Alright people! This is BrambleStar14 with yet another introductionary chapter for you all! This time, we meet Rfalzar, who has decided to write an absolute monster of a chapter for us all. So, on with the show!

Chapter Eight

Taylor: Arrival

April 6th 2013, Earth

Rfalzar

"The two enemies of Human Happiness are Pain and Boredom"- Arthur Schopenhauer

"Dear God... this is brutal..." I grumbled to myself as I quietly slipped away from the tour group. I had my eyes on a bench ahead of us for a while now, waiting to take a break. Unfortunately our tour-guide was a bit... well long-winded would be the nice way of putting it. There were a few other, less kind ways I would have phrased it, but he was just doing his job after all. Besides, every one else seemed to be enjoying themselves.

I stealthily snuck around the tour group, no easy feat consider I was wearing flip-flops, and took a seat on the bench. I stretched my legs out and ran my hands through my semi-short, sandy blonde hair, messing it up to match my usual hairstyle. After a sigh, I rubbed my face, trying to fight off of the exhaustion. This wasn't exactly how I wanted to spend a day like today, but I had my obligations: it was my girlfriend's birthday.

I met Claire while I was away at college. Never really did the whole dating thing during high school. I was pretty awkward the first few years of my high school experience, but I managed to come out of my shell during my senior year. There were a few girls I was interested in, but I never really saw the point what with everyone moving away to their college of choice. I myself moved away to the northern part of Michigan to have my schooling. I spent the first few months finding girls who weren't really interested in the same thing as me. They were just looking for a one-night thing, and I guess I was too in the beginning, but after a while I wanted something more. Then fate intervened, I guess. It was my second semester and we met during our lab section of our biology class. We were assigned as lab partners. We started talking, she liked my sense of humor and I thought she had a great personality. Things just kind of clicked and went from there. It was now our senior year and to say that my time with her had been anything less than amazing would be a severe understatement. I'd honestly do anything for that woman.

Which leads me to the predicament I was in now. There were the occasional moments when I hated my selfless, chivalrous side, but hey, she likes it and that's all that matters. It was her birthday this weekend, and she wanted to go to the Henry Ford Museum. There was some kind of special art exhibit that was on display; a bunch of ancient stuff, I'm not entirely sure. A museum wasn't exactly my idea of having a good time. It probably didn't help that I went to grade school nearby and we took what seemed like a weekly field trip there so I basically knew this place by heart. A man can only look at the same shit so many times before he starts to lose his sanity.

Claire on the other hand, grew up near our college so she had never been there. She was a pretty big art enthusiast, minoring in fine arts actually, and when she saw that this exhibit was going to be there around the same time as her birthday, we naturally had to make the plans to come see it. Art wasn't exactly something I loved too much. A result of having to overanalyze art in classes I was required to take. 'What was the artist trying to convey in this portrait?' 'Maybe he wanted to just paint a bowl of fruit?'

'NO! There's always a deeper meaning!' 'It's a fucking bowl of fruit!' That was a fun class... My arguments with Claire usually ran along the same lines, but they were all in good fun. This was probably one of the only things we held different opinions on.

The other reason I didn't want to be here was because it was close to eighty degrees outside, hence the flip flops in the middle of March. The only expected weather in Michigan was the unexpected; there could be a blizzard with the temperature in the teens one day and then be eighty and sunny the next. I would've much rather been enjoying myself outside in the beautiful weather. Hopefully that would come later. Right now I had to fulfill what I like to call the 'fake it til you make it' clause of the good boyfriend contract, which involved actually trying to enjoy myself while I was here for her sake.

One of the perks that resulted from making the trip down here, besides the obvious one of 'if she's happy, I'm happy' (if you catch my drift), were that I got to see some of my really good friends who've been away for a while. They were on Spring Break this week so it all worked out. Speaking of which, both of them were walking towards me.

"How the hell did you manage to slip away in flip flops?" asked the shorter of the two, adjusting his glasses over his brown eyes and resting his hands on his messy mop of brown hair.

"Because, Nick... I'm magic!" I said while clapping my hands and slowly bringing them apart to make it look like I made something disappear.

