From the ashes of History

Participating characters:
Arizce Martins
Ryuu Riccardo Nefis

Status: Incomplete/Writing in progress. Character participation may increase.

Last post: (12/4/05 6:04 am)



Ryuu Riccardo Nefis

Emerging from the shadows of the great oak, Ryuu stood by the mirror-like surface of the lake, staring into it's ebony depths as if in search for an answer for a recurring issue in an enormous pensive. How long had it been since he had last stepped on this shores? Four years? Four grueling years of endless struggling and incessant battles that tested and tried every last fibre of the Venetian's being; spirit, soul and body. Every ordeal had been a test of his metal - and who said that examinations ended after the NEWTS? There was more to the trails of life than academic torments.

Much had happened in his term of absence from the castle, his graduation had only marked his first step out of the protected corridors of Hogswarts into the crushing fists of reality. Ambition had not been an issue for he had no need of one, all he had wanted was to find the solution that would break the chains that bound him; the panacea to the entanglement of the web of life.

Something had haunted him in his dreams all these years. Something that carried a faint substance of its existence so fragile that it merely existed as a flicker at the edge of his memories. There was something from his past that had yet to be resolved, but for the moment, the lion had little clue as to what it could be. All he knew of it was that it was something in relation with his student days at Hogwarts and it was an issue that refused to release him from its clutches if he failed to redress its greviences.

Whatever it was, only one step to the ending shone the clearest: Ryuu had to return to his past. And his very first exposure to his academic history in Hogwarts has began at the Hogwarts Hangout in the summer of 1947, beside its lake in the dead of the night.

There was a shimmer of hope that he would find his answer by his old haunt despite its unrecognizable facade, and hopefully he would manage to slip away before the encampment awakened and flooded the tranquil silence with the cries of adolescents basking in the warmth of summer. But for the moment all he could do was search in the opaque blackness of the lake's waters and wait out the meloncholy of the night.

At least one thing had failed to change; Ryuu still prefered the silences of life in comparison to amplified cries of victory.


Arizce Martins

Ripples of water crashed onto the sandy shores of the lake; the only sound that was heard in the dark of the night. All was quiet as the stars twinkled brightly in their respective positions high up in the sky and basically, there was no movement, not even the slightest of breeze that was common to these areas.

The moon had cast its reflection upon the now dark waters, its image wavering as the water surface moved. There were no tunes from the nightingales that usually roosted near the lake. All was different, very different when she had first came here.

It has been a long time since she had step foot upon this place, the feeling of apprehension that had welled up inside her as she scanned the place suspiciously. She had never been one to trust, having had it broken once. Today, she felt like the way she did four years ago.

This was the place that had taught to have faith in others, to start trusting someone other than her family, someone not from her own house, but it was the very same place that had also broken her trust. The feeling of betrayal was great, sometimes immense, and it had always rang clear in her mind. There was a point in time where she wondered whether it was even possible to trust her own housemates. She had been over that phase.

She remembered the few delightful people that she had met here; namely Claude Montague who had been nothing but nice where she was concerned, and for once in her life, made her feel wanted and not some useless trash waiting to be incinerated.

Then there was him, the source of her joy, her pain, her love, and her hate. She did not know how she felt about him any longer, it being a mere thin line between love and hate. She hated him for what he did to her, but there was always this nagging feeling inside her and at the end of the day, she felt more pain as compared to hatred.

Reuben was most probably wondering where she was now, but he would not know that she had left until he realized that she has not been home for the night, or for a few days. She had something that she wanted to do, something that she must complete and she knew Reuben would never have allowed it. That had only left her with the choice of sneaking out, which was the reason why she was here now.

Gently, she sat upon the sand, her delicate fingers running through the grains as she soaked in the familiarity, eyes closed, enjoying the peace and serenity that the lake had always brought to her. She felt truly at home, even though this was not her home. It was an attachment that she had with this place, one that had never died.

She had spent the past three years fulfilling her wishes, they were almost done, and she had only one left. All she wanted to do was to see him again, just once. She had always wondered how he was and whether he had graduated, and how he and her have been. She never did bother to find out her name. It was bad enough having nightmares of him walking out of sight, she did not want to remember the very name that had extinguish the only candle in her dark world.

That was all she wanted.


