Reunited and it Feels So Good

The moment Bowen's emerald eyes met his, Artorias felt his heart wrench with how much he'd missed her. His sister looked so... peaceful again. Content, at ease out here amongst the fields and beneath the stars. It was a far cry from the woman she had been when he'd seen her off with the Fatalises at the conclusion of his wedding half a year ago. Seeing her this way brought him such relief, knowing that she had found whatever it was she had needed. But there was still the matter of how she had gotten to that point to contend with. She questioned his statement with humor, but there was none in his voice when he had spoken.

Bo questioned if this was not still her home and reminded him of her promise. "I don't know, is it?" he asked with a raise of his own brow, his voice detached and measured, like he was being careful to compose his emotions as he spoke. "The last time you were here, you didn't seem to take to it as your home. And yes, you did promise to return... the same way you promised you'd go to the Armada." He laid his cards out before her. He had been to the Armada twice during the time she was supposedly there and confirmed that she'd never went. That was the part that troubled Artorias the most—that his sister had broken her word to him and gone to who knew where. He had no way of knowing where she was, if she was all right, or if he'd ever see her alive again. Did she even know the worry that caused in him? Ah, but then Bowen's bold gaze began to roam over his body, and Artorias felt that familiar instinctual clench in his core. Gods be damned, why did she have to hold such a spell over him?

The copper and cream fae rose, her slender body moving with the graceful pull of lithe muscles that Artorias worked very hard to not let his amber eyes follow, his jaw clenching as his resolve was tested. Bowen asked in her siren-like voice if he was going to welcome her home and Artorias could have broken in that moment. "I want to, more than you know," he admitted earnestly, his own gaze dipping from Bowen's verdant jewels down to the lips he'd tasted many a time before with nothing short of a primal hunger. How easy it would be to just forget everything else and claim them with his own again. "Bowen... Why didn't you go to the Armada like we talked about? Why didn't you tell me or anyone what you were doing? What if something had happened to you out there? What if you were hurt, or taken, or worse! No one would have known where you were. What if-?" Artorias cut himself off, refusing to let himself get too far gone down that train of thought. "Why did you lie to me?" was the only question he didn't directly ask, but Bowen was clever. She'd know what he wasn't asking her.

"Bowen & Artorias"