Well here it is, second chapter,
And I would just like to thank everyone that commented, I genuinely didn't think people still kept an interest seeing as it has been well over ten years since the show. But then I had to rethink that and laugh, of course people still enjoy the show, it rules and will forever be one of the greatest cartoons ever shown on TV (WITCH FOREVER!)
But on saying that, not everyone that commented I was happy with: 'Spiritual sister' What. The. Hell?
Do you know how annoyed I was when I saw what you had put… well actually, my first thought was bemusement. I sat at my chair thinking 'I know that witch literally spells the acronym for magic and something a lot tof religion's frown on, but surely my fanfic wasn't that far into the realms of supernatural that it warranted a lecture from the good book did it?'
But then my bafflement turned into annoyance, I get that god followers like to spout passages and preach quotes and all that (My nan was a Jehovah's witness) but that does not mean that I like it pasted to my story.
I like to think myself as a liberal person. I accept that there are many who follow Jesus and god and for the most part, not bothered by what they do as it's their life and who I'm I to judge. But if I can be tolerate of people's faith then surely it works both ways.
So a note to 'S.S' if you do happen to read this – for future cases, please keep your opinions to yourself. Just as there are Christians… Muslims… etc, there are also atheists and while you might think that's blasphemous, it's a legitimate concept and that is for a very simple reason… they do not believe in a god, so do not wish to have it shoved down their throats about repenting and being 'born sinners'
If you haven't been reported yet… wow, but if you have then it's only what you deserve, you have a profile in which to write all that on and like the many people who write on here, and I'm not speaking for any of them, but I bet they don't like seeing their comments sections littered with preaching's either.
So overall: please keep the bible bashings to yourself and stop trying to shove god down the necks of those who have no inclination or interest in knowing that we won't get into the pearly gates just because we happen to like life. It's what makes us different and hell knows that if we all chose to jump on the bible bandwagon then chances are we'd be as boring and monotonous as… well, you.
Again I do not speak for everyone and that is my own personal thought on the matter, so in the off-chance that I have offended people for my rant, I apologize… but I'm not sitting here and allowing that when it's so clearly obvious this person doesn't respect others freedom of will.
Right. The topic of the matter over, now it's on with the story; and before my wordily rant I was thanking those that commented and so thank you. Caleb and Cornelia will be together forever and if I haven't read about it, then their break up never happened… (says my simple logic)
Either way this one is for all the stalwart CxC shippers out there and to one commenter, who knows, maybe there will be a certain villain coming in the next chapter, I have no clue. :/ (I totally lie, I have a clue.)
Anyway happy reading and I don't own witch… so still crying over here.
Falling through the fold Caleb landed heavily on the floor, by now having gotten used to the erratic ways that Blunk folded, he had resigned himself to the fact that he mostly never did come out upright and so merely inhaled as he looked up to the sky. It wasn't until his thumb ran over something twisted in his fingers did he move, glancing down, his breath inhaled more sharply at the sight of the golden tresses entwined around his fore and middle fingers.
It wasn't until he noticed that they led back to the portal did he remember just what they were attached to and before he could scramble to his feet, the sparks signalling an incoming passenger crackled into life, as seconds later, a second person was dragged through the gateway and came crashing down directly onto his prone body.
Grunting harshly as she landed directly on top of him, squashing down his stomach and forcibly expelling all the breath from his chest, he lay dazed for a moment before small groaning saw the familiar mane of golden-blonde slowly shifted into life, as Cornelia pushed herself up.
She lifted her head higher, only to pull back down again, wincing as the shooting pain from having her hair tugged tore through her skull; it was then she recalled having been pulled through and quickly looked down to her unreasonably squashy floor, eyes widening as the leaf-green eyes stared back up at her in silence.
They stared at each other not speaking, she gave him a hesitant smile but hissed when he lifted his hand—still containing her hair— as he hastily realized that it was causing her harm and so unravelled the long locks as fast as he could, before expressing his own discomfort when the knee she didn't realized was lying on his abdomen, shifted, digging further into his front.
