Well, first day of school...this is going to be a long year. I guess doing this will keep me sane. Again, I appreciate the new reveiws even though it was just one. Oh, if you're wondering about the chapter name, it's the name of Carrie's hometown.

I do not own Pandora Hearts.

Chapter 7: Kara

The music that woke me wasn't from the piano, it came from somewhere else. A strange tune that I've never heard, but what did I expect? I'd been thrown forward 200 years in time, of course things were different. Anyway, I sat up and put on my glasses, which were sitting on the nightstand next to me. I still felt a little tired, mainly from last night. Sigh, another fitful sleep.

After playing the piano with Carrie last night, she insisted I went to bed. I couldn't argue with her, mostly because when I stood up, I almost fell to the floor, but Carrie was bracing me with her arms. The room I was in had the curtains shut so sunlight couldn't get in, and didn't have many things other than a dresser, a nightstand, and a bed.

As I stood up, my legs felt wobbly, but I could still stand. Before I walked out, my eyes saw a mirror, reflecting myself.

I smiled, my long hair messy as usual.

Making my way downstairs, the music grew louder. I walked into the kitchen, Sasha making something, and Carrie at a table drinking tea. She was wearing a long golden laced nightgown, and her hair also messy. In comparison to me, Carrie looked lovely, while I was still wearing the same clothes from yesterday. She smiled humorously as I staggered in. She probably thought I looked like I was drunk.

"Good morning, Leo." Her cheerful voice resounded.

"You're looking a little better today. How are you feeling?"

"Well, I wouldn't say good, but a little better than yesterday." True, after I went to bed last night, I woke up at least three times,except for when Sasha got home from work. At that time I was trying to sleep, but Carrie had kept me awake, so I decided to see what she was up to. Then she accidently elbowed me in the stomach because she was happy about something and hadn't seen me behind her.

Anyway, those three times when I had woken up I didn't even know what time it was and each time I had a hard time falling asleep because I had a bad headache and I felt like I was going to be sick at any second. However, I did feel better today.

She nodded and decided to change the subject. "In case you're wondering, this music is kinda...ambient.

"Yeah, she's nuts about that kind of music." Sasha muttered.

Carrie heard that and turned to her sister. "I am not! It's just...it is very calming."

Seeing Carrie's face as she bickered with Sasha, how her mood switched so quickly, tossing out words back and forth at each other, for a moment, I thought I saw him; Elliot. But, that's not him, it's Carrie. Elliot's dead, and...that's right.

It was because of me.

"Elliot! Say the name!"

"Oi, Leo." I looked up and saw Carrie and Sasha looking at me. The tense atmosphere around them had calmed down, and now Carrie's focus was back on me. "What's wrong?"

"Uh," I curled my hand into a fist, scrunching up some table cloth along with it. "nothing."

"You know, I'd imagine it's hard to comprehend the time difference and all, but Reveil and Kara haven't changed much in the past 200 years." I explained as Sasha set food down in front of us, warm and soft pancakes with orange juice. Well, actually, I was having tea; the juice was for Leo. "In the modern day era of the country, Reveil is still the capital. 300 years ago, Sabiler was the capital, but as you know, it was sent into the Abyss. Apart from that, everything has remained solely as it is. "

"Really?"

I nodded and took another sip of tea. "Yup. Normally, in towns or cities, you'd see cars. But, here and in Reveil, most everyone still uses horse drawn carriages. Some of the outlying towns have a mix of both. Also, Pandora and the four dukedoms, Vessalius, Nightray, Rainsworth, and Barma still very much exist today."

"Wait, 200 years?" Sasha suddenly exclaimed, realizing the mention of what I meant by 200 years. I sighed at her, even though we went over this last night.

"Sasha, we've established this already. He's skipped over a considerable amount of time."

"Yeah, but you never said it was 200 years!"

"And I never said to just but into things. He'll need time to adapt to the situation, not just recovering from any lingering wounds." Half of that was true, the other half was that he might be sick (I'm just judging from the past few days) and I didn't want him to stress about the time lapse, which would only make him worse.

"I don't know what's going through that head of yours, but I have to get going."

"See ya' later." I replied sarcastically. She muttered something as she walked out, and letting the door close behind her. I turned back to Leo and chuckled. "We don't get along all the time, but I don't see why she's complaining. I told her last night."

I wasn't sure if he was paying any attention, mostly because he was poking a barley eaten pancake with his fork, while mine was half eaten.

"I can see that." He muttered.

I closed my eyes and stood up, pushing my chair back as I did. "Come on then."

"To where?"

I opened my eyes, grinning intently at Leo "The balcony!"

The screen door creaked as I opened it. The balcony faced the backyard, where everything looked so luscious. A wonderful scenery that I've always enjoyed every day. All the trees in the distance, the sun peeking over them every day, it's so...peaceful. The balcony itself was painted a cloudy white with a small table, a wicker chair, and a few other things.

"Ha! Isn't it wonderful?"

Leo looked around, then smiled at me. "It's nice."

