Written by Jennieman
Daine stifled a yawn as she sagged wearily against Numair. Exhaustion was threatening to overtake her. Pinching herself to stay awake, she looked worriedly at Numair. He too seemed to be fighting to stay awake. She shook him gently, hoping he wouldn’t fall asleep. Flashing her a tired smile, he rested his head against hers.
After a short while, Onua returned with Alanna in tow, to find the sleepy couple resting against a wall. Shaking her head, Alanna knelt to their level.
“Hey you two, think you can wake up enough to move into that room over there?” she indicated with a toss of her head. Opening his eyes, Numair looked from Alanna, to the room, And back again and sighed.
“I don’t know Alanna. That’s a fair large distance and I’m not as young as I used to be,” he said with a faint smile. Daine snorted lightly, and dragged Numair and herself up.
“C’mon, don’t be a baby. You can make it that far,” she said, staggering over to the room. Letting out a huge yawn, Daine flopped onto a chair, while Numair collapsed onto the bed. Raising his head, he looked over to Daine.
“Well what do you know? We did make it,” he observed. Sitting up, he leaned his head against the backboard of the bed.
“Ok, where does it hurt?” Alanna asked.
“Everywhere,” he replied. Fixing him with a stern glance, she crossed her arms.
“Anything broken? Cut?” she asked. He nodded.
“A gash on my chest. Maybe a broken rib,” he winced as he sat forward, taking the ragged shirt off to reveal a deep gash running from his shoulder to his stomach. Blood was caked into his discarded shirt, as well as in the open wound, while still more blood ran down his side to pool on the sheet.
“Ouch,” Alanna stated, placing one hand over the injury, another over his abdomen. A few minutes later and he was healed, with only a faint trace of a white scar marring his skin. Patting Numair’s shoulder gently, she turned to Daine.
“Are you hurt anywhere?” Daine shook her head. Thanks to Gainel’s coat, all her wounds had been healed.
“You two had better get some rest.” With that, Alanna left to find more patients, Onua following. Getting up, Daine held out a hand to her lover.
“Here, let me help you to your room,” she offered. Grasping her hand, the two of them slowly made their way to Numair’s room.
Once there, they both fell into the bed. Letting out a sigh, Daine snuggled close to Numair.
“I’m too tired to get up again,” she muttered, her eyelids falling closed. Her teacher just grunted in reply and wrapped his arms firmly around her waist. A smile flitted across her face, and she drifted off to sleep.
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As her mind slowly woke up, Daine groggily wondered how long she had been asleep for. She stretched and was pleased to notice that all of her aches were gone. Sitting up, she rubbed her eyes and glanced down at Numair who was still sleeping. Daine couldn’t resist smiling as she watched him sleep. (A.N.: I wouldn’t be able to either!) He was absolutely adorable. Leaning over, she placed a gentle kiss on his lips. A smile played at the corner of her mouth as she felt him deepen the kiss as he woke up.
Slipping her arms around his neck to run her fingers through his unruly hair, she broke the kiss, and lay partially on top of him, their noses touching. Numair stared up at her lazily, his fingers toying gently with the sensitive flesh at her waist. He brought one hand up to her face and cupped her cheek in it.
“Well isn’t this a pleasant way to wake up,” he stated. “How long have we been sleeping?” Daine shrugged, not really caring. Numair laughed gently and pulled her down for another kiss. Hearing her stomach grumble loudly, she pulled away, much to Numair’s dismay. Twirling a lock of his hair around her finger, she nuzzled her face against his neck.
“Hmm. I think I’m hungry. How about you?” she asked quietly.
“Now that you mention it, I’m starving. Let’s go eat,” Numair replied.
After finding something to eat, they decided to go find their comrades and see how they were doing. After walking around for a bit, they found them relaxing in a small grassy field. As they got closer they could see Their Majesties, Alanna, Onua, and Sir Raoul. When they had almost reached them, Onua glanced up and noticed the two.
“Well look who finally decided to show their faces! We were wondering where you two had wandered off to!” she shouted. Laughing, the pair joined them.
“So where have you two been for the past four days?” Alanna questioned. Daine’s eyebrows shot up.
“We were sleeping for four days?! Well I guess that answers your question Numair,” she told him. He laughed.
“Not that it really matters to you, hmm magelet?” he said, poking her side. She let out a yelp.
“Aiie! Don’t do that, it tickles!” she scolded. Alanna and Numair grinned.
“Really?” they asked simultaneously, causing everyone to laugh. Numair slid his arms around her waist to prevent her from escaping, and experimentally poked her other side. She let out another yelp and tried squirming away. She glared up at Numair.
“Don’t you dare,” she warned him. He grinned even wider.
“Don’t I dare what? Do this?” he asked, as he started tickling her nonstop. Daine struggled to get out of his embrace, and gasped for breath as she laughed and yelled at the same time. When Numair finally released her, she tumbled away and turned to face him. She had a mock angry look on her face.
“Ooo, why you little,” she said, tackling him to the ground, which resulted in the beginning of a wrestling match between the two. The other’s watched in amusement, cheering one or the other on, while being slightly confused at the same time. They didn’t remember the two being this close and touchy touchy before.
The wrestling meanwhile, was coming to a quick close as Numair had grabbed Daine’s wrists and held them above her head, pinning her to the ground on her back. Jon and Raoul grinned knowingly, while Alanna raised an eyebrow.
“You know, this is a very compromising position,” Daine said to Numair quietly. He grinned.