"Yea, well the next time you perform a 'magic trick' let us know," the slightly taller blonde and blue eyed one said with an air-quote.

"Andrew, you're just mad because Kathryn notices everything. There's no way you coulda snuck away."

"That's besides the point," he said with a smirk as both of them took a seat next to me.

"This was a pretty good idea, Taylor," Nick complimented. "The whole couple's day thing is actually kind of fun."

Andrew and I both stared at him with impassive faces.

"I said kind of. I mean I get to hang with you guys and I haven't seen you in a while so there's that."

We all shook our heads in agreement.

"How'd you guys get away from the group?" I asked.

"Tour's over," Andrew replied. "We have free-roam right now and the girls all went to get something to drink real quick before we head back to that ancient art crap."

"Oh joy..." I said with mock excitement.

"Well it could be worse," Nick cut in, forever the optimist. "At least they all get along. If you woulda told me a couple of years ago that Jillian would suddenly become best friends with Claire and Kat after we visited you guys I pry woulda... well I don't know, but you get the point."

Again, we shook our head in agreement. We then sat there in silence for a minute, relaxing and waiting for the others.

"Ok, just to double check," I said out of the blue. "You got Seamus to set most of it up, right? Haven't been able to check in with him 'cause I've been around Claire all day."

"Yep," Nick said with a glance to Andrew. "We both got texts about a half hour ago from him."

"Thanks, guys. I really appreciate it."

"So, you're actually gonna do this? Like you know you're ready?" Andrew asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Positive, sir. But thanks for the vote of confidence," I replied with a chuckle.

He laughed back. "I'm just saying, but in case you didn't know this, it's kind of a big deal."

"I'm aware, but thank you. I'm to-"

"They're on their way back. Stop talking," Nick interrupted.

"Thanks bud," I said as we all got up and walked over to our respective significant others. I wrapped my arm around the shoulders of the five foot ten woman with red hair, soft facial features, and deep blue eyes that I called a girlfriend, and gave her a quick peck on the lips as we made our way back to the special art exhibit.

"How do you always manage to find a way to weasel your way out of these things," she asked with a smirk.

"Tis a natural talent I s'pose."

"Is it really that bad for you?"

"No, not entirely. I just needed a break. Walking around this place for that long of a time in only flip flops was probably not the smartest decision I've ever made."

She giggled and bumped into me with a little hip swing. "I told you it was a bad idea!" After taking a sip of her water, she deepened her voice and used exaggerated hand motions to mock me. "No, Claire, I'll be fine. I've walked farther in these. Besides, I'm a real man and it doesn't matter what I put on my feet."

I laughed. "You should know by now not to listen to me when I do things like that. I blame you entirely for this."

She giggled again. "Of course you do."

"So where we headed? No, wait! Lemme guess. Back to the art exhibit?"

"Naturally. We were just planning on going there and then heading our separate ways. Right girls?"

They both gave some form of a positive reply.

"Well, I hope it doesn't take too long. After all, your day isn't over yet."

"Taylor, you didn't have to. I mean this trip was enough, and then you got me that new charm for my bracelet. You seriously didn't have to."

"You see, you say that now, but I know you too well. I'm not falling for it."

"Then I've trained you well," she said with a smirk. That caused Andrew to snicker which in turn caused Kat to give him a sharp jab to the ribs with her elbow and a follow up of "Oh because you're not?"

I just laughed and tapped Claire's freckled nose. "You're lucky you're adorable."

"I know," she smugly replied. She then brought up her wrist to examine the new charm that had emerald and aquamarine stones in it. "I've gotten a lot of compliments on this, actually."

"Well, I would hope so. I mean, it matches my eyes perfectly," I said jokingly while fluttering my eyelashes.

"You and your creepy mutation..."

I held a hand up to my chest in mock offense. "Ugh! Why madam, I never! Sounds to me like you're just jealous of my heterochromia."

She laughed. "Nah. It wouldn't look good on me. On you however, it's just oh so irresistible," she said while exaggerating the last part.

