Disclaimer: I only own my OCs and the general plot.
Frog: Sorry, as always. I'm just really buisy with school and haven't been finding time to write or type at all. I hope you all understand. This is mostly just a fluff chapter, to fill in some space, and give Danica and Zane some more together time. All my stories have romance, so I have to have at least one chapter like this. I hope you like it, even if it seems a little weird and is one of the shorter ones.
"Eep!!" Irene screamed as her brother pelted her with a snowball. He just stood there laughing.
After Danica had agreed that she wouldn't try to escape again, she and Evalyn had been allowed outside. Of course, they never went alone, Ailbhe and Zane made sure of that.
"You're going to pay for that!" the black-haired girl fumed, putting her hands on her hips.
"Oh? Your aim is terrible, you'll never hit me," Zane mocked. He yelped in surprise when a snowball nailed him in the back of the head. He spun around to see Galen smirking at him.
"But I can hit you," his sister's fiance crossed his arms proudly. Zane pouted, and watched the other man warily for a moment.
"And I can hit you back!" he suddenly bent down, and then hurled a snowball back at Galen. And thus, a mini battle ensued.
Charis rolled her eyes, and sighed heavily. She, Danica, Evalyn, and Ailbhe were sitting on a log that they had brushed the snow off of. Actually, Ailbhe was more of laying down, his head resting on Evalyn's lap. Irene sooned joined them.
"How long will this last?" Danica asked curiuosly, pulling her coat around herself tighter.
"For as long as they have an audience," the older woman muttered, shaking her head.
"Ah," the Avian Princess smirked slightly, "And how long are we going to let this go on?"
"Mmmm...about another five minutes if not less," Charis sighed, "I'm getting cold."
"Aw. That's not fair!" Zane whined, apparently having heard. He then almost fell over when Galen hit him in the side of the face with another snowball.
"I've never quite understood how you have any control over him..." Danica mused. Charis just chuckled deeply.
"He respects me, and would never raise a hand against me. Which, of course, gives me complete freedom to do him harm when he gets himself in trouble. But he's better than he was when her first took over our group," she explained, "And besides that, he knows I only have his best interests in mind."
"She's probably the only reason he's still alive," Ailbhe smirked, his eyes closed as Evalyn stroked his hair gently, "Otherwise he would die of hypothermia or something."
Charis sighed, "I don't think he'll ever grow up."
"Are you shivering?" Ailbhe asked Evalyn suddenly, worry present in his voice as he sat up. She just blushed and looked away, knowing that she was.
"We should go ahead inside. We wouldn't want you to catch cold," the older woman instructed gently and stood up. Danica nodded, and joined her, along with Ailbhe, Evalyn, and Irene. They all started to go back inside. Zane and Galen stopped their little battle, looked at each other, and hurried after them.
"Here you go, miss," Zane chimed, comming up behind Danica, and scooping her up. She squeaked in surprise, and glared at him.
"Put me down this instant!" she ordered, arms crossed.
He just chuckled, "I'm afraid I can't do that your highness. The snow is not worthy of your slippered feet walking upon it."
She rolled her eyes, and glared at him some more. He just smirked down at her, and they continued inside the fortress.
"You're so annoying, Zane," Ailbhe shook his head, sighing. He was holding Evalyn's hand.
"Alright, alright," he sighed in exasperation, and set Danica on the floor again. Aviran glanced up from his book, and smirked. She gave him a look of uncertainty.
"Have fun?" the guard asked lightly.
"More or less," she shrugged.
"Don't you get tired of sitting here all day?" Evalyn asked, cocking her head as Galen closed the door behind them.
"I don't have to sit here," he began, shaking his head, "But so long as I have something to read, I'm fine. I'm actually quite fond of this chair."
"Yeah, but still, you should get out more," Zane nodded, "It's no trouble for me to assign someone else to guarding."
Aviran shook his head, "That's alright. I've seen enough in my life time to last me awhile."
And with that, he went back to his book, ending the conversation. Charis said nothing, and walked out of the room. The others all glanced at each other, and followed jusat as silently. After a little, Danica could no longer contain her curiousity.
"Where is he from?" she asked, looked at Zane as he walked next her her, their fingers entwined.
