Note: Well, where I'm at, we've got 52 minutes until the end of Christmas! Which means I'm not late in updating this. HA! And so, as a Christmas present from me, here is the final installment of Anywhere But Nowhere.

Please don't kill me. -nervous grin-

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Anywhere But Nowhere

Part V

Cleao stepped out of her bath, feeling more relaxed than she had in two and a half months. The rain had finally slowed and died on their way to his house and Cleao had supposed there was a significance to that when Orphen had made the observation that they were the only ones in the tiny building.

Which was an indication that Orphen did not live alone. Especially when, before she disappeared in the bathroom, she noticed him picking up a note and heard him mutter, "Great. We're having dinner at the 'rents' instead."

What the hell else did you expect? a voice inside her snapped. He's been gone for eight months. Orphen may be Orphen, but he's not asexual.

Still, she couldn't help but be bothered by the fact he was living with someone else, someone that was becoming more and more obvious to be female. There was no way Orphen would have all these feminine accessories to his bathroom alone if he lived completely by himself. A few bottles of perfume and bathing salts lined the shelves; white towels that were neatly folded and organized; and if the makeup in the medicine cabinet did not blatantly announce a female's presence, she was going to have a long and serious talk with Orphen.

So he had a live-in girlfriend? Why should that bother her? It wasn't like Cleao had any claim on Orphen to begin with. The two of them barely considered each other as friends, the obvious care for each other revealed only when one of them was in danger. So, why shouldn't Orphen go out and get himself a girl?

Because going out and getting himself laid is one thing. Looking completely settled in and not going anywhere anytime soon is something else entirely.

The nagging feeling that there was something far more to Orphen and this girl's relationship than Cleao first thought increased as she walked out of the bathroom. Orphen had laid her clothes she had worn previously on the bed, now dry probably due to a spell as she didn't think she had been in the tub for that long. She quickly got dressed, brushed her hair, and departed the room.

The final piece of evidence slammed into her when Cleao passed the room next to the one she had bathed in. Peeking in, she nearly reeled when she saw the contents within; the type of bedding, the contents of wallpaper, the various toys and furniture…

It was a baby's room.

Orphen glanced up from the stove when he heard the heavy pounding of feet coming down the stairs. Whoops, looks like she had discovered Ian's bedroom. So much for breaking it to her gently. Good thing Jaclyn and the baby had gone to her parents' house; hell was about to erupt.

He should've expected that her presence foreshadowed that he was about to engage in one final battle with his hellion of a feisty princess.

Cleao stormed into the kitchen, lightening in her eyes and thunder in her aura. Orphen simply stared as she grabbed his left arm and violently wrenched the glove off his hand, almost tearing the fabric in the process.

It blinked up at her almost in defiance; a thin gold band wrapped around his ring finger announcing his status.

Cleao stumbled a few steps backward, dropping the glove to the floor. "You…you're married…" she breathed.

"Yes, I am," Orphen confirmed. He was bracing himself for the yelling that was sure to follow, but as for himself he wasn't going to shout back. Fighting had defined their relationship. They didn't have a relationship anymore. "In fact, it was my wife who found you on the side of the road. She came and got me as she couldn't bring herself to leave you there though it was obvious you wanted to stay and freeze to death. That's how Jaclyn is sometimes; butting into other people's business."

Much like you did, he added to himself fondly.

"When were you going to tell me this?" Cleao cried.

"When you had calmed down enough to take the news like a grown-up," Orphen snapped. "Because knowing you, if I were to tell you out there, you'd run off. And probably freeze or catch some weird disease. You can do that on your own time if you want, but not in my town. Stew?"

"I'm not hungry," she growled.

He gently pushed her onto a chair and placed the bowl before her on the table. "Eat it," he commanded. "You're looking really thin."

Despite the situation, Cleao was really hungry and she began to dig in while Orphen sat across from her with his own bowl. The two ate in silence as the simple meal came with it a flood of memories. A lot had happened between them concerning stew.

She presented the bowl to him, happy that he had suggested that he try some of her stew she had made. Earlier, he had just revealed his true reason why the Sword of Baltanders was so important to him, his relationship with Azalie and how the Bloody August was born, basically bared his heart and soul before her and Majic. He had even cried, something that she didn't think he could do openly and it had upset her as well. She didn't like seeing him in pain. In spite of how much she shouted and teased him.

