Disclaimer: I don't own anything!
Author's Note: Spring Break '11 has ended. Sigh. Back to school. I have this feeling that, after this break, everything is just going to hurtle forward and I won't be able to stop it. Maybe it's just some kind of weird melodrama going through my head since all I seem to hear about is college, college and, you guessed it, college. It's rapidly becoming one of my most hated words, along with math and Monday.
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Childhood is the most beautiful of all life's seasons. ~Author Unknown
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"He won. Your human won."
Yuan looked up at Alina and couldn't stop the proud grin from coming to his face. He nearly hadn't recognized Kratos in the swordsman that had been out on that field. "Yeah, he did."
"His party's still going." The winners were thrown a celebratory party, much to the disappointment of most of the half-elves. After all, they'd be the ones cleaning it up.
"What's your point?"
"He seemed to forget about you real quick."
Before Yuan can say anything, he hears someone calling his name. Automatically, instinctively, he turns, but not because of his name, but because of the voice. Kratos is jogging across yard to armory, where they had been set to clean and polish the weapons that the upperclassman would be working with the next day.
The thrill of the victory is still on Kratos' face in the slight flush of his cheeks and the way that his lips seem stuck in a smile. "Hey, I only just managed to get away. But I was able to get some food too." Kratos said, showing them a napkin-covered plate. He turned to Alina. "Hi. You're…Alina, right? Is this Alina?" He asked Yuan.
The half-elf smiled. "Yeah, this is Alina. 'Lina, this is Kratos."
"Nice to meet you." She said, feeling distinctly uncomfortable because no human had ever really noticed her and none of them had ever been so polite to her.
"Would you like some?" Kratos asked, holding out the plate. There were sweetmeats and desserts piled on there, along with a few little circular things that Alina wasn't sure what they were. When she asked, Kratos shrugged. "Dunno. I heard someone call them 'quiche' or something like that."
Yuan snorted as he broke off a piece of some kind of cake. "That's a stupid-sounding word, quiche."
Alina giggled despite herself. "Yeah, it is."
Yuan-and-Kratos looked at her. "We were serious about you being able to have some y'know. We can't eat all of this—"
"Well, we can—" Yuan amended.
"We'd only get sick again." Kratos reminded him.
Yuan smiled as though recalling a wonderful memory. "It was totally worth it though."
Alina tentatively takes a cookie, half-expecting the human to snatch the plate back, before nibbling on it. "T-thank you."
They end up sitting against the wall, laughing at shared stories and childish arguments and, under the gentle watchfulness of the stars, they can enjoy being children, being young, for such things are not commonly allowed in a War. This time is theirs, only theirs, and there is nowhere that they would rather be.