I do not own Destiny.

He hated this. He hated this so very much. It was no secret anymore. He worried so much for his student. He knew the moment she had gone to the reef that something wasn't right. She had been fighting with her friends about the prince and then it just got worse from there. She was doing better, then all of a sudden she came back one day and she was so angry. He could see the tears in her eyes. He had tried to talk to her but she had shoved right by him. He paced around the table in the main room and sighed. He wanted to go see her... make sure she was alright. "Zavala, I'm heading out for a while." Cayde said and the titan nodded. "Thank the traveler. Kinda thought you were going to pace a moat in here for a moment there." Ikora laughed lightly and he rolled his eyes.

"If I were going to do that I would do it around you, so you would fall out." He shot back as he made his way out of the room. He scoured the area, looking for a familiar head of silvery white hair. He spotted her where she usually sat on the railing and he rushed over to her. "Heya kid. How are you?" he asked and she looked over at him. He could see it in her eyes... everything was just so visible in her eyes. The sadness... the doubt... everything. "Wanna take a walk with me?" He asked and she nodded. He offered her a hand and the moment her fingers brushed over his palm it felt like his mechanical heart was going to stop. He had felt this way before, only... not recently. He glanced up at Ivara who hovered overhead silently. He felt so guilty, this couldn't be easy on her at all.

He was falling in love with his student right in front of his first love.

'You'll always be my one and only.' He thought as he watched her hover over him. He could only hope she understood. He helped Ashura down and they began walking towards the elevator that took them down to the civilian part of the city. "Feel up to discussing what's bothering you?" he asked and she shook her head with a small sigh. He nudged her with his elbow and a slight smile crossed her lips but the sadness remained. He didn't want her to feel this way, he just wanted to continue to see the smile that always adorned her lips when she was near him.

"I... I trusted someone and they turned out to be like everyone else who treats me so badly." she sighed eventually and he nodded. She didn't want to say who it was but he already knew the prince had upset her once more. Seemed like he was exceptional at pissing off the young woman beside him as of late. "What did he do this time?" he asked and her eyes widened as she looked over to him once more. She didn't seem to realize he knew all about her little trysts with the prince of the reef, but he knew all about them. It wasn't hard to figure out because he was a skilled hunter after all.

He watched as she tried her hardest to come up with an excuse but he saw the defeat flicker through her eyes as her shoulders sagged a bit. She released another small sigh and crossed her arms over her chest as her eyes darted away from his gaze. "You figured it out so easily and I tried so hard to hide our meetings... how did you know I was talking about him?" she asked and he chuckled lowly. "You see there was never a man other than him and myself that could ever get such a rise out of you, it's almost like you ignore the rest of the men in this universe." he said and she rolled her eyes.

Despite the fact that was a lie, he could never tell her the real reason he knew was because he had someone keeping an eye on her. Which brought him to the next issue. What to do with the one that he had scouting her, because when they weren't scouting for him, they were hanging with the problem children on Io. Annoyance gripped his being as he thought about what he had heard about their escapades with Asher Mir. Those two were trouble together and they needed to sort themselves out before Asher lost more than just his arm this time.

"Would you like to tell me what he did, or do you wanna be alone for a while?" he asked and she frowned at him but a soft smile crossed her lips soon enough. "I would like to vent to you, if you don't mind." she said and he couldn't have been happier to hear that. He made his way closer and leaned against the wall to listen to every word that left her mouth. He nodded as she spoke and gave her every ounce of his attention.

"So, he refuses to help you? Even though you're dying?" he asked and she nodded. He could tell this was hard on her because even though she was able to be revived her ghost could only do so much about the oils invading her blood stream. She continued to explain everything to him and he nodded once more. "So, you understand why this upsets me?" she asked and he sighed and shook his head. "Honestly no, but I know you're smart and you'll figure something out to help you." he said and was going to continue discussing this with her but he was getting an incoming call from his gauntlet.

"Please excuse me." he said as he stepped away from her to take the call. The image of an exo appeared before him and he could feel himself getting irritated with the thought of the woman. "Yo... Cayde... I think I fucked up." she said and the camera backed out to show hundreds of vex bodies surrounding her, but her limbs were also destroyed except for her left arm. "I see you did... where are you, I'm on the way..." he sighed and looked up from his gauntlet.

