Fides.... that name. She had never told him that name had she? A name that she barely knew herself... pain filled her, unspeakable pain as she stood and launched her attack at the monster. It fell off the roof disintegrating into golden dust that would harmlessly disappear before it reached the ground. She watched it with unseeing silver eyes as the seal cracked and she saw another time, another object falling. A beautiful shinning blue crystal, falling from a strong and beloved hand. Her heart.... her life's blood was falling, death rising to meet her from her lovers hand. It was going to crack and she would shatter with it, he... he was killing her!

She turned, her eyes half crazed as she gazed at leander just as she had those years ago. Hate and love mixed together perfectly in those eyes, passion and pain ripping each other apart. For a moment the fragment of the true fides that remained was in control. It screamed at him aloud. One word, the same word she had then even as she shattered her own soul rather than hear the answer. "Why!?"

Shay blinked, regaining control as she fell to her knees and her sailor fuku disappeared to reveal the clothing she'd been wearing before she transformed. Now she understood... why she couldn't remember correctly and why this 'past life' that she'd been dreaming of never really felt like her own. Fides... Fides was gone. She had shattered herself rather then continue to live in a world where her beloved Leander would take her life....

She didn't look at leander as a tear fell down her cheek, even though she now kneeled only a few inches in front of him. The tear sparkled, forming into the sacred crystal that had once been her purpose for existing. It was not as either had last seen it, it was now cracked and missing a small chip for being a reflection of Fides soul it to was not whole... not truly alive. The crystal flickered and then fell into Shay's hands as she gazed down at it.

"You...Do you know.....Do you realize what you did? What really happened to Fides? Did you mean.... Did you want to kill us or could you really not know?" She whispered softly, but her voice held a demand for an answer. She would not break, she would not shatter herself as Fides had done. She... this new sailor fides would not be destroyed so easily. Even if love for Leander was one of the shards of Fides soul that would always remain as she gazed at the crystal. Until Fides was released, truely allowed to die it would stay cracked...Shay was just another guard.

"How could she.....destroy herself? She whispered, more to herself than him. She gazed at the crystal, frowning. Once so sought after it was now merely a bauble... would it always remain so? She pushed the crystal into her pocket, not wanting to look at it anymore but not able to look at Leander. Her friend..... Her innocent friend was not innocent, not even human. Had he ever really cared for her at all or was he still chasing the heart he had destroyed?

”Fides!”

Leander winced as he held his bleeding shoulder, an irritated growl grumbling in his throat. Dammit, he had let his guard down. How was it that she always managed to do that to him? He loved to be prepared and yet, when she was around he could only go with the moment. Even back then he had been so easy to surprise by her… He was a tall man, built and bred to fight. He had never made any qualms about his strength; Leander always loved to dance thinly on the line between pain and please, strength and weakness. He closed his eyes for a moment and he pictured his beloved sitting on the bed before him, a pretty and gorgeous little thing. She had always been so frail compared to him, especially when there was now fuku and armor between them, when the only thing that stood between them was a thin sheet. He wanted to show her he was so much stronger, wanted to let her be weak, wanted to let her be the treasure to be guarded instead of that hated jewel…

He had called to her, and he hadn’t meant, too… It was too much to hope that she hadn’t heard him. When he opened his eyes he saw his blood making a small puddle of droplets in front of him and suddenly, a different sort of pain ripped through him. A pain that had lasted over a millennia. A heartache and frustration and anger that would never go away… Leander had called to his dead princess and she was answering. Slowly he stood, ignoring the woozy feeling in the pit of his stomach and watched as she slowly dropped to her knees, the fuku disappearing into nothingness. He watched her with hard, guilty eyes. With the eyes that regretted Shay’s existence… Fides shouldn’t be trapped in that body. She should still be with him. Her looked up from underneath his baggy white bangs. His hair had once been a dark shade of golden brown, but now it was simply colorless from an eternity of heartache and stress.

As he looked down at the senshi, he saw that jewel that had ruined everything, falling from a tear. He hated it, and wanted to smash it to itty bitty little pieces, but he didn’t move forward.. She knew now. There was no sense in playing charades anymore. He was he was… She spoke to him. The secret was out. ”I loved Fides... It was her distrust that killed us.” Slowly he reached down to touch her hair but stopped, his hand curling up. ”Fides was mine… I would have never hurt her beyond repair. She’s not ‘destroyed’… She’s a part of you. I know she’s in there, I felt her… Aren’t you, Fides? Why don’t you come out to play?” He was teasing when he shouldn’t have been and he knew that, but it was the only way he hope to get a reaction out of the senshi’s inner. Fides had no right to blame this all on him. It was just as much her fault as his. ”I was just getting rid of her duty, of her restraints.”

"You don't know......You really don't know...Fools... both of you" Shay responded, nearly wincing as he reached for her. He didn't want her...... he'd never wanted her. He wanted the woman who had destroyed herself rather then live in a universe where she had to choose between her life and his. Shay leaned forward on her knees, her heart still ringing with a heartbreak that was only half hers and this new sting. Like Fides before her she had been falling for him... only he could never love her back. Had this love and duty what he been speaking of? When Fides body moved to kill him but all Fides soul could hear was the sound of shattering crystal as it too was shattered? Had he told her how he loved her then? The idea tore at her heart and more tears fell as she refused to look at the one to whom she knew she was just a bother... Just another barrier like the crystal itself. Would he have shattered her too?

"She died a long time ago Leander.... She used the crystal to shatter her own soul rather then live in a universe where you would destroy her, where she would have to chose between your lives. The crystal WAS her soul, you were not destroying her duty you were destroying her starseed... her very self. The crystal and fides were one and the same, that was why she could absorb it and release it at will.

She thought you knew.... thought you meant to destroy her in a way only a senshi can be so completely destroyed and shattered. She couldn't face it, anymore then you can face that all that is left of her is a few shattered pieces of her memory and the ghost of her emotions that live in me. That's what you sense, not fides..... you already killed her, whether you meant to or not. All that is left of her shattered soul is what's in this crystal, stuck in the moment when she was sure she was betrayed, trapped in that agony for all eternity because you're both IDIOTS" shay explained, becoming more and more emotional with each word. It was a shakespearean tragedy... and one that she could never end. Doomed to repeat until Fides could be released and than Shay would be reborn countless times to take up her duties. It was all so ... inescapable.

Shay stood and pulled a scarf she was wearing from around her frail neck. She would wrap his shoulder as quickly as she could if he didn't stop her but all she really wanted to do was go home. He loved a ghost and she was just like a jar that held that ghost. Her only friend and ... perhaps something more, but shay was nothing but a container to him. It was not the agony of Fides but at the same time she understood. The feeling it was all fiction... that she hadn't mattered at all... It was one feeling she and Fides would eternally share it seemed.