Ryuu Riccardo Nefis

The silence had become almost unnerving, it was almost as if the lake knew that something was about to happen. Tension mounted every second Ryuu stood motionless staring at his own reflection in the futile wait for something to jolt his memory that would uncover the answer to his mental torment.

A walk down memory lane, that was what he needed. If his mind remained unthinking he would never be able to locate the root of the problem. What was it that drew him to the lake instead of anywhere else in the compound? His first step had been into the cabin and the woods all those seven years ago, there had to be something significant about the silent body of water that intrigued him to visit it.

What was that mistake he had committed years ago that haunted him every waking moment and even in his sleep? It had to be something unforgivable to cause so much frustration and unrest.

All his mind drew, was a blank.

Curse the self pride he had in him! It had caused him to grow oblivious to his own errors and blinded him from the hurt he had inflicted on others. Perhaps there was more truth than the young man would admit to the sentence his guardian had always repeated.


"Men are always right in their own eyes..." Miss Levet murmured with a sigh.

"If you remain this way Ryuu, you will never learn from your mistakes, precisely for the reason that you will never see that you have done anything wrong in your own eyes.

"Everything you've ever done to you, has always been for the right reason or with the right intent, and therefore are right - you do not care for the consequence of your actions."


Pride was an obstructing factor that was almost impossible to move, but one that had to be dealt with if he wanted to move on. Angry, Ryuu flung a pebble into the water, shattering his reflection and disturbing the otherwise peaceful surface of the lake.

Come on... what is it?! Ryuu growled under his breath as he flung another stone into the murky waters of the lake as if it would bring the answer he was seeking to the surface.

The soft crunching of dry twigs against stone indicated the approach of something or someone, but Ryuu was too preoccupied with the frustration at hand to succumb to habit of turning around to inspect the source of the approaching footsteps.

The noise soon ceased. Whatever it was had probably found what it was looking for or had decided to rest. In a matter of seconds, Ryuu has forgotten about its approach entirely and had shifted his gaze from the lake waters into the night sky.

Millions of stars lay scattered across the pitch black sky; little flickering orbs of light like candles in a dark room without windows or sunlight, like the faint traces of the hopes and dreams Ryuu had once pictured he had on countless summer nights of old as he lay on this very shore, staring into this very sky.

All those nights of star-gazing - they had always either been alone or with Debora, or at least, the last 2 years of his student-hood were. There was this... someone else before Ryuu had discovered his Brazilian goddess - a certain... snake...

Who are you, my mind's ghost?

The thought trailed away and faded into the night as Ryuu let out a sigh and lay himself on the sandy banks of the lake. Using his hands to pillow his head, Ryuu gazed again into the spheres of light as he attempted to recall the face of the other girl in his life.

After staring for what seemed like hours into the vast vacuum of space, Ryuu turned his head to the left to stare across the shore.

In the distance, he made out a pale figure of a person, a woman standing alone at the water's edge. She soon stooped to sit on the shore of the lake just as Ryuu had done, but did not move to lie herself in the sand. She seemed familiar, yet a stranger, and her name lingered at the edge of his mind just out of reach.

Should he speak to her? Ryuu looked on at the embodiment of every forlorn thought he had ever conjurred, his boots crushing the silicon grains of sand as he proceeded to stand.


Arizce Martins

She had always felt at peace with herself ever since she had left seven years ago, and that was what she had wanted, to be at peace with herself. Her brain had seemingly covered her bad memories in a single veil that had prevented her emotions from running amok. Now, her heart was as still as the water in an abandoned bucket.

There was nothing to feel when one does not evoke the feelings and the memories that once hurt, and she had been doing fine for a while. She lived life as if that one year had never happened, remembering only the happy things, and the wonderful people that she had met. Of course she remembered everything else between them, but her brain never once brought up the pain that came along with the memories.

Even though her heart still ached at the very thought, that ache had since dulled, and all she wanted now was to live her life happily. Undeniably, Reuben has been with her throughout the five years since she had left England. He had given up many things: namely his family and his future - just so that he could take care of her. And while she was grateful, she could never return the favour, ever.

If only things had been different, and she had never met him, perhaps, all would have been very different now. She could have been the happiest woman in the world with Reuben by her side. But no, she was not; the path she had chosen was the one she wanted, and even if she had the choice to choose again, she would still walk down the same road.

