Leia was running faster than she'd ever run from anything, tears falling down her face. She felt angry and hurt and, more than anything, disgusted. How could she ever have wanted to kiss that asshole? She ran her hand across her mouth for what must have been the hundredth time, attempting to wipe away the lingering feeling on her lips.

What if Alvin hurt him?

The thought made her slow to a stop, not sure what to do. She had tried so hard to make sure that no one thought badly of Jude… What could she have done better? Why had he done something like that—especially since he had Milla.

What about her? Would she be hurt because of this? Would Leia end up being blamed for it?

What if Alvin hurt him?

She couldn't seem to push that thought out of her head. She had seen him pick Jude up by the throat and throw him… And then she ran. Alvin was no where in sight, so… What if he had stayed behind? What if he actually hurt Jude? Would that make her feel better?

No! I don't want him hurt—I just want him away from me!

Her emotions startled her in more than one way as she put her face in her hands and cried, hard. She felt dirty and scared and sick at what happened, but she didn't want him hurt. What would that fix? Besides, wouldn't that make things harder for Alvin? She wondered if she'd be able to forgive Alvin if he seriously hurt Jude… And she wasn't sure of the answer. Thinking about it just made her heart ache more. What was she supposed to do to fix this?

Playing victim wasn't something that Leia enjoyed… It was difficult to leave the depressing and disturbing thoughts behind her, but she tried—not only for herself but for Alvin and Jude.

Jude was someone so important to her, even if she was appalled and, honestly, terrified by him right then. Even with this one incident, she didn't want anything to happen to him. He had been right in one sense: could she really let one or two incidents destroy almost 10 years worth of friendship? They DID need to have a long talk, she realized.

If I had just talked to him to begin with… Could I have prevented this…?

She shook her head, trying to push that thought out. Blaming herself for everything wouldn't solve the problem—plus, it wasn't true. It was her right to wait to talk until she was ready… Wasn't it? And, even if it wasn't, it didn't give Jude the right to force a kiss on her. Or worse, force her to kiss him back! No matter how one looked at it, that part was definitely Jude's fault.

Knowing that Leia needed to talk to Jude did not make her any more willing to go to him. She… she wanted Alvin. Where was he? Was he still fighting Jude? No, there's no proof that he fought him! She couldn't think like that. Maybe he would be looking for her?

Or maybe he thought you chose Jude. Did he think that you just used him to make Jude jealous? Wasn't that what Jude said? That he thought you USED Alvin to make him notice you? What if Alvin is super mad at you now? What if he hates you?

Suddenly feeling lightheaded, Leia fell down into a seated position and placed her head between her legs, gasping for air. No matter how much oxygen went into her lungs, the inability to breathe only seemed to get worse. After a few seconds she realized that she was actually hyperventilating, but she didn't have anything to help her… So she continued to sputter and cough and gasp while tears fell down her face.

Alvin heard her before he saw her. He had expected the condition she was in, but when his eyes met her small frame sitting in the grass outside of Fenmont, he started to panic. Would he be able to offer any assistance? Would she reject his help? What if a man was the last type of person she wanted to help?

When she started loudly sobbing, it made his decision.

"Leia..." He bent down and murmured when he reached her, touching her arm softly. "Hey, it's okay… It's over now."

What a stupid thing to say! Alvin mentally kicked himself, struggling internally. What do you say to someone in this situation? Do they have laws against this sort of thing here? Should I turn Jude in? Would that make things worse? Should I keep quiet about it? Is that what she would want me to do? Can I help with with anything? How do I get her breathing normal? Is that the correct way of saying that—breathing normal?

His thoughts were all over the place, but they were immediately stopped when she threw herself onto his chest. His arms circled her on their own, his brain too shell-shocked by the whole ordeal to even work anymore. For several minutes, all he could do was squeeze her tight and let her cry, her tears soaking his shirt. It took him a bit to realize that she was saying something.

"-hurt him? Please, tell me you didn't!"

"...Did you just ask if I hurt him?" Alvin sounded calm, and he felt the need to congratulate himself on the accomplishment. Surely, she didn't just ask what he thought she just asked.

