(A/N: Hey, welcome to chapter 3! As always leave a review if you want, and thank you for the favorites and follows! I'm sorry for the lack of update, I've been doing real world responsibilities and my attention has been going to other hobbies. Anyways, I recently got sick so I'm not sure when I will be focusing on stories, since my brain is a bit addled at the moment of this upload. Enjoy!)

(A/N: When you hit ** in the story, I recommend playing a song for more enjoyment. I recommend a extended version of "Spoken without End" composed by: Masayoshi Soken; from the FFXIV Endwalker Soundtrack. It does have some spoilers if you watch the videos, so if you don't want to be spoiled by that content, then ignore this recommendation. Either way, Enjoy!)

Chapter 3

That very day, Lefiya was in her room at the Mansion. The others had left her to own devices, and she knew that they had given up on her. To her, it was only a matter of time before she would go see her dearly beloved anyways. She was heading deeper into depression, and she made it worse for herself since she didn't want to see anyone. She knew that nobody could connect with her on a personal level. In response, she stuck herself into her bed and imprisoned herself in her own room, once more. She didn't want to eat or drink anymore and would ignore just about anyone who would try to get close to her.

Eventually, day would turn to evening, and somebody knocked on the door. Lefiya didn't respond to the knock as she lay in her bed with a devoid look on her face. The door opened anyways as Tiona had entered the room without permission.

Tiona saw the unfortunate state that Lefiya was currently in. The three (Ais, Tione, and herself) had worked hard to get her to come out and try to make her condition better. Tiona saw that Lefiya had begun to spiral further down into despair once more; if Tiona didn't do anything fast then Lefiya would be lost cause to the Familia. Tiona went with the plan and forced Lefiya to sit on the edge of her bed. Tiona remembered the honest and serious look on Mr. Argonaut's face as she copied that to give a heart-felt moment to Lefiya directly.

"Hey, Lefiya, I need you right now," Tiona started, "I know that you're in a bad place right now. But I need you to come with me this one time."

Lefiya didn't respond, but the next line would.

"It's about Ais."

Lefiya ears twitched.

"She needs you," Tiona told Lefiya with a stern look on her face.

This gave Lefiya a bit of direction as her eyes had a slight glimpse of life in them. Tiona was glad that she got a reaction from Lefiya, but was concerned since this was the only way to get her to react at all. Ais was Lefiya's biggest idol to her and she was willing to help her no matter what. This made Lefiya get a bit of her passion and soul back; even though Lefiya wouldn't say anything. Tiona had tricked Lefiya into leaving her despair behind temporarily.

Lefiya didn't say much or give too much of an expression to anything else, but she got out of bed and got changed into her gear, without showering as well. She grabbed her replacement wand that she used in the battle of Knossos. Tiona smiled as Lefiya was non-responsive but also ready for combat. They both left the Mansion as Tiona had brought her towards Amor Square.

The Square was lit up with candles as the place was filled with a romantic atmosphere. They weren't exactly at the main plaza, but they were at the roof of one of the buildings that overviewed the plaza. Lefiya was ready for anything, except for the next thing to happen.

There Lefiya witnessed something that she couldn't understand. Even though she couldn't see it directly, she saw that both Ais and Bell were passionately kissing each other in one of the benches. Tiona saw this too; she was surprised and distracted by what she had witnessed. It took a few seconds before Tiona had snapped out of her stupor and had pointed out the obvious to Lefiya.

"Look! It's Ais and Mr. Argonaut kissing on the bench! Doesn't this make you want to stop them right now?" Tiona had said.

Lefiya normally would've gone after them and try to kill Bell Cranel for this atrocious behavior and crimes against Ais Wallenstein. Instead, this had a rather opposite effect on her. Lefiya was in a rather delicate state and any negative thing would be amplified rather harshly. When she saw the couple kiss, the first thing Lefiya had done was drop her weapon. She ran off into the deep darkness of the night without a direction or care to guide her. She was in a state of being where nothing mattered to her, and she didn't give any conscious thought about anything around her. Her beloved, her idol, her spirit were all gone, and she felt like she had no reason to live anymore. She couldn't take anything anymore; she had turned around and ran. Quicker than her weapon would hit the ground, she broke her own limits and ran away. She was gone within seconds to anywhere else but there.

Lefiya had lost everything.

Tiona had called out to Lefiya, but had failed to reach her ears, "Lefiya, WAIT!"

