So thanks for making me a fighter. [Lee/Ram]

One.
Year.
Later.

Ramsey awoke.

She didn't have to force herself to get out of bed anymore. She didn't have to remind herself to eat, or go to bed. or even sleep.

Life goes on.

Today she needed to get down to the library and fast. She had tutoring to do and those newer kids most definately needed her help with their ancient studys and euclidian geometry. She made herself a cup of coffee and picked up some light reading while her food was cooking. The large twelve pound book was easy to read and she used it when she needed something to pass the moments by. It was another medical text, but a simpler one than usual detailing the neural processes. She walked into her bathroom and quickly changed into her clothes. She tied up her hair in a bun and brushed her teeth. Her eyes went down to The Drawer. The conflict within her built, her indecision as evident as ever. She opened it and picked up the only object within. Examining it swiftly, she sighed and put it back. The swirling designs made it evident that he was still alive.

She remembered those first few weeks she cradled that bracelet like a child-giving it her full attention. As her desperation moved to anger she found herself throwing the piece of jewlery against the wall and clenching it in her fist. She found over the last year, that she had truly believed he was coming back. Then she realized how stupid she had been. She was just another one of his notches. Scratched into the perverbial belt.

She didn't expect him to come back anymore.

She had awoken.

How long it had been he wasn’t absolutely sure. Time had blurred together leaving blanks and empty canvases. The only measure of time he had was in seasons.

The sun was in the sky when he’d left her burning anger into him so that he could stay alive buoyed up on boiling blood he wandered through deserts barefoot and never once took a breath.

When the winds came in they took the anger with him and his tears fell as repetitiously as the leaves. Leander would lay on the grass and look up at the branches spending day after day counting each leaf that fell, catching the golden ones in his hands and wishing upon them. The number he came up with in the end was phenomenal but not even that mattered much to him.

He took to the coldest place he could find then. Where rosebushes were nothing more than sticks with broken red leaves, and forced himself to breathe. Only to feel the sting in his lungs, convincing himself that the immortal had not died. He met someone after a blizzard, who it was he couldn’t remember, only that the old thing looked like death itself. But this man told him encouraging things. Positive advice only his subconscious listened to. This man told him hid pains would melt away with the snow and for the first time since leaving her Leander spoke to tell him this was not true.

The cold subsided. And when the foliage began sprouting back on the trees so did his hope. He came back to himself in a lightning storm. One he sat in the middle of, the last of the season. It washed his pains away and made him smile silently to himself. All this thinking all this time and he finally found himself in the rain that whispered every secret to him. Leander knew he was ready to return and it made him feel as if he were in a peace he hadn’t known anywhere other than under her gaze.

He took the long way back to her. He walked counting every step, affirming to himself with each stride that he could be his own person now. It was like the blink of an eye to him when he finally stepped on school grounds and silently he slipped into the room he hadn’t thought he would remember to see if his reason for being might still be found

Ramsey walked back out into the kitchen, her eyes down. She rubbed her temples and shut her eyes as she walked, the memories causing headaches, memories she tried to ignore. She made it to the coffee pot and poured a cup then as she turned from the counter and lifted it to her lips, the cup dropped to the floor, shattering, not only the glass but the shallow sheild she had built around herself.

He was standing there. Him.

At first she was in disbelief, shocked to the point of being frozen. She stood there for a good minute just staring. She recovered quickly. Despite the urge to embrace him she bent down to pick up the broken glass and wipe the floor.

"Leave." she said. The ice in her voice mirrored the kind in her heart.

She finished cleaning and looked up to still see him standing there.

"Lee. I have things to do. Farewell." Her voice was coldly indifferent as she walked past him and into her bathroom. She took the bracelet from the drawer and threw it at his feet. "Take this with you. It's the last reminder." she told him through clenched teeth. Then she took her bag and walked out the door.

Walked out on him.

When the first thing she told him was to leave, in such a harsh tone he almost died just then and there. The time he’d spent sitting in snow drifts was nothing compared to ice in her voice. It struck his heart through like the most perfect weapon. How was one to tell apart a victim of heartbreak anyhow? It left no visible marks. It took everything in him to keep from reaching out from her, to keep from falling on the ground face first when she denied him with such a lack of feeling.

