Healing wounds

Chapter 6: What your heart was trying to tell you

"I'm really sorry about this incident," Nasuti told the school director as she bowed her head. "I promise you she will behave from now on, won't you Azhure?"

"Yes. I will." The young student bowed as well. Although her face remained serene, but her fists were tightly crisped at her sides.

"Alright. You still are suspended for a week for your behavior. I hope this will be the last time," the principal replied with a stern voice.

"It will be, sir," Azhure assured him immediately.

"Good. You may go." He waved his hand dismissively toward the two women and went back to his paperwork. Embarrassed, Nasuti took Azhure's hand and the both of them walked out of the office. Just outside the principal's office, two young girls and their parents were waiting outside.

"YOU MANIAC!!" shouted one of the girls at Azhure.

"Shidori, that's enough!" her mom told her daughter, trying to keep her on her seat. The teenager girl struggled to get up. Azhure gave her a cold and indifferent look and noticed that the parents gave her a dirty look. She didn't do anything as she knew how badly Nasuti was already feeling about this. She kept her mouth shut and let the brown haired young woman take her to the car.

The trip home was a silent one. The magician knew that apologizing won't be enough this time. Surprisingly though, it was Nasuti who spoke to her first after she parked the car in front of the house.

"Azhure, you do realize that this kind of behavior is not permitted here, yes?"

"Yes, I know. But they were the ones who attacked me first. I merely defended myself."

"Was it REALLY necessary for you to use all your combat techniques on two defenceless teenager girls?"

"They were harassing me for a while so I guess when I snapped, I might went overboard."

"You MIGHT?"

"I apologize. I should have shown more restrain and control. But they really ticked me off." Nasuti sighed, resting her forehead on the wheel.

"You only speak so formerly when you're mad, I know that. Still, you can't get into a fight because they were teasing you about your accent and your intelligence." She looked at her and sighed again before hugging her. "You should have told us that you were having trouble at school. Violence won't solve this kind of thing."

"You think? I had the impression that cracking my knuckles will scare them now." Nasuti couldn't help but chuckled at her reply and looked at Azhure.

"Keep your strength for REAL bad guys from now on, ok? And if anyone else is giving you a hard time, go tell one of the guys. Or me. I'll talk with the principal to solve that."

"I...didn't want to bother them with that. I can take care of myself."

"I know you can, but they will help you solve this without violence. You can't hit people here because they got under your skin."

"I kind of figured it out with the screams of the teachers when they came in to stop me."

"And lucky us, you didn't hit them too!" They looked into each other's eyes and started laughing. Nasuti was teasing but Azhure really did almost hit them, thinking they were reinforcements. If she did, she would have been kicked out of school without a doubt. The only reason why she wasn't suspended longer was because she didn't break any bones. After they stopped laughing, they went inside where everyone was waiting for them.

"Is everything alright?" Shin asked Azhure, worried. "Aikyo asked me to tell you to call her immediately when you got home. She and Rin are worried about you."

"I don't see why. They know Azhure was the one who gave the punches," Nasuti said with a snappy tone.

"Well good thing for them!" Shuu said with a frown. "That should teach those girls to not tease her for stupid things!" He lost his composure, however, when he received a cold glare from Nasuti. Touma walked up to Azhure with a serious look.

"You should have told me," he told her. The princess couldn't find anything to reply to him. She detected the concern and the hurt in his voice. She felt her heart squeezed and she looked away but he forced her to look at him by sliding his finger under chin and gently but firmly turned her head to face him. The intensity behind his deep blue eyes was too much for her and she slapped his hand away before running into her room after throwing her boots on the wet carpet.

"She probably never faced something like that before," Ryo said as she looked at the closed door at the back of the living room that was Azhure's bedroom door.

"No, she did before," Touma said firmly. "Remember, she told us she didn't have many friends in the other worlds. She probably had to deal with people talking behind her back or those telling her in her face she was no good because she wasn't able to stop Silver."

"You got that right," Orion said as he passed his head through Touma's chest. The latter screamed and moved away.

"Dammit, Orion! DON't do that!!! Ever heard of private space?!" he yelled at the ghost who merely shrugged.

"After being dead for so long, there are concepts that just slipped out of your mind," he simply answered with a detached tone. Touma felt his left eye twitching.

"Anyway," Seiji started, "we should give her our support and help her deal with that."

"Don't be overly dramatic," Orion said with a dismissive hand gesture. "She'll be fine. Besides, I agree with Shuu. Now that she shown them what she can do, they will leave her alone."

"How can you say that?!" Nasuti bursted out, angry. "Someone like her shouldn't do something like that! Anyone who can fight is a potential danger if that person doesn't show restrain and control!"

"Maybe but a good kick in the nuts is always one way to settle some disputes. You can't always solve everything peacefully," the ghost answered.

"It will only bring more violence!!"

"Well, we didn't exactly take out our best tea set for Arago and discuss his whole world domination plan, did we?" Shuu said. Nasuti sighed out of desperation.

