Quid Pro Quo
by Sora G. Silverwind

Summary: After lighting Mars Lighthouse and returning home to Vale, a confused, lovesick Isaac tries to sort out his feelings for a certain Imilian Mercury Adept in a journal entry formatted as a love letter.

Rating: Slight PG-13 because it's just our cute widdle Isaac trying to sort out his hormones and emotions. No angst or suicidal stuff, surprisingly. There's a few swear words here and there, but nothing horribly outrageous.

Author's notes: Romance and soggy mush with a dash of some random spice added. I crammed as much of the aforementioned substances into this fic as possible without having it ooze out of the sides.Plot is weak (or nonexistent) but it's all about the mushy fluff and the fluffy mush. Or something. It's pretty short, so if you end up not liking this fic, which you probably will, you won't have wasted much of your time.

Disclaimer: Golden Sun and related do not belong to me. If they did, there'd be a third game out by now.

Special thanks to: Kali, procrastination, Post, and bouts of immaturity that we all need to indulge in every once in a while.

O-O-O

It was on a sweltering night in the middle of Sol Season that the object of his adolescent desires graced the unhampered realm of his dreams. Sweet lips that were deliciously salty like the air of the sea pervaded his mind and left a lingering taste on his tongue that he longed for. The refreshing scent of an ocean breeze drifted into his nostrils from long satin tresses of light lapis lazuli, intoxicating and overwhelming his senses. Then he was surrounded by a peaceful, soothing embrace, and he felt himself melt like water into his lover's heart...

Isaac shot straight up in his bed, his messy blonde hair even more disheveled than usual, reflecting his state of mind. His breath came in short, irregular spurts; his face was flushed. It took a few minutes before he could calm himself.

Not another dream, Isaac thought miserably. He squirmed uncomfortably at the tightness in his groin, and desperately willed it to go away so he could slumber in peace. Yeah, this is normal, but that doesn't mean it's enjoyable!

Oh, it isn't? taunted a teeny tiny voice tugging at the back of his brain.

The teenage Adept swung his legs over the edge of the bed and stared blankly at the wooden floor for a few contemplative moments. He, like almost any normal teenager, was experiencing the assault of hormones on his virgin psyche. It frustrated him to no end that he could take down monsters ten times his size (with a little help from his friends, of course) with ease, but he couldn't even make a dent in whatever weaponry the hormones were using to penetrate his defenses.

That's probably because their modus operandi is bombarding me with scandalous pictures of the person I'm madly in love with, he thought bitterly. It was...rather disturbing, to say the least, but Isaac had to give his hormones credit for the images they came up with. Can legs even bend that far?

Still, no matter how appallingly appealing the pictures were, they still troubled Isaac. They evoked feelings unknown to his 17-year-old heart, feelings that stirred dormant feral lust deep within his entrails, feelings that took his breath away with the sheer exoticness of it all...oh, hell, they just made him feel so damn weird. He hated it. He hated not having control over himself or his feelings or anything of his. Isaac wasn't sure what to do.

I need to talk to someone, Isaac realized. But who?

O-O-O

"Just tell the person how you feel!" Garet said the next day. "What's the big deal?"

"What's the big deal?" Isaac echoed in disbelief. "The big deal is...is...!"

"Yeah?"

"...I can't."

"Of course you can! I was able to, so why can't you?"

"Yeah, but you always make a fool of yourself. I don't."

"Hey!" Garet punched Isaac painfully in the arm. "I resent that!"

Isaac rubbed his upper arm. "Not so hard, buddy. Still recovering from when I became your cushion when you fell off the roof yesterday."

"Yeah, yeah, sorry there." Garet grinned and patted Isaac's arm. "No, but seriously...you should tell Mia how you feel."

Isaac's head snapped up at this.

"You like her, right?"

"But—"

"In my humble opinion," Garet continued, cutting Isaac off, "you should just pull her aside and talk to her. She's an understanding person, after all, but you probably knew that already. That's why you like her, right?"

Garet's words had rendered Isaac speechless.

Garet stood up. "Well, I gotta go. Lunch is calling." He winked before he disappeared out the door. "Be sure to let me know the details after you talk...if you know what I mean, that is."

"Garet!"

O-O-O

"Try writing," Mia suggested tenderly. "It's what I do whenever I need to figure out something. It may not work for you, but try it—you never know."

"Okay..." Isaac stumbled over his words. "Well, what do I write about?"

"Anything you want." Mia smiled in her perceptive way—one of many things that Isaac adored about her. "What I did was write a letter to the person I liked, writing about all the things that I wanted to say but was too scared to say in person. It helped me organize my thoughts and feelings."