She would still have wanted to meet him, to let herself fall for him.

It was not that she had completely ignored the pain that this route had brought her, but it was just something about him that had made her feel alive; something that had felt special - something that no one else would ever be able to do. Perhaps, it has been her fault that everything had ended this way... but she did not really have a clue, with her memories having been packed under such tight security that the actual happenings sometimes seemed like figments of her imagination. But she did know that everything had happened.

Her fingers gently traced his name out in the sand in her cursive handwriting as she smiled to herself for some unknown reason. She closed her eyes as she remembered the first time she learnt of his name, the first time she saw him smiling...

One memory led to another as her mind moved from the beautiful fairy tale towards the horrible nightmare. Her eyes flew wide open as her hand made a sweeping motion to wipe out his name from the sand. Blurred images had floated around in her mind, but the pain and the denial had awakened her from the trance, unwilling to let her revise the pain again, not wanting the images to form clear pictures in her mind.

There was such a thing as forgetting when you wanted to.

She only knew he brought her pain, but how, and why she did not know. The feelings of confusion and fright took over her as she dragged her feet across the sand, pulling her knees towards her chest, and hugging herself tight. It was no breeze or wind that made her feel cold; it was her heart that had made her body cold. Insecurity welled up inside her as she buried her face in her knees.

The sound of footsteps shuffling across the sand alarmed her a little as she whipped her head around and saw a figure moving around in the dark. She squinted her eyes, trying to make out who the figure was. The trees had seemingly cast a shadow upon his face. Could it be Reuben? Surely he could not have noticed her disappearance that fast.

She picked herself up, not feeling in the mood to face Reuben right now. She was taking no chances even though she was not sure if this was him after all. If it was indeed Reuben, he would have started berating her for leaving his sight when she should be at home resting. She needed to do this, and he did not understand. So, she did the first thing that came to her mind,

Arizce ran.


Ryuu Riccardo Nefis

His movement appeared to have startled the young woman seated by the lake side, for she had snapped her head about at the sound of his boots against rock and sand. Ryuu cursed himself for frightening the poor girl, he should have been more careful when he had proceeded to stand - after all, it was almost 2 in the morning, the time when the compound was the most silent that even the sound of a pin falling onto concrete would have seemed much louder than it actually was.

Well at least now she knows you're here, it wouldn't be that awkward a moment trying to make your presence known.. Ryuu thought sarcastically to himself.

Approaching the young woman was now inevitable. He had to at least apologize for distressing her, she had probably not expected to find anyone else about when she decided to step out on a night walk and it was simply against his manners to leave the situation hanging without an apology.

But just as he began to walk towards her, she ran.

"Mademoiselle!" Ryuu called out. In the silence, his voice had echoed back from the mountains just beyond the lake as if his voice had been amplified by a sonorous spell.

"Wait! I did not mean to startle you so!"

Ryuu began to run after her gradually disappearing form, accelerating as he progressed, narrowing the distance between them in less than a minute. As he drew nearer to her, Ryuu reached forward, grabbing her by her shoulder to stop her, unintentionally spinning her around as he did so.

"Wait I..." Ryuu froze in mid sentence, his eyes fixed on her's in an expression of shock as if he had just seen a basillisk.

It was her. That girl from his memories... what was her name? A... Ar...

"Arizce?" His voice questioned without any hint of his confused emotions towards the situation.

In his mind however, it was almost as if a war had been waged. Hundreds upon hundreds of memories that had been kept under lock and key in his mind, never to be thought of again rapidly flooded back like an unexpected tsunami in the summer; overwhelming him with dozens of different feelings and questions he had never had the chance or courage to ask all those years ago.

When he realized that he had gripped onto her shoulder much too tightly for comfort, Ryuu immediately released his hold, his hands recoiling as if he had touched burning coal.

"Arizce I..." For the first time in a long while, the Venetian gentleman was lost for words.

In all his years at Hogwarts he had been always able to charm almost any female that had stepped into his life. be it with his music, his graces, his manners, or most of the time, with his eloquent tongue. But only one had ever left him speechless day after day: It was she, Arizce Martins.

