Here it is!! Yeah, I wrote this a week ago, but finally proofread it now… College is going well and all, so we'll see how the next chapter comes out…
Thanks so much to all your encouraging reviews!! I'd list them all, but I'm short of time since sleep is indeed necessary…
But you're all in my heart!! :)
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Chapter 7: Teach Me
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Gaddes blinked open his eyes. He'd fallen into a fitful doze sometime during the wee hours of the morning as Ruhm pressed tirelessly on towards Fanelia, but he felt as if he hadn't rested a bit. He was surprised to find himself laying beside Celena, his arm curled behind her head protectively. When had he done that? She was facing him, smiling slightly in her sleep. He frowned, trying to move his arm from behind her head without awakening her. Unfortunately, it didn't work.
Her sleepy eyes flickered open, and she made a small sound. "Gaddes?"
He inched away from her, finally releasing his arm and smiling awkwardly. "'Morning."
She took a deep breath, and brushed her hair back. "What… where…"
"We're on Ruhm's cart, remember? He was taking us to Fanelia," Gaddes reminded her quietly.
Why they were talking in hushed voices, Gaddes couldn't tell.
Understanding dawned on her sleepy face, a slight reddish mark on her cheek from his sleeve. The sight made him chuckle inwardly, because it was so damn adorable.
"Gaddes?"
Ruhm's voice brought him out of his little world with Celena, and he sat straight up to look at the wolf-man. "Yeah?"
His fangs gleamed in his smile as he gestured expansively towards Fanelia. "We're here."
The early morning sun cast long dark shadows, lighting everything it touched with a warm golden-orange glow that almost hurt the eyes. Only a few clouds graced the blue of the sky, gleaming brightly with the sun's rays. Fanelia itself was shining with the light of the rising sun, as the extent of the renovations was revealed. It looked magnificent, especially for having been burned down less than a year ago.
Celena's rumpled head appeared beside him. "Wow…"
Ruhm chuckled. "Good morning, little lady. How did you rest?"
"Fine," she said, yawning. "I feel better."
"That's most excellent," he said, turning to focus his attention on the road again. "We should make it to the palace within the hour."
"So soon?" Gaddes asked.
Ruhm winked. "I took some short cuts."
"Ah." He turned to Celena, looking at her critically. "I do suppose you look better," he commented. "That's good. I don't know what kind of punishment I would receive from Allen if I returned with his little sister sick."
She frowned, but he grinned.
"And it wasn't even my fault, either."
She crossed her arms, looking away from him back over the countryside with an odd look on her face that Gaddes didn't miss. "What's wrong?"
Her shoulders lifted in a faint shrug.
"You miss your brother?"
The shrug this time was more of a noncommittal one.
"Did you dream again?"
She shook her head.
"Then what's wrong?"
"I remember something here…" she stated quietly.
"Remember what?"
Abruptly, she turned to face him. "Was Dilandau ever here?"
He blinked in surprise. "Uh… yeah, I think so. Why?"
"What did he do?"
Gaddes thought for a moment, then winced. "Uh, he… burned everything down."
She nodded understandingly. "That explains it…" Her eyes turned pensive.
"I'm sure everything will be fine," Gaddes reassured her weakly.
An eyebrow rose.
"Or at least I'm sure that Van won't cut you don't the moment he sees you."
The wind caressed her sleep-tousled hair. "How reassuring…"
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The castle gates opened to reveal a tall, blonde-haired man and a shorter – but not short – dark-haired man. Celena smiled brightly at the man on the left. "Brother!"
Allen walked towards the cart, helping his sister down and embracing her. "Celena! You look wonderful!"
Her cheeks tinted slightly in a becoming blush, and Gaddes found himself distracted for a moment.
The knight's voice brought him back to reality. "Huh?"
"The trip was uneventful?"