"You joke about that, and yet it's true. Especially for you. What was it you said that one night?

"Taylor, don't..." she said with a roll of her eyes.

"Something about how each color turns you on in a diff-" An elbow jab to the side cut off my sentence. "Right, shutting up."

"Oh! We're here, c'mon!" she exclaimed as she grabbed my arm and dragged me over to the first part of the exhibit.

We moved along, looking at all the unique pieces. This particular section was Renaissance art, which wasn't too bad. As we walked, we saw varying styles and artists ranging from modernistic pieces to cave paintings. It was interesting, but none of it really held my attention like it did for her.

While Claire was absorbed in a particularly 'amazing' (her words, not mine), Nick, Andrew, Jill, and Kat came and said their goodbyes. They had other things to do. Nick and Andrew shook my hand and gave me a nod that said 'Good luck.'

Claire went back to looking at her painting, while I walked over to the more prehistoric pieces. I gave a quick look around to see if anybody was there other than us. Not a soul at this moment besides us, and no security cameras either. Time to get a closer look. I climbed over the rope guard to get a closer look. I walked up to what looked like a giant stone slab that had been cut out of a cave. It depicted a battle between stick figure men while a giant creature resembling a Kraken or something rose out of the water behind it. It looked strange, and yet oddly familiar at the same time.

"Claire, what is this thing?" I asked.

She was still absorbed in whatever she had been admiring. "I don't know. What're you looking at?"

"Some weird cave painting," I replied.

"Weren't you paying attention on the tour?" I didn't reply. "Right, I should've known. It's some ancient work, found in a cave off the coast of New Zealand. It's a recent discovery apparently. We don't know what group of people made it, but it seemed like they worshipped the sea, and the creatures in it. The weird ball thing in front of the painting was found deeper in the cave. Seems that held some importance as well, but we can only speculate at this point."

"Why the sudden int-" she had turned around at that point. "Taylor! What are you doing back there?! You can't be there!"

"Shhh! There's nobody around. It's fine," I reassured her. "But seriously, this looks like something I drew in grade school."

"It's a cave painting, what do you expect?"

"I don't know, maybe some clarity?" I said while tapping the beast on the painting.

"Don't touch that! It's ancient! You have to respect it!" she said with increasing frustration

"I am! I mean it's not like I can hurt the inanimate object's feelings." I looked to the painting and gave a slight bow. "I'm deeply sorry if I offended you. Next time just say something and I won't touch you." That seemed to ease her mood a little bit. I then turned to this strange, black, stone orb with weird markings on it that was in a glass case. Depending on how the light caught it, other colors would appear, almost like a puddle of gasoline. This must be what she was talking about when she said 'ball thing.'

"And you must be this painting's cave mate. I hope you're not offended by what I did to your friend over here."

I put my hand up to my ear, waiting for a response. "No? Nothing? Good." I said, and gave the top of the case a tap. As soon as I touched it, however, the symbols glowed red and a small red spark shot out to where my hand was on the box. A splitting pain stabbed into my head, causing my vision to go black. I could vaguely make out somebody saying my name in the background, but I wasn't sure. My senses were overloading. Images flashed by. I'm not entirely sure what of, but it was like a movie on super fast-forward or something. And then suddenly, it was gone. The pain, the visions... everything.

I opened my eyes to see myself on the ground, curled up in the fetal position almost, and clutching my head.

Claire was kneeling down next to me, with my head on her lap. "Oh my God, Taylor are you alright?" she asked, fear in both her voice and facial features.

I shook my head and sat up slowly, resting my forehead in my palm. I still had a slight headache. "Yea I'm fine... What happened?"

"I don't know! One second you're being you and joking around. Then you touch that case and collapse clutching your head with your mouth wide-open in some kind of... I don't know, voiceless scream. It was terrifying! I thought you were having a seizure or something!"

"Nah, just a really brief and intense headache apparently... C'mon, we should get out of here."

"Are you sure? I mean that wasn't normal. What if something's wrong?"

"I'll admit it was weird, but I'm fine now. Trust me," I said with a reassuring smile while trying to ignore the dull ache left behind.