"It's a good place to read too. I usually come out here if I'm stressed or just want to read. We may have a mini library in our house, but that room is a bit too small for me. I like this wide open space, ya' know?"

He nodded again and looked out into the backyard. "I've noticed something about your sister."

"And what would that be?"

"She just jumps into any chance she can get to annoy you." Leo explained. "However, you shouldn't be so quick to retort to her words, otherwise, you'll both end up in a fight."

I was astounded. I'd never figured this out myself, and yet, he could see and recognize that in an instant. Even if it didn't seem like it, Leo was actually very observant. He turned his head back to me, my eyes meeting his gaze covered by those one-way mirrors of glass.

"You just need to retain this information and don't just act upon it irrationally like you did."

I blinked, slowly understanding what he'd just said. "I...I never thought of it that way."

His smile seemed to make things more clearer. "Just take time to think things through."

"I will." I triumphantly said. I walked up to the railing and leaned on it, the rays of sun warming my skin. A breeze came by and it blew my hair back. I could feel someone staring at me, Leo perhaps, but I wasn't really paying attention.

"Carrie." He suddenly said. "Is it really okay with you?"

"Hmm? Sasha? Yeah, I'll take your words into account and-"

"No, not that." He interrupted. "I mean, is it fine with you that I'm staying here? It doesn't bother you or anything?"

I thought it over in my mind. Of course I was fine with it, there was nothing wrong with that at all. But why would he ask such a thing when the answer is obvious.

"Why do you ask?"

"Oh, no reason. I'm not complaining or anything. I'm glad to be here actually, you're so welcoming. But does that affect you any at all? Are you okay with this?"

I chuckled before I stared off into the vast landscape. "It doesn't bother me at all. I don't care what Sasha says to me, because she doesn't really understand. You have nowhere to go, and I wanted to give you shelter. Also I...I wanted to get to know you better."

I softly smiled at my own reasoning. It was simple, and something important at the same time. This was like, a change for the better in my life. Such a lonely life, but yet, there was always dreams, and something that seemed like something from such a long time ago, deep in the past, hidden in dust. He seemed to remind me of something that was so nostalgic, so...

My wondering was broken by a horrible coughing sound. I turned to see Leo on his knees, a hand to his mouth, his body shuddering every time he coughed. He trembled as I kneeled down and put a hand on his back.

"What's wrong?" He slowly, but hesitantly pulled his hand away from his mouth, and my eyes widened in horror in what they saw.

His pale hand was stained with blood.

He put his hand quickly back to his mouth, his body shuddering again. This wasn't good, something else is in play here.

"Leo, can you get up?" I asked in a hushed whisper.

He nodded slowly. I helped him over to the wicker chair and he nearly collapsed into it. I handed him a little handkerchief from my pocket, which I knew I'd have to wash later now, and I sat down in a chair next to him. I was trying to think of any reason, any reason at all as to why this would of happened.

Then I remembered something.

"Hey, do you have any bruises on you? Any that hurt really bad?" I asked, leaning in towards him.

"Now that you mention it, yes." He coughed into the handkerchief and pointed to a spot on him just below his ribs.

Slowly, I unbuttoned the buttons on his shirt. Surprisingly, he didn't flinch as I did so. I parted the fabric, but paused.

"This is..." Just below the right side of his ribs was a grayish-purple bruise about the size of a fist. It didn't look extremely bad, but considering how this was affecting Leo, I knew this wasn't anything good.

"Shit." I muttered. This techincally might of been my fault, because yesterday, after Sasha had gotten back from work, she had given me the new album of one of my favorite bands, which I'd been trying to get my hands on ever since it came out last year. I was so excited, I had been totaly oblivious to anything else, and unforutnatly, I didn't notice Leo asking what I was so happy about and I accidently elbowed him. He never said much about it afterwords, so I asumed it was no big deal.

I thought back to when I'd seen this before with Sasha, and luckily I knew exactly what to do, learning from that time. I quickly ran inside the house and rushed back with some gauze.

"Okay, stay still." I instructed as I wrapped the gauze around the wound, no too tight, but not too loose. "This happened to Sasha once, and I was stuck taking care of her. Ironically, I learned how to treat this, incase it happened to ether one of us. Don't worry about the blood, it's temporary."

I finished wrapping the gauze and tied it off. The wind blew again as I stood up, and I mentally reminded myself to check my bike to see if Sasha fixed the brakes like she promised.

"Where are you going?" I heard Leo ask. I paused as I opened the screen door, looking back to him.

"I'm gonna get changed and run downtown. We don't have anything right now to ease the pain, so I'll just have to do something about it." In truth, I didn't have any money, so I'd have to go to Sasha and explain the situation. "Just relax and don't move. I don't want anymore stress on your body."

I walked through the door, and something dawned on me in that one instant.

'He's fragile.'

...

"Heh...you're so scrawny, but that's what makes you cute."

She hears stuff like this often, but she'll figure out what that last part means later. Feel free to leave a reveiw, much appreciated and very helpful at times.