Sharimara sat on the edge of her bed, sipping on a cup of coffee as she tried to wake up. Normally she didn't wake up before noon, and this was an exceedingly difficult hour for her. Not long before, she'd forced herself outside in her pajamas to buy the coffee and bring it back, never wanting to be outside of her apartment unless doing so was necessary. Ever since she'd first received word from Centrius, she'd started to wear a blanket like a cloak inside of her home, tightening it around herself whenever a particularly uncomfortable thought crossed her mind. And as she found herself trying to wake herself up while simultaneously controlling her apprehension, she was most certainly uncomfortable.
The sound of little feet in the hallway outside signaled that she wouldn't be able to brood alone for much longer. Having known of the exact time of Centrius' arrival, Dilly also knew the best time to intercept Sharimara before she left. Slurping a good deal of her coffee, she had already stood up and left her tiny bedroom before the knock even came at the door.
Dilly appeared startled by how immediately the door flung open. "Whoa! Someone definitely seems ready to meet her boytoy at the harbor!" the goblin chortled. No matter what, it seemed, Dilly always found a way to get under her skin without technically doing anything that warranted anger.
"I...don't talk about it like that!" Sharimara replied as she let the little green woman inside and promptly shut the door. "He's neither a boy nor an inanimate object!"
Inviting herself to sit down before even stating her reason for having come, Dilly looked rather comfortable. "What is he, then? How would you even define this?"
"Okay first of all, why are you here? And second of all, I don't know."
Ignoring the rather important question, Dilly just crossed her arms behind her head. "You don't know? After all these months, you still don't know?"
Ears drooping, she realized that she truly didn't have an answer. "No," Sharimara mumbled.
"Is he just a friend?"
"No. I haven't seen him in too long to be friends, plus we didn't simply 'hang out' with each other as you young people say-"
"Did you bang him?"
"Dilly!"
Undaunted, the goblin woman continued talking at a mile a minute. "That would be a major determinant in terms of what you two are to each other, and determining that will help you act more confidently when you meet him because you'll know where you stand," the small woman reasoned. "So did you bang him?"
"No, Dilly, we didn't do that," Sharimara replied resentfully. "Sex doesn't equal love-"
"Awwww, you fell in love with him!"
"I didn't say that! We didn't have the opportunity to be together for that long!"
"Then why did you bring it up?"
"I...Dilly you've been here for two minutes and I'm already starting to get pissed off!"
"You should probably relax."
"Argh..." Sharimara grumbled while facepalming and counting to ten. When she opened her eyes, she saw the goblin walking into her bedroom.
"I'll pick something cute for you to wear; you just finish your coffee and get into the zone," Dilly shouted from the bedroom. "And try to figure out the frame of reference you have for your interactions with Cent."
Snorting through her nose in disapproval, Sharimara stood with her hands aplomb in the middle of her living room while standing in awe of just how audacious her colleague's behavior was. "You still haven't told me why you're hear!"
The sound of boxes and hangars being shoved around echoed from inside the bedroom. "To make sure you look presentable, silly. And to provide moral support." She peeked out from behind the door frame momentarily. "You don't have to do everything alone, you know."
She means well, Shairmara told herself while trying not to react to the patronizing one liner. "Thank you," she replied quietly before sitting down with her coffee.
Irritation at the invasion of privacy as well as her nervousness over seeing the man who'd essentially been the last person she really cared about bubbled inside of her. To experience both that as well as drowsiness from waking up at seven o'clock formed a bizarre combination that left her feeling both tired and jumpy at the same time. Coffee generally had very little effect on her, but she'd bought some in her desire to balance out the uncomfortable feeling.
Emerging from the bedroom Dilly tried to spread the clothes she'd picked across her outstretched hands. She was literally less than half Sharimara's height and it was a bit awkward, but she did look rather proud of herself.
The clothing choices, however, were really something else. Apparently Dilly had ventured all the way into the depths of Sharimara's closet - the only part of her apartment that didn't feel cramped - and fished out a pair of black leather breeches from about the time of the Sixth War. As if the choices couldn't be any more likely to attract attention, Dilly had also pulled out a black halter top and three cornered hat, along with boots that would run halfway up Sharimara's shins. A checkered black and dark grey scarf topped off the outfit that just looked so unnecessary and frivolous.
