AKARI

In the early morning, we set out to Rialta, the sun barely beginning to rise. I let Kaito take the lead today, resting my head against his back as we ride to Rialta. After traveling for about another half of a day, we arrive at a small village outside of Ciarran, still underneath Ciarran's domain.

"This is Lilith," Kieran says as we slowly trod up to the nearing village, which has a wooden archway with a sign hanging below it to greets its visitors, a large water fountain not too far away from the archway. "It lies almost directly between Rialta and Ciarran, and it has become a safe haven to those who travel between the two."

Lilith has rows upon rows of wooden buildings, all consisting of housing, hotels, restaurants, bars, spas, salons, a book store, and some clothing and grocery stores. Essentially, the small village has all it needs to thrive. It even has its own grape vine garden and an apple orchard.

The people of Lilith, unlike those of Ciarran who seem to mostly dress in more darker colors like black, orange, brown, and red, with an occasional splash of brighter colors like blue or yellow, maybe even white, seem to wear more bright colors and black.

A brunette woman wearing a black top with bright boysenberry and bright green cold shoulder sleeves that loop around her arms walks down the street, the emerald and boysenberry bracelet on her right wrist nicely complimenting her black watch that rests on the same wrist, her top, black skinny jeans, and tall black boots.

I watch as the woman turns to walk into the salon and a black haired man in a white v-neck, black jeans, and black work boots arrives at the door at the same time, holding several grocery bags in his hands. The two exchange a smile as the man hands her some of the bags and the woman kisses him on the cheek, mentioning something about asking if he could stay with her before they go back to make dinner.

"It's like a sanctuary here," Layla says as she looks around, people milling about happily, which is quite the contrast to how Ciarran seemed when we first arrived.

"Look," Damian points and grins, his violet eyes lighting up upon seeing a sign for a bar, "it's a bar! Come on, can we please stop for lunch? I'm starviiing."

"I suppose we could stop for a bit," Kieran nods. "It's no good to travel on an empty stomach, anyway."

"Thank goodness," Damian sighs, hopping off of his horse and leaving it by the bar's porch after trotting over. "I don't know about you, but I'm going to get some food. This machine doesn't fuel itself, you know."

"Right..." Layla rolls her eyes. "And what a machine that is."

Kaito chuckles amusedly at Layla's comment and she glances over at him with a raised brow, the two of us dismounting our horse.

"Maybe you shouldn't be so hard on the guy," Kaito says, stretching his arms above his head like a cat as he sighs. "Just a thought."

"Why?" Layla frowns, her expression conflicted.

"What do you mean why?" Kaito frowns and raises a brow.

"If I stop being hard on him..." Layla trails off, turning her gaze back to the bar's doors and setting her jaw, "I worry he may never realize his true potential, or worse, he may not realize it when he needs it the most. And I don't— I don't want him to get...to..."

"I know," I say softly, making Layla look at me gratefully for understanding how she feels.

"Whether he dies or not will be his own decision," Valentine says coldly before walking off to the bar, making Layla and Kaito both scowl while Kieran sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose, and I frown sadly, watching Valentine's back as he disappears.

"Let's just...go eat," Kieran sighs, the rest of us muttering words of agreement before we head after Damian and Valentine.

I push open the swing door at the bar's entrance, glancing around to see a small water fountain in the center of the wooden bar, multiple shining coins at the bottom of it and cherry blossoms floating on top. The bar itself has a long bar counter across from the door with red padded stools and TVs that hang above the bar, shelves of liquor lining the back of the bar as the two bar tenders take orders and make drinks, warmly lit candles placed in bulb glass containers for mood lighting. The rest of the bar has circular dining tables with red padded chairs, as well as a few dining booths, and fairy lights that are strung across the ceiling, and the windows of the bar have planter boxes beneath them.

I spot Damian leaning over the bar counter and waving his hand eagerly at who knows what, Layla sighing as she makes her way over to him before she places a hand on his shoulder to sit him back down on his stool, but he only glances over his shoulder at her, his eyebrows raising in surprise, before he grins broadly and starts talking excitedly about something. My eyes then flicker over to Valentine, who sits by himself at the bar, a few chairs over from Damian and Layla.

"Do you want to go to the bar or do you want me to grab us a table?" Kaito asks from beside me.

"Oh, uh," I blink, turning my gaze back to him, taken aback by the question and watching as Layla walks passed me, having left Damian, "I guess we could go get a table."

"Akari, Kaito!" Kieran shouts, waving from across the bar as he stands by a window table with Layla. "Care to join us? I mean, that is, unless you'd like a table for yourselves."

"Yeah, sure," I smile softly, Kieran smiling as well before the two of us head over to them.

Kaito and I sit down across from Kieran and Layla, Kaito taking the seat closest to the window while I sit by the outside edge, being directly across from Kieran.

"What was Damian cheering on about?" I ask Layla, amused.

"Oh," Layla rolls her eyes as she picks up her menu. "He wanted me to watch how the bartender currently making the drinks could make flames. I told him to stop being such a child."

"How did you two end up being partners, anyway?" I ask.

