PART FOUR - A New Start

The next morning, Ran bought a big box of donuts from a bakery across the street while Ash watched the morning news. Squall was sprawled out all over the floor with his belt unhooked and jeans undone as he stayed sleeping, and Kratos wasn't very coherent even if he was awake in his chair. The hotel room wouldn't last very long, and for their health and sanity, they were going to have to find something a bit bigger and more permanent than that.

Ran came in the room, munching on a chocolate glaze donut. "Morning' all," she said, sitting down on the bed she slept in. "Donuts for breakfast."

"You're the only morning person I know," Ash grumbled. "I have no idea how you keep up that act."

"I've all ready eaten three donuts," Ran replied with a smile. "I'm on such a sugar buzz I feel like my head could explode."

Kratos blinked a few times. "I don't take sweets very well," he said. "That cake from last night stayed with me all night and made it hard to sleep."

"Yeah, we real people would like to eat a real breakfast," Ash said.

"Then go eat your waffles and eggs, I'll just stick with this," Ran kept munching until Kratos took the box away from her. "Hey."

"I don't want you sick," Kratos said, putting the donuts in a bag. "So you can have some later. Right now, I think some meat would do you better."

Ash laughed. "I'm sorry, but that statement… Kratos, you're hilarious."

"How so?"

"It's even more funny that you don't realize how funny it is," she laughed again.

Ran threw a pillow at her sister. "You're just a perv!"

"Don't tell me you weren't thinking it," Ash said, throwing it back.

"I was not, you nymphomaniac," Ran threw the pillow hard, but instead of it hitting Ash, it went past her and knocked Squall square in the head. "Oh crap. I'm sorry, Squall."

"…too bright…" Squall said, muffled by the pillow.

Kratos just shook his head in bewilderment. "Now that we're all awake, let's discuss the plan of attack, shall we?"

"Plan of attack?" Ran asked. "We're not an army regiment."

Ash looked to her sister. "Mom suggests we get our own place. Told her you had a boyfriend. She says she knew you'd finally come around."

"I'm going to kill you," Ran stated. "I haven't yet done so because I have to decide what method would be the most fun to put you through. But just you wait until I've decided."

Kratos just sat down next to her. "Calm down. You guys need a place to live, and your mother might be relived a bit if the two of you had someone to keep you company and watch out for you," he said. "Besides, I don't mind being yours."

Ran couldn't help but blush. "I haven't known you more than a day." She turned away from him while shaking her head. "I couldn't dare fall in love with you so fast. It defies all logic."

"Stop lying to yourself," Ash said bluntly. "You're beside yourself with adoration. I know. Any normal man that took your donuts would be in bloody mess by now."

Squall sat himself up and clicked his neck into place. "So, first order of business would be food. Second would be finding a place to live. Third," he yawned again, "would be a shower."

"Oh no," Ash disagreed. "First is a shower. Go get one."

He pulled up off the floor, straightened his back, and walked to the bathroom. "I just realized something," he said before going in. "Kratos, you and I only really have one set of clothes. The spirit changed the clothes we wore in our home worlds into what we have now."

Ash just looked through her purse and pulled out a credit card. "You want to know what the best thing about this is?"

"What?" Ran asked, just to humor her sister.

"This thing has Dad's name on it."

Ran pursed her lips. "That's despicable," she said.

"What he pulled," Ash corrected her, "What he pulled, that shit is despicable. He should have checked to see what he was leaving behind before he left. This is his own fault. So don't worry about a thing, you two. We have two sets of clothes ourselves. We're going to have to get some supplies once we're settled in to our new place."

Squall went into the bathroom anyway. "Won't take me long," he said, shutting the door.

"Do you know of where you would go to apply for a place to stay?" Kratos asked the girls.

"There are a lot of different places to apply," Ran said. "We could even do it online." She took to her computer after getting it out of one of the many bags, and hooked to the hotel's wireless internet. "I mean, what do we want?"

"Something affordable," Ash muttered.

"There's four of us, so it would be best to look for four rooms, right?" Ran asked.

Both Kratos and Ash gave Ran a glare as if to ask, You're joking.

"Fine. Two rooms it is," she replied, filling in an online application. "Non smokers, we don't have pets… oh ho! There's a small house in a subdivision about ten miles from here that's empty. I'll have the realtors set up an appointment for today… We need to be there in about three hours. Let's all shower and dress as best we can. I don't really care what it costs. If it's okay looking, then I'll just take it."

"Yeah," Ash agreed. "Sounds good to me."