"You're trying to dress me up like a pirate hooker?"
"Baahahahahahaha!" Dilly cackled wildly. "I...haha! I didn't intend it that way, but it's a fitting description! Come on, his ship will land in twenty minutes and it will take us fifteen to walk there. You don't want to keep him waiting, do you?"
Sharimara's heart pumped and she squeezed her coffee cup so hard that some of the stuff almost sloshed out. A random mental image of Centrius arriving alone and not finding her there suddenly made her feel weepy for reasons she couldn't explain, and she begin to panic when she felt the familiar twinge of what she remembered as emotion stinging her again.
"No...no, definitely not," she replied while easily giving in to the demands of the secretary who was gradually changing from coworker to friend. Shaking the inexplicable melancholy thoughts away, she stood up and accepted the pile of clothes and walked back into her bedroom to change.
It only took her a few more minutes to get dressed, and she finished her coffee before the two of them put their shoes back on. Once it was time to leave, however, she hesitated at the door for a split second.
Far more perceptive than Sharimara had previously given her credit for, Dilly noticed the pause. "You're going to have a wonderful day, I can feel it," the tiny person told the giantess in a soothing tone.
Sharimara's pulse throbbed with such force that she could feel it in her neck. "Yeah," she whispered when she'd intended the word to come out in a normal voice.
Dilly reached up and held her hand like a child. "What's wrong?"
"N-nothing...nothing is wrong, technically. I'm just making a bigger deal out of this than I should."
"Yes, that's kind of what it seems like."
Her eyebrows arched irately. "You're supposed to be supporting me!"
"There's a difference between supporting and enabling, honey, and part of that difference stems from calling something what it is. You're going to meet a man who searched the world for you and after two hundred years-"
"One hundred and sixty."
"Whatever! After a bajillion years because you're both so freaking old, he's found you and is literally sailing across oceans and continents just to spend a few days with you. Think about that: the voyage takes a few weeks both ways and he's doing it just so he can see you for a few days."
"That makes it a big deal!"
"No, Shari, it doesn't because it means you have nothing to worry about. It means that he's obviously interested in trying to make things work out between the two of you just like you are, so you both probably feel the same. You're both also more stable than the way you described your life situations a bajillion years ago-"
"Grow up, Dilly!"
"-and you're both able to choose, without interference, where you want to take things. So...relax." Dilly made an exaggerated motion of doing a breathing exercise that Swansong had taught her. "There are no crises ready to tear you apart, no complications that can influence your freedom of choice. Everything is fine."
"Everything is fine..." Sharimara repeated as the two of them walked out the door.
What would have been a ten minute walk on her own really did take a little over fifteen minutes with Dilly. Although goblins kept a fast pace, their legs were still short and Sharimara's long strides could have carried her much more rapidly had she so chosen. In truth, however, she really did prefer to have the company of another person she could trust to be supportive. And in her situation in life, Dilly really was the only one; Mao Mao was still technically her boss, Swansong was a service provider and Lashka couldn't be trusted even if she did have good intentions (which Sharimara still didn't believe). That did leave only Dilly on all of Azeroth considering the fact that Sharimara literally had no contact with anybody outside of that small circle; even her family, which tried so hard to keep in touch with her, were almost strangers to her by then.
Considering the fact that she still barely knew Dilly even after twelve years, Sharimara did feel a bit nervous and lost when it came to interaction. There was nobody else she could go to for advice or to simply seek feedback on how appropriate her own reactions were. At no point during the previous twelve years had she learned where exactly Dilly was from or what sort of life she'd led; they either discussed work or the present. For sure Dilly had a busy social life judging by her conversations with Lashka, thus causing Sharimara to realize, as the two of them walked, just how closed off she'd become.
She almost felt numb during the fifteen minute walk. In order to reach the harbor, the two of them had to walk through two upper middle class neighborhoods, a district full of hotels and inns, and the busy pier that was almost like a second market district. Throughout the entire walk, Sharimara's fingertips tingled and the muscles in her arms and legs felt tense yet shaky. Caffeine, lack of sleep and anxiety proved to be a toxic mix, and her mind's logical acceptance of Dilly's pep talk back at the apartment didn't translate over into her body's biological awareness of her supposed confidence.
Once they emerged from a small street of cheap restaurants and fish markets catering to travelers, Sharimara suddenly felt as if Dilly had gained a huge burst of speed.
