Chapter 8

What would a field study accomplish?

Then she realized what Instructor Rean said about needing experience together, to build the trust and faith. Would that work? Would that be enough? "The whole class?" She questioned in a soft voice, feeling about two feet tall at the moment with both Azure and Ashen Chevaliers staring at her.

"Yes. The whole class, BUT there's a stipulation." Rean folded his arms in front of his chest, knowing Crow wouldn't have a problem with what he had in mind. It was the only way. "You two are going to be at the front of the line. And you can only link with each other or work on linking with each other."

Melyssa's teal eyes grew wide as saucers while staring at their Instructor like he'd lost his mind. "But…" Her gaze moved to finally look at Crow, seeing the thoughtful expression on his face while he stared back at Instructor Rean. "Okay…" What the hell else was she supposed to say? Thanks but no thanks? That wasn't an option! "Where are we going for this field study?"

"You will find out with the others next Wednesday. I'll announce it after your first practical exam. And you two WILL be partners for that as well."

Aidios save me, Melyssa thought, seeing how determined Instructor Rean was to make this work. Something told her he'd dealt with broken Combat Links before.

"Well, if it makes you feel better, Melyssa," Crow turned to look down at her after Rean started walking away, rubbing the side of his neck as he flashed her a crooked smile. "The best place to start bonding usually is on trips and stuff."

Of course the trips Class VII had taken in the past had been done during the war and everything. It had all been crazy and they had been in a lot of life or death situations. Trust was built very quickly when one was responsible for other people's lives and vice versa.

"Are you okay?"

"I should be asking you that. You're not the one who messed this up."

Melyssa knew it was her own personal animosity and anger at Crow that prevented them from forming a combat link. There had to be a way to swallow it or stuff it down and she would have to do it. Instructor Rean was adamant about keeping them on the front line for a while until they could form a combat link together. This…was not going to be easy to do. Another question plagued her: Did Crow trust her? Maybe he also had trust issues when it came to her, despite them being roommates. Maybe it was both of them that were responsible for the failed Combat Linking. Crow began walking along the path they had followed out here, keeping his stride easy and slow because he wasn't exactly in a rush. He knew that swarm of bird monsters was probably the worst of it out here and Rean wasn't that far ahead, so they were relatively safe.

"I'm fine, thank you." She was concerned for him and thought she was the problem, she was… not what he was expecting. She had been pretty confident when in action. "You've got some skills, Mel, dance club is paying off." Did he trust her? He hadn't really thought about it and now he was asking himself a lot of questions. "I guess we got some issues to work out."

"Yeah, I guess we do." Melyssa kept walking with him back to campus, not sure what else to say and wasn't surprised to see the rest of Class VII waiting for them when they arrived.

"What happened? Is everything okay?" Juna asked, eyeballing both Melyssa and Crow and then looked at the Instructor.

"Yeah, Instructor Rean just wanted to talk to us alone for a minute. No need to worry." Melyssa cracked a small smile at her fellow classmates and looked back at Crow. "We're going to figure out what's holding us back from linking."

"Instructor Rean, I don't agree with what you did today." Juna spoke up, placing her hands on her hips. She was NEVER one to sugarcoat anything or hold her feelings back, proving it to him time and time again. "You are the Instructor and I understand that, but you put Melyssa in danger today. Crow and Melyssa weren't ready for that onslaught and I don't agree with it."

"I'm in agreement with Juna, Instructor. It was careless and reckless."

Ash simply snorted, shaking his head. He also didn't agree with the decision not to help their fellow comrades, but there was no point in arguing with the Instructor. "It'll go in one ear and right out the other, ladies. You know it and I know it. He did it for a reason, we just gotta deal with it."

"I don't care what the reason is! We're a TEAM and I don't care how much of a warrior Crow is either! It was WRONG not to let us help them when there were that many enemies!" Juna snapped, her light green eyes full of fire and her brows were down.

"All right, all right, that's enough, Juna. I don't agree with it either, but…they're both fine and unscathed. That's what matters here." Kurt, once again, was the voice of reason in Class VII. "No sense in reading our Instructor the riot act."

Rean was simply staring at them all with an unreadable expression on his face, which was either good or bad. Wow, Juna had quite the temper on her and was that regret flashing across Rean's face? Melyssa felt bad for him and decided she had to speak up before Juna verbally castrated him.

