Ah, you kept reading. As your reward, you can now have some comic relief. Don't worry, even though this is a drama, I'll try to keep angst to a minimum. But then again, it IS a romance, so it's not going to be completely angst free.

Chapter 2, ho!

Outside Suspicions

"This is all your fault."

"My-How is this my fault?"

Isaac stood over a pail outside the kitchen door wringing aqua jelly brains out of his tunic. At least, he hoped they were the brains and not something even more disgusting. Lumps of dark blue something plopped into the pail, darkening the water so that Isaac couldn't see his reflection unless he leaned forward into the light from the kitchen. Meanwhile, Garet and Picard were mopping up the kitchen, debating who was to blame for vaguely fish-smelling chaos that lay within.

Picard sighed in exasperation. "I TOLD you to put the aqua jellies in the salt water. Otherwise the membrane starts to dry out and crack."

"Yeah. You told me their skin would dry out. You didn't tell me they would explode," said Garet, grinding his mop into a lump of intestine that clung stubbornly to the wall. The head of Garet's mop slipped and bumped softly against Picard's hip, staining his tunic a dark blue.

Picard grimaced, and then used his mop to knock Garet's down to floor-level."You still should have just done what I told you," replied the water adept. He then used his psynergy to draw the stain out of the cloth. The goo hung in the air under his hand for a moment, and then flew into Garet's pail.

"Hey, do you know how many trips I'd have to take to lug up enough water for nine aqua jellies? If the job was so important, why didn't you do it? You're the water adept."

"Because I was put in charge of dinner, which means I have to stay in the kitchen at all times. It also means that the people on kitchen duty need to follow my orders."

"Look, I only set them on the counter for twenty minutes. They shouldn't have exploded after only twenty minutes out of water," Garet countered, sullenly dunking his mop into his pail, possibly making it dirtier in the process.

"Don't blame the food, Garet. That's what happens when Aqua Jellies are left out of water for inordinate periods of time. Their skin weakens and cracks, their bodily fluids evaporate, and then their bodies explode under the pressure."

"How was I supposed to know THAT? I've never cooked one of these things before."

Picard stopped scrubbing and looked his fellow adept in the eye. "Garet, when we do pest control and find Aqua Jellies raiding our fresh water supply, how do you exterminate them?"

"Oh, simple. I just cast some fire psynergy and blow them up into little bi-" Garet stopped talking and scowled. He opened his mouth to argue, and then snapped it shut without saying anything. He waited a moment to gather his thoughts, and then opened his mouth again, only to close it a second time. Garet did this for half a minute or so, looking rather like an Aqua Jelly that has run out of breathable water.

Isaac couldn't help himself. He laughed. Garet snapped out of his spell and looked at his best friend hunched outside the door. His eyes had the same confused look that he'd worn as a kid when his grandma would send him to bed without dinner. Isaac stifled his chuckles and gave his best friend what he hoped was a sufficiently apologetic grin.

Garet's face relaxed into a tired smile. "Haha. Okay, laugh it up, Isaac. But you're on kitchen duty too. Shouldn't you be helping Ivan with what's left of the food?"

Isaac held up his navy blue hands, proof that he had suffered the heaviest casualties from the explosion. "I think I better get the jelly off of these before I go near any of the food, unless you want dessert to be blue."

Picard smiled as well. "Well, it is blueberry pie. Oh, Ivan, how's dinner coming, anyway?" Picard called to the wind adept at the back of the room. Though Ivan technically wasn't on kitchen duty that night, the boys had needed someone to prepare the rest of the food. Someone who wasn't covered in fish guts. Someone who wouldn't yell at them for messing up the kitchen. Someone who actually knew how to cook.

Ivan looked up from a vaguely sweet smelling salad bowl. "Well, luckily we had enough vegetables to make another salad. The casserole and the pie were in the oven, so they were spared from the blast. So…I think we'll be able to eat tonight." The boys cheered.

Isaac suddenly realized that someone was standing behind him. He stood up and turned around, seeing Mia and Jenna at the end of the hall. They did not look happy.

