<blockquote><div><cite>Wave Drakon wrote:</cite>Kaim wasn't exactly sure why he answered so calmly, maybe it was a deep desire to feel Imari's hands, along with her soft and tender palms to touch him once more. Back in the day Imari and himself slowly started a small ritual, to hold each others hands when in large cities or in a maze like location, ruins, forests and alike - that or they stuck almost shoulder to shoulder..Kaim had only just noticed now that they stuck together in pairings as often as they could...but that was ten years ago when things were still frantic..but just much less frantic.<br/><br/>He watched her curiously, a slight smile on his face as Imari gingerly handled the item with her fingertips, his own blood accumulating in his cheeks from a deepened blush. Kaim's eyes caught sight of her lips stretching to the side and her white, perfectly straight teeth shining through the small gap, "Well..I didn't want us to get lost, besides it was <span style="font-style: italic">Yuri</span> who instructed pairs, remember?" he muttered out shyly...his mind briefly looking back to the moment that Yuri and himself were nearly killed in their skirmish with the undead.<br/><br/>Kaim watched with silent lips as Imari took an almost unoticeable step closer to him, he could see..almost sense her heaving chest rising up and down as she cradled the gem, was she hurt? Was she ill. He reached up with a concerned left hand, his fingers twitching inwards as she suddenly looked up, staring directly as his eyes, that deep green sea he gazed upon captured his heart, halting the beat for a moment before quickening in pace.<br/><br/>Imari broke the sustained silence, <span style="font-style: italic">"Umm.....I better go and see to that bath."</span><br/><br/>Kaim broke the gaze as Imari did, looking down and to the side at his cloak still in a lump on the floor, "Of..of course." He bowed his head to Imari sincerely.<br/><br/>The moment Imari left Kaim slouched with a relieving sigh, he crouched down near his rusted armour, he noticed the two corners of mud stained cards pertruding from inside his left pauldron. He tucked his hand underneath and withdrew them, his eyes gazing tiredly as he returned to a standing position, these two cards were given to him by a fortune telling dark elf ten years ago and they still had a worrying effect on him. One depicted a man surrounded by a cage of thorns facing the back of woman, taking her leave of him. The other revealed a skeletal figure holding an hourglass, the grains of sand at the top nearing their complete descent. Kaim took a deep breath, a sly smirk forming across his lips as he walked to the rooms open window. He stared out through the rain, looking at the half moon hovering far in the sky. <br/><br/>Without so much as a second glance he crushed the cards violently in his hand, rearing back his left arm before flinging what remained in his hand out of the window, watching them disappear into the darkness. "I don't believe in fate." He muttered to himself, "But I'm glad we found each other again Imari..no matter how it happened."<br/><br/>Kaim moved his arms back, fully releasing the top half of his tunic and letting it slide down until they fell to the floor. Kaim ran a hand around his left side, tracing the scarred skin on his back from the multiple cracks caused by a cruel flogging two years ago... he remained silent, reaching back forward to close the window in an attempt to warm the room. <br/><br/>He took a seat on the foot of the bed perching on a corner as he looked at the door, he wouldn't be able to stay with Imari long after a night here, he had to keep moving and although against his true wishes, desires and wants...he had to get as far away from Imari as he possibly could.</div></blockquote>