When you open up a textbook, your mind starts to cloud and wander. The month after your scandal with Lea, this only became worse. You still did well in your classes, getting a B+ to an A- average, but you knew that you could do better. The guilt from your actions still hung over your head and it made your scholastic performance fall short of "great". Not only did you worry about Isa, though: you worried about your past with Lea. You still saw him around campus occasionally and he'd give you a smile and a nod like nothing was wrong. It was weird to pretend that nothing happened, and made your heart only grow heavier with the truth.

Isa only got worse, too. Not the "bad" kind of worse, but the good kind. He was kinder to you, though still showed impatience and urgency when he needed you to retrieve his lost textbooks. He did also stop inviting you to hang out whenever Lea showed up to the dorm, instead offering to take you out on real dates as far from the campus as you both could afford. In a weird way, your rebellion helped your relationship…at least on the outside.

A knock came on your door one night, making your head rise from your covers. It was Saturday, but you weren't expecting anyone. You'd already updated Kairi on your drama, but she didn't seem to have anything to say. She knew that this was your mess, and that you had to take care of it without anyone's help or guidance. Maybe she wanted to scold you? Or maybe she'd come to offer something more than a sympathetic pat on the back?

You got up from your bed. Maybe it was Larxene? She hadn't returned from class yet, and it was possible that she'd gone to her party and left her dorm keys again. It didn't happen often, but did usually occur at this time-which you exhaustedly reflected was 12:13am. Sighing, you touched the doorknob.

Wait! What if it was Isa? It'd been some time since he'd come to you for a late-night visit. He was good at telling when you both needed to release some of your hormonal frustrations and tried to coordinate them to follow a strict schedule. You checked the calendar beside the door; no little hearts marked this date. Maybe it was someone else.

The knocks persisted and finally, you just threw open the door.

"Braig?" You muttered, rubbing your eye to ensure you were seeing the man right.

"Hey, sweetheart!" He greeted. He was far too perky for this late of an evening.

"What do you want?" You hadn't meant for it to sound so rude, but you were exhausted.

"I just wanted to run something past ya. It's been on my mind for a while." He rubbed the skin around his eyepatch, not speaking for a long time. You wondered if you were supposed to say something.

"What is it?"

"Well...could you go check on Lea?"

"Lea?!" Your voice squeaked. Way to keep your secrets, you tell yourself.

"Yeah. Something's been eating at him and I think you know what it is."

He knew. You could see it in his golden eye. How, you didn't know. But he could see through your facade so clearly for being a one-eyed crook.

"Maybe," you played carefully. "Why do you think I should talk to him? Maybe it's his problem."

"Because you're the one who helped him before. I remember it as clearly as when I still had two eyes to see through. If you change your mind, he's at the library." He left at that. Apparently, he had nothing more to say. You had to give it some thought, but suddenly you recalled seeing the long ponytailed man in your past: he was the one who Lea had fought with the night he drank himself deep into the gutter. They must've gotten over it, as they were the best of friends now. Still….it was strange that he knew and didn't say anything until that point.

You tried to ignore the thoughts of the past as you laid in bed again, but you couldn't return to sleep. You felt an urge to go visit the library; it may still be open if Lea is there. No; let's not go, you said to yourself. Let me sleep. Let me stay away from sin from now on. These thoughts repeated in your mind throughout the night, making a rhythmic melody to bury your curiosity and lull you back to slumber.

Your door was prodded upon again. In frustration, you hopped up and dashed to it. You'd tell Braig to go away this time, and to never disturb you at this hour again. You didn't care whose friend he was. The wood was thrown open and connected with your big toe. As you cursed, a voice above you laughed.

"Did I catch you at a bad time?" Lea asked. You hissed and gasped at the same time, creating a strange noise from your teeth. Lea chuckled again.

"What are you doing here?" You asked. Lea's voice quieted, but he still held a soft grin.

"Braig said you needed to talk. Said it was important." He examined your growing scowl. "Maybe he was mistaken."

"Damn him," you hissed. Braig knew you'd resist seeking out the boy, so he sent Lea to you instead! How could he?

"I can leave, if you want," Lea said, jabbing a thumb over his shoulder. You nodded.

"That may be for the best." It would've been better to stay away from him and he from you. You shared too deep a bond with that one person you and Lea valued most.

"Yeah." He started to go, but stopped. "Want me to take a look at that?" He gestured to your foot, which noticeably in the dim light of full moon.

