Thank you to those who reviewed. I will be answering questions slowly so if you don't have all the answers in this chapter you will just have to wait for the next.

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Tell you the story of who I am

The minutes ticked by as the little blue eyes bore into Dom. He smiled inwardly as he felt the little princess' frustration mounting. She was playing a modified version of peekaboo with the men of the Own and Dom was clearly not cooperating. Her game had so far provided leagues of entertainment for her and successfully won over each man she played with. She would stare the man down till he noticed her, then just as his attention shifted to her she would flash the soldier a shy, heartwarming smile before turning and hiding against Kel.

Kel. Dom's inward smile vanished as he thought about the reason he wouldn't look over at the blue eyes. The reason he wasn't looking to his left at all.

"Oneesan, why won't that man look at me?"

Kel's eyes flicked over to the tall sergeant riding beside her and wondered how to answer her little girl.

"Is he mad at me?" The little girl wanted to know. "Does he hate me?" Then with a gasp as she realized a final, awful possibility. "Do I hate him?"

"No Imouto he doesn't hate you."

"But do I hate him?" She would not be distracted from the most important question.

"Let's work through the steps like I taught you." The child nodded; clearly this meant something to her, though it sounded ridiculous to Dom. "Has he done anything to hurt you?"

The girl paused and thought as only children can about a rhetorical question. "No" was the final reply.

"Has he done anything to hurt anyone you love?"

Again a pause and then a "No"

"Well then there's not much reason to hate him is there?"

The little blue eyes narrowed at Dom, whose badly abused heart was melting from the interchange.

"He's not looking at me, that's a little bit mean."

Kel bent down and whispered in her ear. She nodded and turned to look back at Dom.

"Why don't you look at me?" Kel's quick poke to the girl's side had her trying again. "Please Sir, why won't you look at me?" Dom's inward smile was back but he fought hard to match her serious tone as he tried to find an answer that would make sense to her.

"Because Princess, I was waiting for you or your lady knight to say hello back to me. I had, after all already extended my greetings to you."

"Oh," the little blue eyes opened wide with understanding. "Well hello Sir." Dom smiled, this time outwardly and turned his head to meet eyes with the little blue ones. "Oneesan, you have to say hello"

"Hi Dom" it was almost a whisper, said on the end of the breath like a sigh. She hadn't even known she was holding her breath.

Their eyes came together and Dom had to steal his heart before it engaged in some new form of self-mutilation.

Dom stared at Kel and still could not quite believe what he was seeing. It had been several leagues of riding before the haze had started to lift from his brain after he had first seen her. When it did he set about systematically sorting through his thoughts and filing his feelings away. With that done he had taken charge of the ride to the capital, making sure they had provision for the week's worth of riding ahead of them and attending to other details, all while obstinately ignoring Kel.

Now as her eyes met his she could see the emotions, which had been so carefully filed away threating to break loose. She had known this moment would come, she just hadn't thought it would be so soon. "I'm sorry Dom" She whispered again.

He didn't nod, he didn't scowl, he didn't even blink as he asked "So princess, how is it that you came to meet your lady knight here?"

Kel, fighting off emotions of her own with a Yamani mask laid a hand on her girl's shoulder. "Imouto, remember, we are going to tell your father, uncle and grandfather before anyone else." She avoided looking at Dom as she said this. Dom clamped down hard on the hurt that sprang up at this directive. He concentrated instead on the frowning princess.

"Your lady knight? What's a your lady knight?"

"Me Imouto, I'm a lady knight."

The little curly head looked over at Dom, "Are you a lady knight?" That brought laughs from the men around them.

"No, I'm not even a knight"

"Oh, are you as strong as Oneesan?" Dom wondered briefly at the names the two had for each other but it was Wolset who answered as he rode up beside the little girl.

"Oh no, no one is as strong as our lady knight."

Dom nodded at the man and dropped back to take the spot he had vacated. As he moved away he heard the little princess declare "Then I want to be a lady knight when I'm big like you."

Dom watched the scar on the back of Kel head as they rode on. He resolved that whether he had to wait for her to tell the King first or not he was going to learn her story. He was going to embrace the fact that she was back and he was going to rebuild what they had once had. His mother had always told him he was a blind optimist, and maybe he was, but he did understand that his goal was going to take a while.

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