I'm back! Sorry again for the lack of chapters, but I'm back on schedule and once holidays start, which is on Friday, I'm going to be sitting down and writing LOTS of chapters for you guys, about 3-4 a week. I figured this would be the best way to make up for the period of no writing. Thanks again for all the reviews, the follows and the favourites. Anyway, let's get on with the chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own FOZ

After several hours of riding they had arrived at La Rochelle (I learned the places real name, so sorry for the wrong name I gave it in the last chapter). Louise, Guiche and Kirche were all tired from the long ride, whereas Tabitha and Wardes weren't since they had been flying, and were looking forward to getting off their horses and getting some rest. Evening was approaching fast as the sun was now hanging low in the sky, just about to kiss the horizon.

Wardes led them through the streets to an Inn, which didn't exactly look like a top quality Inn, but also didn't look like some shanty hole in the ground. As they reached the Inn, who was going to be sharing a room with who became the most pressing concern.

"As she is my Fiancé, I will be sharing a room with Louise." Wardes declared in the lobby of the Inn as they were reserving rooms. To say Louise didn't like the idea of sharing a room with Wardes was an understatement. "Actually Viscount, I would prefer to share with my familiar…" she said, looking at Wardes. She glanced over at Hiato, who hadn't seemed to have registered what she had just said.

"I understand that you'd want to keep your familiar close, but I assure you that I can provide adequate protection. Also since we are going to be married, we will need to spend as much time as possible getting to know each other." Wardes said with a smile. He then turned back to the women behind the counter. "We will also need a room for the two girls, and one for the boy and the familiar. But don't feel a need to get a room with two beds, rather get one with a bed and enough room for some straw on the floor." Louise looked sharply at Wardes.

"Excuse me Viscount, but why only one bed?" She asked. Wardes looked back at her. "He is a mere commoner, and even lower than that, a familiar. He does not deserve a proper bed as us nobles do." He looked back at the lady behind the counter and Louise felt a mixture of anger and annoyance, but before she could say anything, Guiche spoke up.

"Great Viscount, I do not believe that would be appropriate." Louise, Kirche, Wardes and even Tabitha all turned to look at Guiche, surprise on all their faces. "And why is that?" Wardes asked.

"Because Hiato is a good friend to me, and I see him as an equal, not as a mere familiar. He should receive the same treatment that I do." Guiche said, with a convinced look in his eyes and a serious face. Everyone stared at him, even Hiato. Either Guiche is going through some kind of personality reform or someone hit him on the head with a large object while we weren't looking Louise said to herself.

Wardes raised an eybrow. "So if receiving the same treatment as him meant sleeping on straw, would you still push for fair treatment?" he asked. Guiche nodded. "Indeed I would, but he and I WILL be sleeping on proper beds… Viscount." Guiche added, with what almost sounded to Louise like disgust.

Wardes chuckled. "Very well then, please secure a room with 2 beds, dear madam." He said to the women behind the counter. After they had paid for their rooms, Wardes looked at them all.

"Shall we dine? I am most hungry, as are all of you, I'm sure."

Everyone nodded in agreement, and Wardes led the way into the dining area of the Inn.

They sat down and ordered food, and ate in relative silence. Hiato ate normally, which was completely unlike him. Towards the end of their meal however, Wardes spoke directly to Hiato for the first time since they got there.

"So tell me, Dragon boy, how competent do you think you are with a sword?" he asked. Hiato stopped eating and looked at Wardes. "Good enough, why?" He said in a tone that suggested he wanted to do anything except talk to Wardes. "Well I would like to know if you would be interested in a duel." Louise stopped eating and looked at Hiato, worry on her face. Even though Hiato might not be as skilled with a sword as Wardes was, and while his dragon powers were impressive, Wardes was a Square wind mage, meaning he was very powerful. If the 2 were to duel, Louise wasn't sure who would end up winning.

"No, I'm not interested in a duel with you. Also, why do you call me 'Dragon boy'?" Hiato said dangerously. Wardes simply smirked. "I was informed of your abilities as a familiar before being sent out on my mission, and I must say they interest me hugely. A human able to use dragon powers? Unheard of." He said. Hiato narrowed his eyes at Wardes. "And I am most interested to see what it would be like to fight someone with your abilities, in a friendly spare, of course." Hiato's eyes narrowed even further. "Still not interested." He said. Wardes sighed and simply went back to eating.

Once the meal was complete, Wardes stood up and looked at Louise. "My dear, it is time to retire to our quarters." He said, holding a hand out to her. She looked at Hiato, only to see he was already out his chair and gone up the stairs to the rooms. Louise looked at Wardes and simply walked past him and up the stairs, not taking his hand.

"That was rather rude, my dea-" Wardes started.