Leander listened with growing anger as Shay attempted to know, attempted to put her nose somewhere that she shouldn’t. She had no place… no place trying to give him advise on a woman he knew so utterly and completely. He could have traced Fides’ body blinded, and he could remember every little sound that would escape her lips when he kissed them so utterly. Shay was right, but he didn’t know it… or perhaps he didn’t want to? Something inside Leander was completely cracked… His own Heart Crystal was a ruined and jagged thing, held together only by the hope of being reunited with the loved one he had chased away… His mind was like a fractured mirror that had been glued back in all the wrong places by the very thought of her smile…

’Leander…’

She was right there… She was right there! The poor man’s sanity, hope, heart, life… his entire being was running on nothing but the idea that he could make right what they had both made wrong. In the back of his being, he felt a twinge of regret for causing such a feeling of betrayal in the girl who had trusted him… He, too, was a reincarnation but he had long ago put aside the mind that had been born to this body. The clockmaker’s son was but a distant thought in a land of once upon a time…Leander had done everything, anything, within his eternal power to find his way back to his Princess. And here, and here she was telling him that she wasn’t coming back… That distant far away part of him knew Shay was right and mourned the pain that he had caused his friend, but it was drowned in a sea of anger, sadness, self-hatred and denial… It cried for her to run, but the words would never reach her… After all, the clockmaker’s son was never very strong and Leander had a millenia’s worth of love and guilt to build.

”IDIOTS-“

The word triggered something in him and he felt another thread of his mind snap. As the scarf slipped from Shay’s frail neck, he lunged and with a rough shove he had her pinned onto the ground. His hands found her wrists and squeezed around them tightly, and his legs moved to either side of the girl’s legs. She had spoken out of turn and he was going to make sure she knew it, his teeth were clenched so hard that he was so sure that they might shatter. His face contorted into a look of rage, and hot, angry, desperate tears were streaking down his cheeks. ”SHUT YOUR MOUTH! How dare you talk about her like that! How dare you call her anything other than perfection! You don’t know anything about us! You don’t know how it feels to be a puppet of the universe! You don’t know how it feels to have to be strong constantly!” His grip tightened even harder and the tears kept coming.

”They were using her! That THING was using her! I was going to free her! We were going to be happy, we were going to run away from all of it! All she had to do was let go of that crystal and we’d both be free!” His eyes squeezed tight as one of his hands reared back and slammed into the concrete near Shays hand, rock and bits of blood flying as it went right through the stone. ”She is NOT gone! She’s in you and I want her BACK!” Leaning down, he angrily pressed his lips into, his tears dropping and landing on her cheeks as he desperately fought for any feeling of the woman that he had fallen in love with. And the harder he pressed into her, the more he hated himself and the more he utterly loved her…

He was a Romeo chasing after the ghost of his sleeping Juliet…

Shay let out a cry of surprise as she was pinned, her hands lifting to try to struggle only for them to be slammed into the concrete. She started to yell that he'd made sure she knew exactly what it felt like to be used but then she saw his tears. For a moment her breath caught in her throat and she had to fight the urge to want to comfort him even as he yelled at her. No matter what he had done the part of her that had been falling for her 'lee-chan' was stronger then the part that hated him. Still any comfort she might have offered him fell away as he seemed he was going to hit her.

"Lee!" She coughed out in surprise, a desperate plea in the word. She didn't want to fight him, didn't want to repeat past tragedies... an endless war born of love cut short. What he did, however, surprised her more then being hit ever would. Her first kiss stolen... a bitter thing as she knew it was not for her. It was fides he wished to be kissing... still, as he pushed into her body and her lips felt his her heart began to pound. She whimpered softly, a small sound of pleasure and pain. She reached up to put her hand against his arms and tried to push them away. No! He would not use her again!

She could feel her lips bruising and a small tear escaped, the force of him... the raw power behind his kiss was both exciting and terrifying, even as the fact all that passion belonged to another broke her heart. She fought against the kiss, her slender form struggling beneath his weight even as his hungry lips claimed her previously untouched ones. He was too strong! There was nothing she could do. A soft sound came deep in her throat, a sound almost like a plea as her squirming began to die down. Surely he couldn't kiss her long could he? Still, even as she stopped she stubbornly held her lips closed to try and keep him out, even if she knew it was too late to keep him out of her heart.

The kiss had been… not what he had expected. Granted, it was not bad, but it was definitely not the lips he had been hoping to find. He felt her struggles underneath him, but he merely brushed it off. It hadn’t been the first time that Fides had struggled, but they were always an act… As his lips pushed onto hers though, he began to notice the differences almost immediately. Maybe it was just the taste of his own salty tears, or maybe it was the blood loss, but everything seemed so… new. He let her wrist go and tore his hand out of the hole in the ground as he found a new place for them. Slowly, he was sitting up, one arm tugging her to him by the waist and the other gently, but firmly knotting in her hair. He felt his own breath hitch against her, pain shooting through his shoulder as he pressed her into it. She tasted like… sweet cherry pits. It was so strange from the white plum taste that he always seemed to find on Fides’ lips. His tight, death grip was easing now into something a little more gentle..

And like a bolt of lightning, he realized that there’d be no return kiss because it was not Fides he was holding… It was not Fides he was kissing. He could squeeze, hold, kiss, and possess the woman all he wanted, but that would not make her anymore Fides and any less Shay… He let go of her almost instantly and was up on his feet, wobbling as he starred down at Shay with a mixture of anger, sorrow, and confusion. The tears were drying up now and something a bit more colder was entering his eyes… Something infinitely more lonely and more defeated. His eyes dropped down to the scarf she had tried to bandage him up with and he scooped it off the ground, starring down at it... Leander looked so far away. ”I wonder whatever happened to the one I gave her…” He muttered under his breath quietly before dropping it on the ground in front of Shay.

”I’m going… If you’re smart then you’ll stay away from me.” He turned his back to her, rummaged into his pocket until he pulled out a small pack of cigarettes. With a quick pat and shake, the last one dropped out of the box into his hand. He starred at the cigarette and placed it between his lips. A roll of thunder grumbled in the distant as he lit up and began stripping off the blood soaked shirt. He shook it firmly and a small gear wheel fell into his hand. ”That’ll have to do until I get home,” he muttered to himself. Squeezing his eyes tight and biting down hard on the end of his cancer stick, he cut the gear into his shoulder’s gash. Blood coated his hand as he dug it into his wound and when he pulled back his hand, the red droplets fell to the ground like his tears had minutes ago. Slowly, painfully from the looks of it, the energy that he had infused into the clockwork began to regenerate his flesh. A useful trick he had picked up during the Dark Kingdom…

Leander took another glance back at Shay, a bitter taste lingering on his mouth… He hated her. He loved her. He wanted her to want him, he wanted to want her. So many emotions from one face… But, she was right. If she had Fides in her, she certainly wasn’t going to come out and play…

Those lips... any chance to escape them fled as his hand curled into her hair. She whimpered softly, feeling a shiver travel down her spine. The kiss had changed, become less angry and for a moment she almost found herself enjoying it despite her helplessness. As she was drawn against him her struggles grew fainter. She could feel his blood still falling and yet he seemed to care more for the taste of her lips then the pain.

