Chapter 24

The following morning, Melyssa woke up to an empty room with Crow nowhere to be found. She had cried herself to sleep and now she was up, the feeling of rejection overwhelming her. Never again would she put herself out there for a man. No, all she needed to focus on was the way of the sword, like it had been since she was 10-years-old. Tossing the blanket off her, Melyssa stood up and made the bed before brushing her hair back in a messy bun on top of her head. She washed her face in the bathroom quickly before walking to the cafeteria in the tower for something to eat.

I'm such an idiot for thinking he liked me as more than a friend, she thought, mentally chastising herself while grabbing a tray to put some food on it.

After she ate, she would go check on Ash.

"Over here, Melyssa!" Rean waved a hand at her, watching as she began automatically coming his way only to halt when she spotted Crow beside him. Rean had slept like a log last night once he had managed to fall asleep anyway. Crow looked like crap, he had bags under his bloodshot eyes and his hair looked like he had electrocuted himself. "Hi." He grinned when she hesitated by the table, her eyes sweeping over Crow before dismissing him. What had he missed? "What the…" She walked away and dropped down with Juna and Altina.

Crow grunted, dropping his head on the table, nearly face-planting himself in his tray of untouched food.

Juna and Altina both shared a look with each other while Kurt continued eating his food, trying not to look concerned. "Okay, what's going on?"

"Nothing." Melyssa plastered on a fake smile for her classmates and poured syrup over her hotcakes and scrambled eggs. "Just thought I'd sit with you guys for a change."

Juna didn't buy that lie for a second, narrowing her eyes and decided she would be grilling Melyssa for information later on.

Melyssa didn't mean to be rude to Rean, but there was no way she could sit at the same table as Crow. She wanted nothing to do with him unless it had to do with class. Never again would she get personal or close to him, not like last night/earlier that morning. After eating almost half of her breakfast, Melyssa wasn't hungry anymore and tossed her food away before heading off to go check on Ash. She couldn't stand being in the same room or breathing the same air as Crow Armbrust right now, her appetite completely gone.

"Okay, what in Aidios' name is going on?"

"Juna, she does not want to talk about it. Please refrain from questioning her." Altina ordered, looking back at their Instructor and then Crow, raising a brow.

Kurt was staying the hell out of this.

Rean had not missed any of that or the way Crow kept raising his head up as if to check on Melyssa's current whereabouts. "Okay, what did I miss?" He demanded, his tone borderline turning that question into a demand, contemplating pulling out the 'Instructor' card if Crow didn't answer.

Crow actually answered. In a very soft, miserable tone, he explained what had happened last between him and Melyssa. He also mentioned the underage thing, knowing if Rean had him expelled or something, he would have totally earned it. However, laying out his sin made him feel a little bit better.

Rean's jaw was in his eggs. It did occur to him that Melyssa had celebrated a birthday, wasn't it today? He didn't tell Crow. Aidios… what a mess.

The only reason why Rean would know it was her birthday was because of her application. Every applicant was required to put their birthday, address, where they were from, things of that nature. Melyssa didn't care so much about today being her birthday as she did being rejected by Crow. She couldn't even look him in the eye, how were they supposed to form a Combat Link now when he made her nauseous? Plopping down in the chair, she stared at Ash, willing him to wake up, and cried to the silence of the room, not wanting anyone else to see her break down. Ash would have no doubt given her hell for it if he was awake, but he wasn't. If anyone walked in, she could pass it off as being upset about Ash and the wreck instead of the horrible rejection and shot to her self-esteem. Becoming an adult sucked, she wanted to go back to the way things used to be before Crow decided to kiss her and then call it a mistake.

Crow had had the same thoughts. He'd come sit with Ash, give himself something to do, something to 'focus' on when all it meant was he could berate himself more. Rean hadn't said much, he had seemed overly shocked actually. Crow had totally missed the speculating look on his friend's face and the internal debate Rean had been struggling with.

Rean could have probably totally absolved all Crow's guilt about the age thing, -not the bailing and hurting her feelings bit, that was all on Crow- but he hadn't. He didn't know why. It was a simple fix to a fairly simple mistake and Crow would have only had to apologize and explain himself, maybe everything could have been salvaged.

