A/N: Whoa! I'm halfway through this contest! I didn't think I'd ever get this far, yet here I am :D I was going to wait a little while before posting this chapter, but I have a karate tournament this weekend, and so if my head gets bashed in, I'll have left it off at the halfway point feeling very proud of myself!

I'm staying in my Arra/Larten comfort zone for this one. I know, this idea has been done a trillion times already, but I figured I may as well give it a go now since I probably would have at some point anyway.

Song lyrics from Happiness by The Fray.

Tenth word: Happiness

Happiness feels a lot like sorrow
Let it be, you can't make it come or go

"Arra?" Larten called as he entered their room. He draped his cape over the doorknob and said again, "Arra? Are you here?"

"One minute," her voice replied from the only other room, and several seconds later she came around the corner, giving him a quick kiss before thrusting a sheathed dagger into his hands. "I was bored, so I polished it for you. I figured you'd be needing…"

"I want to talk about something," Larten interrupted, his voice tight. Arra raised her eyebrows at his abruptness - usually he listened so carefully to her every word - before deciding that it must be something important. For a moment, she tried to read his green eyes, then, despite the sinking in her stomach, nodded and silently lead the way into the other room, where two chairs were set neatly near a wooden table.

"I think I know what it's about," she said tentatively, turning her head away from him so he wouldn't see her fear. Thirty years; she should have recognized sooner that it would be too long for him. She should have called it off ten years ago at this time, ended it while they were ahead.

"You do?" he asked with a tone of genuine surprise. "I have been trying for the longest time to keep it to myself."

"Yes," she said softly. "You've changed. I've noticed for some time now."

He sighed and reached out to take her hands. She glanced down at them for a moment before yanking them away and chewing on one of her nails as she turned to face him. It pained him to see the tears slowly forming at the corners of her eyes. "I hoped...I hoped it would not effect you so strongly. I know that this is the life we have set out for ourselves, but I want it to change," he said. "I do not take pleasure in this life anymore."

She nodded sullenly and this time didn't pull away as he grabbed at her hands. She managed a pained smile before saying quietly, "All good things must come to an end." Usually a messy, hurtful end - all things that had ever made her happy, at least, though she didn't say it to him then.

He sighed, "I am sorry, my love, but a…recent experience has caused me to take a step back. Is there any chance that you could ever agree with me?" A glint of false hope flashed in his eyes as they came to rest on hers, both staring deep, as if trying to read one another's minds. She shook her head ever so slightly.

"I'm sorry too," Arra choked. "But I'll never agree."

Larten had begun to tear up now; the sight of Arra so unhappy hurt him more than she would ever know. "I am sorry, but it a a decision I had to make for myself."

She nodded, biting back any more tears. "I understand."

Both stared at the ground for a while, each absorbed in their own miserable thoughts. "I suppose," Larten finally broke the silence, "we decide what to do from here. Just because one thing ends, it does not mean that everything has to go with, which brings me to my next subject." She looked up at him, frowning. What could possibly come next? "We have been together now for three decades, and I hope that we can agree upon more time together?"

Arra stared at him for a moment, frowned, and then wiped the tears from her cheeks, a smile just barely being restrained from her mouth. After a few seconds, she couldn't stop herself and broke into a wide smile, laughing gleefully. "Oh, Larten," she said, hitting him on the shoulder, "you've put your overly large foot into your mouth once again."

He stared at her, confused, though he too wiped at his eyes, glad at least that she seemed happier now, even if she was making no sense. "What did you misunderstand?"

"I thought that's what we were talking about!" she said, her face flushed with relief. "I thought that you were saying that it was time for us to go our separate ways, that our relationship wasn't important to you."

"I…what?" Larten said, giving a small, confused chuckle. "You thought that I did not want to be with you anymore?"

Arra nodded and they both began to laugh. She pulled him into a hug as they laughed, and he kissed what was left of her tears off her eyes. "Do I get an answer now, or has my stupidity bought me a couple nights of waiting for your agreement? As I believe I have said every time our mating time arrangements have come to an end, I see no future for myself without you. Life without you is meaningless and empty." His eyes were wet again.

Arra kissed him deeply. She only stopped to brush her lips by his ear to whisper softly, "I agree."

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Later in the night, she slowly blinked herself awake, her head resting on his chest. She felt his hand tracing against her back and knew that he was already awake. He must have seen her eyes open, because he kissed the top of her head gently. "Larten?" she said, her voice muffled by his bare shoulder.

"Hmm?"

"What were you talking about earlier?"

He cringed, then tried to mask it with a smile. "It is nothing, do not worry about it now. There is plenty of time to discuss it later." Her grey eyes narrowed and she sat up. Larten groaned, knowing that now she had brought it up, she wasn't going to let it rest. "I would rather discuss this some other time," he tried futilely again. Her arms folded and still she said nothing. She probably didn't plan to either - Arra had a way of getting him to talk with just her stubborn stare. Finally, he gave in, saying, "I wish this could wait." He sat up and kissed her while he had the chance, knowing that she may very well not let him anywhere near her for several centuries after he said his piece. "I was talking about being a General," he said, painstakingly slowly.

