Never Ever

21

Axel followed after her: Are you okay?

Ever: Yes, why wouldn't I be?

Axel: I can see you're upset, so am I..

Ever: I'm such a burden, instead of protecting them, I'm to be protected by them.. If only my magic was good enough..

Axel: I can't use magic either, am I a burden too?

She shook her head: But you are not expected to have magic. You are not Fae, I am

Axel: Back to that again.. Magic or not, we have helped, weren't we the ones who ended the attack before the last? And magic being not expected of me isn't an excuse. I could have learned..

Ever: Yes we did help then, but now..

Axel: Members of a team complement eachother. Every single one of them has attributes the others lack or need. I know you have been alone for so long, bur you need to start relying on others more, no one is meant to be able to do everything by themselves

Ever: I..

Axel reached for her hand and squeezed it: Stop beating yourself over things you can't change, and stop being impatient, you are going to learn to control magic, when the time is right

His tone and smile became teasing, Ever smiled at him: Thank you..

Her face became sober: Axel, you know I would never think of you as a burden or a liability.. You are one of the strongest people I've met, and you helped us a great deal. I only meant myself by what I said earlier..

His eyes widened slightly, but he gave her a warm smile. He felt like hugging her, but contented himself with brushing a lock of hair behind her ear

Axel: Now now, no demeaning thoughts from you..

She bit her lip and nodded at him

Axel went back to the others, leaving her alone with her thoughts. His mission was successful and her thoughts took on a completely other direction

He approached a silent Noire

Axel: You alright, my friend?

The older man sighed, he looked haggard: Ever is right.. I feel the same.. Even though I can use magic, I lost myself to that spell and almost killed you, then I failed to save you

Axel clapped his shoulder: I disagree.. Any of us would have been controlled, it seemed.. You were chosen because of your strength, and we could all see you struggle. At least you tried to resist. And who would have brought the pixies to the rescue? If it wasn't for you, we would have died, besides, they did say you helped, so stop blaming yourself

Noire: I wasn't strong enough to resist the control..

Axel: You heard them, it's the work of many, a very powerful magic.. You couldn't have beaten it by yourself.. Stop killing yourself over it, we just need to be more careful and prepared. I thought Ever was bad, but I see you are just the same

This made a sad smile stretch over Noire's face: How is our young lady?

Axel: I'd like to think she's better. She smiled, at the very least. She was being hard on herself, just like you are

Noire smirked: That smile might have had nothing to do with feeling less guilty and everything to do with you

Axel was taken aback

Noire laughed: Do you think I'm blind? I know you love her, she probably feels the same way about you. The only ones who are unaware of your feelings are the two of you

Axel smiled weakly but didn't reply

Noire: You need to tell her soon, otherwise someone else might try to take her away from you

He patted the younger man on the shoulder and left him to his thoughts

Lona was listening in on their conversation, she relayed what she'd heard to an eager Norland

She knew it was bad manners to eavesdrop, but she could ommit a few words when she relayed what she'd heard, while Norland would exploit every single word to irk their guests, his mischievious streak was much stronger than any of the other pixies

True enough, he was very interested in that last piece of information

His golsen eyes twinkled: I see, let's have a bit of fun with that, shall we?