Hi guys! Note that this is probably the last update that will come this quickly, mostly because I'm stuck in bed with a cold right now.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Nothing at all.

Thanks to Kamel2711XD, Kyto Touche, and EllieBloodstain for reviewing, you guys are awesome! (Kyto Touche, I'm looking over Cancer again to make him more in-character in the future, thank you for pointing that out! :) )

Hope you like!

His arm hurt like a bitch, and he had no one to blame but himself. His torn shoes scuffed across the bright tile as he made his way to the guild's bar. The old, flamboyantly dressed man behind it stared questioningly at him as he eased himself down on a stool.

"A beer would be great now, Bob."

Bob raised an eyebrow. "I bet. What happened to you..." his face creased, "I'm sorry, you look familiar, but I don't recall your name."

"Leo," he said, taking a long pull from the bottle Bob placed on the counter, "It's Leo."

"You're the lion spirit, then."

Leo grinned, and flicked a strand of his own spiky orange hair. "The mane didn't give it away?" He turned, resting one arm across the bar, and surveyed the room. A few fashionably dressed wizards stood with glasses in their hands, chatting. In his torn suit and bloody shirt, Leo felt woefully out of place.

"It's lovely, dear." Bob acknowledged with a smile. "Did she tell you to wait here?"

Leo tried to catch the eye of a pretty wizard girl with long black hair, but dropped his smile when she flicked her eyes over him and then turned derisively away.

"She did. We just came back from a mission in Oshibana." Leo winced and pressed a rag from his ruined shirt to the wound on his arm as it stung. "Kappas were attacking the villages just outside of the city."

Bob made a "hmph"ing sound, and began to take out martini glasses from under the counter. "Sounds dangerous for one person, though I suppose a celestial wizard is never truly alone."

Leo snorted. "There was a fabulous reward." he said sarcastically. Bob paused.

"Hmm." Bob passed him a clean towel, and nodded to Leo's bloody arm. "You might want to cover that with something cleaner than a dirty shirt."

"My thanks." Leo nodded, taking the cloth and a second beer. He moved to a table in a darker part of the mansion's reception room. He pressed the towel to his wound, and gulped another mouthful of beer.

The small squeak of the reception room's door as it opened went unnoticed by most of the laughing guild members, as did the young woman who passed through it. Leo thought that she was just about as out of place as he was. Her hair was pulled to the side in a plain ponytail, and her simple white t-shirt and short jean skirt set her apart from the fashionable outfits worn by everyone else in the guild.

Except for him, of course. He idly drained a little more of his beer as she made her way to Bob.

"Excuse me, excuse...sorry, excuse me."

"Can I help you, child?" Bob asked when she arrived at the bar.

"Yes," she said, fumbling in her pocket, "I'm a freelancer, and I was wondering if you could point me to your mission board?"

Bob clicked his tongue, "You look awfully young and pretty to be taking missions without a team. What kind of wizard are you?"

"I'm eighteen," she said, stubbornly lifting her chin, "And does it matter, so long as I finish jobs? Look," she dropped her voice, making Leo have to strain to hear her, "I need the money, or I can't eat. My last job was supposed to be in Oshibana, but someone beat me to it." She ducked her head, "Please, I can handle a lot, but I'll take the small jobs that no one else wants, if you like."

Guilt suddenly caused Leo's stomach to twist in knots. He'd helped on the Oshibana job, even though he had known that all the reward money would go towards buying the latest styles of designer clothing from shops in Crocus. This girl hadn't been able to buy food.

"Bob," he called, holding up his beer, "I might be able to help."

Bob paused for a moment, his eyes on Leo, and then asked, "Is that wise?"

His shoulder fucking hurt. "Yeah, send her over."

The girl rolled her eyes as she walked over. "You know, you don't have to talk about me like I'm not here!" she slowed as she came to his table and noticed the state of his clothes. "What happened to you? Are you all right?"

He shrugged - ouch, bad idea - and then replied, "Fine. Now, about that job..."

"You don't look fine," she said crossly, her brown eyes narrowed. She reached out and to his shock, moved his hand from the wound on his shoulder. She hissed through her teeth.

"What are you doing?" he asked, his eyes wide under his glasses.

"Helping you - ugh, I hate blood." Her face paled and she looked slightly nauseous. She pulled her backpack around her shoulder and onto the table, and pulled out a water bottle and a t-shirt. She ripped the t-shirt in two, and then soaked one of the shreds in water. "Um," her face reddened, "Could you take off your shirt?"

