A/N: *dodges all sorts of things*

All explanations at the end of the chapter. This chapter has come out a year and a half later, so all my excuses/reasons/apologies will be at the bottom.

But one thing is for certain - I have not/will not give up on this story, and I'll pound out chapters of RoJD till the very end, regardless of how long it takes.

Anyways, onto the chapter!

Disclaimer - I don't own Hetalia. This story's all mine, though.

Chapter 26

"Alfred!"

Her screams reached him, but he did not move. He tried to desperately catch Ivan's eye, but in vain - the man wasn't looking at him.

"Ivan!"

Hell, he even ignored Natalya and Shree's screams of his name, acting like he couldn't understand or even hear what they were saying. Alfred honestly didn't understand the man - he was absolutely crazy. Alfred knew how much he loved Natalya and Shree - and how much they loved him - but right now, he didn't even care. It wasn't not pretending to care - the man never pretended. He either cared of he didn't. And when he didn't care, others got hurt.

.

"What the fuck is that guy doing?" Nat roared, trying to shoot her way through the demons, but her cartridges were steadily emptying, and she was growing tired. They had been at it for almost two hours, and it was taking more and more out of them just to keep these zombie-children at bay.

"I'm hungry," Shree groaned, and with a yell, drove her staff into the ground. The wave of energy destroyed the demons within a ten metre radius, and the two of them ran towards were the demons were dragging Ivan and Alfred away. But the demons closed in on them before they could cover the entire ten metres, and they yet again found themselves back to back, trying to ensure that the demons surrounding them didn't push them back.

"I really can't keep this up, Nat," Shree said tensely. "Times like this is when I wished I had a demonic energy reservoir like Al or Ivan."

"Why are they just letting the demons drag them away?" Nat growled, and kicked away a demon. "I'm never going to have kids after this."

Shree laughed, but her weariness was very apparent. "I hope those two idiots have a plan, because if this doesn't stop, I'm just going to sit down and sleep."

Nat could clearly hear the tension in her friend's voice through the lightness of her words. This was insane - the demons weren't clearing up as fast they were being killed, and the whole place was gory - the ground was littered with the shells of demons, but the shells resembled children, and the circumstances had them stepping over, or standing on the bodies. Having to shoot through, attack or cut through the demons was, on the surface, the same as hacking through and assaulting children. On the level of energy, the bodies were called shells, but on a physical level, the bodies were blood-and-flesh, and the squelching of body parts under their boots, and a spray of blood on them when their weapons connected was all too real.

It was a true to God warzone, and they were in the middle of it.

Nat was having the same thought as Shree - if something didn't change soon, they would be overpowered - that was the truth of it.

And, honestly, Nat had never been so scared for her life before.

.

It was the exact same place Ivan had seen in his astral body. They were in a cave, and like he had guessed, it had been very, very far from the site of battle. There would have been no way to reach there unless the demons had brought them there, and the only way to do that would have been to surrender.

They were both on their knees, head held down, and all he could see was the rock floor they were kneeling on. Next to him, he could sense Alfred fuming, but both of them were tired - they had been engaging the enemy for too long, and the time spent in dragged from the battlefield to the cave had allowed the fatigue to set deep in their bodies, which was not a good sign.

"So nice of you to join us."

The voice itself vibrated with the kind of energy Ivan recognised immediately. This was the being they had surrendered to meet - the kingpin controlling the rest of the demons.

Ivan's gaze shifted to Alfred, and Alfred's face told him that the younger man sensed the difference as well. Good, Ivan thought with a smile. The boy wasn't slow. He wasn't slow at all.

"So kind…of you to…have us…here," Ivan replied, trying to speak evenly through his heavy breathing.

"You are of no use to me, human," the head of the demon troops said. "Anything I could do before I kill you, name it."

"Tell us what is going on and why you are here," Ivan said calmly, controlling his urge to laugh. He was tired, but he had enough juice in him to switch to level ten and wipe this demon out with a flick of his hand.

"We are here to kill the one they call Alfred Jones, as per order of our Lord the King. The one who manages to kill Alfred Jones and return with his moda will be richly rewarded by our Lord the King."

