**EXTRAS AND STUFF NOT LEGIT STORY OR WHATEVER YOU WANT TO CALL IT**

Slight disclaimer before reading: Not actually a part of what I have planned but dear deities I wanted to write it so I did ^-^ Happens some time after the events of the first book.

WARNING: POTENTIAL MUSHY-NESS

Dedicated to Hayley (H4Y13Y), aka Lucid. I'm sorry, the penguins took over. <3

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Sentinel - Skye & Tayne

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Skye slipped through the doorway, closing it behind her with a soft click.

She pressed her forehead to the wood of the door, trying to calm her heart with a breath. This... this was her fault. If anything happened to him because of her, she didn't know what she'd do.

It already has happened.

Blankets whispered as they moved on the bed behind her but she remained still. Doubt raced through her. Should she be here? Would leaving now be easier? Her hand was on the cool metal of the handle when she heard the voice that had her heart racing all over again. 

"Skye?"

She glanced over her shoulder to see Tayne pushing himself up on the bed. In the low candlelight, it was hard to make out any amount of detail, but even harder still was to miss the bloodstained bandages that hugged his otherwise bare chest.

Her eyes locked on them. It was her fault they were there.

Tayne seemed to take her silence as confirmation of her presence. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood with a grunt of effort, walking towards her.

"Skye?" he asked again. "What are you doing here?"

It took her a moment to find her voice. "I... I had to see if you were okay," she said. "After they took you to the infirmary I just...I didn't know what to do. I thought--"

Skye took a shuddering breath and turned back to the door, trying to quell the rising panic. Images of the Hunter's talons flashed through her mind, Tayne's cry as he fell, the blood, her frantic calls to the deity, to anyone, to save him.  Her own useless attempts to call on her magic that was no longer there and the cold dread that sank through her when Tayne's eyes wouldn't open.

I shouldn't be here.

She pushed down on the handle to leave, but a hand on her shoulder stopped her. It was warm, and she could feel it despite the usual lack of feeling that plagued her shoulder. Her eyes fell on Tayne's paled skin, contrasted against her own burned, disfigured flesh.

Tayne's fingers tightened on her shoulder. "It wasn't your fault, Skye." He reached around, taking her wrist and gently pulling her around to face him. "It's one of the risks we take every time we fight the corruption."

Skye couldn't take her eyes from the bandages, the white material stained with Tayne's blood. "Why?" she whispered. "You're so calm, so willing to put yourself in danger. Why?"

"You asked for my help," he said simply.

"But what if next time you're not so lucky? What if next time they get you, and there's no one around to save you? What if--"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it."

Skye closed her eyes, ignoring the damp around them. "I can't lose you because you're too stupid to realise when something is too much for you to handle," she said. "Tayne, if I lost you... I don't know what I'd do. I can't lose you like that. Radiance wouldn't survive. I wouldn't survive, and the corruption...the corruption would just..."

Tayne's hand ran down her arm, fingers encircling her other wrist and bringing her hands to his chest.  "I made you a promise that you wouldn't have to fight the corruption alone," he said. "And I meant it. I will never regret that promise, not even if it means that I must face the corruption itself."

Skye looked up, meeting his eyes. "Remember what I just said about you being too stupid to realise when something is too much for you to handle?"

Tayne laughed, dispelling her guilt for a moment before pain crossed his face and he gasped. He leant forward, pressed his fist against his injured side and closed his eyes drawing deep, steady breaths. Skye bit her lip, unsure what to do. She took his arm, ensuring he wouldn't fall until the pain passed.

Eventually, the lines disappeared from his face and he gave her a half-smile. Nissa was supposed to be back soon to change the bandages, I sup--"

"I'll do it," cut in Skye.

He raised an eyebrow at her. "You know how?"

"Of course I do," she said, placing one free hand on her hip. "I'm insulted. All elven warriors know basic first aid, as I'm sure your Silverborn do."

Skye helped him to the bed, ensuring he was okay before turning to the table behind her to prepare the new bandages. Several herbs were crushed into piles, only a few of which she knew but it was enough. She mixed the crushed purple petals with the off-green, dried out leaves and rubbed them over the white material.

"I've never seen Nissa use that combination before," said Tayne. "Should I be worried?"

"It's a sedative and prevents infection in open wounds," said Skye. She finished imbuing the bandages and started on making a paste from the left over herbs. "I've used it on myself before; you should be fine unless humans have some kind of allergy to it in which case I shall make some up for the Advisor."

"I'll take your word for it," he said.

