Please, i beg you all not to bludgeon me on the head with a massive slab of concrete! Sorri i've been gone so long... again! I've lost ALL of my notes on what was going to happen, and its been so long that i've totally forgotten... so please forgive me if its not so great, i had this realli good story line planned, but its all screwd over now, so yeh... i'm SO sorri! i'm just improvising from now on! Luv you All... LJ
I Can't take it
What am I waiting for
My hearts still breaking
I miss you even more
And I can't fake it the way I could before
I hate you, But I love you
I can't stop thinking of you...
It's true, I'm stuck on you
Stacie Orrico - Stuck
"Why, hello Meat head. I thought I'd find you here" Kel said casually. She was surprised at how calm and indifferent she sounded, when inside she could feel all her internal organs being ripped out and put back in in the wrong places. She swallowed hard, before walking over to sit on the bench in Neal's favorite courtyard garden sanctuary. Looking up at him, he still seemed to be opening and closing his mouth wordlessly, just staring at her with nothing to say.
"Well then, I see the Yamani's really did cut your tongue off. Did your sarcasm get to the emperor?" Even though the words that were said just seemed like normal conversation, it had come out all wispy, her throat had by now constricted at the sight of him and cut off her air circulation. She blinked up at him. He hadn't changed one bit, his eyes were as green as ever, his hair was as restless as it was the last time she saw him and her fingers had started to itch to run through his messy hair again.
"Kel... I... Uhh... erm... Its.. It's been so long..." He said, fumbling for something to say, anything. She saw him look her over, scanning her body to take in all her features, old and new. He stood still there, towering over her and staring at her, as if mesmerised by her eyes. Kel felt like cowering under that powerful gaze of his, yet at the same time felt like she was drowning in the depths of his emerald eyes, and all of a sudden remembered why she had fallen so hard for her best friend.
"Yeah... I've missed you." she replied. If only he knew, Kel thought. Yet, even though she wanted so much for him to take her in his arms and kiss her, another part of her was angry at him, for leaving her all alone. Even though they were only a few metres apart, the distance between them felt like miles, with an unbreakable sheet of ice separating them. Neal looked away from her.
"Oh, curse it", he muttered under his breath and then covered the gap between them easily in a few strides. He enveloped her in a hug, so tight that Kel thought she was suffocating for real, until he eased his grip on her until they were in a comfortable position. Kel rested her head in the curve of his neck, smiling dreamily. This is where she wanted to stay for the rest of her life.
They stood there silently, there weren't enough words to express what they were feeling. Gently, he released her stepping back to look into her eyes. His face was only inches from him, and she could feel his breath on her forehead coming out heavy and rough. Obviously she wasn't the only one running high on emotions at the moment. Kel looked at his face, her eyes drawn to his lips automatically. She could feel every single muscle in her body aching to reach out and kiss him and drown herself in his warmth, in the safety that she always seemed to feel whenever she was in a 5 metre vicinity of him. But she knew she couldn't have him. It was only a matter of time till Yuki came to claim him as her own. No doubt she'd probably pregnant by now after all this time. Just the thought of Yuki being pregnant with Neal's child made Kel feel like someone has stabbed her heart with several daggers.
She clenched her fists in an attempt to restrain herself from doing something stupid, and looked away. His eyes were still on hers and she could feel her face heating up as Neal's drifted closer and closer. His raised his hand and placed it on her cheek, lightly pushing it so that she had no choice but to face him. Kel could see the uncertainty in his eyes that was contemplating whether or not she still felt the same way as before, and as he leaned into kiss her, she could feel an electric current pass through their bodies, lighting up every nerve in her being.
She could feel herself kissing back, her lips seeming to have a mind of its own. Kissing neal... it felt so right, so incredibly uplifting, like she'd been starved for her whole life until he kissed her. Deepening the kiss, she allowed herself a few more moments of heaven, but felt her brain begin to switch on again. How long had she waited for this moment? How many minutes had she spent thinking about kissing him, about touching him, about him just in general? Yet, something was wrong. Something flitted across her mind, a face. A face with almond eyes and dark raven-coloured hair. Yuki. What in the name of mithros...? she thought. What about Yuki? What about his WIFE?
Gathering all the will power within her, she unlaced her fingers from his hair and rested them on his chest, giving in a hard shove. Neal staggered at the strength and the sudden movement and a confused look washed over his face. His hair was even messier than before, which was Kel's doing, and his face was all flushed. Even though Kel wanted to grab him and kiss him all over again, she did her best to use the small part of her that had always been angry at him. The part of her that had become so weak and powerless against the side that never wanted to let him go.
