It took her nearly a year, but she came back to him in the end. Mika tried hard not to be cross with her when she arrived, shaking snow from her hair and taking a seat as though she had nothing to apologize for – he supposed these months for her, surrounded by her peers, had been different to these months for him in the icy wilderness – but it was more difficult than he had imagined.
Keeping up with her activities in the Mountain from afar had been almost impossible; Arrow told him nothing, possibly on purpose. There was nothing he could do but take everything she said about her experiences in the months he'd been away as the truth – he supposed that ought to have been good enough, but the uncomfortable feeling in his gut told him it wasn't. She told him about her new acquaintances and even labelled them friends, including young Gavner Purl. It wasn't the right time to berate her, but associating with Gavner and his band of ruffians wasn't likely to get her anywhere – he would have to fix that, when he returned.
"Vanez has been especially kind to me, since you left," she revealed, to his relief. In the couple of nights before he'd been forced to leave the Mountain he'd given Vanez extremely strict instructions to keep an eye on her, but had often worried since that the cheerful General might have disobeyed him. "We started training for my Trials just before I set off to come here."
It was too good to be true, of course. He vowed as soon as he was free of his mission to have a firm discussion with Vanez. Putting the idea of the Trials into her head had not been part of his instructions.
"We spend a lot of time on the bars, too. In about one of four matches, I beat him these days."
That had been Vanez's dream for her from the start, but there was no harm in that allowing that he didn't crack her head right open in one of their matches. Mika gave her a tight smile, but said nothing.
Aware suddenly that she might have been boring him with tales of her life at the Mountain, Arra changed tack. The Generals had set up their base camp in what looked like an old orphanage with blackened walls and burned out floors. It wasn't exactly pleasant, and she struggled to find something to say about their surroundings. Eventually, she decided against it.
"I've missed you, as well," she said finally. "I'm sorry it's taken so long to come. Most nights Vanez, Seba or Arrow keep me busy."
Arrow. He cocked his head in confusion, wanting her to explain.
"Arrow doesn't think I can cope while you're not around to watch me," she laughed as though that idea was ridiculous. "He gives me lists of little tasks to keep me occupied. Without him, I think I'd have grown bored of the Mountain already."
She hadn't meant it, but all Mika heard in her words was without Arrow's interference, I'd have been here earlier.
I barely see her at all, Arrow had said, I'm sure she's alright. Lying bastard would pay for that, when he got out of this God-forsaken icy Hell.
After a couple of moments of silence, she sighed. He'd said almost nothing since she'd arrived. She couldn't know it, but he was waiting to see if she might give him the apology he desired and felt he deserved.
"I was under the impression that you'd be pleased to see me," she said. He knew it was unreasonable, but he couldn't help being angry with her for stalling so long before finding him, for making friends, for getting along so well without him. He hadn't wanted her to fail while he was gone, but he hadn't entirely wanted her to fly either. I've missed you but I've been busy just wasn't good enough, not when it felt like she passed through his thoughts every single minute. He couldn't possibly explain to her his reasons for being furious because they were so ridiculous – but he was too angry to pretend that nothing was wrong. He felt distinctly indignant still; she was sitting there like this was the most casual thing in the world when he'd waited for days with baited breath for her to arrive – and waited for months to tell him she had the time.
"I'm not just going to sit here in silence all night, Mika," she added unhappily. When he flicked his eyes towards her he noticed that she looked exhausted from her travels and saddened by his reaction. She cared that much, at least. "You should have told me before I left that you didn't have any desire to see me, to spare me the trip and avoid this."
No desire to see her? That was laughable.
"Have I done something to offend you?"
Gods, yes, he wanted to shout. Everything about her attitude was offensive – why didn't she care the way he did that they hadn't seen one another in months? Why was she seemingly so happy with all her new acquaintances and her new life without him when he was stuck here in the middle of what seemed like an endless blizzard, missing her hopelessly?
"I'm staying for the rest of the night, and for the day," she announced, though she didn't sound pleased about it. "Whatever foul mood you're in, I won't allow you to throw me out in this weather."
It was as if she wanted an argument about that just to hear him speak. She was trying to bait him, force him to tell her to go so that she might find out why. Instead, he turned his back.
"You're being so childish," she accused, but through the disdain he thought he could hear the hurt in her voice. "You should at least speak to me."
He turned back towards her again, and shrugged one shoulder.
"I'm sorry if I've upset you!" she cried, abruptly, after another few moments of silence. Finally it seemed as though it mattered one way or the other to her, and however awful it was it warmed Mika's heart to hear her revealing some sort of emotion – even if she was distressed, at least it meant she cared. It was twisted, he reminded himself, to take any sort of pleasure in her sadness, but it felt so much better than listening to stories about the Mountain. All he heard in them was how little she needed him and how wonderful her life was without him.
