“You sure about this?” Confidence Heart asked as she walked alongside Love Heart.
Love Heart sighed, “No, but I don’t want a hold a grudge all summer. I can’t keep putting this off.” They paused at the edge of a large outdoor dining area downtown, the same large walkway where Twin Bells was located, and spotted the two he was looking for: Brave Heart Lion and Harmony Bear seated together at a round table under a large umbrella.
Brave Heart was the first to spot them and stood up and waved, “Love Heart! Over here!”
Love Heart waved back and took a deep breath, “Let’s do this. Thanks for coming with me.”
Confidence smiled, “Any time.”
They seated themselves across from Brave Heart and Harmony and sat in silence for a few minutes.
“So, you wanted to talk?” Harmony asked.
Love Heart nodded, “Yes... I just...” he took a deep breath, “I just want to stop being... mad... disappointed... whatever about this.” Before anyone else could speak Love Heart started rambling, “I know I can’t make anyone feel a certain way and that I don’t have a right to be mad but I’m still hurt by what happened and I thought this would be a great summer planning out things to do and it all came crashing down and now I have the Clow Cards and I was just focusing on them to stop thinking about my crush on you, Harmony, and I hate that I shouted at you when you came to make peace but I couldn’t hurt Brave Heart because we’re supposed to be best friends and I...” he stopped to breath, having teared up during his rant, “I just want to be friend again... I’m sorry...” Love Heart leaned forwards, elbows on the table and hands pressed into his eyes as Confidence rubbed his back.
Brave Heart nodded, “I know, I should have told you we were dating but Harmony said we should just wait for you to get over it and with exams and everything I was distracted and...”
“And I was an idiot,” Harmony interjected, “I didn’t want to hurt you, Love Heart, but I didn’t want to just say ‘sorry I’m not interested’ when you hadn’t said anything. But I guess we could have shown up as a couple to school, smooched a bit so I wouldn’t have to crush your feelings.”
Love Heart chuckled mirthlessly, “Well it’s only the second worst I’ve felt.”
“What’s the worst?” Confidence gave Love Heart a look of concern.
“The last time we fought Professor Cold Heart.” Love Heart went quiet and stared at the tabletop, as did Brave Heart and Harmony.
Confidence leaned over to look Love Heart in the eye, “I know what happened to No-Heart but why don’t you talk about Cold Heart? I thought he was just kind of a goofy loser. I mean that whole concrete rain thing, how was that supposed to work?”
“He was, most of the time,” Brave Heart sighed, “But then one day, when we were all about twelve-years-old he just kinda shut himself up in his lab.”
“We knew he was up to something, so I volunteered to go check it out,” Love Heart said.
“He all but jumped on it,” Harmony couldn’t help but smile.
“Tenderheart, Gentle Heart, Cozy Heart and Swift Heart all came with me. When we got there the whole place was dark and quiet, it was eerie,” Love Heart shuddered at the memory, “And then they were all over us!”
“What was?” Confidence felt her hair stand on end.
“I don’t know!” Love Heart shouted, “They were big and strong and they grabbed us and shoved us into Cold Heart’s lab.” He grabbed the sides of his head, “I remember being stuck with something and Cold Heart but he didn’t sound like Cold Heart and he was mumbling something about wasting time with us and then I think I passed out...”
“Indy led the team to rescue them, I was there too,” Brave Heart reached over to pat Love Heart on the shoulder, “We found the five of them in Cold Heart’s lab but... it was empty. Just the five of them left lying on the ground unconscious.”
“We never found out what happened, none of them had much more to say than what Love Heart just said,” Harmony said, “And then Cold Heart just vanished.”
“He vanished?” Confidence Heart stared at Harmony.
Harmony nodded, “Yeah, he wasn’t there and we haven’t heard from him since then.”
“We had to get therapy for what happened, it wasn’t easy but,” Love Heart took in a deep breath, “I’ve mostly gotten over it.”
“Wow that’s... not what I expected to hear.” Confidence suddenly pulled Love Heart into a close hug, “I’m sorry.”
Love Heart smiled, “Thanks, Confidence.”
At that moment they heard Confidence’s Heartphone start ringing and she let Love Heart go, “Umm excuse me,” She answered then stood up and walked away, “What is it, Tori?”
Love Heart looked up to watch her go, then chuckled, “I guess there’s worse things, I feel kinda bad about all this. Brave Heart, Harmony, I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorry too, I know you had feelings for Harmony,” Brave Heart said.