The goblin seemed to think otherwise. "Shari, you're lagging," Dilly chuckled while slowing herself down momentarily.
"Wh...what? No I'm not," she replied, though she did begin to question her own perception as they neared the passenger docks. Her nerves simply wouldn't calm down, and when she tried to take a deep breath, she shivered.
"Relax," Dilly told her while reaching up to hold her hand like a child again. It was only slightly awkward to be led by someone so small, though for a second Sharimara almost yanked her hand away when her boundaries felt pushed.
Fleeting as it was, the idea that she'd made a mistake by bringing her emotional walls down to begin with raced through her mind, and she hesitated again when Dilly first tried to drag her along. "Shari! Don't get cold feet now!" the little goblin whispered.
Even when the idea about informing Dilly of Centrius and her past had left, Sharimara still found the anxiety pressing into her brain, increasing the amount of pressure inside her skull and taunting her with a hundred and one what ifs.
What if Centrius really just wanted to meet her for lunch or something like that? What if the promise he'd made to her about finding her again and letting fate decide where they took things had just been passion fueled banter he hadn't really meant? What if he had meant it, but his feelings had cooled off (unlike hers)? What if she just imagined the magic, ethereal nature of the night they spent alone together in a clearing of palm trees, and...and she would see him only to find that she no longer felt the same?
A knife in her heart bled her, and she'd put it there herself with that last thought. Even if she'd repressed the memories of the weekend they'd spent together, they were still there, locked away with all the other emotions and memories she'd kept inside of her icebox of a chest.
"Shari, people are staring!"
Normally, she might not have broken out what she realized could have been the very early beginning of an anxiety attack so easily. When Dilly touched on a particularly salient point, however, Sharimara was snapped right out of it, however nervous she still was.
"What? Ahem," she stammered, straightening her posture and staring straight ahead toward the pier in an attempt to play off something before even knowing what that something was.
People continued to pass them by, and she vaguely remembered having stood in the way of a fishmonger who was now a few paces ahead of them. From the corner of her eye, she caught the barest glimpse of a passerby glancing at her curiously before looking away, returning the world to normal. Nobody was staring at her anymore, nobody was paying attention, the sky was not falling. Forcing a lump down her throat so palpably that her neck hurt, she forced herself to shuffle forward again, holding on to a wooden railing that led them down a few steps toward the wide, open pier even though she never held on to railings.
"I'm sorry, I just got...worried," she mumbled.
Dilly played it off rather well, training her eyes forward toward the throng of gathering dockhands and hawkers at dock E. "Don't be sorry for me, but you need to snap out of it...this guy just sailed across continents after pining for you for a bajillion-"
"That's not a number."
"-years to see you. Don't let anxiety ruin such a good occasion for you!"
"I'm not anxiou-" her sentence was stopped by another clawed green finger pointed at her at lightning speed, reminding her not to lie. As a general rule, she never did; if anything, Sharimara's vice was using completely literal language all the time.
It seemed that when it came to matters pertaining to her inner thoughts and feelings, however, she wavered more easily. Holding her tongue, she sufficed with wading into the crowd of people either going about their business on the pier or simply enjoying the morning; it was a wide, well built wooden structure with a few sizeable cherry blossoms growing out of oversized pots. At Sharimara's insistence, the two of them hid behind one of those trees so she could watch whether Centrius really did exit one of them. She'd received one more letter than he'd sent before sailing in which he mentioned the exact arrival of his ship again - in addition to a few more personal details that had Dilly and Lashka swooning - but Sharimara still felt more comfortable hiding as she waited to see if, after so long, the one who got away really was coming back.
The ship was a few minutes early, almost a stereotype of night elven precision and uptightness. The carved, individually designed boat was spotless and unlike the ship's full of humans, orcs or even pandaren, the passengers didn't crowd around the off ramp waiting to stampede off the ship the moment the captain dropped anchor. Sucking in a deep breath of air, Sharimara shocked herself by how difficult she suddenly found respiration even when she knew it was all just in her head. The dockhands didn't waste time setting up the ramp for passengers to disembark, and an island official began inspecting little cards all of the foreigners had used to fill out their personal information.
