The Hunter Becomes Hunted ((Tebby!))

[Anonymous]

Zephyr said little else until she mentioned that they probably should go to sleep. He looked into her eyes. She looked....very tired. He said, "Cosette..you look like you're very tired...and something tells me that you're not going back to sleep.." He sighed. He wondered how to go about this. After all, being gentle was not his forte. Knocking her out wouldn't do. Well...he knew of some magic that would allow her to sleep. That would put her into a dreamless, heavy sleep for a while. He had to use it on himself occasionally. He put a hand on her forehead. He stared into her eyes, and said something too quiet to hear except for "Good night...." After she fell asleep from the magic, he sighed and fell asleep himself. Zephyr was about to have a nightmare of his own....

In late morning, Zephyr sat up in bed lightning fast, visible eye open wide. He sighed shakily, putting down the knife he had snatched from the table next to the bed. That dream...was horrible. He had lost everything in that dream...and he couldn't do anything. When he had tried to move, it didn't work. It was like something invisible was holding him down. At the end of the dream, who he thought was Cosette ended up being Shadow, then his old enemy. The one that took out his eye. The man grinned, only his eerie grin and his eyes were visible, shining with hatred and murderous intent. He had raised a knife, and said in a voice that both made him infuriated and made his blood run cold. The man said, 'Now, it's time to take your other eye..'  he shivered. Then, he got out of bed and made himself some coffee. He kept repeating in his mind, 'Just a dream, just a dream..'

[Anonymous]

Cosette looked into Zephyr's eye, trying to figure out what he was thinking. Damn. Sometimes she wished he would just tell her what he was thinking, or at least make it easy for her to figure out what he was feeling. She sighed, blinking slowly as they sat there. She felt very tired, but knew sleeping would not happen, at least not by her own will. She wondered if maybe he had some plants that would help her fall asleep, an anesthetic perhaps. She opened her eyes, realizing they had been closed for a little while as she sat there. She looked up at him and he was studying her. He placed his hand on her forehead. The last thing she remembered was the tired, almost sad look on his face. After that was a blank memory.

She awoke several hours later, not even remembering falling asleep. She opened her eyes and looked around the room in a confused daze. When she realized where she was, her heart sped up. Where was Zephyr? Had he left her again? She looked around the room quickly, slightly panicked. But when her eyes passed over the kitchen, she relaxed. There he was. She yawned and stretched before climbing out of bed and striding over to where he was standing. She placed her hands around his waist, still standing behind him. "Morning Zephyr." There was a slight smile on her face. As she stood there, she had completely forgotten yesterday's events. She didn't want to remember them, so she kept her mind on anything besides it. But even though she had 'forgotten', she couldn't help but feel she was missing something. Something was wrong with Zephyr. Don't question it Cosette. He'll tell you if he wants.

[Anonymous]

Zephyr was tense as he was doing the simple task of making coffee for himself, the only reason for such being that he could not relax over the nightmare. It kept replaying in his mind, and he couldn't get it to stop. He was deeply concentrated on trying to get it out of his mind. When he heard Cosette's voice, he inhaled a sharp breath and turned around in the blink of an eye. In that moment, his visible eye was wild with a mix between fear and fury. His hand had flown to get a kitchen knife, but he saw it was Cosette, not the evil person from his dream. He closed his eye quickly, taking in a deep breath and turning back around. His hand moved from its spot over the knife and he resumed making coffee. He usually wasn't one to become uneasy so easily, but after that attack only the day before, it had made him cautious. He didn't say anything, for he thought his voice might sound like he's angry at her or something.

[Anonymous]

She realized her mistake a moment too late. She realized she had startled him. He spun around, and she instinctively stepped back slightly from him. She tried to keep her face calm as he relaxed himself. She was slightly relieved at the fact that he didn't seem mad at her. She ignored the fact that he had grabbed a knife when he heard her, knowing it would only make her fear him. No need to have that.

When he turned back around, she walked up next to him, glancing at her out of the corner of her eye. He seemed...worried, and she couldn't help but feel a little nervous. What happened after she fell asleep? She touched his arm gently, cautiously. "Zephyr...you ok?" Her eyes were full of worry as she watched him quickly make his drink. Should she leave him be for a little bit, or let him talk about what was on his mind? Ack...this 'in love' thing was harder than she thought.

