Unexpected

"Don't worry Nanami, I'm not interested in children."

"Phew…wait, children?!"

The chaotic endeavors to find Lady Teresa had almost become a soap opera with the romantic misadventures from one of the school girls that kept stalking Flik. As everyone kept coming up with loose ends and leads that ended up at a dead end to where Shin was, the group eventually ended up calling it a night and split up to their respective rooms.

However, Nanami ended up wondering back outside not even an hour later. The rest of the team was still asleep, but she found her thoughts far too active to be able to lie down and close her eyes just yet.

The normal problems that bothered her ranging from the war to Jowy leaving to Riou's safety were always the main weights on her shoulders. As she walked down the brick path and then onto the grass to go behind the main building, she noticed that no one seemed to be lingering where she had managed to get to.

Finally settling down on the ground, she leaned back against the wall, looking over at the path further ahead but not really staring at anything in particular. What was wrong with her?

Sure there was a lot going on, but normally she was pretty good at holding back those looming feelings of doubt and uncertainty. For some reason, ever since that morning, she had been feeling off.

Grabbing a few strands of grass from the ground, she pressed them over her fingers, thinking back on the day's events to see just what had gone wrong. For some reason thinking back on the misunderstanding with Nina made her..mad in a way? At the same time she wasn't really mad though, not at Nina at least. She was just a hopeless girl in love. If Nanami had been in her situation and with a life almost as normal as hers, yeah, maybe she would've been the same way.

So it wasn't in her to judge, and sure she had had a few crushes on boys before. Nothing as serious as the one that Nina seemed to have on Flik. Although if she had to guess that was just mere infatuation. Nina had barely known anything about Flik, she probably didn't even know the name of his sword or why he had chosen that name.

Nanami knew though. Not many people knew, but she did. Unbeknown to everyone else, she had spoken quite often to Flik, whether it be when they were all traveling together as a group or whenever she took to visiting the rooftop in her moments of isolation. There were nights that Flik would appear, and either they would simply sit there in silence and just enjoy the calm of the night or they would open up and share new details about themselves.

It wasn't a planned thing; most of it was quite a surprise. If she had to admit to herself, she thought that Odessa had been quite lucky to have someone like Flik love and care for her like he had when she was alive. Although Flik had always emphasized how young he was then and how he wasn't strong enough to protect her, Nanami knew that wasn't true.

She could tell just with how he was in simple battles that he was always pushing himself harder, willing to risk his life over anything minor in order to protect the ones he cared about. To her it appeared to be his way of making up for his past mistake of losing Odessa.

Even on the way to Greenhill, he'd taken a hit for her from one of the local fiends that had attacked them. She'd easily healed him afterward, but even then she still felt…she wasn't even sure where her thoughts were going at this point. She could remember his tall, broad figure standing in front of her. The smallest grunt of pain.

Shaking off the memory, she felt her thoughts drift back to what they had been to start with. She was mad. But why? Just thinking of what Flik had said to her made her feel mad. As she leaned her head back against the wall and stared up at the sky easily shifting into a darker color as night drew closer, she knew why she was mad.

They'd talked so much, seemingly grew closer than just mere acquaintances, it sort of hurt for him to label her as a mere child too. Sure she was still only sixteen, but with everything her and Riou had already been through, they had seen and experienced enough to be adults. So for him to just write her off as that, especially after everything they had been talking about lately, it made her mad and sort of disappointed even.

Why disappointed though? Did she inwardly want to be seen as older to Flik? But why?

Not wanting to think of the real reason why she wanted that, she closed her eyes for a moment, breathing in and out slowly before opening her eyes once more and looking back straight ahead.

A familiar shade of blue filled her vision and she had to blink a few times to make sure she was actually seeing it there. As he noticed him turn to look at where she was sitting, she was debating standing up when he walked over.

"Nanami? What are you doing out here, I thought you were resting?"

"Everyone else is, I just couldn't sleep."

"Bad dreams?"

Nanami smiled half-heartedly and shook her head. She could feel his eyes on her and so she started distracting herself by pulling a few more pieces of grass from the ground. "No just a lot on my mind."

Flik crossed his arms, looking up at the sky for a moment before looking back at her.

"Well it's almost nighttime. We could have one of our nightly talks if you want to talk to someone about it."

