The Matchmaker
Whoo. I love this fic, for some odd reason...
~-~-~-~-~-~
Disclaimer: BLEH! Oh, and, Fox and Tiger -- that little blip I mentioned -- I got that off of Akiko-san's works. ^_^;; I loved that story! Look under the username "Alex," the one with 47 (0.o) stories. Hee, Ivan on chocolate -- what would you get with Jenna on chocolate? ......Never mind.
~-~-~-~-~-~
The Matchmaker
Chapter seven
~-~-~-~-~-~
~-~-~-~-~-~
Alright, so... It didn't look *so* bad... You could still recognize it. Um. I think.
"FELIX! What did you do?!!"
"Um... You always said I had an artistic ability?"
"An artistic ability...!" Felix's mother slapped her hand into her temple. "I meant with *art,* Felix! Not... Not architecture!"
"Oops." He mumbled.
"Give me that!" She snatched away the blueprint, sighing. My children are all bonkers, she thought miserably. Jenna was a pyromaniac... Sort of. Let's say everyone was wary with her when they had particularly long hair...
And Felix... Let's not go there.
Let us say he had a liking to abstract art...
*Anyhoo.*
"Ivan!" Felix's mother (Who shall forevermore be called that, unless in Jenna's presence, otherwise, she will be called 'Jenna's mother') shouted. "Where are you, boy?"
Felix took that precise moment to leave. Or rather, sneak off undetected.
~-~-~-~-~-~
With Isaac and company...
~-~-~-~-~-~
"Alright, that's it, I'm going to HIT you, Garet, if you complain about your freaking head one more cursed time!" Jenna stood abruptly, fists clenched. Garet meeped and, obviously, took off running like Poseidon and Azul were after him.
Isaac sighed. Would it always be like this?
"So, um, Mia..." He started cautiously. She faced him, smiling slightly. He forgot what he was going to say, *if* he had actually planned anything to say. "What are you going to wear for the dance?"
Oh, he was such an idiot...
"A gown, Isaac... Probably blue, or purple. Do you think I'd show up in my robes?"
"I, um, of course not...! Eheheh..." He chuckled nervously, while mentally kicking himself hard. Duh, of course she was going to a gown, or a dress, whatever women called it nowadays... She wouldn't come --
Bad Isaac.
"Isaac? You look like you're have an inner battle with yourself." Mia said, touching his arm lightly. He jolted. How did she know? She wasn't a certain obnoxious, whiny, sarcastic, the runt-of-the-litter Jupiter Adept... Or the other, much prettier, nicer, one...
"I, well, I am..."
"What for?" Great, she sounded genuinely worried. Obviously worried for his very little mental stability around her... But he wasn't about ready to up and say that she was the very cause of his weirdness. Nope. Not ever.
"GARET! When I catch you, you are a dead man! I shall LAUGH with GLEE at your FUNERAL!"
"Aiiyeeee!"
Felix blinked as Garet whizzed by him, surprised that the talking bulk could actually move that fast.
"Oh, hi, Felix." Jenna said as she rushed by.
Wait a second.
"Felix?!"
Darn. He was hoping he'd go undetected, but the gods were apparently losing a bet or something over him.
"Uh, hullo, Jenna..."
"Felix, what are you doing here?"
Please don't kill me please don't kill me please don't kill me please don't kill me...
"Urm, supervising?"
"Since when?" She asked, hands on her hips. Felix took a step back, feeling a rought surfact behind him. Darn these specifically placed trees!
"I.... I saw what Garet happened to do to you at the river, so I thought I'd come up here and make sure he didn't do anything else stupid." He said in one great big rush. Jenna lifted a finely curved eyebrow.
"Garet's always stupid, Felix," She said, near to exasperation with him. "That's what makes him so lovable."
Felix was awe-struck for a moment. Jenna's eyes widened considerably, and she clapped her hands over her mouth.
"YOU DID NOT HEAR THAT!"
"I, um, I wouldn't have, except I, erm, did."