"Oh, Caleb— I'm sorry!"
He smiled gratefully when she rolled and moved to his side, the weight vanishing as she helped him to sit up, it wasn't until he had risen to his elbows that the gate emitted a third being as Blunk fell through, crashing right in front of them. Slowly, the passling rose to his feet, hands reaching behind him as he rubbed his bottom, grumbling to himself before tottering around and stopped at the sight just behind him.
All three stared at each other, before Blunk spoke. "Caleb ok?" when the young rebel nodded he then turned to Cornelia, eyes narrowing before going wide as he realized something.
"Blondie girl here to… but blondie girl supposed to stay in castle,"
It was his words that brought back their situation and before she could speak, the loud thrumming had them looking to see the gateway shrinking in size, before closing altogether leaving them lying in the middle of the alleyway it had spat them out.
She sighed, staring at the place the fold used to be. "I was meant to, but I think that plan's out now,"
She turned to her left as Caleb climbed to his feet, dusting off his jacket before shrugging, "That's no problem. Blunk can open another fold and get you back there,"
His smile was so roguishly handsome that she couldn't help the fluttering of chills it invoked over her body as the small passling nodded at his friends idea.
"Blunk can do that, Blunk get blondie girl back to mean lady," the pair smiled at Luba's new nickname and watched as he brought the tooth out, standing next to the wall he slashed the air in front of them and waited for the space rift to appear, but when none came he frowned.
He stared at the tooth before trying again, and again, and again. After the seventh try and still nothing, the little creature dropped to his knees, a look of despair overcame his goblin like features as he held the tooth in his hands.
"Blunk broke tooth! Blunk did bad!"
Simultaneously rolling their eyes Caleb turned and helped her to her feet, before going over to where the bawling passling knelt. He lifted the tooth from his hands and inspected the small item as Cornelia moved over to stand at his side.
"It doesn't look broken," he finally said as a delicate hand came to rest on his shoulder and he turned to see her shaking her head.
"What,"
"I don't think it's broken. Remember what Luba said?" she waited as it took a few seconds but then it dawned on him and he nodded.
"Security would be tightened as soon as we left." He turned to where he portal failed to emerge; a look of grim comprehension appeared more fully as he spoke again.
"I'm betting that whatever spell she used to protect the castle, enacted once we had fallen through." Glancing back to the tooth he turned and gave it back to the still sniffling Blunk.
"Don't worry. It's not broken. It just won't be able to work in trying to get back to Kandracar… at least not yet anyhow."
Blunk accepted his tooth back, eyes roving every inch of the precious item as he took in the boy's words. "Blunk not break tooth?"
On seeing him shake his head, the immediate desolation he felt vanished, replaced by happiness as he laughed happily and swung the thin chain back over his neck before jumping to his feet. They watched as he ran from the side street still laughing; Caleb scoffed but with a smile crossing his lips before turning back to her, now that they knew they couldn't fold back to the castle it left the question of what to do now; seeing her worried expression, he picked up her hand.
"It'll be ok," Azure eyes lifted to meet his, "You know that do you?"
Face morphing into one of mock bravado; he puffed up his chest earning a giggle as he nodded. "Of course, we'll just wait a while until Luba can send a signal or something letting us know it's safe to go back, and I'll have you there faster than Blunk can avoid bath night."
Smiling she took his hand as he led them out into the street and in the direction the now happy passling ran, though he did his best to cheer her up, a small niggling in the back of her mind knew that he couldn't make such promises; she had learnt enough during her time as guardian to know that nothing ever went smoothly, there was always something just waiting for them to let their guards down before striking. And as they walked down the cobbled path, she couldn't help the unnerving feeling, that something was coming much sooner than they could afford to wait.
Walking through the streets Cornelia had to fight of the blush uncharacteristically crossing her cheeks, normally such a thing wouldn't exist as she was used to people staring at her, she just ignored them and went about her day; but seeing as this was anything but normal, it had her a little fretful.