Any other time Nanami would've been up for it, but right now she didn't really want to talk about her awkward feelings with the one person she had been feeling them toward. Getting up from where she had been sitting, she brushed herself off before turning to head back the way she came.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea, don't you have Nina stalking you?"

A small sigh of frustration could be heard from the man as he took a step forward after the young woman. "I just have to lay low. She doesn't know where my room is, I've been avoiding it on purpose so I can at least hide out there."

Nanami felt a strange prickle at her heart at hearing the mentioning of his room. She'd never gone back to a room with a man before, not that this was anything of that nature; no it was just them talking. Besides, Flik had made it more than clear that he wasn't interested in children much less that he had let go of all his old feelings for Odessa.

Debating with herself on whether it was a good idea, she ended up seeing Flik right next to her moments later.

"So do you want to go there to talk? It's getting kind of cold out here."

"Um…yeah I guess we could. Dinner isn't for another hour or so."

Making a sudden decision before her mind could properly process it; Nanami let herself be guided to the other building where the guardians and staff resided. As they entered, no one appeared to be residing downstairs and so they started up the stairs to the second floor. Flik kept walking to the end of the hall, reaching a single room at the very end.

They entered the room and Flik made sure to quietly close the door behind of him, also locking it out of habit. As he turned to see Nanami glancing around at the surroundings, he moved to the window nearby mostly out of another habit of his.

"Tell me what's on your mind."

Nanami sat down on the bed, hands on her lap as she tried to think of what to even say. It was hard to think on a whim like this, even harder to whenever she was in a room alone with the man that…well with a man that already had become important to her.

"The war, Riou, Jowy, and some other things that aren't really as important."

Flik noticed how she had openly stated the first few parts of the explanation but whenever she had skimmed past the rest of it quickly he kept his full attention on that and that alone.

"What are the other things? They must be important if you're thinking about them."

The young woman that was sitting visibly flinched as she tried to keep herself composed. With him prying more into her business though, it was getting hard for her to find ways to dodge it.

"You know how you have certain thoughts some days but not all the time so it's really not that important, today is just one of those days?"

"Yeah. But it's still important if it's bothering you from time to time."

With a second insistence, Nanami sighed loudly and gradually turned on the bed to look over at the man who already had his eyes on her the entire time.

"So are you going to stop stalling and just tell me what it is?"

There was a brief moment of silence, more so of deliberation as the young woman looked away and gradually started to speak. "Well since you won't let it go…I didn't like what you said to me earlier."

"What I said to you earlier…" Flik repeated the words as if to help him refresh his memory. "…You mean about me not being interested in children?"

Nanami didn't say anything. In that moment she decided to let her silence speak for her.

"You don't have like some crazy crush on me like Nina does do you?"

With a shift of her head, she gave him a look that explained that answer with no need for her to speak again.

"Okay so you don't. But you don't like that I called you a child then?"

"I've told you alot of things Flik, things that I've never really told anyone else before. It was always hard growing up because Jowy and Riou were always telling each other things that I never knew. I didn't have anyone I could share those things with." Until I met you. The words trailed off in her mind as she cut herself from speaking anything else in that moment.

"You're still young Nanami."

"So what? Riou is leading an army and he can be regarded as a man, yet just because I'm here trying to look after him I'm still a child?"

"You're not letting me finish."

Nanami stopped anymore of her thoughts from voicing themselves as she stopped jumping to conclusions for long enough that the other person in the conversation could reply.

"Out of any of the young women who are both your age and fighting with us, I'd say you're definitely the first in line to be regarded as a woman first and not a child."

With slow realization, Nanami found herself now looking back over at him as he spoke.

"I was only half serious earlier; it's my odd way of teasing I suppose. I really don't think of you as a child though." Flik suddenly felt oddly uncomfortable and he turned to look out the window again.

There was a short pause before the young woman said anything in response.

"Thanks. It means a lot for you to say that."

A shift of the bed and then a small creak of the floorboards could be heard as Nanami had gotten up and made her way over to the figure near the window. As she approached him from the side, her hand grabbed onto his arm gently as she leaned up to kiss his cheek.

Flik tensed for a few seconds and made a soft coughing sound as he had felt the warmth brush on his cheek before she pulled away from him somewhat.

"You're welcome."

