Part 3

Laguna gently laid Raine on her bed and sat besides her watching her sleep just glad she wasn't harmed. Ellone tentatively walked to Laguna and rested her head on his knee. He looked down at her and picked her up to rest on her knee.

"I told you those monsters were too big for you didn't I?"

She sniffed, so he carried on.

"I know your sorry, just stay with Raine…please? For me?"

Ellone gave Laguna a small nod, to which he smiled and gave her a hug. He gently put her down and took Raines hand. He smiled at Ellone "no need to cry, no harm done. All better"

He heard a small groan and looked at Raine. She was slowly opening her eyes and looked at Laguna

"Wha…what…happened?"

Laguna stroked her cheek and smiled "oh nothing much, you just hurled yourself right in the path of a break attack and scared the hell outta me!"

Raine suddenly remembered "Ellone!" She tried to sit up and fell back; luckily Laguna caught her.

He smiled and said softly "Ellone's fine, it's you who I'm worried about?"

Raine smiled faintly "well this your turn to patch me up"

Laguna smiled back "And don't I enjoy it"

She poked him "don't go taking this protector thing too far you know, you remember who usually has to care for who"

He poked out his tongue "well, until you are better, I get to be in charge. So that means you have to stay in bed for at least a week…"

Raine butted in "a week?! No way, I'm getting up right now…" She tried to sit up and promptly lay back down "well…maybe in a few days…"

Laguna laughed and stood up "well, I'll go make us something to drink" He looked at Ellone "wanna look after her while I'm gone?" Ellone replied with a huge grin and he strolled out chuckling to himself.

Raine gave Ellone a smile "come sit on the bed and we can chat"

Ellone grinned and leaped on the bed, Raine winced yet luckily Ellone was oblivious.

"I was really worried about you" Ellone's cheeks went red a little.

"Me too"

 Raine smiled and patted her head a little "I'm alright now, just got a bit of a headache"

Ellone grinned and gave her a big hug, just as Laguna walked in, carrying drinks.

He looked at the pair and grinned, "so everyone's kissed and made up I see" He placed the drinks on a nearby table and plonked himself on the bed grinning

Raine laughed "This is a strictly girls meeting you've wandered into." Ellone giggled when she saw Laguna pretending to look shocked.

"Well it looks like I'm not wanted then…" and putting on his best puppy dog eyes look sadly walked out of the room. "Wait! Uncle Laguna don't go, I'm soooooory" Ellone jumped off the bed and ran over to Laguna and attaching herself to his leg. Laguna looked down and had to try extremely hard to keep his puppy dog eyes "but I thought it was a girls only meeting"

Ellone looked at Raine and she pretended to give in. She gave a dramatic sigh, "Oh I suppose we could let in this outsider…" Laguna grinned and leapt on the bed, almost crushing Raine in the process!

"Hey, Hey watch it! Injured person here you know!"  

Laguna poked out his tongue at Raine and picked up Ellone, putting her on the bed "Your point being?"

His reply was a stab in his side, followed by laughing.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door, and Laguna remembered about the shopkeeper. "Damn!" He looked at Raine "I just gotta go back and pay the shopkeeper for the soft" He smiled "won't be a minute" And with that he walked to the door, fumbling around in his pockets looking for some money. When he opened the door, he could feel his bottom jaw hit the floor as he stood there, totally surprised at what he saw.

It seemed the whole of Winhill was at his front door. Orchids of every colour were shoved into his open hands as people wandered in to see Raine and give her all sorts of helpful hints to a quick recovery.

"Bed rest, plenty of bed rest-"

"No, no, no, you've got it all wrong. What this poor girl needs is to try and get back on her feet soon as possible"

"Plenty of herbal tea-"

"Some of my home made soup"

Laguna wandered back in to see a flustered Raine surrounded by all these people. He put the flowers down and waved his hands in the air to get attention. "Raine is very tired now, it was really nice for you to visit. If you want to go into the living room I'll make us all something to drink and I'll find some nice things to eat" This was met with mumbles of approval as people wandered past into the next room, leaving a very grateful Raine as Laguna turned around and shut the door, leaving Ellone and Raine some peace and quiet.

However he was left in chaos. People surrounded him, all with friendly greetings. Soon drink and food was forgotten and everyone milled around the room, creating little groups in which gossip was in abundance.

It took Laguna hours to shoo everyone out of his house, until one person was left; the shopkeeper.

Laguna seemed to suddenly remember he still had not paid the shopkeeper. He began to fumble in his pocket but the shopkeeper just shook his head smiling

"Don't worry about paying for that soft, Raine is considered a friend to everyone in Winhill, I'm just glad I could help. That's payment enough." And before Laguna could reply he gave a friendly wave to him and walked out the door, humming as he went back to his shop.

Confused, Laguna opened the door to check on Raine and Ellone. Surprisingly they were both sleeping. He crept in and sat next to the bed and watched them sleep. He brushed Raines hair from out of her eyes and did the same to Ellone.

He didn't know how many hours he sat there, every now and then he would go out of the room, to return with a bowl of water and a cloth and gently dab at Raines head. She was developing a small fever and so he did his best to keep it down. He never tired of watching them sleep. The night passed and dawn crept in through the windows, Raine awoke to seeing Laguna, his head resting on the side of the chair, and a bowl and a damp cloth next to him. Smiling she looked at Ellone, who was beginning to stir. She pressed her finger to her lips and pointed to Laguna. Ellone grinned and jumped off the bed, and began to quietly clear away the bowl, leaving Laguna to sleep.

However it wasn't long before he stirred, waking up to the sound of Raine taking charge.

"Ellone, be a dear and get me a glass of water-"

"Oh, Laguna's spilt some of the water out of that bowl, get a cloth and I'll clear it up, but we won't tell him, you know what he's like…"

Laguna opened an eye and grinned "He would be pretty annoyed if he caught you out of bed when he told you that you were meant to lay in it for at least a week…"

"I know, that's why…" She stopped mid-sentence and hung her head, like a little girl when she's being scolded for being caught red-handed with her hand in the sweetie jar.

"Well if you take one step out of that bed, I think I shall have to make it 2 weeks of total bed-rest"

"TWO WEEKS?!!!"

Laguna gave her a grin "perhaps your right…maybe it should be 3 weeks"

She mustered all her strength to punch him in the arm, luckily his good arm. She still hadn't seen to the wound on his arm but it was healing nicely on its own.

He laughed and fell on the bed grabbing where she'd hit him "oh the pain! The pain!"

Raine laughed and pushed him "don't let Ellone hear you, she's been wanting to practice looking after someone for ages and she'll latch onto you"

Ellone dashed in and leapt on Laguna "Uncle Laguna!!!! Your awake!!!" She grinned, "Can we play?"

Laguna chuckled and looked at her "how about a game of triple triad?" 

Ellone grinned and got herself comfortable on the bed, next to Raine, while Laguna found something he could turn into a grid and then got his trusty cards. With a smile he sat opposite them and began to shuffle the cards ready for a long game's play.