Lind Where was that woman? I know she's doing her job on earth, but still she's taking much longer than usual. It's been a week up here, roughly one day and thirteen hours on earth. Peorth should be done by now. "Lind, focus," said Senya another Valkyrie with long green hair, she stood proudly next to me and held onto her spear. I snapped out of my thoughts immediately remembering I was teaching a new unit of trainee goddesses. I and two other Valkyrie's were teaching flying techniques with weapons to the young ones. It was somewhat a tradition that the first class goddesses had to teach the younger goddesses. Flying was a basic skill for any goddess or demon, but these goddesses were still young and needed much practice. It was too often the case that they would fall in mid air and someone would have to catch them. I held onto my axe as I tried to pay attention, I always hated lessons even when I was teaching them. Myself, Mist, Senya and the trainees were in the highest part of heaven, the Skyway its called. This was the perfect place for training because of the mass of random pillars which poked through the clouds. The pillars were a mixture of stone, clouds and magic, causing them to move as the wind blew. If anyone fell whilst up here, well lets just say, I would have to catch them. Mist stood infront as she was the main teacher of the lesson. "Everyone!" She shouted, the gossiping trainees turned to look with eager expressions. "I am Mist the Tornado! And today you all will be learning to fly using my awesome techiniques!" Mist then struck an idiotic pose and smiled at the trainees, most of them swooned and screamed in delight. Somehow, I wished she didn't know how to fly just so I could push her, but we were all floating whilst the trainees were on a temporary base. Mist struck another pose and the trainees swooned again. Senya the most serious out of all of all, whacked Mist on the head. "Everyone!" Senya shouted, scared the trainees quickly lined up properly behind one another and stopped talking. Senya's reputation for strictest sensei was known throughout heaven. "As Mist said we are learning flight manoeuvres but with our weapons. The aim of today's task is to not be knocked off a pillar. In pairs each of you are to jump from your pillars and fly at each other trying to knock your opponent weapon's out of their hand. If you succeed you must fly back to a pillar and you will have won." Quickly they all summoned their weapons and got into pairs wearing frightened expressions on their faces. Senya always neglected to mention the safety measures, I think with fear she thought they would fly better. "Remember this is only training try not to harm your opponent only dis arm them not disfigure them." "Lind-sensei! Your so cool!" Shouted a girl from amidst the screaming fan girl trainees. It seemed I had a fan club as well. "Ahem. Anyhow should you fall in mid air one of us shall catch you." Mist and myself jumped onto opposite pillars to demonstrate the exercise. "Do not under any circumstances purposely fall so you can be caught by one of your senseis!" Yelled Senya at one of the girls. Mist was laughing so hard she almost fell off her pillar. I remembered we were partners in exactly the same exercise so long ago. Who won back then? Once we received "the look" from Senya we charged. It was a pretty far distance to fly but for us it was nothing. I dragged my axe behind me with one hand and Mist held her's in front of her in a defensive position. Mine was the better manoeuvre to dis-arm her; it allowed me to attack her without needing much contact as long as I aimed correctly. We were within reach of each other and she held her weapon high up to strike me down. Quickly using the momentum and force I had gained I spun my weapon in front of me and knocked her weapon out of her hand the moment she struck down. Her axe spun wildly and flew toward Senya who didn't seemed phased. The trainees screamed as they thought it would hit her, but she caught it with one hand and threw it back at Mist when we landed back on our pillars. "Who wants to go first?" Some girls actually surpassed my expectations, whilst some disappointed me greatly. It seemed they forgot to fly once they leapt off their pillar and plummeted to the ground, in total I caught twenty-five trainees, I think some just jumped for fun. The session eventually finished and I seemed to have gained even more fan girls. After Mist received a much deserved yelling from Senya we headed back to the Operations room to sign in for actual duties. "I let you win you know, Lind-chan." Said Mist. "Don't call me Lind-chan." "Sorry I forget only your precious Peorth-san can call you that" she teased "She's not my Peorth-san" I snapped back. "Well you know you want her to be yours," said Mist as she winked at me. I blushed slightly "BAKA! However did you get that idea into your head?" "The dating polls the girls are doing." "You mean my name is on that wretched board?" The dating poll was a giant list of names of people who could be dating, one would place their bet onto a couple, and if it was true you cashed in big. "Yup, you and Peorth, I placed a huge bet on you two as well. So you two better be dating. Besides I haven't seen you act like this about anyone ever since Senpai. You always blushed and laughed when we were around him." "I laugh around other people." "Only when you're near Peorth, I mean one word from her, and you're like a little lost puppy," she laughed. I was so close to hitting her. We arrived at the Operations room and signed in for duties at the register. "Lind-chan" Shouted an all too familiar voice; I turned round to see that Peorth was walking towards us. She was back. I smiled only to have Mist look at me with one of those I told you looks. I quickly reverted back to my normal expression. "Lind-chan, look what I brought back from Belldandy's house." I looked behind her to see the entire Operations team playing mah-jong, cards and Jenga; we sure are an elite goddess team alright. "You took longer than usual." She gave me a tired expression "I got called by that earth boyfriend of Belldandy's called Keichi by accident. Honestly, he wanted me to go away before making a wish. No one makes me go away So I stayed until he made one." I noticed