A/N: Hola my lovely readers, here is your weekly chapter of Heroes Grace! Thank you to all who reviewed last chapter and all the ones before that. I don't know why but I feel like I got a lot of reviews last week, which I love because I love you guys! Keep being awesome and leaving my critics and I will keep writing to my heart's content!

Standard Disclaimers apply. I do NOT own Anything.

Chapter 37: Living With Yourself

Leaf

The city passed by outside the window. A swirling picture of buildings and snow. The people were dressed warmly in their over-sized coats and scarfs and hats. It should have been a welcoming scene. Instead it was anything but.

We were back in Hearthome city at last. After two weeks in the small town of Twinleaf, returning to the big city felt claustrophobic and unsettling. Or perhaps it was what awaited me back here that filled me with dread. The vents in the car blasted hot air against my skin as we drove on. May and Dawn chatted idly beside me, but I didn't listen to what about. The whole world was mute to my ears at this point, my thoughts trapping my attention like a Pidgey inside a cage.

I can't avoid him forever. I knew that of course, but perhaps it was a good thing that Gary hated me now. Now he would be avoiding me, which might make things easier.

I unconsciously touched the gold-plated metal of my bracelet, as if trying to memorize its dimensions by feel. I would have to give it back to him, assuming that he cared enough to ask for it back. It wasn't fair to either of us for me to keep it, and yet I hadn't taken it off since that night I'd said those awful, untrue things to him. The thought of parting from it made my stomach feel like it was full of lead.

It's for the best…That's what I told myself anyway. If I didn't think about it, I'd keep it together. And I couldn't afford to fall apart. Not with the Pearl concert in one week's time. I needed to be alright because there were still people who needed me. I may have cut ties with my oldest friend, but I still had my other friends who were relying on me. I couldn't let them down.

"Leaf?"

I was jolted out of my contemplation's by a concerned voice in my ear. I turned to look at my two friends, huddled in their coats of purple and blue.

"Are you alright? You haven't said a word since we left Twinleaf Town this morning," Dawn observed.

I pulled the corners of my mouth up in a reassuring smile. "I'm okay."

"Are you sure?" May chimed in. "You know you can talk to us about anything right?"

"I know. Thank you." I went back to staring out the window after that.

The car made its way through the cast-iron gates as it pulled onto the academy campus. My heart clenched in my chest at being back here, but it was unavoidable. Although I still couldn't believe two weeks had gone by so quickly.

The car stopped in front of Valor Hall where the dorm attendants were waiting. They unloaded our luggage from the back as we exited the car.

"It's good to be back," Dawn said.

"What do you say we unpack, then have some lunch, then go get our midterm marks once Misty shows up?" May suggested.

"Sounds good to me!' Dawn agreed as we entered the school building.

I stayed silent. I didn't know what I wanted to do, but I did know that I wanted to be alone for a while. While I loved Dawn and May dearly, I was starting to become annoyed with their constant asking if I was okay. I just needed a few minutes to myself.

The girls entered the elevator with the dorm employees carrying their luggage. They turned back in confusion when they saw I wasn't following.

"Leaf, are you coming?"

"I'll catch the next one," I told them. "We might pass the weight capacity if I get on too."

The girls didn't argue with my logic, but it looked like they wanted to. I watched as their faces disappeared behind the closing elevator doors and sighed in relief. Once the next elevator came, I took my bag from the dorm attendant and told him I would be fine heading up on my own. I got up to my floor and immediately went to my dorm room.

Misty wasn't there yet, but she would no doubt be arriving later. I was slightly put at ease by her absence, because I knew if she wasn't here than that meant he wouldn't be either. I dropped my bag on the floor of my bedroom before exiting the dorm again.

I felt slightly guilty about not telling Dawn and May where I was going, but I still didn't feel like having company. I decided to go and get my midterm marks on my own so that I would have something to do. Once outside Valor Hall again, I buttoned my emerald coat tighter around myself and tucked in my black scarf before starting down the path.

It took me about an hour to get to the building and find all of my teachers to get my grades. I was texted multiple times by both May and Dawn all the while, asking for my whereabouts, but I just responded with the sad excuse of wanting to be alone for a bit. I knew they just wanted to help, but I didn't want to burden them. And I wasn't truly ready to give them the full story yet.

