I'm feeling the best that I have felt in a long while. Why is that, you ask? Well, it's because I have recently learned that I am now part of the Brown Class of 2009...and that not only means I'll be going to a great college (Ivy League, WOO!), but it also means the college search is officially OVER. And no college stress means more free time. So I'll be focusing more on this story! (Hopefully.)

The Story Master 125: Shake...hands...with Pikachu? :/ Don't tell me you like pokemon...

Icy AngelWings: A Mary-Sue (or Gary-Stu for a guy) is the bane of an author's existence. Basically, a Mary-Sue is a perfect character, with abilities usually well beyond that of the fandom's main heroes. A Mary-Sue also usually makes the main character fall in love with her in nothing flat. Basically, what you want to keep in mind when making OC's is that characters aren't perfect. That should help you keep away from Mary-Sues.

AmbieChan: I want to include Nino's supports with Canas, but I'm having trouble thinking of a way to insert them. They should appear later though.

Ryst: That jealousy of others being with Nino is going to continue into this chapter and later ones. He'll learn to deal with it though :P

Flaming Soul: Keep in mind that Jaffar hasn't actually admitted to himself that he's in love. He's still trying to figure it out. :P

SaiTheInsaneTactican: Thanks for your review!

Emotion Changing Reviewer: Thanks for your review!

lzn64: Perhaps you're right, but you do have to keep in mind that Nino probably doesn't know why Jaffar is helping her as much as Jaffar himself does. That's why I had Lyn ask him instead.

Ragnarok-Legend: --looks at P.S.-- shh, don't give anything away! I'm saving that stuff for my next story! :P

Firelien: Thanks for your review!

Inferno-Hero: I don't think I'm going to hit a thousand reviews by far, do you? In any case, I've seen stories with more than 1800 reviews; a thousand isn't really a "world record." But thank you anyway :)

darkstarredshadowwolf: Thanks for your review!

Fury: Thanks for your review!

Kratos Aurion: Like I said to lzn64, Lyn was just curious; after all, it isn't every day that an assassin joins your army because he wants to protect a girl. Lyn might've asked Nino instead, but Jaffar would know why he joined much better than her. That's why I had her ask Jaffar.

Sword of Seals: Thanks for your review!

Dracobolt: Thanks for your review!

timmycheese: This story should probably head through the end of the game.

Hinata2004: Lyn, stupid? I was thinking more along the lines of "curious" when I wrote that. :P

Spectral Flame: Thanks for your review!

Bloody Mary: Thanks for your review!

Oswin the Nino Fan: Phew, glad you were kidding about your last review :P

FireEdge: I'd review your update, but I can't review the same chapter twice. You made a big improvement though. And as for updating your story, well...this time you have an excuse :P

Winteress: Er...that part with Jan wasn't made up. Isn't that mostly said in the game?

Seproth: I'm not sure if you've read my other stories, but actually my "trademark" is pretty much taking support conversations and changing them around. So no, you won't have the exact lines from their A support when I get to it, but the important lines will still be there. Stay tuned until then; I hope you'll like what I do with it :)

katelynn: Thanks for your review!

Douceur: Thanks for your review!

The Blazing Blade: Thanks for your review!

gentleness28: Yes, well, you used to draw stick figures. I still do :P. I actually have opened a dA account now (under the same username), but there's not much in it. I'm basically a lurker there.

Jeanie: About the conversation with Lyn, I get that feeling about half the stuff I write :P. That's why I need you oh-so-sweet reviewers to tell me that I'm wrong...or right, in some cases.

Kayako: Thanks for your review!

This is shaping up to be an interesting chapter...read on :)

Chapter Twelve
Understanding

The feeling of her lips upon his skin stayed with him the entire night, her youthful, pretty face haunted his dreams. Lyn's words ran through his head over and over again, taunting him, confusing him...

He surprisingly slept late, but after the excitement and confusion of the previous night, it was forgivable. When he awoke, for one, blissful moment, he didn't remember anything, but it all quickly came rushing back as he realized where he was.

Jaffar turned towards Nino's bedroll, expecting to see her sleeping there soundly, but the bedroll was empty. He was worried for a moment until he noticed a small line of daylight coming through the space between the front flaps of the tent.

He guessed she was already up and about, but just to make sure, he slowly stood and walked over to the front of the tent, opening the flap.

