Just go on your way
I'll be fine in just seeing your back
You've gone so far
Looking at you is my place

-

His hand grabbed my chin tilting it upwards towards him. His thumb stroked against my chin softly as I closed my eyes, my heart fluttering against my chest. His hands were cold and calloused and a shiver escaped down my spine.

His warm lips pressed against mine, his hand that held my chin trailed up to my cheek, as he cupped my cheek gently, leaving trials of tingling and trembling skin behind.

He wavered slightly not moving, a hint of hesitation.

Frozen from shock and awe at the situation, the fast yet slow seconds that seemed to have past I reacted.

I grabbed the back of his head pulling him closer as my hands began to get tangled into his hair. I felt his lips turn to a smile, his eyes darkening as I felt his lips press towards mine hungrily even harder, rougher, yearning for my touch.

Resisting the urge to pull away, I kissed him back feeling a smirk beginning to form on his swollen lips pulling a soft sound of satisfaction from his throat. I tigthen my fingers in his dark brown hair as our lips move together.

Then as quick as this began it quickly ended.

"Why did you pull away?" I blurted out, my hands touching my tingling and swollen lips.

"We shouldn't be doing this." was his reply before his eyes flicker to my lip.

He's stopping himself.

"And why not?" I demanded.

He blinked by my uestion, clearly not expecting it, his cheeks began to flush slightly, "Well if you're brother found out-"

Rolling my eyes I grabbed Apollo by the hair, pulling him down to meet me again pressing our lips together while he's in midsentence.

His eyes widens, but almost immediately he melts into my touch going plainly where I lead him.

I pull away breathlessly to take a breath, our noses touching. His brown eyes boring into mine shimmering with vivid and guarded emotions.
He hisses softly when I pull away pulling me back into feverish kiss, before his hand around my cheek tightens. His lips trail to my jaw, pressing soft kisses to my skin, leaving trails of fiery skin behind.

His eyes peer into mine, his eyes softening as he looks at me. For a few seconds he just stares at me, his eyes almost as if in awe, as if he can't believe this is happening.

He suddenly pulls me into an embrace, his arm wrapping around my waist pulling me closer. He buries his head to my shoulder, holding my tightly, afraid as if I would suddenly vanish.

I bury my head into his chest, melting into his arms as I wrapped my arms around his defined chest, suddenly realizing that he wasn't wearing a shirt. I would've usually blushed and been embarrassed but for some reason I wasn't and instead felt happy and contempt to be in his arms.

"From now on don't push me away." I muffled into his chest hugging him tightly.

There's a soft and light rumble from his chest, as he chuckles quietly, "Don't worry I'll stop pushing you away." he replied softly, "I'll protect you no matter what and I'll always stay by you're side, Sapphire."

He laughed as he ducked from a cuff aimed from me, catching my hand, his hand wrapped around my wrist.

A blush begins to appear on my cheeks, and a small giggle escapes from me his eyes softening.

My eyes widened and I bite my lip when he suddenly leaned closer before he pressed a soft kiss on my forehead lingering for a few moments longer, a soft sigh escaping his lips as he pulls away.

"Do you really want a man like me Crystal?" he asked softly staring at me intently his eyes studying me carefully, his eyes flickered around my face searching for a motive.

"Of course." I replied frowning, "Why?"

"Its just hard to believe that someone as beautiful and kind like you would want someone like me." he answered sheepishly, "But if you're happy, I'm happy."

"Like I said before, I don't need wealth and money to make me happy." I murmured, "I would give up everything, my position, wealth and background if it meant I could be with you."

A smile quirked up on his lips, before he pecked me quickly on the lips, his usual smirk beginning to form on his face by my red face, "You'll have to get used of that." he said teasingly.

I smiled goofily, "As long as my brother doesn't catch you."

Apollo swore softly to himself, "I can't even get near you without getting an earful from him."

"Doesn't help that you told my brother that you would bed his sister." I replied snorting.

He groaned, "Don't remind me." he muttered.

"You should feel at an advantage." I said loudly, but smiling to myself, happy that he was his usual self again.

He frowned, "Then how come it feels like I'm not?"