No sooner than that, Bell ran towards Tiona as soon as he felt both their gazes had disappeared from both him and Ais. They both immediately started to search for Lefiya as they left Ais with Tione and Welf. Ais couldn't follow because her newfound emotions kept her in a trance-like state. She was enjoying her new emotions as her inner persona was going crazy from within. She thought that leaving this to the other two would be best.

Bell Cranel separated ways with Tiona as he headed North in the direction of the Twilight Mansion. Bell thought that the best place to look for someone would be somewhere not too far from their home. There was not too much common sense in that logic, but this was an emergency and there wasn't much time to waste. Any idea is better than none and he was getting desperate to find Lefiya. He didn't want anything to happen to her.

What had transpired earlier had crushed Lefiya's spirit; although, there wasn't much of her spirit in the first place. She couldn't quite understand completely why she felt this way instead of getting in between Ais and Bell. Her morale wouldn't let her do anything, yet it made it worse for her. Ais was her one and only beautiful idol that she had cared about. Now, her idol was swooped away and stolen by Bell Cranel of all people. She couldn't handle it and she knew that all this was because she was wallowing in her own pain. Thus, she started to incorporate self-loathing into her despair.

She needed a place to be alone.

She wasn't conscious of where she was going, but she just needed to be alone. When she finally was semi-aware of herself, she was in a tower of some sorts. She finally got some space away from just about everything. She had lost just about everything that she truly cared about, and she didn't want to be in this cruel, hideous world. She looked around her area to see that she was at the edge of Orario, the Northern Wall to be exact. There were no guards in her area, and she was personally glad.

She didn't want anyone to see this next bit.

She walked outside and towards the edge of the wall. She faced outside of Orario as she looked downwards at the long fall. She thought long and hard about the choice, and she concluded that she didn't want to long for this world. She wanted to join Filvis as soon as possible. She leans forward and let gravity do its job for her.

Except that it didn't.

There was a boy that had stopped her in her tracks; she was about to fall to her death with her head hitting the ground first. Thankfully, Bell Cranel had grabbed her left wrist before she could fall completely head-forward. Lefiya didn't understand how or why he was here; she was feeling different emotions: anger, sadness, and surprise.

Bell pulled her away from the edge and into his embrace. He walked alongside her inside to safety within the tower. He had sat Lefiya down against the tower wall as she sat there speechless. Bell was relieved that he was barely able to save her in the nick-of-time. He needed a minute to catch his breath from overexerting himself from running around to find her. He took a bit of time to gather his breath and recompose himself.

He then looked at Lefiya. She refused to look at Bell.

Lefiya sat against the wall lifeless as her disheveled hair covered her eyes.

"Are—," Bell hesitates with his obvious question but continues anyways, "Are you okay?"

At first, she felt nothing, but she instinctively brought her head as she looked at Bell with cold eyes. As she saw him, she finally felt sadness.

She brought her head down, "Why are you here?"

Bell was glad that she had responded to him, but, as well, he was concerned for her well-being.

"I'm here because I'm worried about you," He gave his honest answer.

The answer didn't really resonate with Lefiya.

Bell continued as she didn't respond back.

"I heard about her. They told me about what happened to her. That she was a good friend of yours and that you were forced to kill her."

Lefiya twitched when Bell mentioned that.

Bell took a few steps towards Lefiya before he sat down next to her right side.

He continued as he looked towards the ceiling.

"Nobody should ever have to go through that. It is the worst feeling ever and Fate had given you a cruel ultimatum."

That comment had made Lefiya twitch, and her anger started to form.

"No one has the right to tell you that 'what you did was the wrong answer', not even yourself. Nobody can burden the weight of the world alone. We can only get so far by our own strengths without trying to kill ourselves in the process."

Lefiya was starting to get angry.

Bell hesitated, but finally spoke, "She might have been forced into becoming a monst—"

Lefiya snapped without any hesitation and yelled back at Bell in a bloody scream, "SHE IS NOT A MONSTER!"

Bell took a second before continuing, "But she is your friend. Someone who you hold dearly and care for so much. You are willing to do everything and just about anything for them. She will always hold a special place in your heart and in your soul."

Lefiya was boiling and harshly responds, "You don't know anything! You don't know how it feels like to lose someone precious and valuable to you! And you will never understand how it feels to try to do everything in your power to save someone with the odds stacked against yo-!"

Bell interrupts her as he coldly responds in return, "But I have. Twice."

**Lefiya is stopped in her tracks as Bell looks at her dead in the eyes. His eyes were earnest and solemn as she could tell that he was not lying about his experiences.