She stared at him blankly. "What?"

He heaved a sigh. "I cannot be a General any longer. I am going to see the Princes tomorrow night to tell them that I am resigning."

For several seconds, she stared silently at him, her expression unreadable. Then her lips pursed and she stood up. "You can't," she said, with so much certainty that Larten nearly agreed. Then he came back to his sense and got up too, placing his hands on her shoulders. "I must. I cannot bear it anymore, Arra. The fighting. The killing. It would be one thing if we only killed vampaneze, but it does not stop there. We kill our own if they break our rules - there is no warning punishment, only death." His voice dropped and became hoarse. "In one week, I leave to kill Terek Herson, the vampire who saved my life six years ago. You remember him?" She didn't answer, but he could tell by the way her glare flickered that she remembered. "And do you know why I have been sent to kill him? He killed a General - a General who drank a cat's blood and went insane; a General we would have been sent to kill anyway. But because Terek is not a General, he has been ordered dead because he killed a higher-ranking vampire than himself. Does that seem right to you, Arra? Should Terek be put to death because he broke a bloody rule?"

She didn't answer immediately. "You are about to become a Prince," she said. "You can complain about the rules then. We're vampires, not toddlers. The only way our clan has survived is on its firm laws."

"But that doesn't mean they shouldn't be overlooked in certain cases!" he barked, and she pushed him away as both tempers flared. "I have been ordered to kill a man who saved my life. What would prevent the Princes from saying that I must kill Seba, or Gavner, or you?" He swallowed. "I am tired of killing, Arra. I want it to stop."

"It's the vampire way," she said coolly. "It's how we survive. If I broke the laws, I would expect to suffer the conseque-" He swore and stormed away from her, but she grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back.

"Do you enjoy it?" he asked, ripping her hand off him. "Killing?"

"Of course I don't," she spat. "I don't want to kill anyone, but if it has to be done, then so be it."

"Well, I want no more part of it," Larten said firmly. "I can hardly live with myself knowing how many deaths I have already brought about. All I want is to be happy with what I have done. I do not want to add to my list of regrets."

Arra's lips were pressed into a thin, stubborn line. "Happiness doesn't last. It's temporary; an ephemeral emotion that only makes you suffer in the end of it all."

"I think that is sad," he said softly. "I thought you believed in happiness, that we are happy together."

"We are..." she looked away from him, "Were. That doesn't change that it'll hurt us both more eventually."

"I am sorry you feel that way," he said, and it was sincere. He crossed the room to snatch one of his many red shirts off a dresser and pull it over his head. "But I would not trade one second of it to ease later pain."

She blinked. "I didn't say I would either. But that's just the way the damn story goes. Life isn't happy. Not for vampires."

"Well," he said, in barely more than a whisper, "it never will be if they continue to murder like savages. I will not condone it, and I will not -." He gathered the remainder of his few sets of clothes into his arms and started for the front room, Arra after him, "-allow the vicious cycle to continue on my part. I will see if I can talk to the Princes now and leave before sunrise." He stuffed his few belongings from around the room into a leather bag and headed for the door.

"So that's it," Arra said from behind him, making him stop. He forced himself to open his eyes as he turned to face her and nod. Her arms were crossed, her jaw set. "So you're just leaving now, and what?"

"Yes," he said, his voice tight. "I do not know 'what', but my time at Vampire Mountain is over." He tied his cape around his neck and with an apologetic, but somehow cold, final sigh of, "I am sorry," he began to leave. Arra followed him to the doorway, but stopped at the threshold, not stepping out into the tunnel. She wanted to say something, but she didn't know what. Finally, she decided on the only thing she could say, the only thing she knew to say. "Good bye." It was soft, very soft, but she could tell from the pause in his step that he'd heard it. She watched his cape flying behind him as he turned the corner of the hallway and disappeared. For several more seconds she stood there staring at the spot where the last billow of red seemed to linger in her mind, then sunk back into the room and slammed the door. She stared at it, biting her lip, but then she realized it didn't matter if she cried or not, there was no one there to see her. And so she buried her face, turned, and slid down the wall onto the floor, not bothering to try to keep her tears back, but instead trying to think of anything but this, the moment she had dreaded since she first met Larten. Even back then, she had known that happiness could never last.

Happiness damn near destroys you
Breaks your faith to pieces on the floor.

I SO wanted to do something happy for this (I mean, hello: HAPPINESS), but for some reason it took a wrong turn. You have no idea how much I want to write a cute, fluffy story, but...no such luck. Anyway, let me know what you thought!