I received my art midterm mark last and sighed in relief at my passing grade. I'd gotten top marks in all my classes, meaning that Changing Grace was still eligible to compete in the concert next week. I felt better after being by myself for a while, my good grades lifting my spirits a little. I made my way down the stairs to the first floor to retrieve my coat from my locker.

I was exiting the stair-well when my phone suddenly went off. I recognized the ringtone, A Part of Your World, as Misty's personal chime. I fished my phone out of my shoulder purse and answered it.

"Hi Misty. What's up?" I asked, both unnerved and excited to hear her voice.

"What's up!? I haven't seen you in two weeks and that's all I get!? Where are you anyway? I thought you'd be in our room when I got back."

"I'm just getting my marks!" I told her. "I'll be back soon. I still have your birthday slash Christmas gift to give you."

"Fine. I guess I'll forgive you since I'm getting presents. Just hurry up already, I'm hungry and I want to go get lunch!" she complained.

"Alright, alright! Be right there. Bye."

"Bye."

I hung up as I turned the corner. But when I looked down the almost-barren hallway and saw the one person I'd been terrified of seeing again, leaning against my locker, my insides froze in fear.

Gary didn't turn to face me, but his eyes still found mine. I lowered the hand my phone was in slowly, gripping it harder than necessary. My mind went blank of any thoughts and my emotions rose up like a tidal wave.

Fear, confusion, guilt, regret, and sadness all spread throughout my body like blood through my veins. When he was gone, blocking out the memory of him and the pain that came with it was a little bit easier, but seeing him again just made me feel despicable. It was like reliving that horrible night all over again, but I couldn't force myself to look away. I knew then that whatever hatred Gary felt for me now, it would never be as deep as the hatred I felt for myself for saying all those horrible things to him.

My other hand wearing the bracelet instinctively went behind my back, afraid that he would take it away. But I knew I didn't really deserve it, just like I didn't deserve him.

I shoved my phone into my pocket and wiped off the accumulating sweat from my palms on my baby blue sweater. I walked forward with purpose, despite the dread that built up in me the closer I got to him.

I stopped in front of his leaning form, keeping my eyes trained on anywhere but his. "Hello."

"Hey," he responded, equally as monotone as I had. "Can we talk?"

"About what?" I asked.

His eyes narrowed a fraction. I fought not to flinch away from his frustrated glare. The way he was staring at me really was that of a stranger. Appropriate, given the last conversation between us.

"I've been thinking a lot about the things you said to me last time," he explained to me. "And some of it didn't make sense."

I was about to respond, but he beat me to it.

"Actually none of it made sense! You basically just shut me out, and you barely even let me get a word in. So I figured that you kind of owe me an explanation."

"I don't owe you anything," I said calmly.

"Oh really!?" he questioned angrily. "Because I think six years of friendship entitles me to something, even though it apparently didn't mean anything to you."

His words stabbed me like a knife. I didn't blame him though. He had every right to be mad.

"What do you want?" I tried to keep my voice steady, but it was difficult.

"You said that I deserved more. That you couldn't be enough. All of that sounds like you were trying to do the right thing, but then you…you made it sound like you hated me. None of what you did adds up."

"I don't have to explain myself to you," I told him. He was still fighting my decision, even after every awful thing I'd said to him. Couldn't he see that Amber was right? In a way, I had been leading him on. Why couldn't he just stay away? Why was he still holding on to the idea that there was more to me than he could see?

"Dammit Green!" He punched the locker beside him, the loud sound making me jump. "Even now? You still won't talk to me even when you have nothing left to lose!?"

I have everything to lose, I thought desperately. And I can't drag you down with me. Not you Gary…

"Please just go," I asked coldly.

This was hard enough as it was. Having him here with me…it made me want to tell him everything. What Amber had said, everything that had happened in my past, the real reason why I couldn't be with him. But doing that would give him hope. I knew I had to live with myself, but that didn't mean Gary had to.

Suddenly I was pushed back hard against the cold metal of the lockers, faster than I could react. My wrist was pinned above my head and the guy I'd told to leave had trapped me between the wall and his body. Gary was much taller than I was, but it was twice as noticeable while I was forced to look up at him as he glared down at me.

I felt like I was suffocating from raging heat and freezing cold as he stared down at me with his angry gold eyes. His glare was a mix of heated fury and cold resentment. But behind that, I also saw confusion, as if he didn't understand or recognize what I was.

He leaned down and pressed his forehead against my brow, unblinking as he continued to hold my terrified gaze. I was speechless while he kept me at his mercy. I didn't dare move, even to breath. With him this close, I felt like something was burning inside of me and moving in any way would cause it to consume me. So I just stayed still.