'Our Lord the King' was a loose translation of a set of syllables that denoted the strongest and most spiritually adept individual who trained or controlled those under him. Each place had its own set of syllables for the term, and a place could be identified if the word used was spoken.

Ivan just wanted the demon head to say that word, to slip from his monotonous transliteration and reveal who and where he was from.

"You can't do anything by taking his moda," Ivan said. "The demon isn't bound to his moda, it is bound to his father's moda."

The demon dismissed his words. "He is Alfred Jones, is he not? And he is using our comrade's energy like it is his own. Your words do not matter, human. Prepare to die."

"And these children? You control them?" Alfred asked.

The child sneered. "You two have so many questions for those about to die."

Alfred snarled, but Ivan shook his head. "It's okay, comrade," Ivan told Alfred to calm him down, and turned to the child. "Please humour us."

The child nodded condescendingly, and look down at them from his throne of stone. "I control the children. My energy lives in the madukga. They sustain on me."

Ivan looked at Alfred. "Level ten," he said calmly. "Look away, comrade."

Alfred dutifully looked away, and his skin goosebumped at the wave of energy that suddenly emerged from Ivan. It was as if a window had been pulled up, and the frosty wind from outside had wafted in all at once.

"W-W-W-W" -

"You should have done a bit of homework before engaging with us, comrade," Ivan said, his voice overlapping the sweet voice of a woman.

"W-W-Who are you!" the child screeched, the condescension he previously flaunted replaced by sheer terror.

"Death," was the only word Alfred heard Ivan say before a horrifying shriek emerged, human and other Realmly, ballooning in the cave, rebounding against the walls. A squelch followed, cutting the shriek off all at once, and it was followed by a long moment of silence.

The hold of the demons on Alfred loosened, and Alfred got up. What he saw shocked him.

The children no longer looked like they were in desperate need of food - they were worse. They had become skeletons with the skin stretched taut across the bony surfaces. They were beyond gaunt, and in that moment they were no longer children but ancient dwarfs, bent at the back, their limbs bent towards each other and clanking at the ankles, knees and elbows.

Alfred swung his arm at one. It broke as easily as a log of wood rotting from the inside. He almost groaned in relief, and wanted to tell Ivan, but he didn't turn to him - if he looked at Ivan in this state, he wouldn't be able to look away, and if Ivan happened to look at him, Alfred's energy would be disturbed so violently that his body would easily fold over and die.

"Level thirty-six," he heard Ivan say, and the cold draft of energy emerging from him died out. He turned around, and saw Ivan moments from crumpling to the ground, his stature stooped, his body bent over due to fatigue. Alfred rushed to him, and caught the man before he fell.

He was completely exhausted, but not unconscious yet. "Thank…you…comrade," Ivan managed to whisper out as Alfred struggled to hold them both up - Alfred was tired, and Ivan was heavy, unable to support himself. Alfred quickly brought his demonic energy to the surface, ignoring Tony's insistent request not to. He had just enough energy to do what he had in mind.

With Tony's energy surging through him, he heaved Ivan's weakened body onto one shoulder with ease. He looked at the wide eyed, terrified children who remained standing amongst the bodies of the demons. "Come here," he said, and they all ran towards him, huddling as close as possible to his body. With a flare of energy, he wiped out the remaining demons within the cave.

"Get on," Alfred said, and winced as the children began climbing on his enhanced, large form. "My mistake - I didn't tell you where," he grunted as another child stepped on his toes. When the last child was tightly wrapping around his leg, he tapped into his inner eye.

Tony, find Natalya.

He found her energy within no time. With a burst of energy, he zoomed through the corridor of the cave, finding his way out.

.

Without any warning, the entire sea of children turned into gaunt, bony wraiths. The shells on the ground turned to dust as soon as anyone stepped on them.

Nat accidentally backed into the ones standing, and it disintegrated into dust. Their reflexes and movement had become so slow that they couldn't even move out of the way fast enough.

"What the hell?" Nat gasped. Her lungs were burning, her muscles were screaming with fatigue, and she didn't feel like she could move anymore. But, by the looks of it, neither could her opponents.

Shree just tripped and fell on the ground, her legs unable to hold herself up any longer. "I really can't do this anymore," she groaned. As if inspired by her, the demons surrounding them sat down. The demons behind them tripped and fell forward, effectively crushing the demons they fell on.