"Yes!" She lifted her head to look in his eyes, an expression of panic and pain written on her face. "I don't want him hurt! I don't know what I'd do-" She was surprised when he let her go and stood up, causing her to stop.

"Are you SERIOUSLY thinking about HIS safety right now?! If he's hurt, he deserved it!" Alvin all but roared, fury momentarily blinding him.

"Alvin, wait! That's not it!" She said quickly, reaching for his hand and slightly hurt when he pulled it away. "How would it help? People will start asking what happened-"

"LET THEM ASK!" Normally, he'd be embarrassed by how he stomped as he said this, but embarrassment was far from his mind. "I can understand you protecting him about fucking Milla—that was his own business—but THIS! This is different! That was sexual assault!"

"I-It was what?" Leia wiped away a tear and stared at him in confusion. "H-he didn't do anything… down there." This brought Alvin up short, and he stared at her for a full minute before he was even able to think.

"I-I know that!" He finally said, softly but urgently. "But he still made an unwanted advance. Isn't that, I don't know, something you can be punished for? Like… The law or something?" He ran his hand through his hair and glanced towards Fenmont before looking back.

"I don't think so." Leia answered honestly, her breathing finally calmed. "Is it in Elympios?"

"YES!" He crouched down in front of her, his words leaving him in both disbelief and disgust. "You mean people can get away with—no, forget it." He stopped, realizing he was getting off track. He still filed that away in his brain to talk to Gaius about later.

Gaius.

"Oh shit." He grumbled, looking back at the path he had come from only moments before. "I left Gaius with him..."

"Do you think he'd hurt him…?"

"I… really don't know."

Gaius was livid, but he was listening. He knelt down next to a bloody and bruised Jude as the boy tried to explain himself. Although he didn't feel like he deserved the chance to say his piece, he'd become friends with this group in the past year and didn't want to ruin it by jumping the gun. He and Alvin had only walked up at the last bit of what was said… Maybe there was an explanation.

"Explain." He said simply, crossing his arms in an awkward (and he hoped menacing) pose.

"I don't understand..." Jude whispered, gnashing his teeth as he tried unsuccessfully to stop the blood from flowing out of his busted lip. "She never even told me what I did. I haven't done anything to her! So I thought… I mean, she'd done something similar when we were younger..."

"You're not making sense, Jude. Explain to me what you were thinking."

"I couldn't stand it. We've been friends for a really long time, and she's never treated me like this before. She won't tell me what I did, but she completely avoids me. Once, just a couple of years ago, she tried dating someone in Leronde—a guy named Evan, I think—and she didn't talk to me for a couple days. It ended really quickly, though, when she admitted that she only dated him to make me jealous. I had laughed about it at the time, so it wasn't a big deal. I forgave her, and she went back to talking to me. It wasn't a big deal." He paused to take a breath before continuing. "So I thought..."

"You thought she was using Alvin to try to make you jealous?" Gaius finished for him, his scowl growing more pronounced. "But this time was different, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, it was. She won't even look at me—acts like I'm disgusting or something. I thought… Maybe she just got fed up with it." Both of them were shocked when a tear fell from his swollen eye. "But I couldn't stand that thought—losing Leia? I just… I couldn't handle..." He was having a hard time continuing. "So, I thought… Maybe I love Leia…?" This time he was interrupted by a derisive snort.

"You don't love Leia." Gaius stated, standing and offering a hand to Jude, who, despite being offended and hurt by Gaius's blunt attitude over something so confusing, accepted his hand.

"How do you know that?! We've always been together, Leia and me. Why else would I be so hurt by the thought of letting her go? I-… I had to try. I had to see if..."

"But you didn't feel what you felt with Milla, did you?"

"No… Wait, how do you know that I've kissed Milla?" Jude gave him an odd look as he pulled out a lemon gel and started munching on it.

"Not important." Gaius waved his question away, mentally berating himself for such a stupid slip-up. He did NOT want to be caught right in the middle of this—especially when Jude found out what actually made Leia mad. It'd be awkward enough in the group without him being there to see the whole thing—or cause it. "Continue."