But he hadn't and he didn't know why.

One look at Melyssa had Crow freezing in place, his red eyes widening as he took her in. He cleared his throat, opening his mouth to say something, and then turned and walked right back out, his entire face going as red as his eyes. How was he going to make this right?

"Shit."

Melyssa wanted to punch him as hard as she could in his mouth, feeling her rage starting to consume her. The sadness was slowly being replaced with anger and resentment. Standing, she wiped her tears away and leaned down to brush her lips against Ash's forehead softly.

"I don't know when we're leaving, but I'll make sure to come and say goodbye before we do. Hang in there, Ash." Narrowing her bloodshot, swollen eyes, Melyssa walked out of Ash's room and headed out of the tower, being stopped by the soldiers blocking the entrance.

"Don't go too far if you're heading out to the woods."

"Will do, thanks."

The ARCUS II was working now as well, so if Rean or any of her other classmates needed her, they would be able to contact her. Melyssa needed to get away for a while, alone, with just her Cutlass and the sounds of nature surrounding her. She moved about 7 minutes from the tower and stopped, finding a small clearing big enough to let her train and practice her moves. This was also a great way to burn her anger and resentment away.

Rean was alerted to Melyssa leaving the gates and going out towards the forest. He was alerted because technically these were his students and he was in charge. That weight had hit him hard this morning upon waking. These students, his friends, were his charges, he was supposed to protect them and get them there and back again safely. He had epically failed. One of his students, his friends, was in the medical ward right now with a concussion and they had no idea what Ash's state would be once he woke up. Sighing, he let Juna know what he was doing before slowly following after Melyssa. Right now was not a good time to go outside the compound alone, not after that attack. After grabbing his Tachi, he took off out the gates and went in the direction he had been told she'd gone.

It didn't take long for Rean to find her.

Melyssa had stayed right where she was supposed to and had her eyes closed, feeling the grass beneath her bare feet. It was how she trained in Jurai and the nature surrounding her helped. That was until she heard footsteps and spun around, her Cutlass colliding with Rean's Tachi. The sound of the weapons clashing echoed around them and Melyssa pulled back first, sweat beading on her forehead, neck, and arms. Her bandaged arm still looked fairly new, though she would have to change it out before they left for Jurai.

"Time to leave?" She questioned, keeping her tone even and sheathed her Cutlass.

"No, and you'll need that."

Rean gave her exactly three seconds before lunging forward, feeling the blade of her Cutlass coming up in a defensive stance as he brought his Tachi down, steel clashing against steel. He didn't say a word, just went on the offensive, putting her through her paces. She had improved and he noticed the changes instantly, the way she moved her feet, she was dancing and would be formidable when on the battlefield. He was hoping that moment came later rather than sooner though it wasn't looking that way.

Why was he doing this? If he thought for a second she would talk, Rean was dead wrong. She refused to talk about being rejected by the man she thought she loved. Maybe she didn't. What was love anyway? She didn't know the first thing about it and being told kissing her was a mistake...letting out a roar of rage, an orange aura surrounded her as Melyssa sent a shockwave at Rean, sending him flying back to land on his backside. Her eyes went wide as the orange aura disappeared and she shut her eyes tightly, trying to reign her anger in.

Rean didn't want to talk to her about what had happened with Crow. He was still busy sorting out why he hadn't done the right thing and told Crow about Melyssa's birthday, about her status as a legal adult. Hitting his butt on the ground from that attack, from her, had him stop for a moment. Seconds later, Rean was back on his feet, knowing that had not been a planned attack. If it had been, she would have flattened him.

"With control," He informed her as they clashed again. "That would have been near perfect." As it was, his butt was dirty.

"Rean…"

She went to help him and jumped back when he swiped his Tachi at her, almost nicking her arm. Obviously, he wasn't that hurt from her attack, or else he would have stopped this. They continued dueling for a while until he got the upper hand on her and forced her to a knee, surrendering. Melyssa was breathing erratically with sweat coating her reddened face, her heart pounding vigorously in her chest. She had no idea how long they'd gone for, but Rean was breathing heavily as well with an equally crimson face and sweat.

