She shook the hair out of her face. She had literally just stepped out of the station. Making sure she knew a place to stay was not a priority on her list. The priority was to find the man that had left her a message. It was raining very hard and the wind was pulling on her ponytail. Her long orange coloured hair was thank god in a ponytail otherwise it would be a messy disaster for that. She took a heavy grip on her bag and simply faced the rain that was falling. She obviously had no idea where to look for Konstantin, she expected one of the smaller inns or bed & Breakfasts or somewhere just outside town. On the other side of Lamia Scale. She had checked a map during her train travel. She frowned as she stopped in the centre, she had no idea where to look. She quickly went to look for a shelter before she was drenched and it happened to be an inn. But it would be too lucky if Konstantin was here. Where did she had to look, should she have tried to write him a letter first?

After all that it felt horrible to be alone. Last time she was walking inside a downpour it was when she met Leyaria with her than Cleffa Ophelia. She clenched her hand only tighter in a fist around the strap of her bag. Yes her feelings were making it all very difficult for she felt a lot of emotions at the same time. She was now for example scared she wouldn't be able to find him here. She was afraid that something was wrong or that she shouldn't have come at all. So yeah she was scared, worried and well many more emotions that she didn't want to think about. It also felt very good to be out of Magnolia, she had learned a lot there but she had also quite lost some there. She took a deep breath as she stood underneath the roof of the inn. She hadn't gone through the door yet as she stood dry for as far as possible. There were obviously drops of rain falling on her shoes but her head and hair remain dried.

She would wait shortly for the rain to get a little less and perhaps for luck to kick in to find him or let him find her. As well as to find a way to search.

Arriving in Orchidia was in of itself an annoying thing to do, he had to be careful now to avoid the general public from noticing him as much as possible. He did this by purchasing a cloak just as he entered the town itself from a general goods Stallman, “Will that be all, good sir?” He was asked by the man as he paid for the garment. “No, that will be all.” Slinging the cloak over his shoulders he looked at it once more. The cloak was made of a coarse brown material, he cared little at this point of such matters and threw it over him before pulling the hood over his head concealing both his noticeable blonde hair and his cat ears. Seeking to hide the remainder of his face, Kon slid the red scarf from the armour he had gotten rid of over his mouth and onto his nose. The cloak itself would also be useful in that it provided at least a little bit of protection against the elements with rain bucketing down striking him uncomfortable so.

Seeking to get inside cloak or no, he made his way to an inn that was fairly close to, as he did so he noticed someone he knew seemingly waiting outside, Alice. “How did she get here before I did?” He asked himself in confusion with a small amount of hope. This hope stemmed from his belief that she would be able to see what he had to say about the destruction he had caused. Wanting to waste as little time as possible and to get out of the rain, Kon made his way to her reaching the roofed porch of the inn he lowered his scarf to speak to her but keep his cloak up. “Alice, I wish we were talking in more friendly circumstance for now though, let’s get inside so I can explain everything, I’m sure before you got here you spoke to someone about the incident in Magnolia but I want you to hear me out.” As he said this he rested his right hand still bandaged to conceal the crack in his hand before sliding it off and opening the door into the inn itself. “Please let’s get inside, this wet weather is awful.”

As she was simply considering what to do, she shivered a little because of the rain. Someone approached her and she looked up to say she wasn't really in the mood to talk to someone but it was.. Konstantin. She had wanted a whole other start of the meeting but she was just so surprised to see him come over to her and talk to her. She had expected in some sort of way that he was avoiding her thanks to the letter. Thinking about that letter made her heart ache and her mind angry. She wasn't exactly sure what to do or say as she had a plan in her head that went up in smoke now that they were really face to face.

All she could do was nod. They were both half cat, thanks to an accident which meant they both hated water in an equal amount and rain fell under that. Though she wasn't afraid of it like pools and ponds. She simply followed him inside and took a deep breath, the inn was almost empty and she was sure that it wasn't smart to talk about such matters in public, especially not in public. People could hear, spread gossip and all her hard work of blaming it on someone else, which was wrong, would be mistaken.

