FIC START!
Harley pointed to a set of stairs nearby. "We're heading up this way. Follow me."
Sakinah looked down at the floor as Kain started to follow Harley begrudgingly. After a few moments, Kain stopped to see she hadn't moved. "Sakinah. Is there something?"
"Kain," she breathed out. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I'm so weak. I keep you from your own work because of it, and..."
"Don't apologize," Harley said abruptly before Kain could even reply. She stood next to the stairs. "I had never taken up a weapon until the True Moon tried to come down on our heads only a few cycle of the seasons ago. I was weak and weak-willed for the longest time until..."
"Until what?" Sakinah asked, taking a few steps closer to Harley.
"Until King Edward saved my life," Harley concluded. "That's when I understood everything I needed to understand. I mattered to someone. I had purpose in life. I had a companion worth having."
Sakinah smiled in response. It filled her with hope to hear that. She followed Harley at that point with no complaints. Kain followed behind her, even if he felt it was useless to wait longer than he absolutely had to. Harley led them up to a tower wherein one chamber was ready for them. She waited for them both to enter before closing the door quickly behind her.
"We'll come get you at dinnertime," Harley called through the door. "Rest up!"
Kain pressed against the door, noticing there was no way to open it. "...it's locked?!"
Sakinah blinked a few times, looking at him in utter confusion. "Why would she-"
"Edward, your tactics leave me speechless."
Sakinah turned to look at the room. It was decently decorated, but there was one thing she immediately noticed. "Uh oh."
"What?" Kain saw it, too. "Only one bed. We're expected to rest with the door locked and having only one bed. Guessing by Edward's tone, he isn't expecting us to sleep."
Blushing, Sakinah stammered as she tried to hide the fact that she wouldn't mind if he embraced her in such a way. "I... I do not mind resting on the floor."
"You are a lady. I could not rest if you were not comfortable. You will rest on the bed, and I will take the floor," Kain said sternly. That only sounded to her as if he wasn't even remotely interested at all in being so close.
"But I don't want you to be sore or anything."
"I've slept in rougher places than a castle floor," Kain said. "The bed is yours, my lady."
"But... but I am useless. It makes sense for you to have the bed."
He glared at her. "Sakinah. Use the bed. Do not try to convince me otherwise."
"It hardly seems fair."
"Would you not argue?"
"But... but, Kain."
"Sakinah." He pointed at the bed. "Go. Lay down. Take a nap while you can. There will be no safe place once we leave until we reach Fabul." When he looked at her again, she was all ready waiting for his eyes to meet with hers. They seemed sadder than usual. She seemed to want to tell him something, but she just wasn't able to say it, which left him wanting to give up on the whole damn thing. "What? What is it?"
She grabbed around his arm for a minute. Even though she'd never been this close to a person before, especially a man, she wouldn't mind if his hands took a quest of their own on her body. But how could she tell him that? She shook with fear instead of grasped onto him with affection and adoration. "I wish... I wish I knew how to tell you."
"You can tell me anything, my lady. I would never turn a deaf ear towards you."
Suddenly, it all fell out. She wasn't sure how or why, but while she was shaking, gripping around his arm, she blurted out, "I overheard you and Edward at the inn in Kaipo. I heard you both speaking of me. And what you said about me. What he said about it. And... all I could do the entire time was hide under the blanket and pretend I was asleep because... I couldn't believe you said what you did. And... and... if you..."
Kain shook his head and picked her up, carrying her to the bed. He sat her down on it and kneeled so he could look up at her for a change. "Sakinah. Even if I feel this way, I could not do anything to you if you did not wish it. I could not give you affection or hold you without you wanting that. I once loved someone that did not love me in return, and I could not give her what I wanted to give her as she did not want it from me." He sighed. "If you want my affection, I-"
Sakinah sniffled once before tears streamed down her cheeks. "Kain..."
"Sakinah, just tell me what you wish of me."
"Kain," she said his name again, soon sliding off of the bed and right onto the floor next to him. "Kain, please, I-"
He put his arms around her, pulling her close. She took in a few deep breaths, letting him give her all the support he could. Suddenly, before he could think of anything else, he nuzzled his face against hers for a few moments, and exactly when she turned to speak to him, he turned and let his lips land right onto hers. She fell limp against him, overwhelmed by how much she enjoyed the affection. It was her first kiss. It was the first time she ever felt anything like it. When he pulled away, she gripped him tighter than she did before.
"Sakinah," he whispered. "I love you."