"That's not the same thing and you know it."

As the argument went on, going nowhere, Touma kept his eyes on Azhure's bedroom door. He was wondering if she could hear all this or decided to ignore it. As usual, her brother took her defence by minimizing her actions and the archer started to wonder if that was a good thing for the young woman to have someone protecting her always like this, justifying every of her gestures. Did she agree to it? Was she even aware of this? What were her thoughts about the situation? How did she feel?

Those questions never found answers because when Azhure walked out for diner, she flatly refused to speak of it and the guys decided to act as if nothing has happened.

***

"Another great performance you pulled today," said the too familiar voice to Azhure.

"You again? I told you to go away," the young woman answered.

"True. Just like last time. Actually, you've been asking me to leave you about...hmmm...257 times." Azhure sweatdropped.

"I can't believe you actually keep track of this," she muttered to herself.

"What can I say? I like precision," Silver told her as he walked around her like predator circling its prey. "So, you think they grew tired of you yet?"

"I'm not listening..."

"You got a troublesome temper problem. You can't control your magic. You can't control your fists. Is your blood starting to betray you?" he grinned evily. "Is the goddess in you taking over?"

"SHUT UP!"

"You didn't tell them about your little 'curse' did you? You only slide a small hint to the blond one but never voiced the whole thing to them."

"They don't need to know everything."

"Funny you say that. I think they should know that you can go rogue at any time and kill them because you can go NUTS."

"I won't lose my mind. I WON'T!"

"Who will you kill first? The water girl? The tomboy? That annoying endless pit guy? The stuck up blond?"

"STOP IT!"

"Oh...I know... You would go for the one you love most first... Him." And he showed her the cut off head of Touma that he was holding by the hair.

***

"NO!!!!" she screamed as she woke up, covered in cold sweat.

"Azhure, what's wrong?" Orion asked worried. But he received no answer. He watched his sister throwing her blankets away, jumped out of bed and rushed out of the room. She did not seem to mind all the noise she was making as she ran upstairs. The moonlight going through the windows helped her not to crash into the furniture but she bumped a couple of times in the archways of doors. She opened violently the door of Touma's and Seiji's bedroom only to find Touma's bed empty. She quickly turned to Seiji who instinctively reached for his orb when the noise of the door slamming against the wall woke him up.

"Where is he?" she asked him urgently.

"Where's who? What's going on?" Seiji was about to armor up when he heard his voice.

"I have to see Touma! Where is he?"

"Azhure, you have to calm down." The last thing Seiji wanted was a hysterical girl in his room at 3am in the morning. He guessed she was probably shocked by one of her nightmares. Why else would she burst in at this ungodly hour?

"Seiji, please. Tell me where he is. I need to know he's ok. I need to see him." She was about to crack when she heard Touma's voice behind her.

"Azhure? What are you doing here at this hour?" he asked her, surprised. She turned around and looked at him. He couldn't see it but she started to cry. She slowly walked toward him, her hands reaching for his arms as if she wanted to make sure it was truly him and she fell on her knees, sobbing violently. Touma didn't understand but he kneeled in front of her and hugged her. It was the only thing he could think of to comfort her.

The light in the corridor light up and four shadows appeared in the doorway. Shin, Shuu and Ryo were wearing their subarmor, thinking some youjas were attacking the house. When they saw the scene, they looked at each other puzzled and they looked at Seiji who simply shrugged. Nasuti made her way through the boys and put her hand on Azhure's shoulder.

"It's ok... Everyone's fine." But the magician refused to leave the archer's arms. On her side, Nasuti refused to leave her alone with either of the guys who were sharing the room. In the end, it was agreed that Orion would be the best watch dog to make sure nothing inappropriate would happen in that room that night. By the time the decision was made, Azhure had cried herself asleep in Touma's arms. The blue hair teenager took her in his arms and settled her in his bed before taking place next to her. He had no choice but to cuddle up with her, considering the size of the bed.

However, Touma had little good memories of that night as Orion's piercing gaze stayed on him and his hands all night long. He would later say that it was the less restful night he had in years, just after the ones he had with Ryo when they went to the youjakai to free their captured friends.

***

"I have something for you," Touma said to Azhure. It was only a couple of days after she came into his room at night. She was in the dining room, doing some homework to not be too much behind her classes and he just came back from one of his late classes. She looked up to him, wondering what he was hiding behind his back.

"Oh? What is it?" she asked, curious. He walked up to her and stood at his side with a small smile.

"Considering you seemed to have very disturbing nights lately, I thought you would need permanent protection from them."

"I see. You guys have some sort of talismans for this kind of thing?" Of course, Azhure had to tell everyone about her nightmares after the scene she did two nights ago. They were all upset she didn't open up to them about it earlier and that reaction surprised her. They were treating her like family...and she felt ashamed to not act more accordingly. She swore to herself to change that.

