AUTHOR'S POV
Scott reached for a napkin, and took Diana's hands. He wiped each finger with gentleness until her hands were clear of jam and peanut butter. He kissed them softly, feeling its softness against his lips. The thought of how hard those hands battled fiercely unbeknownst to him clawed through his chest. "They called death upon them. It has nothing to do with you."
"If it weren't for me..."
"I said no", it was firm and final. "You can't even finish a tray of sandwich..."
Diana glanced over the remaining bread, and thought not of the food that'll be gone to waste, but the twin boys that Ofir thought is living inside of her. The boys who were craving for PB&J. She needs more strength to protect not only herself but the boys. "Then maybe, until then", she agreed.
Scott let out a relieved sigh, as Diana return to her meal. This time, she seemed like she have lost her appetitive. She no longer smiled at every bite. She now takes her time chewing the bread. It was a difficult sight to watch. Just when things are starting to feel heavy, Scott decided to break the ice that wears them down. "I thought these were for some boys", he remembered.
"Ofir might have mistaken", Diana answered after taking one last bite of her sandwich. She's not even halfway through the dagwood. Almost full, Diana took a napkin and wiped her hands, flushed her throat with another glass of water. Something in that series of actions tried to get out from her chest. She tried to contain it with a dip of her finger on the dripping jam on the sides of the sandwich tower. Her eyes wandered, while Scott sit comfortably beside her. His silence was more intimidating than his presence. With a sigh, she steeled herself and reluctantly faced what she had to. "I heard you're getting married."
"Let's not talk about that.", his face hardened with a slight twitch in his jaw.
Diana wasn't threatened of him being dismissive, even a tiny bit. She had to. "I received an uninvitation earlier today from a woman named Lily. She said, there's only one ceremony that I can go to.", Diana looks at Scott with her eager gaze. "The imprint rejection. Only I don't know how to do it."
Scott stiffened at the audacity of Lily to say unimportant things to Diana. All the more, his heart sank while she spoke of the imprint ceremony like a business meeting. He did thought about it, nevertheless, it pricked his chest hearing it straight from her. "It can wait", Scott's expression darkened.
Diana leaned back, and stretched her legs under the coffee table. Scott did the same, with one knee folded, without even realizing it. They simply sat there. Two exhausted people. Two hearts still learning how to exist in the same room again. They sat there counting deep sighs while they exchange glances. The simplicity of it felt surreal, which made it sting even more. A bitter laugh escaped her, while Scott turns to her. "I wanted to hate you.", she swallowed hard. Her fingers fidget on the hem of Reina's dress. "I wanted to be angry because you never came for me...", she kept her eyes on her fingers. Blinking them too often."But, all is in past now, and we can't bring them all back.", her voice remained calm. Too calm as she hide her pain at every word. She straightened the wrinkles on her dress over her knees, and curled them again just to avoid his gaze pinned on her. "When I leave the doors of this mansion", her words were caught slow, clearing her throat. "I want to leave everything behind."
Scott heard every crack that she struggled to hide, as though she weren't quietly tearing herself apart. And somehow, that hurt more than if she had cried. "What hurts isn't the rejection..", his chest tightened. "What hurts is how calm you are to say it, and how easily you can walk away", he wanted her to be angry, and to be jealous of Lily. The distaste of her calmness make him curl his lips.
A sad smile crossed Diana's lips. Being suddenly replaced broke everything in her. Her hope. Her love. And her trust. That everything that's left in her is the calm of the storm. "You're the one tying the knot", Diana finally looked at him. "You walked away first before we even had the chance to fight for it."
Scott stared at her. "And what? You'll go to my brother?"
"Bro--... Seb?", she widened her eyes, unsure why it sounded offensive.
The recognition and how fast she said his brother's name irritated him most than the confusion in the tone of her voice. "So you would."
"We're just friends", she cleared with a frown.
"Doesn't look like friends to me", all the memories of her and Sebastian together returned to him. Sebastian kissing her cheek at his birthday. Sebastian's desperate search for her. Sebastian carrying her out of the lake. The way she smiled around him. The way she spoke of his nickname. And most especially how she trusted Sebastian more than she could trust him. It was driving him insane, completely.
Diana sat up straight. "Are you jealous of Sebastian?", she looked at him as if he have lost his mind.
"The hell I am!"
Diana's calm cracked after trying so hard to be civil. "You're ridiculous!", Diana pushed herself to her feet. Now, she's mad, furious even, for Scott's lack of faith in her.
Scott sprung up and immediately followed her. "Looks like you are all fired up now."
"The hell I am!"
Scott caught her arm before she could walk away. And gently turned her back toward him. "Don't you think you owe me an explanation, Diana?", he asked.
"For what?", her eyes flashed and for the first time, they look more alive. A smile almost appeared on Scott's face. There she is. He thought he already lost her for being too detached like she didn't care that he's marrying a different woman. Seeing her angry and no longer pretending makes him believe they are finally going somewhere. "That night, I thought we're in this together. I was all for you but you didn't fit me in your plans.", his voice was gentler despite carrying a certain kind of ache.
"It was a journey worth doing alone.", her voice trembled, fighting the weakness in her knees. "I didn't know some space would make you lose your way", she looked at him with disbelief as the tides turn. She left to find his cure, and to uncover something buried about her and yet, she ends up being cornered for the wrong reasons. "Besides, you've been busy on your own.", she grits, forcing his hand off of her, stepping back. The pain that she'd been concealing exploded right into her face.
