Disclaimer: I do not own Tales of Symphonia.

Author's note: Haha, look at that, I'm back! I can't apologize enough for my delay. It first started out with the usual writers block and my annoying habit of being a procrastinator. Although personal problems came about causing me to completely forget about this fanfic for a few months. I apologize again. Now that things have settled down I plan on continuing it at a regular pace. If you have forgotten what's happened I took this time to also fix up chapters 1-3 so they're not as painful to read anymore. Anyway, enough of my blabber, on with the story!

Chapter 6

"So how long are you not going to talk to me?"

"Huh?" Yuan looked up from the book he was reading. "What are you talking about?"

The ride home was silent and as soon as we arrived we both took a needed shower. Maybe it was from eating out a sheer boredom all the time but I actually felt slightly hungry. So I decided to make dinner and have a nice meal. Yuan hadn't said a word since I yelled at him. It was painfully obvious he was mad at me. It was a little surprising he sat at the dinner table and joined me. But that might be because I kind of forced a full plate of food in front of him. It was my own little way of saying there was no hard feelings. But it would seem Yuan didn't catch on. Considering he still had that blank look on his face. I had been hoping after getting cleaned up and getting comfortable we could move on to important matters. But with Yuan acting this way that was going to be impossible. Even so, I was going to try. Maybe Yuan would stop ignoring me if it came to talking about his invader. But no such luck. I tried several times and all he gave was a grunt in response. So deciding not to deal with his childish behavior anymore I left the room. One head's better than none. Two would be preferred though.

I attempted to figure out what the symbol meant, for a good ten minutes. My mind was too blurred with guilt though. I don't see why. Yuan needs to learn from his mistakes, there's no reason to feel guilty about pointing them out. Yet no matter how many times I told myself that the feeling didn't go away. It continued to gnaw at the back of my head. Nothing was going to get done at this rate so I got up, walked into the kitchen and confronted Yuan.

So here we are, me standing at one end of the table, Yuan sitting at the other.

"You know very well what I'm talking about." Ugh, wonderful. He was going to play the innocent card.

"I'm afraid I don't." He went back to reading his book. His face was blank of any emotion. His voice was so mono tone too. It got on my nerves. This was all so pointless. Yuan had a knack for acting like a child lately. I wasn't going to apologize either. I'll admit I was a little rough back there for yelling at him. But if that's what it takes for Yuan to realize his mistakes then so be it.

I snatched the book Yuan had been reading. "That's enough. Stop acting like a two year old. People's lives may be endangered and you're throwing a hissy-fit." I tried my best to keep the anger out of my tone but it was difficult not too.

Yuan's blank look turned into cold glare. "Why do you want my help so bad? You obviously know everything and always know what to do. I would just get in your way Your Highness." The last part of that sentence came out in a hiss. Saying Yuan was pissed was an understatement.

This whole fight made me groan inwardly, it was starting to give me a headache. "Will you stop this nonsense? You over reacted back there and it cost us vital information. Despite if I was rough or not, does not change the fact that you need to control your anger better."

Yuan suddenly shot up from his chair, sending it tumbling backwards onto the floor. His hands had slammed down onto the table, making a loud slam. His glare looked cold enough to freeze water. "Over reacted? Over reacted! That bitch destroyed my base! My home! She helped kill dozens of my men! And you're saying I 'over reacted'! Well I'm sorry I have emotions like normal beings! Unlike you! Sometimes I even wonder if you have a heart!"

I took a step back. His last comment stun badly enough it actually made me stagger. I wasn't sure how to react; all I could do was to stare at him. Did he really think that way about me? Was I really that heartless? The thought of how this whole mess affected Yuan never really occurred to me. The Renegades were kind of like his family. Heh, guess I was the one who acted without thinking.

Yuan stood there, watching me. He was breathing slightly hard from all his yelling. His eyes were full of rage and even hurt. That made it extremely difficult to look at him. To know they were directed at me made things even worse. My gaze had sunk down to the table in front of me. "I'm sorry. I didn't… Sorry." I never was good at apologizing. Glancing up at Yuan showed me his eyes hadn't softened at all. Damn. He was going to make this as hard on me as he could. "Look… I was the one that acted without thinking. I shouldn't have yelled at you." Still, Yuan's eyes remained a blaze with rage. "So… Can you forgive me?" Yuan still just continued to glare at me. "What? I said I was sorry! I'm an idiot, okay?"

For a moment Yuan's glared turned into a look of shock. His slightly parted lips soon turned into a smile though. "The Great Kratos… Just admitted he wasn't perfect! This truly is a historical turn of events!" He chuckled. It was my turn to glare this time. That ass, did he plan on this? I was about to say some smartass comeback about how I never said I was perfect, but the look on Yuan's face stopped me. Before either of us knew it we were both laughing. Thankfully the tension in the room was dissipating. As our laughter died down Yuan had the oddest smirk on his face. It looked like one of his 'Ha, I just made you do exactly what I wanted' smirks, yet it seemed very different. Like he wanted to smile, but decided not to so he tried to hide it with a smirk. If that even makes any sense.

No matter what it was or its meaning it was starting to freak me out. Yuan seems to be doing that a lot lately, that and those stupid awkward silences. We have been having a lot of those lately too. Which is the reason I hated being around Yuan it felt so weird.

"So uh… Since you're talking to me again we should get down to business." I reached over and grabbed the helmet. Yuan nodded his agreement and turned his attention to the head armor in my hands.

"So what do you think the symbol is?"

I took a closer look at the helmet. "Like I was going to say before that woman came. It looks to have a backwards capitalized 'R' infused with an 'S'." Squinting my eyes slightly, bringing the helmet even closer. "Or possibly there is a 'K' and a 'J'. " A frown formed on my lips. "Maybe even a weird looking 'Y'."

Yuan rolled his eyes. "Well that certainly helps. It looks like five different letters. How do we know which ones?"

Sighing, I leaned against a chair. This problem could have been completely avoided if we had talked to that woman more. But I kept that comment to myself. Yuan leaned over and tapped the symbol. "Even if we figure out the letters what help will it do us? It's not like we could guess what it means. We don't know enough to even begin to guess."

I gave him a frustrated look. "Well what else can we do? It might not help us now but it could later on." A small silence followed. We both sighed deeply. The way Yuan rubbed his temples it was obvious to see a headache was forming. I couldn't blame him; this was all rather frustrating and annoying.

It was then that an idea had dawned on me. "What if we went around asking people what they thought of the symbol? Or if they knew any more information." It wasn't the best idea. I didn't think any ordinary citizen would know about a secret organization, unless of course they were part of it. But never the less, it was an idea.

Yuan gave it some thought before agreeing. "Alright, we have nothing to loose."

Straightening myself I got a glimpse of Yuan yawning. It made me think about how tired I was as well. "Why don't we worry about this tomorrow, it's late already. We should rest." Yuan was happy to go along with that as he made his way to the couch.

I made my way to my bedroom, closing the door behind me. Collapsing onto my bed, the soft comfortable landing was like pure bliss. Snuggling into my pillow it felt nice to relax my sore muscles. It felt good to have my body finally rest yet my mind refused to do the same. I couldn't believe how much had happened in one day. We hadn't found out much, but we found out enough to leave me worried. With so little information it let my mind wonder on the possibilities. I forced such thoughts from my head though. If I let my mind feed my fears I'll begin to think it's true. Fear could cause mistakes. Today was a good example why it was best to prevent making mistakes. A disgruntled sound came from my throat as I squeezed my eyes tightly shut. Even as I drifted into sleep I couldn't help but worry.