Author's Note: OH MY GOD, IT GETS REVIEWS! O-O Love you guys. -.-! In this chapter, we go beyond an "implied" pairing. M'kay?

Warnings: Angst, shounen-ai

Pairing: LiasxEvia.

If You Won't

I Love You

"...You do have to eat something." Lias sighed finally, frowning the direction of Evia's untouched plate. The other man hadn't been eating well at all lately; not since he had read the little girl's diary... though whether this reaction was brought on by dispair or guilt, the swordsmith couldn't be sure. Evia hadn't spoken an unnecessary word in the past three days... hadn't smiled... hadn't done any work... and Aqua hadn't been home from the Craftsman's Guild and Welch's home, either. Lias was almost certain this had something to do with what he had written in her diary.

In fact, he knew perfectly well that that was the case...

"She's never coming home again," Evia whispered, his voice filled such sadness it made Lias's heart ache. "She knows I read it. And she's never coming back to me again."

"Nonsense," Lias tried to reassure him, forcing a smile. This had been brought on by him. He had wanted this, hadn't he? No. But in the back of his mind, hadn't he wanted Aqua to leave Evia alone...? No. Nothing that would hurt Evia, nothing that would break his heart like this... even so... that girl, the only thing the father loved, was gone for now. That opened up a door, didn't it? Or did it seal the door forever? I love you, Evia. Love you with all my heart, and you will never love me...

The grieving man stared at his plate for a moment before pushing it away. A familiar gesture. Lias left the counter with him, having lost his own appetite with Evia's despairing conclusion. They'd been alone together for these past few days... the other few 'inventors' who had been stationed here had been transferred elsewhere. The closeness with Evia had driven Lias nearly to madness... since three days ago, when he had spoken so intimately and candidly with him... he'd never been that close to the man before, and he was afraid he would never have the chance to do it again. So close he could feel Evia's breath on his own lips, his desperate crying... "Stop it, I can't bear it..." ... so close he could see his own desire reflected in Evia's red eyes... so close he could have sealed Evia's breath in a kiss... and yet, he hadn't. It had been enough just to be that close to him for that moment in time.

But...

What would it be like to see him smiling in his arms, to run his fingers through that long, oddly dark hair, to finally know Evia could care for someone as a lover... that was what Lias truly wanted.

What if...? ...No.

Evia sat quietly on the floor, his knees drawn up, his forehead against his knees, his arms around his legs. His hair created a kind of curtain around his face, hiding it from the world - was he crying? His body rose and fell with each breath, the ends of his hair fluttering gently. It was a completely different posture than anything Lias had ever seen from Evia; it was a defeated and destroyed childlike act. It was unbearable... and yet, beautiful. So beautiful. The younger man walked slowly toward the cowering 'child,' completely unsure of what he would do. A million thoughts of the things he could do passed swiftly through his mind, each one more impossible than the last. With nothing else to do, he began speaking.

"You give the world and only ask for love in return... you have all the love in the world to give, but you don't know how to divide it - so you shower it on only one person, your daughter, your Aqua. Don't you realize that everywhere you go, people fall in love with you, not your child?" Evia looked up at this, staring at Lias as if he were one of the gods themselves. "They fall in love with your beauty, your detached personality, your laughter, your voice... but you can't see that; you're too busy focusing on your Aqua! People dream of you... of kissing you, of luring you between their sheets, of winning you over, but all the love you might have had for them is gone, all used up on one person, on Aqua! She will be an amazing woman someday, we both know it, the world knows it... but this isn't her time. This is your time! Have you ever fallen in love, Evia?" Silence. "Have you ever been in love the way the world wants you to love them? For the love of heaven, answer me!" he was yelling now, he had grabbed Evia by the shoulders, he was shaking him almost violently.

More silence.

"Aqua's mother. Surely, you must have loved someone enough to create that child." Evia trembled suddenly in his grasp, his eyes were pricked by tears... his lips, those beautiful lips, quivered as if trying to form words. And suddenly, Lias realized this was something he truly did not want to learn about this man; this was a secret. Something that would not only destroy the mysteries surrounding Evia... but Evia himself, as well...