Once everyone had a shower and was dressed decently enough, they packed up everything into the car, and stopped by the office of the hotel to turn in their key. After that, they went out for breakfast at a casual sit down eatery to wait until their appointment.

"I am famished," Squall said honestly as they had sat down to a booth. "I don't know about you guys."

"It has been a while," Kratos agreed.

Ran was in the middle of reading, as per the usual, until Kratos almost closed the book on her nose. "What?"

"Are you sure this is the best time to be reading?"

"But I…"

"Remember what I told you?"

Ran nodded, closed the book, and put it away. "I'm sorry. It's just that I don't know how to handle downtime. It drives me insane," she said. "I go crazy without distractions."

Ash was more than amazed. "Okay, that's point two that Ran is head over heels in love with you. You told her to put a book away, and she did it. She didn't even hit you or anything. Sister dear, kiss him all ready, you'll feel better that way."

Squall shrugged. "We came here to eat, not to squabble."

A waitress came up to them with menus. "Hi there. What can I do for you this morning?"

"Food's good," Kratos answered with a shrug.

"Oh, we have a smartass in the audience," the waitress said, slapping down the menus. "Anything in particular you might want, smartass?"

Kratos pushed his red hair back, revealing how handsome he was. "I don't really care, as long as it won't make me sick," he replied. "I'm so used to cooking for myself that I haven't eaten out in years."

The waitress blushed, obviously affected by seeing his face. "You cook for yourself?" she asked, very impressed. "And, if you don't mind me saying so, you're…"

"I've done a lot of traveling, so I don't have time to stop by an eatery," he continued.

"Oh, wow!" The waitress seemed to be creaming her pants when Ran's growl finally became audible. "What's her problem?"

Kratos just wrapped his arm around Ran's shoulders. "Calm down, dear," he said soundly, "The lady's just so lonely she'd hit on taken men."

"I see," the waitress said, "Drinks?"

"Water," Ran replied.

"Coffee's fine," Kratos answered.

"I'll take some orange juice," Squall said with a shrug.

"Milk," Ash said, "Chocolate milk."

The waitress wrote it all down and took off.

"I didn't realize you were so defensive about a guy you didn't care about," Ash said, cutting her sister a glare. "Strike three, sister dear, you are out."

Ran didn't even bother arguing about it at this point. "So what?"

"So what? What do you mean, so what?"

"So what if I'm in love with Kratos, it's not like it really matters or anything," she blurted, looking away. "I hope they have peanut butter here, because if they don't, I'm going back there to kick the chef's ass. I am not eating plain ass French toast."

Squall laughed to himself. "Change of subject to save you having to discuss anything important, I notice," he said. "Look at you. Redder than a tomato and actually smiling. Kratos, you've known her less than twenty four hours and you've all ready broken down her walls, changed her antisocial tactics, and managed to get her to want you. Damn. What hold do you have over women?"

"I'm not sure. I had a similar effect back home," Kratos said. "But if you look at that expression on Ash's face, I think you've got a similar situation, if you'd actually take the time to notice those kinds of things."

"Are you calling me oblivious?"

"No. I'm saying you don't read emotions very well, that's all."

"This is going to be a very long day," Ash said, stretching her arms upward. "I don't want to apply for a new place to live or go buy supplies. Both are very boring chores, and with so much time left between now and when Ran has to go back to school, I want to use the time to have as much fun as possible."

"I don't blame you, but we need to be careful and take things one step at a time when it comes to rebuilding our lives," Squall replied. "I'm not trying to stop you from enjoying yourself, but at the same time, there are serious things which need to be taken care of."

"I know. You're right," Ash said very quietly. "There's just so much going on in my head right now, it's hard to want to focus on just doing one thing."

"There might be something we can do," Ran piped up, having out her book again. "Didn't we have any property no one was using somewhere out here?"

Kratos closed the book. "What did I just tell you?"

"No, I'm looking something up," Ran snatched the book back. "Well?"

Ash nodded. "Yeah, way out in the middle of nowhere."

"Okay then. We'll go out there. I have an idea."

"…an idea from Ran either means she wants to make a game, or something scary is about to happen," Ash said, trembling. "When she says 'I have an idea', it usually means run for cover."

"I'm going to pretend you didn't say that."

Getting out to the property that Ran asked about took about a three hour drive out to the middle of a forest. It was easy to see why no one built anything here. Trees were gnarled in together, making room sized tumbleweed bushes that couldn't be uprooted. The soil was poor and held nothing but weeds. Not even grass could grow. Upon further inspection, there was a pond further into the forest that had been polluted by something years ago and had become fishless. It was nothing short of desolate and unlivable.