The fact that she was in guardian form also didn't help matters, seven times out of the ten they came here, the sight of the guardians only meant that trouble was ahead and as much as people valued their help it also brought a sense of wariness to those that saw them; the blonde could see the already apprehensive glances thrown in with a few of dread and felt her stomach slowly dropping. So far nothing had happened to Meridian—apart from their queen being sucked into a jewel, and the annihilators— nothing else had darkened their steps allowing them a reprieve from feeling threatened, she didn't want to be the instigator that brought a false sense of danger and throwing them into a panic; she gently tugged on his hand forcing him to a stop.
Caleb turned around, she smiled at his slightly confused but also worried expression as he gave her entire appearance a once over, shaking her head she leaned closer to him.
"Nothing's wrong sweetie… well," she paused for a moment to cast her eyes to the sides as he followed her direction and realized that they had been attracting attention, he gave the denizens a silent stare before turning back, he didn't see what the problem was, they got this all the time.
His obliviousness must have shown as she placed a hand on his shoulder and leaned in closer,
"The only time they see us, is if something bad is going to happen."
Her words struck him instantly and on taking another furtive glance, he could see now the looks of nervousness at the sight of the pair; knowing that they had to leave quickly or risk creating more unease he gave the denizens a pacifying smile— hopefully in a bid to calm whatever thoughts of alarm they might have had, and nodded to her.
"You're right…"
He paused for a moment, thinking on where to go before he quickly started moving again, tugging on her hand as she hurried to catch up.
"I know where we can go," as they passed the observing locals, Cornelia smiled sweetly in their direction, before they turned the corner and vanished from sight. They kept moving, never stopping as the stares burned into their backs, but they paid no heed, keeping to the side streets in an effort to avoid further interactions as finally they came to a stop outside of a dark doorway.
"Where are we?" He waited, taking in every corner of the street until he deemed it safe before replying.
"This is where the honour guard likes to hang out."
"… Honour guard,"
Pushing on the door he stepped aside allowing her to go through, checking the street one last time before moving in after her, once inside he gave a glance to the bar where he saw both Drake and Tynar were sitting, the pair talking animatedly between themselves as the younger leader strode over to them.
"Caleb! You're back, how did it go in Kandra…"
Phobos' ex-guard trailed off as he saw the flash of blonde and looked to where the Cornelia stood. He glanced at her in silence for a second more before returning his attentions back to Caleb, as the pair waited on him to start talking.
"Is father around?"
Tynars' brow arched at the lack of explanation but it didn't seem the young man was in any mood to talk as he nodded and pointed to the set of stairs that led to the next floor; giving them a nod of thanks they watched as Caleb then moved back to where she stood, watching as he muttered something to her, before taking her hand again and set off for the steps.
"Think we should be worried?"
Tynar turned to Drake who was still watching the steps they vanished up, casting his own gaze back to the stairs he inhaled before shaking his head.
"Let's see what he has to say first,"
Drake turned his head to stare at his friend. Catching sight of the bemused glance thrown his way, the halfling simply shrugged before turning back around in his seat, picking up his tankard before replying.
"You know he will. He always likes to speak to Julian first though, so just give it a while before seeing what action might need taking."
With that he sipped his drink leaving the sandy haired man to his thoughts; in the end he knew the other guard was right, before turning back around and pushing whatever feelings of trepidation that had risen in his chest, back down as he took up his drink.
Julian turned when the door to his room opened, he stood when he saw Caleb enter and was about to move to greet his son when he stopped on seeing he wasn't alone; the older man watched as he held the door open and his eyes widened on seeing the blonde guardian slip inside after him.
"Caleb, what's wrong? Is there trouble?"
He began to move towards his sword, but stopped at the small exhale of breath leaving the blonde, he turned to see the rebel leader looking over his shoulder only to be met with a knowing look as he rolled his eyes and faced her. He stared at the pair, watching as they spoke, their voices muted as he placed a hand on her arm; with a nod she gave him a small smile before turning to go sit at the table near the window. Caleb then turned to his father who was observing them silently.
