RtRG: Deceased Friendship: frustration

When Lea woke up, he had no idea how long he had been out but it was definitely more than an hour. He was no longer bleeding to death on the ground outside the Great Maw anymore.

It took him a moment to realize he was in a warm bed, in a room he couldn't identify as his own. The walls were a brown color instead of the light blue as his room. He sat up slowly, and discovered that his broken ribs had healed, and his arm was bandaged. He gingerly touched his bandaged arm and was surprised that it had healed as well.

Lea smiled in relief. The wound on his chest where Isa had landed the blow Lea thought would finish him off had healed, but a scar still remained. It would be some time before it disappeared, but it was better than the scars sustained from dark magic spells.

He looked around and discovered that his clothes were draped over a chair in the corner of the room. Putting those on now would be an issue because of his bandaged arm, so he decided to see where he really was. Over to the right, he saw a set of stairs leading down, so he decided that would be the best place to investigate.

He made his way down the stairs and found that it looked rather familiar. It was Merlin's shop. It was even more apparent when he saw the members of the Restoration Committee sitting below at the table.

Aerith smiled. "Good morning Lea, how´s the arm?"

"Better, thanks to you, I guess." He went to the table and sat down. He offered a smirk to Yuffie who was sitting beside Aerith. "What's up, little girl?"

Yuffie giggled but didn't have the change to reply.

"So what happed?" came the serious voice of Squall who was standing against the wall with folded arms.

Lea shrugged. "Nothing."

Leon took a few steps toward him. "Did you really think you could drag yourself here with a broken arm and a deep wound on your chest?"

"Of course not!" Lea exclaimed. "I thought one of you guys found me and brought me here before I died!"

Judging from the confused looks of the members of the Restoration Committee, he could see that none of them had been to the battlefield. "So…who saved me?"

"We don´t know." Aerith said. "Someone brought you here, but we couldn't see his face. He said something about you being his 'brother.'"

"Brother…" Lea's face paled. "Brother? Aare you sure that's what he said?" Hope was creeping into his voice." Did HE really find him? Was HE still alive?

Yuffie nodded cheerfully. "Yep! I'm 100% sure he said that!"

Lea smiled. "I thought he was dead, but I guess not! "

"Sorry to spoil your realization here, but I want to know what happened to you out there.

Lea glared. Squall was the Restoration Committee's leader, but not his. He didn't follow orders from him. "It's none of your business."

Leon glared back, but he was still relatively calm. "It's Leon. If you don't tell us what's going on, how are we supposed to think you changed?"

"Because last time I did that, I lost everything!" Lea shouted, slamming his hand on the table. "I opened up to a kid once, and he told me it would be alright. The only thing I got from that moment was pain!"

Leon didn't have words.

Lea walked past him. "I only joined this group because we have the same goal: restoring Radiant Garden back to its former glory."

"I know that Lea, but you can´t dwell in the past. You have to move on and forget what happed back then."

Lea stopped and looked down at his injured arm. "It was an accident…"

"Accident? If you ask me that 'accident' almost got you killed. Whoever there gave you those wounds are no good." Cid said with a huff.

"You don´t know him!" Lea shouted. "He´s not evil!" With those words, the fire wielder left the room.

Leon shook his head. "Nice job."

"What did I say?" Cid said defensively.

Aerith glared and shook her head.

xXx

After the little conversation with the Restoration Committee, Lea decided to spend more time looking for Isa around town. He looked all those places he and Isa have been as kids, the Market place where they so often ate ice creams and discuss the next "Adventure." he searched around the castle, he even looked after Isa inside his old home. It seemed that everywhere he looked ended the same: at a dead end.

That caused at Lea become even more frustrated. Because Ienzo bared the brunt of Lea's inquiries about where Isa had gone, he was especially irritated. He would rather not ask the younger boy but Ienzo somehow just knew things.

"I told you, Isa is not here." The teenager hissed, not looking up from the thick book he had in his lap. This was the third time Lea had been there to inquire, and every time he got the same answer. "He´s probably in some other world causing trouble."

