Spencer walked through The Land of Dragons' Bamboo Grove, arms wrapped around himself in an attempt to keep warm.  It was raining, and cold, and he wasn't particularly happy about this.  What had turned from a normal wandering visit to this world had become an agonizing slog through the mud and rain, something that was never fun.  He just wanted to get back to a Save Point and to his ship so he could at least dry off.  Due to not really having much munny at all, Spencer only had the most basic of Gummmi Ships, not one of those fancy ones with bedrooms like other Interferences had.  At least it was warm, and that was infinitely better than where he was right now.

It didn't help matters that Heartless had been popping up all along the way, and he had to fight through them.  They hadn't been very hard to deal with, just another annoyance on top of the pile of crap that was this day.

Suddenly, there was a cracking sound from off to his right, followed by a small crash.  He could faintly pick up a voice over the crashing.

"Stupid," CRASH, "f*cking," CRASH, "sh*tty-ass day!"

The mage could only role his eyes, recognizing the voice and the its unabashed usage of expletives.  He jumped to the side as a few more stalks of bamboo suddenly fell much more closely to him, and their destroyer stepped out into the open grove.

Naomi clutched her brightly flaming claymore in one hand, despite its weight usually requiring two.  It wasn't too difficult to lift it enough to cut her way through the bamboo, though.  The other hand was wrapped around her midsection, though Spencer couldn't tell why, as her normally bare midriff was covered in her jacket, which was zipped up to protect against the cold.

She noticed Spencer, finally, and glared at him.  They weren't exactly on good terms, both annoying each other more than any person could.  Even more than Blueberry, Spencer noted to himself, although that was most likely because Kalas actually gave a damn about people other than himself.

"Nice to see you too," Spencer said, breaking the silence.  "It's not every day someone tries to murder me with bamboo."

Naomi rolled her eyes.  "It's not my fault you were in the way, moron."  She began to walk away, still clutching her abdomen, and it became readily apparent why.  She was hunched over, limping and stumbling as she walked.  The girl, despite all her toughness, was obviously hurt and in pain.  Spencer knew Naomi was not totally stupid; if she had some sort of Potion that would heal her, she would've used it by now.  It was clear that she had run into some Heartless like he had, and while the wounds might not bleed or be open if they attacked you, it still hurt like hell.

The mage hesitated, but finally sighed and reached into a pocket, pulling out one of his last Hi-Potions.  He always tried to be stocked up on a few.  While he needed Lyrium to survive, the stuff didn't do a damn thing for wounds.

"Here, take this."  He said.  Naomi turned halfway, eying the Hi-Potion in his hand.

"I don't need your help, or your stuff."  She replied, beginning to limp away again.

Spencer scowled at Naomi's back.  He was just trying to help, and there was no way she could make it very far with that kind of wound if more Heartless showed up.

"Would ya just take the damn Potion and quit being so stubborn?  I don't want to have you dying on my conscience."

Naomi growled, and fully turned back to Spencer.

"I said I didn't need your damn help!  What /is/ it with you people always trying to "help" me?  I can handle things on my own, and I don't want to ow you anything!"

Where had /this/ come from?  He was just trying to help, and this crazy chick went ballistic on him!

"What the hell is your problem?!"  Spencer shouted back.  "I don't want you to owe me anything!  I just want to make sure you get outta here alive!"

"I told you I can handle things on my own!"  She yelled over the rain, which was pelting down harder now.  "I've seen the way you act around me.  You think because I'm a girl that I need help all the time, that I'm /weak/!  Well I'm not!  I don't need help, especially not from you!"

Spencer's scowl deepened.  Sure, he thought because she was a girl she deserved more respect.  He thought that about /any/ girl, but this one was quickly becoming an exception.  He just wanted to help, and he did nice things rarely enough as it was.  Why wasn't she willing to accept it?

"Maker, it's no freaking wonder you don't have any friends!"  Spencer was shouting more loudly than ever, now.  "You're just some crazy psycho b*tch who doesn't care about anyone but herself!"

Naomi suddenly advanced towards Spencer, her sword dropped and left forgotten in the mud as she grabbed him by the scruff of his robes, completely ignoring the pain in her midsection now.

"You don't know anything about me!"  And suddenly she was surrounded by an aura of white flame, steam rising from her as the rain evaporated on contact with the aura.  She pulled a now flaming fist back, not seeming to notice the flames surrounding her.  It was literally burning now where she held Spencer.  "NOT A DAMN THING!"

