Disclaimer—I don't' own the characters of Tin Man
"DG has gone missing."
The words snapped Az's head around to look at Glitch. "What kind of missing are we talking about?"
"Completely missing. She slipped the guard, we can't find her in any of the places she used to go, and Cain's leading the charge to find her and going out of his mind."
She shook her head. "They won't find her." Setting down her needle work she brushed herself off before starting out of the room. "She hasn't done this for a long time now, so if she's gone there's something she needs to work out or deal with. I'd bet a platinum that it's even more difficult to find her considering who's in charge of the princess hunt."
Glitch hurried after her, frowning. "Why would Cain being involved make such a difference?"
Az had to hold back a little laugh at that; after all it wasn't fair to laugh at the poor mixed up advisor. "Because I'm guessing he's part of the reason she took off.
"Huh?"
They had reached the main doors, so she turned to look at the royal advisor with a gentle smile. "I'll handle it; just tell Cain to call off the hounds. After I make sure she's okay I'll let him know."
Glitch did as Azkadellia asked, but they both should have known that Wyatt Cain wasn't going to accept things that easily. Though he nodded briskly and agreed with Glitch, the moment the zipper-head was out of his sight Cain took off across the palace grounds. It didn't take him long to catch up with the princess, and when he did his training made it a simple matter to trail her.
The princess moved easily and efficiently across the vast grounds of the palace. Very purposefully, she drew no attention to herself; and the bustle and commotion of the searchers returning from the DG hunt covered her movements. Still, Cain hung on and kept on following behind her.
The captain kept a safe distance but his focus remained as intense as always. He trailed her over the grounds, through the warm air of Finaqua that neither of them seemed to care about. They just kept going all the way to the maze which had been restored to its former glory. Cain hated the damn thing, and he was only reminded why as he chased after Az through the twists and turns.
At the heart of the maze the princess took a right where there should have been a left, leading them to what should have been a dead end. With a smile, Azkadellia brushed her hand over the leaves in front of her, triggering some kind of lock that made the foliage disappear. Suddenly an alcove appeared and she grinned a bit wider. Very few people knew this place existed, which was why Az had known DG would go there. It had been a favored hide and go seek spot when they were younger, and hadn't been in use for years.
Cain cursed that he didn't know about yet another hiding place, but there was no choice but to let it go. Hiding around the corner where neither princess could see him, he settled in to listen to their conversation. He could hear Az's movements as she glided into the little maze room.
"It's been a long while since you hid in here Deeg. I think the last time you were about four and we ate an entire sheet of freshly baked cookies." She laughed. "We were so afraid of getting caught."
The younger princess nodded, curls swinging. "That was the last time."
She settled on a bench next to her sister, noticing the defeated posture and the way DG's arms wrapped around her body. "Want to tell me what's going on?"
Her voice broke as she spoke. "Everything."
"DG." Truly concerned, she brushed a piece of hair from her little sister's face, only to reveal blue eyes swimming in tears. "Tell me what's happened."
A shake of the head was her only response at first. Then, after a shuddering breath and with her arms tightening convulsively around her shoulders, she turned to face her sister. "What am I supposed to do? How am I supposed to look at Cain every single day of my life knowing that he doesn't want me?"
"Doesn't want you? DG are you both blind? You need each other more than oxygen."
She gave a humorless laugh. "So maybe I should rephrase. It's been pretty obviously clear that he wants me."
"You've been sleeping with him?" she asked quietly.
DG nodded with a sour look on her face. "Yes, for a long time. Evidently I was the only one who thought it was leading to something more. I told him I loved him and he pulled away like I was on fire. Evidently I'm good for sex and that's about it."
Az felt anger rising as she listened. As much as she wanted to believe that Wyatt Cain was a better man than this, what her sister was telling her made her absolutely furious. "I still know a few things about torture. I didn't lose all of the sorceress's knowledge," she said with narrowed eyes.
She let out a surprised laugh. "Az, you don't need to kill him. I'll pick up the pieces, and I'll get through it. You don't have to rip him to shreds to make me feel better."
"It'd only be what he deserved," the elder princess muttered under her breath.
"I'm sure." DG leaned over to kiss her sister's cheek. "But eventually I'll be fine, and you won't have to commit murder. For the moment, I'd like to just sit here and cry and maybe yell and scream a bit."
She nodded. "Okay, but let me know when you need me, and I'll be there. The pair of them shared a fierce hug, and then Az rose to walk out of the alcove. As soon as the maze wall appeared, she walked right over to Cain's supposed hiding place and shoved hard against his chest. "Give me one good reason that I shouldn't tear you limb from limb and feed you to a rabid Papay runner."
Cain was sure it wasn't physically possible to be more stunned than he was at that moment. "Princess…"
"Don't you dare say a word to me right now Wyatt Cain," she commanded dangerously. "I would hate to have to explain to Jeb why is father's pieces are strewn across the grounds, but don't think I won't."