Lea slammed his hand on the table so hard, that Ienzo almost dropped his book. "Why does everyone think he's evil?" Lea shouted.

Ienzo frowned. He had never seen him so furious before."…Because he is." He frowned as he tried to explain."The Isa you know exits no more. You can see the Darkness in those amber eyes of his. Why he surrendered to the Darkness is still a puzzle but he will never-"
he stopped, and took note of Lea's deadly gaze before finishing quickly. "be able to return to the Light after being completely consumed by Darkness."

"Riku did it"

Ienzo glared at Lea. "Because you let Naminé go! Isa won´t ever win over the Darkness like Riku did! He´s not strong enough-"

Lea grabbed hard around the boys collar, and smack him into the wall. "Be careful with your words. I'm not in the mood for this. He's stronger than you think,"

Ienzo could see a flicker of the old Axel return in his eyes as he spoke. "and if he wanted to, he could kill us all"

Ienzo felt a streak of fear run down his spine. He didn't like fighting. He was relieved when he saw Lea relax a little, as he realized what was happening.

Lea quickly released him. "I´m sorry… I.."

Ienzo backed away. "Just…go, don´t come back before you..." he trailed off but the red haired got the message clearly. He nodded sadly but apologized once again for good measure. "…Sorry…"

After that, the Fire wielder kept way from others. He was worried about what his temper would do. He now stood at the bailey, searching yet again for Isa, but he saw nothing. "Can´t you see I care about you?" He asked himself, but of course there was no answer.

Lea headed back toward the town. "If he was bad like everyone says, Isa would have killed me that day… but what if Ienzo said was right? What if his once Noble heart can´t conquer the Darkness?"

Lea was so much in his own thoughts he didn´t see another person in front of him. I moment later, the both of them were sitting on the ground amidst a flurry of papers.

Lea realized what had happened, and he quickly helped the person up. He picked up one of the papers and realized they were maps. He offered a quick apology.

"Me too, I was lost in thought." The person was a woman. He recognized her from the castle. He had seen her a few times before, but he didn't know much about her, only that Even had recruited her about a month ago.

He handed her the papers, and uttered another apology. She thanked him, her green eyes meeting his emerald ones.

Lea's heart skipped a beat. She had golden blonde hair and grass green eyes. She was dressed in a lab coat similar to Even's and wore a grey shirt. Though her outfit was simple, her beauty shone through.

The woman smiled, not noticing Lea's stare. "Well thank you for helping me gather my papers mister…um…"

Lea shook his head to put his thoughts back into order again. "L-Lea, I´m Lea. You work at the castle, right?

She nodded and tucked some of her blonde hair behind her ear."Yeah. Why?"

"…. You're pretty." Lea could have shot himself. What a stupid thing to say.
The woman's expression became as cold as if the sun had just vanished from the sky. That was a bad sign.

"Oh, so you think only ugly girls can work at the castle?"

"No, no that's not what I meant. I just—" He tried to explain, but she stopped him.

"Maybe it´s best you don´t say anymore. You already sound idiotic."

He stared as she turned and walked away. Even in anger she was still the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Lea slapped his hand against his forehead. "I´m SO stupid! No… an idiot!" She was right, but he couldn't just let her go like that.

Lea ran after her, but she was now down near the still broken Fountain Court. Lea jumped on the fountain and landed right in front of her. Startled, the poor girl dropped her papers again but Lea caught them before they landed on the ground. "I´m sorry for saying that… and scaring you again."

She said nothing, as she was still in shock at his sudden arrival. He quickly continued. "It was stupid of me to say that, and I wanted to say 'sorry' again, so…"

She stopped his blabbering by placing her hand gently over his mouth. "You don´t have to say anymore. You are forgiven."

She removed her hand. Lea smiled and handed her the papers. He took her hand in his and tried his best to transform into a gentleman. "Can I ask you to get a drink with me? It's not a date!" He added quickly

She laughed a laugh that was so gentle and beautiful, Lea felt he could do anything to hear it again. She took his hand and smiled. "That sounds nice Lea. I'm Celine by the way.