Chapter 6: The Accident and the Consolation

The rest of Rosa's week was strangely as normal as ever, except for the fact she got to get a look at the airship everytime she went outside for target practice at the palace. She did not see Cecil nor Kain at all, and King Baron seemed up to his usual business. Her mother was still on the verge of depression, and like always, Rosa could do nothing about it. And of course, she couldn't cast Cure, or anything else, for that matter.

"Swoosh!"

Rosa let out a disappointed sigh as she watched her arrow fly right over her target, and lowered her bow. She just couldn't stop thinking about Cecil, and wondering about where he was. Had everything that happened on Monday been some long, complicated dream? If it were so, she wished she could have never awoken. Her instructor, a soldier and archerer named Draco Madison, gave Rosa a funny look.

"What's wrong with you today?" He asked as he walked to her side. Rosa shrugged and promptly sat on the ground. She knew this irritated Draco the most. He was a very impatient 19-year old.

"Get up!" He exclaimed.

"I need to rest my arm." Rosa replied snottily, while desperately wishing she had a good excuse that she was willing to tell Draco for her poor performances today. She figured that if she were mean enough, Draco would back off, but she was wrong.

"Your arm isn't on your bottom." He said, and put his hands on his hips. Rosa looked up at him with a look on her face that said "Duh", and he turned red in the face, which she found quite amusing. Draco resembled a Red Eye monster when he was angry.

"Is there something you need to tell me?" He demanded cooly. Suddenly, Rosa's eyes lit up and she leapt to her feet, bolting past Draco.

"What the hell?" He cried, as Rosa sprinted off to the end of the courtyard. Waiting against a wall and holding his hand up in a wave was Cecil! Rosa thought she would explode with excitement before she reached him. Whoever had made up the saying 'absense makes the heart grow fonder' was straight on it! When Rosa reached Cecil, she put on a bright smile and gripped her bow tightly as a way to calm herself.

"Hello Cecil!" Rosa said.

"Hey." Cecil said, and peered behind her quickly, only to see Draco staring at them. "Can we talk without him around?"

"Uh, well sure!" Rosa said, even though she knew Draco couldn't hear a word they were saying. Cecil gestured for her to follow him, and they left the courtyard. Rosa cringed as she heard Draco shout last minute threats of tattling on her as she walked out. Cecil closed the door behind her and she looked up at him.

"Where have you been?" She asked. "I haven't seen you or Kain since Monday."

"What day is it today?" Cecil asked.

"Friday."

"Oh...wow, time sure flew by this week." Cecil commented. "But actually, Kain and I were busy 'settling back in' all week, if you know what I mean. You know, getting used to being home again..."

"Oh, I see." Rosa said, and tilted her head to the side. "Is there something you wanted to talk about?"

"Actually, yeah." Cecil said. "Remember what I said about wanting to see you shoot sometime?" He tapped Rosa's bow, and she nodded.

"I immagine you must have seen plenty today though." Rosa said, turning red at the thought of him seeing her do so bad.

"Well, you looked like you were distracted..." Cecil said, and Rosa smiled a little.

"Actually, I was... I was thinking about you." Rosa said shyly, deciding that the truth had to be known. Cecil blushed a little, but he didn't frown, which Rosa took as a good sign. He cleared his throat and smiled a little.

"Well, at any rate, I was wondering if you wanted to come out with me and Kain tonight and do a bit of combat practice in the southern forest." Rosa blinked and turned pale.

"Combat, at night, in a forest?!"

"It's when the best monsters come out." Cecil added.

"Uhh, I don't think my mother would allow me to be out so late..." Rosa trailed off.

"Oh, alright." Cecil said a little disappointedly. "Well, if you change your mind, you know where we'll be... Kain and I will be leaving Baron around midnight."

"I'm sorry Cecil..." Rosa trailed off.

"It's alright." Cecil said, and shrugged. "Maybe another time, huh?"

"Yeah, another time..." Rosa sighed and waved some as Cecil walked off. With that, she retreated back to the courtyard, only to come face to face with a very pissed off Draco.

"Aha, good afternoon, Draco." Rosa said nervously as she waved.

"Since when do you think you can just walk out of class to go on a date with your boyfriend?!" Draco screamed. Rosa widened her eyes, as she could hear birds shrieking in the courtyard and all taking off from their trees to get as far away from Draco as possible.

"Well, he's not really my boyfriend..." Rosa began, but Draco held up his hand and she shut up instantly.

