Finale

Kida woke up the next morning a bit disoriented. It was strange but she felt happy. Shifting in bed she hit something. Kida looked next to her. Tristan lay there, asleep. Somewhat confused, she tried to remember what happened. She remembered being in the stables with him and having him demand to talk with her. She remembered arguing and then kissing. She smiled. She had to admit that Tristan was a good kisser. She tried to be the voice of reason but Tristan would not hear any of it and kept kissing her. The next part came back a little fuzzy but she understood what happened. She blushed at the memories and pulled the blankets up closer around her.

They were in her room; it was closest and had fewer chances of unwanted visitors disturbing them. As she lay in bed she began to come back to herself. What had she done? She knew she made a big mistake. She knew that she should never had let Tristan even touch her. She was mad. It was all planned out, all of it. Looking at Tristan, she made up her mind that this incident wasn't going to change anything. She had a plan she had to follow through with it.

She climbed out of bed and began to dress. Tristan woke as she pulled on her shirt. "Kida," he whispered.

Kida glared at him. "How dare you?"

"What?" he asked innocently.

"I am appalled."

"At what?"

"You."

Tristan stretched. "You enjoy last night?" he asked cockily.

"No," her face burned.

"No?" Tristan asked with his eyebrows raised.

"It was a mistake."

"A mistake?" he asked, unbelieving.

Kida stood before him in only her shirt, her face red and her hair a mess. "You knew my wishes."

"Shut up," he ordered.

Kida blinked. "What?"

"Shut up." He grabbed her wrist.

"Let go."

"No, you have to understand."

Kida pulled away from him. "Understand what?"

"You can't keep shutting people out."

"I don't…"

"Don't interrupt me. When ever someone gets to close you push them away. Me, Liam, Dagonet. You think you can go through life alone but you can't. Humans are social animals, they thrive on human contact."

"Although I don't think it necessarily has to be actual physical contact," Kida pointed out, her cheeks blazing.

"I didn't plan for things to happen the way they did. It just happened. You must admit that you enjoyed it," Tristan smiled.

"Enjoyed it? What makes you think I enjoyed it?"

"You must like the way I kiss or I would be sitting in my room nursing a few parts of my anatomy."

Kida blushed again. He had her there. "If I admit that I found it somewhat enjoyable will you leave me alone?"

Tristan smiled. "No."

"Aghhh!" She cried mad and frustrated. Kida glared at him. "I've had enough of you. Just go. Get out!"

Tristan laughed again which caused her to get even angrier. She pulled out of his gasp and then turned on him. "Out!" She grabbed his arm and shoved him off her bed. She picked up his clothes and threw them at him. Tristan just kept laughing. Kida came at him with her fist and he caught it.

"Calm down," he whispered soothingly.

If looks could kill, Tristan would be dead. "Let go," Kida ordered through clenched teeth.

"Make me," Tristan dared. He stood up and faced her.

Kida blinked and looked away. "You're…"

"Naked?"

"Yes." Feeling somewhat embarrassed she turned around. "Put some clothes on."

"Why? You didn't mind last night." Tristan approached her.

"Leave!" Kida elbowed him.

"Ooof. Aren't we nice," Tristan laid his hands on her shoulders.

"I mean it. Leave." Her voice quaked and she was mad at it.

"Truly?" he whispered as he turned her to face him.

"Yes."

Tristan looked at her and smiled. He had her where he wanted her. "No."

"Yes. Now."

"Not until you understand."

"Understand what?" Kida tried to back away but knocked into the bed.

"This." He leaned in and kissed her.

"Tristan."

"Shh."

Arthur and Guinevere entered the hall together, both of them wearing smiles on their faces. The knights greeted them as they settled down and awaited the bishop. All of the knights were there, except for Tristan and Kida but Arthur was too distracted to notice. Today they would finally receive their papers and be free men. For once, in a long while Arthur felt extremely happy. There were no worries weighing down on his mind for once. All he could think about was the present and he was content with that.