Ramsey walked out the door without waiting for him. He couldn’t just let her do that. Quietly he picked up the bracelet and cradled it in his hands whispering in his language until it melted back under his skin. It would be there when he called on it again. Leander was positive he’d get the chance. Even if she denied it Leander knew she still loved him there was no doubt in his mind. If she had managed to completely forget him she might have found someone else by now, she would not have kept his soul waiting in a drawer. He hadn’t spent all this time with himself to let her go now.

Quietly he slipped out behind her catching up to her but staying a step behind completely invisible to all. Being alone all this time with nothing to do but think had made him more attuned to his godly powers. He rushed behind her without even a sound or a breath. Leander leaned in close and let his voice wash over her. “Your first mistake was calling me Lee and not Leander.” he whirled to her other side and whispered again “The second was leaving the door open for me” He moved a few steps in front of her and made himself visible again when she was so close she wouldn’t have time to move around him. “The third was thinking I’d let you leave so easily.” [I] ‘If I have to play this the way I used to,’ [/b] he thought to himself ‘then so be it.’

Ramsey stopped. The voice...his voice...caressing her like he used to. Tears formed in her eyes but her stone cold heart wouldn't let her cry them. She had changed. Changed so deeply that she wasn't herself anymore. A memory playing on a loop in her mind: Him walking out the door. The ability for him to walk out. She looked up at him and glared.

"There are flaws in your argument, Kiron." She said using his last name as if she were adressing hatred itself. "One. I didn't want to waste another two sylables on you. Two. I don't want you staying in my room. Three..." She stared straight into his eyes. Into his soul. "...You did it before. Leave me be. I've already wasted enough heartbreak over the famous heartbreaker himself. I should have known you were playing me like the lute you believed me to be." She then turned on her heel and started walking a different way to the library.

She walked into the library and smiled at her tutorial group, awaiting her arival. She stopped at the asistant library desk and returned her book. "Good morning, Trenton. How are you?" she asked the son of Hephestos. He was a beautiful dark haired boy, older than her, and very bright. She flipped her hair and sat on his desk, as she knew he was interested in her.

"Great. And you, Ram?" He questioned with a smile.

She rolled her eyes. "I've had better mornings." She said. She heard her group call over to her and she threw Trenton a grin. "So long, Trent. I'll talk to you in a couple hours when I'm though here." she told him with a smile that dazzled him.

"Catch up over lunch?" He asked.

"Of course." she grinned and kissed his cheek softly. "'Til then." she turned and went over to her group.

Leander dropped his visibility again and looked after her in surprise. Had he made an irreparable mistake yet again? In finding himself, had he lost her? Leander had expected her to be either ecstatic upon his return or already in the courtship of another. It was a chance he’d taken for her happiness.

He followed after her letting himself be carried on a nearly non-existent breeze, only to walk into the library and find her flirting carelessly with the library assitant. His lips curled into a snarl. His demonic shadows hissed and swirled around him dangerously. His fury left no trace of his soul, an angry god without complete control of power wasn’t something you ever wanted to run into. As soon as Ramsey left this Trenton fellow with a kiss that should have been his, Leander loosed one shadow to follow the boy. If he got even within yelling distance from Ramsey he’d find himself painfully and hopelessly jaw locked.

With his anger still nowhere near “in-check” he went after Ramsey. If he had been visible every student in the room would have run screaming at the sight of him, so fearsome was his appearance. “Is he your new toy Ramsey?” Leander practically snapped at the air behind her. She was talking to those in her study group trying to ignore him. “Did you tell him you’d love him forever no matter what? he hissed knocking over papers and stacks of books to the ground as he passed. Frightened and confused students jumped away from their seats screaming. They could only identify him as a biting gust of wind. His voice was rising steadily gaining volume and power. “how long Dearest Innocence? How much longer until you take it back!?!?!”

He reached the peak of his anger. Books went flying off the shelves slamming into walls and people along with papers, pens, chairs and tables. Yet the realization that he may have surely lost the only thing he’d ever cared for weighed him down suddenly and set the last crack necessary to send his splintered heart to the floor in pieces. The trajectory of a feather winding through the suddenly silent air could have been heard in the moment he was broken.