"You're my brother's best friend, he trusts you right?"

Apollo nodded thoughtfully, "That's true but I don't get where you're going with this."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, "Well if he trusts you, he would feel that I'm best with you than with another guy who he hardly knows."

"You're right." Apollo said a grin growing on his face, an idea forming, "I'll just have to approach him carefully with ease and slowness."

"He's not an animal, Apollo." I deadpanned once again trying not to roll my eyes.

"You haven't seen him when he's super angry! He turns into a monster when he does." Apollo replied shuddering slightly at the memory, "He may be sweet and all that stuff to girls, but he's scary when someone provokes him or his family."

"Well I wish you luck." I replied solemnly patting his chest.

"You're not going to help?" Apollo asked sorrowfully, his eyes filled with betrayal, making him look adorable, "Traitor." he hissed.

"Sorry, but I actually care for my life." I said grinning widely.

I yawned, as I nestled into Apollo my eyelids beginning to close.

"You should sleep."

"Its almost time to wake up anyway." I said sleepily turning my head to look out the window, not surprised to see that the sun was getting ready to come up, "I'll just sleep for a little bit." I muttered as I leaned on Apollo's chest my eyes beginning to close.

Before I knew it I was falling asleep but a small smile grew on my lips when I heard Apollo murmur, "Sweet dreams."

This time I was ready to face the nightmares because I knew Apollo was by my side.

-

My eyes fluttered opened, and I blinked drowsily, my eyes meeting the color of red. I rubbed my crusty dry eyes and I almost screamed in shock and embarrassment to see Julian sitting on a chair next to the bed staring at me with boredom.

I buried my head into my hands, "What are you doing here?" I demanded, my face red, embarrassed that he was seeing me like this.

"Good morning to you grumpy head." Julian said rolling his eyes in annoyance, "And here I came to help you're man get better."

I turned my head, hoping that Julian wouldn't see my red cheeks, "Sorry." I mumbled wincing slightly as I weaved my hand through my sort of tangled hair. I grimaced, "I didn't mean it to sound like that..."

"I invited him." Apollo said holding back a chuckle, "So he could fix my arm." he said to me as he raised his crooked arm.

"Right." I muttered, biting back a yawn. My eyes traveled to the window, it was clear outside. The sun was shining and there didn't seem to be any clouds in the sky. I winced at the strong rays of the sun, as I threw my head back onto the pillow, it was past morning.

"You seem tired." Julian said suspiciously his eyes flickering back to me and Apollo.

I nodded, "I didn't get much sleep last night."

"Are you?" Julian asked carefully turning his head towards Apollo, his eyes slightly narrowed.

Apollo shook his head, "No, but I'm sore, everywhere." he muttered, groaning as he tried to stretch his arms and move around.

Julian shook his head, "If you were going to do that, you should've at least done it in the village not here, there's a young boy who could've heard it!"

"Excuse me?" I asked frowning deeply not understanding where this was going.

Realization suddenly dawned on Apollo's face, as a crooked and smug grin grew on his face.

"You don't need to hide it from me." Julian said in a bored voice, "I knew something was going on the room when I heard noises from you're room."

Apollo burst out laughing and I squealed shaking my head frantically, my eyes widening, "What? You just have a dirty mind, we didn't do anything here! Nothing happened!"

"If you say so." Julian drawled lazily, smirking slightly as he leaned back on the chair, not believing me one bit.

"Its true!" I insisted, my face beginning to flush like crazy, as I felt my neck heat up, "Tell him Apollo!" I hissed nudging Apollo.

Apollo seeming unaffected by this only had a smug look on his face, "But something did happen, remember?" he his smirk growing wider, as his eye twinkled with mischief, "We-"

I slapped my hand over Apollo's mouth, gripping his mouth tightly, glaring at him, "Nothing happened." I growled, "We did not give each other the pleasures you're thinking about."

"Then what pleasures did you give him then?" Julian answered back, raising a brow, enjoying that I was being aggravated, "Care to elaborate?" he asked sarcastically.

I groaned realizing I had worded it wrong, "That's not what I meant!"

