Author's Notes: Wow, a follow and a lovely review already, thanks guys :D Bear with me this chapter as I get all the background stuff in motion. And I love OC fics too Regal Bryant Lover, just difficult to find any good ones!

Home for Reimi was a small flat shared with two other girls very close by. They had met on the Internet, all three of them looking for accommodation that was cheap just outside the town centre with close public transportation and this place was ideal. Reimi had her own room but everything else was communal.

As she was walking the couple of minutes to reach the corner of the road that led to her street she saw a familiar face.

"Elsa?"

The older girl turned at her name and caught sight of Reimi, worry visibly melting from her features. "There you are! Everything okay?! We haven't been able to get through to your mobile for ages!"

Reimi started, guiltily realizing that she had turned it off when she entered the hospital, as was the policy.

"I got caught up at the hospital, I'm so sorry Elsa!"

"Hospital?! What happened are you hurt?"

"I'm fine, it was someone else…," Reimi proceeded to tell her the story as the two of them headed back to their home and rode the elevator up to the 4th floor, the one on which they lived.

Elsa stuffed the key into the lock and ushered Reimi inside the brightly lit hallway, calling "Got her!"

"'Bout time! Let's eat!"

Reimi entered the living room to see her other housemate Amy grabbing a couple of pre-packaged meals from the microwave and three china plates which she laid out on the small coffee table. The three girls sat down and begun eating.

"What kept you?" Amy asked between mouthfuls.

Elsa, with Reimi occasionally correcting or giving additions to the story, told Amy about the strange encounter that afternoon.

"Why bother? What if he was a nutcase who wanted nothing more than to kill you? Or do other unmentionable things for that matter,"

"I don't know. One thing led to another and it all just sort of happened. I couldn't just leave the guy in the road, plus I might have been the one to have given him brain damage from pushing him over,"

"Reimi, he was wearing a bright red dungaree outfit in the middle of a London street. I think he was already a little brain damaged. Also, in grave need of some fashion advice,"

They all laughed. "Seriously though," Elsa spoke, "You're being too nice. Leave heroics to the professionals and just concentrate on training that musical brain of yours,"

Reimi flushed with embarrassment and spoke a little quieter. "But what if he had died? I could never forgive myself,"

"Ahhh, you're worrying too much!" Amy ruffled her hair a little. "Now, be a dear and next time you decide to go save people, keep your phone on! Stops us from worrying, alright?"

Reimi grinned and shrugged. "I don't make the rules, I just break 'em,"

"Eyy that's my line!" the three of them laughed again and finished the food off before heading their separate ways for the night. Amy catching up on her soaps, reclining on the sofa, Elsa going to her room to catch up with her emails and Reimi to shower and get ready for the next day of work.

Her thoughts kept returning to Lloyd though, she hoped he was okay and that she had done the right thing. Both by not helping him further and also for not calling the hospital.

'By now they've probably assumed he found his way back,' she mused to herself. 'I hope they're right…,'

The next day, still stiff from sleep, Reimi packed up the few items she needed for work into her bag and set off, shouting a goodbye to Elsa as she did so, Amy already having gone off to college.

Reimi's job was as a runner at a music production studio. She had been working there for some months now and while on the surface she seemed to specialize at making coffee and running around on errands like crazy, her real dream was to join an orchestra as a pianist. Well for starters anyway…

She sighed wistfully, the amount of times she had seen fresh new talent come in and make it big… she knew that if her bosses gave her the chance she could get somewhere too. The only problem was that unlike the other entrants Reimi had no financial support from her parents to get her started, so she was having to work her way up from the very bottom, hoping one day they would take her seriously and listen to her play with their full attention.

Shaking her head to chase the daydreams away she concentrated on crossing the road, looking right and left before freezing as something caught at the corner of her vision. A flash of red.

Stepping back she cautiously walked towards the conspicuous colour, draped on a bench nearby. She was used to seeing miscreants loiter there and normally went out of her way to avoid them but today she only hesitated for a second before approaching the sleeping figure.

"…Lloyd?"

The boy slowly opened his eyes and blearily looked up at her. There were dark bags under them, his hair was unkempt and his clothes rumpled but there could be no mistaking him as the person she had met yesterday.

"Hi Reimi," he stifled a yawn and sat up properly, settling his feet from the bench back onto the pavement. "What's up?"

"What's up… Erm… I don't know, what's up.. with.. you?" she spoke uncertainly, thinking of the best way to address why he was sleeping on the bench outside like a hobo.

"Oh, right. Well, I figured that I'll wait here until I can find a way back to my own world. This is where I first appeared so there must be some kind of a magical portal linking this place to Derris Kharlan. I just have to wait for it to open again," he assented drowsily.

