A/N: thanx ppl for the reviews, um, if you thought the last chapter was confusing, when it was Alex's viewpoint he thought of Alanna as Alan….. sry if you didn't get that! I am really bad at romance, so I may leave all that kissing stuff till really late in the fanfic, sry if that annoys you, you can email me a scene and I can give you credit for it if you are desperate for a scene, but you would have to be REALLY desperate…..
~^*~*^~*Chapter 2*~^*~*^~
Alanna ventured a glance at Alex and said, "hey, erm…..Alex?"
He looked at her and asked, "what is it Ala-Alanna?"
Alanna made a face, "Ala-Alanna am I?" before Alex could respond to that Alanna continued, "would you be as so kind as to not tell people about my being a female? This is something that only George, his mom, people from Trebond, and now (making a face) Jon knows apart from yourself."
Alex blinked, having trouble figuring out what Alanna was trying to say, before musing, "I wonder why you told Jon about your being female, you know that he is not into female warriors (A/N: sorry ppl who love Jon, but I am annoyed at him for what he did to Kel, he refused to support her so I refuse to make him supportive of Alanna, therefore making him an evil guy, he is going to become in legue with Roger [spoiler] and I have yet to decide whether or not he was enchanted when he did so), so why tell him…..oh, yeah, sure, I promise not to tell anyone."
Alanna tilted her head to the side and spat out, "I did NOT tell him, he just found out when the Ysandir made my clothe disappear!"
Alex laughed at her indignant voice before admonishing, "Alanna, why haven't you started to change yet? Duke Gareth will be fit to be tied (A/N: I never understood the POINT of that saying…..) that you are talking to long!"
Alanna snorted, before sarcastically saying, "sure Alex, why don't I, a female, change in front of you, a male. That is what I always dreamed of doing, how did you know?"
To Alanna's surprise Alex blushed a rather pretty deep crimson, a color almost as bright as her hair, before mumbling, "sorry Alanna, forgot that you were a female! Mithros, I just remembered! Think about how many times that you say us….."
Alex broke off, before noticing Alanna standing there, tapping her foot, one eyebrow raised, before pointing at the door. Alex, being brought up to listen to whatever a lady said, flew out the door mumbling under his breath, "no wonder you never took off your shirt! And then….."
His voice muffled as the door shut with a snap and Alanna, sighing, changed into a presentable uniform, carefully binding her chest and choosing her most unwrinkled clothe, after all, this WAS a very important celebration, and she WAS one of the people this was being thrown for.
~^**^~
After having stopped at Jon's room to get his clothes, they hurried to the banquet hall, tossed Jon his clothes, making sure that they fell on the ground and he had to pick them up, and sat in front of the food.
Alex watched in awe as tiny Alanna woofed down twice as much as him. When she saw his eyes on her she blushed and pointed out to him that she hadn't eaten for over twenty-four hours. Then, steering the subject away from herself, she asked Alex why he didn't like Duke Roger, he had used to worship him with the rest of the world.
Alex's face darkened, an odd thing for the normally calm, collected squire. Finally he seemed to find his voice, "very well, since you seem to hate him too, since you too can see through his mask, I will tell you my sister's woeful tale, but you must promise to never tell anyone else what I have told you today, this would bring dishonor to the Tirragon line (A/N: A bit rich coming from someone who was going to commit high treason, don't you think?). Promise me, Alann-Alan!"
Alanna bit her lip, she knew Roger was evil, but to do something so terrible that it was hushed up…..she could NOT just promise not to tell when this story could ruin Roger's name forever, then again, there was obviously no way out, it was not like this wasn't hushed up very well…..
Alanna sighed, "I promise Alex, I swear on my noble's honor that until you tell me otherwise, I will never tell anyone about what you are today telling me."
Alex smiled with obvious relief, "well, Ala-Alan, my sister, you don't know I had one, she "disappeared" a long long time ago."
Alanna interrupted, "so this wasn't recent?"
Alex looked shocked, "of course not! Now, back to the woeful tale. My sister fell in love with this man that visited our lands one day when she was about 15. She should have been in the convent, safe from such terrible people, but, as a favorite of the mistress of the convent, she was allowed to go home during certain holidays. You can see her personality from just that, but I loved her anyway, she was, after all, my sister, and, even if I disapproved of her, I still cared aobut her well being, that's what made this all the worse."
Alex looked up from his plate (people were talking to loudly and lots of people were dancing, no one was paying any attention to them) just in time to see Alanna's eyebrows drop down with an effort of will, and, laughing to lighten the mood, he joked, "Alan, the first thing that I am going to have to teach you is how to hide emotions behind a mask, you can't even lie well, people can read your face….."
Alex cut off there since Alanna looked like she was going to kill him, and he ducked just as a shiny red apple flew over his head, before resuming the story.
"She met Roger about then and they became instant "friends", only, we, meaning her family, thought that they were just friends, they deceived us so well. To make a long story short, we found out about their involvement only after we realized that she was six months pregnant and couldn't hide it anymore. She told us that he had promised her that he would marry her if she became pregnant, only, he didn't. I was still his squire at that time, so I asked him to marry her. He just laughed. After that I no longer respected him, I could see through his mask every time. I swore revenge."
Alanna was speechless for a minute. She knew that Roger was a terrible person, but she didn't know that he would do that to a lady! She put her hand on Alex's, pushing aside the odd feeling that she got as she did so as just eating too much (at this point that was all it was), and murmured in a comforting tone of voice, "Alex, I'll help you get revenge on Roger."
Alex looked up, startled, "you will?"
Alanna nodded, "I will."
Alex, an odd look on his face, "why would you risk your life like that? Alan, what has he done to make you hate him so much?"
Alanna sighed, she hadn't meant to tell Alex, "I have a gut feeling, but that's not all, he has attempted to take the life of the crown prince, high treason, and, even if I am very angry at Jon, I will be a knight one day and it is my duty to protect the prince."
A/N: I had a cliffie planned, but I decided not to go through with it. If you review I will continue to leave out cliffies, if not, muwahahahaha, I am going to have fun! No rude comments, I haven't even started to pair people off, I don't see why you should be complaining! Another pointless chapter, just getting into things, you know, as in laying the foundation of the next, more interesting (or so I hope) chapters.