He looked toward his boss with a dubious smile on his face. "Pretty much…"
Celena rolled her eyes exaggeratedly at him, but was obviously disinclined to tell her brother specifics of their trip. Allen didn't seem to notice his sister's subtle message. He raised an eyebrow skeptically, looking pointedly towards Gaddes' black eye.
Van approached them, giving Gaddes a friendly slap on the back and an opportunity to avoid Allen's question. "How're you doing?"
"Fine." He grinned at the young king. "Looks like you guys've been working real hard here."
The king smiled faintly. "We're doing our best."
"It's looking real nice."
"Van, my sister, Celena," Allen interrupted gracefully.
Van inclined his head in a slight bow, an odd expression on his face. "Nice to meet you, Lady Celena."
She smiled and curtsied back – Probably learned that from Millerna – but with the same kind of awkward look in her eyes. What a pair, Gaddes thought wryly with a smile. The king rebuilding his kingdom and the person who burned down his kingdom… involuntary though it was.
They proceeded to walk into the castle, Van conversing with Ruhm in low tones.
"So, why did Van need you here, Allen?"
"There were some rogue Zaibach forces wandering the forests around here, frightening villagers and destroying their newly-built homes. Van's army needed some reinforcements, and in quick time, we dispensed of the enemies."
Gaddes frowned slightly. "Just like that?"
Allen shrugged. "So it would seem. What took you so long to get here?"
"Uh…" he thought for a moment. "Well, we ran into some difficulties with getting on a ship, so we set out on foot, but with the storm that hit and all, it was harder than normal."
"There weren't any more spaces on a ship?"
"Something like that." Gaddes figured Allen really didn't need to know about how he had to sleep next to his sister for nearly three nights, and all those other juicy details that older brothers aren't always too pleased to hear.
Celena's eyes smiled shyly at him from under her lashes, and he found himself still affected by them, even in her brother's presence.
"Well, Allen, I think I want to go off in search of food, if you don't mind." He had to start distancing himself from the girl before he got too used to her companionship, silent though it was.
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In the evening, Gaddes passed a study room only to find Allen sitting inside with a look of deep thought on his face. Feeling no trepidation about interrupting his boss's musings, the dark-haired man entered. "Yo, boss!"
Allen looked up with a start, so engrossed within himself that he hadn't noticed anything. "Oh… Gaddes."
Gaddes grinned cockily, dropping himself into a chair facing the knight. "What's up?"
His blue eyes looked to his, frustration behind them. "Why won't Celena talk to me?"
"She doesn't talk to you?" Gaddes asked, surprised.
"No. Barely a word. She just sits there, serenely, but without a sound. I don't know what's wrong with her."
"Nothing's wrong with her," he said in her defense.
Allen sighed. "Being Dilandau must have done something with her communication skills…"
Gaddes' eyebrows rose. "What?"
"I can't understand her," Allen said. "I've never been able to, ever since I got her back."
"Why not?"
Allen looked at him sardonically. "Did you not notice that she doesn't speak?"
"Yeah, but she doesn't need to talk to communicate." How could Allen not understand her? It was so easy to read her heart through her eyes.
"Did she talk to you?"
Gaddes caught a strange glint of jealously within the brother's eyes. "Not… really. Only sometimes."
He leaned back in the chair tiredly. "I would be grateful for even that."
"Try asking her yes and no questions," Gaddes said with a slight grin. "Then, when she's not expecting it, ask her a question that requires a one-word answer."
Allen rolled his eyes. "Like that's going to work."
After a moment's silence, Gaddes switched topics. "So, when are we leaving?"
"I don't know," Allen said ambiguously.
"What's keeping us here? You said that the invaders were taken care of, right?"
The knight raised a golden eyebrow. "You want to be traveling so soon?"
"So long as it's on the Crusade, I couldn't care less where we go."
Allen smiled with little amusement. "I failed to mention it, but a levistone on the Crusade was damaged at some point. That's another reason we're not leaving yet."
