Vulnerability

A/N: We are back lovelies. Chapter 11 front and center. Sorry for the very late update, but we mean it when we say we are sorry and not leaving our stories to dry ok. We are going to keep them alive and updated. Without further ado please enjoy.

Warning:

*Punctuation/Grammar errors

*slight OOC in Hao

Chapter 11

The horse trotted slowly as Silva and two soldiers, not to far behind, begin to arrive near Aroba. The soldiers he picked for this simple journey was Kalim and Gakko. They to Silva were, Kalim, being experienced, tall, strong and loyal and the other, Gakko, being inexperience, average size, and most of all talkative; seemed like the perfect people to bring along. Silva thought that setting a rookie up on a mission with two experienced soldiers would be a good chance for the rookie to grow on his strength and experience. But as the journey rode on, Silva was starting to regret his decision.

"Ok if you weren't a soldier for the king, where would you think you would of been by now?" the rookie ask trotting right next to Kalim.

Kalim usually never talked to people, except for one exception which is the stable boy. After that he was a quiet giant, in fact he barely spoke a sentence throughout this whole journey. But this one question he spoke. "A craftsman just like my father want..."

"Kalim really you answer the boy now" Silva scowl as he looked back at the two, since he was trotting in front of them. Kalim shrugged and went back to his quiet self.

Silva stopped his horse and jump off of it. He assumed that they would have arrived at Aroba by now, but all he see is more trees ahead and at a distance the blue sky.

"Have we arrived Silva?" Gakko asked, struggling to get off his horse with Kalim, skillfully, not to far behind.

"What do you think Gakko, do you see the kingdom?".

Gakko begin to stutter as he felt the hatred coming from Silva. "Well um I thought..."

"Just go get the map" Silva commanded, making the rookie scurry back to his horse.

Silva can feel that something wasn't right. This many trees could make a perfect place to hide something worth hiding.

Out of no where, many forms in black uniform begin dropping out from the trees surrounding all three of them, swords ready to fight. The rookie slipped on his foot and fell to the ground surprised by the sudden ambush, while Silva and Kalim quickly took out their swords. It was clear that they were outnumbered, three, if you count the boy struggling to get his own sword, against hundreds. If they fight they will die, if they don't, who knows what will happen. "WHAT is the meaning of this!?" Silva shouted to the black uniform crowd. No one said a word.

Silva clench his sword harder ready to drive it deep into the hearts of many in the black uniform.

Just when he was ready to proceed, the crowd parted for a man, also in the same black clothing, on top of a horse. Silva backed away from the man, but kept his stance as the man drop from his horse. "What is your purpose here?" the man ask.

Silva looked back to Kalim and Gakko, making sure they were ok, before speaking. "We are seeking the Kingdom of Aroba" Silva answered.

"This is it" the man said spreading his arms wide towards the vast mass of the trees, "What is your purpose?".

The man repeated the question slowly, clearly waiting for an answer Silva wasn't ready to give. He wanted to see the kingdom himself besides the trees that the three have been traveling in for most of the journey.

"Where is it?" Silva asked instead, having the same threatening voice as the man in front of him.

The man squinted his eyes at Silva clearly annoyed by the question on question and receiving minimal answers. "I will take you and your...gang if you answer why you are searching for it." The man smirked at the antics the clearly known rookie in the small group was doing, knowing that if things did get ugly he would be an easy one to eliminate.

Silva kept his calm and refused to acknowledge that this man in front of him felt he already had the upper hand on him and his soldiers. He was close to finishing this journey and he wasn't about to jeopardize it with a simple gesture from his now foe.

"I am the X-laws king right hand man and we were sent from the kingdom to negotiate land and other matters with your king. It's all written in here". Silva held up a scroll with the information Marco told him to discuss with the king when he was about to depart to Aroba.

Realization flashed upon the man's face as Silva spoke his objective. "Ah yes our king has receive the letter as well as your other...men".

Silva stared at the man suspiciously as he stared back, an evil smirk visibly on his face. After staying in silence for a few minutes the man said, "Let's take you to the king shall we?"

The man took out a strange instrument from within his uniform and softly blew a nice tune into it. Without minutes to wait for the tune to stop, the camouflage that was hiding all along fell, revealing the noise and beauty of the kingdom Aroba.

"Welcome to Aroba" the man said sinisterly as Silva and the other soldiers fell into darkness.

Hao knew that life in the castle was boring. It never crossed his mind how boring it was until he was free to do whatever he wanted. Back then his mind would constantly be preoccupied with the rough annoying sex, the baby, and being in the infirmary. And Hao was release from the infirmary a few days ago. But now that that's all over and everything is back to the beginning, Hao feels like somethings is coming in this so far quiet storm.

"All right Hao you can pull down your shirt, everything seems perfectly fine" Doctor Hansel said as he roll away to throw his glove in the near by trash bin.

