::::-----=============-----::::

"That Rue... what an idiot."

So this was what true hatred felt like. All of Mint's dreams, her hopes, her very purpose in life for the past two years -- all shattered because of this...this boy.

Boys are so stupid.

She narrowed her eyes as she saw him finally come around the corner of the fortress' hallway carrying Claire, seeming to take his sweet time though in actuality, he was running as fast as his worn out legs could take him.

"Come on, come ON! I don't have all day!!" hollered Mint, stomping to convey her impatience. "Good for nothing.." she mumbled, almost inaudibly, "..stupid...selfish... [relic] hog!!" she made that last part loudest.

But none of Mint's words got to Rue, who, for one thing, could never have heard Mint over the thunderous rumbling of the walls in Valen's fortress, but was also too focused on Claire to pay attention to anything else. He cared about how gingerly he should hold her, if his jerky running would cause her to open her eyes, but most importantly, all that mattered to him was that Claire was there. With him; in his very own arms, at last. It almost brought tears to Rue's parched eyes...Until suddenly, with an earsplitting crash, everything went dark.

Mint rubbed her head, moaning in disgust. The sudden noise was so great that it knocked her to the ground.

"Dang, what the heck was --" The sight tossed Mint into silence. The passageway out of Valen's fortress had collapsed on itself, trapping Rue and Claire on the other side.

"No way!!" Was all Mint could say as she saw it. She ran up to the heaping barrier, jetting left, then right, then left again, searching for any sign of Rue. But there was nothing. Not a sight, not even a sound of him to let her know that the boy was still alive.

"Rue... Rue?!"

Gasping for breath, Mint zipped around and ran for the exit as fast as she could, vowing that if Rue had died in there, she'd never forgive that worthless jackass. Then at last, she could finally see signs of the outside world as the glowing sun lit up her face...as it was being reflected off of Rod's armor. Mint had never been more pleased to see the Spaniard-dressed man in her entire life.

"Rod! Rod, you gotta help me!"

"It's about time, Mint! What's up with this place? Where's Rue?!"

"He's still inside!" She yelled, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. She almost didn't even feel the need to get into specifics since the most important thing on her mind at the time was catching her breath. "A bunch of boulders...came down and trapped him INSIDE!!"

"What?!" Rod yelled, as he pulled back in shock.

"Come on, we gotta crash in there and get 'em out!" she yelled aggressively, wondering why Rod hadn't already started the PInTO's engine.

"What?! Are you crazy? My baby's not gonna fit through that puny gate!" Rod retorted, gesturing to the 5x7 ft. opening to the fortress.

"Then we'll use the cannons to blast our way through!" Mint hollered, desperately searching for a plan.

Rod ran up to Mint, trying to figure out what happened to her sense. "Are you blind?! This thing HAS no cannons!"

"DANG IT! We don't have time!" she said, frustrated at how much time she had just wasted. "Let's... Let's just crash through! I'm sure it'll work -- it has to!" Mint said, trying to convince Rod, though her desperation was beginning to cloud her good judgement. "Just hurry up and DO somethi--ahh..!!" Suddenly, the impatient, crumbling fortress cut off Mint, as a number of boulders fell dangerously close to her and the young man.

Luckily, Rod still had the brains to know when certain life threatening objects came a little too close for comfort. "It's too late!" he yelled to Mint, over the roar of more falling rocks. "We gotta get outta here! Let's GO!" Rod knew that if they didn't make a run for it soon, they'd both die.

Mint, however, couldn't believe what she was hearing. Leave?! Without them?! How on earth could Rod think so cruelly? She plugged her ears with her fingers to spare her eardrums when another boulder fell a few feet from where she was standing.

"I...I'm not going! What's wrong with you?! We can't just leave them!!"

Mint's heart was beating as fast as a hummingbird's. They had to go back and do something. She didn't care how dangerous it was. Rue had always ended up saving her in the end of some predicament, and now, when it's finally her turn, she has to leave him to die?! Never! Never, never!! She began to smile and breathe a little more easily as Rod finally turned back to her wearing a more compliant expression. Then suddenly, he lunged at her, and all Mint could see was white flooding into her vision, as she felt a swift, piercing pain in her abdomen. The last thing she heard before she passed out was Rod giving her a faint, yet sincere apology.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Mint, somewhere in between sleep and wake, slowly slid her fingers across her pillow. Then, viciously dug her fingernails into it as she was jerked from her subconscious mind. She despairingly tried to force herself back to sleep but once she realized that her efforts were for naught, she reluctantly sat up.

"Stupid....stupid dream.." she whispered, her voice hardly audible, and her face beginning to find refuge in her palms. Dreams could sometimes be the worst guilty pleasures.

