Yayz! Here's chapter 9. Wow, this fic is really coming along! How many times have I said that now? XD I'm just really happy because I'm so prone to writer's blocks. :( I'm not completely happy with how this chapter turned out. I wrote it out-of-order, and I think it's a bit obvious at some points. Hopefully it's not too noticeable. I'll probably go back and improve it at some point in the future. Any suggestions and constructive criticism are, as usual, very welcome and encouraged. :)

Chapter 9

The ways of Biron dictated that, if you learned to properly clear your mind, you could let go of all painful memories and make yourself stronger as a result. This didn't mean forgetting any people associated with a painful memory, such as one's murdered parents. It just meant you put aside the events that had caused your loved ones' deaths. You reminded yourself that they were in a better place, even if you couldn't see them.

It had taken time, but Gala had managed to suppress most of the painful thoughts regarding his parents. He knew if he kept training in the Biron arts he'd eventually be able to completely.

Songi, on the other hand... Well, it was kind of hard to forget painful memories related to a person you saw every day, especially when those painful memories had only happened around two years before. Seeing that memory at the Uru Mais hadn't meant he'd regretted losing his best friend more than he had his parents. It'd just meant that Songi meant more to him than he'd been trying to convince himself ever since that incident.

'Gala, you did your best. You have nothing to be ashamed of. After all, even when unavoidable misfortune occurs, it is the spirit that remains in the end. So be proud of yourself!'

The words of Tieg after Gala had seen that memory... They still hurt when he thought about them.

Because he hadn't tried his best. How could he have? If he had tried his best, Songi wouldn't have become so jealous and hateful. He wouldn't have betrayed the monastery. But that didn't change the truth in Gala's words either. Songi had seemed to care more about the fact that everyone compared him with his best friend than he had about the death of his father. This was likely for similar reasons to Gala, but Songi had never trained as hard as he had. He'd probably had a much harder time forgetting what had happened to his family than the former Master Teacher.

In front of him, Gala could see Songi's pale face beginning to darken. He honestly looked only a few seconds away from flying at him, fists-first.

"Don't talk about my dad!"

Gala raised his eyebrows. In the few times he'd heard Songi talk about his father, he'd always called him 'Dad.' The term wasn't unheard of, but mostly only very young boys used it. Even at nine years old, Songi's age when the Seru had attacked their village, calling one's father that would've been a bit strange.

Beyond that, Songi seemed very... defensive. Gala had been that way about his parents in the beginning too, but eventually Maya had gotten him to talk a little about them. She, along with Biron and Master Zopu, had helped him to remember the good things about his mother and father, the things the Mist had tried to blot out. He didn't know if Maya had managed to get Songi to share memories of his father with her. Somehow he doubted it.

"We should talk about it, Songi," Gala said. Really, he was practically asking to be punched in the face with these words, but he didn't care. "I talked to Maya about my parents. It took a long time before I would, but I did."

Songi clenched both his fists, and Gala automatically prepared to defend himself. Instead of an attack though, he got a furious retort.

"Maya isn't here, and I don't ever want to see her again!"

Gala relaxed slightly - only slightly. Well, this wasn't exactly what he meant by 'talk,' but it was still better than nothing.

"That's your fault and your choice," Gala said. "Talk to me about him. What sort of man was your father?"

"That's none of your business!"

Damn, Gala thought. I forgot how stubborn he can be...

"He must've pampered you to no end," Gala went on relentlessly. "The way you were when Master Zopu took us in... You were used to people paying attention to you around the clock. You could hardly even boil an egg on your own at first. Did your father let you do anything on your own?"

This had the desired effect, just as Gala had expected. Songi was stubborn, but he didn't tend to think about what he said if he got angry enough.

"Don't you dare talk about my dad! He was an amazing man! He cared more about me than everyone at that damned monastery put together! You don't know anything about him!"

Gala started. Hearing Songi call anyone who wasn't himself an amazing man was quite a shock. But still, no matter how amazing he'd been, Gala highly doubted the man had cared more about Songi than Maya or Master Zopu. Or him.

He was my best friend. I would've trusted him with my life. We would've died for each other once... before he changed.

Songi's expression suddenly cleared, and he smirked in that familiar, infuriating way of his. It was almost like his anger had come full circle, or it had become too great to express with even the fiercest of scowls.

