Mira opened the door to Kit's new room at the North castle. "Hello sweetie," she whispered. She put a bunch of flowers into a vase on his nightstand.
He smiled and opened his eyes. He lifted his heavily bandaged hand and waved. "Hi," he said. "I think I feel better already after seeing your beautiful face, my princess."
She grinned. "Wow, you're completely wrapped up."
Kit smirked. "Ash's orders. God, I am stupid. The stupid shadow caught be off-guard and went up behind me. Got a bunch of burns on my back."
Mira chuckled. "Oh, I know exactly what you did wrong. Ash was really pissed off yesterday and... Well, she completely ruined you at lunch yesterday."
Kit raised an eyebrow. "Oh? What did she say?"
"That you were too focused on shooting ones that were far away down that you didn't notice the ones near you creeping up, that once the shadow burned your back you freaked out and waved your hand out to try and stop it- but it's a mist-composed entity and you ended up with a burned hand instead."
Kit winced. "Ah. That woman doesn't miss anything."
"She also says that the ointment used to cover your burns will be deducted off your pay."
"Aw~! I guess the dress I'm going to buy you will have to wait a little bit more, princess."
"Why would you buy me a dress?" Mira laughed. "If you really want to buy a girl a dress, buy Ash one!"
"Now why would I buy her a dress? That's absurd."
Mira suddenly remembered something. "Oh! I actually came here for something else."
Kit sat up. "What?"
"I have to put on new bandages."
Kit blinked, and felt a flush creep up his neck. "Wha-?"
"Come on, Kit, take 'em off. I gotta tie new bandages all over your burns." Mira said, already unraveling a roll of bandages.
Ash walked along the hallways, familiarizing herself with the layout and mapping out the shortest route to Mira's room if she ever was in danger. She passed by Kit's room, convinced herself to go in, and went to Kit's room, stood outside for a moment, taking in a few deep breaths. Then, she stepped forward and opened the door.
Mira and Kit turned around as Ash's eyes roved over Kit's undressed state and Mira's half-way completed bandaging.
Ash closed the door again.
Ash walked away from the room as fast as she could. Of course Mira was bandaging Kit. They were good friends, of course. And Mira was known for shortening the healing process, and well as being able to banish depression and the other complications that came with being burned with shadows.
Jealousy burns more than any injuries that could be obtained from a shadow.
Ash tightened her grip on her spear and lowered her head. She needed to blow off some steam. If only a pack of shadows would attack now! Ash walked fast and so with her head lowered, she couldn't stop herself as she collided with Wolf.
She immediately steadied herself, and by default, stretched out her hand and held Wolf up by his waist like she always did with Mira, who, being very clumsy, fell down often.
She pulled Wolf back up to a balanced standing position expertly. "I'm sorry, your majesty. I did not see you."
Wolf nodded. "Yes, I-, me too." He said, still surprised at being handled like a girl.
Ash swung her spear behind her back respectfully and then remembered her first meeting with him. "Ah, I also have something else I want to address with you, but never really had the time alone with you."
Wolf tilted his head. "Oh, okay. Then... Feel free to... Address it."
"I apologize for the rudeness of our first meeting. I know better than to curse in front of your majesty, but I am a hothead and I must control that emotional side of me." Ash said. "I, however, do not regret my decision, and would continue to ignore your majesty (if he is in a nonthreatening situation) if my men need me elsewhere."
Wolf opened his mouth, "It's alright, sergeant. I wasn't thinking clearly either. I shouldn't have decided to place our introductions in the middle of a battle."
Ash nodded. "Now... To my punishment." She bowed down to Wolf, her spear set to the side. "If a subject curses or is rude to royalty, the punishment can be from a public hanging to a private whipping, or a simple rank lowering, or a deduction from the salary."
Wolf opened his mouth. "Uh..." His mind was still reeling from standing so close to her. Goddamn, he can't think with those red eyes staring at him so intensely... Wait, private whipping?
Wolf felt a flush begin to creep up his neck. "No, it's okay. I... Just have one thing I want you to do."
"Anything." Ash said without hesitation.
Wolf raced for anything that popped up into his mind. Then he remembered something. Without thinking, he sputtered it out.
"W-wear... A dress."
Ash blinked and looked up. "What?"
"Wear a dress to the next winter ball. It's going to be held here in the North castle. A-and make it green! Green with white lace, and strapless! With white buttons from the top curving in a line down to the side, decreasing in size... With a an ash-rose colored bouquet in your hair, pinned up into the side of your bun..."
Ash stared up at Wolf.
He blushed. "I-it's... Actually this is Mira's request!" He lied.
"Oh~," Ash smiled. "Ah. That's why. Alright, then, I will accomplish this task."
She smiled up at him. Wolf felt his heart go crazy. "Even when she isn't here, you're still thinking of what she wants all the time, aren't you."
How sweet, Ash thought as she picked up her spear, nodded one last time to the North king, and walked towards the practice rooms to see how strong the North soldiers were.
