The Life of Past and Future
Chapter ten: Time to Talk
Melissa awoke to an empty bed, well, Katsu was with her but no Nuada. After a quick shower Melissa did what almost all humans do, she called her best friend, Brittany. The conversation was very short though. Basically Melissa asking if she was well then telling her to go back to Connecticut for a good while to be safe. She then called her mother and filled her in on what was going on in her life. After reassuring her everything was okay she left the room and went eat the breakfast left on the table in the corner.
She wandered the hallways to find Nuada, wanting to know what happened after she left the library. Everyone stared at her, but it could have been because Katsu was riding on her shoulder chirping happily. The situation was uncomfortable to the least, people staring, probably talking behind her back, Katsu chirping in her ear. Today was so not going to be her day.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nuada sat in the library listening to his sister when Melissa entered. Nuala excused herself as Melissa approached them. The library door closed softly as Melissa came to stand directly in front of him. She gave him a small smile.
"What happened yesterday?"
"What are you speaking of, girl?"
"When you made me leave the library, what happened, what did they decide?"
Nuada stood and made his way up the steps, Melissa stayed at the bottom of the stairs, if he was putting distance between them she was not about to shorten it.
"The humans are infuriated that the faes have gone into war without their knowledge. The idiotic creatures wish to take control of the war on the surface."
"Did you agree."
"I conceded to it, I do not care if they kill themselves in a war they do not belong in, but I remain in control underground."
"Really, their letting you?"
"No, but I will not listen to that tin man on how to handle a war."
Melissa finally closed the distance between them to lay a hand on his shoulder. Nuada moved his hand to lay over hers.
"I wish to be alone, girl."
"Fine, I'll be with Hellboy if you need me."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Melisa jumped over Hellboy's tail and their swords clashed. The two decided to spar in the training room since they had nothing to do. Nuada had left to talk strategy with lieutenant Kanji and Liz was still in the room on fire. Agents in the room glanced at them once in a while, not use to seeing Hellboy duel someone other than Nuada.
"People keep looking, Hellboy."
"You haven't been around for a while, Shrimp."
Melissa dropped the borrowed sword when she was lifted into the air by Hellboy's tail.
"You not going to transform?"
"And ruin another shirt because of my wings, hell no."
Hellboy and the agents laughed as Melissa shrieked and covered her face while he lifted up and down in the air with his tail. The sudden feel of ground below her made her groan in pain.
"Jerk, you dropped me."
She felt familiar arms wrap around her waist and lift her onto her feet. She turned around to see Nuada glare at Hellboy. Without a word, Nuada dragged Melissa out the room and back to theirs. He closed the door behind him to ensure privacy as Melissa sat cross-legged on the bed.
"What the hell, Nuada."
He started to pace the room. "The Asthasians have been defeated by the Drows and the Greys are becoming stronger."
"So, we have conquered the Slyvans and the Greys are still no strong enough to pose a threat to us."
He stopped pacing. "The Drows are now a bigger threat than before and the Avariels are causing problems beyond belief."
"I understand this is unbelievable but we have to remain calm. We have to defeat the Greys before the Drows have the chance and the Avariels are also the BPRD's problems, that should take some weight off your shoulders."
The malice in Nuada's eyes had Melissa crawling backwards on the bed to put distance between them.
"You think it is that simple, girl? War is never that simple. You will never understand the stress of it so do us all a favor and Keep Quite!"
Tears filled Melissa's eyes, she took in a shaky breathe to try and stay calm as the elf before her allowed his anger to take control. She knew what she was getting into when she decided to join the war, but the stress was getting to her.
"I only want to help."
Nuada closed his eyes to try to take gain some control in his emotions. He had scared off many lovers due to his temper before, he did not need this one to run off too.
"I apologize, I do not wish for you to fear me."
"Why are you like this, Nuada? Why are you and Nuala so different? She is the exact opposite of you, but I don't understand why."
Nuada took a deep breath before he sat on the edge of the bed to begin explaining why he and his sister was so different.
"We are different because while we were born one after the other, we were raised separately. We were taught the basic skills of reading, writing, arithmic, and music, but that was it, after we had different lessons entirely. Nuala was taught how to be a lady: to enjoy poetry, art, give support to the court, and be the most graceful being in our kingdom. I was taught the ways of war: riding, lead into battle, planning strategies, controlling an army, and how to rule a kingdom. During the war against the humans, as I battled, Nuala took shelter in Bethmora. She was sheltered by all the horrors of war while I had first hand experience of it."
"Is that why you fell in love with her, because she was innocent to everything you suffered from?"
Nuada looked away in shame at the knowledge of Melissa knowing of his feeling towards his sister. He thought she had not noticed since she seemed to be oblivious to almost everything, why did his feeling towards his sister have to be one of the things she paid attention to?
"No, even though our father tried his hardest to shield her heart from mine, Nuala saw and felt everything I did. I developed feelings for her because she understood my suffering unlike any other."
"This topic is making you feel uncomfortable, right?"
"Yes, it is."
"Thought so."
Nuada smiled at the fact she could read that bit of him. He also smiled at the fact that he knew she had something else to ask. He gestured with his hand for her to ask.
"Okay, curiosity killing the cat, what was your life in exile like?"
"It was lonely physically, but mentally, I always had Nuala. She felt my pain through our bond, she gave me comfort for all my pain. Even when I was alone I never truly felt it. But it was torturous. I was raised to fend for myself outside our kingdom, but the first twenty years were difficult. I am quite lucky that my past was not pampered like Nuala's, otherwise I would not have survived."
"Wait a second, Nuala seems to be able to fend for herself quite well."
"Unlike humans, just because she is a lady and pampered does not mean she does not know how to defend herself if someone threatened her. But she couldn't survive as well as I if she went off to war or exile. She is use to having someone to lean on while I am use to relying on myself."
Melissa crawled over and rested her head on his shoulder. Nuada closed his eyes at the bit of affection. He had spent centuries away from the love of others and then he comes across this one. Three years later and she was still beside him, even he could not deny his luck at having found her.
"Changing the depressing topic to a more serious one, when will we be handling the Grey Elves."
"Soon, Love, very soon."
Yay, I have another one up. Kevin has fixed the first chapter. He will be trying to fix the others soon, but he is tutoring someone in physics in the morning and his computure at home sucks badly. But, I'm happy he agreed to do this and he's happy he gets credit. Actually, everyone we've told about my story is happy he's getting credit. Thanks for all the comments, they make me laugh and smile. I hope you continue to enjoy my story, I'll update as soon as I come up with another idea for the next chapter.