Rosa's shoulders were taut, almost completely rigid save for her shallow breaths. I continued patting her, inspecting how I was feeling now.

I'm the heroine, she'd said. Heroine, as in the game thing that she had told me about, with all those pre-set paths with right and wrong answers. Rosa had said it often enough, either in complaint or as an explanation for something she was doing. So naturally, too, as if she was just saying her name. I had never heard her spit it out so bitterly like this before.

Heroine. I'd never thought about it that deeply-- it had always just been yet another of Rosa's quirks, something I couldn't quite understand completely. But being a heroine to Rosa must have been more than just a title.

It must have been a burden. And the knowledge that came with her past life must have added to that, too.

I breathed out a sigh. I'd been so stuck in my own mindset, in my own fears, that I hadn't even considered how much greater that weight would be on the most involved party herself.

"I think," I said, breaking the silence lightly, "I think I understand now."

My best friend of, oh, twelve or thirteen years looked up. I gave her a tiny smile.

"First of all, Rosa, you are the most, the greatest, truest noble there could ever be," I announced.

She frowned. "What the?"

"In the most truest sense of the word, you are truly and completely noble." Laughing at her new confusion, I brought her into a huge hug. Squeezing her tightly, I continued. "And you know what? I think I would like to help you. When I'm not busy, of course," I added, because that was also true.

She patted me on my back a few times to return the hug, but when I pulled back she still looked confused. "No, Filly, I just said I don't blame you for not wanting to help. You don't have to; I understand how you feel." So she says, with the most crestfallen look on her face.

I snorted. "Yeah, but now I'm choosing to help you, instead of you puppy-eyeing me to death about it. And now that I know you're not just going off some reckless scheme with no fear of consequences like you usually do--"

"No I don't!"

"--and now that I know you probably are more afraid of dying than I am, I feel safer to help you. But!" I held up a finger. "But I won't help as a helper anymore."

"How--" Rosa's frown only deepened. "The word 'help' is in 'helper', you know."

I hummed, trying to come up with the best way to phrase this. "Up until now, I was like, a resource? A helping hand? Not quite a servant, but something like that to you. Like an underling, you know? And you the leader."

She opened her mouth indignantly, but I shook my head-- I wasn't done yet.

"It's because you came up with your plans alone, and you decided on them alone. Because you're the 'heroine' and all that. But that's too heavy a burden to put on one person, Ro, and I just kind of realized that. I said before I'd only do a little, as a sort of helping hand; now I'd like to help you as a fellow... teammate. Yeah. A teammate."

With every word I said, I felt more and more certain. In a way, I'd been more afraid to help because I felt like I had no say in what Rosa, and therefore I, did. What were the possible consequences of anything Rosa asked of me, no matter how small? Without getting to look at the big picture, the anxiety of not knowing just made me fear everything even more.

"I need to stand on the same level as you. We need to act as a team. You tell me all your plans, and if I find anything that seems too dangerous, I need to be able to refuse, for the both of us. It won't be you directing me-- it will be us moving together."

Rosa blinked at me, uncertain emotions swirling in her eyes.

My smile widened, and I spread my arms out. "Ro, it won't just be you responsible for the world anymore. I mean, if you're the heroine, then I'm the heroine's best friend, right? That should count for something, too."

Rosa cried that day. 

I cried too, of course, because I rarely didn't cry when someone else was crying. Especially because this was Rosa who was crying, my best friend and practically family, I ended up crying almost as much as she did.

This was probably only the third or fourth time I'd seen her cry, despite having known her my entire life. In fact, I hadn't seen her cry at all in the last few years. And even when she did, she barely made a sound-- her muffled breaths and the smallest sobs were all that I could hear from her, quiet under the evening shade of the alley.

She'd always been the stronger one, really-- she had to be strong for her family-- and this knowledge that she must've had from such a young age must have made things even harder for her.

Much later, after we both ran out of tears and just sat there in mutual silence, the telltale whinny of a horse outside notified us of the arrival of Rosa's carriage.

