Authors Note: Merry Late Christmas and a Happy New Year to all.

STILL NEED A BETA.

Chapter Three.

The next day training began a little bit earlier to make up for yesterday's loss. Flonne heard this and so she decided she would drop by and help to return the favor the prinnies had given her.

It took her a while to find it, but she finally found Kurtis and the Prinny Squad in the ruins of what looked to have once been a football field.

Bleachers that had rusted over ages ago were one either side of the field. Most of the grass was over grown in some areas, and completely ripped up in others. Some of it had very faded grey paint to indicate where the different boundaries had been. Prinnies were scattered about, practicing in groups, alone, against each other. Kurtis, the lone green prinny was walking around overseeing them all, sometimes correcting someone and doing some training of his own.

Flonne's eyes brightened at the sight of him and she quickened her step, making a beeline for him. The angel tripped on something and looked down at what seemed to have been part of a sign. From just this fragment, she could read 'Deimon Devil Bats'.

The blonde girl stopped and picked up the wet wood, careful of getting any splinters. It made her a little sad. There were so many dead places like this in the Netherworld; it was one of the things she thought she'd never get use to. As much as Flonne loved the people she had come to know down here, she still dearly missed Celestia and its beauty. Just like angels were supposed to be, Celestia was a beautiful and constantly cheery place full of life and bustle. The Netherworld was the opposite with its vast areas of wild, abandoned land and forgotten cities.

"Flonne, are you alright?"

Flonne whirled around to face Kurtis, showing him the sign and instantly launching into a speech as if they had been in conversation all along "I think we should repair this place, y'know? Get some grass growing, trim it, redraw all the lines and get new benches. Get it to look like how it must have when it was first made. It could keep the prinnies happier and in a better mood to train, and maybe we could sometimes play some football or rugby!" there was something akin to desperation in her voice. Even she could tell.

Kurtis cocked his head to the side in a very birdlike manner "You like football, Flonne?"

Not particularly. She shook her head. Kurtis jus stared for a moment longer before nodding, and she knew that he understood. The green prinny turned away from her, making his way back to the fields to continue supervising his pupils.

"So what brings you here?" he asked, his sharp eyes studying the feuders.

"Well Etna told me that she and Laharl were training individually, and that you were still training the other prinnies and it made me realize that I should to keep in shape too, I was wondering if I could train with you guys?" she asked all in one breath, clasping her hands.

'I'm sure the prinnies would love to have you here but they aren't quite up to par with you. I don't think you'd get much work out of training with them."

Flonne pouted but said nothing. What point would there be in training if no one got anything from it? She should probably try on her own like Etna and Laharl but that seem awfully lonely.

"Flonne? Will you come here for a moment? There is something I've been meaning to speak to you about." Kurtis left the field again, and head headed towards the benches. He hopped on t he rusty things---he as light enough now in his prinny form that it wouldn't give in. Flonne sat in front of him; laying her arms to his side and her head on top so only her upper body weight was on the bench.

"What's on your mind?" she asked excitedly.

Kurtis was silent for a bit. The fallen angel knew he was just choosing his words but she couldn't help fidgeting impatiently.

Kurtis sighed, "There really is no tactful way to say this…"

'Just say it!' Flonne wanted to yell.

"I don't want to offend…"

'I don't care! Just say it! Sayitsayitsayit'

"Flonne?"

Huh?

"Did you hear me?" Kurtis asked, staring directly down at her face.

Oh. Apparently in her internal tangent she had missed what Kurtis had wanted to say "No." Her face was a beat red color.

Kurtis didn't seem to mind thought and calmly repeated himself. "What do you think of Laharl and Etna?"

Flonne gave him a blank look, as if she still didn't quite comprehend what he had said. That was an odd question, she had been expecting a little more out of Kurtis—though what she couldn't say.

"Well, I love them," She said plaintively, feeling oddly bothered by her own words, "we've been through so much together, and they saved me, and they are just really great people. I can't help but think of them as my best friends; family even."

He didn't look fully satisfied with her answer, though how he could judge such a personal thing as her feelings towards the two demons.

"I didn't particularly mean that, Flonne." His voice was very serious, which made Flonne try to be so too and understand what he wanted of her.

