Chapter 6

Thirteen.

He was thirteen when he left Jurai, merely a boy, and now he stood in front of her a grown man.

When his grandfather died, Crow had holed himself up in the house for days and then, one night, he left. Vanished by jumping on a boat instead of taking the train that stretched all the way to Heimdallr. She'd been 10 and they'd grown up together; Crow was her best friend and protected her when they were in school from others that picked on her for being in a fishmonger family. It'd been a long six or seven years and she had also grown considerably, sprouting into a beautiful young lady instead of the little girl with knobby knees and acne.

Melyssa had heard all about his association with Duke Cayenne and the Noble Alliance, his status as the Azure Chevalier, and especially when he sniped Chancellor Osborne, who miraculously survived the attack. The last thing she heard of Crow was he died trying to save the former Crown Prince Cedric Reise Arnor by helping the Ashen Chevalier. For the longest time, Melyssa hated the Ashen Chevalier because she was convinced he was the reason, Rean Schwarzer, for Crow's death. But Crow was alive and it was still a mystery to her and all she wanted to do was ask him one question.

How?

How was he alive and dancing with her?

There were so many things she wanted to ask him too, such as why did he leave Jurai? No, better question. Why didn't he come to her and why didn't he have the decency to say goodbye at the very least?

"I keep forgetting you're a swordsman yourself." Melyssa congratulated herself for keeping her voice calm and steady, not giving away any indication just how livid she was at this man.

The worst part was she couldn't bring herself to ask him all of this questions or to even tell him the truth! He didn't remember her anyway or recognize her, so what was the point?

When Crow had left Jurai, he had been a bitter, raging youth with only one thing on his mind. Revenge. He hadn't cared about anyone or anything outside of his own pain and machinations of revenge. Any friends he had had, he discarded when he walked away, drowning in his grief and rage equally until he could see nothing before him but red.

"I'm pretty good at making people forget, aren't I?" He made it a cheerful question, but the truth was, it was more of a statement.

"Well considering you have your double pistols…yeah, it's easy to forget you also wield that double saber." A weapon from the Dark Ages, though she didn't know much more than that about it. "And I'm sure you're unforgettable to those close to you, Crow." Those words left her mouth before she could stop herself and Melyssa cracked a small smile to ease any tension between them. After all, he was the one who forgot about dear friends and people who meant something to him, apparently. Still the same as ever, she thought, continuing to move with him and didn't once pull her gaze from his. "So, since you know how to dance, how am I doing so far? Am I nailing it or is it hopeless?"

"Oh, one day, many years from now, you'll possess a tenth of my skill." Crow injected a note of arrogance he had learned from none other than Duke Cayenne himself into his tone. He was smiling though, his red eyes sparkling with good natured humor. "You're doing fine, though you also seem more relaxed now than when you were doing it solo. You were trying too hard and dancing is like fighting… you can learn the basics, learn how it's supposed to go and all the styles, the bells and whistles, but it's best when it comes naturally."

She rolled her eyes at his arrogance and giggled softly, letting him twirl her once before pulling her back into his arms again. "In my defense, I had no choice except to do it solo. I don't have a dance partner…or didn't. And it helps when you're dancing with someone with actual skill too." Those were valid points she knew he wouldn't be able to dispute, even though he would probably try. "I have noticed my footwork when I'm practicing has gotten a lot better, though. So the dancing is helping with my swordsmanship, if anything." The only thing Melyssa was not looking forward to was performing at the upcoming academy festival later in the year because it was required for the dance club to give a performance.

"So…. I imagine that there will be other opportunities for you to display this new skillset of yours," Crow teased, deciding to ignore the compliment she had given him because he wasn't sure how to respond to it outside of being arrogant again. "Like the festival." He was looking forward to that actually, raising an eyebrow down at her when she sucked her bottom lip in between her teeth. "I'm guessing you're not looking forward to that?" They still had quite a way off from all that, plenty of time for her to get better. Though, given how she was still dancing with him without any issues, he was going to assume she'd be spectacular by then.

