Ethan sat quietly in the corner table of the café's outdoor seating section, staring out into the main plaza of the First District. Before him on the wooden table, a mostly-empty bottle of beer sat, little beads of perspiration dotting the outside of the bottle. He knew it was leaving a ring, and he didn't care. His mind was elsewhere, wondering where the woman from the day (night?) before was. Traverse Town was not very large, but after their little... encounter, she'd run off and he hadn't seen her since.

He kept trying to think of where he'd seen her before. Dozens of names and faces flashed before his eyes. For some reason, he could remember nearly every female he'd ever enticed into his bed before, and yet she matched up with none of them. He wanted the answer to be anything but to coincide with the strange gray area of his mind, memories that seemed to be held under lock and key. He needed to find the key. He didn't want to, but he needed to.

For some reason, his memory decided to bring back what the reflection in his dream had said. "Our heart is still too exhausted."

He seriously wondered what that meant. Something told him that reflection, that person whom he'd seen in his dream would be able to tell him what it was missing from within his memory. So, all he needed to do was find that man. Which brought up another problem. He didn't know who the guy was, he didn't know why the man looked so much like him, and most of all, he didn't know where the guy was. And he got the feeling finding him would be no easy task.

With a sigh, Ethan picked the bottle up and took another drink, turning back to watch the single candle on the table flicker in the invisible air currents traveling around it. He raised the bottle once more to finish off the contents, when a voice interrupted him.

"That's going to destroy your liver, you know."

He raised an eyebrow and looked up to see Lucidia standing at the edge of the patio, arms crossed once more, looking at him in a way that he could tell she was trying not to glare. "Well, good thing I can stop any time I want to."

She shook her head and approached the table, splaying her fingers on the surface as she leaned down to frown at him. "You just don't choose to?"

A smirk. "Now you're catching on."

The strawberry blonde leaned back and sighed, sliding into the seat across from Ethan and sat there for a moment, eyes closed. "I do hope you realize, Mister Medy, that last night's performance won't have an encore."

He bowed his head slightly, staring at the patterning of the wood, before shaking it. "No, it shouldn't have happened in the first place. But... I've never felt such a strong urge like that before."

She rolled her eyes. "Excuses..."

"Oh?" he cocked an eyebrow at her, raising his head just enough to look at her from under his eyebrows. "If I remember correctly, Lucidia, you were pulling me toward that wall just as much as I was pushing you."

"I did no such thing!" she replied quickly. Too quickly.

He just leaned back in his chair, straightening his posture with a smile. Lucidia's cheeks darkened.

They spent the next moment wallowing in an uneasy silence, a topic of conversation eluding them. Finally, Ethan sighed, and picked up the bottle, offering it. "Want one?"

She frowned, though her voice was teasing. "Trying to get me drunk now?"

"No," he replied, somewhat tartly. "Just wondering if you wanted one."

The red-blonde head shook a negative answer. "I'm afraid they'd ID me. I'm not old enough to drink here."

It was Ethan's turn to frown. "The age is only 21."

"And I'm 19," she snapped, glaring at him for a moment before returning her gaze to the candle, watching the wax drip slowly down the side. Ethan stared at her, sea colored eyes wide with the shock of the revelation.

"Still a teenager... dear... god..." he mumbled, not meaning to out loud. That brought a heated glare, anger burning behind the electric blue of her eyes. Ethan looked away, slightly embarrassed and uncomfortable under her gaze. Satisfied, she resumed watching the rivulets of melted wax run down the only real source of illumination at their table.

"Lucidia, can I ask you something...?"

She narrowed her eyes at him. "I don't know, can you?"

He laughed. Wow, he hadn't heard that one since his teachers in middle school. "I don't know, are you going to let me?"

She laughed then, and he smiled. "We're just going to keep answering questions with questions. Say it and I might answer."

"I've noticed you were obviously born into some sort of wealth, and you mentioned a kingdom as your... home. So, what are you? Duchess? Lady?"

She looked away. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Oh don't play games with me, Lucidia. Your posture is at the awkward stage between perfect and slouching, like some part of you still wants to hold your shoulders up. Half the time you're talking, you mix slang and big, long flowery words. And that makes me think you have to keep reminding yourself not to speak properly, as you want to relapse into well-enunciated and proper. Besides..." and he flashed her a smile that was more than a little flirtatious. "You have this in-bred elegance and... nobility to you. It's just the aura you carry with you, and yet you try to hide it. Therefore, I am inclined to believe you were born into great wealth, but you didn't want to be, or you didn't stay there your whole life. So, what was your dad? A Duke? A Lord? A Count?"

"King," her answer was spat out like it tasted badly. She continued to avoid eye contact.

"... Princess..." Ethan's voice was almost that of awe. He reached up and ran a hand through his blond hair, ruffling the already messy locks there. "Christ... a princess..."