[Anonymous]

Zephyr felt a light touch on his arm. He looked at her, his eye finding worry in her eyes. He didn't want her to be worried about him. At the same time, he thought it wasn't something he should be telling people. He just....didn't know. He wondered if she would understand him if he told her. He heard her question, and he wondered how to answer for a moment. "In one way, yes. In another way, no." He finished making his coffee and turned to face her. He was taught to always be 'okay'. If someone chopped your hand off, you'd 'be okay'. As long as you could still fight, somehow....you'd 'be okay'..

[Anonymous]

She studied him for a moment, wondering what he meant by what he said. She...she didn't understand what he meant. She was worried that things wouldn't be the same. She was worried that he would find her a nuisance to him. She was worried she would be alone again, forced to keep her mind occupied with alcohol and sex once more. But most of all, she was worried he didn't love her anymore. Her mind cringed at the fact that THAT was what she was most worried about. She hated the fact that she loved him so much.

But she couldn't help it.

She looked into his eye, trying to figure out what he was thinking, trying to grasp what he was feeling. She tried, but she couldn't. She would never understand what he thought, what he felt, what he believed. They were two completely different people with two completely different pasts. He was raised as an assassin, trained to kill and taught to rid his body of natural human emotions; quiet by nature and subdued by conditioning. She was raised as a outgoing girl; one who just happened to find 'love' in all the wrong places, fueled by all the emotions she could muster together. The universe normally kept two people like this apart. In fact, it forced these two kinds of people to repel each other much like magnets of the same pole do. But by some bizarre event, these two found each other, found a way they were linked, and now...now what? Now what would happen? The universe wouldn't give up trying to keep them apart, and she didn't know how long she could hold onto him before...

...before they were torn apart completely and permanently.

She tensed. Would that happen? She looked into his eye. She didn't know. She bit her lip, forcing tears down. She would do everything in her power to keep him at her side. She smiled weakly at him. "Well I hope whatever is wrong...I had something to do with it," she said jokingly. She didn't like the thought of him not being ok. She wanted him to be ok. She wanted him to be happy when good things happen, sad or angry when bad things happen. She wanted him to be...normal. But that was not possible. He wasn't a normal person. He was an assassin, and there was no way to change that. There was no way to go back in time and change who he was. The only thing that was possible was to show him that she would be able to love him no matter what.

No one said she wouldn't have to sacrifice something.

She turned from him and walked into the other room, glancing back only slightly. "So when does training start again?" She tried to act as if nothing was wrong, perhaps almost overdoing it. She walked animatedly over to the bed and took a seat on it, laying back on her back, legs hanging over the edge. She smiled at him before looking up at the ceiling...just staring until he was ready.

[Anonymous]

Zephyr blinked slowly, his one eye's gaze having the power of two. He wished that he could understand her better. Their ways of thinking and acting were polar oppisites. He wondered what it was like to be able to not have to look over your shoulder all the time for a dark figure with a knife; to not always be cautious, watchful, expecting a knife at your throat like it was an everyday occurrence. It seemed like a beautiful thing to him. How someone could survive like that, however, was beyond him.

He watched her without a word as she lay on the bed. She was a delicate beauty, in one sense, but a little cobra blinding her prey in another. Ah, but her venom wasn't potent enough to melt his stone heart all the way through; although, she had captured his interest in a way. He sat on the edge of the bed and said nothing to her words, simply studying her. Then, he said rather suddenly, "What is it like, being able to live a life like yours? Being able to not worry about death?" He stared into her eyes.

[Anonymous]

She felt him sit on the bed, turning her head slightly to look at him. The smile was still there, trying to get him to smile as well. But then he spoke, forcing her smile to vanish. She...didn't know what he meant. "I guess...it's like..." She paused. "It's normal I guess." She looked back up at the ceiling. "What about the life of an assassin?" She was truly curious how a person could be constantly targeted and followed while still keeping their sanity. She figured once you let go of emotions...you are pretty much dehumanized...but Zephyr...he had to have still been partly human to be able to feel the way he did towards her.  "Ok scratch that..." She studied the imaginary patterns on the ceiling. "What's it like for you being an assassin while....having me here?"

[Anonymous]

Zephyr looked a little surprised at the question. He looked thoughtful. "Well...it's better than being alone, but certainly a change." He nodded to himself. "Definately a change for the better.." He sighed, scratching his head. It was hard coming up with the words for his emotions. "It's harder in a way, though, having to get used to all these new emotions..."

