I own nothing but the plot. It's all TP's.
Comforting Kel
They went to Kel's rooms. Owen knocked. There was no sound from inside. Neal called her name softly. Still no reply. Owen put an ear to the door. He could hear faint sounds from inside.
"She's in there. She's crying."
"We're coming in, Kel." Neal called and unlocked the door. Kel had expected all her friends. Instead it was just Neal and Owen. Neal sat down on the end of her bed and just looked at her while Owen went into Kel's dressing room and got a wet cloth. He handed it to Kel to wash her face with. After he took it back, he sat next to Neal. They didn't say a word. The three of them just looked at each other. Kel had her Yamani face on. Neal reached out to pat her shoulder and found himself soaring over the bed. He barely missed crashing through the window. He dusted himself off.
"I guess I deserve that." He offered. Kel suddenly exploded.
"Of course you deserved that. You come here expecting me to sob on your shoulder. You were sent by my so called friends to cheer me up. Maybe I don't want to be cheered up. Maybe I like being miserable. You think you're so special because you're older and you think you're wiser. Well I'll tell you something Queenscove. You have no idea what I'm going through. The person you love is still alive and breathing. You can go to her tonight and have fun. You can talk to her and marry her and have children with her. I can never have that. The man I love is gone and you have no idea the grief I'm going through. Even if Yuki died tomorrow, you could still never understand my grief. You've at least spent one night with her. I don't have that, Neal. I don't have that." She started to sob uncontrollably. Her whole body shook. Neal took a step towards her. "Get out!" She screamed. "I hate you! Get out!" She ordered. Neal shrugged and left. Kel seemed to have forgotten about Owen. She buried her hands in her face and cried. Owen awkwardly put his arm around her shoulders, expecting to be ordered out. Instead, Kel turned toward him and buried her face in his tunic. Owen patted her, unaccustomed to comforting anyone. He made soothing sounds and rubbed Kel's back. When she was finally cried out, she slowly drew away from him.
"I'm sorry, Owen." She choked out.
"It's okay." He replied.
"Thank you for helping me up here and everything else."
"It really is okay. What else are friends for?" He grinned at her.
"Thanks, Owen. You really are a good friend. Much better than that traitor, Nealan."
"What's wrong with Neal?" Owen inquired and immediately wished he had kept his mouth shut. Kel shuddered.
"Everything I said. He comes here, expecting me to cry my heart out, but not really to comfort me. He doesn't understand my grief. No one he's that close to has died."
"Cleon was our friend too."
"But you guys weren't that close to him. You didn't love him. You didn't want to spend the rest of your life with him. You weren't ready to give up your dreams for him."
"Were you really that close?"
"He had just talked his mother around. We were going to get married this winter. My parents liked him. His mother agreed as long as I became a real lady. I was ready to give up my shield. I was ready to live the most boring life I could imagine. I would have, too. I would have had dozens of kids. I would have given it all up for him." Kel dissolved in tears again. This time, when she stopped crying, she didn't draw away from Owen. He held her in silence. They talked long into the night. Owen didn't realize how late it was until Kel's sparrows woke up.
"Kel," he said, surprised. "We talked all night." She grinned at him sheepishly.
"I guess we did."
"Lord Wyldon is going to have my head for sure."
"What a shame. It takes so long to break in a new best friend." Owen grinned at her.
"See you later."
"Bye Owen." Kel lay back on her bed as Owen left. She was very confused. She had thought that she would love Cleon forever, but already she had feelings for Owen! Cleon's gone less than a month and already I'm replacing him. Kel thought, hating herself. She was glad that she had Owen, though. He was making Cleon's death a lot easier to handle. She would always miss him and love him, but she had to move on. Even as these thoughts ran through Kel's head, she fed and watered her sparrows and Jump. She cleared her mind as she began a pattern dance with her glaive. Just as she finished, there was a knock at the door. She opened it.
There you go. Two chapters in one day. (It's because of all the nice reviewers.)