Bell explains his first experience as he first talks about his time as a child and with his own grandfather. He talks about how he grew up on a small village and how his grandfather had suddenly died without warning. He shares his own personal feelings and the depression on how losing his only family member left a terrible hole in his heart that was hard to fill in. The only thing that kept him moving was his grandfather's dream and the will to make himself into a hero that his grandfather could be proud of.

Bell then talks about his unfortunate experience with the Goddess Artemis. Bell was forced into a Fate similar to the one that Lefiya was forced into. He shared about his time with the Goddesses and his Familia and the tragic story of the Artemis Familia. He had told her what had become of the Goddess Artemis and about his feelings when he was forced to do what he needed to do in the end. Normally, he had made a promise not to talk about what had transpired in the whole adventure, but he had reasoned that this was a good enough reason to share his story with her. He had made Lefiya promise not to tell anyone about what had happened in the story, and she had agreed to the promise as she had learned the rather horrible truth about that adventure.

These two stories had resonated deeply with Lefiya.

Bell picked himself up as he walked in front of her as she looked at him as he crouched down in front of her. He swiped her orange hair to the side to see her sky-blue eyes meet with his vermillion eyes.

"So don't blame yourself for the things you couldn't accomplish, don't go blocking yourself from the rest of the world, and PLEASE don't go committing actions that will cause you and others around you to grieve, because there are people around you that care for you! Miss Ais, Miss Tiona, Miss Tione, and even Mr. Bete cares about you!"

The mention of Bete surprised her as he continued.

"There are so many people who care about you and you're wasting your life away because of your friend's death. I mean, it's not like you don't have the right to grief for your friend, but you shouldn't let yourself succumb to the sadness of despair!"

Lefiya began to tear up but was suddenly overwhelmed when Bell grabbed both of her hands and brought them together with his own. Bell had stared into her eyes passionately as his next words held so much compassion in them.

"Because your friend gave her life for you to live, not for you to just go and waste it away to just follow her into the Dark. She gave her life for you so that you can make so much use of it! So, in honor of her and for those who deeply care for you, PLEASE don't waste it away."

Lefiya was overwhelmed by the emotion and passion that Bell had shown for her. He had not just shown that he understood how much suffering that had gone through, but he had also shown how much others close to her had cared for her when she, herself, had ignored and pushed others away from herself. She felt a great shame towards herself, and she felt so bad about what she had done for the past week. Bell had made a great point when he brought up Filvis, and her decision to give up her life to follow Filvis. Multiple of people had cared so much about her, and now she wanted to throw everything away! Now, Lefiya felt even worse when she thought about ending her life to undo all of her hard work and cut ties of other's feelings towards her.

Everything had overwhelmed Lefiya to the point that she began to subconsciously shed tears. She didn't realize that she was shedding tears until they had hit her clothes. When Lefiya had realized that she was crying, she immediately pulled her hands away from Bell's hands to try to wipe away all her tears that were kept involuntarily falling from her face. She hiccupped and shuddered as the tears kept on falling from her eyes.

What had surprised her the most was when Bell Cranel had come closer to her and hugged her for morale support. Bell wanted her to cry her emotions out as he knew that she needed the moment to let out all her repressed despair and emotions flow out of her soul. She had sobbed her cries and wailed her heart out as she had grabbed Bell tightly and cried on his shoulder. This was something that she didn't even know that she needed.

She needed someone who understood her to help her and let out all her sadness.

She cried and cried until she couldn't cry anymore. Bell smiled as he was both saddened and relieved that Lefiya was showing emotion once more as he let her cry as much as she wanted to on his shoulder. He was saddened because he made a beautiful woman like Lefiya cry her eyes out. He had to do what he felt was right, but he didn't like that she had to cry herself out like that. He would comfort her like a brother would do with a little sister. Bell's grandfather always taught him: when a woman cried, to comfort them in their time of need. But he also taught him not to make a woman cry, unless it was entirely necessary for her own good. He never truly understood what his grandfather meant until now. His grandfather also told him: whenever women were at their weakest, cheer them up by reassuring them and to always complement them of their strong points. Bell didn't really truly understand what his grandfather meant by this, but right now, he would try to do what his grandfather had tried to teach him.

Bell would try just that.

"Lefiya," Bell calmly called out to her as she was starting to calm down.

"Yes, Bell?", Lefiya had responded to him as she was still in his arms.

Bell took a moment to get his bearings together before he would look directly into her eyes. Lefiya slightly parted away from him to meet his meaningful gaze.

