First Firewhisky (Chassy)

Sterling pried her arms off of him. "Please don't apologize, it isn't your fault." he said slowly backing away several paces.

"For the record, I wasn't telling you a fake name to try to get close to you before dropping a bomb, I was trying not to distress you. I thought you'd leave soon and we could sort out the whole issue later but... you brought me outside, then... well, then this." He swooned slightly, staggering to keep his balance. The effects of the firewhisky were now definitely setting in. "I'm sorry..." he said, making a motion to leave. "I shouldn't have come back to England..."

Chase stared at him as she was pulled off. She stared at him for a long moment before blinking several times. "Sterling." She tried to say, but he kept talking. "I didn't mean it like that.." She said slowly. "I just meant, everyone seems to be giving me fake names! You are the second to use that tactic at all!" She said staring at him, tears in her eyes, but it wasn't visible because of the rain. "Sterling.." She said slowly, as though trying to get her mind around the word, to think it over and process it. THIS was the Sterling she had written about? The one who had used the Imperius curse to make her kiss him? He couldn't have hurt a fly.. but apparently he had, and she had hurt him..

"NO!" She cried out when he turned to leave, she lunged forward and grabbed his wrist, she jumped in front of him, and then suddenly leaned up, and her lips found his very briefly. "I don't blame you for what you did." She said slowly. "Not at all.. it was my fault, and don't you DARE blame yourself for what I did!" She said and took a step towards him, so that she had to look almost straight up to see his face at all. "I hurt you! And I am apologizing now!" She said forcefully, taking another step in an attempt to get him to back away. "You should have stayed here in England in the first place! Instead of running off to wherever you went! And now that you are here! There is no more blaming yourself.. or feeling bad okay?!" She felt tears pour down her cheeks, and she wondered where they came from.

"Sterling..." she said slowly and her voice quieted down to just above the noise of the rain. "I am sorry for what I did to you.. but.. I am not her anymore! I won't hurt you like that.. ever again." she said slowly, and then turned to leave herself, hoping he wouldn't follow her, but inside, she was hoping he'd follow her, hoping that he would stop her and keep talking to her. The one person who seemed to want to talk to her, not just make out with her, or kill her! That wasn't something she came around to very often, and she wanted to keep it close to her heart.

Sterling was stopped by the force on his wrist,
As he allowed himself to be kissed.
Immediately, he stung with regret,
Because he couldn't force himself to forget,
The endeavor he lived through the year before,
And didn't want to face it anymore.

But as the only part of his life that brought smiles,
Walked away in teary despair,
Regardless of all their past wiles,
There was damage he needed repair.

As exuberance faded to tears,
As he'd brought her all these years,
He chased after her, turning her by the shoulder,
(Ne'er in his life had he been bolder),
Not considering any specific ends,
He simply asked "Can't we just be friends?"

[[The first four lines rhymed on accident, so I decided to make this post a poem ^_^]]

Chase ran for a quite a while, and just as she began to realize that he wasn't going to come after her at all. She felt a grip on her shoulder. She stumbled, and almost fell had he not kept his hand there. She stood facing him as he asked her to be friends. Her eyes fell to the ground. "I would like that.." She said slowly. "But.." Her eyes darted up to his and back down to the ground. "Sterling.." She said slowly her words weighted. "I know I don't remember all that happened to us.. and I may not remember what all I did to you.. I just know the fuzzy details, but do you really think you can just be my friend?" She said very slowly.

"I can be your friend.. certainly.. I know I can, but can you do that too? I wrote about a time in the lake.. Where you almost drowned.. the kiss, and the stones.." She said softly, her eyes looking anywhere but at his. "I don't know what was said.. and that's all I know of it.. but it said before that, that we had just planned on being friends had we not? How do we know that that won't happen again? That we won't go back on our word?" She said tears stinging her eyes still. "So.. I don't think we can be friends Sterling.. not for a long time anyway, I think.." Her voice sounded strained as she forced these words to come out. "I think we should pretend we never met today.. and maybe.. maybe we won't see each other to much, and we can pretend that never happened. I'll see you around Sterling." She said and turned on her heel, walking slowly away from him. Her eyes were closed and her head bent. But she knew she was doing this for the best, she was doing this to keep them both happy for a long long time.

Sterling picked up Ailia. It was a good thing too, because Ailia was getting too lazy to keep following them around. Ailia, still dry, purred softly and Sterling patted its head.

"Well. Back to the Leaky Cauldron then, I suppose?" He tried the Breeze Charm again. "Ventium". A gust of respectable wind flew toward him, blowing his cats' dry fur all over Sterling's robes. "Oh now you've done it, Ailia..." he said, stumbling back toward the Leaky Cauldron. At the last moment, however, he veered off in the direction of the Ice Cream parlor. No alcohol there...

[[END OF THREAD]]