"Remind me again why I agreed to this."

Elliot stood in front of the bookstore he had visited the other day, one hand over his face in frustration.

"Because, you should give him another chance!" Oz stood next to him, an encouraging grin on his face. "I bet you two just got off on the wrong foot, that's all!"

"You really are an idiot..." Elliot groaned, shaking his head. "He's violent, Oz. And somehow, I seemed to set that violent tendency off! I'll be lucky if he doesn't decide to punch me upon sight!"

But despite Elliot's protests, he was rather curious. Well, perhaps curious would be too strong of a word. That made it sound like he was interested, which he most certainly was not. He didn't care about Leo, nor was he interested. Or at least that's what he tried to convince himself of. But with each passing minute, he found himself growing more and more...fine, the word to describe it would indeed be curious.

"I'm sure it'll be fine!" Oz insisted, "After all, you and I are friends, and we fight a lot!"

"Yes, but that's different." Elliot countered, "I don't hit you hard or throw things at you out of malice. I just get annoyed with you sometimes." He sighed, dropping his hand down to his side. "Look, I don't even know what I'm supposed to be doing!"

"Just go back in and talk to him!" Oz explained, "Ask him about that book again, or…..I don't know, just think of something!"

"You're no help at all…..." Elliot sighed again, and glanced inside the bookstore. "You know what? Fine, I'll go in there again. But if it's a disaster, I'm blaming it on you, since you're the one who suggested it." Elliot couldn't help but feel as though he would have come back sooner or later on his own, but he didn't voice this aloud, and instead just took a breath, and pushed the door open.

And who else should be standing at the door but Leo?

"Oh, hey, it's you again." The black-haired boy greeted, but it was slightly absent-minded, as he was busy setting up a "new reads" display. "Came back for that book?"

Elliot blinked in surprise. He had half expected the scenario that he had described to Oz, to actually happen. But yet it seemed as if Leo hadn't even cared about that incident. "Yeah, I did. I'm looking for volume 16. You wouldn't happen to have it yet, would you?" For now, he decided to just try and start a normal conversation.

Leo smirked, and reached down into a box at his feet. "Yeah, gimme just a second to finish getting this set up, and I'll show you, if you still need help finding it, that is."

Elliot had to bite his tongue, to not give a retort. He knew that Leo was referencing their argument the other day, and he didn't find it amusing in the slightest. So instead, he simply responded, "Yeah, sure. That sounds good."

About two minutes later, during which Elliot knew he could have found the book on his own (but knowing that Oz would have been upset, and he did not want to have to deal with that), Leo finally finished setting up the display, and turned to Elliot. "Alright, let's go find that book."

Elliot followed behind Leo, who walked past aisles and aisles of books, until they reached a section within the fiction area marked "fantasy". "Alright, now it's down this way, and…...here." He reached up to a shelf nearly out of his reach, and pulled down a copy of Holy Knight.

"Ah, thanks." Elliot took the book, unsure of what to say next. He hadn't planned this far ahead, in fact, he hadn't really planned at all.

"Listen, I know that that friend of yours put you up to this. I could see you two standing outside." Leo remarked after a moment. "So don't feel like you're obligated to talk to me or anything." His voice held a sarcastic, slightly teasing tone.

"Ah, well, he did, but, I mean…." Elliot searched for the right words, cursing his inability to come up with them. "Why now of all times?"

"Oh? What's this? Don't tell me you came back because you were the one curious about me." Leo laughed, crossing his arms.

"What? No!" Elliot exclaimed, his face going red. "Well, I mean, yes, but no….." He groaned in frustration, face-palming. "You're just…...I don't know. I guess you could say you piqued my interest."

"Hah, never would have guessed that!" Leo smirked again, and he continued, "But then again who am I to judge? Well, whatever. It's none of my business who you like and who you don't."

"I didn't mean it like that!" Elliot insisted quickly, "You just seemed interesting, as a person, overall." His grip on Holy Knight tightened, and he tried to stop the flush rising to his cheeks. "I mean, we started out rocky, but….."

"Is this where we're supposed to start over, and I say 'Hi, I'm Leo', and we shake hands and stuff?" Leo still held a hint of sarcasm, but despite that, it was still an honest question. "Because I don't really do that."

"I mean, we don't have to." Elliot shrugged, "I guess if you don't want to, then…...well, I'm going to start over anyways. The name's Elliot, Elliot Nightray. Yours?"

"Leo. Just Leo." With that being said, Leo took a step away from Elliot. "I hate to break up the party, but I've got to get back to work now. You can hang around, or not, I don't really care, just don't get in the way too much, and don't expect me to come running to chat with you."

Elliot felt himself beginning to blow a fuse, so he stepped to the side of the aisle and glanced out the main windows. Oz as nowhere to be found. "The little….he ditched me!"