"Damn…" She grunted, slowly looking up at her Instructor – no, her friend – and slowly sat back in the grass, keeping her Cutlass firmly planted into the ground. "I-I think I'm okay now…"

"Yeah?" He used the sleeve of his shirt to wipe the sweat off his face, frowning, and just peeled the thing off. It was damp from that workout and he knew he was red and breathing heavily. "You gave me a run for my money this morning, Melyssa." Rean grinned at her, pride and admiration in his tone. "That was a decent shockwave, once you learn how to control it, you're going to be phenomenal." He was guessing she had come out here this morning to work out whatever issues she had going on, thanks to Crow being a bit of an idiot. Crow was just being stupid. For someone who was so smart and could be such a smooth talker with women, he had mucked this up royally. He dropped down alongside her, tossing his shirt around the back of his neck.

Shirtless again.

Melyssa did everything in her power not to look over at her gorgeous, now half-naked Instructor. However, Rean chose for her and reached over with his fingers to turn her head until their eyes met. "I've been working on that move for a while now, even before I entered Thors. It finally came together today, for some reason." Her anger and hurt could have had something to do with it. "Listen Rean, I don't want to go into detail, but…something happened between me and Crow and I know you instructed us to keep trying to form a Combat Link together, but…" Not after last night, there was no way it could happen. "I don't think it's going to work with us and we need to be as powerful as we can going into Jurai." That was a fact, especially with who they were going up against. "Would you mind terribly if we shelved this Combat Link issue until we're back in Leeves? Please?"

All things considered after last night's events, Rean thought that was a very practical and reasonable request. Everyone needed to be at their best and on alert, not distracted by personal matters. "Yes, that's fine. You're right, we do need to be at our best and on point. I'll have Crow partner up with someone else and you can partner with me."

Now that he was thinking rationally and she had made the point about needing to be as powerful as they could be, he reconsidered his stance on informing Crow about Melyssa's birthday. It wasn't right to leave his friend hanging in misery though whether or not Crow and Melyssa could salvage anything… that wasn't on him or his business. Or at least, that's what he was telling himself.

"Partner with you, huh?"

Melyssa was intrigued, thinking he would send her with Juna or Altina or even Kurt, but he had chosen himself instead. It was interesting and she wondered where Rean's frame of mind was. Suddenly, she thought back to the train before the attack and how close they'd been to kissing…or maybe it was all in her head. Then again, she was just a first-year and a weakling compared to the others in Class VII, so maybe Rean wanted to keep her close to him for that reason.

"That's fine with me, whatever you want to do, Instructor."

He saw no reason to break apart other partnerships that were working well, such as Juna and Kurt for example. Once Ash was back on his feet, he could partner with Crow. For now, with her still 'learning' the ropes, so to speak, and with them having as much on their plate as they now did, it was just best to not take any risks.

"It'll be easier for everyone involved, and you and I already work well together." He flashed her a grin, finally getting up onto his knees. "Come on, let's get back. We're going to have to be going soon and they were saying before I left that Ash was waking up."

"H-He is?! Oh, thank Aidios!" Melyssa didn't take Rean's hand and plucked her Cutlass out of the ground, up on her feet in the blink of an eye. She quickly pecked Rean's cheek with a bright smile, all traces of sadness gone temporarily. "Thanks for the sparring bout!" She called over her shoulder, running as fast as she could through the woods towards the tower with Rean trailing behind.

Nothing else mattered.

Nobody else mattered.

Ash was waking up, which meant he was definitely going to be all right. After what happened with Crow, Ash was the only man she could fully trust since her feelings for Rean were up in the air at the moment. It wasn't that she didn't trust him, but she didn't trust herself to be around him for a long period of time, not after the walk under the stars with the gelato or the near kiss on the train. There was no way she'd miss the chance to say goodbye to someone she did consider to be her best friend since Ash had been there for her more than anyone in Class VII.