Chapter 9

"So, you and Brackett have some issues."

Crow had been wondering when Rean his best friend, and not Rean his Instructor, would make an appearance. He had been out on the grounds, laying beneath a tree and pretending to study when Rean had strolled up. He didn't even bother with the pretense anymore, just chucked the book aside and sat up, drawing his knees up.

"Well, there's a lack of trust there, apparently." He said after a moment, hearing and feeling Rean settling into the grass alongside of him. "Pretty ballsy move today, Ashen Chevalier."

"You know I hate being called that, Azure…" Rean shot back, with much less bite. "I don't know if I liked how I handled it."

"Which means you handled it perfectly since your first instinct is to usually mother-hen everyone to death."

Rean sighed, feeling conflicted after what Juna had to say to him, along with Altina and even Ash. "I knew you could handle it. You're older than me, after all and more experienced." Crow should have been an Instructor or in the military by now, but because of the path he chose to follow, he was behind. "Melyssa is only a first year, however. Even with you there, I…" Sometimes, he really hated being an Instructor. "I'm supposed to protect my students and today, I didn't do that. You can say I handled it perfectly, but…I don't think I did."

"You were fine, Rean. Don't beat yourself up about it. Forget what Juna said. She's inexperienced compared to us, don't forget."

"Maybe…" Rean wasn't convinced and looked up at the night sky since the sun had set on the horizon. Stars were peeking out one by one, glittering back at them. "Did something happen with you and Melyssa? Whether it be good or bad, I want to try to help you both succeed and in order to do that, I need to know what all has happened between you two."

"Why does it feel like we're getting that question?" Crow didn't even know what had possessed him to say it because nobody had asked him that. As far as he knew, no one had asked Melyssa that either. Maybe people were thinking it and it was finally starting to seep into his brain. "Just because we're from the same place doesn't mean anything, and I've actually been on my best behavior with her." Because even he knew this co-ed dorm thing was meant to gear them for the actual army and things of that sort, all it took was one idiot to muck things up. "Nothing has happened between us." Other than a dance… and falling asleep in the same bed.

Not that he said that out loud.

"Well, obviously something did to make her not trust you or vice versa. I'm willing to bet it's on her end, though." Rean admitted, looking down at his gloved hand and pulled them off, sliding them in one of the pockets of his white coat. "She's hiding something, Crow. I can feel it and sense it." That made the silver haired man's head snap up as those fiery eyes met his. "I'm serious, I don't know what it is or how I know it, but…the way she acts around you is different than the others." He had a sixth sense about people and always had ever since he was a boy, even before his training with Master Ka-Fai. "You can't deny that, my friend."

"I don't know, maybe it's my impressive reputation that makes her act so weird. Just like she does with you." Crow reminded him of how Melyssa had acted upon discovering that her Instructor was none other than the Ashen Chevalier. She had been overwhelmed and stiff with him at first. "Regardless, she doesn't act like she dislikes me and I think prying isn't the way to go." Not from Rean or anyone else anyway.

Him, yeah, he was going to pry later in the privacy of their bedroom.

"Maybe. Not by all of us, I imagine after today if we all converge on her, it'll be overwhelming."

"You don't say."

Once again, Rean knew what he had to do and it would be hard to relinquish the responsibility on someone other than himself, but it was also for the best. "Very well." He stood up from the grass and took his jacket off, tossing it over his shoulder. "I'll leave it to you, Crow. This is between the two of you and nobody, not even me, has any business interfering. I will make sure nobody else does either." He looked back down at his best friend, comrade, and former rival with hesitant, sympathetic fuchsia eyes. "If you need my help, you know where to find me." Leaving Crow alone with his thoughts, Rean made his way back to the dorms for a bath and then he had to finish grading the tests.

"So dramatic."

Crow shook his head, watching his friend disappear and whistled through his teeth. They were in times of peace and yet, they had to go seeking issues. Find problems to solve, lives to fix! It was as if nobody knew how to be content with just… being, and not fearing for lives or anything of that nature. Digging up drama, that was what he was going to call it, and all because he and Melyssa hadn't been able to link. Sighing, he grabbed his book and reluctantly pushed himself up onto his feet.

Dinner first, then the roommate.

Melyssa did her nightly training, showered, ate and went back to the dorm, feeling marginally better after a long walk around Leeves. Crying also helped. For over a month now, she had kept a lot of emotions bottled up inside and they had finally come out. Melyssa remembered the last time she cried that hard for that long and it was the day her mother came to her, telling her Crow was dead. The Imperial Chronicle had made it seem like the Ashen Chevalier, Rean Schwarzer, was the real hero, however, while Crow had been painted a villain. She had run out of the house down to the docks, by the boats, and screamed out Crow's name to the point where her vocal cords were on fire.

