12 years before..

"Where you two are going?"

When Akira and Ilana heard Lea shouting after them, they stopped in their running and turned around to wait for him and Isa to catch up on them.

"Aren't ya supposed to be in the arena right now, winning that junior tournament?" Lea asked, while Isa pointed in the direction they were coming from.

"Because you are walking into the wrong direction."

"I…I know, but…," Akira stuttered and then looked uncertain to the ground.

Lea tilted his head puzzled.

"What's wrong Aki?"

Just half an hour ago she was totally elated to be in the final round and now this.

But Akira kept quiet, so instead Ilana answered.

"Brok has told some of his friends to destroy my garden. Akira wants to go and stop them."

"What?" Lea exclaimed angrily.

"Yes, because I promised I would protect Ilana's garden," Akirainterjected and then bowed slightly in apology."So sorry Lea. I have to skip the final round. My promise is more important."

"But Aki, you trained so hard for it," Ilana said, but Akira looked with a smile at her friend.

"It's okay Ila. I always can try next year."

While Ilana wasn't reassured by this a bit, Isa crossed his arm and shook his head in disbelieve.

"That guy must have no guts, if he uses such a cheap trick to win."

Lea hadn't said anything for a minute now, having a ratherirritated expression on his face. But then he seemed to come to a decision.

"No need to quit anything. Isa and I will look after the garden."

Akira looked up in surprise at him.

"Really?"

"But Lea-"

Ignoring Isa's protest, Lea nodded with a wide grin and beat on his chest.

"'Course. Didn't spent the whole summer training you, just some coward can snatch the victory from you."

Akira beamed at Lea, but then Isa put a hand on his friend's shoulder to get his attention.

"Lea, we have no time for that, remember? Watching her fight alone already set our plans back and this would take way too long."

At those words, Akira's expression became sad again.

Lea on the other hand pretended like he thought about it, but not a moment later he waved Isa's concern away with a smirk.

"Then we do it 'nother day. This is more pressing."

Isa wanted to protest, but Akira was quicker with it.

"It's okay if you have something important to do, too. I don't want to bother you with this."

For a moment Lea stayed silent. He knew that Akira wouldn't be mad at him, if he went with his and Isa's plan, but she surely would be sad. She had looked forward to this tournament and she even got the chance to publicly beat the guys ass, who bullied the other children in the city. No way he could let his friend loose this chance and become sad.

"Aki, listen." When Akira looked up again, Lea had put a hand on head and stroked it gently. "I never want you to think you're anything less than my top priority. You don't bother me and I'm happy to help you out. Got that memorized?"

Akira looked at himamazed, before her face broke into a bright smile and she nodded.

"Good girl," he said with a grin and ruffled her hair, making her giggle."Then hurry up now, the people are waiting for you to give them a good show."

"Okay!" she said with new enthusiasm and started to run back together with Ilana.

Lea looked at Isa, who appeared to be not very pleased with his friend's decision.

Before he could defend himself, Lea heard Akira calling him. Just when he turned around, she tackled him and hugged him around his stomach.

"Thank you Lea, you're the best," she said, smiling up at him.

Flustered by this he scratched his neck. He hadn't counted on that.

"Uh, yeah. That goes without saying." His usual nonchalant attitude broke under this genuine gratitude of hers.

Akira giggled at his reaction and squeezed him one more time, before she let go of him and run back to Ilana.

Still a bit dumbfounded he turned back to Isa, who looked now far more amused than annoyed.

"What?" Lea asked him and tried to act nonchalant again.

Isa only chuckled and shook his head."Nothing. Let's just go, before those rowdies do something to the garden."

That got Lea's cool back and he cracked his knuckles. "Yeah, they should prepare for the wipe-down of their lives."

Present...

Outside of Radiant Garden, Akira hid behind a rock. A giant Heartless, that looked like a spider, was on a destructive rampage and soon would arrive the city, if it wasn't stopped.

'I'm the head of security, why the heck am I hiding right now?' she was beating herself up, but couldn't make her legs move.

"Come on, you can do it," she mumbled to herself, but it didn't really help.

When she was still trying to force herself out of hiding, someone appeared at her side.

"So, where's the fire?" Lea asked with a smirk.

Never before in her life had Akira be so glad to him.

"Oh, thank god you'r here Lea," she breathed in relive and then pointed behind the rock towards the Heartless."I have…well, a little problem there."

Lea peered over her head to see what she meant. When he returned his eyes back to her, he gave her asympathetic smile.

"That explains it. You were never good with spiders."

"Yeah, especially ones that are so big," she agreed, but then looked apologetic."Sorry, for calling you here. I know you wanted to go to Destiny Island with Roxas and Xion."

"Ah, that's alright. We can skip beach day, this is more urgent," he tried to calm her down. He then summoned his Keyblade and stepped out from behind the rock.

"Besides, don't you memorize?" Lea asked her, without looking to her. Akira didn't know what he meant and when she didn't answered, he continued.

"You're still my top priority."

He winked at her, before he charged at the Heartless.

Akira just looked dumbfounded, before she tried to hide her blushing face with a hand.

"Idiot…" she mumbled, but still smiled.