Perhaps that had its contribution to his frustration concerning her. After all, every time he beheld her presence, his heart was immediately ensnared. Oh how he had yearned just to hold her and embrace her in his arms all those seven years ago after their brief encounter by the fountain. And he could never forget how, seven summers ago, his first glimpse of her standing by this very lake had taken his breath away. Yes, that was the memory that faithfully disrupted his peace day after day, night after night.

But those times had long since passed. The latter years had been nothing but pain, anger and resentment, that ultimately bred hatred and unforgiveness for an offence that to this day remained unknown.

At least, one that had remained unknown till now.

Every fragment of his soul wanted to yell out his apologies for her over and over again; about how his pride had blinded him and that every error was his and his alone. But the very cause of his demise was at work once more - pride was once again holding his tongue.

Silence reigned as Ryuu stood barely a metre away from the one who had once been the very life of his being, his eyes fixed on her's as his lips - having lost the struggle against his pride - remained unmoving.


Arizce Martins

Grains of sand floated in the air where her feet had made contact with the ground as Arizce tried to pick up her pace. She could feel her heart beating wildly against her chest and the loud thumping noise that it made was resounding in her ears. Every single fiber of her being was against the notion of a confrontation with Reuben.

The louder the footsteps grow, the more frantic Arizce grew. She just did not understand the underlying cause of her fear; all that her muddled brain could think of now was to run, to just run far, far away where nothing, and no one could hurt her.

"Mademoiselle!"

It was a miracle that his voice had actually made its way through her muddled brain as she slowed down a little. That did not sound remotely like Reuben, but that voice - it was a voice she had not heard in a long time, not for the past seven years. It was his voice.

"Wait! I did not mean to startle you so!"

He had reached out to grab her.

While her brain had already registered who the stranger was, her body's natural reaction had sent her into panic mood as she drew her eyes shut and struggled against the strong hold that he had on her. She tried to scream, but there was no sound. Arizce knew that she was freaking out for no reason, but she could not help herself.

"Wait I..."

She had completely withdrawn her body, her hands draw tight against her chest as she shook her head furiously. Fear overcame her as she felt herself spun around and a pair of eyes gazing intently at her. Don't hurt me, please don't hurt me. Leave me alone! Leave me alone!

"Arizce?"

Arizce opened her eyes, as if she had woken up from a trance. Her heart that had once been sprinting in a marathon suddenly returned to its once tranquil state. All that showed that she had just been running was her breath, that now came in short heavy pants. Her eyes widened as she realized who her captor was.

His fingers had started bruising her skin as her mind registered the pain. Though she still held her gaze, she started struggling and thankfully, he had freed her. What was he doing back here? She thought he had walked off, hand in hand towards the sun with her and started making babies or something. Why was he back here?

"Arizce I..."

She could feel herself gaze at him almost expectantly, hoping that he would say the words that she had wished to hear the most from him ever since she had left. It has always been haunting her, and every single time it happened, it was that very same scene.

It was just the two of them sitting side by side at the beach, watching as the sun set, leaving its traces in the form of red and yellow streaks. She could not remember a time when she had felt any more bless, eyes wide open and staring at the majestic view before her.

Turning around, she smiled almost blissfully at the person before her as she laid her head on his shoulder, his hand in hers as she enjoyed the view. Life seemed wonderful, almost too wonderful.

"I love you."

She had said out of the blue, snuggling against the warmth of his embrace as she felt his hold tighten on her.

"I love you too," he had replied and she smiled, wrapping her arms around his waist and finding life all too perfect.

"Debora."

And then, she would wake up.

In the beginning, she had always end up in tears, sobbing into the large down pillow that was her only source of comfort. She refused the let Reuben see her tears. As time passed, the tears had ceased and she had taken to sitting against her enormous window wrapped up in thick layers of her comforters with a glass of warm milk in her hands. It always worked.

She felt torn.

Arizce did not know whether to hug him or to reply him with sarcasm. She wanted to hurt him the very same way he had hurt her, to push him further away from her so that he would no longer have the ability to hurt her no longer. Yet, at the very same time, she wanted to just hold him and have time stop at that very moment, just to relive the past; just to have a memory to hold on to. She did not know what to do.

"Ummm... .I... er... Long time no see?"


