Disclaimer: I do not own Escaflowne..but the characters Mary, Jessica, and Ashley..I do own.
Haned Megami Soshite Tenshinranman se Kyuui
Chapter Fourteen
Ashley looked at Jessica, the two girls standing there staring at each other for quite a while. Before both broke off into a huge grin. Ashley stood there, hands at her back rocking back and forth innocently on her heels, Jessica took the hint to whistle for here.
"We'll play..truth or dare." Ashley's voice came out slightly high pitched as she was trying not to giggle uncontrollably.
"Truth or Dare?" Merle asked watching her through lazy eyes.
"Yes, see I'll ask someone, 'Truth or Dare' They have to pick one of them, if they pick Truth I ask them a question and they have to answer it truthfully or I get to punch them, if they pick dare, I give them a dare and if they don't complete it I get to hit them." The boys rose an eyebrow thinking it wasn't that bad of a harmful game. If only they knew the twisted humor of two teenage girls.
"Ok, I think that's fine." Chesta stated. He was after all the baby sitter while the others were hunting for fresh water and game.
"Ok, Jessica truth or dare?" Ashley asked sitting once again between Van's legs and looked at her friend expectantly.
"Truth." Ashley mentally cursed and screwed her face up in disapproval for Jessica's decision. Ashley thought a moment before a sly smile over took her petite face and curled at the ends almost like the Grinch who had stolen Christmas.
"Have you and Guimel made whoopee yet?" Ashley asked and Jessica's face tinted a fine shade of red.
"Whoopee?" Van asked, Ashley giggled.
"Whoopee is a slang term for sex on Earth." Jessica answered her face getting even redder. "And..yes..yes we have!" Ashley's eyes got wide at this and she began to laugh.
"Ok..ok..wow.."
"Ok, now..hmm...Finesse boy..truth or dare?" Jessica asked remembering her friends nickname for the blonde wonder knight. Allen, wanting to be brave, and also, oh so horribly stupid; made his fateful decision.
"Dare." The one word made Ashley's face light up like a Christmas tree, Merle made a snorting sound, and Jessica just started laughing hysterically.
"Ok, ok..ok. I dare you..to let me and Ashley make you over." was Jessica's reply. Allen seeing nothing wrong with this allowed Ashley to drag him into the two girl's tent.
"Ok, now..you all can play." Ashley said before closing the flaps of the tent and getting to work on the dare.
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It was about an hour and many truth and dare questions, before Ashley and Jessica finally emerged, dry, yet faces sweating from their labors. Ashley was trying not to burst out laughing, the only one composed was Jessica who looked at everyone who held expectant eyes.
"May we present to you..Alana Schezar." Jessica and Ashley stepped away taking the flap with them and Allen came out. Gaddes about died right then and there laughing himself to death.
Allen was dressed in a pair of white high healed leather go go boots to mid-calf. His hairy legs caught the suns light on the blonde hair on his legs. His body was stuffed into a tight black mini skirt that looked like a rubber band on him. To top it off he wore a neon pink corset that they stuffed with socks and underwear. His hair was piled high on his head in ringlet curls, no one was sure how they managed that, with his hair falling into his eyes. He was even forced to wear make up. His lips were smothered in bright cherry red lipstick, his cheeks done so darkly in pink blush he could have passed for a raggedy Andy doll. His eyes weren't half as bad, thickly lined in dark blue eyeliner with hot pink eye shadow. His eyelashes caked in black mascara. He looked a lot like Andy Dick when he became Daphne, Christina Aguilara's cousin. Everyone was roaring with laughter, Ashley couldn't contain herself, rolling around on the ground pointing and laughing.
"What the hell is going on here?!?" A surprised voice broke over the laughter stopping it entirely. Ashley turned to see Dilandau and the other dragon slayers standing around them with supplies they would need until they got to Zaibach.
"We were playing truth or dare and we dared Allen to let us dress him up." Ashley answered calmly jumping to her feet.
"Really now?" Dilandau asked. "But, why are they here?!?" He asked warily eying Van and the other crew members from the Crusade.
"They saw smoke and came to investigate." Jessica said.
"Oh, really.."
"Yes, really." Ashley stated, the conversation was rather boring so she just went over to her brother and sat with them. "Can they stay for dinner?!? We'll have a party!!" She exclaimed grinning.
"That sounds wonderful!" Chesta said approving the idea. He gave Dilandau a look and all Dilandau did was put the water down and huff over to his tent.