She gestured for Tayne to rotate his body so she could remove the old bandages. He tried, facing away from her, but didn't move quickly enough to mask the silent stab of pain that flashed across his features from her.

Skye stopped him, and with a murmured apology turned him back. Once he was comfortable, she climbed on the bed to sit behind him and worked the bandage fastenings off with her fingers.

They came away easily, revealing the bloody hole of the Hunter's claw in Tayne's side. Skye didn't linger on it, instead sliding off the bed to retrieve her paste and bandages from the table. When she had them, she knelt on the floor beside the bed.  

She touched it with the tips of her fingers, tracing the bruised skin. "Does it hurt?"

"Only when I move too suddenly, or do something that uses the muscles."

"Like laughing, or twisting," said Skye.

Tayne smiled. "I suppose things like that would do it, but I don't mind them being the cause compared to say, standing at attention for ten minutes."

"It'd be better if it hadn't happened at all."

"But it did, and here we are. I'll live, I'm sure. Especially with such an expert on the case."

Skye poked her tongue out at him which only made his smile wider. She rolled her eyes at him and turned her attention back to the wound.

She cleaned the dried blood from the surrounding skin with the corner of the old bandage before outlining the edges of the weeping wound with her paste. She made sure to be generous with the application, smearing it around on his skin and gently massaging it in with her fingers.

A few minutes later she glanced up at him, aware of him watching her work.

Tayne's face was alight with a kind of curious fascination, something she found made her chest flutter. She liked how warm he felt under her touch as she applied the paste. He met her eyes, and her face heated up as she realised how close she'd ended up to him. She froze for a second, unsure what to do, then quickly wiped the remaining paste around the outer areas of the wound and edged away to fold the new bandages around her hand.

The distance didn't stop the fluttery feeling in her stomach, however, and though Tayne wasn't looking at her anymore, his attention instead diverted to an interesting piece of wall, she couldn't help the feeling that he was still watching her with that same fascination.

Skye narrowed her eyes at him. "What? Never had paste applied before?"

He turned back to her. "It's not that," he said.  

"What then?"

He ran a hand through his hair. "Do you really think that we're all better off if we leave you to your own devices?"

It took her a moment to find her voice. She hid her silence by passing the bandages around his chest, tucking the end under the second layer, but he was still waiting for an answer.

"I can take care of myself, you know."

"Is it that you want to be alone then?" he asked.

Skye shook her head and sat on the bed beside him. "No, I don't."

"So why?"  

"I don't know."

Tayne sighed. "I think you do, and you just don't want to tell me," he said.

Skye didn't reply. She pressed her lips together until they hurt, trying to ignore the stinging sensation behind her eyes as she wrapped the last layer of bandage around Tayne's chest. Thoughts of running from the room crossed her mind, though her legs seemed to have other ideas.

She remained on the bed, her hand reaching up to rest on the section of bandages that concealed the injury.

"It's my fault you're injured, if I'd just been faster, or--"

Tayne covered her hand, curling his fingers around her own. "There's nothing more you could have done to prevent it. You pushed the Hunter back before he made a second strike without your magic. I doubt even Kiarae could do that."

"It's not that."

"So what is it?" said Tayne. "Tell me, help me understand." When she shook her head, he squeezed her hand. "You can't keep running away from this and keeping up with the act that you're not scared of the apparently limitless spirit-thing that the corruption isn't helping anyone, especially not you."

"I'm not scared of the corruption, Tayne," said Skye. "I'm scared that one day we'll be back in the Citadel, and I'll be watching the Master tear your soul apart in front of me and I won't be able to do anything about it. I'm terrified that if you get close to me it'll be my fault when the Master comes after you, and if he hurts you because of me? He isn't like the Hunter, he's--"

"And you think it won't tear me up inside not knowing if you're okay?" said Tayne. He tilted her chin up and Skye redirected her gaze at the floor, unable to look at him.  "You think I wouldn't care, that I wouldn't be forever wondering if you're being tortured by the corruption or lying half-dead in some ditch because a tainted caught you off-guard?"

"They wouldn't--"

"Don't tell me they wouldn't catch you off guard," interrupted Tayne. She glared at him from the corner of her eye, and he cracked a smile. "Okay. There's a thousand tainted bearing down on you. One of them is likely to get through eventually. You're not invincible despite what everyone wants you to be."

"He doesn't have that many tainted, Tayne."

"Yet, anyway." Tayne brushed a tear off her cheek with his thumb, leaving a heated trail across her skin. "You don't have to do this by yourself, Skye. You're not alone anymore."