Ryuu Riccardo Nefis

"I..." I've been thinking of you... The young lion had wanted to say. But Arizce had interupted him before the words could materialize.

"Ummm... .I... er... Long time no see?"

Ryuu did not know how to respond. The awkward silence between them returned as the two stood face to face once more on the shores of the lake that had been their haven, and their hell.

There were so many things he wanted to say, but nothing could form on his lips. His arms ached to hold her, but he knew he could not - he would be cheating Debora, for he had pledged his eternal love to her despite their inability to marry, and Debora having been wed to another. He would also be hurting Arizce with false hopes if he held her now. And who knew, perhaps Arizce would not let him touch even her cheek any longer, not after all he had done to her. He knew in his heart that nothing he could ever say or do would ever be able to right the wrongs or heal the pain.

Oh Rizcy.. I am so sorry...

Rizcy, the old pet name - the only name that he had been able to utter without the distance of formality. He had let her into the very depth of his soul, but in the end, it was still his flaw that triumphed over his heart.

Oh forget the pride! His heart hollered in his mental ear. His soul desired so much just to fall to his knees and beg for her forgiveness. For the very first time Ryuu was crushed to the point he felt almost as if he would weep uncontrollably. And for the first time, Ryuu Riccardo Nefis had nothing for him in the future: nothing but empty corridors in his mansions, vacant armchairs and couches, lonely days, or even years with only his music for companionship.

He no longer cared about the days when flowered words had been carelessly whispered into the hungry ears of waiting girls, nor did he find joy in the enchanting classics he had composed in his youth to bewitch his listeners just to spark Arizce's jealousy. All he wanted now was to tell her how sorry he was - he had lost all hope for anything more seven years ago when he had met the twin of his old friend Armadeo Wischard.

Reuben Stephane Wischard was the name of Arizce's knight in shining armour; the one that whisked her off, out of the clutches of her adversary and the torment Ryuu had inflicted on her fragile heart. And Ryuu did not blame Arizce, it was his own fault to have lost the pearl that cost him his soul. Now all he hoped for was just to see her smile again, to see her happy, and he would be satisfied.

"A very long time indeed." He finally replied.

Another long moment of silence.

"I... I have... a lot to apologize to you for..."

That had been unexpected.

" I..." his voice trailed off. Another battle raged between remorse and arrogance. Surpressing his pride Ryuu spoke.

"I'm sorry."


Arizce Martins

He was so near, and yet so far, and her fingers ached just to reach out and hold his hand, just like the way she used to when things had fell silent between them. She knew she should not, as he was no longer hers, perhaps, he never had been. It was as if he had the words "Property of Debora" inscripted on his forehead.

Mentally, Arizce sighed as she backed slowly away from him, her feet making shuffling noises in the sand as she did so. The close proximity had started to make her uncomfortable and she did not want to succumb to temptation and hug him until the moment she breathed her last.

She knew she could not do that.

She felt stupid. She had been awarded an unexpected chance of meeting him after seven years, and all she could say was "Long time no see"? There was a sudden urge for her to run into the nearest wall and knock her head repeatedly against it until she had forgotten what she had just said, and could start over again. Why could she not have said something smarter? Anything was better than the lame remark that she had just made. She had rather said something sarcastic, then she could perhaps just walk off, push him away, and stop the internal war raging within her.

But would it have made her feel better if she had walked off with a scathing remark?

Nope. She would probably have just cried and berated herself for having pushed him further away than she should have; for not letting herself have the chance to be near to him once again; for not finding out whether he was actually happy ever since her departure. Not that she really wanted to know anyway. It would hurt to know that he was happier with Debora than he had been with her. While the answer was rather obvious that it was Debora, she preferred not hear it from him.

"A very long time indeed."

At least he had not found her comment stupid, not that it did much to comfort her. Arizce merely sighed as she looked away, her gaze transfixed on her feet. She would rather fall into a trance then hold her gaze on him anymore. She did not want to fall deeper into the bottomless pit than she already had.

"I... I have... a lot to apologize to you for..."

"Wha... what?"

After everything he had put her through, after all the times she had tried to start a conversation with him only to meet with cold, aloof answers, she did not expect that at the very end, this was what he would say. Not that she had expected more, but it was still far beyond her imagination.

" I..."

