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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2212759" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 209: Three Simple WordsIt was no surprise that somehow the two of them had migrated to pretty much the center of the dance floor. Migrated wasn’t exactly the correct word, though, as everyone had stopped what they were doing to watch them...and both Shadow and Jyren had simply walked to a point where they were equally distant from all of the eyes. It was the only safe place, it seemed.    With a sigh, Jyren looked from the crowd and back to Shadow. Very quietly, he whispered, “They’re waiting on us...aren’t they?”    “You catch on quick,” Shadow grumbled, rolling her eyes. A short moment passed after she looked over Jyren’s shoulder to see her mother nod. Sighing, Shadow looked back to Jyren, “If we just get this over with, they’ll all stop staring again.”    “All?”    “...most,” she admitted with a weak shrug. Then, carefully, she reached over and took his arm. After placing it around her waist, Shadow then got the rest of things set up ‘correctly’, and sighed into his shoulder, mumbling, “Step on my feet and I swear I’m going to kill you. Its hard enough to not break my ankles in these damned shoes.”    Jyren didn’t answer. What answer was there? He knew he was dead. It was a given. There was past experience weighing in to seal his fate. So, with death imminent in the next minute, he gave in and it started simply. By the time the two of them started actually ‘dancing’, if one could really call it that, the watching eyes began to slowly turn to one another as they talked, commented, and some couples joined in, thankfully.    Amazingly, Jyren didn’t step on her feet. He blamed that on their link, giving him the advantage of knowing exactly where not to step...though that led to some very awkward dodging, and he bumped into at least five people in the process of trying to save his life.    After another minute, Shadow looked up to him with a curious look on her face, “You lied.”    “What do you mean?” he knew exactly what she meant, but was smart enough to play innocent. That was another intelligent way of not getting himself killed. Another was not in any way speaking the thoughts that kept coming up when he looked at her.    Her curious expression became a mild glare as they dodged another pair behind him, “You’ve done this before. I can tell.”    “You sound like an expert,” Jyren commented, dodging her accusation as subtly as a turbolaser blast.    Of course, that only got the glare to increase slightly, “You could have told me, you know.”    That was interesting...she almost sounded...hurt that he hadn’t told her. Taken aback by that odd sound in Shadow’s voice, Jyren stumbled for a moment again, nearly falling tripping over his own feet, before mumbling and shrugging, “It wasn’t worth mentioning...I uh...it wasn’t ah...it wasn’t exactly a wonderful time.”    Shadow’s glare faded into a grin as she picked up on some of his stray thoughts through the link. The curiosity returned, and as they continued to dodge others, finding a fairly simply rhythm in the dancing so that it was like they were just walking normally, she couldn’t help poking him in the back, “Details. I’m curious now.”    He sighed, but decided that talking was at least an easy way of distracting himself from all of the insanity and the thoughts that weren’t going away, “A couple of weeks before the assault on Coruscant, there was some formal thing we Zephyrs had to attend with a few other Squadrons. I uh...well...Mare kind of tried teaching me to dance then. I stepped on her feet three times before tripping over my own, falling to the side, taking out another pilot and bringing Mare down with me because I was dumb enough to not let go. And, of course, I hit my head falling down, so it all went blurry.”    Shadow stifled a laugh. It didn’t work too well, and instead she ended up giggling into his shoulder for a minute before calming herself, grinning, and nodding, “At least you’ve grown up a little since then. Now you’re only half tripping.”    Not really knowing what to say to that, Jyren simply went on with what they were doing and glanced over Shadow’s head. He caught Cole’s eye, who grinned and started motioning again. Sighing, Jyren decided it was best to not try figuring that out, and looked back to Shadow. She was...she was looking back. Why that was unnerving, he didn’t know or even really want to know, but it was, and he nearly fell over again.    Realizing he was getting stuck focusing on those odd thoughts and messing up more, he quickly latched onto a random question and asked it, “So uh...what happens tomorrow?”    “I start my hunt for Nine,” Shadow said simply, a slight hint of relief in her voice at the conversation returning. He wasn’t alone in trying to fight off the curious thoughts, but he was lucky to not have the still somewhat distinct ‘Marix’ personality berating her with comments that could not ever be acknowledged. Even if he didn’t look all that bad...and even if she didn’t mind what she was wearing...and...NO! No, that was all wrong and best ignored. Yes. Of course. But he was right there and it was impossible to just ignore them and...and...    “You?” Jyren interrupted her thoughts, “You mean us.”    “I mean me,” Shadow said, again relieved at being able to speak and not think, “You can’t go with me.”    “What?!” he nearly yelled it, and at least two others around them stopped and stared in surprise. Somehow, Jyren managed to not freeze, though, “Why am I even here, then?! I have to go with you. I can’t just...sit around here.”    “I know how you feel its just...just...” she trailed off, knowing exactly what she should say but not saying it and keeping it well hidden from the link. It was just that he couldn’t go. He couldn’t. She wouldn’t be able to focus. She couldn’t fine Nine if she had to worry about him...she couldn’t...shrugging off those odd thoughts one more time, she managed to keep a straight face, “Its my task.”    Why Jyren didn’t argue with that was as much beyond him as about everything was. But something was starting to take hold. She was going to go do it on her own. He could feel it. He knew he couldn’t argue. And he also knew what the stakes really were...she couldn’t take Nine and Ket alone. She would get herself...no, them killed. And he couldn’t do anything about it. Or...well...why not? What was the point of fighting it anymore?    He sighed heavily, took a deep breath, and said quietly, “Listen...Shady. I...I know I can’t fight you on this...so I just...I just need to say something.”    Shadow blinked, slightly confused as the link wasn’t making anymore sense than his words were. She didn’t even ask him to say it, instead just nodding and looking up to him curiously, trying to search his expression for at least something other than confusion.    And then, somewhat nervously, Jyren spoke the three words he probably should have spoken months ago. And though it was quiet enough that only Shadow heard them, across the large chamber, Cole smiled proudly and leaned over to tell the Empress, who also smiled as they both turned to watch distantly. Reading lips was a skill that Cole never regretted possessing.((And on a completely unrelated note. Happy Birthday to me. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />))</blockquote>

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