The Solarion crew didn't get a chance to meet up for another week, which was probably for the best. Sebastian had a lot of work recently, and he'd been irritable from his efforts to quit smoking. But tonight he was looking forward to playing again.

"Alright, but if you couldn't be a Healer, which class would you want to be?" Sebastian asked. He'd been in town and was walking with Penny up the mountain, and they were quizzing each other's Solarion preferences. It was nice having someone to really talk about this sort of thing with; Sam and Abby just didn't get it.

"For the game, or like, to live as?" Penny scrunched up her nose as she smiled.

"To live as, I guess. Or the game. Whichever."

Penny thought carefully before saying, "I think in the game I'd like to be the Warrior."

"Really?" Sebastian said in surprise.

"Yeah, it'd be nice to pretend I was strong. That's not really an option for me in real life." She flexed her nonexistent biceps. Sebastian reached out to squeeze them and laughed.

"It's not funny!" she said, although she was laughing too. She grabbed his upper arms. "Yours aren't much better!"

"That's not fair, I wasn't flexing." Sebastian stepped back and tried out a few bodybuilding poses, leaving Penny snorting in laughter.

"So clearly neither of us could be a Warrior in real life," Penny said. "And I couldn't be a Bard, because I happen to be completely tone deaf. So I guess...Wizard? Or Cleric? What about you?"

But Sebastian didn't hear her. He was looking up the hill, at the bench next to the community center. Two people were sitting close together. It looked like they might be hugging...no, they were definitely making out.

"Let's give them some privacy," Sebastian whispered. He was going to turn around, but then he caught a glimpse of who it was.

Maru and Sam.

He couldn't believe what he was looking at. Sebastian glanced down at Penny, and her mouth was open in shock. She had definitely seen.

When the surprise wore off, Sebastian's blood ran hot. How could they do this to her? How could they go behind her back like this? Penny must be heartbroken.

He didn't give a damn that Maru was his sister and Sam was his best friend. He was just angry. Maybe angrier than he'd ever been.

Sebastian left Penny standing in shock and walked straight up to them.

"You son of a bitch!" he shouted at Sam.

The couple separated, stunned at Sebastian's sudden appearance. Sam stood and held up his hands. "Seb, listen, I know she's your sister, I was going to talk to you, just—"

Sebastian didn't stop. He went right up to Sam, cocked his fist, and punched him hard in the face. Sam stumbled back, holding his cheek.

"What the hell, man!" Sam shouted. "What's your deal? You don't even treat Maru like she's your sister, why are you getting all 'big brother' all of a sudden?"

Sebastian clutched his hand; the punch had hurt a lot more than he'd expected it to. "Maru being my sister is not even the tip of the fucking iceberg. This isn't about her, this is about Penny!"

"What?!" Sam shouted. "What does Penny have to do with any of this?"

"The two of you are her best friends in the world!" Sebastian pointed accusingly at both Maru and Sam. "How could you not know!" At that, Sam still looked confused, but Maru hung her head and looked at the ground.

"I warned you, Sam!" Sebastian shouted. "I warned you weeks ago!"

Penny caught up to them and pulled at Sebastian's arm. "It's fine, Sebastian, please. Just leave it."

But he didn't listen. He was too far in, too angry to think clearly now.

"What's the matter with you, man?" Sam yelled. "Know what?"

"She's in love with you!" Sebastian shouted.

He regretted it as soon as the words left his lips, but he couldn't take it back. Sebastian pushed Sam and they both fell into the dirt, and soon they were grappling. He heard quick footsteps; either Penny or Maru had run off, or both.

Sam got the upper hand. He held Sebastian down with a knee to the gut and one hand on his chest, and the other he raised up in a fist.

But Sam didn't strike, he just hovered over Sebastian, face clouded by confusion and anger.

"I didn't know!" Sam yelled. He repeated himself more quietly. "I didn't know." Sam pushed up off Sebastian's body and walked down the hill toward his house.

Sebastian looked up at the clouds as he caught his breath.

"I'm an idiot," he said out loud to himself.

He stood up, and only Maru was still there, sitting on the bench. She was crying.

"You knew how she felt about him, didn't you?" Sebastian asked quietly.

Maru nodded.

He sighed, running his hands back through his hair. "Which way did she go?"

She pointed up the mountain.