Nat, out of curiosity, used the last bit of her energy to direct a gentle breeze around in a circle, away from her. And as if on cue, the demons fell backward, falling over the demons behind them. Like a pack of domino tiles, they all fell, one after the other.

Nat heaved herself next to Shree, who was sitting upright by holding onto her daiijin, which she had managed to root into the ground. "I don't know what happened…" was all Nat could manage out of her tired body.

Shree nodded, her eyes drooping with weariness. "…but it's over," Shree finished for her. Their clothes were plastered to their bodies, their hair clumped and stuck to their face and neck. Sweat dripped from their nose and streamed down their face and bodies. And everything ached. Good Lord, everything hurt.

At a distance, Nat could see Ludwig and Eliza collapse to the ground, the way she and Shree had. Eliza had risen from her stupor in no time, and she had resumed fighting, this time with Ludwig at her side. Their styles were very different - Eliza was violent and attacked like a wildfire, whereas Ludwig was disciplined and highly accurate. No demon they felled rose again, and there had been times when either Nat or Shree had nudged one another to watch the uncanny teamwork that had come about between the two of them.

But they had been fighting for nearly two and half hours straight, and it had become a test of stamina and endurance. Everyone was exhausted, and it was a good thing that the demons had gone ahead and destroyed themselves.

"It's over," Shree panted between breaths, her back against Nat's in mutual support. "Thank the Lord, it's over." Nat didn't respond - her head was tilted back, resting on Shree's shoulder, and she was concentrating on getting air into her aching lungs.

The amulet on her arm tightened, and a tingly feeling ran down to her fingertips. She opened her eyes and looked up. A flash of orange was moving towards them, and reached overhead. Nat could make out Alfred's features as he slowed to land. Halfway down, however, the flames surrounding him spluttered in and out of existence, flickering before finally dying out completely midway through his landing.

It rained people as Alfred, Ivan and a whole bunch of screaming children tumbled to the ground. Ivan and Alfred didn't even have the energy to scream - a soft grunt left their body as they fell to the ground, unable to move.

"Are…you…alive…?" Shree called out.

Alfred just raised a fist, his thumb out.

Nat looked at the children - they were running towards each other across the wide field, huddling together in one large group. All the children who had been separated during the fight were no longer bound by demonic energy, and they rushed to the other children they knew.

"It's…diverse…" Nat muttered, mostly to herself, as she observed the different ages and races the children belonged to. Only their tattered, faded clothes showed uniformity.

A commotion some distance away caught Nat's attention, and she turned. The gates of the monastery had been opened, and the priests and priestesses rushed out. They reached Roderich first, and someone helped him up - his energy had been used up in providing the differential vision to the priests and Eliza. Some rushed towards Eliza and Ludwig, some others to the priests who had fought - all exhausted, all requiring help to cover the distance between where they were and the monastery gates.

Nat watched them rise with each other's help, and clutching onto the more able ones, slowly making their way towards the monastery gates, where waves of priests and priestesses rushed out to help.

"Hey…" Nat managed, "do…you have…some pride…left?"

"What for?" Shree asked, her voice just as soft.

"Let's…walk…back…"

Shree barked out a laugh, and clutched her stomach at the pain the simple action caused. "My…legs have …no pride…love," Shree said. "They'll…have to…pick me up…if I need….to get anywhere."

Nat tried to think, but over their heavy breathing and her aching body, her brain made no effort to shake itself out of its deadened stupor. Rather quickly, she gave up.

They would have to peel her off the floor as well.

"I finally feel alive, comrade," Ivan said, smiling pleasantly.

"You should," Roderich said drily. "You've been out cold for two days now."

"I'm growing old, comrade," Ivan said easily, and Shree snorted. "Lazy's more like it," she retorted, but after two days of sleep and lots of good food, followed by some more sleep, Ivan was in a good mood.

"Let's get to it, then," Alfred said cheerfully, ignoring Roderich's cringe at the disregard for protocol.