"You don't..."

"I'm sorry."

"Have to..."

Arizce trailed off softly as she looked at him. She wanted to smile, to show that she was fine, but even if a smile was merely just the movement of muscles, she could not bring herself to move those muscles. There were many questions filling her mind that she wanted answers to. Yet she was afraid of their ending; afraid of what his reply would be. She was scared, but she needed to know.

Conflict much.

The formerly absent breeze had picked up as it surrounded the both of them. Arizce could feel tendrils of her hair that were pulled back in a high ponytail flutter against her neck. She quite like the silence that fell around them, not wishing to venture further into a game of twenty questions and have her heart stomped on quite literally. Tucking her fringe behind her ear, she played with the ring that hung on a chain around her neck absentmindedly.

She did not know what to do now, now that she had met him. Suddenly, the prospect of him being Reuben was not exactly that bad, at least she would have an easier time explaining to him why she was here, instead of trying to strike up a conversation with Ryuu. She found the latter much harder. All she wanted to show him was that she was fine and happier without him, and that Reuben had been a better choice, then she would walk off with her head held high, but she knew truly, that was not what she wanted.

"So..." she said, breaking the silence, "how have you been?"

Now, what was it that her mother told her about making stupid remarks?


Ryuu Riccardo Nefis

He found himself hardly looking straight at Arizce any longer. Instead, he found that his emerald eyes had strayed from studying her eyes to watching the wind tugging playfully at her hair, toying with it as if it were a new play thing that had been tossed out for its amusement. Ryuu couldn't help his thoughts straying and wondering what it would be like to run his fingers through her soft, silky hair once more.

Why had he been so stupid to chase her away in the first place? Despite her rock-hard facade, Arizce was really as shy as a dove. And as every action of his drove her further and further away from him, it too made her icy mask more and more determined to hate him and get rid of him from her life.

And then Reuben arrived to be that ticket out.

Arizce had still yet to respond to his apology, and Ryuu no longer dared to search her face for any possible trace of forgiveness or sympathy for his plight; his gaze had travelled from her to the sand beneath their feet.

Something just behind his boot caught his eye - it looked vaguely like an "R" and another letter just beside it that looked like a "y" had been traced out in the sand. But his own footprint and what appeared to have been a violent swipe had rendered the rest of it impossible to read. They weren't too far from where Arizce had been seated previously - could it be that she still had some feelings for him?

Then again, she had very quickly struck off whatever it was she had written in the sand. And even if it was his name, did that mean she wanted him out of her life forever? Or did she already hate him? There were too many unanswered questions, but it just seemed all too awkward to ask them now, after all these years spent away from one another after their last fight.

"So… How have you been?”

Ryuu breathed a half sigh of relief. The silence was beginning to seem like the worst torture he had ever had inflicted on him – yes, he was even willing to admit that it was more torturous to stand in Arizce’s presence out of her favour, that to relive his childhood, and that term of slavery, and have himself made to experience the whipping, the starvation and all the other miscellaneous abuses all over again.

“Alright I suppose…”

What a downright lie. There was nothing ‘alright’ at all. In fact, Ryuu wondered if Arizce had heard his apology at all, or if he had merely imagined the words forming and leaving his mouth. She didn’t seem the least bit affected by the fact that this was the first time in history that Ryuu had practically almost went down on bended knee to plead forgiveness. Or for the matter of fact that he had said sorry at all – he had never admitted that any wrong deed done in a relationship was ever his fault. He wanted to look into her eyes in hope to find some unspoken answer, but there was nothing. At least, nothing he could see.

Perhaps the whole idea of apologizing and hoping that everything would end somewhat better had been nothing but a whimsical dream. At the rate everything was going, he would be lucky to get even a monosyllabic answer should he ask if she had enjoyed the peace of the lake before he had interrupted.

His eyes had returned to watching the wind weave through her dark hair once more as once again his mind wandered off into surreal thoughts that mixed past experiences with existing fantasies. As if to taunt him, the breeze picked up, creating a sudden gust that undid the ribbon that had held her hair up in a pony tail, sending her raven locks tumbling down over her shoulders like a cascading waterfall.

Another reminder of why he had loved her in the first place – no matter what everyone else had said about her in the Gryffindor commons and behind her back, she had been the most beautiful angel in Ryuu’s eyes.