"I don't know..."

I brought her into a hug. "I'm fine. Just a minor headache, which is easily solved. If it happens again, I'll go get it checked out. Don't worry."

"Ok... but I'm holding you to that," she replied nervously.

"I'd expect no less," I said as we stood back up. "Now come on, we've still got places to go, and we should get out of here before we get kicked out. We're kinda not allowed back by the pieces..."

Claire laughed, some of the nervousness fading. "Bad jokes. Maybe you are back to normal."

We crossed the rope barricade and then started walking towards the exit. She hugged my arm and rested her head against my shoulder as we moved.

After a few minutes had passed, Claire decided to break the silence. "So, where to next? You've been awfully secretive about this."

"Yes I have."

After a few seconds she realized I wasn't going to say anything, she looked up to me with puppy eyes and a pouty lip. "Awww come on Tay... Just tell me."

"Nope."

She kept up the act. "Pleeeease?"

"Weeeeeellllll... Fine," I said in defeat as she smiled in victory. "We are gooooiiiing... toooo... this one place with this thing and some stuff that I think you'll really like."

She just laughed and hit my chest. "You are such an ass."

"I'm aware."

"Well fine, if you won't tell me then at least pick up the pace," Claire said as she sped us up.

"You and your birthdays..." I chuckled to myself as we exited the museum

"Ok, you can open your eyes now," I said, uncovering Claire's eyes so she could take in the surroundings.

"Where the hell are we?"

That was a damn good question considering we were just in the suburbs near a pretty busy city, and now it looked like we were in the middle of nowhere. There were a bunch of trees indicating that we were in the forest, and the sound of the city was no longer anywhere near us.

"Well, I know how much you love the quiet of your peaceful northern life, so I had my cousin pull some strings for me. We're at a park about forty five minutes away from the museum. She managed to find a cabin out here that we could rent for the rest of the weekend. Just you and me."

She turned to me, obviously excited, but her face betrayed a hint of guilt. "I thought we were staying with your family? I mean I feel bad hogging you the entire time you're down here. You barely get any time with your parents."

I raised an eyebrow and shook my head. "And this is why they like you. So selfless, aha. But no, they knew this was happening, so there's not a problem."

She furrowed her brows and looked at me as we walked towards our cabin. "This is nice and all, but all of our stuff is at their house."

"Oh ye of little faith. Also taken care of. I had Seamus swing by my parent's place, they gave him our stuff, and he brought it all up here."

"You've had this planned for a while haven't you?"

"Well I can't take all the credit for it... just like 99% of it," I said with a sly smirk.

She giggled. "You're so modest, you know that Taylor?"

"Yes m'dear, you've mentioned this to me before."

She stopped me right before the door to the cabin and looked me in the eyes. "All joking aside, are you sure you're ok? You look a bit pale after that incident."

"I put both my hands on her shoulders and returned the eye contact. "You worry too much. I told you I was fine, just a minor headache. I just need to eat something and I'll be ok. C'mon, I heard this cabin was awesome, and judging from the whole rustic, Lincoln Log looking outside, the inside is gonna be just as cool."

I brought out the key that my cousin had given me and opened the door. After stepping inside, I held the door open and gestured with an arm into the cabin to usher Claire in. I knew what to expect and it still blew me away. It had a bit of a rustic feel to it considering it was a log cabin, but at the same time, it had modern furnishings: fancy fireplace, high-end kitchen, a hallway that lead to a fairly large bedroom and what appeared to be a king-sized bed.

I let out a low whistle at the lavish little house we were in. "My cousin wasn't kidding when she said that she got this for a steal."

"This. Is. Amazing," stated the girl next to me.

I wrapped an arm around her. "Nothing but the best for you, babe. Did I mention this was the honeymoon cabin? Pry why it's secluded and fancy."

"I'm so spoiled," she said playfully.

"Yes, you are. Go get dressed!" I said while walking over to the kitchen. "Your bag should be in the bedroom. I made sure to pack your favorite dress for you..." I said seductively while giving her a wink.

"You mean your favorite dress..." she said, walking down the hall to the room.