"Oh." was all Gaddes said. Once again the conversation ground to a halt, and he looked idly around the room at the numerous books that lined the shelves. Before he could stop himself, he asked, "Where is Celena, anyway?" Mentally he punched himself. Distancing himself, eh? He failed even at that.
"I suggested she eat dinner with Van."
Surprise washed over Gaddes, along with a stray hint of jealousy that he chose to ignore. What in the world? And he thought his ideas were bad… Van was obviously not entirely comfortable around Celena for obvious reasons, and even though Celena didn't really remember anything that her alter ego did, she wasn't all that cozy either here. Unless…
"Is that why you had Celena educated to be a 'lady of breeding'?" he asked accusingly.
Allen's cerulean eyes watching him questioningly, and Gaddes was pierced by the momentary resemblance to Celena.
"You were planning to set her up with Van? Why would you do that?" Allen should've known the impossibility of the situation. A blast from the past hit Gaddes between the eyes, and the possible rivalry that might force his boss to do something crazy. "Wait… is this because of Hitomi?"
The blonde's face darkened.
"You're hoping to get Van out of the way so that in case Hitomi comes back, you're the one who can get her?"
"No," Allen said sharply, then paused. He looked down, obviously ashamed. "I won't deny that the idea did surface." Abruptly he brought his flaming eyes up. "But I swear to you that it surfaced for but a moment, and I quickly dismissed it. I'm not so callous as to sacrifice the life of my sister for something to fulfill my selfish desires."
Gaddes reprimanded himself slightly for thinking so badly of his boss. "So… then why do you want her to eat with him?"
"I'm thinking of her future, that's all. I'm trying to give her the best future I can."
"Why don't you let her decide her own future, Allen?"
"I am," he stated. "I'm just showing her what a good future would be, making it easier for her to grasp it."
Gaddes remembered then just why he had disagreed with Allen so strongly before, and found that the trip had done nothing to quell his aggravation. He stood, nodding to his boss. "You do what you see fit with your sister, boss," he said, keeping his voice even. "I think I need a walk."
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He entered the gardens, the sun setting in gentle yet vibrant colors that highlighted the flowers around him. Breathing deeply, he rounded a corner only to find himself confronted with the very person he'd been hoping to forget.
Celena smiled at him happily in greeting.
"Hi…" he said hesitantly. Should he come up with a reason to leave, or give in and stay?
She gestured to the seat beside her on the bench, and Gaddes found himself moving forward before he could stop himself.
I guess I'll be staying then. I'm such a sucker.
"I thought you were supposed to be eating dinner with King Van."
She shrugged, looking away from him in faint embarrassment.
"Too awkward, huh?"
A nod.
"Yeah, I thought so. But he really is a good guy. Even though you two have… um… quite a history, friendship isn't out of the question."
"You want me to be friends with him?"
"Well, I don't want you to be enemies with him." Gaddes crossed his arms. "He's a friend of mine, only figured he could be a friend of yours, too."
She smiled.
Together they watched the sky change colors slowly but surely. If Gaddes was philosophical, he would say that it was a pretty accurate symbol of what had been changing within him over the past few days…
But then, Gaddes was no philosopher.
"I didn't hurt Ruhm, did I?" she asked out of the blue.
He blinked for a moment. "What?"
"I never got a chance to apologize to him."
"Well, he didn't seem to be the worse for wear this morning and when I saw him this afternoon."
"You, on the other hand…" She lifted a hand to gently touch his eye. "It's not looking quite so bad as it was last night."
"That's comforting," he murmured dryly. "I'm sure it really enhances my looks, too."
She laughed lightly. "The purple does highlight your brown eyes." Her hand dropped demurely to her lap.
He continued to look at her face, finding himself trapped there. But at times like this, he had no hope of fighting it. "You know, Celena," he began, "I saw something strange yesterday. When you woke up from your nightmares, and when you were fighting Ruhm."
Her eyebrows rose in question.