"What the HELL do you think you are doing?" Kel said, her eyes flashing at him. She glared at him, the anger and pain at everything that he had done to her all rushing back, building up inside of her. She stepped further back from him, afraid that the other side that wanted him so much might come back.
"What do you mean? I thought... I mean, you feel- What are you talking about?", Neal was clearly confused at her sudden burst of anger. He'd never seen her this angry at him in his life, except for when he'd told her about his departure from Tortall, and even then she'd just been cold and distant from him.
"You... You kissing me, when you have Yuki. You have a WIFE Neal! How could you do this to her?!?!" Her tone had become increasingly shaky, and louder than before. More like, how could he do this to ME? she thought infuriatingly. What was wrong with him? How could he not know how she felt about him? How could he just kiss her and do something like that when they both knew that nothing could ever happen? That she had to spend the rest of her life thinking about him and wallowing in pain? Just when she thought she had become numb to his touch and had began to deal with the fact that she could never have him, he had to do something like this. Dangle something that she wanted so much in front of her and then just take it all away.
"Kel, me and Yuki, we-" He began to explain, but Kel didn't want to hear it. It'd just hurt her even more.
"You know what? I don't want to know," She burst out and rushed past him. She had to get away from him, now, before she changed her mind. What did he think of her? That she'd gladly become his mistress? You know that if you had no other choice, you probably would, a little voice inside her said. But Kel dismissed this thought. She couldn't do that. No, she wouldn't LET herself do that.
Finally out of the gardens, her mind barely registered him calling after her as she sought sanctuary in her room, where she could nurse her even more broken, aching heart in peace. She bit her lip. What had she done?
Have you ever been low?
Have you ever had a friend that let you down so?
When the truth came out
Were you the last to know?
Were you left out in the dark?
Cause what you did was Low
Kelly Clarkson - Low
Neal was confused. Completely and totally confused. He didn't understand at all, Kel had been so angry at him. And the way that she had been talking- no, YELLING- at him... its like... well, its like she thought that he and Yuki were still together. That they were still married and just here because the grand progress had finished. Except thats not possible because Merric told her, he remembered telling Merric to tell her. He even wrote her a nice little message for him to give to her and everything. And Merric had definitely not told him that he'd not given it to her yet, so she must have gotten it.
But then, if he HAD given it to her, then she would know and she wouldn't have yelled at him like that! He kept on pacing about in his sanctuary, he hadn't moved from there for fear of running into somebody that would want to make small talk with him. And he SO wasn't in the mood for small talk. Attempting to flatten his hair in order to give his hands something to do other than wring each other, he kept trying to put everything together. How could Kel not know about it? Or if she did, what if she didn't want him anymore? What if she'd decided that she'd had enough of letting him shatter her heart into millions of pieces and she'd moved on?
Neal frowned, worry clouding his eyes. He didn't think that he could handle it if Kel wouldn't take him, he didn't think that he could handle it if he had to endure watching her in the arms of someone other then him again, like last time. Cleon had been pure torture, how would he be able to take Kel being with some other random stranger? But what else could he do if she didn't want him anymore? She had made it glass clear that she didn't want to be with him, that what he had done was wrong. And yet, he had been so sure that she had kissed back. He had felt it, felt the shivers running down his spine and that tingly feeling that he got only when he came in contact with Kel, and there was no way that only one person of the two of them could feel that way. Hadn't he seen the longing and desire in her eyes? All that pain and pent up emotion in her eyes that day he left, it couldn't have gone away so fast.
ARGH! I'm going to go INSANE! He thought. What he needed to do was to find out exactly what happened, and Merric was the only person that could tell him that.
Clenching his fists, he made up his mind to find Merric and bully the truth out of him right then and there, as he walked out of his sanctuary and into the main training courts. It was still midday, so Merric should be either training there to keep in shape for the upcoming tournament, or in his rooms. Glad that he was finally doing something other than just pacing nervously around in the garden, he walked purposefully towards his destination, this time actually taking the time to look around him, instead of walking around absently thinking about Kel, which he had been doing ever since he had gotten back.
Walking past Kel's room, his heart felt a sharp pang for an instant as he thought about how much he wanted her and how much he wanted to just grab her and beg for her forgiveness for hurting her at all. Standing there hesitantly for a few seconds, he shook his head and set his mouth in a thin, determined line and continued heading to the practice courts. It was better to get the whole story before confronting her.