"But… what if you have to wait a really long time? Like… What if… it never opens again?"

Lloyd's face drooped a little, as though the possibility hadn't occurred to him, but he waved it off a moment later. "No, it will open again, and when it does I'll be ready," he pumped his arms together in assent and then froze as his stomach let out a low growl in protest.

"So you're going to stay on this bench outside and live off air? Wouldn't you rather go back to the hospital? Maybe someone turned up in the night looking for you,"

"I'm not going back there and anyway I'm fine, really. I've been through far worse than this and I know I won't have too long to wait, I can feel it,"

Reimi was about to answer when she heard the sound of a throat being cleared behind her. Looking over her shoulder she saw a uniformed police officer standing a few steps away, monitoring the two of them carefully.

"We've gotten a couple of reports down at the station this morning of an armed youth roaming the streets so I came down to check it out and if I'm not mistaken, I've found him,"

Lloyd frowned at her, "What? Who are you?"

"Ah!" Reimi was gripped with a sudden fear. "No no no no, I'm sorry officer," she stepped in front of Lloyd. "I think there's been a bit of a misunderstanding. My brother here is attending a videogame convention this afternoon and he's dressed up for it, swords and all. They're fake, of course. Unfortunately I've just come to tell him that Dad's running late at work, so he won't be able to pick you up for another couple of hours Lloyd," Reimi turned to the subject of the conversation, his expression still one of slight confusion.

"Is that right?" the policewoman questioned Lloyd. Reimi raised her eyebrows urgently at him.

"…Yeah. I'm sorry officer, I didn't realise I might be seen as a threat,"

"If I could just see the swords to make sure…"

With a quick look at Reimi first who was panicking too much to think up a speedy response, he slowly removed the two swords from their scabbards.

One was a faded red colour, the other a faded blue but both looked quite shabby and blunt. Reimi let out a breath she didn't realise she had been holding while Lloyd looked at them in confusion.

"What…"

"Alright then. That'll do. But both of you should go home before I decide to take you to the station for loitering,"

"Hang on, these aren't-"

"Thanks," Reimi butted in, grabbing Lloyd's arm and pulling him down the street the way she had come. Once they had turned the corner and the policewoman was out of sight Reimi let go and leant against the wall in relief. "That was really close,"

"What happened to my swords?!" Lloyd asked, taking them out again and giving them a look over. "They're blunt now… and the mana powering them has vanished… Do you guys have low mana in this world or something?"

Reimi closed her eyes in frustration and lowered her head muttering, "What are we going to do…,"

There was silence for a moment, then her thoughts were interrupted by Lloyd's voice.

"Hey, Reimi? Why'd you do that?"

"Hm?" she opened her eyes and found the brunette staring at her.

"You keep helping me. There's no reason for you to," his head was tilted to one side, almost like an inquisitive child.

"I just… It just seems to happen," when Lloyd frowned a little she pushed on. "I just keep thinking that maybe when you fell into the road, it… jumbled your head up. And that's my fault, so I can't not help,"

Lloyd turned his head to one side, mumbling; "It didn't. Anyway, I'm all better now," Reimi noticed the bandage was no longer round his head although there was a nasty bruise in its place near his hairline.

"Okay. Well that's good. But now what are we going to do with you?" she spoke the last bit half to herself.

"I think that police lady's gone now, I'll go find somewhere else to sit and keep waiting."

"No way, you'll be arrested within the hour. You're too conspicuous…"

"Everyone says that back home too," his stomach made another angry groan and he covered it with his hands embarrassed.

Something seemed to click in Reimi's brain and she pushed herself away from the wall "Come with me for a minute, okay?"

"Elsa?"

Reimi pushed the door open and listened for her housemate's reply. After receiving none Reimi figured she must have left for work and so entered the apartment, motioning Lloyd to follow her in.

"So, where is this?" he asked her after closing the door behind them.

"Take a seat by that window," she pointed at a couch on the west side of the room before vanishing through another door. Lloyd slowly obliged and looking outside realised he had a perfect view of the road they had just come from and the surrounding neighbourhood.

He was about to call out to Reimi when she appeared behind him, holding out a packaged sandwich.

"This way you can keep an eye on the road and eat at the same time,"

Lloyd looked from the food to Reimi's face. "For me?"

She nodded and passed it into his hesitant hands before taking an adjacent seat and focusing her gaze out the window. Lloyd watched her for a moment.

"Thank you,"

Reimi nodded then stood up as she heard the kettle whistle in the kitchen. "Oh, the drinks…," she rushed through the door but peeked back in to say "Is hot chocolate okay? I don't like coffee or tea so I don't keep any in the house,"

Lloyd chuckled tiredly. "Strange choice of beverage for breakfast but I'll take it," Reimi grinned.