"Jeez...," she muttered, her voice muffled.

The morning sun was just beginning to show its worthless hide.

::::-----=============-----::::

Claire wasn't stupid. Not a bit.

A soft breeze blew past as she stood in animal pen outside the barn. She nearly didn't even acknowledge it, for the young girl was deep in thought. Claire knew everything about Rue and how...oh..oh, Rue...

"Rue.."

"Yes?"

"Um..." she looked around hesitantly. "Do you...know where the ladle is..? I can't seem to find it."

Rue smiled at Claire. "You mean this one?" In a sort of teasing fashion, he waved around the wooden ladle he'd been holding in his hand all along.

"Oh...yeah, that's the one." Claire smiled... a little embarrassed. Her hand fumbled for the spoon, and as she grabbed it, Rue's hand slightly brushed against her own.

"Ah--s-sorry.." Rue stuttered. But with a comforting smile from Claire, the awkwardness Rue felt faded away in an instant. It was always her smile -- that wonderful smile of hers that, even if the world was crumbling around him, could make everything seem at ease. It was the same one she gave him when he saw her in front of Dr. Klaus's home, awake for the first time in three years; looking at him for the first time in three years...smiling at him for the first time in three years. He could remember it all so clearly; how much it felt like a dream. How much he knew then that he would never--

Rue stopped for a moment and shook his head, noticing what he was just doing. He pulled off his hat and scratched the back of his head apprehensively, as if that would stop him from blushing.

Claire sighed as she dipped the wooden ladle into the bucket of corn for the barnyard hens. She then strew the corn out in front of her with another. Rue couldn't stay "just a kid" forever. Three years had past, but...she honestly didn't feel any different. It wouldn't make any sense for her to age in the afterlife, anyway. When she first woke up in Doctor Klaus's home, she couldn't even understand what happened to all the snow, and the beast that was threatening her and Rue's home. Little did she know, the entire world had gone on without her -- Rue had gone on without her. He'd grown, and matured and...and now he was just about her age, and--

Claire shook her head. Of course she could understand Rue's feelings. She was one of the first girls he'd ever met, after all (if not THE first), and was also probably the first person to ever show him any sort of kindness. She could still remember that cold night 2...no, 5 years ago when she found the body of a young boy lying in the snow. From then on, she had been Rue's companion and closest friend...but now... she could tell that somewhere, deep inside of him... he wanted to be more. But she knew -- she was positive that... she couldn't return those feelings. At least not yet...she just wasn't ready. She was still just overwhelmed by...everything.

"..Claire..?" Rue's gentle voice cut off Claire's train of thought.

"Ah...?"

Claire blinked as she noticed that while she was lost in thought, she never stopped digging her wooden ladle into the corn and feeding the hens. She glumly drooped her shoulders as she noticed that the hens were all now standing in a miniature sea of corn, hardly knowing what to do with themselves.

"Claire, are...you alright..?"

Claire's body tensed slightly as she answered Rue, and she dared not turn to him. She had to think of a way to seem as if nothing was the matter when...for once, something most definitely was. "I.. I'm fine, Rue..." she started "I was just thinking, that's all. I guess I just kinda...lost myself."

Rue looked at Claire, and could almost visualize the grim look on her face.

"....about what..?"

"Huh?"

"What were you thinking about..?" Rue asked, his voice giving away his concern.

Claire, however, nearly completely forgot that she even mentioned that she was thinking of something. She simply let an excuse slip from her mouth.

"Oh..I was just thinking.." she desperately searched "..about what you said last night... how you wanted to leave and all.."

Rue bit his lower lip. Just great, of all things for her to worry about. The previous night, Rue told Claire of his little compensation agreement he had made with Mint earlier that day. She didn't seem too troubled by it then, but now, Rue could see that she only held her true feelings inside. Girls are so prone to doing things like that..

"I promise I won't be gone long...!" Rue vehemently declared, stating the same vow that he gave her the night before.

"It's alright, Rue, it's fine. I understand; I was just a little worried, is all," Claire answered, digging herself into a bigger hole.

Rue squeezed his eyes shut and gritted his teeth. She wasn't fine! And she wasn't a little worried either! Something inside of him burned -- screaming; hollering at him. How could he ever leave Claire? What did he spend the last three years of his life doing? This was absolutely ridiculous. He....he didn't want her to be alone... He wanted to stay with her, be there for her, always. Mint would just have to understand that...that--oh, what did Mint matter, anyway?!