"Mia. Jenna. How…are…you?" Isaac said slowly. He pushed his barrel of filth into the kitchen with his foot, hoping they didn't see it, or that if they saw it, that they didn't notice that it was filled with monster brains.

"The girls!" Garet cursed. "Just the-" Picard rammed him in the ribs with his mop. "I mean, just why are they here? Are they wanting to take a sneak peak at the fantastic, delicious, perfectly edible dinner they have in store for them?" Garet improvised.

"No, I'm sure they'd much rather let us work, so we can feed them all the sooner. They know that we are perfectly capable cooks. Not that we're hiding anything. After all, if the girls were to come in here, which they certainly don't have to, but if they were, I'm sure they'd agree that we have everything under control," Picard said, a little too loudly to be believable.

"Everything under control," echoed Garet.

The girls were silent. Isaac slowly shifted his weight, wondering how long it would be before the screaming would start. He couldn't really block them from going into the kitchen, not without them realizing that something was wrong. Then again, there was no way they were going to walk away either, not after hearing that wonderful little speech. Isaac knew he wasn't the best of talkers, but not even Kraden and his silver-smooth oratory could turn those two into believable actors.

Fortunately for the cooks, they had Ivan as a distraction. The wind adept popped out of the door and smiled shyly. "If you're hungry, I can bring up the salad. The croutons aren't quite done yet, but only Sheba and Picard really like those anyway, so-"

Mia interrupted him with one of her gentle smiles. "It's all right, Ivan. Take your time. We were just walking by."

"Yeah, we've got enough to deal with right now, so we'll leave the, uh, magic of the kitchen to you," said Jenna.

Ivan's face fell. "Is something wrong?"

Jenna waved her hands as if to shoo the question away. "No, it's nothing. Forget I said anything."

"Wait, something's wrong?" asked Picard, walking out into the hall with a mop in his hand.

"No, it's nothing you guys need to worry about. Go back to cleaning, or cooking, or whatever you guys were doing," said Jenna. She turned her face towards the wall, twisting her ponytail in her hands. She was one of those people who could never tell a lie straight to your face; she always had to look at something else while she did it.

"Jenna, tell us what's wrong," said Isaac.

Garet joined the others in the hall. "Something's wrong?"

"No, Garet! Nothing's wrong!" she yelled. Silence. Jenna started twisting her hair in the other direction, looking anywhere except back at Isaac. Mia put a hand on her friend's shoulder. She and Jenna looked at each other, and they must have communicated via some sort of ancient female psynergy, because when they faced the boys they had the same expression on their faces.

"Sheba confessed to Felix," they said simultaneously.

Isaac felt a twinge of energy in the brief silence that followed. He wasn't quite sure if it was emotion or psynergy, but Picard interrupted Isaac's thoughts before he could check. "Confession? Wait, did Sheba read Felix's mind again?" Everyone stared at the water adept, whose facial expression showed that he had not understood the mainland idiom.

"Not a criminal confession. Confession as in a profession of love," Isaac explained.

"As in…Oh, congratulations!" said Picard, his face lighting up.

"A con-Wait, since when does Sheba like Felix?" asked Garet.

"For quite a while actually. You haven't been around them as long as Jenna or I, so you haven't had the chance to watch their relationship develop. But if you had, you'd have known that they've been harboring romantic feelings for each other for quite a while. It was only a matter of time before they entered the courtship phase," answered Picard matter of factly.

"Oh, uh…well, yeah, then congratulations." Garet sniggered. "Man, it's hard to imagine Felix getting lovey dovey over a girl." The girls stared.

Isaac rolled his eyes, more for the girls' sake than his own. "Don't worry, we won't tease him too much. In all seriousness, though, tell him congratulations for us."

There was a pause where the next congratulations should have been. Everyone turned their gaze to Ivan, whose skin seemed a little grayer than it was five minutes ago. The boy was staring intently at his shoes, as if by piercing them with his gaze he could nail them securely to the floor. "I, um…" He hunched his shoulders and seemed to shrink a size. He glanced quickly up at Mia and then back down at his shoes. "ah, I…eh…" And suddenly he was past Mia, scrambling up the stairs to the main deck. "Excuse me!"