"Sh... she..." Evia was whispering. Lias shook his head, placing a finger gently on his companion's lips. He leaned closer, his hand on the side of Evia's face. The artisan didn't move, his eyes scanning Lias's for a moment... then closing. "She..."

"Shhh..." Lias whispered. "Not now."

And he kissed him.

'''''''''''''''

Aqua gazed steadily out the window, sucking on whatever bit of candy Welch had given her today. A pen was tucked neatly into her hand, her diary was opened in front of her. She hadn't written anything for three whole days. Not since she had opened it to find that... that note...

If you won't love him, I will.

Welch called it a 'revenge prank.' One of Evia's many admirers had gotten ahold of the diary, skimmed it, gotten mad, and had written that little note. But something told Aqua otherwise... someone who truly loved her father, not someone who simply saw him pass by one day, had written it. There was too much passion in the words for them to not be the full truth... if Aqua wouldn't love her father, someone else would.

Well, Aqua did love her father, just... not all of the time.

There were moments... when he was working, she liked to watch. She'd gaze intently as tiny bits of gems and metal and sometimes cloth turned into beautiful jewelry and clothing at his fingertips. And when he sat quietly by the window, daydreaming the hours away, she loved him then. She loved shopping with him, being treated like a princess... trying on the dresses and gowns she knew he couldn't afford, but knowing all the while that she had only to ask for them and he would find some way to buy them.

But then... there were other moments. When he acted as if everything in the world revolved around her, she hated that. She hated him. When he refused to let her have some time to herself, she hated that, too. And when he referred to Welch as "that woman," well, that infuriated her more than anything else! Welch was like a sister to her, she always had been.

When they had first been forced to live in the Peterny church, Welch had helped her father get work as a craftsman. And while he was working, she and Aqua would play together, pretend they were queens or princesses or... well, anything they wanted to be. But the minute her father returned, Welch had to leave. And it was then that Aqua realized that her father was jealous. Jealous of Welch, and the time they spent together. At that moment, she wasn't sure whether to love, pity, or hate her father. She knew he had never had much of a childhood, rather, he had grown up in a boarding school. He had never known his own parents, really... so much time spent away from them, and then, finally, they had died of a sudden illness when he was sixteen. Shortly after that, he had been moved to a school for orphans. His looks quickly won over many of the students there, and several of the teachers. Not a year later, Aqua had been born. Who her mother was, her father had never told her. She had never really cared, nor had she thought to ask.

Evia had run away from the orphanage he had been living in, found a temporary "family," continued his education, and began working at Castle Aquaria for several years. Everything after that, well... history.

The point was this: he was showing her all of the love he never received as a child. And he didn't want anyone else to do it for him.

"Something wrong?" Welch asked, leaning over her shoulder. Aqua shook her head calmly, the blond locks glistening in the light.

"Just thinking," she replied, then started writing.

I love my father.

But I'm never going home again.

''''''''''''''''''''''''''

"Lias..." Evia murmured against his lips, his arms wrapped tightly around Lias's waist, as if letting go would be the end of everything he knew... of course, holding on like this threatened to do the very same. But if it had to happen, he would prefer it happen this way... when the world was spinning pleasantly around him, and he couldn't see straight, and this warm body was against him... "Lias, please... please love me..."

The two men stood together in the back of the little workshop, clinging to each other in a loving embrace. As much as he hated to admit it, Lias loved the faint trembling of the body in his arms. It gave him a sense of protective power, as if he could kill any threat to Evia's safety. And those lips, brushing so sweetly over his own... he wished he could just abandon all of his self-restraint. Just kiss those lips again, just draw that warm mouth open again, just taste the tip of that tongue again... and maybe the earlobes, the neck, the shoulders, the hollow of the throat... and beyond that...

But not now. Now was the time to hold Evia, to make him feel loved. To give him the love Aqua couldn't give... aside from that, Lias had the feeling this was an emotional breakdown... the kiss a moment ago, that had been real; Lias had felt an incredible surge of emotion between the two of them. But the emotion hadn't been love. It had been... what? Desperation? Sorrow? Something...

...but not love.

Author's Note: ...Okay, that chapter didn't go as planned... for example, it was supposed to be about Aqua... and it was supposed to wrap up the fic... did neither. You know what that means! Chapter three!