"When she asks if I could mend her broken heart, I wouldn't know where to start" Bowling For Soup, She's Got A Boyfriend Now

The tall, brown-haired Lady Knight burst into her best friend's office. Neal took no notice of Kel; she had come to visit him every day since he had taken his father's place as Chief Healer of the Realm. He continued shelving his medicines, expecting Kel to tell him some new bit of Palace gossip or news from their friends, until a strange sound reached his ears…the harsh sobs and heavy breathing of someone crying.

The healer-knight whirled to see his best friend sobbing face-down on the pallet that lay open and unoccupied on his hearth. "Kel!" He rushed over to her and put his hand on her shoulder, his emerald-green Gift streaming from his fingers as he searched his friend's body. Something had to be wrong. Kel never cried, not even when she was hurt.

There was no sign of illness or injury that he could detect. As he reached for his mirror to contact Alanna, Kel's voice broke the anxious silence, startling him.

"This isn't something magic can cure, Neal," she choked. "It--Its Dom."

His heart grew cold. What had his cousin done to make Kel cry? She was no easily startled, emotional court lady. She was one of the best knights in the realm, and trained by the Yamanis. Neal had never seen her cry. He put his arms around his sobbing friend and tried to soothe her as she cried into his shirt.

Slowly, she managed to stutter the story out. She had found out that Dom was courting some new beauty, Maire of Scoutscrest. Both away on duty, neither of them had heard the usual palace gossip for several weeks. Neal didn't know what to say.

The new revelation hurt him physically, striking him like a blow. Of all people, his self-centered, moronic, womanizing, bastard of a cousin just had to go and break Kel's heart.

Oh, he knew that they were not officially courting, but he had seen the stolen kisses, the interlaced fingers concealed under the tables. Privately, he speculated that the relationship had gone further, but he could hardly think about it. It made him sick. He had told himself that it was just because he didn't want to picture his two best friends together, but, somehow, he wondered whether there was a whole other reason entirely. Years with the Lioness and her husband had taught him both to lie believably and to recognize another's lie, but how could you tell if you lied to yourself? This was a philosophical debate he would have loved to ponder on any other day, but today, it only added to his confusion.

"Oh, Kel. I'm so sorry," he said, stroking her hair.

He held her tight there for several moments, resting his chin on top of her head. It felt so good to comfort her, to hold her. He never wanted to move.

"Kel, I can't help you with magic, but I think I know another way," he said quietly. What am I doing? He wondered, but was already too absorbed to care.

"What?" She turned her head to look up at him through watery eyes. Her face was red and blotchy but to Neal, she was beautiful.

He pulled her face towards him with cool, gentle hands.

"This."

And kissed her softly on the lips.


!review!repasar!revue!rassegna!Bericht!revisão!検討!검토!обзора!回顧!مراجعة!

I don't know if this is gramatically correct, because I only speak English, and I take Latin. I just used google translator to do this, but I think that these words are the noun review, not the imperative verb, but I didn't really want to mess around with it more. Hopefully you get the picture.

Always Yours,

MoD