"You made me drive all the way out here for this?" Ash asked. "I ought to choke you."

"This land is in very poor condition, yes," Ran replied. "But that makes it great grounds for magic."

"I thought you were the one swearing off Wicca?"

"Excuse me, but when I got the man of my dreams via magic, why not my house? Why not the property we want without having to pay for it and change the plans we have all ready established?" Ran asked. "If you're going to go the lazy route, you should go all the way."

"I can't condone the lazy route," Kratos said. "You should go the safer way, even if it will take longer. We can manage in a small apartment with the four of us. I know it'll take some getting used to, but we can handle whatever comes our way."

"It'll be our secret," Ran said. "We won't tell anyone."

Ash crossed her arms. "This isn't exactly what I had in mind. Out here? I'm sure you know there's tons of bugs and snakes and-"

"If you don't want to, we can spend another three whole hours in the car arguing about what radio station to listen to while we go back to the city," Ran said, putting her hands on her hips.

Squall walked between the two sisters as he said, "It would probably take a lot off of your mother's mind if you took your family's property and made something with it instead of renting some other place. There are good and bad things about doing the entire thing by magic. It would probably be easier if you used what was here and transformed it, like basic alchemy."

"Alchemy was not Larissa LeLouche's forte," Ash said. "Her magic was all about things a bit too damn good for you and most of the time unreachable."

"Larissa was not an alchemist. You are right," Ran agreed. "But her younger brother, Loire, was." She pulled out another cracked book, but this one wasn't as pretty as the other one. "This is his book… and Ash, you're right about me quitting Wicca. I didn't say anything about quitting Alchemy." She opened the book and walked to the gigantic tumbleweed bush. She placed her left hand on it. "Bend to my will and transform!"

The energies around the gigantic tree electrified as it started to move. More trees from around the area started to merge with the gnarled formation in the center, slowly becoming bigger and bigger. Eventually, it took the size of the house they had before, and when Ran lifted her hand from it, the building had been built.

"There!"

Ash just pushed her over. "Oh come on!" she said, "It lacks a bit of… style." She put her hand to it, and it began to have more details, squares for windows to be put in later, a porch, and other things. When she stopped, it looked more like a house instead of just a plain wooden building. "Now it actually looks like a house."

Squall examined the area further. He couldn't shake the feeling that using techniques found in another LeLouche book would lead them into further trouble. Kratos flagged him over to help carry things inside as the girls went in to inspect it and make sure what they had done was actually livable.

"The LeLouche family were into lots of supernatural things," Squall thought aloud. "Larissa could tap into other worlds, and Loire could transform any matter he wanted to. What kind of family were they?"

"My guess is that they aren't from Earth," Kratos reasoned. "Larissa and Loire, I mean."

Squall gave Kratos another look. "That would not surprise me in the least," he said with a sigh. "I hope they can also do something about the terrible land here, too. Just because your house is nice doesn't mean it's the perfect living situation."

"I might be able to help with that."

"What?"

"I don't know if the magic I learned in Aselia will work here," Kratos said, walking up the porch stairs. "But if it does, then I know exactly how to help with that."

"I never thought of using magic I'd learned back home," Squall replied.

They pushed the door open and walked into find the house fully furnished, almost to the way it was back when they were at the old house.

"This is amazing," Ran said. "Now tell me you want to work for a living."

"Ha, that's a good one!"

When the girls noticed that both Squall and Kratos had brought in the last of the bags, Ran addressed them simply. "Welcome to our new home. There are four bedrooms so that we all might have our own space for whatever reasons we may need. I couldn't poof food out of nowhere, nor internet, so that we'll have to just take as it comes."

"Being able to tap into a magic book from such a powerful family is indeed a gift," Kratos said, putting the bag on the floor. "If you'll excuse me, though, I want to inspect the land myself. I want to see what I can do to purify it."

"I'll come with you," Ran said, putting her hand on his arm.

"I'd be honored."

"Kratos pointed out something very interesting," Squall said once Ash had stopped gawking at all the pretty stuff they'd created earlier. "And I have to say that I agree with him on this."

"What's that?" Ash asked in response.

"The two books you have from the LeLouche family contain techniques that aren't of this world. Ran called it Earth once."

"That's right. This is Earth."

Squall sat back and drew in a deep breath. "Those books are from other worlds. There's no other way to explain it," he said. "Alchemy is not from my world at all. I'd never have seen it if I never came here. That summoning spell the two of you used so flawlessly is also something that I've never seen before. Not that I was ever a magic authority."