[Anonymous]

She could almost laugh. "I know what you mean," she said, almost involuntarily. Oh by the Gods did she know what he meant. She had never felt anything like she had been feeling with him around. The butterflies that appear in her stomach when he smiles at her, the tingly feeling she gets whenever his skin makes contact with hers, the warmth in her cheeks when he compliments her....ok that is getting a little too sappy. She sighed, glancing at him momentarily before looking to the wall. She glanced at the knife marks, remembering when he made those marks...an event that seemed like it was eternities behind them, when in reality, it had only been a day or two ago. But it had been a mistake to remember past events. Because once she remembered one, she remembered all of them; the  man in the alley, Zephyr's sister, the attempted murderer. She shivered slightly before sitting up. "So...training?" She smiled weakly, pushing all her previous thoughts out of her head.

[Anonymous]

((;_; I am so sorry I took forever to post here! I apologise for the lack of him actually doing things. I just felt I needed to explain something))

Zephyr stood, thoughtful for a moment, then said, "Later. First, there is something else." He walked into the other room, and the sound of things being shifted about could be heard. Then, he came out with a pen and paper, placing them both carefully on a desk nearby. "Cosette, I want you to write down the 10 worst things that you could possibly see." He was curious as to what she would write; he wondered if it would be cliche or different than most. This was something that he had done a long time ago, at a young age. He looked back at all the ten things he had written, and realized he had seen all those ten things that he thought were the worst he could possibly see. He also saw things that were even worse than all those 10 things he wrote down; things that would stay with him until his day of death, which could either be very close or many, many years away. He hoped she wouldn't see the things on her list, whatever they may be.

Zephyr looked at her, his visible eye having the wisdoms and regrets of someone ages old but the rest of him looked so young. He looked strong and intelligent, like the gaze of a hawk, but a tiredness fell upon his features, almost like an aging man sitting on his porch and thinking about all the people he had wronged and how he wished that he could fix it all with one simple thing. His expression was translucent; the fact that he had the feelings he did was easy to guess but the reason behind this was blurry, unseen. As his eye fell upon hers, he realized how....naive she seemed. He had seen such gore and torture that it had put the steel into his gaze and made his heart frozen into stone, unbreakable. When the emotion of pain was experienced often enough, it could be gotten used to, and created a certain numbness of emotion. It was almost as if he didn't think about these experiences often enough that the numbness would wear off and he would feel like he would split in two.

Zephyr greatly admired Cosette for her courage, attempted bravery, even though her life had been relitively easy. He looked upon this type of bravery and wondered; was it simply her being ignorant to the pain she may have to go through, or was it the fact that she was ignoring the pain she may experience so she could be strong? He didn't know. But what did he know? After all, he was a trained killer, not a psychiatrist...

[Anonymous]

She was confused. Then again, there hadn't really been a moment where she wasn't since she had been reunited with him. But she was ever more confused now. Most of his actions, his words, his expressions, they were the complete opposite of what she normally expected from a person. He kept her mind on the edge, but whether or not that was a good thing or not, she couldn't be sure. She wasn't used to not knowing what to expect, so she didn't know how to prepare herself. Perhaps that was something he would teach her with time. For now, she would just go with whatever he said, trying not to show him how completely baffled she was.

She sighed when he disappeared. What was he up to now? She heard shifting in the other room, a clear indication that he was looking for something. Maybe it was another story, or just an old memento that he wanted to show her. She waited patiently for him to return, confused, once again, when he came back with only a paper and pen. He set them down in front of her and explained what she was supposed to do. For a moment, he may have seen just how confused she was, but she turned her head away from him so he wouldn't be able to see.

10 worst things to see? She didn't know. Perhaps just her small childhood fears coming to life? Or maybe even some particularly bad dates that she had made mistakes with coming after her? Those seemed small and insignificant compared to what he'd seen. She didn't want him thinking she was afraid of what she might see in the future if she stayed with him, but she couldn't think of anything.

Then it hit her.

It hit her so hard, she dropped the pen. She was frozen, unable to move. The one thing she would never be able to handle. Not now, not in the future. Not ever. She couldn't bring herself to write it on paper, fearing that if she did, it would become reality.

After a few minutes of sitting like that, she was able to bring herself back around slowly. When she could, she grabbed the pen and scribbled down her worst fear. After she did that, she flipped the paper over and set the pen in the middle of it. Then she got up and walked out of the house to recollect herself.

 In scribbly, shaky hand writing, she had written 'I would not be able to handle seeing Zephyr dead, no matter how he died.'

She wrote that same sentence to fill all ten spaces.