Dragon's Love with Dangerous Letters

Chapter 27

It was good to get out of her room. She was actually glad she finally forced herself from that bed after the maid left that morning and what made it even greater is that she wasn't greeted by a certain blonde when she opened her door. The garden had been good enough for a walk so she decided to do that and go over some things she had been wanting to get off her mind such as her father. It still hurt at the realization that he was gone, her last close connection to her family, her last living parent but she tried thinking more on the positives of it such as him being able to be with her mother once more in a better place where he didn't have to suffer through the war that she knew was slowly trailing all of them.

She found her way back down the hall her room had resided down. She found her door cracked thought and wondered how that was when she was sure she checked and made sure it was shut before she had left to go for her walk. Her hand pressed up against the white object and pushed it open slowly. Her eyes widened slightly seeing who sitting there on her bed waiting. He had his elbows pressed against his knees and the back of his hands against his forehead, well they were against his forehead until he looked up quickly hearing the door creak open. She saw his eyes brighten as he stood up almost as if he had been worried over something and seeing her made it all wash over.

"Sting?" She whispered.

"There you are! I came to uh, check and see if you were still in here but when I found you gone I thought that-"

He stopped mid-sentence watching as she was backing away from him with ever step he took, his mind hadn't even processed that he had moved away from the bed at all. He stopped and pressed his lips into a fine line knowing that saying anymore wouldn't do anything. The brunette slowly walked into her room shutting the door behind her before walking past him and towards her bed. There lay a tray of food, a breakfast meal. She sighed and picked it up before placing it on her nightstand not paying a second thought to it.

"Please eat something."

It was low, a whisper but she still caught it. She turned back around to find him facing her, his head hanging while he stared down at his feet. She didn't respond but only sat down on her bed kicking off her flats and pulling her feet onto the bed. She felt uncomfortable with him standing there for she didn't know what she was supposed to say in case it did nothing but initiate another fight that she didn't want. He shuffled a crossed the floor and found a spot in the chair on the other side of the nightstand than the bed, his position resuming back to the one he was in when she walked in, hands on forehead and elbows on knees.

"Artemis. . ."

She looked at him from the corner of her eye.

"I. . . I really only came to tell you about the ball we're holding tonight. . . I wanted you to come cause I just thought that maybe it would help you feel better."

She licked her lips and looked back down to her knees after making out his incoherent mumbles. She knew what he meant by her feeling better. She wasn't surprised that he knew about her father's death, it's not like he couldn't know because he was obviously going to be told about the destruction of magnolia which would ultimately lead to him asking question since he knew that was her home kingdom. She considered his offer to go for a moment.

"When is it?"

His head shot up. She could've sworn he had almost smile but held it in.

"It's tonight. I had a dress made for you so even if you happened to say no it could still be something you could walk around the castle in normally." He answered and pointed to the closet a crossed the way.

She slowly slid her legs off of the bed and stood up. Her hands gripped the handles on both doors of the closet and flung them open. She knew what dresses had been in there so it wasn't hard to pick out which one had been made for her just for the ball. She pulled it out and observed it, the thing she found most appealing and coincidental about the dress was that it had her favorite color, blue; splashed throughout it when she was pretty sure she never mentioned her favorite color to him. It was strapless and the edges around the top part of the dress ran in a straight line, not like in that heart shaped form some ball gowns had. The bottom wasn't overly puffy like a ball gown much either but she liked that. She always thought dress like that made her seem to big anyway. White made up most of the dress's color but the parts that were made up of the royal blue color was the folded layer on the top near her bosom and then the light sprinkling of blue jewels around her waist that lead to a small blue pendant that would go near her left hip allowing the white fabric to split apart and reveal the royal blue layer underneath in that small area of the dress. She adored it and thought it to be even more beautiful at the dress she wore to the last ball she was at even if that dress had more of a personal attachment to it.

"Do you like it?"

She nodded to Sting's question and it was almost as if she felt him smile behind her. She hung the dress back up and realized that a new pair of white heels had rested with the rest of her shoes at the bottom of the closet. They were most likely to go with the dress. She closed the doors and spun around to look at the dragon slayer once more. He was standing now with his hand behind his head smoothing down his spiked up hair, or at least trying to since it always popped back up again anyway.

"Well. . . I guess I'll go now. The party and the dress were really only why I came." He said and turned making his way to the door.

"Is there any reason you guys are holding the ball?"

Sting stopped hearing her question. His hand clutched the doorknob tightly and Artemis noticed this looking at him confused. His eyes slowly met with hers and she saw the sadness run through his eyes. His hand that was on the door dropped back down to his side and he sighed shaking his head to answer her. It seemed as if he didn't want to tell her and it made her mad, the thought of him still being angry at her running through her mind as he acted this way. He pressed his back against the door and looked up at the ceiling.

". . . . I got engaged."

Sharp and piercing, it felt like a knife was currently doing that to Artemis's heart. Engaged? When to who? She wanted to blurt out all these questions, run over to him and shake him to death yelling at him why he did but she bit her lip and watched him sadly express himself about it. The brunette didn't even have anything to say to him after that. He only shifted his eyes to look back at her and frowned.

"It's Minerva."

'Even better', she huffed mentally and folded her arms.

"I've only told Rogue, my father, and you."

"Right well. . . Congratulations." She said softly and made her way back to her bed.

She thought she saw something that related to pain flash a crossed his face when she said that but it went away too fast for her to tell. She flopped down onto her bed and watched him open the door again. Sting stood half way out the door as he looked at her over his shoulder like he was thinking of something to say.

"Artemis. . . about the other day-"

"No. . . I don't want to start with that now. I don't think either one of us wants to be sour during your big party tonight." She smiled softly even if it hurt to do so.

"Right. . . sorry."

She nodded her head and watched him walk out. Her smiled immediately dropped and she threw herself back on the bed, her hands covering her face. Her heart ached knowing what the ball was for and she couldn't stop it from hurting. What made it worse was that she had just realized that she went near Sting against Weisslogia's orders. If he knew then tonight was going to be worse. All of these things almost made her not want to go but she quickly distracted her mind and came up with an excuse.

"It'd be stupid to waste such a beautiful dress if I don't use it for what it was made for anyway."