A/N. Hello again. I have four reviews! I'm so chuffed! Anyway. Thank you to everyone who reviewed, much appreciated. But now you've confused me. I've got two of you saying 'do Kel/Neal', and one wanting a Kel/Joren. Don't worry FanFictionFantom, I don't think it was ever going to be Kel/Cleon, so you're safe on that front. Anyway, lets get on with it and I'll try to figure out how to work this. By the way, here's a theory; when you stop getting new reviews, it's time to update. Let me know your opinions on that.

Disclaimer: If I owned any of this stuff, do you honestly think I would be posting things here? No. I wouldn't. I'd be selling it to publishers and earning mega bucks. So basically, that means I don't any of the characters/places in this story.

Chapter 2.

Kel woke at dawn the next morning and rolled out of bed. She stretched and looked around. It was still slightly dark. She dressed quickly and performed her morning exercise routine before filling the sparrows dishes and heading down to breakfast, where she met up with her friends. They all greeted her in their own personal fashion, she returned the favour and sat down next to Neal. He was still half asleep and seemed to be having trouble conveying his porridge from the bowl in front of him to his mouth. Kel shook her head and began to eat her own porridge, chatting happily away as she did so. When she paused for breath, Neal glared at her.

"Why do you always have to be so cheerful in the mornings? Can't you just leave those of us who don't like getting up at some ungodly hour so we can be beaten with sticks to get on with it?" Kel laughed. This was such a very typical thing for Neal to say in the morning that it was immensely funny. Looking around at the table of sleepy teen-age boys, Kel wondered what was missing. Something definitely was. She just couldn't place it. Then it struck her. Owen wasn't there. She continued to eat her porridge, slightly puzzled over this strange absence. When he didn't appear for ten minutes, she turned to Neal, who was definitely having trouble keeping his eyes open.

"Where's Owen?" Neal took a minute to register that she had spoken.

"What? Oh, Owen. Yeah, I think he's in his room. Came in, ate in a terrible hurry and left about five minutes before you arrived muttering something about extra practice." Kel shrugged. No doubt he'd show up at some point. She stood up, took her own and Neal's bowl to the kitchen and returned to the table. Neal was asleep, with his head on the table. Kel shook him awake.

"We'll be late for hand to hand and staff practice if you don't hurry." Neal grunted, stood and stretched. He, like Kel, had no wish to be reprimanded by the stump on the first day.

Hand to hand followed a fairly regular routine. Everyone paired off and began the routines set for them. Naturally, Neal, who was paired with Kel, spent most of the time on his back on the ground sweating, while Kel stood over him and asked if he was ready to try again. Staff practice went much the same way, except that Neal managed to stay on his feet. He received several bruised knuckles for his efforts instead.

When staff practice had finished, they headed to the next practice court for fencing. On the way out, Kel met Joren on his way in. He smiled at her again. Once again, Kel noticed his dazzling smile.

"How was practice?" Kel looked slightly amazed, but managed a relatively intelligible answer.

"Uh, yeah, good thanks." Joren was still smiling.

"That's good. See you later." And with that he strode into the practice court. Neal had come up in time to hear the tale end of the conversation. As he and Kel walked into fencing, he looked thoughtful.

"What was all that about?" Kel glanced up at him.

"What was all what about?" Neal raised an eyebrow. Kel noticed that he couldn't do that without smiling slightly, which made it even harder than usual to take him seriously.

"You know, that whole conversation with Joren."

"He spoke to me first and it's considered good manners to answer when someone asks you a question. Why the sudden interest in who I talk to?" Neal looked slightly abashed, so Kel quickly tried to save the situation.

"I'm not angry, or anything, I was just wondering." Neal looked down.

"I suppose I'm just not used to him being nice and everything. I'll go get us swords." Kel frowned after him. He definitely seemed more protective than she remembered. She thought back to their conversation the previous day. Had there been something in his eyes when he had asked if she liked Owen staring at her or had she imagined it?

Her train of thought was interrupted by Neal's return. He handed her a sword and they turned to listen to the fencing masters instructions. To everyone's surprise, they would be practicing duals. That struck Kel as slightly strange. They never did duals on the first day back. She decided that there was nothing in it and squared off with Neal, psyching herself up for the fight as she did so.

At the fencing masters signal, everyone began. To Kel's surprise, Neal immediately started attacking. That never happened. Neal was always on the defensive side when she fought him. Something about how he knew that she was the better fencer. He had however definitely improved.

"Who have you been taking lessons from?" Neal smiled slightly.

"So you noticed." He called back.

"Of course I noticed." There was a pause in their conversation as Kel realised that Neal was driving her into a corner and performed an interesting bit of footwork to get her self out of the situation.

"So…who have you been getting lessons from?"

"Oh, you know, just one of Da's friends." Neal replied airily. Kel frowned at him. Considering the number of friends Neal's Da had, that could mean almost anyone in Tortall who knew to use a sword.

"Oh come on Neal. Just tell me." Neal grinned at her.

"Oh, well, if you really want to know," here Kel nodded vigorously, "the King." Kel gaped at him. This was a mistake, as it gave him an extra second. Kel realised what was happening and reacted in time to save herself from losing the match. They continued their dual without speaking. When Kel dropped her guard for a fraction of a second to shake her head to prevent sweat running into her eyes, Neal saw his chance. He went to try to flick Kels sword out of her hand but she realised what was happening just in time. She reacted, and found her self locked body to body with him. She looked up into his sparkling eyes and saw a look that she was unfamiliar with. She frowned slightly and he smiled. He lent forward slightly, but Kel remembered that they were in a public practice court and anyone might be watching. She disengaged and spun immediately to flick his sword out of his hand. She placed the tip of her sword against his neck and smiled.

"Do you surrender?" Neal smiled ruefully.

"Yes, but it's not like I've got any other option is it?"

"No, you don't." Kel put down her sword and the two looked around them and found to their surprise, and Kel's embarrassment, that everyone else was watching them closely. The fencing master strode over to them.

"That was very good, you two. You've improved a lot, Queenscove." Kel and Neal murmured thankyous and went with the others to put their swords away.

Kel spent the rest of the day thinking about the dual. She was so absorbed in her thoughts that she didn't even notice when Peach Blossom trod on her foot. What had that look in Neal's eyes been? And when he'd lent forward like that…she could have sworn by the great mother that he was going to kiss her.

Owen had a miserable first day. He watched Kel closely all through hand-to-hand and staff practice, hoping that she might look over and notice him. But she didn't. And then in fencing, when he had stopped with everyone else to watch her dual with Neal, he had seen how Neal leant forward, as if to kiss her. Obviously Neal was in love with Kel as well. What was he going to do? He had no chance with her if Neal was the opposition. As if Kel would ever choose someone like him over someone like Neal.

He spent the rest of the day sunk in miserable thoughts about how he had no chance with Kel. He continued to watch her closely though, hoping that she might just notice something he did especially well. But no. She missed his best pass at the dummy in tilting practice because she was chatting to Neal.

Owen didn't sleep that night. He was trying to devise ways to make Kel notice him at least as much as Neal, if not more.

A/N. Well, still not exactly fluffy. Parts were verging on it though…looks hopeful Oh well. I'll get there. As always, reviews are welcome.

Lexi G