"ARRGGH!"
"Who is Jenna talking to?" Mia asked Garet, who had collapsed before them, panting.
"I dunno, but I could kiss them for all I care, for making that demon stop me!"
"That demon you love?" Mia tittered. Garet made a move to hurt her, but he would never hit Mia. Nope, not Mia, the goddess of water and of beauty and of light and -- okay, Isaac, you can shut up now.
When they heard Jenna's frustrated yell, they craned their necks to look at her. Or, at least, Mia and Isaac did. Garet was busy wolfing down the potato salad that had supposedly moved under Jenna's speculative glare.
"Brothers... are... such... a... pain... in... the... butt!" She shrieked, plopping herself down to Garet, her fist twitching.
"Felix? He was who you were talking to?" Isaac asked. Garet suddenly stood up, his face pale. He ran down the hill, down to the river, where they could distinctly hear him... shall we say, feeding the few fishes.
Mia was the first to get this and started laughing softly. Isaac turned to look at her, nearly melting at the sight of her happy. "Um, what?"
Mia nearly choked.
"W-well... Garet said that... that he'd kiss the person who made... Jenna... stop... And that was Felix!"
The realization of this dawned on Isaac, and he fell over, laughing like there was no tomorrow.
And Jenna thought, she wasn't the only psycho one here, now was she?
....But wasn't it the potato salad?, some cynical part of their minds asked. Nah.
Of course not.
~-~-~-~-~-~
With Sheba and Picard
~-~-~-~-~-~
"You'll make some nice young lady happy one day, Picard, dear."
Sheba tried to keep from laughing her guts out.
"Yes, yes... You'll have to cut that hair, though. I've always told Felix to cut his hair, but no... That one day he got caught up in that tree..."
That day he walked into a tree? Sheba thought gleefully. No, Dora must mean some other humorous problem that Felix had gotten himself *entangled* into.
"...And Kyle had to snip him out with his gardening shears." Dora concluded, hands on her hips.
"I had to do what with my shears?" Kyle asked, walking in from, oddly enough, gardening.
"Cut Felix out of the tree when he was thirteen."
"Oh, that. Fun times." Kyle said absent-mindedly, going to the kitchen to clean up his dirty hands and sweaty face.
"Why isn't he down at the plaza?" Picard asked politely.
"Oh, well... There's too many people down there already. If they need him, they'll just come ask. No need to worry, now, Picard dear."
Picard didn't know whether he liked Isaac's (slightly) odd mother, or was downright afraid of her. She and Sheba seemed to like each other well enough, joking about Isaac, Garet, Felix, and --
"Oh, I remember when we were leaving Lemuria -- "
"Lemuria?"
"Yes, Lemuria -- we were leaving, and Jenna and I were pestering Picard (dear) here what his age was..."
"Oh, did the little dear tell you?"
....Little? He blinked.
"No... He's probably in his five hundreds, though. That'll scare off a girl any day, so I guess that's why he never told us." Sheba and Dora were having a case of side-splitting laughter.
Hmph, women...
"Oh, he looks like he's around Felix's age! Age doesn't matter, even if it *is* a four hundred eighty-something..." Dora's sentence went unfinished as she continued laughing.
"Ma'am, you should stop laughing so hard, you might exert yourself too much..." He warned. Sheba helped Dora into a chair, but she couldn't hide the merriment in her jade green eyes.
"Ah, so you've discovered women, my dear boy." Kyle came back, looking much cleaner, slapping the Lemurian youth (Youth? o_o) on the back with so much force he stumbled forward.
"Actually, a very long time ago, sir."
This made Sheba burst out laughing all over again. Picard gave her a sour look before retiring to his room upstairs temporarily. He could tell Dora liked him. A lot. He sighed. Vale was for the weird ones...
~-~-~-~-~-~
With Ivan, who's in da box...
~-~-~-~-~-~
Ivan sighed. Darn these boxes. He lifted his legs, trying to reach the top with his toes. He couldn't. It was stuffy in here...!
