… they had been irritable and high strung to say the least.

It had taken a good two weeks to scale the mountains around the fort and return to the boat (which had, thankfully, not been lost or stolen in the interim). Glenn wasn't sure how exactly they had kept it together, but he knew a large part of it had to do with Macha and Leena, both of whom had a firm demeanour and a motherly touch. They had, together, soothed, coddled, and beaten everybody into shape with the fierce determination that, one way or another, they would be getting home, every last one of them. Glenn would never doubt the wisdom of using kitchenware as weaponry ever again.

There was something about women that Glenn admired, although he could never pin it down quite. He saw it more strongly from Leena and Macha and Zippa, than from Riddel, but even with her he could still see glimpses of it from time to time: a posture and will unwavering as stone. He still wondered if that feeling of admiration was anything like the love Karsh or Dario had felt for her. He wanted to ask, but he couldn't ask Karsh. He could have asked his brother, were he still alive. Why hadn't he thought to ask while he was still alive?

He still wondered if, maybe if he could multiply that admiration a hundredfold, he could fall in love the way he should.

Those were thoughts for desperate nights, camping under the stars, and wondering if you would ever make it back to Termina alive.

The thoughts changed after they had actually made it back to Termina, after stopping to drop off the others at a handful of places all around El Nido. Macha had dropped him off at the port, and Glenn had expressed his thanks with a kiss to her hand. She had blushed and then smiled, weakly but sincerely, before turning her boat back towards Guldove.

Then Glenn learned that Serge had decided to lay siege to Anri village.

It was clear that something strange had occurred up in that tower: Serge was not himself, even Lynx had been acting bizarrely towards the end, and Kid's motivations had always clearly been in a different vein than that of the other players – something much more personal, and much less concerned with the greater good. Glenn wasn't sure who or what he was fighting for anymore – so he stopped.

Glenn was the hot-head, they said. Dario was the sensible one. Dario had been Glenn's compass. Dario would have pointed Glenn to the right person to follow.

But Dario wasn't here.

Glenn sat in his room and tried to ignore the drama that was happening on the other side of it. Marina, the other tenant, had unintentionally jilted the affections of two brothers, and Glenn, as usual, was outside the love triangle, only this time comfortably so, as opposed to the disaster that was everything Karsh and everything Riddel.

Glenn had still not made up his mind a couple days later, and was thinking about polishing his brother's winning tournament trophy. He could ask Zippa for some polish, and she would probably even give him a secret smile and a snack, a couple cookies or a bunch of grapes. Or he should probably run his customary drills in the yard, he didn't want his swordplay to get rusty.

It was a rather lazy afternoon, really.

The last thing Glenn expected was for Karsh to burst into his room (with Lynx of all people!) and start ribbing him about joining him on some adventure.

Karsh needed all the people he could find, and Glenn's reaction was a horrible mix of cold fury and sudden warmth.

After he leaves me stranded at Fort Dragonia… After what he did to my brother… After he ignores me for the sake of everything else under the sun, he has the gall to ask me for help!

But he needs me. He needs my help.

Glenn doesn't know what he's fighting for, and Karsh isn't a compass like Dario, who can be trusted to tell him who and what to fight for. Karsh is even more hot-headed and impulsive than Glenn. Karsh would fight for thieves and murderers and villains, if that was where the wind blew him that day. But that's not the reason Glenn responds the way he does.

It's the idea of sudden power. Glenn is the one who is needed now, and Karsh is the one who has to deal with callous rejection.

"Sorry, Karsh… I need some time to think on my own."

Karsh blinks for a moment in surprise. Lynx- Serge… whoever it is that appears to be Lynx looks thoughtful and gives a silent nod. Glenn doesn't even bother to look at the third member of their party. He's waiting for the hurt look to cross Karsh's face, and then… something else. Something that would be nothing like admiration.

Karsh disappoints him without even trying.

"Heh, you're beginning to sound similar to your big bro!" He grins widely, lopsidedly, and ruffles Glenn's hair, throwing his headband out of the way.

They leave shortly after, and Glenn is left in their dust.

Karsh doesn't care about what he does, but that's just Karsh. Glenn's the one that somehow lets himself get hurt over and over again by the same thing.

Glenn doesn't want to be compared to his brother. Glenn doesn't want to be in third place to a memory, and he doesn't want to inherit his brother's relationship with Karsh.

Oh, so you'd rather be compared to Riddel?

Glenn grabs his trophy – runner-up – and heaves it across the room. It sounds loudly as it hits the wall just below the window.

Marina and the brothers jump, their feud apparently forgotten in the midst of the sudden outburst from the usually-calm-Glenn they're familiar with.

The embarrassment hits him all at once. He murmurs an apology and crosses the room to retrieve the trophy.

It's lucky he didn't break a hole in the window, or else he'd have to surrender his pride and ask Zippa for patching tools.