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As soon as Waffle hit the ground, she curled up and started rubbing the top of her head while softly crying and babbling something unintelligible. While it was Sabe's intent to smash her with the bat, he hesitated to do anything; he stayed put and zoned out from the world around him as he watched her.

Sabe suddenly let go of the bat, and made no effort to catch it or pick it back up. Waffle didn't try to grab the bat either. He ignored Nariana's presence and walked around her. He tried to pick up Waffle, who pushed herself away from him at every attempt. After a little while Sabe grabbed her wrist, which was enough for her to comply. Carrying Waffle in one arm, he unlocked the door and stepped out, presumably to set her down in their room.

(I could have written more, but I wanted to break it up into two posts as the latter half will be an animal of its own compared to the first)

Sabe walked like an automaton, walking along his path and oblivious to all else. While he was in no hurry, he didn't trudge or slow down. He went up the stairs and down the east hallway, Nariana following him with her own motives.

He opened the door and stepped in. The door wasn't closed correctly, which allowed anybody to peek inside. He was unaware of this as Waffle was set down on her side of the bed. Sabe crawled onto the bed and picked her up again to set her on his lap, but Waffle pushed him away and sat at the opposite side of the bed. Sabe sighed and looked down at the striped bed cover.
"...you okay?" he asked, still not looking at her. He reached out for her foot but she yanked it out of his reach. "Look, I tried to keep her from hurting you too badly...I didn't expect her to actually pull s**t like that..."

(Figured a part three is in order here, so here's part 2)

"All I wanted to do was t-"
"-to teach a lesson," Waffle cut in, her voice venomous, "Right, and what was it, huh?"
To this, Sabe stayed quiet, eating his own words. Waffle may have been bested, but she was no fool. Eventually he spoke up again.
"When you were very little you would throw around a stuffed toy and abuse 'til it busted at the seams, and when it got mended you would do it again and again until it couldn't be fixed anymore and had to be thrown away and replaced... just for it to suffer the same fate. I wanted you to stop treating me like those damned toys, because I'm not one of your ******** toys Waffle!" He lowered his voice quite a bit, "Nor am I one of your <********> that you keep in a nightstand to use whenever you feel like it. All I wanted was to love and be loved, and maybe father a kid or two from it. What do I get? All kinds of bullshit that gives me nightmares to this day. Do you not care what I felt at all?"

Waffle stayed quiet as Sabe looked away and shook his head out of frustration. He still didn't notice anybody who might have been in the hall, nor would have he cared. His face was soaked with tears and wasn't going to dry up anytime soon.

After Sabe made his point, he asked Waffle just a few more questions.
"Will you forgive me for what happened today?"
"...fine."
"Can we work together so neither of us does this to the other again?"
"Yeah..."
There was a short pause, as Sabe was looking for the right words.
"Do you...-"
"I know what's next, and no, I don't." Waffle butted in, annoyed as if Sabe didn't understand something crucial. Sabe himself started bawling his eyes out as she continued, "You don't get it, Sabe. You are chattel. Property. You aren't exactly my property, in fact you're still the king's, but still property. Not equal by any means. You have no rights whatsoever. That didn't magically go away because you and I got hitched."
Sabe cried harder, causing him to cough in irregular intervals. Waffle reached out to touch him, but he slapped her hand away instinctively. She grabbed his wrist, and he froze up immediately. Then she continued.
"...plus...that only happened because my parents hate those snot-headed nobles and wanted to stick it to them. Which is fine by me. But just to make it clear, anybody could have filled in that role, Sabe. You were just the most convenient for them."

Waffle sighed and let go of Sabe's wrist to rub her face. But as she was doing that, Sabe saw red and nearly roared. He grabbed her and used his weight to toss her over him, into the air off the side of the bed, and onto the floor. Waffle's leg got caught in an odd angle and sprained, but this would be hardly anything.

It seemed as Sabe sprung from the bed to her in no time flat, and he laid into her with a flurry of punches as he screeched and called her every name in the book for each of the four languages he knew. To onlookers Waffle may as well have been a wailing blur that got redder by the second. At one point she held up her arms to stop the blows, but they were put back down, covered in bruises.

Of course, as impressive as the assault was it was impossible to keep it up for long, and Sabe stopped out of exhaustion. Waffle took the opportunity and scrambled as best as she could for the portal, her injuries be damned. Sabe got up to chase her but the portal was disabled from the castle side before he could step through. He wasn't careful about it either, so he not only failed to catch her but he slammed into the machinery, most likely busting it.

He cursed as he recoiled, and as he turned to his right he noticed Nariana peeking through the doorway. Sabe was caught literally red-handed.

Sabe blubbered something then ran off to the bathroom to wash all the blood off off his arms. His shirt was left to soak in clean water to wash later; thankfully for him his pants were spared. He came back out shirtless but clean, and immediately got under the bed covers. Sabe hadn't said anything to Nariana for a while now until now. "How did she grow to become such a monster?" he asked in a broken voice as weak and small as he felt right now.

As for Waffle, the second she reached her destination she bolted for the exit; her heart was almost pounding at her throat and she wanted to get as far away as possible. She could not understand how Sabe could go from meek to hostile in so little time.

Those she passed by gave her an odd look or gasped at the gore, but none came to her aid. The majority of them didn't even recognize her. At one point she passed by Diane, who was alarmed but not because of any danger Waffle was in; Waffle's reputation as a spoiled brat screwed her over as far as sympathy went. She passed by many more people before getting through the gate. A guard asked if she would be fine, but he got no response from Waffle as she ran south, toward the forest in front of the high-rises that only recently existed.

Meanwhile Diane was a lot more concerned about Sabe, and as a former attendant currently cruising the grace period before she was forced to leave, she had a lot of free time these days and she went up to the portal to reactivate it...but it fizzled out. A little indicator on the side showed there was a malfunction from the HQ side. She sighed. "Dammit. Tomorrow, then..." she mused as she walked away.

The blankets rustled as Sabe curled up and buried himself underneath them until he looked like a big lump near the top of the bed. "What the ******** are you talking about? As you were eavesdropping, you already heard that she essentially sees the whole thing as a deal, like a trade or a political deal, instead of you know...actually liking me." he said, "And...you're assuming she'll come back. I doubt it. What benefit would it be to her?"

"It's fine...thank you" Sabe said. He crawled around some more before his head popped out from the side of the bed. His face looked a little pale now. "And as for grudges, oh trust me, you aren't the only person she wants to get back at. I think it's closer to half the gang at this point."

------------------

In the deep forests to the south-east of the castle, west of their starting point, and north-east of the high-rises, a large group of twenty men had been marching for two days now, carrying the few belongings they had plus supplies. The majority were in padded or wooden armor, although two bowmen were wearing earth-toned clothing and six men were wearing metal armor, four in chain mail draped with plain white tabards, two wearing a jack of plates with an emblem embroidered on the front.