Five minutes later the cups and plates were back in the kitchen, slowly soaking in the warm water Reimi had just boiled and poured from the kettle. She added some washing up liquid then dried her hands and returned to the living room to find Lloyd leaning against the window, eyes closed.

Silently walking towards him she edged closer and realised he had drifted into sleep. She paused for a moment before tip-toeing into her bedroom and returning with a blanket. Draping it over Lloyd and putting a cushion under his head in case he moved, she picked up the receiver to the house phone, took it into her room and dialled a number.

"Hello? I'm afraid I can't make it in today…"

Several hours later Lloyd became aware of voices.

"…situation can't work, it's a bad idea!"

An unfamiliar girl's voice and from the sound of it, in the middle of an argument.

"Why not? He's pretty cute,"

A different girl's voice this time. Lloyd frowned, where was he again?

"Ssh, please don't wake him up you guys,"

Reimi. He opened his eyes… And found another's in front of his. Jerking his head back it knocked against the wall and rubbed his head in pain. Looking up he saw three girls in front of him. The closest and the one who had surprised him was a short-haired blonde girl kneeling on the floor, an older closely-cropped black haired girl stood further back with a disapproving look on her face and to the left, a girl with long brown hair - Reimi. She gave him a small smile.

"Wha… Uh… H-hello?" he said tentatively, confused and a little embarrassed by the sudden attention.

"Sorry to have woken you, Lloyd these are my two house mates – Elsa and Amy. Elsa and Amy, this is the guy I was telling you about; Lloyd,"

Amy pulled some strands of hair behind her ear then offered Lloyd her hand. "Oh wow! You're American!" she squealed. "Nice to meet you, Lloyd,"

"Huh? Er… You too," He shook it quickly then, thinking it the polite thing to do, offered it to Elsa. "Nice to meet you,"

Elsa sighed but took it all the same. "Yeah…"

Lloyd was properly returning to his senses now, he looked outside the window and found it was dark outside.

"I fell asleep… How long was I asleep?" He felt panic well up inside of him.

"You didn't miss anything," Reimi stepped forward and gestured outside, "I was checking, nothing's happened since this morning,"

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize. And I didn't mean to fall asleep," he bowed his head. "I seem to keep troubling you,"

"Not at all," Amy chimed in. "It's nice having guests over,"

"It would be nicer if we knew he wasn't a serial killer or something," Elsa intoned and Lloyd flinched at the harshness in her words.

"I keep telling you he isn't," Reimi sighed. "He could have killed me at least five times by now,"

"Doesn't mean he won't still do it,"

"Please don't fight, I'll leave," he stood up, ready to leave but Reimi held her hands up in a 'wait a minute' signal.

"Actually Lloyd, we were talking and-,"

"Won't you stay a bit longer?" Amy cut across her. "We've only just met you and your friends aren't here yet,"

Lloyd frowned, "I really should get going. But thanks, and thanks for the food and hot chocolate, Reimi," He made for the door but the girls were still in his way.

"Hot chocolate? Oh geez Reimi.. no wonder he fell asleep," Elsa face-palmed.

"I don't have the ingredients to make anything else," she looked down in embarrassment "and there was no juice left in the fridge."

Elsa ruffled her hair but not in an unkind way. Amy turned from her housemates back to Lloyd.

"Reimi's already filled us in. Your friends are going to meet you over there, right?" She pointed out the window to the view of the street. Lloyd nodded. "Then it makes sense for you to stay a little bit longer. We won't force you but wouldn't you rather be in the company of three lovely ladies then on your own in the cold outside? With the police around? And no food?"

"Well…," Lloyd was unsure what to say.

"Amy…," Elsa said.

"Come on, Elsa! It's not like we can just leave him like this,"

"Weren't you the one yesterday telling Reimi not to bother with things like this?"

"Well yeah but… that was before we met him and saw he was actually not the creepy older guy that we thought and is instead a young, cute American guy," she laughed.

Elsa huffed at her comment and placed her hands on her hips.

Lloyd was beginning to feel quite uncomfortable, a mixture of not being wanted and feeling suffocated. Reimi stepped in.

"Lloyd, I know this is unfair of me, but for peace of mind would you stay a little longer? We're about to eat dinner now and you're welcome to join us as you wait, you can still see the street from here". After all Reimi had done for him, Lloyd couldn't refuse her.

"Yay! Let's order out!" Amy cheered and Elsa slumped on the couch in defeat.

