STANDARD DISCLAIMERS APPLY!

Thoughts are italicized.

Chapter 7: What love?

"I don't feel so well..!" Umi complained.

Fuu laughed. "That is because you ate more than you picked fruits! My healing wind won't heal your stomachache, though, even if I could heal you, I wouldn't do it anyways."

Umi pouted, "What happened to sisters forever?"

"Hey, it was your own fault." Fuu pointed out.

Umi lightly punched Fuu, knowing she lost.

"Sore loser." Fuu giggled, sticking her tongue out at Umi.

As Umi and Fuu entered their room, they were greeted by a huge death hug. Umi and Fuu moved the baskets out of Hikaru's way just in time.

"Were we gone that long?" Umi asked, amused.

"Nah, but I still missed you two all the same." Hikaru replied.

"Then you should have came with us!" Fuu stated, " Oh well, we missed you as well."

Hikaru let go of both of them, and suddenly exclaimed, "Lets go out on a camping trip!"

"Why all of a sudden do you want to go on a camping trip?" Umi questioned.

"Well, it would be fun, and we could also explore some places of Cephiro that we never been to. Why should we be stuck in this castle when we can go out and explore?" Hikaru explained, careful to say what she practiced ahead of time.

"Hey, that does sound like a good idea. We really haven't seen that much of Cephiro, and it does get boring around here. So, how about it, Fuu?" Umi said, excitement apparent.

"Sure, why not? It'll help us learn more about Cephiro." Fuu smiled, "Though, where would we go?"

"How about Forest Elel? Remember, that was the first place we came to when we arrived in Cephiro, and where we meet Clef." Hikaru requested, trying to influence them to say yes.

"Good with me. Fuu?" Umi asked.

"Sounds like a plan." Fuu answered, "Now lets go and get permission from Clef."

As they were walking towards Clef's room, Hikaru saw Lantis walking towards their direction.

Hikaru froze.

"Stay away from Lantis." Primera's warning echoing in Hikaru's mind.

Hikaru grabbed her two best friends' hand and started running back to their room.

"Oh, I hope he didn't see us." Hikaru thought to herself.

"Hikaru, why are we running the opposite direction of Clef's room? If you want to get to Clef room, it might help to actually go in direction to Clef room." Umi teased.

"Umm…I have to go to the bathroom." Hikaru lied.

"How I hate lying to my best friends. I wish I could just tell them the truth but I promised Primera. She is counting on me. I can't let her down." Hikaru deep in thought.

Hikaru waited a few seconds, before flushing then washing her hands.

"Okay, lets go now." Hikaru said.

"Finally!" Umi teased.

Luckily, for Hikaru, they didn't run into Lantis this time.

Fuu knocked on the door to Clef's room.

"It's open." Clef simply replied.

As they walked in, they saw that Clef wasn't alone. Ferio and Ascot were in there already.

"Um…did we interrupt something? We can come back later.." Fuu said, already starting to walk out.

"No, that is okay. We were almost finished anyways." Clef replied. "Everything okay?"

"Yep. Everything is fine. We came to get your permission to go on a camping trip to Forest Elel." Hikaru answered eagerly.

All the guys raised an eyebrow.

"An camping trip?" Clef questioned.

"Yes. We want to explore Cephiro. We really haven't seen that much of Cephiro. We want to learn more about Cephiro" Hikaru explained.

"Well, that does sound like fun and I understand your curiosity to learn more about Cephiro but it isn't safe for you three girls to go out by yourselves, even if you three were former Magic knights. One, there are still monsters out there again, and two, you don't know your way around here. I don't want you three getting lost. I do want to allow you three to go, but I'm concerned for your safety. I hope you understand…" Clef said firmly, but no one missed the concern and reluctance in his voice.

Hikaru looked down, disappointed.

"I'll come too then." Ferio smirked, "I can guide them around, and help protect them as well, like before."

Fuu smiled, remembering when she first meet Ferio, and at how she tricked Ferio to protect them.

"I'll come as well to help out with things." Ascot said.

Clef pondered for a few seconds, before deciding. "Alright. You can go then. But only for a seven days! Ferio, Ascot, you two better take good care of these girls, or some punishment will be on its merry way. Got it?"

"Yes sir." Both boys replied.

Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu all jumped together in joy, and then gave Clef, Ferio, and Ascot all big hugs.

Hikaru was relieved. She almost thought they wouldn't be able to go.

"Lets get everything ready then." Ferio said.

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"Are we there yet?" Hikaru asked.

"No! Hikaru, don't you dare ask that question again or I'm going to push you off Fyula!" Ferio threaten.

"If you did that then I would push you off as well." Fuu retorted.

"You wouldn't dare. You would miss me too much. Besides, I'm too fast for you to catch." Ferio smirked.

Fuu just rolled her eyes at his arrogance.

"Why did we take Fyula? Wouldn't the bird be faster?" Umi asked before yawning, restless from being on a big flying fish for 30 minutes.

"Blame Ascot. Ascot gets seasick easily. Even though we aren't in water, the movement of an flying animal is about the same, best to just go slow and steady." Ferio explained.

Ascot blushed, ashamed.

"Nothing to be embarrassed about Ascot. We all have weaknesses." Umi said, trying to comfort the bashful boy.

"Ah, here we are." Ferio said.

"Finally!" Hikaru sighed.

Hikaru hugged Fyula. "Thanks again!"

"Wow, I forgot how beautiful it was.." Umi said, looking around in awe.

"I'm so glad we came." Fuu said while examining some flowers, "These flowers are just so stunning."

Ferio sighed at the girls being… girls. "Well, we can go look like flowers or whatever later. Lets first set up camp."

Ferio, Ascot, and Hikaru were assigned to keep the camp stuff, so they willed the camp supplies out of their gloves.

"Ferio, why couldn't we just will the stuff out of nowhere, instead of having to get the stuff beforehand, and then store then in our gloves?" Hikaru questioned while starting to set up a tent.

Ferio shrugged. "I don't know, but for some reason we can't will objects out of nowhere. However, people not from this world can will foods and drinks, but if not practiced it doesn't taste right. Like, if you willed an apple, it would most likely be rotten or something like that. No offense to you though, just an example."

"None taken." Hikaru smiled.

After they finished setting up the tents, they decided it was time to cook some food.

Fuu and Umi were assigned to store the food.

"Hikaru, why don't you, Ferio, and Ascot go out to look around while Umi and I cook dinner today?" Fuu asked.

"Okay! We will be back soon! Lets go!" Hikaru said, excited.

Ferio groaned as he stands up. He just wanted to nap while watching Fuu.

"Now, I can go start to look for Primera's family!" Hikaru enthusiastically thought.

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Meanwhile back in the castle…

"Where is Hikaru? I swear I saw her in the hallway that one day, but she ran off as if she was scared of me or something.." Lantis pondered just as he spotted Clef. "Might as well go ask Clef where Hikaru is, he should know."

"Have you seen Hikaru lately? I haven't seen her yesterday or today." Lantis asked.

"You didn't hear? She went to a camping trip with Fuu, Umi, Ferio, Ascot." Clef answered.

Lantis was surprised, though not allowing himself to show it. "Oh okay. Thanks." Lantis replied, walking away.

"That's odd. She would have told me. It is like she is avoiding me." But Lantis pushed that thought aside. He knew for certain that Hikaru had no reason to avoid him. Just then, Lantis saw an cute yet attractive, tall woman with turquoise hair in a hairstyle similar to Primera's, with golden yellow eyes staring at him with love-lust. Lantis was confused. Even though she reminded him of Primera, he knew he never meet her before.

"My Lantis!" the strange women proclaimed while groping on to him.

Lantis was startled, "……Primera?"

"Yes, my love, it is I! My love for you made me into a mortal like you. We can finally be together! We can actually hug now! We can finally have a real kiss now! You don't have to pretend that you don't love me anymore just because I was a fairy and so small!" Primera replied before passionately kissing him on the lips.

Lantis merely pushed her off, and said coldly, "My heart does not lie with you."

Primera looked at Lantis in shock as he walked away before scowling, "That BITCH! She has him under her spell, making him think that she is all innocent and sweet, making him fall out of love with me! But I see the true side of her, and Lantis WILL BE MINE, AND MINE ONLY!"

-5 days later-

"How fast this camping trip went. I can't believe that already we have to leave tomorrow." Fuu sighed before stealing a kiss from Ferio.