For 2 years, she thought Crow was dead and mourned him every single day he was gone; countless nights spent crying herself to sleep, missing him. She really, truly thought one day he would come back to Jurai and they would be reunited, but such wasn't the case. Now here they were as roommates and he didn't even remember her. She wasn't worth being part of any of his memories and it hurt her more than anything in the world. It was almost as if he'd wiped his memories of Jurai completely from his mind. Maybe that did happen to him; maybe his memories had been wiped since he was in the clutches of Duke Cayenne for the better part of his teen years. Luckily, after the shower, her tears managed to dry up and the puffiness in her face was gone, for the most part. Leaning back against the headboard of her bed, Melyssa had cracked open a book, something to do to get her mind off everything that happened that day. That was until Crow decided to return to their room for the evening.

Crow had, against rules, bundled up his dinner in a sack and brought it with him after roaming around almost aimlessly. His friends, his peers, today had brought to attention some of the things that had been nagging at the pit of his stomach, though he hadn't given them names yet. There was something going on and he couldn't exactly place it. Melyssa seemed perfectly normal with him and he had racked his mind over their encounters. The only thing he could think of that would make her not trust him was the incident where she had woken up to him in the bed with her. Panic had made her reach instantly for her Cutlass. It didn't seem like that was the entirety of it though, but it was the best he had come up with.

"More studying?"

She looked up from her book at the sound of his voice and cracked a small smile, shaking her head. "Not tonight, I've done so much studying for that test we took, I decided to give myself a break."

Tomorrow would be the same thing, though she did have dance club to attend. Melyssa could feel the tension between them, even though they were speaking cordially to each other and she was sure Crow could feel it as well. She folded the page she was on in the book and closed it, setting it aside to give Crow her undivided attention for the moment.

"A break with a book?" Crow dropped down onto his bed, sorting out the contents of his sack after spreading out the linen napkin he had snitched for a little bed picnic. "I have cards, want to play Blade?" He offered, popping a piece of cheese in his mouth and flashed her a closed-lip smile, so he wasn't showing off the mouthful of food. He then extended the flask of whatever it was they had been serving with supper towards her. "I figured maybe," He said after swallowing. "That we could talk about today."

One thing hadn't changed about Crow and that was his love for games. It did surprise her he wanted to discuss what happened during their outing with the class. The broken Combat Link. "I wasn't sure if you'd want to."

Slipping from her bed, she moved over to Crow's side and sat down on his, being careful not to disrupt his dinner. Why didn't he eat in the cafeteria like everyone else? While he ate, she took the cards and began shuffling them to give her something to do, bracing and preparing herself for the inevitable talk. Crow didn't chow his food down like he was starving, which he was, battling always left him ravenous. Instead, he took his time, knowing that rushing into this conversation was going to lead to it getting all mucked up.

"Yeah, I want too, just not with the entire class breathing down our necks." Because they had all been nosy, overly curious and concerned. He got it, he did, but that was a lot of pressure and potential embarrassment he didn't want for a conversation like this. "So… we sucked at linking." Next was a grape, he offered the bunch to her. "And usually being unable to link comes from a lack of trust, no proper bond." So, which of them was it or was it a combination of both?

Taking a grape from the bunch, she popped it in her mouth and nodded, setting the Blade cards aside. "Well…" Melyssa really didn't know how to start this off because deep down, she knew what the issue was. Why don't you remember me – were those words really that hard to say? Knowing Crow, he would brush them off and it wouldn't be a big deal to him since they were only kids. "You're the expert with this, so how do you propose we fix this? And before you mention what happened a few weeks ago, waking up together in bed, that didn't bother me. It shocked me and it scared me at first, but I really don't believe that's the reason for the Combat Link breaking between us. And I thought we did form a bond the night we danced together."

"I thought we did too." Crow admitted, his brow furrowing in thought as he lay out the rest of the food on the linen napkin. Crackers, apple slices and grapes, some diced cheese and summer sausage. It was a light supper and considering he had snuck it out in a sack, he hadn't been keen on bringing something that would be messy or spill. "But obviously it wasn't strong enough for us to remain connected today, and I know I could feel how weak that Combat Link was today." He was honestly amazed they had even gotten it up that much.

"Yeah, I felt it too and it was my first time linking. Everyone felt so much more powerful…well, besides Ash." Only because they hadn't gotten the chance to try linking together because of the issue with Crow. Melyssa didn't have a doubt in her mind she would be able to link with Ash perfectly fine because she didn't have a past history with him. "Let me ask you something, hypothetically," She paused, hoping she worded this right and took a deep breath. "Could a past history with someone you're trying to link with affect the combat link? I was going to ask Instructor Rean about it, but it slipped my mind." Since Crow didn't remember her, she didn't think it would hurt to ask him this question instead of their Instructor.

"I guess, if it was a bad history." Crow frowned, mulling over her question. "I have a history with a lot of people, and not all of it good." Because of the stuff he had done out of encouraged and misguided vengeance. He had been blinded by a lot of things and not cared about who he had hurt for a long time. "So, hypothetically, since this conversation is about us, is that question related to us?" He flashed her an awkward smile. "Because I would like to say I'd remember you, but I don't." Not really, even though there WAS something nagging at his gut. Something begging him to remember, he was beginning to wonder if he had gotten everything back.

