Waki 35

Life is still crazy. There are still more chapters before I run out. Things should be calming down soon, so I hope I'll be able to get back to writing things. (And beta-ing things... I'll so sorry, Silver!) Pocky goes to whoever correctly figures out who the mysterious person in this chapter is. I'll give you a clue- They've appeared in other chapters before this one, and is an actual cannon character in almost every way. Strangely enough. Considering I didn't actually know the cannon when I wrote it.

Anyways, with much love,

Jiia

"You WHAT?!"

Elizabeth shrank back against the curve of the hull, tear-filled blue eyes blown wide.

"I… I just wanted to talk to him, Will! Make him see reason!"

Will's chocolate eyes had turned into twin pools of auburn flames, glittering with a rage unlike anything she had seen in him before. His fingers tightened by his sides, obviously longing to wrap around the hilt of the sword thankfully sitting on the other side of the young man's hammock.

"So you held him at sword point?! Oh yes, THAT'S going to work out well! What were you thinking, threatening him like that? This has got to be the stupidest thing you've ever done!"

"I'm sorry, Will!" She whimpered, covering her face with her hands. "I didn't mean for any harm to come of it! I just want to help you!"

Will's expression softened. He sighed heavily, pushing his hand through his hair.

"I know, Elizabeth. You had the best of intentions. But having the best of intentions doesn't seem to do us much good these days."

She looked up at him and saw the glimmer of tears in his deep brown eyes. There was a time when she would have wiped those tears away, embraced him, held him close to her until all his sorrows faded away and he could smile again. But those times were long gone, and it was no longer her touch he wanted.

It was at that very moment that she finally realized exactly how much she was willing to give to have him back. To make him love her again.

It was also at that very moment when she realized exactly how impossible, and selfish, that wish really was.

"It's all right, Will." She whispered, her hand rest upon his strong shoulder. "I know how hard it is for you. Trust me, I do. But you'll get through this. Everything will turn out all right in the end."

"But…" Will whispered back, letting his forehead rest atop her golden head. "Everything just keeps getting worse."

She slid her arms around him, somehow managing to hold him in the same way her mother did before she died, despite the obvious height difference. It was an embrace meant only to comfort, to sooth. A mother's embrace.

"Then it's just about time that things start getting better, isn't it?"

Will pulled her tight to him, buried his face in her golden hair, and began to cry.

She held him close, the first genuine smile she had had sliding onto her features with all the natural ease of rain off a roof.

She loved him. That would never change. But maybe, just maybe, she could change the nature of that love.

She had watched him grow up, after all. No matter that she had grown up with him. She had protected him, right from the very instant he had first floated into her life. And if this was what protecting him meant, well then, that was just fine.

She would do her very best to make him happy.

From some dark, secluded corner not far away, a pair of shimmering eyes the colour of the sea at night time watched the smith cry in the young lady's arms.

"Well, well, well…" A voice that lilted and rolled like gentle ocean waves muttered into the shadows. "What a fine mess ye 'ave gotten yerself into, little captain. A fine mess indeed."