"Can I change now?!?" Allen asked still not removing himself from the spot before their tent. Ashley giggled and nodded not trusting her voice. More laughs followed as Allen hurried to change in the tent.
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The Vione was beginning to get increasingly more boring as time went by. A whole day, and she was bored without the company of her two best friends, sisters even. She just kept telling herself, it was for the best. This way, nothing bad would happen to anyone. She still felt horrible, missing them horribly. They were all three together and then split up by a guy who didn't even pay attention to her anymore. She was being trained every day with the other dragon slayers. It was to prepare them for the soon arriving battle ahead. She could smell it on everything, it was the familiar smell of when something big and possibly bad was coming their way.'I don't think Folken loves me anymore, I haven't seen him all day, and all he did was bang me then leave.' musing to herself, Mary entered the mess hall, once again it was empty. Grabbing her food she sat by herself and ate. It wasn't that much fun. So, boring and she was going to die. The only think keeping her remotely busy was the training sessions, and those were brutal.
She was taught by random family members to sword fight, but these were real soldiers, they were trained to beat each other and inch from life and then call it quits. Not that it would be too much of a problem for it, it was just, not what she was used to. A lot of these people used techniques she never heard of so she had a few cuts here and there, which was why her arms were bandaged a lot and she was lucky she could even use her left arm. A rather insane, not as insane as Dilandau, guy had cut her left arm so badly she had thought it went through the never but it was fine after a small check up from the doctor.
'What if this war isn't worth it? What if we're fighting for nothing?' She asked herself spearing a potato with her fork and popping the hot morsel of food into her mouth. Chewing slowly she thought a moment. 'What if...I'm not fighting for the right side."
"That's dumb, of course this is the right side. A world that can't run on it's own full of corruption, greed, and such crime shouldn't exist at all. I shouldn't even be questioning this." She glared at her food and angrily continued to eat before deciding to go finish training. She had to be prepared after all.
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The party was doing good, most of the Crusade, and most of the dragon slayers, even Chesta was drunk. Ashley wasn't but Jessica was slowly getting there. This was when the conversation had taken a turn for the worst. Van had brought up the one thing they didn't realize or even think of."If there are three parts to one thing, then why are their two of you here?" That totally made no sense, so, Van in his drunken stupor, re- phrased it. "What I mean is, there are going to end up being three sides, you both don't agree with the fate of the world do you?" Ashley looked at Jessica who stopped taking a swig of Vino and blinked.
"I think that, after the war the world should be left as it is. To live with it's mistake and to try and make it better." Ashley frowned at this.
"But, how do they expect to do that when they fucked it up this far?" Jessica sat a moment and thought, she was a rather wise girl.
"Because, it helps to learn from their mistakes, much like our world and their wars. We learned from World War Two that the horrors of war are real and that people are sick, and that one country can't influence every country that's out there. We learned to cope, a tad bit better as one society, lending help when it's needed as well as available." After Jessica's words died down Guimel kissed her cheek.
"We don't agree..." Ashley's words were far away as a pained looked flashed across her face. "Well, Van, you obviously brought this up for a reason." Ashley's tone was sad but she knew it was going to happen.
"I'm proposing that one of you come with us." Ashley frowned. "Well, since we found out what you all believe, I think that Jessica should come with us. It would also be safer in the long run." Ashley didn't understand nor want to possibly understand at this point she just wanted to go to sleep.
"If that's what Jessica wants then it's ok, it was bound to happen." Jessica looked at Ashley with sad eyes.
"We should leave now." Gaddes said drinking more Vino. "We can't leave Hitome with the other men long, she creeps them out sometimes."
"Well, if Jessica's going..I would like to ask if I can go as well." Guimel asked. Dilandau didn't answer just nodded and turned from his man. Jessica and Ashley hugged before leaving the camp to help pack Jessica's things.
It didn't take that long, just a few large duffel bags. Guimel and Jessica each hugged Ashley hard. Then Ashley hugged Van like her life depended on it, she knew that the next time they all saw each other it would be fighting to the death for what they believed in. Their own version of how they wanted Gaea to be. Ashley stood there watching the crew of the Crusade, her brother, Jessica, and Guimel walk through the darkness of the forestry, small tears swelling in her eyes until she couldn't see their darkened figures any longer.
