A/N: I sincerely apologize for how long it takes me to put up new chapters. Life insists on getting in the way of sitting down and letting the creative juices flow. Because, as some have pointed out, this is much more original fic than fanfic, I'm going to take 'Be Careful...' off and move it to fictionpress. My username and the title of the fic will remain the same.

Cearo, to all appearances, was unaware of the person who came into the copse several minutes later and came to stand next to her by the pond. Together, they watched the patterns raindrops made on the pond's surface in silence.

"I told you to leave me alone." Cearo was the first to speak.

"I did." Aelfrid's voice was even. "You did not say for how long."

"I will make sure to mention that next time." Shoving down the urge to throttle him, she turned so her back was to him.

"People are wondering where you are."

"So go tell them I'll be back soon." She glanced back over her shoulder when she didn't hear his footsteps and saw him still standing there. "Go back. People will start to wonder if both of us are gone."

"An excellent reason to stay, then." She could hear the smile in his voice.

"No, it's not. What part of 'leave me alone' did you not understand? I do not want to see you right now. I want to be alone. Go away."

Cearo hadn't expected him to actually listen to her, so she was not surprised when she didn't hear the crunch and crackle of dead leaves that would indicate he was leaving. The steady drumming of rain on the leaves over their heads was punctuated occasionally by the sound of one of them breathing. She was certain he was refusing to leave simply to annoy her. That, or he wanted to force her to talk to him about being courted instead of waiting until later. She ground her teeth, frustrated by his refusal to honor her requests. His crush, it seemed, wasn't the only thing unchanged during her month at Elfhild's.

"I did not know you saw me earlier."

"You do now."

A brief silence, then, "Why does that bother you?" She heard him walk towards her.

"Because I don't want you to like me like that. You should have gotten over your crush, or whatever it is, by now." She made no attempt to hide her irritation and annoyance.

"It is not that easy!" The frustration he felt was evident in his voice. "You are not some passing fancy or casual interest."

She snorted. "I know. Friends usually aren't."

"No, you do not know." He moved so that they were facing one another. "Why are you so against my wanting to court you? And why" he cupped her chin and turned her head so she was looking at him "do you refuse to meet my eyes today? You never had this problem before."

"Because rabbits dance in the moonlight." She smiled tightly and willed herself not to look away. What she saw in his eyes frightened her. She didn't want him to look at her like Helm looked at Elfhild. She wanted him to be safe, and when he was looking at her like that, he was anything but safe. "Why do you want to change everything? Why can't we continue to be good friends?"

"I cannot be your friend anymore." Each word cut deep, leaving an icy chill in its wake, and she wanted to cry out from the pain of it, but he was speaking again. "I love you, Cearo. I love you like a man loves a woman, not like a brother loves a sister. I cannot be happy with anything less." He took his hand from her chin and lightly rested it against her cheek. "Not anymore."

"I'm sorry." She was. She didn't want to hurt him, but she'd be lying if she said anything different. He did mean a lot to her, more than anyone else, but—what if she only loved him as a friend? It would not be fair to him if that were all it was. Elfhild's chidings echoed in her mind, telling her she loved him and how she'd been as miserable away from Aelfrid as Elfhild was when Helm was gone on patrol. So she had missed him? That didn't mean she loved him. Love was supposed to be a dizzy, dancing feeling and fireworks and walking on air and smiling all the time, and there wasn't any walking on air or dizzy, dancing feeling, unless you counted the times he knocked her off balance or grabbed her and pulled her up into the saddle with him without any warning. She was plenty dizzy then. So was he, when she was done with him.

Aelfrid said something, pulling her out of her thoughts. "What?" she asked.

"Why are you smiling like that?"

"Like what?"

His eyes narrowed. "Like you just thought of a good prank to play."

"Nothing like that." Technically. If pranks you'd already played didn't count. "Truly," she added when his face didn't relax. "I swear. Absolutely nothing you need to worry about."

He raised an eyebrow. "You expect me to believe that? When you smile like that, it never means anything good."

She laughed. "You're paranoid. I told you, it's nothing you need to worry about."

"If it is nothing, why do you refuse to tell me?" The naked emotion which had been in his eyes moment before was gone, replaced by a sly humor.

"Because"—she took several steps back, smile growing, and slipped around behind the tree she'd been leaning against was between them—"not everything I think about, you need to know. Not everything is your business."

"Humor me." He moved to where she'd been standing. "If it's nothing important." She shook her head. He studied her for a moment, and then shrugged (too casually, she silently noted).