He closed his eyes and breathed out. "You were right. I don't know you anymore."

Then he let go and stepped back. I dropped my wrist into my other hand, now noticing the pain that surrounded the place where he'd held it. There was a red imprint of the charm bracelet woven around the flesh of my wrist and it stung when I touched it.

He opened his eyes again and looked at me indifferently. I was used to seeing only two sides of Gary, the player and my friend. But this new, cold side of him was foreign to me. I didn't recognize the person standing in front of me at all.

He glanced down at the wrist I cradled. "You can keep the bracelet. I don't want it back. You can get rid of it for all I care."

I cringed at his sneer. Gary was being…mean. Something I hadn't known the cocky, teasing boy knew how to be. It made me feel even worse, because I knew of only one reason why people resorted to such tactics.

"I guess I was wrong."

"Huh?" I breathed, feeling my heart pound inside my chest.

"In thinking that you had a heart worth breaking."

After that, he turned his back and walked away from me. I stared as his retreating figure became smaller and smaller, letting his words sink into me like burning coals. I held my wrist closer to my heart, trying with all my strength to hold on to the last happy memories I had of him. I tightly held the precious bracelet that he'd only let me keep our of pity.

I leaned back against my locker as I thought about Gary's words. After suffering through my own experiences with unkind people, I knew there was only ever one reason why people acted that way.

Because they themselves had something hurting inside too. Something that hurt so much that sometimes they had to release it and hurt someone else just to give themselves a moment of rest and relief.

I sunk down to the floor, still clutching the gold charms close to myself. I'd wanted him to move on and be happy. Hurting him the way I had was the only way, but it still killed me to have to do it. I thought I'd be happy when he finally moved on, but now all I felt was hurt. Hopefully as much as I had caused him.

Then that way, at least we'd be even.

May

Misty lowered her cell phone from her ear. "She sounded fine to me."

The three of us sat in Misty's bedroom as she unpacked her clothes from her navy blue suitcase. Dawn sat cross-legged on Misty's white and blue bed-spread while I occupied her black desk chair.

"Are you sure?" Dawn asked, concern obvious in her tone.

"Yeah, she said she'd be back soon. Now are you guys gonna tell me what's going on or not?"

Dawn and I exchanged a worried glance. We had been in the middle of catching Misty up on the events over the past two weeks when she'd asked where Leaf was. Dawn and I hadn't gotten positive responses from trying to contact her all day, so we'd asked Misty to be the one to call and check up on her, hoping she'd get a better result.

"We don't even know what's going on!" I huffed. "It took us a whole week just to get her to tell us anything, and even then we didn't get much."

"All she told us," Dawn interjected. "Was that she had a fight with Gary after the art gallery. And from the way she's been acting, it had to have been bad."

"Well that makes sense, I guess," Misty responded. "I didn't see Gary much during break, but when I did he was looking downright miserable."

"Did you talk to him?" I asked.

"Tried to, but I didn't get much out of him either."

The three of us fell into contemplative silence. Dawn and Misty were no doubt coming up with different theories about what could have happened, but I was sincerely dumbstruck. Leaf and Gary never fought, at least not the way Drew and I used to. Gary would piss Leaf off, but they didn't argue and she never stayed mad. Those two had known each other way too long for that to happen. But now after one fight they were both incredibly depressed. What on earth could have happened?

"I don't understand," I admitted in frustration. "Why wouldn't either of them tell us what happened?"

"You didn't tell us that you almost kissed Drew until a few days after it happened," Dawn reminded me.

"Oh yeah…" I conceded. It had taken me a while to get my thoughts straight on that one. But I hadn't waited two weeks to tell my friends about it, only a couple days! What could those two have fought about that Leaf didn't feel comfortable telling us?

Then panic struck as I compared my own reaction to how Leaf was acting now. "WAIT! You don't think something like that could have happened, do you!?"

Both Misty and Dawn gasped in shock at my suggestion.

"No way!" Dawn answered unbelievably.

"You think Gary made a move on her?" Misty questioned. She punched her fist into her hand in anger. "I swear if Gary did anything inappropriate, I will kill him!"

"Well it would explain why she's being so distant," I theorized. "I know I was confused after what happened with Drew."

