In Lieu (OPEN)

Charlotte, after taking the Shadow Society, and Silas' club had seemed to fall apart, she had decided she needed to brush up on her metamorphagus skills, she did not want to let them lax and she needed to make sure that she was still strong although the danger was immediately out of the picture, you never knew when you might need to defend yourself.

She hoped that he would teach her some more things to help her, but he was busy grading papers so he had told her that he would do it another time, before the next meeting.

Smiling to herself Charlotte took out her Swordmage sword and swung it through the air in a stabbing motion, while she did that she morphed into the form of the Doctor, then as she worked on her footwork and stabbed behind her, as she moved her body she morphed into Raven Drake.

Carrying on in this manner, Charlotte hoped to perfect her technique.

Airen had missed the feel of his sword in his hand. He once more felt his magic circulating and multiplying as it passed through the sword. As he approached, he heard some one in their. Silently creeping in, he saw Charlotte their with her sword. He was changing forms as she practice. He had to admit that he was impressed. He leaned on a wall and waited for her to finished. He silently unsheathed his sword.

He missed Charlotte. They spent so little time together these days. He knew that she had moved on. He often wondered if she had found some one else. He felt deeply saddened, but at the same time, he was glad. He was sad that she no longer cared for him in that way, but he was happy that the break up hadn't hurt her.

Airen finished his thoughts and waited patiently for Charlotte to finished.

Charlotte sighed, and paused, taking deep breaths as she placed her hand over her chest, trying to massage the tension out, she really should not have pushed herself this hard, if Cobalt found out she would be in big trouble, normally he liked her to be as relaxed as possible, so that her condition wouldn't flare up.

It was becoming a lot easier to get her into a state where she started to have those shooting pains in her chest. She hoped whatever Cobalt was doing, he was going to be finished soon, finding the cure for whatever this was, the healers of course had other things on their mind than helping her.

Turning as she took a sip of water from her bottle, her waist length hair whipping slightly as she did so, Charlotte noticed Airen was there and she blushed a little bit;

"Hey Airen." she stated, taking another sip "How long have you been there?" Charlotte asked, a little self conscious.

Airen frowned in concern as Charlotte held a hand to her chest. He felt his own scar over his heart begin to flare up. The ritual he had performed was supposed to have done away with the condition that Charlotte had. He resisted the urge to put his hand over his scar to somehow alleviate the pain. It was better that Charlotte didn't know what he had done for her. She'd would feel indebted to him and try to make it up to him. He didn't want that.

Airen himself blushed when Charlotte spotted him. He hoped she didn't feel uncomfortable around him now. He mentally slapped himself for thinking that. Charlotte was always so accepting, so why would he worry.

"Not long. I just felt as if I should be here for some reason, so I brought by sword just in case," he said, lifting up the handle to indicate it. "Are you okay? I saw you hurting," He asked, genuinely concerned. He walked over and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. He kept a safe distance away, so that she wouldn't think him as trying to get back together with her. No matter how badly he wanted to.

Charlotte tilted her head to one side, Airen seemed to be more than a little bit anxious, maybe upset about something? She didn't know what it was, she had not seen Airen for a long time...maybe something else had been going on that she didn't know about? Should she ask? If she did maybe he wouldn't tell her...that would be more upsetting than if she just didn't ask.

"Oh, I just felt a little bit self conscious about people watching me work out, I don't know why, I guess it's just one of my little pet peeves." she explained with a shy smile "Thats why I never really liked being part of Silas' group, if I messed up, everyone would see."

Nodding her head she smiled happily, she was okay, there was nothing wrong with her now that she had had her rest, she just needed to have a little bit rest so that the pain would go away. Airen seemed to be a little bit concerned about her, which was sweet.

"I'm fine thanks Air, I just needed a little bit of a rest." she smiled lightly "How are you, I haven't seen you in a while?" Charlotte asked, smiling brilliantly at Airen as she took another sip.

Airen liked the fact that Charlotte seemed to be more comfortable around him. He himself had been trying to come to terms with the fact that he was no longer in that romantic interest list, but he had just come to love her from the sidelines, hoping for a second chance.

"I understand, I also like to train by myself, though for different reasons. I sometimes find that I can get a bit, well, carried away," he said, remembering a certain training exercise where he had entered into some sort of trance and had been able to emerge back to consciousness covered with white flames that left no burns.

Airen blushed a bit, not as much as before, but enough to where one could easily tell. Why did he have such hard time moving on, and she could simply get back to being friends with him in the blink of an eye?

"I'm well. I've had some interesting events happen to me recently, but I won't bore you with the details. Let's just say that I'm a changed man," he said, throwing his arms out lightly. Indeed he had changed, his face had become more chiseled, his muscles more firm, and he had gained a certain glow in his ice-blue eyes that spoke caring, calm, and gentleness. The more obvious being the huge scar that adorned his chest.

Charlotte raised an eyebrow when Airen said that sometimes he got carried away when he was training, it sounded more than a little bit odd to her, but she didn't want to ask any questions in case it was too personal for him to talk about...he hadn't talked to her about many things to do with himself after all.

"Well I'm glad that I'm not around when you're training." she stated with a slightly nervous laugh "Maybe you should put a sign up on the door here while you're busy, so someone doesn't walk in unawares on your mad skills."

Of course, Charlotte had noticed that Airen seemed to have matured physically and she smiled lightly, of course she had too, they were teenagers thats what happened after all. Flipping her hair back over her shoulders she smiled;

"Yeah I can see, you've grown into yourself a little bit more, but we all have, I believe its something called puberty." she smirked lightly.