Disclaimer: Nope, don't own Tekken etc.

Author's Note: I am never gone. I'm here to stay. University won't keep me. And again, another one done on a whim! Scenario Campaign AU ftw!

Edit: LOL WHAT A COINCIDENCE. I posted my first Lars/Alisa (and the first on the site) entitled "All That Matters"... EXACTLY one year ago! WIN COINCIDENCE IS WIN! CALLING IT NOW, 26TH OF OCTOBER IS "LARS/ALISA DAY". ROFL!

BLUE SKIES

"Alisa, are you sure this is the way?" Lars questions, furrowing his eyebrows as they continue to ascend the hill.

She nods curtly, still travelling along, using her jetpacks rather than her legs, "I am certain."

The truth is, they'd been wandering around for hours now, trying to find a specific animal named Kuma – who was, as his name suggests, a bear – in the thick of the woods. It's because he was once in line to inherit the Mishima Zaibatsu, and they need to divulge information from him, specifically on Jin Kazama and all the tricks and loopholes that are possible to use in the Zaibatsu to get to him… for whatever reason.

Of course, amidst their wandering, the Swede was sure that she'd lost her sense of navigation. The trees almost all looked the same now – smaller in height, duller in colour and frailer in appearance. He swears that the air's getting thinner the higher he climbs, and that the temperature itself is getting colder and colder. This isn't the first time he's asked his accomplice if she's absolutely, positively sure that this is the right way to see the suspect. The response was always the same, and so he doesn't question it.

At least, he chooses not to question it until he feels a drop of rain tap him on his nose.

With a sigh, he stops and folds his arms, looking to the sky. The clouds are a murky grey, yet they are dropping clear specs onto the awaiting ground below. He then quickly looks over his shoulder, noticing that they are at an extremely high altitude, before looking ahead of himself again. Alisa seems unperturbed by all of this, still ascending the mountain, because she's sure that the bear is up ahead in a cave somewhere. He clears his throat, "We're lost."

Alisa stops going ahead, spins around and looks to him, shaking her head, "We are not lost! According to my calculations, the subject is a few hundred metres higher from here. If we continue to these coordinates, we can begin the interrogation and then continue on our way. Is this not your motive?"

"I don't know what my motive is, Alisa," he growls lowly, turning away and taking a seat on a nearby boulder. He scratches his head, ignoring how the jets are seemingly coming closer and closer towards him, "I'm just following some guy's suggestion, and even then only because I have a 'good feeling' about him. How stupid is that?"

She's silent because she's not sure if it's a serious question and whether or not she should answer him. The remark leaves a question mark on her mind, and just as she goes to ask whether he requires an answer or not, the wind starts to pick up. Shrugging it off, she tucks some of her pink hair behind her ear and moves to sit beside him, her knees pressed together in a ladylike manner. After careful consideration, she comes to the conclusion of silence, seeing as that is the best form of comfort she can offer.

It's in this silent does Lars continue to realise these things. He realises that he's on a wild goose chase. He realises that he doesn't know why he's on this wild goose chase. He doesn't know what will happen when he finds who he's 'supposed' to find, he doesn't really know 'who' this person is or why he's so well known, he doesn't know why Kazama is hated by billions, he doesn't know what's going on anymore.

He's without knowledge, and by consequence, without power.

Lars doesn't like it when he doesn't have any power, or control.

He leans back just as the rain starts to increase in speed, "What am I doing…?"

He doesn't know, and because he doesn't know, it's eating him up inside, like a disease. And he didn't even know that this disease had been eating away at him, not until now when he realises that he's lost on some goose chase without a foreseeable or knowledgeable end. His world feels grey, greyer than those clouds, and somehow, the weight of it all has reduced him to this feeble state – and he looks to Alisa, who tilts her head to the side, not understanding what he's feeling. She can name his feelings – confusion, stress, uncertainty – but she can't relate to them.

Thread by thread, he's coming undone – a train without a brake going down a hill – and he's scared of whatever could come next.

Deciding that this was an appropriate moment to interject, Alisa lightly and childishly pats the hand that's on his armoured knee. No emotion crosses her chip when he seizes it, when he stops her from letting go, because he's squeezing it so tight and he's so unaware that she's as cold as metal but as soft as a human. She smiles, because apparently smiles are supposed to be happy and comforting, "You are still suffering from your amnesia, but that's okay! It takes time for amnesia to fix itself. Your memories will soon piece together again, like chains."

He's exasperated, "But it's taking too long. There's war going on all around me, Alisa, and I'm being told that I am the only one who can stop it. There are thousands of lives being lost every day, thousands of lives being unnecessarily lost… and I don't know what I can do to speed up this process. I am the reason that this hasn't ended it yet, and it's all because I don't remember…

"I don't remember my family. I don't remember what my job is, despite being told. I don't remember my friends or my hobbies; I don't remember what my favourite foods are… I didn't even remember my own name," he huffs, a single laugh escaping his lips thereafter, "My own name! You had to tell me my name, and you didn't even know who I was! You said… The database," His steel blue eyes are wider. Lars presses, "You mentioned something about a database. Can you search it and tell me all about… well, me?"

"It was destroyed," she recites, "I told you this on the day we met. I am sorry."

"Then, what if I was a bad man?"

She furrows her eyebrows at this, "You are not a bad man! Think about what you are trying to do –"

"What I'm being told by some guy to do. I don't even know…" he pulls at his hair, noting that the rain's only just starting to slow, and that there's a solid, blue colour ripping through the whitening clouds, "I hate that I've only just suddenly thought of this, or feel like this. I don't like this feeling… of knowing something, but not quite being able to grasp it… And it just hurts –"

He can't get any other words out, because Alisa's kissed him.

She's kissed him because she doesn't know how else to soothe his pain. She'd been scanning her databases and came across the action of 'kissing', and somewhere amongst the oodles of words and sentences, she noted that it's supposed to show care and maybe ease the person being kissed. She knows she cares, or as much as she can anyway, and she hates to see her friend suddenly go through such a sporadic emotional breakdown.

All too soon, she's pulled away, and Lars is left gawking at her with wide eyes. She giggles slightly before tucking more hair behind her ear and turning away, looking up at the sky – and she doesn't feel she's being watched by him, even though she really is. He eventually follows suit, still blushing and all, and listens to her speak, her voice carrying over the wind that's since slowed, no longer incapacitated by the pelting rain either, "My Father always said that when you're feeling blue, look to the sky. And as you look to the sky, you let all your troubles melt away, because they never, ever have to be answered right away."

As he listens, he takes in the advice. He looks at the sky, noting its brilliant blue, and how it seems to stretch on forever and ever. Compared to the sky, he is small. Compared to the bigger problem at hand that Jin's provided, his problems are minor and should be looked at a later date, when nobody is being hurt anymore. He's got to sweep it under the rug, because that's what you do in those times of need and desperation.

And as they stand together and start to climb down the hill, because Alisa's GPS system is functioning properly at last, he realises, as his heart flutters at her sweet smile again, that he's fallen in love with her.