"Hi Ivan."
"Felix." Ivan said crossly.
"My mother's looking for you... So I'm thinking about letting you out."
Really? ....Don't sound over-enthused...
"Huh. I kinda doubt that, though."
"Yeah, so do I." Felix said, as though his mind was elsewhere.
"So what'd Garet do this time?"
"Garet -- what? No, it was Jenna..."
"Oh. So you faced her wrath." Darn this box! He couldn't read Felix's mind...
"Yeah. She must be on her monthly, or something. I'm surprised my neck didn't break."
Ivan wanted desperately to make a smart comment, but that would probably doom him for a few more days in the box. Hmm, Felix sounded bemused by something... Oh. So maybe he finally had a girlfriend, that stupid --
"Who are you taking to the Festival Dance, Ivan?"
Hey, since when could he pry into his social life?
"I dunno," He said honestly. He couldn't take Sheba, now could he? Hmm... "Maybe Sheba, if she's still free."
"I see."
Ivan was getting twitchy by now. Just get the freaking box off of me! He thought bitterly. Darn these Earth adepts, always so evil and mean and cruel and rude to the always nice and cheerful and mean-well Jupiter adepts! Tch.
~-~-~-~-~-~
Back with them picnickers...
~-~-~-~-~-~
Okay, this was for certain. Mia sighed. She leaned slightly on Isaac, who immediately stiffened to her touch. It was obvious the boy -- er, "young man," -- liked her a lot, if not too much. So, he... "loved" her. But did she "love" him? Alright, Mia, enough of the quotation marks. He loved her. She ....loved.... him. At least, she thought she did.
"Mia? Are you in there? We're going to pack up and go back down, Garet still hasn't come back."
"Oh... Oh! I'm just... thinking..." Yeah, about your beautiful eyes, perfect, heart-warming smile, "exquisite" hair that I long to run my hands (that are not worthy) through...
Uck. Since when was I so lovey-dovey and head-over-heels in love? Mia thought grumpily to herself. Isaac offered her another one of his perfect, heart-warming smiles, and she tried to smile back.
Isaac blinked. What was the matter with Mia?
No time for that, Jenna had already packed up everything in a miraculous amount of time. She was already heading down the steps by the sanctum (So yes, New Vale is just exactly [or nearly] the same as the old Vale...) to go check up on Garet.
Isaac and Mia walked over to the steps, but Isaac stopped her, pointing. Jenna had near-to collapsed beside the already fallen Garet, dipping a handkerchief into the cold water to dab at his face. Isaac snickered, but Mia gave him a playful shove.
"They're in love, Isaac! You should respect that."
"In love? Then what do you call what they were doing a little before?"
"Erm, Jenna was chasing after Garet, who was her one true love? I don't know..." Mia shook her head. Idiot Isaac. Ah, Isaac she loved --
Okay, that's enough, Mia! She shook her head, but slightly, so Isaac wouldn't "worry about her."
"Come on, Isaac." She beckoned to him, and they continued down the path to the stream, where Jenna had finished cleaning up Garet. He was still sprawled out, looking grumpy and rather pale. Jenna had grass stains on her blouse and skirt, but she didn't seem to matter, when the health of her ickle Garrie-kins was on the line.
Mia appeared to choke as she thought about that.
"You okay, Mia?"
"Fine, perfectly fine, um, allergies..."
Isaac would have accepted that answer, except Mercury adepts, especially a certain one named Mia, didn't *have* allergies...
Oh well, she'd tell him in time. Mia kneeled down by Garet, feeling his forehead with a serious expression over her pretty features. He felt a sudden pang of... what was it? Jealousy? That was random. Maybe it was because he wanted her to care for him like that when he was sick, and only for him, and --
/You're being selfish!/ A little voice squeaked. He brushed it aside without much of a thought.
"Garet, how many times have you injured yourself in some way today?" He asked, crouching beside said Mars adept. Garet scowled at him, then ruined his glare when a coughing fit erupted from him.