Wiping streaks of tears off my cheeks, I began giggling helplessly. "Aw man, now wasn't that a good cry? I probably look awful." Then I frowned, because I probably looked like a red mess but Rosa literally just looked the same as always?? The frown turned back into a bigger laugh, though, because that was just like her. Of course she would be. She was Rosa. "You look fine, though, so people are going to think you bullied me into crying. Like you used to when we were little."

She gasped in mock incredulity. "What do you mean, when we were little? Everyone knows you used to bully me."

"Yeah right! Says the person who used to get mad at me for not understanding whatever math principle you shouted at me!!"

"And you used to kick up the dust when I solved derivatives in the dirt when I was bored!!!"

"Ever consider that I might have been bored then too?!?"

"That's not my problem to sol-- ow!!"¹To be fair, that really wasn't Rosa's problem to solve. The derivatives were.

Satisfied with the mini kick I gave her, I dusted myself off and stood up, stretching. "Anyhow," I said nonchalantly, as if I hadn't just kicked her, "are you willing to be a team?"

Rosa stopped rubbing her shin and stood up too, crossing her arms. "Are you sure about this, Filian? I'm not asking that of you," she asked in all seriousness, as if I hadn't just kicked her.

I rolled my eyes. "Helping you in tiny bits without knowing anything was worse. If I at least know my dangers better, I'll feel so much better. And besides, nobody's asked this of you either, and that's not stopping you."

"From?"

"From saving the world."

"Saving the country," she corrected, and I made a face. She made a face back before smiling ruefully. "At least, trying my best to."

"And now, we're going to try our best to." I linked my arm through hers, and we clomped up the stairs happily to get her suitcase. "You're going to have to brief me on everything soon, especially about that thing you wanted me to do," I said as Rosa single-handedly dragged her giant suitcase back down the stairs.

"Once you hear everything, you're going to see how absolutely harmless this is going to be," she promised me.

Did I believe her? No. But now I had the power to veto her ideas, so I only rolled my eyes. "Hmm-- we'll see."

"We'll see? We'll see?!" Rosa threw back her head. "Hah! Trying to climb up the ranks of the power hierarchy, aren't you, Commoner Filian!" she screeched, the mischievous glint back in her eyes.

I squared my shoulders and flipped my hair. "There never was a power hierarchy, Lady Chesterfield! 'Twas all in your head!" I trilled in return, and we collapsed into a fit of giggles.

When we reached the coach, the footman took one look at me, then at Rosa, then back at me, sympathy oozing out of his eyes. 

Heh. "Oh, heavens, when shall the noble lady stop her evil deeds," I cried dramatically, and Rosa promptly swatted me.

"Don't believe her, footman!" she barked. "She speaks complete lies! How treacherous!"

"Treacherous, Lady Chesterfield?!" I gasped. "Why, but that would be you!"

Then we began cackling again, and the footman began looking tired instead.

"Sorry, sorry," I moaned, wiping at my eyes. "Go on ahead. And remember to let me know when we can talk about everything."

Still chuckling herself, Rosa dropped her suitcase onto the waiting footman's hands. The footman went down with a cry. "As if I'm the only one who's busy between the two of us."

"Touche," I laughed, helping the footman back up.

With a final chuckle, Rosa opened the carriage door. I watched her go in: facing forward with a straight back-- but with the slightest tremble in her hands.

(Two days later, Rosa barged in to our room and yelled, for all the world to hear, "On a scale of 1 to 10, my stress levels were at 8 or 9! And I didn't even realize!" at the prime time of six in the morning. Six in the morning!!! Rosa was still crazy, that was for sure.)

A/N: And here is the promised next chapter!! :D

It's really funny-- this chapter was not planned to be this way at all, but Rosa and Filian were both protesting for it to be written like this, so I had to. I really don't own this story now, do I. Haha.

Hope you liked the (sort of) double update, and I'll be more prompt next week!!