Forest fire

It wasn’t like Flora hadn’t understood why Elias had gotten upset and angry that she had been seeing Charles. But she couldn’t understand why he didn’t trust her; she had never done anything to deprive him of that trust, had she? Or should she just stand idly by when she was punished for the wrongdoings of someone else? With everything that had been going on in her life, finding out that her parents that had raised her weren’t her biological parents and, that her father was an archangel, that she had a twin sister and an older brother. Much older. It was like Elias hadn’t understood that there was no room for her to breathe anymore, it had been the tip of the iceberg, and she couldn’t handle all of it. Then she had reached out to Charles, and he had understood, which was why she had started talking with him, but there was nothing else than that; they were just friends. She loved Elias and would never do anything to hurt him. But last night had just been too much, and she had started yelling; things were said in the heat of the moment, things she knew she no longer could take back.

News travelled fast. Even faster now that everyone has access to the internet just by taking out their phone and snapping a picture. Unlucky for Elias, there had been a news reporter at the bar. He had found solitude and comfort in the bottom of a few glasses.
And when the Crown Prince had ended up kissing the Princess of Leah Abyss, well, it had been too big of a chance to pass up. When she had seen the pictures, she had gone to her newfound sister Elena, not knowing where else she could go right now. Afraid that she had ruined her chances with Elias as well, as she had never been in this situation before. She was hoping that Elena might be able to give her some advice.

Leon was sitting at the breakfast table, waiting for his brother to return. He was fuming at this point; he had really thought Elias had turned around, that he had meant it this time. But if all it took was one fight with Flora for him to run back to his old habits, he wasn’t sure if Elias even wanted to change. He looked up as Elias stepped through the door, waiting for him to join him he threw the tabloid in front of him, the front page; Elias kissing Kailani, and the headline; Crown Prince takes off with Beautiful Siren Princess.
“Nice picture brother,” he said with a low annoyed voice, not letting his eyes take off his older brother.

It had been a night of regrets, truly, not all of it. He had enjoyed actually just talking to Kailani, knowing what was burdening the beautiful siren who felt like nothing in her life made sense anymore. That she had lost a piece of herself that she didn't know how to get back. Elias had recognized it from himself in the past, feeling like nothing mattered anymore. Like you were just going in a flow where no one cared what would become of you, perhaps it had been the reason the two had ended up talking till almost the break of dawn before Elias had left the hotel to get home.

Walking towards the breakfast table, sipping his morning coffee that he had gotten on his way here, he looked at his phone shortly to reply a message from Kailani, then putting it back down as Leon looked towards him. It had been a while since he had looked at him with that look. There was a reason why Elias didn't use his socials, or have notifications on it at least, to not be provoked by drama. Elias sat down only to get the tabloid in front of him with the latest news. Elias clicked his tongue. "It was one kiss - one stupid mistake," he growled a little mostly to himself. He knew Flora wasn't here, but he had needed to be sure before going searching, because he needed to apologize. "I'm serious, nothing else happened - it was just a fucking stupid mistake." What was really worse, making one mistake in a moment of complete chaos in your mind - or have the world take that mistake and turn it into more than it was?

“One kiss is all it takes”, he growled back; he didn’t need to know if nothing had happened; he wasn’t the one he had hurt by kissing someone and then disappearing with them in the middle of the night, from a bar nonetheless, what was worse, was the fact that Elias and Kailani had been in a relationship, that didn’t really sell the whole; well nothing happened, rather well.
“I’ll see what I can do to make this go away” like he usually did, he got up from his seat and took his coffee with him. “You know, she fell asleep on the couch waiting for you, and then when she woke up, she saw that on her phone, so she left”, he added before turning and walking toward the study, letting Elias sit for a while stewing in his own mess. He could come when he wanted to know where Flora had gone off too, since he, of course, knew that as well, but he wasn’t telling him before he had calmed herself and made absolutely sure that he wanted to go and find Flora, telling her it was all a stupid mistake, that he had only kissed Kai but never went to bed with her.
Leon had, of course, texted Mariella telling her what was going on and if she had the time where she could find Flora, as it wasn’t far from where Nigel was living after all.