"Wait, Ivan, I don't think Sheba feels like talking right now!" Mia called after the boy, but he was already gone.

"What was his problem?" asked Garet.

Jenna sighed. "At least somebody gets it."

"Gets what?" asked Isaac.

Jenna stared at the boys, as if she expected them to read the answer in her eyes. Unfortunately, the only male who had been able to understand female body language had just fled the room. As such, the boys were forced to simply stare back. Jenna widened her eyes a little and tilted her head forward, as if that would make her expression any easier to read. They continued to stare. Luckily Mia realized that this sensitivity training session was going nowhere and mercifully supplied the boys with the answer. "Felix said no."

The boys blinked in unison. "Wait, he rejected her?" Garet cried. He turned to Picard. "But you said-"

"I remember what I said. I might not be up to date with mainland idioms, but I'd like to think I can at least read facial expressions."

Garet turned to the girls. "Then why'd he say no?"

Jenna and Mia glanced at each other. "You're asking us?" Jenna replied.

"Maybe he loved her like a sister. Or a friend," suggested Isaac.

Jenna folded her arms across her chest and scowled. "Come on, Isaac. You don't jump off a crumbling lighthouse to save someone who's just a friend."

Now it was the boys' turn to check each other's facial expressions. After a quick check to make sure that they were in agreement, they turned back to Jenna. "Yes you do!" they shouted in unison.

"If you had been in Felix's place, wouldn't you have done whatever you could to save Sheba?" added Picard.

"Well of course! She's one of my best friends!" said Jenna. She paused, and Isaaccould see that last sentence echo in her mind. "Okay, maybe that was a bad example. But whatever he feels for her, it's definitely stronger than friendship, I can tell."

"How?" Isaac asked.

"Because! Because…I don't know. He likes to buy her little trinkets and candies when we're in town. And he's really protective of her. And…and she seems to relax him."

Picard and Isaac blanched. Sheba was many things, but relaxing was not one of them. And Felix…Felix had changed a lot since he went missing. He was colder, more distant. And definitely stronger. Not that he'd ever been the kind of child to giggle and tumble around the house, but now he was very…tense. Always alert, always serious. Even when he was asleep, his muscles were taut and ready, and he looked more like he was waiting for an ambush than doing anything so vulnerable as dreaming. So when Picard and Isaac stared at Jenna as if she were garbling nonsense, it wasn't to be rude or dismissive. It was because what she was saying quite literally made no sense.

"Relaxed? Felix? Are you sure?" asked Isaac.

"Yes, I'm sure," Jenna sulked. Once of her hands snaked up to her hair and began twisting it again. "I am his sister, after all," she reminded them.

Isaac heard someone cough to his left. He looked over and saw Garet with his feet planted shoulder width apart and his arms crossed over his chest. Maybe it was just Isaac, but his friend seemed a little taller than usual. "So what you're saying is, he led her on."

Mia, sensing conflict, stepped back into the conversation. "Garet, Felix would never hurt Sheba like that. Whatever it is, I'm sure he has his reasons for letting her down."

Garet scoffed. "Yeah, well maybe he should have those reasons wrung out of him and some sense kicked in instead. I mean, if they both love each other, what possible reason could he have to say no?"

Jenna scowled. "Garet, you're talking as if my brother is playing with Sheba's feelings on purpose. You grew up with him. You know he's not that kind of guy."

Mia nodded. "When Jenna and I visited Felix's room, he wouldn't unlock the door. Sheba at least talked to us, but he's sitting in his bedroom in the dark by himself. It's obvious that he's suffering."

"Yeah, well what about Sheba? Isn't she suffering?" Garet growled.

Mia looked back at the stairs Ivan had run up. "Ivan will help her. They've gotten quite close since our groups joined forces. I'm sure he'll be able to make things better. You'll see. Everything will turn out fine."

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