"I swear I could've seen a scar on your face… from here-" His hand reached out to touch beside her eye- "-to here." -and traced his fingertips down her smooth cheek to the tip of her chin.
Was the air crackling with energy? She seemed to be paralyzed in the moment, too.
"Really?" she finally managed.
He had forgotten to remove his hand. Swallowing, he quickly brought himself to reality. "Yeah." He shoved his hair back with his hand. "Talk about weird, huh?"
"Maybe not that weird," she said quietly.
For the life of him, his mind could think of nothing else intelligent to say at the moment. He looked upward, and saw a twinkling beam of light. "Hey, the first star," he said, obviously desperate to change topics. Why had he brought that up, anyway?
Her eyes followed his, and a wide smile lighted up her face.
"Make a wish."
She closed her eyes and seemed to be in deep thought. After a little while, she opened them back up and looked at Gaddes.
"What'd you wish for?" he asked with a grin.
She smiled coyly. "If I told you, it wouldn't come true."
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A week later, Gaddes strode through the halls purposefully, sighing to himself. He'd gone a week avoiding Celena, and it appeared he wasn't going to be able to go for any longer. Vividly, he remembered the conversation as if it had happened five minutes ago.
Well, it had.
But still, it was pretty vivid anyway.
"I want you to chaperone Celena today. She wanted to explore beyond the palace walls today."
Gaddes frowned. "Does she need a chaperone just to do that?"
"I don't want anything to happen to her."
"Trust me," the dark-haired man said wryly, "She doesn't need much protection."
Allen's steel blue gaze didn't budge.
"Besides, why me?" He crossed his arms. "You're the one who wants to get to know her better, aren't you?"
The knight looked away briefly. "She asked specifically for you," he stated blandly.
So there it was.
He had to spend a day with Celena. And he'd been doing so well by himself…
Of course, he wasn't about to admit that every day he'd slowly been dying inside.
Walking out into the gardens, he found Celena in the same place that he'd found her a week ago. She smiled brightly at him, but his tightly coiled guts restrained him from doing the same.
"You ready to go?"
The lack of warmth in his response caught her by surprise for a moment, but she nodded. Rising gracefully, she took his hand and pulled him past the garden gates. They walked for several minutes until they ended up in a large field.
"This is where you want to go?"
Smiling happily, she nodded, releasing him and running out through the tall golden yellow grass that waved slowly in the gentle breeze. Her midnight blue dress streamed out behind her like a banner as she twirled in a circle, a girlish twinkle of enjoyment in her eyes.
Gaddes watched her passively, feeling something inside him shift. Give her to Allen, and then forget about her, huh? Not likely. The fact that he was helpless to stop himself did nothing to help his disposition.
"Why did you ask Allen for me to escort you?"
She glanced back behind her for a moment. "Because I missed you," she said simply.
He frowned at the way something within him twitched from her statement. "Wouldn't you rather be with your brother?"
Surprised, she turned her whole body to look at him with vaguely hurt eyes at his harsh tone.
Silently, he cursed himself. Why was he taking his personal frustrations on her? It wasn't fair to her feelings, and it wasn't fair to the part of him she held within the palm of her hand. "Sorry," he said curtly, pushing back his hair with his hand and blowing out a breath. "I just…. Sorry."
Winking forgivingly, she motioned for him to join her.
He lifted an eyebrow dubiously. "I don't know, last time you did that I ended up in freezing water."
She rolled her eyes.
"I know we're not in water. But something just as bad might happen."
Like what? Her face said.
"Like…" He paused. "I don't know."
She motioned her head encouragingly. Then come on.
Sighing to himself, he grudgingly approached her. As soon as he reached his side, she grabbed his hand and dropped to the ground, nearly yanking him head over heels.
"What in Gaea are you doing?"
She lay back in the grass, indicated that he do the same.
The fact that this appeared like a very compromising position wasn't the only reason Gaddes hesitated. "What…"
Her blue eyes reflected the sky as she looked upwards intently.
