Hey there! Glad to see you're still with the story…R+R!
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Pegasus, after Rei had left her room hours ago, had attended to small odds and ends before deciding to make his daily visit to his private room on the third floor. Nobody except him knew about the room, and it had a secret entrance that you opened by pushing a seemingly loose stone in the wall.
Maximilian was almost at the entrance when he noticed something strange. The door – his door! was wedged open by a disturbingly familiar red notebook. He began to ascend the staircase.
Rei stood stupidly in the middle of the room. It was an art gallery – tons and tons of oil paintings and old photos of people she did not know – except for one. Pegasus. He was hard to miss, even in the old days. Rei smiled to herself as she ran her eyes over several pictures of him – his hair was not silver, but jet black, with only a few silvery highlights, and it was not nearly as long. Well, maybe it was, but he had it tied back into a ponytail, so it was hard to say. But she was surprised to see how happy he looked. Obviously his family – sisters and brothers – or was it a wife and therefore his brother-in-law?
She was about halfway through browsing the pictures when she heard footsteps behind her, coming up the stairs. She blinked around wildly to find somewhere to hide, but she knew it was hopeless. She was going to get caught, no matter who it was.
So she could only stand there as Maximilian Pegasus reached the last step, with Rei in full view.
His breath caught in his throat. "You!…" He was so angry he couldn't speak. But he did anyway. "What…are you doing up here?" He went towards Rei menacingly.
She backed up nervously. He looked dangerous. "I…well…I was mapping the third floor when I noticed this stone that kind of stuck out, so I pushed it by accident…"
Pegasus was now close enough to grab Rei by the collar. He backed her up to the wall behind her and shoved her hard against it. She was struggling for breath. Pegasus was inches from her face. Even in this perilous position, she couldn't help but notice his fine fragrance.
Maximilian was so angry, he actually lifted Rei up off the floor with one hand. So there she hung, helplessly, pinned to the wall a foot in the air, right between a single shot of a brown haired girl and a portrait of a young Pegasus. She began to choke. "Max…" That was all she could get out before having to breathe again. She put up both hands to attempt to remove his hand from her throat. When that didn't work, she resorted to fierce struggling.
Pegasus's eye was like a flame. His single orange eye bored into her bright orange ones. "Bitch." That hurt Rei more than being strangled. "How dare you come into my private area?"
Rei decided to hang limp to save her breath. "I told you, it was an accident!…"
She began to see spots. Rei felt extremely lightheaded. The last word she could choke out was "Max!" before collapsing altogether.
Maximilian stood stunned. He had almost killed this poor girl over his stupid little art collection. He gently lowered Rei to the floor and kneeled next to her unconscious body. Pegasus just stayed there; looking into her face as she lay on the cold floor. Then, without knowing what he was doing, the swept the limp form into his arms and carried her out of the area. In the hallway, he pocketed Rei's red notebook and pushed the stone in the wall. The secret door slid shut with a loud grating noise.
About halfway to Rei's bedroom (where Maximilian was taking her) she began to stir in his arms. She opened her big orange eyes slowly and tried hard to get them to focus. When Rei finally could see who was carrying her, she opened her mouth to protest. "What do you think you're…"
He quickly brought a hand up to her mouth to silence the girl. When he spoke, his voice was soft and comforting. "Please…don't speak."
When Pegasus was sure she would not talk, he lifted his hand off of her mouth. When they reached Rei's bedroom, he smoothly opened the door and walked over to her bed. Maximilian gently laid the now fully awake form on top of the covers. Then he sat down on the edge of the bed and didn't move.
Rei narrowed her eyes and looked at him dubiously. "What do you want? Going to try to choke me some more?" She attempted to inch away from where he sat.
Pegasus only looked at her sadly. "That's…not like me…" he began to say.
Then she began to feel her head swim again. A darkness like a black curtain seemed to settle over her eyes and she faded back into unconsciousness.
When Rei woke again, her head felt a little foggy and she found it hard to move. When she finally urged her limbs to get going, she stood up and stretched. Then she noticed a slip of paper lying on the sheets on her bed. She picked it up and read the neat handwriting.
