Author's Note:  And the moment you've all been waiting for…chapter 2! Sorry that it has taken me so long to post this chapter. I haven't had much time to myself the past week.  In this chapter Albert is still remembering and it kind of jumps around to different events.  Also, Meru and Haschel make an appearance and I know that they weren't around when Lavitz was.  I just wanted to tell you so that you don't get confused.  The story will soon be taking place in the present; you just have to wait a little longer.  I hope that you enjoy the story.

Disclaimer: I don't own this game.  Everything to do with Legend of Dragoon is owned by Sony and Squaresoft.

                                                                        **********

"Albert, sweetheart, open your eyes," I whispered into Albert's ear.

The sun was peering down through the window in front of me and the room became brilliantly lit with the magnificent glow of the rising sun.  The ray of lights coming in made Albert's face vibrantly light up so that you could see all of his defined features.  As I gazed down at him my mouth formed into a small smile.  I leaned down and gave Albert a small kiss on the tip of his nose just as his eyes fluttered open.  Albert had turned his head to the side to ward off the bright rays of light flowing into the room.  He turned his head back and blinked, trying to adjust his eyes to the intensity of the daylight.  Once he recovered, he smiled and held out a hand for me to take.  I gladly accepted this gesture and reached out to clasp my hand with his.

This moment was important to me, because I finally got to know the real Albert and I truly let him into my life.  I remember the day was jumbled and in a way, almost frantic.  We had talked about a number of things the previous night, after discovering our love for each other.  The evening had become full of our conversations.  We discussed many things and our feelings, emotions, thoughts, and concerns were all expressed and openly talked about.

The main issue that seemed to present itself was how we were ever going to tell everyone about what was going on.  Of course, to us it was a joyous occasion and we felt that it called for a celebration.  On the other hand, we didn't know what the others were going to do or how they would react and that made us both fear the day that we would tell.  In the end, we decided that it would be best to wait it out for the time being and tell everyone when we felt it would be the right time.

"Is it morning already?"  Albert inquired.

"That it is," I spoke softly.  "We must have worn ourselves out from all of our talking last night."

"Indeed."  Albert spoke more slowly and serious as he continued, "I'm glad that we are together now."  Albert smiled up at me.  "There is no one else that I could imagine myself with."

The words touched my heart and made me feel warm and comforted.  I laid my head down on his chest as I replied.  "I feel the same way."  Although I wanted to stay this way, I had to question, "Should we go and see the others, so that they won't worry?"

"Not yet," Albert spoke confidently.  "They can wait awhile longer."

The smile upon my face began to grow and I could feel my face begin to grow warmer.  Albert noticed this and smiled, knowing very well how he made me feel at that moment.  I leaned down and gave him a quick peck on the check.  As I pulled away, I could see the disappointment in his eyes.

"You are such a tease."

Albert knew I was playing hard to get and I could see that he was up for the challenge.  He reached around and put his hand on the back of my neck and pulled me in closer to him.  Our lips met and the kiss was deep, passionate, and loving.  I felt my face begin to grow warm again and I felt embarrassed about it.  Albert just chuckled and rolled me over to his side to embrace me.  We laid there in each other's arms for most of the day, not speaking, just enjoying each other's company.

For the next week, Albert and I spent every waking moment together.  We knew the boundaries at this point and both of us made sure that the other wouldn't cross the line until both of us were ready.  We spoke of many things and I couldn't believe how long we could just sit and talk.  Neither one of us had told anyone what had been going on between us for the past week.  We knew that we wouldn't be able to hide the truth forever and neither one of us wanted to keep the secret from our friends.  Both of us agreed that this Saturday afternoon would be the day to announce the news to everyone. 

"Are you sure?"  I questioned.

"Of course I'm sure.  Everyone's already here, so let's not keep them waiting and tell them the good news."

Albert walked over and embraced me while planting a small kiss upon my mouth.

"You worry too much, you know that?"  Albert spoke looking me in the eyes.  "Now, let us be on our way," he beamed as he reached down for my hand.