“And I’m sorry I didn’t say anything sooner, to either of you.” Harmony took both their hands, “I mean if I’d been brave enough to talk to Brave Heart sooner.”
“No more apologies, I think we’ve said enough.” Love Heart squeezed Harmony’s hand, “Friends?”
“Best friends!” Brave Heart grabbed Love Heart’s hand, “Want to get lunch with us?”
“Sure,” Love Heart smiled then turned back to see Confidence approaching, “Confidence want to...” he noticed the concerned look on her face, “What’s wrong?”
“Something’s happening at home, my dad can’t get into mom’s jewelry box,” the she smirked, “Sounds like a Clow Card actually.”
“Really?” Love Heart was up on his feet then paused and turned back to the table, “Can I get a rain check on the lunch?”
“Sure, just call when you’re done and we’ll plan for something tomorrow,” Harmony assured him.
“Thanks, let’s go!” Love Heart and Confidence took off towards her house.
Harmony smiled as she watched them go, “She likes him.”
“Really?” Brave Heart sounded surprised.
“I can tell, just in the way she acts around him and how she’s going out of her way to help him and I think Love Heart likes her too,” Harmony turned to her boyfriend, propping her head up on the table.
“Should we tell them?” Brave Heart sounded eager to do just that.
“Not today, but soon. End of the summer at the latest,” Harmony’s eyes twinkled.
OoOoO
“You have the Clow Cards with you right?” Confidence asked Love Heart as they were walking up to her house.
“Yeah,” Love Heart touched the Book of Clow that he always kept at his side.
“What about Kero,” Confidence said as she turned her front doorknob.
Love Heart shook his head, “I want to handle this myself, but maybe I’ll need him...”
Confidence smiled as they entered her house, “Be confident in yourself, Love Heart, I know you can do this.”
“Pro bono caring mission?” Love Heart elbowed her gently.
“Even Care Bears need some caring.” Confidence smiled then motioned for Love Heart to follow her, “This way.”
Tori was waiting in their father’s bedroom, “What took you so long, squirt? And good, you brought the wizard with you.”
Confidence snorted at her older human brother, “Don’t call me squirt, Tori, and how did you find out about this?”
“Dad called, he was off today and wanted to check mom’s stuff before he went grocery shopping. Here,” he pointed to a small red and gold colored jewelry box on the dresser and tried to open it with the small iron key he held in his hand, only for there to be a sudden spark of light that pushed him back.
Love Heart saw the pale outline of a green dome appear at that instant and his gaze narrowed, “It’s a Clow Card alright, looks like it’s protecting the box.”
“Any idea which one?” Tori asked, “Better idea, how do you get rid of it?”
“Let’s see,” Love Heart stepped closer and carefully reached out to the box only to be repelled by the same pulse of energy. This time Tori and Confidence saw it too. “Don’t want to cause too much damage, hmm...” Love Heart folded his arms and tapped his foot.
“Any ideas, Love Heart?” Confidence sounded anxious which made Love Heart turn to look at her.
“Maybe...” he snapped his fingers, “Got it, stand back,” he pulled the clow key out.
“Key of Clow Power of Magic Power of Light Surrender the Wand The Force Ignite Release!”
Love Heart grabbed the sealing staff and pulled a card out of the book, “Sword!” Love Heart struck the card and with a whirl of fire the staff transformed into The Sword.
“Whoa! Watch it!” Tori stepped back, “Don’t destroy it!”
“He won’t. Right?” Confidence pumped her fists and turned to Love Heart.
“Right,” Love Heart held his sword up in front of him and faced the jewelry box. The barrier seemed to sense the magic as the green dome barrier became almost opaque, as if bracing for the impact.
“HAAA!” Love Heart swung at the box and struck the shield, stopping the blade mere millimeters from hitting the jewelry box. The dome split and the energy began to disperse. Love Heart changed the sword back to the staff and held it over his head.
“Clow Card! I command you to return to your power confined! Clow Card!” He swung at the dispersing energy which changed to what looked like dust as it was pulled into a glowing card shape before finally solidifying and floating into Love Heart’s hand.
The card looked like a wing-shaped kite shield bound up by chains and the name “THE SHIELD” across the bottom.
“The shield,” as Love Heart pulled a pen out of his vest pocket and signed his name across the bottom Confidence took the key from Tori and opened the box.
“Whew,” she sighed in relief at the contents, “All in one piece.”
“Don’t mess them up, Cassandra,” Tori said as he exited the room.
“So your mom’s jewelry,” Love Heart put The Shield Card away in the book and re-sealed the staff, “What happened to her?”