With a cold look at Konstantin she turned to the desk to take a room here. She didn't know wether it should be for one or two so she did order a room for them together, she perhaps could switch if it was necessary. Besides this was going to be a long talk. She paid for the room and turned around with still that obvious fake smile plastered on her face. "Let's talk." She turned around again, headed to the stairs to find their room, holding the keys. As soon as she got inside, she would shrug off her jacket and wait till Konstantin was in the room as well before she would start her own assault.

She did walk closer, lifted up her hand to slap his cheek because she was so angry. So much pain and hurt for her as well but she understood or she thought she did because she didn't know all that he was perhaps in more pain there her. She dropped her hand, the gesture was obvious. "You could have taken me with you." she said trembling and quivering as she looked down. She hadn't even been asleep yet at that hour.

Fortunately, at least for the time being, Alice seemed to agree with his proposal of heading inside even ordering a room for the two of them to discuss the situation itself. It was better than they had a private location to discuss such a delicate manner, little was said between the two before they entered the room itself. Wanting to rid himself of the wet cloak when he entered the room, he pulled back the hood before unclasping it allowing the cloak to fall onto the floor. Whilst he did so Alice moved up to him and landed a clear and resonating slap on the side of his face leaving behind a prominent red glow in the same shape. Shame weighed down heavily upon him even further when she finally spoke to him, her words cut through his already weakened state feeling there was little he could do to resolve the issue he moved even closer and gently embraced her with a caring hug. "I'm so sorry, Alice, for everything I thought it was for the best not to involve you, by taking you with me it could have left a permanent red mark on your name." Shaking his head as tears began to form. "I never meant for this to happen, I don't understand whats happening to me, ever since I joined the Holy Knights, that procedure of theirs whilst it made me far, far stronger seems to be doing radical things to both my mind and my body."

Releasing his grasp on Alice, he pulled away slightly allowing him the use of both his hands before unravelling the covering of his right hand and revealing the blemish on his palm which continued to run up his hand. It was far more than a blemish, in reality, more a crack in his very being seemingly radiating light in a soft, yet powerful manner. "Since I've been using my new magic more and more of my skin has become cracked in this fashion, I've been trying to hide this from you in the hopes it was nothing serious but evidently it has not been the case." Sighing to himself as his stomach began to growl. "There must be numerous questions that are running through your head but I haven't eaten since I left Magnolia town and in dire need for some food can i suggest we call for a waiter to fetch us some?"

She had hit him, she was even surprised by her own anger and apparently some sort of hatred that she felt about what he did. She had not expected that she would actually slap him and she pulled her hand quickly against her chest as if that would stop her from doing anything again. She held it tightly and her lip trembled. She didn't want to cry, she had done that enough when she was with Tori and the night before that. Even though she was so angry, she was so glad that the hit on his cheek didn't push him further away from her but got closer to her and hugged her. Her shoulders started to shake too and she tried to keep herself strong, so she bit her lip. He must be hurt too, she shouldn't.. she held her breath when he spoke to her.

"I don't care." she lied, she did care about her name. She did care about it a lot and she knew Kon would know she was lying. Why else clean your name of the demon rumour that her sister had made. But she didn't want to care for his sake. She hid her face against his chest because she didn't want to be alone anymore, she didn't want him to let her go. Finally she felt a bit at rest after what happened to Ophelia, which was strange considering none of that had changed.

She noticed movement as he shook his head and looked up and the anger was gone in an instant. She loved him, how could she make things more difficult for him. She placed her hand softly on the cheek that she had hit, "So I heard." she whispered softly and she was worried, but she didn't want to say anything bad about the Holy Knights.

