Chapter Twelve

'What,' she looked at a very upset Riku.

'Yanni tells you to jump and you just do it?'

'What are you talking about?'

'I heard that he wants you to take off your headgear for the recording,' he snapped. Since he heard the news from her younger brother, he had gone off to confront her and tell her that it was a ludicrous idea.

'The fabric gets in the way.'

'Aren't you worried,' he was in disbelief by her calm and neutral tone.

Ursa frowned, 'I am, Yanni and Ender can endure to look at what's underneath the veil, they are professionals.'

'What if they can't handle it?'

'Well, they don't seem like begets,' she turned to look out the window at the passing scenery and for a moment she felt sorry she hadn't revealed the truth to him. Yet at the same time she wanted to keep her secret a little bit longer.

'I want to be there when you take off your veil.'

'No,' he halted the car, they were on their way home from the office.

'What do you mean no,' he turned to look at her.

'Hey, your luck no one drives on this road,' she said as she turned to glare at him.

'Because you've made sure to isolate yourself,' he told her as they stopped on the five-mile strip home.

'It hasn't done me much good,' she stated, 'because you still seem to drive down it.'

'You should be happy I care enough to stay,' he didn't want to admit but that hurt a little.

'You're right,' she saw the smug look of pleasure on his face at her statement, 'for a laugh when I need one.'

His face fell, 'I am just trying to protect you.'

'I don't need protection, I can take care of myself,' she told him.

'Right,' he rolled his eyes.

'Can we get going,' she asked.

'If I can come with you tomorrow to the recording,' he counter.

'Of course, you can come to the office with me. Namine will be happy to see you,' she told him.

'That's not what I mean.'

'That is all I have to offer,' she shrugged her shoulders.

'If something goes wrong,' he worried.

'I will handle it.'

'Why can't you accept help when it's offered,' he asked frustrated.

'What if someone else has already offered and you're not needed?'

'That—' at the thought of someone else being there for her annoyed him, 'is unacceptable.' Ursa turned away from him and began to open the passenger door to get out. 'Wait.'

'What?'

'Don't get out, I'll drop wanting to be there. Just know that I'll be there if you need me,' he said watching her and seeing what her next move would be.

Slowly she settled back down and rode back home in silence and before they got out, she said, 'Thank you, for being such a decent person and caring.'

Riku watched her get out and walk inside without looking back at him and as soon as he was about to get out and go after her his cellphone rang, 'Namine.'

'Riku, hi, can you come over. We need to take.'

'What about,' he didn't think he'd done anything wrong so the sudden out of the blue talk took him by surprise.

'Can you meet me at my apartment?'

'Yeah,' he hung up the phone, put his seatbelt back on, turned the car on and turned back around.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

'Wow,' Ender said as he looked at her.

Yanni was left speechless by her beauty, 'Why?'

'Before this wasn't my appearance,' she held on tight to her burqas, 'and it's still hard to believe in what I see in the mirror now.'

'I don't see how.'

She smiled softly, 'If I looked like the old me, I would have never let you see under the veil and not everyone knows my secret so I ask that you two will keep quiet.'

They both agreed with no more questions asked and at the end of the recording they left with a job well done. Ursa put her burqas back on and was surprised to find Riku waiting outside the recording room. Since arriving back home the other night, he had been more silent and clingier than usual. She figured he was still mad at her, but after riding with him that morning she figured it wasn't her. Plus, he seemed more down and dejected than normal, 'Hi, Sunshine.'

'Are you ready,' he asked as he snapped out of his stupor.

'Are—'

'Ursa,' she froze and turned to find Xemnas, whom she hadn't seen in a while and she had been doing a good job of avoiding him.

'Xemnas,' she forced herself to sound cheerful, but her body went tense at his proximity. 'I haven't seen you in ages.'

'I had to go on a business trip after the stockholder's party. Did you get the flowers I sent you?'

Ursa remembered the birds of paradise and the get-well balloons, 'Yes, they were beautiful.' In all honesty, she had thrown them away when she saw they were from him.

'I am glad that you liked them,' he beamed. 'Are you done? Would you like to go and get something to eat? That way we can catch up.'

With you, not really, she thought to herself but before she could protest or make an excuse. 'She can't, she needs to get to the office,' Riku suddenly swooped in for the rescue.

'Well, I can take her to the office,' Xemnas said as she offered her an arm to take.

Riku took the hand that she was using to reach out for his arm, 'That's alright, maybe next time.'