"No! No, of course not!" Melyssa hadn't meant it to come out so forcefully and cleared her throat, snatching the cards to start shuffling them again. "I was just asking for academic purposes, that's all. I was reading up on it a bit because it does bother me we can't link and it didn't say anything about that in the book." Lying had become second nature to her and Melyssa hated it, but knew it was a necessity. "I know people only remember those who mean something to them." Obviously, she didn't mean a damn to Crow or his brain was fried by Duke Cayenne. "I have another question for you," She looked up at him, meeting that fiery, intense gaze and felt her stomach tighten. "Do you feel you can trust me? We really don't know each other that well, so it wouldn't surprise me if you didn't…"

"I thought I did." But right now in this moment he wasn't so sure because it felt wrong, what she had said. He would never accuse a person of lying, not if he wasn't 100% sure they were, but something felt off right now with her. "Your question, your hypothetical question, doesn't feel like it's something out of the textbook, Melyssa." He admitted finally, wishing he could pinpoint what was going on.

He felt close to discovering something, learning what this nagging thing was. Not hungry anymore, Crow popped a piece of sausage in his mouth, chewing automatically though it tasted dry, his eyes locked on her. He was not going to drop this subject easily and Melyssa regretted asking it. Maybe Instructor Rean or one of their other classmates would have been a better option.

"Sounds to me like you're conflicted, so maybe it's on both of us after all the Combat Link didn't work. I thought it was all on me, but…like you said, it takes trust to make it work." There wasn't complete trust between them, more on her end than his, but Crow had this confliction in his eyes, like he was trying to solve a puzzle. "Still up for a game of Blade?"

"Sure."

He was all smiles again, not bothering to tell her the reason he was conflicted because it was like he could practically feel her telling lies. One thing about gambling, if you had a 'thing' for it like he did, was honing the ability to read people. Any gambling man worth his salt learned how to read tone, eyes, body language, it was how one won on top of luck and a bit of skill. However, it would be rude to press the issue and he had a feeling she had already gotten enough from the girls and would probably hear it all over again from them.

"You deal." While he put away the remnants of an unsatisfying supper.

"How many cards each?" Crow informed her and she began dealing them out, setting the game up the way he instructed. "You do realize you're going to have to walk me through the first couple of games before I'll be able to actually play, right?"

She listened and paid attention, nodding when he asked if she understood. It was pretty straight forward, not as complicated as she initially thought. After four hands with Crow winning them all, Melyssa was ready to get down to business and watched him deal the cards.

This reminds me so much of when we were kids, she thought, picking her cards up one at a time. We didn't play Blade, but there were other card games we played together and he'd always beat me. "I should start calling you the card master." She commented, once he beat her yet again and shook her head.

"Oh Goddess, please don't…. that sounds like some sort of cheesy villain name." He practically begged, his mouth turning down into a pleading frown. It was bad enough, his other 'nicknames', the Azure Chevalier came to mind. "Besides, once you get the hang of it down, and realize that you're doing more than playing cards, you'll be as good as I am." Probably not, but close, she was an exceptionally bright woman who picked things up quickly he had noticed. When she actually gave him a slight smile, like 'Card Master' was going to stick, he narrowed his red orbs at her. "Card Mistress."

Her teal orbs narrowed back at him playfully. "That doesn't fit me and you know it, Armbrust." She muttered good-naturedly, looking down at her cards and tapped her chin slowly, trying to decide how best to play this. It was a very close call this round, but Crow managed to squeak by her and she groaned, tossing her hands up in the air. "Okay, that's it, my ego has taken enough of a beating tonight." Hopping off the bed, Melyssa bowed to him mockingly with a twinkle in her eyes. "You are indeed a card master, but I'll keep that little nickname between us. Maybe it'll help grow our bond more, hmm?"

"Hardly, I don't like it, so I don't see it furthering any bond." Crow snorted derisively. "Unless you want us to have a terrible bond without any trust." He even threw in a mock pout, puckering his lips in a way that would have made other women swoon. Melyssa just fixed him with a 'look' and rolled her eyes at him, letting him know in no uncertain terms that she didn't find him as cute as others would have.

"Tough, I happen to LIKE the nickname for you. It suits you, oh gaming genius." Melyssa would not be easily dissuaded and winked at him before heading back over to her side of the room. "Hmm gaming genius or card master…I think I like card master better, honestly." Crow's groan made her laugh as she sat down on her bed and looked over at him, seeing he was STILL mock pouting. Silence ensued between them for a few minutes and she finally settled down, covering up to snuggle against her pillow. "Goodnight, roomie." It had been a VERY long day and Melyssa was actually looking forward to their free day tomorrow.

"Sweet dreams, fishmonger." He singsonged before dropping down into his own bed, reaching over to shut off the lamp between their beds.

He shuffled around in the darkness, shedding his clothing and kicking it off the bed and onto the floor. Crow was nice enough to make sure it wasn't on her side, where'd she would step into a pile of denim in the morning. Lacing his hands beneath his head, he looked up at the ceiling, his gaze thoughtful and all hints of humor and smiles gone.

Hypothetical his ass…