But Leaf was always honest as well, and she didn't normally keep things from us. But unfortunately, there had been a time when she preferred to deal with everything by herself. And the way she was handling things currently reminded me a lot of that time.

"But Leaf said they had a fight," Dawn reminded us. "And she wouldn't have lied to us about that. And right now, the idea of Gary making a move on her is just a theory, we don't know that's what happened..."

"It's still a decent theory, and it's not like Leaf has told us anything else," I argued.

"Some people need time," Misty spoke up. "Whatever happened, I'm sure Leaf will explain when she's ready. Maybe she just needs more time to, ya' know… process."

"I just wish processing wouldn't take so long!" I whined, throwing my head back in irritation. "It's been two whole weeks and she still looks sad."

"That also begs the question," Dawn began. "If Gary did make a move on Leaf, then why would she be sad at all?"

No one said anything as Dawn's question hung in the air.

"Do you think…she turned him down?" Misty suggested.

Dawn and I exchanged another look.

"It's possible," Dawn spoke first. "But again, we really don't know what happened. The only thing we can do is wait for Leaf to tell us the truth."

"I don't think I can do that…" I admitted. Dawn and I had been worried for two whole weeks now, and I was NOT good at keeping that kind of panic down. "Now I'm way too scared. I can't stop thinking about it! We've got to get her to fess up somehow!"

"May, I don't-"

"Keeping things all bottled up isn't healthy Dawn!" I interrupted her. "I know that better than anyone. As Leaf's best friends, we've got to find out what happened whether she likes it or not!"

"I think you're going a bit overboard," Dawn told me.

"Well we've got to do something!" I exclaimed loudly. "If we don't, she could be in danger of reverting back to how she was before!"

"How she was before?" Misty asked in confusion.

"That was years ago May," Dawn continued. "And that's no excuse for making Leaf talk before she's ready."

"But if she goes back to how she was, then she'll NEVER talk to us! THE VERY FABIRC OF OUR FRIENDSHIP COULD BE IN JEOPARDY!" I ranted dramatically, standing up from the chair.

"GUYS!" Misty shouted, garnering out attention. "What are you two talking about!?"

I looked to Dawn, communicating that perhaps it would be better if she started the explanation. Dawn sighed in remembrance. "Well, back when she first moved to Twinleaf town, Leaf was very isolated. She was always by herself and wasn't really interested in making any friends. She got better once we became friends with her, but it took a really long time for her to fully open up to us."

"We didn't even know that she had a friend named Gary until a year before we came to this school. It took three whole years for her to tell us even a little bit about her time in Pallet town! And the way she's been acting these past few weeks, always mopey and wanting to be alone, is EXACTLY the way she used to act back then. And there's no way we can let her go back to that again!" I promised.

"But what can we do May?" Dawn asked.

"It's not like we can kidnap her," Misty suggested.

My eyes lit up. "That's a great idea!" I marveled.

"WHAT!?" Dawn asked, obvious shock written across her face.

"Yeah! We wouldn't have to do it for long or anything. We could just find an empty classroom late at night and lock her in there until she's ready to tell us what happened! Let's see, we'll need duct tape, rope, something with wheels to transport the body…"

"We are NOT kidnapping Leaf!" Dawn jumped up, waving her hands back and forth wildly.

"Aww!" My shoulders slumped at the thought of no longer kidnapping someone temporarily. It definitely would have worked if Dawn wasn't so darn good-natured.

"Dawn's right. I wouldn't feel right holding my roommate against her will. On the other hand, we could kidnap Gary and beat him up until he tells us the truth…" Misty pondered the idea slyly.

I gasped in excitement. "Can we!?" I turned to Dawn.

"NO!" Dawn ordered. "Sheesh, what is it with you and kidnapping today?"

"Well I don't see you coming up with any ideas," I crossed my arms and huffed in frustration.

"Look," Dawn sighed. "I don't like this any better than you guys do. If it weren't for you three then I never would have snapped out of my princess phase. And the thought of leaving Leaf to her own devices is seriously frustrating. But we can't get her to talk before she's ready. All we can do is be there for her until she is."

Misty and I let out a collective sigh. We knew she was right, but it was hard to admit. Sitting and waiting for something to happen was not the preferable choice. But what else could we do?

"When did you become the voice of reason?" I asked.

"Since Leaf isn't here to do it herself," Dawn replied.

Distantly, I heard a door being opened. We all froze and stared at the door quietly.

"She's back!" I whispered loudly.