She couldn't help but feel surprise as he drew away from her and soon she was blushing. She reached for her scarf but he already had it. She would have told him to give it back but he was within moments. She took it and stood, intending to bandage his shoulder even though she was furious at him. Her first kiss... though it most certainly had not lacked pleasure and passion, it was still not for her. Meaningless... She was meaningless to him.

"my first... you stole my first kiss and now are just going to run away? Coward!" She couldn't help but spit out him, fury and hurt in her voice. She had still walked forward as she spoke to look at his shoulder only to find herself far too close to his naked chest and that he was healing it...kinda. She flushed deeply but wrapped the wound so the blood still trying to spill out would be held there. She said nothing, not even to the hate and anger she saw in his face.

"you really are an idiot" She added defiantly before she ripped the cigarette from his lips and threw it across the roof. she knew it was childish and just lashing out at him but she didn't care. She was too hurt and angry to care about anything. Still, Only then did she turn away from him and start for the door they had used to get on the roof in the first place. It was torn off it's hinges slightly by the yonma so would be easy to just walk through. her hands were by her sides, curled into delicate fists. His choices... was he really connected to the monsters? was he really evil? was anything he'd ever said to her real?

Leander sat in his bed in the little flat above his little clock shop. It had been nearly two weeks since the incident on the roof and it still haunted him. He had woken up that small part of him that he thought he had did himself of so long ago… The clockmaker’s son who had reveled the friendship of little Shay, who was abhorred at the way that his former life had treated her. He had never felt his mind so fractured since he was a boy… Since he first came to the surface so long ago and took over the body that rightfully belonged to him; since he first awoke on the surface of Earth to begin his search for his dead loved one’s new body. Up until this moment he had not quite understood that perhaps there was a difference between ‘Lee-chan’ and Leander. And now it was becoming increasingly alarming and plausible that maybe that the separation between the two was thinning out very rapidly.

He was drenched in sweat as he sat, knees curled up to his bare chest and hands fisted in his white hair. Hair that had once been the color of the sun… He shook and shivered, clutching his shoulder. The wound was long closed up but the dark energy pulsing from the gear enclosed in the flesh continued to radiate… It was like an opiate. The healing affects had long wore off and now it left nothing but a sweetly tinged sickness in his body. ”It wasn’t right,” whispered a gentle voice from his lips. Not the strong, sarcastic tone of Leander. Something much softer, much younger. ”You shouldn’t have hurt her. His eyes flashed rapidly and he grit his teeth hard. ”Shut up, you… Go back to the silence!” He didn’t need the clockmaker’s son coming and making more trouble than it was worth. Leander was weak, he needed energy, and his recent hermit behavior had prevented him from going out and getting it.

The boy was taking advantage of that. ”Shay isn’t Fides! She isn’t yours!” The voice was stronger now, not so willing to be ignored. Leander couldn’t take it. Ever since he had come back from the battle, that brat boy wouldn’t shut up! All around him, pictures of Shay, not Fides, were littered around the floor. Broken colored pencils and spilt paint was all over the floors. Pictures of her smiling, of her crying, of the heart broken expression that Leander had left her with. The images tortured him. Leander couldn’t stand it! He stumbled out of the bed, holding his head as he tried to focus, the fever of half sanity holding to him tightly. And that ticking noise! Those clocks! ”Fides is dead! You KILLER her!”

”SHUT UP!” He roared loudly as he stumbled down the steps and into the clock shop. He didn’t care about people passing by or looking through. Picking up a baseball bat leaning behind the counter he began his assault on the ticking devices that mocked him. He was crying, screaming, and roaring. The hate he felt was emmiting in waves of black aura. He had killed the one person he had truly loved… He had not meant too, but that one fact was echoing endlessly in his mind. As much as he did not want to accept the possibility he kept turning back to the memory of Fides resurfacing… It was not truly her. It was the ghost of her anger and betrayal. It was tormented existence. Just like his own. How could he live in a world where there was no princess for him to protect? She was everything. She had been the glue that had held him together these many years.

And now he began to truly wonder if he was really just chasing a ghost after all.

Shay could have easily avoided the clock shop, it would have been the easiest thing in the world... if people hadn't come shouting about a crazed man and strange darkness. She knew enough of what was going on to know he'd really lost it now or the darkness had taken him. Part of her asked if he'd ever been anything but dark but she pushed it away, the loving heart that had made fides so easily seduced still there... still strong. She couldn't leave a person to self destruction, no matter how sure she was that following them would lead to her own. She had been shopping but now she would be running, after transforming to her sailor senshi form out of sight of the fleeing crowd.

"I don't think destroying your own shop will be very helpful..." said this neo sailor fides as she arrived, standing in the door. She tried to look hard, unfeeling. She didn't want him to see concern, she didn't want him to see there was one piece of fides reborn in her. Fides love for Leander would always be eternal, even as she destroyed herself she had not been able to destroy that nor had the crystal... though it had tried. The fragment of fides soul that was Shay would never be able to escape that love, that desire to be united with what fides had always felt was the other half of herself.

"If your not careful you'll attract the other senshi, they'll think you're possessed like some of the attacking youma." Shay added as she tried to push down her concern. She didn't want to see him hurt, and she was afraid that some of this showed in her tone this last time. He'd never cared for her, not the real her... why did she have to still care? Even fides' ghost did not seem to understand why that love would not die...

He looked up at the Neo Fides as she arrived, his eyes continuing to flash dangerously as the two entities inside the young man’s body continued to fight for control. The look that crossed his face when he saw her was a mixture of surprise and anger. She just had to show up, didn’t she? Of course, she did. He was surprised that the other senshi had not come to reign in the source of the dark energy emitting from the clock shop. He supposed they would come pretty quickly if he could not get this… issue under control. But who was supposed to be in control? Lee? Or Leander? ”Shay…” The weakling called out to his friend, the words escaping his lips in surprise. This had been the closest the true Lee had ever been to the girl he had seen only through the eyes of his past self. No! NO! Leander could not let that wretched boy come anywhere near her! Not until this was sorted out. As quick as the gentleness had come along, it vanished even more quickly. Leander would take no chances. He would not give this woman anymore ammunition than he already had.