She ignored the drunken stares of the dragon slayers and walked to her tent, half of it now empty. She laid in her bed and began to cry, it was the final split and she wasn't sure how she wanted to handle it. It was to be expected though, their ideas were different, and differences can either mean bad or good in a friendship. She ignored the cough when someone entered her tent, and when they person sat on the edge of her cot. He put a hand on her back and patted it a bit, she glanced over at him and noticed it was Dilandau. Scooting over she moved so he could lay down, which he took. She noticed he was also drunk so it was to blame for his remarkably wonderful manner.
"Why so sad?" He slurred a bit, she moved to lay on stop of him, legs on either side of his body as she laid her head on his chest.
"Well, both of my friends are on opposite teams, and I know for a fact that the only other time I'll ever be able to see them again is when we're trying to kill each other for control over the fate of Gaea." Dilandau tried to blink and understand her words but just settled for being silent and rubbing her back.
"I love you." Those were the only words uttered from his lips, they were muffled and slurred, but still the words she had been wanting to hear for awhile now. Ashley looked up at him almost afraid to breathe or speak for fear of this being just a dream. The notion was broken however when he made a muffled snore in his sleep. He'd passed out. Ashley glared and looked down at him.
Leaning forward she kissed him full on the lips, tasting the Vino still on them. She blanched at the wine, but smiled none the less, his lips were surprisingly soft. She knew he'd be pissed if he knew she had kissed him, so she continued to stare at him a while longer before letting claim take her over. Laying herself on his chest again she snuggled against him, closing her eyes.
"I love you too." She whispered into his chest before allowing sleep to take her over as well.
Chesta came in an hour later to check on her, finding them both asleep he chuckled silently to himself and pulled a cover over them both. Leaving her closed the flap and made sure the others got to bed, it would be a rather hard day before they reached Zaibach.
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Ashley woke up with a slight headache from being shoved onto the dirt floor of her tent. Rubbing her back she sat up blinking bleary eyed and still tired. Dilandau sat in her cot looking around. Obviously he had woken up, not known where he was, and got up fast knocking her off of him. She glared at his smirking face and stood up."You can be such an insufferable asshole you know that?" She asked him while dusting herself off a bit.
"Yes." He answered and got up. She just glared, sort of sad that he hadn't remembered anything from the night before, or at least he wasn't letting it be known.
"Mmm." Was all she said as he left her tent. She got dressed, in her black leggings, black leather knee high boots, and her dark purple tunic. Her hair was kept up in a messy bun. She began to pack her tent up. They would be moving as soon as humanely possible.
She threw her stuff down by Dilandau's Guymelef he would pick random pieces up and place them in the leg compartment. Everyone was too busy to really question what all had happened the night before. She left Dilandau to finish packing as she helped make it look like they had never been there, which meant to get rid of the logs, and dump dirt over top of the burned out fire. Sweeping away foot prints and helping to stash the broken tools in compartments to discard once they did reach Zaibach. Ryou came up to her, his hair was matted from sweat and he looked absolutely miserable in his heavy armor.
"I'm taking you in the Guymelef today." He said, Ashley turned to him and blinked.
"Why not Dilandau?"
"He said that incase of a fight, he's the only one with the flame thrower." Ashley rose an eyebrow and ignored the look he had given here.
"Well, ok. When do we leave?"
"As soon as Chesta comes back with some more water." Ryou left Ashley alone to her thoughts. It wasn't even that long before Chesta came back jugs full of fresh water from the river the others had found awhile ago.
She was in Ryou's Guymelef's large hand. They were levitating above the ground at astounding speed toward the Zaibach capital. They had passed over the border not too long ago. About an hour after starting their long trek. The forestry wasn't as pretty inside Zaibach as it was outside. It also, got continually worse the farther in you got. The entire country had butchered the land it lived on and it was sickening to look at for Ashley. She always loved the forest. It was a peaceful thing, full of life and species way beyond even her imagination. They just haven't found them yet, though, she knew they were there.
She saw the faint line of black as they parted through the thinning forestry. It was the outline of a vast, darkened city. It was a mining city, that's why there was a large palace in the middle of a hole, that went deep into the earth, black billows of smoke and smog were released from large pipes running from into the hole to the top of the city surrounding them in a thick mass of smoke. Ashley coughed violently as they passed through one. She glared at Ryou as he laughed at her, she noticed in his armor that her face was all black from the soot inside the smoke. She glared at the smoke and covered her face trying to breathe, hoping beyond hope not to get the black lung in a day.