He knew when to shut up and stay still, and he did so then; rocking with every hard jab of Azkadeliia's finger against his chest as she spoke.
"I hope to the gods that you aren't actually stupid enough to have been using my sister for nothing but sex. Considering that you were stupid enough to drop her like a piece of trash the minute things got emotional, I'm not sure if I'm hoping in vain." Tiring of the poking, her arms went imperiously to her hips. "You had better pray that you can fix this with her, because if you don't remove your head from your ass I will remove it for you; and I guarantee that my way is less pleasant, and a whole hell of a lot more painful. Keep it in mind."
The princess swept off, and for a moment Cain just stood there with his head reeling. It didn't take him long to shake himself out of it. Of course he would go talk to DG, how could he not with what she thought of him? He had imagined that he was part of her reason for taking off, but he had never in a million years imagined that he would have lowered his opinion of him so very much. Suddenly he wondered if following Azkadellia was the smartest or the dumbest thing he'd ever done.
"You may as well come in here Mr. Cain; I know you've been out there the whole time."
DG sounded entirely defeated, and it felt like a punch to the gut when he realized he was the reason for it. Still, he brushed his hands over the leaves and stepped into the alcove with the maze let it appear. He found he needed a fortifying breath when he saw her sitting on a stone bench with her arms still wrapped securely around her body and her gaze focused on nothing at all. "Deeg."
"Mr. Cain. You followed her I take it?"
"Mr. Cain now? After everything we went through together I'm back to Mr. Cain?"
DG turned to look at him with tears in her eyes. "And whose fault is it that that sentence is in the past tense?" she questioned. "The familiarity seems rather unnecessary now. You don't want to be lovers, you don't want to be together, and I can't be your friend now. So Mr. Cain it is."
His heart ached at the words, and he shook his head. "Is that really what you think of me? What you said to Azkadellia?"
"What else am I supposed to think?" She unwound herself and stood toe to toe with him, hardening blue eyes on blue. "I told you I love you, and you may as well have thrown me out of your quarters on my ass."
"You know it'll never work. Why can't you just accept that?" he asked, frustration coating every word.
She let out a harsh laugh. "It won't work because you won't let it work. You're a commoner, I'm a princess; you're so much older than me, blah, blah, blah!" She whirled away from him to pace, unconsciously putting the bench between them. "I wasn't always a princess, Wyatt. On the Other Side, I was basically a community college dropout working as a waitress and getting speeding tickets from the local police. I didn't wear dresses and talk to dignitaries; I served pie and fixed machinery on a farm. I'm no different than you, and I'm no better than you."
"You are here! Don't you get that?" He rarely raised his voice, but he found he couldn't stop himself from doing so now. "You're a princess, DG. There are rules."
"When the hell have either of us cared so much about the rules?" she questioned, hating herself for the despair in her voice. "Bottom line here is that you're scared, you don't want to deal with the fact that the first time since Adora you've fallen in love. So rather than face the fact that I love you and that, hey, guess what, you love me back, you run away. You love me but… you want me but… You basically tell me that I was good enough to fuck for a while but God forbid I should want a life with you!"
The language, the searing anger, just about blew him away. The tears were gone, replaced completely by anger and hurt, and Cain suddenly realized exactly what he had done to her. "Darlin'."
It almost broke her, that nickname falling from his lips, but she shook her head and refused to let the tears come. Instead she closed herself down, made her face coolly blank and her voice cultured and smooth. "I believe you've lost the right to use that nickname with me Mr. Cain. You made a choice, and I'm afraid now we both have to live with it."
Fighting to keep her body from shaking, DG walked around the bench and past him. She didn't know what she would do if he reached for her, but she needn't have worried. He didn't reach out, didn't say another word. It seemed as if he was letting her go for good, and it hurt more than anything else. She was heart-sick, and still so angry with him; it brought out the vindictiveness in her. So as she walked out of the alcove she cast her magic back and removed the door's trigger. As Cain battered at the wall of shrubbery she fled through the maze, and it was only when she emerged that she let the tears fall again.
It took him almost an hour to hack his way out of the maze alcove, and by the time he did the words DG had left him with had almost driven him mad. He had hurt her so much, made so many mistakes that he couldn't seem to fix.
In the time since the eclipse he had preached to his son about not having anything if he didn't have heart, all the while not realizing that he had yet to open his own heart to the possibilities in front of him. But DG had managed to make a tiny crack in his armor, and he had let her in enough to take her to bed. Then she had told him how she felt, something he had known somewhere deep down all along, and panic had pushed at him and pushed her out of his life.
Brushing a frustrated hand over his hair, he stalked out of the maze and back towards the palace. Everyone he passed fled from his path, and he scared the hell out of Glitch when he found him and backed him into a wall. "Where's the princess?"
"Which one?"
Cain shot him a deadly look. "Don't make me have to hurt you, zipper-head."