She punched him harder than she had ever punched anyone before, and there was an explosion of white fire as Spencer was suddenly flying back into the large, flat slap of stone in the center of the grove, a painful sound following his impact.  He slumped down onto the ground.  There were a few flickers of flame on the mage's clothes, but they were quickly extinguished by the rain.  But this only allowed Naomi to see the full extent of what she had done.  The skin on most of his face was burnt raw and red, a few small patches even black and completely dead.  The clothes from the neck down to the waist were blackened with soot, and damaged in some places to reveal even more burnt skin beneath.

Naomi was stunned.  She hadn't meant to use her powers, wasn't even trying to.  But she had, and now Spencer was badly hurt, possibly even dying.  She had hurt him.  She had hurt someone again because she had been /stupid/ and hadn't thought about what she as doing.  She noticed the dropped Hi-Potion, and quickly snatched it up.  Her face was wet now, but not from the rain, and the heavy eyeliner she often wore was streaking down her cheeks.

She rand and slid into a kneel next to Spencer, wrenching the cork out of the bottle.  She was openly sobbing now, as she forced Spencer's mouth open, and drained the Hi-Potion down his throat.  She watched as his skin began to become healthy again, his breathing returning to normal.  The mage's eyes flickered open, but this only served to make Naomi sob more loudly.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to- stupid!  Stupid, stupid stupid!  You were right... I don't... I just always /break/ things, and hurt people, and..."  She had run out of breath, and just broke down back into wracking sobs.

Spencer's breath, however, was fully back to him now, and he had been listening.  The tears were already enough to make him feel guilty enough about what he had said, but to see her breaking down like this... Hesitantly, Spencer reached up, putting a hand on her shoulder... and then actually pulled the girl into an awkward sort of hug.  Surprisingly enough, she didn't resist, just kept sobbing.

"Look..."  He said, finally.  "You healed me, right?  If... if all those things I said about you were actually true... then you wouldnt've done that wouldn't be acting like this.  Okay?  I'm sorry.  I was wrong.  I shouldn't have said those things."  She still had one of the worst attitude problems he had ever seen, but that probably wasn't the best thing to bring up right now.  And, judging by the way she was acting now, maybe she wasn't all bad.  Finally, she was calming down, the sobs quieting.

"Thanks,"  She whispered, her voice raw from the crying.  "Thank you."

Then she roughly broke the hug, standing up.

"But don't tell anyone about this."

Well, Spencer thought he could only expect so much from her.  He stood up as well, smiling a little.

"Wouldn't dream of hurting that precious little ego of yours."

Naomi actually laughed.  It helped to make her feel a little better.

"Y'know, Spence," He was surprised she actually used his name, "you're not so bad."

Spencer's smile grew a little.  "Same to you, Xena."  Thinking about it, she realized she didn't actually dislike the nickname.  She began to walk back towards the Save Point, but was stopped again by Spencer's words.

"Hey..."  He rubbed the back of his neck a little awkwardly.  "You wanna travel?  Together, I mean."  He barely had enough tolerance to be with a person for more than a few hours, but now he wanted to travel with the girl who had nearly killed him?  But now, with what he had seen in he, maybe she was worth getting to know.

For her part, Naomi was surprised.  She could barely believe Spencer was forgiving her (although he hadn't actually said that, that was the feeling she was getting), but now he actually wanted to travel with her?  Maybe he wasn't as much of an asshole as he acted.

"...Yeah, okay."  She replied, finally.  "Might not be so bad to have someone else around."  The usual glare came back to her face.  "But you stay in your own ship.  I don't want you going through my stuff in case you turn out to be some sorta perv."

Spencer rolled his eyes, but kept the smile.  "Sure, whatever.  Not like I'd do that.  Don't want you going crazy again."

Naomi winced a little, but actually appreciated the effort to make light of what she had done.  If it was all a big joke, then it hurt less.

"Y'know, I don't think this'll be so bad.  Asides from that blue-haired idiot, you're the first decent guy I've met."

Spencer grinned.  "You met Blueberry?  I think I like you more already, Xena."  He began to head towards the portal that led to the ship.

Naomi laughed again at the nickname Spencer had given to Kalas.  "Sure did.  You two are pretty alike."  She walked towards the portal as well.

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

They disappeared, taking the Save Point back to their respective Gummi Ships.

It was the start of a beautiful friendship.