Ramsey was frozen on the floor. His angry voice shocked her but this...this menacing irate agressiveness...this was not Lee. It couldn't be. Her head whipped around, looking for any sign of him still there. It was deathly quiet and everyone was staring at her. She was frightened. And this fear brought bright shining tears to her eyes. "Please stop." She whispered. "These people didn't do anything. These books are priceless." She knew wherever he was, he could hear her.

She stood quietly and started putting things back on the table and placing books back on shelves. "Who are you to say that I am the one who broke my promise when you are the one who left me, Lee? What did you expect? For me to sit here and simply wait for your return. I had to move on without you here." Her voice wasn't anything above a quiet muttering to herself. Some were cleaning. Some were staring around in awe-shocked fear.

"Do not be afraid, dear friends." She called out with a smile through her tears. "Nothing will harm you." She reassured. Quietly they also moved to put things back. She slipped out of the library, where a happier feeling was being restored. Somehow, she felt he would follow her.

"Lee." Her voice caressed his name. "I haven't loved another, nor do I think I ever will. My heart is too cold, now." she looked down. "It's hard to imagine going through that kind of pain again." She whispered and sunk to the floor.

Leander followed her out. Before he completely stepped out of the shadow of the Library doorway he waved a hand and all order was restored. Almost as if his tantrum had never happened. Only the whispers and scared faces of the students as they told the events to others would show it. With every telling the occurrence would be made more extravagant.

“Loving me isn’t moving on Ramsey.” he flickered back into existence when they were a good distance from anywhere he could cause chaos. “I know I left. You deserve better than me. Than this.” He gestured down at himself. Leander had never in his lifetime seen himself as someone even remotely attractive. All his confidence and arrogance had been a show to get what was required of him. Not even now when he had been a god for almost a year now did he realize that to anyone who looked upon him would be completely awestruck. He gave a new definition to perfection, rivaled Aphrodite in beauty, Zeus in strength

Leander sat on the ground in front of her and took her hands in his and kissed each palm in turn. He felt like he couldn’t be towering over her when he had to ask for a favor of this magnitude. “I know it was wrong of me to go the way I did but I finally figured myself out and…Ramsey if you would take me back. I’d be your every dream. We can start over, from the beginning and do it right this time.” he proposed. He knew it was much more than a long shot to hope for her to take him back so quickly but he at least had to try.

Ramsey was quiet for a few silent moments. The pain, throbbing in her chest was deep, in every crevace and fissure in her heart was seeping pain. Tears fell from her cheeks as she sat, rock solid still, not letting herself enjoy the touch of his hands on her face. She pushed them away.

"Please Lee. That only makes it harder. Yes I still love you, but you dont understand what you've put me through. If you would have stayed, I could have helped you or at least tried." She stood up, her words as cold and calculating as she was. She looked back down at him. Her voice became raised as she became more angry. "You say you love me? Do you run away from the person you love, with barely a word spoken, for an entire year?! That may not seem like long for someone who is immortal, but believe me, a year to a half mortal is pure pain and suffering." She stopped and put herself in check.

"So no. I'm not going to run back into your arms. I'm not going to let this continue like nothing happened. If you want me, then so be it, but I won't fall back into your arms like the swooning school girl I was." She muttered and walked back into the library where Trenton was fixing his desk again.

She smiled and walked up to him. "Trent? I just remembered I have some last minute studying I have to do during lunch. I'll see you next study session though. Maybe we can work something out then." He nodded, albeit sadly and she walked back over to her group. "I need to go, okay guys? I've set you up for everything and I'll correct them next study session." She took her things and put them back in her bag. Walking to her room with a few more tears falling down her face.

Leander shrank back as if she had burned him and in part she had. Then again he felt as if his heart was so beyond repair it shouldn’t hurt this way anymore. Why couldn’t their be a numbing effect where whatever she did or said would no longer faze him? As soon as he had the fleeting thought it was dismissed. Even if it meant living in mortal pain like this every day of his life he would take it if it meant being within a hands breadth of her. If it was necessary he wouldn’t even touch her like he just had. Just being close enough to hear her steady breathing would sate him. Anything to see her, just to be near and know she was still inhabiting the space that was so very lucky to hold her. All Leander needed was to close enough for his keen ears to pick up the beating of her heart and he might possibly make it on that alone. When she turned from him it sent wounds stinging anew.

