Ok. All properties belong to Squeenix. Let this be for the rest of the chapters. ^_^ Enjoy!

The next day, Lea began the day on his own. He wandered through the town, not knowing if Isa had gotten up yet or not. He didn't really care - he almost wanted to distance himself a bit from his friend. After feeling his heart go a little bit nuts the day before, he wasn't quite sure how he felt about his best friend right now.

He continued walking and ended up in the Fountain Courtyard. He saw someone standing over to the side that was in a white lab coat. It was the boy they had seen the day before with the blonde-haired man. He approached him, making sure his frisbees were behind his back.

"Hey! You lost?" Lea asked the boy.

The slate-haired boy shook his head no and continued to look up at the Castle. Lea stared at him. "Are you from up there?" He pointed up to the castle. The boy nodded his head yes. "You don't talk much, do you?" Lea said.

Suddenly, there was another man rushing over to them from the side. "Ienzo! What are you doing out here? You must not leave the castle!" The gentleman that had shown up had long blonde hair. He looked over at Lea. "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

Lea looked up at him. "My name is Lea. Got it memorized? I was just walking through the area and found him. I didn't do anything, I swear." He felt he had to be defensive around this new person. The long-haired man gave off an air of being in charge. If he ever wanted to make it up to the castle, he wanted to make sure that they knew his name.

"Fine, fine. That's fine. Well, thank you. We'll be going now." Even took Ienzo's hand and walked over towards the area that lead up to the castle.

"Wait! What's your name?" Lea called out after them.

"It doesn't matter. Thank you." The long-haired man called over his shoulder. Lea gripped his frisbees tightly and was tempted to throw one at the man walking away. All he had wanted was a name. He sighed and made his way back to the center of town. He was almost to the courtyard when he ran into someone.

"Oof." Lea said as he fell backwards.

"Watch it, buddy." A giant of a man said. "Why don't you pay attention to where you're walking?"

Lea groaned. Today was just not his day. "Look, why don't you watch where YOU'RE going? I was walking along. Sorry I ran into you." He began to walk away but the giant stopped him. "What? What'd I do now?"

"We weren't finished yet." The giant held on to him and drew his hand back to punch him. Not realizing what was happening, Lea forgot to protect himself. He stumbled backwards after the punch hit his face.

"What was that for?" He stood up and pulled his frisbees out from his pocket. "You don't want to mess with me!" He could feel his eye begin to swell, but he didn't want to cry in front of this guy.

The giant laughed at him and his "weapons". "Nice, kid. Whatever. Just watch where you walk next time, ok? Someone who isn't me may try to do something worse to you." The giant laughed and walked away. Lea was so pissed off he was seeing red.

"Who the fuck does he think he is?" He grumbled to himself.

"Talking out loud again, are we?" Lea turned around and saw Isa approaching him. "Oh my gosh, what happened to your face?" The bluenette asked him.

Lea's face crumpled and felt tears begin to slip from his eyes. "I ran into some guy and he decided that wasn't the best course of action." He sniffled and rubbed his nose with his hand.

Isa approached the redhead and smiled sadly. "Why didn't you come and find me? I could have helped you." He put his arms around his friend and hugged him. He sighed as he felt the redhead place his head on his shoulder and began to openly sob. "What's wrong? Did he hurt you that bad?"

Staying close to Isa, Lea tried to calm down. After having a run-in with that small boy that they had seen yesterday, to being attacked randomly - he wasn't quite sure what he was feeling at the moment. Oh, and not to mention being in his best friend's arms, really not understanding what was going on, of course the tears were going to flow. "It's nothing. I just wasn't expecting that to happen." He didn't know why he didn't tell Isa about the long-haired man. It didn't feel right to say something.

"Okay. But next time, instead of wandering off - come find me." Isa pulled the redhead away from him and smiled. "Now come on. Cheer up. Let's go do something, shall we?"

Lea sighed. He looked at the blue eyes staring at him, wishing he knew what to say. He nodded his head. "Sure, let's go. But, I kinda want to stay away from the Fountain Courtyard, if that's ok with you." He took his golden scarf that was around his neck and wiped his nose.

"Ugh, Lea. Can't you use a tissue or something?" Isa rolled his eyes.

"What? What's wrong with my scarf? I don't have a tissue. I'd rather not have snot coming out of my nose, thank you very much."

"Please. Enough. Let's go." Isa held up his hand and began to walk away from the redhead.

"Wait!" Lea ran over to Isa and gave him a hug. "Thank you," he said softly.

Isa stopped and put his arms around his friend. "I mean it. Come find me next time. I don't like seeing your face like this." He touched his friends' eyebrow. "It makes me hurt right here," he pointed to his chest. "I don't like worrying about you too much."

"I'm sorry," Lea whispered. He hugged his friend close. "I didn't mean to make you worry." The two pulled apart and looked at each other. Lea could feel his heart beginning to beat faster, as he stared into his friend's blue eyes. Neither of them spoke, yet continued to stare at one another. He wasn't sure if it was his imagination, but Lea felt like the two of them were moving their heads closer and closer together. He closed his eyes when they were mere inches apart, slightly parting his lips. Then, he felt his friend move his head and whispered into his ear "I can't. Not yet. I'm sorry," Isa quickly let go of Lea and walked in the opposite direction.

What is going on today? Lea thought as he stood there, watching as his best friend walked away from him.