Sebastian walked up, then started to jog. As he neared the woods, he started shouting, "Penny! Penny!" But there was no sign of her. He called her cell, but she didn't answer.

"Hey kid!" A voice came from the woods. It was Linus, the old man who lived out there. "The red-head went up to the spa!"

Sebastian ran up the wooden steps and threw open the door to the bathhouse.

"Penny!" he called out again. There was no response, so he knocked on the door to the women's locker room and opened it a crack. "Penny! I'm coming in!"

He waited and listened, then opened the door slowly. The locker room was empty, but he soon heard muffled crying from the back.

"Penny?" he said quietly and walked further in.

The cries were coming from the shower. He stopped at the curtain and whispered, "I'm coming in, Penny." He slid the curtain aside.

She was sitting on the tiled floor, back pressed against the wall, as scrunched up and hidden as possible. Sebastian kneeled in front of her, but she didn't acknowledge his presence.

"Penny, I'm so sorry," he said gently. "You're right to be angry at me. I'm a total jerk. Seriously, I'm a complete idiot. I shouldn't have said it, I shouldn't have..."

He trailed off and watched as Penny slowly wiped her eyes.

"I'm not angry at you," she said, sniffling. "Well, I am. But I'm mostly just embarrassed."

"Good Yoba, I've made a real mess of things." He wanted to reach out and comfort her, but he didn't dare touch her, like she might shatter if he did. "This is all my fault."

Penny shook her head. "We all did our part, I think. How are Maru and Sam?"

"After all this, you're worried about them? Don't you have a selfish bone in your body?"

"It's my selfishness that got us here."

Sebastian tried to object, he didn't even know what she meant, but she waved it off.

"Sam really didn't know about my feelings for him," she said. "He couldn't have, because I made sure he didn't. And Maru...she knew, but I knew about her feelings too. I just acted like I didn't."

"What?"

Penny nodded and looked down. "I noticed the last time we were all together. And Sam seemed to feel the same way. And it just—" her voice caught in her throat. "It just hurt so much that I tried to convince myself I hadn't seen it." She pressed her hands over her eyes, then collected herself and looked up at Sebastian. "It's probably good that you said what you did, Sebastian. Maybe tomorrow I'll be able to see that it's for the best. I won't have to lie anymore."

Sebastian shifted so he was sitting fully on the ground and leaned back on his hands. "I guess I should apologize to Sam for punching him."

Penny smiled. "Yeah, probably. But maybe not today. Maybe we can just be mad at them for a little longer."

"Can I walk you home?" Sebastian asked.

"No, I'd like to hide a while. Will you stay with me?

Sebastian nodded. "I didn't bring my swimsuit though."

Penny laughed weakly and Sebastian gave her a hand up. They left the showers and went out into the main area of the locker room. He found somewhere to sit as Penny washed her face and brushed her hair. He was used to seeing it styled back, but now it hung loose, falling around her shoulders.

"You look worse than me, you know," she said.

Sebastian looked in the mirror. She was right—his face was dirty and scraped, not to mention the mud on his clothes. And his knuckles were turning a deep purple. Penny sucked her teeth when she saw his hand.

"Does it hurt?" She held it lightly, and looked up at him. He hadn't realized how short she was. Without thinking, Sebastian rested his other hand on top of her head.

"How tall are you? Four foot something?" he asked with a grin.

"I'm not that short!" she huffed. "You're just, like, weirdly tall."

"Well that's not true," he said. "I'm only five foot eight, and that's on a good day. There's no way you're over five feet."

"I'm five one!" Penny stood up as straight as she could. Sebastian leaned over her and rested his chin on top of her head, inadvertently moving close enough that her face was nearly pressed into his chest. She giggled, but didn't move away.

Sebastian wrapped his arms around her shoulders, and pulled her in close. She turned her head to the side and rested it against his chest, so that the top of her head was nestled against his neck. He felt her back rise and fall with her breathing, which was still shaky.

They stood in silence for a long time, or at least it felt like a long time, until Penny pulled away gently and Sebastian let her go. She wasn't crying, but her eyes were freshly damp.

"So," she said, looking away. "What should we do while hiding from the world?"

"Well I should probably clean up a little," Sebastian said, looking at the dirt on his face in the mirror again. "Then we could find someplace a little more fun to hide."

"What do you mean? Like the Community Center?"

"I mean, when's the last time you've been to Zuzu City?"