Tired.
That's what she felt.
Every bone in her body, every muscle screamed at her to stop, to lie down and just rest. Not yet! I'm so close, she mentally scolded herself.
Nicole Hawk glanced up at the city looming before her from the dock of the ship she was on. The city's gallows still present as ever, but not as intimidating as they once were, she thought to herself with a small grin.
Hawks blond hair was lose from its usual ponytail as to hide her face from recognition of her own people. Unfortunately when you save a city several times over and assist with saving the entire world AND help build the wardens back to former glory people tend to remember you.
Footsteps from a high healed and very determined woman sounded behind Hawk. A hand was placed on her shoulder and Nicole smiled placing her hand atop the foreign one. "Are you ready to be home?" Isabella asked as her feathered hat blew widely from the sea air.
Hawk took a deep breath "Oh I've never wanted anything more but I fear that when I return home you all may never see me again," She said with a nervous smile.
Isabella just laughed for a moment "You think he will be that angry?" She said incredulously
Hawk made a dramatic gesture toward the city "I left the man without so much as a good bye kiss and he had to be told by Avaline and you that I may never return, and he also had no idea I am indeed returning today, so knowing him, yes I am sure that he is going to kill me" she finished with a sad glance at her best friend. "He may never forgive me,"
Isabella looked at Hawk as if she just stripped naked and starting doing some fancy Orlesion dance. "Hawk you cannot be serious! The man loves you more than life itself and if I were you I would not be worried about if he was going to forgive you but more of how hard he is going to-"
"ISABELLA" Hawk shouted and the Admiral just laughed at the blush that appeared on Hawks face.
Soon they were docked and Hawk set off toward her mansion in Hightown. There were stares as she walked past many, some may have seen her but they dismissed her as a look alike. Finally she was standing in front her home. So many memories coursed through her mind, she reached down to open the door to only find it locked. "Shit," she muttered and reached into a pouch on her side and realized she had never thought about taking a key to her own home when she left.
With a heavy sigh she got down and started casting small spells trying to get the lock to open. Finally a resounding click hit her hears and she smiled. Swinging the door open Hawk stepped inside and closed the door, locking it back in place. She took maybe four steps when a weight slammed her into the wall near the door.
"If you knew what was good for you thief I would start explaining what you ever hoped to manage by breaking into the champions home!" A voice snarled in her ear.
Instantly her heart melted, she felt so overwhelmed by emotion she could almost not force the words to come out of her mouth, "Well a bed with a nice meal and fire to keep warm by would be a good start," She stated in a shaky voice.
She felt the elf go rigid against her before he pulled back slightly allowing himself to look at the 'intruder'. Everything about him was so familiar, the colors of his eyes, the shaded tone of his skin, even the delicate lines going from his chin down his neck and chest in patters she spent nights tracing and memorizing. The only difference was his hair, it was still the unnatural luminescent white color but it had grown so much longer since the last time she had run her fingers through it, in fact so long he now kept it in a neat tail at the base of his neck.
He stared at her in the same wide eyed curiosity she gazed at him with. He looked into her own eyes which to him could only be compared to the oceans in Minrathose is summer when they were at their most blue. The ocean was one of the few things he ever thought about that wrenched country and she let him see it again every time she looked at him. Her hair was twice the length but gray streaks could be seen from the stresses she had endured while she was away. Lines had begun to appear around her eyes and mouth from the same grievances, but she was still as beautiful to him as she was when she left.
Slowly she watched his emotions change from confusion to relief, which lasted only for a moment before turning into anger, and hurt.
"Nicole Hawk you better begin explaining this very moment or so help me..." He said sternly tightening his grip on her wrists and pressing her harder into the wall.
Hawk sighed sadly, how was she supposed to explain when she could barely form a coherent thought with him this close to her after so long? "Fenris, I had to go, the city was beginning to turn on my and I couldn't drag you down with me. You would have died trying to protect me and how was I supposed to live with myself if you did." She began
Fenris's gaze softened slightly "Hawk you are the most important thing in the world to me, when I woke up and all I found was your belonging gone and a note that said 'I'm Sorry' what was I supposed to think?" He asked, anger starting to build again "I trusted you with every fiber of my being and you threw it back in my face! How could you do that! I would have rather died protecting you that spending over a year not knowing if you had left me or died or anything else." He exclaimed, releasing all his pent up emotions at once.
Hawk had managed to get one hand free. She gently touched his cheek feeling the dampness of tears she could barely see in the low light of the hall. "Fenris I promised you that I would never leave and you're right, I broke the promise and I understand if you want to leave me. I understand if you never forgive me but I did what I had to do and not a moment went by that I did not wish that you were by my side. You are the only man I love and if you will forgive me I swear to you that I am done running, or at least if I do run I will always bring you with me," She pleaded to him in a small voice breaking with her own tears.
For a long time neither one of them said a thing, slowly Fenris's grip loosened on her wrist as he brought her closer to him.
She closed the distance quickly after his move as their lips crashed together. In a moment the world around them disappeared and none of the pain both of them felt mattered anymore, they were together and it would take all the forces in the world and much more to pull them apart. They stumbled in each other's arms as their kiss become something more
Her hand grasped at his side wanting to feel his warmth closer to her.
He ran his fingers over every inch of her, making sure it wasn't some cruel trick of his mind making him believe she was here.
In the aftermath Hawk laid with her arms draped across Fenris's bare chest as he held her close. She watched his sleeping face in peace as she felt the warm sensation she always got when she looked at him.
He felt her gaze on him and pulled himself slowly from the most complete slumber he had in over a year. He looked down seeing a small mysterious smiled on Hawk's face," What?" he asked.
She just giggled "That was almost exactly like our first kiss, same wall and everything," She explained and his cheeks reddened at the memory and they shared a small laugh
This is where she belonged. This was home.