Elias looked up at his brother, one thing that had changed despite the thousand of other times there had been a scandal was this: was how guilty Elias looked this time. Because out of all the other times he had never regretted his choices till this moment. Elias was just about to thank Leon for taking time out of his day to try make this go away, when his younger brother added to the pile of guilt. Making it even tougher to swallow. Elias remained silent, looking at the picture before getting up from where he had been seated and cursed a little. Trying to mostly put his head and heart in what was going on, the cup in his hand shattered by the forced of his grip from the frustration. And all he wanted was to throw something, punch something.


These days in the Blanchard house, you became a morning person even more than you already were before. Baby Archibald didn't really sleep that long, and she did pick up on the slightest. But she loved her nephew with all her heart and soul, so it was a blessing to be this close to the family - even though she was looking forward to start a chapter that was her own. All those thoughts had been put on a pause when Leon had texted her about what was going on, and it hadn't taken long before she herself had seen the news. No, that wasn't good. So, she had told Irina and Nigel she was heading over to Diego's since Irina had been able to catch Flora's scent rather quickly. And for Mariella, she could feel all of Flora's emotions from down the street, making her easy to find. After having knocked on the door, she had given Diego and Danica a warm smile, before going in to find Flora with Elena. "Hey," she gave Flora a small smile as she knocked on the door and walked in, sitting herself next to Flora on the bed.

It wasn’t that Leon didn’t understand, he understood very well, and sometimes that was his curse. But that didn’t mean that you could get a free pass just because you had done something stupid and regretted it, especially not when it was done in a fit of anger. So, when he could hear how his brother roamed around, clearly trying to see if he could get rid of the emotions that became too much, he just sat down and got to work.

It wasn’t really like she wanted to sit here and cry, but she couldn’t even form a direct sentence, almost choking on her words when she explained it was all her fault and what if Elias would never want her back. Not only was the woman beautiful, but she had said some awful things, and she had never meant to hurt Elias. She felt so incredibly alone now, despite finding a sister she never knew she had. But that didn’t change the fact that she had been living at the estate with Elias, and now, where was she supposed to live now?
Flora looked up, removing her tears as Mariella knocked on the door and stepped inside, “hi” she hiccupped and then looked down at her fingers. Danica came in, carrying a tray with tea and small muffins. She gave Flora a sympathetic smile and then looked toward Elena “just tell me if you girls need anything, okay?” she said, before walking out again, picking up Derek on the way, that had thought he should join the group of girls and whatever interesting that was happening inside his sister's room.

Elena nodded to Danica with a small yet warm and thankful smile as she placed the tray with tea and muffins. Then looking towards her newfound sister as well, then at Mariella. Now despite Mariella knowing what was going on, it was her place to broadcast the events nor try to make sense of things, even if it was tempting and she knew it could settle the mind of her friend. And Elias needed to come down here and apologize himself. "It's not your fault okay, he is responsible for his own actions - don't add the weight to your shoulders," Mariella however wanted to remind Flora. Now she hadn't spoken to Elias herself, she didn't know how guilty or not guilty he felt about this event. But she placed an arm around Flora and hugged her closer towards herself.

"The guy is an idiot okay - to act out simply because an argument, who even does that? Clearly he has issues," Elena argued her case, not really finding any way to see why Elias might be worthy of a forgiving hand in this matter. But as Flora had expressed she was afraid that he wouldn't take her back. That he'd rather be with the siren. "He loves you okay - I bet my ass that he is coming by soon," Mariella tried to overshadow the words Elena had spoken. "He will show up," a dangerous promise she knew that, but she wouldn't have made it if she wasn't so sure in some way. "We can just teleport there, confront him about it?" Elena suggested, making Mariella press her brows a bit together - not sure it was a good idea, but who knew. It was perhaps easiest.