"And this is all from thinking about kissing Felix? And that potato salad?" Mia asked, giggling softly. Garet grumbled.
"Kissing my brother? Garet! I didn't know you went down *that* road..." Jenna said, eyes wide.
"I... I... No! It... It's a... erm... um, whatchamacallit..."
"He's just glad Felix stopped you from brutally ripping him into pieces." Mia supplied. Garet gave her a thankful look.
"So Garet really isn't -- ?"
"No. Of course not! He loves a certain other Mars adept, doesn't he?" Isaac said, nudging Garet in the ribs. Jenna flushed a bright pink, and began muttering excuses to get home under her breath.
Jenna gave the picnic basket back to Isaac, and she thanked them for the good time. (Mia wasn't too sure about this, but she let her friend be.) She then scurried off towards her home -- then, she turned around and headed down to the plaza.
"C'mon, Garet. Let's get you to bed and a nice bowl of hot soup." Isaac heaved Garet up, supporting most of the red-head's weight and stumbling.
"Ohh... No more food..."
"Mercury! Did he just say 'no more food'?" Mia asked Isaac. "It's a miracle!"
"Shut up, Mia..." Garet said weakly. Mia giggled and pat him lightly on the shoulder. Ah, what a day... What an outing.
~-~-~-~-~-~
And, one more final time with Ivan...
~-~-~-~-~-~
"Oh, there's my sister. Can't be a good thing."
Nope. Of course not. Ivan couldn't be happier with Jenna's arrival.
"Felix... We need to have a... *Talk.*"
He snickered quietly under the cover of his box.
"Um, well, I'm sorta busy right now, Jenna..."
"You don't *look* busy."
"Uhh, wellll...."
"He's guarding me, Jenna." Ivan called out.
"...Ivan, is that you?"
"Yep. Trapped under this ol' box again, and Felix is *making sure* I don't *escape,* now aren't you, Felix?"
Felix fishmouthed.
"Are you really doing that, Felix?" Jenna asked in her sugary sweet voice. "Now, Ivan hasn't done anything particularly nasty to you as of late, now has he?"
"Um, no, but..."
"So why's he under the box, dear Felix?"
Ivan was trying not to laugh.
"Eh, well, the box tipped, and. . . . uhh.... Oh, look, our mother is calling me." It was apparent the siblings' mother was not calling Felix, but he sped off anyhow.
"Ivan? Are you still there?"
"Yeah..."
"Oh, well, give me a second."
"Okay."
It was then Ivan realised that having Jenna get the box off of him might not have been such a good idea...
~-~-~-~-~-~
End
~-~-~-~-~-~
I'm so proud of myself. A chapter quickly written. ^__^ And the official pairings of this story are: IsaacxMia, GaretxJenna, and IvanxSheba. I plan on using Felix later, in a, how shall we put this, *sequel,* perhaps. ^_^
[Felix] Eep. 0_o
[Stephanie] *Looking at said sequel's plans* You're planning on making this a -- ?!!
Yeah. ^^; Experimenting, ne?
[Stephanie] B-but...! How will everyone else react to this?
That's why it's called an experiment, baka. -_-;; I probably won't get many reviews, but I'm experimenting. It'll be a challenge, but, eh.
[Stephanie] 0_0;; *Faints*
[Felix] *Takes plans* o_o;; *Looks at the bottom* EEK!
Ehehehehhh... The bunch of you are curious, ne? ^^;; Well, lemme put it this way: You have eight main characters, and if you pair off the mentioned six, which two remain? ....::Waits:: Exaaaaaactly.
[Felix] You're evil! Vile! Disgusting! Menacing!
Why, thank you, even though I prefer to be labeled crazy. ^__^ It's an experiment, and it'll be fun... Hee. Felix playing hard-to-get... Kekekeke. ^^ Yeah, I'll be going to work on the next chapter.....
[Felix] *Extremely pale* You can't. . . .. You.. . ca-can't...
Oh, I can. ^^ You just wait, Felix, dearie. Review, pleez.