"No, there's no trouble,"
Julian found that quite hard to believe, his brow arched at the response just as Caleb sighed and rubbed the back of his head. Maybe Cornelia had a point and so letting his arm drop, he exhaled heavily before adding.
"Just a very… long story,"
Julian returned to his seat on the bed, still keeping his gaze on the younger man, settled down. He then turned to the guardian, sat sedately with her legs crossed as their eyes met, he gave her a smile to which she returned pleasantly just as the sound of the younger man had them both focusing back on him, as Caleb dived right into retelling the events of Kandracar.
The older man sat and listened whilst Caleb recounted the tale of the battle; from fighting with Ember to laying a smack down on Shagon. Cornelia smiled at his exuberance at getting one over on the angel of malice before he returned to his account of what happened, his face dropped though when he got to the mage.
"In the end it didn't matter, the mage screwed us over,"
Julian frowned at the bitter tone he used when talking about the woman, he shifted a little though at the mentioning of the talented sorceress he had once been enamoured with, pushing the image of the beautiful woman he had once loved away he lifted his gaze back to Caleb. He was still slightly puzzled about what she could have done to wrong them; the mage was on their side so seeing his angry expression confused him.
"What do you mean?"
Caleb turned to look at his dad, the bemused stare offered back only served to further drain him. He knew that his dad was a staunch supporter of the mage, for whatever reason the older man was adamant one hundred percent that she was someone they could count on to help, no matter what. So knowing that his next words would undoubtedly crush the man, was going to be hard to explain.
"The mage wasn't the mage at all,"
The younger man's cryptic words did nothing to lessen the bafflement he felt as he waited for more information. Caleb sighed again but started to explain that the one they thought the mage, was really a cover up, and that the one they thought the wise and powerful woman, was really Nerissa in disguise.
Caleb was too busy talking and so didn't see, but Cornelia did, the blonde had seen the reaction to Caleb's revelation, how the older man's face suddenly devoid of colour at the news given and her brow furrowed in wonderment. But as soon as it came, it went, with him quickly schooling his visible shock as finally the rebel turned around to face him. He gave Caleb a look of disbelief— clearly something the young leader expected as he tried to soothe the fact that one of his oldest friends had really just been a lie.
Still keeping her eyes one him Cornelia surreptitiously studied the older man's body language; as one of, if not, the most popular girl in Sheffield Institute, it was her job to know the daily running's of peoples business as it might just affect her somehow (should it be negatively then of course it was imperative she'd know in order to exact the correct punishment on the fools who had been foolish to drag her into their mess) she still grimaced at the Uriah disaster, when the little creep had used her, then rivalry, with the hockey team to create havoc knowing that Knickerbocker would turn to the only ones obvious in their dislike of each other when it came to the ice rink. So many detentions; she was positive that she knew the school by flash memory alone due to the time spent cleaning the dam place, of course it wasn't long before they learnt that it was the schools misfits that had caused the mess leading to their blame; it was after that they put their rivalry aside as they came together to enact vengeance on their shared enemy.
It took two days but eventually Uriah and his group found themselves accosted by the eleven strong angry hockey team on their way to school. There was a little give and take when planning their revenge and not intending to miss a second of their reprisal, the blonde happily skipped a couple of classes (she was the one holding the camera after all) in order to add the lasting touches; having taken their clothing she dumped them in the bin just as the bell rang out, a few minutes later the doors opened and the outpour of students emerged for dinner.
Or they would have had it not been for the fact that the school bully was strung up in nothing but his Captain America boxers, covered in a grimy orange substance and had been hoisted three quarters of the way up the flag mast, dead in the centre of the school grounds.
It was silent at first, as they watched the miserable boy swing listlessly before the laughing started. Soon the entire school was jeering the self-proclaimed punks' misfortune as Will and the rest of the witch group stood near the benches half amused, half horrified by the sight in front of them.