"It's fine. Happens all of the time." Actually, it hurt quite a bit. You wondered if you had broken it.

"Let me get some ice from downstairs at least." He was jogging off before you could decline. You shut the door behind and and went to sit by your desk nearby. As you waited for Lea's return, you considered pretending you weren't there, or at least ignore the knock he'd bring. However, when he arrived, he only knocked once before opening the door himself. You wanted to comment on how arrogant it was to think he could just enter a girl's room when he damn well pleased, but the promise of ice on your burning foot made you hold your tongue.

He gently held your ankle and applied a cloth of ice to your toes. You felt water drip off of you onto the floor.

"Sorry," he said, "guess that I'm too hot for this." You shook your head as he smirked. "Anyway, it doesn't look like you broke anything. It's just going to hurt for a while."

"How can you tell?" Your foot shivered a bit as Lea removed the ice cloth, shook it around, then placed it back on.

"My brothers were doctors. I learned a bit from them growing up." He stared down at your wound, his thumb absently stroking your heel. "Look, there's something I've been wantin' to tell you." He met your gaze. "That night when we...rolled around in the sand, to put it lightly,...I enjoyed every minute of it."

"You did?" You didn't think you should be surprised, but you were. In fact, you weren't sure what your reaction should've been, so you blushed, coughed, and smiled all at once. It was an odd mix, to say the least.

"Yeah. I figured tellin' ya would make it easier for you to tell Isa. A perv like me would deserve to be taken down by his best friend for that. And, I'm sure that Isa will take your side if you use me as the scapegoat." You frowned. "What? Why the face?"

"I can't use that," you insisted.

"Why not? I'm giving you an out! If you just tell Isa that it's all my fault, he'll believe you."

"I said I can't use that because I enjoyed it too. Anything I try to tell Isa otherwise would be a lie." You looked away, out your window into the courtyards of the campus. They were flushed with green grass and lilies that slowly bent over under the weight of the upcoming frost. "Honestly, it was the best night of my life."

"Really?" Lea rose, leaving the ice pack on your foot, and sat across from you on Larxene's bed. "I guess Isa's not that good in bed, eh?"

"What?! N-no, nothing like that! It's just…" Your face burned and you couldn't make eye contact with the boy. "You're so warm, first of all. Being with Isa's like taming a great pillar of ice rising in the moonlight. Being with you was like being devoured and entrapped in a forest fire, consuming every thought and kiss in a long and passionate gulp."

"Oh." Lea placed his elbows on his knees, leaning forward with a heavy look on his face. "So...what do we do now?"

"I don't know. Isa deserves to know, but I'm…so scared to tell him. What if he hates me after this? What if he never wants to see me again?" Lea watched you rant, those emerald crests flickering at your every exhale. When the quiet of the outside fell around you, Lea made an offer.

"I see this going two ways until you say something to him." He made you meet his eyes by placing his finger under your chin. "Either we avoid each other completely, taking this secret to our graves if we have to, or we can be friends."

"Friends?"
"Yeah. I mean, why not? We already know some pretty intimate parts of each other. Maybe it'd be easier to get past this if we become friends and nothing more."

"What logic makes that plan work?" You asked. It didn't seem like spending more time with each other would make this secret suddenly easier to bear.

"Well, the way I see it, acting like you've 'friend-zoned' me will keep Isa's suspicions at a distance. And who knows? It could give you a reason to hate me and give into telling Isa what happened." You giggled a bit; so being Lea's friend would make you hate him? "Hey, don't laugh! I'm serious! Isa's the only person who can stand being friends with all of this." He gestured to himself with an over-exaggerated hand-arch.
"What about Braig?"

Lea's arrogance deflated a bit. "Yeah, I guess we're friends, too. But he doesn't count because he's even weirder than I am." You laughed again, already feeling the anchor in your chest become lighter. Lea smiled, too.

"Alright. We'll try being friends," you said. "But only because I think it really will derail Isa for a while. At least until I get the courage to tell the truth."

"Sounds like a plan to me." Lea rose from the bed, ruffling your hair before heading towards the door. "Later, kid. Get some sleep, and keep that ice on your foot until the swelling goes down."

"Got it." You watched the redhead leave. In all honesty, the majority of why you accepted Lea's offer to be friends was because you wanted to get to know him better. You needed to know why you gave into his charm so easily and what made you want to see him each and every day. He was fascinating, though you knew that it may not be the wisest idea to allow yourself to be so close to him. Really, you needed more drama like you needed a splinter in your toe…

Oh.