THEN I FOUND YOU [mcd]

chapter twenty

There's a brief moment of panic and anger when my letter is taken from my grasp. I look up with my arm raised, ready to retrieve it back, but my adrenaline begins to die down once I realize that the person who stole it was Garroth.

His eyes sparkle as they glance over Cadenza's words before he lets out a hearty laugh. Garroth looks back down to me and slowly hands over the letter. It's snatched out of his hands, so I can finish reading its contents.

"You act as though we're married, stealing my letters like that," I tease, eyeing him playfully over my letter. His cheeks become noticeably pink as he refuses to look my way. I can't help but to produce a laugh of my own at his reaction. "Do you plan on telling your mother?"

Garroth sits down on a tree stump and reaches for a snow covered stick. He begins to draw designs into the freshly fallen snow. They have little meaning behind them and in fact are doodles. It appears Garroth doesn't wish to answer me with this.

"That's a bit complicated. It feels weird speaking about those types of subjects with my mom. At least, right now, it is. After all that happened with O'Khasis and Zane. . . I hadn't seen her in so long before that."

It's been a few weeks since our picnic. I had come to the conclusion long ago that that picnic was a set-up planned by the two men. Kawaii~Chan, being the person she is, gladly joined in. My suspicions were confirmed when I had gone to Dante's and he accidentally slipped the truth to me.

Dante is a good person to go to regarding secrets, but sometimes he becomes overly excited and slips them out. That's a downside as to having him be a confidant. Though, as a guard, he was mysteriously amazing at holding in all the private information. Maybe there was a way for him to hold in those secrets and release them without others hearing. I'm sure once he was married to Kawaii~Chan, she became his own confidant.

I wrap my arms around Garroth's shoulders from behind. I tilt my head to look at him with a soft smile. "I'm sure she'd like to feel involved by you telling her Garroth," I say. "It may make her feel happy considering what just happened. You don't have to force yourself to do it if you don't want to, though."

I let him go and take a step back. Garroth stands up with a slouch and kicks at the snow with his foot. Soon, Garroth is in and agrees to tell her.

Garroth and I make it back to the warmth of the indoors, and I go to fetch him a pencil and piece of paper. He sits himself down at the makeshift desk and stares blankly at the paper in front of him.

I tilt my head at this when I come back from the kitchen with a cup of tea for him. I giggle and place the cup nearby him on the desk's surface and look at the blank letter.

He soon admits that he isn't sure what to say. He isn't even sure how to address the letter. To humor him, I insist on addressing her as his mother, but he finds little humor in it. Instead, he looks at me semi annoyed before looking down at the paper once more.

I pull up a chair and place it next to him, looking over at him in the flickering candlelight. Just like the fire does, the candle highlights his facial features in ways that only do him justice. My attention is fixated on him while his is against the letter.

There's silence around us, and not even the sound of a pencil gliding its way against the page disrupts it. There's no noise except our breathing.

"Why don't you just start it off with mother comma? I did that with Cadenza. I said Cadenza, comma, and then I started my letter under her name. I think you'll find it easy to continue as long as you're able to find a way to start." Garroth is nodding his head to my words, but it is hard to tell if he is fully listening to me or not. "Why don't you update her with the current events happening? That gives you something to start with, and it leads into how we got together."

This seems to please him as the pencil finally begins to move. I slowly remove myself from the area by pulling my chair away and giving him some privacy. I can't help but to smile as I retreat from him. I intend to stay near in case he needs me, but I don't dare invade in his moment.

I don't know Zianna well, and she doesn't know much about me, but in my mind I think this is something a mother wants to know. I don't have the opportunity to do it, but I had it with my sister. Maybe that's something he wouldn't be able to relate to. It's a sad thought to think of how many close to us who truly aren't involved in our lives' anymore.