Diana planted words like bombs, only to be diffused in Scott's chest causing his wounds to open and bleed. "My way? Lose my way?", his brows knitted together wondering if he heard it clearly. "I lost my mind Diana!", he growled, taking another step nearing her. " You left me without goodbye! You never gave me the chance to come with you. You practically left me!", every sentence cut deeper that made Diana back away until her legs hit the bed. He broke down, unloading all the bottled up emotions that has kept him from his sanity. "I wanted to tear everything apart to search for you, but I chose to trust you and fight my will. Make you decide for us even though I was scared. That I had to make absurd decisions to force you to come back to me! Because between us two, you seem more easily to detach yourself because I'm the only one who imprinted", those words were raw, his eyes glistened at how terrified he was. "So can you just please tell me why? Why didn't you trust me?", his voice came out almost as a whisper. That even after letting all out, his love for her have already extinguished his anger.
Her shoulder's fell. She never knew. She truly hadn't. In making decisions for his sake, she have hurt him. And it was not part of her intention. "I.. trust you...", she whispered, as her legs betrayed her that she flop on the mattress.
"Then, you shouldn't have kept me in the dark", Scott looks at her as a tear fall from her unblinking eyes.
"I just... wanted to become worthy of being your Luna", she tells him. lowering her head.
He knelt on one kneel, as he gently took her face in his hands. "You already are, Diana", she looked at him through those tears. "You always were. So, what are we now?", his thumbs brushed the tears on her cheeks. He needed to know and he needed to hear it from her.
The long pause pained him. He lightly held her shoulders with desperation in his eyes as he hold his breath. "Scott.. you're hurting me", she winced, but he didn't loosened his grip.
"I asked a question. What are we now?", he repeated.
She couldn't answer. There's only thing in her mind. "You're getting married, Scott! And I can be off with someone else too".
His brows furrowed. A sad incredulous smile appeared on his lips. "That's not how you kiss someone who's about to get married.", he lowered his grip down to her arms.
"You're hurting me...", she said, as if it doesn't refer to his grip anymore but on something else.
Slowly, Scott lets her go.
As he did, Diana lifts her head and looks at him. Like lightning, he bolted forward aiming for her parted lips. She kept her eyes open, as he surrender everything on his knees with his eyes closed. Scott leaned over her, putting her arms over his shoulders pushing her to the center of the bed. Their bodies sank on the soft cushion, never one forcing, only following each other.
And there, Scott got the answer that he was desperate for.
He felt it. Her tight hug around his neck. Her warming face as they share that moment. Her kissing him back. And the rhythm of their hearts that share one beat. He broke the kiss enough to rest his forehead against hers. His eyes remained closed. "You are not going anywhere unless you... Unless you tell me you love me", Scott suffered the difficulty of shut off his feelings for her, that he only ended up yearning for her even more. The absence didn't made him lose his way, he learned to unimaginably love Diana that it hurts. "Don't hand me to Lily. Be jealous of her.", his voice shook. "I beg you to love me, Diana. Trust me, and allow me to be there. Because every time I shut off my feelings for you, I end up getting more miserable.".
Diana opened her eyes and sees how totally undone Scott is. He came out broken, but he wasn't afraid to show it. She felt bad for being a coward when Scott is in front of her brazenly beseeching. Her fingers curled on his back, as it trail its way to his face. "I'm... sorry", Diana whispered. "I got scared of losing you.. I wanted to be worth it being called your Luna so I took risks. I couldn't tell you because I know, you wouldn't want such unfair trade - my death for your life.", she said, as she took a deep breath. "You don't have to beg me, my love has always been yours, Scott".
His face went still. Those words travel through his ears slowly that he didn't knew what to do with them. He simply stared at her, processing what she said. And suddenly, he collapsed in the curve of her neck, arms wrapped around her. A shaky breath of relief left him, along with the heaviness in his heart that were lifted from those words. His shoulders shook once, and again. The torments melted all at once. He had thought her love was uncertain. He was ready to beg more. As he weep silently, in Diana's warmth, her arms tightened around him. "It's okay, you still have me".
He drew one deep shaky breath, breathing her in. Her scent. His Luna. "Don't leave me.. Don't leave me like that again."
She closed her eyes, and only word was needed to finally close this chapter. "Lily.."
He lifted his head to look at her. "Part of an act. She's nothing to me. So don't speak of her again", he plants once kiss on her lips. Silence settled between them. However, a throb drummed in Scott's ears being close to Diana. Hearing the strange sound of her double heartbeat, Scott looks down on her belly. Cocked his head as squints his eyes. He was about to place his hand on her stomach when he sensed something cold and lethal nearby. He rose from the bed, pulling Diana with him. The power of the lythari protecting the room have also vanished.
"Scott?", Diana squeezed Scott's hand wondering what alerted him.
"Stay close. Something's not right", he says, as the lights in the room all died in one flick. An unnatural silence swallowed the room instantly.
"What's happening?", she whispered, as she follow Scott to the door.
Scott didn't answer immediately. Before opening the door, he turns to her. "Wait, what about the peanut butter and jelly boys?".
"They're safe", she nodded, before she follows Scott out to the dark corridor of the mansion.