Back again. Just to clarify, as with the game the protagonist is only able to transfer villages at the end of every season. So for those wondering, Lillian is on her last few days on winter in Bluebell and as it stands now will be moving to Konohana on the 2nd of spring. Hope that cleared things up for those of you who were confused.

It felt as if someone had beaten him roughly about the head with a hammer; everything between his ears was coated with a dull aching sensation. Somewhere in the back of his mind he registered that someone was carrying him. And rather badly too- even as he thought this, the person beneath him gave a great lurch and knocked him against a solid wall. He tried to open his eyes and realized one of them was swollen shut- even then, his one good eye was seeing stars more than images. Giving it up as a bad job, he grunted slightly as he felt himself be bumped through a door frame.

He was having a hard time recalling how he had gotten into such a state. The last thing he could remember was an icy sensation about his ears before he had fainted... He was still freezing cold now, his slacks frozen against his skin and snapping as he began to try to move his feet of his own accord.

The person beneath him was breathing heavily, yet managed with a great groan to dump him into what felt like a rather hefty pile of pillows. He caught a scent of lavender and would have jumped up in surprise if his limps would have let him. He settled on snapping his good eye open, squinting until it focused on a rather pink face.

She looked a little worse for wear. There was a great swollen bruise on her cheek and she looked soaked to the bone. She was glaring down at him, managing to look utterly terrifying as she grabbed a damp rag and began dabbing at the dried blood on his chin.

"Awake then, are you?"

He couldn't have made a noise if he had wanted to; his jaw seemed to have swollen itself shut. Despite the look of fury on her face she was pressing the cool rag against him rather tenderly. "I don't know what you were thinking, you idiot. Kana's almost twice your size."

"I didn't like... his tone." He grunted, wincing slightly against his bruised jaw.

"Idiot." She said quietly, getting up to fetch a cloth filled with snow and settling herself beside him on the bed in order to press it against him better. "I can't believe the both of you."

He took his eyes off her face long enough to realize that they were in her house- or what looked to be her house. It seemed as if Lillian had let it fall into a state of what could only be described as filthiness; there was a pile of unwashed dishes by the sink, a pile of dirty clothes residing in every corner. "Did Kana-?"

"Don't mention his name to me." Lillian said quietly, pressing the bundle of snow so hard against his jaw he winced. "I can't believe you two." She repeated, before she finally answered his unasked question. "He went back to Konohana. I had to carry you down the damn mountain myself." She shifted the ice from his jaw to his eye, the feeling of the cold against the swelling making him let out a small gasp. "Shut up."

He couldn't take his eyes off of her; it had been so long since he last saw her up close, he could have counted her eyelashes if he had wanted. She seemed oblivious to his gaze; she was too busy taking in his great expanse of injuries. "I'm sure you're going to have a black eye, and he got your jaw too..." She leant back slightly, plucking the front of his shirt from his chest. "I bet you're even worse under here... Goddess, no wonder you're shivering, you're soaked..."

She shot a furtive glance at the door and began speak more to herself than to him. "I did meet Eileen on my way down... But she'll want to pack up her lumber before she fetches Jessica..." She seemed to make up her mind as she focused again on his bruised and battered face. "Well there's no way around it. Get up, you big lump."

She pulled him into a sitting position that made stars burst out in front of his eyes, her hands gripping his shoulders to keep him upright. He couldn't take it anymore, couldn't handle her being this close and not being in the right mind to touch her- his unsteady head had rocked rather clumsily on his shoulders and into her neck, and with a tiny inhale the scent of lavender shocked his eyes back into focus, and he forcibly bit down the urge to pull her against him. He must have made some sort of noise because she pulled back abruptly, her eyes nervous as she struggled to find his gaze.

"Ash? Ash, are you okay?"

He thought he was going to be sick; he couldn't take it, feeling the way he did on top of whatever physical injuries he had sustained. His mind was running in a thousand different directions; he wanted to throw his arms around her, to push himself from her, half wished he was drowning at the bottom of the freezing lake...

She eased herself backward until she was crouched in from of him, her hazel eyes alight with worry. She had never looked at him like she was now, and despite himself he felt a surge of heat run through his chest and pool in his belly; a fire kindled there that warmed him despite the chill in his bones. And now more than ever he couldn't bear the fact that things were over, and it was that more than anything that set his clouded mind to work. Swinging an oddly heavy arm up from his side, he saw her flinch before he pressed his palm against her bruised cheek, trying to be as gentle as he could.

"I'm sorry." He grunted rather roughly, trying to fight the tears that were beginning to brim his eyes. He watched the shock flutter across her face, somehow still looking beautiful despite the swelling. He couldn't quite pin down what specifically he was sorry for, but he did know it was the right thing to say- his actions had been causing her a certain amount of pain as of late, and he knew enough, at least, to apologize. Absentmindedly, his thumb traced the bruise that was blossoming on her cheek. "Especially if I did that."

She dropped his gaze but allowed him to tilt her chin up, turning her head slightly into the light. When she spoke again, she sounded slightly breathless. "It doesn't matter. You're probably worse under there." She glanced at his shirt collar. "Do... Do you mind?"

He didn't answer but instead released her chin, allowing his hand to trail down the line of her neck and into her hair before he sat up as straight as his sore ribs would allow. She drew a breath and settled herself between his knees before she reached for him, pausing slightly as she gripped the top button.

"It's nothing you haven't seen before." He said rather painfully as she grinned sheepishly up at him.