He followed her gaze, finding a white puffy cloud slowly crawling across the sky. "Cloud watching? That's why you wanted to go this far?"
The smile on her face gave nothing away.
He finally settled himself in a sitting position beside her, looking up. "Looks sort of like a ship, doesn't it?"
She silently agreed.
Minutes passed that way in companionable silence, occasionally Gaddes speaking up to offer his opinions on what a cloud looked like. After a while, he looked down at her questioningly. "You done yet?"
She sat up, brushing the grass out of her hair.
Seeing one she missed, he reached over to pull the blade of grass from her silken strands, fingers tingling at the contact.
Her face looked like she was dying to ask him something, but uncertainly held back.
"You got a question?"
She bit her lip adorably. "You don't think I'm a child, right, Gaddes?"
"Nope. Definitely not a child."
Her eyebrows rose. "Then… teach me to kiss?"
He nearly choked on his next breath of air that never quite reached his lungs. "Wh-what?" That had to be the very last question he'd ever thought she'd ask.
She pouted. "Please?"
Gaddes blinked, his mind somehow going in every direction but forward. "Why?"
"I want to know how it feels. And there's no one else to ask."
His screaming lungs reminded him that he needed to breathe. She did have a point, which deflated his pounding heart somewhat. Who else would she ask if she was set on learning how it felt? And he knew from personal experience how stubborn she could get when she wanted something.
"I don't know if I should," he said, feeling glad that he'd managed a full sentence.
She smiled up at him becomingly, her hand hesitantly moving up to rest on his unshaven cheek.
"So long as you know you won't be able to get this back," he said quietly, not being able to help himself.
Her nod was shy, but sure. Bringing his head close to hers, he paused for a moment above her mouth as his hand snaked itself around her back, resting possessively there. Taking a hollow breath, he moved the last few centimeters to touch his lips with her soft ones, feeling his heavy eyelids drop with the contact. Not good, too far! his mind screamed, but his heart was screaming so much louder. Following his instincts, he broke the kiss for a heartbeat, only to return without giving Celena a chance to breathe, feeling the warmth of her response to the very marrow of his bones. The moment she experimentally kissed him back, he felt as if his insides would implode. Shakily moving back away from her, he swallowed hard, her sleepily-contented face like a swift kick to the gut. Her eyelashes fluttered open, revealing her darkened eyes. Releasing her from his grasp, he pulled himself together and away from her, feeling her hand slip away from where it had become entangled in his hair.
"I think that's all the teaching you need," he said in a husky voice, trying to give her his usual lopsided smile, but knowing that he wasn't even near succeeding.
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Allen saw them return; Celena flushed and smiling happily, Gaddes somewhat pale and withdrawn. He regarded them curiously. I wonder what they were doing out in the fields for so long. And what's wrong with Gaddes? I don't think I've ever seen him this way…
Within a few minutes, Celena entered her suite next to Allen's, and he knocked on the adjoining door.
"Yes?"
"May I come in?"
The door opened slightly, and her curious eyes peered around the corner.
"Did you have a good time with Gaddes?" Allen asked innocently.
With a shrug that meant either 'maybe' or 'I guess so,' she closed the door behind her brother.
He stood awkwardly in the middle of the room. "What did you do?" he said to dispel the silence.
She shrugged again, but this time he couldn't think of any possible meanings to that action. He watched her look out the window, and a soft smile stole across her face. He frowned, deciding to try a different conversational tack. "Will you be dining with King Van tonight?"
Adamantly, she shook her head.
"Why not?"
Finally, she looked up at him. "I don't want to," she stated quietly.
He lifted his eyebrows in surprise. "Why wouldn't you want to?" He dug through his mind in an effort to find her reasons, and abruptly one surfaced, albeit a highly improbable one. "Wait a minute… Is there something going on between you and Gaddes?"