Flora nodded slowly, hiding her face away while small sobs left her. It didn’t help that she was angry at the fact that she could be this pathetic, that she couldn’t gather her thoughts better and just; breathe. But maybe it wasn’t that weird when you thought about it; with everything that had happened in Flora’s life as of late, it was understandable that what might be a little thing was being so big that she didn’t feel like she could breathe.
She looked up when Elena mentioned that he was an idiot and shouldn’t have been so upset over a little argument. Or not negligible, but because of one.
Teleport? Flora swallowed; maybe it was for the better; she didn’t want Danica, Diego, or Derek to be a part of it, even though she had already brought far more to the doorstep than she wanted to. She then shook her head; she didn’t feel like going there. “Maybe, maybe we could go for a walk? I feel like I'm suffocating here, maybe somewhere where there isn’t any cell service; I just need to get some time to think and breathe,” she whispered with a soft smile, even though it didn’t quite reach her eyes.

Elena nodded a little bit a place without the best cell service, she knew just the place. Then teleported them to the mountains near where Griffin's cabin had been once. She looked around, "the cell service is here, but its really so far out that it's hard to trace down or get any calls in," Elena told knowing how many times she had complained to Griffin about it not working. She looked around the sad remains of the cabin, and noticed something shinning in one of the bushes walking over to pick up a ring. So, this was where Griffin had dropped his ring that bloody idiot.

Mariella wrapped her arms around Flora for a moment, then letting her go if she just needed to walk around alone and gather her thoughts. Looking shortly over at Elena. Afterall all she could do was just let Flora process this, while she hoped that Elias would get off his ass and do something.

Lucky for everyone Elias had come to his senses, and grabbed his phone usingfind my friends on his phone, he was able to trace where Flora had been last, but since the signal wasn't really good, he texted Iris if she could help him locate her - mostly because he wasn't actually sure Leon knew where Flora was, and he was very determent to find her himself. It was his mess after all. But once he had the location he walked up to the study, "I had Iris help me track the location to the mountains, its not that far from here. I'm going to find her," he announced and breathed out. "Hopefully its not too late," he spoke very low, feeling how frighten he was to think he perhaps had lost her. What if he had lost her because of this?

Flora still hadn’t gotten used to being teleported around, which still made her somewhat nauseous; maybe she should get one of those fancy keys that Elias had, and then she wouldn’t have to worry about going anywhere because all she needed was right there in her hand. She gave her sister a slight nod before she felt Mariella pull her in for a hug. Closing her eyes, she stood there for a while before letting out a small breath.  "Thank you”, she mumbled, looking back and forth at the girls “for everything,” she said with a small smile; before she looked around, it seemed like a weird place to know where it was, but there wasn’t anything there. With her hand in her pockets, she started walking, finding the air around her extremely comforting and helpful to get her mind on the right track.

Leon looked up as his brother came in; he nodded, “you won’t know before you find her”, he said with a small smile, glad that his brother had tried to figure things out himself. “I’ll make sure things are going smoothly here, you had a meeting later today, but I managed to move it around”, he told Elias before letting his eyes fall back to the computer in front of him; it was still a mess, but it hadn’t been the worst thing he had made go away, and even though he hoped this was a lesson that Elias would never forget, he was pretty sure it wouldn’t be the last either.

Elena gave Flora a small smile, she wanted to believe for Flora that this was something that could be sorted out. But Elena had pretty much lost the idea on how to really believe in love anymore, perhaps death had changed that much for her. That she didn't really believe in it anymore. Which was tragic enough on its own. Mariella exhaled a little letting Flora walk a bit on her own, perhaps it was good for the soul too, to just take a few steps on your own. Besides she could wait here with Elena.

Elias hated how this folded out in front of him, not knowing his own head. He just knew he needed to find her before it was too late. Then walking out of the room, frustrated clearly, but almost ran out of the mansion tuning fully into his senses to run outside using his instincts of tracking to catch her scent. Then he didn't stop running, he just ran and ran, not caring what ever tool it could take on his body to not take a break - he would be fin on the other end. Reaching the mountains, he caught Mariella and Elena's scent as well nearby. Then Flora wasn't far away, and he didn't approach the other two girls, well he had an idea that Mariella knew he was there.