"You'll have to forgive me, I have urgent matters to attend to..." he sighed and all she did was smile at him, she understood. The life of a guardian was never ending and always eventful, it seemed. She waved him off and made her way towards her room, to which he released a sigh and glared at the after image of his gauntlet. She was going to get him into so much trouble...

He snuck through the tower and made his way to the ship dock. He slipped into his ship and waited for the chance to take off, but someone had hit the kill switch on his ship from the outside. He peeked over through his windshield and if he could grin, a sheepish one would be plastered across his face. Amanda Holliday stood before him on the mechanic's lift tapping her foot with her arms crossed over her chest. Seems as though he wasn't going to be going on any adventures today either.

He sighed and stepped out of his ship, to which the unamused look he received from her didn't falter. "And where, pray tell, do you think you were going?" she asked pointing at him with her wrench. "Hey, look, I got a guardian who requested my assistance... not like I can ignore that." he said, and she rolled her eyes. "Send someone else, you are not going. No way, no how." she said, and he sighed once more. "And why not?" he asked, and she gave him an annoyed look as she pointed down to Zavala, who had the same unamused look on his face.

"Tell me why you think you have to leave and I might consider it." Zavala said and Cayde gave him an odd look. He wasn't sure why the man was so willing to work with him this time, but he was going to take his chances. "I have a guardian that personally requested my assistance. She is in danger." he said and Zavala seemed to be pondering the situation but then shook his head. "I think I can send a fireteam to save this friend of yours." he said and Cayde would frown if he could. He needed to keep this guardian a secret from the vanguard for now for obvious reasons.

"Who are you sending?" he asked and two familiar titans made their presence known. "Rev, Artemis. Good to see ya." he greeted and dread creeped through his being at this. They had all been found out it seemed. "How-" "A certain friend of ours on Io is getting feed up with her. She doesn't have to come to the tower yet but there will be a time where this needs to happen. In the mean time you can explain to me who she is." Zavala said and Cayde knew he was in trouble now.

"We will need to talk about that privately." he said and Zavala nodded. They made their way up to Zavala's office and he sighed as Zavala urged him to take a seat. "So explain to me who she is." he said and Cayde laid right into it. From the moment he found out that Kira had died, right up to the point in which he tried to bring her back and failed. "I brought back a random guardian in one of Kira's Exo creations while trying to bring her back. I have no idea who she is, but I'm keeping the frame safe because Kira would have wanted that." Cayde explained and Zavala nodded as he listened to every word.

"You're a fool, but you had good intentions. For now your secret is safe with me. We have no reason to tell Ashura as of yet, seeing as this will only cause her more pain than it's worth right now. She's already dealing with the loss of her sister on top of some other things I don't know about, but I suspect you do." he said pointedly and Cayde felt the need to clam up. "She's having existential crisis issues. She fears her death is near. She will get through this." he said and Zavala nodded. He could tell the man didn't believe him but he would just have to take him at his word and nothing more.

He wasn't going to be the one to out Ashura for still seeing the awoken prince after Zavala told her strictly not to. He wasn't a snitch unless it was on himself it seemed.

:-:-:

He was currently sitting down in the bar relaxing after a hard day of nothing in the vanguard room. He was reminiscing on the day she had given him her vanguard vow. He had never held so much pride as he had that day. And then today she had come into the vanguard room after having been out scouting on the planets for a week and she had two extra appendages. He hadn't understood the allure of looking like one of the fallen, but he understood the raw emotion she had expressed when she said she was keeping them.

She had been so truly fearful of her own death that it showed in every move she made. The arms were just to help her out and he knew this. He continued to sit and think over everything as he drank. He was so curious as to why she made him feel the way she did, but he couldn't deny it. The feelings he felt for her were so strong they overtook his thought process when it came to her and he knew she was getting fed up with him. He just wanted to make sure she was alright and it came across as overprotective it seemed.

He sighed and reached to down another drink, but someone rushed into the bar and began looking around. "Cayde! Ashura is in danger! She's down in the civilian city." they yelled and he shot up and rushed out of the bar. He began trying to contact her on his gauntlet and rushed to the elevator as fast as he possibly could, but by the time he got there he was too late. He got there just in time to see her rip the blade from her own stomach and jab it into the gut of the woman who had stabbed her.