She let him step away, keeping her hazel coloured eyes on him all the time. She had noticed his bandaged hand in Magnolia, shortly. He didn't want Ophelia to heal it as she had asked before and after that she had let go. But now she understood why he refused, Ophelia couldn't heal that. She found that it gave her the shivers but also because she made the connection to what he had just told her.

At first she didn't know what to say anymore as she just let him talk for now. "But that was four days ago, even more." she said surprised that he had not eaten, "Yes let's order anything. No matter what you did, you have to take care of yourself." she said as she had done, even though it was difficult. "After that please tell me what happened."

It was true he hadn't eaten, slept or even drunk a single drop of water since leaving Magnolia which was over 3-4 days. With a dry throat, he thanked her for her patience even in this dire situation. "Thank you, Alice, I know what I've done is wrong, but if I don't eat anything soon I feel I might double over and faint." It seemed that the nature of their conversation at least for now would be slightly lighter than he initially expected. He wasn't about to drop everything just yet though, as he remembered their last interaction was rather awkward as well. For now, though he would leave the room while inviting Alice to join him with friendly outstretched hand. "Come, Alice, let's dine before the "interrogation" begins." Assuming Alice would accept his offer he would go with her downstairs once more and request a table for the two of them. Luckily for them a table was free, this table in question was close to the stairs providing them easy access to return to their room after eating.

Once at the table, he would draw one of the chairs outward to invite Alice to sit before sitting on another, had she not accepted he would take the pre-offered chair himself. Wanting to clear the air even slightly he joked poorly. "I'm happy you came a shame it wasn't on better terms." Almost sensing the tension between them a waiter approached with hesitation clutching the menus before handing them to both Alice and Kon with a slight shake of the hand. "Sir, Madam, here are the menus, if you have any questions regarding something on the menu feel free to ask me in the meantime take a look I'll be with you shortly once you have decided."

She simply had to understand that if she didn't make sure he would eat anything that he would faint and answers might come even much later than that. The feelings inside her, the emotions were a very interesting combination of anger and sadness and she simply crossed her arms infront of her chest to protect herself from saying something, "Yes let's go." she muttered a bit, she couldn't demand answers or could she? She was definitely unsure about everything, the letter had made her so much more afraid than she might originally had been and she wasn't sure what to say or think at the moment except that she had wanted to hit him, yell at him and make him understand that she would not immediately cast him away. Especially not if he needed help. However maybe she should come up with a line for herself because where would this end if it would get worse and it was his own doing? She slowly shook her head to keep herself out of this circle argumentation against herself all the time.

She would take his hand and follow him back downstairs, she would look at the other people with a natural face, not looking happy neither looking really angry although it would go more to that side of feelings if you had to give it a name. She would accept his invite for her to sit down and so she did, she had to form her phrases and questions in another order than she had rehearsed in her mind during the trip and thus she had to work it out a little, "Of course I came." she said a bit surprised and maybe even hurt, she did understand it might be a part of a joke but it was definitely in poor taste, "You left me in a state you didn't know about with a letter that definitely didn't make things better. But that's enough about me for a while, apart from not taking care of yourself during the trip, how are you doing?" because had he not said to Tori that he needed help and something was not right.

She simply ignored the waiter and took the menu without looking at him, she would normally give him a small smile as she heard his hesitation but she wouldn't keep her eyes of Konstantin, she was now worried, scared perhaps, angry and sad. Which made her not in a very good mood. She even opened her menu without looking in it.

While seemingly hesitant at first to leave the room and join him for supper, Alice joined him even refraining from making any comments regarding well anything. She accepted his offer to take the seat as well which led him to believe he could still recover things hopefully. It seemed however that Alice wasn't in the mood for any of his jokes which was awfully appropriate considering the current state of their relationship as well as the events which caused this entire mess to begin with. He was also met with a retort which left him feeling even worse than he had previously, it was one thing for to him to have done such terrible things to others but hurting Alice was something which he never intended for nor wanted to ever do. Reaching out to her as she spoke he tried to clutch her hand as she did. "Alice, I'm worse for wear even more so than I appear, the lack of sleep wasn't by choice but also as a result of ill thoughts running through my head, I need time to reflect upon what I have done." He couldn't help but notice Alice's behaviour towards the waiter's gesture when he provided them with their menus, accepting it but not looking at it. He too followed suit with her own response wanting to appeal to her in anyway possible. "If you wouldn't mind I need your support in the coming weeks, should you need to go somewhere I'll go with you, I just need company to make sure I don't do anything that I'll regret..."