"Don't call me "Dear" or "love" please Viscount." She said in an even tone. "We aren't even married." And never will be she said to herself.

"But my dea-" Louise looked at him "Louise, we practically are already, since there is nothing that is going to change the fact. And while your little act is amusing, pretending to be refuting me, deep down you know you love me." Wardes said, walking across their room to her. "Ever since you were little, I've known how you feel about me, and don't try to lie about it now…" He raised a hand to place on her check, but she grabbed his arm and stopped him, surprising him.

"No." she said. "I'm sorry Viscount, but I don't think I feel the same way about you that you do about me." Louise looked him in the eyes. "And why do you look down on Hiato so much?" She asked. Wardes wrenched himself free of Louise's grasp and chuckled. "Because he is a familiar that is why. He is a servant, not a man. And also…" He grabbed Louise's face and brought it closer to his. "… someone who is not of noble birth should not be treated as an equal. You know this Louise, yet he is using some trick to make you think you care about him and see him as more than just the dog he is."

Suddenly Louise heard laughter in her mind, and at first she didn't recognize it. It was a loud, deep hearty laugh echoing from somewhere in the corner of her mind, and when it spoke she immediately recognized who it was, not by name but by voice, as he had spoken to her before in a dream.

"He is not of noble birth? How wrong you are, little man." Was all the voice said before it continued laughing. Louise shook free of Wardes grip. "You're wrong Wardes." She said. "Hiato deserves to be treated as an equal. He has been through things that no one should ever go through. I do not love you, nor do I wish to marry you. Now if you will excuse me, I should go." And without giving Wardes a chance to answer, she turned around, walked out the room and slammed the door. She let out an explosive breath. She had just rejected Wardes, something she knew she would get into trouble for with her mother, but right now she had more pressing concerns.

Like the person laughing their arse off in her head.

"Would you shut it?" She yelled into her mind. After a few seconds the laughter stopped. "Sorry, just I just happened to be listening in at that moment and I found what he said probably the funniest thing I've ever heard." The voice in her head replied.

"Why?" she asked.

"Can't tell you that. Sorry it's a secret slash surprise that I'm keeping. You'll know one day." Louise frowned. "Why is it a secret?" she asked.

"Because it is. If I told you why it was a secret, it wouldn't really be a secret now would it?" The voice said dryly. Louise rolled her eyes "Are you that… thing I saw in my dream that one time?" She asked.

"Yes I am. This conversation ends here; I've talked for long enough." And just like that, the presence of whatever it was disappeared. Rude she thought to herself.

"I heard that!" The voice quickly said, and disappeared before Louise could respond.

She shook her head Ok, now that I've rejected Wardes; I need to tell Hiato the truth… and how I feel. She walked down the corridor to the room that she knew Guiche and Hiato were sharing, and simply barged in without knocking.

She realised once she got into the room that if either of them were changing she would be scared for life. Thankfully that was avoided as Guiche was collapsed on his bed (In a rather flamboyant way somehow) and Hiato was absent from the room. Guiche shot up once Louise charged in, confusion on his face.

"Louise!?" He asked. "Why are you in hear?"

"I'm looking for Hiato, where is he?" She said quickly.

Guiches expression changed to one of understanding. "He's on the roof, last time I checked. Go down the corridor and at the end is a staircase that should take you to the roof." Louise nodded her thanks, turned and practically sprinted down the corridor and onto the roof.

The sun was now barely peeking over the horizon, and was slowly disappearing. As Guiche had predicted, Hiato was sitting on the roof. He was looking at the horizon, but turned to see Louise exit onto the roof, and he was a little surprised.

"Louise?" He said. "Is something wrong?"

Louise shook her head and got back her breath. She looked at Hiato, the pain he was feeling still evident on his face. She decided she would start.

"I'm sorry." She said. Hiato just simply looked at her. "I'm sorry I never told you, I really am."

Hiato just turned to look at the sunset. "Why?" He asked. "Why didn't you tell me?" His voice was now full of pain and sadness, and Louise felt her voice catch in her throat.

"Because I… I…" She stammered.

"You couldn't bear to tell me? You knew it would break my heart so you didn't tell me and thought the problem would go away? Or don't you really care?" That question hit Louise like a punch to the gut. "N-no its because…"

"It's because?" Hiato asked his voice cracking. Louise was trying to say something; anything but she couldn't no matter how hard she tried. The words just wouldn't come to her. "I… I…" "You forgot?" He asked. He wasn't angry, he was sad, Louise could feel it. Hiato had trusted her whole heartedly, and she had kept a secret from him, and it wasn't a small one. But the reason she had never told him was because she had forgotten… forgotten she was going to marry Wardes because…

"So you just forgot? I guess that makes sense-"He was cut off when Louise yelled out words straight from her heart that completely caught Hiato off guard.

