A/N: Second chapter up and away feeling it'll be longer than chapter 1. Thanks to BellaMarieSwanCullen97 and Jackattack5478 for the reviews, please Review! Listened to Watch Over You by Alterbridge when I wrote most of this, ROCK ON!

Disclaimer: I AM Suzanne Collins, at least I think I am...maybe...

Luxa stared out her window at the all of her kingdom, Regalia, the beauty of it's stone architecture and ornate carvings along all the buildings, displaying images of humans battling gnawers and trading with crawlers, also depicting spinners every now and then. But as she stared out her window the architecture of a much different city was on her mind. New York.

The words tasted like wine in her mouth, intoxicating but bitter. She longed to see the buildings, the streets, the sun. She wanted to see all the things that the Overlander had told her about. She wanted to see cars, pizza, movies, she wanted to see how differently people lived their lives on the other side of the dirt. But mostly she wanted to see him.

The Overlander.

Gregor.

He was the real reason she longed for the other side, for the surface, the Overland. He had saved her kingdom, saved her people, and saved her life. A debt which she could never hope to repay. Not in full. Not at all.

As she stared out the window though she knew no matter what his words said, or what his lips said, he did not feel the same. He had had to send her to the dungeon to stop her from coming after him, she had disobeyed her family, her friends, the council, just to be near him. And what had he done? He had gone to the surface and acted like his mother's word meant so much to him, which clearly it did not as he had often disobeyed her before. He acted as if a rock would separate two people who cared deeply for each other. Surely no matter what he said he felt he did not feel the same, could not feel the same.

Luxa tore her eyes away from the window, realizing that this daily banter she went through with herself would not change anything, yet she also knew that she would go through this exact same thing tomorrow, and the next day and everyday hence, just as she had every day since the Overlander left her life.

As her eyes left the window they flew to a piece of paper she had not realized she had had in her hands, but as she looked she knew what piece of paper it was and didn't bother looking at it, nor did she bother to translate the tree of transmission into english, it simply said, "Luxa, I love you."

She had received the message when he had left to kill the Bane, and no one thought he was coming back. And she had held onto it to remember him by, but then when the Warrior had returned home safely she had held onto it so that she might remember an unspoken promise, because if the message written on that paper was true, then he must be coming back, if not even the promise of death could stop him from finding his way home to-

Luxa cut herself off, but this wasn't his home, he hadn't come back; he had stayed with his family.

Luxa quickly hid the piece of paper in her pocket as she heard footsteps approaching, she would not let herself be seen like this again, the whole Underland knew that she was coming of age to rule, the whole Underland knew that in only four short months she would be coronated and ascend to power in Regalia, and when that happened she would be expected to start looking for a spouse, a king, and to stop fantasizing about Overland Warriors who were clearly never coming back, because obviously they did not feel the same way, and would not return, because as her cousin Howard said, "If he has not returned by now, it is likely that he never will." Luxa had thrown something at him when he had said it, told him that Gregor would come back, had to come back.

When her visitor didn't bother knocking and just came right in Luxa relaxed a little, because there was only creature who would do that and he knew her secrets, and she knew his.

"Well Queenie," Ripred chuckled to himself as if the new nickname were extremely clever, "as much as I would love to sit and swap war stories with you and talk about how miserable our lives are you're needed in the High hall."

"For what?" Luxa asked quickly, now that the country was at peace and she was not yet of age to rule she basically had nothing to do all day, and receiving a summons especially this close to luncheon was extremely rare in the current climate of the Underland.

"Why I thought you'd never ask," the rat said his voice dripping with sarcasm. "The council wishes for you to try on dresses for your coronation, it is an important event." The rat said and with that curtly turned his back and walked out of the room.

As Luxa made her way to the High hall dresses were the thing farthest from her mind, she couldn't stop thinking about the last time she had seen the Overlander, the picnic they had had in Ares old cave, and all the memories that she had of Gregor came rushing back to her. And the last moment, the last kiss that they had shared, and the words they had shared over the picnic, when they had said they loved each other, and that's how she knew he had to come back, why she wouldn't throw away that message, because she knew he felt the same, and he was coming back, someday.

Suddenly she knew where she had to be, and it wasn't in the high hall trying on dresses, trying to look pretty for the masses that only knew her as their queen, it was where she told him where she would be, where she would think of him, where he would find her, where she needed to be, because in that moment she knew not only that he was coming, but that he was coming soon. He had to, she could feel it.

Gregor sat in his seat on the plane, stuck somewhere in between mourning the death of his grandma, and celebrating what he knew would be a triumphant return to the Underland. He heard something about how they were going to land in JFK airport in a short while and that the passengers should be ready to land.

When the plane finally touched down in JFK Gregor couldn't wait to get off the plane, and get back to New York, which was his real home on this side of the dirt. Not some podunk farm in Virginia. Not that he was done sitting around waiting, he still had anywhere from a 45 minute to over an hour drive from Queens to Manhattan, depending on traffic.

Gregor just put his headphones on and closed his eyes, not focusing on anything but his music during the car ride, still trying to figure out how he was possibly going to tell his parents that he was going back to the Underland, how he was going to break it to them that they might never see him again. And that was how he spent the entire car ride to the graveyard, miserable, and hopeful, desolate, but comforted. Knowing that soon he would be reunited with the one that he loved.

Luxa wasn't happy with how her afternoon went, trying on dresses, pretending to be happy. The dresses were beautiful, but her heart just wasn't in it. The whole time she was waiting for it to end so she could go to that place, the last place she had seen him. So when Ripred came she breathed an almost audible sigh of relief, because when the rat came she knew it was to end the appointment, or at least get her a small break.

"Has the girl eaten anything?" Ripred asked casually as he reclined into his usual poor posture. When he didn't receive an answer he took it as a no and seized the young queen from her spot, demanding that she at least take a short break, and after some arguing it was agreed that she would resume the appointment in two days

When they were out of earshot Luxa turned to the rat and gave him her thanks, "If it were not for you they probably would have kept me there for two days." Ripred just shrugged it off as if it were no big deal, but Luxa could see a smirk across his face.

"If you think I did that for you, you're wrong. I haven't eaten anything, and when they cook for you they prepare the best food." Ripred said only half joking.

During the meal Luxa managed to get word to Aurora that she would meet her in the Royal chambers in an hour and a half. And surprisingly once she got that off of her chest she could really just focus on eating the meal, because she knew she could not be anywhere else at the moment, and so she enjoyed the shrimp and cream sauce that they had been served as per Ripred's request.

After the meal it was all she could do not to run to her chambers even though she knew Aurora wouldn't be there for at least another hour. So she took her time, and tried not to think about the Overlander until later that night, but, as usual, all attempts to block Gregor from her mind failed. And failed miserably.

The next hour dragged along but when Aurora finally came Luxa spilled everything to her, how she had spent the day and how she somehow knew the Overlander would be returning soon, and also her plan.