She let him hold her hand, she didn't want to pull away but she also didn't want him to have an easy go because of her poor feelings. She had to be fierce and point out to him that she simply can't accept what he did: leaving her. Sure the other things weren't good as well but she couldn't judge that, not before really knowing what was going on in the first place. She had heard it from Tori, not from himself, who knew. She didn't believe Tori a liar and she did believe Tori meant best for him but she didn't want to base her judging thanks to a third person in this story. She heard him, she heard him clearly but did that mean she couldn't get the answers that she needed. She didn't know what to say, but she had to say it, she would have to wait for the waiter to be gone from which she took her hand back to hold the menu but read without actually reading.

She listened again, not sure what to say again but answers needed to be provided and if she could help him refraining from making mistakes, than why would she say no? "I understand you need to think things over but I would like to know what happened. I want to know it from you, I don't want to make any assumptions or think any worse because I didn't hear it from you. I heard it from somebody else and I did all I could to protect you." she remembered that he once said that no matter what he would always protect her and here she was doing exactly the same and for some stupid reason, it had given her butterflies in her stomach for a second. "And if I can support you and if only me being around you is enough for that, I would love to do that. I don't want to go anywhere without you. I don't want to be left alone again. I-" her voice stocked as she stared at the menu, took a deep breath, "I don't like being alone anymore." she whispered, just loud enough. If and it was an if, Konstantin could think about Ophelia, noticing her not here, he might wonder what she meant with alone since her companion had always been with her, from the moment they met and yet she was alone. Ophelia had been a small fragment of what she could take, what if she would loose Konstantin as well?

And so it seemed their relationship would not be brought to an end with this incident now on rocky terms, however, all relationships at one stage or another had bad times. She accepted his request at least for now though had made her own request of telling her the tale from his point of view, a difficult for him to complete with some of the information remaining fuzzy to him such as what had happened prior to it only returning to focus midway through the incident. Trying to remain as honest as possible to someone he adored and loved, he began where he could remember last before the incident. Needing some time to recall what had happened he started to reveal what had transpired from his perspective. With no-one around to hear him speak save for Alice, he spoke. "I'll start from the last moment I could remember to then the next I could actively feel control.  Strange I know but I'll try to explain as best I can."

He was forced to pause at the return of the waiter who came back with a jug of water as well as two glasses placing them down before pouring the water first in his glass then Alice's. The instant he had poured his glass, Kon nabbed the glass from the table and drank it all in quick, large gulps partially refreshed he thanked the waiter before asking him to leave once more. "Okay, as you know I have sleeping issues have for a while, well I was taking a stroll around Magnolia with my companion something happened I don't know what, next thing I know I'm standing over the fairy tail guild on one of my summons, confused and not wanting to risk a bounty I fled not just the area but Magnolia in its entirety I wish I could have taken you with me but I didn't want to you to be forced to decide me over the rune knights..."

Losing the will to continue on with explaining the incident, he reflected upon what she had mentioned early how she too did not wish to be alone either, it was odd for her to say such a thing as she wasn't alone, she had a companion at least she did? confused about the statement but not wanting to push the topic he merely tried to support her instead. "Alice I've said it before and I'll say it again I'll protect you, however, I can stay by your side no matter the outcome forgive me for abandoning you like this it wasn't my intention to hurt you."