He reached there and roughly scanned the courts for any sign of Merric, finding him practicing his staff skills with a soldier from the King's Own. Striding over, he watched Merric fight against the other soldier and recognized the combat pattern that they were practicing was coming to an end. Standing in front of the fence line that was near to them, he watched silently and waved in acknowledgement, even though he knew Merric was currently too occupied to wave back.
Finally, they finished, and Neal waited patiently as Merric shook the other soldier's hand and waved farewell. Merric walked over, panting and out of breath with sweat dripping off his forehead. His face was the same as ever, and showed genuine delight at seeing his friend again, but Neal noticed that his eyes gave away his uneasiness. Neal decided to be direct and get a straight answer.
"Come to see if someone can re-colour those old bruises of yours, eh Neal?" He said cheerfully, but Neal had known Merric long enough to be able to detect nervousness in his voice. Things were not looking good.
"No, but the next time that I feel that black and blue is in, I'll make sure to find you," Neal replied sarcastically. Even though he was practically distraught at the whole Kel situation, he still managed to reply in that same old 'sarcastic-Neal-drawl' every time.
"And it'll be an honor to oblige, of course. So, if that's not it, what's urgent enough for the infamous scholarly knight to get his behind out here?" Merric asked, although from the way he had shifted nervously about on his feet, it seemed like he already knew what Neal had come to drill him about.
"Look, I wont try and beat around the bush here. Did you tell Kel about me and Yuki or not? Because from an earlier conversation, if you would even call it that, it seems that you haven't," He asked, now sure that something was definitely wrong.
"Oh yeah, about that... I.. um... forgot to tell her. Or give her the letter..." his voice trailed off and he looked up at Neal hopefully, to see if he bought the story. He was so damn obvious that Neal felt like seriously rolling his eyes.
"Merric, you never were a good liar, and you aren't one now. Tell me the truth" Neal commanded, he was getting nervous himself, not sure if he really wanted to know the truth. Merric sighed, and grimaced in resignation.
"Fine, fine. I guess you deserve to know the truth anyway," He stopped and motioned for Neal to walk with him back to his room. Neal followed, slightly pouting at Merric's unsubtle stalling methods.
"Well... I don't know if you know or not, but after you left, Kel wasn't the same again. She was constantly moping, she isolated herself in her room for more than a week, she wouldn't talk to anyone, except to either call for hot water or ask for food, and even then it was very rare. Just after I got back to New Hope with your message, I saw Kel and... she had picked herself a bit back up again. She was doing her normal duties like before, even though she did them with less enthusiasm and stopped talking to us anymore. And you could still see the heartache and the pain in her eyes whenever you looked at her, but she was so much better," Merric explained, pausing a little and looking at Neal and waiting for him to digest it. By now, all of Neal's happiness at finally doing something about the Kel situation had faded, and instead he was left with a dull aching all over. He had had no idea how much he had affected Kel, and the fact that he had hurt her so much that Kel- The Yamani Lump who survived through so many years of torture because she was a girl- couldn't even bring herself to do her duty to the people of New Hope, who meant all the world to her. Neal nodded at Merric to continue.
"And I guess, when I saw her like that, just getting over you and going back to normal, I couldn't do it anymore. You might love her Neal, but I still acre for her. I didn't want to tell her because I didn't want to see her all depressed again," Merric finished. He stopped, they'd reached his rooms already. Searching through his pockets, he fished out a silver key and opened his door, walking in. He invited Neal and held the door open for him before closing it.
"So then... she's completely over me now? She doesn't love me anymore?" Neal asked, not even bothered to hide the urgency in his voice. He needed to know.
"Neal, she's loved you since you were both pages, anyone except you could have seen that from miles away. Of course she still has feelings for you," He said simply, as if that was the most obvious thing in the world. Neal couldn't help but give a shaky sigh of relief.
"Thank you so much for telling me this Merric. You have no idea how much this means to me," Neal told him. Merric smiled up at him, evidently glad to have finally said something. Neal turned around and started for the door.
"Oh, and Neal?" Merric said, and waited till Neal paused for a bit.
"Yeah, what?" he asked. He could already feel his impatient side coming out, he was so eager to find Kel and explain.
"Just promise me that you won't hurt her OK? That you wont say anything to her until you know for sure that you can be with her?" He asked. Neal felt a little anger at the suggestion. As if he'd intentionally try and hurt her!
"Of course! Thanks again. Bye!" Neal replied. He walked to the door and let himself out after hearing Merric give a satisfied nod and a quick 'Bye'.