that Mist had slipped away to the Dating polls, she was making yet another bet. I soon grew paranoid as Mist started laughing with the girl in charge of the polls. Everyone was looking at Peorth and I trying to guess if we were dating or not. Why did everyone have to interfere in our business? I quickly grabbed Peorth's hand and pulled her away from the watchful eyes. She didn't know why I did it, but she seemed to except it as she followed me willingly. I brought her to the only place where no one would watch and guess about us, the gardens. We were surrounded by trees and bushes if anyone came to stare at Peorth I would be sure to cut them down. Wait, where has this sudden possessiveness come from? "Lind! Are you paying attention? What was I talking about just now?" Peorth asked from beside me. We were both leaning on a tree behind us and I was staring out at the distance obviously not paying attention to her. Quick! What does Peorth normally talk about? "Roses." I said with confidence, even though my inner Lind was frightened at the prospect of making Peorth angry. Angry Peorth always equalled injured Lind. "Correct. But I know that that was a guess." She caringly placed a hand on my arm "Something is bothering you." She is too nice sometimes. She was right, what Mist said to me had been on my mind ever since. Did I really want Peorth to be my Peorth? Did I even like her in that way? I know I admire her and care for her greatly, in fact in all honestly she's the most important person in my life. But, were my feelings more than just friendship. Of course I thought she was beautiful, what person didn't? She was usually always on my mind. Oh Kami-sama, do I like her?! What on earth is this feeling?! "Lind-Chan?" She repeated. Quick. I had to think of something to say to her, I wanted to say something, anything really but my mouth wouldn't move. It was like I was paralyzed by a lighting arrow. "I think I like someone." Why?! Why did I just tell her that? Foolish mouth! "Oh. Is that it?" Asked Peorth, she smiled at me but it wasn't as warm as her usual smiles. "I don't understand this feeling. It confuses me." I pulled my knees up to my chest and folded my arms around them. "That's the whole point of liking someone Lind." Oh, she forgot to say chan, how unusual. "When you like someone, you wish to spend all of your time with them. Even if you're not doing anything just being in their presence makes you unbelievably happy. Have you never been in love before?" "I've had crushes and such, but have never been in love before." "Then what is this person to you? A crush?" She asked. "I don't know. All I know is I care for them deeply. I'm still figuring the rest out." Like usual Peorth summoned a rose in her hand and inhaled its wondrous fragrance and breathed out deeply. "Well this is what I do; most of my crushes are based on admiration so I picture myself kissing them. If I think it's weird or we don't match I know it's a crush. But if, it feels just right, perfect even than I know I'm in love." I stared at her with deep eyes, where had that deep seriousness come from? She stretched her hand out and placed the rose behind my ear, tucking my hair behind it. It was a usual thing for Peorth to do this, but then, she kissed me on the cheek. "You'll figure it out" she whispered. My eyes widened and I could feel the warmth rising in my cheeks. She lay down on the grass and shut her eyes "I'm going to take a nap, I'm so tired from travelling." My heart beat wildly against my chest and I managed to stutter out an "Ok." My breathing managed to return to normal and I looked to see Peorth was already in a deep slumber, with one of her arms over her stomach and the other stretched above her head. In my mind's eye, I began to do what Peorth said. I pictured all of my crushes and me, and then us kissing. I think my subconscious was the culprit but every time I was about to kiss whoever it was I got out my axe and threatened the person with it. She was right; kissing a crush really did seem weird. I looked down at Peorth, she looked so peaceful and happy in her sleep. The wind blew her hair softly making patterns in the air, a rebellious strand of hair drifted on her face. I don't know why but I leant down and pushed the rebellious strand away, my hand held her cheek gently. I suddenly realised I was so close to her, out faces mere inches away in fact. She looked so beautiful. I remembered Peorth's advice and realised I hadn't kissed her yet. Slowly I inched closer to her and I was mere millimetres away from her. Entranced by her beauty I kissed her. Red lips touched pink in a chaste kiss, her lips were soft. I pulled back immediately and placed my hand over my mouth. What had I done? I just kissed Peorth! I'm such a fool I was only meant to imagine kissing her not doing it in real life. Luckily, Peorth didn't wake up, I was happy at that fact but my heart wouldn't stop beating and my breathing wouldn't calm down. I soon managed to calm down and sit back down in my original position besides Peorth. The kiss despite how short it was, despite that she wasn't even awake, it felt, right. I had never understood love before. I always believed it made you weak, I don't know when I started thinking this way. It was probably when my senpai whom I had a crush on left heaven without even a goodbye to me. It's only through Mist did I find out he was staying on earth married to a human. I was hurt, and I never wanted to be again. So I closed my heart, I became impenetrable. Love made people weak, especially if you worked with them. So many times during missions had I seen lovers through themselves in the line of fire to protect their lover. I never understood why, all I cared about was fulfilling the mission, it was always the mission that mattered most. However, if it was Peorth... If she was ever in danger... I would do anything, anything to protect her. Peorth is all that matters. She shivered slightly and turned so she was lying on her side. I summoned a blanket for her and placed it over her body. I understood now, this feeling, I really was in love with Peorth. I tucked her in and leant on the tree "I'll tell you one day who I'm in love with" I whispered to myself. "I swear it"
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