"I'm a swordswoman first and foremost, so I almost feel like I'm betraying the way of the sword by being in this club. Performing in front of other people is completely different than simply doing it within the club or…with others privately." With you, she added in thought, another pierce tearing through her heart.

Melyssa would never admit it outside of her own head, but she missed Crow, which was why she hadn't stopped the dance. Goddess help her, she wanted to freeze this moment in time and stay like this with him forever. And at the same time, she wanted to hurt him for causing her so much agony over these past couple of years, making her believe he was dead.

"Thank Aidios, it's not for a while and hopefully, I'll be decent by the time the actual performance rolls around."

"You can have other passions besides the sword, it's not betraying anything." He couldn't imagine feeling that way, well… he could, though he had viewed himself as the one being betrayed. There was a major difference between a person being betrayed and a… passion. "You are more than decent, you really don't have enough confidence in yourself. That or you're trying to be modest, which… doesn't work."

He twirled Melyssa again, bringing her back against him a little more aggressively, his free hand dropping to the curve of her waist. That move made their chests collide and Melyssa could feel his hand burning her skin. Her tank top had gone up a little, just enough to expose that little bit of skin on her waist. Along with that, her hand had moved from his shoulder and now had a hold of the back of his neck gently.

"I'm not trying to be anything. The only reason I joined the dance club was to get better with my footwork…" Melyssa decided to turn the tables on him while they merely stood there, not moving after the twirl. "Let me ask you something, current dance partner, what are YOU passionate about? What fuels that fire inside of you, Crow?"

"I already told you, gambling. I'm a gambler, Mel."

He was a betting man, a gambling man, and he spread his bad habits to the local kids. They adored him, their parents not so much. Blade was an addicting game and so was Vantage Masters, which he had gotten pretty solid at playing. Pomto, on the other hand, could go straight to Gehenna. But the addiction part aside, it also taught valuable lesson about math, logic, reading body language and whatnot. There was more to gambling than just winning and losing.

"The last thing I was passionate about… hurt a lot of people." Crow said finally, knowing his actions had done a lot of harm and, at the time, he hadn't cared because vengeance had been his only driving force.

I know it did and I'm on that list of people you hurt, she thought, not believing his answer for a second. Gambling was not something to be passionate about. It was just an excuse to hide what truly kept him going, what raged the fire inside of him. "I shouldn't have asked and I didn't mean to bring up your past. I'm just…curious about you, I guess. Curiosity killed the cat as that old saying goes." Her hand on his neck slid back down to rest on his shoulder to give it a gentle squeeze. "Maybe it's because you're from Jurai. Maybe that's why they put us together in the first place…" That wasn't a comforting thought, but she couldn't deny the coincidence either.

"Probably, since you're new and I'm not. Maybe they thought that it'd make you feel more at ease and less homesick."

Crow jumped on the change of topic, flashing her a smile that came more easy than what he felt at the moment. He didn't know why, but something about her, or maybe about this moment, was putting him on alert. Like something was tugging at him. He shoved it aside, tamped it down and then began laughing.

"You know the rest of that saying, right? Curiosity may have killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back."

"Yeah and I'm not nearly satisfied, so my curiosity will continue until it is. However long it takes, roomie." Melyssa tapped his nose with her finger and stepped back to give them both breathing room, knowing she had probably overworked her body after all the training and dancing she'd done. "Thank you for being my dance partner and helping me. I tell you what – on our next free day, how about we spend a couple hours playing that Blade game of yours? You can teach me and show me why games and gambling are your new passion in life."

As much as she loathed Crow, only half of her felt that way and the other half wanted to be as close to him as possible. Her heart was split in two, along with the slew of different emotions pulsating through her because of him. Something was brewing in her beautiful teal eyes and Crow felt something tugging at his gut, something almost familiar but not quite. He sometimes wondered if he had come 'back' normal or if maybe all his memories hadn't been properly restored, or maybe his brain hadn't catalogued them all yet.