They stood there for a few minutes, neither moving nor saying anything. Nanami was inwardly flustered and trying not to appear to be so outwardly either as she held onto her arm and glanced over at the man near her. Maybe it had been weird for her to do that, but it was really just out of thanks and nothing else. Well, that's what she was playing it off as.

Flik felt a strange tension though and it was enough for him to sit down on the edge of the bed in a way to move from the brunette woman near him. As he noticed her smile over at him, he decided to voice his thoughts since he actually couldn't stand the silence for once.

"Are you sure there's nothing going on here?"

The question made Nanami tense now as she released her arm and looked over at him properly.

"What do you mean?" She paused and quickly followed up. "If you mean that by me kissing your cheek just now was me having a crush on you then no, there's nothing going on here."

Taking a moment to think over what she said, Flik still felt something off about it all. "Are you sure?"

He watched her closely, seeing how she faltered in trying to cover herself much less keep her proper composure. It was easy to read her once she had started trying to lie but failed to do so. Normally, she'd always been pretty composed around him, even more so during their late night conversations when they were nothing but truthful with one another. Right now though, he could see how she was guarded and she was taking too much time to think of anything to say whereas before when they talked, she would speak without anything hindering what she felt in that moment.

It was a side of her he hadn't seen yet. Oddly enough he didn't mind it; he just wished she would be honest with him about whatever she was feeling. Not that it was that important, especially if it were feelings of that nature. If that was the case it would probably cause nothing but problems, and he already had to deal with avoiding some annoying school girl. But Nanami wasn't like that. She was anything but annoying, and what if it were those sorts of feelings that she had? Who was he to stop her?

The vaguest image of Odessa entered his mind and he looked down. Every time he thought of her it made him feel as if he could never surrender all of himself to another person again. Not only for the fact that he failed to save her and didn't deserve such a thing, but he held his love so dearly for her even now years later.

"You're thinking of her aren't you?"

Flik vaguely glanced up to her.

"You have that look…the one you get when you start thinking or talking about her." Nanami swayed a bit before leaning down a bit to look at him somewhat properly. It was hard to with how they were angled. "Why are you thinking about her now?"

She said the word 'now' as if it was one of the strangest things to happen. In a way it was since they had been on a completely different topic.

"No reason."

"Nah uh, that's not fair. You can't pressure me into saying what was on my mind and not do the same."

"You just did something that reminded me of her."

His gaze shifted back up to see her brown eyes, almost filled with concern.

"I'm not Odessa, you know that right?"

"Of course I do, you two are completely different people." Flik stated plainly as he noticed the young woman across from him stand back upright.

"I wonder…"

With her finger tapping against her lips, Nanami suddenly felt a strange urge to try something. She'd already managed to give him a kiss on the cheek without him running for the hills. But that had somehow gotten him to thinking about Odessa. She wasn't sure if that was good or bad.

Surely he knew, he had to have some sort of idea now that she had been feeling a certain way towards him, more than just a mutual companionship with conversation. Surely he knew.

Yet she still felt like she had to lay it out for him. It probably wasn't the best idea she ever had, but in her mind, she'd already been cornered to reveal most of her hand, so why not go for a full house?

Taking a step forward, the silence was becoming heavy but Flik noticed how she was drawing close, so close that she was standing right in front of him. Looking up to her out of curiosity for why she was that close to him (since they never had been aside from a few minutes ago), he could see a different, new emotion in her eyes.

As he felt her hands both soft and warm slide over both sides of his face, he felt his breath catch from how she leaned in to bring a slow, gentle kiss on his lips. He could've easily pushed her away, called her a child, said anything to make her upset and leave and let him dwell back on thoughts of the woman that he had long since lost.

But he couldn't. For some reason he found her lips just pressing over his own to be one of the most comforting and enjoyable things he had felt in such a long time. As he felt her withdraw, he could see the dark red on her cheeks, the way her lips parted as if to start apologizing. He never gave her the chance to as he grabbed onto her hips while tilting his head up to meet her lips once again. The kiss wasn't just soft this time though; Flik had a dominating force about him, one that he used not only in battle but also in these instances.

It had been years since he had ever had such contact with another person. The kisses were clumsy and almost messy at first by both parties seeing as Nanami had barely kissed past the point of quick kisses and the smallest of more intense kisses. Flik was out of touch but quickly regaining his techniques, his hands roaming onto her back to force her more against him as she had straddled his hips.