Ursa didn't protest when Riku dragged her away down the hall, 'I'll come by tonight,' Xemnas called out after them.

'No one will be home,' Riku called back.

Xemnas watched them leave and wondered if during his absence they've gotten together. No, he shook his head, that was impossible because Riku had Namine. He slowly followed after them, while thinking that Riku would become an obstacle for Rose's plan.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

'This is not the way to the office,' Ursa pointed out as they walked past the elevators that headed up to the office.

'Maybe I need some fresh air,' he told her as they walked out in to the parking garage. Ursa pulled back and came to a stop. 'Please come with me,' he held her hand firmly in his.

She sighed and followed him to the car, he opened the door for her, and she got inside. Once inside the car he pulled out and took them far away from the company and out of the city limits to the outskirts. Ursa watched the scenery pass by, and they finally came to a stop at a large park. She got out and was about to ask him why they were there, but he took off only stopping a short distance away to wait for her to follow. 'You never ask what's wrong or assume to know.'

He began after a short period of walking down the path, Ursa just listened to see where he was going with this conversation. 'Is it because you're so much into yourself that you don't care about others?'

'I am under the assumption that when people want to talk, they will,' she told him as she followed alongside him.

'With you so flighty, how is a person supposed to assume that you will listen?'

She exhaled, 'What's wrong?'

'Now that you are being forced to ask, I don't want to tell you.'

Her mouth slightly fell open, 'You're impossible,' she stopped and was about to turn back when he grabbed her hand.

'Come on,' he lightly tugged on her hand for her to follow him.

Ursa turned back to look at him and then at their joined hands, her stomach began to flip flop as his large hand engulfed her smaller hand. It wasn't the first time it had done it, meaning it wasn't the first time he had held her hand without doing it to save her. She wondered if it had to do with the weather or the changing leaves which made him act so out of character with her. 'You know, when I first arrived here, I was a wreck.'

'With your drunken nights and midmorning wake up calls,' she asked sarcastically. 'I never noticed that you were a wreck, but you did smell.'

Riku turned to look down at her annoyed, 'I am trying to be serious here.'

'Sorry,' she mumbled, 'continue.'

'Before arriving I was the happiest man on Earth. I had just graduated, gotten a job offer that most people dreamed of right after school, and I was engaged to the most beautiful woman in the world.'

Ursa frowned, she already knew were this was going, 'Every time she graced me with her smile, I felt like I was falling in love with her over and over again,' he led her to a bench in front of the children's playground. 'I was the luckiest man until the accident.'

She tried to control her emotions, she hated tragic love stories that ended the way his did. 'She was on her way to my apartment ready to meet my mother for the first time. She told me a week before how excited she was. Nevertheless, fate was cruel, and a drowsy truck driver ran into her, smashing into the driver's side. She never knew what hit her. When I heard the news, my world crumbled. I didn't know what to do.'

Her vision was beginning to get blurry. She could barely make out the kids playing on the playground. 'I think the worst part was finding out that she was pregnant.'

Her breathe caught. Amistad hadn't told her about the unborn child. She just told her about the accident and his downward spiral into drinking his pain away. 'I took to drinking and the occasional fist fights. I figured that drowning my sorrows would help coop with the pain. It didn't, it just made things worse. My mother refused to leave me alone and brought me here. She thought that the fresh air and a new environment would be good for me. At first it didn't, maybe with the exceptions that I couldn't go out to the bars and get into fist fights. Oh, it also didn't help that the owner of the house refused to meet me at least once.'

'I had my reasons,' she tried to keep her voice calm.

'Of course,' he nodded, 'dressed in black from head to toe and light footed, I wouldn't want to meet you if I were drunk.'

'You did,' she remembered stumbling upon him one night. 'You thought I was the angel of death there to take you away.'

'I don't remember,' he made a face of concentration.

'When I told you I wasn't, you began to cry and demanded why not.'

'I—'

'Your mother came to rescue me when you started to yell at me,' she told him.

'I am—'

'No need to apologize,' she cut him off before he finished. 'Just continue.'

'When I first saw you, I thought you were a black widow and that just like me you had lost someone. It wasn't until later that I understand why you chose to drape yourself in fabric. When my mother told me, I never imagined that you would ever talk to me.'

'I needed your help.'

'Which in turn helped me,' he smiled at her weakly. 'It helped me begin a new, I got a job, and I was even able to meet someone.'

'Right,' she agreed, but wondered where all this was going.