"Sort of." With pride, he put in front of her a fluffy dark brown teddy bear with a dark blue ribbon around its neck. She examined it carefully.

"A teddy bear?"

"Yes. Children sleep with them to help to fall asleep, believing it will keep the monsters away."

"So...I'm a child?" she asked him, poking the teddy once.

"No, that's not what I meant!!!" Gosh, he had trouble expressing himself sometimes. He slapped his forehead and tried again. "It's just...I can't exactly be at your side every night to keep Silver away. So...I thought that if I gave you a teddy bear, it might...help you sleep better at night." He felt his cheeks burning and rubbed the back of his neck out of embarrassment. But the princess smiled and shyly took the stuffed animal. The ribbon was silky to the touch, made out of shiny fabric. It was actually a little paler than Orion's blue ribbon and Touma's armor. The fur under her fingers was soft to the touch which forces anyone that held it hugs it to death.

"Thank you, Touma," she said truthfully, hugging the bear. To see her so happy made the Trooper all fuzzy inside.

"So, how's the homework going?" asked suddenly Orion who passed his head through the table, ruining a perfect moment. His sister glared at him but he just gave her an innocent smile. Touma, understanding the meaning of this interruption, excused himself and left. Starting from that day, every time Azhure dreamt of Silver, the evil sorcerer was chased around by a huge stuffy bear.

Months passed and no one talked about that incident again nor did Azhure and Touma shared any other moments like the one they had in the dining room, thanks to Orion. Winter turned into spring and spring into summer. The summer of that year was unusually hot and to escape the heat, Azhure, Aikyo and Rin decided to go away for a few days to help with Aikyo's training. Just like she promised Shin, she asked Azhure to help her with her powers and knowing the importance of knowing your limitations, the magician accepted to teach her everything she could. At first, she spent her time studying Aikyo's powers to understand them then, when she knew everything there was to know about them, she started teaching the silver hair girl. She began with simple tricks but now, they had to find a good hiding place for the trickier spells and water manipulations to avoid detection.

"Aikyo, where's my book?" Rin asked as she was looking into the trunk of the car in Nasuti's parking lot.

"How should I know? I didn't make your bag," her friend answered.

"Did we pack enough food and water for this trip?" Azhure asked them.

"I think we have enough. In the worst case, you can always open a portal to take us back here," Aikyo said with a smile.

"True, but I would prefer your training to go without interruption."

"Girls, come on! Don't ignore me! I want to find that book!"

"What book it was again?" the magician asked.

"The myths and legends one," the tomboy answered.

"Ah! I think you left it in the living room. I'll go get it," Azhure replied before walking back into the house. Most of its inhabitants were out at this hour of the day: Ryo and Seiji went downtown, Shuu and Shin were at the beach to get cool off and surfing and Nasuti was out for some grocery shopping. The magician completely forgot about Touma so when he walked in silently in the living as she was searching for the book, she nearly had a heart attack when he talked to her.

"Leaving soon?" he asked innocently. He blinked at her reaction, for she screamed and turned around, her right hand on her heart. "Calm down. It's just me," he continued with a sweatdrop.

"Sorry! I was just I was alone in the house," the teenager baffled before taking Rin's book that was stuck between two pillows of the sofa.

"So you would have just left without saying goodbye?" Touma asked her teasingly. She blushed.

"Only because I thought you were out with the others. Aikyo already said her goodbye to Shin this morning before he left for the beach with Shuu. I suppose you were still asleep then."

"Probably," he shrugged. "Will you be away long?"

"No. Probably just a week or a little over that."

"I still don't think that going to another world for training Aikyo is a good idea. What if you need help?"

"We'll be fine. The world is safe and we will stay together all the time. If the need to escape arises, I'll take them to safety here. Trust me."

"Alright. In that case, I'll see you when you come back. I'll be leaving with Jun soon for some star gazing."

"What? Really? Oh I wish I could come too!!" Azhure always thought it was fascinating to see how the starry sky was different on Earth than on her home world but considering the light pollution the planet had, it was difficult to actually see the real sky at night.

"We can go another time you and I if you want. We have all summer to do that." He smiled at her and she blushed again.

"That would be nice," she replied, squeezing the book in her hands.

"Azhure!! Did you find it yet?" Rin screamed from afar.

"Oh I better go. The girls are waiting for me. Have a good star gazing activity with Jun!"

"Are you sure you'll be alright?" Touma called after her as she ran out of the house.

"Of course! I have your talisman with me!" she replied, giggling.

Touma smiled to himself. The year has been eventful with Azhure around but he was glad that her and his friends were now feeling better. Seiji was back to his old self and Ryo seemed to have finally accepted Luna's death and stopped blaming himself. The princess' nightmares were over or so it appeared and she never tried to run away again. He started to wonder when he should give her back her missing sai he kept.

Maybe when she will come back from this trip, he thought.

However, another event would take his mind of this matter all too soon, as a strange African warrior appeared downtown few days after the girls left.

The End