Disclaimer: You know what? It is very creepy when your kitty greets you happily, only to start hissing at something directly behind you that does not appear to exist.

The Mana of Light has a name and gender in this for the sake of my sanity, since she wasn't supposed to be such a central character to this fic. I know her name's Eital in the Atelier games so that's what I'm going with, here. I tried to find a Light Core in the bonus dungeon to confirm it but in the interest of not dying horribly (again) I gave that up.

Firmer Ground

II. Maybe I'm A Lion

"No one's here," Roxis observed, surveying the empty workshop with a sigh. "I'll grant that it is early, but I thought maybe Anna, at least..."

His Mana cut him off. She did that a lot. "You're not looking hard enough. It's not empty."

"Or you're simply messing with me again," Roxis muttered, but quietly. His bond with the Mana of Light was still uncertain enough that he wasn't comfortable testing the boundaries of it. He was still getting used to the feeling of having another soul sharing his mind and heart; having a pacted Mana was much more intimate than he'd ever realised. It was probably due to her element, but the entire world had seemed so much brighter since he'd pacted with Eital. It made him wonder that Vayne had spent his entire life pacted with Sulpher- what would it have been like to have always shared every detail of his life with Eital like that?

"You're still dithering, you know. Go look already."

Very embarassing, he suspected.

It wasn't long before he found Vayne, curled up in a patch of sunlight on the loft floor and sound asleep. Behind him, Sulpher lay sprawled across the portion of the couch that was in direct sun.

Roxis sighed. "A couch right behind him and he gives it to Sulpher. Typical."

"You could learn from him," his Mana said wickedly, manifesting beside him and tilting her head at him.

"Or you could," Roxis countered, and smiled to himself in satisfaction when Eital didn't reply. She'd never yet confirmed his suspicions, but she'd never outright denied them, either.

He hadn't realised how loud they were until Vayne muttered something in his sleep and twitched slightly, bringing his side more fully into the sun.

"That's odd," Roxis noted, and at Eital's nudge of inquiry in his mind, continued in a hushed voice. "Normally our conversation would have been more than enough to wake Vayne. He's a very light sleeper."

A soft meow alerted him to the fact that Sulpher, at least, was awake and staring straight at him. When Roxis turned to meet the cat's gaze, Sulpher flicked his eyes from Vayne back to Roxis, tilted his head, and meowed in a very different tone.

"I wish I could understand you as well as he does," Roxis said, frustrated beyond words.

The moment the words left his mouth, Vayne shuddered again, then went still. Roxis stared at him a long moment, because it felt like something had just gone threading through his link with Eital and lodged halfway between his mind and soul, and it was an extremely odd feeling that he couldn't help but associate with the other boy. Finally he transferred his attention back to Sulpher.

Sulpher favoured him with a long, slow blink. Then his face transformed into a feline grin and he said, in a very human voice, "You've always managed well enough."

"What-" Roxis shook his head. "I can't have heard that."

"I heard that," Eital put in unhelpfully. This time, Roxis felt safe in ignoring her.

"Well, I think you're hallucinating." Sulpher lashed his tail and stared at Roxis again. "Have you been drinking Jess' medicine again? It's a bad idea, you know."

A bit stunned and starting to wonder if he actually was hallucinating (after all, Jess had been known to slip her medicine into people's food before), Roxis decided to return to his original concern. "What are you both doing sleeping in the workshop?"

"He didn't want to sleep in the dorm." Sulpher flicked his tail again.

Roxis waited for the cat to elaborate, then sighed when he realised he wasn't going to. "I can see that. Why not?"

Instead of replying, Sulpher put his head on his paws, curled his tail around his eyes and went right back to sleep.

Eital snickered. "I think that means 'Figure it out yourself."

"Yes, thanks, I'd worked that one out for myself," Roxis snapped, then recoiled and looked at his Mana. "Please, excuse me. I didn't mean that."

"Of course you did. Come on now, it's more fun if you snap back, anyway." She sat down and studied Sulpher, who ignored her as completely as he did Roxis, and Vayne, who was still deeply asleep. "Don't you hate him? You're very concerned all of a sudden."