Logistically, everything had turned out alright, but that didn't ease the dizziness Sharimara found swirling around her head. Similar to the day she'd opened the first letter, she felt as if she'd fall over if she tried to walk, and she tripped the cherry blossom for balance as the first wave of passengers cleared customs and walked out among the people amassed on the pier. As if noticing how stressed out she was, Dilly tugged on her hand, and she actually found herself squeezing back. To do so embarrassed her a bit more considering the vast age difference between the two of them, but Sharimara felt stuck: she'd come too close to finally finding him again after so long to give up, but she felt too worried about how many different ways their reunion could go wrong to confidently stride out to meet him.
Stress ate at the muscles in the back of her neck, battering her every time a person stepped off the ship who wasn't him. Pureblooded night elves, furbolgs, and lots and lots of returning pandaren exited the ship, every one of them dragging out the painful waiting game and assaulting her mind with doubt and fear. Despair set in, at least helping her hands to stop trembling as her heart - atrophied from centuries of emotional disuse - found itself too weak to continue the fight.
Oh...what's this?
Among the throngs of people, one particularly tall head swayed. About the height of a troll, but with the fine hair of an elf...broad, round shoulders stood out from beneath a medium blue colored smock that matched the shade of his hair.
On instinct, she squeezed Dilly's hand at the same time that she experienced another heart palpitation that she probably should have mentioned to her new doctor. "That's him, I'm sure it's him!" Dilly chirped from behind their tree. "You like them big, don't you!"
"Not them...just him," Sharimara murmured absentmindedly.
By far the largest person at the pier, the blue haired man in the crowd swayed as if he was tired but not exhausted. A morning breeze blew, ruffling those fine locks that contrasted to her own more trollish mane so much and revealing wars that were slender and also elf like, rather than the more batlike ears typical of trolls (and Sharimara herself). A single big, lavender colored hand reached up to smooth that hair back, fully displaying mixed parentage: five digits like elves and humans but with big, wide wrists and a matching thick hand like a troll. Short of a tauren, ogre, full blooded troll or a mogu, he was just about the only man that was physically larger than her; Sharimara had long since gotten used to being the tallest person in the room everywhere she went.
"He's coming this way - I'll hang back here by the tree until I'm sure you're okay," Dilly whispered. "After that, I'll leave you two alone."
Sharimara dug the fingers of her free hand into the trunk of the tree. "Yeah..." she practically exhaled through her nose, her heart beating irregularly in a way that hadn't happened in so long she'd forgotten how disorienting it felt.
Even before he cleared customs, she was able to see him over the heads and shoulders of everybody else. The crowd parted for a few seconds and she saw his face, pursing her lips tightly to avoid gasping right there. He was just how she remembered him...sharp nose but high cheekbones, smaller eyes but bigger jaw, and eyebrows of medium length like hers; his face was like a puzzle of mixed ethnicity, completely hairless unlike most night elves and even jungle trolls in general but handsome in a way that fit his features well. Even when he looked exhausted and just a tad bit seasick, he was still polite when submitting his little card of information at customs, always upbeat and never showing outward signs of frustration. Were Sharimara in his place, she imagined she might have shouted at one of the officials and made a scene by then.
Just as he seemed to finish the process, a shiver ran up her spine that garnered a laugh from Dilly. "I have to...I have to...he'll look and not find me there!" she babbled while stepping out from behind the cherry blossom, then back behind it again, then out from behind it again.
Dilly chuckled and released the warden's hand. "Go for it! I'll be watching for a moment, and then you'll have your time."
"Th-thank you...for forcing me to come."
Nearly tripping at first, Sharimara tried to remember which foot went before the other while walking, undecided as to whether she should keep her shoulders relaxed or at attention. Her hands trembled again as nervous energy crackled inside of her, demanding that she both tackle him but also run away from the reunion at the same time. Her molar teeth grit together when he waded out into the crowd, scanning it for her in the wrong direction. When his smile faded upon not seeing her, she felt a pain merely from seeing him not smile and nearly tripped again when she stumbled a bit closer.
She tried to pronounce his name, but found herself unable to speak it out loud. For so long this had remained only an occasional fantasy of hers, sometimes erotic and sometimes not, but still a fantasy that seemed so far away from her current situation and conscious thoughts. And there she was, with her mouth failing on her...not wanting to keep him waiting, she waved her hands instead. Being taller than everyone at the pier except him, her violet-blue arms weren't difficult for him to spot.
