Warning: Spoilers from Myorzo and on.

Disclaimer: Nothing's mine and I'm not making any money out of it. Namco and Bandai ows it.

A/N: The story is set somewhere between the events at Heracles and Zaphias.

Thanks to TehDono for her brilliant beta reader work. She was amazing at giving feed-back, suggestions and lessons on quotation mark use xD

Thank you very much =)

A Shadow of a Smile

"Cant' sleep, kiddo?"

No reply. No surprise there, he amused himself thinking.

He took a few steps to look at her, but she turned her face away. Not before he caught the sight of her tears, though. Stunned, he had no idea how to react to this. He caught himself wondering if any other person in Terca Lumireis had been in this situation.

At least, now I'm certain she has a heart. No pun intended. He almost laughed at this thought.

He went through his options searching for one with less chances of getting him killed. Maybe not killed but a fire ball could come his way. Or several punches, if he was lucky. After a few seconds, he reached the best option: leave.

I'm really afraid of a fifteen old girl? Hell, yeah! But, she is crying…

And the reason was so obvious. Sighing, he made up his mind.

"Ya know, we're gonna get her back."

"Aaarrgh!"

The young mage turned around fury all over her and Raven instinctively brought his hands to his face and closed his eyes expecting the worse. But when no punches or arts came, he opened one eye and saw her looking at the ground, struggling to talk. Slowly, he let his guard down.

"You… you..." Her head snapped up, tears trailing down her face. "You don't know that!" she yelled. "No one knows that for sure! How can people go around saying lies-"

"They're not lies..." he tried.

"But they are not the truth either!" She shot him a deadly look. "What if we don't, ha? What if… s-she dies in his hands? How would your words look then? There's nothing to support such affirmative."

He opened his mouth to say something, but she was faster than him.

"She wouldn't be there if it wasn't for you in the first place." She finished with trembling lips and a weak body. With no anger to support her, she crumbled to her feet.

Her bitter words hit him right in the spot. There it was. It took longer than he thought to hear those words. All though, he had guessed they'd come from Yuri, not Rita. He set on the floor and noticed she was avoiding his eyes now, but he could see the pain and resentment in hers.

"You're right. On both accounts." He sighed, a world of guilt and sorrow in one single sigh. He saw the flash of surprise in her face caused by the frankness in his voice.

"I'm sorry for saying 'lies', as you called it. You have to understand one thing…what I said isn't a lie. It's not the truth either, I know. The thing is, we don't know what's gonna happen. But… when people say this kinda of stuff, it's hope talkin' for them. We all want to rescue her, so we keep tellin' ourselves that until we believe it hard enough to keep us goin'."

"It doesn't make any sense to me," she said turning her face, suddenly her feet seemed much more interesting than anything around.

"I know it doesn't. You're a scientist with the need to analyze and proof everything. Life doesn't work that way, though. These are words of reassurance, said to encourage people. Not to fool them. Think about it like that."

C'mon Raven, you know there's more to be said. He had told so many lies in the past years he was used to it. In fact, he realized only now that he could tell the truth and, in this case probably should. He was finally free to say… whatever it was he wanted to say. No one to report to. He tasted freedom for the first time in a decade. Torn between two personalities, right now he was sure of at least one thing.

"I'm sorry for the other thing too." Where's your courage man? "I'm… I'm sorry for delivering her to Alexei."

She looked at him in doubt. At least, she stopped crying.

"I mean it, genius. Trust me." Please don't ask me why I did it. Don't go there.

After a moment of silence, he thought she wasn't going to say anything else. To be honest, he was astonished she hadn't yet told him to back off.

"I don't even know why it hurts so much…" she said it in a whisper, making him wonder if he was really supposed to hear that.

Aaannd our little genius isn't so bright when it comes to feelings? Where are this kid's parents?

"'Cause you care about her, so you want her to be fine, ya know? That's how friendship works." He was now praying to whatever kinda of god there was she wouldn't cry anymore.

She looked at him a bit lost, like she had never considered what he had just said.

"Sooo... I'm gonna sleep," he said, the seriousness in his voice now gone. "Ya youngesters are so used to staying up 'til late and that aint good for old folks like myself." He got up and turned to leave, but his curiosity got the best of him.

"Rita darlin', where are your parents?" he asked, turning to face her. She looked to be in deep concentration, like she was solving a difficult formula. Hell, it could be the mystery of life itself the way she was. "Rita?"

"Huh? Oh… It's none of your concern, old man."

And that's the girl we all know and love.

He turned to leave again, and this time she was the one to call out for him. He turned again at the sound of his name.

"Thanks." She said it in a whisper, crimson faced and averting his eyes.

He decided to cut her some slack.

"For what, Rita darlin'? My lovely company? I always knew ya loved hangin' around with me!" he said, with the biggest smirk he could master.

"Idiot," she said sounding annoyed, but he could swear he saw a shadow of a smile on her lips.