Whoo. I love this fic, for some odd reason...
~-~-~-~-~-~
Disclaimer: BLEH! Oh, and, Fox and Tiger -- that little blip I mentioned -- I got that off of Akiko-san's works. ^_^;; I loved that story! Look under the username "Alex," the one with 47 (0.o) stories. Hee, Ivan on chocolate -- what would you get with Jenna on chocolate? ......Never mind.
~-~-~-~-~-~
The Matchmaker
Chapter seven
~-~-~-~-~-~
~-~-~-~-~-~
Alright, so... It didn't look *so* bad... You could still recognize it. Um. I think.
"FELIX! What did you do?!!"
"Um... You always said I had an artistic ability?"
"An artistic ability...!" Felix's mother slapped her hand into her temple. "I meant with *art,* Felix! Not... Not architecture!"
"Oops." He mumbled.
"Give me that!" She snatched away the blueprint, sighing. My children are all bonkers, she thought miserably. Jenna was a pyromaniac... Sort of. Let's say everyone was wary with her when they had particularly long hair...
And Felix... Let's not go there.
Let us say he had a liking to abstract art...
*Anyhoo.*
"Ivan!" Felix's mother (Who shall forevermore be called that, unless in Jenna's presence, otherwise, she will be called 'Jenna's mother') shouted. "Where are you, boy?"
Felix took that precise moment to leave. Or rather, sneak off undetected.
~-~-~-~-~-~
With Isaac and company...
~-~-~-~-~-~
"Alright, that's it, I'm going to HIT you, Garet, if you complain about your freaking head one more cursed time!" Jenna stood abruptly, fists clenched. Garet meeped and, obviously, took off running like Poseidon and Azul were after him.
Isaac sighed. Would it always be like this?
"So, um, Mia..." He started cautiously. She faced him, smiling slightly. He forgot what he was going to say, *if* he had actually planned anything to say. "What are you going to wear for the dance?"
Oh, he was such an idiot...
"A gown, Isaac... Probably blue, or purple. Do you think I'd show up in my robes?"
"I, um, of course not...! Eheheh..." He chuckled nervously, while mentally kicking himself hard. Duh, of course she was going to a gown, or a dress, whatever women called it nowadays... She wouldn't come --
Bad Isaac.
"Isaac? You look like you're have an inner battle with yourself." Mia said, touching his arm lightly. He jolted. How did she know? She wasn't a certain obnoxious, whiny, sarcastic, the runt-of-the-litter Jupiter Adept... Or the other, much prettier, nicer, one...
"I, well, I am..."
"What for?" Great, she sounded genuinely worried. Obviously worried for his very little mental stability around her... But he wasn't about ready to up and say that she was the very cause of his weirdness. Nope. Not ever.
"GARET! When I catch you, you are a dead man! I shall LAUGH with GLEE at your FUNERAL!"
"Aiiyeeee!"
Felix blinked as Garet whizzed by him, surprised that the talking bulk could actually move that fast.
"Oh, hi, Felix." Jenna said as she rushed by.
Wait a second.
"Felix?!"
Darn. He was hoping he'd go undetected, but the gods were apparently losing a bet or something over him.
"Uh, hullo, Jenna..."
"Felix, what are you doing here?"
Please don't kill me please don't kill me please don't kill me please don't kill me...
"Urm, supervising?"
"Since when?" She asked, hands on her hips. Felix took a step back, feeling a rought surfact behind him. Darn these specifically placed trees!
"I.... I saw what Garet happened to do to you at the river, so I thought I'd come up here and make sure he didn't do anything else stupid." He said in one great big rush. Jenna lifted a finely curved eyebrow.
"Garet's always stupid, Felix," She said, near to exasperation with him. "That's what makes him so lovable."
Felix was awe-struck for a moment. Jenna's eyes widened considerably, and she clapped her hands over her mouth.
"YOU DID NOT HEAR THAT!"
"I, um, I wouldn't have, except I, erm, did."
"ARRGGH!"