“I understand in the same way I don’t. I do not hold it against you for not taking me back but know that I won’t rest until I do. Until then love, until then.” he would repair the damage he caused even if it meant he himself would then fade away from the effort.

One.
Month.
Later.

Ramsey stepped into her room. She eyed the dahlia on the table, nearly glaring at it. Next to it was a note. Would it ever cease? He didn't seem to get the message. The note said what the others said. I want you back. i love you. was the gist of every note, although knowing Lee, he used much more extravagent language. She touched her temple, her head was throbbing as it always did when she caught his pretty little gifts.

A picture. A note. A beautiful flower. He always left something, nearly every day in fact. Her favorites, if she allowed herself to enjoy the treatment, were the flowers. The rare ones that he seemed to magically find their way into her room. She also saved all the notes and pictures. In a folder in the back of her filing cabinet to review when she was feeling weak.

She added the dahlia to the current bouquet that grew a flower or two everyday. She added and picked out the ones that were dying, daily. Today she took out a few dying flowers-a sprig of night blooming jasmine and a blue bell. It pained her to throw awaysuch beauty, occassionally she got her friend, and couson, Chase to stop by and spread his nature magic over them, just to make them last longer.

It was hard to remain adamant against him and his gifts, his occassional 'hellos' in the halls. The ones she tried to ignore but couldn't get herself to tell him to stop. Each time she froze him out though, absolutely not acknowledging his presence.

He wasn't making this any easier. But that was probably his intent.

One month later.

Leander was getting tired. Although he was nowhere near stopping the past month was wearing thin on his hope and patience. Everything he left her he put his whole heart into. He never took any shortcuts either, each piece of art he did by hand sometimes they were original, other times he replicated her favorite classics perfectly matching every crease of paint even if it took hours to days. The flowers too he looked for in the surrounding forests and grasslands. For those that were rarer or out of season he risked trips to the Underworld and pillaged what he good of the blooms Persephone had left behind that season. He always replaced them with his own flowers though. A strange breed that looked like a water lily carved from pure silver but that was so fragile a heavy touch could destroy it into glittering dust.

He tried his best not to follow her around all day but being in a place where he could not see her hurt him more than he dared to admit. Leander loved to watch her sleep. Sometimes she was restless but most of the time she was in deep peaceful sleep and he’d stare for hours, always leaving behind the days gift and walking out when he felt her on the edge of sleep and wake. He was after all the god of the undecided, the gray areas and borders, obscurities such as himself, and he knew when someone was in his territory.

Some days he thought he was making some progress and after days of believing it he would gain the courage to approach her in the hall and come up with nothing but a glare and fresh pain. A sign that he was once again very much mistaken. He kept at it though trying his best to make each letter more sincere than the last, each bloom more beautiful than the one before it, making each piece of art with more dedication than its predecessors. Leander had to get her back somehow. There was no point to his life if he couldn’t

Ramsey fizzes the blooms in the bouquet. They were all different, everyday, and she wondered where he had taken them from. It was getting close to night, the sun had set and she yawned. She put on her nightclothes-a gown of silk that went mid-thigh, but instead of going straight to bed she went into her file cabinet and took out the increasingly think folder of love notes and the smaller pictures that were sketched or painted. The larger ones were under her bed. She opened the folder and started with the first note she recieved. Every note had come with a flower, and she had scrawled the name of that flower at the bottom of each letter, along with the date. It made her smile to see all the different variants.

She leafed through the letters and noticed the ones in the begining were so hopeful, so light, and cheery. As they went along they became more poetic, more elegant...but also more determined, more desperate. More serious. She sighed. He did seem so intent on keeping her in his life. And she missed him so dearly. Why then couldn't she take him back?

Because. He abandoned her when he promised he would never leave again. Without a trace. Gone. And now he expected her back?

She looked to the letters, piled around her, then she thought back to how angry and sad she was. She was so undecided.