"I don't need reminding thanks." She sneered slightly, adopting her usual haughty manner that he had come to associate with her being embarrassed.

He kept his eyes on her face as she began to undress him, watching her cheeks go slightly pink as she dipped beneath the gaps in the neckline, her fingers teasing the ginger flesh below. He was sure she was remembering their first time too, and knew as she bit her lip that she was trying just as hard as he was to keep thing civil.

She had untucked his shirt from his trousers and was attending to the final few buttons when her eyes suddenly narrowed, her fingers spreading the fabric apart and displaying a rather colourful array of bruises. "I'm never going to forgive Kana."

"I hit him first."

"That's not the point." She said rather fiercely. She had begun to inspect the length of his sides, and was now running a thumb down his ribs, prodding every few inches. "And I'll bet anything those bones are bruised, if not cracked..."

His jaw was still rather tender, but he forced it apart as she glared at his stomach. "What is the point, then?"

She paused for a moment, as if trying to find the right way of wording what she wanted to say. When she finally did speak, her voice was much softer than he was expecting. "Don't be stupid, Ash." She said quietly, the finger that had prodded him before absentmindedly stroking about his bruises. "… I thought you were dying for a moment… You weren't conscious most of the time, I had to sling you over my shoulder, I don't think my back will ever be the same, and well… You were taking these great rasping breaths all the way down the mountain, and you were shivering like crazy when you weren't coughing water up … It was enough to scare anyone who cares about you."

He couldn't think of much to say. It was always rare, even when they had been on the best of terms, to see Lillian talk this way- frank, and open about her feelings. Her hands left his abdomen to fit about her neck and push her hair over her right shoulder, sending another stunning scent of lavender at him. "Despite what you may think, I'm not made of ice… But why were you even up on the mountain, anyway?"

He tried to clear his throat and failed, watching as she got up between his knees and migrated over to the kitchen. More to avoid looking at her, he picked up the abandoned ice bundle and pressed it up against his eye. "I was... Thinking about something. I... ended up there."

Lillian began pulling out drawers and cabinets at random, apparently searching for something. "It must have been some pretty serious thinking if you made it up to the mountain." She said quietly.

His jaw was beginning to ache. "Er, yeah it was. Laney, kind of… propositioned me."

She had been rummaging about a drawer rather loudly at that point and had managed to extract what appeared to be a long length of plain cotton fabric but she stopped abruptly, her spine looking painfully straight. "Propositioned you? How?"

He was beginning to wish they weren't talking at all; his jaw felt as if it was about to fall off its hinges. "I guess you could say it was a marriage proposal? Or at least an invitation for courtship."

Lillian stared at the cabinet in front of her for a moment before she banged the kitchen drawer shut and rounded on her heel, her tone suddenly frosty. "We should do something about your ribs."

"My ribs are fine."

"No, they're not." She said firmly, avoiding his eye as she resumed her spot between his knees once more. He resided to let her do what she wanted- after all, he was far too weak to fight back for much longer. There was hardly a moments silence between them before she spoke once more.

"So did you say yes?"

"Yes?"

"To Laney's offer. Did you say you would court her?"

She had slid her hands up from his chest and onto his shoulders, leaning in so that the tips of her breasts were pressing ever so slightly against his bare chest as she slid the top of his shirt down his back. He was having a hard time focusing on anything else, catching her eye as she pulled his sleeves over his hands. "I said I would think about it."

They stared at each other, so close now he could feel her breath against his cheek. He wondered, vaguely, how much it would hurt to kiss her, but she had dropped her gaze once more to his chest, her fingers tracing a vein up from his forearm and to his heart. "Why would you say that to her?" She breathed.

"I told her that I wasn't over you." He breathed back, hardly daring to breathe as her forefinger traced a circle around his nipple. "But that I was going to try."

She shut her eyes and he knew for a moment that he had said the wrong thing; her finger left his chest and dropped to her side. "As you should." Lillian breathed, her voice trembling slightly. "As we both should."

The moment of intimacy was gone. He tried to open his mouth to say something but found once again that he was incapable of speech, be that from being swollen or from his own stupidity. Lillian, meanwhile, had picked up the roll of cotton from her side and was beginning to wrap it about his waist, words beginning to tumble out of her mouth.

"You were right to say that." She muttered. "No, I mean it. What we had was... But it's pointless to keep up with old feelings." She paused, bending over slightly to tie the knot of cotton together. "I think Laney would be a good wife to you... She's what you need, after all."

They fell into another silence and for the first time it occurred to him that he hated her; hated her for what she had done to both of them, hated that he could never, ever, get over her; hated that they were both stuck in a constant state of wanting, but never having...

She got to her feet, apparently satisfied with the knot, and avoided his gaze as she spoke. "I'm going to fetch your mother. Eileen probably still hasn't finished with the lumber..."

He pressed the ice back into his jaw and glared at her from above the soaking cloth, wrenching his mouth open to yell at her. "It's not fair, you know. I've told you hundreds of times that I'm willing to make this work if you are... I can't wait forever, Lillian, I can't wait for you to make up your mind... I told you once before, I'm not some sort of play thing for you to mess around with until someone better comes along."

She turned back to him, one hand on the door knob, wearing a grimace that only half resembled the crooked smile he loved so much. "Yeah but… Neither am I, Ash."

She didn't even have the courtesy to slam the door on her way out.

It may not seem like it, but things are (finally) on the upswing. Read and Review please!