"I guess what I mean to say is do you love….either one of them."

He was going to say something else there, in between that pause. That, at least Flonne could tell. Her automatic response was of course going to be an 'of course' but her resolve earlier made her think a little more.

"Do you mean, like, romantically?" She was now no longer looking at him but to the ground towards her feet which she was now twirling around lazily, seeming as if she found some sort of fascination with it. Though she wasn't looking his way she knew he nodded.

"No." she replied in a very curt manner. She hadn't meant to speak like that to him but it nagged her greatly for several reasons, the only one of which she could tell was that she was in fact in love in that sense, but neither with Laharl or Etna.

I mean, after all that'd be bad right? To be in love with a girl, and she just didn't think of Laharl that way…didn't want to.

"Are you certain Flonne?" He seemed really persistent on this, but she supposed her reply must have made him think she wasn't sure of herself. She looked at him again with a forced smile.

"MMhmm! I like Laharl and Etna a lot but not like that!" The truth of the matter was that the person she was beginning to have feelings for was the one who seemed to believe she loved another. In the passing months she and Kurtis had talked a lot, gotten to know each other and related hopes and fears. Kurtis was always a good listener, always very patient, and always very helpful. It had been one night after another of the festive battles she had, had with Laharl and Etna that she began to realize these feelings. Laharl and Etna had fallen asleep on either side of her but she had been unable to get any herself. She had been thinking about the two, and sensing that they had something going on. She had felt like a third-wheel and wondered if she might ever have what they did. It got her to thinking of all the people she knew, and if there was anyone she particular liked in that way and her thoughts kept coming back to the green-haired scientist.

"I don't think I've ever felt that way, not yet. I don't think I'd recognize it at first, how did you know you were in love?" she asked, deciding to change the subject from her. Her eyes flickered over to the metal benches, for a second thinking she saw something reflected on it. She looked skyward but shrugged. The thing was rusty and turned a copper color from years of inattention.

Kurtis chuckled, probably recalling several fond memories of his deceased wife.

"To be honest I think I fell in love with her before I really knew her. We had gone to different colleges but we often visited the same library. I saw her sometimes and thought she was beautiful but never really cared much past that; you know I wouldn't really bother just approaching a pretty girl. But I picked out a book that we had both been using on and off and found a comment she had left in it that I thought had been incredibly clever."

"What was the comment?" Flonne asked, despite not feeling entirely well listening to this, curious nonetheless.

"….." there was a momentary pause and Kurtis cleared his throat "nothing important."

Had Flonne not known better she would have sworn there was a tiny blush on the prinny's face.

"But I replied back," Kurtis hurried on, "and we began exchanging small banter between each other in that book until we were caught and both sent to the librarian. We had to buy another copy of that book to replace the one we abused and from then on we were always under watch. But that is how I found out Lenore was that girl I'd always see, never far away. After that we began chatting more and more, studying together, and eventually we began dating each other." His eyes crinkled at the memory.

Flonne, who would usually from the very beginning have been cooing, awing and absolutely squealing---was not. She had on a smile as usual, her eyes were bright and believable but she was feeling quite strange right now.

"I guess I knew I was in love with her because she was someone I could speak to on a level I've never spoken to anyone before; our fields were completely different so we confused each other so much but somehow that seemed to make our little secret conversations all the more fun. They lasted for a long time actually and we never knew who the other was until we were caught. We kept that book." He laughed, actually laughed which was something Flonne didn't see him doing often.

But this only made this strange, achy feeling inside her grow she felt horrified for not being happy for him.

"We kept it in an exact spot in our room when we got our first apartment. We were so young then." A nostalgic sigh escaped his beak.

Flonne forced a laugh "That seems so nice."

Kurtis nodded "It's why I'm able to wait till the Red Moon. It will be worth it."

Flonne got up silently, still with that smile on her face "Thank you for telling me that Kurtis, I will remember it any time I'm not sure. I've got to go and do something now though."

"Oh! Alright," He seemed a little surprised that she hadn't mentioned this 'something' earlier on but he didn't give it more thought, "it was nice speaking with you Flonne. Take care."

She nodded and walked off, all the while fighting back the sickening feelings of what she was certain was jealousy.