"That's not like me. Not at all. But that area I considered to be my only private area in the entire castle, and all those pictures are a part of a very painful past. I felt violated when I saw you standing there. I know that you didn't mean any harm. Please forgive me. – Max"
Rei dropped the piece of paper onto her dresser. She sighed deeply and flopped back on her bed. Of course she could forgive him. She didn't see how she couldn't. Tucking her hands behind her head, she stared up and the canopy of the massive bed and sang to comfort herself.
After all we've been through,
Love don't come easy for me…Pegasus sipped fruit juice and watched. He had, by this time, memorized the words to the song. He looked sorrowfully at the silent figure on the screen and sang quietly to himself.
The way you looked into my eyes
I could see the hurt
I saw through your disguise,
Just give me time,
I can make it up to you.
Let me heal the pain,
I'm scared of losing you.
Rei got off the bed and, still singing the words in her mind, wandered out the door. She suddenly noticed a door across the hall she hadn't seen previously. Her hand hit the knob and she opened it slowly. She peeked through the crack and found a beautiful outdoor garden.
"Look at all the flowers!" She dashed forward and buried her face in a bunch of tulips. If there was anything Rei loved more than singing, it was nature. She continued to wander around and admire the lovely blooms. The air smelled wonderfully fresh. She hadn't noticed how stuffy the castle could get at times.
Pegasus decided he had to clear his mind. Standing up, he shooed his guards away from him so he could be in peace and made his way to the garden door. He gently turned the knob and entered the place. Crossing his hands behind his back, he began to make his way through the garden towards the center – not knowing he was going the way that Rei was.
Rei chose one of the many paths in the garden and decided to follow it to what she thought was the middle, stopping every few moments to admire some chrysanthemums or some roses. The bright summer sun hit her beautiful black hair and warmed it in a matter of minutes. She temporarily forgot all her troubles and embraced the solitude.
She found herself wandering into a large circle of path that wrapped around a center section of daisies. Off to her left was a beautiful wood gazebo. She climbed inside it and sat down on one of the sides, just gazing at the lovely flowers blowing gently in the wind.
At the same time, Pegasus entered the middle section. He didn't notice Rei at first; but she noticed him. 'Can you believe it? Twice in one day…' She knew there was no escape, yet again.
Finally, Maximilian turned toward the gazebo and saw a mortified Rei sitting there. Surprised, he made his way slowly towards it.
"Go away! Or is this a private area too?" Rei cried, leaping up.
In the gazebo, Pegasus shook his head and sat down where Rei had been previously sitting. "No, this is not a private area of mine. You're welcome to be here."
When she saw he was being truthful, she sat down next to him on the bench. He took the opportunity to state his apologies.
"I…I really shouldn't have gotten so angry at you earlier," he said in his smooth voice. "It's just that…that place is very special to me, and up until now I thought it was my own…" he drifted off, unable to put into words what he thought.
Rei smiled a little. "It's okay. I really shouldn't have been snooping around in there." She sighed and brought her legs up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them to keep them there. She rested her head on her knees and hummed her song. "After all we've been through, love don't come easy for me…"
Pegasus sat and listened to her. Then Rei suddenly stopped humming and turned towards Pegasus. "Please tell me why I'm being locked in this castle like a prisoner!"
He closed his eye. "Whatever do you mean?"
Rei leaned forward intently on her hands. "Don't you think I hear the key turn in the lock every night? Are you afraid I'm going to run somewhere?"
"You have something that I want," Pegasus said, looking sideways at her.
Rei leaned back, confused. "What do I have that you could possibly want?"
Maximilian turned to face her. He scanned his eyes over her smooth neck and caught sight of a brown cord that was wrapped around her neck and went under her shirt. He gently leaned his hand out and hooked one finger under the cord, bringing it out from under her shirt. Pegasus smiled triumphantly as he saw the figure in his hand. "This is what I want."
"My pendant?" Rei looked down upon it. It was an above-average sized ankh, hanging on a brown cord. There was a Sennen eye located on the ankh where the head of it touched the cross bar.
"Oh, it's much more than a pendant," he assured her. "Much more."
Rei narrowed her eyes. "I know that."
Pegasus closed his fist around the object. "What?"
Sighing, she reached up both hands and gently released Maximilian's hold on the object, then held it in her own, studying it. "It's a Millennium Item."
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*gasp* How did she know it was a Millennium Item?! Read on to find out!