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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2531423" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 272: Another PartyJyren did as his father had suggested and had...helped to get rid of the many people mobbing Shadow. Helped being that he stared at the backs of their heads pointedly until one of them turned around, after which they quickly dispersed.    Shadow managed to give him a weak smile, “You still owe me, you know.”    “I get the feeling it’s a debt I’m never paying off,” he said with a grin, “Really would have thought you would owe me, though. You know, for the killing thing.”    “Yes, well, you’re alive now aren’t you?” she grinned back and poked his chest, “Besides, that’s over and done with. You owe me for all of this.”    Jyren looked around to see all of the people were staring at them. Trying to ignore that, he looked back to Shadow, “I owe you for all of this?”    “Yes, you do,” she said flatly, “If not for you, none of this would be happening.”    He opened his mouth to argue that, but no words came out. She was right, of course. But...it seemed like such an unfair argument.    [It is unfair.] Shadow’s voice appeared in his mind. [You’ll live.]    Slowly, Jyren’s grin grew until he started laughing. Why, he wasn’t completely sure, he just did. And then, after Shadow had gone to staring at him as if he’d lost his mind(or rather, lost more of it), he said a little too loudly, “You look beautiful in that dress.”    Immediately, Shadow went a deep shade of crimson, which got a cruel laugh out of Jyren. Under her breath, she growled a curse and gave him a not so gently punch in the chest. Of course, she didn’t actually say anything, and she was still a very interesting bright red colour. After letting this go on for another long minute, Jyren finally sighed and put a hand on her shoulder, “I guess its not possible to escape from here, is it?”    She shook her head quickly, then said quietly, “Can go outside, though.”    That was all the agreement that was necessary. As quickly as they could while still looking polite and smiling, the two of them moved across the large room to one of the open doors. They stepped out onto one of the countless balconies that almost littered the huge Palace complex. Idly, they walked over to the edge to look out at the view of the forest beyond. It was so much like the back on the Capital and yet...so very different. It had only been a few days, but so much had happened.     So much and here they were, standing together out on a balcony doing their best to escape from a gigantic ceremony in their honor. But something was different. Not just the view of the Palace and the forest beyond, or even the multitude of stars that could be seen in the sky...but the atmosphere itself. The feeling in the Force. It was...it was...different. Whether that was good or not, neither were all that sure of. If it was, that meant that it was a good thing that Kyren and so many others had lost their lives...and it wasn’t, then what had they given their lives for in the first place?    “You told my father we’re going to leave, didn’t you?” Jyren asked out of nowhere, glancing over to her and doing his absolute best not to stare. It was, admittedly, very hard to do. He hadn’t been lying when he’d commented on how she looked.    She nodded, but continued to look up at one of the two moons up in the night sky, “I knew you wouldn’t, and he deserves to know.”    “So when are we going?” he asked, carefully trying to avoid any kind of argument and turning up to look where she was.    “Tomorrow,” Shadow answered after a short pause.    But she said nothing else. Noticing that she was dropping back into her old, direct habit she used to simply ignore things that were annoying her, Jyren attempted to nullify this the best way he could. He put an arm around her, which, of course, made her jump out of surprise for a moment before she sighed and rested her head on his shoulder.    “I wish this was over and we could just stay,” Jyren said quietly, resting his head on hers gently.    “Don’t try lying to me to make me feel better. I know when you’re lying better than you do,” Shadow whispered, though she wasn’t at all harsh in that and was simply stating a fact. After she felt him nod his head slowly, Shadow added, “You’ll always find something, Jyren. I don’t know what you’d do if all of this suddenly ended.”    “We’re not leaving here just because I’m trying to find something else to run off and fight,” Jyren growled, for once doing exactly what he always accused Shadow of and missing the point completely.    She sighed and put her arm around him, “I know that...but you have to admit that there’s a very good chance we’re not going to find a thing. Are you going to reach more if that happens?”    Jyren opened his mouth, a sigh came out when he didn’t mean one to, then closed it. After a deep breath(which caused Shadow to shiver as the air breathed across her ear in just the ‘right’ way), he said, “I’m not reaching at all, Shadow. You know that as well as I do.”    “No!” she nearly yelled, stepping back and turning to look him straight in the fact, “Jyren, no I don’t know! That’s the whole problem! Dammit, Jyren, I saw the same thing you did! And I’m sorry that it happened, but people die, Jyren. People die every single day, and you have to learn to accept it and move on! You can’t just cling to every little thing in some false hope! I will tear you apart! You should know that better than anyone, even me!”    All that Jyren could do was sigh and hang his head. Shadow was not going to have any of that, though, and quickly reached up to force him to look her in the eye. Finally, he said under his breath, “Its not false hope, Shadow. I know you’ve felt it through the link, too.”    A pause, then, slowly, Shadow nodded, “Yes, I have, and that’s why we’re going back. But, Jyren, you have to got understand that it could very well be your mind trying to find a way to bring her back.     “But I...we would have felt something if she had died,” Jyren was nearly pleading at this point.    “Did you feel anything when Voort died?”    The mere mention of the name caused Jyren to freeze in place. In a second the image of the man’s face flashed across Jyren’s eyes. The look of shock on the battered face of Titus Voort hung there in front of Jyren for a very long moment before gasping, “Find her...”    “I’m sorry,” Shadow’s voice put a sudden end to the haunting image. It was easy to forget how strongly he reacted to hearing Voort’s name. Carefully, she stepped forward and hugged him as best she could manage, “We’ll go back to Nar Shaddaa, and we’ll see what we can find.”    Slowly, Jyren nodded in response, but Shadow couldn’t help but notice he was just standing there still. She sighed and stood back, moving her hands up to rest on his face, “Come on, Jyren, lets not do this now. I’m sorry I even brought it up.”    Then, at least a little awkwardly, Shadow leaned up and kissed him gently. That, thankfully, seemed to get some reaction out of him. When she’d pulled back, he opened his mouth and said, “I’m so—“    ”And none of that, either,” Shadow cut him off, but a grin quickly appeared on her face and she nodded back inside, “Come on, people are going to get suspicious about us. Besides, you owe me a dance without any surprises like last time.”    He grinned as she tugged him inside, “You’re sure you’re the same Shadow?”    “Nope,” she squeezed his arm, “But I’m all you’re getting, so you’d better get used to it.”    “I wasn’t complaining,” Jyren said as they moved past one of the larger crowds.    Shadow looked over her shoulder to him and grinned, “You’d better not be. Remember, I’m very dangerous. You’re liable to lose your tail if you complain too much.”((A heads up. There will not be another update until Friday, and then I should be starting into a new schedule for updates. Namely, this SH will be updated on(hopefully) Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Weekends, too, if I've got the time, but I'm not making promises on that.Why is this?Because Tuesdays and Thursdays will now be taken up with updates for a brand new Star Wars Story Hour I'll be writing in conjunction with this one. It should get its first update on Thursday, and I'll post a link to it here on Friday.))</blockquote>

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