He turned around, and it was like one of the stars themselves smiled. She remembered that smile...the way he looked so happy...but it was more intense than it had been before. Even if she hadn't seen him in person in centuries, she remembered that his gaze had never been intense. But there, on that pier, he almost looked a bit choked up for a split second before regaining his composure. He looked like he'd relocated a long lost family member, or rediscovered...an old flame he hadn't seen in a century and a half...the thought almost caused her to stumble again, but she hobbled forward to see him anyway.
"Shari?" he asked, that familiar deep voice tinged with emotion the way it has when they'd finally parted ways at the pier in Booty Bay. He stepped forward as well, setting down the duffel bag he had strapped over one shoulder.
Far too early, she reached out for him, not even knowing if she should bow or shake his hand. Once again surprising her as he had on their first date, he took her by the wrist and pulled her toward him, wrapping his arms around her.
"Cent!" she gasped as her entire world was flipped on its head, the warden who haunted the nightmares of people who owed debts everywhere suddenly finding herself feeling dainty and small.
His chest was broad enough to cover her entire body, and when she wrapped her arms around the back of his neck to lean her head on his shoulder, she found herself angling upward in a way that left her feeling exposed. Only with him could that ever be a comfortable feeling for her. Arms that felt like tree trunks pressed against her back, trapping her such that she couldn't have pulled away if she'd wanted to (though she'd never want to) and holding on to her tightly. The scent of musk like a male troll invaded her nostrils at the same time that her forehead brushed a face without even any stubble on it, masculine in the manner of a Thalassian elf even though he had no such people in his family. She felt like every pore of her forehead was being tickled, little pinpricks dancing everywhere that his skin came into contact with hers. She grinned wide as they hugged each other, her usually standoffishness melting away.
"I can't believe it's really you," he chuckled, his composure regained and his voice stable once more. "I really never thought I'd see you again."
The thought pained her even as they held each other once more, and she clung to him for fear of what looking him in the eye so early would do to her. They'd just seen each other again after she'd left him buried with painful memories past; to hold on to him like that was an indulgence in her emotions that she'd denied herself so long, hiding behind walls she'd built to keep all of the world out. The contrast to how she'd been living her life even before she first met him and how open she was hit her hard; it was as if she stepped outside her walls and ventured far away, accepting the risk of exposure if it meant that she could feel something for at least a little while.
She tried to control her respiration in short breaths, suddenly very aware that his hands were on her and not wanting to press up against him in public. "Me too," was all she could reply with.
"Excuse us!"
Self consciousness returned and hit her light a kodo stampede, causing her to shrink into Centrius' arms for protection when she was the one who was usually paid to protect people. Turning her head and glaring, she saw a now frightened group of pandaren laborers pushing a wheeled palette of assorted metal pipes toward one of the ships, and they needed to walk right where the two large people were standing. She was about to curse at them despite knowing they hadn't really done anything wrong when Centrius ran his thumb along the back of her bare shoulder, inadvertently causing her to tense up and bite her lower lip.
"By all means," he told the group of laborers politely as he guided Sharimara back toward the cherry blossom in a pot, where they wouldn't be blocking any walkways. Dilly was nowhere to be seen.
Once her trance had been broken, she was more able to look him in the eye. Sterling silver orbs glowed back at her greens, the lack of intensity in his gaze one of the qualities she'd enjoyed in him; he was perceptive but not piercing, and once she'd regained her own composure, to look at him never felt invasive.
He smiled warmly. "I had dreams of this...and now that we're here, I have no idea what to say," he chuckled lightly.
"Me neither!" she laughed back, not quite as open as she'd been a moment ago but relaxed enough after the caffeine seemed to have mostly worn off. She looked up at him, afraid of what she might do if they were silent for long enough. "So..."
"So...Shari...there's so much to talk about. A century and a half is a long time even for half elves. I would love to drop these off somewhere, maybe a place that has a small café inside-"
"Night, I'm sorry! You must be exhausted by now!"
"No, it's quite alright. I'm tired, but if you asked me to just sit on a bench to talk somewhere I wouldn't say no."
"That's hardly fair! No, come on, we need to get you a room booked for...you have five days left before you need to go to the Fortress of Hope, right?"