"How is that possible!?" Dawn whispered too. "We only called her a few minutes ago and she was all the way at the school!"

"One of us should go talk to her," Misty hushed. "If we all go we might intimidate her."

We all looked at each other questioningly.

"Not it!" Misty and Dawn said simultaneously.

"What!? No fair!" I whined. I internally cursed my bad reflexes.

"Just go May!" Misty ordered.

I sighed in defeat. I hadn't had any success getting Leaf to open up for two whole weeks, so I didn't think that was about to miraculously change now. What did they expect me to do exactly, work miracles?

Quietly, I poked my head outside of Misty's bedroom and crept into the main living room. At the door, I saw a very familiar head of honey brown hair.

"Hey, your back!" I welcomed as I came into the living room.

Leaf jumped in surprise at my voice. She was breathing heavily as she undressed from her winter attire before turning around to face me.

"May? What are you doing here?" she asked with fake curiosity.

I tried, and failed, to hide my concern as Leaf casually rubbed at her eyes. I noticed right away that they were slightly red around the rims.

She'd been crying. And there was nothing I could do to make it better.

"Um, Dawn and I came over to give Misty her gifts and then we were all going to get lunch. How did you get back so fast? Misty only called you a few minutes ago."

"Oh, it's um, really cold outside so I guess I was just motivated…to get out of the cold, I mean," Leaf smiled, sounding fragile. I almost choked on my own tongue at the realization that she was… lying! Badly lying, but it was still a lie. A very un-Leaf like thing to do.

"Well, do you want to come with us? All that running must have made you hungry, right?!" I chimed, ignoring her obvious misdirect. It was killing me inside not to ask what was wrong, but perhaps Dawn was right about not pushing. I'd try her approach and attempt to be supportive first before I went and perused any extreme options.

"No thanks," Leaf declined politely. "I'm really tired. I think I'm going to go lay down."

"But what about Misty's gifts?" I asked, knowing she wouldn't want to let her friend down.

Leaf looked conflicted, but it was still clear to me that she wasn't going to change her mind.

"I'll give it to her later. You guys have fun."

Before I could think of anything else to say, she'd already walked past me and into her room at the end of the hall. Once her door was shut, Dawn and Misty poked their heads out the other bedroom and looked at me inquisitively.

I breathed in uneasiness. "Guys…it's worse than we thought."

Dawn

I opened the door to my bedroom as quietly as I could. It was almost eight o'clock, so May would no doubt be too distracted playing video games or reading comic books in her room to notice me leaving.

We'd gotten back from checking our marks around six. We'd tried to get Leaf to join us for dinner, but she claimed to have a headache. Misty promised to get her to eat something when we got back, getting her something small from the lounge.

I was too worried about Leaf to be happy about my grades. We'd all passed our midterms, meaning we didn't have to worry about competing in the Pearl concert next week. But with all that's been going on, I wasn't sure we'd even be ready for the concert.

I tip-toed through the living room with my key card in hand. I slowly opened the door to my dorm and closed it behind me with a quiet click. Once I was in the clear, I made my way to the elevator and swiped my card again.

Leaf wasn't the only one keeping secrets, but I was pretty sure mine was much less distressing than hers was. In my pink purse, I kept a handbook that I'd been reading religiously since the beginning of November. 'The First Stage to Learning Guitar' was the title.

As I stepped into the shiny elevator, I wondered to myself when I was going to tell my friends what I had been learning. While growing up, Leaf had shown me a few scales on the guitar, but it was all just for fun. I hadn't become seriously interested in learning how to play until we'd formed our band. I'd chosen to learn the basics in secret so that I could ask Leaf later for more serious lessons, but now my timing seemed seriously questionable.

I didn't feel right asking her to teach me guitar now when she was going through so much, so I figured it would have to wait. It wasn't a big deal since I was getting along fine on my own, but I was only an amateur at best. I didn't think I'd be as good as Leaf or any of the guys anytime soon, since they'd been playing for years, but I hoped that someday I could be half as good a guitarist as they were. That way I would feel like I was contributing a little bit more to our music.

I looked at my reflection in the shiny elevator mirrors and smoothed my hair down. I wore my purple winter coat, since I was going to the roof to read and I knew nobody would be there when it was this cold out. I also wore black skinny jeans and white boots on my feet, and I had a white scarf on as well.

I didn't really know why I wanted to go to the roof of all places, but I knew that if I read in my room than I'd be on constant alert in case May came barging in. At least on the roof I knew I'd be alone.