"I don't know..." he shrugged, "He came here a couple years ago with Vespera. I had been gone on a job, so my mother is really the only one who knows. She won't tell me either."
"But you trust them?" she pressed slightly. Perhaps if she knew Zane trusted them, she would feel better about what they had done.
He paused, "I've had no reason not to. Aviran seems...strange sometimes, I know. But he always has good intentions from what I've seen. Why?"
"Oh, just...it's nothing..." she murmered.
Zane frowned, and stopped walking so he could look her in the eye, "Is something wrong?"
"N-no. I was just wondering," Danica quickly averted her eyes. He didn't seem to believe her, but didn't press the matter, and they continued on their way.
"I wouldn't let it bother you about it too much," he assured, entwining his fingers with hers. She just nodded her head mutely.
They were silent for a few moments before he spoke again, "Would you like to go to the gathering room?"
"That sounds fine," she then looked behind them, and was suprised to see Ailbhe and Evalyn had vanished.
"She's ok, no need to worry," Zane chuckled, noticing the look on her face, "He does that alot."
"Where did they go?"
He shrugged, "Who knows. Ailbhe can be described as a hopeless romantic sometimes, so he probably just whisked her away to some quiet spot where they could be alone and all that," he rolled his eyes playfully as though it were the silliest thing, and then smirked at her, "I would never do that..."
His voice was just too innocent, and Danica refused the urge to just glare at him as she had become accostomed to doing. They soon arrived at the gathering room. Aisha and some of her friends were there dancing to entertain the others seated on pillows near the walls. They sat on some of the large cushions themselves and watched, something which the Avian Princess had actually come to enjoy doing.
"You have such an interesting group," Danica mused after they had been quiet for awhile. Her eyes were scanning the room, and studying the many occupants. Several she had come to recognize, and a few smiled at her when they caught her eye.
"Yep!" Zane smiled proudly, and slid closer to her, "But your my favorite."
She gave him a look as he wrapped his arm around her, "And since when have I become a member of a group of assasins?"
"Since you came here. You've never been much of a captive after all. We've treated you as nothing less than another companion," he reminded her, kissing her forhead. She had to nod.
"So...overnight I went from princess to a babysitter for murderers..." she stated sarcastically.
"Is that so bad? You seem to like it here after all."
Danica paused, thinking on the hidden meaning of his words. Was he implying that she wanted to stay? Or was it more of he was trying to find out if she did or not. She couldn't be sure. All she knew, was that he would rather he never had to give her back to her family. And secretly, despite all her pride, she found she wanted the same.
"When did you take control of the Black Serpent Assasins?" she asked, trying the change the subject. He seemed taked aback by the unexpected question, but answered anyways.
"My father died almost month or so before Aviran and Vespera showed up. It was on some private job from what my mother has told me. She's really the only one who seems to know, and refuses to tell me more. Control of this group was my inheretance."
Danica looked at him strangly, "You don't think they're somehow involved, do you?"
"Who?"
"Aviran and Vespera."
He paused, blinking a few times, "I...never thought about it before...I guess there was never any reason for me to see a connection..."
Something clicked in the back of the Avian Princess' mind that she had heard a long time ago, "About what time of year was it that all this happened?"
"Fall I believe..." Zane got ready to stand up, and kissed her cheek, "Forgive me for leaving you like this, but I feel I must go talk with my mother right now. It won't take long."
"It's alright," Danica assured, rising to her feet next to him, "I think I'm going to ask Aviran something."
He nodded, and the headed off in differant directions. When Danica arrived, Aviran was alone at his table, reading. Bit surprise, I know. He glanced up at her.
She went straight over to his table, and looked him in the eye, "You're a runaway prince, aren't you?"
Frog: And now you'll all hate me for a cliffhanger, but I don't care! Ha! Sorry, a little high on sugar right now. Anyways, please try to be pacient with me and this story. I'm trying, I really am. But this is my last year of high school and I have to work on graduating more than on my stories. Please try to understand. I would wright more if I had the time... And thank you all who continue to read this despite how long it takes me to update sometimes. Please review. I'll listen to constructive critisim (though I've found I'm bad at implementing it). Thank you! Bye!