Call It Destiny
Co-written by Elysia
Chapter 10
 

They rested for the rest of the day. Throughout this time she watched him, moving about, his stiff and cautious, prepared to defend them from any evil that might come bursting out from the woods surrounding around them. His discomfort in staying her was completely visible to her, but she knew he would not press on, knowing that she could not.

She stared at the sky; silently watching the soft blue perched about the soft waves of white fluff, while a gentle wind slowly drifting it across the sky.

She hated his consideration.

His consideration reminded her of the sweet man she had fallen for, the beautiful knight who had saved her from the darkness.

"What do you miss most about Avaria?" She asked him, shifting her eyes away from the sky while attempting to move her mind away from its previous thoughts. "I think I miss my brother the most."

Endymion shook his head. "I don't think I miss anything much in Avaria..." he then turned his head away from her while he begin to set up a camp fire. "Not as much as the one thing I won't have when I come back there."

Selenity shot him a confused look.

"I'll miss you the most when we arrive in Avaria," he replied softly. "Just like I'm missing you now." 
He shot her a soft look.

Selenity looked away.

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Silence once again accompanied them as the waning sun dipped out of sight down the face of the earth, leaving but the beautiful moonlight to graze upon the sky. It sung beautiful songs of loneliness embraced upon the sea of desire.

Endymion stared into the ambers that separated her from him.

It raged with a fierce onset of aching.

Just like the self-loathing within him.

He was stupid, so very stupid. All this time she adored him, loved him, yet he had blind to it all. He had refused to accept the affection she had given him, he had refused to see the truth about his own true feelings to her. And now...

It was too late -- she hated him.

If only...

He stared at the burning flames.

If only...

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'...If only I wasn't so stubborn,' she thought silently to herself, staring into the intoxicant flames, which seemed to lick against her although it didn't even touch her. These flames, so beautiful, so red, burned her inside out.

His words still rung in her ears. 

Her heart still clutched tightly at his words. She felt immobile to everything, a growing empty shell to the rest of the world. And all because she no longer trusted her emotions.

But what happened if she did let him go? Would she feel happy about it? Would she truly feel like it was the best thing to do, that letting go of him was the will of the gods? Especially when she knew that whenever she looked into his eyes that it was destiny she saw...

Was she right to do this?

But was she wrong to stay away from the pain?

She was afraid of getting hurt, yet...

She was even more afraid of letting him go.

"Endymion..." she asked, quietly staring at the fire. "If I asked you to hold me right now... would you promise not to let me go until after I have gone to sleep?" 

Her desperate plea cut into his train of thoughts, his lost emotions, revealing a venerable man. He got up and moved to her side of the fire, then lay down aside her while stretching his arms around her. "I won't let you go."

She seemed pacified with his promise as the both of them stared into the fire, content, yet breaking apart inside.

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Selenity awoke with a start, her heart pounding in her chest and her nerves doing funny things to her insides. She couldn't recall even having dreams as vivid as these. Perhaps they were a sign, or just a figment of her imagination.

Dawn was slowly approaching and Selenity vowed that for once she would be ready before Endymion. She reached over and moved his limp arm from around her waist, almost regretting the loss of his warmth. But there was no time to worry over that, she told herself as she headed for the river to wash up.

She didn't want Endymion to know she'd been crying.

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When Endymion finally awoke and found Selenity gone, he panicked. Had he just found her, only to lose her again? His inner logic told him she hadn't been taken by force because she would have put up a fight... 

...and if it had been that good-for-nothing Syphis, either he or that bandit would have been dead by now. So logically, that left only two choices: either Selenity had wandered off, or she ran away. Wandering off he could believe, but would she really run away from him? Had their friendship/relationship/whatever-it-was strained so much that she couldn't stand the sight of him?

He grunted. 

To hell with all this logic. 

He went with his instincts and took off running towards the river with only one thought: find Selenity.

And find her he did, albeit in a very awkward moment. She had her back to him, but Selenity was chest deep in the rushing flow of the river, humming quietly to herself as she scrubbed the dirt from her body.

Beautiful. That was the only word for the vision he saw before him.

As he took a step closer, a rather noisy twig snapped beneath his weight, giving away his presence. Selenity of course heard the snap, gasped loudly and nearly dunked herself completely underwater. Her long wet hair clung to her body as she looked about nervously.

"Who's there?" she asked in a timid voice. No answer. "Endymion? Is that you?"

Endymion smiled. Smart girl. He decided it was safe to answer. "Selenity! Where did you go?"

She shrieked a little louder. "Don't you dare come any closer!"

"Why not?"

"Because I'm bathing, you idiot. My clothes aren't dry enough yet, and I hardly think you would expect me to present myself to my brother looking like some dirty animal." 

True to her word, her dress and other various garments lay out on the grass to dry. For once she hadn't fallen into the water fully clothed.

"And just because you've seen me unclothed before does not give you the right to look any time you please!"