”What are YOU doing here?” he barked roughly, his voice labored with the effort of keeping control. Beads of sweat dripped from his body, landing on the wooden floor like rain drops. ”Don’t you have better things to do than sticking your nose in my business?” He tried to sneer, tried to make it seem as if all he had were venom for this woman who’s face utterly tortured him. Just being in her presence made him want to lose control. He wanted to weep, he wanted to laugh, he wanted to kiss her, to strip her, to take control of her, to love her… to be loved by her. By the ghost that he saw every time he looked at her.

”Possessed, huh?” An ill humored bark of a laugh ripped through his throat. ”Maybe I am possessed.” He stumbled towards Shay threateningly, acting more bold than he felt. ”I’m possessed by a woman that I loved. She comes to me every night to sew more and more pain into my soul. She turns all my love into hatred until I want to do is rip out my own beating heart and stick a knife through it.” He was closer now, his vision blurring as his head began to swim. ”Shay…” The voice came again, desperate and pleading and worried. ”I told you SHUT UP!” He turned on a dime and slammed his fist into a ticking clock, growling. ”YOU DO NOT SPEAK TO HER!”

The gentleness that briefly crossed him surprised her, causing the hard mask to briefly disappear in shock. Concern flickered through her gaze but she couldn't help but frown. That voice was not the one she knew... It was different somehow. Before she could think on it, however, he was again that mask of hatred. She knew she should be afraid but it only brought that heavy feeling that she knew so little about him all the heavier. She simply rolled her eyes and again tried to look tough, to hide the hurt that his hatred caused her. She knew how much he had to hate her... a replacement, a copy.

Only as he spoke to the other half did she realize that he too had been reborn exactly as she. A fractured soul... even if his two personalities could become one as he really was just leander reborn. The irony that he was telling... himself.. not to speak to her was almost funny. The ache of seeing him in such pain, however, made her unable to laugh. She frowned a moment only to instinctively run over and try to grab his fist before it hit the glass. She reacted without thinking, just not wanting to see him bleed or hurt anymore.

"Stop!... Just Stop. The senshi really would kill you if you don't settle down...." She whispered, her voice briefly shaking from her own inner turmoil. Shay hated him, and she loved him... What could she do? She couldn't help him but she couldn't leave him. He was in too much of a state to be left alone. She shivered, her grip on his wrist tightening as she felt lost a moment. She didn't want to be a senshi, she didn't want to be fides... but fides would have been able to do something. For just a moment she felt a pang of envy for the past princess who had so easily thrown away her soul for the love of a man.

”You hate me… Just like her!” Leander growled as he jerked his hand out of the glass and aimed it again. This time she stopped him. Before he could hit the broken glass again he felt her hand wrap around his, clutching to it. He knew that the senshi would kill him if they thought him uncontrollable. He had managed to avoid them thus far but he had seen the outer senshi fighting from a distance… They weren’t like the blonde odango and her guardians. They fought to kill and eradicate the source of darkness immediately. He knew it was unfair to accuse the pretty girl of not caring. After all, she had done a great deal of caring for him before he revealed what a petty asshole he could truly be. And even now, though she put up a good front, she was still trying to care for him. He wanted to keep her and yet, he still wanted to drive her away. He wanted to possess her, but shun her. And Lee, the true Lee, he wanted to undo all the damage that his former self had caused her. Something that was not likely and something that Leander would not have. He did not care how much this girl hated him. He did not care how much of Fides she truly was or wasn’t, she was still his. And if she wouldn’t give him her love then he wanted to make sure that no one else would receive it.

”Kiss me,” he leered as he leaned in his face closer to her. ”Kiss me and I’ll behave, pretty Shay.” It was a taunt. He knew that the girl could not stand what he had revealed himself to be. For so long he had portrayed the concerned, protective friend and even though he had meant all of it, Leander’s dark side overshadowed that. He who used to be a knight was acting like a stinking, drunk who had been recently dumped. It was a bit degrading, really. ”What’s the matter? Can’t stand the thought of kissing me? You should do like Fides and just close your eyes. Maybe she couldn’t stand the thought of me touching her either,” he seethed as he pushed his body closer to Shay’s. He knew it wasn’t true… Every and any time Fides had closed her eyes it was on his instruction. It was a cheap shot and not a very good one at that, but any insult to her was one that he did not inflict upon himself. The world was darkening at the edges. ”Stop scaring her!” The other voice suddenly shouted, speaking up with surprising strength now. Leander’s body seized up and he grabbed his head, his breath becoming labored. ”Stop bullying her!”

”U-ugh… gh…” When had the clockmaker’s boy become so strong? Where had he gotten this unexpected strength from? It wasn’t much, but enough. The energy started dulling down, pulling back into the man as he began fading out of consciousness.

”Stop yelling at her,” the voice said again, now more softly. More the muttering of a half-sleeping man than anything else. Whatever the reborn boy had done to contain his past self’s energy, it was quickly taking it’s toll on him, too. Lee, not Leander, looked up at Shay as he slowly sanked to the floor and small smile tugged at the corner of his lips. ”I finally got to meet you…” And bam! He hit the floor. Though it left a considerable bruise on the side of his head, his breathing evened out softly and Lee was pulled back into the dark, sleeping shadows from where he had first been bound.

Shay wanted nothing more then to shout at him that she did, to hurt him as he had hurt her. She wanted it desperately but the glittering pain in her eyes showed anything but hate as she looked up at him. His demand, worded like a request, followed the accusation and he leaned close she couldn't help but shiver. She didn't move a moment, part of her wanting to shout at him and another wanted to slap him... and yet another wanted to give in if only for an instant. As if to stall she half whispered 'It's not my kiss you want' but he was already talking over her.

As the two personalities began to struggle she could only watch helplessly. Fear flickered through her gaze, fear for him, fear for herself, fear of everything. She wished she could wipe away the pain... free the two from one another. Still, the crystal quietly told her, there was no way to do so. They would combine or one would destroy the other. She wondered which she really knew at all when that other voice said he was glad to meet her.

"I..." was her only response, feeling conflicted a moment. Was she glad to meet him too? she didn't know... all she knew was everything became so much more confusing for him. She whispered she was 'sorry' before she bent to him. She used the cloth bindings on one arm to wrap around him and lifted him before she headed upstairs. She would put him upstairs on the couch she had seen and began to look him over. She would treat what she could but as she went to retrieve an ice pack she finally noticed the picture. It could have easily been fides... except it was her hair which was the only difference between the two. Shay's hair was longer then fides had been though she only really could see it when comparing the pictures of fides he had drawn and the ones of her. She bent a moment and picked one up to look at it, feeling an odd flutter.