"This isn't going to work fast enough, I feel," Ivan said bluntly, and the high spirits filling the room dropped by a notch. "We are installing the idols, but the frequency with which we are confronting other Realm creatures is increasing, and so is their ability to match us. In my presence - for as long as I have been with you, and it hasn't been very long - we have been confronted twice. I…Me and Alfred were enough to take care of them the first time, but this time…" Ivan didn't have to elaborate to all those present there. "If it continues like this, we won't be able to hold them back and keep ourselves safe. Eliza got hurt this time - Shree was around and we were lucky. Say it's Shree next time, or Nat, Then what?"

All of their faces donned thoughtful frowns. Ivan's words made perfect sense - all of them were able to get out that time without any serious injuries.

"All of whom we have faced are from the same Realm," Ivan informed them, and turned to Shree. "What about the ones before I joined you?"

Shree nodded in affirmation. "Their energy followed the same pattern.

"If all of this is just because of a bounty placed on Alfred's head in one Realm, I just need to ask you to think of how…things might turn out, as my comrade Alfred would say, if this person extended the bounty to other Realms, or sent the strongest in his or her own Realm."

"So, what should we do?" Matt asked, his voice breaking the silence.

Ivan's face grew weary, almost sorrowful. "I don't know, comrade. But something must be done."

"How effective is installation of idols?" Roderich asked.

"The pattern was redesigned by Duruni. He blessed the idols as well," Nat said. "Regardless of how effective we think it is, it still needs to be done."

All of them frowned thoughtfully, but Shree's face showed she was not convinced of something. The rest of their minds were vaguely moving through facts and incidences, whereas Shree's mind was at a completely different frequency - the wheels of her mind whizzed and whirred, thoughts flying off one after the other.

Finally, her voice broke the silence. "Alfred, take off your shirt."

Alfred's head shot up, and he was so stunned at the unexpectedness of the statement he couldn't make a clever or suggestive remark. All he could stammer out was, "W-What?"

"Take your shirt off," Shree said, and the bite in her voice had him pulling his shirt off involuntarily.

"Now turn," Shree said, and Alfred did so. What she saw had her jaw snapping open with astonishment.

The look on Ivan's face, however, was dark and foreboding. "This isn't good," he muttered, his eyes on the patches of colour and symbols across Alfred's back, like a scattered jigsaw. To his eyes, the pieces were completing, coming together, too close, too soon.

"This is going to be completed sooner than we imagined," Ivan said tensely. He sat down on his seat on the floor, his frown etched into his face.

"Can't we make a new pathway for installing the idols? One that will finish faster but get the same results?" Alfred asked, pulling his shirt on.

"That's not our only problem now, Alfred," Nat said, her face drawn into her usual scowl, but it was evident that she was worried. "The idol installation will only manage to stop these demon attacks, but there's also your contract with Tony being completely formed before then. We need to separate you and Tony before we finish installing the idols, so that he may return. That gains priority over holding these demons back." Nat turned to Roderich. "We'll have to send a letter to Om, and you must ensure it reaches to the rest of the House Heads as well. There will be an increase in activity of Other-Realm creatures, and all the Houses must be ready to face it."

"How about calling for a gathering?" Shree asked, and shook her head. "Wait. Stupid question."

"What's a gathering?" Eliza asked.

"A meeting of all House Head Priests and Priestesses," Ludwig said. "All of them can be summoned within a few hours by performing a certain set of rituals in the" -

"That place in the centre of all the House rooms each monastery has," Matt completed, and all the priests seated there looked at him with amazement. "I read about it," he dismissed, "but why is it a stupid question?"

"Because it binds all the House heads until the objective of the gathering has been achieved," Roderich said. "Ivan would have to leave you, and be with us. And Shree thinks it's a bad idea, for some reason."

"I have an idea," Nat said quietly. "But I don't know whether any of you would like it."

"Anything is good at this point," Shree started to say, but stopped at the look Ivan and Nat had on their faces as they looked at each other. They stared, as if unaware of everybody else in the room, and there was more communicated than anything that had been shared in the past ten minutes.

"...or, maybe not," Shree said silently.

Ivan closed his eyes finally, and when he opened them, they were full of pain. "She will not agree, dorogoy."

"That is why Shree and I are here," Nat replied, her silent demeanour unshaken.