As soon as she was out of sight, Wolf ran to his room and slammed the door closed. He dumped the box of paper he was carrying on his desk and sat down.
Every time he thought of her his heart twisted into a million knots and his hands went numb.
He groaned...
He had to control this emotion. A king cannot marry a knight. A king who was engaged cannot fall in love with a knight! That knight would be ridiculed and pushed out of society! She would be ruined.
This feeling- be it lust or love- has got to go away!
Ash was taking on ten different soldiers at a time (and beating them badly) when yet another alarm rang. Ash quickly ran right outside and gasped.
This time only one shadow arrived, but it towered over fifty feet tall, and the heart was no where in sight.
As shouts and more alarms rang behind her, Ash ran up to the shadow and swung her spear around, slicing it up into bits, but the mist regrouped and reformed themselves in instants- the fasted regeneration Ash had ever seen.
Behind her, she heard a familiar voice.
Kit stood up in just a pair of pants and come bandages. He held up a gun. "I see it! It's on the eye! The heart!"
As Ash watched with horror, Kit took a half-ass shot and hit the area three feet away from the heart.
"What the hell are you doing out here, Kit, you're injured!"
Wolf ran out with his large blue steel sword and swung in down, chopping off a good chunk of the shadow's foot. Around the shadows, soldiers began to encircle it and slice off pieces.
Ash growled in the back of her throat, "Kit, are you a retard..." She activate her spear's wings and jumped into the air. She swung on the air currents until she neared the heart, and then she swung her spear, located the heart, and took the shadow out with one single, precise blow.
The shadow's heart exploded in a flash of blinding white, knocking Ash out of her air current, and the rest of its mist dissolved.
Ash fell backward. "Shit!"
She reached out to grab her spear, and she managed to grab it, but the wing was torn.
She hit the ground.
And behind her, shadowy arms formed out of the bushes of the forest and dragged her in before she could fight back.
"ASH! NO! ! !"
Was the last thing she heard.
Kit sat in the meeting room, stunned, his eyes wide and open yet still somehow not seeing the table in front of him.
Wolf stood in the corner, his hand covering his eyes.
Cura sighed. "Kit, if I dare to ask, what were you doing outside?"
"I knew I was the only sniper who is able to find the heart fast enough." Kit muttered.
Mira felt her eyes act up again. Now was not the time to cry. She sniffled a little and took a deep breath like Ash always did when she felt too emotional. Oh, Ash... Mira's eyes watered.
Wolf rubbed his face and messed up his long blue hair. "Cura, we have to launch a search."
"In the forest?" Cura asked. "She might not even be..."
Kit smashed his hand into his palm. "That is my friend you are talking about!"
Cura walked towards Kit. "Think about it without all your emotions, Kit! Think like Ash would think if you were to be dragged into the forest!"
Mira chuckled softly, with a tinge of sadness. "Actually, that happened once before..." She said. "Ash threw a rage and tore up half the forest searching for him and wouldn't stop for three days until she found him and collapsed. Kit had to carry her back himself!"
Cura blinked. "Ah, so even she still has emotional overrides." He said thoughtfully.
"Don't say that like it's a weakness, you heartless butler," Kit hissed.
Cura raised both his hands. "No, I did not mean that disrespectfully. But Kit, calm down. Am I really the one you should focus your anger on right now?"
Kit visibly shrank back and wilted. "I was right there," Kit said without energy. "I was right there! HOW COULD I HAVE NOT DONE SOMETHING?!" He suddenly screamed, changing from depression stage to maniac stage.
Mira grabbed one of his wrists and Wolf took his shoulders. "I was also there," Wolf said, "Nothing could have been done."
Inside Wolf's heart, however, guilt swam. As he was stupidly hacking off chunks of mist, Ash was going up there and finishing it off on at the cost of a dangerous fall. How could he not have... Ran over? Caught her? Flew up there himself? If only he...
Kit shook his head. "She's not dead yet. She has this knack for getting out of tough situations, and-" Kit's bandage had fallen apart and his black burns touched the sunlight drifting through the window.
Kit winced as the black burns lit up, and Mira quickly moved him out of the sunlight. "Shit," Kit hissed and the black burns started to fry up. His face was tight with pain.
Mira pulled on his sleeve. "I forgot that they acted up in the sunlight! Here, let's get on new bandages..."
"No," Kit panted. "Wait. There's an old remedy for black burns," he whispered through his teeth. He peeled the bandages off his hand and, as Wolf and Cura, watched, he voluntarily stuck his hand out to the sunlight.
The black burns began to slowly recede, but in a few seconds Kit screamed and his knees crumpled. Wolf and Mira caught him before he hit the floor.
Cura walked closer. "Ah. I've heard of this. Healing the black burns through sunlight. That's what they did before the burn ointment was mass-produced."