"What on earth do you want from me Lee.....no... Leander." She whispered to herself, her voice torn briefly and filled with a sharp pain. She shook her head and moved quickly to look through the apartment above the shop until she found the fridge and something frozen for his head to reduce the threatening swelling. She would return in silence, not caring if he was awake yet or not as she continued her treatment.

Leander felt sick to his stomach. Even in his sleep nothing felt sturdy; he felt as if he were on a great boat, his entire being constantly rocking back and forth and back and forth. He was perfectly still, though, as he laid down there on the couch she managed to drag him up to. He felt as if he were caught up in a whirlwind and there was nothing left to hold him back down to the ground. Nothing but her voice. He heard her speak to him though he knew nothing of what she was saying; the only thing he could recognize was his name. It echoed in his mind like a payer and he held onto that. He'd wake soon, he knew her would. His eyes would open and the weight of the world would come crashing down on him like a bad hangover. Any moment now, but for the moment he did not want to feel that... He wanted to hold onto that small image of her in his mind. The image of her holding onto his arm, pleading with him with her big teary eyes.

It was not possible, though. He was already waking now, the world was coming to focus again. Something cold was pressing against his face and he winced a bit, feeling the ice on his face. His mind dug deeper and he felt his stomach roll. No, not yet... don't let me wake up yet, he thought. And so his mind, his pitiful, cracked up mind decided to humor him. He was not on Earth, he was somewhere in the deep vast reaches of the solar system and things were not so bad. It was Fides wandering around back and forth; perhaps he had fell and hit his head. Or maybe he was suffering a fever fit? Even all alone in the timeless castle the two of them could still managed to get sick.

Things were slowly coming into focus and ah---there she was! Fides was flitting around like a little anxious hummingbird, as always. Groggily, he sat up, the cold compress falling to the ground. He reached out and snuck his arms around Shay's waist, tugging her into him. "Had a bad dream, babe..." He groaned as he moved the pretty girl onto his lap. Absent mindedly his hand slipped up the front of her shirt and rested comfortably on her naked stomach. she was so soft and warm, as always. Leander leaned forward and rubbed his face into her back. "It was the worst you could possibly imagine." The rest of the world was waking up and slowly reality was coming to light too, but still he held onto the fantasy as hard and fast as he could.

"Don't call me babe!" Shay echoed fides, apparently sharing the prior incarnations distaste. Of course fides had only said it once then let him do what he wished as well as said please. She struggled a moment as she was lifted, acting on instinct until she really thought of what he had said. A dream....? Had he decided to convince himself it was a dream? She sighed softly and reached up to remove the clip that had her hair up. She tugged it free so her longer hair would fall around her. The length and the fact that fides hair had been all navy while hers was navy that graduated through lighter blues until reaching almost sky blue would likely wake him up a little faster.

"I don't know... I can imagine a lot of things Leander." She said darkly, her head leaning forward. She didn't want to hurt him, but she couldn't be fides for him. She closed her eyes a moment and briefly a laugh escaped her, a strange dark sound. She didn't know what to say to him, so for a moment the simple truth escaped her lips in a wave as they were surrounded in the sea of her blue hair. Her silver eyes briefly filled with tears.

"You know.... Sometimes I almost wish I could destroy myself, the mere replacement, and bring fides back. But I can't and I won't. I won't die for you Leander, not you or your love or anything else. I will hang onto this life with both hands as hard as I can and if you really did love fides half as much as I believe you did, then you should too. Your getting to live IS what she died for, your life was what she was willing to trade the universe for." She said quietly, her voice sounding like it was breaking only to become stronger after her confession. She tried to push his hands aside then and attempted to stand. She used all of her strength and stepped away to hide her tears. She was momentarily grateful that even her bangs were longer then fides.

Her words hit him like a cold blast of arctic air, chilling him to the spine and freezing him at the core. All he wanted to do was to enjoy the moment, one single moment back with Fides, and that- that BITCH ruined it. Reality came fumbling down at him and he felt himself begin to shiver, both from his disappointment and from the sudden empty spot on his lap. For a few seconds he watched her with uncertain eyes, trying to decipher just what had happened. He looked at her with a mix of confusion and then..... an empty angry stare. Fides die for him? Ha! Not likely. She died because of him, but not for him. For her to stand there and say that was a flat out lie. Like always when she dared speak of things she knew nothing about, he had to grit his teeth hard to keep his rage from boiling back up. That was not what was said that shouldn't have been though....

It had stung, slapped him across the face but that was not what she really should not have said... It was when she talked about fading into nothing, letting herself be destroyed, turning to dust. That was what got the half delirious ex knight upon his feet. She pulled away from him, tugged away and took a few steps from him. Leander was starring at her now with hard, dark eyes. "How could I get... the high and mighty, Miss Shay." He stalked closer to her, eyes narrowing as he tried to back her into a corner. "Don't give me the saintly speech about how you would give up into nothing.. You're just as bad as Fides. No matter how much I snip and snap at you and try to chase you out of my life, you just cling on... You just cling on and in the end it's going to hurt me so much more than anything I could ever do to hurt you."

He was pushing closer, stepping on one of the many portraits of her that laid on the floor. One hand reached up and grabbed her chin, his thumb stroking it tenderly. "And now that you know just what I am... just what I did, you treat me like the fucking plague. Do I scare you, pretty Shay?" He tilted her head back, trailing kisses and bites along her jawline. "It was nice pretending to be the clock maker's son, but now that you know..." He let go of her chin, moving kisses now to her cheek as his hands now sought to hold her by the hip, digging his fingers hard into the bone. "I don't have to hide what I am capable of. If anyone ever dares to touch you, dares to hurt you, dares to threaten you... even you doing so to yourself... I would go absolutely. mad." The threat hung heavy in the air, his eyes locking hard on her face.

She started to shout at him as she rounded on him for talking about what she would or would not do but was finding herself quickly backed into the corner of the room. She would have easily hit him and run, however, even then. She didn't care what he thought, she'd already said she wouldn't anyway. She would fight for life where fides had given it up all for the love of him. Did he understand that? No, if anything he seemed to resent it... Had he ever understood fides? Let alone her? For fides was ultimately a simple girl who saw things in shades of black and white....not the rainbow that her mother had taught Shay to see.

Still the anger at him soon faded to anger at herself as he touched her. Instantly she felt herself draw in a breath and her heart pound in her chest until she was sure he had to be able to feel it in every fiber of her being. She could have taken anything.....anything but this. He could have hit her and it wouldn't have hurt half as much as this did. It had her helplessly almost trembling and for a moment she could only close her eyes as she tried to steady herself. Her hands at her sides nearly clawed against the wall. Each kiss drew a shiver, each bite a whimper, until a moan escaped her lips. It was a strange, tortured sound. Fear, Desire, resistance, all mixed into a single sound.