"Who is Jenna talking to?" Mia asked Garet, who had collapsed before them, panting.
"I dunno, but I could kiss them for all I care, for making that demon stop me!"
"That demon you love?" Mia tittered. Garet made a move to hurt her, but he would never hit Mia. Nope, not Mia, the goddess of water and of beauty and of light and -- okay, Isaac, you can shut up now.
When they heard Jenna's frustrated yell, they craned their necks to look at her. Or, at least, Mia and Isaac did. Garet was busy wolfing down the potato salad that had supposedly moved under Jenna's speculative glare.
"Brothers... are... such... a... pain... in... the... butt!" She shrieked, plopping herself down to Garet, her fist twitching.
"Felix? He was who you were talking to?" Isaac asked. Garet suddenly stood up, his face pale. He ran down the hill, down to the river, where they could distinctly hear him... shall we say, feeding the few fishes.
Mia was the first to get this and started laughing softly. Isaac turned to look at her, nearly melting at the sight of her happy. "Um, what?"
Mia nearly choked.
"W-well... Garet said that... that he'd kiss the person who made... Jenna... stop... And that was Felix!"
The realization of this dawned on Isaac, and he fell over, laughing like there was no tomorrow.
And Jenna thought, she wasn't the only psycho one here, now was she?
....But wasn't it the potato salad?, some cynical part of their minds asked. Nah.
Of course not.
~-~-~-~-~-~
With Sheba and Picard
~-~-~-~-~-~
"You'll make some nice young lady happy one day, Picard, dear."
Sheba tried to keep from laughing her guts out.
"Yes, yes... You'll have to cut that hair, though. I've always told Felix to cut his hair, but no... That one day he got caught up in that tree..."
That day he walked into a tree? Sheba thought gleefully. No, Dora must mean some other humorous problem that Felix had gotten himself *entangled* into.
"...And Kyle had to snip him out with his gardening shears." Dora concluded, hands on her hips.
"I had to do what with my shears?" Kyle asked, walking in from, oddly enough, gardening.
"Cut Felix out of the tree when he was thirteen."
"Oh, that. Fun times." Kyle said absent-mindedly, going to the kitchen to clean up his dirty hands and sweaty face.
"Why isn't he down at the plaza?" Picard asked politely.
"Oh, well... There's too many people down there already. If they need him, they'll just come ask. No need to worry, now, Picard dear."
Picard didn't know whether he liked Isaac's (slightly) odd mother, or was downright afraid of her. She and Sheba seemed to like each other well enough, joking about Isaac, Garet, Felix, and --
"Oh, I remember when we were leaving Lemuria -- "
"Lemuria?"
"Yes, Lemuria -- we were leaving, and Jenna and I were pestering Picard (dear) here what his age was..."
"Oh, did the little dear tell you?"
....Little? He blinked.
"No... He's probably in his five hundreds, though. That'll scare off a girl any day, so I guess that's why he never told us." Sheba and Dora were having a case of side-splitting laughter.
Hmph, women...
"Oh, he looks like he's around Felix's age! Age doesn't matter, even if it *is* a four hundred eighty-something..." Dora's sentence went unfinished as she continued laughing.
"Ma'am, you should stop laughing so hard, you might exert yourself too much..." He warned. Sheba helped Dora into a chair, but she couldn't hide the merriment in her jade green eyes.
"Ah, so you've discovered women, my dear boy." Kyle came back, looking much cleaner, slapping the Lemurian youth (Youth? o_o) on the back with so much force he stumbled forward.
"Actually, a very long time ago, sir."
This made Sheba burst out laughing all over again. Picard gave her a sour look before retiring to his room upstairs temporarily. He could tell Dora liked him. A lot. He sighed. Vale was for the weird ones...
~-~-~-~-~-~
With Ivan, who's in da box...
~-~-~-~-~-~
Ivan sighed. Darn these boxes. He lifted his legs, trying to reach the top with his toes. He couldn't. It was stuffy in here...!
