Ace watched as the woman's lips curled upwards into a soft broken smile. He absently returned one to her, for no particular reason what so ever. Then, he felt her flesh meet his hand. Real skin, scarred and broken real skin of Jennifer who was not the portrayal from his mind. His love stood before him, alive and breathing. As he realized that this was in fact reality, his eyes which were now filled with tears shuddered until a droplet fell into the grass below. A thought buzzed inside his mind, stinging at his brain like wasps. If she had not been taken or killed, she left of her own choice.
"You imbecile,"
"absolute imbecile. Don't apologise to me. Don't show your weakness like that. Remember what I taught you."
He slowly nodded, trying to work out the reason why she had abandoned him. She had left him all alone knowing that there would be little chance of his survival. It was more likely she did not even think about his life, more about her own. "Is that why you left me? Because I was too weak?" His voice was not broken or upset, more logical and forgiving.
Then, for a second, she displayed comfort. Her hand warm upon his own and the harsh pain rippled through her body. Ace had seen how shattered Jenn was but it had seemed to have no improvement what so ever. He wanted to pull her into his arms and for once in his life act like the bigger person and promise to look after her. However, knowing from past experience, she would likely find that insulting.
"I'm so--"
"I'm so sorry, Ace. I...I needed to...I'm glad you're alright."
"I had to make sure. Needed to...well. I'm glad."
"I'm so glad..."
"I...I'm glad you are alright too. Did you expect me to be impaled on a tree somewhere?" He managed a half hearted snigger, before waving his silver bow at her with a smile. "You taught me a lot. I managed to step up my game...sort of." His eyes lowered, it was clear he was more or less identical in heart to before just with a larger body and a weapon strapped to his back. "Please come spend the night. At least Jenn. You don't know how long I have waited for this day. Unless..."
"Unless you replaced me with someone else."