The skin left on Kit's hand was red and raw. The burns, however, was gone. Kit was covered in sweat. His eyes were still fuzzy, and he was stunned from pain, but he smiled. "The burns... Are gone. That means I can search for Ash tomorrow... Right?"
He slumped and fainted. Wolf pulled him up and slung Kit's arm over his shoulder. "Let's get him into a bed. His body's shut down."
Cura nodded. "Pain shot the body to overdrive, and the body decided to shut off to heal and unscramble the nerves..."
Wolf sighed at Cura. "Please, just help me carry him out of here."
Cura picked up Kit's other arm, which was handed to him by Mira, and swung it over his shoulder. "I have to say, though... I have quite a respect for a man who would go through that just to search for a woman. I've read that the pain is like having a thousand needles jabbed into and through your skin."
Mira winced.
"... In fact, the soldiers in the past often wake up surprised that they still have their skin."
"Cura," Wolf said.
"Yes?"
"Shut up."
The next morning, Kit woke up tied to a bed, and he threw a murderous rage, but the search party already left.
Mira could hear his curses through the wooden door. She almost went in and untied him on the spot, but he showed signs of an incoming fever and the rest of his burns had not healed yet. Kit's logic was that both hands didn't have burns, he could hold a gun and pull a trigger, and therefore he should be allowed to go.
Mira pulled herself away from his bedroom and went to cheer up some injured soldiers, but then she passed by the master bedroom, and the door was open.
She looked in.
Wolf was sitting in his chair, but he wasn't doing anything. He was sitting with his head tilted to the window, his hand posed with a quill to write something, but his hand wasn't moving.
As she watched, he stood up and went to the window, staring outside at the sun, waiting for the search party to return.
Mira walked out of the bedroom. She didn't know that Ash and Wolf were that close.
There was something wrong with her heart.
Somewhere not too far away...
Ash crawled out of the pit she had dug herself last night. Her face was covered in black burns. Her arms were burned too, from where the shadows had latched onto her.
Her spear was muddy, and the wings were completely bashed up- first broken, and then smashed on the ground to save Ash from the fifty-feet tall fall from the top of the shadow that she fought the night before...
It had continued to serve her well, though. The shadows that had pulled her in last night had been done in- that was all Ash remembered. Then she must have found herself a ditch and collapsed in it.
She shakily stood up, and then fell right back down. Her leg was broken, Ash noticed. Not from the pain- she was completely numb- but from the fact that it was in an odd position. Ash sat down and put her hands on the leg. Since she was numb, she might as well set it in.
She confidently pulled it out and reset it in its socket- but as soon as it fell back into place, pain arced back up from the knee.
Ash hissed. She wasn't numb anymore.
Ash grabbed her spear and slowly got on her feet, leaning heavily on her one good leg and the spear. This was not the first time her spear had been her substitute leg.
Ash slowly began to limp towards the light. Behind her was the cloud of shadows.
If she made one wrong move, they'd swarm her and she wouldn't be able to fight back.
Ash laughed softly.
It was oddly sort of fun being in a dangerous situation.
Cura knocked on Wolf's office and then without waiting for an answer he opened the door. He walked straight into Wolf's steamy bathroom and closed the door behind him.
Wolf looked up at him and said, "Please come in, Cura." He said sarcastically.
Wolf was soaking in a bathtub, with only his head above the steam. Cura walked over and expertly wrapped Wolf's blue hair up in a towel. "I suspect that his majesty is mad at me."
"You suspect..." Wolf murmured. Cura took a towel and started washing his neck.
"I don't really know why," Cura said. "But, continue being cold. It's a bit satisfying to have his majesty be cold to me."
"I don't know why you have to be so rude to my guests!"
"Me? Rude?" Cura said, his eyebrows raised. He dropped the towel and wiped off his fogged-up glasses. "I wasn't being rude. I was just being like myself. I'm like that to everybody."
"I know that! But they don't... And to be honest, you yourself is a terrific example of rude."
"What about me is rude?!" Cura said as he rubbed soap into Wolf's hair.
"Your lack of emotions at Ash's situation, your lack of consolation, your... Being you!" Wolf said.
"Now, that's not fair. I can't help being me." Cura said, massaging Wolf's hair into a white bubbling cloud of soap.
Wolf went silent.
Cura lifted his hand out of Wolf's thick hair and rinsed it off. He then took off his shirt and glanced at Wolf, who was slowly sinking into the bliss of a bubble bath.
"Do you want me to get in with you, your majesty?"
"... I'm engaged now, Cura. And I can wash myself."
"Good. You can ask her to come bathe with you." Cura said calmly.
Wolf blushed. "I can't do that. She'd faint and drown in here."
Cura pursed his lips. "See that. You're completely soft on women. You have no problem doing all sorts of things to me, and yet once I mention the princess you turn red and claim her innocence."
"You're different. I swear half the time you're forcing me to do... Those things."
"I plead innocent."
Mira stared at the patron of the kitchen with an open mouth.
"What do you mean they are LOVERS?!"