First Love, First War, First Step |√|

Accidental Discovery

Luke and I were laying in my bed a little after midnight, three months after our secret marriage. His fingers were twined in my hair, tracing shapes into my scalp, while I had my head pillowed on his chest.

"I started a project a while back," he said, hitting a slightly ticklish spot. "I think you're going to like it when you see it, and perhaps it will be easier to sneak around."

I gently swatted at his hand. "I'll always like your surprises," I whispered with a smile meant just for the two of us.

That earned me a deep lingering kiss, and I sighed against his lips, feeling his hands encircle my hips.

"You make me crazy," Luke whispered, heart beating almost as rapidly as the pace at which his chest rose and fell. "I didn't think that there would ever be a woman who would make me feel like this, but it had to be you."

I smiled at him again, the look of a lover who was deeply pleased with her companion. "I can't wait to see your surprise."

He sat up in bed and reached for the bag that he had abandoned on the floor hours earlier. "I managed to make good use of those blueprints that you snuck out of the Archives. The hardest part was trying to gather all the necessary supplies."

"A teddy bear?" I asked, staring in confusion at the stuffed toy sitting in my arms. "I don't remember seeing blueprints involving teddy-bear making."

The fur on the bear was matted from many years of love, faded nearly to a gray, and one of its eyes was hanging by a thread. However, when I raised it to my nose, I clearly smelled Luke on the fabric.

"Not the teddy bear, Lane," he said with a slight laugh. "It's what is inside that I'm talking about."

Sure enough, I could feel something hard beneath my fingers that was most definitely not stuffing. "What did you hide in here?"

Luke leaned over and gently stilled my exploring fingers. "You'll know when you have need of it. Now, how about we make good use of what darkness we have left?"

I set the teddy bear aside, raising my face up towards his like the sunflowers that sought the light of the sun.

The kiss was as earth-shattering as every other one we had shared. Our hands roamed while our lips moved against each other, trying to communicate what we could not express in words.

"What do you two think you're doing?" Luther's voice came from the doorway. "I really hope this isn't what I think it is."

We broke apart, turning wide eyes towards him, as I yanked the sheets tighter around me.

"Save it, Ilania. Trust me; you don't have anything there that I haven't seen before," he said coldly, shutting my door and dropping into my desk chair. "Now, which one of you is going to explain what's going on here?"

Luke rose from the mattress, pulling on his discarded trousers as he did. "It's legal, Uncle. We did make sure of that before this all happened."

Luther snorted. "I know well the Laws, Luke. Don't try to con me into believing that this isn't illegal."

He held up a hand as my husband started to speak again. "I thought I told you that you were not to dally with her affections. I'm sure you told me that you had no intentions of marrying her."

"That's before I remembered a way to circumvent the rules and before I fell in love with Ilania," he answered. "We have the license and everything to prove that we are married."

"And I'm just supposed to believe that you walked in, and they shrugged as they handed you the license," my mentor prodded. "Everyone knows that two people of your ages are not permitted to wed. What are you planning to do when you reach your thirtieth birthday?"

Luke wrapped an arm about my shoulders. "That won't be a problem, Uncle. If things have not changed to the point where our union will be considered acceptable, we'll find a different way to circumvent the Law."

"How do you propose to make sure that you produce no children during the span of time between now and then?"

"There are ways," I snapped, sick of being talked around like I wasn't even there. "I don't care how well you know me. I refuse to continue to talk to you about Luke's and my relationship."

"Embarrassed? Understanding how far in over your head you are? Regretting your decision?" Luther sneered. "Maybe you should have thought more before you plunged into the deep end."

I pursed my lips, not pleased with the new side of Luther that was coming out in this conversation. "I'll have you know that I thought long and hard about this! Do you think that I planned on falling in love with Luke! There's nothing wrong with what we are doing except what some old people two centuries ago said!"

"Lane, can I talk to my uncle in private for a moment?" My husband said lightly, eyes begging me to do as he asked.

Blood boiling in my veins, I yanked a blanket off the bed and draped it around me clumsily before storming out the door.

"I thought I told you that this was not to happen. She's too innocent and unaware of the consequences of the world to realize what the two of you have done."

"We made a joint decision, Uncle! Despite what you think, love isn't always convenient. Besides, if I have my way, we won't even have to worry about my thirtieth birthday. The world will be different by then."

I heard the slap of papers, and I peeked through the door to find Luther shaking a sheaf of papers in Luke's face.

"I know exactly what you're up to. Matthew won't be able to save the two of you. He is just as likely to sacrifice you for the cause as to save you. I know what his parents were like; if it was between losing their skins and someone else losing theirs, they would always leave the other behind."

Luke snatched the documents from his hand. "You've made your point. Now, will you leave the way you came before someone grows suspicious?"

Luther sighed. "Luke, if you died, I couldn't live with the fact. Be careful of Matthew. He may yet prove me wrong, but from what I've seen, he's just like what I described."

My mentor stalked past me without a second glance. Luke was staring gloomily at the papers he still held.

"Is he right, Luke?" I asked, realizing just how much the words exchanged had chilled me. "Would Matthew betray us to save himself?"

He set the bundle on my desk before striding over to me and wrapping his arms around my shivering body. "I won't let anything happen to us, Lane. You know that."

"You can't control when we'll die though or even the way that it will occur."

He kissed the top of my head. "I won't let you die for what we have here. If something happens, I will adamantly deny that we were anything but friends. You must do the same."

I held him close, feeling tears tumbling down my cheeks. Maybe Luther had been right. Maybe I was too unaware of the consequences that my actions would bring.

With one sweep of a brush, he had managed to paint the consequences in stark contrast of the paradise that Luke and I had created. With one swing of an ax, he had started to chop away at my naïve thoughts.

That night, my beautiful colors on my painting began to peel away, leaving behind only the bare canvas. That night, if I had known the consequences later on, would I have heeded Luther's warnings?

Could I have prevented what happened next?