"Juna, I appreciate the concern. I appreciate all of your concern and I know we're a team, but…" Her eyes slid over to Instructor Rean briefly and then Crow, before moving back to her fiery-tempered friend. "I agree with what he did. And I can hold my own in a fight, I'm not helpless and Crow isn't either. We took care of the problem and…we have some stuff to work on and we will. I think I speak for Crow too when I say he agrees with what the Instructor did today as well. If it was really dangerous, you know he would've stepped in."

"Yeah well…" Juna sighed heavily. "Look, you're a first year, Melyssa, and…"

"And what? You're telling me the Instructor has never left you to your own devices? To your own battles?"

Juna thought back to their first year – it was CRAZY, to put it mildly, and there were quite a few times when Instructor Rean would leave them to go do various tasks for the government he didn't want them involved in. "Yeah, he was insane and ran off on his own on more than one occasion. We ended up chasing after him every time too because we wanted to be helpful and…"

"So you disobeyed him?"

"Well…yeah…" Juna's cheeks tinged pink. "For a good reason though! You have no idea how stubborn Instructor Rean is! He feels like he has to take the whole world on by himself and he can't ask for anyone's help!"

"The circumstances were…"

"They were shit." Ash remembered those days all too well and was still paying penance for what he did to the Emperor, thanks to the Twilight and the curse that befell Erebonia. "That's why me and Musse had to jump in and come to the damn rescue every time! Couldn't let you three have all the fun, after all."

Juna growled, not appreciating being reasoned with and felt Kurt wrap his arm around her shoulders, leaning into him. "Everything was messed up back then. This is different…"

"Believe me, if I had a real problem with it, I would have confronted Instructor Rean about it myself." Melyssa assured Juna, grunting when the pink-haired woman tossed her arms around her neck to hug her tightly. She winked over at Instructor Rean, hugging Juna back and broke it after a minute.

"I'm not apologizing because it was still wrong, but…I'll let it go this time as Class VII's president."

Everyone chuckled at that, including Instructor Rean.

At least he's not angry with Juna's outburst, Melyssa thought, actually afraid for her fellow classmate and friend for a few minutes.

"Look, at the end of the day, Rean's making the tough calls and in charge because the powers that be know he's been there and back again, just like the rest of us. Not everyone is as lucky to have a group in times of war and battle." Crow said evenly, pointing out that they had been exceptionally lucky in that they'd had each other. "It's also fairly insulting to think we couldn't have handled it." This was not good for Melyssa's confidence, them thinking she didn't have it and his ego wasn't overly pleased with their lack of faith in his own abilities. He had been a terrorist, been on both sides of the coin, he had this. "She was chosen for Class VII because of her potential skills and her adeptness with ARCUS II, give the woman some faith."

That surprised Melyssa to hear from Crow and she smiled genuinely at him, hoping he meant everything he said. "Crow…"

"Gotta admit, she was damn good with that Cutlass out there. She could probably give me a run for my mira, actually." Ash winked at her, chuckling when she rolled her eyes in response. "Oh come on, beautiful, you know you'd love to go one on one with me."

"Ash, stop being an ass!"

"I'm not, Wild Filly. Oh, I guess she didn't tell you about our little rendezvous in the bath a couple weeks ago, eh?"

"WHAT?!"

"That's not…" Melyssa knew what he was doing and could feel her cheeks tinging red, holding her hands up. "We ran into each other on my way OUT of the bath and he asked me to wash his back for him. I turned him down and apparently, it hurt his feelings."

"Hey, wait a damn minute!"

"Oh, look at Ash's face turn red!" Juna cackled, draping an arm on Melyssa's shoulder. "See, that's what happens when you're all talk, Carbide."

"For the record, I will go one on one with you anytime, anywhere, any place, Ash. Just be sure you're ready for it because I won't hold back when we finally do clash." Melyssa forewarned him, showing she still had plenty of confidence in her abilities.

"Don't get too cocky now, beautiful," Ash winked at her, recovering quickly even though the red was not as quick to recede from his face. He had to regain his footing here, the first year was making him look bad. "Just because you held your own this time, with Crow's help, doesn't mean you're ready for a stud of my caliber."

Crow face palmed himself, shaking his head and clucked his tongue. For as bad as he could be, Ash always, ALWAYS managed to make him look like some kind of saint or something. "Give it a bit more time, moron," He drawled finally, his red eyes narrowing slightly. "I guarantee she'll wipe the floor with your face."

"Like I said, be prepared and completely ready both mentally and physically." Ash was very cocky and someone needed to knock him down a peg or three. Melyssa would be happy to do it because one thing she didn't do was allow her ego to go to her head the way he did. It would be an interesting battle between them, especially since he could extend that scythe ax of his quite a long distance. It was a special chain scythe ax – a weapon she'd never seen in her life until coming to Thors Branch School.

