Brighter Than the Stars

Nicole - Apologies and Counts

James was never hard to find–he popped up everywhere, and always seemed to be just around the corner. He had his Guard schedule, too, which narrowed down the places to find him depending on the day, and was always tacked to the wall outside the barracks. James, of course, hadn't actually made the schedule; he couldn't plan anything for the life of him. But he'd helped make it, and then one of his soldiers had written it up, which, in his opinion, was as good as being productive and making it. He was exceedingly proud of himself for it.

I headed to the training grounds now, where he had scheduled an hour of sparring. Leo had gone, mostly because James had pestered him about it for a good half hour at breakfast. Leo had never really enjoyed fighting (while he was physically stronger than me, I could beat him in a fight–once I finally got him to actually spar, and stop trying to avoid hurting me), and he'd done it less and less since he'd lost his eye. He'd started to draw and paint again, and often cooked or baked now, but he avoided any sort of sparring, saying his balance wasn't right. James insisted he just needed practice, which was probably true, but if Leo didn't want to because he didn't like it, then I didn't care what he did. He was a good enough swordsman now, anyway.

The arena was loud and crowded, as any soldier within the castle was training now. Swords clashed and people shouted and jeered–which was why I didn't like it down here. It was too loud. I recognized Star's dark curls as they bounced in her ponytail as she blocked a slash, fighting someone nearly twice her size. James's rotations were random–he insisted that fighting someone of a higher skill or strength would help you get better, which I supposed was true enough. Sometimes. Star always held her own, anyway.

She beamed at me across the arena, still fighting, and shouted, "Hi, Nicole!"

"Hey." I smiled back at her, then kept moving across the arena. I could see James through the chaos now, sparring with some boy I'd never seen before. I only really recognized about half of the people in here, but it wasn't like I spent much time here–this was James's space.

The sword clattered out of his opponent's hand and landed at my feet just as I approached. I picked it up and handed it back to him, and James turned to me. He wiped sweat from his brow, still grinning from his victory. "Oh, hey, Nicole. What's up?"

"Can I get some water now?" the boy he'd been sparring with asked. "Otherwise, I might literally pass out right here."

"Denying them all water, huh?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Nah, Ethan's just a loser," he said, then shouted, "Five minute break before the next set, guys!" I cringed; he'd shouted right in my ear. People broke off and headed towards huge jugs of water on the other side, and James turned back to me. "So, what do you need?"

"I just wanted to say sorry," I said. "For yelling at you."

He cocked his head to the side, like a curious puppy. "When was this?"

"A couple days ago. When Leo, Isa, and you left to deal with that revolt. I told you to shut up." I'd probably replayed the moment in my head a million and one times–and still felt guilty. I felt guilty for telling Leo I hated him, too, even though I'd already apologised about that; it still made me feel nauseous every time I thought about it.

"Ohh–when I made that joke." He screwed up his face. "Yeah. S'okay; it was a bad joke, anyway." He shrugged. "Honestly, I kind of forgot–Annabelle and I have had worse fights."

"Even still..."

"Nicole. Chill. It's fine. It doesn't matter."

"But I shouldn't have–"

"So? I do and say a lot of things I shouldn't. Who cares? I mean, people care, but everyone does it–me especially–and we all say sorry and move on." He sheathed his sword. "Anything else?"