Rue shrank back a little. Then again... a promise was a promise, after all. And he did promise Mint that he'd be there to help her out. But was it that that bothered Rue, or the fact that he felt as if there were something amiss about... the way he felt about Claire. The way that when he complimented her, something inside him regretted it, or when he blushed around her, he felt a slight twinge of discomfort -- that something about her made it all feel wrong. But what was it? What, what?!

Rue let his left fist form into a tightly rolled ball, as if he were attempting to squeeze out all of his doubts and fears and uncertainties through that hand. No! He couldn't afford to think that way. He had to come clean with his feelings for Claire -- it was the least he could do before abandoning her. If he didn't do it now, he'd truly regret not having done it sooner or later. Now was the time. Now was the time to tell her -- tell her everything.

"Cla--" Rue blinked and stared vacantly forward as he noticed that Claire was no longer standing in front of him, but instead had comfortably relocated herself to the front of the barn. ...How long...had he been standing there thinking like that..?

Oh, that didn't matter. Rue positioned himself to follow her, but just as the thought of "Move!" wafted over his mind, he could feel his muscles begin to freeze. His entire body refused to listen to his orders and stayed put as he helplessly watched Claire walk into the barn without him. ...This was probably going to be a little harder than Rue had planned..

"Oh........great."

The roars of Mint's unruly stomach could have probably scared away a small group of rabbits, or at least one cowardly lion. She placed her hand over her abdomen in order to calm the raging beast.

"Ohhh...so... hungry..." She dragged herself out of bed and aimlessly started searching for Claire before she could even wipe the sleep from her eyes. She knew that Claire always got up at the crack of dawn (though she couldn't possibly fathom how) to feed the animals in the nearby barn. If she could feed a bunch of pigs so early in the morning, surely she wouldn't find it too inconvenient to feed a distinguished princess (that only ate like one).

Just the thought of breakfast sent Mint's saliva glands into a fit. "Oh man, I'm so hungry, I could eat--"

Wait. Something wasn't right. Mint put her fantasizing to a quick halt and looked down for a moment.

"...my foot."

She could hardly believe what she was seeing; both of her feet, even the one she broke a few days ago, were planted firmly on the ground. Mint looked behind her and noticed that the futon she's been using as a bed was in fact a few feet away. ...Had she walked all that way..? She must have -- seeing as her foot was in very little pain at all.

"But... how?" Mint asked aloud, nearly waiting for an answer until it came to her without any outside assistance -- Magic.

"Of course!" Mint exclaimed, slapping her forehead. It all made sense. Only magic could make something this impossible possible. Mint nearly felt foolish for not having realized it sooner. Honestly, who uses "remedial herbs" anyway? The herb-based mixture Claire had been using on her leg was some kind of homemade potation all along. That Claire.. Mint's eyes narrowed as she dawned upon a revelation.

'She's smarter than she looks, she is...'

Mint shielded her eyes from the blazing morning sun as she entered the outside world. She gently pushed open the squeaky door of the tattered, wooden fence that led to the muddy, weed-filled sanctuary of the animals which resided next to the quaint cottage. Then without warning, Mint was bombarded by an array of clucking menaces, shuffling around her feet and disgusting her to no end.

"Oh....god.." she muttered, but suddenly looked up when she heard a soft chuckling coming from somewhere nearby.

"They think you're me.." Claire explained with a smile and a laugh, as she exited the barn, carrying a bucket of fresh milk in front of her.

"Well then in that case, how do you say 'fuck off' in chicken..?" Mint asked, not the least bit amused about the mix-up.

Claire placed her index finger to her cheek and looked up thoughtfully. "Hrmm... was that with one 'buckaw' or two...?"

"....Funny."

"So.." Claire began, in a more serious tone, though still wearing a smile, "does your foot feel any better?"

"...I've been meaning to ask you about that," Mint answered, bluntly.

"I thought you'd say something like that," Claire said between laughs, beginning to walk past the newly popular princess. "C'mon, we'll discuss this inside. You must be hungry -- would you like breakfast?"

'Claire, I could marry you..'

::::-----=============-----::::

"Your.... father..?"

"Ya-huh." Claire answered with a smile as she prepared a fitting breakfast for Mint's nearly insatiable appetite. "My father is a peer, and my family is part of Seid's nobility.."

"Seid? As in... THE kingdom of Seid...??" Mint held her breath for a moment.

Claire turned back from the stove and smiled coyly. "Oh, now... It's not that big of a kingdom -- I'm surprised you've even heard of it..."