"Well, I think we'll call it a day here. Good work today, everyone. I'll go report our success to Principal Le Guin." Rean informed them, dismissing his class just outside of the school and headed inside the building.

Melyssa frowned, watching him disappear inside and turned to face Crow, who had also watched Rean's retreating form. "Thank you, Crow, for what you said." Reaching out, she took his hand to give it a gentle squeeze while staring into those crimson eyes. "Listen, there's…"

"You guys can talk later. Right now, I'm taking you out for some gelato and we're going to talk, along with Altina. Girls only." Juna looped her arm through Melyssa's and guided her away from the school toward Leeves, Altina falling into step on Melyssa's other side.

I can't tell him, not now, maybe not ever. I'm such a coward and I know we won't be able to link up together until I come clean about knowing him. Damn it, what am I supposed to do, Melyssa glanced back at Crow, showing the different emotions in her eyes flaring back at him before turning her head to stare straight ahead, nodding at whatever Juna was saying to her.

"Quite the spitfire you have on your hands, Azure." Ash commented, watching the girls walk off and nudged his old roommate. "Damn lucky, Monique is like a wet blanket that is in lust with the Ashen Chevalier. She's lucky I haven't duct taped her mouth shut yet in her sleep."

Kurt chuckled, shaking his head. "Maybe if you wouldn't try womanizing every girl you come across, you'd have a better reputation with them, Ash."

"Oh shut up!"

"There you go, womanize her and shut her up with some-"

"I thought about it." He didn't even need to finish that sentence, a lewd grin spread across Ash's face because he could see where this was heading. "But then she'd probably bite it off out of some weird loyalty to her true love." Monique's little obsession was borderline scary sometimes.

"Both of you shut it." Crow snorted, running his hand down his face as he headed back towards the academy. "Leave my roomie alone, Ash."

"Aw, someone has feelings for the new girl?"

"No, but I do have to live with her." That felt wrong, even to him.

"So, what is going on between you and Crow?"

"I sense distress from you whenever you're around him, Melyssa." Altina admitted in her soft robotic voice, taking a bite out of her gelato.

Melyssa looked back at Altina and then Juna, seeing so many burning questions in their eyes. "It's…complicated. I wouldn't even know where to begin."

Would it be terrible if she confided in these two? Would Juna and Al be able to keep her past with Crow a secret? She hadn't known them very long, but they were classmates and Instructor Rean did inform them they would feel like family. This was her new family while she was away from Jurai.

"Something is obviously troubling you, Mel. You can tell us, we won't say a word to anyone." Juna promised, taking a bite of gelato with a satisfying groan. "This is really good."

Melyssa had barely touched hers. She felt conflicted because she had lied to Juna and Altina, to everyone, even their Instructor.

"She doesn't trust us."

Juna frowned, wondering if that was true. "Allie…"

"It's not that I don't trust you both. We wouldn't have been able to Combat Link if I didn't. I just…like I said, what's going on between me and Crow is complicated and I have to work through it…on my own. I'm sorry, but I can't say anything more than that." Melyssa knew she was being vague, but if she told them the truth about her past with Crow, she ran the risk of him finding out.

"Just tell me one thing: He hasn't done anything to you, right?" Juna wanted to make sure her friend was comfortable and safe with Armbrust. "Because if he's hurt you…"

Only emotionally and mentally, Melyssa thought sadly, tears filling her eyes while she looked down at the half-melted gelato in her hand. "He hasn't done anything to me physically…" Her voice cracked and before she could stop them, a few tears slipped down her cheeks.

Now Juna was alarmed along with Altina, both placing a hand on her shoulders. "Melyssa…"

"It's nothing. It's nothing, I'm fine. Really. I know it seems like he's done something to me, but he really hasn't. It's all on me, it's in my head and I just need to deal with it." Quickly wiping her tears away, Melyssa stood up from the bench they occupied and set her gelato down, knowing she had to pull it together. "When I'm ready to tell you both everything, I will. I'm gonna go for a walk and clear my head a bit. Thank you for the gelato." Sniffling, she took the napkin Juna handed her and headed off, needing a moment to herself without people breathing down her neck.

"What do you think happened with Crow, Juna?" Altina asked, once Melyssa was out of earshot.

"I don't know…and I want to find out, but…I think for now, we should leave it be and just watch and see what happens."

"Agreed."