As Leo passed by, he commented, "Ah, your friend abandoned you, did he?"

"He did not!" Even though Elliot had just been thinking the same thing, to hear it coming from Leo was an entirely different matter altogether.

"Looks like it to me." Leo responded, turning his back on Elliot and walking away.

With yet another groan of frustration, Elliot pulled out his phone, and texted Oz, "Where the heck are you?!"

Not even a minute later, Oz texted him back. "At the park with Alice and Ada."

Alice was Oz's girlfriend, although they didn't really talk much about it often, so most people wouldn't even know that they were dating, if it weren't for the fact that Alice was insanely possessive of Oz. To the point where she was even reluctant to share him with his family, such as his sister, Ada.

"Great, so he really did ditch me." Elliot tucked away his phone in his pocket, and made his way to the front of the store, to purchase his newly acquired copy of Holy Knight. The store wasn't all that busy, so it didn't take long. "OK, now what? Should I just go join Oz?"

Elliot toyed with this idea for a moment, and then his thoughts drifted to other possibilities. Going down to see Vincent during his break? A possibility. Vincent, despite how he often acted towards others, did seem to enjoy Elliot's company. Maybe hang out with Gilbert? He was pretty cool, not to mention he often let Elliot help him bake various sweets, which he would then later sell at various events.

But for some reason, his thoughts kept wandering back to Leo. He couldn't help it, they just did. Before he even realized that any time had passed, he felt a sharp tap on his shoulder. He turned, and saw Leo standing next to him. "What?"

"You've been standing there staring at that shelf for thirty minutes. I'm no expert, but I doubt the books will magically change just because you're staring at them."

Elliot felt a prick of annoyance. "I know that." He muttered, "I was just….thinking."

"Ah, I see. Thinking so hard that you've ignored your phone beeping in your pocket for that same thirty minutes?" Leo gestured to Elliot's pocket, where yet another beep just so happened to sound.

"Say what?!" Elliot yelled, fishing through his pocket for his phone. "Oh great…..." He pulled open his texting app, and was greeting with a string of texts, all from Oz.

"Hey, how'd it go?"

"Did you get the book?"

"Is Leo friendlier today?"

"Elliot?"

"I'm guessing that's a yes?"

"You gonna come join us?"

"We're gonna go get ice cream."

"K, I'll guess that's a no. Have fun!"

Elliot turned off his phone, a frown crossing his face. "Great…." He dropped it back into his pocket, and turned towards the exit. "Now I've gotta fix this mess….."

Leo laughed, clearly finding the situation amusing. "Let me guess, your friend thinks that we're out, hanging out together? Well, it's none of my concern, so…." He shrugged, turning away from Elliot.

Before he could get too far away, a tall girl with long pink hair approached him. "Hey, Leo? You got a minute?"

Leo sighed, and Elliot could almost imagine him rolling his eyes. "Yeah, I guess I do now."

Elliot scooted past them, although curiosity was once again rising to the surface of his mind. As he left, he heard the girl speak quietly, although he couldn't quite make out the words. Leo, however, he could hear plainly, shouting out the words, "You think I haven't been trying?!"

"What was that about?" Elliot wondered, stepping out into the sunlight, shielding his face with one hand. "Well, Vincent's probably back to work now, I guess I could stop by anyways, a coffee sounds good right about now."

With that thought in mind, Elliot set off at a brisk pace, arriving within a matter of minutes. He stepped into the cool air-conditioned building, a contrast from the summer heat. There was a gentle buzz of conversation flowing, and Elliot found his thoughts wandering to Leo once more. Had he gotten in trouble with a co-worker? Had Elliot himself been the cause of that trouble? Was Leo getting fired?

Before he could sort through all these thoughts, it was his turn to order. "Ah, I'll have a mocha frappe please." He pulled out his wallet, and handed his payment to the cashier. "You can keep the change."

Just a few minutes later, Elliot heard his name being called by a familiar voice. He grinned, taking his coffee from his brother. "Thanks Vincent."

"No problem." Vincent smiled back softly, handing him a straw. "I get off here in an hour, if you want to come home with Gil and I for the evening. I think he was going to be making a set of cupcakes for a birthday party, if you want to help."

"That sounds good, I think I will." Elliot agreed, pulling the wrapper off his straw, as Vincent returned to work. "I guess I'd better update Oz, before he gets any more crazy ideas."

But before he could reach for his phone, the doors of the coffee shop opened once more, and in stormed a very angry looking Leo. He took one glance at Elliot (or so one could only suppose, since his eyes were covered by his glasses and hair), and his face grew even stormier. Four words escaped from his lips, that made Elliot's blood run cold.

"You've ruined my life."

A/N: Well, there you have it, chapter 2! I know I promised this will be an angsty story, and it's getting there. Those last 4 words were the prelude, it's gonna start going downhill from here.