"You really think I'll talk about him with you?" Songi asked in a much calmer tone. "You're basically threatening to kill me if I don't do what you say."

I'm not doing that at all, you ignorant bastard.

"How many times did you try to kill me, Songi?" Gala said icily. Yes, it was a very low thing to say, but he couldn't help it. He'd always thought of himself as a very patient person, at least after he'd been taken into the monastery. But Songi could just be so... maddening. He always managed to bring out the worst in him these days.

"Yeah, but you're supposed to be so much better, aren't you?" Songi said. Much to Gala's secret disappointment, the older man didn't seem overly fazed by his words. Usually being reminded of what he'd been like with the Sim Ra-Seru affected him a lot more. Maybe he just didn't care anymore. Maybe he'd gotten over it.

But he seemed so sincere before. He seemed like he really cared about what he'd done...

"It was Cort's idea to rig that floating fortress and kill you guys, not mine. I didn't want to do it, and Jedo... m-my Ra-Seru told me that it'd be easier if I just let go and not care when it happened. And I-I tried, but i-it... y-you don't know how happy I was to see you guys flying away with those Soren after the fortress collapsed. Even Vahn and that barbarian girl."

"Were you really happy when Vahn, Noa and I didn't die in the Floating Fortress?" Gala asked abruptly.

Songi looked at him, his face clearly showing just how out-of-the-blue this question was.

"Wh-Why are you asking that all of a sudden?" he stammered.

He actually looked flustered now, which was part of what Gala had been aiming for. There was another reason too, though. Namely, because...

"Because it's one of the few things you've said recently that doesn't make me want to hit you."

Gala's blunt manner of talking actually seemed to calm Songi somewhat. At any rate, he wasn't yelling or breaking things, which was secretly what the brunet had been afraid of.

Songi directed his gaze as close to Gala as he could without actually looking at him. There was a definite heat in his cheeks that was probably not the result of anger.

"Oh. Well..." He hesitated. It wasn't often that Songi made a careful effort to choose his words. "As much as I'd like to say, 'No, I wish you idiots had died there,' I... I'm glad you three didn't end up on my body-count. It was high enough as it was."

Gala's chest contracted. Yes, of course, they would've had to have gotten onto this subject eventually, wouldn't they?

"Why do you talk like that?" he asked quietly.

"Like what?"

"Why do you speak of the dead so... casually?" Gala said, digging his shoes subconsciously into the floor. "People you-"

"What else am I supposed to do?" Songi interrupted him, irritated. "Using stupid, fancy language isn't going to bring them back."

"No," Gala said, "but it will make me more likely to believe you're sorry."

Songi laughed scornfully.

"Like I care what you believe."

Without waiting for an answer, he turned and walked away, through the main room.

"Where're you going?" Gala said sharply. Songi sighed and, without stopping, replied:

"I'm going back to sleep. Don't wake me up again unless the house catches on fire or something, or I'll be pissed."

He disappeared into one of three doors leading off from the main room, closing the door loudly behind him. If Zalan's house was anything to go by, this building likely had two small bedrooms and a bathroom, all connected to the main living room and kitchen. Similarly, the windows in the bedrooms were far too small to provide an escape for either of them, which meant Songi wasn't going anywhere unless he passed through the main room again.

Wearily, Gala sat down on the tattered-looking sofa in the living room, trying to ignore the fact that its owners were now dead. It wasn't easy, especially since he'd seen so much death himself these past few months.

Briefly, he wondered if Songi would ever kill himself, even worried for a moment if that had been the reason for his hasty departure, but he soon put that thought to rest. Songi simply wasn't that kind of person. Hell, the way he had writhed and begged at Gala's feet as the Seru-kai tore him apart was proof enough for that. He was the kind of person who would hold onto life as long as humanly possible, even if it meant saying things -

"You're my friend... Help me!"

- he didn't really mean.

Gala yawned and settled back on the sofa. He unattached the bulging bag of money from his belt and set it down beside him. It was still only early in the morning, but he was exhausted. Even all the sleep he'd gotten at Zalan's, and his strict training in the monastery, wasn't helping him now.

It wasn't just that he was physically drained; he was emotionally drained too. His journey with Vahn, Noa and their Ra-Seru had really taken a lot out of him. He felt at least ten years older than when he'd first joined them on their quest. And of course, Songi wasn't exactly helping him feel any less pressured.