Cearo quickly moved backwards, not taking her eyes off him. "Do not come near me," she warned. He was up to something. She'd smile smugly without having planned anything, just to mess with people, but when he acted casual like that, it always meant trouble, especially if he was smiling serenely, and most definitely when he was walking toward you after you told him not to come near you. He was definitely up to something and she could only hope a tree would fall down on him or something and give her a chance to get away and—walk backwards into a tree.

Aelfrid surged forward and caught her around the waist before she landed in the mud. "You should watch where you are going," he teased, mouth near her ear, as he slipped his other arm around her so he was holding her securely.

"I would have been if you hadn't been coming after me." She crossed her arms tightly over her chest. "I'm not going to tell you what I was thinking about, so let go of me. I am not joking and I am not playing games and you are really annoying me with ignoring when I ask you to stop bothering me about something."

"You have never kept anything from me before. This is not like you."

"There are lots of things I haven't told you. Like I said before, not everything is your business."

"If it involves me, it is my business."

She rolled her eyes. "What makes you think it involves you?"

"Lucky guess." He pulled her sodden braid out from between them and placed it over her shoulder.

"You aren't the only thing on my mind, so don't flatter yourself."

"So it does involve me."

She uncrossed her arms and jabbed him with an elbow.

"Does that mean you're considering letting me court you?" he asked, a hopeful note in his voice.

"It means I think about other things besides you." She exhaled loudly through her nose and leaned back against him. "Aelfrid, stop pushing the issue. Please. I do not know what I want right now, other than for you to let me think." She looked up at him so she was looking at the side of his face. "I don't want our friendship to be ruined. I don't want to lose that."

"The best marriages start with friendship."

"What if everything was ruined?" At her high school, lots of girls and guys who were friends had tried dating and ended up breaking up and hating each other.

"It will not be."

"How can you be sure?"

"Because" he moved his hands to her shoulders "we have been friends long enough" he turned her around so they were facing one another "that if we were going to kill each other, we would have by now." He gently gripped her arms and uncrossed them, taking her hands in his.

"Throttling you is very appealing right now." She puller her hands from his and crossed her arms back over her chest.

"I have wanted to throttle you as well." He held up a hand when she opened her mouth to say something. "That has not changed our friendship. You say you are upset with me right now, but you are still here, talking with me."

"It's hard to walk away when someone is holding you."

"I am not anymore. You are still here."

She rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to walk away and let you think you're right and that I'm leaving because I know you are and I just don't want to admit it."

"You will see I am right." His expression became more serious. "I do not want to lose our friendship, either." He pulled her into a hug and held her, saying nothing. She uncrossed her arms, which were pressing uncomfortably into her breasts, and rested her hands on his chest.

When he made no move to release her after a moment, Cearo spoke. "We need to go back." This needed to end before it went too far. She was annoyed with herself for letting him hold her, which sent entirely the wrong message. The very last thing she—either of them needed now was for him to think she was open to him courting her when she wasn't. She needed to think. Her birthday wasn't for a few more days. Maybe by then, she'd have things figured out. She looked up to tell him they needed to return.

She froze when she realized Aelfrid was kissing her. Stunned, all she could think was 'This isn't how I imagined my first kiss'. She'd long since given up her fantasies of being kissed by her date on prom night, dreaming instead of something sweet and tender stolen in a moment behind a building by whomever she was going to marry. She thought it would make her feel like she were walking on air, like the kisses her friends had told her about. Being soaking wet, hungry, and upset with the man kissing her was a major disappointment, and why hadn't anyone mentioned how scratchy and uncomfortable beards were? The area around her mouth felt like she'd rubbed her cloak over it quite hard. 'This totally sucks,' she thought sourly.

Fueled by bitter disappointment and anger, Cearo stomped on his left foot and pushed him back when he released her.

"Get the hell away from me and do not come anywhere near me for the rest of the day," she said, words clipped. "You're as bad as Brego." Glaring at him, she scrubbed her sleeve against her lips and spat to get rid of the taste of him from her mouth. "I am telling Ma about this when I get back."

"Cearo—" Aelfrid looked distressed, but it could have just been from the rain and hair in his face.

"Shut up. I don't want to talk to you. I don't want anything to do with you. Just go away. Now." She hugged herself and turned around and started toward the pool. "If you follow me, I will hurt you," she called back. He didn't.

She sat down by the pool; knees hugged to her chest, and let the tears she'd been holding back fall.