"I've heard enough, you are dismissed for the day!" He snapped. Rosa gasped and grabbed Draco's arm.

"I'm sorry, really..." She moaned. "Please, I promise I won't be distracted anymore..."

"I'm becoming distracted by you!" Draco cried, and jerked away from her. "You can fool around in your other classes and get away with it, but not here. Now scram."

"Hmmph!" Rosa snorted, and turned her back on him as he walked away. She had never been so angry in her life! She takes a break from lessons for one moment and it all blows up back in her face!

I grow tired of always being told I fool around when I am doing my best! Rosa thought. I do have other priorities too, Draco Madison!

Before she could stop herself, Rosa turned around and angirly pointed a finger at Draco, who's back was turned to her as he sauntered away.

"MINI!" Rosa shrieked, hoping he would feel threatened by her fake magic spell. However, she was a little more than shocked to feel a warm, tingly feeling in her finger, and came to the point of fainting when the same familiar peach clouds she had seen in her text books surrounded Draco and began to glitter. A short scream from Draco followed, and when the clouds disappeared...he was gone!

"Oh my goodness!" Rosa cried, and covered her mouth to keep from screaming herself. She quickly ran over to where Draco had been standing, and looked down.

"Hey, what the hell did you do to me?" A squeaky voice screamed at her from below. Rosa felt like laughing and crying at the same time when she saw the tiny, almost indistinquishable version of Draco at her feet, who barely reached the tips of her boots in height.

"Um, s-s-sorry..." Rosa stuttered. "You see, I actually didn't think I..."

"Hurry up and cast Esuna on me!" Mini-Draco shrieked, his voice so high-pitched, that Rosa had to cover her ears.

"Esuna? That's an at least level 30 spell, if I remember correctly!" Rosa stopped, and brought a hand to her chin. "Or is that level 20..."

"Whatever, just change me back!" Draco whined.

"Oh, I can just cast Mini again!" Rosa grinned. "Ok, here goes...Mini!" Her smile was quickly replaced with a frown when the same tingling warm feeling did not come back to her fingers and nothing happened.

"....Mini?" Rosa tried again.

"Mini?"

"MINI!"

Rosa gulped and looked back down to Draco, who was either waving at Rosa for no reason or making a very rude motion with his hand... it was actually quite hard to tell. Right then, Rosa heard footsteps behind her, and a palace guard appeared.

"I thought I heard screaming, is everything ok?" He asked Rosa.

"Umm...actually..." Rosa scooped up Draco and dumped him in the surprised guard's hands. "I think he might need fixed... Bye!" With that, Rosa took off running for dear life, Draco's squeals and protests following her. She burst back into the palace, and looked about her surroundings, trying to find a place where she could mellow out and calm down before she would go home to explain all this to her mother, who would definately be demanding an explanation. Rosa was almost sure that Draco would manage to tell her everything eventually, so she wanted the upper hand by telling her first. Rosa came to a stairway and took it, deciding she could find some place to stay in one of the palace towers.

Rosa sighed a little and opened the first door she came to, and went inside the room, shutting the door behind her. It appeared to be one of the palace bedrooms, but it was also nicely decorated, obviously by someone with good taste. Rosa collapsed onto the bed and laid back, closing her eyes so she could think better. The sheets on the bed actually felt cool and comforting to Rosa, who was overheated from running so fast.

".....Well, I suppose I really should get a lock..." A chilling voice said, making Rosa sit straight up in bed and nearly scream. when she turned to the side, she saw Cecil, standing there with only his same baggy black pants on from yesterday. His hair was glistening, and water beads were dripping from it onto his what Rosa thought was a finely toned chest. A navy towel was hanging from around his neck. Rosa gulped and opened her mouth to say something, but was too surprised and only made a 'aaack...' noise.

"What are you doing in here?" Cecil asked, and reached up, rubbing his hair with the towel.

"Er, well, I thought this was an empty room..." Rosa trailed off and felt all her bodyheat rise to her face. "Did I erm....startle you?"

"Sort of." Cecil said, and shrugged. "I was taking a bath, and then I heard someone burst in here. I figured it was Kain, but then I realized he isn't even around, so I came out to investigate..."

"I-I-I'm so sorry." Rosa stuttered, and stood up. "I just needed somewhere to go and...well, good-bye!"

"Wait!" Cecil suddenly exclaimed, and grabbed her shoulder to stop her. Rosa looked over at him and blinked. Cecil relaxed his grip and dropped his hand. "What happened?"