Cayde rushed forward and grabbed the woman along with Zavala. They restrained her as best they could, but she was a feral woman who was pretty strong for her smaller size, kind of like Ashura herself. He deducted from the way she was screaming in Eliksni she was one of Uldren's crows. He listened carefully to what she was saying, which was pretty much how Ashura would never amount to the person Kira had been.

He looked over to see uldren cradling Ashura in his arms and he wondered if the man realized how he felt for her. Cayde didn't want him to realize it in all honesty, because he himself had his own feelings for her. However, the emotions were visible on the man's face. His sheer panic and pain in seeing her this way. He looked to see if Ashura was going to struggle but she had already passed out.

He and Zavala took the woman now known as Kali away and when they returned Ashura was in the infirmary and Uldren was gone. He was glad he ddint have the ability to show facial expressions because he would not have been able to control his face when he had seen the way Uldren had been cradling her. Jealousy was an ugly look on him either way. He made his way to the infirmary to visit Ashura instead of going to see what Kali's fate would be.

When he got there she was awake but he could tell she was still groggy. She was surrounded by her friends and brother and he decided she needed a little time to get her thoughts straight. She mumbled something under her breathe about the woman who had stabbed her and he chuckled lightly. Yeah, she was going to be just fine. She bit out something about not asking about the arms to her brother and he rolled his eyes.

He knew how her brother could be overprotective sometimes and he was with him on that but he wasn't going to let her know that. He wanted to stay on her good side after all. "Alright, she's perfect. Let's clear the room so she can get some more rest." he said and one by one they all cleared out of the room. He watched her for a moment as she rubbed over the new scar adorning her abdomen and he frowned. Guardians weren't meant to have scars.

Guardians were the epitome of flawless and strong, but she was weakening day by day and covered in scars like any other human would be. He wasn't sure why this was, but he didn't think it was supposed to be this way for her. She shouldn't have been revived without a leg, nor should her sister have been but that was just one of the mysteries behind the twins. There were many more of those to unfold and he wanted to uncover each and every one of those mysteries because he was a nosey bastard as she would call him.

He pulled a chair up to the side of her bed and she gave him an odd look. "Are you going to admonish me as well?" she asked and he chuckled lightly once more. "No, big word for an idiot as yourself." he said and she scoffed audibly at him. "Heh, you're one to talk. Moron." she grumbled and he felt that familiar rush of excitement fill him. Of course, it was odd because she had just called him a moron, but he still thought of it as her way of being endearing and he loved it.

After a moment of talking amongst themselves and him reminding Eris that she needed rest, the last of the group finally left the room. "Do you want me to go as well?" he asked and she thought it over for a moment but shook her head. "No, I would prefer you stay a little while." she said and the excitement filled him once more. He was thrilled that she wanted him to stay with her, even if only for a little while.

So that's what he did. He kept her company until Zavala called for him to return to the vanguard room.

:-:-:

A lot had happened in the past month. Ashura had become acquainted with the new guardians who all had strange powers of their own, she had delved into the depths of the vault with them once more and today... today they were commemorating their losses. The dead guardians that had been retrieved from the vault were being celebrated for their sacrifice. He was admittedly uneasy because those of the reef were coming to join in on the commemoration ceremony. The queen and her brother, the one he dreaded most, was going to show his face.

Although Petra would be there as well which he couldn't complain about because he genuinely liked the woman. He looked around and he saw Ashura sneaking off with the prince and he couldn't help but want to be nosey. He slipped into invisibility and followed them up to where Saladin liked to sit when he came to visit. He watched as the two of them spoke to one another softly, so no prying ears would hear them. However the moment that the queen made her presence known they went to arguing to make it all look like they couldn't get along.

This would have been smart if the queen didn't seem to know something was going on between the two of them already. He could see the look of amusement cross the elegant woman's features the moment she saw them start arguing. He was amused by this as well, seeing as they tried so hard to hide how they felt for one another that they didn't realize they were only showing it to everyone all the same.

She was desperately in love with the fool but denying it and he seemed to be hiding the same thing from her. It amused him to no end that the only ones who couldn't tell the two of them were head over heels for one another was themselves. This however did bring a sadness to him, he felt as if he were going to lose her to the reef. This was a horrible feeling to have considering how he felt for her. She reminded him so much of Ivara that it killed him seeing her have feelings for another man.

