It occurs to me that I did not include any intro or disclaimer in the first two chapters. Thus, the characters in this story are the property of EmeraldVelvetTouch and my associate TokyoKitty. Aloisia is the normal font, while Tira is italic, Kail is underlined, and Xander is bold.

We do not own FFCC, we are but simple students obsessed with video gaming and bishonen. Thank you.

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Sometime later when the caravan had stopped to make camp, Aloisia could be heard sniffling beneath her quilt. And in what could be considered very strange, she had not yet spoken up to talk about it.

This, of course, bugged Xander to no end. It was one thing to have her chattering at him all the time, but when she didn't speak at all he felt worse, if that was possible. He sat there readjusting his hat and poking at the fire more than necessary. It was almost impossible to pretend it didn't bug him: but that didn't mean he couldn't try.

"Dude, just go talk to the girl already. If you don't stop poking that fire you're going to put it out….Then again it could always blow up in your face."

"In that case keep doing it! We could use some entertainment." Tira added jokingly.

Xander grumbled at them, but didn't say anything. He tossed the stick he was poking the fire with at Tira, and grumbled again. "I can't do it: no way." His poor hat looked near ready to tear in his hands as he twisted it tighter.

She caught the stick and gave Xander a very malicious smile. "Fine then. Let the girl sit there and cry herself to sleep. It's not my problem when she wakes up from nightmares screaming." She spat throwing the stick behind her into the forest.

"I wasn't planning on letting her have nightmares!" Xander hissed at her through his teeth. Just as quickly his energy seemed to deflate, and he asked rather stupidly, "But, what do I say?"

"Don't look at me." Kail answered for Tira. "She seems to not mind what you say as long as you say something."

Xander nodded at the simple truth he found so annoying most of time. "Fine…alright." The grumpy Clavat took a deep breath, and pushed his wrinkled hat back on his head. Before he left, he looked sharply at Tira and said, "You know, if I fail, you're next." He made a hasty exit over to Aloisia after saying so.

Tira cracked her knuckles and smiled darkly. "I'll be waiting."

Xander glanced behind his shoulder at the Selkie's threat, but it didn't worry him as much as what he was about to try and do. Desperately wishing it was a demon squirrel he had to fight instead of trying to console a girl, he sat down beside her silent form. "Hey…Aloisia…I…"

"OH XANDER I'M SO AFRAID!" The once still girl flung herself at the more-than-surprised Clavat and began to cry loudly.

Xander was thoroughly petrified. He searched blindly for some form of a word or two, but could find none. He swallowed and patted her head with a stiff hand.

"IS THE FLAN GONNA KILL US, XANDER?" She wailed at him, "I DON'T EVEN LIKE CUSTARD!"

With his ears ringing like church bells Xander managed to stutter, "Don't worry…reall-y-y, its okay." He licked his lips, knowing he had to come up with something better or his shirt would be soaked, "L-look…Aloisia, I'll, if we run into a flan I'll fight it for you. I'll protect you, ok?" He was mildly surprised at how easily he had said that.

The blonde hiccupped into his shirt, "Really?"

He nodded firmly down at her, "Yeah, Aloisia, really."

"Okay. I'd like that." Her face held a watery smile, and she relaxed her hug on him, but didn't let go.

Back over at the fire, Tira and Kail were watching with twin smiles on their faces. "20 Gil says we pull back and let him fight the next flan by him self and he wins." Tira put in first.

"Fine, 20 Gil says he loses."

"Deal."