"No." Her eyes flashed unexpectedly. "Would that be a problem?"
He looked at her, caught off his guard. Her denial was anything but, even a blind man could see that. Righteous indignation rose within him. "Did he do anything-"
"No." She looked away from him, walking to her dresser and picking up her comb. "He hasn't tried anything, don't worry."
Not only was her revelation startling, but the fact that she was finally speaking with him in length was enough to shut him up.
"Is that all you want to know?"
He stood still for a moment. "Uh… yes."
She kept her head down. "Then could I be alone?"
Allen bowed his head in concession, still reeling from his little sister's statements. "Yes."
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It was midnight, and Gaddes still couldn't sleep. He kept seeing the look in Celena's eyes as he abruptly bid her goodbye after returning her to the castle. It was an odd look, one he couldn't quite figure out but made him feel almost wary. As if she knew that this wasn't the end. But that was all nonsense. Celena was just an innocent who had wanted to experience her first kiss with someone she trusted, the only candidate at the moment being Gaddes.
He shook his head. He shouldn't have given in, but something about her just sucked him in the harder he pulled back.
Somehow he ended up in the gardens again, only to find himself not so alone anymore.
"Van?"
The young king looked up from his bow in surprise. "Gaddes?" He frowned faintly. "What are you doing wandering around at this hour?"
"I could ask you the same thing," the taller man said dryly, approaching with due respect.
"I can't sleep," he explained shortly, looking to Gaddes as if asking him for his reason.
"Same."
Van smiled darkly to himself, as he turned back to aiming at a target in a tree. "Women always have that effect," he muttered as he let the arrow fly.
Gaddes blinked in surprise. "What?"
The archer gave the other a sidelong glance. "You know what I'm talking about."
"I do?"
Van set his bow on the ground and propped his elbow on it casually. "Celena."
The name sent strange feelings coursing down Gaddes' spine. "Yeah?"
"I'm not the smartest guy around in these matters, but I've stared in the mirror enough to know what it looks like."
Gaddes didn't respond, and Van shook his head. "Stop wasting your time denying it." He sighed. "I know I did."
The older man looked at the young king curiously. "Are you just missing Hitomi, or what?"
Stubbornly, Van pulled another arrow and set the bow again. "I dreamt of her tonight," he said. "Talked with her for a little while." Seeing Gaddes' expression, he paused. "I'm not crazy. It's like a telepathic thing or something. I don't understand it. You'd have to ask her to explain it." He returned his attention to his target and let the arrow fly. "But she couldn't stay, and so I woke up, worse than before."
"I never even got to sleep," Gaddes said before he thought.
A humorless smile of understanding graced the king's solemn face. "I love her," he admitted quietly. He let go of another arrow.
Bullseye.
"And I know you love Celena. You've been miserable this whole week, while you've been avoiding her. She hasn't been too happy herself, either."
Gaddes' forehead lowered slightly. "How do you know?"
"I've eaten dinner with her several times. She's nice, but I can't quite get over the fact she was Dilandau. I doubt anything could resolve that. But her face said it all when she looked out the window, daydreaming. I couldn't miss it."
The idea that she had been thinking of him had his stomach squeezing. But he tried his best to ignore the feeling.
"Gaddes, don't take this the wrong way," Van said quietly, setting the bow down again. "I know you're older than me. But don't waste your time like I did. As ridiculous as it sounds, listen to your heart." A bittersweet smile curved his lips. "I mean, look what happened to me."
"But Hitomi loves you back, doesn't she?"
He raised his head, a wealth of emotions hidden in his dark eyes. "True… But I wonder… If I had told her the truth earlier, and given us time to grow… would she still have felt the need to leave?"
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I just have to say, I love having Van be the one to say that… siiiigh… Long, I know, but no way to break it up, and it's how I want it… so there.
Hope you liked it, and as I said, we'll see when the next chapter comes about…
'Til then, happy reading!
-wink