They landed on a docking bay, their guymelefs being taken care of by various mechanics. Ryou gently lowered her to the ground, her booted feet softly touching the ground. She looked around, watching as people scrambled to take their luggage and haul it off. She was kind of nervous, she had heard that this Lord Dornkirk guy was like, THE boss. Looking around she was met by Gatti and Viole who stood with her looking around at the place they had first become dragon slayers at.
"Well, what do you think?" Viole asked throwing an arm over her shoulders.
"It's...nice.." She said with a face as she watched the smoke filled sky get darker, if possible, almost signifying night fall.
"Well, it's almost dinner time, so if you want to get freshened up I'll take you to your new quarters. Your room will have a bathroom." Viole commented the last part as Gatti grinned. Ashley smiled at them a bit still a little depressed about being there without Jessica or Mary. Both somewhere out there, she didn't know where.
"Ok, but I get the shower first." She said. Gatti just chuckled and walked away as she and Viole followed him. The other dragon slayers took this too, to get ready for dinner.
Gatti led her through a long maze of halls with doors, all metal like on the Vione only hot. He finally topped at a door and opened it, the room was slightly bigger than the one on the Vione. The walls were metal and rusted around the corner, obviously from leaking water. There was another door to the bathroom, there was a small twin bed on the metal floor and her stuff was in the middle of the floor. She let out a snort and just went into the room, it only had to last till the end of the war, right?
"Thanks Gatti." she said smiling as she hugged him. He nodded and left her alone with Viole.
"I'll come back and take you to the mess hall, or would you like me to wait and let you sniff your way there?" Ashley glared at him and smacked him lightly on the arm, nah just wait a minute I'm only going to wash my face and hands. He nodded as she disappeared into the bathroom coming out seconds later face void of dirt and hands clean. "Shall we?" She asked him, he nodded and they left the room. They both went down the hall together meeting up with Dalet and Chesta. Laughing and talking they loudly made an entrance into the large mess hall where there were dragon slayers she didn't know yet.
"Mmm, it's good to be home." Dalet breathed out getting in line. Ashley wasn't really listening she was busy drooling over the food, some things just wouldn't change. After grabbing some grub, Ashley was first at the table of course, they all sat to enjoy the meal together. All that wasn't there, was Dilandau and a few of the on deck doctors, that and Jajuka whom she hadn't had the pleasure of meeting.
"Does anyone know where Dilandau is?" Ashley asked between bites of the soup she had in a cup. Everyone looked around confused before realizing their commander wasn't there to torture them.
"He might be meeting with Lord Dornkirk about you and your brother." Chesta stated into his cup of Vino.
"Mmm, if he was wouldn't I be there?" She asked, this raised another suspicion. "Besides, Dornkirk has never requested an audience with a soldier before." She murmured more or less to herself.
"Maybe he's relieving his stress." Gatti giggled but soon his face became full of pain as Ryou kicked him hard underneath the table. Ashley rose an eyebrow but dropped it, apparently it was a topic she wasn't meant to dwell on.
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Dinner consisted of the group of now horribly close friends laughing and talking and carrying on to the late hours of the night. Playing truth games and at one point Ashley almost had them playing spin the bottle, until she mentioned whoever the bottle landed on you had to kiss. They didn't really like that too much, she just glared at them and took the bottle for herself.Since it was late at night, and they had to be ready for pretty much every and anything that was thrown their way, they had decided to head to bed. Ashley, wanted to stay up just a bit later to get herself acquainted with the new place, she would be forced to call home until this war was over.
"Would you like me to accompany on your tour?" Chesta asked a bit worried, some of the other slayers and work men and such were a little suspicious inside the palace, and he'd hate to think of what horrors could come of Ashley if she were to venture outside of it to mingle with the commoners. He didn't dare to say this out loud for, he knew how she thought and she surely would not allow him to speak of the people like he had before.
"No, I'd like to do this on my own, if I need someone to help me back to my room I'll just ask. Besides, you guys need your rest!! Piloting those huge machines must take a toll on a person!!" She smiled at him and he smiled shyly back. Hugging him tightly she let him leave the mess hall hallway. She watched him walk away with the others, he was so shy and little compared to the others that it almost seemed insane he was capable of killing anyone, much less made it through training to do so. 'That's the sign of an empath, beautiful people are always beautiful empaths.' She thought to herself.