Nanami was almost left breathless as she was so caught up in kissing and being kissed by a man that she had definitely grown to like more than she initially thought. Although she had to be guided with how their mouths moved and now how their tongues were touching, her hips certainly didn't have a problem pushing down over the lap that she had situated herself on.

The hint of a rough groan was heard as Flik let his right hand slip down her back to hastily grab at her backside, suddenly feeling that rush of desire growing. Feeling her grinding down against him continuously, he eagerly forced her to meet his hips, hearing her moans muffled by the way their lips kept running together. They managed to move apart for a few moments, Flik taking to kissing down her cheek to the dip along her neck.

"You're making me…so hot…"

Nanami was almost speaking incoherently as she felt her senses clouded by the lust building between them. She felt his other hand reaching to lift at her shirt and she moved her hands to quickly tug the fabric off of her body, tossing it aside uncaringly. Feeling his eyes glancing down at her chest that was covered with a white bra, she blushed despite how flushed her cheeks already were from what they were doing, and as she felt his hand start to grope at her left breast, she inhaled uneasily.

Touching her only made him want to touch her even more. Feeling how she kept pressing down over his erection that had clearly formed, he muttered over her skin where he had kissed and licked at.

"Has anyone touched you like this before..?"

The man had caught her soft sound as if to reply no. Feeling the need to switch the positions to go further, he grabbed onto her hips again in order to flip her onto the bed so he could move over her.

The prior question rang through her mind again as she felt herself being shifted around. She'd touched herself a few times before, more so out of curiosity and not to mention Rina had decided to have too many in-depth 'womanly' conversations with her during their travels. As she was flipped down onto her back on the bed, she felt the weight shift to tower over her. Seeing blue eyes stare down at her as he tugged off his cape and then his shirt, she felt her heart practically beating out of her chest. Was Flik going to be the first man she slept with?

For some reason she felt okay with that. Seeing as he started to move his hands to run down her sides and to stop at her pants before starting to drag them away, she noticed the sudden hesitation in his movement.

Flik felt like he had entered an alternate reality. Looking over he saw a figure on the bed, and for some reason he thought there had been red hair there sprawled out on the sheets. Seeing the brown hair and matching eyes that belonged to Nanami, he shook his head before dropping the clothing he had in his hands.

None of this was right. He suddenly realized who was in his bed and she was almost naked. Shifting away, he sat at the edge of the bed while trying to get ahold of himself. Nanami was not only young but she was also someone he didn't want to take advantage of. He didn't love her; much less have those sorts of feelings for her to be doing anything like this with her. It was way out of line, and as he stood up and grabbed her shirt he couldn't even look at her as he handed it to her.

"Get dressed."

"What? Flik what's wrong with you?"

"Too much. This is entirely too fucked up for us to be doing Nanami."

Nanami sat up from where she had been laying, starting to slide across the bed as she grabbed the shirt from his hands.

"How? We're both old enough to make our own decisions, I'm fine with this."

"You might be, but I'm not."

Before she could protest further, he had moved to grab his own shirt to tug it back on. The commanding tone in his voice made her start to tug on her own clothes, not to mention she was getting too angry with him to even want to be in his presence now.

"I'm not going to let your judgment be clouded by whatever crush you might have on me now. Save that for someone that you love and you're actually going to be able to have a future with."

Flik tried to be the voice of reason despite him trying to use it as an excuse for not wanting to go further due to his own issues in his mind. He was trying to keep his voice steady and not grow into a yell, but it was hard to with how frustrating the situation was not to mention how frustrated he was just from years of not having those sorts of interactions with anyone else. It was all really screwed up now though.

"You're not my damn father. Don't even try to act like it." She could feel his eyes on her as she finished recomposing herself enough to make her way to the door. "And if you had forgotten, you're only 27 years old. I'm not the only one who is still young here." Nanami said with nothing but anger in her tone as she let herself out of the room and was sure to slam the door shut in the process.

With a heavy sigh he sat back at the edge of the bed. Running his hands over his face, he stared down at the ground. Why did his thoughts always have to betray him like this? As much as he loved Odessa and cherished the memories he had with her, were the afterthoughts of someone who was no longer living really going to rule over him for the rest of his life?

Right now, those feelings had such a strong hold on him that it really seemed like it.