"Alright you two, let's head inside for a little dinner." Eva sternly orders her children and husband.
She intentionally broke them away from a potentially awkward moment between the couple.
Aikka rises to his feet when Kiera suddenly grabs one of his free hands while Kieran happily pushes his mother along in her wheelchair.
Natalie and Minato were the only two left from the original party as the awkward silence constantly clung in the air.
"Is there anything else that needs to be done for today?" She dutifully inquires toward the higher rank officer.
He flashes her a weird expression before Queen Eva's advice cycles through his head again.
"Now you need to make your move before she loses interest in you."
"No…not really. Why you ask?" The blonde pries.
He was slightly curious as to why his old childhood friend would ask him that particular question.
"...because you idiot, I am tired and I want some sleep." The young man supplies her answer to his question with no hesitation.
'Well that's only a part of the truth anyways…' The raven haired woman inwardly reckons after she recalls what she just tells him.
"I am too. We aren't as young as we use to be." The knight jokes about their age, which earns no smile not even a tug at her lips.
"Ah come on…I'm just trying to lighten this serious mood!" The male dramatically proclaims with a false expression of hurt on his face.
"Which you aren't obviously good at might I add? Is there something else that you're trying to get at Minato?" The woman challenges after she observes his more than normal weird actions.
'Crap…she saw right through me!' The taller of the two inwardly cringed at the thought that his secret already been discovered.
"I mean I wouldn't be able to hide anything from you even if I could. If it was something wrong you wouldn't even have to ask, you would know." Minato nervously rambles on.
He unintentionally stifles his chuckles while he scratches the back of his head with one of his free hand.
The green eyed soldier raises her eyebrows at the reaction to her question. "There's something that you aren't telling me."
"How can you call me a friend when you can't even be honest with me?"
'Does she sound concern?' The question instantly pops up in his thoughts.
The blonde releases a sigh of frustration and with a determine and confident expression on his face, he stares back at her.
"Alright then, Natalie I…" The young man starts his statement but none other then the Avatar interrupts the moment.
"Yo Natalie!" He happily yells a good distance away from the couple with his hand up in the air.
"What does he want now?!" Natalie irritably mumbles after she quickly faces the golden entity while she rolls her eyes.
'It's a good thing I came when I did.' Jordan inwardly congratulates himself all while he fights the urge to smile at the idiot's luck.
"I need to talk to you about something." The Avatar unexpectedly asserts once he captures her attention from the blonde man in front of her.
"Just give me a second…" She loudly declares just so he can hear before she returns her focus in on Minato.
"What is it that you wanted to tell me again?" The raven haired woman promptly repeats the same question once again.
"Oh yeah...that's right! Rick told me to remind you to fill out the security reports for when Princess Mai leaves." Minato conjures up a believable fib on the spot.
The green eyed soldier slightly tilts her head at an angle, 'He just wants to talk to me about a mission? There's something else that is bothering him.'
"I can do that."
"Anyway, I need to see what this idiot over here wants. He usually doesn't bother me this much unless he wants to really annoy me." Natalie complains aloud about Jordan's sudden appearance.
'...or when he doesn't want us to spend time together.' He silently concludes about the Avatar's uncanny quirk to expectedly pop up during their conversation.
"Just try not to take his head off…" The blonde boldly slips in along with another stifle of laughter.
The knight quietly treks down the corridor while she strolls over to where Jordan waits for her.
The intergalatic dignitary happily gnaws at his lower lip in order to fight down a visible smile. He witnessed firsthand the blonde's twit expression.
'It's all too easy with that guy.' The golden entity joyfully concludes before he realizes that Natalie was now in front of him.
Her facial expression speaks volumes as it reads, "Let's get this over with..." or better yet "Start talking now, if not then I'm leaving."
"Alright, I was just coming to inform you that Princess Mai is going to be leaving Noursaia in a couple of days or so…" Jordan opts to mention Princess Mai's presence since it was commonground of conversation for the two.
"Should I be concerned with any information that she might know?" The raven haired woman demands in a stern tone.
'This woman can't even have a polite conversation with me.' The Avatar ultimately wanted to tell her.
The golden entity could act on it and evoke her unyielding wraith as a result.
"Oh no, she just expressed concerns that she wasn't able to explore much of Noursaia because of her tour guide unexplained disappearances."
"So I think you all are still pretty safe."
"So what's the problem?"
"It's possible that they will start by first blindly attacking and striking with nothing but raw and unnatural power."
"I think that can work out in our favor. Yet...sporadic attacks aren't good either, since we cannot properly defend nor prepare for that."
'So it seems as if the seed is still there.' He inwardly says to himself while he directs his sight at the middle of her forehead.
Natalie could not shake the sensation that while chatting with Jordan, he was deeply observing her private inner most thoughts without even having the need for close contact with her.
'Something feels off here…' She notes to herself.
Meanwhile with Minato,
He was casually ambling down the hallway before eventually coming face to face with none other than Queen Eva.
"What are you doing here?" She grills in a tone of curiosity from his presence.
"Am I not welcomed in your castle?" The blonde nervously questions as the expression on her face reads something otherwise.
The queen shakes her head left and right before she probes, "I mean why are you here? You should be confessing your feelings for Natalie at this very moment!"
His obsidian eyes stared at the woman with wide eyes as he only repeated partial of Queen Eva's question. "...confessing to Natalie?"