“Car accident, some jackass was reckless driving,” Confidence didn’t take her eyes off the contents of the box.
“Sorry... don’t want to talk about it?” Love Heart turned to leave until Confidence spoke again.
“It’s fine, you told me about the Cold Heart thing, but not much to tell,” she carefully picked up a pair of silver stud earrings set with small garnets, “She didn’t wear these much, didn’t want to look too spoiled or something,” she held the studs up the bottom of her ears and turned to face Love Heart, “What do you think?”
Love Heart just stared, a bit tongue tied, “Uhh,” he looked to her green eyes, “They compliment your eyes, because green and red and stuff...”
Confidence Heart giggled, “Thanks. I thought about getting my ears pierced but I was scared with the whole ‘pure tomboy’ face I had to put on before you found me.” She put the earrings back and looked at the rest of the box’s contents, a simple gold chain necklace with an obsidian tear-drop pendant and a small silver and sapphire ring, before she shut it.
“You should, I think you’d look nice, I mean...” Love Heart stopped, worried that he’d crossed a line.
Confidence blushed, “I might just do that, thanks Love Heart.”
Love Heart chuckled and blushed too, “Heheh, thanks. I should get home, tell Kero about this. Want to come to lunch with me, Brave and Harmony tomorrow?
Confidence beamed, “I’d love to!”
“Great! See ya,” Love Heart hurried out the door, his face red, not even bothering to say goodbye to Tori who was sitting in the living room.
Confidence all but skipped out of her parents’ room and sat on the couch with a big smile plastered on her face.
“Going on a date, squirt?” Tori asked with a bit of snark in his voice.
“I hope so,” she sank back into the couch.
Tori was a bit startled that she didn’t react to the nickname, “So going to get your ears pierced?”
“Maybe,” Confidence tweaked the base of her huge ears, “I was scared to before but now... yeah...” She turned to Tori, “You going to threaten him not to date your ‘kid sister’ or do something if he hurts me.”
“Nah,” Tori lay back, “I mean I don’t want you to get hurt but Love Heart’s a good guy, and if he tried anything you’d kick his ass... then I’d deal with whatever you left behind.”
Confidence smiled again, “Thanks, Tori. Think I’ll ask dad to take me to get pierced when he gets home.”
OoOoO
“So The Shield Card?” Kero looked at the freshly sealed card, “Its instinct is to protect precious things, that’s why it protected her mom’s jewelry box.”
“Why Confidence, though? Why not something in here?” Love Heart lay on his bed with The Jump sitting near his head.
“Probably scared one of us would kick its butt,” The Jump patted their chest proudly.
“Maybe not that but it probably wanted to protect something someone close to you cared about but that wasn’t right under your nose so you didn’t find it right away.” Kero passed the card back to Love Heart, who just stared at it.
“Yeah...” Love Heart lay back, thinking on Kero’s words.
The next day Love Heart arranged to meet Confidence before heading to lunch with Brave Heart and Harmony. He arrived just on the Readington side of the portal to wait and thankfully he didn’t have to wait long.
“Love Heart!” Confidence came running up, just wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Love Heart wore the same but with his usual cargo vest on over top.
“Hey Confidence!” Love Heart smiled as she slowed to a stop in front of him. He blinked when he noticed something glint at the base of her ears, “Did you get your ears pierced?”
“Yep!” Confidence pointed to the greyish studs stuck through the base of her ears, “What do you think?”
“I think it looks great but... what about your mom’s earrings?” he noticed the studs were rather dull in color.
“Well I don’t want to wear them all the time, only for special occasions,” she tapped the pierced spot gently and winced, “Also the piercer said I shouldn’t just start sticking jewelry in them. I gotta wear these stainless steel ones for a couple months so it doesn’t heal shut, not sure how it works for non-human ears, and I gotta clean them out every night because they might leak stuff from trying and failing to heal, kinda gross stuff and they’re sensitive to being touched.”
“Ick!” Love Heart stuck his tongue out and made a face, “Sorry I asked.”
“Yeah, wasn’t pleasant to hear about either,” Confidence said as she and Love Heart walked to their lunch meet up.
Love Heart couldn’t resist asking one more question: “So why stainless steel?”
“So it doesn’t rust, less likely to get infected that way.”
“Ick!” Love Heart grimaced again, Confidence just laughed.
“Thanks again, for yesterday,” Confidence blushed, she wanted to try something more but her nerve failed her.
“Any time,” Love Heart blushed too.
Confidence heaved a big sigh hoping to calm down before they got to lunch.