He finally stopped running not far from Flora. "Hey," he exhaled, the sweat dripped from his forehead as he exhaled heavily. He didn't even know what to say, if he should shout sorry over the cliffs or just keep looking at her like a lost puppy trying to figure out if she even would want him back after it. "I'm sorry about what you read, or saw  - think you saw, there is nothing between me and Kai, it was one extremely stupid kiss, nothing else happened -" he then spoke, not knowing if she would believe him. Many wouldn't over the years because of the reputation he had created for himself, no matter how much Leon had tried to keep his back clean - Elias wasn't blind to his own faults even if it sometimes looked like it. "I love you, there is no one else in the entire world I want more than you and I screwed up, I know that. I know that," he exhaled heavily again realizing he had forgotten to breath for a moment.

Hey
Her eyes closed when she heard his voice. She could hear the emotions in his voice, the staggering breath, even though she knew that he could run farther and faster than any average human. And still, he sounded like he had pushed himself to a limit. Flora stood rooted to the ground; even if she wanted to turn and look at him, she couldn’t get herself to it. Instead, her eyes found a tree nearby, her eyes studying the bark and the veins it made over the tree trunk. It took everything not to start crying; she had already cried enough and didn’t want to keep showing emotions she would rather just be without.
Then he started to explain that even if he intended to make her feel better, it only worsened the pain. They had kissed, a gasp left her, and she looked into the sky–her fingers flexed, nails found the skin of her palm, and she started pressing into the soft flesh in the hopes that the pain would keep her mind clear. But she believed him; she believed when he told her it was only a kiss, that nothing else had happened. But she was just so confused.
The last words that left him made her sob, she couldn’t stop it, and without thinking that her nails had broken the skin, she pressed her hands against her face. She had no words for him because she was still processing the news.

It pained him that he didn't know what to do or say, it wasn't really a situation he had been standing in before. And he had been rather surprised as well when Kailani had kissed him, but it would also be a lie if he said he hadn't returned it in the moment. No matter how short, or brief it had been - it was still a kiss. Elias was ashamed of himself and whatever impulse that had caused him to react like this, an action of self-defense because he believed she didn't want him anymore - a stupid thought. He had better self-esteem than that, just not that day. Not after that fight. The last time he had fought with someone he loved it had been Florence, and everyone almost knew the story of how that went down. It was the latest experience he had, the one he had relied on. Knowing he should have been better. "I'm sorry, you deserve so much better than that. I - I completely understand if you don't want to come back with me, I'm a complete idiot, you can even shout it at me," he said, didn't breath he was holding his breath, knowing he needed air, but his body didn't allow him to at first. "Please say something," his voice begged in a half choked sob, Elias never begged, not like this - he didn't want to lose her, and yet he couldn't and wouldn't even hold it against her if she never wanted to see him again.

She bit down on her quivering lip, hoping she could make it stop showing the weakness she was feeling. She hated this. This engulfing feeling of despair. She had promised herself that she would never feel like this after she had severed her ties to her adoptive mother and father. But yet, here she stood and was so dreadfully unhappy. So consumed by sadness that no words would actually leave her.
But when he begged that she would say something she finally turned around and looked at him. She hated how sad he looked, knowing this was partly her fault as well. If she had just told him that she had been seeing Charles, she just hadn’t thought of it as a bad thing—there weren’t any feelings involved anymore, and they had after all been great friends before she had confessed that she had seen him in a more romantic light. A light that now was only reserved for Elias.
“You bloody idiot,” she said, and lightly punched his arm “you bloody stupid idiot” she whispered letting her eyes connect with his “I don’t want to shout at you, I’m just glad you came for me” she couldn’t hide the sadness quaking through every word she said.