She didn't know what she would think about all this, it was difficult to form an opinion at all and she was sure that she would pick Konstantin at this point over everything. Maybe that wasn't always smart thinking but she tried her best in the world in general, she would not give up on that. But she was already very worried from what he told her especially because he couldn't remember and not only was she worried. She was afraid, her amnesia had made her afraid of such things and she found it scary even if it was linked to the magical power that he perhaps couldn't contain, which might be the reason for blackouts.

She didn't notice that she leaned forward but as the waiter came and Kon held his mouth shut she noticed and leaned back. Looking at the waiter this time with a small smile because it wasn't nice from her the first time. She got her glass too and took a sip, it was nice after such travels. She still kept her eyes on Konstantin but she could smile already a bit. She nodded when he told her about his sleeping problems, she had noticed that indeed. "I know," she said softly after he finished talking about the incident, "I do appreciate that. I'm so sorry for hitting you, I was so worried and so afraid that anything had happened. I spoke to Tori and I made sure that no one linked it to you, Tori will not speak about it I assume and.. and.. I did my best to prevent anything from happening. You told her you needed help." She felt as if she was ready to cry again but she wouldn't, she was about to say something about Ophelia but decided it wasn't worth it at the moment. "I will forgive you, obviously." she said smiling through her invisible tears but she looked up at him.

Being forgiven for all that he done should have left him feeling relieved however it had the opposite effect on him, there would have to be something he could do to make it up to her in the future, for now, he said nothing, as she continued informing him about how she had somehow got into contact with the only person who could have identified him as the offender, Tori. How she had done this he didn't know but he once again refrained from commenting until she finished. Reaching out and clasping her hand with both hands this time he spoke to her sincerely with his head lowered down as he had lost all self-respect to look at her eye to eye. "Thank you, Thank you, Alice, your support alone is greatly appreciated." It would be a difficult period for him not just with Alice but with anyone he knew, for now, he would show a facade of confidence towards her that she would likely be able to recognise due to their close interaction. "Right my dear, I believe it is the time we had something to eat before retiring for the day." Finally pulling open the menu with a single hand Kon browsed the menu for anything he desired whilst drinking another glass of water straight after consuming another just prior.

She didn't know what to say but the worry about her arriving here had dropped of her shoulders and she was relieved to be done with it. She had probably build up a lot of stress thanks to it and she didn't want that again. She wanted to stay with him. There were still many questions she needed to ask and things she needed to say such as Ophelia her disappearance but she didn't feel the need. She just wanted to be happy for as long as this facade would rest on her face. She let him hold her hand and she could only smile at him because she was assured that they would find away, maybe not a hundred percent but she would work on that, "Of course." she said and she meant it with all her heart.

She agreed that they needed to eat something, or more specific that he needed to eat something and she would perhaps keep a close eye on him eating enough. But she would order a salad, with chicken that is, not too much lettuce but she wouldn't mind some white wine for some reason she ordered something else and would be done with it. The conversations would be later, she would ask him about his travel and if he had any plans around here so she would know what to think about when they stayed here together, thankfully.

Exit.

Their dinner was swift and without intimacy which he was completely comfortable with as he was confused with their relationship at this point but instead of worrying about it, he allowed the night to become far lighter in tone as the waiter returned once more to request their drink and meal for the night while Alice had ordered a chicken salad and some white wine to drink, he ordered himself a large eye fillet steak, medium rare with a side of chips and preferring to retain sober chose instead of a beer for instance which is the norm for him, some bubbling lemonade in a tall glass with ice. The waiter was prompt in both leaving the two of them as well as returning to them with their meals taking only what seemed like 5-10 minutes perhaps feeling shorter due to the in house entertainment that was going on to the side of them. His meal was fantastic with the meat cooked just the way he liked it and the sides being a perfect balance of texture and taste. After finishing their meals the duo chat a bit longer until the waiter returned having paid for the two of them with the bill out of the way they left to return to the room in which they would stay for the time being.

[Exit]