This wasn't being manipulative, he reminded himself briefly. He was just testing her.
"I've been looking forward to seeing you," she admitted, though it must have pained her to be so honest. "But it's like you don't care at all."
Finally, that was almost a reflection of how he felt. When he failed to answer again, she gathered her coat back around her and stood – it seemed she had only told him she would stay for the day to bait him, and in reality she had no intention of that. In the second before she reached the door, he decided she'd proved she was sorry enough and called her back.
She turned back towards him, faithfully, as always.
"I'm sorry," he said – though he wasn't – with hands out wide in surrender. She waited as he crossed the room to sling an arm around her and then stared back at him, confusion in her eyes. "It's been a stressful few months here."
That was hardly a good enough excuse, and for a moment it looked like she wanted to argue with him about it, but he pressed his lips to hers before she had any chance. She was a little taken aback by that, it seemed, but after he pulled away her eyes had brightened and her features softened, all trace of their argument erased. Whether she was pleased to be in his arms again or whether she was pleased simply because he didn't seem angry with her anymore was a mystery, but it was unimportant to him.
"I've missed you too," he admitted, satisfied that she had been miserable enough without him to reveal his actual feelings. He had a second to study her now that she was staring up at him, and noticed that at some point she'd acquired a slight scar around her jawline that he disliked. He tilted her head while he spoke to subtly look for more. There was a suspicious look in her eyes that made him almost certain that she'd seen through that – but, perhaps eager to avoid any more angry words exchanged between them, she said nothing. "I had hoped you'd come sooner."
She smiled apologetically. "I think Vanez and Arrow like to keep an eye on me on your behalf," she explained, clearly unaware of Arrow's secret intention to keep them separated. "They wouldn't approve of me disappearing for long."
Mika thought that Arrow probably would have liked her to disappear altogether. He loosened the knot holding her hair up, and took a few moments to thumb through the now loose strands.
"Don't listen to them, in future," he advised. He smiled gently to ensure that it didn't sound too much like an order. "You can do as you wish."
He brushed her hair around to one side and slipped his arms in around her waist, pleased that she seemed to have no hesitation about allowing that – they had made such good progress before he'd finally left the Mountain, and he was delighted that it hadn't been entirely forgotten. She felt a little more robust than he remembered, Vanez's careful training clearly taking effect, but that wasn't an unwelcome development. He thought it might be appropriate to try and imply that as you wish really meant as I want you to, but he lost his chance immediately.
"Besides that," she continued. "A friend of mine has been taking the Trials himself, recently. It would have been rude of me to leave before I knew that he'd survived them."
Mika hummed against a kiss to her neck, feigning interest. "Gavner?" he asked, bringing to mind the only name he could recall and caring little about the answer.
"Larten," she corrected briefly, sensing the end of their discussion. He tilted his head up to kiss her just at the wrong moment, the exact moment realization of who exactly Larten was hit him, and when she saw his expression she laughed.
"Don't be stupid, Mika," she reprimanded light-heartedly while he silently seethed. "You can't possibly be jealous."
The look on his face must have given him away terribly. Mika forced a laugh as well, rolling his eyes as if in good humour. It would only be another couple of months now before the mission was over and everything was back to normal – and then she'd have no reason to even speak with that vampire that had tried to win her favour a year ago.
"Anything but," he assured her, chuckling and smiling as though everything was completely fine. "I was just surprised that he'd survived them, as you said. I remember throwing him halfway across a Games Hall, once."
Arra blushed and laughed out loud. "Don't mention that," she chuckled. "It took months for Larten to –"
There was no possible end to that sentence that he might have been interested in, and he cut her off sharply with another kiss. What she'd said about Seba's old assistant wasn't important, he reasoned, but he still wished to navigate away from the topic as quickly as he possibly could to spare him having to give it any further thought. It was a matter of weeks really, at most, before he'd be allowed to return to the Mountain and put a stop to any of her friendships that he disapproved of. For now, it was pointless to consider something that could only make him think about her even more.
"I'd rather not talk about him all night," he growled into her hair – all he really wanted her to say were the things he wanted to hear, not stories about the slimy characters she'd taken up with in his absence. She laughed softly, but clasped a hand around his wrist as a gesture of some comfort.
"You shouldn't doubt me," she said, soft but stern, and he laughed it off again as though her mention of the orange-haired youth hadn't bothered him at all.
"I didn't," he lied, kissing her again. "I remember what we agreed."
In his last nights at the Mountain with her he'd made it his primary objective to ensure that she would at least be faithful to him while he was gone, and she'd promised, with a kind of look in her eyes that suggested the intensity of his demands worried her, that she would. Though he didn't particularly doubt her loyalty, he did have suspicions about everyone else's intentions. The second test tonight would be making sure she'd kept to her promises.