After dinner, Kel and Dom left the dining hall holding hands, Dom with a somewhat silly smile on his face. "Pull yourself together, Dom!" came Neal's teasing voice. Dom looked as if he had just been awoken, but he laughed along with the rest of them.
As Dom and Kel reached their rooms, and Dom invited Kel inside, she had to decline. "I'm sorry, Dom, I've just got something that I need to do, and soon..." she trailed off, hoping that he would understand.
Dom looked a bit hurt, but urged her to go. "I'm not your keeper... not that I could be if I wanted to be, come to think of it, but don't think that you have to ask me for permission for anything so simple as some time to yourself."
Kel smiled. "Thank you, Dom, I promise I'll make it up to you later," she promised.
Dom grinned, a mischievous twinkle in his blue eyes. "Not that I had expected anything differently," he murmured as he took Kel into his arms, running his hands along her sides, and connected his lips to hers, sending the same sparks flying through Kel that she had felt the first time they kissed. "I'll see you in the morning, Kel."
"You just try to get out of it," she warned, "you know how good I am with the glaive."
"I'm shaking in my shoes, now," he bantered, then sobered. "Good night, Kel," he added, and bent to kiss Kel's forehead, as if he was bestowing his blessing.
"Good night," Kel said as she turned to leave; if she wasn't careful their goodbye could end up taking an hour. She heard Dom's door close quietly behind him, as she hurried down the hall, Owen foremost in her thoughts.
The sad smile he had given her at dinner was eating away at her conscience. She didn't want to hurt him, but she had to make sure he understood where he stood in her life. Owen had always been close to her, and he had acted like the younger brother she had never had. Ever since he had begun training as a page, she had taken him under her wing, shown him the ropes, and even helped his kin when they arrived.
Now Kel could understand why Owen seemed to harbor more than friendly feelings for her. Somewhere along the way he must have misinterpreted her friendship and time as more than just that - her friendship.
As Kel came to the door to the room in which Owen was staying, she took a few moments to collect herself. She was doing the right thing - right? Without giving herself any more time to talk herself out of it, she rapped on the door.
"Who is it?" Owen's voice floated into the hall.
"It's Kel," she answered, "can I talk to you for a bit, please?"
"Kel!" He exclaimed, and Kel heard him hurry towards the door until Kel heard a distinct thump followed by a short grunt from the other side of the door.
Kel winced, and asked with a smile in her voice, "Everything all right in there?"
Brief scuffling noises were heard on the other side of the door, until Owen finally flung the door open, and invited Kel in, his hair a bit disheveled. Neither said anything for a moment, until Owen opened his mouth with a story.
"I fell down…." He said as an explanation, "M'lord," he added with a cheeky grin, parodying the age-old excuse given by pages for bloodied noses and blackened eyes from fighting in the palace.
Kel grinned. This was still the same Owen she knew from pagehood.
"No, really, who were you fighting with, boy?" she joked, as Owen led her into his room. It was just as she had expected, the bed rumpled, but made, and his clothes seeming to erupt out of his pack. Both stared at the floor, and awkward silence spreading.
"Sooo…" Owen trailed off, at a loss for words, his eyes begging kel to say something.
"So, what do you think?" Kel asked, in a rush.
"Think about what?" Owen queried, his face going carefully blank. Kel did a double-take. Had she imagined the look he had given her?
"About my wedding to Dom?" Kel suggested.
"Oh! Your wedding to Dom! Um, yes, congratulations, I'm sure you'll be very happy and have jolly kids and perishing together side by side on the field of battle, trying to save eachother," Owen said.
Kel's eyebrows flew up. "Perishing side by side in battle?"
"Well… something like that, I suppose, it's terribly romantic, I think."
Kel rolled her eyes. "You're starting to sound like some bard… but truly, what do you think? Don't be afraid to be honest, we're best of friends, remember?"
Owen looked into Kel's eyes, something she was grateful for. He couldn't lie while looking her in the eye. "I will admit, Kel, that I thought of you as a bit more than a friend, I suppose you were my first crush. You never do get completely over the first one, they say, but I never wanted to possibly ruin our friendship by saying anything too soon, you understand?"
Kel smiled at Owen. "I understand completely," she told Owen, remembering her crush she had had on Neal at one point. "But there are no hard feelings about the wedding, right?"
Owen hesitated for only a moment. "You two have my blessing," he said, looking her in the eye.
Kel breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Owen. Now I just have one more question." She laughed at Owen's sudden apprehensiveness. "It's nothing bad... at least I hope you don't think it's bad. We were wondering if you'd like to be in the wedding party." She said hopefully, turning it into a question.
Owen broke into a smile. "That'd be just jolly, Kel! Thanks!"
Kel laughed, and the pair moved onto other topics of conversation, mostly about what Owen would be doing in New Hope. Kel had all the faith in the world that Owen would do everything he could to make things work out well.
Kel suddenly yawned, and looked up in surprise, wondering what time it was. As if on cue, the bell struck ten, and she politely excused herself. Before leaving, she drew Owen into a friendly hug. "Thanks, Owen. You'll always be one of my best friends."
Kel pulled away, and saw Owen's ears burning a bright red. "I'll see you later, Owen." She called over her shoulder as she headed tiredly back to her rooms. She climbed slowly into bed, a smile on her face. She had talked to Owen, and he'd understood, now the real difficulties were left - planning the actual wedding.
~*~
A/N – Thank you all for reading again, and thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. Sorry it's taking so long for me to post, I get side-tracked way too easily, and May is an insanely busy month for me. But now school is almost out, and I'm going to try to get this finished soon, I think maybe three or four more chapters.
Thank you to my beta-reader, Saraswathi! You're awesome!
Also, please take the time to review! Thanks! It only takes a minute, and it means a lot!