The assassin was surprised to see that the sun had already risen a considerable amount, and most of the army was already milling about the center of the camp. He searched through the group for a moment before noticing Nino chatting amiably with another girl he didn't recognize. The young mage laughed a little, and Jaffar marveled at how quickly she had recovered from the trauma she had experienced the previous night. Seeing her there, laughing...it was as though nothing had ever happened.

As it turned out, the entire camp was in an upbeat mood. Jaffar learned, from the bits and pieces of conversations he could make out as he passed through the small crowd, that the army was now close to their goal of reaching the Shrine of Seals. Furthermore, as many army members were excitedly telling one another, the queen had invited the entire army to stay in the manse for one night as repayment for saving the prince. Apparently it would be a much-needed respite from sleeping in tents.

Nino laughed again as Jaffar approached her, and again Jaffar was amazed by how she could be so cheerful even after going through so much pain. The other girl seemed to be an archer—she wore brown huntress's garb and a bandana of the same color, and she held a silver bow by the string in one of her hands. She was a little taller than Nino, and as far as Jaffar could make out, about the same age. The little amount of dark-green hair that could be seen under her bandana was tied into a braided pigtail on either side, which accentuated her similarly-colored eyes and gentle face.

"...to introduce you to the other girls here," she was saying with a warm smile. "I'm sure they'd love to meet you."

Nino smiled back. "Really? That'd be great!" she exclaimed happily. Then, catching his gaze, she turned to Jaffar. She blushed faintly as she gazed at him—Jaffar didn't have to wonder what she was thinking about.

The same event Nino was silently recalling had also engendered the strangest feeling in the assassin. Actually, it was more like a bizarre mixture of two feelings. Nino's gesture of affection the previous night, as awkward as it had made him feel at the time, had done nothing to diminish his desire to stay near and protect her—in fact, it had probably strengthened it. Yet at the same time, he was filled with an uneasy apprehension. Even now, it felt terrifying to be around her; he was afraid any little thing he did might make her dislike him, make her want him to leave. The reason he would care so much about her feelings was unknown to him. All he knew was that it was there.

And the desire and terror mixed to create an emotion that left the assassin utterly baffled.

Do you love her? Lyn's voice asked in his head. Was this love?

"Hello, Jaffar!" Nino greeted him, the pinkish glow having receded from her cheeks. She giggled a little. "You certainly slept late," she chided jokingly.

"Why didn't you wake me up?" he asked in return, completely serious. If the army was preparing for the day, certainly he would have needed to prepare himself as well.

The sniper that Nino had been speaking with decided to explain. "Mark thought that we all deserved to sleep in after a battle so late at night," she said flatly. Her face bore a polite smile, but her expression was one of high suspicion—her face silently screamed, Nino's friends with this guy? "You don't have to worry about packing up or anything. We're not going anywhere."

"Jaffar, this is Rebecca," Nino introduced the other girl, still smiling broadly. "Rebecca, this is Jaffar," she said in turn to the sniper.

"Nice to meet you," the girl known as Rebecca greeted him, still smiling politely but obviously resisting an urge to back away uncomfortably. "Nino...has told me about you."

Jaffar acknowledged the greeting with a nod of his head, but he said nothing in return.

Rebecca took this as her sign to leave. "Well, I have to go talk to Wil," she said, turning to Nino and smiling a little more strongly.

"Who's Wil?" Nino asked, genuinely curious.

Rebecca's smile widened a little, and she blushed, looking at the ground. "He's my fiancé," she muttered.

The young mage's eyes widened considerably. "Fiancé?!" she exclaimed loudly enough for the whole camp to hear, clearly amazed. "You mean, like, getting married?!"

"Um, yes," Rebecca replied, blushing even more at all the attention being drawn to her.

"But you're barely older than me!"

"But we've known each other for a long time, and we love each other," Rebecca explained happily, regaining enough of her confidence to look back up at Nino. "I don't see why age should have anything to do with it."

"Well, congratulations, then!" the young mage replied cheerfully.

"Thank you," Rebecca replied, blushing slightly again. Then, turning to her tent, she added, "I'll see you around."

"'Bye," Nino responded, and Rebecca walked off to her tent. "Can you believe that, Jaffar?" she asked the assassin after the sniper had left. "She's getting married!"

