Title: The Love Disaster

Author: thequietgenius

Summary: Keira plots revenge on Ashelin by concocting a potion to make Jak fall for her. What happens when it backfires? Now not only Jak, but Torn is infatuated with her too. Will this obstacle stray her judgment? JxKxT

Chapter 11

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When Torn woke up, he had no memory of the events that occurred the day before. However, he was fully aware that the room he slept in was not his. He also noticed that a certain blonde was snoring away not too far from him. His slow and steady breaths indicated he was fast asleep. Torn looked outside the window. Judging by the position of the sun, it was probably about seven in the morning.

He sat up in his sleeping bag, feeling as if he had a terrible hangover. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't remember anything that happened yesterday. In fact, the more he thought, the more his head hurt. He groaned and glanced at Jak. His noisy exhaling was annoying him greatly. He couldn't think straight as it was. He had a strong urge to stab him with his knife.

Why in the world are we in… Keira's house? What the crud is going on here? The only reasonable explanation Torn could come up with was that they must've spent last evening at her house, passed out, and ended up being dragged to the guest room.

The best thing to do now is apologize to Keira, make sure you don't run into Samos, Mar forbid, and get out of here.

He didn't care much for the blonde. So, he didn't bother waking him. He got up and walked towards the door. As he was about to turn the knob, it began turning itself. There was someone on the other side. Torn cursed. He hoped it wasn't the green eco sage.

Torn braced himself when the door opened. It revealed none other than the chipper mechanic. She wore a bright smile on her face and held a tray with the arm that wasn't in a cast.

"Good morning, Torn!" Keira said a bit too loudly. This caused Jak to stir at the noise.

"Oh, my bad, I didn't know Jak was still sleeping." Keira whispered.

Torn merely grunted, indicating he could care less. Keira shrugged and held the tray out to him. "You hungry? I made some breakfast."

Torn took a small bagel from the tray. "Is your father awake?"

"No, surprisingly. Normally, he's up at the crack of dawn to meditate." Keira replied, taking a pastry.

"Um… Keira? Do you remember what happened yesterday? My memory doesn't seem to serve me well." Torn asked, slightly embarrassed.

"That's strange. You couldn't have gotten drunk. Daddy never serves alcoholic beverages. Why would you lose your memory?" Keira responded.

"I have no idea." Torn said suspiciously.

"I was sleeping in my room the whole day." Keira said. "Maybe you're overworking yourself."

"I doubt it." For some reason the more he spoke to Keira, the more clouded his mind became. All he could concentrate on were her blue-green eyes and silky hair. In reality, her voice was scratchy, but to him in his potion-induced state, it sounded crystal clear and angelic.

"She speaks. O, speak again, bright angel, for thou art as glorious to this night, being o'er my head, as is a winged messenger of heaven unto the white-upturned wond'ring eyes of mortals that fall back to gaze on him when he bestrides the lazy pacing clouds and sails upon the bosom of the air." Torn declared. His mind automatically recalled lines from the play Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare.

Keira gaped at him for a moment. "Are you sure you're feeling okay?" Maybe Daddy did slip something into his drink. But why would he do such a thing?

Torn was brought back to reality when Keira gave him a curious and bewildered expression. "I—I think I should get going." He abruptly got up from his sleeping bag on the floor. Unconsciously, he smoothed out his hair and straightened his clothes. The mechanic stared at him in disbelief. His peculiar behavior was freaking her out.

Torn barged out of the guest room as quickly as he could, nearly bumping into Samos on the way. Torn mentally cursed. He was not in the mood to deal with eccentric, overprotective fathers. Especially not sages that could kick his butt with eco spells and Mar knows what other kinds of magic.

Wisely, Samos kept quiet. He had a good guess what was going on with Torn. The look of disorientation on Keira's face from the doorway all but confirmed it. It didn't help Torn that he appeared lightheaded and confused. But Samos had to admit, he was doing quite well controlling himself while being under the influence of a love potion.

Jak, on the other hand, was still out like a light. That wasn't too surprising, since, unlike Torn, he didn't have an abnormally high tolerance for drinking. Ironically, he was able to handle large quantities of dark eco—a strange fact that nobody was able to understand.

Getting off topic here…

Anyway, Torn commandeered the nearest Freedom Guard vehicle and drove off. He was probably exceeding the speeding limit, however, he didn't care. At the moment, all he wanted was to do away with his inexplicable thoughts about the green haired mechanic. Argh, what's wrong with me! Why can't I concentrate on anything but that bright angel—I mean mechanic? What effect is she having on me…?

A/N: Short, but hopefully satisfying to some extent. There will be some slight out of character ness for obvious reasons. Next chapter will be the last. Vote for Jak/Keira or Torn/Keira. After ten votes the final pairing will be decided.