It wasn't until deep, snorting laughter had them turning to see on the other end of the path, stood the hockey team, from the way they were mocking and slapping each other on the backs it was clear who the culprits were, but what had them really surprised as Irma grabbed their sleeves harshly; at her frantic pointing they followed her line of sight only to have their jaws drop on seeing who was with the sniggering players.
There sitting on the backs of one of the benches, and surrounded by the crowing team players, was their friend, she wasn't alone as she was joined by two others who Haylin knew to also ice skate; from the satisfied smirk adorning her fair features and the fact that she hadn't been in classes all morning, it didn't take a genius to work out who their accomplices to Uriah's humiliation had been.
Still staring in open shock, they had no words; they all knew that the blonde could be scary when she wanted, downright terrifying in special cases… and, yes, at one point or another they had all wished to inflict violent and terrible harm to the irksome trouble-causer, but wishing it was one thing, to actually do it—or something close to it, was another entirely. So the fact that their friend had been involved in something so… extreme, it stunned them.
"All hail the American flag!"
The spectating crowd slowly began to follow the unknown voices command further resulting in laughter as Uriah by now had started shouting to be let down. To the left the large double doors opened and Michael, the group's captain, swore under his breath as Knickerbocker strode out. She was quickly joined by the janitor as they made their way over to the centre. Clearly someone had gone and told so very quietly with a nod to the others, once the head-teachers back was turned, focused purely on the strung-up boy, and when the strict older woman began yelling at those around them, they made their escape.
The rest of witch watched still silently as the hockey team scrambled, one of the other girls jumped from her seat and pulled Cornelia to her feet, giving one last look to the furious Knickerbocker, before giggling and running down the path along with the players, in the end the show was over; the head-teacher moving them along-with threat of detention if any lingered- they slowly moved to the cafeteria leaving the older woman and the janitor who had now retrieved a ladder and was in the middle of climbing to snag the rope that had been taped the side, furthering the difficulty of the job to get him down and leaving the teacher more enraged.
In the cafeteria they waited for the other girl to join them, thinking that perhaps she might have made her way there once they split up in the West section of the school, but to their dismay she never showed up all dinner, it was only in Biology did Will manage to spy her sitting at her table.
Predictably Uriah was nowhere to be seen so Will took the chance; Cornelia jumped on hearing the heavy thump at her side and turned to find Will staring at her.
"Since when did you go about terrorizing the other kids?"
Cornelia went to respond but guessed that she had been on about the little cretin who normally sat behind her; instead she smirked and shrugged before turning back to the front.
"The creep had it coming, it was about time someone put that little toad in his place,"
The red head didn't know what to say, "But hoisting him to the pole? Isn't that a bit too much?"
She shrugged again, her face indifferent to the shamed bully. "Not really, if anything he got off lucky. I wanted to feather the little worm but we didn't have time,"
'Would explain the grease' Will thought but got back to her main focus as she went to speak again. "Yes but—"she was stopped when two angry blue eyes zoned in on her.
"But nothing Will, do you know how many detentions we got due to that loser? We only did what anyone pissed would do… it might not be what your used to but there is a hierarchy here and Uriah kept pushing his place, so it was only right that we kicked him back down."
With that she turned back to face the front leaving her friend staring speechless, for the rest of the day they didn't say anything else as they listened to the rest of the school talk nonstop about the prank that had left Uriah shamefaced. It was only at the end when everyone was leaving that his two minions had been found; they had been locked inside the bins and had recently just been rescued when the cleaners had trouble throwing the rubbish away, only to have the janitor use bolt cutters to open the lids and found the pair of boys inside, having been trapped for hours.
She smiled, recalling the fond memory that saw the trio of losers giving her a wide berth from that day after, - both her and the hockey players sparking a few rumours that it had been them that delivered his epic wedgie, the fact that he refused to say meant that the teachers couldn't prove it, leaving her and the players untouched and the rest of her friends wondering, if they even knew the blonde at all.
