Silver Eyes

A/N - not too happy with this one, and especially after such a long wait :( I just couldn't get into Kelian's head after spending so much time in Asahi and D'rian's POV's. We'll eventually get into Alaex' POV, but not for a while, you'll see why. All character thoughts, no plot in this one - that'll be the next few chapters which I'll do my best to get out quicker! Also, please let me know what pairing you like! I already have them in mind, but enough feedback may change my mind (don't just assume your fav pair is going to end up together!)
smint - You see a bit of the reaction in this one, hopefully you enjoy it!
Sen - everyone seems to like Asahi w/ D'rian, but I'm glad you like Kel too!
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Asahi sighed, already missing the easy companionship he and D’rian had fallen into. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Alaex, but from the time they left the base the other man had seemed tense. The Knight couldn’t figure it out – the disguised Lord had seemed fine before they left, and he was fairly sure he hadn’t said anything insulting, so there was logically no reason for this strange tension between them. Running a hand through auburn hair that was slowly growing down his back, he nudged his horse to move beside the other man.

“Hey, is there something wrong? You’ve seemed tense all morning? Is there something I should be on the watch for?”

Alaex looked over at him, something passing through his eyes. He gave a small smile and shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. This is just the first time I have done this with a partner; while I am glad you are here, I am also thinking of everything that can go wrong.”

Asahi nodded his understanding. “Well, we’re got a while before we get there. I’m sure we can plan for the worst scenarios at least.”

“The worse would be if one of us is recognized. I am certain I won’t be; no one who knows me would expect me to be masquerading as a Lord, and my family and friends wouldn’t be in the palace anyway. But you are trained as a Knight, that’s hard to ignore, and there will be other Knights all over that may recognize you by your mannerisms if not your face. From what I’ve learned, you were quite the oddity amongst them?”

“Yea, most are built with more brawn than I have; I also have a good head on most of them. You’re right that I won’t be able to hide that I have military training. We’ll have to pass it off as my having been in the army, and I’ll just have to keep my mouth shut. The rest of the Knights all know I love to talk” He grinned and Alaex couldn’t help smiling back.

“So you didn’t have any close friends we’ll need to avoid? Or a partner?”

The Knight shook his head, ruefully. “Unfortunately, or well, fortunately now, I hadn’t made too many friends. As you said – I was an oddity. Oh, I got along well enough with everyone, but I was too different to gain any close friends. We’ll just have to deal with the normal sharp observational skills they have.”

Alaex, nodded, thoughtful. “And a partner?” Asahi was about to laugh at the persistence, and then remembered the rather obvious looks that the smaller man had given him whenever they met. He had almost forgotten. But at least he now knew why the blond had gotten so tense once they left. “You didn’t know? Most Knights are betrothed at birth; I’m no exception.” He frowned as he thought about it. “Actually, at some point, word will have to leak back that I’m dead, I wouldn’t want the poor girl to end up alone, waiting for me to come back.”

At this, the Lord turned to face Asahi fully. “Who says you won’t go back? Why make her mourn when in a few years this may all be over?”

Asahi sighed and shook his head. “Even if it is, I’ll have abandoned my duties, my heritage. I’ll be sure to be at the least demoted, possibly kicked out of the Knighthood entirely, and well, you know who my family is, and the girl I’m supposed to marry is niece to the King. I will be a disgrace, and I wouldn’t bring that on her.”

The Lord looked at him, seeming to be searching for something. “I don’t think you should be writing yourself off so quickly, but I guess we’ll just have to see. If there’s a chance to let anyone know that you won’t be returning, without casting suspicion on ourselves, we will take it.”

The Knight was somewhat surprised; he thought that the other would want him to call it off, but then again, he might feel like D’rian and know better than to get too caught up in someone who couldn’t return the same feelings. It was actually rather funny all the male attention he had been getting lately; and the wizard hadn’t let him live it down. Kel had said that they were lucky, there were other countries where same sex partnerships were frowned upon or even illegal. Here, no one cared, and even in the royal families, if that preference was discovered, the arranged marriage would be adjusted accordingly. The families always had more than one child, with few exceptions, so if the eldest was not able to produce heirs, that task was just passed on to the next in line.

But just because it was acceptable didn’t mean that he felt attraction to males. Granted, he had never really looked, given that he was already engaged. However, even faced with the fact that there was a good chance he would never marry Saela, his eyes still didn’t wander. Most of the noble families would have relationships before their arranged marriages; the ones who became Knights freely and the ones who were the heirs with a bit more discretion and with an aim to avoid pregnancy, but to Asahi that always felt like cheating. He often wondered if his affianced had done the same, but he would never be rude enough to ask it of the young lady. He wouldn’t hold it against her; he knew well enough he was an oddity. It would take a while for him to feel comfortable with the idea of having a relationship with anyone, male or female.

Well, he would take Alaex’ advice in one aspect. He would see what happened at the capital. Neither of them could predict the future, and it was pointless to waste time they could be planning worrying about his personal problems.

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D'rian spent most of the morning with thoughts chasing themselves around his head. It was a very good thing he wasn't doing this mission solo; and that they were still in the relatively safe area around the base. Most of his thoughts were centred on the surprise kiss from Valan. It was nice, yes, it was actually very nice, and he thought that if he hadn't had to leave they could have gone back to the room and done something considerably more than 'nice'. But two things ruined that train of thought - the fact that he had to leave for this mission, and thus his nerves came back en masse once they were out the door; and the fact that Kel had turned professional, polite, and cold. The Fae had been looking forward to the trips he would go on with him; the brunet was usually fun to be around, always laughing and with a story to tell. Plus it would be uninterrupted eye candy. He never figured the Were's whole demeanour would change, since it hadn't on their return trip.