We walked with our fingers laced as we proceeded down the hall to the conference room.  When we reached the large door leading into the room, I looked over at him.  Albert smiled back at me, letting me know that everything would be alright.  We unlaced our fingers so that we could make a proper entry into the room.  Both of reached out a hand to push the doors open and enter the room.  Everyone was scattered about the room, sitting on various chairs and couches.  When everyone saw us walk in, they all stood up to greet us.  All of them had the same questioning look on their faces, seeing as they had no idea why they had been called there that day.  Dart was the first to speak.

"What's wrong?  Why have we all been called here so suddenly?"  Dart sounded anxious as he spoke those words. 

"Nothing's wrong Dart."  Albert continued, "Myself and Lavitz have called you all here today because we have a very important announcement to make."

Meru jumped up immediately and asked, "What's so important that you had to call us all here?  You know, my day was going just fine…"

Haschel cut Meru off when he put his hand on her shoulder.  "Clam down Meru!  Obviously this is important enough for all of us to be here at the same time."

Meru bent her head down low and sat down once again on the couch alongside Haschel.  She felt disappointed and a little dim-witted at that moment since Haschel had to make her shut up.  It wasn't her fault, that's just her personality.  Meru looked up and began to eye Albert and me, trying to figure out what it was.  Finally, she settled down and told them that she was ready to hear what we had to say.

I decided that I would be the first one to speak, since Albert had been taking all the leads lately.  I took a step forward and looked around the room nervously at everyone.  My eyes turned to Albert and he just smiled at me and nodded for me to go ahead and talk.  When I averted my eyes away from him and looked at all of my friends sitting there, I couldn't help but feel a little anxious to get it over with.  Everyone had a puzzled look on their face and the same thing was running through their minds.

My mouth began to move and words were formed.  I could hear the sound of my voice and the tension was apparent.  But, I had to go on.

"Myself and Albert would like to inform all of you that…" I had to shake my head and comprise myself once again before I continued.  "We want to tell you all that we are in a relationship with one another, romantically."

~There…I said it.  Please, everyone be able to accept this.~

I stood there uneasy and turned my face away from everyone. 

"When did this happen?"  Dart asked.

Albert stepped forward and spoke.  "Just last week, as a matter of fact.  We discovered our love for each other and we felt that we needed to let you know sooner or later.  Sooner seemed to be better, so that's why we called you all here."

Everyone looked at each other and they didn't know what to do or say at that moment.  They all seemed to be shocked, but after the initial surprise, all of them were fine with the situation.  I guess they just weren't expecting that kind of news.  Soon after this, each one of them came over to personally congratulate us.

"I'm glad that you two are happy now.  Be sure to cherish that love."  Rose had a sad way of saying this as she turned to leave the room.

"Please Rose…don't go.  Let us all stay and talk awhile," Albert said while he walked over to where Rose was standing.

"If you really want me to stay, then I guess I can't say no," she said lightning up a little.

For the rest of that day and night, we all sat in the conference room and talked about things to come and things in the past.  Albert and I cuddled together on one of the couches and no one seemed to mind the fact that we were doing so.  That night, we realized that we didn't have to keep anything from our friends, because they would always support us no matter what.

After what had happened that night myself and Albert felt a lot better about how things had gone.  Once everyone had left the castle, Albert had invited me up to his room.  We stayed there and held each other the whole night as we felt the relief of getting the news off of our chests.  The burden had been lifted and now we didn't have to be afraid to express our love for one another in front of others. 

For the next month, everything in our lives seemed to be going great.  Albert and I would go out together often in the afternoons.  We made a whole day of browsing the shops for little trinkets and new improvements for weaponry and armor, always making sure that we were ready for anything, just in case something was to happen.  Often times we would go out for lunch or a late dinner and just sit off in the corner and enjoy each other's company.  Other days, we would stay in and eat to enjoy the peacefulness and seclusion. 

Out of nowhere, one night Albert had suddenly decided that he was going to visit his uncle at Kazas.  He felt that there was some business he needed to attend to and that he wanted to get it over and done with as soon as possible.