Skye took a deep breath, calm settling inside her chest despite the fluttering sensation. "It's just too much sometimes. I don't know how I'm supposed to fix an entire realm that's been damaged for centuries."

"We'll figure it out together, one step at a time" said Tayne. "You and me."

"I'd like that."

Tayne pulled her in, wrapping her in his arms. Skye closed her eyes and rested her head on his shoulder. She breathed him in, feeling the steady rise and fall of his chest against hers as she laced their fingers together on the hand that he held.

"How do you do it?" she asked.

"Do what?"

"Make everything seem okay, like it's somewhat feasible to conquer something able to put a deity to sleep."

She felt him laugh at that. "I think it's the same way that you make risking my life fighting some all-powerful evil spirit not seem pointless." She drew breath to reply, when he added, "no arguing."

Instead, Skye squeezed his hand, the fluttering sensation returning to her stomach.

They stayed like that for a long minute. Skye opened her eyes as she felt a tingle run down her arm and into the laced fingers. Where their palms touched, golden flecks rose from her skin and danced across to his, leaping between hands as if distance barely mattered.

She leant back, moving their hands between them to watch the flecks. She found Tayne looking at them, his head tilted to one side.  

"Is that Radiance saying it approves?" he asked.

"Radiance isn't doing anything," said Skye. "I... I think it's just us."

She looked up, meeting his eyes.

She studied them for a moment, searching for... something in their blue-grey depths although what, she wasn't sure. Another fleck joined the growing group dancing around their intertwined hands, but she barely noticed it. The fluttering in her stomach felt like it was going to explode her from the inside if she didn't do something about it.

Warmth was spreading through her, derived from Tayne's gaze as she reached up, placing a tentative hand on his shoulder. Her lips felt dry. Her breathing came faster as she licked the edge of her lips and slowly reached up, lifting herself from the bed to bring her head level with Tayne's.

He waited as she tried to figure it out, tried to quell the thoughts and doubts racing through her mind as they assaulted her all at once. Why? She didn't know. But the tingle running through her entire body, the warmth flowing from his hand to hers was too much to ignore as she leant forward and brought her mouth to his.

His lips responded to her awkward contact, guiding the movement of hers, helping her to understand without words. Tayne's free hand ran over her shoulder and up the back of her neck to tangle in her hair, pulling her closer even as she sank further into him.

The fluttering in her stomach transformed into something like pure amazement. Tayne's breath was soft and warm on her cheeks. His arms encircled her like he'd never let her go. She felt safe, and in that moment nothing else existed.

There was no corruption, no demons, no Master stalking them from the shadows because nothing of their nature could understand what she was feeling at that moment.

It was just her and Tayne, locked away for a moment inside their own minds and a kiss.

Skye was the first to pull away, her breathing unsteady and shaky as she rested her forehead against his. His hand was still in her hair and hers on his shoulder, their seconds joined palm to palm and sealed with fingers between them.

She became aware of the tingle, no longer confined to her hand but spread around her entire body and opened her eyes.

The room was covered in hundreds of tiny flecks of gold, suspended in the air like fallen starlight around them. It glittered from within, beaming with a brilliance greater than which she'd ever seen it before.

Tayne pressed a kiss to her forehead, his lips lingering on her skin a moment longer than necessary and sending another wave of warmth shooting through her.

"Was that just us too?" he asked.

Skye gave him a smile. "Not entirely," she said.

"Well, at least we know how to wake up Radiance if ever need be, eh?"

She poked him in the chest, trying to hide the embarrassed smile creeping on her face. "Uh huh. I don't think so, Tayne."

"Well if you don't want to be sure..." he said, making as if to pull away.

Skye reached up from his shoulder and knelt up, pulling him back to her. She held his face as his arm snaked around her back and once more pulled her closer, supporting her weight as she moved in to kiss him again.

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A/N - I've never written anything like this before. Ever in the history of ever. I have no idea if it's good but I like it and it made me feel fuzzy and it's 6am in the morning so whatever ^.^ Tell me what you think? 

Raven and Beast Boy on the side, the picture that sorta inspired this. Teen Titans, Go!

The description for the picture on the side on the deviantart... I just love it.  - 'Oh, Beast Boy is not just awkwardly standing there, he's giving her space. He's smiling looking at her doubtful movements with love. Waiting, i think he could wait for years. Raven needs a little time before she can kiss him, and he knows it. Because of the fear, the doubt, the consequences, to handle her emotions. She's afraid because she has never touched his lips before, the first time confuses her, but she will do it'

Also the youtube video is the song I was listening to while writing/imagining this. 

P.S - Best title for a story ever. I know right. *cough*