As they waited, servents came in and gave them food and drink. Guinevere sat with Arthur and they talked about what they would do next. Arthur wanted to take Guinevere back to Rome with him, but she would have none of that. Too happy to argue he put the topic aside to discuss later. Gawain and Galahad joked around with each other while Bors sat with Vanora, trying to convince her to come with him to his homeland. He knew she would but he thought he would make her feel special by asking and insisting upon it. Dag sat with the boy, Lucan who had finally found words and was talking to Dag about all the things he wanted to do with him. Like listen to the horses and see if the great warriors of the past actually spoke in their horse form. Dag smiled at the boy and promised that they would do that and more. Liam sat off with Lancelot talking about nothing in particular. Lancelot stole glances at Guinevere and knew then and there that she would ruin everything. He glared at her. She caught his glare and retaliated with a smile. She didn't care what the knight thought.

At last the Bishop arrived with Alecto and his mother. With great ceremony, the Bishop gave them their papers and blessed them. Alecto beamed at them as he was the one given the honor of presenting the great knights with the papers. The knights nodded and thanked Alecto. Once they all received their papers, Arthur noticed that Tristan was missing. He took Tristan's paper, and once the Bishop left went to find him, followed closely by Guinevere, Lancelot, and Liam. Vanora watched them go, smiling. If things went the way she thought they would, they would have some trouble finding Tristan, for a while at least.

Kida laid in a daze. Her first impulse was to get up but Tristan held her down. She tried her best to organize her thoughts and to push Tristan away, but when she started to push he tightened his grip and she gave up. "No you don't," he muttered into her hair.

"Tristan, get off," she began to try to slide out from under him, know that her senses were coming back she was not all too comfortable lying under his body.

"No, I'm not letting you get away."

"Tristan, I'm not going to runaway, I just want to get dressed."

"Why?" he asked as if hinting for a recap of what had happened.

She ignored him and pushed him off. She got up and began to put on her clothes. He lay in the bed, watching her. "You should get up too. Aren't you missing some sort of assembly?"

At the mention of an assembly, Tristan remember that he was to get his papers that morning and reluctantly got up as if afraid that everything was a dream.

When he finally got up, Kida was already dressed and heading for the door. "Wait."

"What?" He came towards her and tied the top tie of her shirt and leaned in for another kiss.

She dodged it, "We are going to have to set some ground rules."

"Rules?"

"Yes. You just can't go around kissing me whenever you want. And there defiantly cannot be any reprises of last night."

"Why not?" Tristan asked as he pulled on his trousers.

"I am not comfortable with it and I don't think it helps my masquerade any either."

Tristan blinked.

"If you think last night changes anything, it doesn't. I still have three years to finish, and I will finish them. After that who knows."

"But…I thought…"

"That I would go with you, leave all of this behind us? Romantic but not realistic. I can't just disappear they will hunt me. If they find out I'm a woman I'm dead. All there is to do is finish the three years."

"Then will you come to me?" Tristan asked.

"Three years is a long time. A lot can happen. We'll have to see when it's over." With that Kida left the room.

Tristan sat back down confused. A part of him thought that if he got Kida to let go of herself and let her feelings out that everything else would just disappear. Obviously he had been dreaming. He also thought that Kida would change; he didn't know why he thought that, he just did. But once again he was wrong. The only thing different about Kida was the fact the she didn't yell at him whenever he got within a ten feet radius of her. She did get mad at him when he kissed her and let his hands get a little to liberal.

He sighed. When she wasn't yelling at him she was a good lover. He thought of last night as he dressed. How he wished he could live it again.

Arthur found Tristan coming into the main courtyard. He looked tired and happy. "Tristan."

"Arthur."

"You missed the ceremony."

"I had some unfinished business to attend to."

Arthur didn't want to know what. "Here's your paper. We're free men now."

"Thank you." Tristan took the paper.

"Lorna's looking for you."

Tristan's face fell. "Lorna, right."

Arthur watched as Tristan left and shook his head. Something was going on, something that would not have a happy ending.

Note: Thanks for the reviews. At long last it has happened. Bet some of you probably wanted to kill me for prolonging it. Well here you go. Sorry it's not all full blown romancy-sweeping off feet and live happily ever after. I am not normally a romance writer and I can't for the better part of me completely let it go off and be they finally get together and Kida is all heads over heels in love and everything will be alright and they will be together. Sorry for not giving you that. Let me know what you think and what you think should happen to our charming couple. Thanks again.