"Nope! I actually do pay attention to you sometimes."

"We'll see," she hollered back.

"Take your time, I still have to cook the food and get ready myself." Now how was I supposed to do this again...

The day was just starting to end when I finally finished preparing everything. I had already set the table that was out on the patio, which gave a great view out onto the forest beyond as well as the sky. I finished straightening my tie, and pulled it taut to the collar right as my phone started vibrating, telling me the dinner was ready. Filet mignon's encrusted with some bleu cheese, a side of assorted vegetables, and a salad.

Thank the heavens Sam helped me prepared this stuff. He was one of my fraternity brothers and essentially the most interesting man in the world. One of his many, many talents included being an amazing cook. He helped me prepare everything and season it earlier this morning. All that was left for me to do was actually cook it, which I could do. I was no five-star chef, but I got along fine. Judging from the smell, I think I did a good job.

I set the food on the counter and then walked to the room, rapping on the door to get Claire's attention. "Dinner's ready, babe. You almost ready?"

"I'll be out in five!" she exclaimed back.

"Holding you to that!" I yelled back jokingly, as I walked back towards the kitchen. I took dinner plates, and brought them outside to finish setting the table. Everything was going perfectly: dinner appeared to come out fantastically, the champagne was chilling, the sun was still setting but it was just starting to get a little dark, causing the lone candle in the middle of the table to give off just enough light. Perfect.

I crossed my arms as a grin set in on my face. I couldn't help but give myself a mental pat on the back. Then I heard the door slide open.

"Well, what do you know? You weren't kidding when you said you actually paid attention. This is one of my favorite dresses."

I turned to greet her, and my breath hitched in my throat for a second. There she stood, the love of my life: red hair let down, draped in a form fitting emerald dress that showed off her assets. It tied behind her neck and met in the middle of her chest. Incredibly sexy and tasteful at the same time. She complimented her outfit with a silver necklace, various stones the same color of her dress accenting it. It was a close possession of hers, given to her by her grandmother who had recently passed away.

"You look absolutely stunning," I complimented her.

"You clean up pretty well yourself," she said, referring to my lighter green vest and tie that I was wearing over a black button up and black pants.

"It's apparently one of my better qualities," I reply with faux arrogance. She giggled and playfully hit my chest.

"Now if you'll follow me, I'll lead you to your seat m'lady," I said offering my arm for her to take. I pulled out the seat and let her sit down, after which I poured champagne for both of us.

She sat there with a smile plastered on her face. "You really pulled out all the stops on this one, didn't you?"

"Hey, it's your birthday. Only comes around once a year," I said, raising my glass to her.

She clinked it in return. "You even remembered what we ate on our first date."

"How could I forget?" I asked while pouring the champagne. "First woman I've met who loves steak as much as I do."

"Honestly, I'm surprised you knew how to make it."

"You should know I'm a culinary master by now."

She laughed. "Please. I know a Sam aided meal when I see one."

I snapped my fingers and muttered, "Damn..."

She grabbed my hand and giggled a little. "Still, the effort is appreciated."

"Good, that's what I was going for. C'mon, better eat before it gets cold."

We sat there and enjoyed the dinner over drink and conversation. We talked about the events of the day, things that were happening when we had to go back to school for the semester, small talk of all kinds really. We had a great time just enjoying each other's company. After the sun went down and the meal was finished, we ended up laying in the hammock I had set up nearby. Claire was snuggled to my chest, and I had one arm wrapped around her.

"I have to say, if that's how you really cook you're gonna have to start doing it more often."

"Sam isn't gonna be happy about that. I mean, he doesn't mind helping but I don't know if he'll be ok with being an unpaid personal chef," I reply with a nervous chuckle.

"Well maybe I can give you some pointers."

"We'll see." Silence ensued for a few minutes.

Claire broke said silence. "You know, it's really peaceful out here. I would love to just sit out here and stare at the stars every night." She was right. The light pollution didn't seem to corrupt the night sky where we were. "Why don't we do this every year?" she teased.

"Well, this night is special."

"Yea, I know, you've mentioned that."