He sighed. "She locked herself in her room, and she won't open the door to anyone. She's used her magic and even Az can't get through it."
"Okay…" He let go of his friend and brushed at his coat. "Sorry Glitch, I just…"
"I know. I notice more than people tend to think," he said with a small smile. "We both know what's going on, and we both know you're the only one who can make it right."
The advisor walked off, leaving Wyatt shaking his head. He didn't know what to do with himself, but he knew he had to do something. With a sigh, he turned towards his quarters, knowing he had a lot to think about before he would know what to do.
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DG didn't leave her room all day and night. Walking away from the man she loved was quite possibly the hardest thing she'd ever done, and knowing that he felt the same way and just wouldn't open up to her made it even worse.
There wasn't one part of her that was willing to admit that maybe it was that he couldn't open up. She couldn't accept any of his reasoning, couldn't understand how he could stand to let crippling fear run his world and keep him from what he truly wanted. So she stayed in her room, and she cried until she didn't have anything else left. Hours after their encounter she finally drifted to sleep, the last thing in her mind a prayer that he wouldn't haunt her dreams.
As she floated in a dreamy haze, she wanted to weep when she heard his voice; he was haunting her everywhere. Then she felt a touch to her shoulder and her brow furrowed in confusion. It took a moment for her mind to clear, and then she realized that this wasn't a dream, that he wasn't some dream woven figure. He was flesh and blood, and he was waiting for her to wake.
Cain sat on the edge of the bed, his hand over her shoulder and up to brush her hair as he patiently awaited for her to wake. She was gorgeous as always, with her one hand thrown over her head and the other tucked up near her cheek. She let out a little groan as she opened her eyes, and when she found him there she frowned.
"How did you get in here? I spelled the door."
"You forgot the window," he said, completely unashamed of his maneuverings.
Pain shone through her eyes, and she shook her head, rolling over so she couldn't see him. "Go away Cain."
He shook his head. "No. I'm not going away until we've talked about this, or I have at least."
DG rolled back over and her eyes narrowed as she looked up at him. "What else could possibly need to be said?"
"That maybe you were right."
It was the last thing she was expecting to hear. Taken aback, she slowly slid up to a sitting position, and with her arms crossed over her chest, she stared. "I'm waiting."
Cain took the deepest breath known to mankind and after what seemed like an eternity, he began to speak. "You were right, I am afraid. When I lost Adora it was like a piece of me went missing, and when you came along and started to fill that hole back up I wondered if losing her memory forever would be the consequence of letting myself love you."
"I'm not looking to replace her, Wyatt," she said quietly.
"I know that; I think I always knew that. But I didn't want to let you all the way in, because I needed something to cling to, to keep myself grounded instead of facing the fact that I was practically drowning in love for you."
She shook her head. "That's the difference between us. I never thought it would be so horrible to have all that love. You can't deal with it when you realize that you're loved because you're so scared that you won't be able to protect them or that they'll walk away. I wouldn't have walked away from you."
He nodded slowly. "I think that's what terrified me so much. The first time we made love I laid there afterwards with you in my arms, and for a second I let myself dream. I asked myself, how would it be to wake up with this amazing woman in my arms every morning. It scared the hell out of me."
"Why? Why would loving with your whole heart and being loved do that to you?"
"All I could think was, what if I had her? What if I get to keep her forever and down the road she realizes that she's saddled herself with some old man. What if some handsome prince comes along and she's stuck with me."
He was slumped on the bed, his eyes so tired; it made her want to weep and take him into her arms to soothe away the hurt. "Don't you understand that I don't want the handsome prince? I don't want anyone else, because I just want you." She reached out to his face, gently guiding him to look into her eyes. "There hasn't been room for anyone else in my heart since we jumped off that cliff together, and I always thought you felt the same."
"I do," he told her, pressing his own hand over the top of hers. "I wanted you in my life even before I realized what I felt for you. How could any woman that would go running at a group of longcoats brandishing a stick not be worth the time?" he asked wryly.
She let out a stunned laugh, inching closer to him. "So if that's the case, why can't you just let go?"
Sky blue eyes met hers with no reservations, and one of those beautiful, rare smiles of his blossomed on his face. "I think I can, if you even still want me. I made you feel like… well I don't even want to say it. You're good for more than just sex, Darlin'. You're good for everything, and you always will be for me if you don't want to kick me to the curb after the mistakes I've made with you. I'm just hoping that maybe we're more than the missteps and regrets."
"We're more than a sum of the mistakes we've made, so I think I'll keep you; even if you are a stubborn jackass. Maybe that's part of why I love you."
Wyatt let out a short laugh. "Maybe that's part of it. I do love you, you know that?"
"I've known it all along," she whispered, leaning forward to brush her mouth against his softly. "I've just been waiting to hear you say it like that; like we're the only two people on the planet."
He pulled her into his arms and kissed her, a slow burn rising. "Maybe we are."