She analyzed the situation only a few more minutes before she fell asleep, the letters with their sparawled notes across the bottom just piled around her. She held a painting of a silver water lily to her chest as she slept, her beautiful brown curled hair spread around her. She dropped off into a quiet, deep, unmoving sleep.

Leander waited outside her door cloaked in invisibility and despair. He waited tentatively searching his domain for her presence and then her exit as her wary mind decided to fall over the edge into sleep. He felt her presence then as she was slipping down. He sighed and leaned his head back until it hit the wall then slid down to a sitting position with a silent gasp of breath. It was almost as if he were touching her again. He clung to her being as it slipped further away leaving him in the middle where he would be the rest of his eternal life. He came back to himself when he was positive she was gone from his territories and slipped silently through her door.

What he saw there nearly sent him to fresh tears. She had fallen asleep among letters. HIS letters. Leander recognized his edgy script instantly. He stepped closer hand outstretched when he noticed his own writing was accompanied by Ramsey’s. He picked up a random one from the strewn pile and looked at it only scanning his words. It was one of the first he had composed for her an airy hopeful conduction proclaiming the love he still had for her. But there at the bottom of the page was an addition of hers. It was the date he had left it on her nightstand and the flower that had accompanied it.

Leander touched her words on the paper tentatively with the tips of fingers afraid perhaps that they were a mere illusion his pitiful mind had constructed to make himself feel better but the ink stayed to the paper just as surely as the one that was on his skin. He stared at her leaning so dangerously close he didn’t dare breathe. The letter fluttered back to its companions leaving his fingers without so much as a rustle. He wouldn’t touch her though. He’d gone this far. Instead he lightly held the edges of the paper she’d fallen asleep with one of his flowers.

He whispered until it became a true incarnation of the painting , the flower was beautiful, even more so than the ones he left behind for Persephone, it had a more beautiful shine, petals smoother than silk. He took a paper from her desk and wrote very simply and unlike his other letters. “You know I’d never hurt you that way again. But hate me if it feels good, if you think that will keep me away. Just know that I’m not buying Baby, and I’ll be waiting for you to do more than let my words pass away.” he put the note in her grasp along with the flower and walked out of her room wiping a tear from his face. Even though she showed no sign of waking, he couldn’t bear to be so close, and yet so far away.

Ramsey awoke with a start in the middle of the night. The lamplight was still on and sh erealized she had fallen asleep among this devotion of love. Then she realized she was holding something new. A flower, the one in the picture, but real, and beautiful. She sat up, and looked at the new note. It was so plain and simple. So unlike him. She felt as if something was wrong. It was so...blunt.

Her groggy slow mind had put it together. He was here, while she was asleep. She was asleep among his letters. Obviously he saw this. Obviously he knew that she wasn't even near the point of hatred, but she wasn't head over heels much either. It was so hard to feel any decision arising. She put the letters back in chronological order, after dating the one she recieved this morning, and she held the flower, unknowing ow what to write at the bottom. Eventually she gave up and created a name for it.

The Silver Lee

She scrawled on the bottom, her doctor-ish cursive diluting the beauty of the elegant script that Lee wrote in. She didn't set this one in the folder. She set it on her coffee table. It was still night, but moonlight outside made the room glow slightly when she turned off her light. She found she couldn't sleep. She had left the flower next to the note but she suddenly got agitated. It was much to beautiful to leave there.

She got up, knowing she couldn't sleep. She was too keyed up. Ramsey moved to the table and took the flower, setting it on the windowsill, the moonlight making it sparkle. That's where it belonged. Then she moved to make a cup of coffee and glanced at the letter again. She made a decision, not the decision, but she made one. She needed to talk to him.

She sighed as she moved to her bed with the coffee. She brought her knees to her chest, despite the short nightgown, now showing more leg than before. She grasped her coffee and sighed deeply then called his name. All that shown into the room was moonlight, but he knew he could still see her...if he came.

"Lee?" Her voice casted out into the void.

The halls of the school held nothing for him to entertain his time with and Leander found himself wandering aimlessly through the same hallways and corridors over and over. Just a blur of repetitious marble and stone. It was a school after all, the buildings were uniform to each other even if it was a bit dull to a wanderer such as himself. He had thought to go to the stables and take out Phalanx for a while but the large black Frisian was sleeping and it did no good to wake him much less the other students horses and the school Pegasi.