"It's because I want to marry you Hiato!" She yelled. "I forgot about Wardes because he isn't the person I want to marry. I thought that I would be able to marry you before I would be forced by my family into marrying Wardes. And the reason for all this is because…" Louise couldn't stop what she was saying now, and tears were streaming down her face. "… I love you Hiato!" She had finally said it. She had fully admitted how she felt about Hiato, and now she started to worry about his reaction to what she thought was a silly outburst.

Hiato was dumbstruck by what Louise had just said. She never told me because she wanted to marry me… instead of wards… and she forgot because about Wardes because she… she…

"I'm sorry." She said, snapping Hiato out of his thoughts. "I really shouldn't have said stuff like that; I shouldn't have shouted and made up excuses for myself. I forgot, plain and simple." Louise said in a low tone. She started to turn towards the exit from the roof. "Let's just forget this happened, after all we have more important-" Hiato cut her off by dashing across the roof, wrapping his arms around her and kissing her deeply on the lips.

Louise's brain took a second to figure out what happened, but when she did, she went bright red, and squired a little before giving in and kissing Hiato back. When they broke apart, Hiato had a serious look on his face, which made Louise flinch.

"Louise Valliere." He said in a low tone. "Never, ever suggest there is something more important in this world than you, keep anymore secrets, or that we forget what you just said. Are we clear?" He had a very serious look on his face, and Louise nodded quickly. Hiato then grinned like he always does. "Good, and by the way; you beat me."

Louise blinked. "Beat you?" she asked confused.

"To saying 'I love you'." Hiato smiled. "I love you Louise." He said. Louise stared at him before suddenly going an even brighter shade of red and feeling like there were butterfly's in her stomach and her heart speeding up. Before she could say anything, Hiato kissed her again, and this time she immediately kissed back. They stayed locked together for who knows how long until they split apart, both bright red and smiling.

"Well glad that that's over." Hiato said, taking Louise's hand. Louise smiled and nodded in agreement. "Wait, what about him?" He asked. Louise looked at him for a second before realizing what he meant, and started to twirl her pink hair around her one finger and assumed an innocent expression.

"Well I did basically reject him by saying I'm not going to marry him, and I walked out the room before he could answer." She said, her expression still the same. "I'm guessing he will be very angry at me, and will not find my actions amusing." She looked at Hiato who was on the verge of bursting out with laughter. He patted her on the head.

"You're incredible, you know that?" He said. The compliment made Louise blush a little, and she smiled. "Well maybe a little bit…" She looked at Hiato, and they both laughed. She then assumed a trouble expression. "Where am I going to sleep tonight… Hmmm I don't think the Viscount will forgive me for what I did earlier so where can I sleep…"

"If it's not too much trouble, you could have my bed; I don't mind sleeping on the floor." Hiato said as they walked down the corridor to their rooms.

"Will Guiche be OK with it?" She asked.

"I'm sure he'll be fine," Suddenly Hiato remembered something. "Did you use your explosion spell on him or something while I wasn't looking?" He asked.

Louise shook her head. "I have no idea why he's acting like that, but to be honest, I don't mind." Louise said

"Agreed." Hiato said. They entered the room and Guiche was still on the bed, but sitting up this time. He looked a little confused when they both walked in.

"Louise is sleeping here tonight. She made Wardes a little angry so we think it's best for her to sleep… Guiche what is wrong?"

Guiche seemed to be having a small panic attack. "It's just not proper! Men and women sleeping in the same room, that only happens with people who are married!"

Louise and Hiato exchanged amused looks "Well don't worry, it's just one night, and it's not like she gonna be in your bed anyway. She'll be sleeping on mine; I'll be on the floor." Guiche seemed to relax at that, but Hiato then smirked. "If you REALLY don't want to stay with us, I'm sure Wardes will be happy to share his room with you."

Guiche shook his head. "I think I can handle one night of sharing a room with a girl." At that moment the door opened and Wardes stepped in.

"We will be leaving at first light tomorrow, so get ready." He looked at Hiato and Louise, but said nothing and shut the door. Hiato chuckled. "He isn't happy." Hiato walked over to the side of the bed, which was a single one, but still fairly big. He sighed. "Well I've slept on the floor before."

"No." Louise said who had walked up next to him. Hiato raised an eyebrow and she looked at him. "We are sharing, just like always." She said with a smile. "I need something to keep me warm, the blankets don't look very good."

"So am I just a walking heater now?" Hiato asked dryly. Louise smiled at him and nodded. He rolled his eyes. "Whatever, let's get to sleep, I'm tired."

And with that, Hiato collapsed on the bed.