Neal rounded the corner and walked in the direction of Kel's room. He couldn't wait to get the whole thing cleared up. except there was one little problem...
How the hell was he going to explain without her slamming the door in his face first?
I Can't take it
What am I waiting for
My hearts still breaking
I miss you even more
And I can't fake it the way I could before
I hate you, But I love you
I can't stop thinking of you...
It's true, I'm stuck on you
Stacie Orrico - Stuck
"Why, hello Meat head. I thought I'd find you here" Kel said casually. She was surprised at how calm and indifferent she sounded, when inside she could feel all her internal organs being ripped out and put back in in the wrong places. She swallowed hard, before walking over to sit on the bench in Neal's favorite courtyard garden sanctuary. Looking up at him, he still seemed to be opening and closing his mouth wordlessly, just staring at her with nothing to say.
"Well then, I see the Yamani's really did cut your tongue off. Did your sarcasm get to the emperor?" Even though the words that were said just seemed like normal conversation, it had come out all wispy, her throat had by now constricted at the sight of him and cut off her air circulation. She blinked up at him. He hadn't changed one bit, his eyes were as green as ever, his hair was as restless as it was the last time she saw him and her fingers had started to itch to run through his messy hair again.
"Kel... I... Uhh... erm... Its.. It's been so long..." He said, fumbling for something to say, anything. She saw him look her over, scanning her body to take in all her features, old and new. He stood still there, towering over her and staring at her, as if mesmerised by her eyes. Kel felt like cowering under that powerful gaze of his, yet at the same time felt like she was drowning in the depths of his emerald eyes, and all of a sudden remembered why she had fallen so hard for her best friend.
"Yeah... I've missed you." she replied. If only he knew, Kel thought. Yet, even though she wanted so much for him to take her in his arms and kiss her, another part of her was angry at him, for leaving her all alone. Even though they were only a few metres apart, the distance between them felt like miles, with an unbreakable sheet of ice separating them. Neal looked away from her.
"Oh, curse it", he muttered under his breath and then covered the gap between them easily in a few strides. He enveloped her in a hug, so tight that Kel thought she was suffocating for real, until he eased his grip on her until they were in a comfortable position. Kel rested her head in the curve of his neck, smiling dreamily. This is where she wanted to stay for the rest of her life.
They stood there silently, there weren't enough words to express what they were feeling. Gently, he released her stepping back to look into her eyes. His face was only inches from him, and she could feel his breath on her forehead coming out heavy and rough. Obviously she wasn't the only one running high on emotions at the moment. Kel looked at his face, her eyes drawn to his lips automatically. She could feel every single muscle in her body aching to reach out and kiss him and drown herself in his warmth, in the safety that she always seemed to feel whenever she was in a 5 metre vicinity of him. But she knew she couldn't have him. It was only a matter of time till Yuki came to claim him as her own. No doubt she'd probably pregnant by now after all this time. Just the thought of Yuki being pregnant with Neal's child made Kel feel like someone has stabbed her heart with several daggers.
She clenched her fists in an attempt to restrain herself from doing something stupid, and looked away. His eyes were still on hers and she could feel her face heating up as Neal's drifted closer and closer. His raised his hand and placed it on her cheek, lightly pushing it so that she had no choice but to face him. Kel could see the uncertainty in his eyes that was contemplating whether or not she still felt the same way as before, and as he leaned into kiss her, she could feel an electric current pass through their bodies, lighting up every nerve in her being.
She could feel herself kissing back, her lips seeming to have a mind of its own. Kissing neal... it felt so right, so incredibly uplifting, like she'd been starved for her whole life until he kissed her. Deepening the kiss, she allowed herself a few more moments of heaven, but felt her brain begin to switch on again. How long had she waited for this moment? How many minutes had she spent thinking about kissing him, about touching him, about him just in general? Yet, something was wrong. Something flitted across her mind, a face. A face with almond eyes and dark raven-coloured hair. Yuki. What in the name of mithros...? she thought. What about Yuki? What about his WIFE?
Gathering all the will power within her, she unlaced her fingers from his hair and rested them on his chest, giving in a hard shove. Neal staggered at the strength and the sudden movement and a confused look washed over his face. His hair was even messier than before, which was Kel's doing, and his face was all flushed. Even though Kel wanted to grab him and kiss him all over again, she did her best to use the small part of her that had always been angry at him. The part of her that had become so weak and powerless against the side that never wanted to let him go.