Albert spoke softly as we lay there in each others arms, "Lavitz…I've decided that I want to go to Kazas to speak with my uncle."

"What do you mean?"

Albert looked at me as he spoke. "I have some business that I must attend to.  I hope that you don't mind that I decided to do this so suddenly."

"No…you just caught me off guard…that's all.  Is this business that you can't tell me about?"  I asked, seeing as I wanted to know what was so important.

"It's nothing serious, I just haven't seen him for awhile and I would like to talk to him about a few important matters."

I reached over and ran my finger over his cheek.  "Since it is important business, then I will let you go and deal with this on your own."

"Ah, you don't want to go with me?"  Albert said while getting a little sad.

"It's not that I don't want to go with you.  I just feel that if it's between you and him that I shouldn't interfere.  Besides, you can bring some of the guards with you for protection."

"But, it won't be the same without you.  I really wish you would change your mind."

I leaned in and gave him a kiss on the forehead and looked him in the eyes.  "You know I love you Albert.  Don't you ever doubt that."  I paused for a moment then began to  speak again.  "I will always protect you.  I know it doesn't sound like me, but I really don't want to get in the way."

"If that's how you feel, then I guess I can't change your mind.  I know that you will always be there to protect me and I've never doubted your love for me."

Albert reached over and ran his hand up and down my arm, causing shivers of excitement to course through my body.  I knew that what I said had made him upset and to tell the truth, I don't know what came over me.  The words just seemed to come out of my mouth, without me even thinking about what I was saying.  I was disappointed at myself, but I decided that maybe the time apart would truly test our love for one another.  Albert brought me out of my thoughts when I felt the warmth of his lips on my neck.  He was planting little kisses on my neck and then he brought his head up to mine.  Our lips touched and we fell into a deep kiss.  I wrapped my arms around him and began to kiss back.  Both of us wanted to, but knew that now wouldn't be the right time.  We stopped ourselves before it went any further and decided that now would not be the best time to take things to another level.  Instead we fell asleep in each others arms.  In the morning I awoke to find that I was alone in the bed.  Beside the bed, on the table lay a note that said in very neat handwriting:

To my dearest Lavitz,

            I am sorry that I did not stay until you awoke.  I felt that it might be better for me to just leave on my own so that we wouldn't have to feel the sadness of saying good bye to one another.  Don't worry about me for I have taken two guards along for the journey.  I promise that I will be back soon.  I love you and I'll be thinking about you always.

Your Love,

Albert

"I'll be thinking about you too," I said whispering to myself as I laid back down, hoping to see Albert's face in my dreams.

                                                                        *****Two Days Later*****

"Lavitz!"  Dart yelled out as he made his way to my room.

I got up from my bed where I had been enjoying a quiet nap by myself.  I had been sleeping most of the time for the past two days, so that I wouldn't have to feel the sadness of being alone.  I wanted to be with Albert and I kept regretting the fact that I chose to let him go without me.  I slowly walked over to the door to see what all the yelling was about.

"What is the problem Dart?"  I questioned as I opened the door.

"It's urgent!  We have to leave at once!"

"What…why?  What is the meaning of this?"  I asked in confusion.

Dart ran into my room and grabbed everything that I would need for battle and hurriedly came over to me, placing the items in my arms.  He still hadn't told me what was going on when he grabbed my arm and tugged, encouraging me to run with him.  I mad my legs run and asked again as we ran out of the castle.

"It's about Albert."

My heart sank at the mention of his name and I knew that what Dart was going to say wouldn't be good.

"What about Albert?"  I said, almost tripping.

"He's being held captive at Hellena Prison.  I just found out and I ran here as fast as I could to tell you."

"I knew I should have gone with him."  I began to panic.  "Why did I have to stay?"

Dart tried to calm me down, but I was too frantic, upset, and scared of what might happen to Albert.  Finally we stopped and Dart turned to me.

"I know how much you love him.  Now is the time to prove your love…now let's go save Albert."

I nodded in understanding and we began to run again.

*That's the end of chapter 2.  I hope that you liked it.  Reviews are always welcome. J