If Eva was able to freely move around while being pregnant, she would slap Minato with the back part of her hand.
She would smack him so hard that she would ultimately knock some common sense in to him.
So instead, the raven haired with crimson tips settles for a gentle slap to her own forehead while she grumbles under her breath and shakes her head again.
"I gave you the perfect opportunity! I can't believe you let it to slip through your fingertips Minato." She suddenly proclaims after she angrily slams her hand on one of the armrests.
Minato was about to respond however the queen fired another question in his direction again. "How long will you be able to conceal your true feelings away from Natalie without her noticing it?"
The blonde's mind instantly recollects the conversation that he previously had with the raven haired woman earlier.
She was easily able to point out that something was weighing heavily on his mind.
"There is something right now that you aren't telling me. How can you call me a friend when you can't even be honest with me?"
'God how can I be so stupid!' The knight concluded to himself after he realized the opportunity that he was given.
Eva quietly watches his actions before he releases a sigh of relief, 'Maybe he's not so slow after all…'
"But what if…" The young man suddenly speaks up again before he abruptly halts in the middle of his sentence.
He soon thanks the woman in front of him before he dashes off ahead in the same direction.
The queen was left wondering what her friend was going to ask her before cutting himself off.
Whatever it was, she was just glad that he was going after what he wanted.
0000
"So are you planning to remain on guard till the rest of her stay here?" Jordan queries as he brings the conversation back around to Princess Mai once again.
Natalie opts to not answer the question instead she replies with, "Thank you for the information."
"Now if you don't mind, I will need some time to clear my mind so I can properly devise a plan of action."
The Avatar senses that someone swiftly draws near them as it was none other the that blonde twit, Minato.
He boldly advances a step closer to her. She clearly fires him a warning signal, which he promptly ignores.
Once the blonde male entered his field of vision, he made his move on the raven haired woman.
The soldier's eyes grow wide from shock before it registers in her head that the golden entity currently kisses her on the lips.
'No this bastard didn't!' Natalie mentally screams as her reflexes instinctively kicks in so she uses her arms to shove him away from her.
"What's your freaking problem?!" The young woman was preventing herself from shouting the question.
Jordan did not immediately answer instead he purposely cuts his eyes in the direction to where Minato was only to feel a pain at his jaw.
"You bastard!" A voice, that did not belong to either one of them, registers in their head after they notice a blur of yellow enter their line of vision.
Golden eyes peer up with an expression that appears to be one of shock and awe. In actuality, he planned for it to go down exactly like that.
That small moment in time seemed to last for an eternity to Natalie. On the other hand, Minato moved at a much faster pace.
However, the expression on his face quickly snaps her out of her daze.
The captain realizes that if she did not immediately intervene then the knight would ultimately lose against Jordan in his Avatar state.
"Minato, wait!" The green eyed soldier desperately screams with the hope that it will snap him out of his physical tirade.
However, it did not work as Natalie watches the blonde rears his fist back ready to launch for another punch.
This time it was her body that reacted before her mouth could even move. She finds herself latch onto his waist with her other hand at his elbow.
"Minato...stop it!" The raven haired woman yells loud enough for the obsidian eyed knight to freeze in the middle of his action.
The woman tightly squeezes his hips within her arms before she proclaims in a calm tone, "You're being a stupid idiot right now! You need to use your senses!"
"Remember, you are a knight! You must abide by the code, which you have sworn your life to uphold." Natalie hastily reminds him of his duties and responsibilities.
The tension in Minato's body appear to slowly ebb away at the sound of her calm voice, which reminds him of what all was important to him.
She feels the bunch muscles in his body eases before he reassumes a normal erect stance.
"Don't ever try anything like that again! Do you hear me?!"
"Next time, I will break more than your pathetic little jaw." The young man boldly issues out a threat toward a somewhat confuse Jordan.
The raven haired woman deeply exhales a sigh of relief after she successfully accomplishes her small mission.
It was at that moment did the woman felt his hand gently lay on top of hers. He then proceeds to gently yank her in the opposite direction of the Avatar.
Minato was not able to clearly identify whether or not it was adrenaline, anger or a strong urge to protect Natalie. Whatever it was kept his heart rate at the increased rate it is now.
One thing he did knew for certain was that he needed to get whatever it was off of his chest before it morphed him in to a heinous monster.
The blonde finally paused after he walked a good distance away from where Jordan probably recovered from that nasty jab placed on his jaw.
"Are you alright now?" His childhood friend eventually questions since she still notes the look of to kill in his eyes.
The knight unintentionally casts his harsh glare on to her.
The woman felt as if she just committed Insubordination since she recently slapped a superior officer in their face.
Minato suddenly remembered that the person in front of him was the one who prevented him from doing something so reckless. He swiftly softens the glare he directs toward her.
"I'm fine. Thanks to you." The blonde quietly supplies an answer to her question.
"For a few minutes, you scared me there! I've never seen you that angry before in my life." She frankly states, which earns a silently stab at the knight's heart.
'Maybe Queen Eva was wrong…' Minato inwardly weighs to himself after he listens to the woman's statement.
The green eyed soldier eases her shoulders until she, herself, stands in a relax position. 'Is that what has been bothering him…the Avatar?'
"There's something that I need to tell you…" His voice reminded stern as he spoke to her.
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Author's Note:
12.12.16 Major editing revision
06.26.17 Major cleaning edits