"The story behind that is actually...something you might not expect," Layla sighs, her eyes flickering over to Damian's back. "Although he may look like just a goofball, he's much more than that. He's extremely calculating, especially in combat. He's able to take things seriously whenever he needs to, but every other time he's a non-stop energetic machine who never stops talking and never says the right thing. It's infuriating, sometimes. He scored perfectly on every exam in all of his classes his first year. That's what prompted Sander to suggest him as a good partner for me. His ability to focus and his knowledge compliment my abilities well. Plus, the fact that we're opposites in terms of combat style helps us have more diversity."

"Damian Marseille scored perfect on all his exams?" Kaito's eyebrows raise and he glances over his shoulder to look at Damian, who is in the process of laughing wildly about something to one of the other patrons, a glass in his hand.

"Who would've thought, huh?" Layla laughs quietly.

"Not me," Kaito sighs, turning back to his menu. "That's for sure."

"When you say 'partner,' do you mean...romantically?" Kieran asks, turning to Layla and furrowing his eyebrows.

"Wha—" Layla's eyes widen and she chokes on her own air, staring into Kieran's flame colored eyes. "What? No. Damian and I are sparring partners."

"Oh," Kieran laughs sheepishly and rubs the back of his neck, "sorry. We Ciarrans view partnership as a form of unity, typically romantically. We train with our friends and loved ones, yes, but we don't really have defined partnerships unless we make one with our significant other."

"What about you and Amaris?" Layla asks. "You seemed fairly close."

"Amaris and I are best friends," Kieran explains with a smile. "We grew up together and we protected each other. I'm typically the only one to see the warmer side of her, actually, but even still she doesn't spare me any  cold treatment when it comes to telling me like it is."

"I see..." Layla smiles softly in return. "I'm glad you both have each other. You both have good hearts."

"Yeah..." Kieran smiles fondly, his eyes glowing with affection. "She certainly does, and I like to think that I do, but...I'm not always sure if the thing I'm choosing to do is the right thing. I can only hope that it is."

"I think it is," I say, drawing everyone's attention to me. "Maybe not always, no, but we can't always do everything right. We mess up, everyone does. It's whether you run away or you try to fix it, whether you stay down or get back up, whether you writhe in your own agony or swallow your pride and apologize, that matters. We make bad decisions, especially in the face of fear, and you'll never know if you'll be proud of the person you'll become, if you can look at your morals and understand the things you've done and why you've done them, but all we can do is try."

"Yeah..." Kieran breathes out and Kaito's breath hitches as his eyes flicker across my figure, Layla's lips parting in surprise.

"I'll be right back. There's something I should do," I say, smiling apologetically as I slide out of the booth just as Damian makes his way over to us, his eyebrows furrowing in curiosity whenever he sees me walking passed him.

Walking up to the bar, I place a hand on Valentine's shoulder and he jumps before he whips around, his eyes wide.

"Are you sure you don't want to come sit with us?" I offer, nodding in the direction of our table.

"That's fine," Valentine grunts, turning back around. "I'm better off alone anyway."

"And who decided that? You or your fear?" I ask, making his breath hitch. "Because it certainly wasn't us."

Valentine tenses under my touch and slowly turns back around, his red eyes meeting my blue ones.

"Fine," he says after a few moments, clenching and unclenching his jaw, "but if this ends badly, don't blame me."

"I won't," I say, smiling slowly as I back away and Valentine stands up, "and it won't. I promise."

"Right..." Valentine says, his eyes focusing back on mine once more, his breath catching.

"You know, Ciarran has a legend about love," I overhear Kieran saying as the two of us make our way over to the table.

"What's that?" Layla asks as I slide back into the both, sitting between Kaito and Valentine, Kaito smiling at me and squeezing my hand gently, which I squeeze back in return.

"We believe that the Moon was a beautiful woman, strong, powerful, elegant, intelligent, relentless in the pursuit of truth, justice, and what is right," Kieran explains. "And we believe that the Sun was a kind hearted man with a smile that could radiate for days, his energetic personality infectious and his love endless. Like Yin and Yang, perfect opposites that slowly became more like the other to compliment each other and balance each other out, they were the perfect pair, soulmates. The Moon fell in love with the Sun's light and the Sun fell in love with the Moon's heart. Unfortunately, they were pulled apart by the universe. They had each gone through their own hell and found refuge in each other only for the world to tear them away when they were at their brightest. Despite being torn apart and being forced to go through many more hardships, they eventually reunited. In a way, it gives me some comfort knowing they found each other again. Maybe that's silly of me, though."

"I don't think it's silly," I frown. "It's a lovely story."

"Yeah," Layla nods. "I think it's rather romantic, in a way."

"Yeah," Kieran smiles softly, looking between Layla and I before his gaze flickers over to Valentine. "Glad you could join us, Valentine."

"Yeah, even if you are an ass sometimes," Layla smirks before she pauses for a second, "well, most of the time."

"Glad to be here," Valentine says, his eyes flickering over to me, and for the first time in what's probably been a long time, the hint of a smile twitches on his lips.