"I'll hold you to it. Maybe we could get off-campus for a bit, yeah?" He suggested, letting her have her space and brushed a stray lock of his silver hair back off his forehead.

"Yeah, Heimdallr isn't that far from here by train. A half hour, at best. We could definitely go for a couple hours. I suppose sacrificing a day of training and actually relaxing for a change wouldn't be so bad."

What was she saying?! Crow had cast some kind of spell on her because she wasn't thinking clearly! Melyssa couldn't go back on what she said, however. She had just inadvertently made plans with Crow, to hang out with him outside of campus, outside of their dorm room.

"And I'll hold you to that. Now, it's time to get back to studying because we have a very important test coming up." Grabbing her book, Melyssa plopped on her bed and blinked when Crow joined her moments later, both sitting side by side. "Wanna study together, I take it?"

"Oh no, I'm just here to supervise." Crow began laughing, though he had also cracked his book open. "I should've graduated by now, I know all of this, or most of it, I'm just a slacker." He had goofed off and around instead of applying himself and it had landed him right back in school. Of course with the war and everything else going on, his focus had been a bit all over the place. "I could use a refresher…" He admitted, sprawling out onto his stomach and patted the space beside him. "I won't bite." Hard.

Shaking her head, Melyssa shifted to lean back against her headboard with her legs sprawled out while Crow took the other side of her bed. "Just admit you wanna study with me, Armbrust, it's okay." Supervise, sure, she added in thought and started reading the book, or tried.

Crow was very distracting, but she was determined to get some studying done and to rest her legs. They had danced for an hour straight without realizing it – it didn't seem like that long, but it had been according to the clock. Oddly enough, it was comforting having Crow study with her.

I'm supposed to be mad at him, damn it, she mentally chastised herself, flipping a page and shook all other thoughts out of her head.

They both wound up falling asleep with Crow ending up shifting to sleep beside her instead of on his stomach. Somewhere during the night, his arm draped over her stomach and she turned to where they were spooned together with his nose buried in her hair.

Crow woke up in the typical manner most men did. With an erection. His usual routine was to go to the bathroom to relieve himself and it tended to go away. This morning was nothing typical. He hadn't woken up with anyone in quite some time, so it was disconcerting, his face being buried in a mound of loose, sweet smelling hair and a soft, curvy body pressed tightly against his. This wasn't relieve it in the usual manner and call it a day, this was- Gehenna. It was Gehenna! It took him another long moment to realize he had fallen asleep and, at some point during the night, they had gotten into this position. By the steady, even breathing from Melyssa he was assuming she was still asleep. Hissing softly from clenched teeth, he shifted ever so slightly, trying to put some modicum of space and decency between them.

Not even 10 minutes later, the alarm went off and her hand clenched in a fist to pound down on it, her eyes slowly opening. The textbook she'd been reading was on the floor beside the bed and…something wasn't right. This presence…someone was in bed with her! In lightning quick speed, Melyssa was out of bed with her unsheathed Cutlass and pointing it at… "CROW?!" Slightly disheveled and half-asleep, Melyssa swallowed hard at the sight of him and her breathing quickened, immediately looking down at herself to make sure her clothes were still intact. Oh thank Aidios, she thought, the grip on her Cutlass not wavering while she continued staring at him, her heart pounding in her ears. WHAT IN AIDIOS'S NAME WAS HE DOING IN HER BED?! "Goddess, I could've seriously hurt you!"

Slowly, she lowered the Cutlass at her side and tore a hand through her hair, cheeks several shades of crimson now. Redder than his eyes boring back at her. She also needed to learn how to breathe again because waking up to another person in her bed, especially Crow, hadn't been a pleasant feeling at all.