Can I Keep You?

Chapter 14

"What are you doing here? I told you to get far away from here." He whisper-chastised while grinning brilliantly at her. She couldn't see his entire face, just his lips and they moved in the moonlight. It was obvious, despite the words, that he was happy to see her. And she was beyond elated to see him too. Her vision rippled in the tears that welled up and threatened to spill over.

She was looking in past thick bars... was this a prison? She saw his hand extend through the gaps to conform to the shape of her cheek. It was cool out, but his hands were so warm. They always had been...

Wait... his hands were always warm? Whose hands were these?

She grinned and half laughed, half sobbed in his hand. "I couldn't leave without giving you my answer..." her voice carried in the night, reverberating in her head. Her answer... her answer for what? Why did this scene fill her with so much hope and warmth?

"Yes," Her soft yet eager voice seemed to surprise the man hidden in the shadows and more tears streamed down her face as she smiled sweetly at him, "I couldn't imagine anything that would make me happier!" She grabbed the bars and pulled herself as close as she could possibly get and through them she was able to brush the man's face with her lips.

"I'll see you soon, I promise..."

Elizabeth felt the blinding light before she even had the chance to open her eyes. It seared her sight behind heavy eyelids and made her groan out her pain in a voice that sounded nothing like her own. Goddesses, why did her head feel like it had been struck one too many times with every blunt object in the tavern?

"Eli~zabeth~"

Her name was sung out softly, yet loud enough for her temples to protest. She groaned again, pulling her arm over throbbing eyes. Was she dying? She had to be. The last time she woke up feeling as terrible as this she had just lost her memories and woke up surrounded by the sins.

"Hey, lazy bones~! Time to roll outa bed!"

Elizabeth lifted her hand slightly as her eyes fluttered open to see a fox's grin and a pig staring back at her. "W-wha-?" she croaked, barely able to focus on the pink blob that was suddenly invading her personal space. She peered over to see Ban lifting the window curtain to let in the light from the morning.

"Elizabeth, you were crying in your sleep! Were you having a nightmare?" Hawk placed his snout on the bed right next to her face and his voice felt like it was far louder than it actually was.

Crying?

Elizabeth lifted the arm that had been draped over her eyes and focused on the wet skin there. She had been crying... but... why?

"You kept sayin something about a promise." Ban dead-panned, giving her a cocked brow.

Elizabeth strained to sit up, regretting the decision immediately as her stomach tossed and her world started to spin the moment she did. Covering her mouth, she swallowed the building bile in her throat and looked up queasily at a suddenly very entertained looking fox sin. She couldn't even see him straight, how the heck was she supposed to remember a dream?

"I'm guessin the cap'n didn't get many fluids in ya before you passed out, huh?" he gave her a wide toothy grin as her brow knit together.

Fluids? What the heck was he talking about? She couldn't even remember how she got in bed the night before. Looking down, Elizabeth noted that she was in her usual nightgown. Had she changed herself? "I don't..." she finished her sentence with another pained groan as another wave of nausea and migraines hit her and she cradled her forehead in her palm. The action seemed to help make everything stop spinning at least.