But warm reminiscing aside, it was after that she dedicated her time into knowing the people around her, not personally of course, but by how they acted and so liked to think herself as a master at deciphering whether or not people were hiding something; and as she looked to Julian, whose expression and sudden rigidity had piqued her interest, it could only mean one thing.
Caleb's dad had something to hide.
"She trapped the oracle and a few of the other councillors in a prison of sorts, the only one left is Luba…" the sound of his voice brought her musings to an end as she turned to face him; Julian to, pushed down the thoughts of a past gone by as he faced his son, the news obviously was bad and he felt a sense of dread start to build in his gut at the thought of the oracle, the strongest person in Kandracar, if Nerissa was powerful enough to trap him then what chances did they have?
It was then he turned his attention to the young blonde on the other side of the room, he eyed her attire and despite his limited knowledge of earth, knew that they didn't go guardian back home; clearly there was something more to the story. Caleb caught the look given as he sighed again and spoke.
"Yeah… as you can see, Cornelia's here and before you ask, no— the others are not here, there is nothing wrong," he was cut off by the small, cough as he glanced her way to see the pointed stare given before amending his statement.
"Ok, well, not nothing seriously wrong… but it's nothing to do with Nerissa—"again his words were halted by a second, slightly, louder clearing of her throat making him sigh.
"Fine. It was halfway through the battle and the oracle had asked Cornelia to go and find Halinor—"once more Julian sat and listened, when Caleb finally came to the end he chanced another look at the visibly irked young blonde who scowled when the ex-fire guardian was mentioned and at her overall situation altogether.
His brows arched at the predicament she had found herself in, though by no fault of her own, he never professed to know anything about what being a guardian of the veil entailed, though from what he had heard that title no longer stood. After Phobos had been taken down and the veil removed, their status grew and looking after a single realm was no longer their main priority, it was every realm that came after that demanded their protection and from what Caleb had told him, having more responsibilities saw their powers increase drastically; he had seen the young guardian in action and he had been greatly awed at what her abilities were and what she could do with them, but if what he had heard now was correct, then she was in greater danger and not just from the mass overload of power the Auramere posed.
"But if you possess the Auramere, then shouldn't you have stayed inside Kandracar? Surely being away will do more damage?"
He stopped at the looks exchanged between them, his sons was a resigned tiredness whilst hers held a irritableness and knew that he must have hit on something. It was then that Caleb spoke once more.
"She was going to, Luba had been very explicit on her orders that Cornelia had to stay behind whilst she researched,"
"So then why are you here and not where Luba instructed?" he turned to the blonde sat back in her chair, arms crossed over her chest. She gave him a hard side glance before speaking for the first time; her one word was curt and stiff as her nose creased in slight dislike when she spoke the name.
"Blunk"
That made sense, made more so as Caleb explained that in usual Blunk style, the small passling had been causing mayhem on arriving per his instructions but ended up causing chaos, after annoying Luba of course, he then crashed into them sending them flying directly through the fold and once he had joined them, it closed back up leaving them stuck.
"Luba said that once we were to leave, the extra protection she needed to place around the castle would go up immediately; once it did then no one can reach the realm for at least a few hours, possibly more… " he shrugged and turned to face the guardian who had slouched a little in her chair.
"Until we can get back, Cornelia's stuck here, so I need to find a place we can lay low for a while, just until Luba's spell dies down a little."
Julian pondered on his question. Truthfully this wasn't something he expected on waiting for the young commander to return, so with limited options even though he had spent years hiding, he lifted his head back up and looked back to them.
"The infinite city, it's the only place I can think of that might just—"
"Nope."
Immediately both men turned their heads to the earth guardian who had sat up straighter in her chair. She eyed the pair sporting similar looks of confusion as Caleb spoke first.
"What do you mean no? What's wrong with the city?"
Eyes flicking to him, they stared at each other for a moment in silence before she responded, ankles crossing as she propped her elbow on the table.
"Back when Phobos was searching for Elyon, he sent Cedric to Earth to look for her, didn't he?" green eyes narrowed slightly in bemusement, but nonetheless he nodded to her question as they waited for her to get to her point.