"Yes," she stated firmly, and finally made eye contact with him. "I am a princess who didn't want to do what was expected of her. That's probably why I'm here now."

"You sure you weren't just as drunk as me and got... ah nevermind, you'd think I'm yanking your chain," he waved his hand in the air in dismissal.

Lucidia looked at him. "Got what, Ethan? Mugged? Beaten?" Her voice caught. "Raped?"

His gaze immediately raised again, and their eyes locked. Oh... her list kept getting better and better, he noted to himself sarcastically. She's 19, a princess, a rape victim... and if that wasn't a long enough list of baggage, she'd just been pinned against a wall and screwed by some guy she didn't even really know. How she managed to keep her sanity through all of that eluded him.

"No..." he whispered, suddenly feeling humbled. "Nothing like that. Attacked, yes... beaten... I don't know. They came out of the shadows and tackled me into a pond."

"Who's 'they'?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Dunno. It looked like the shadows themselves, but it was so dark I couldn't see anything," he shrugged, but managed to keep eye contact. "They were after my chest."

She blinked, and looked away yet again, hand gripping the table's edge hard enough her knuckles drained of color. "The... shadows attacked you?"

Ethan continued to watch her carefully. "Yeah. I mean, it didn't feel heavy enough to be a full person... so it might've been an animal of some sort... I don't know. But it got me in the water and I blacked out soon after. I thought I was going to drown." He laughed. "Imagine that. Me, Ethan Medy, captain of the Southern Heights High School boy's swimming and diving team, four-time regional champion, school and state record holder, nearly drowning. Life sure is strange..."

She smiled wanly, though not at him. "The shadows attacked me, too..." Her voice was so soft, he wondered if he'd actually heard right.

"... They did...?"

She nodded, and closed her eyes. "Yeah. They got... others first. And then me."

He thought about that for a moment, and suddenly realization hit him. So did she have a gap in her memory, too?

"Can you remember anything from after the shadows attacked you?" he asked, voice raised a few notes in excitement.

She looked at him strangely. "I woke up here."

Ethan shook his head, rather violently. "... Does it feel like something's missing between the time the shadows got to you and when you woke up here?"

Both of Lucidia's eyebrows arched at that, and the light of what might have been hope darted through her electric-blue orbs. "Yes... yes it does."

He grinned triumphantly, then leaned forward, whispering his next words. "You're never going to believe this, but I feel it, too. There's this big gray spot in my memory, like something doesn't want me to find out what happened."

The strawberry blonde seemed to consider that for a moment, and then she muttered under her breath something Ethan wasn't really supposed to hear, but he did anyway. "So... maybe that's why I feel like I know you..."

His grin remained as he leaned forward, grasping her hand gently with his and pulling it to the center of the table. She tried to glare at him, but the look was very watered down. "And probably the same reason you strike me as so very familiar as well. Perhaps part of whatever is missing is when we met."

"That would seem to be the most... logical explanation. I hope our... original first meeting wasn't as interesting as this most recent one," she scowled and looked at their hands, still intertwined. She yanked hers from his grip and tucked it under the table so he wouldn't see her rubbing it to get the warmth back that she immediately missed.

He shrugged smoothly. "Again. You pulled as hard as I pushed. You never once uttered a 'no', nor put up any resistance."

"And for that I am sorely sorry now," she growled, and began to stand up. He didn't follow her as she turned and left, heading for the accessory shop. He grabbed the nearly-empty bottle of beer still sitting on the table, fully intent on finishing it, but frowned instead. It was warm, now. He sighed and tossed in a garbage can before setting off himself. Not towards the accessory shop, towards the Third District. She obviously wanted to be left alone, so he'd humor her.

Eventually, he found himself sitting on a wall set atop a ramp. He found himself staring to the side, at a bright yellow pipe. More specifically, he found himself staring at a patch of gleaming silver patchwork. Apparently there had been a hole in the pipe at one point, but another piece of metal had been placed over it and welded into place, and no one had bothered to paint it.

He continued watching it, and if he listened to it just hard enough, he could hear the low hum of electricity running through that pipe. It was probably a power source to somewhere. When footsteps approached from behind him, Ethan didn't even notice. And when someone spoke, he nearly fell off his perch.

"So, how did it go, Ethan?"

Recovering, he turned back to see Mari leaning against the wall next to him, back turned, arms crossed. He shrugged. "About as well as it could have, I suppose."

She looked up at him, eyebrow cocked. "And what is that supposed to mean?"

He shrugged again, and found his gaze traveling down to the wall where so many things had happened the night before. "We talked... and figured out she is about on the same level I am when it comes to knowing things. She thinks she knows me from somewhere as well, but, like me, can't figure out how or why."