If Claire was good at anything (which is an understatement all in itself) it was selling herself short. It was common knowledge (amongst royalty, anyway) that the tiny little Seid kingdom was backed up by a big reputation. It was famous for being the origin of the fabled Enlightenment, an explosion of culture and recognition of the arts that began centuries ago and eventually spanned the globe. It was the birthplace of countless famous painters and sculptors, and was now home to some of the greatest museums in the world. For a bumpkin like Claire to actually be part of the nobility of such a nation was nearly mind boggling.

"Wait, so.. if you're part of nobility, then what the heck are you doing here??" Mint asked.

"Oh, it's a long story..." Claire sighed, knowing that she'd end up telling it anyway, if she wanted to get anywhere near answering Mint's initial question of why her foot's been instantly healed. She handed Mint the beginnings of her breakfast to hold her off for a while as she spoke, and rested her cheek in one hand while she watched her eat. "Well, my grandmother on my mom's side had never really liked the glamorous package that came with having a nobleman for a son-in-law, and well... this used to be her cottage," she said, wistfully looking around the old home. Her pleasant smile, however, shifted to a more despondent one with the next sentence.

"Though a number years ago she became quite ill... She never really cared for fancy treatment, even when it came to the most important of matters. I guess....I guess she was far too stubborn to ever leave here and come to Seid to seek the proficient medical treatment she could have been given, so my family hired the best nurses money could buy to take care of her at her home. But..."

Mint looked up for a moment, hardly being able to wait to hear what occurred next. "So... what happened?"

"..Well... my grandmother never was that much of a 'people person', to be honest.." Claire continued with a slight laugh. "She ended up being so--..disagreeable that she drove off each nurse we hired."

Mint's shoulders slumped a little. She couldn't see how any one person could be so possibly be that crabby.

"Then, I remember on my 15th birthday.. I offered to take care of her myself," Claire continued.

"A rather bold move, I'll admit. I mean, my parents didn't much care for that idea at first, but they knew how much my grandmother meant to me, and reluctantly, they let me go. So, I left my father's estate on my own, but not before I was equipped with numerous kinds of medicines and healing magic techniques.

Grandmother still always complained when I was there -- griping when her tea was too hot or when some random part of her hurt. But I never did mind much. I mean, I finally had a chance to take care of her, just as she'd oftentimes taken care of me, on those occasions when she would visit when I was a child. And you know, somehow.." Claire's voice softened.

"..I knew....I knew that underneath it all, she was a lot happier having her granddaughter take care of her than anything else. I'm positive she would never have lasted as long as she did if it were anyone else there by her side..."

Mint's face grew sullen as she realized where this story was heading. "Claire, I -- I'm sorry.." she said, sincerely.

However, Claire, wouldn't hear of it. "Oh no," she began, her smile so wide and radiant that it almost seemed like telling that story didn't faze her. "It's quite all right, really... I mean to be honest, Rue came along not too long after my grandmother passed, so I never really have felt very lonely. And I must say that a lot of my grandmother rubbed off on me -- seeing as I've grown more comfortable living here than my father's mansion. "

With that, Claire finally got up and returned to the warm, comforting stove. "I ended up taking care of Rue shortly after I'd found him.. and now I'm taking care of you," she said, turning back to the princess. "I guess it's kind of been my calling."

Mint sat there, awestruck, until an amassing of guilt raided her mind.

"But when I--"

"But," Claire continued in Mint's place, "I guess I can't stay here forever -- that would be like avoiding a part of me that I'll forever know exists. Maybe I'll go back home soon. Perhaps, once Rue leaves...to be with you."

Mint blinked feverishly, and tried to prevent her face from becoming any warmer.

'Well when you put it that way..'

::::-----=============-----::::

Rue slowly paced around the small, grassy knoll in front of the barn. The grass blades reached to just about an inch above his boots. Rue himself noticed this, seeing as he was staring at the ground with unwavering attention. Besides grass, his thoughts were on Claire. Always Claire. It was funny, but... he was sure he felt something for Claire. What was he saying? He'd always had feelings for Claire -- she's always been the most important person in his life. He was madly devoted to her and there was nothing he could do to change that. If it wasn't for her, who knows where he'd be?

Rue lightly kicked a patch of grass in font of him. He had always labeled his fondness for Claire as a sort of sibling-like admiration, but that was when he was last with her, 3 years ago! That was before he'd realized how horrible his life was without her in it. Now, things were different. He was just a kid back then -- surely he'd changed.

...Hadn't he..? Of...of course he had. But it was just so hard to tell Claire that. For the entire day, speaking to Claire seemed to be a foreign task to him; painful and uninviting. It tore him to shreds on the inside. He just couldn't understand why...

