"You think he'll be okay?" Amber asked Tristan as they walked through the fairgrounds.
"That's a good question." Tristan sighed, trying to figure out how to answer "If you had asked me a month ago I'd have said yes, a week ago maybe. But now? I don't know."
"What happened a week ago?" Amber raised an eyebrow, reminding Tristan that he hadn't told her about their mission.
"You know how we had our first sanctioned mission after the dance?" he whispered "Well it was to another 'BK' base."
"Oh gods what happened?"
"An old friend of Kobalt's was there, she didn't make it." Tristan told her "Apparently she was his only friend back when he was still with them."
"And how did he handle that?" she asked him
"Not well, melted a crater in the ground when it happened. Then he raced off to Patch to bury her." Tristan went on "And when we got back here he snuck out later that night. I woke up and was about to go find him when I noticed Nickole saw he was gone too. But by the time she reached the door he was back."
"And now on top of all that he's got to deal with this too." Amber sighed, "No wonder Nickole is freaking out."
"Yeah tell me about it, I'm surprised Kobalt still hasn't caught on." He nearly laughed "I swear the guy is perceptive on anything but her."
"Really? I thought-"
"Hey Tristan!" a girls voice rang out behind them.
"Wow, they're getting bold." Amber growled "You've never been bothered with me before."
"Yeah tell me about…" Tristan sighed as he turned his head "Oh, relax it's just Jazz. She doesn't hit on me."
"Really?"
"Tristan, how's Kobalt doing?" Jazz asked, catching her breath as she stopped her run directly in front of the two. "I figure he's not in a good mood about the analysis the other day."
"He's managing." Tristan told her, not technically lying "He's not really bothered by the analysis."
"Yeah I didn't think he would be." Jazz added "But after every other comment I heard outside the newsstand I figured he could use some support."
"Yeah it was nice of you to say that." Amber weighed in, and Tristan was surprised not to hear a harsh undertone as she spoke.
"You must be Tristan's girlfriend." Jazz realized "I'm Jasmine, nice to finally meet you. Get this one going and he doesn't shut up about you."
"Really?" Amber asked, flashing a wicked grin at Tristan "And do tell, what is it he says?"
"Well between what he says and meeting you now, it's no wonder he doesn't give any of the girls the time of day." Jazz laughed "Better hold on to her Tristan."
But then something strange happened, Jasmine Gale turned serious.
"So are you going to tell me how Kobalt's really doing or not?" Jazz asked "Because I know 'managing' isn't what you'd tell me if he was okay."
"Jazz you know I can't tell you how-"
"Why not? I already know about his amnesia, that he reunited with his mother here, and I was there when his dad barged in out of his mind." Jazz nearly yelled, getting the attention of a few people passing by. "Come on, after all that can you really say I'm out of the loop on this stuff?"
"Yes actually I can." Tristan said immediately
"And you won't fill me in will you?" she asked, Tristan merely nodded "Why, he's my friend too, and it's not like he's part of some Atlas secret project."
Tristan bit the inside of his cheek as he prepared to tell her no, but the moment of hesitation was all the answer she needed.
"Oh my god." Jazz gasped as her eyes went wide "He is, isn't he?! That's why you never tell us about his past isn't it? Is that why he's so strong, how long have you know, did he lose his memory on some mission or-"
"Jazz would you shut up." Tristan whispered angrily "You're making a scene."
Jazz looked around to see what Tristan had noticed while she had been asking so many questions, there were more than a few people looking their way now. Jazz had always been a bit loud, and because of that she hadn't realized their conversation was no longer private.
"Follow me." Tristan sighed as he led the way to somewhere less populated. But with no matches going on, the fairgrounds were completely covered in people. The one empty stall he found had no one working behind the counter, Tristan looked around to make sure there wasn't anyone nearby and pulled out the stools on the side with their back to the edge of the fairgrounds.
"I'm digging all the cloak and dagger." Jazz said, far more excited than she should be.
"Jazz this isn't a game." Tristan told her "You know that seriousness you were showing when you were asking if Kobalt was okay? Well try and find that again."
"Is it that bad?" she asked
"What do you think?" Tristan countered "And for the record, he's not part of anything from Atlas."
"So what's his deal then?" Jazz asked
"His 'deal' is he's freaking complicated as hell. Remember all those things you said about him in the interview?" Tristan started "Well you're right, but if we hadn't been there to find out who he was I'm not sure he would've told us."
"So it is that bad." Jazz sighed
"It's just the tip of the iceberg," Tristan went on "You think we were really doing special training with Professor Midori that whole time? We were laying low to keep him safe."
"Tristan are you sure you should be saying even this much?" Amber asked him
"Wait, do you know Amber?" Jazz asked her.