Damn those things he had done to lose her.

He would have tried to laugh the awkwardness off and make a joke of the situation if he had been Armadeo, that young man had always had a way with words and breaking tensions. But it was just not in Ryuu’s nature to mock even jokingly at the errors of a young lady in the first place, it was just… unbecoming.

Moreover he did not want to hurt her by bringing up the past right now, not when Arizce appeared so troubled by something. If he wanted to start on the right foot, the best he could do was let her bring the issue to the table if she wanted to.

With that resolution in mind, Ryuu continued to wait.


Arizce Martins

Oh yeah, never say stupid things twice in a row, which was just exactly what she had just done. So much for listening to your parents, but then again, she never really did listen to her parents much.

Smashing her head against a wall sounded like a possible suggestion at that moment, though in the present case, she would be banging her head against a tree trunk. Not such a good idea if you didn't want coconuts dropping on your head. It seemed a nice thought to just faint and forget that anything that had happened had happened, but she doubted that her head would appreciate her actions when she regained her consciousness much later.

Giving him a sheepish grin, she shrugged her shoulders as if nothing she had just said had ever passed.


Right Arizce, give him your best smile, flutter a few of those eye lashes and maybe he will be charmed enough to forget that you had just said something stupid. Flaunt your beauty darling, make full use of it. It will really work!


Yeah right.

Now back to the problem at hand, or rather the subject at hand, Ryuu Riccardo Nefis, or perhaps it was Lord Nefis now - the way he had "kindly" asked her to address him by on their last meeting. Perhaps she just was not good enough to call him by the name Ryuu, or perhaps he just did not want his name to ever roll off her tongue again in his presence.

The boy, wait, strike that. He was no longer a boy. The man that stood before her had a slightly different air around him. He was no longer the Lord Nefis she knew; the high and almost mighty boy that used to strut around as if he could do nothing wrong. But now, he seemed almost welcoming, as if the aura around him beckoned to the people in his surroundings to try and get to know him. Perhaps this was all due to Debora. It had to be.

She used to be one of those foolish girls in love, thinking naively that she could change the man she loved if he loved her enough. But she had failed on both accounts. Not only had she failed to change him in the slightest bit, she had made him withdraw further away into himself, further away from her. And obviously, he did not love her.

Both of them just did not click, both were too headstrong for their own good and too stubborn to admit when they were wrong. Maybe that was why Debora had the key to his heart. She, Arizce, had tried to understand him, but she could never reach into his soul and understand him. She lacked the patience Debora had, lacked the patience to break through his walls to find the real him inside.

Perhaps this was fate. Perhaps they were not meant to be soul mates.

He was like a lost pyramid in the vast desert of Egypt. She could not even find this pyramid to begin with, much less break the code to enter and find all the secrets it held within. She was probably why it had ended this way. And it was most probably due to her nature too.

She had once been hurt, and was highly untrusting of her world, her surroundings. She could not muster enough courage to trust Ryuu fully. Her jealousy and her insecurities had practically pushed him into the open arms of Debora, so in a way, it was not exactly his fault. So there was not really a need to apologize.

Did he apologize for what he had said instead?

While she agreed that she almost deserved that, it had still shattered many of her defenses that she once thought were strong enough to withstand his cutting words. Apparently, she was highly wrong. His words had only served to send her spiraling into her own little world in a box wrapped in many protective layers, each stronger and harder to break through then the one before.

Perhaps that was why she was closer to Reuben. He had let her be, gave her all the attention she had needed, and treated like she was the only thing that had mattered. He had never done anything nor said anything to make her feel insecure and jealous - not that if he did do something to that extent, would she feel anything. After all, he was not the one that filled her dreams at night.

Her last wish was finally fulfilled. She had gotten the chance to meet him again. There were so many things she had wanted to say to him, so many questions her heart wanted answers to. But, there she stood, making stupid remarks and unable to speak her mind. Would he tell her that he had always loved her and never once stopped, or crush the hope that she held that he would at least spend her remaining time with her?

Would that be too much to ask?

"Alright I suppose."

"That's great..." she paused slightly, "So, where's Debora?"

Great, just great. Another stupid comment. She really was the queen of stupid comments today.