Destiny Knot

8. Learning

[[Sorry For The Late Posting Of This Chapter!]]

~==~ 10:30pm ~==~

Kyrie laid down on her bed, letting out a huge sigh. "Today has been WAY too long for me." She yawned, stretching to release some extra tension. "I swear, if KR makes tomorrow difficult, we can just go stay at your place. Just give me a heads up and I can arrange that we not stay here."

Anthony made his way over to her bed, sitting down on the edge of the mattress. "I think I'll be okay. She doesn't seem to like me enough to get too close, so I'll probably just have to deal with glaring from across the room or something."

Kyrie let out a small laugh. "Yeah, I'm sure she'll just be really passive aggressive. That's how she's always been when I go against what she wants for me, but I'm an adult and feel like I can make some choices on my own." She rolled onto her side, setting her gaze on Anthony's face. "So, how do you wanna do this?"

Anthony perked up, getting a little flustered. "D-do what?"

She laughed. "No, Anthony, I was serious when I said we're not gonna do that tonight. I'm asking how we want to sleep. There's a few choices you'll have: we can share my bed, I can set something up on the floor next to my bed, or we'll have to go in the living room and use the recliner and sofa."

"O-oh...yeah, I knew you meant that." He gathered himself. "Whatever you're most comfortable with...but I'd like to avoid sleeping in the living room."

"Okay." She smiled, grabbing his shoulder and pulling him down to lay next to her. "Then we can just sleep like this." She planted a quick kiss on his cheek.

Anthony, once again, tried to keep his excitement contained. "O-okay."

Kyrie snuggled up next to him. "I'll be honest, given as long as I've known you, I never thought we would end up close enough to be like this now. I know the situation progressed a hell of a lot quicker then most relationships do, but I'm sure we'll be okay in the long run either way."

Anthony nodded in agreement. "Can I ask you something?"

"You can ask me anything you want Anthony, I've got nothing to hide."

"What contract is everyone talking about?" He looked to her face.

"Yeah, I wanted to tell you about that." She sighed. "There are often times when prestigious families in the Ai clan will come together and arrange marriages for their kids. That arranged marriage is the contract that keeps getting mentioned." She sat up, meeting his gaze. "Given my father's position in the clan, my sisters and I were basically a blessing, it opened up a lot of opportunities for merging with other high status families. I was a highly desired suitor since I came along in my studies so quickly, so a family that my father was close to showed interest. They have a son who is around 2 years older then me, but that gap wasn't anything significant, so they made a contract."

Anthony got confused. "Wait, so they just decided in an instant that you'd marry this guy? Did you even know him prior to this?"

Kyrie nodded. "I knew him, but not well enough to think of possible marriage. At 10, though, that kind of thing didn't matter, in our parent's minds we had our whole lives to get to know one another." She leaned against the wall. "I grew to tolerate him being around, then his parents started traveling as healers and he moved in with us when I turned 13, so I was forced to get along with him. Of course, being as hard headed as I am, I didn't want to get along with him since it felt forced, so I made everyone's life hell when I didn't get to do what I wanted."