"It didn't feel the same… But I don't understand what's going on with me…" He whispered this, rubbing his hands together as if to warm them. "I don't know what to do… And I thought she'd… I thought she'd be happy..."

"I told you that relationships change… I think Leia is moving on, Jude."

"She can't be falling for-"

"It doesn't matter who she's falling for." Gaius cut him off, exasperated. He'd heard this whole rant before and wasn't in the mood to hear it again. "It's not your concern who she falls for."

"Of course it is—she's my friend!"

"But that doesn't give you the right to make decisions for her." He shook his head and sighed. "The point is this: Leia finally realized that you're unavailable and now she's coping with that. You were told to give her space, but you didn't. Now you have to deal with the repercussions of your actions. You have to take responsibility for them."

"But I thought-"

"Jude, it doesn't matter what you thought!" Gaius was becoming angry at the boy's excuses. "You did something wrong, and you know it. You saw the reaction that she had—you caused that! Now you have to be a man and take responsibility for your actions!"

This statement was met by several minutes of silence as the two started walking in the direction of the inn, Gaius waiting for his message and sink in and Jude feeling guilty and confused and oddly persecuted. He knew that Gaius was right, but… It's not like he had the intention of hurting Leia—he never wanted to hurt her! He thought that was what she wanted…

"I'll try..." Was the only response he could think to say when they finally walked into the inn. "I… I didn't want to hurt her… But I never should have forced her… to do anything… I'll try to fix it."

"No, you need to wait for her." Gaius grabbed his arm and pulled him around to look at him. "You didn't wait for her this time and this is the outcome. Next time, you HAVE to wait until she's ready to talk to you. If you don't, you could seriously lose her friendship forever. You have a slim chance of making it right now, but if you ignore my warning, you won't have a chance at all."

Knowing that the king was right didn't help the wave of—what was it? Panic? Sadness? Unfairness?—that washed over him, but after a minute, he nodded. He had no choice, did he? He had to wait for her or lose her forever…

"Do you still love him?" Alvin asked quietly after Leia had calmed down enough to speak to him again. She had been fretting for a while about whether or not Jude was okay, and he couldn't handle it anymore. He was trying to be patient with her because she had just went through something traumatic, but he was at his patience's end.

"No." Leia immediately answered, staring ahead blankly.

"That was too fast of an answer." He replied, crossing his arms. "I want you to really think about it and tell me now: do you still love him? Because I can't… I can't help you if you run straight back to him. All of this will mean nothing if you do that. So I need to know."

Plus, I can't stand the thought of it. I can't stand the thought of you loving him—I can't stand the thought of you loving anyone who'd treat you like that…

"...I don't know." She answered honestly. "But I do know this: I don't want to be with him." Both she and Alvin were surprised by this admission. "I always thought that I did, but… Now I think… I think I've come to terms with the fact that he's taken. Plus... I'm a little afraid of him. I never expected that he'd do something like what he did today. I never thought he was that kind of person..."

"Desperation can make people do stupid things..." Alvin ground out, sickened by the fact that he was, in a way, taking up for Jude. "But that doesn't mean you should pardon them." He added quickly, certainly not wanting Leia to think that he was wanting her to forgive him right away or to be with him. "I don't want this to tear everyone apart, but I don't want you to feel obligated to forgive him either. You should seriously think it through. He was stupid, and when you're ready, you should make sure to tell him that." He got a laugh out of her with that.

"Yeah… And maybe the fear will go away after a little bit of time, but… It certainly doesn't feel like it right now."

"I bet not. It's fresh in your mind." He replied, taking her hand and leading her back towards the town. "But the good thing is, you don't have to rush it. Stick with me, and I'll make sure he doesn't bother you again until you're ready to deal with him."

"...Thank you." Leia mumbled, staring at their hands in wonder at the comfort and warmth that such a simple thing could bring. "I… I'm so glad that you're here, Alvin..."

A small smile formed on Alvin's lips and he basked in the emotions that were both choking him and healing him. This young woman may be the death of him, but the pleasure shooting through his veins at knowing that he'd helped… made that okay.