Isaac nodded in complete understanding. "Did you send the letter?"

Mia giggled—a song in the air. "Heck no! That letter was so mushy that it made Jenna's peas and carrots look appealing."

Isaac winced. "Ouch. That's harsh."

"What can I say? I'm all about the truth, no matter how ugly it is. Just tell your special person how you feel. I'm sure she'll understand."

Isaac gulped. "Uh..."

"Oh, but you should write first so you don't completely embarrass yourself." Mia gave Isaac a reassuring hug, and Isaac blushed. "I think you'll feel better after writing for a bit. Good luck—you know I'll be cheering you on."

O-O-O

After much thought over a dinner of fried chicken, vegetables, and bread, Isaac chose to follow Mia's sage advice. That was how he ended up hunched over his table with two pieces of blank parchment in front of him. He chewed thoughtfully on the top of his quill. Where on Weyard do I start with this? he wondered.

There was a knock at his bedroom door. It was Garet. "Hey, Isaac. Mind if I come in?"

"Be my guest."

The door swung open, squeaking in protest. Garet walked in and raised an eyebrow in Isaac's direction. "What are you doing?"

"Writing, or at least attempting to. Mia said it would help organize my feelings and stuff like that."

Garet did a double take, and blinked in shock. "Wait a second, you talked to her but you didn't tell her how you felt?"

"Garet—"

"Come on, man! You could've had her by now!" Garet threw his hands up in exasperation. "Ugh, I forgot...you're not that type of guy. Mars and Venus, Isaac, if you keep this up you're not going to get anywhere with your love life. And if you do, girls will walk all over you."

Isaac raised his eyebrows sarcastically. "Oh, right, of course. You speak from experience. After all, Jenna's your girlfriend."

The Mars Adept huffed. "I do not let Jenna walk all over me! I just...indulge her every so often so she doesn't get mad at me!"

"Bringing her expensive gifts from the marketplace and giving her beauty treatments of her choice every morning is 'every so often'?"

Garet chose not to comment on Isaac's observations. "So what're you writing, anyways?"

"It's supposed to be a love letter. Mia said to write a love letter to the person I liked so that I can figure out what I do and don't want to say in person."

"Oh!" Garet excitedly pulled up a chair next to Isaac. "I'm good at love letters! Lemme help you! I know some good ones for Mia!"

Isaac snorted. "You, good at writing love letters? I don't believe you."

"You have no faith in your best friend? I'm hurt."

"I know my limitations, unlike you."

"How do you think I got Jenna?"

"When Her Highness the Pyro decided to step down from her pedestal and acknowledge your lowly self."

"Shut up and write."

There was a silence, save for the thoughtful scratching of quill against parchment. Then:

"Don't look over my shoulder, dummy! It's private!"

"But how can I help if I don't know what you're writing?"

"I'll ask for help when I need it. Now scram before I bring Ragnarok on you."

Another period of quiet descended upon the dwelling.

"...hey, does this sound all right?"

Garet snatched the paper from Isaac's hands, nearly ripping it in half. He perused the scribbles presented before him. "What the Hades is this? Ye Gods, Isaac, but you cannot write!"

"Duh. That's why I'm asking you, Lord of the Rhymes, to help me out here."

A silly smile was plastered on Garet's face. "Leave it to me!"

Isaac buried his face in his hands.

After a few furious moments of writing, Garet handed the parchment back to his friend. "Here ya go," he said. "No need for applause."

With a twinge of apprehension, Isaac plunged into the sea of words conjured up by his well-meaning buddy.

To an ethereal angel from the deep blue seas:

I...I don't know how to start this letter. My hand is trembling with dread as I'm writing this. I want to tell you this in person, so badly that my heart aches as though a dagger was stabbed right through it... but I'm so afraid. I fear what I might say, what I might do when talking to you. Will I drive you off with my incompetent words and my imperfections? Will I lose control and frighten you with my overdose of passion? No, you have no fear, and I am not important enough to scare you. You are far beyond that, and far above my lowly station, an angel I'm allowed to see but not touch. I don't deserve you, and it hurts like my body was being ripped apart by a Mauler. I feel the string of yearning from me to you becoming lax. But somehow you complete me, like that final, integral piece completes a puzzle. I'm weak, andyou are strong. I see it in you, I see it emanate in rich waves from you that make me shiver when I feel them, and I see it behind your sapphire pools that are your eyes, hidden in the shadows of the aquamarine silk of your luxurious hair that smells of the sea and all its glory...

"What is this junk?" Isaac demanded, dumbfounded.

"It's a love letter!" Garet shot back, looking offended. "That's what you wanted, right?"