"Hi Ivan."
"Felix." Ivan said crossly.
"My mother's looking for you... So I'm thinking about letting you out."
Really? ....Don't sound over-enthused...
"Huh. I kinda doubt that, though."
"Yeah, so do I." Felix said, as though his mind was elsewhere.
"So what'd Garet do this time?"
"Garet -- what? No, it was Jenna..."
"Oh. So you faced her wrath." Darn this box! He couldn't read Felix's mind...
"Yeah. She must be on her monthly, or something. I'm surprised my neck didn't break."
Ivan wanted desperately to make a smart comment, but that would probably doom him for a few more days in the box. Hmm, Felix sounded bemused by something... Oh. So maybe he finally had a girlfriend, that stupid --
"Who are you taking to the Festival Dance, Ivan?"
Hey, since when could he pry into his social life?
"I dunno," He said honestly. He couldn't take Sheba, now could he? Hmm... "Maybe Sheba, if she's still free."
"I see."
Ivan was getting twitchy by now. Just get the freaking box off of me! He thought bitterly. Darn these Earth adepts, always so evil and mean and cruel and rude to the always nice and cheerful and mean-well Jupiter adepts! Tch.
~-~-~-~-~-~
Back with them picnickers...
~-~-~-~-~-~
Okay, this was for certain. Mia sighed. She leaned slightly on Isaac, who immediately stiffened to her touch. It was obvious the boy -- er, "young man," -- liked her a lot, if not too much. So, he... "loved" her. But did she "love" him? Alright, Mia, enough of the quotation marks. He loved her. She ....loved.... him. At least, she thought she did.
"Mia? Are you in there? We're going to pack up and go back down, Garet still hasn't come back."
"Oh... Oh! I'm just... thinking..." Yeah, about your beautiful eyes, perfect, heart-warming smile, "exquisite" hair that I long to run my hands (that are not worthy) through...
Uck. Since when was I so lovey-dovey and head-over-heels in love? Mia thought grumpily to herself. Isaac offered her another one of his perfect, heart-warming smiles, and she tried to smile back.
Isaac blinked. What was the matter with Mia?
No time for that, Jenna had already packed up everything in a miraculous amount of time. She was already heading down the steps by the sanctum (So yes, New Vale is just exactly [or nearly] the same as the old Vale...) to go check up on Garet.
Isaac and Mia walked over to the steps, but Isaac stopped her, pointing. Jenna had near-to collapsed beside the already fallen Garet, dipping a handkerchief into the cold water to dab at his face. Isaac snickered, but Mia gave him a playful shove.
"They're in love, Isaac! You should respect that."
"In love? Then what do you call what they were doing a little before?"
"Erm, Jenna was chasing after Garet, who was her one true love? I don't know..." Mia shook her head. Idiot Isaac. Ah, Isaac she loved --
Okay, that's enough, Mia! She shook her head, but slightly, so Isaac wouldn't "worry about her."
"Come on, Isaac." She beckoned to him, and they continued down the path to the stream, where Jenna had finished cleaning up Garet. He was still sprawled out, looking grumpy and rather pale. Jenna had grass stains on her blouse and skirt, but she didn't seem to matter, when the health of her ickle Garrie-kins was on the line.
Mia appeared to choke as she thought about that.
"You okay, Mia?"
"Fine, perfectly fine, um, allergies..."
Isaac would have accepted that answer, except Mercury adepts, especially a certain one named Mia, didn't *have* allergies...
Oh well, she'd tell him in time. Mia kneeled down by Garet, feeling his forehead with a serious expression over her pretty features. He felt a sudden pang of... what was it? Jealousy? That was random. Maybe it was because he wanted her to care for him like that when he was sick, and only for him, and --
/You're being selfish!/ A little voice squeaked. He brushed it aside without much of a thought.
"Garet, how many times have you injured yourself in some way today?" He asked, crouching beside said Mars adept. Garet scowled at him, then ruined his glare when a coughing fit erupted from him.