Perhaps it had to do with the fact that when they met him, they were on their way back, and now they were on their way out, and the family in question were still in danger. It could be that this was the brunet’s ‘business mode’; after all, if they messed up, it wasn’t just their lives on the line. D’rian could only hope that was the only reason, he didn’t want to have annoyed the other without even knowing why. Regardless of his crush, he liked Kelian, and would like to consider him a friend, something he still didn’t have many of.

He tried to quash the hope that the other man was actually jealous; Kel went home with a different person every night, yet never went past casual flirting with him. He’d be lying if he said it hadn’t bothered him, but he wasn’t going to let it get to him anymore. Once he got back, he could talk to Valan, and see if the other Fae wanted a serious relationship. It certainly seemed like he did. If Kelian was jealous, well, too bad for him, he had his shot. Val was fun to be around, but much more of a stay at home type. That may have more to do with taking care of his sister, but D’rian was perfectly fine sitting in one of their rooms chatting over a glass of wine anyway.

D’rian resolved to not let Kel’s present coldness or previous flirtatiousness get to him anymore – he would do his mission to the best of his abilities, and return back to the base to find out if he possibly had a boyfriend.

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Kelian was in a bad mood. Actually, that was putting it incredibly mildly. The people who knew him well, which was for the most part just Alaex, had noticed his poor mood since he had returned. It was all that damn Fae’s fault. He had been thrilled while he had been tailing the pair; Rian seemed like such a great catch – everything he could have wanted in a partner. And following them, he hadn’t seen any signs that they were involved. But then, when he confronted them, the wizard had actually defended the human, and then he found out they had all but adopted a child. But at the same time, he couldn’t blame the Fae for choosing the Knight – Asahi was gorgeous, and Kelian wouldn’t have minded spending a night or two with him. So he resolved to act like nothing was bothering him, and went back to his typical self, flirting with anything in sight. The only difference was that he never followed through anymore. His self-inflicted abstinence was making him even more irritable than knowing he couldn’t have Rian. The blond Lord had told him, none to nicely, that he had better follow through one of these days for everyone’s sake (and Alaex’ sanity).

Then...that kiss this morning. Kelian was angry – he was more than that, he was livid. But he was also overwhelmingly disappointed. Rian had never seemed the type to cheat; from what he could see, he was shy, and quiet, and from what Kelian had observed, seemed happy to not have to keep secrets anymore. Plus, the kiss this morning had been anything but discreet – Naia had been standing right next to them! The water Fae, Valan if Kel remembered correctly, had obviously initiated the kiss, and he would have been fine, if a bit jealous, if Rian had done the right thing and told the other man he was already involved. It was likely, not having been able to be very sociable in his past, that the dark Fae had no idea if he was leading someone on or not. But the fact that he hadn’t said or done anything, and had made the other feel that his feelings were welcomed, if not reciprocated, was just wrong.

The selfish part of him wanted to tell Asahi about Rian’s unfaithfulness, but even if his morals screamed against it, the rational part of him wouldn’t agree anyway. It was likely that Asahi wouldn’t believe him, or he would and that would cause him to leave the base, and as jealous as he was of the redhead, they needed the Knight too much to alienate him. Plus even if the two broke up, it was likely that Rian would end up with Valan at this point, instead of him, and that the Fae would hate him for telling Asahi.

There was also the thought that it may be a new development, as Asahi had left for a few months; it could be possible that Rian hadn’t meant to start anything with Valan until Asahi returned and he could properly break it off with him. It still wasn’t right, but it was much more in fitting with the Rian that Kel knew – or thought he knew.

But if that was the case, the Kelian was even more pissed at himself than at the Fae. If Rian and Asahi’s relationship wasn’t as strong as he had originally thought, that meant the Were had had a chance with him, and missed it. True, his flirting hadn’t met with great success, Rian usually just ended up blushing and stumbling over his responses, but the poor man was socially stunted from his past. It could have been that the other hadn’t known how to respond, rather than not knowing how to politely tell Kel to stop. He wished he could just ask outright, but that could make things very awkward, and until they didn’t need to work so closely together, it wasn’t a good move. As much as he may wish otherwise, what they were trying to do was more important than his feelings, and Rian played too important a part to alienate him.

Kelian glanced over at his companion; the man looked to be as deep in his thoughts as he was, and the Were had no idea if that was a good thing or a bad thing. They were still in the ‘safe’ area around the base, but wouldn’t be for much longer. They only had a few days to get to the family in danger; according to the source, soldiers had left from the capital two days before they had gotten the news, so they now had a four day head start. They wouldn’t be able to stop for breaks, unless absolutely necessary, and even at night they would have to stop for as little as possible. Of course, that meant it wouldn’t take more than a couple of weeks, at the most – Kel figured it would take another two days travel to reach the town, the family wasn’t too far away from one of the boltholes through the mountains, and they were supposedly earth Faes, so going through the tunnels wouldn’t be a problem for them, and then four or five days back to the base. Ten days total if everything went to plan. He glanced back over, where Rian still sat like a statue. If nothing changed, it would be a long ten days.

tbc...