"It's the mushy trash that Jenna has a strange affinity for," Isaac concluded, an expression of mild disgust on his face. "Remind me to never ask you for help again."

Garet pouted. "Well, sorry if a love letter is 'mushy trash', but ask and ye shall receive."

Isaac sighed. "Point taken. Thanks, anyways. Now I know what not to do."

"If you and I weren't such good friends, you'd be fried Venus Adept right now."

"Right, if I were as slow as you."

Garet indignantly hurled a pillow at Isaac's head. Isaac easily evaded the attack, laughing. "I'll get you someday, Isaac," Garet grumbled, although he was smiling. "You'll see."

"Mm-hmm, if I live that long." Isaac glanced back at his parchment. "Well, it's not like this thing will actually go anywhere, so I'll just write whatever, I suppose."

And so he did.

Screw this poetic stuff! Who came up with the bright idea that love letters had to be all "Oh, my love, my darling, I've hungered for your touch" type of thing? Sure, tell the person you miss them...but don't creep them out by talking about hearts being ripped apart or stepped on or eyes suddenly becoming various types of jewels that drown a person! (Wouldn't that make it hard to see?) I would rather get to the point and tell it like it is.

But...my hand actually is shaking as I'm writing this. And I do want to tell you how I feel in person, but I'm scared. Really scared. I'd wanted to tell you for a long time. I can't talk about this type of thing in front of people; my tongue gets all weird and I get an urge to throw up not long after. And I didn't want to throw up on you, obviously. It would destroy your perfection. Yeah, yeah, that's being poetic, but it's true. You're incredible in every way: intelligent, beautiful, confident, strong...I envy you. I wish I had those traits. But it makes me love you all the more.

Oh, crap, I meant to save the "I love you" part for later, but what's done is done, I suppose. I love you with all my heart, but...I don't know if you feel the same way. I can't tell...I was never good at reading people's feelings. To be honest, I don't thin you do. I was going to ask you at Jupiter Lighthouse, just in case something happened to us, but...I got scared again. And besides, we had Agatio and Karst to deal with. It would've been stupid to ask you something like that when they were right there, and I couldn't get you alone. Not to mention, I was half-dead after that Rising Dragon from Agatio and fading in and out of consciousness. After that...I was occupied with sorting out things with Felix and his group. I know it sounds...well...fickle to say that I forgot about you during the whole thing with Felix, so I won't say that, but I can't figure out how to say it. It's just, well...Felix had been (well, he still is) a good friend of mine, so I really wanted to fix our friendship as well as figure out what the hell we were going to do concerning lighting the lighthouses. Anyways, going back to what I'm writing this thing for...

I've been in love with you ever since I first met you. It was so unexpected. One moment, it was just me, and then came you. I couldn't take my eyes off you. Has anyone told you how beautiful you are? Someone must have. If they haven't, their eyes are broken. Gods, words can't describe your beauty. And the way you carry yourself, the dignified air that you have, seems so natural to you, and it makes you even more wonderful. You have a gentle face, but a strong, determined heart, and it's perfect, absolutely perfect. And then at Mercury Lighthouse...seeing you against the blue glow of the beacon's light...it was amazing. You are divine beyond the word.

Sorry, I think I'm lapsing into that cliché, wordy mode that Garet seems to like, judging from what he wrote up there. But I meant every little thing that I just wrote. You know, now that makes me think...maybe those people that wrote all the things about the eyes being jewels and hearts being stepped on, maybe they wrote that because that's how they felt and couldn't describe it any other way. I don't know. It makes sense, in a way.

I never expected to fall in love, never mind so suddenly and strongly. But I can't unlove you now...not that I want to, even though I know I can't have you. I can't see why you'd even want me. I don't have any redeeming qualities, especially when compared to you. Seriously. I...well...you're too good for me. The phrase is overused, but it's true. (Plus I'm not that good of a writer in the first place, so I have an excuse.) I can only dream every night of having you, of being in your arms and kissing your soft lips, indulging in the sweet scent of your hair...oops. Too many details, huh? Damn, Garet's rubbing off on me. This is why I chose to write this instead of talking to you in person. I don't even want to imagine the humiliation I'd endure if I said what I just wrote to you. If I actually told you this in person, who knows what would have happened?

Besides, even if I had this all figured out, I wouldn't know how to talk to you...it seems like you're worlds away.

Gods, Alex...don't die on me, you beautiful jerk.

I love you.

Love,
Isaac

O-O-O

If anyone can identify the song reference in the love letter, you'll get...well, we'll work out details later, and I'll draw up a contract.

...or something.

(/dork mode)

Review if you will, flame if you must.

-Sora G. Silverwind

with a hug and a kiss I'm out like this POOF