Walking the opposite direction as her friends, she began to aimlessly wander the metallic halls looking for anything remotely interesting. She managed to pass the docking bay, the hanger, a huge grand hall possibly used for banquets, and many various rooms she found to be locked. She entered another hall, and realized it was the one that seemed to lead to her rooms, she had made a complete circle in what seemed like hours. She knew there were more floors to explore, but if it took her a few hours to explore just the one she started on, could she even begin to imagine how long it would possibly take her to go on the other ones?
She was grateful to find names on these doors, like generals quarters. She saw her brother's set of rooms, she didn't really want to go in there. She was almost afraid to find what he actually kept in his rooms. She saw some General named Xey's room, it was a door that opened the opposite way the others did and was a different color, bright orange. He must have been an interesting character. After passing, and reading each door carefully she came to Dilandau's. She smiled and looked at it, there was a note beside his name saying "Do Not Disturb." She could almost hear herself giggling, at the thought of it sounding like a cheap motel.
Continuing down the hall it branched onto her own and she turned to where her room had her own name tag. Smiling brightly that she hadn't gotten lost and needed to ask someone to come get her, she pushed the door open and slipped inside. Locking it behind her, her stuff was now put away neatly and the bed sheets were changed to the ones she had with her.
"Hm...creepy." She muttered changing into a pair of white undies and long white night gown. Slipping between the warm covers she was instantly asleep, she just couldn't wait to explore the rest of the new place.
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Cracking a tightly closed eye open to look at the near prehistoric clock, Ashley growled and flopped on her back from lying on her side. She had been trying to sleep, and here it was nearly four-thirty in the morning!! About an hour and a half from the time breakfast would be served.Getting up from her plush bed, her muscles hurt and she had knots nearly everywhere possible, even the places she never knew were there. Standing on the cold metallic floor without shoes on was a mistake so she picked up a pair of slippers she found on the floor, nice purple color. They were silk, but had heavy leather soles, she slipped them on and found they fit perfectly. Knowing full well she didn't buy them she just shrugged and figured it was one of the guys knowing it was cold here and left them for her. Taking her blanket off the bed she wrapped it around herself letting it trail on the dirty floor.
Leaving her room she decided to go bother Dilandau. Going to his room, she tried to turn the handle and found it locked. Growling, rather annoyed, she pulled a hair pin from her hair, half of them were falling out anyways, she began to pick the lock. They were a little bit harder to pick than the ones on the Vione. She almost gave up, after twisting many times and making her two fingers red and beginning to sore, she heard a little 'ping' sound. Smiling to her own, almost accidental, accomplishment. She got up to pull the blanket more securely around her. She cracked the door open and slipped through.
It was completely dark except for a bit of slightly loud snores. She allowed her eyes to adjust to the dark and caught a bit of his silver hair. She smiled a bit and crept closer to him, getting a bit closer to the big bed she noticed the rooms motif was the same as his room on the Vione. Then she noticed that there seemed to be extra limbs in the bed, at least three pairs of limbs, unless she were dreaming. Looking down as him, she noticed two other heads of hair, massive red curls, and long sleek bits of platinum blonde, a lot more glossier to look golden if she had seen the hair in the sun.
Ashley made a gasping sound, backing up a bit hand over her mouth, violet eyes wide with shock. She had walked into the after effects of a wild sex rampage. She blinked noticing a musky scent in the room and mentally gagged. Her body recovered from the shock to replace with pure anger.
'How dare he?!?' She mentally yelled at him. She stepped closer, out of the blanket she hadn't noticed that she had let fall from around her. She got really close to him on his right side of the bed. Peering down at him with anger written in ever aspect of her face and body.
Making up her mind she closed her eyes and brought her right hand up on the air, she kept them closed even after she heard that familiar sound of flesh on flesh. She had slapped Dilandau with everything she had. She heard him startle awake from a drunken, sex, driven sleep. She heard his jump and the slap she gave him awaken the two, half dressed, but still not dressed enough girls from their sleep.
"What the FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!?" Dilandau asked her, Ashley opened her violet eyes, she knew they were filling with small tears but the anger she held while she glared was counter acting those tears.
"What am I doing?!?" She yelled back, possibly just as loud. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!?" She watched the girls hastily get up and put their clothes on. They were both beautiful and rather young. One was about 5'6 in height, with long curly red hair to her waist. Her eyes were the brightest shade of green Ashley had possibly ever seen, and her skin was tanned so dark she could see the stark whiteness of where the bikini she had worn had left an imprint.