The elevator doors opened and I was immediately bombarded with a blast of cold air. Despite the glass dome protecting the top most floor from snowfall, it was still cold as Snowpoint city up here. The climbing ivy was black and shriveled against the glass from the temperatures, awaiting spring to be reborn.

I walked further onto the upper deck of the dormitory, grinning at the sight of emptiness. It might be cold, but it was all clear as far as I could see. Not to mention the view of the campus at night was pretty amazing.

In fact I was so busy appreciating the glittering winter sky that I didn't notice that my earlier assessment of barrenness was not true. As I headed towards the chairs to find a place to sit and read in the night-time air, I gasped when I saw that there was someone up here besides me, and he seemed not to have noticed my presence the same way I hadn't noticed his.

"Paul?" I couldn't help but question out loud.

He glanced at me from the corner of his eye. He was currently occupying one of the plastic lounge chairs with his arms tucked behind his head lazily. He looked slightly taken off guard, probably because he hadn't expected that I could come up beside him without him noticing.

"Troublesome," he acknowledged.

I frowned at him and rolled my eyes. I didn't bother telling him the same old "My name is Dawn" because he obviously knew that and didn't care. He preferred using the nickname and to be honest, I was so used to it by now that I didn't even bother to get mad.

"What are you doing up here?" I asked.

"I could ask you the same thing," he countered.

I glanced down at my purse and smiled shakily. I didn't want anyone to know about my side-project quite yet. Not my friends and definitely not Paul. He'd probably tell me that it would take me forever to get good enough to perform onstage, and I was trying to stay as positive about my endeavor as possible.

"I just…wanted to be alone for a while," I lied easily, hoping he wouldn't notice. "Now you answer my question."

He switched his gaze from me to the stars above our heads. "I like it up here."

I sighed at his short answer. Same old Paul, but I had to admit that it was kind of strange not having him around while I was gone. Talking to him again was nice and normal. I had kind of missed it.

"How was your break?" I asked, trying to keep the conversation going.

"It was fine," he responded blandly.

His short answers didn't annoy me like they used to. By now I had accepted that it was just the way he was. But I also knew that if he had something to say, he allowed himself to go over his ten word limit for sentences.

"Do you mind if I sit?" I asked, gesturing to another lounge chair beside his.

"I thought you wanted to be alone," he inquired.

"Well, now I don't. So can I sit or not?" I asked again.

He looked back at me in boredom, probably debating whether he truly minded or not.

"I guess."

I accepted his vague answer without question. I took a seat on the white plastic chair next to his and leaned back against its vertical structure. It was still cold up on the rooftop, but it was also very peaceful.

"Why do you like coming up here?" I asked curiously. "If you don't mind me asking."

"Lots of reasons," he said mysteriously.

"Like what?" I questioned further.

"You know the last time you asked me a bunch of questions, it didn't end well," he reminded me as he stared up at the sky.

I flinched at the embarrassing memory. "Right…sorry…"

I stared up at the sky as he did. There wasn't much light around the campus at this time of night, but there were still some glowing street lamps scattered around. But up here, away from city lights, I could make out some of the stars, almost as well as I could back in Twinleaf Town where there weren't any city lights at all.

"It's beautiful up here," I commented. "It reminds me of home a bit."

Paul didn't respond. But I liked to think that he was listening.

"Can you see the stars like this back in Veilstone?" I asked quietly.

"No," Paul answered.

"That's too bad," I murmured gently. "I can see the stars every night back in Twinleaf Town. It's a very small town, so there's no light to obscure the view. But here in Hearthome, you have to be up way high to be able to see them past all the lights."

"Yeah…" he agreed.

We sat in silence for so long after that, I almost forgot Paul was there with me. I started to count constellations in my head as I gazed up at the dark sky.

"I like being close to the sky."

I turned my head at Paul's voice. He sounded far away, as if he were talking to someone else. I smiled at the comfort I felt when I was with him now. It was proof that we had become closer, because Paul never would have bothered making a comment like that to me way back in September.

"So," I changed topic. "Are you guys going to be ready for the concert next week?"

Paul glanced over at me. "We should be. What about you guys?"

"I hope so," I admitted, letting my doubt show through. "But no matter what, Changing Grace is gonna try their best!"

"You don't sound too confident."

I looked back up towards the top of the glass dome. "How can you tell?"

