I am Leal

Confrontations

I walked through the hallways of the facility with Kara. Naz and Euphoria had chosen to help 99 out.

"Why did Euphoria cry yesterday?" Kara was quiet for most of our walk but suddenly she had spoken up.

"We talked about a few things." I replied. It wasn't that I didn't wanted to talk to her about it but with Kara you never knew how she reacted.

"Oh come on, Leal. We all know what it was about. There is just one topic that makes her cry!" Kara says angrily over my answer.

"When you already know it, why are you asking me?" I asked her.

"Because I wanna know from you!" She says as we walk past a group of clones. After this short amount of time we were here they have grown accustomed to us but occasionally they still would stare at us.

"Kara, Euphoria and I talked about Bric. Is it that what you wanted to hear from me?" I say towards her and look at her. She slowly nods in understanding.

"When Naz hid your blaster. Did he...? Has he...?" She suddenly asked and catches me off-guard. I remembered our first day on Coruscant and Naz confession. The faces of Cody and Rex were priceless.

"No...he didn't." I say.

She nods and stares to the ground. "You know, I wanted to ask you for a while now but I didn't know when was the right time and then I forgot to ask at all. But after what happened when we arrived here..." She looked at me again with her icy blue eyes.

"I understand!" I reassure her. "No, let me explain. Every time he ordered you to come and see him. I knew what was happening and I couldn't do anything about it. You didn't let me do anything about it." She says and looks at me.

"And what would you have done?" I ask her. "I don't know. I would have done something!" She replies.

"Kara, it was my choice to protect you from him. He did already too much damage when you needed to watch I couldn't let you go through that." I say and wrap my arm around her shoulder and pull her to me.

"How do you always do it? Carry these burdens with such ease?" She asks me.

"I guess I'm just amazing!" I laugh. "But on a serious note. Just because I carry these burdens so well doesn't mean they aren't heavy. They are but I wouldn't want any of you to carry them. Do you understand that?" I say.

"I do. I really do. But when I just see his stupid face I get so angry. I'm constantly angry." She admits.

"I know. I am too!" I say to her. And it was true I was angry. "You are?" She asks me surprised.

"Yeah. I am." I say. "And what do you do about it?" She asks me. I shrug. "I concentrate on all the good stuff in my life and then the bad stuff is not important anymore. Oh and I punch the punching bag as long and hard until I don't feel it anymore!"

"That makes sense. I like punching stuff too but what do you mean by good stuff? You mean like you and Cody?" She smirks at me and my mouth drops to the floor.

"Not you too. There is no me and Cody!" I say to her.

"Sure thing! You just stare into each others eyes and flirt all the time. That is nothing." She laughs.

"We don't flirt!" I say.

"What are you talking about?" Waxer and Boil had approached us from behind.

"Nothing!" I quickly say and look the other way.

"Okay, don't lie to us." Waxer says.

"We talked about the fact that Cody and Leal have a crush on each other!" Kara smiled and answered.