While Majic had silently forced the stew down his throat for fear of Cleao's wrath, Orphen did not hide it when he nearly gagged upon the first taste. "My God, Cleao, what the hell?" he exclaimed.

"What?" she demanded.

"What the hell did you do to this stew?"

"I cooked it!" she yelled defensively. "Don't you like it?"

"Like it? It's DISGUSTING! And it's stew! How the hell can you screw up stew!"

She leaped to her feet, her bowl crashing to the ground. "What did you just say?" she screamed.

"You heard me! This tastes like shit!"

"You asshole! I take it back; I don't feel in the least bit sorry for you at all!"

Majic took this as an opportunity to pour the contents of his bowl in an obscure corner as the other two had completely ignored his existence in the midst of their latest shouting match.

Orphen found himself smiling at the memory. Her cooking might have always been a radioactive nature-defying abomination against God but it sure did start the worst of fights between them. Fights he had been recognizing over the years as nothing more than shameless (and loud) flirting.

Except that one. The one honest-to-goodness fight a year and a half ago that drove him to seek out an action that would hurt her in the worst way possible without doing any physical damage. After nearly binging himself in alcohol for the first time in his life (he had drank before but never to such an extent), he had found his solution.

Unfortunately, for himself and Cleao, he had been too intoxicated to think that his action would backfire. And utterly destroy any relationship between the two of them.

It was strange. He had completely forgotten what they had been fighting over back then. And yet, the current circumstances would always remind him of his foolish action.

Metal clanging against the table snapped Orphen back to the present in time to see Cleao quickly rise to her feet. "I can't do this," she choked and ran out of the kitchen, Leki at her heels.

"Cleao!" Orphen cried, jumping up and following her. She was always running off when it was critical that the two of them should talk. And he had been too stupid to chase after her and make the proper amends. Not this time. He already lived with enough regrets.

She was halfway down the road when he caught up to her and grabbed her arm, pulling her to a stop. "NO!" she screamed, struggling to get out of his grasp. "Let me go! Asshole! Let go!" She clawed and beat at him to no avail until her foot slipped on the pile of wet mud she had kicked up and she lost her balance. He grabbed her waist before she fell, pulling her close to him while his arms wrapped tightly around her. Her shoulders shook as she cried softly into his chest, desperately clinging to him.

"I'm sorry," Orphen whispered against her hair. "I'm so sorry, Cleao. I just keep hurting you, don't I?"

"Not always," Cleao replied, her voice muffled by his shirt and her stuffy nose.

"How did you find me, anyway?"

"At first, I went to Stephanie but she just said that you didn't want me to know what happened. And then, I went to visit Majic. And he said there was a letter…" She paused, looking up at him when she suddenly realized something. "That letter…"

"Was from Jaclyn, yes," he confirmed. "The town we stayed at after Licorice left was the same one she lived in and we had visited before. The innkeeper gave me a letter she had written to me that explained her pregnancy."

Cleao cringed inside. She remembered Orphen receiving a letter. She just never suspected in her wildest dreams it would be from another girl explaining how she was carrying Orphen's child.

"In fact, the day when you…you told me you loved me, she would have given birth by then."

Her eyes went wide. No wonder he reacted the way he did.

What Cleao didn't know was that Orphen had also felt the same way about her. His anger had been all for himself, but he had directed it at Cleao. The cruel things he had said had been in the intention that she'd hate him so much, she'd never want to see him again. Obviously, he had no idea what love was really like as, in spite of everything he had said, she went searching for him anyway.

"Why," Cleao sobbed, finally finding her voice. "Why didn't you just tell me?"

"Tell you what? That in a moment of anger and too much drink, I had impregnated a girl I had never seen before in my life? Who just gave birth to my son around the time you vocally revealed your feelings for me? How could I tell you something like that?"

She stared up at him. "You didn't know?"

"Before the letter? I had no clue. We had left town the next day."

Now that she thought about it clearly, Cleao remembered Orphen being in a state of obvious discomfort and heightened sensitivity especially towards bright lights and loud sounds when they had set out again. But she was still too angry at him and had simply dismissed it as a migraine as a result from their huge fight the night before. In reality, the supposed migraine Orphen suffered had actually been one hell of a hangover.

And the result of their one insignificant fight really turned out to be--as now revealed--a baby, a marriage to a complete stranger, and the utter destruction of what could have been.