But Ivan was very disturbed. He kept shaking his head, muttering something incoherently, over and over again. Shree called out to him once, twice, and finally slammed her hand on the desk. "Ivan!" she yelled, her voice shooting off like a whip crack, jerking him back to his senses. "What is going on?" Shree asked, her intuition telling her she wasn't going to like the answer, regardless of her involvement in it.

But neither Nat nor Ivan were willing to answer. Nat looked at Ivan, almost out of her seat as she focussed towards him. "Yes, or no?" she asked him.

Ivan's breath left him like a wounded animal, and Nat sat back in her seat. She looked at the rest of them. "There is a priestess who specialises in demonic contract patterns and inter-Realm movement. She used to say that the secret to terminating a contract lies within the contract pattern itself. I remembered it when I saw the contract on Alfred's back," she explained. "I feel if she saw Alfred's back, and was able to reconstruct it with what Eliza and I remember about the lotus on Johnny Doe's back, we might be able to solve the problem of separating Tony and Alfred. If we cannot solve it, we will at least be closer to figuring out what we can do."

Alfred turned from Nat, and looked at Ivan. The man wasn't muttering incoherently, but he looked so lost and so in pain that he might as well have been dealt a physical blow to the head. Alfred turned to Shree, and she looked like she was beginning to understand what was going on. Her face was much more readable and expressive than either Ivan or Natalya's, but, then again, a rock sculpture could be more expressive than Ivan and Natalya.

"Natalya," Shree said. "She isn't going to agree. Ivan's right."

"She just has to see Alfred and help us out. Ivan plays no part in it," Nat said, her resolve still unshaken.

"But who on earth are you - oh dear," Roderich whispered. "You're not calling her, are you?"

Shree sighed. "I hope you know what you're saying, Natalya." She got up, and turned to Roderich. "Like Alfred would say, 'fraid so. How long from here to there?"

"One week."

"Then we'll need supplies. We'll leave tomorrow morning" -

"Shree, no" -

Shree turned to Ivan, her look cutting him short. "We just concluded we don't have time. And the more you think about it, trust me, we will be sitting here long after Alfred and Tony are bound by a contract."

"Shree," Matt said, startling her. "Who is this woman?"

Shree turned to Matt. "It's" -

Ivan abruptly got up, and left the room.

Alfred, with the rest of them, watched Ivan leave, and turned to Nat. "He's got it bad?" Alfred asked Nat.

"Not the way you think," Nat said at the same time as Shree, who muttered, "You don't know the half of it." Shree turned to Matt. "She's the second in command in the House of Grass" -

Roderich muttered something. Gilbert turned to him, and asked, "Hey, what's that?"

"Whiplash Wang," Roderich said loudly, and cleared his throat, slightly embarrassed.

Matt turned to Shree. "Whiplash Wang?"

"Amongst her other nicknames. She uses a whip" -

"Oooh, kinky," Alfred murmured, a silly smile on his face.

Shree rolled her eyes. "And before she became the second in command, she had a…colourful life. Lots of travelling, adventures - she's that kind of a person."

"Her real name?"

Shree sighed. "Wang Chun-Yan."

"How are you feeling?"

Matt looked up, removed his glasses. "I should ask you that, considering everything that you have been through the past few days."

Shree walked into the room, and sat down on the edge of the bed, facing Matt, who was seated on a chair. "Well, we came here because you were ill."

Matt closed the remaining open books on the table, and turned his attention completely to her. "I have completely recovered, as of yesterday night…the vomiting stopped day before, and I didn't have any nausea yesterday."

"That's good," Shree said, nodding. "What are you reading?"

"Some books I found in Roderich's library…it covers all sorts of topics on Other-Realm matters. Energy, travel, travelogues, people's accounts on their experiences, rituals. It's quite interesting."

Shree folded her legs under her. "I didn't think an outsider would take more interest than most Priests take in our Scriptures."

"It is interesting," Matt said. "And all of this is really familiar to me, for some reason."

Shree tilted her head. "That is strange. How come?"

"I don't know. The language, the chanting seems very familiar. Mum used to do something similar twice a day, every day." Suddenly it flashed to him. "Of course! The morning and evening prayers you priests do! The wordings were slightly different, but the procedures were the same. And mum used to tell us stories every night, about demons and creatures from other worlds…I think she meant Realms, I don't know…" Matt trailed off, frowning.

