"I'm hungry too; you like stir fry?" Dearka asked. Miriallia looked at him as he turned and started to leave. How can he remain so calm? It's like he wasn't phased by any of this. He didn't even pester me that much about my crying. "You might want to freshen up. You look like a witch."

"Why you stupid…" Miriallia barked back as she started getting up, but was unable to finish because she fumbled on the train of her dress and started to fall forward. Oh, god, this is going to hurt. She braced herself for impact…waiting…waiting…still waiting.

"You can open your eyes." Dearka said with a tint of humor in his voice. Miriallia opened them and realized that he caught her before she could hit the floor.

"Wow, coordinators are really fast." Miriallia said, more to herself than to him.

"Jealous?" He said with a smirk as he helped her up. He then leaned in close to her. "Don't worry though, we can take things slow where it really counts." He then gave her a wink as he stroked her arm. She looked at him angrily and raised her hand to hit him, but he caught it. "Only the first one's free." He said firmly as he looked at her seriously. "How about a truce?"

"Fine. Stop talking and let's go eat, and don't resume talking until I say so."

"That doesn't work for me, cutie. How about we eat and try to be civil."

"Can you even manage civility?" Miriallia asked skeptically. "Do you even know the definition of civil?"

"I assure you I will be on my best behavior." He said smoothly as he smiled at her.

"Fine." She walked around him and started to leave.

"However, you still look like a witch, so can you clean yourself up first." Dearka said smoothly getting in front of her and walking quickly down the hall and the flight of stairs.

Seething with anger, Miriallia walked with clenched fists to the bathroom and slammed the door shut. That stupid idiot. Ugh. I can't believe tha…awwww! Miriallia looked in the mirror to see her eye make-up in a disarray, with mascara lines under her eyes and sliding down her face from the tears she had cried. Her hair was flat on her left side and sticking up in the back. Darn it! She had to admit he was right. She did look like a scary witch. Although witches are always portrayed as wearing black not white. She started laughing at herself as she washed away the pounds of make-up that the stylist put on her.

She walked down to the kitchen and saw Dearka cutting carrots. She held her skirt higher as she tried to station herself on a bar stool that was in a corner by the counter where he was cutting vegetables.

"Do you need any help?" she asked trying to be civil.

"I'm alri…" Dearka stopped as he looked at her; she looked so beautiful as she sat there.

"What?" she asked defensively, getting uncomfortable as he kept looking at her.

"Nothing." He said quickly as he turned to the vegetables. "I'm alright."

"So, coordinators cook?" Miriallia asked.

"Yes, Mir, we cook and guess what we can also play sports, drive cars, and engage in acts of love too." He responded sarcastically.

"Hey, I didn't mean anything by it. I'm just shocked that you're fine doing the cooking, that's all." Miriallia said trying to bite down her anger. Dearka sighed as he started cutting the celery. "By the way, what did you call me?"

"What… Mir?" Dearka asked as he tried to remember while he started cutting the chicken breasts.

"Mir?"

"Your name is nice and all, but it's kind of long. I won't call you that if you don't want me to."

"No, it's alright. It's better than 'toots'." Mir said in a normal tone. "Can I just ask one question?"

"What?" Dearka asked in a wary voice.

"Was this the type of wedding you thought you would have?" Mir asked while she looked down at her hands that lay folded on her lap.

"Pretty much." Dearka said with a shrug. "I knew my dad would want me to marry someone with an influential background. I honestly didn't think he would settle for a natural, though, that took me by surprise."

"Settle?" Mir asked as her anger started to rise. "What, are you to good for the Haw family?"

"That's not what I meant." He said calmly as he started looking for the soy sauce. "I just meant that your family must be really influential if he even considered you for my wife."

"Well, I'm glad that our influences can be of help to you." Mir replied sarcastically. Dearka placed the soy sauce firmly on the counter and looked at her.

"Let's be honest for a moment, shall we? You and I both know that this marriage was set up by our parents because of the power behind our families. Your family has money and friends in high places. My family has political power and a name that is a force to be reckoned with. Through this marriage it's shows our acceptance of the peace treaty, even if it's solely for appearance sakes, and that we are setting the example of how things should be since the peace treaty has been put in place. It's a win-win for everyone." Dearka said while looking Mir straight in the eyes. Her teal eyes never leaving his as he spoke.

"It's not a win-win for us." She replied.

"As long as your not ugly and my father is happy, I really don't care." Dearka said as he put the frying pan on the stove.

"Thanks for the brutal honesty." Mir replied with a deadpan voice. "However, I find it hard to imagine that you don't care. You don't strike me as a person who does things just because you were told to."

"Honey, I'm a soldier it's what I do. They say jump, I jump, they say shoot, I shoot. Besides, my father's been calling the shots since I was little, I never had a say in what I wanted. If I did something on my own it wasn't good enough for him or he wasn't impressed by it. My best days were during the war, because I was away from him and doing something that I was good at."

"So, I'm married to a dog. Sit, sit." Mir replied pointing at him, Dearka glared at her.

"Only if I get a treat." He replied as he looked at her and smiled. Now it was Mir's turn to glare at him she turned her head and stuck up her nose. "Anyways, what about you?" Dearka said as he started to fry the ingredients.

"What about me?"

"What do you think of the whole thing?" Dearka asked watching her with his peripheral vision.

"I hate this dress." She piped up with some humor.

"You and me both sweetheart." He replied laughing as he added some more ingredients.