"You are a strong, beautiful elven woman Lefiya," Bell starts off, "You are intelligent, cunning, bright, and a resolute person. Your unwavering tenacity and commitment to your friends and Familia make me glad that you're my rival."

Bell ends his statement with a charming smile and a steadfast look in his eyes.

Bell's statement caught Lefiya completely off guard and that caused her to subconsciously push Bell away from her with all her might. Bell recoiled from the sudden push from Lefiya as he rolled a few times before finally stopping on his back. Bell sat up as he looked back at Lefiya with confusion in his eyes.

That was when he realized that what he probably said may have been completely rude to her.

"I'M SORRY!", He cries out as he immediately prostrated himself in Dogeza.

He couldn't see or hear anything from her for a while.

"I have a question, Bell Cranel," Lefiya breaks the silence as Bell stays in the form.

"YES! I'll answer anything!" Bell immediately responds.

Lefiya hesitates for a second before finally asking her question.

"Why are you doing this?", Lefiya asks him.

"Because I'm pretty sure what I just said was rude!", Bell quickly responds talking about prostration.

"NOT THAT!", Lefiya quickly yells in response.

Confused, Bell asks still in Dogeza, "Then what do you mean?"

Lefiya was slow to respond, "I mean why are you here helping me? Weren't you on a date with with M-Miss A-A-Ais?"

Lefiya then hesitated and continued with sadness in her voice, "I mean, I saw you both k-kiss…"

Bell slowly looked up towards Lefiya but he couldn't see her face since it was recovered once more with her disheveled hair covering most of her face.

"I'm here because I wanted to help you, Miss Lefiya. I heard about what had happened and what you are going through now. I didn't want a lady like yourself to be alone in a dark moment like this."

Bell sat upright and began to explain.

"Miss Ais, Miss Tiona, Miss Tione, Welf and I earlier came up with a plan to try to get you to your former self. They told me that you admire Miss Ais a lot. Miss Tione, Miss Tiona, and Welf made a plan to have us go on a fake date in order to get you to go, what they call "crazy", against me and get in between us. They say that you always do that whenever I get too close to Miss Ais."

Lefiya didn't say much as she let Bell continue with his explaination.

"The three of them wanted Miss Ais and myself to make it look real, so they told us to k-k-kiss at the end to make it look real," Bell stuttered at the end from embarrassment but finished his explanation, "I mean we got very close, but I noticed you and when you ran off we never got to kiss. Instead, I knew I had to chase you when things didn't go as planned."

Bell could hear a small sigh of relief when he mentioned the last part to Lefiya.

Before anything, Lefiya recomposed herself emotionally, and she picked herself up and tried to readjust her hair to how she usually wear it. She picked herself up and she recomposed herself as she turned around to Bell.

"W-Well, Bell Cranel, I must thank you for looking out for me, but I can look out for myself, thank-you-very-much!", she exclaims at Bell with a boisterous attitude, "As you can see, I can now care for myself and I do not need any kind of help from you. You may now leave."

Bell looked at Lefiya with slight confusion from her attitude, but he understood what she, overall, meant as Bell began to pick himself up. He sees that Lefiya is starting to revert more towards her former personality and starts to walk out of the castle that they were currently in.

Before Bell could leave, Lefiya calls out to him, "H-Hey Bell."

Bell stops his tracks as he looks towards Lefiya, "Yes, Miss Lefiya?"

Lefiya looked away from him, "Thank you for you for caring for me."

That was all she said to him.

Bell gave her a caring smile to her, which she missed, "You're welcome. If you are not feeling well, or if you need to talk about anything, I'm usually open to talk with."

Lefiya didn't respond with much but with, "I'll keep that in mind."

There wasn't any other interaction between them as Bell Cranel left the tower that they were in. As Bell had finally left and Lefiya was sure that he was gone for good, Lefiya's true feeling finally showed up.

Lefiya subconsciously placed her back against the wall as her face and long ears started to run red with her blood as she was filled with embarrassment from the actions Bell Cranel took. At that moment, her thoughts ran wild about him and his advancement towards her, even though he didn't completely mean it in that manner. He truly meant what he had said and he wanted to make her feel better. Except, his methods were more effective than he had imagined.

At that moment, she started to harbor romantic emotions towards him, whether he meant truly meant for this to happen or not.

"HUAAAAA," Lefiya released her frustrations in the dead of night, "Why must you be a playboy, BELL CRANEL!"

After about half an hour of complaining about him, she left towards Twilight Manor with Bell Cranel and his passion on her mind.