[quote](Page 72) [spoiler]the moment you’ve been waiting for.[/spoiler] [spoiler]or maybe you have a life, idk [/spoiler] [spoiler]thanks for reading! 💕[/spoiler] Four blazing blue eyes are the first thing she sees. Her skin chills, heart thumping against her ribcage harder than ever. Feeling as if she’ll pass out any moment, her breathing stops. The ship blurs around her. All the hunter can do is stare into his eyes, transfixed. Soft lips part to say something, but no words come to her— she feels very far away from herself. What feels like minutes go by before he finally speaks. “Shadow.” Drawing in a shuddering breath, stars dance before Shadow’s vision. “You remember me,” she breathes. As her control slowly returns, she can see from the edges of her vision, his look of surprise, even beneath the mask. “Of course I do.” Was he taller? She couldn’t remember craning her neck to meet his eyes before. His ragged clothing remained the same, nostalgia hitting her hard, his staff still gripped in one hand. Lines of wet heat streak down her face. Surprised, the awoken woman realizes she’s crying. Flowing with no sign of stopping. No noise comes from her lips. She hears a soft sound emanate from his throat. “Why are you here?” He asks gently, a hand reaching toward her, hesitantly, uncertainly. “To see you.” She responds immediately. “I thought you may have been dead. I’ve been through a lot to find you.” Variks blinks, lowering his mechanical arm, unsure. She quickly backtracks. “It’s ok. No one else knows where you are. It’s only me.” His shoulders sag ever so slightly. “Then, you know,” he rumbles. “Yes.” Guardian and eliksni stare at each other for a long, long moment. Her eyes remain locked with his. Fire and sky. Variks reaches out again, touching her arm— and suddenly her whole body feels as if it’s been lit in flames, electricity spiking beneath every inch of her flesh. Needles dance along her fingertips, chest swelling, heart skipping. Strength flows through her, greater than Light had ever been able to gift. Subconsciously, she grabs the metal gently. Her vision blurs with overflowing tears. “Why are you crying?” “I missed you.” His eyes soften. Her legs weaken. “I want to help you.” She blurts out suddenly. The eliksni’s four eyes widen, surprised. “Help me?” “I want to join you.” The words are out before she can think. Somehow, she knows this is the right decision. The tower, the city, it was all wrong. “I don’t have kin in the tower. I feel alone there.” The last plan Shadow would have imagined having was to pour out her doubts about being a guardian to Variks. Too late now. “I don’t feel connected with what are supposed to be my people.” She stares him straight in the face, shaking, but more certain than she’d ever been. “I want to help the eliksni.” Variks looks back at her, a stunned expression in his eyes. The force of her words catch the Kell off guard. “They don’t want me, because I want peace. They don’t want me, because I feel kinship with your people. Because I learned about you, I learned your side and they can’t handle a bug-hugger among them.” The words are soft but spoken with conviction; a hint of bitterness creeps in as she repeats their insult. “They dont want me,” She ends, heart racing, shoulders pulled back. “Because I want you.” He pauses, blinks. “Want me?” He sounds confused. Was she imagining things, or was there the slightest teasing glint in his eye? She swallows, silenced. If there was, it was gone in an instant. “You are a guardian.” He shifts his weight. “No.” She hesitates, in shock of herself. But it was true, wasn’t it? She was no guardian. Trying to push away thoughts of how her ghost would be reacting if he’d heard her, she takes a deep breath. “I’m not strong.” Shadow looks down at her own hands, feeling as if they weren’t her own right now. “Or fast, or smart. I don’t want war with the eliksni. I don’t want to slaughter whoever they tell me to. I think it’s time to move on, but... they don’t want to. And I want to think for myself.” Looking up, she takes a bold step closer to him, voice caught with tears. “You showed me the truth. You showed me there was more.” Variks gazes into her eyes, reading her. His grip on her arm tightens. “I’m here for you. I’m here to help you and your people. That’s what I want to do, that’s what I need to do. It’s who I am. I’m not one of them... Please,” she ends, speaking in hardly more than a whisper. Slowly, the hunter drops to one knee, her golden eyes searching, pleading. Filled with a certainty and undying loyalty. Unable to handle the thought of parting with the eliksni again. “Let me come with you.”[/quote] OKAY BUNGIE, HIRE THE WOMAN! To be honest, at the very start I thought this was going somewhere inappropriate, but I took a chance and actually it's not bad! It's got a lot of feeling and desire, not to mention detail! Just don't get risque', the young fans, you know! [spoiler][i]Yeess?[/i][/spoiler]