"What the HELL do you think you are doing?" Kel said, her eyes flashing at him. She glared at him, the anger and pain at everything that he had done to her all rushing back, building up inside of her. She stepped further back from him, afraid that the other side that wanted him so much might come back.
"What do you mean? I thought... I mean, you feel- What are you talking about?", Neal was clearly confused at her sudden burst of anger. He'd never seen her this angry at him in his life, except for when he'd told her about his departure from Tortall, and even then she'd just been cold and distant from him.
"You... You kissing me, when you have Yuki. You have a WIFE Neal! How could you do this to her?!?!" Her tone had become increasingly shaky, and louder than before. More like, how could he do this to ME? she thought infuriatingly. What was wrong with him? How could he not know how she felt about him? How could he just kiss her and do something like that when they both knew that nothing could ever happen? That she had to spend the rest of her life thinking about him and wallowing in pain? Just when she thought she had become numb to his touch and had began to deal with the fact that she could never have him, he had to do something like this. Dangle something that she wanted so much in front of her and then just take it all away.
"Kel, me and Yuki, we-" He began to explain, but Kel didn't want to hear it. It'd just hurt her even more.
"You know what? I don't want to know," She burst out and rushed past him. She had to get away from him, now, before she changed her mind. What did he think of her? That she'd gladly become his mistress? You know that if you had no other choice, you probably would, a little voice inside her said. But Kel dismissed this thought. She couldn't do that. No, she wouldn't LET herself do that.
Finally out of the gardens, her mind barely registered him calling after her as she sought sanctuary in her room, where she could nurse her even more broken, aching heart in peace. She bit her lip. What had she done?
Have you ever been low?
Have you ever had a friend that let you down so?
When the truth came out
Were you the last to know?
Were you left out in the dark?
Cause what you did was Low
Kelly Clarkson - Low
Neal was confused. Completely and totally confused. He didn't understand at all, Kel had been so angry at him. And the way that she had been talking- no, YELLING- at him... its like... well, its like she thought that he and Yuki were still together. That they were still married and just here because the grand progress had finished. Except thats not possible because Merric told her, he remembered telling Merric to tell her. He even wrote her a nice little message for him to give to her and everything. And Merric had definitely not told him that he'd not given it to her yet, so she must have gotten it.
But then, if he HAD given it to her, then she would know and she wouldn't have yelled at him like that! He kept on pacing about in his sanctuary, he hadn't moved from there for fear of running into somebody that would want to make small talk with him. And he SO wasn't in the mood for small talk. Attempting to flatten his hair in order to give his hands something to do other than wring each other, he kept trying to put everything together. How could Kel not know about it? Or if she did, what if she didn't want him anymore? What if she'd decided that she'd had enough of letting him shatter her heart into millions of pieces and she'd moved on?
Neal frowned, worry clouding his eyes. He didn't think that he could handle it if Kel wouldn't take him, he didn't think that he could handle it if he had to endure watching her in the arms of someone other then him again, like last time. Cleon had been pure torture, how would he be able to take Kel being with some other random stranger? But what else could he do if she didn't want him anymore? She had made it glass clear that she didn't want to be with him, that what he had done was wrong. And yet, he had been so sure that she had kissed back. He had felt it, felt the shivers running down his spine and that tingly feeling that he got only when he came in contact with Kel, and there was no way that only one person of the two of them could feel that way. Hadn't he seen the longing and desire in her eyes? All that pain and pent up emotion in her eyes that day he left, it couldn't have gone away so fast.
ARGH! I'm going to go INSANE! He thought. What he needed to do was to find out exactly what happened, and Merric was the only person that could tell him that.
Clenching his fists, he made up his mind to find Merric and bully the truth out of him right then and there, as he walked out of his sanctuary and into the main training courts. It was still midday, so Merric should be either training there to keep in shape for the upcoming tournament, or in his rooms. Glad that he was finally doing something other than just pacing nervously around in the garden, he walked purposefully towards his destination, this time actually taking the time to look around him, instead of walking around absently thinking about Kel, which he had been doing ever since he had gotten back.
Walking past Kel's room, his heart felt a sharp pang for an instant as he thought about how much he wanted her and how much he wanted to just grab her and beg for her forgiveness for hurting her at all. Standing there hesitantly for a few seconds, he shook his head and set his mouth in a thin, determined line and continued heading to the practice courts. It was better to get the whole story before confronting her.
He reached there and roughly scanned the courts for any sign of Merric, finding him practicing his staff skills with a soldier from the King's Own. Striding over, he watched Merric fight against the other soldier and recognized the combat pattern that they were practicing was coming to an end. Standing in front of the fence line that was near to them, he watched silently and waved in acknowledgement, even though he knew Merric was currently too occupied to wave back.