She'd read his mind.

Endymion couldn't help chuckling to himself. That girl was truly something else...

Still, he was free to go for a swim of his own, even if it happened to be in the same river. He would just take extra precaution not to come near her.

'Not likely,' he thought mischeviously. With that thought, he removed his tunic and headed upriver that was deep enough for diving.

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She could resist it. 

There were only so many perfect opportunities that a person could have during a trip to fully get back at the person they were with. She couldn't help but find that now was the best time for this opportunity. Of course she was still confused about why she rushed to change and dry off. Was it really for revenge or just seeing Endymion in his naked glory?

She decided the latter was just as good as the prior, thus both were a done deal in this brilliant plan of hers.

She continued to tip toe up stream where Endymion bathed, in hopes of fulfilling her plans. By the time she had arrived at the given destination, Endymion was already completely submerged within the deep water and was frolicking about within it. She couldn't help but turn red at the sight before her. Almost like a mere-man he was only with a deep male dominance surrounding him as he swam about. 

'Trust Endymion to be the Sprite,' she thought with a sigh as she tore her eyes away from the lean body and to what she was looking for. His clothing was sprawled on a nearby rock, messily. Sneaking through behind the bushes, she quickly found her way to the destination. That was after stepping on a couple of twigs that alerted the damn man to an alert position (strange how he is able to look so dignified so quickly while naked).

"Who is it?"

She let out a giggle after finally reaching his clothing.

"Hi! I'm borrowing these for a moment." She waved his clothing around slightly before making a dash for it, barely able to contain her laughter. "Thanks Endymion!"

"SELENITY!" He went chasing after her, completely naked. His arms pumped at his side to quicken his stride. He caught up to her in no time, and by then she had already tripped and fell, only to roll on the ground clutching her stomach, as the laughter would not cease.

Endymion frowned, standing over her like an avenging angel.

"My clothing?" He asked gruffly.

Barely able to point to the clothing sprawled on the ground, she continued to laugh.

He couldn't help but smile... after he was fully clothed again, that is.

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The rest of their trip was a sullen daze both comforting and prolonging. There were moments of laughter, warmth, and softness passed by through both as they journeyed on, but there was never truly a deep satisfaction and complete for there was too much contemplation on both parts as the road towards Avaria came closer and closer to an end.

‘When I first looked into his eyes, I saw destiny. Why is it that when I look in his eyes once again that it is all I see? A knight in shining armor, what a beautiful fantasy I had… what changed it all? What made everything become so impure?’

Her thoughts stared at the back of his head, her hand tightly grasped by his as if he was afraid to let go because she would do something stupid if he did.

It was stupidity on both parts that made such untarnished love to be rusted and breaking.

‘But it hasn’t always been this bad,’ she thought, ‘he has always been sweet when it mattered…. Although cruel the rest of the time.’

He looked back at her then, checking on her, his eyes gazing up and down, wanting to see if she was doing okay...

‘Those eyes...’

Her heart raced, like it did so many other times when her eyes meet his. Dark azurite blue eyes, so cold, so stiff, so raw...

‘If only he didn’t have those eyes...’

And then she wouldn’t have fallen this hard and become so confused. If those eyes didn’t exist she wouldn’t have had this crazy adventure with this hard headedly obtuse man, nor would she even be “married” to him...

“...What happened back there... did that really make us really husband and wife?” She asked suddenly, as he turned his head to stare back at her again, looking at her in surprise.

And, with those eyes, a distant look was found within them as he took a deep slow breath before saying, “I wish it had.”

She didn’t read into the comment.

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They were playing a very dangerous game. Endymion knew that, finding himself in the brink of utter explosive nonsensicalness. He wanted a chance. He wanted her to give him a chance to show her that he was someone that could make her happy. That being married to him wasn’t really that bad.

But she wasn’t giving him a chance.

Even though she gave into him the night before, she wasn’t giving him that chance. He could tell, by the way she was careful not to touch him, preferring to be stiff when sitting next to him. Nor was she willing to look into his eyes, in fear that maybe he would ensnarl her into his trap.

That was exactly what he wanted to do though.

He wanted that chance.

He wanted it right now... but... he was already too late, as he observed his surroundings. The sloping hillside, the sweet air, the familirance of the land around him...

They were in Avaria already.

It was too late. 

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CP: *sighs* It took me awhile to get into the mode back to writing. I'm just really tired and awful at it lately. Especially since I've been obsessing about other stuff… like Hikaru no Go! HnG is such a CUTE manga! I think everyone should check it out! *pouts* Anyways, this time it wasn't only MY fault that this chapter took so long (although bulk of the fault was mine), but Lyssa took awhile too! So yeah! 

In other words, I write such lame ANs, why do I even try?

Ely: CP's too cute to be lame... and I haven't written for the longest time either. School does that to a person. But in 3 weeks... I won't be in school anymore! *cheers*