“I know. And I intend to take full advantage of it,” he said, also quiet. Leaning down, he captured her lips in a light, yet passionate kiss. Tilting her head up to deepen the kiss, Daine was completely oblivious to her friends until the sound of Alanna choking brought her back to reality. Turning their heads, they saw Onua pat Alanna on the back until her choking stopped. She stared at the two laying on the ground, the look on her face one of amazement, joy, and a bit of reproach.
“Oops,” Daine whispered. She could feel her face burning. Numair merely shrugged and said to Alanna,” Something the matter?”
“Well I don’t know, you tell me! What’s all this kissing business about, hmm? Last I heard you were her teacher and she was your pupil,” she retorted. Thayet leaned forward, a smile on her face.
“You two have a lot of explaining to do. So start explaining,” she said. Numair shrugged again.
“What’s to explain? I love her, she loves me, it’s a happy world again,” he stated. He had, by then, released Daine and was laying on his side next to her, one hand resting at her waist, the other supporting her neck as she rested her head against his shoulder. Her face was still a bit red, and she was playing with the open flap of Numair’s shirt. She smiled at his comment and snuggled closer to him.
“I had a feeling this might happen. The only question I have is when?” Onua smiled.
“In the Divine Realms. We kind of left that part out,” Numair said.
“Yup. It was just like a fairytale, too. My dashing knight in shining armour came and rescued me, the poor damsel in distress!” Daine laughed. “I had fallen off a cliff and gotten caught in a spidren web. One minute they’re talking about eating me, the next one of them has no head, and the other’s are quickly joining that one.”
“You fell of a cliff?!” Alanna shouted. Daine nodded calmly.
“Well Numair got carried off by some strange rock things,” she said . Jon shook his head in amazement.
“How in the world did you two find each other?” he asked. Daine grinned widely while Numair blushed faintly.
“Numair had a focus,” she told them, grabbing his wrist. The bracelet and locket appeared. Unclipping the locket, she handed it to Alanna.
“Hey!” he protested. Daine, grinning mercilessly, shushed him with a hand over his mouth. Alanna, meanwhile, opened the locket, Thayet and Onua crowding close to see it. After staring at the contents for a moment, they grinned and passed it to the men, who also smiled. Alanna turned to the couple.
“So Numair, if you had this even before the Divine Realms, then that means-”
“Shut up Alanna,” Numair interrupted. He had by then gotten his focus back, and it was now nowhere to be seen. His cheeks had taken on a decidedly red tint, and he was staring down at his hand, which was fiddling with a lock of Daine’s hair. Daine laughed and put her arms around his neck.
“Poor Numair. I think you’re embarrassing him Alanna,” she said to her friend.
“I know. I’m sorry Numair,” Alanna apologized, while holding back a laugh.
“You should be,” he sniffed, rolling onto his back. Daine snuggled closer, resting her head on his chest, her hand stretched across his abdomen to play with the buttons on his open shirt. She could hear his heart beating rhythmically beneath her, taunting her already drowsy mind with sleep. She sighed with pleasure as Numair ran his fingertips slowly up and down her back, causing her to shiver slightly. She was almost asleep when Onua asked her something.
“Hmm? What did you say?” Daine yawned.
“I said, how is it that you weren’t injured at all when we found you after everything was over?” she repeated. Numair shifted to look down at her.
“Yes, I was wondering that myself, magelet,” he said. Daine blushed, as she remembered finding the mage four days ago.
“Well,” she began, “I was injured when I was fighting Ozorne. And after I finally killed him I could barely move, I was so drained. But I had broken his pendant thing that he wore against his neck, and it contained Uusoae. She came up to me and grabbed my wrists. Gods it hurt! I screamed so loudly.” Daine shuddered, remembering how Uusoae’s touch had made her feel.
“Wait. What happened after you screamed? Because we all heard the most horrible scream, and then all of a sudden, all the Immortals had vanished. That scream made my hair stand on end,” Alana stated.
“I went to the Realms of the Gods,” Daine told them. “I was brought there. All of the major deities were there, Mithros and everyone. But I was too exhausted to be awed. Gainel was there, and he used his coat to heal me. I still have scars though.” She paused, thinking back to the experience. She continued.
“And then, Mithros told me I had to make a choice. I could either go back to the mortal realms forever-or become a demi goddess, and stay with my parents forever.” Daine glanced around at the looks on her companions faces. They all looked quite shocked.
“Mithros, that must have been a terrible decision to have had to make,” Jon stated Daine nodded.
“It was. I thought about all of you. How you took me in when no one else would; you befriended me, gave me home. You trusted me with your children. You taught me how to control my magic.” She wrapped her arms tightly around Numair’s waist. “I could never leave any of you.” Numair gave her a warm reassuring hug, pressing his lips to her forehead.
“We would never want you to sweet,” he said. “Which is why you should just give in and say yes.” He grinned as Daine laughed and looked up at him.
“Like I said, maybe someday. But I’m going to need a lot of convincing first,” she teased, moving to sit in his lap.
“Say yes to what?” Thayet questioned.
“Why, to my marriage proposal, of course,” Numair answered, before placing a trail of kisses from Daine’s ear to her lips.
“Oh a marriage proposal, is that all. Well geez, c’mon Daine say yes,” Onua joked. “A wedding would definitely raise everyone’s spirits.”
“Or get them into the spirits,” Alanna said dryly. They all laughed.
“Well, either way they’d be happy,” Raoul pointed out.
“I know I would be,” Onua agreed.
“Trust you two to see it that way,” Alanna said. Daine and Numair just continued kissing, completely ignoring their wedding/liquor debate.