He was making another round of the school when he heard a whisper. Someone calling his name. It was such a fragile whisper. It was said as if his name were meant to sound that way, if it was said above that volume it would shatter. “Eta Fricai.” he whispered to his shadows and they led him to the source of the voice. They stopped and shrank back into his skin at Ramseys door. This could not be right. He called to his shadows in a stern tone but they seemed sure that the source of the voice was inside. Leander leaned his forehead on the door and took a deep breath before making a big racket about opening the door. If she didn’t want him there she’d have time to say so before he walked in the door.

Leander got inside without any problems and stepped through the doorway. All his letters were gone from the bed without a trace save the one on her nightstand. The one he’d left for her only a few hours ago. The silver lily was catching light on the window sill reflecting specks of light on the walls. Then he allowed himself to look at her full on. It took much to control himself seeing as she was sitting there waiting for him in next to nothing. “You called for me? To what do I owe this of all honors?”

He tried to keep his voice level not allowing himself to show emotion until he knew why he had been summoned. It made no sense to break down in front of her anyway, it would only be tribute to his weakness. Still after all this time the only thing Leander could do was hope for the best.

Ramsey sighed and looked up at him, tears in her eyes. "Leander Kiron. I had been forewarned you'd break my heart." she whispered. Tears started to roll down her slightly tan skin, leaving streaks in their wake. She wiped them away. "It is hard to pretend that I don't love you. Do you know this?" She sounded broken. She sounded hopeless and tired. Surrendering to a long fight after hard battle. "I often reread those letters. I smell the flowers. I think of you. Try as I might not to." She continued her soliloquy. "I pass the stables. I think of you ridin the magnificent Phalinx. I walk in the halls where we first met. Hell, this room is full of the memories we share."

She stood from her bed the gown rising to her mid thigh. She walked to the window and stared out at the moon. She ran her hand through her curls a few times, as if deep in thought. "Ive immersed myself in my studies. In helping other students...but you never leave my mind. Not for a moment. I could draw the ink on your chest from heart, I know the patterns so well. My hands remember the touch of your face, my eyes remember the depth of yours." She placed one hand on her hip, the other underneath her hair, settling on her neck. She sighed again and turned.

"You make it impossible for me to forget you. You did even when you weren't around to write me beautifully written letters and give me hand picked flowers. Dis you honestly think I hadn't forgiven you already?" She asked. "I'll tell you. It's not anger that prevents me from being with you. It's a fear. A deep dark fear. The pain I shared with you from your tortures was nothing compared to the heartbreak that I felt when you didn't come back. I'm scared. Not angry, scared." Her monologue was coming to a close.

She took a few steps closer, but still the distance between them was a few feet. She looked up at him, her eyes sad and wise. Knowing. "Im fearful of what you could do to me again. But I'm so tired of fighting. Fighting myself. Fighting you. Fighting the feeling that I know is between us. I've never surrendered. I've never backed down. But I guess this is me waving a bright white flag." She finished, exploring his eyes for a response.

Leander listened quietly to everything she had to say. Everything that came from her mouth was truth. Every question one he knew the answer too without a second thought until she reached the end of her speech. However, it dawned on him that there was more than one form of surrender anyway. Was she surrendering him? Or to him? He smiled sadly at himself. “Darling I was the heartbreaker. It was in my blood. One year I spent with myself and I’ve yet to be sure if my sanity returned here with me.”

“Maybe it stayed in the desserts where I’d trace your name in the sound over and over again. Until everything within fifty feet of me contained you.” Leander walked around the room looking at the blank walls, the books on the shelves, anything to keep his composure as he spoke of the harsh times he’d spent in solitude. “Perhaps where I misplaced it was amongst the leaves of autumn falls. I’d catch the golden ones before they’d touch the ground and exercise one of two wishes between each catch. That I had never left you, or that my endeavor would soon lead me to the answer I sought so that I may return to you.”

“It could have even been the winter really. It was frozen out of me? When I allowed myself to feel the frosts sting until I thought I was dying from it simply because the idea of having been away that long was already breaking me apart. Then there was rebirth, beauty in colors and shades of green I had never seen before but I could enjoy none of it because you were not there for me to see the reflection of it in your eyes. Those are all plausible arguments I suppose. But the truth is I lost it when I returned and you would not have me.” He stopped looking out the window at the night sky.