"I am relieving stress!!" He shouted back. Ashley ignored him as she studied the two. The blonde was even prettier than the red head. Her skin was porcelain pale and she had the longest blonde hair she'd ever seen cut in odd layers down her back. Her bright blue eyes were lined with silver and seemed to glow. She didn't see much for the two girls were running out the door. Dilandau got up off the bed angrily holding the red silken sheets around his waist looking at Ashley like he were to murder her. She took this moment to start beating on him.
"You were relieving stress?!? RELIEVING STRESS?!?" Her anger was getting higher now and she was sure she was attracting attention. "Relieving stress is sparring at two in the morning when you can't sleep. Relieving stress is a Swedish massage!! It is not randomly having sex with two girls your probably know nothing about!!" She exclaimed, slapping him anywhere she could every chance she got. He tried to grab her arms but in her rampage it just made her more powerful, knocking him back more. She took off her slippers, throwing one on the ground she had one in her hand smacking him with it. "What kind of sick fucker are you?!?" She asked him her anger losing control and she was now crying.
"Obviously a big one!!" He shouted making her smack him even more. Now, Dilandau had, had about enough by now. He got more aggressive and just pulled back his hand and hit her as hard as he could. The sound was loud and Ashley found herself stunned. Her and Mary had been in fights before, granted lots were wrestling and mock fist fights. But, this was possibly her first really encounter with another person where she had been really hit.
She looked at Dilandau finally, tearing her face from her shoulder. She glared at him and she saw the slight signs of regret, surprise, and still anger at her. She turned to him a moment opening her mouth to speak but flinching when it hurt, realizing her lip was busted. That's when she turned from him walking further into the room. Hearing him follow she chose to ignore him. Tears now falling freely from her face.
'This was such a mistake.' She thought to herself bending over to pick up her blanket from the floor.
"Ashley.." Dilandau started almost giving up, that one word and his soft voice made her anger sky rocket again. She picked up a book from the table and threw it at him.
"You son of a bitch!!" She yelled and began to throw things within her reach. Soon, Dilandau found himself in the hallway dodging things from the doorway. A lamp shattered against the wall, crystal vase, more books, both her slippers, a pillow, and some how a chair. Muttered curses would be flittering through the doorway.
"What happened?!?" He heard a voice beside him, turning he saw his men standing there. Ashley appeared in the doorway heaving and holding a glass and bottle in her hand. Chesta saw her face and his eyes widened, she began to cry more, slamming the door shut she locked it and began to pile things up against the door, including the bed itself. She noticed the evidence of their sex and huddled on the floor and cried, the left side of her face gradually getting more puffy and hurtful the most she cried and laid on it.
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Outside, Dilandau stood up, sporting new bruises, and in some cased, small cuts on his lithe and pale body. The slayers looked a him accusingly as he sighed."Get her out of my room." He stated roughly.
"No." Chesta replied. Dilandau rose an eyebrow and stared at his slayer in mock questioning.
"And, why not?" He asked.
"Because, you did this you fix this. I'm tired of cleaning up your messes when it comes to emotional girls. We love her just as much as you do but this time it's your job." Chesta stated, his glare deepening. With that said, he spun on his heel and left the hallway going to his room.
"I suppose you all don't have any advice?"
"Well, no..not really." Viole stated. "Did you give her that nasty bruise?" He asked thinking about it. Dilandau didn't meet their gaze and that seemed to confirm their suspicions. Sighing Gatti stood there a moment and turned to the door that was both locked and barricaded.
"One thing there is to do, is wait for her to come out." Dalet's calculating lilac colored eyes said thoughtfully. "She'll come down soon and come out. Either that or she'll get hungry soon."
Dilandau respected that decision and followed them down the hall to borrow a shower and some clothing. Waiting for Ashley to calm down and come out of the room.
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Ashley opened her eyes to a soft knocking on the door, she knew it was probably either Viole or Chesta. Most likely Chesta. Getting up she pulled the dirty bed from the door and the chair, bed side tables, and paper she thought would miraculously keep her inside. She cracked the door open to find both Chesta and Viole there. She smiled best she could without breaking her bottom and top lips open."You hungry?" Chesta asked softly, his eyes held a huge amount of sympathy for her, but Viole was impassive. She stepped away and let them inside. She wasn't even sure why she barricaded herself in Dilandau's room. She just didn't want to leave just yet.
