Author's Note: I am still working on Adept's Guide to Weyard, but nothing will get done until I go ahead and write this one-shot. If you like, you may view it as a side-story to AGW, but it can stand alone just fine.

Disclaimer: I don't know very much about technology, let alone possess enough money to own the rights to a video game, including Golden Sun. I just like to play with the characters.

Self-Control

Felix was, by nature, a quiet person. Had his life been different – in other words, if he hadn't nearly drowned at the age of fifteen – he probably would have been perfectly content growing up in Vale, learning a few psynergy tricks (of the healing nature) and left things at that. He loved his family and his friends, and as far as he knew, he filled his roles as brother and friend pretty well.

Hadn't he protected Jenna and Sheba from a short-tempered Saturos? He'd certainly done his best to keep from fighting Isaac, and they had eventually joined forces, and he'd fulfilled his role by relighting the lighthouses. And while maybe he wasn't particularly vocal about it, he'd figured it was obvious that he cared about all of them.

So why was Jenna hiding her budding relationship with Isaac from him?

After all, he liked Isaac, respected him. Isaac had chased them all across Weyard to save his sister, had been there and cared for her when Felix and his parents were in Prox, presumed dead by the village of Vale, even while his own father, Kyle, was supposedly dead too. He made Jenna feel secure and comfortable with herself—something far more difficult to achieve than most suspected. And maybe Felix felt like there wasn't anyone alive in Weyard good enough for his amazing sister, but Isaac was probably the next best choice.

Either way, Felix had self-control. He wasn't going to threaten Isaac for kissing his sister, even if the show of affection, accidentally witnessed, made him feel uncomfortable. He might take the boy aside and remind him that Jenna was just as fragile, if not more so, than anyone else. But really, his patience was something he prided himself on.

It was that patience that kept him from asking Sheba to stay in Vale—she needed to go back and assure Faran of her safety. She still didn't know where exactly she came from, and a visit to the only real home she had could help her find some closure, or a few ideas about where to look. And maybe his affection for her was more than brotherly, but she had been too young. If he encountered her now, and that affection still existed, he would be more willing to give things a try, but she'd needed to grow and mature (even if he'd always found her wise beyond her years). Felix suspected that Sheba knew at least some of these thoughts, and he appreciated the fact that she'd never broached the subject while they were on their mission.

But the fact that they all assumed his quiet ways were those of melancholy was the part that saddened him, because they would then avoid telling him of any big changes. Sure, he'd been through a lot—but no more than anyone else in their little group of eight. He was the oldest, after all (well, Piers excluded), and was perfectly capable of handling things—he was their leader, even. Maybe he wasn't as funny as Garet, as perceptive as Ivan and Sheba, as kind as Mia, as loyal as Isaac, or as interesting as Piers, but didn't he deserve a little credit?

Felix was still brooding over the matter when Isaac entered the room. He nodded at his fellow Earth adept in lieu of a verbal greeting, and was surprised when Isaac took a seat just across from him, looking slightly nervous.

"Did you need something?" asked Felix, once the brief moment of surprise passed.

"Umm…yeah. There's something I want to tell you," replied his friend, who was beginning to look more uneasy as Felix hesitated.

"Okay."

"It's about Jenna." Felix was tempted to tell Isaac he already knew and simply move on the warning part of the conversation, but perhaps it would be good for Isaac's confidence if he was made to tell Felix everything.

When Felix didn't say anything, Isaac continued, "Well, she and I—I mean, well…I like Jenna."

"I know that," was Felix's short reply, which he was careful to say with more or less no expression in his tone.

"Oh, right. I figured someone had told you by now." Isaac nodded and moved to leave.

"Hold on a second," Felix added, and he promptly sat back down.

"What are you going to do about it?"

"She knows how I feel, and she feels the same. We're not going to get married right away or anything, but maybe eventually…" Isaac trailed off, a little embarrassed that he'd let on how serious he was about this.

Felix, however, looked more or less satisfied with this reply, and nodded, "Make sure you don't hurt her."

"Of course not," was the immediate reply, and with a hurried good-night, Isaac was gone.

A small smile found its way onto Felix's face as he watched his childhood friend leave (probably to tell Jenna). Perhaps they trusted him more than he thought after all.

Just because he wasn't entirely sure what to do about Sheba, and what he would do now that the real adventures were over, didn't mean he wasn't still important.

Jenna and Isaac were good for each other though. He could handle that.

A glance out the window confirmed what he already knew, and with his mind at rest, Felix was soon asleep.

End.

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