"I'm kinda hoping this night can continue being special..." I said as I slowly reached into my pocket to grab the small box.

"Oh... I like the way you think..." she said giving me a kiss on the cheek.

I chuckled. "That's not exactly what I was talking about... but I've never been able to say no to you... Maybe in a little bit."

"You're right," she replied. "This moment is pretty perfect..."

"I could think of something that might make it better..." I said bringing the box up to her and popping it open.

"What is..."

"Claire, these past few years with you have been amazing, and I wouldn't trade them for the world. The part of the day that I look forward to the most is waking up and spending my time with you. Every little moment I spend with you is a moment that makes me truly and genuinely happy. And I want to keep making those moments."

"Taylor..."

"Now, I know every time we've talked about it, we did so jokingly. But it actually got me thinking..."

"Taylor, this is..."

"Crazy? Yea I know. But people in love do crazy things, but to me this isn't crazy. I know we're barely out of college. I know that our future is uncertain. But there is one thing that I know for sure about my future, and it's that I want to be with you through it... Will you marry me?"

She was silent for a moment and then wiped a tear away from her eye. "Yes! Yes I will," she said trying to contain her joy and planting a kiss on my lips. "So this is why you were being all secreetive"

I slipped the ring on her finger. "Yea, I like to keep people on their toes," I said with a smile on my face. I returned her kiss. "You have no idea how happy you've made me."

She examined the ring on her finger. It caught the light of the moon and shone beautifully. The band was silver and swirled toward the center where the diamond was. Under that diamond lay a smaller bed of diamonds. It definitely wasn't cheap, but it was totally worth it.

"The feeling is mutual, Tay," she replied. "But I mean, are we crazy for doing this? There's still so much more ahead of us."

"Of course we're crazy," I replied with a laugh. "But at the same time, I know we'll get through it."

"You know what? You're right. We'll be just fine. Stop ruining this day with serious talk," she said with a giggle, still admiring the ring.

I laughed. "That was all you. I was content with just sitting here and enjoying the end to this day."

"This day has been pretty amazing. Maybe we should make it a bit more amazing..." she added seductively before giving me a deep, passionate kiss.

We broke the kiss. "Well I mean, if you insist..."

We made our way from the hammock to the room surprisingly quickly considering we were inseparable that entire time. We fell on the bed, still together with Claire under me, and we slowly gave into our passions. Clothes flew off and landed in various places around the room, while we explored each other's bodies as if it were the first time. She eventually rolled me over on my back and sat on top of me. She gave a mischievous grin and took charge. We gave into each other. It certainly wasn't the first time, but it was certainly the best. Definitely a night both of us would remember for the rest of our lives.

We eventually ran out of energy, both of us completely spent and exhausted. We were content with just laying in the bed, cradling each other. Our position was similar to the one we were in on the hammock. This was easily the best night of my life. I was engaged to the love of my life, and the 'celebration' afterwards was amazing too.

The steady breathing and stillness from Claire indicated that she had already drifted to sleep. I, myself, felt sleep's embrace creep it's way into my mind. Despite all of the good thoughts and feelings, there was something deep in the back of my brain that said something was amiss. It had been there since the incident at the museum, but I ignored it and it was easily overpowered by everything else. I didn't mention it to Claire because it would've ruined the night. Besides I was fine, and so was everything else. But still, I couldn't help but feel like something small was off.

I was just about to fall asleep and then the blackness that accompanied sleep flashed red, accompanied by a brief, splitting pain in my head not too different from the one at the musueam. Then everything was black again.

A/N: Hey guys, Rfalzar here. Thanks for reading the story, and I hoped you enjoyed it, even if it is a bit of fluff. Trust me, it builds up to something bigger and better, but you'll just have to wait and see. Next chapter from me will be more actiony and not as fluffy as a cloud, aha.

Anyhow, hope you readers stick with this collab as it holds some promise, and should prove interesting.

Until next time, Rfalzar out.

Well folks, he said it better then I could. We only have one more chapter to go before we can get into Arc 2. Until then, see y'all.

BrambleStar14