(OOG: If only we had thirty-hour days. ^^ Sorry for taking so long, but my co-writer and I are having a hard time meeting up to write. Take it away, Jo... and for anyone who might want to contact me, I'm going to be without access to my email until Monday night. Sorry about that.)

"Darius...?" Elanore called softly, as she entered the small confines of his cell. It wasn't lit very brightly - which would be good if they decided not to turn the lights off after curfew - and she had to suint for a minute to let her eyes adjust to the difference. THe Yggdrasil's hallways seemed flooded in sunlight, by comparison.

She opened her mouth to call again, but closed it abruptly when she saw him stretched out on his cot; the guards had said he was awake, but that didn't seem to be the case anymore. He couldn't be blamed, with all of the work he was forced to help with after the cruiser stopped for the night, but she had hoped to be able to speak to him at least once before they docked in Nisan. Their destination was only a few days away at the most, and it wouldn't be fair to just disappear on him.

Darius turns arond and smiles at Elanore as she walks inside - although he does tug at his restraints for a moment as he does so. "Elly!" he says with a smile. "Any luck on seeing if they are going to let me out of this hole at some point?" he says hopefully, giving her the best pleading expression he can with his eyes.

Elly bit her lip and giggled, shaking her head in a flash of auburn. "They should be letting you out of your restraints though. I guess the others are a little overzealous." She shrugged and approached his cot, halting before she could reach the edge - just out of reach. "I'd ask Marien again, but... I'm not sure I'll be able to talk to him again any time soon. We're almost to Nisan, you know - he's doing his best to get us there in one piece."

A sigh and a nod is the only response that Darius gives, as he sits down on the cot and hangs his head. "Well, I do suppose that this is what I get," he admits, brushing a strand of his black hair away from his face. He does look rather curiously at her, as she stops away from him... what now, does he have the entire dangerous criminal aura about him again? "So, why are you stopping by then, if you don't mind my asking?"

She felt heat rise in her cheeks at his inquisitive look, and shifted nervously from one foot to the other. Maybe getting a little closer wouldn't hurt... it wasn't as if he was going to try anything with her. But Kyoko's admonitions were still strong in her mind, and she stayed where she was with her hands clasped behind her back. Her skirt had a bad habit of hiking up and getting /shorter/ if she didn't watch how she stood, and she wanted to be able to pull it down again before something embarassing happened.

"I wanted to see you - that's not hard to believe, is it?" she asked with a bright smile. "I wasn't sure if I'd get a chance before we arrived - they're going to keep working you after we docked in Nisan, and every time I've come down, you've been asleep..." Elanore shrugged, shifting her feet again. "I thought you should know about our plans, so you don't think I've just disappeared on you."

"Well, if they think they are going to keep me here very long after we get to Nisan," is the growled response that Elanore recieves from the captive. "I admit that I'm willing to work for the damage I did when I tried to get in here to save you, but there are limits." Darius shakes his head, standing up from where he was sitting on the bed. "And I want to go into Nisan as well... there's just... something about the name, I think.

"Its almost like I always wanted to go back there, at some point. Like I left something behind that I need to find." He chuckles, and stands up to the edge of his restraints... almost touching Elanore, but not quite. "It doesn't make any sense, does it?"

"Perhaps Nisan is in your past, and you just don't know it yet." She smiled softly and dropped her gaze to her feet, where it remained. "You don't have to get excited over it - they'll let you go. There's a Festival coming up over there - Purine, or something - and it's good form to bury grudges during that time."

It was a nice idea, actually - more than she could hope for. Perhaps she could work something out with Shaina, if the Element was released - her crimes far outweighed Darius's. But she hadn't heard anything about her lately...

"Well, I do hope you have fun then, roaming the city... I'll catch up with you as soon as I can," Darius says at last, turning around to sit on the bed again. He does give her one more appraising look, and a soft sight escapes his lips. "I'm sorry that we've not exactly seen each other much here... I come all the way to rescue you, and look what ends up happening... I've missed seeing you, though."

Elanore stood silently, watching him go back to his cot, and bit her lip again. Maybe Kyoko was right, but... still. "Don't worry, Darius. Things will work out for everyone in the end." She gave in after another moment's pause and padded over to his side, resting a slender hand on his shoulder. "And you won't have to be concerned about me, either. Marien will be escorting us around the town to look for a place to live, so we should have everything ready by the time they finally give you a break. Kyo and I have just enough money saved to make things work."

The comment was enough to make Darius' ears perk for a moment. "A place to live? Does that mean that you've decided to stay here after all?" he asks, reaching up to rest his hand atop her own, a faint smile on his face. "I'm... glad to hear that." His face falls again, as he recalls that he doesn't have a home anymore... in fact, he had been partly responsable for destroying it. Pressing one hand to his forehead, he sighs.

"Maybe," she replies softly, drawing her fingers through his hair playfully. "We may nto stay forever, but we definitely have to find a place to stay until we can save enough to go somewhere else. Traveling isn't cheap, you know..." And from the way she was hearing things, it didn't sound all that safe anymore, either. She didn't want to expose herself or her friends to any more danger if she didn't have to.

Of course, Fate kept playing tricks on her and making things worse... but she had the feeling that Nisan, at least, would be free of the ravages that were making the rest of the world so hard to live in. No one bothered Nisan - that much she knew, from her time in Bledavik. No one was stupid enough to declare war on a nation of peace.

"I want Kyoko to have time to recover fully. Everything is so dangerous lately... I just don't want any of us to get hurt again. It's bad enough that people died /here/." Her lip smarted, and Elanore licked the blood away, long since accustomed to its coppery taste. She really needed to get rid of that habit. "No one else should be hurt. Okay?"