Shree's curiosity was clear on her face. "Your mother was a Priestess?"

Matt's frown deepened. "I don't know…I don't remember. We were really young back then, and it never occurred to us to ask mum what she did. Hell, until she passed away, I didn't even know we had a dad, or that we were supposed to have a dad - it was just me, mum and Alfred."

"Didn't you go to school?" Shree asked.

Matt shook his head. "No. Mum would teach us. Much more than any school ever could. She taught us multiple languages, history, maths. She would take us outdoors and teach us different styles of fighting. At that time, it was just games. Alfred's terribly competitive, so mum would make us compete. Who could do more squats. Who could push the boulder farther. Things like that. Neither of us knew what we were learning was martial arts - mum just made everything into a game. Alfred had a short attention span in the beginning of learning anything, but if his interest was piqued, nobody could concentrate the way he can. Mum taught us things like how to live in the open, how to make shelter in the wilderness out of very few items. She was really good at it."

"What about you? How were you as a child?" Shree asked, her chin in her hands.

"Scared, mostly," Matt said with a little laugh. "Very scared to try anything. Alfred had to lead me into trying new things. Mum would make it into a competition, and Alfred couldn't resist a competition. Since I was his only competitor, he would drag me into it, convince me till I agreed. Honestly, if it wasn't for him, I would have been an indoor child, happy with my books."

"And if it wasn't for you, he would have never read any books," Shree said. "I'm guessing your mother made reading a competition as well."

Matt chuckled. "Some things. Mum never taught us using books - she would explain, make us discuss. Honestly, it was a class out of university, except that it would take place in the kitchen, or in our bedrooms. Sometimes, she would make us tell math tables while we sparred, or hold a conversation which we did push ups. I liked to read, so she would get me books, and let me read whatever books she already had. Alfred always wanted to know what I was doing, so he would read a little bit, then make me explain the whole thing to him, because by then he'd be curious, but he wouldn't want to read the entire book."

"You had a really nice childhood," Shree said, smiling.

Matt nodded in agreement. "It was idyllic. No one ever disturbed us. I mean, now that I think about it, a lot of things don't make sense, but back then, it was normal. We didn't question why life was the way it was - we just lived it. The way it's supposed to be, I guess." Matt's eyes lost their faraway look, and focussed on her. "And what about you? How was your childhood?"

Shree's smile faded by degrees, and Matt sensed her reluctance to speak about it. At this point, he usually backed off and changed the subject to more acceptable, safer topics.

But a conversation he had had with Alfred, soon after the fight with the demon-children, stayed with him. In response to Matt's explanation of how discussions usually went on between him and Shree, Alfred had simply told him, "At this point, bro, it isn't her not trusting you, or being secretive about it. We've literally lived with each other, and I don't even know how many months it has been. If she's not opening up about it, it's not because she doesn't want to, but because it's become a habit with you. She's not comfortable, you back off, and change the subject. Why don't you push a little more? Dig a little deeper? Maybe that's what she's waiting for - for you to show some real interest. Shree and I are chill, and we're pretty close - but we don't talk about that stuff. I don't talk about such stuff to anyone.

But you're not like that. So push."

Matt didn't push - not the way Alfred expected, anyway. But he had a very strong feeling that if he didn't try, he would never get anything out of her.

Mentally, he braced himself. Here goes nothing.

"Well, I did tell you mine," he started. "It's only fair you tell me yours."

Shree smiled sheepishly. "I'm afraid it's not very interesting."

"Shree, everything you say interests me."

Shree's eyes widened. Ookay, the man got intense all of a sudden. Matt could be completely harmless for ages, and then suddenly he'd get so intense it would become hard for her to breathe properly.

And she hated intensity in guys. She was inclined towards guys who were more…jovial. Carefree.

But somehow, on Matt…

It made no sense to her. And she wasn't sure she wanted to make sense of it. So she decided to tell him about her childhood.

"Compared to yours, it was very…restricted. There were a lot of rules and regulations to follow, a very strict timetable. Strict. That's the word I wanted. And disciplined. We knew exactly who we were going to be, and who we were going to serve. And you might think that we would have felt jealous of…well, he doesn't go by that name now, and I'm not sure if I'm supposed to say it" -

"Who?"

