A Second Chance

Lea and Isa

"When did this place open?" you ask, glancing around the clearly new restaurant, judging by the shining tables, shimmering floors, and comfortable chairs.

"Maybe a year ago. That's what happens when you disappear – life moves on," Lea tells you as he takes a swig of his sugary drink. "Say," he adds, pausing for a moment to wipe liquid from his upper lip, "how long are you stayin' here?"

"Um... just the weekend," you reply, taking a quick sip of your drink.

"Lame," Lea sighs.

"What brings you back here? Looked like you were gone for good," Isa tells you.

It's hard keeping anything from the two. They're both a year older than you, so you never had classes together in school. But they were your neighbors, with your family living in the house between theirs, so you essentially grew up with both boys as your brothers. Now that they're older, however, it feels strange spending time with them. You've been gone for so long, and have been so engrossed in your Keyblade training, that you aren't sure how to even act around them.

Not to mention that you ditched Aqua, Terra's still missing, and Ven disappeared along with a strange boy wearing a mask.

Maybe you should be doing something besides grabbing lunch and pretending to be normal. But with your stomach rumbling and hunger rendering you dizzy, eating isn't the worst idea in the world. Besides, you can't let these two think anything weird is going on, lest they grow suspicious.

"I was bored, decided to come back. Relive some old memories," you state after losing yourself in your own thoughts for a moment.

"We're bored too," Lea complains with a slight pout to his lips. "There's nothing to do here. All we do is explore the castle, try to find an adventure."

"The castle? Why that boring old place?" you ask.

"Don't get him started," Isa sighs, rubbing his sore temples.

"They're doing experiments up there. Weird ones. Like, on humans," Lea tells you with a wiggle of his eyebrows, barreling past Isa's insulting comment. "There's no way that old freak Even isn't up to something. I'm trying to figure out why, and what they're doing."

"Human experiments? Yeah, right," you laugh with a shake of your head.

"Glad to see at least one of you has a brain," Isa mocks as Lea glances between the two of you with narrowed eyes.

"Then how do you explain people going missing, genius?" Lea asks, leaning forward to give Isa a flick of his finger against his friend's forehead.

"I don't know how, but I know it's not human experiments," Isa dryly replies as he shoos Lea's hand away. "That's something from story books."

"Whatever," Lea sighs, giving up as he takes a large gulp of his drink and sinks back into his chair.

You can't help but smile as you glance between the two. So much time has passed, and yet they still act exactly the same – like bickering brothers.

The meal meanwhile passes as expected. Lea and Isa fill you in on all the gossip of the town, which isn't important to your mission but is interesting to hear. You've been gone for a long time, but you still remember a surprising number of people and faces. The laughs are frequent, and the conversation pleasant as the three of you rejoice at the unexpected reunion and enjoy your meals.

Before you know it, nearly an hour's passed. The food's long been consumed, and you're sitting in your post-meal coma, content as can be as you watch your two old friends argue over something completely inconsequential. You're hardly listening at this point, merely happy to be away from the struggles of your real life even if it's only for an hour or so.