"I'm mad that they wouldn't listen to what I had to say, to what I wanted. Everything was 'don't be selfish,' or 'think about the good it could do for us, financially and status wise,' and the famous 'you have a responsibility to your family. You owe us this much.'" she said the last one in a mimicking voice of her father. Never glancing up she continued, "I think I feel more betrayed than anything, but what's sad is that I'm not surprised by their behavior."

"Yeah and they think we are the ones that don't know any better." Dearka said in agreement as he served the stir fry on two plates. He placed them on the counter and grabbed the other stool to sit across from her.

"Bien provecho!" Mir said as she picked up her chopsticks.

"What?" Dearka asked as he looked at her. "Is that spanish?"

"Yes. It means 'enjoy the meal.'" Mir said smiling as she took her first bite. "Wow! This is really good!"

"Of course, it was made by yours truly." Dearka said with a smile. They ate in silence since they were so hungry. Dearka got up and poured them some wine and noticed Mir start to relax more. "When did you learn Spanish?"

"I took it in high school." Mir said as she took another bite. "Then I saw this documentary on Latin America, and was hooked. I decided I wanted to visit the places I saw on my own. Learn Spanish and just go, not having to rely on anybody. I learned about Columbia, Argentina, Bolivia, as well as other Spanish places such as Spain, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and Cuba." She laughed silently as she thought about all those exotic places.

"You can still go." Dearka said.

"It wouldn't be the same now." Mir replied as she took another bite of her food. "I wanted to be free not shackled."

"Gee, thanks." Dearka said sarcastically, but he knew what she meant. "So, how did you want your wedding to be?" Dearka asked trying to get her to smile again.

"Simple, with just my closest friends." Mir said as she looked dreamily at the thoughts of how she had wanted her wedding to be. "I would have my bridesmaids wear different colored pastel dresses and have a small dance reception after." The thoughts made her turn somber. "It was very different from today. I would have smiled and never let go of my husband." Dearka looked down as she said this and finished his plate of food.

"Who do you like?" Dearka asked, in another attempt to make her smile, as he took a sip of wine.

"What?" Mir asked confused.

"Music. Who do you like?" Dearka asked smiling at her leaning forward on the counter.

"Oh," Mir said blushing. "Um, I like many different artists. My friends and I would call my ipod the 'world ipod' since I have at least one cd from everywhere."

"Really? When do I get to hear this music?"

"When I find the it." Dearka raised his eyebrow when she said that. Wow, he looks good like that. Focus. Mir tried to think of dirt to keep her from blushing. "I don't know where my mother placed it after she took it away from me during the reception. I really hope she didn't take it with her. I won't see her for a while."

"They're heading for Orb tomorrow, right?"

"Yes." She replied; Dearka gave up, nothing would cheer her up right now. He started stretching as Mir finished her wine.

"We should probably go to bed. The servants will be here tomorrow afternoon." Dearka said as he got up. Mir didn't respond but took the plates to the sink and washed them. Dearka waited for her at the entrance to the kitchen, leaning on the door frame.

"What?" Mir asked as she turned and dried her hands with a paper towel. "Why are you staring at me?"

"Because as ugly as that dress is, you look beautiful right now." He pushed himself off the door frame and gracefully walked over to her, never taking his eyes of hers. "So, you ready to go to 'our' room, cutie?" Mir looked at him straight on and smiled sweetly.

"I'm ready to go and get my clothes from 'our' room and sleep in the guest room." she replied.

"I set myself up for that one." He said with a sigh.

"Yup." She replied smiling as she left to get her things from their room.

(10 minutes later)

"Dearka?" Mir asked knocking lightly on the door to their room. Dearka opened the door, placing his left hand on the top of the door as he leaned down and looked at her.

"I knew you would come around." He said huskily.

"Bite me!" Mir said.

"Okay." He said with a shrug and grabbed her right arm wrapping his left arm around her, and leaning down toward her neck. "Is this where you want my love bite?" He whispered against the nape of her neck, grazing it with the tip of his nose.

"No!" She cried out and dodged her head away blushing. Dearka let her go and laughed at her reaction.

"What ya' need then?" Dearka asked as he folded his arms across his chest and leaned his side into the doorframe.

"Never mind!" Mir said angrily, holding the train of her dress so that she wouldn't fall. "Put a shirt on!"

"Why? You can't handle the hotness?" Dearka replied with a sly grin.

"As if!" Mir responded as she started to tumble and then regaining her balance grabbed more of the train to keep her from falling.

"Seriously, what do you need?" Dearka asked a few feet behind her. Mir was startled that he was so close, she didn't even hear him move away from the doorframe. Mir stopped walking and bit down her tongue to keep her from getting nervous. When her nerves finally left her she turned and remained looking down.

"Can you unzip me?"

"Of course!" he replied whispering in her ear and placing his arms around her. Mir looked up and her teal eyes were met by amethyst colored eyes. He pulled her closer to him and made it seem like he was fumbling for the zipper. After a few seconds he finally unzipped the dress down to her waistline. "You sure you don't want to come to bed?" He asked smoothly.

"I want to go to bed and will, just not with you." Mir said as she stepped away from him. "I could have turned around, you know. It would have been easier to unzip me."

"True, but where would the fun in that be." Dearka said as he turned to go back to their room. Mir then realized that he was pretending to have difficulty with the zipper.

"You, PERVERT!" Mir cried after him. Dearka just chuckled to himself as he reached the door and then turned around. There stood Mir, anger in her eyes, pink on her cheeks, and her hands holding her dress to keep it from falling. He bowed at her and then waved his fingers at her gesturing bye.

"Night, night, sweetheart." He said as he closed the door.