Disclaimer-I don't own Witch Hunter Robin
Chapter 3-Falling
The General paced in his tent in front of his strategy table. He looked over at the 2 soldiers standing at absolute attention in front of him. He said in a stoic voice "Lieutenants Karasuma and Sakaki report. I posted you 2 weeks ago to observe the comings and goings of the city. I asked you to watch for certain patterns in the soldiers. What can you report." It was a statement not a question. "Sir, we have observed only two comings and goings in the city. It seems that every Thursday the barbaric queen orders her soldiers at the front changed because in the morning a new regiment goes out and about an hour before dusk the used regiment comes back. That is all." Lieutenant Miho Karasuma reported. "Is this true Lieutenant Sakaki?" The young man, not even 20 nodded. "Yes it is General." He turned and with a wave if his hand dismissed the two young soldiers. Every Thursday eh?
Approximately 6 months from that conversation.
Robin walked through the bush, to the glade where, for the past few months she had met the soldier of the opposite army, Amon. In the beginning she had usually discussed general things with him…general things like "How old are you?" Where she had discovered that he was 24, older than he looked. She discovered that he was single…but had discarded that thought in a second. She also asked him what ranking he was but he had avoided her question. The discussions she had with him got more and more in depth until she had told him all about her childhood-either little anecdotes or things about her family. The last question she had asked him last week had completely cut her off from him for that week at least. She had asked him about his mother. He had given her a look and said, "I don't talk about my mother. Ever. Understand?" By the last word he was snarling at her. She had walked backwards 2 steps and then turned and ran. After reflecting on this she emerged into the clearing-buttercups and poppies still in full bloom- and glimpsed a young black haired man in a naturals army suit, sitting down, contemplating something in the grasses.
Amon was sitting in the middle of the grasses waiting for Robin to arrive. He was regretting being so cold to her the previous week. But he saw no choice. It had only been about 6 months or so since he started meeting with her… if you count the week when he had almost shot her-and already he was beginning to feel something for her-beginning to fall…in love… with her, something he had been avoiding admitting to himself. And he decided to try to thaw for her. He knew he was cold, had been since…his eyes narrowed…his mom died. Even if she was a witch and he a natural…the dress she always wore made her look like she was a witch peasant, not high up. It might work. He could persuade his superiors that she was normal…then he laughed bitterly. Someone as young and as innocent as her would never fall for someone as worn and as hardened as him. But he would try to thaw for her. And he would start by telling her about his mother.
She was going to let him just sit there for about 5 minutes before announcing her presence. He appeared to be mulling something over, and she didn't want to interrupt his thought processes. But just after she got to the glade he turned around as though he had sensed her. It had been many times she had seen him and just seeing him made her lose her heart again and again. But she was a witch. And he was a natural. It had no hope of working. But still…you can't control who you fall in love with. She walked over to him and sat down. "How's your week going?" she asked softly. "It's been fine. No major battles. Your queen hasn't made many aggressive moves so the front has remained rather stationary." "Your General hasn't made many aggressive moves either." The young fire witch pointed out. Amon shrugged his shoulders. "Robin… I…I'm sorry for the way I acted last week…when you asked me about my mother." "No I'm sorry. It was personal business I should not have asked." She said softly.
"No see that's the thing. I've kept it bottled up so long… almost forgetting about it at times. And I know that that's the worst thing you can do. Keep it bottled up. You see…" his stoic voice trailed of, he wouldn't betray a trace of emotion, quite yet that is. "My mother…and don't get me wrong. She was wonderful. She… she loved me…of that I have no doubt. But…" his stoic voice wavered for the first time. It hardened in anger. "She was a witch. And my father was a witch sympathizer. My mother and father were the one thing I now hate." Robin's hands flew to her mouth in horror. Amon looked up anger gone, replaced with sorrow. "You, living in a witch city as a witch…you've heard of the madness right?" "Yes…" she said slowly.
"Most witches are mentally stable but there are the select few…that loose control and go insane. They can't take the fact that they aren't treated equal. My mother had the madness. She suppressed it for…so many years…before I was born." The once stoic soldier began to lose control of his emotions. A tear trickled down his cheek as he struggled in telling her this. "She lost it finally one night…right in front of me. She couldn't take it…and she killed herself. In front of me… I was 5 years old. I barely remember it. It was the same night as the predecessor of the current queen launched a raid. I had raced out of the house and had hidden in a glade." He looked around, got up and walked over to a tree. He outlined the A carved in the trunk. "This glade. A natural patrol picked me up and, since the raid had been that night they assumed my family had been killed. They didn't know I was a witch… But I knew the truth…I never found out what happened to my father. He was at work when my mother died." He turned to look at Robin and was surprised to see that she was standing right behind him.
"Amon…I'm so sorry that had to happen to you." She said in her soft voice. She wrapped her arms around the soldier to calm him and to help him reign in his emotions. If anything this caused him to lose control of them even more. How could something so innocent be willing to help him? Without realizing it he fell even more in love with the young blonde haired angel holding him to comfort him.
Robin's emotions surged out of control. He had to go through that at 5 years? She wrapped her arms around his strong shoulders as his tears began to flow. This rush of pity added to how she felt about him. In so short of a time she had fallen in love with him. When she felt the shaking in his body stop. She unwrapped her arms and looked him in the eye and said "Are you ok?"
Amon looked in her eyes and realized that he couldn't do anything else. He loved her. Before he told her that he was a Seed, that one parent had been a witch he didn't think that it could be possible she would love him but now what could happen? He watched her get up and look at the sun. "If I'm tomeet the soldiers coming back in I have to leave now." She turned to go but just as she was disappearing down the path he made his choice "Robin wait!" he called desperately.
She was just about out of the glade and out of his hearing range when he called out to her. She raised her hand and fiddled with something hidden beneath the folds of her dress at her throat. She turned around and said "Yes Amon?" He walked over to her not taking his eyes off of hers. Again she felt the spark pass between them that she had felt that very first day they met. He didn't stop looking in her eyes. He reached out his hand and, wrapping it around the back of her head, pulled her close and rested his lips on hers. Her eyes widened and then closed as she felt heat rush though her body…sort of like when you get in a warm bathtub..
She was kissing him back. He let that one thought pass though his head as he deepened the kiss and then pulled back. "Robin. I know our circumstances are less that ideal. And I know that…I shouldn't be saying this because…it'll just make things even more complicated. But… I think I loved you from that first day." He looked into her stunned eyes as she looked back at him, searching his own.
He loved her? She lowered her eyes and contemplated what to say. To say that she didn't love him back wouldn't work because she did. She loved him so much. She looked back up at him. She realized that he had thawed for her and that there really was only one thing to say. "I love you too." She said softly. He kissed her again, this time slow and gently. He watched her turn and race off back to the city, waiting for her to vanish before he turned back to his encampment.
The General was pacing back and forth in his tent, no strategy table in front of him, only in his head. He was focusing on how to ask. Lieutenant Sakaki raced into the tent carrying a bag in his hand. He stood at attention and said "They had it made as fast as they could sir." The General took the bag from his Lieutenant's hand and looked at the contents. "Also sir. I've discovered through spies at the natural palace that the queen is intent on naming an heir." "Thank you lieutenant. You may go."
A/N-Thanks to Sparky16 who reviewed the first couple chapters.