Finally, they finished, and Neal waited patiently as Merric shook the other soldier's hand and waved farewell. Merric walked over, panting and out of breath with sweat dripping off his forehead. His face was the same as ever, and showed genuine delight at seeing his friend again, but Neal noticed that his eyes gave away his uneasiness. Neal decided to be direct and get a straight answer.
"Come to see if someone can re-colour those old bruises of yours, eh Neal?" He said cheerfully, but Neal had known Merric long enough to be able to detect nervousness in his voice. Things were not looking good.
"No, but the next time that I feel that black and blue is in, I'll make sure to find you," Neal replied sarcastically. Even though he was practically distraught at the whole Kel situation, he still managed to reply in that same old 'sarcastic-Neal-drawl' every time.
"And it'll be an honor to oblige, of course. So, if that's not it, what's urgent enough for the infamous scholarly knight to get his behind out here?" Merric asked, although from the way he had shifted nervously about on his feet, it seemed like he already knew what Neal had come to drill him about.
"Look, I wont try and beat around the bush here. Did you tell Kel about me and Yuki or not? Because from an earlier conversation, if you would even call it that, it seems that you haven't," He asked, now sure that something was definitely wrong.
"Oh yeah, about that... I.. um... forgot to tell her. Or give her the letter..." his voice trailed off and he looked up at Neal hopefully, to see if he bought the story. He was so damn obvious that Neal felt like seriously rolling his eyes.
"Merric, you never were a good liar, and you aren't one now. Tell me the truth" Neal commanded, he was getting nervous himself, not sure if he really wanted to know the truth. Merric sighed, and grimaced in resignation.
"Fine, fine. I guess you deserve to know the truth anyway," He stopped and motioned for Neal to walk with him back to his room. Neal followed, slightly pouting at Merric's unsubtle stalling methods.
"Well... I don't know if you know or not, but after you left, Kel wasn't the same again. She was constantly moping, she isolated herself in her room for more than a week, she wouldn't talk to anyone, except to either call for hot water or ask for food, and even then it was very rare. Just after I got back to New Hope with your message, I saw Kel and... she had picked herself a bit back up again. She was doing her normal duties like before, even though she did them with less enthusiasm and stopped talking to us anymore. And you could still see the heartache and the pain in her eyes whenever you looked at her, but she was so much better," Merric explained, pausing a little and looking at Neal and waiting for him to digest it. By now, all of Neal's happiness at finally doing something about the Kel situation had faded, and instead he was left with a dull aching all over. He had had no idea how much he had affected Kel, and the fact that he had hurt her so much that Kel- The Yamani Lump who survived through so many years of torture because she was a girl- couldn't even bring herself to do her duty to the people of New Hope, who meant all the world to her. Neal nodded at Merric to continue.
"And I guess, when I saw her like that, just getting over you and going back to normal, I couldn't do it anymore. You might love her Neal, but I still acre for her. I didn't want to tell her because I didn't want to see her all depressed again," Merric finished. He stopped, they'd reached his rooms already. Searching through his pockets, he fished out a silver key and opened his door, walking in. He invited Neal and held the door open for him before closing it.
"So then... she's completely over me now? She doesn't love me anymore?" Neal asked, not even bothered to hide the urgency in his voice. He needed to know.
"Neal, she's loved you since you were both pages, anyone except you could have seen that from miles away. Of course she still has feelings for you," He said simply, as if that was the most obvious thing in the world. Neal couldn't help but give a shaky sigh of relief.
"Thank you so much for telling me this Merric. You have no idea how much this means to me," Neal told him. Merric smiled up at him, evidently glad to have finally said something. Neal turned around and started for the door.
"Oh, and Neal?" Merric said, and waited till Neal paused for a bit.
"Yeah, what?" he asked. He could already feel his impatient side coming out, he was so eager to find Kel and explain.
"Just promise me that you won't hurt her OK? That you wont say anything to her until you know for sure that you can be with her?" He asked. Neal felt a little anger at the suggestion. As if he'd intentionally try and hurt her!
"Of course! Thanks again. Bye!" Neal replied. He walked to the door and let himself out after hearing Merric give a satisfied nod and a quick 'Bye'.
Neal rounded the corner and walked in the direction of Kel's room. He couldn't wait to get the whole thing cleared up. except there was one little problem...
How the hell was he going to explain without her slamming the door in his face first?