She wasn't going to ask why he felt compelled to come back here and marry this woman. Cleao already knew the answer. Orphen had been exactly as his self-chosen name suggested: an orphan. He grew up without the luxury of real parents to raise him. Of course he wasn't going to allow his own son to suffer through that pain. Even if they didn't truly love each other, Orphen was going to see to it that his child grew up with his biological parents by his side.

Besides, the way Orphen spoke of his wife, Cleao had noticed that there was something in his eyes. He obviously cared for her. It was a start in the right direction.

"Love isn't dictated by fate as much as we like to believe," she recalled her father saying to her once. "Arranged and forced marriages are not doomed from the beginning just because you didn't think the seeds of love had blossomed beforehand. You can learn to love someone. You can choose the person you fall in love with. Love is not an instantaneous thing. Over time you realize that it was you who had planted those very seeds yourself."

"Just as you can pluck the blossom out of the ground to prevent it from growing further." She whispered the last words inaudibly to herself. Orphen blinked, peering down at her.

"What?" he asked, curious as to what she had to say.

They were looking at each other now, faces close. It wouldn't take much, if anything, to close the distance between their lips. Orphen found himself shamefully tempted to do so. In spite of his marital status and his need to forget, there were times when he found himself thinking of Cleao. His fingers trailed along her cheek, stroking the soft white skin.

The kiss that was supposed to be never came.

Orphen turned his face away to prevent any more regrets from happening. With his face turned, Cleao had a good glimpse of his profile, the same one that was so vivid in her memory.

And that's when she truly understood.

She stepped out of his arms, maintaining a respectful distance between the two of them. It was ironic. What seemed long ago, this particular pair made a point of keeping separate. Now they were forced to be apart. A gentle breeze stirred, drying her tears as they finally ceased to fall. She smiled at him, a smile of forgiveness.

"I guess this is goodbye, then," Orphen said softly.

Cleao nodded.

"And I have the feeling we won't be seeing each other again. Ever."

Still smiling, she replied, "Well…I wouldn't say that. It is a small world, you know. We'll probably bump into each other again one day."

"And pretend that we never met before."

"Yes."

"In that case.."

He approached her, reaching into his pocket for something. Cleao simply stood there as she felt a cloth being wrapped around her forehead and tied to the back of her hair. Orphen stepped back, admiring the red headband she now wore.

"…be sure to hide that if you run into me." He tilted his head and grinned. "It looks good on you."

Cleao snorted. "This sweaty old thing?"

"Well, I don't want you to forget me completely." Orphen's chest puffed out in a display of his usual oversized ego. "You wouldn't want to forget this gorgeous piece of work you traveled with."

"How could I forget Majic? I just saw him." As expected, Cleao's reply sent Orphen plummeting off his totem-ego-pole and she giggled. Then she fell silent and they both looked away. They were doing it again. Playful flirting disguised as hateful bickering. It was her cue to turn and leave.

Otherwise, she might change her mind. And to do so would invite a confrontation that would leave them all hurt. "Hey, Cleao," Orphen called before she could completely turn around. She glanced behind her, waiting for him to continue.

"Promise me you'll find a guy who's not afraid to tell you how he feels," Orphen went on, his words catching her by surprise. "I can tell it took you a lot of courage to say you loved me, and you don't deserve any less. And I will make my existence known if I find out you fell for a coward."

"I promise," she replied.

"And one more thing…"

She blinked.

"Promise me…you will never make that abhorred stew ever again!"

Staring at him, her eyes filled with fresh tears and she forced herself to hold them back as she grinned. "You jerk," she shot back. "No way I'm making such a stupid promise!"

Staring at him standing there, she realized how much more she wanted to tell him. And she could see in his eyes that he wanted to do the same. They could more than make amends right now. She could fling himself in his arms and he'd welcome her back fully.

It was because of that, Cleao turned and walked away without another word and without looking back, Leki walking steadily beside her. And Orphen just stood there with his hands in his pockets for a moment, watching her.

"You've finally grown up. And what a fine lady you've become. I'm proud of you. You'll make someone very happy one day. Someone who truly deserves you."

Then, hands still in his pockets, he went back to the house, not waiting for her to fade into the distance.

-The Final End-

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Hope you have a Merry Christmas, Joyous Holiday, and Happy New Year!