Gala's eyelids drooped, and as much as he tried to keep them open, telling himself it wasn't proper to sleep when it was still light out, he knew he was fighting a losing battle. Before another ten minutes had passed, he was asleep, his head resting back against the sofa.

ZzZzZzZ

Gala awoke with a start and sat up hastily. He could tell from the altered lighting in the room that he'd been asleep for many hours. It felt like at least mid-afternoon.

Blearily, he got up and walked over to the kitchen-part of the main room, intending to get something to eat. It only took a few minutes of fruitless rummaging however, before he realized there was nothing edible in the house. Well, there were a few odd jars of spices and some stale-looking pieces of bread, but somehow they didn't look very appetizing.

With a sigh, Gala walked back over to the sofa, knowing he was going to have to go to a market and buy some food. As soon as he got a proper look at the sofa though, he realized something was wrong.

The money bag he had placed down beside him was gone, and in its place was a tattered-looking piece of paper with a short message scribbled onto it. In some kind of horrified daze, Gala picked it up and looked it over.

The note was an untidy scrawl, its text bunched together and incredibly difficult to read because of the lack of punctuation. But the handwriting was so familiar, he didn't have to read it to know who had written it.

'dear idiot I know you'll freak out again if you wake up and I'm not here so I hope you read this. I've gone to get some food because there's nothing here and you were taking forever to wake up. thanks for leaving the money in such an obvious place. -Songi.'

Gala wasn't even aware that he was crushing the paper in his hand until the loud crunching sound alerted him. Blankly, he looked down at the scrunched note, his heart beating dully against his chest. He didn't know what to think. Indeed, at first he felt nothing.

But as the long seconds dragged by, one by one his emotions began to come back to him. First and foremost, he was angry. He seemed to be getting almost used to that feeling now, because it wasn't as much of a shock to him anymore. It was more like he slipped into it, like a comfortable pair of shoes.

Behind the anger, there was a multitude of other things - weariness, exasperation, frustration, concern. The concern was both for Songi and for anyone he might get annoyed at. He was the type of guy who would try to start a fight with any man he thought looked at him the wrong way, and he would probably win too.

The reason Gala was concerned for Songi himself had mostly to do with what would happen if someone recognized him. Gala didn't know all the things Songi had done while working under Cort, and he didn't really want to know either. But something told him that he, Vahn and Noa weren't the only people besides the residents of Rim Elm and the Biron Monastery who knew Songi's face.

Gala's heart beat harder. He could go and get him, drag him back, but... Well, that would only cause a scene and bring more unwanted attention to them both. Probably the best thing Gala could do was to just wait for him to come back.

Some part of him was trying to say that it wasn't such a big deal, what Songi had done. After all, hadn't Gala himself bemoaned the empty state of the pantry only minutes ago? Songi had been hungry, just like him. He could've easily walked over to his roommate and woken him up, told him to go and get some food, but he hadn't. He'd let him sleep.

Oh, don't kid yourself, Gala snapped at himself. You know very well he didn't wake you because he thought it'd just be more of an annoyance for him. Much easier to go out and get food himself, even though you've told him countless times not to run off. He didn't wake you because he didn't want to. He's a selfish bastard and only ever helps himself.

As the familiar anger began to consume him, Gala tried to quell it by reminding himself that Songi had left a note for him, which at least saved him the worry of thinking he was trying to escape again. But still, he should've asked. Maybe he'd thought the note would be enough, but it wasn't.

Oooh, Songi, you've really done it this time, haven't you? :D Damn, these two almost seem like an old married couple in this fic. XD

Also, a bit of explanation on the 'Dad'-thing. See, we don't really see characters in LoL calling their parents 'Mom' or 'Dad.' We see 'Father' and 'Mother,' and little kids use 'Mommy' and 'Daddy,' but 'Mom' and 'Dad' never seem to show up (at least, I didn't notice them). With the way Songi refers to his father, I kind of had a weeaboo-ish notion of it being the equivalent of someone calling their father 'Otou-chan' in Japanese, which is nonstandard, overly personal and childish. I dunno. It just felt kind of cute to have Songi call his father something like that, since they were so close in my canon. ^^