Disclaimer: none of this belongs to you – so don't even think about stealing what I have rightfully stolen! Or not…….because I don't own this Tamora Pierce does.

A/n: well this seems to be a good enough start with updating I think. Not even a week out of school and updating already! Hope you enjoy this!

This chapter is dedicated to Elan because he always knows when to make fun of Romans and wear straw hats.

Kel yawned as she stretched her newly awakened arms. The morning had dawned to be a disappointment with the gray clouds looming over New Hope and the surrounding areas.

She got dresses with a slow pace choosing her clothes with care, for the day's weather looked chilly. Another reason for her slowness was the dread of having to leave Dom behind, but she refused to list that among logical reasons for her gloom. A half hour later, Kel left her room wearing a heavy fleece-lined jacket and warm cotton pants, which was completed with comfortable leather boots.

As Kel set her bags, for the trip, down next to Peachblossom's stall she was alarmed to see that it was empty. A fear rushed up inside of her as she ran out into the courtyard to look for her newly lost horse.

Dom waited patiently for Kel as his new horse shifted impatiently. Dom had received the new horse as a present from his family, after helping in Scanra, and had yet to name it. He had saddled Peachblossom for Kel and led both horses out to the courtyard in hopes that Kel would find them there. He desperately wanted to make her happy and her figured that the best way to go about this would be to do small things for her, such as saddle her horse. If all went well on the trip and he was getting a sign that the feeling was mutual, Dom thought that Raoul's weeding was a perfect time to tell Kel how he felt.

Now Dom was getting worried. Kel should have been out here by now; it was so unlike Kel to be late. Dom made to decision to go and look for her. He tied the horses to a nearby post and set off toward Kel's room.

Kel entered the courtyard to find Peachblossom and another horse that looked familiar tied to a post. Bags were laid at the horse's feet.

"Well that's odd," thought Kel "My escort must have saddled my horse for me. Maybe he had to use the bathroom and that's why the horses are tied up. I guess I should just wait for him here."

Finding no one in Kel's room after several minutes of knocking, he decided to return to the courtyard and wait for her. As he entered the courtyard, he noticed her sitting with her back next to a tree facing the opposite direction. Taking this as a prime opportunity to scare the famous Lady Knight, he crept up almost silently behind her. But to his misfortune Peachblossom saw his intent and bit his arm hard; causing the unfortunate Domitan to let out a loud Meathead – like squeal. Kel whipped her head around and a look of happiness spread across her face at seeing Dom. She took in the whole scene and started to laugh, unfortunately she was too busy laughing to be able to help the Dom.

As Kel laughed Dom scowled and tried to yank his bruised arm out of Peachblossom's mouth. After finally realizing the severity of the situation, Kel leaped into action commanding Peachblossom to drop his arm; Peachblossom complied however, he did take a piece of Dom's shirt as a souvenir.

"Oh Dom, I am so sorry," Kel replied a little breathlessly. "Hear, let me take a look." She said as she gently pulled his arm towards her. Dom let her examine his arm, just savoring her touch, even though his arm wasn't in that bad of condition.

"This doesn't look too bad – but I really am so sorry about it. I should have been watching fo-" Kel tried to say, but Dom cut her off by placing a finger over her lips.

"Shush Kel," Dom soothed, trying to calm her down. He hated seeing Kel distressed. If he knew that his would- be prank would make her this upset; then he never would have done it. "I really don't mind getting hurt for you." he said, putting extra emphasis on the 'you.' Without even meaning to, Dom started to lean forward, towards Kel.

"Really?" Kel asked unbelievingly. She was finding it increasingly harder and harder to breathe as she and Dom got closer and closer.

"Kel!" a voice shrieked. "You didn't say goodbye!" As the voice of a soon to be dead Meathead (in Dom's opinion) rang through the courtyard, both Dom and Kel sprang apart from each other with a speed to rival a migrating swallow carrying a coconut.

Kel swallowed, "Y..y…yes Neal?"

"You forgot to say goodbye to me……but I didn't know that I would be interrupting something……" Neal reflected on the scene before him thoughtfully. When he saw Kel's embarrassed face he spoke up, "Dom, maybe we should just let Kel get on her way. There is no need to distract her anymore."

"But….But….I am going with her!" Dom exclaimed.

"You are?" Both Kel and Neal said. Previously, she had thought that Dom had the same idea as Neal, and decided to see her off. But, now that she knew that Dom was to be her travel companion she could have kissed Raoul for sending him.

"Ahuh," Dom said. A brief silence fell over the group as each person went over the day's events in their head, trying to figure out if that detail was obvious before.

Kel was the first one to speak, "Well, I guess we have wasted enough time already. We should be off Dom. Bye Neal." Kel muttered staring at the ground and with that she mounted up still embarrassed. Dom looked up at Kel worriedly, then quickly followed Kel's lead and headed towards New Hope's gates.

Neal stood in the courtyard in a sort of daze. He had entered on what looked like a very intimate moment for two of his closest friends and disrupted them. Now Kel and Dom were on the road together without his supervision. He hoped nothing would happen…..because that would just be icky. But he did want them to be happy – maybe they were right for each other like Yuki had always said.

A/n: Yes well that's all folks! Okay, so I slipped a small Monty Python joke in I couldn't help myself. I hope you enjoyed it. I would like to thank all of my readers including my beta!