LOST STARS By: Alithiel

Disclaimer: Hi! Did you all like the last chapter? I hope so, cause here's the next one! YAY! Thanx bunches to Celtic and Tsukiyo Hoshi for reviewing. You two rock! Lorelai, Phoebe, Celesta, and Jade are mine. No one else is.*sniff * (I want Rowen for Christmas!) R&R, preeze!

^.~

Alithiel

Chapter 5: The Date

Cye sat on the front porch swing, bored. Rain droplets dripped frm the leaves, glittering like liquid diamond in the sunlight. The storm had finally broken, leaving the world clean and new.

He didn't feel too new.

He had so many things on his mind. One was what he was going to do for Ryo's birthday. Another was what he was going to take in school the coming year. But first and foremost was when Celesta was going to collect on her date.

He wasn't going to lie to himself. He liked her. A LOT. He hadn't had a real crush on anyone since the seventh grade, but she still got under his skin somehow.

Must be a girl thing.

"Cye?" A voice asked.

He shook himself from his reverie. Celesta stood by the front door, looking at him curiously. Her golden eyes stared into his.

"Can I join you?"

He nodded and moved over. She sat on the swing, curling her bare feet up under her. Cye saw their reflection in an old mirror at the other end of the porch. They made a startling contrast, her golden and bright in her orange top, he darker with his auburn hair and blue tee shirt.

"Cye? I have a question."

"Huh?"

"Well, first I have to apologise. I shouldn't have made a bet with you." She wrung her hands in her lap. "I almost knew that Phoebe would win.it was wrong of me."

"No need to apologise." He patted her shoulder. A tendril of her hair curled around his finger, and he snatched his hand away.

"Well, actually, it was the only way I could think of to get your help." She looked at him sideways, from behind her glasses.

"Help? What kind of help?"

"Do you.think you could teach me how to swim?"

If Cye could have fallen off the swing, he would have. "Wha?"

"You see." Celesta raked her hand through her hair. "I have this horrible fear of deep water.and no matter how hard I try, I can't seem to get over it. I asked Ryo, and he said you were a really good swimmer, so." She shrugged. "I was hoping." Her voice trailed off.

Cye couldn't help but smile. "Of course."

"Really? Awesome!" Celesta cheered, giving Cye a bear hug before leaping off the swing. "When do we start?"

He made a pretense of looking at his watch. "How about in fifteen minutes?"

"Great! Thanks so much, Cye." She said sincerely. "This really means a lot."

"Just glad to help."

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ryo was more confused than he had ever been in his life. He was even more confused than he had been when he first got his armor, and that was saying something.

For some reason, Rowen was avoiding him.

If he was in a room, Rowen didn't come in. Or, if he ever walked into a room where Rowen was, he's run out like his ass was on fire.

Well, no more. He was going to get to the bottom of this once and for all, he thought as he stopped outside his best friend's room. After a moment, he walked in without even bothering to knock.

Rowen was sitting on his bed, hands drooping, looking at the floor. His blue hair was in dissarray, even worse that normal. At Ryo's entrance he looked up, winced, and dropped his head again.

Ryo sat on the bed beside him. "Ro, what's up, man?"

He shook his head. "Can't say."

"C'mon, talk to me!"

Rowen pushed up from his bed angrily. "I can't talk about it, Ryo! Especially not to you!" He raked a hand through his hair. The familiar lock of hair fell into his eyes like it always did, and he blew at it angrily.

The warrior of Wildfire regarded his friend sadly. Rowen was a lot like Sage in the fact that he had to think out his problems for himself. However, a nagging feeling kept plauging Ryo that this particular one was one he needed to talk through. And he was intent on not moving until he got his friend to tell.

"Rowen." He began.

"You'll hate me." Rowen declared bitterly. Ryo blinked.

"I didn't hate you when you nearly broke my nose. And nothing can be bad as that."

His friend chuckled. "You sabotaged my Astronomy book, so you got what you deserved."

"Hey, it wasn't that bad."

"Glitter and pink paper hearts? I had a hell of a time explaning that to Desashi-sensei."

"The glitter was all Kento, dude."

The tense set of Rowen's shoulders relaxed a little. He sat in his desk chair, straddling the back. Midnight blue eyes regarded tiger blue seriously for a moment. Ryo fell into the familiar universe of stars and air currents in the warrior of Strata's gaze. Naturally, his affinity with his armor, the connection, manifested itself in his eyes. Ryo himself knew that when others with power looked into his, they saw the flickering heart of a bonfire, or the searing heat of lava.

"Ok, I'll tell, but you gotta promise to hear me outright and not kill me, ok?"

"Sure, pal. Shoot."

Rowen took a deep breath before going on. "I think I love your cousin."

"So?"

Rowen had been about to plunge ahead with explanations when he was stopped short. "Huh?"

"I must say, I was relieved that it was you and not some fool from the city. Better tell her soon, though, if you know what I mean." Ryo grinned.

"But, Ryo."

"Rowen, I know her better than probably anyone in the world. That being, I know that she'll respond better if you just out and tell her. Lorelai's not one for beating around things."

"I noticed." Rowen said, remembering her frank telling of her story the day before.

Ryo got up, glaring at his friend good-naturedly. "But if you hurt her, you'll have to answer to me."

His friend winced, then smiled sheepishly. "Owich.I'll keep that in mind."

