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"Has anybody seen Kishin?" asked Mira. They were outside doing a rehearsal.
"She went to get Kayura last time I saw her," Kala answered.
It was going to be a very small wedding due to the fact that neither one of the people getting married had any known relatives left. Kayura had her sister and that was it. Cale could barely remember life before the Dynasty let alone family before that. The ceremony was going to be held on the same bridge that had seen many battles between Ronin and Warlord. They also had to ask Anubis if he was willing to do it there. The site of his death turned into a site of a wedding seemed perfect to him.
"Is this rehearsal going to last any longer?" Kento asked. "I'm starving over here."
"Of course, no rehearsal is complete without somebody complaining about food," Reva said. "Opps, did I say that out loud?" She looked at Cye who nodded. "Sorry."
"Where are they then?" Cale asked Kala. "They should have been here already."
"I'll go check on them," Mira volunteered. She went off to the direction of the castle. Meanwhile, Royda slipped away without their notice.
***
"Hey Rowen," Mira greeted the Ronin as she met him in the hallway.
"Hey," he said, distracted.
"Have you seen Kishin anywhere? She was supposed to get Kayura."
"Kayura's still in her room. I haven't seen Kishin."
"Okay, thanks." She ran down the hall to the room.
Rowen headed for the opposite way when he stopped. He thought back for a second on his answer to Mira's question. If Kishin was suppose to be looking for Kayura, wouldn't she have been at the room a couple of seconds ago?
"Oh crap!" He ran for the door and started to look for her.
***
"Hey Sis," Mira said as she opened the door to the room. Her face fell when she saw the look on her sister's face. "What's wrong?"
"Did you know about this thing with Rowen?" Kayura asked.
"What thing?" Mira sat down on the bed next to her. "Did I miss something?"
"Did you know that Rowen likes me?" She looked her sister in the eye.
"Of course, who didn't?" She started to bounce on the bed, causing Kayura to grab hold of her shoulders.
"How come nobody told me?"
"You didn't know?"
"If I had, would I be asking you?" She let her go. "Do you have any idea what this could mean?"
"Don't tell me you're having second thoughts about the wedding and Cale," Mira said as Kayura got up from the bed.
"I am not having second thoughts about anything. It's just that, I care about what he's feeling. If he's in love with me, what do you think a wedding would do to him?"
"Probably the same thing when Cale first announced he was going to marry you, just go be alone for awhile and think about it." Mira bounced one last time on the bed then got up.
"I still don't know. What are you doing here anyway?"
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I was looking for Kishin. She came to get you."
"Kishin? I haven't seen her at...Waitaminute, the door did open and close when Rowen was about to kiss me. Thank God he didn't."
"Rowen was about to kiss you? Wow! Wouldn't it be funny if Kishin walked in on...Oh, my God!!"
"What?"
"What if she saw...?" A hand went over her mouth. "I have to go tell the others!"
"Tell them what?" Kayura stopped her sister from going.
"Tell them that Kishin might do something drastic!!"
***
"We really need to stop meeting like this," Royda said as she came up behind Kishin.
"I didn't ask for you to be here," Kishin answered. "I expected Mira here but not you."
"If she had stopped and thought about who was missing at the rehearsal, she would have been here. I won't even begin to guess what you saw."
"That's good because I'm in no mood to talk about it." She paused. "Do all three of you always get what you want?" she asked as the turned to face Royda.
"Not all the time."
"Well, it seems like it."
"What makes you think that Kayura has the same feelings for him?"
"You should have been there then." Kishin got up and looked at her. "She didn't even move to avoid him."
As Royda opened her mouth to answer, they could hear somebody shouting Kishin's name. They both turned and could see Strata approaching them.
"Oh, great!! He even came personally to tell me that the wedding's off." Kishin threw her arms up and turned away.
"When did you get this negative? You'll be surprised by what he has to talk to you about."
"What?" She had turned around but Royda was already gone. Only Rowen's running form was in front of her.
Strata slowed down when he reached her. He looked like he had ran all over and it felt like that to him. Nobody had seen her at all and it was a miracle that he finally found her. He thought he saw Royda with her but she wasn't there now. Kishin wasn't really looking at him, more like avoiding him.
"Hey!" he started.
"You don't have to tell me," she said turning away from him. "I really don't want to hear the good news. Or bad if you're a certain Warlord."
"What are you talking about?"
"Don't play with me. I'm tired of this."
"Tired of what?"
"Are you dense? Is this the smartest the Ronins can get? Do I have to spell it out for you?"
"I don't know what you're talking about but I really need to talk to you."
"If it's about what happened, don't worry. We don't need to talk about that."
"I think we do."
"No we don't." She started to walk off.
"Where are you going?"
"Somewhere. Probably off a cliff by how stupid I've been acting."
"You don't mean that, do you?" He ran up to her.
"Look, why don't you just end the torture for one of us and just say what you came to say? I really need to brood by myself."
"Well I'll go with you. I need to brood about something, too." She turned to look at him.
"Have you gone crazy?" She stopped and looked at him.
"Not that I know of."
"Then leave me alone. I'm really not up for this."
"If you'd tell me what was wrong, then I'll judge whether or not I leave you alone."
"You taking over my job of interrogation or are you really this dense?"
"Dense about what?"
"Royda said that you understand me. Although I believe whatever she says, I have doubts about this one. You certainly don't act like you do." She started to walk again.
"Would you stop." He grabbed her wrist and turned her around. "We really need to talk and you're avoiding me."
"Fine. We'll talk." She sat down. Rowen looked at her and thought that she was strange indeed.
"So, umm..." Rowen ran a hand through his hair as he started. "You saw what happened?" She nodded. "Nothing happened if that's what you're thinking. She told me to leave when we heard the door close behind you. Assuming that was you." She looked down on the ground. "You really thought something happened then you ran away. Royda was just here talking to you, trying to convince you there was nothing going on, right?" She quickly looked up. "See, I'm not dense. Blind about emotions, yes, but never dense."
"Sure, tell me another one."
"I will." He sat down next to her. "At first I didn't see it. Maybe it was because the wedding announcement was such a big shock to me that I wasn't paying attention. You figured me out instantly. The others would have never known. I was too busy trying to plan out how to get her to notice what you were doing. Like yesterday, you never gave out information just because. You never talked about yourself before. You were always talking about school or a project or something. Then you told me what happened to you and I sort of had an idea of what you were thinking. Again, I was still thinking about something else to really understand you."
"So, what are you saying?"
"You're testing me, aren't you? Do you want me to spell it out for you? I've had a lot of time to think looking around for you. I don't know how to tell you this without sounding like a big jerk. I really like you and I really appreciate what you've been trying to do for me."
"But...? There's always a but and it's usually bad news."
"But...I really like you and I finally realized that." She looked at him, confused.
"What did you say? Did you just say good news after a but?" He nodded. "You're not playing with me are you? Because if you are, I can take you."
"I know you can, and I'm not playing." He reached a hand up to her face. "I know I've been acting like an ass since all of this started, and I know I deserved to be called that." He gently moved her hair and waited for her to move away. She didn't. "I know that all the apologies in the world can't make up for the way I've been acting towards you. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if you slapped me right now for even attempting to get back to your good side but I don't care. I should have done this a long time ago and I really should have kept my head straight. Well, that was my piece. You got anything to say to me? Anything you'd like to do, like decapitate me? Anything?"
"Well, there is one thing." She tilted her head up and quickly kissed him. He looked down at her.
"Is that how you're going to act everytime I do something wrong?" Her crystal laughter rang out around them.