This chapter contains suggested themes and bad language.

A little note for Syncronocity Girl and Rin Owens:

Calm your tits.

Soon there will be so much RinxLen your heart will explode :3

I may or may not be writing RinxLen smut right now-

Pshtttt-

Oh, and KaitoxMeiko won the vote. Sorry, Miku-

A small girl laughed as she clung to her father's arms, squealing as he swung her round and round. Throwing her into the air, the man grinned at his daughter before catching her securely and pulling her close to his chest. The mother sighed as he cooed at her.

"You shouldn't spoil her with attention."

"And who's to stop me?" He grumbled, cuddling her close. There was a stern knock on the door and the mother went to open it, her dress sweeping across the polished floor.

"Message for knights, m'lady." A courier bowed and handed her a scroll sealed with red wax. She nodded politely, picked it up, and then returned to her family. The father uneasily took the message and unrolled it, scanning the italic text hastily.

"I'm needed in battle." He said gently, setting down his daughter. She pouted at him, upset that he'd turned his attention from her, and tugged on the sleeve of his shirt. He ruffled her hair tiredly, then looked at his wife.

"I'll be back in a matter of days."

She stared at him for quite a while. Her gaze was stoic and unemotional, her hands only pausing briefly, clasping a needle and thread. Concern flashed through her eyes.

"Be careful." She said.

Len's POV

I stared at Gakupo, not fully understanding the sentence he just said.

Rin... was engaged?

I turned my attention to her as red-hot anger boiled in my stomach and chest. My fists clenched and then unclenched, my shoulders shook, I gritted my teeth. Did I really like her that much?

Yes, I did. Nobody else could have her.

"You didn't tell me?" I gasped out, my heart hurting as she stared at me with wide eyes like a deer in the headlights. She gripped the end of her shirt, not looking at me.

"I didn't even know I was engaged." She whispered.

There was a shuffle of feet and I absent-mindedly realised that Rin and I were now alone. I mentally thanked my gang for the privacy.

Shutting my eyes and slowing my breathing, I calmed myself down; it's not like it was Rin's fault, she didn't even know she was betrothed. And there are multiple ways we can get her out of it, right?

Saddening at the anxious expression on her face, I hurried closer to her and swept her into my arms. Her hands gripped my shoulders and she nuzzled into my neck, her nose brushing against my collarbone.

"Is this your favourite position?" I chuckled breathlessly and she smiled.

"Warm." She said simply.

I traced circles on her lower back, felt her shiver when my fingers brushed over her spine before gliding up to rub in between her shoulder blades. Her muscles relaxed and she began to purr. There was nothing more I wanted to do than pull her close and kiss her, touch her, I wanted her to be mine and I didn't want this "engagement" to ruin anything.

Rin's never kissed anyone before.

Dammit. I couldn't rush her into anything like that. Like she said the previous day, we hadn't known eachother long and we needed to trust eachother more. Okay, she admitted I was attractive, but I was nothing more to her now than a typical, mischeivous player.

I guess karma really does get you back for breaking hearts, huh...

Sighing, I rested my forehead against hers like we did earlier in the city. "I won't allow you to get engaged." I whispered, and brushed my lips against her nose. Her whole face heated up and her expression was absolutely priceless- she was so cute.

She stared at me for a while, shocked and flustered, then squeezed my shoulders.

"I know you won't." She released her hold from me, instead locking her arm round mine. "We should get back." She said, "I think we should get more answers."

I agreed and we wandered back to camp, where Neru had collapsed by the fire. She looked exhausted and there were bags under her eyes, but she sat up when she saw us.

"Everything alright?" She asked.

"Yeah. We're okay." I sat down and smiled at her. "Did you examine the treasury room?"

A slow smirk formed on Oliver's face and he yanked back his sleeves, bags of gold pieces tumbled to the floor. "We were successful." He sang, and I heard Kaito's distant cheer from a few meters away.

"Ah, I knew you would be." I laughed, "How did you get out of the castle, Neru?"