Not that he ever had a shot to begin with, he just thought he had more of a shot than most others. He sighed and was brought out of his hiding spot by a blade jabbed into the crevice of his neck. He held his hands up and turned around sheepishly. "You caught me, I was being nosey." he said and Petra released an exasperated sigh. "Of course, you would be the one to snoop." she grumbled and removed the blade from its place with her telekinetic abilities.

"What all did you see?" she asked threateningly and he knew he shouldn't have been snooping. "The whole thing." he cursed his honesty with this woman sometimes and he couldn't stand it. "So, you've known about them?" she asked and he nodded. "And you have no issues with their meetings?" she asked and he sighed. "I have my issues but their meetings aren't it..." he grumbled and Petra nodded. Of course, his issues weren't the meetings, it was the fact they were in love with one another and didn't know it.

He couldn't quite tell Petra this though because it seemed she was vying for the two of them to get together. Which he wasn't, he was far from ever accepting the two of them together. However, if it ever happened, he would be there for her. He would always be there for Ashura because she was always there for him when he needed it most even if she never knew it. "Run along now Cayde, you don't want her seeing you here." Petra said and he did just that. He took off to where he knew Zavala and Ikora would be waiting on him.

When he got to them, they were staring at him expectantly. They had known where he had crept off to it seemed. "You learn anything new?" they asked and he shook his head. "Nah, the queen seems to like her, but her and the prince seem to be the best of friends." he said sarcastically and the two of them sighed. "Hopefully she doesn't ruin relations between us because of him. Things have been going well for a little while now ever since they got us banned from the reef.

"Seems I will have a discussion with the queen regarding her brother and Ashura. Hopefully it turns out to be nothing." Zavala said and Cayde would have gone pale if he were human. That had not been his intention at all. In fact, his intentions were the exact opposite. He grimaced inwardly and sighed as Zavala walked away. Ikora managed a laugh and he looked over to her. "You know it's obvious you're jealous. That's why Zavala is going to go talk to the queen. Because you let your jealousy slip with that remark." she mused and he rolled his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Well, I wasn't trying to. That's my little weirdo and this creep comes in out of nowhere and starts stealing her away." he grumbled and she released a laugh once more. Glad he could amuse the woman even when he wasn't trying to. He was genuinely jealous of the two of them. It was as if they had bonded over their hatred of one another rather than their friendship. Or maybe it was something else, he didn't know. He wasn't trying to understand it either, he just wanted Ashura to understand how he felt for her.

He looked over to see that Uldren had made his way over here and was giving him a side eye from hell. Seems he knew he had witnessed them and was trying to see if he had seen everything or if it was only the fake argument. He was aware of the whole situation, bud. No hiding it from him no matter how hard one could try. He amused himself with his own thoughts honestly. He tore his gaze away from the dark-haired man as Petra walked up and started teasing him.

He sighed and uncrossed his arms, he should relax a little, as long as Zavala was still against them meeting up it wouldn't be an issue. Then maybe he could swoop in and show her how he felt for her without the man in the way. At least that was how he figured it would go in his mind. But he knew better than that, he knew she would still sneak out to go see him every chance she would get. He released yet another sigh and looked up to see that Ashura was making her way over beside the queen.

Her hair was cut in a longer exact opposite style of Uldren's and his heart sank in his chest. He didn't know if the style was deliberate or not but he knew it hurt him. Something as trivial as a hair style shouldn't affect him the way it did, but it had. And the thing that took the cake and hurt him more? The words that came out of Zavala's mouth. "If you are meeting with Ashura, do you promise no harm will come to her?" He was cursing in his head at this point and he figured it showed in the way he was holding himself because Ashura was watching him carefully.

He knew he was going to end up having a talk with her after the ceremony. He watched the ceremony, only to look for Ashura immediately after. He found her sitting beside the memorial of her sister. "Ashura?" he called and she looked up to him after she rushed to wipe her eyes. She didn't need to hide her tears from him, she knew this. She just felt the instinct and reacted on it. This hurt his heart because she was never meant to hurt this much. She hid her feelings because other guardians bullied her because she was different. This made him even sadder.