For a second, he looked confused, as if he'd forgotten all about it. "What? Oh, yeah...five days technically, so I'd only need to book four nights in Balrissa for now." When he saw her reach for his duffel bag, he snatched it up first and shot her a confused smile. "Did you really think...?"
"You've been on a boat for a few weeks, let me carry your bag for you!"
"No way," he chuckled while following her lead toward the hotel district. "Don't try to pay for my room either."
"I'm gonna."
They stared into each other's eyes again - not in a sappy way so much as the sort of humor that two war veterans in a later peacetime might look at each other during a playful argument. They both laughed, and she gave in to his insistence upon the bizarre concept of chivalry that was alien to elves and trolls alike until she finally showed him to an in that felt appropriate. He tried to open the door for her, only for her to back up against it and hold it instead until he at least accepted some measure of help from her.
During the whole walk there as well as booking the room for him and having his bags stored for him, their discussion was mostly about how rough his voyage there had been and other logistics of their schedules. Their banter was surprisingly light considering how much pressure she'd felt on the walk over to meet him, and the drama she'd expected upon receiving the first letter was thankfully absent when they were in public. While he engaged in a brief talk with the inn's manager about storage of his bags, she rushed over to the small restaurant attached to the side of the building and paid for their breakfast before he could stop her.
Once the two of them sat down together, unburdened by bags and waiting for their food, there was a lull in the conversation after a chat about their jobs.
The table was small for them, and she could feel her knees pressing against his beneath. The closeness was unlike anything she'd felt with another person in decades, yet it felt so natural with him. He shot her a moderately sappy look when they both fell silent.
"I know we're both tired, and we have a few days to continue seeing each other...but I have to ask, Shari. Even knowing that you're okay now...I have to ask how Northrend went. It's the last thought I had of you for so long." Even when he continued smiling, his ears drooped in a way that made her want to jump into his lap and hug him again. "How did it go?"
Feeling the melancholy as well, remembering her own thoughts when the ship carried her away from him at Booty Bay, she knew that her smile looked fake to him. "Well...as you know, we were under radio silence. I was sent behind enemy lines when that mogu pseudo state was going on..."
"The Heavenly Guard, was it?"
"Yes, I think we're some of the few people who still remember that failed state. The whole campaign lasted only fourteen years until they were rooted out, and I participated the entire time. I spent about two years in the middle in captivity, basically kept alive alongside a few other captured spies and military contractors as a bargaining chip."
Centrius' hand had been laying on the table close to hers. When she mentioned being captured, he frowned a bit and put his hand over hers, causing her to smile despite the rough time she was recounting. "You were a prisoner of war?" he asked sadly.
"Only for two years, don't worry. And the mogu as a people tend not to torture captives they can bargain with; they're at least above that. The monotony was the main thing, but...well, let's just say that wasn't the first time I've been in a jail, nor was it the last. So...anyway, even after the campaign finished, I...I heard about the First Dark Portal, fourteen years later."
"Yes, it imploded and stranded all of us on Outland," he replied, much less emotional about his own ordeal than hers.
"I really..." She laughed at herself, surprised by the emotion she felt creeping into her own voice. "I really meant it when I said I'd look for you, but due to the circumstances of the war against the Heavenly Guard, I couldn't physically escape the continent during the conflict; so I stayed, only learning that you and all others were stranded fourteen years after the fact. So I stayed, even after the last mogu prisoner was deported from Northrend, and just ran quests on that continent for a while. I kept waiting...there was no news from Outland.
"So I ran other quests elsewhere, falling back into the same lifestyle I'd been living at the time we met. I experienced some...troubles in Stormwind eventually, which led me to lay low for a while. I went to Tanaris, then came to Pandaria, and eventually washed up on the shores of the literal end of Azeroth...I know this is all condensed, but...well, you get the gist of it, right?"
"No, it's okay, I know it's been a while; the gist is enough for now. And...well, I'm glad you'll be able to take some time off work in the coming days. There will be time to catch up on the details."
"Now wait a minute, we're not done!" she chortled, partially because she was glad that she'd successfully thrown the spotlight off of herself. "Come on, how did survive on Northrend! I asked all over about you and just found some people who recognized your description."
Taking a deep breath, he seemed considerably less enthusiastic when talking about himself as he had when talking about her. "Well...as you know, the First Dark Portal imploded, and the second Dark Portal was only rebuilt about eighty years after that."