Mari nodded. "I tried looking up a history of if anything like this has happened before, but I came up empty. See, if it was just you or just her, I could put it down as some sort of post-traumatic, or injury, or something amnesia. But... you both have the same problem. The exact same problem, and you showed up here at nearly the same time, meaning... well... it's one hell of a coincidence if nothing else."

Ethan snorted. "I don't believe in coincidences when this is involved. There's something more to it. It's not just that I can't remember, it's that I know there's supposed to be something there, but there isn't. I can feel the memories... but they're not at the fore. Like they're hidden or something... on purpose."

"Well, I don't know about on purpose. That would imply post-traumatic amnesia or something of the like."

"And having something fairly well jump on you and knock you into a lake and nearly drown you isn't traumatic?"

"That you remember that much about it tells me that it probably isn't post-traumatic."

Ethan tilted his head back, staring at the many dozens of stars visible even though there was an abundance of light pollution from the city. "I wish we could figure this out..."

Mari sighed. "I tried to help... but maybe... maybe..." she followed his gaze up towards the stars. "There's another way to help you guys."

"What do you mean?" Ethan asked, turning to look at her watch the sky thoughtfully.

Mari met his raised eyebrow with a grin. "You see those stars up there? Those stars are worlds, Ethan. Worlds just like this one, where people live and work and play. The world you came from is up there. The world I came from is out there somewhere, too, and the one Lucy came from. Maybe the answer you're looking for is in one of those worlds out there."

Hope flickered in the sea-green depths of Ethan's eyes, and the glow of boyish glee alighted on his face. "That's a damn good idea!"

Mari laughed, turning back to the sky. "Yeah. Well, I don't know what you did to Lucy to ruffle her up like that dear, but you might want to go apologize. You're taking her with you whether you want to or not."

The light faded briefly. "It's not whether I want her to go. It's whether she wants to go with me."

The nurse gave him a rather mocking look. "I'm going to leave that up to you as to how you apologize to her and get her to come with you. I'm going to go pay Gepetto's apprentice a visit and see if we can't get you a ship built and ready. It should only take about a week to finish, considering the rather lack of business he's had lately, so you've got at least that much time to work your way back on her good side."

Ethan looked at her then, critically, examining her for any flaw in her motives. "Why are you helping me, nurse? I did, after all pretty much just fucked you and ran."

"Oh your playboy skills are rusty, Ethan. I never really expected it to get any farther than that, and you are obviously a 'talented' individual. Extremely cute, too," she replied with a laugh.

"Oh really? You seemed kind of upset when you sent me after Luc...idia," he shot with a snarky, knowing grin.

She shrugged. "There's a part of me... that's still a hopeless romantic I suppose. That wants to believe that something like true love happens for people like me."

Ethan turned back, swinging his legs up over the ledge and landing on the top of the ramp next to Mari. And then he surprised them both by grabbing her and pulling her into a hug. Of course, he had no idea what to do next...

So he spoke. He didn't think about what he was saying, he just did it. "Don't say that, Mari. That's an awfully sad and pessimistic way to live your life. I know, I used to think the exact same thing... but the difference was... I was afraid someone would end up loving me. So I took so many lovers to bed and left just as quickly that no one would really know what had happened. I had my money and my band to back me up, so it didn't seem suspicious. And then something happened, and I found Lucidia. I don't know how or why or what happened between us originally, but I do know I... I love her. Completely. I don't know if she loves me back, and I'm not sure I want to know, but I've just got this feeling like she's the one... and Mari, I'm more than positive the same thing's going to happen with you. You're a kind and helpful person, beautiful inside and out. All I can say is... never give up that little part of you that's a hopeless romantic. Or you might miss the one opportunity it has to really get out there and shine." As he looked down, Ethan noticed the slight jolt of her shoulders, and as the last ringing of his words faded from the air he could hear the slight hiccuping sobs. She was crying, but somehow he knew it wasn't in the bad way. So he stood there, holding her weight against him and rubbing her back soothingly and just being there.

A few moments later, and Mari stepped back, sniffling with her eyes swollen and red. She stared at the ground. "... Th-... thank you."

He smiled and pulled the sleeve of his shirt down over his hand, reaching forward to wipe away the last few droplets trickling down her cheeks. "It's the least I can do for what you've already done for me... and what you're going to do."

She turned around, sniffing once, hard. "Yeah yeah... go... get your lady."

He smirked. "As you wish. Take care, Mari. I'll see you in a week or so when everything's ready. Right now I have a princess to go woo."

With that, he turned around with a flourish and sprinted down the ramp and through the door, heading right for the accessory shop, leaving Mari to stand on the ramp and smile gently, staring up at the sky.

-

A/N: That's about a good spot to end the chapter I think. Plans have been set into motion. The nurse lady has returned kinda. And Ethan is totally going to get schooled... I mean what?

Review if it pleases you. I know it pleases me.