"And this is all from thinking about kissing Felix? And that potato salad?" Mia asked, giggling softly. Garet grumbled.
"Kissing my brother? Garet! I didn't know you went down *that* road..." Jenna said, eyes wide.
"I... I... No! It... It's a... erm... um, whatchamacallit..."
"He's just glad Felix stopped you from brutally ripping him into pieces." Mia supplied. Garet gave her a thankful look.
"So Garet really isn't -- ?"
"No. Of course not! He loves a certain other Mars adept, doesn't he?" Isaac said, nudging Garet in the ribs. Jenna flushed a bright pink, and began muttering excuses to get home under her breath.
Jenna gave the picnic basket back to Isaac, and she thanked them for the good time. (Mia wasn't too sure about this, but she let her friend be.) She then scurried off towards her home -- then, she turned around and headed down to the plaza.
"C'mon, Garet. Let's get you to bed and a nice bowl of hot soup." Isaac heaved Garet up, supporting most of the red-head's weight and stumbling.
"Ohh... No more food..."
"Mercury! Did he just say 'no more food'?" Mia asked Isaac. "It's a miracle!"
"Shut up, Mia..." Garet said weakly. Mia giggled and pat him lightly on the shoulder. Ah, what a day... What an outing.
~-~-~-~-~-~
And, one more final time with Ivan...
~-~-~-~-~-~
"Oh, there's my sister. Can't be a good thing."
Nope. Of course not. Ivan couldn't be happier with Jenna's arrival.
"Felix... We need to have a... *Talk.*"
He snickered quietly under the cover of his box.
"Um, well, I'm sorta busy right now, Jenna..."
"You don't *look* busy."
"Uhh, wellll...."
"He's guarding me, Jenna." Ivan called out.
"...Ivan, is that you?"
"Yep. Trapped under this ol' box again, and Felix is *making sure* I don't *escape,* now aren't you, Felix?"
Felix fishmouthed.
"Are you really doing that, Felix?" Jenna asked in her sugary sweet voice. "Now, Ivan hasn't done anything particularly nasty to you as of late, now has he?"
"Um, no, but..."
"So why's he under the box, dear Felix?"
Ivan was trying not to laugh.
"Eh, well, the box tipped, and. . . . uhh.... Oh, look, our mother is calling me." It was apparent the siblings' mother was not calling Felix, but he sped off anyhow.
"Ivan? Are you still there?"
"Yeah..."
"Oh, well, give me a second."
"Okay."
It was then Ivan realised that having Jenna get the box off of him might not have been such a good idea...
~-~-~-~-~-~
End
~-~-~-~-~-~
I'm so proud of myself. A chapter quickly written. ^__^ And the official pairings of this story are: IsaacxMia, GaretxJenna, and IvanxSheba. I plan on using Felix later, in a, how shall we put this, *sequel,* perhaps. ^_^
[Felix] Eep. 0_o
[Stephanie] *Looking at said sequel's plans* You're planning on making this a -- ?!!
Yeah. ^^; Experimenting, ne?
[Stephanie] B-but...! How will everyone else react to this?
That's why it's called an experiment, baka. -_-;; I probably won't get many reviews, but I'm experimenting. It'll be a challenge, but, eh.
[Stephanie] 0_0;; *Faints*
[Felix] *Takes plans* o_o;; *Looks at the bottom* EEK!
Ehehehehhh... The bunch of you are curious, ne? ^^;; Well, lemme put it this way: You have eight main characters, and if you pair off the mentioned six, which two remain? ....::Waits:: Exaaaaaactly.
[Felix] You're evil! Vile! Disgusting! Menacing!
Why, thank you, even though I prefer to be labeled crazy. ^__^ It's an experiment, and it'll be fun... Hee. Felix playing hard-to-get... Kekekeke. ^^ Yeah, I'll be going to work on the next chapter.....
[Felix] *Extremely pale* You can't. . . .. You.. . ca-can't...
Oh, I can. ^^ You just wait, Felix, dearie. Review, pleez.