"Om. The current one, anyway. Before him, our mother was Om. It's not exactly hereditary, but there is a certain amount of genetics involved."

"Just call him your brother, then, if it gets too confusing. I'll know him to be different from Raj."

Shree nodded. "We weren't jealous of our brother. Even as a child…we knew he was different. He was the most intelligent person in any class. There wasn't a single thing he couldn't master. Scriptures, martial arts, politics, languages - there isn't a single thing he cannot master. But, at the same time…it didn't matter to him. None of it did. Because he already knew something that people spent lifetimes to learn. And that gave him a detachment from everything that he did.

"I mean, he loved me, and he loved wasn't a single thing we couldn't tell him. And he never judged us. He doesn't judge. To him, in his heart, a thief will receive the same love as a saint. He loves everybody the same, and doesn't hate anyone."

Matt looked at her closely. "For some reason, that doesn't seem ideal to you."

Shree laughed a little. "For the reason that it is ideal. I mean, that is what we all struggle to achieve, isn't it? And he was born with it. In our Religion, it is said that the struggle you do towards something in your previous life shows its results in this life, either in the form of a genius or a prodigy. And maybe he struggled to achieve this sense of mental state in his previous lives, and enjoys it now. But what is life without struggle?"

Matt smiled. "Really boring."

Shree laughed whole heartedly at that. "Exactly. And all three of us knew that we would live wonderful lives, but the richness of our experiences would differ, and we had no reason to be jealous or envious of one another. But my brother's mental state made him an introvert, and his destiny put him at a position where no one could get close to him. Initially I imagined he would feel lonely, but my brother felt the same way - he doesn't mind if he's alone, and he doesn't mind if people are there around him. So, after he was declared as the next Om - which happened when he was ten or twelve, around that time - it was me and Raj for each other. It stayed that way for a really long time, until our studies were over."

"Om is the eldest?" Matt asked.

"Actually, no. He's the youngest amongst us three. Raj is the eldest, and I'm the middle one. Yeah, it's really surprising - Raj still stays the eldest, but most people think I'm the youngest."

"You must have had a lot of popularity, given your status in the spiritual world."

Shree sighed. "Oh yes. Until we joined Jihara - or the Academy - we were treated like we were in an altogether different league. Separate classes for us, separate teaching for us. We weren't allowed to mingle with the other children, or other priests-in-training. And it wasn't even something our parents wanted for us - it was the higher priests who kept it that way. So when we joined the Academy, it was a shocker. We were allowed to mingle with the commoners," Shree laughed. "Ma and I had a good laugh about it. And I loved my life in the Academy - it was disciplined and there were rules and regulations, but I wasn't singled out any more. It wasn't just me and Raj who got all the attention. The crowd was much bigger than just the two of us…and I got the biggest troublemaker for my roommate and best friend."

"Natalya? A trouble-maker?" Matt asked incredulously.

Shree laughed. "Oh, definitely. She drove the teachers mad, until she settled down. I used to drag her to classes, and she would drag me out and make me skip them. That drove the teachers up the wall. And then we made more friends."

"That helped her settle down?"

"No," Shree chortled. "She caused more trouble. Ivan, Chun-Yan, Mathias, Yebrano, Raj - we all caused our teachers a lot of grief. Ivan or Raj would always get scolded for whatever we did, but the idea would most definitely be Nat's. Everyone would know that, but no one would be able to pin her down for it. And then she finally got interested in what they were teaching us, and, from notoriety, we became studious. But we did indulge in the occasional mischief."

"What happened between Chun-Yan and Ivan?"

Shree's smile faded. "Things got…complicated."

"It's funny how you used the same words to describe you and Mathias."

Shree chuckled. "Because it got complicated there, too. But what happened between Ivan and Chun-Yan was more…serious. Not just in terms of how they felt for each other, but the kind of trouble their actions caused for them. Things got really messy between them."

"Nat said the same thing once" -

"About me and Mathias, I know. But we started out casually. I really liked him, and he really liked me, too. He was the first person…maybe in my entire life I had liked…in that sense of the word. And along the way, things got serious…but it was just for me. And then Mathias fell in love with Emil, and started using what he and I had, without realising how serious I was about him. And when he realised, he'd already hurt me pretty badly."

