When Skyrin woke again, it was light outside. She climbed out of her bed and rubbed her sore arm. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror and noticed that she looked awful. She had dark circles under her red eyes and her left arm was blooming black and blue. Her hair was a mess and her dress was torn. Skyrin strained her memory to figure out what happened and in a rush she remembered everything, training with Requiem, getting lost in the woods, ShadowCat putting her to sleep. Her stomach let out a small growl and she opened her door and padded down the hallway to the central area of the house. Generally Requiem would be waiting for her in the morning, but this time he wasn't there. Instead, she noticed Rubiee setting out a plate of food on the table.
"You must be hungry," she stated.
"Yes," Skyrin answered simply and sat down in front of the food. Rubiee sat across from her.
"Skyrin?" she asked and Skyrin looked up at her. "What happened yesterday?"
"Oh, um," Skyrin started nervously, "I don't really remember." That was a complete lie. She remembered everything, all of it, but she figured that Requiem had already told something else to Rubiee and she didn't want Rubiee to find out about her lessons, so she decided to play dumb. It was apparent that Rubiee didn't believe her, but she just let it go. She could ask ShadowCat later.
"Skyrin, do you remember my warning? About Requiem?"
"Yes, I do. Don't' worry, I'm always careful around him."
"Okay. I just don't want you to get hurt, Skyrin. He's not a bad person, but I just think that it would be wise for you to avoid him if possible."
"I understand," said Skyrin.
"Good. I'm needed at the court, but I wanted to talk to you first. I'll see you later, Skyrin." On that note, Rubiee got up and disappeared out the door in a cloud of glitter which left Skyrin coughing. When Skyrin's vision cleared, she noticed another figure standing off in the corner of the room.
"Requiem? What are you doing here?"
"It's been pretty quiet around recently, I haven't had any work to do, but I knew that if I were around when Rubiee woke up, I'd lose my head, so I disappeared for a while."
"That's good, I get lonely when it's just me."
"Well, I am pretty hard to live without." Skyrin chuckled at his joke and continued to eat in silence.
"I'm sorry about yesterday. It wasn't supposed to go like that. I'd expected to have you back to the house long before nightfall, but I guess that I underestimated you."
"Oh, so you're saying that this is my fault?" Skyrin joked.
"Yes, it is your fault," he played along and she tried to stay composed, but couldn't help but giggle as Requiem smirked at her.
"Are we still on for training?" she asked.
"If you think you're up to it. It can be a useful skill to learn how to fight when injured, but I don't want to make your arm any worse."
"I'll be fine, it's just bruised," she insisted. Skyrin was certainly a strong girl, a trait that Requiem very much admired. It was rare to find humans like her. As Requiem was considering all of her traits that he found enchanting, Skyrin felt a blush spread across her cheeks as she noticed him watching her and turned away to finish her food. Requiem continued to watch her until she finished the last bite and stood up. She put her empty plate in the corner and followed Requiem outside.
"What are we working on today?" she asked as they made their way over to the training area.
"Hand to hand," he stated simply as he stepped into the field that they usually trained in. He abruptly stopped and turned to face her. Having not expected Requiem's abrupt stop, Skyrin ran directly into his chest and felt his arm steady her as he almost fell.
"Let's start off simple. Make a fist," he said as Skyrin did. Requiem examined her hand and adjusted her thumb. "If you put it on the inside, you'll break it." After he'd helped Skyrin to perfect her fist, Requiem began teaching her some basic punches and footwork. He constantly had to fix her stance or motion, but Skyrin was doing pretty well for a beginner.
"Keep practicing, I'll be right back," he said and loped back to the house as Skyrin watched him retreat and mentally slapped herself. When he came back from the house, Requiem was holding a pillow (one of Rubiee's).
"What's that for?" asked Skyrin.
"Target," he answered and strapped the pillow to one of the bull's eye targets set up for archery. Skyrin approached it and waited for instructions from Requiem. She looked over at him to see what he wanted her to do, but was met with no immediate anwer.
"Well? Hit it," he told her and Skyrin did just that. She felt her fist connect with the pillow and next thing she knew she was trotting around clutching her wrist.
"Ow! I thought the point of this training was for me not to get hurt!" Requiem smirked and came up behind her. He caught her hand in his and worked it into a fist.
"You need to keep you wrist stiff, more like this," he explained as Skyrin whimpered.
"Can we try something else?"
"Alright. Let's work on kicks." He then went on to show her how to do a side kick. She went up and made her first attempt. She thrust her foot into the pillow, but stumbled back afterwards. She would have fallen, but Requiem caught her. He was hovering above her and she looked up at him. Then, in a breathless moment, he began to lower his face to hers and their lips met. Skyrin wrapped her arms around Requiem's neck and he pulled her closer to him. Neither of them was sure how long they stayed like that, but eventually they pulled apart. Skyrin looked into Requiem's eyes and he moved a hand to the side of her face. He ran his thumb over her cheekbone and pulled her to him for another kiss. She tangled her hands in his hair and deepened the kiss, but he pulled away.
"I'm sorry Skyrin, I shouldn't have done that," he said and started heading back towards the house, "Lessons are done for today." Skyrin watched his retreating form and, once he was back inside the house, turned around and wandered into the forest.
Requiem was so confused. He was always a lady's man, but he'd never felt exactly what he was feeling for Skyrin. He put a hand to his forehead and sighed. Could it be love? He wanted nothing more than to be with Skyrin, but he couldn't be good for her. He didn't want to hurt her, but he didn't want to be apart from her. He saddled his horse and galloped off to find something heroic to do.