"I... I wasn't the one who... I haven't killed..." But you did kill people... all of those soldiers, there could not have been anyone else who had fought them? And what about your home? What of all the people who died there? You can blame Aishou as much as you want, but in the end it had to have been you to kill them...

Darius clutched his head again, shaking it as he tried to rid himself of that momentary flash of pain. "...I understand... I won't... but I would never try and hurt you, Elly... you know that, don't you...?"

She leaned down and slid her arms around his neck, careful not to squeeze too tightly. Her little brother - or sister? she couldn't quite remember - had once nearly squeezed the life out of her clinging to her neck in their swimming pool, and... that wasn't a pleasant memory. "Of course I know that, silly. All you've ever done is try to protect me." She kissed the curve of his ear, just a butterfly touch of her lips. "And I've only gotten you in trouble, haven't I? I'm sorry."

"You have... but in all honesty, I would rather to have gone through all of this trouble with you, than have been alone after all of this happened," Darius replied with a smile, wrapping his arms around Elly for a moment as she leaned close to him. And then, acting on a sudden impish impulse, Darius leaned backwards onto the bunk, his arms still looped aroud the red haired girl, and pulled her down on top of him.

"I wouldn't give up any of this for the world," he added, looking up into Elanore's eyes... so blue, so deep that he thought he might be able to lose himself in them. He reached up and brushed a strand of hair away from her face, smiling as he did so. "And I'll always be there to protect you..."

She stared down at him with wide eyes, a blush the color of a sunset rising in her face and putting her hair to shame. But it was hard not to smile at his words - she couldn't remember anyone ever seriously saying that to her. Not like this.

Well... not clearly, in any case. It was becoming hard to determine the difference between her dreams and reality, in this case.

"Don't worry about your past, Darius." She rested her forehead on his shoulder, tightening her embrace for a few precious seconds before lifting her head again. "Just live for the present - that's all any of us can do right now. We can deal with the past when it comes up again, but until then let's just try to make the most of what we have. We can't be happy if we're worrying about shadows all the time."

Darius nods, his fingers gently running down the length of Elanore's hair, until it rested against her waist. "You're right, of course... damnit, you're always right, Elly... I should have listened to you more often..."

With his other hand he reached up, cupping the auburn haired girl's cheek and running his thumb along the line of her chin. Her face was warm from being so flushed... had she always been this easily embarassed? Sometimes, as hes slaved away at whatever task he was assigned to, he had to wonder if everything had been a dream. When he waited to see if she would come, he wondered sometimes if she ever really existed, outside of his dreams.

A smile, and a slight twinkle in the young man's eye. "I really can't remember..." he said quietly, before he leaned up and ever so gently pressed a kiss to Elly's cheek. "...if I ever kept that promise I made in the hanger back in Bledavik..."

Elly's face grew warmer, if that was possible, turning a shade of crimson most normal people didn't know existed. "Your... promise...?" So much for keeping to her agreement with Kyoko. Well... at least for the time being. She could always try again, right?

"That I would return that kiss you gave me, back when we seperated to make our escape," he replied, tightening his embrace slightly. A soft chuckle was his next reaction, as the rather deep flush that was now covering Elanore's face.

"Elly," he asked teasingly, "Are you ashamed to be around me? You've been acting... a little odd, since the last couple of times I've seen you. Don't tell me you've fallen for that Marien character now..."

"No!" She buried her face into his shirt again and laughed helplessly, covering her face with her hands. What was she going to tell him - that Kyoko told her to try and make him jealous? That would be ridiculous. Elanore just didn't know what to say to him, or how to react to him, or how to get rid of the overwhelming /shyness/ that came over her whenever he started looking at her this way. She couldn't meet his eyes without turning red.

Shaina was right - she was too spineless. She needed to stiffen her resolve.

Of course, being spineless wasn't a good thing, or a bad thing... Darius of course didn't know any of what Elanore had been up to, or about her discussion with Kyoko. All that he could do was to act... naturally? Perhaps it was an old memory, but when had he ever been old enough to have learned anything like this...?

The laughing is enough to set Darius off as well, a tad less hysterical than Elly, but only by the slimmest of margins. Resting his face against her hair - the smell of it was always exciting, for some reason he could never quite understand - Darius waited until Elanore had a bit more control over herself before he tightened his embrace just a touch more.

"I'll take that a definate no," he added, brushing one unruly bang away from her eyes.

All Elanore wanted, right at that moment, was for her face to return to its normal color. She didn't plan on looking up again until that happened, so why couldn't she just /stop/ with the blushing? "I'm just... not used to this, that's all," she finally replied, her words jumping out a little too quickly. "I've never had anyone pay attention to me before. Not like this - not really."

She fell silent, and Darius seemed to be content not to respond, but for another tightening of his arms. There wasn't much else to say - not if she wanted to keep from sounding like an idiot, anyway. She wasn't even supposed to be here; Kandi had offered to find her a better dress once she ahd some free time, and that was today. Besides, Kyoko...

Well, she could stay here for a little bit longer at least. It ahd been days since her last visit with Darius, and with all of the work he was doing, it would likely be days more, perhaps even after their eventual arrival in Nisan. It wouldn't be nice to just leave him alone, and there certainly wasn't anyone else willing to come in just to talk, was there?

Elanore sighed and relaxed, resting her cheek on his shoulder. Just a little longer.

(Summary: Elanore informs Darius of her plans once they reach Nisan, and she finds out that it's going to be difficult to follow Kyoko's advice.)