"Then there are others that have cross worlds before, too?"

"Either that, or those books were so forbidden that they cast them out of the world they are from to prevent misuse."

Ash gasped. "Then why would my mom have had it?"

"I don't really know. Honestly there's too many questions, and before we get to the point where we need answers, you might want to stop using their spell books. It's for your own safety that I ask this," he said, his tone getting darker. "There are some things not meant to be seen by all layers of reality."

"Squall," Ash said, scooting closer. "I won't use the books ever again under one condition."

He bent down. "What's that?"

"As long as you both stay with us," she said, fighting off tears. "I can work every day of my life until my bones give out, but don't you ever leave."

Squall just reached out and hugged her close. "Even if I wanted to, I don't know enough about the spell books to escape this world. And I have nothing else on Earth for me. So don't worry about it."

"I'd burn them both to keep you both here if I had to."

"It might be safe to burn them anyway."

Unable to keep herself from it any more, Ash pulled his face to hers. "Don't you dare lie to me. Having fallen in love with you is either the best thing I've ever done or the absolute worst thing I've ever done," she said, finally giving him a kiss. His arms circled around her, and pulled her in closer. "I can't live without you," she said when she came up to draw a breath. "I'll do anything to keep you to myself."

Ran and Kratos had been walking through the horrible smelling brush for a while, until they found themselves at the dark pond, where the water had been polluted so badly nothing could live in it.

"This water is icky," Ran said, putting her hand in the water. "How did this even happen? There's no factories or much man made pollution around here."

Kratos touched it, too. "This place seems like it's not polluted with trash, but with emotion," he said. "Like nature itself is troubled by hate."

"There are places like that?" she asked.

"Yes, but I don't know how responsive nature is to humanity here on Earth," Kratos said, looking up at the trees again. "But I've been to a forest that will look how you feel in your heart. To some it is peaceful and clean, and to others, it is the darkest place in existence."

"An empathy forest."

"Exactly."

"How would we know if this is just normal Earth pollution, or if it's reflecting the pollution in our hearts?" Ran asked, walking away from the water and drying her hand on her skirt.

"You and I both see the same forest right now," Kratos replied. "I'm certain that if it were an empathy forest, then you'd see something different than I would."

"That's true, because every heart is different."

"I don't know. I met a couple once that were so in sync with each other's emotions that they saw the exact same forest. I'd never seen such a young couple in so in love before. It was special."

"I can imagine it was," she said with a smile. "Would it be too nosey of me to ask if you were a part of that couple?"

Kratos shook his head. "No. I was just an observer. I watched as my son was so devoted to his love."

"…your son?" Ran asked, taking a step back. "You're… you're married, aren't you?"

"I was," he answered. "She died."

She wanted to punch him so hard. "You've been playing me."

"Hardly," he said. "I was leaving Aselia because my son had just married and my job was complete in that world. Your spirits found me as I was transferring to Derris-Kharlan. Another world. My wife died at my own hand over thirteen Aselian years ago. Coming here wasn't a part of the equation originally, but I am here now."

"You killed your own wife."

He nodded. "There was no other way to save her from what had happened. I couldn't bear to see her suffer."

Ran bowed her head. "You must think I'm so immature."

"A late bloomer is more like it," Kratos said sweetly. "But besides that, you called me from Aselia because you need someone like me, right?"

She thought about it. The demeanor of a father, the loyalty of a lover. "Holy hell. I did ask for you." she managed to breathe out. "That's why I'm so in love with you."

He walked closer and embraced her. "Then don't hide it," he whispered in her ear. "You don't have to hide the fact that you have a heart. Let me see who you really are."

Ran gripped around him as hard as she could. "I want to give you my entire being," she cried. "I don't know what I'd do if you were to ever leave."

"Where would I go?"

"To someone more stable and understanding than me. To someone who has more worldly experience than I do. One who's better in bed than me."

"After you went to the trouble to call me for yourself, you'd actually let me go?" he asked. "That's not very good. Have more confidence in yourself. Besides, if bedtime experiences mean that much to you, I'm sure you can learn."

"…wow, that was blunt."

"I was just addressing what you said before," he said with a smile. "Seriously, Ran, stop being such a self-defeatist. It just isn't very endearing."

Ran reached up to his fluffy red hair. "I want to give you something," she whispered. "Close your eyes."

"All right." Kratos closed his eyes to await his surprise.

She pulled his lips to hers, finally letting herself show the affection she held back for him for what felt like forever.