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The clink of silverware and mugs, the bickering of the Wings ever rampant in the dining halls. This didn’t exclude Anastasia and her rag tag group of pals as they finally convinced her to cease training for the evening to grab a bite to eat, using the fact that they only had thirty minutes before they closed the dining hall. Anastasia stares at her meat and potatoes as Hugo and Mitchell tease with Landon over his obsession with her maid, Maya. While she is hungry, she can’t find it in herself to take a bite with her revenge constantly eating away at her. How to save Maya? How to save Lucien? How to make her happy ending come true? Unconsciously, Anastasia lets out a heavy sigh before forcing herself to fork a piece of the dark meat into her mouth.
“What’s wrong?” Hugo pokes his fork into her view, practically using the utensil to pull her eyes up to meet his. She flashes him a weak smile.
“Oh, nothing…” she scratched the back of her scarlet hair. “I guess I’m just a little tired.”
“We all know that’s a lie.” Mitchell retorts.
“Yeah! You’re the one who just the other day ran more laps than what Crius told us to do.” Landon adds. “There is no way you’re just tired.”
Hugo stares at her as she fumbles with what to say next. It’s not like she can just outright tell anyone about her Fatal Rewinds or that Maya’s death was approaching soon. She had been doing her best to remain vigilant, but sometimes it just ate at her in times of peace such as this.
“You know…” Hugo begins, “I heard another rumor going around town.” The other two boys lean in at this.
“Ok. Spill.” Says Mitchell.
“Well Landon, I hate to break it to you, but I heard a little rumor that our very own Rose Knight has kissed Maya.” Anastasia chokes on the piece of food she managed to take bite of while Landon busts out a scream of despair.
“No way!! This can’t be!” Landon turns to the red-head, about to burst into tears. “Please tell me this isn’t true!”
Before Anastasia could even retort, “Oh yes, Anastasia, please do tell us it isn’t so.”
The cadets all visibly jump in their seats as they turn to find their newly appointed Grand Commander, Crius Castlerock, has approached their table. His charming grin ever present, yet also seemingly hiding something deeper.
“Sir!” They all salute him which he dismisses almost immediately.
He brings up the real reason he had approached them. Crius needed the boys to go prep some feed for the newborn Garuda as soon as possible. When Anastasia had offered to do it all herself, she was surprised to find herself shot down and instead told to meet him in his office for a different debriefing.
With not much thought to it, she follows him into his office. Whatever it may be, she assumed that Crius had something important to inform her of. Maybe even something that could help her in her quest of revenge, she hoped.
“Take a seat.” He gestures to the couch, which she obliges. Crius throws his jacket onto his office chair before sitting next to her, loosening a few buttons on his dress shirt.
“How was Huma today?”
“She is doing excellent, Grand Commander sir! In fact, she seems to have really taken a liking to me ever since the baby was born.” He nods as he listens to her, grabbing a glass of liquor that had been left out on the coffee table in the middle of the room.
“Um, are you sure you should be drinking, sir?”
“Allow me to have an exception for today. All these events I have to attend have been eating at me.” He flashes her a weak smile before pouring himself a glass.
‘You and me both it seems’ Anastasia can’t help but think. His head dips back as he sips on his drink, a long sigh follows suit.
“So, Miss Red has kissed her own maid?”
“What?” The crazy rumor being brought up again brings surprise to her. “You don’t actually believe that do you, commander?”
He breaks a smile with a laugh, his pearly whites shining through. “I don’t know, you tell me.”
“Of course not! I love Maya, but she’s my family and closest friend.” She leans in close, hand over her chest. “Besides that I’ve never even kissed someone.”
Crius blushes with wide eyes as she leans in, seemingly unaffected and unaware of how their current closeness may look to others especially considering what they were talking about.
“You’re more bold than I take you for. If you didn’t say otherwise, I would have believed you to have kissed her.”
Anastasia feels her cheeks grow warm realizing she had indeed gotten a little close in his personal space, enough that that alone would stir some rumors. She didn’t really understand it but her mere existence in the Wings was enough to cause rumors as the only female knight and the only female to win the War Games.
“Sorry…” she pulls away, but she doesn’t stay shy for long.
“Well, since you can ask questions, I heard a rumor that you have no weaknesses.”
“Oh?” Another glass and sip of his favorite drink.
“Even Tyril seems hell bent on finding out. He insists you have one.”
Crius let’s our a hearty laugh at the mention of his rather odd friend. A love-hate relationship mainly from the inquisitor’s side, but a fun friendship all the less for Crius.
“Well—“
Anastasia’s ears perk up as Crius wraps a finger around his chin.
“I may have one weakness.” His molten honey eyes slide to her where she sits next to him. Her eyes glint with a curiosity, as if she had found evidence that no one else has. She finds herself leaning in again.
“May I ask what that is? If you’re comfortable with sharing, sir.”
Before she gets too close, he places his drink back down on the coffee table then turns to face her.
“Anastasia.”
“Yes?”
“You. You are my weakness.”
Her strong and fiery red hues blink a few times, the cogwheels in her brain slowly turning.
“Me? How am I your weakness?” He chuckles and looks down while shaking his head.
“I figured that would go over your head.”
“?” Anastasia’s brain wracks at his words. At first, she wonders if he means she is nuisance and causing him issues. But, she also recalls that everyone proclaims that Grand Commander’s favorite pupil is her. So she is left perplexed.
“Anastasia, would you close your eyes?”
“Oh! Um, of course..?” Uncertain as to what he wants from this, she trusts him and does as he asks.
She feels a light tickling sensation on her left cheek, calloused skin which she assumes his hand. The hand massages her and she finds it quite soothing, the sensation itself foreign as it had been a long time anyone had shown her such a gesture. The next thing she feels is her short hair being brushed, unconsciously letting out a sigh as his hand plays gently with the strands closer to her ear.
She feels like she’s in heaven. The last time she had such attention had been from her father when he still saw her in better graces, before her step-mother came along. Maya, being the doting maid she was, had offered to do such tender love and care for her, but due to her desire to be strong and focused on her mission, she has turned it all down. But, her Grand Commander was doing it all of his own will and surprising her with it.
Then all of a sudden, the strokes stop. She waits a moment, debating whether to open her eyes. But then, a new sensation now covers her lips. It’s warm, gentle. Her eyes open and widen when she finds herself now being kissed by Crius. She doesn’t feel scared or desire to push him away, rather she finds herself closing her eyes again and melting into his touch.
‘So, this is what it’s like…’ Something like this was far out of her mind, unconsidered. Her goal was to protect and save her loved ones, nothing more. At one point even hating herself, she thought she didn’t deserve love or to experience it. But here she was, kissing the man she found herself closest to over the past eight years since her very first Fatal Rewind with Rune’s guidance.
When he pulls away, she’s left wanting. It was gentle and sweet, almost intoxicatingly sweet but maybe even a little bitter from the alcohol. Unconsciously, her hands ball into his dress shirt and she leans in closer.
“Commander…” Barely above a whisper. His smile captivating.
“Call me Crius.”