As he put his hands against her hips, digging until it hurt, she gripped his wrists and tried to push them away. Her confused heart caused her sailor fuku to come undone as she stood trembling in the thin blouse and short skirt she'd been wearing to shop. She wanted him to stop, yet she wanted him to continue...wanted him to love her as he had fides. She was growing to hate that name she thought as a tear traveled down her cheek.

"P... Please stop... please. Don't treat me like her! I don't belong to you! I'm not fides, no matter what you do i won't be her. I can't be her so stop pretending to give a damn about me. I'm tired of your games and your lies!" Shay whispered the first plea, her voice filled with a mix of emotions. Heart break, fear, pain, desire, and even something like love mixed in her voice as she tried to push him away. As she continued to speak her voice grew louder, nearly shouting as she raised her hands from his wrists to his chest as she tried to push him away.

"P... Please stop... please. Don't treat me like her!”

Those words stopped Leander straight in his tracks. His body froze against hers, his lips still lingering just beside her jaw, and his hands that had been going higher stopped on her rib cage. His eyes were open all the way now, starring dispassionately at the blue hair curled between Shay’s shoulder and neck. There was no way he could not have heard that plea. Everything in his body screeched to a halt at that simple accusation. Somewhere in the turmoil of confusion, anger, desperation, and self loathing that clouded his mind like a dark, dense… a light turned on. The voice of the annoying clockmaker’s son was finally starting to make sense to the knight. There was a coldness that crept in his spine as he forced himself to admit that he was doing exactly that to her. A moment of clarity in his mind as he thought back to the weeks that they had had together before the ugliness in him came out and exposed itself to her. It had been peaceful and full of laughter. For a few weeks he had begun to feel like a normal man again in her presence; from the trips to the cake shops, rides on his bicycle, or the walks up and down Juuban streets.

”I'm not fides, no matter what you do i won't be her.”

That had been exactly what he had been doing since the incident on the rooftop and she had just called him out on it. He had not been treating her as he would have treated Shay, but as he would have treated Fides. Every time he had looked at her face he had seen his dead lover starring back at him mockingly… And now as he rose his hand to get a better look at her face he realized the only person in front of him was a frightened Shay. The fever that had been feeding his broken mind over the last few days was beginning to clear up and the dark aura around the clock shop began to lessen, retracting bag inside the countless clock gears and machinations that they had come from. Leander had done something that he had swore from the beginning not to do until there was no other option; he had let the demons out. He had swung open the closet and pointed at each skeleton from her to see. He had snapped. The disgust that he felt inwardly towards himself could only rival the shame in him. This was not how he had wanted---how he had imagined things to go. And this was certainly not the way that Leander had wanted her to find out about them.

So, he stopped. She said stop and so he did. His hands did not move and neither did his body as he pushed against her, but he had stopped.

“--so stop pretending to give a damn about me. I'm tired of your games and your lies!”

”I’m sorry,” he said abruptly. The words fell off of his lips quickly before he knew what he was saying. They sounded hollow, and husky as he looked at her. He wanted to say more...but his pride would not let him go that far low. He would never say it. He would never say allowed that his lover was dead, never would find it in him to admit what he had done in attempt to make himself feel better. But for this he could apologize for. ”I’m sorry that I made you feel that way. I never wanted you to feel anything but happy with me.” He took a few steps back from her finally, his fingers lightly tracing her hips as he let them fall back to his side. The words were genuine though he doubted that she believed that. What reason would she have to believe anything that came out of his mouth at this point? He walked over to the couch and shakily sat back down. He patted his person down until he fished out a pocket of crinkled cigarettes. He peeked inside before shaking out one of the cigarettes into his hand. It was a little cricked but it was smokable.

He put in his mouth, holding it firmly between his lips as he fished out his lighter. He lit the end, closed his eyes and took a deep breath of the poison into his lungs. The smoke escaped from his nostrils as he smoke again to her, eyes flickering back open and up to her face. ”You might as well sit, Shay. You’re not leaving for the moment.”

Shay pressed herself back into the wall a moment longer, wanting to lash out at him but not even sure how. Everything was just so confused, so many memories tied to every sight and sound... some of which weren't even hers, some weren't even of leander. She shivered at the memories of that other individual.... the one who made smelling leander with the reeking of booze and cigarettes around him so much more confusing then it need be. She bit her lip as she pushed the idea aside, gazing up at him as she suddenly felt him stop. She wasn't sure why it surprised her so much that he listened to her but it did.

He looked so hurt and confused, maybe even a little disgusted. She again felt the familiar tug of war between the desires to comfort him and to protect herself. She was well aware that she was likely the least safe around him, for the very reason he said he would protect her. She watched him silently, even as he apologized and slowly withdrew. She wanted to believe him, and part of her did, but the other doubted it. He'd already said he was acting didn't he? At least he'd implied as much. She lowered her head again a moment as he withdrew, wishing inwardly her hair was down to hide behind. She shivered as he went to mess with those damn cigarettes.

"Don't..... If you don't get rid of that thing I will leave. I can't stand the smell of them or alcohol.... You can't keep me here" She said softly, not moving from her position pressed against the wall. Shay closed her eyes, resisting the urge to run but failing to resist the urge to remember. That jagged scar, placed on her ribs ironically where Fides had received one in battle. Fides had only that one scar, all due to a deamon who had created a weapon for killing senshi as otherwise fides blood protected her from scaring. That same blood protected Shay now, once the crystal was released anyway, but it hadn't once.... when a five year old shay had learned to link alcohol with a man's abusive behavior and had tried to save her mother from it. She had thrown the bottles in the sink and they had broken.... One had then been used to leave a scar and even now tied the smell to laying bleeding on the floor certain she would die. She hated that smell...... hated both smells and their self destructive purpose.

She opened her eyes again only as she pushed aside the memory, those glittery silver eyes raising again to Leander. She simply stared at him, that same fighting urge to comfort him and to yell at him returning. It would be so much easier if she could just hate him..... even just for a little while. She frowned a moment but cautiously moved to perch on the arm of a chair, where she could easily move and flee if needed. She knew she could fight him, just as she did yonma all the time, but she didn't want to. She'd rather run then hurt him.. even if she had a feeling someday she'd have to choose between the two.