"What kind of trick question is that? You're the one forcing us to be friends." Roxis finally knelt down next to Vayne, irritated now. He didn't know what posessed him to lean over and brush hair out of the other alchemist's eyes. If he was asked, he'd have said it was to distract himself from his nagging Mana.

The light touch was enough to wake Vayne where their voices hadn't been.

Vayne shot upright, nearly cracking his head on the underside of Roxis' jaw, and threw himself into the loft corner without pausing long enough to give coherent thought a chance.

Roxis held himself perfectly still and stayed silent. He still didn't like Vayne, but the boy was plainly terrified, and Roxis wasn't heartless. So he waited until Sulpher spoke and broke the standoff.

"It's just Roxis, Vayne. He was only wishing to know why you were sleeping in the workshop."

That's an odd way to phrase it, Roxis thought, and felt Eital's surprise and agreement before he was distracted by Vayne's stammered reply.

"There's- that creepy guy who hangs out in the common room? At the- the dorm? You kn-know the guy, he's always talking about the freshmen..." Vayne's tendency to trail off at the end of sentences was beyond frustrating, so Roxis nodded sharply at him to continue, then regretted it when Vayne seemed to shrink in on himself.

"I meant continue," Roxis said, as gently as he could. He was uncomfortably aware that he was still crouched on a floor with a hand extended in Vayne's direction, like he was trying to coax a wild animal closer, and that Eital was laughing at him again.

"Oh. O- okay." Vayne didn't look reassured, but he took up the thread of his story and relaxed a little from his defensive curl. "He keeps asking me to come hang out with him. I-I'll go, but then he just stares at me until I run off 'cause I know he's about to ask me to do something else and I don't- don't want to, and it just- it makes me really uncomfortable."

It took a moment for all the implications of that to sink in, but when they did, Roxis winced. "Vayne, I really wish you'd learn how to say no to people."

"As do I," Sulpher contributed, making Roxis start badly. The cat continued where Roxis left off, though. "Unfortunately that's a useless wish. You'll never be able to."

"That seems harsh," Roxis said, surprised into a response.

Vayne blinked at him as Roxis climbed to his feet and, after a moment of inward deliberation, offered Vayne a hand up. "You understood that?"

"I understood that wasn't a happy noise," Roxis hedged, not wanting to admit to Vayne just yet that he could hear Sulpher.

"Oh." Vayne actually looked disappointed. "I thought maybe... never mind."

Roxis sighed as he hauled the younger alchemist to his feet. "If you're that uncomfortable around him, just don't go near him without Flay with you. Or myself," he added, almost as an afterthought.

"I told you to wait for Roxis last night," Sulpher put in, surprising Roxis yet again. Sulpher's tail lashed against the couch as he said, "He would have kept you from putting yourself in that situation."

That was true, but Roxis wasn't sure he liked the way Sulpher said it. He wasn't Vayne's babysitter. Even if he'd wanted that position, he'd have had to get in line behind Jess, Flay, and Sulpher himself. He was glad he didn't have to dignify that comment with a response. "Vayne, how sleep-deprived are you? I'd planned on synthesizing more X-Heals before the rest arrive today. Nikki wants to go exploring under the Old Schoolhouse again." Frankly, Roxis wished they'd never found the place. The rare items they could find weren't worth the inevitable trip to the infirmary.

Of course, the elemental cores were invaluable when synthesizing weaponry, but if Nikki and Flay insisted on challenging every creature they came across they'd never find just how far the strange area under the Old Schoolhouse extended- and what else might be hidden down there.

"If we're going back there, we should synth as many healing items as we possibly can," Vayne said, brightening more than simply synthesizing warranted. "We should get a head start." He jumped off the loft before Roxis could reply.

Sulpher jumped off the couch to follow Vayne, but before leaping from the loft itself he turned to lock eyes with Roxis.

"You should be keeping him away from people like that," Roxis told the cat after a moment's deliberation. "You know very well he doesn't know how to recognise cruel intent when he sees it."

Sulpher blinked at him, once, slowly. Then, just when Roxis was beginning to wonder if he'd only imagined he'd heard him, the cat said, "Thanks."

Guardian: I'm not the only one that dude was creeping out, right? Right?