I furrowed my eyebrows as Neru kept her gaze away from me. Her eyes were lidded and sad, her hands were clasped, her knees under her chin.

"Neru?" I repeated, and Rin brushed her arm against mine, causing me to shiver.

"Be patient." Rin said softly.

We stood there for a while, watching the burning fire, politely giving the blonde girl some space. Neru was a little older and more experienced in combat than me. None of us in the gang know exactly why she was here- just that she was chased out of her country for breaking the law. We didn't ask where she fled from, or more importantly, why. It was too personal.

"She was in the market again, today." Neru finally whispered. "The tall one, with silver hair. She was..." a pause, "... very beautiful." Neru's cheeks were reddening and we all stared at her in shock.

"Neru..." Gakupo knelt by her, his voice gentle. "Why were you chased out of your homeland?"

Her arms shook and tears ran down her cheeks, Kaito put an arm round her as she let out little sobs. "I guess..." She gasped for breath, then laughed uneasily, "Not everyone approves of homosexuality, huh? Especially my country..." She cried harder, "They were gonna kill me."

Astounded, we stared at the girl who was normally so strong bawl her eyes out in front of us. Being attracted to the same gender was very rare, and you were likely to be punished for it.

Yet, now I thought about it...

What is the real problem with being gay? Why does everybody seem so scared of the idea?

"I trust you all, so I'm not asking you to approve of this..." Neru continued, "But I do want you to continue to respect me. This isn't a choice I made, I was born like this."

Another long silence.

"Neru, there's nothing wrong with you being a lesbian." Oliver spoke first, smiling at her. Eager to agree, I nodded.

"He's right. It's no big deal, Neru, there's no difference."

"It's just love." Rin finished, walking over to take Neru's hands and help her up. Neru seemed shocked that we'd accepted her, her eyes were wide and filled with tears.

"I..." She laughed. "I love you guys so much, you know that?"

"Aww, we love you too kiddiewinks." Kaito winked at her and pulled us all into one big group hug, unfortunately causing the ponytailed girl to get squished between us.

"Oh, and Rin's mine. Got it?" I teased, making Neru cackle as Rin went completely red.

"Yep, you made that very clear when the two of you were all over eachother in the city earlier."

I scoffed, "We weren't all over eachother-! I just went to kiss her and..." I glared mockingly at Gakupo and Kaito, lowing my voice to a creepy, hoarse tone. "You two ruined the moment."

"Ahahaha, Len, don't go into creep mode again-" Kaito said nervously, and Gakupo grabbed his shoulder.

"That's our que to run, baka." Gakupo grumbled before dragging the blue-haired man away. I laughed and went to chase after them, when Neru called out;

"Hey, idiots, you just gonna leave two damsels on their own?" She pouted, "What if we get groped by some drunkards?"

"You 'damsels' can handle yourselves." I chuckled, "Besides, Rin's too flat to grope." Realising what I said, I clamped my hand over my mouth and looked away. Rin was giving me the scariest look I'd ever seen on a human being, whereas Neru just laughed at my misfortune. My little blonde girl stood up and began to walk towards me, her sky blue eyes narrowed and filled with rage. Too terrified to step back, I shut my eyes and prepared myself to be punched in the face.

Nothing happened.

I opened my eyes, blinking, then gasped a bit as Rin pushed herself against me, our hips pressed together, our chests dangerously close. She leant to my ear and brushed her lips against it, causing me to shiver.

"Then you'll never have the need to grope me, hm?" She purred, and my face reddened. "Besides, it's not like there's anything else on my body worth groping~"

Dammit. I could think of at least three places on Rin's body DEFINITELY worth groping.

Shit, if she didn't stop I was gonna pounce on her-

She giggled softly as my blush went darker. I had been defeated. She released me and strolled back to Neru, who was crying with laughter.

"Where on earth did you learn to do that?" She asked, and Rin smirked.

"That's a secret."

Fuck.