"Good." With that, Ryo walked out of the room.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Mia looked up when Ryo entered her study. With a smile, he gave her a hug, kissing her cheek before settling into the chair beside her.

"Where where you?" She asked, pausing her work.

"Oh, giving Rowen some girl advice." Ryo said with a grin, grabbing her free hand and rubbing his thumb over her knuckles.

"Rowen needed advice?"

"Well, you know what they say."

"Hmm?

Ryo laughed. "Some things you just can't learn from books!"

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Celesta found Cye waiting for her on the porch. She paused a moment. He was by far the nicest man that she had ever met. But.Celesta sighed, breathing a quick prayer to the stars she was connected to that someday he might just be more than nice to her! Twitching her yellow cover-up into place and throwing her Gundam towel over her shoulder was the only way to hide her blush as she walked out. Cye was sitting on the steps, waiting.

"Ready?" He asked, grabbing a blue beach towel.

"Yup!" The pair began their trek to the lake. They made insane small talk, about swimming and school. Soon they had reached the lakeshore. Early afternoon sunlight glittered like gems on the surface of the clear water. Celesta just gazed over the water while Cye explained why the water was so clean.

"That's why the water's not murky.hey? Celesta?" Cye asked when he noticed she wasn't listening.

"Um? OH! I'm so sorry!" She stammered as she snapped out of her reverie. "I was just.never mind."

"What? What were you thinking?"

"How similar this day was to." A haunted expression crossed her lovely face. She turned her eyes to Cye. "You had said you wanted to know how I met the others, right?

"Look, you don't have to." He looked rather panicked, and that caused Celesta to smile a bit.

"Hey, it was a legitimate question, after all. I mean, how can a group of people with so little in common become such great friends?" She raised her eyebrow at him.

"Urm.well." He stammered.

She laughed as she spread her towel out on the sandy shore of the lake. She sat down in the oblong of sunshine.

"Well, to begin, I assume you know that I was going to be in the Olympics?"

Cye nodded. Sage had told him as much the other day.

"I was good, Cye. Really good. "My high school was holding a gymnastics exhibition. I suppose," she added with a smile, "that you have discovered that I am a year older that my friends?"

"Really? So am I, but I was holding off going to college so my friends and I can go together."

"Me too. Anyway, there was this boy in the school who had a huge crush on me. He was a nice kid, but when he asked me out, I had to turn him down. I had to focus on my tryout, you know? I guess he didn't like that one bit, because the day of the exhibition he came to school with a gun."

Cye's heart tightened painfully in his chest. An awful feeling of dread came over him, as if he knew what was coming next.

"Needless to say he hid the gun. He cornered me in the cafeteria and told me that since I had destroyed his dream, he would destroy mine."

She lifted the hem of her swimsuit cover-up. On each thigh was a deep, puckered scar.

"He must have been really good at anatomy, because he shot me right in the artery on each side. The bullets really tore up my muscles, and I almost bled out. I was rushed to a hospital in Cleveland, where I stayed for a long, long time." She shuddered. "They thought they were going to have to amputate both of my legs.but they didn't. They sent me to the same recover facility as Lorelai.and that's how we met. She helped me through one of the hardest times in my life. One day I hope to return the favor."

"As friends should." Cye said quietly. "I'm glad you told me."

"It still hurts sometimes." Celesta admitted, peeling off her wrap. "But I'm able to do gymnastics again. Not for competition, but enough to keep me happy. And you know what?" She asked as she stood.

"Hm?"

"Therapy SUCKS. I mean REALLY."

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Iveinstrand glared solemnly at the dark minion before him.

"You're telling me that the Four are on Earth? Again?"

The thing was shaking to much to answer.

The lord turned his eyes to the bowl of gelatinous memory matrix beside him.

Once someone had called it memory jello.

He was now decorating the wall.

Faces flashed across the surface of the goo. All were descendents of the original Quadrille: Joan of Arc, Guenivere, and Mother Theresa. He threw the bowl at the ethereal wall angrily. The clay shattered, and the dripping goo displayed some princess before fading. All had done much to help their fellow man, and all had thwarted his plans.

Tveinstrand turned burning eyes to the cowering creature.

"Call the Dark Crescent soldiers. Now."

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The slim girl slammed the thick volume shut in relief. Her gray, blue eyes watched the magic clock as she carefully secured the buckles that would hold the volume shut.

"Done?" A voice called from the dim doorway. The Chronicler Hall was quiet, it being late in the day. The next shift of chroniclers would be arriving soon, and they had promised to be out before then.

"Yeah." The girl cleared the magical ink from her quill before putting it away.

"Is the timeline back on track?" Her friend said, long dark hair swaying in the soft breeze from the slightly opened window.

"So far. I'll take care of the rest tomorrow." Twitching her braid out of the way, she packed the book into her bag. It shrunk to fit.

"Then let's go. We don't want to be late for the movie."

"Right! Hey, do you have that spell set? I don't want anyone noticing my ears are abnormally pointy."

"Maybe they'll think you're a house elf, Alithiel."

Alithiel rolled her eyes. "Shut up, Arlyssa. You know I'm much to tall for that!"

Laughing, the two vanished in clouds of smoke, leaving the hall empty.

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Alithiel~ *Appears in puff of smoke* Whew.what a trip! Anyway, read and review, please! I hope you enjoy this installment!

QUOTE OF THE DAY

'Can we panic NOW?!'

Ron Weasely, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

(A's Note: Wood.*Hearts*)