Ferio smirked, with a evil look in his eyes. Fuu noticed it and knew it meant trouble, and starting back away and running, all the while giggling. Ferio ran after her. However, since Fuu was giggling while running, she tripped. She closed her eyes, anticipating hitting the hard ground, but instead felt something soft but muscular. Fuu opened her eyes to see that she was on top on Ferio, and blushed. That made Ferio smirk wider if that's possible, and then flipped them so that he was on top of her, and took back his kiss. His tongue hungrily exploring her mouth. He just couldn't get enough of her. He started planting kisses on her neck until..

"You fucking pervert!" Umi screamed at Ferio as she charged at him.

Ferio quickly got off a highly embarrassed Fuu and starting running away. However, he wasn't fast enough and got hammered.

"Damn." Ferio thought. "You never wanted to get Umi pissed off."

But Ferio saw Fuu wink at him and knew that it was worth it anyways.

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"Omg! What did you do to Ferio?" Hikaru exclaimed as she saw Umi dragging a close to-death-Ferio.

Ascot sweat dropped.

"He deserved it. Look at what he did to Fuu!" Umi said, pointed to a quite obvious red spot on Fuu's neck ,her short hair not helping.

Hikaru tilted her head in an innocent gesture, "I don't get it.."

Everyone fell.

"What? Tell me!" Hikaru begged, completely confused.

"Later…" Umi sighed.

Ascot knew he needed to tell Umi how he felt, but just didn't know how. He planned to tell her on this camping trip, but every time he was about to, he chickened out. "Why do I have to be so bashful?" Ascot thought, mentally beating himself up.

"Um…. Umi?" Ascot asked, getting increasing nervous with every second.

"Yes?" Umi answered sweetly.

"Um… well… I was thinking…. would… you like to .. go walk around with me? …Alone?" Ascot finally managed to stutter out.

"Of course! Why wouldn't I want to go on a walk with one of my best friends?" Umi replied.

Ascot felt like someone just slashed his heart open. Umi's words were slowly killing him, his love for Umi was slowly killing him. Ascot took a deep breath, trying to fight off the tears threatening to fall from his eyes at any moment.

As they walked off, Fuu sighed. Ferio looked at her.

"What's wrong?" Ferio questioned.

"Didn't you see the pain in Ascot's eyes when she said best friends?" Fuu said, concern knotting her brow.

"Yeah…" Ferio replied reminding him both of how lucky he was and increasing his pity for Ascot.

"Umi is such a hopeless romantic. She is so in-tuned with other people's affairs, but so dense when it comes to herself." Fuu sighed.

"Don't worry about it too much. Umi will realize it sooner or later." Ferio reassured.

"I just hope not too late. It's the same with Hikaru, though Hikaru is starting to become aware of her feelings.." Fuu stated. "By the way, where is Hikaru?"

As they looked around, they saw that Hikaru was talking to a unicorn.

"Oh how beautiful." Fuu said.

As they were walking up to Hikaru, they heard Hikaru say something with family, and noticed that she stopped talking when she realized that they were behind her.

Fuu went over to pet the unicorn, questioning lightly. "Did we interrupt something important?"

"Not at all, just telling the unicorn how beautiful she was." Hikaru replied hastily. Hikaru mentally slapped herself for replying so fast.

The unicorn gave Hikaru a weird look before running off. Ferio had a feeling that Hikaru was hiding something.


Hehehe, I think I might have made this chapter too long….or is that a good thing? (I'm too excited, for I have tons for stuff ahead, maybe too much………………..NAH!) Anyways, thanks to all who are reviewing and still reading this fanfic! It is my first fanfic, so I'm glad there are people out there who enjoy reading it! So, please review (it makes me want to update faster), and any suggestions welcome! Now to some personal responds:

Silvercats: Lol. Well, keep on reading and find out! After Tatra asked Eagle the question would he risk his life for Cephiro, well, just yeah. (but how similar there names are sometimes confuse me because I sometimes forget which one goes with which name, lol). I can't give the story out too much, though I'm just dying to! Yep, Eagle is such a sweetheart, you just want to pinch his cheek! Hehehe. Thanks for reviewing! Thanks for your support!

Svakee2000: Thanks for the review! It just made me laugh so hard, for some reason, and it still does! Hehehe. Much Thanks for keeping me inspired!

Please. Review!