Jaffar did not reply. It was strange, he thought, that once he had started thinking about love, that other conversations he heard seemed to center around love as well, almost as though he was being mocked for failing to understand his feelings.

But he did not have time to dwell on it, as another voice broke him out of his thoughts.

"Ah, you must be Nino and Jaffar."

The two of them turned towards the person that had addressed them, who turned out to be a young man neither of them had seen before. He wore a blue shirt and cape along with brown pants, and he had a rapier strapped to his side. He had short, bright-red hair and clear blue eyes in a face that screamed of valiance and the desire to help the world.

But what more interested Jaffar was the fact that a girl was standing to the young man's side. She had long, pale-green hair and crimson eyes, and wore a teal-colored dress that seemed like something appropriate for a religious dancer. The closeness with which she stood next to the young man and the quick, blushing glances she gave him made it rather obvious to Jaffar that the two were lovers. He had never understood how love felt, but he had seen enough romantic relationships among Black Fang members and other people to recognize when one existed.

And, just like with Rebecca's mention of marriage, the sight of this relationship annoyed Jaffar to no end, and a spring of jealousy began flowing inside the assassin.

Why was it that so many people in the camp seemed to understand love so easily? Within only a few minutes of his first day among the army, he already knew of two relationships that existed (along with one that he had apparently destroyed, if Matthew had spoken the truth), and he was certain there had to be several more. But why were they lucky enough to know how love felt, when he was left in confusion? Why not him? Why—

"My name is Eliwood," the young man introduced himself with a polite smile, breaking Jaffar's train of thought. "I think Mark and the others have told you about me. I..." he blushed a little, "I apologize for being unable to greet you last night."

Nino smiled cheerfully. "Pleased to meet you, Eliwood," she responded. Then, turning to the girl, she added somewhat awkwardly, "Ah...and you are?"

The dancer smiled warmly. "I am called Ninian," she replied. "Pleased to meet you."

"And you must be Jaffar," Eliwood greeted the assassin in turn. He smiled proudly. "I heard of your defense of the prince last night. It is an honor to have a man of such skill in our army."

Jaffar only nodded in acknowledgement, still preoccupied with the adoring glances that the dancer Ninian was giving the young lord without him knowing.

Soon after, Eliwood's stole a loving glance of his own at Ninian, and Jaffar felt his jealousy building. Why were they so lucky?

"Well," Eliwood said formally, still smiling. "We are spending a night in the castle, so you should pack up any possessions you wish to bring with you. Merlinus will gather the tents and bedrolls; you don't have to worry about those."

"All right," Nino replied for both her and Jaffar.

And the two of them walked back through the small group towards their tent, Nino chatting excitedly all the while.

"I can't wait to meet the other girls here!" she said cheerfully to the assassin as they walked. "I've never really had that many friends that were girls. I hope they like me."

Jaffar walked beside her silently, listening but only half-interested as his mind was preoccupied with other thoughts. He looked down to his side at the young mage, at the girl he might have loved all along without knowing it. She smiled back up at him as she continued to speak excitedly about all of the people she had met, unknowing of the intentions behind the assassin's gaze.

The idea of love confused him immensely; like all other emotions, knowing about it had never served any purpose to him as an assassin. Yet, so soon after he had met Nino, he now understood happiness, fear, despair...but not love.

He was still grateful to the young mage, though. After all, without her, he would have lived the rest of his life as an unfeeling machine...

The former assassin felt an unknown emotion bubble up inside him at the thought of all Nino had done for him without knowing what she had done. Gazing at the girl's face only seemed to strengthen the emotion.

Whether or not the emotion was love, he couldn't tell. But the feeling was the most pleasing of all the emotions Nino had caused him to feel thus far.

And reveling in it, he continued to gaze at the young mage as they walked and she spoke. He heard none of her words, but he didn't care.

With the emotion warming his insides, he felt the best that he had in a long while.

Another chapter where I just had to end it with that last line. Sorry, Matthew fans :(
Jaffar is...sort of...recognizing his feelings. He still doesn't know what the feeling is, but we're getting there!
Well, I have some celebrating to do, so I'll leave you guys to post your comments. What did you think of this chapter?

Please review!!!
-TheOneAndOnlyT