“It was I who decided to leave but make not the mistake of believing that it was easier for me to leave you than it was for you to go without me. I only did it because it was best for you, because you deserved better from me and I needed to find what that something better was. So tell me now Ramsey. What surrender is written on this white flag of yours?” Whatever her decision was he would honor even if it did seem impossible at first.

She walked up to him, a silent step or two and she was there. "What else could I surrender to? You. I'm surrendering to you. You win. I can't stand it anymore. I've had no realization. No sudden epiphany of how to deal with the pain of loss. I never realized that you were dealing with the same pain." she whispered.

She placed her head in her hands and rubbed her temples. "Ive been selfish. Terrible and narsicistic. It is you who deserves better than me now." She looked up at him. "Im sorry for making you insane. For denying you. For anything and everything. Go...find someone worth your while. Someone who won't hurt you like I do." she said, tears gone from her face.

She leaned against the wall, the moonlight illuminating half her figure, the other remaining in darkness. "I'm sorry." She said once more.

The mere idea that Ramsey could think such things about herself was ridiculous. And the fact that she had finally given in to him left him gasping for air he didn’t exactly need. It was almost too good to be true but some part of him had always known they’d always be together. For better or worse.

Leander tentatively reached out and touched her wrist with only his index finger and stayed there for a moment. He let his hand trail up slowly until he grasped her arm in his strong hand and pulled her forward gently. Just enough so that he would slide in behind her, leaning his back on the wall and pulling her down onto his lap, into his embrace. “Now you’re just lying.” he whispered in a low voice wrapping both arms around her shoulders, letting his hands hang loosely about her collarbone.

He closed his eyes and hid his face In her hair breathing In deeply then sighing with the relief of a dying man who had found his sweet release. It had been over a year since he’d last gotten to touch her and he was soaking up the feeling as much as he could. He had to show her he would not run anymore, that he was sure in himself and he could be everything for her. Anything she wanted. He gently swept her curls to one side. “You’re the best thing that ever happened to me. And you always will be.” Gently he kissed her neck and reached for her hand with the beautiful feeling that everything might just be falling into the right place after all this time.

Ramsey smiled with genuine contentment for the first time in a long time. It felt so great to be held by Leander again. She could barely contain the bubbly feeling. She turned in his arms and rested against his chest. Here was a wonderful place where she felt like she belonged. She hadn't felt like this since he last kissed her so many days ago.

Home.

It was amazing. The hand he had reached down to hold moved his to her waist. The other was still around her neck. She smiled up at him, feeling almost weightless. She stood on her toes and brought her hands up around his neck. "I feel like we're long overdue, don't you think?" She asked him, a mischievious smile playing upon her lips. "But then again...we know what happened the last time..." She said, half lamenting and half teasing him. She broke their embrace and stood a few feet away. "I guess that just depends how starved you are." She laughed.

She crossed one leg behind the other and placed her hands on her hips, waiting for him to get fed up with that small space between them.

Leander gave her a devilish grin. She was playing with him, staying that far at a time like this, when all he wanted was more than any should dare to take. Slowly he pulled his shirt off over his head and throwing it on the armchair close by. The moon reflected off of his tattoos beautifully in breath taking plays of silver light on both his and black marks alike. He closed the distance between them but did not touch her with his hands, only his lips. “Starved?” he said between kisses. “That’s an understatement. Try…Ravenous.” Tomorrow would be a new day.

[the following September...]

Ramsey had lived in utter bliss the last few months. She once again stayed the summer at the academy, and so did Lee. They were very happy together and even though Lee was a God now, he decided to take classes the following semester. So much so that he kept bothering Ramsey about taking sone of the sane classes as him.

The worst was him convincing her to take Art History. She had previously taken the course but he kept telling her that there was a new teacher and he was supposed to be one of the greatest at the school. She agreed to take it because Lee wanted her to. She had to laugh at his pretend begging and over dramaticism when he tried to convince her to do things. He made her so happy and she was very content with where her life was.

[To the new thread]