*The next day, early morning*

The morning had been largely uneventful. Get up, have breakfast, glare at Wardes, the usual stuff. When Kirche and Tabitha saw how Hiato and Louise were now sitting next to each other at breakfast and Hiato was back to his usual eating method of shoving food down his throat like it might all disappear at any moment. Also Louise had talked to Hiato about her marriage which she knew that, even though she had rejected Wardes, she was still his Fiancé. When asked what he planned to do about it however, Hiato simply said "Trust me, I have a plan." That had made Louise feel a bit easier, but she would have felt better had he told her his plan.

They boarded the ship at first light and set out. Louise found the ship quite interesting while Hiato found it boring how 'slowly' they were going, and he kept hoping something exciting would happen. Unfortunately (for everyone else) his wish was granted as a pirate airship pulled up next to them, demanding their surrender.

"This is all your fault." Louise said to Hiato. "Why?" he asked. "Because you kept wishing something exciting would happen and now it did, and now were going to be boarded by Pirates and they'll do who knows what to us."

"Oh come on Missy are ya scared of a few pirates? Yer a bleedin void mage!" Derf said over Hiato's shoulder. "Plus I'm here, and I promise to protect you from any danger." Hiato said in a happy tone, but Louise knew he was dead serious about it. Tabitha, Kirche, Guiche and Wardes were all out on deck as well.

"Surrender now and hand over all yer cargo!" One of the Pirates yelled. Hiato walked to the edge of the deck with Louise, Kirche and Tabitha.

"No." Was his reply.

"No?" The pirate demanded. "Whadda mean, no?"

"We mean no. We have 5 mages on board, along with their familiars. Do you really want to try and fight us?"

The pirates started grumbling amongst each other, until one spoke up. "Alright, we'll let you off, but our leader wants to talk to you." He said in a definitely non-pirate accent.

"Why?" Hiato asked. "If you think we are that stupid to fall for a trap…"

"It isn't a trap ok? We won't hurt you if you won't hurt us. Deal?"

Hiato looked at his friends, who all nodded. "Deal."

After the two ships docked the party of heroes (including Wardes) went aboard the "pirate" vessel to meet their captain who was below deck. The group of 6 entered the low beamed captain's cabin to come face to face with a man who looked every inch a pirate captain.

"So you must be from the vessel we failed to capture eh?" He asked in a pirate accent that Hiato could swear sounded put on. They weren't going to give too much away, just enough so this captain knew who he was dealing with.

"Yes we are. My name is Viscount Wardes. My companions are Louise, Kirche, Tabitha, Guiche and Hiato." He said the last name with contempt in his voice, and Hiato smirked. "We are on a secret mission, and we will not tell you anymore of it as it is of utmost importance." The captain's eyes widened. "Tristain?" He asked, his pirate accent now dropped. Wardes nodded. "We must get to Albion as soon as possible, so we will be taking our leave now."

"That won't be necessary." The pirate captain said. He removed his disguise, revealing himself to be Prince Wales of Albion, which shocked everyone present. "My apologies, but we were using this guise to attack rebel supply ships at any opportunity we had. I take it you are here looking for me?"

Wardes nodded and explained their mission. Wales was quite happy to hand over the information, but much more resistant to the idea of being rescued. Once it seemed that trying to persuade him was pointless, Wardes asked him another question.

"My good Prince, can I ask a favour of you?"

"Of course." Wales replied. "As long as it is within my power to grant."

"Could you formally wed me and my Fiancé Louise?" He asked. Louise inhaled sharply. She had been waiting for Wardes to do something, and now looked to Hiato to see his response.

"I would be glad to. At least before I die I can bring about lasting happiness somewhere in the world." He said. Wardes was smirking, and turned to look at Louise, but before he could speak, Hiato beat him to it.

"Prince Wales, As Louise's familiar, I oppose this marriage, and I believe I have a way to solve the issue."

Wales raised an eyebrow. "And what is this way? And why do you oppose this marriage?"

"Because I love Louise, and I do not believe Wardes is an appropriate Husband." Wardes gritted his teeth and looked like he was about to swear "And I believe that this can be solved… with a duel." Hiato finished.

Wales was interested, and so was Louise. "How does that solve the issue?" He asked.

"Simple. The winner gets Louise's hand in marriage."

"And the loser?" Wales asked.

"He must never talk to Louise again."

Wales looked amused, and then looked at Wardes. "Well Viscount, do you accept his challenge?"

Wardes smirked. "Yes your highness, I accept."

And that's the chapter! Sorry if it's a bit short or feels rushed, because I kinda had to rush the end to get it done, and also the lack of action, but the next chapter will basically just be action from start to finish so please wait for it. Anyway, thanks again for reading and I will see you in the next chapter. Cheers!