"Mmhmm." She said through her mouth and sat on the floor. Viole lit a lantern and placed a shade over top of it to at least give them some light. He left the room into the bathroom to get some things before coming out with bottles, a metallic bowl of water, and a small towel.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Chesta asked her as she picked up a sliced carrot and began to nibble on it.
"All that happened..was..I couldn't sleep so I picked his lock to bother him like I did on the Vione. I came in and found two naked girls in his bed. I don't know why but I went insane. I mean, just...I like him a lot and I kind of figured he liked me too. But, he couldn't possibly if he just randomly slept with those girls. He has absolutely NO heart. I mean, can you believe he only slept with them to relieve stress?!?" She exclaimed once again becoming angry.
"Hm, look at me." Viole instructed and began to clean the cut on her lip. The bruise she had on her face was a dark shade, meaning he had hit her harder than he had probably meant to do so. Viole made a sound and knew he could do nothing for the bruise but let it heal on it's own. It stretched from angry greenish yellow on the edge of her jaw, to the very top curve of her cheek bone closest the temple. The rest of it was darker the farther in the middle you got. Made her left side puff up. Her lips were split on the left side, all the way up and might scar funny if she wasn't very lucky. Viole applied some sort of ointment on the cut and hoped it would scar as badly noticeable as Dilandau's sliced right cheek. She flinched and ignored the pain.
"You got him pretty good though." Chesta commented causing her to giggle a bit. "But, don't you think this is silly though? Keeping yourself locked in this room. It's been nearly a whole day." Ashley looked away from him.
"If I leave this room I know you guys will make him talk to me, and I have no desire at all to see hide or hair of him at all. Even after this war is over and no matter how sorry or horribly bad he feels. I will not speak to him no matter what." When she was done with her speech Chesta continued to look at her, Vile looked at her like she were joking.
"If that's how you feel then so be it. We wont make you two talk, we'll leave it alone. But, it's best to get over this soon before something drastic happens and you wont be able to address it then." Chesta's voice was rather wise and old when he spoke and it made Ashley take a step back.
"That's fine." She muttered stubbornly. Viole sighed and shook his head.
"Ok, we'll escort you to your rooms and we'll go train, you're welcome to come if you want." Chesta replied looking at the stubborn girl.
"Ok."
"Oh, Ashley you got a letter this morning from Jessica, I left it in your bedroom though." Viole said his face lighting up a bit. Ashley grinned and got up ignoring some of her split lip re-opening.
"Let's go!!"
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Ashley was escorted by Chesta and Viole to her room, she entered the room and shut the door behind her, but not before giving them both fierce hugs of gratitude. Padding to her bed she plopped on it, without the heavy comforter it seemed to be smaller. She took the neatly folded piece of parchment and smiled. On the front of the parchment was her name scrawled in black inch, it was elegant and made her smile. Turning it over, she broke the ceil, careful not to destroy the beautiful dragon that it was. She knew it was the Fanelian crest, Jessica must have used Van's wax and ceil but it still meant something. Even though their colors weren't green, the wax was still Jessica's own choosing. She opened the parchment quickly and scanned the short letter.Dear Ashley,
I can admit, I find it rather odd being without Mary and You. I'm not sure we've ever been this apart in so long. Granted, it's only been maybe two days. But, I miss you guys, and I'm sure that even Mary feels the same. Guimel says hi, Van says that if you manage to have another episode of rage like you did with Folken then he asks that you please manage to kill Dilandau. If you want I'll hit Van for you.
Hitome has talked badly of you the entire time I've been around. She doesn't like me too much either. But, I'm ignoring her, Merle is a wonderful girl though, so rambunctious and child like. She is only eleven after all, right? I fear to ask her age incase she takes offense. From how I see her and Hitome play around, she gets offended easily.
The crew is cool. Gaddes is a pervert, but who on here really isn't? I sent a letter to Mary but I doubt she'll get it. I advise you write to her too, we need to at least stay in touch. Even if we aren't on the same team anymore. It doesn't matter, we're still friends, and as friends we'll fight like friends. Friends always make up in the end you do know that? Then they make a decision that all parties can agree with.