"When Will and Haylin found the writing and we couldn't figure it out, where did we go?"
"The Infinite city," he still wasn't sure where she was going with this, but nevertheless waited as she nodded her head.
"Yes, and who did we go see in the city who always resided there?"
She finished speaking to stunned silence. Though she never said it out loud her insinuation was enough to have the smart minds weaving her hints together, normally when one mentioned the endless underground city there was only one image that came to mind, the staple of the city and its unspoken protector.
The mage.
But given with what they had witnessed in Kandracar, and the new information about the mage's true identity, the gravity of the blonde guardian's words hit them like gargoyle's club leaving behind a slowly deepening tension. Letting her head rest upon her hand still propped up on the table, she eyed the pair in shock at the startling admission. Whilst sitting in silence was never something she found fun, it always allowed for awkwardness and a pressure to build that led to uncomfortable pass-times, she knew that now wasn't the time to say anything else. Thankfully the friction was cut as Julian jumped to his feet, a look of frantic worry on his face.
"I have to go! If the mage really is… Nerissa, then who knows what she might have done." He quickly moved to grab his sword as he tried it around his waist, the duo watched as he then made for the door, yanking it open just as he turned back to them.
"I'm sorry I can be of no more help, but…"
Caleb raised his hand, "Don't worry, just go— take Drake and Tynar with you, and be careful." The older man nodded and left without further word. He watched the door close as Cornelia observed his slightly wistful expression and stood, wincing as her spine popped from sitting so straight and made her way over to him, he felt her arms snake around his neck and turned to face her.
"If you want to go then I can always wait here until you get back," he looked at her before shaking his head, his own hands moving as they slid around her waist and he held her close.
"No. I know they can look after themselves… right now my focus is making sure nothing happens to you."
A pale brow arched at his words, "Oh, so you don't think I can look after myself?" normally his words would have set her off, descending into a full blown argument, but this wasn't a normal situation, this was something neither of them knew anything about and though she would never let it show, the thought of it scared her slightly as she let her body sink into his embrace. He sighed and let his chin rest atop her head, still holding her gently.
"I know you can, but just humour me this once would you?"
Smiling she snuggled closer, lifting her head she pressed a kiss to the skin of his neck. Throughout all of their missions, all the dangerous tasks they faced, she had been the one to help or pull him away if he was in danger. She wasn't quite sure what the worst might be or how he could help given his lack of magic, but standing in his arms inside the small, inn room she knew that he would protect her with everything he had; the mere thought of him actually giving his life to defend her from potential threats was enough to have her heart clench, pushing her face into his chest, arms tightened around his body.
She hated the fact he threw himself into hazardous situations with nothing but a sword, but she had to remind herself that he had been doing this long before they became guardians and so knew he was capable of looking after himself, so pushing down the treacherous images of him lying hurt, she nodded. If it helped him keep his mind occupied then she would allow his self-imposed duty; she just couldn't help the gnawing in her stomach that the task he had set himself was one of a Sisyphean effort.
Outside the window a noise had him looking to see the outlying shadow of the familiar passling. He rolled his eyes but watched as he scuttled off down the side of the wall, jumping to the next building and to the road as he made his way down the path.
A little while later they slowly broke apart, she looked into his face as he smiled down, hand lifting he ran it through her hair before bringing her closer as he kissed her head. It was moments like this she lived for, clutching the sleeves of his jacket she savoured the touch of his lips, he pulled away just as she leaned up and pressed her own to his once more; pulling back before he had time to be surprised as he stared at her quizzically and she shrugged.
"The head wasn't good enough."
He kept his gaze on her silently, before a crooked smirk crossed his face and he chuckled before nodding and taking her hand, stepped away as they made for the door. There was still the issue of finding a place to hide for a while, but in the meantime he had to find her something to cover her outfit with and so recalling a stall down the road that sold cloaks, led her from the room as they moved on to their next stop.