”I can keep you here. And I’m going to.” He said calmly as he reached into his pocket and pulled out one of the many small clock gears that he kept on his person. He flicked the metal piece into the door way, watching as it stuck there like a miniature shuriken before melting into the doorway. In its place was now a golden keyhole and in his pocket he felt a matching gear form into a key. ”Neither of us are going anywhere until we reach some middle ground.” He took a harder drag of his cigarette as he watched her perch at the end of a chair like a nervous bird, ready to fly away at a moment’s notice. What he had meant to say was she wasn’t leaving until he had fixed things.

The idea of her walking out that door, and his life, for good was nearly unbearable for him. What made it absolutely unacceptable was the fact that she would leave thinking he had used her completely for the woman she so closely idolized. And maybe he had, but it had not always been that. It had not all been dreams of Fides; there had been mornings when he had woke up with Shay’s name on his mind, not Fides’. Those were the days that he woke up feeling extremely free or extremely guilty.

After another long drag he held out the cigarette for her to see before smashing it out in a nearby ash tray beside him. If he was going to get her to relax about her stay he was going to need to compromise a little bit with her. ”Fine, I put it out. See?” Folding his arms in front of him he tilted his head back against the cushion and let out the smoke one last time, savoring the tiny high that would be gone in a few minutes. "Relax, I'm not going to touch you again." Not unless she asked of course, but even if she did he did not think he could bring himself to hold her again. The memory of her rejection still stung him, the thought of her pulling and begging him to stop made his stomach roll naouseaously. He didn't want things to end up in a whirl of yelling and shouting.

"I'm sorry you had to see me like this." He said as he looked at the mess in front of him. Broken glass, wood, and clock pieces. There were a few empty bottles of jack scattered around. He was going to have to clean that up, along with himself.. He reeked of booze and tobacco. While that wasn't an issue with him she obviously had a problem with it. Leander passed a hand over his face knowing that upstairs thinks were just as much as a wreck as they were downstairs. Paint marks, spilt bottles of dirty water, broken brushes and pictures scattered around the floor carelessly. His shop and apartment were in as much chaos as he was.

His first words froze any shout she had ready and she leapt from the chair. She knew she couldn't reach the door in time and for a moment just stood there staring at it. She bit her lip, shivering slightly. He really would just out right kidnap her? Just because she looked like someone? She closed her eyes a moment, debating. She could transform and get out of the shop with her senshi abilities but he wouldn't let her out without a fight. She didn't want to hurt him, damn all things she really didn't want to hurt him. She turned towards him, about to shout when he'd already started speaking again.

A middle ground? She hesitated but slowly turned towards him, taking a seat a little closer by sitting on the couch but making sure there was some distance between them. Fine.... she'd play. Still as he spoke about touching her again she simply shook her head, debating a moment if she really should give him the truthful honest explanation or avoid it some more. If only he would stop apologizing or look a little less sad, maybe she could have held out. Ultimately, however, she and fides shared one thing. They both had kind and gentle hearts, the only difference being Shay hadn't let anyone make her hide it in an iced up cage like Fides had. She sighed softly and drew her legs up so she could hug her knees and hide against them slightly. When she spoke it was soft, uncertain.

"It wasn't..... that you touched me that bothered me... It was how you smell bringing up bad memories and.... knowing there's someone else you'd rather be here, knowing that you might even be thinking about her while you do it. It's knowing even if you are attracted to me it's only because I look like her....That turns something that I...might have enjoyed once into something terrible and ugly. It makes me feel used and manipulated, and that's what I hate. I don't.... I don't mind being touched by you, it's feeling like you just want to touch me because I'm the next best thing to her. It hurts and it's confusing ...." She said, her voice fading in and out slightly as she said something she had never wanted to admit. She didn't want to admit she had feelings for him, or how much it hurt that she felt he didn't have any for her... not the real her. She found soon that now she had started she couldn't stop, however, and more of her feelings poured out. She'd been so confident before, but now she just felt never quite good enough. It wasn't just Leander who likely compared her to fides, the crystal definitely did, and she was sure if she approached the other senshi they would to.

"I know I can't really compare to her.... She was everything a fairytale princess can be and I'm as common as they come. She was more elegant, prettier somehow, stronger, smarter, and good at everything she tried to do. Every memory of hers I look at I can see I don't compare... I know that... I'm not even going to try. I'm just me, that's all I can be... but...I know I'm good enough for me and that's good enough for me.... but..... It doesn't exactly feel good to know you're being compared to someone perfect and that.... you'll never measure up." She found all her feelings of being so small, so inferior to everything in this new found destiny thrown at her just spilling from her tongue. She didn't want to show him that, but ... perhaps part of her just wanted someone to know, someone to understand why she felt so utterly alone and like she couldn't measure up to this princess she was expected to replace. Not in duty, Not in love, not in anything....

"The smell?" Leander rose his eyebrow as he looked at himself. He didn't smell anything. He grabbed ahold of his wife beater shirt and brought it close to his face, taking a big sniff of the fabric. There was no smell for him. However as she continued on he kept listening and of course, it ultimately came back to Fides. When did it not? Fides was like the Sun in his universe. Everything revolved around her, no matter how small and insignificant. It all came back to her name in the end. He watched Shay with a quiet, passive face, doing his best not to give away the feelings rumbling in his chest or thoughts going through his mind. For a moment he thought of telling her.... Of telling her how obsessive those thoughts could be for him. Sometimes it felt like a sickness, gnawing and eating him from the inside out. It was a sweet cancer and there seemed to be no cure to it. As long as the love was there so would Fides be. And in truth... He didn't want it to go.

This was the lot in life that Leander had ultimately come to have drawn. For the rest of his existence he would be trapped by this war torn love in his heart. He would go through and destroy every little bit of happiness lingering inside him if it meant he could ressurect a corpse of a memory. However, as he starred at Shay, curled into herself helpless he couldn't help but make himself understand it. He had given this pretty young girl the reflection of a Goddess to stand by and ultimately to grow to despise. A pang of guilt came from his stomach and he stood up immediatelty. There was only way that he know of fixing these insecurities and he doubted it would work. It was worth a try..

"None of us can compare to her, Shay... She is unreachable." He said quietly as he walked into the kitchen. If he couldn't smoke he was going to drink. The small, tiny kitchen was hardly something to look at. No room for a table but enough for the necessities. In the cabinet towards his feet, just next to the sink, was his liquor. He opened it up and pulled out a small bottle of whiskey. The golden liquid filled the bottle only half full. There was no need for shot glasses though underneath there were plenty stacked by it. That wasn't all that was hidden within by the bottles of booze. Photographs of a young man grinning side by side with an old, grandfather like figure. A young Lee with golden hair instead of white... a Lee before the memories woke up and consumed him like the great dragon that it was. The whiskey was the only thing he was interested in though. The whiskey and a silken black scarf tied around it.