Paul stretched his hands above his head. "Just a hunch I suppose."

"There's just been some stuff going on…" I thought back to Leaf, and the sadness she refused to share with us. "But I'm sure it'll all be fine by next week!"

"How positive of you," Paul commented doubtfully.

"That's just how I am!" I announced proudly. "Always confident, always looking on the bright side! It'll all be fine. It will be…"

I said it the first time to convince Paul, but the second time was more for my sake then his. My worry was eating me up inside, but I couldn't talk to Paul about it. That wouldn't be right, telling him about the drama that was going on between Gary and Leaf. I would wait until I knew more before I decided the best course of action.

I wracked my brain for a different topic of conversation. Something that would distance us from this troubling situation.

I gasped in remembrance. "Oh that's right!" I exclaimed loudly, sitting straight up in my seat.

I heard Paul grunt in question as he lifted his head to look at me.

"I completely forgot!" I burst out as I snatched my pink purse up from the ground and started digging around in it. The contents were getting in my way, but eventually I found what I was looking for and pulled out a cube-shaped white box.

"Found it!" I cheered.

I held it out to Paul, who looked at it in confusion, as if it were a puzzle he was supposed to solve.

"Here!" I insisted. "I got you something. Think of it like a late Christmas present."

It was quick, but I swore that I saw a look of surprise flash through Paul's onyx eyes. Even after it disappeared, he still looked confused as he continued to stare at the box blankly.

"Why?" he asked questioningly.

"Because it's something you need," I smiled devilishly. "You can thank me later."

Hesitantly, he took the white box from me and held it in one hand. He still looked like he perceived it as some kind of test.

"I didn't get you anything," he said matter-of-factly, like he was defending his actions.

"Good, because I didn't want anything," I responded, not offended in the least. "Now go on and open it!"

His eyebrows were raised in question, but he complied with my encouragement. He took the lid off of the plain white box, and this time he made no effort to hide the surprise from his expression.

I grinned madly as he took out the material contents of the small package. In his hand he held a black on black, diagonally stripped tie, similar in design to the one I borrowed from Drew. I threw my arms up in excited celebration.

"Congratulations! You now own your own tie! You need one after all, now that you're a student here and-"

I was cut off by a sudden burst of laughter. It took me all of ten seconds to realize that it had come from Paul.

Paul…PAUL was laughing. It was short and unexpected, but it was genuine as well. I didn't think the stoic teenager was even capable of such an outburst of positive emotion, but apparently I had been mistaken.

His smile was still some-what smirk-like, but it felt warmer than his usual expression. It was filled with sincere humor and appreciation and made me feel like I was over-flowing with accomplishment. I had gotten Paul Shinji to smile and laugh. I had gotten him to show real emotion for once.

I felt myself blush at the thought alone.

"I have to admit," he marveled. "Your funnier than I give you credit for."

My face beamed at the compliment. "Well, I try."

He put the tie back in the box and set it down beside his chair, still looking fairly amused by my gift. I kept looking at him though, my heart warming to the sensation of being here, with him, and actually having fun.

"Hey Paul?" I spoke up, causing him to face me again. "I'm glad we're friends."

I saw the same flash of surprise before it vanished behind his eyes again. I accepted that his walls were still up and that he didn't like showing his emotions on the outside. But it was nice to know that he was able to, none-the-less. He smirked as he leaned back down in his chair.

"Whatever Troublesome," he said good-naturedly. He was still smirking while he said it, so I took that to mean sincerity.

I smiled wider before leaning back down into my own chair. I trained my gaze back on the sky as Paul had, thanking the stars for what had turned out to be a pretty great night. I sent my wish out to the shining lights in the darkness, hoping that Leaf would come to us soon and explain what was going on. After all, if Paul and I could become friends, then whatever had happened between Leaf and Gary could surely be healed, couldn't it?

"Paul…do you mind if I stay here for a while?" I asked softly, not taking my eyes off of the amazing view above us.

I didn't hear him shift beside me, so I knew he was still staring up at the same sky as well. He stayed silent for so long that I became scared that he wanted me to leave so that he could be alone. My nerves soothed when he finally answered me.

"Not at all."

A/N: This is honestly one of my favorite ikarishipping moments I've written yet! I can't decide if I like it better than the scene after the Diamond concert in chapter 21, but it's a close second at least! I hope you guys liked it too, and I promise to bring you more next week. Same time, same place! Until next time my lovely readers!