Chapter 7

Dedication: this chapter is dedicated to my number one Eliena/Leo shipper, Madame-S-Butterfly, because she's been on board the Eli/Leo boat since day one and deserves a chapter for her. Exclamation points are our friends! It is also for Alanna22039, because she's one of my favorite authors here on FF.N and is such a great person to talk to! I love you both and don't know where I'd be without you!

Eliena stretched and stirred. Her eyes opened and her breath caught. She wasn't in her room-there was no connecting door in her room! She rolled over and saw Leo, a clump of hair resting across his sleeping face. She smiled, remembering the events of the night before:

When they had finally stopped kissing, Leo held Eliena close. "Eli, I—"

"Shh," she told him, pressing her finger to his lips. "Don't say it." A smile spread across Leo's face. He rose and offered her his hand. She took it and he lead her silently to his room, which connected to her parents'. Eliena locked the connecting door while Leo handled the hall door. Now that they were assured total privacy, their kisses became more urgent and they collapsed onto Leo's bed.

Eliena fingered her ember stone, thinking about how it had been the firs time for both of them, but it had just been natural. Eliena bit back another smile. I'm just like mother, she thought. Seventeen and with my best friend as my lover! She brushed the hair from Leo's face and his eyes opened. He smiled.

"Good morning," he said.

"Morning," she returned.

"Are you really here?" he whispered. Eliena nodded. "Goddess." Eliena kissed him.

"I'm here," she said, putting her forehead against his. "But I should probably go."

"Don't. We'll stay here all day," Leo told her.

"Believe me, Leo, I would I like to," Eliena replied. "But I have duties."

"As do I," Leo sighed. "But how are you going to sneak out? The only outfit you have it your ball gown." Eliena chewed her lip, thinking about it.

"I might be able to sneak into my parents' room and take something from mother," she remarked. "Or I could run—it's only across the hall."

"Go across the hall and I'll meet you," Leo said. They both climbed out of bed. Eliena dressed, and Leo put on a loincloth and breeches. He walked her to the door. She opened it, kissed him, hurried across the hall, and opened her own door.

"See you soon!" She blew him kisses and shut the door. Falling against it, she sighed.

She couldn't wait to tell Daine!

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"Daine!" Eliena stage-whispered. Daine looked at Eliena from another table. "I need to talk to you after breakfast." Daine gave Eliena a thumbs up and returned to her conversation with Numair.

"So, Eliena, did you sleep well?" Alanna asked. Eliena and Leo exchanged a glance and a small smile across the table.

"Very well, thank you," she replied.

"Well that's good," the queen commented. If she knew of what had happened the night before, she didn't let on. "I suppose you'll show Kaddar around today?"

"If he wants," Eliena replied, smiling at the emperor, who was seated beside her.

"I would like that very much, thank you," Kaddar said.

"You showed Daine and me around Carthak, it's the least we can do," Eliena told him.

"Now wait a minute. Don't volunteer Daine without her consent," Jonathan corrected.

Eliena sighed. "Fine. But Daine will say yes." She felt a foot against hers and smiled at Leo.

Jonathan and Alanna exchanged a smile. They had been young, in love, and trying to hide it once. They knew what it looked like. Alanna would speak to Eliena later, and maybe Jonathan would talk to Leo. It occurred to Alanna that Eliena was following in her footsteps: she took her first lover on her seventeenth birthday, and the person was her best friend.

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Eliena pulled Daine into an unused room. She shielded it from hearing and confided the night's events.

"Oh, Eli!" Daine exclaimed. "That's so wonderful!"

"I know," Eliena replied. "Daine, he's just so perfect." Eliena sighed. "I don't know why I didn't see it before!"

"All that matter is that you see it now," Daine told her. Eliena nodded. "Do you love him?"

"I think so," Eliena replied, only slightly hesitant.

"Eli?" Alanna called.

"Coming!" Eliena took her shields off the room and opened the door. "Here, mother!"

"Oh, hello Daine. How've you been?" the queen asked.

"Fine, thank you. Excuse me," Daine replied and left.

"Eli, come with me. I need to talk to you." Eliena swallowed and followed her mother to the king and queen's private stuffy. Alanna sat in a chair across from Eliena and guarded the room.

"Yes, mother?"

"I'm going to be blunt, Eliena: did you sleep with Leo last night?" A blush sprang up on Eli's cheeks. "That would be a 'yes', am I right?" Eliena nodded.

"Are you mad?"

"Sweet, how could I be mad without sounding like a hypocrite? You know the story of my seventeenth birthday." Eliena smiled. "All I care about is that you wear that charm against pregnancy. I don't need you having a child before you're ready."

"Yes, mother."

"Good. Now, tell me all about it."

Eliena gladly obliged, telling her mother everything. Eliena and Alanna had almost always gotten along well. Alanna drew comparisons, listened intently, and smiled. The place where Eliena and Leo had been sounded like the exact same spot as Alanna and Jonathan had been in. She mentioned this.

"Maybe it was fate," Eliena mused. "Maybe I was meant to do this and meant to be with Leo."

"Quite possibly," Alanna said. "For now, I believe Emperor Kaddar requires a guide." Eli nodded and kissed her mother.

"I like you best when you're like this," Eliena commented on her way out. Alanna smiled to herself.

Her little Eliena was growing up.

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"I don't want to go with him!" Eliena yelled. It was an hour to the ball, and Eliena had decided that she would duck out on all her commitments to miss the ball.

"Absolutely not," Jonathan said. "You will go with Sir Geoffrey as was planned."

"I refuse to go, then!" Eliena crossed her arms defiantly over her chest.

"You will go to the ball, Eliena and you will go with Sir Geoffrey of Meron!" Jonathan told her.

"No."

"You will go or you will be banned from helping the pages or the Riders!"

"I refuse!"

"Damn it, Eliena, you will do as you're told!" Jonathan slammed his hand on his desk. Eliena glared at him.

"I refuse to go. There is nothing you can do to me."

"Oh, really?"

"Yes."

"Eliena, I am your father. There is quite a lot I can do to you."

Eliena glared at him. "Prove it."

Jonathan returned her glare. "I don't want to. Just go with him, Eli. What harm can it do?"

"None."

"So why are you objecting?"

"Because I don't want to go!"

"You're starting to sound like your mother."

"You say that like it's a bad thing."

"Eliena." Jonathan rubbed his head. "You're giving me a headache."

"Good! Father, please. All I'm saying is let me out of it. Say I'm sick or something and I won't go."

"Eliena…"

"Please."

Jonathan looked at his daughter. Her violet eyes were pleading. He could tell that she didn't want to go. Eliena knew the importance of commitments, and not honoring one would definitely affect her. But if there was something so important to her that she would pull out, it was certainly major.

Jonathan sighed. "All right, but you owe me, Eliena." She squealed and hugged her father tightly.

"Thank you, father! You won't regret it, I promise! I'd be such a grouch!" She left the room happily.

Leo was waiting for her. "Well?" he asked.

"I'm not going!" she replied. Leo laughed and grabbed her, spinning her around. She kissed him. "Then we can do whatever we want." Leo waggled his eyebrows and it was Eli's turn to laugh.

"Mithros, Eli, you're something else," he said. "I never thought your father would let you out of it."

"He knows me, Leo. He knows I'd never duck out unless it was important." She smiled at him and kissed her friend softly. "And I consider love important."

"You love me?" Leo asked, the shock evident on his face.

"Not if you don't love me," she replied. Leo smiled.

"I love you, Eli. I love you more than anything else in the entire world."

Author's Note- that felt seriously all over the place. Sigh I suppose it was just one of those chapters. REVIEW.