Julian shrugged as he stood up, "Either way I don't want to know." he said snorting, my face falling as I realizing he still didn't believe me.

I groaned throwing my hands into the air, giving up.

"Anyway," Julian muttered as he stood up, "I'm going to place the bone back in its original position."

"Just make it quick." was all Apollo said, his lips set into a thin line, as Julian grasped his arm.

Julian shrugged, "It may hurt a bit." he warned.

I closed my eyes, not wanting to witness it as I heard a grunt from Apollo . I shuddered when I heard a loud pop .

"There we go." Julian said casually as he placed the bowl of water in front of Apollo, "Just place you're arm in there.

It suddenly hit me that Julian wasn't wearing his glove while he was doing this. It was even stranger at the fact that only one hand wore the glove while the other wasn't.

I opened my mouth to question him but I closed it shut, it was probably better not to ask him.

"I'll be back." was all he said as he turned to left. There was a illuminating flash of bright red, as he left, making me blink. I blinked again, swearing that I did see a flash as he left.

Was I dreaming?

Apollo groaned, shivering slightly as he placed his arm in the icy cold water making me divert my attention to him.

"Does it hurt a lot?" I murmured staring at his arm which no longer crooked.

"Not that bad." Apollo muttered his eyes closed, he gave a small smile, "As long as you're here, I can take the pain."

I rolled my eyes, punching him softly on his good shoulder, "That was cheesy." I answered biting my lip to keep the smile coming from my face, "But seriously are you alright?"

Before Apollo could answer, Julian barged in, holding a sack and a roll of white cloths.

He looked at me, his usual cold expression on his face, "Here, you'll need to apply this on his arm and change the bandages once every week."

I nodded as he placed it in my hands, "Thank you." I said sincerely grateful for his help.

He nodded curtly, before he nodded at Apollo, "Jack's outside, by the way, I was going to help him but my body's sore."

As if on cue, he stumbled slightly, his legs and arms seemed to be sore, and his face was etched with pain.

"Are you okay?" I asked in alarm, as I made movement to get off and help him.

"I'm fine." he replied letting out a forced smile, which looked more like a grimace to me, "I just slept wrong that's it." he heaved before he left the room slamming it shut.

Suspicion roused on me, he seemed fine when I first saw him in the morning.

I glanced at Apollo, who seemed to be having the same thought.

Shaking my head, I grabbed the sack Julian had given me, pouring whatever was in it in my head. Thick sticky substances poured onto my hand making me grimace, it had a fresh forest smell to it, but I didn't like the way it felt.

Apollo must have felt the same way because he gagged dramatically when I rubbed it over his arm.

"Strange." Apollo murmured to himself, as he moved around his body, shifting his legs and arms around.

"What?" I asked absentmindedly, as I wiped my hands onto a towel on the table.

"My body doesn't feel as sore as from yesterday and the morning." he said quietly, "I feel like I could walk around and actually fight someone." he swung his legs over the bed, shifting his arm so I could bandage it, "Ew, I don't like the feel of this." he muttered, "Even some of my bruises and scratches are gone!" he exclaimed looking slightly freaked out.

"What?" I asked, this catching my interest.

True to his word, a lot of his bruises were gone and in fact most of his scratches were completely gone. I glanced up at the scar of his face, to my utter shock it was almost gone. In fact it seemed as if it was fading away.

Apollo shrugged, "Well, those bruises and scratched healed up pretty quickly." he said not putting much thought to it as he stretched his legs and did his best attempt to stretch his arms.

I didn't feel convinced, the scratches didn't really make me have a bad feeling, the bruises did. Last time I saw those, which were yesterday, they were fresh, black and blue. There was no way some of those disappeared that quickly. Not to mention that Apollo could already move around like normal, which was strange because Apollo could hardly move.

My eyes glanced at the doorway, an uneasy feeling in my stomach. My mind flashed back to the strange light I had saw and then Julian's sudden stumble.

Did Julian have something to do with this?

-

Looks like someone's hiding a BIG secret. Heh Heh, unfortunately you won't be able to know about it until his book comes out.

Don't forget to vote and comment to tell me how this chapter was!

- NerdyWhale