'Namine was the beautiful sunshine that filled my days with joy. Her laughter and love with those around her made me feel content.'

'Was,' she asked.

'Yup,' he nodded, 'she ended our relationship last night.'

Her eyes widened, 'Wait, I thought you two were happy?'

'We were,' he sighed. 'Aren't you going to ask me what happened?'

'I am under the impression that you will tell me either way,' she stated. 'But to please you, tell me what happened.'

'She told me it wasn't because she didn't have feelings for me, it was because they weren't as strong as she thought.'

'You're not making any sense, unless a previous love reappeared in her life.'

'Why can't you wait for me to tell you,' he grumbled.

'Ah, you got dumped for an old flame who's embers still held enough spark.'

'You really make it impossible to talk too, you know?'

'That's why you've been grumpy,' she stated rather than asked.

'That's—'

'No wonder you were telling me about your past. You were trying to place yourself in her shoes,' she cut him off. 'It's no wonder you can't get angry or drown yourself in alcohol once again, because you would do the same.'

Riku hated that she was a writer and would assume the right conclusion. 'I bet you're horrible at the movies.'

Ursa looked over at his pouty, sullen face, 'I don't know, I've never been.'

He remembered about her isolation, 'How about we go to one?'

'What? A movie,' she asked.

'Yeah, we'll see if you're annoying there too,' he grabbed her hand once again and got up pulling her up with him.

She wanted to protest, but a part of her refused and wanted to go. She wanted to see what being in a theater was like and she wanted to help distract Riku from his heartbreak. After just getting dumped, he probably needed to get out and forget his troubles. 'Just so you know, you're paying.'

'Sure,' he muttered and smiled when he felt a warm breeze on an autumn day.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

'Do you think you made the wrong decision?'

Namine turned to look at Roxas with a small smile on her face, 'No, I want to make it work with you.'

'But you still have feelings for him.'

'He compared me to the sun,' she walked over to him. 'Nonetheless, he has always gravitated towards the moon.'

'So, you think he's in love with the moon,' he opened his arms to her so that he could hold her.

'I don't think that he knows it yet,' she beamed up at him sadly.

'Are you jealous?'

'No,' she shook her head, 'sad, it's just that the moon is further out of reach than the sun.'

'How is that?'

'She has a fortress that protects her heart and doesn't let anyone in.'

'I want to meet this moon,' Roxas teased.

'When you return to work, I am sure you'll run into her,' she told him. 'You can't miss her, even if you tried.'

'Really?'

'Yeah,' she nodded.

'I'll keep my eyes open for the moon, but the sun will always outshine her in my eyes,' he smiled and bent down to kiss her.

She beamed up at him, 'I am glad you're back.'

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Xemnas was walking by the photography studio with Ursa when she stopped. 'What is it?'

'Who's that,' she gazed at the male model.

'Oh, his name is Roxas Fuente. He was away for a year overseas.'

'I see,' if there was any time to glorify the male body it was now.

Xemnas noted her interest and for some odd reason was annoyed. 'We should get going,' he reached out to grab her, but she slipped away.

'I want to introduce myself and watch,' she told him.

'That's,' she was already gone. Annoyed with her interest in Roxas, he followed after her.

It was as if he hypnotized her, and all her focus was on him. When Namine walked in and kissed him, she had her sleeping beauty characters. They would be perfect to use as the protagonists. Ursa was about to get up when a hand stopped her. She got that sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach and she didn't even have to look over to see who it was, 'Riku.'

'I came to see what was taking your tour so long. My surprise when I found you here drooling over another guy and an aggravated Xemnas. It seems that getting ignored isn't his favorite pass time.'

'Huh,' she looked around for Xemnas, 'where did he go?'

'Gone, seems that watching another guy model half naked isn't his thing.'

'But it's yours,' she threw back.

'Not really,' he got up when Namine and Roxas walked over to them.

'Hello,' Namine beamed brightly.

'Hi,' they exchanged greetings and then things turned awkward.

'Ignore him,' Ursa drew attention to herself, 'I am Ursa Veale.'

'The moon,' Roxas winced as soon as he said that Namine had poked him in the side. 'I mean it's so nice to meet you. I am Roxas Fuente.'

'Likewise,' she reached out to take his hand.

Riku took her hand in his, 'Look at the time, we have to get going.'

Ursa glared at him, 'He's right.'

'Really,' she looked out at the only lonely window and noticed that it was getting dark. 'Oh, I really wanted to sit down and get to know you.'

