Sobering up...
by Okami
Fri, 2 Jun 2000, at 6:48 a.m. CST

Okami lifted himself from the bushes, his mind in a fog of pain and amnesia. Looking around, he slowly realized where he was. He had passed out in the bushes behind the Kinship town hall. Well at least no one had seen him. Rubbing his still sore chest, he turned the corner of the building, only to see Aeeyia sitting on the bench outside. How the hell did she know he was here... The realization dawned on him. Brutus. Okami quietly tried to sneak away before she could notice, but as soon as he turned, he tripped and fell over a root in the ground. Quickly scrambling to his feet, hoping to avoid detection, he quickly glanced back at Aeeyia. She simply looked at him and sighed. Well looks like I did it again, Okami thought, why does she put up with me? He turned to her and waved. "Hello Hon!" She quietly strolled over to him, looked him in the eyes, and sighed again.
"Yer drunk."
"No I'm not! I'm hungover, there's a difference!" Okami quickly realized the stupidity of that statement. Aeeyia simply placed her hands on his shoulders, and pushed him backwards into a previously unnoticed water trough. Quickly waking up from the ice water he was immersed in, he looked up at the female ranger.
"Sober up." She then returned to her seat on the bench.
Okami struggled to rise out of the trough, and walked across the yard, sitting across from Aeeyia. He looked up, and saw the dissapointment in her eyes. "Looks like another classic Okami foul up." He then glanced down at his feet, silently.
"It wasn't yer fault Okam."
Okami looked back up, and sighed. "Of course it's my fault! If I hadn't ever dragged the rangers into that murder at the Britain market.."
Aeeyia cut him off in midsentence. "Yeh did the right thing. Yeh did yer best."
Okami continued glaring at his feet. "My best wasn't good enough..."
"Gawd Okam, yeh tried yer damndest t' help me!"
"I shouldna let ye get caught in the first place." It all made sense to him, was he the only one that could see it?
"It wasnt yer fault.."
"Of course it was! Remember that promise I made t' ye in Kent's!" Was it really this hard to get people to lay blame where it belonged?
"Ah dont need protecting..."
Okami looked up and saw the bruises on her face, and the slash across her cheek. And then came that gut wrenching feeling... "I promised I would and I didn't.. I dont deserve ye."
Aeeyia sighed. "Ahm not with yeh cause ah need protecting, ahm with yeh cause I love yeh!"
Okami looked at his feet, unable to look her in the eyes. "And I let ye down... Just like I did my family, just like I did that bride I was escortin', just like I did the rangers." Okami reached up to the clasp on his forest cloak, and ripped the cape off and threw it to the ground. "I don't deserve it, and I don't deserve ye."
Aeeyia quickly scooped up his cape, and tossed it into his lap. "Yeh gotta quit living in the past hon, we all make mistakes."
"Yeah.. I just make more than everyone else." Okami simply glared at the cape in his lap.
"Okami, quit worrying about yer mistakes, and start looking t' the future!" Aeeyia seemed visibly upset at this point.
Okami looked up at her, and a tear fell down his cheek. "The future?!?! Rate I'm going I'll get ye killed in two weeks!"
Aeeyia opened her mouth as though she was going to say something, and then stopped herself. She simply turned and started walking away. Okami resumed glaring at his feet. She stopped a few yards away and turned around. "Ahm not gonna watch yeh do this to yerself. Dont talk to me till yeh quit acting like an arse." She slowly walked up the road toward Yew.
Okami watched her walk off and felt his heart sink to his knees. Slowly he began to realize the situation he was in. He felt horrible with her, and worse without her.
Okami rose to his feet, rubbing the sore spot on his chest, and then began the long walk to Yew...