Standing up he unscrewed the cap of the bottle and took a big swig, coughing a bit as the poison slipped down his throat. One drink after another until the buzz was back. Once it was done, still plainly having a view of Shay from where he stood, he turned his attention back to her. "Lets play a game." Walking over to her, he dangled the black scarf in front of her. "You will need to trust me though, Shay.. I promise it won't hurt. Play along and I may give you a prize at the end, alright?" Her rose an eyebrow, leaning his form against the frame. "Or do I smell to bad to play with?"

She turned towards him as he spoke, about to explain the smell but something stopped her. The guilt and pain in his face made her shudder. Did he really not mean to hurt her? Did he not know what he had been doing to her until that moment? She bit her lip, frowning at him. It had been so much easier to dismiss any idea he might think anything about her if not for that look. She quickly looked away, trying to ignore that look even as he spoke. She would only raise her gaze as he went to the kitchen, sighing softly as she saw the liquid. It was time to explain, if only a little bit.

"The smell of cigarettes and alcohol.....it...it reminds me of painful things and makes me sick. Besides....we both know it won't really help you. Please don't drink either, it'll just hurt you and me... If you'll just stay away from them when I'm here I'll play you're game, I'll try my best to trust you.. Just please not those two things while I'm around...I promise I'll play and won't fight whatever you do during it if you'll just do that for me" She pleaded quietly as she looked up at him. She had stood as she spoke and walked to him, her hands on his chest as she gazed up at him. Watching him destroy himself was so much more painful then anything she'd ever seen before. So she begged, her escape forgotten.

She didn't know what his game could be and she knew she would have a difficult time trusting him after all that had happened but she would try. She would do almost anything for him if he would just stop. She still shivered at the smell, her heart torn by it yet she forced herself to ignore it even as she stood so close. The desire to help him was stronger then the desire to protect herself... as it had always been. She knew it was foolish, and part of her expected an angry response. Past experience made her half expect him to strike her for trying to take those two things away from him and she doubted she hid it well. Maybe she was fooling herself, maybe she wasn't more important to him then either of those things but she had to try.

That pleading look. He couldn't stand that pleading look. As her hands pressed against his chest he flinched a little but didn't leave her gaze. As she whispered and whimpered at him he listened. Something painful happened to her, this much was obvious to him, but what he wasn't quite sure. He pictured another man in this sweet one's life... a man with a taste for nicotine and alcohol.. Did he hurt her? The idea of any hand but his own landing anywhere on her body sent his heart ablaze. He could and would kill. There would be no hesitation in his voice. The way her eyes starred up at him, seeming to swirl with all the unshed tears that she had yet to cry, it made his chest wrench. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out a small mint, showed it to her and popped it into his mouth. "Stay." He said firmly as he walked back into the kitchen, roughly shoved the bottle back into it's place. He also grabbed the half-smoked carton of cigarettes on the counter, held it up enough for her to see them before putting it next to the whiskey. Without so much as a blink he grabbed a key hanging on the side of the wall and locked it up.

"Alright, Shay. I'll play your game if you play mine. You need it obviously." He stood back up and made his way back to her. Without hesitating, though he know later he'd be screaming for his smokes, he placed the key into her hand. Leander's hand lingered over hers for a moment before he let go. He glanced at his coffee table and with one easy push of his foot slid it out of the way against a wall. Scarf still in hand he easily pulled it over Shay's eyes, expertly knotting and checking it. "You are not to touch that at all, understood?" Pacing around her for a moment he nodded as he felt satisfied with the work. Fides could have done with so much more than just a simple blindfold. Chains, ties... However, he did his best to push out the thoughts of his dead lover for the moment. The point of this game was to live in the moment. There was not to be a past, a present or a future. It was an escape from time. There was only this second, this moment, this now.

"This is a trust game. You are to do exactly what I tell you when I tell you. If you don't I will be mad," he warned sternly. "If at any time you absolutely want to stop you are to use the word 'Star'. Do not whisper it because I won't be able to hear. Yell it. Don't bother with 'No' or 'Stop'. Those words don't matter here." Leander walked away and over to an iPod resting just nearby plugged into a speaker system. "The point is for you not to think so hard. I'm going to play some music, but trust me... I'll be able to hear every little sound you make. I do not want you to see, I do not want you hearing anything but my voice and this music. Not even your own thoughts. Now put away your key, Pretty Shay."

He couldn't help but grin to himself as he looked her up and down once. This would be a good game for her... Sensory depravation was just the sort of thing that someone who lived too much in their head needed. Someone like Shay. With a flick of a button the music began to play, an energetic tune but with darker lyrics. Lyrics that was so fitting for them both. He cranked up the music loudly as the song began, he walked back over. He wanted nothing but this song and his words in her head. There was no room for anything else. Still not touching her he leaned over and whispered quietly into her ear. "Ready to play?

Shay took the key with a slightly surprised look, not having really expected him to agree. The fact he would made her happier then she should be, she knew that. All the same she would put the key away in her bag, inside a small coin purse that no one else seemed able to open because there was a trick to the zipper. She had just managed to set her bag on the coffee table when it was shoved away from them both, and soon a piece of cloth on her eyes. She shivered, feeling her breath catch in her throat. Just what had she agreed to? Only now did she really realize just how foolish her promise could have been and feel the weight of fides blood that would make sure she kept that promise. A fides was literally incapable of breaking their word, being a senshi that watched over pacts and agreements.

She knew now she'd been playing a more dangerous game then she meant but she only nodded as he spoke about touching the blindfold, even though it meant stopping the instinctive lift of her hand towards it. As he spoke she couldn't help but wonder if her trusting him was really so important to him. As someone who had given her so many lies it seemed such a contradiction, then again she had a feeling he had never planned for her to mean anything. For the first time she was beginning to consider that maybe now she really did mean something. She bit her lip at the thought, briefly lost in it and her uncertainty. Only as he whispered in her ear did it startle her from her thoughts and she couldn't help the tiniest gasp from escaping her.

"Yes" Was all she said, trying to sound more confident then she was even though her hands shook slightly. Why had a whisper affected her so much? Was it simply the fact that mint had replaced that horrible smell and she was no longer distracted from him? Or that her senses were ...lost. All the noises in the street and the subtle sound his motion should have made disappeared in the song, making the whisper a complete and utter surprise. She linked her hands in front of her, forcing the shaking to stop as she strained her ears vainly and tried not to think about the worst or listen to the crystal in her pocket which whispered things about being stolen again. If he wanted it, wouldn't he just try to take it now and be done with it? It wasn't as if it was useful to anyone else now anyway, not until shay managed to restore it to it's former glory. Until then it was just a suspicious, cracked stone.