"Know it? Within a year of it reopening, I went looking for you."
"That means you missed me by a few months. Basically, the fungal invasion I was sent to fight died down, but only after I was left on that planet. It was hard...I had wanted to find you, find my girl and her husband, too, but I learned to live. I didn't move on, but you have to continue living."
"I know that feeling very well..."
"And Outland has plenty of demons lurking about. Every time they're killed they can reappear later on, so instead of capturing them, I made a living just trapping and killing them. I dealt with the worst of the worst, had a few close calls, and for eighty bloody years, I just loved much like you did, I guess: roving from inn to inn, quest to quest, keeping myself busy to forget. When the Second Dark Portal opened, I knew that news must have spread like wildfire on Azeroth, and there was a Kaldorei consulate just outside the exit in the Badlands. I went to check as soon as I could, and I couldn't find any information on you, but I found a missing persons report from my daughter that she'd out out maybe thirty years after the first portal collapsed...that would make it half a century old at the time. I went to see them, and...well, it was an emotional reunion, to say the least."
"I'll bet it was...but what happened after that? For the remaining eighty years?"
"Well...I didn't rush things. I already hadn't seen her for a very long time before I got stranded, and there had been a lot left unsaid. Plus I'd built a semblance of a new life on Outland...it wasn't much, but I'd gotten used to being surrounded by hellfire and demons all the time, to losing other adventurers I called friends and not knowing a lot of peace. So I checked into therapy for a time, almost a good twenty years, just to help me get used to the idea of settling down again. And...well, aside from looking for you, I've just been doing the whole dad thing ever since. My girl is a few hundred years old herself, but she doesn't mind."
The subject of children was a raw topic for Sharimara. Not that memories of the daughter she'd lost still haunted her after almost two hundred years; she'd moved on to a point where she could remember the little girl that had been taken from her without focusing on the pain. Talking about such matters openly, however, wasn't something she was ready for, however.
"So that's the gist of it?" she asked, fearing to directly check if he was single or taken. The way he held her hand out of concern could be flirting, or it could be a simple show of concern for an old friend who had been through a lot; considering the fact that she hadn't been involved in the dating game ever since...well, him, she wasn't in a position to easily judge the intention of men.
Whether he understood what she was asking or not, she could not tell. "That's the gist...there are more details, of course, but there will be time. You look beat, and I'm still seasick. I honestly wish we could talk all day, but it probably isn't the healthiest choice currently."
"Don't worry, I know exactly what you mean. If we only had a day like last time I'd push myself, but as it is, we'll probably enjoy our time more if we get some rest. I usually don't wake up before noon."
A waiter carrying their food set down their meal for them, surprising her when she realized that she hadn't even heard his approach. Once the food was laid out for them, they both loosened up after having discussed the circumstances that had kept them apart.
"Well, here's an idea...we'll both probably oversleep now and wake up in the late afternoon. Do you need to go back to work immediately?"
"No, I think I can weasel out of it. I've been with my current employer for twelve years and I've never taken a vacation for reasons other than injury; if we rest up a little bit more, I should be ready this evening."
"Good, that gives me time to sleep off the travel sickness and hit a local bathhouse. If you don't mind, could we meet up here later on?"
She grinned, pausing just as she was about to start eating. "Eight o'clock in the evening; that gives us twelve hours to rest up. I'll meet you here, and maybe show you around to some of the nicer places around town."
Less giddy than her but certainly warmer and more open with how he felt, he smiled and shot her an unrestrained, wistful look. "I'll be ready," he replied softly. After a few moments of looking at her with the faintest hint of intensity, he raised his cup of water in a mock toast. "I really missed you, Shari."
Hiding behind her emotional walls, she felt like she could comfortably look out on her own terms. Out on the pier, she'd taken what was - by her own standards - a risk. To even show so much joy upon his arrival was a reaction she couldn't remember showing another person since her parting with a certain young human in Stormwind who, by now, had probably died of old age, wherever she had ended up. In most cases of her openness with feelings, there was always a negative stimulus involved; this time, it had been a positive one...and when she let her feelings show, nothing bad happened.
Maybe...just maybe...it would be possible to open up without getting hurt.
Smiling without embarrassment, she held his gaze for a moment before they started to eat. "I missed you too, Cent," she replied.