"Were you in love with him?"

Shree shook her head, smiling. "I really fancied him, but would I do anything for him? Probably not. I was just a kid then, and I had these set notions about how everything must be. But Mathias wasn't an asshole - although Nat would disagree - and I knew him. I knew him well enough to know that if he knew how serious I had been, he would have never done…whatever he did." She shook herself, and looked at Matt. "What about you? Did you fancy anyone?"

"Oh, yeah. My dad's secretary's daughter," Matt laughed. "I didn't have the guts to talk to her. And, now that I think about it, I didn't have the time, either. Life was busy after dad came into our lives. It might sound weird, but the only person I ever loved - and still love, is Alfred. He was the only reminder I had of my life with him and mum, the only one who pulled me out of the life dad had set for me, as his heir to his fortune. He dragged me out, got himself into all sorts of trouble, just so that I could have some fun, relax, take a break. He did things I would never do, because I was scared, so that I could have some kind of a normal upbringing.

"And after he…was taken away, I just…I gave up. I did what I was supposed to do, and I did it without complaint. I suppose there were women - I would have a date or a companion for a high society dinner or a ball, but they never…they didn't catch my interest. I was too worried about Alfred, planning the next time I could sneak out to meet him, trying to figure out how to free him." Matt sighed, and closed his eyes. "Maybe there were women who fancied me. I vaguely remember a few. But all I ever thought about was Alfred. And until he was free, no one could get to me."

"And now, that he's free?"

Matt opened his eyes, and Shree found it hard to breathe. There it was, that intensity. How could such placid blue eyes suddenly get so…focussed? He looked into her eyes like they were open gateways baring her soul, and Shree couldn't stop looking back.

This intensity of his…Anybody else, and she would have hated it.

Anybody else but him.

"Now, there's you."

Suddenly, her breath rushed back into her lungs, as if someone had released their vice-like grip over them. The distance between them…she didn't know how, but suddenly, he was there, right in front of her. She was standing, he was standing, between the bed and the chair, inches from each other.

His hand moved from her temple to her cheek, his knuckles lightly resting on it. "I'm not very good at this," he said softly, "But I care about you more than I can explain to you."

She knew. She had no idea how she knew, but she knew exactly what he meant.

"And nothing I can think of seems like the right thing to say," Matt whispered, his hand turning to cup her cheek. "And there's only one thing I can think of, which will be right."

And there it was, that vice-like grip, holding onto her breath, locking it at her throat.

He tilted her head up to his, and leaned down. Oh, but she could drown in his blue eyes.

Her hand moved up his arm, briefly taking in the tight roll of muscles in his forearm and shoulders, inched up his neck to rest on his cheek. And she had her answer in her eyes, before he whispered,

"Shree, may I kiss you?"

A/N: So, yeah.

Year and a half.

I haven't written as much that time as I have in the past week. It's been a crazy year - what can I say? But since I've been honest with y'all here, I'll continue to be so.

I've gone through two rebounds and two break ups, a hell lot of soul searching, half a year ironing out my emotional issues and letting go of my emotional baggage - and that's all till July. I learnt how to play football, then basketball, then kabaddi, I went on a twenty day tour with my classmates from college across half the country, I was a part of my University's kabaddi team (a game I've only played properly for less than a month my entire fokin life) at a National level sports meet, I was awarded an international Veterinary scholarship given only to 41 people across the globe, and I'm currently in a relationship much like Matt and Shree's.

...Yeah, pretty damn crazy year this has been.

Oh, and tomorrow's my last exam. I'll officially be a fourth year Veterinary student, starting July.

I'm sorry. I know I used to update regularly - every Sunday - and I've been writing on and off this past period of time. But there was always something happening, and I couldn't really get around to it. So here's what the deal is:

I've gotten four chapters already hammered out after this one (currently working on the fourth one) and I'll be regularly updating, for a while. I hope I don't pull another disappearing act, but I can't promise anything, given that this year is going to be more hectic than the next. But yes, I will do all that I can to make sure that I put out regular updates as much as possible, for as long as I can.

Thank you for staying with RoJD, and thank you for all your love. And my deepest apologies for the long wait. I'll try to make it up to you, the best I can.

All my love,

R. K. Iris.