2. Love
Halt watched his apprentice critically. There was something...off about him. It wasn't the caffeine intake; because the hyper stage had passed a couple of weeks ago (Gilan had never had coffee before becoming Halt's apprentice). And it wasn't because he was missing his family; he had gotten over that weeks ago, and he was sending letters regularly. And he wasn't sick or anything; Halt was...fairly certain about that.
So why, exactly, was he missing targets that he hit perfectly last week?
This, Halt told himself, was the perfect test for his apprentice. Following him through the woods, seeing if he noticed, or was suspicious, at the very least. To his immense disappointment, Gilan didn't notice him at all. Halt followed his apprentice to his destination almost listlessly, upset and sulking about his bad mentoring. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all. Maybe the boy should go back to BattleSchool. Maybe...Halt's depressed thoughts trailed off as he saw why Gil was walking, distracted, through the woods.
Gilan knew that there was something wrong as soon as he walked into his mentor's cabin. Halt was sitting at the kitchen table, smirking like he found out something that Gil didn't want him to...
Halt motioned for the boy to sit down. When he did, he began to talk. "So, I was thinking..."
Gil gulped. Nothing good ever followed that statement...
"I was thinking that you needed more work to do."
Another gulp, this one accompanied by a sinking feeling. "More...more work?"
His mentor nodded, clearly pleased with himself. "Exactly. Housework and the like. Dishes, woodcutting, generally cleaning the cabin up." With each word, Halt's smugness rose while Gil's face and stomach fell steadily.
Drawing a breath, Gilan asked, "Why?"
"So you won't be distracted. Think of it as...practice for when you go on missions. Now," Halt pushed his chair back from the table and stood up. "I believe you have dishes to do." And with that he walked out of the cabin.
As he stacked the dishes, Gilan realized that Halt had, somehow, found him out. Well, he thought. I'll prove him wrong. I'll show him that she isn't a distraction, and that I can work, including all of these stupid chores, and still see her.
-Two months later-
Gil walked back to Halt's cabin, barely seeing the branches that nearly hit him in the face, because of the dark that had fallen, but more so due to the tears that clouded his eyes. Halt was right, he thought bitterly. This was an entirely stupid idea. It's not like she cared as much as Gil did anyhow.
He stopped when he reached the porch, taking time to take a few deep breaths and compose himself. No matter how hurt he was, he was not going to show Halt that he was breaking down in the name of love.
Hmmm. I seem to be a pretty depressing individual...most of these might be angst or revenge fics, which could be influenced by whatever I'm listening to at the time (Lily Allen and P!nk)