Onyx

Chapter 15: Troubles

Keanu walked Onyx back to her room. "I'll bring you to the dining pavilion tonight for dinner. If you need anything just reach out to Cato."

"Why can't I reach out to you?"

Keanu had to resist the urge to smile. He expected her to ask that. "Because I'm busy."

"Don't lie. Cato told me dragons are off of work after lunch to spend time with their families."

He silently reminded himself to scold Cato for that later. "You're not my family."

She rolled her eyes. "Your father son dynamic doesn't seem all that great. Doubt you wanna spend time with him."

Keanu was surprised with her bluntness. She's gotten bold. Too bold. He soured. "My relationship with my father is not your business."

He turned to leave the room before she grabbed his arm. He stiffened at her touch. "Why don't you talk to me anymore? What happened to the shadow man who used to just come in and chat with me? Why are you so distant now?"

He looked back and saw her face. She looked genuinely hurt. He didn't really know what to say or do. Feelings weren't his thing. "Onyx...it was different then when you didn't know who I was. It was.. less complicated."

She looked at him with pleading eyes. "Whats so complicated about it now? I don't understand. Please help me understand."

Keanu turned around and stared at her face with a blank expression. Was this really the girl who was supposed to unite the 3 races?

"You're looking for a friend, and I'm not one. I'm your instructor."

She looked away shamefully. He softened his tone.

"Listen Onyx I need you to understand. You are the one who's supposed to unite the 3 races, end this war. There's more important things to worry about, than how much attention I'm giving you."

She was still looking away. Her eyes were watery and for some reason Keanu felt bad. He didn't know why but felt the need to comfort her. He was disgusted.

"Maybe after all this...we can be friends." He moved closer to her and touched her shoulder. Gross. She looked up at him and hugged his waist.

He stood there arms up, unsure of what to do with them. He contemplated pushing her off, but decided not to because he didn't want to hear her ridiculous sobs.

He awkwardly patted her shoulders then gently pried away. She looked down a bit embarrassed. "Sorry, I don't know why I did that. I just felt like I needed to."

Keanu rubbed his arm unsure of what to say next. "It's fine. Don't do it again though. This is a one time thing. I'm your instructor, not your friend."

She seemed to go back to normal and scowled at him while muttering obscenities. She quickly pushed him out the room and slammed the door shut. Women.

***

Keanu usually spent his free time reading books or lingering in the gardens, but unfortunately his afternoon was filled with meetings discussing what to do with Onyx.

She was quite the enigma. No one knew what she was capable of, or if she was even trustworthy to begin with. On top of that, they had to devise a method of fully completing her training within the span of approximately 3 months. Dragons usually trained for years before even being considered to be put on the battlefield.

Today was probably the only day Onyx would have a free afternoon, therefore meaning it was Keanu's last day as well. He was annoyed. Extremely annoyed. His last free afternoon and he spent it going to back to back meetings discussing Onyx. On top of that he needed to go to his room and start devising her training plan, so he wouldn't even have a free night.