Well, basically I just want to know how they're treating you there and if you're ok. We'll be going to Fried soon, Millerna has asked us to come by. I don't know why, some of the people are still wary of my being here, especially Guimel's presence. It's ok though. I should go though, I hope you are well and I look forward a great deal to seeing you again.
Love you!!
Jessica
------- Ashley put down the letter and smiled. She got up and made her way to the bathroom, she needed to shower and change and such before she actually got to sit down and write her letter of reply. She knew it would be wise to send a letter to Mary, to at least let her know they both still cared and loved her no matter what choices either of the three made. Family usually did stick together like a horribly gone wrong super glue accident. Even if there wasn't necessarily a blood relation.
She took a quick shower, washing her long hair, and trying to get the dirt, wine, and tears off her body. After getting out and wrapping her body in a towel she stood in front of the mirror and nearly gasped at how horrible her face looked. She glared daggers at the reflection. She was a witch, but not that powerful of one to heal herself. Still glaring, she was only glad that the swelling had gone down considerably after taking a nice hot shower.
Leaving the bathroom, steam escaping into the cold room that was her bedroom, she dug out a few pieces of her own parchment and a quill with a bottle of black ink. Setting them on the bed, she noticed a blood red rose laying on top of a different piece of neatly folded parchment. Gagging at the rose, she picked up the letter letting the flower slide off the paper and onto the bed, the thorns scratching the paper dangerously close to cutting.
Turning it over she noticed her name scrawled across it in choppy yet still elegant writing. She turned the letter over again to study the ceil, it was just a big D in crimson wax. She glared knowing whom it was from. Throwing the letter back angrily on her bed, she tried to stomp but stepped on herself causing her to trip, Ashley is a bit of a klutz. She managed to fall forward onto the bed, throwing her hands out, they slid, her right hand fell directly onto the long stemmed red rose. Getting back up she glared at the three deep pricks oozing the liquid life force that flows through her veins. Licking the blood up she glared at the rose and couldn't help but think one thing.
'Even the prettiest rose has the most vicious of thorns.' She thought and laughed whole heartedly at herself. The itching wounds would heal in a few days, but she just wished that she could bring herself to read his excuses.
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Note: Well.that's the end of another chapter guys!! I worked hard and fast. Let me explain before you get mad. At first, I had the PERFECT fourteenth chapter typed out and ready to upload, but when I did. My evil computer crashed and I just didn't have the heart to re-write it. Then I got a boyfriend, had the heart to re-write it but he was angry afraid that my writing would reflect our relationship so I deleted it. Then, he dumped me and I've had a few horrible relationships after that. Now, I was reading the reviews I got, even though the story has been on hold, literally a whole year. It made me smile so much I made myself write this fourteenth chapter. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did. Also, I can guarantee that there will be a sequel to this one, but it wont be what you expect. . Um...lemme see. I want to thank you all who did review even though it seemed as if I were done with this. I'm not, lol. Um...thanks I suppose.
Um...hm..I don't know how many more chapters there are going to be to finish this, but maybe a lot more. I'm still not sure. The chapters are increasingly getting longer, if this bothers you in any way just tell me and I'll chop them into smaller segments, but I know that I for one LOVE longer stories. Um...ok..um. Lemme see. If I don't update the fifteenth chapter either Monday or Tuesday I may shoot myself.
I will say, that I was probably thirteen when I started this fic, I am now sixteen, isn't that depressing? Since I am sixteen I have a lot more responsibilities and I want to apologize before hand if those responsibilities get in the way of your happiness with my fic. This is still my baby even after a year. I hope me waiting so long doesn't kill your spirit in the story line and such. I once again would like to say also, that the other reason I was hesitant to finish the story, was the comment one of the Furies made. I read some of their stuff, and it wasn't that great, but the fact they said those things did hurt. I do this for fun, and after I realized that what they say shouldn't really matter I was having fun again. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this, and I know this note is really long but if you read it, thanks tons. The readers mean a lot to me, you're my inspiration sometimes. . Even if you don't review I realize there are tons of people reading this stuff. Anyways, I should stop this and get the ball on the fifteenth chapter.
Oh, and before I go..lol. I do realize that this chapter's drama was weird, her going into a flying rampage and getting hit and such. But, ya know..when someone loves someone and gets hurt, they're emotionally unstable, and as much shit as Ashley has done and been through, don't you think she should've pulled out a knife and stabbed him, then apologized for what she did? XD Anyways..thanks again, I love you guys, bai!
Koori