"Yes?" she asked and he flopped down to sit beside her. "Are you ok?" he asked and she shook her head. He reached over and wrapped an arm around her and pulled her in. She didn't resist in the slightest bit, instead she buried her head in his chest and began sobbing loudly. He hoped to the traveler she would never hate him. He didn't think he could ever handle her hatred. He pulled her in closer and allowed her to pour her heart out to him, even if it was only in tears, he still wanted to be there to comfort her.

This is how they spent the rest of the afternoon, sitting in each other's arms and comforting the other. Even if she didn't know she was comforting him she was, and he was grateful. She brought rest to a soul that had been in turmoil for hundreds of years now just with her presence and he hated that she didn't feel the same way he felt for her. He slipped his eyes shut and enjoyed the time he did have with her because he knew that it would be gone eventually.

And it passed by faster than he had wanted it to. Within a week she was off on another adventure and he was left worrying about her once more. He tapped his fingers on the table and sighed as he looked around to see that no one else was having the same anxiety about this mission she had gone on that he did. It was a routine strike they said, she would be fine, they said. But when she returned covered in burns and her health in the red according to her ghost, he was furious. Not that he showed her how much her poor state had affected him, but it had.

She had gotten a script from Zavala for a new ship as a reward and she was going to go give it to Amanda. He knew she was injured and denying how bad she really was, but he wasn't going to stop her because she seemed angry at the moment. "Why did you give her a script for a new ship?" Cayde asked and Zavala chuckled. "Seems she could use the uplift of a gift from the reef." he mused softly and Cayde gave him an odd look. "A gift from the reef?" he asked and Zavala nodded.

"Uldren and the Queen have gifted her one of their ships." he said and something didn't feel right about this gift. He made his way down to the ship dock and by the time she had gotten there she was already gone and so was the ship. He sighed and turned to Amanda who was grumbling under her breath as she worked on the ships. He made his way over to her and she set her tools down and turned to him.

"What happened with Ashura?" he asked and she crossed her arms over her chest. "She got all mad over the ship and took off in it. Dunno where she's going but she's mad with a purpose." she said and he sighed and nodded to her. He made his way back to the vanguard room. Thoughts raced in his mind as he walked back, was she ok? Why was she so angry? Her health was another thing that stressed him. Why hadn't her ghost healed her? Were they fighting?

A million and one questions flooded his mind as he walked through the hall leading to Zavala and Ikora. He couldn't help it he was a worrier. He wished he could but he was regarded as the mother hen to all of his hunters. He looked to the holo-table and noticed the Queen was on the projector. "Ah, nice of you to join us. I was waiting till all of you were here." She said as she looked around her.

"Two of your guardians showed up on my doorstep and one had an unfortunate incident. Ashura and Hinata are here with me right now, but Ashura is not in the best of health. We are going to send Hinata home with some detailed plans on what we are doing for Ashura, but I figured I can also give you a briefing while we wait on her to show up." Mara said and they all nodded. "What happened to Ashura?" he asked and she turned toward him. "She died and was resurrected by my brother. She is doing alright now but we assume it is because of her condition that her ghost was of no help for her." Mara said and he fisted his hands.

He should have stopped her when she tried to leave the vanguard room. He should have done something to help her, so why hadn't he? Why hadn't he done anything? He didn't know but he was grateful she was in good hands now at least. "She will be getting an upgraded leg soon. It isn't finished yet but we have high hopes for it being completed within the next few weeks." she said and they all nodded. Zavala gave her his blessing to hold on to Ashura until the leg was finished but Cayde didn't like it one bit.

As if his worrying about Ashura's wellbeing weren't bad enough, a certain female Exo made her presence known. "Oh no..." He grumbled as he looked over to the doorway to see the woman standing there. He was cursing inwardly once more as the Vex built Exo circled the table to get to him. She was another odd one, a titan\hunter. Just like Ashura. "Welcome Misra, nice to see you out of your slumber once more." Zavala said and Cayde whipped his head over to the man.

If a shit eating grin could form on an Exo's face, Misra was wearing one. "Fuck my life." he grumbled as he looked over to the woman once more. When she had been saved from Io where she had been accruing Vex parts he had powered her down and was trying to let her rest until he could figure out how to fix her. Seems Zavala had other plans for the woman. He rocked his head as he cursed inwardly once more.

This woman was more of a problem child than Ashura was. Now he had two of them to worry about together.