ANGUIS

Chapter 9

Novem – Chapter IX

The following days the two women tried to avoid each other, even though it turned out to be much more difficult than they thought. Karlie, with the Queen's permission, helped the civilians to reconstruct their houses after the terrible attack they withstanded just a few days ago. Taylor was surprised, to say the least. Despite the fact that the taller girl was part of the enemy's heritage, she still wanted to help them.

The blonde shouldn't feel this way towards the brunette, but unfortunately she does. Since they had shared that intimate moment a few nights ago, Taylor felt like they had some kind of connection now. Like their souls were linked. She knows she should just ignore and push these feelings on the back of her mind, but she's not able to do just that. If only ignoring your feelings was that simple. 

"M'lady?"

Deris interrupts her train of thoughts, shaking her shoulder lightly. 

"Yeah?"

"We need your permission, Queen,"

"About? Sorry, I wasn't listening," the blonde smiles sheepishly. 

"We need to rebuild Atmosi's temple as soon as possible. People need their god now more than ever, m'lady," Deris explains again, his words filling the conference room. Taylor sighs, rubbing her face with the palm of her hands. "What's up with you? You're being weird," the councilor teases her with a grin. 

"Nothing, I just..." she trails off, her mind immediately drifting to the brunette. "Nothing," she shakes her head firmly. He gazes at her with suspicious eyes, but doesn't add anything to the sensitive subject.

"So. We have your permission, right?" Deris asks for the hundreth time. Taylor nods quickly and folds her hands on top of the table. The councilor scribbles a note on a paper and gets up to leave the room. Before he could exit, he turns around and says, "Taylor?"

The blonde faces him with questioning eyes.

"Are you sure you are okay?"

"If I say I am okay, will you believe me?"

"Maybe."

"Then, I'm okay, Deris. Don't worry about me."

"Alright. Have a good day, m'lady,"

He waves timidly in her direction before exiting the conference room, his footsteps echoing through the large hallway as Taylor watches him go. After staring blankly at the wall in front of her for what seemed like hours, she gets up and heads to the music room.

The last time she set foot in this room was when she was still little, maybe when she was six or seven years old. As she approaches the black piano, she glides her fingers over the keys of the instrument, the ghost of a smile making its way on her face. Her father taught her how to play, and for a long time, playing the piano was her favorite thing in the world. She loved getting lost in the music, the sounds that the piano released whenever her fingertips pressed down on a particular key. With a smile lighting up her feautures, she sits down on the leather stool and starts playing the first song that comes to her mind. A rough version of Debussy's Clair De Lune  fills the music room, and the smile on her face gets even bigger, if possible. Playing the piano reminded her of her father, and just the thought of his grinning face makes her miss him more than before. Plus, Clair De Lune was the last song he taught her before dying, and maybe this was the reason why silent tears were streaming down her face right now. She finishes the song slowly, the last key she played echoing through the walls of the room. She was exhaling shakily and staring at her hands still on the keyboard of the piano when another feminine voice filled the music room.

"That was beautiful," 

Taylor is surprised to see the taller girl leaning her body weight on the door frame, but as soon as their eyes meet, Karlie starts walking towards her slowly. The blonde follows her every move until she's sitting right beside her on the leather stool. "Seriously, that was the best thing I've ever heard, Taylor," Karlie affirms with determination in her forest green eyes. They stare at each other, not knowing what to say, when the brunette brushes a strand of Taylor's blonde hair behind her ear, stroking her left cheek lovingly. The Queen closes her eyes at the soft and intimate contact, and the feelings she tried to push in the back of her mind come back stronger than before. I'm falling for you, she thinks as she reveals her ocean blue eyes to the taller girl once again. 

"What are you doing here?" she asks in a whisper. 

"It's getting dark outside. Plus, a lot of the workers were kind of tired. We will finish tomorrow," Karlie explains, her hand never leaving the blonde's cheek. They stay silent for a while, just looking into each other's eyes, before the taller girl speaks and says in a gentle whisper, "Do you want me to leave?" 

"No," Taylor replies immediately, grabbing the brunette's wrist softly. "Please, stay," she adds quietly, losing herself in the color of Karlie's eyes. I'm falling so hard, she thinks to herself, and she knows she should be ashamed, because she shouldnt' feel this way. Not towards Karlie, at least, because she is aware that  they can't be together. 

"Are you okay?" Karlie asks worriedly. The Queen shakes her head adversely. "Is there anything I can do to make you feel better?" she whispers. 

"Just hold me, please," Taylor murmurs, and Karlie does as she's told; she wraps both of her muscular and long arms around the blonde's back, squeezing her lightly, hoping to provide some type of comfort to the girl in her arms.

( sorry for the long wait, but school is happening and I had some kind of Writers block the last few weeks. Anyway, here's chapter nine! As Always, tell me what you think of this and if you liked it or not. Thank you all so much for reading!! )