He grinned widely and said, "Buy me dinner first." Her face went crimson.

"That's not what I meant!"

"Yeah, I know." He stripped off the bloodied mess and turned his wounded shoulder to the strange girl. Carefully, she sponged away the blood, and began to clean the dirt away from the slash.

"You have a name?" he asked as he watched her tuck a wayward blond strand behind her ear.

"No."

He blinked. "Uh, what?" She looked up and smiled, still pale from the blood.

"It's nothing personal." she assured him, "I don't give out my name to random strangers - and you're covered in blood."

He thought about it, and stopped his shrug before it pulled on his wound again. "Makes sense."

"Why hasn't your master patched this up and sent you home to recover?"

He tensed, and pushed back from the table as she reached for her makeshift bandage. "What?" he demanded, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Well, you're a celestial spirit." she said hesitantly, her hand hovering over the makeshift bandage, "I can see the stars in your eyes. Shouldn't whoever holds your key have taken care of you by now?"

Leo couldn't decide if she was serious – stars in his eyes? - and he stared at her until her face again turned to bright red. "Forget it," she muttered, finishing his bandage with a quick jerk of a knot. "A few days in the Celestial Realm should have you all fixed up anyway."

He caught her hand as she moved to leave. "Hey, Girl-With-No-Name," he said sardonically as he lifted it to his lips, "Thanks."

She laughed, and pulled away. "Freaking Blue Pegasus Guild," she muttered under her breath. "You're all a bunch of pervs."

Leo dug in his pocket for a scrap of paper, and scribbled an address on the back with a pencil stub. When he finished, he passed it to the girl, saying "I heard there was some trouble with bandits along the road to Hargeon. Talk to people around that area, and they could probably help you find some work."

She took the paper with a smile that lit up the room. "Thank you...um..."

"LEO!" the entire guild hall turned to see a tall, fashionably dressed blonde woman in tall heels stalk across the tile. She came to a halt before the in a swirl of expensive perfume and velvet. Leo stood, edging slightly in front of the now-nervous blonde girl. "I go clean up for five minutes, I come back to see you flirting with little Orphan Annie! Can you do anything right?" she demanded as she took in the girl's worn-out clothes.

Deciding not to mention that it had been almost two hours since they'd come back to the guild, Leo replied, "Hello, Karen. She was helping me clean up."

Karen stepped up to put her face directly in front of his. "I give you an order, you follow it. That's how this contract works, Leo."

He met her gaze, "I'm telling you, I can't stay here for much longer."

Karen's pretty face twisted, and in a moment her hand had whipped across his face. Suddenly there was a flash of gold from behind him, and he turned to see the pretty blonde twirling a key between her fingers, a small smile on her face. Beside her sulked a blue mermaid.

"Aquarius." Leo blurted in shock, "I didn't know someone had picked up your key."

The mermaid sighed dramatically and complained, "The brat calls me, and we have a contract." she looked down her nose at her fuming mistress, "You know that she doesn't even have a boyfriend?"

"Hey!"

"This is all very amusing," Karen growled at the incensed blonde, "But my discipline of my spirits has nothing to do with you."

"He needs to heal, and your keeping him here and hurting him more isn't helping!" the stranger gritted her teeth and demanded "Don't you care about your celestial spirits at all?"

Leo's jaw dropped as the strange wizard girl stood up to Karen.

"They're tools, what do I care?"

"They have feelings!"

"They aren't even people!"

"ENOUGH!" Both wizards and spirits turned to see Bob with his arms crossed. The guild leader walked out from behind the bar and gently took the strange girl by the shoulder. "I think," he said quietly, "that you'd best be on your way, my dear."

Karen chuckled, and Bob whipped around to glare at her. "And you best send that spirit back, Miss Lilica."

"Bob!" Karen cried, aghast.

"You shouldn't abuse your spirits like you do and you know it, Karen." Bob rebuked her, still leading the blonde girl to the door.

Karen leveled her gaze at the other celestial wizard. "I'm going to get you for this, bitch," she promised.

The girl just glared back until Karen ducked her head furiously. She angrily jabbed a golden key at Leo, muttering a dismissal.

The last thing he saw before the world dissolved into currents of silver and gold were large brown eyes behind a closing door.