It was then that Rue noticed that in the middle of the clearing of grass he'd just kicked was a single lavender flower. He bent over, placing one knee on the ground, and picked it. If he didn't have Claire back, he probably would have never acknowledged a simple form of beauty such as this. There'd be no room for it in the dark, dismal world he created for himself. He then twirled the small blossom between his thumb and forefinger, creating a blur of purple that his mind became sucked into as he thought aloud.

"I...love Claire... Don't I?"

"Hu. You always seemed like the nature-loving kind."

Rue's heart could have nearly jumped out of his chest if it wasn't held back by his ribs and several layers of tissue. He swung his head around to the roof of the barn, where Mint sat -- not looking at him, and with an unresponsive look on her face. Rue almost felt too embarrassed to ask how long she'd been sitting there.

"I...I'm not out here for leisure, you know," he said.

"Yeah, I always considered picking flowers to be a bit of a chore, too."

~~That Rue... what an idiot.~~

"I--I mean.." Rue's foot accidentally nudged a sign of the real reason why he was outside -- a remnant of the wood that he'd chopped down yesterday. The left over logs that weren't to be used at the fireplace were to be cut into smaller pieces for Claire to use at the stove. However, Rue always used this opportunity to get in some quick practice with his arc edge. He decided to ignore the quick-witted princess and threw three pieces into the air. And with three swift slashes of his blade, he promptly made the three pieces into six.

"Brava."

"What I meant to say was.." Rue began, speaking to Mint with a little more gumption, "I'm out here to train."

"Train?" Mint asked "What's there to train for in a dull place like this??"

Rue's eyes narrowed as he remembered that cold, fateful night 3 years ago.

"Something might come up," he answered, flatly.

Mint stared at the sky, not really sure whether or not there was a hidden meaning behind Rue's glib reply. She looked at her freshly healed foot for a short moment, and before she could even mention it to the boy, Rue broke the awkward silence between the two.

"So...how's your foot..?"

"Oh -- better. Heh, that Claire... she sure knows her way around magic. She's pretty interesting...you know?"

Rue's face twisted...just a little.

"...yeah."

Yet another awkward silence. Mint couldn't figure out why she felt so uncomfortable with it. It was as if her mind was purposely avoiding something.

"So I...guess that means you'll be leaving soon, huh?" Rue finally asked.

"...ya huh." Something in Mint sank when she answered that. Was it...because she had to leave? It's not as if she was going to miss these two. Or this ramshackled cottage for that matter..

~~I...I'm not going! What's wrong with you?! We can't just leave them!!~~

"Mint...?"

"What?"

Rue lowered his head. "Have you--" He swallowed his pride and just spat it out. "..have you ever felt a certain way about someone...that you've never felt for anyone else before?"

Mint shut her eyes tight and shook her head for a moment, in a vain attempt to figure out if she'd just heard Rue right.

"...What..?" Her voice was just barely loud enough for Rue to hear her over the 9-ft. distance that separated the two.

"Have you ever been in love?" Rue's question was direct and completely no-nonsense, as if he had no time for formalities and needed an answer as soon as possible...which he did.

This, however, sent Mint into a panic. For a short, fleeting moment, she honestly couldn't form a single word; as if her throat had swelled up, unable create a single sound. Why? Why on earth would Rue ask this?

"Are you crazy?? Who do you think you are asking me a question like that?!"

~~..I almost forgot..~~

"F-forget it.." Rue stated, a little ashamed that he did bring up the subject. He'd in fact almost forgotten who he was speaking to for a moment. But Rue's renunciation came too late, as the princess was already resolved to answer his question.

Mint stared directly at Rue, giving him a cold gaze that nearly cut through his soul, and spoke.

~~I'm kinda glad I met you... it's...it's been fun.~~

"No. Never."

::::-----=============-----::::

Author's Notes:

Almost finished my ass..

Well I guess the fic isn't going to be a trilogy after all... Sorry, halfway through the ending I decided that most of what I had was complete and utter crap, so I extended...and cut... and extended, until it became too long for just one chapter. Hense, the reason why this thing hasn't concluded yet.

Well, that, and I've been doing a few other things. For example, I just started college, and I'm trying to get my feet planted firmly on the ground.

But that's not really an adequate excuse ...I should really make writing a bigger part of my life.

Anywho, I am quite done now, though I'll be reading over and making some final changes to the next (and last) chapter, but it should be up relatively soon. But shame on me for making you nice folks wait so long! *slaps wrist*

And lastly, I hope you don't find it too presumptuous of me to include my idea of Claire's history. I mean, why else would a perfectly non-crazy young girl like herself live alone in a cottage in the woods? Quite frankly, I'm just not comfortable with the thought of Claire being a common hermit.

Is that all I have to say?

Well, for now it is. ja.