*Feels bad* Sorry, Flaming Knight, I didn't mean to sound so…snappish. It's just that ever since my fiancée dumped me any criticism gets me depressed or infuriated. I know I should kick put his lazy, no-good, two-timing, big fat ass out of the picture, but I loved him…I really did…and then he dumped me, just like that. *shrugs* So anything cruel I say should not be taken seriously. Last night my sister Kaylei asked me to pass the potatoes and I burst into tears. Pretty sad, huh? So don't worry about it. In any normal state I would not have taken your very well-constructed (thank you and all my other reviewers so much for not yelling at me or anything like that!) so seriously, like you told me not to, but everything just seems to get under my skin.

And for those who have read this far—don't you feel stupid? After all, the title of this fic kind of gave it away. LOL, just kidding.

Chapter Five: Friends

"I thought it was a heart," Neal said in awe. Seaver boxed his ears. "Ow!" he whined.

"Ah, stuff it," Faleron muttered.

"So you mean to tell me," Raoul said slowly, "that you can't fear anything?"

"Correct," Kel said.

"That doesn't explain your cold attitude, though," Owen added.

She looked at him. "I'm cold to you because I have no fear. My love for all my friends also included the fear of you all hating me, or rejecting me, or betraying me, or ending our friendship. Since I feel no fear now, I am not afraid of being mean to you and losing your trust and love. I want to say I'm sorry about that."

"All is forgiven," Neal said immediately. Her other friends agreed.

For the first time since she came, a very human emotion flicked across her stone face. It was confusion, pure and simple.

"After all I've done, you'd still forgive me?" she asked, her face a pleasant screen of wonder and puzzlement. "Why?"

"'Cause we love you, dope," Raoul said fondly.

Then, something amazing happened—she smiled, a real smile, not just one of her cool, phony ones, but real a real one.

"Thank you," she said gently.

"What are friends for?" Cleon said loftily.

Merric cracked his knuckles eagerly. "What happened to your fear gene?"

"He put it in a bottle."

"What do genes look like, anyway?" Numair asked curiously.

"I knew he was going to ask that!" Daine exclaimed.

"Since genes are not really physical—more like cells—it's hard to say," Kel tried to explain. "They look like DNA, I guess."

"Oh." A heartbeat later he asked, "What's DNA?"

"The stuff that makes you up."

"Oh."

"So your fear gene is all bottled up?" Seaver asked. "Does that mean we can get it back?"

Kel blinked. "I guess so," she said, shrugging.

Jonathan nodded. "Then we'll get that bottle back. I doubt he'll leave something so precious in Scanra where so many enemies lurk when he visits us."

"Visits us?" the entire room chorused.

Thayet shot him an evil look. "And when, exactly, was I to get word of this?" she asked briskly. The king blushed.

"I was going to tell you," he said defensively.

The queen rolled her eyes. "Suuuuure."

"I was," he insisted.

"I believe you," Thayet assured unconvincingly.

"Why does he want to visit us?" Numair asked.

"To compromise," Jon said.

"Forget compromise," Wyldon snarled. "Roast him like a turkey!"

"I like turkeys," Neal snapped. "So don't insult them!"

"Blast it all, I can insult them if I want to!"

Neal leaped on his former training-master. A catfight proceeds.

"When is he coming?" Alanna asked. Her face now seemed devoid of most of the sorrow, and she seemed happier than she had in days.

Jonathan coughed, and his queen peered suspiciously at him. "In three days," he muttered.

Raoul cackled. "And when he comes—"

"We'll be ready," Neal finished.

~*~

Wow! I've updated a lot! It's like, two updates in one morning (or is it afternoon?) or something like that. I'm on a roll!