Riku squeezed her hand, 'You shouldn't be putting on the moves on someone else's boyfriend.'

'I,' she thought about what she just said. 'You're right, but I do want to seat down with you and get to know you better.'

'Are you worried about your cousin, that's so cute.'

'Um, no,' she shook her head.

'You're horrible at conversations,' Riku stated annoyed.

'Like you're any better,' she shot.

As they bickered, Roxas turned to Namine, 'Are they always like this?'

'They enjoy provoking each other.'

'They act like siblings.'

'He's jealous of you, not brotherly protective,' she whispered.

'As a writer, I have the right to use them as my muses,' Ursa shot.

'Pick someone else,' Riku ordered her.

'No,' she refused.

'Wait, you want to use us for one of your books,' Namine was interested.

'Yes,' she answered while still glaring at Riku.

'You didn't tell me your cousin was a writer.'

'I forgot, just like I forgot to ask her about her previous book series,' Namine remembered. 'You really want to use us?'

Ursa turned away from her nausea inducing bodyguard, 'Yes, so if it's alright can I spend time with you?'

'Quit putting on the moves,' Riku grumbled.

'I meant with both of them.'

'I'll go too,' he stated.

'Great, we can have a double date,' Roxas stated and winked at Namine.

'Not a date,' Ursa and Riku answered at the same time.

Startled, Roxas repeated to reassure them, 'Not a date.'

'Wait, what is the name of one if your books,' Emily asked as Riku began to drag Ursa away.

'You wouldn't be interested,' Riku didn't like all the attention Ursa was giving Roxas and to top it all off his absurd ideas either.

'My pen name is Bella B.,' she said as Riku pulled her away.

'He doesn't like it when she looks at other guys,' Roxas muttered as he watched them leave.

Namine had just entered shock, 'She was just standing right here.'

'Yeah, now she's being dragged off by the man orbiting the moon.'

'No,' Namine was about to go after them, but Roxas held her back.

'We'll see them tomorrow,' he told her.

'But—'

'She's your cousin, she's not going anywhere,' he said as he leaned in and kissed her lips.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

'Isn't it a little too much to drool over your cousin's boyfriend?'

'Ah, someone's jealous,' Ursa laughed. 'I have to admit, she knows how to pick them.'

'Are you forgetting she picked me?'

'To dump, which is understandable when you can have the best pick of the crop,' she looked up at Frost Inc. in longing as they drove away.

'Ha, if anyone is at the top—-'

'It's Ender, with his dreamy long luscious blond hair and brown passionate hues.'

'No, he has nothing on me,' he answered getting more annoyed at her new preference in men.

'Really, because thousands of women would tell you differently,' Ursa pointed out.

'They're just being fooled.'

'Me along with them, he's so dreamy,' she signed in longing.

'Sounds like you gave up on Xemnas,' Riku at least praised that worthy fact.

'I haven't, I just didn't want to rub more salt on an open wound.' Ursa lied. 'Cuz if we're talking about the whole package, he's the one.'

Riku tightened his hands on the steering wheel, 'Please, he's the lowest of the low when it comes to being attractive and the whole package.'

He was right there, Xemnas was the lowest of the low, he wasn't only working for her Aunt, but having an affair with her. The private detective that she hired weeks ago had given her the solid proof and evidence she needed. As to why he was having an affair was beyond her, it could be blind love or money. All she knew was that he had restarted his mission of seducing her and sweet talking her about her Aunt. 'Why are you so quiet, now?'

'I was thinking about Xemnas,' she answered honestly.

'I don't like him,' Riku suddenly announced.

'Whether you like him or not is none of my concern,' she told him. 'After all, I am the only one that should consider if I like him or not.'

'Fine, see if I care if he hurts you.'

He already has, Ursa thought to herself. 'I am a big girl. I think I can make my own decisions.'

'Whatever, just don't come crying to me later because all I am going to do is tell you I told you so.'

Ursa didn't say anything for the remainder of the ride home. It seemed that recently all they ever do was bicker about pointless stuff. Not only that, but he gravitated over to her more often than not. At times she didn't mind his nearness, other times she felt like he made her sick. Her palms would get sweaty, her stomach would flip flop, her heart would begin to race out of control, and she would get a tingly sensation up and down her spine. She wondered if she needed to go and see a doctor, because she had a feeling, they were allergies she was developing against him. A good sign, because she could use some time to herself. Nonetheless, when she was away from him, she wanted to be near him. Things were beginning to get complicated between them, at least from her perspective.