"Just don't come crying to me when there's a knife stuck in your back,"

The evening was a blur. It almost felt like an interrogation rather than a meal – he was bombarded with questions by Amy and grilled again and again on the facts by Elsa. He kept looking out the window constantly for any sign of Kratos, his world or his friends, but nothing happened and Lloyd was beginning to feel as though he had not slept at all.

The reaction of the other girl's to his story was the same as Reimi's – disbelief and, in Elsa's case, ridicule. Eventually, Lloyd was able to relax a bit as the conversation became lighter and they talked about more normal things. Well, normal to them. Lloyd didn't understand a lot of what they were saying and towards the end began to tune out as Amy talked nonstop about herself – her classes, her recently dumped boyfriend and things like her favorite foods/places. Reimi tried her best to fill him in when he was confused but she didn't say much in general and looked out the window more than anything. As it got to around midnight, he began yawning more frequently and Elsa decided it was time for serious talk once again.

"Lloyd, I have to say I'm surprised. After having spent the evening with you, I'm beginning to feel like I understand you a little better. I could live to regret it and be wrong but… I no longer think you're a serial killer,"

"…Thanks, I think?" Lloyd replied.

"From what Reimi tells me and from what I've heard tonight you seem to be pretty clueless about a lot of things. Maybe you had a sheltered upbringing and were raised to believe in magic and dwarves and things.. Maybe you've suffered a bout of amnesia… Whatever the case, my point is you have nowhere to go and we have a small spare room here that we use when guests are round. What would you think about staying with us for a day or two until your friends show up? Luckily it's the weekend tomorrow so we can keep an eye on you, I don't trust you enough to leave you alone here but at least now that I've met you I feel a little more reassured then when Reimi first pitched the idea to me,"

Lloyd turned to Reimi.

"Look, I really really appreciate what you've done, you have no idea but… I'm used to sleeping rough, I'm used to scraping by. I don't need charity. You don't need to feel guilty about me hitting my head; it wasn't your fault,"

Reimi looked down at her feet uncomfortably. "I know, but I still can't help but worry, especially because you don't know this area,"

Reimi reminded Lloyd of another girl. Someone he had known since his childhood. He realized they had a very similar quality. She likes to help people, it doesn't matter who it is.

"…No, I'm sorry," Lloyd quieted down but looked at her thoughtfully.

"That's what Reimi's like, she's a worrier," Elsa sighed, "It's a curse, really," but her tone of voice showed she wasn't really upset about it.

"Soooo, what do you think?" Amy asked Lloyd after the silence had stretched.

"Well… If… if that's alright, then" he rubbed his head sheepishly.

Elsa yawned. "In return for the room you can keep that up and call me master,"

Lloyd couldn't tell if she was kidding or not.

"Elsa, you aren't allowed to make jokes anymore," Amy sighed and pushed her towards the spare room.

The girls set up the blankets and bedding for Lloyd, Elsa condescendingly introduced him to the light switch, fridge and heating system, all of which Lloyd did actually have back home, then they bade him goodnight. Amy hung around a little longer than the other two but after receiving no further comments from Lloyd decided to call it a night as well.

He was just about to get into bed when Reimi re-appeared at the open doorway.

"I thought you might need some pajamas," he looked down and saw she had a bundle in her hands.

"They aren't bright pink or anything are they," Lloyd raised an eyebrow.

"No… More of a… lightish red colour," she smirked then handed them over. They were dark blue and smelled faintly of lemon.

"Beats sleeping on the bench then?"

He looked up from the pajamas. "Ah I dunno… that bench was nice, a real home away from home but… in the meantime I guess this will do,"

Reimi laughed in response. "Oh yeah! I almost forgot, I put your swords in here too," she gestured to the spot she had left them, leaning against the bed.

"Oh…," he placed the pajamas down and wandered over to where his swords were, stroking his fingers along the length, testing the sharpness. "I don't know what happened… I guess it really is the complete lack of mana in this world, huh…,"

"But if it hadn't you would have been arrested today, Lloyd," she said, trying to put a positive spin on things.

"Also if you open the curtains a little bit…" she walked towards them and pulled the drawstring; there was another good view of the road.

"Wow… that's perfect,"

Reimi nodded in response.

"Wake me up if you need something okay? My room's the one nearest the kitchen," she started back towards the door.

"…Reimi?"

She turned.

"You're a very kind person,"

She looked away, pink spreading across her cheeks.

"N-no. I'm not, it's what anyone would do,"

"Well if that's true, this must be the greatest place in the universe, although I highly doubt that from what I've seen so far,"

"It's not bad, just busy," she stopped at the door. "Well, see you in the morning, since it's Saturday I don't have to work. You can eat breakfast, lunch and dinner at the window; we can make a day of it,"

"Sounds fun!" He waved his hands in a mock excited way then lowered them and said more softly "Goodnight,"