"Well..." Rosa went off and explained to Cecil how she had lost her patience and made the mistake of turning Draco into a midget, and how she was going to be in big trouble before she got home, and...

"Whoa, slow down." Cecil said, and shook his head. "You're going beserk Rosa... you've never gotten in trouble before, have you?"

"Of course not!" Rosa cried. "I mean, I've never just lost it like that before...."

"It's ok...it's normal." Cecil explained. "We all get a little upset sometimes...maybe angry...and sometimes stuff happens as a result of it. But when you hold in your emotions, you can expect something like this to happen...trust me, I should know."

"I..." Rosa pressed her lips together in thought before continuing. "I don't really want to go home Cecil... " She looked down and took a deep breath.

"I understand." Cecil said. "You just need some time alone."

"No, I mean, I want to stay here with you." Rosa added seriously. "And I want to go out tonight with you and Kain. You don't mind, do you?"

Cecil blinked and replaced the towel around his neck. He didn't know how to respond to something like this. How often was it that someone requested to have company with him? Other then when Kain wanted to do something, never. Of course, he couldn't turn down Rosa's plea...not that he wanted to anyway... He put on a smile thinking about it, and almost forgot she was in the room.

"Cecil?" Rosa asked.

"Oh...sorry." Cecil said, and rubbed some water off his forehead. "Sure, you can stay with me if you want..."

"Thank you..." Rosa smiled some. "I won't be a bother, I promise, I..."

"Hey, don't worry about it." Cecil said, and waved his hand. "No need for the formalities here. After all, we're not exactly strangers now, are we?"

"No, of course not!" Rosa exclaimed.

"Hmm... I'll just get a shirt on..." Cecil mused to himself and turned away towards a dresser. Rosa sat back down on his bed and smiled to herself. She didn't realize it before, but the sheets carried Cecil's sweet scent. She watched as Cecil reached for a black shirt and pulled it over his head. He then proceeded to roll up the short sleeves until they rested at his shoulders without falling down. He then turned back ro Rosa and gestured for her to get up. "Are you hungry?"

"Actually, I am." Rosa commented, realizing she had not eaten all day.

"Come on, we'll get someting to eat." Cecil said, and Rosa stood up. "Lunch should be served at any moment now."

"Sounds great!" Rosa smiled. "I love it when I get to eat lunch at the palace!" Cecil smiled back and they walked out of his room together and down the stairway to the dining hall.

On the small balcony above the dining hall doors hung the three Baronian flags- One with the kingdom's coat of arms, one for the Dragoons, and one for the military. Cecil pointed them out to Rosa as they entered. However, what neither of them noticed was Kain, who was standing on that balcony and gazing down at them, his blonde hair flopping over his eyes. He let out a soft sigh and stood up straighter, trying to find something else to keep his focus on, anything. Anything but Rosa...

What is Cecil doing? Kain wondered to himself. He couldn't possibly... He shook his head and closed his eyes. Did Cecil take his teasing seriously last night? Did he really... have feelings for Rosa? Kain wondered how this could be, especially since it was Cecil they were talking about here. Cecil, who had never given thought to love in his life, was suddenly like this? It was a little unbelievable...

Or do I only want it to be unbelievable? Kain thought silently. Do I want it to be unbelievable...so that I may have a chance?

Kain suddenly jumped when a giant hand clasped down on his shoulder. He turned around only to see Cid, whom he had been working on the airship with all morning.

"What're you doing up here?" Cid asked. "We came in for lunch, you know!"

"I know, sorry." Kain apoligized quickly.

"Don't apoligize, I was jus' wonderin' where you were." Cid explained. "Cecil and your new friend....Rosa, that's her name, have already sat down."

"Oh really? I must have missed them, I came up here to look for them..." Kain lied. "I'll be down in a minute, ok?"

"Ok, see ya then!" Cid waved, and walked off. Kain let out a short breath and leaned back over the railing, watching Cid decend the stairs and go into the dining hall. He smiled a little to himself.

Kain, you are too paranoid. You must be getting like this since it is just your first week home. Cecil is the same guy you grew up with...and Rosa is your new friend. Nothing is going to change...you're home again! If you give it time...just a little time, you can think about your feelings and then tell Rosa how you feel. After all... it's not like Cecil would care...

With that, a refreshed Kain leaped from the balcony rather than taking the stairs (how slow!), and landed perfectly infront of the dining hall doors and made his entrance, instantly greeted by a chorus of hellos....