"Yeah, Nickole needed someone to talk to about her end of the whole thing." Amber said "She's been freaking out fairly bad since they all found out. Honestly, I wish I didn't know."
"So are you going to stop dancing around the question or are you going to tell me?" Jazz asked "What is going on?"
"Kobalt didn't used to fight for the kingdoms." Tristan told her "He didn't know it at the time, but he was working for people who you don't want to mess with."
"And that's all you should probably tell her." Amber added
"And why's that?" Jazz asked
"Because you're not as good at keeping secrets as you thinks you are." Amber said "If you were, you would've pretended to be interested in Tristan even with me here."
"What the Dust are you talking about?" Tristan asked
"See I had him fooled." Jazz argued
"And he can be more than a bit clueless at times." Amber countered "Jazz isn't interested in you the same way she's not interested in any other guys. At all."
"Wait, Jazz are you…" Tristan stammered as he came to the realization of what Amber was saying. Before he could compose himself and finish his sentence, Jazz's scroll went off.
"Oh thank god," She whispered before answering it "Dore? Yeah of course were still on for tonight, okay, see you then."
"You know, a simple yes would've sufficed." Tristan said as Jazz hung up. "I don't get it, why would you hide that from anyone?"
"Oh I don't know, maybe because every single girl in school is pining for you." Jazz scoffed "Literally every single one, kinda makes their stance on sexuality clear. I thought I stood a chance with Nickole before I realized she had a thing for Kobalt instead."
"But Dore…" Tristan started
"Ended up 're-evaluating' herself after she stopped acting like she was." Jazz cut him off "That included a few other aspects of her life she wound up talking to her team leader, me, about."
"How long ago did this happen?" Tristan asked
"Like I said since she stopped acting like a priss, please don't tell her I said that." Jazz added as it dawned on her just what she had said. "It took months of talking to get her this far, and she's pretty nervous."
"Hence the phone call." Amber gathered
"Yeah, she's never been on a date before." Jazz said "Let alone with another girl."
"Well we'd hate to keep you." Tristan said, no so subtly trying to get rid of Jazz "You should probably start getting ready for said date."
"Oh no you don't, you're not switching the gears that easily." Jazz countered "I've still got a few questions."
"And I'll give you the same answer." Tristan told her "Silence."
"Fine I'll just ask Kobalt myself." Jazz reasoned. "I know I don't act like it, but I care about my friends too."
"Okay go ahead, just wait until after the tournament." Tristan sighed "Trust me, it's best if he doesn't talk much about it in the meantime."
"Why's that?"
"You want him to win the tournament don't you?" Amber asked "Well from what I've seen that won't happen if he's thinking about his past out there."
"Remember you're duel with him?" Tristan asked "He was worried about Nickole the whole time, imagine him worrying about his past."
"Unbelievable, since when did you become a reasonable person?" Jazz asked him
"Well he likes to put on a show for his better half." Amber countered
"Alright fine." Jazz sighed "Just, let me know if there's anything I can do to help."
"I will." Tristan said as Jazz stood up and walked away.
"As soon as there's something I can do to help." He added once she was gone.
"Hey you've done a lot already haven't you?" Amber asked
"Not really no, all I've done is occasionally get him to talk about stuff." Tristan admitted pushing himself up from his stool.
"Hey that helps." Amber reasoned, quickly following him off the fairgrounds.
"He's not exactly a closed off person, and lately the guy all but wears his emotions on his sleeve." He told her "One time he kept how he was doing secret from us, and it took me less than a minute to make him talk."
"Then what do you think needs to happen?" She asked him "Because someone needs to do something, hell after seeing what happened to him yesterday I want to help."
"Well I'm sure he'd appreciate the offer," Tristan chuckled "But if I know my two friends, Kobalt's already got an angel on his shoulder."
"You know that implies he's got a devil on the other one." Amber said
"I don't know about a devil, but the guy certainly has his demons." He sighed "And I hate myself for saying this, but I think we need to let Nickole handle things for a bit."
"Think she can?"
"She's been the only one to calm him down when he freaks out, so yeah." Tristan added "She can handle this, even if she's not so sure herself."
_
A/N
Short chapter this week sorry, in fact this is probably my shortest chapter ever. And I'm not proud of that.
I mostly felt like I needed to give a quick look into Tristan's reaction to his best friends latest issues, that and I need a bit more time to work on the final round of the tournament.
So I guess Tristan went from being a plot device to filler a little bit in this chapter.
Again sorry, but I'll make up for it with 39. It's big, real big. And has my favorite fight scene in all of KNGT. So far at least.
As always; comment, critique, tear my work apart and point out all the glaring flaws if you feel like. Just try to be constructive, I can't fix anything if all you do is slam it.