Hao got up and threw his leg on the side of the bed and rolled his shirts down. "I feel that after this check up you don't need come in anymore, everything looks in shape and working and there seem to be no residue of the elixir in your body. It looks like your body never went through anything at all, I'm actually surprise myself". Hansel smiled at Hao and watch as the only gesture the long hair boy did was nod his head. Doctor Hansel sighed deeply and scooted his chair towards Hao.

"I don't normally do this, but are you ok...Hao. Not physically but mentally and stuff?" he asked.

Hao looked towards the now worried and questioning man. "What do you mean?" He asked.

"Well you went through a very traumatic experience not to long ago. You lost a baby and a little bit of your memory and now you have to go back and repeat it all; I can see how that can be tiring and all" Doctor Hansel explained.

"It doesn't matter, I'm fine that's all".

"Now being pregnant is a very emotional thing. Now I don't know if it only happens to females, but there is a connection between the mother and the baby, a strong one and once it severed due to accident or so it can cause some emotional trauma to the mother. Are you feeling this way Hao?".

Hao looked away as the doctor explained. He never realized, but he has been feeling like something was missing from in him ever since the fetus was removed. He felt like he wanted to crawl into his cover and just cry himself to sleep everyday for awhile now and if that didn't work, he would rather just be sad under those cover and let the sadness and the sense of missing something in gulf him.

"I shouldn't be feeling this way. I'm a slave; a sex slave on top of that, forced to have kids. These feelings shouldn't be real" Hao tried to explain feeling that tears were coming.

"But you are human as well" Hansel countered.

Hao lower his head and just looked at his hands trying to get his mind off of these overwhelming emotions building inside him.

"You should try something to get your mind off of this. You're correct on the slave part of you, so most of your service is on hold for now, but I bet you are required to help around the castle, try anything whether it's sweeping the floors or actually getting your elbows dirty anything is fine really."

As Hao was listening to Doctor Hansel, he remember something that would immediately take his mind away from these emotions. Silva. Now he is gone on the journey, but he remember way before he actually came to terms with these emotions how safe he felt just being in that man's presence. How quickly everything in his mind was taken away and he was just focus on Silva. Now that man at this moment was what Hao felt was what he needed, but won't be getting that any time soon. He needed something in the mean time to take his mind off of this downward emotions and he need it fast.

When will he come back Hao thought as he said his goodbyes to Hansel and went to go look for something.

Although Hao wanted to think more on what he just thought bothered him, he felt that the doctor was right at saying he needed to do something to take his mind off of what was going on in his head.

Hao didn't wander around the castle as much as he wanted to, so the only place he knew he was going to be busy with laughter and work was with Yoh at the barn. Hao basically ran to the barn feeling that the faster he is near someone human the better.

Of course once he entered the barn it was spotless and clean. The horses were in their own stables, eating away at the hay slowly and Yoh on top of one stack of hay looking at the sky through a large crack in the ceiling.

"You should get that fixed" Hao spoke out loud to get Yoh's attention.

Yoh quickly sat up to see Hao smiling at him and softly petting a horse nearby.

"Well is it finally Hao to show himself into my domain". Yoh jumped off the stack of hay and walked over to Hao only to embrace him in a big hug. Hao surprising himself, and actually hugged Yoh back feeling a different feeling beside sadness.

Hao laugh as he parted with Yoh's embrace, "Sorry as you know I went through a few things"

"Of course I know. You ok now?" Yoh ask.

Hao just nod his head and look away from Yoh's worried look. Yoh saw the change in Hao's face and quickly changed the subject. "Hey um I'm done with my work, I'm free, you're free; how about we go on a ride on the horses?"

"We can do that?" Hao asked surprised.

"Yeah why not? It's not a problem as far as I know. Come on I'll set a horse up for you".

Yoh walked away to gather what he need to set the horse up and Hao watched the process unfold. Once done, Yoh brought a tall horse near Hao. He felt himself get nervous, he never rode a horse before.

"This big guy, or gal, is Trace; this will be your horse". Hao took his eyes away from the horse and stared confused at Yoh. "I'm riding alone?" Hao asked scared.

"Don't worry I'll set you up, here get on".

Yoh extended a hand towards Hao. Though scared, Hao grab onto his hand and lifted himself up onto the horse. He let the hand holding onto Yoh stay connected while the other one quickly and clumsily grab onto the rein. The horse begin to move back and forth scaring Hao a little more and making him squeeze Yoh's hand a little tighter.

"You are ok Hao you are fine just calm down" Yoh instructed.

"Okay okay okay what do I do now?" Hao stuttered.

"You ride". With that Yoh slips his hand through Hao grip and slaps the horse on the behind. Hao screamed and hugged the horse around the neck as the horse rises on her hind legs and began galloping towards the opened field.

Hao didn't know how long he had his head buried in the horse's hair, but he could hear Yoh behind him telling him to take control of the horse. He didn't wanted to die, so Hao swallowed his heart and grab the reins once again and look up away from the horse's mane.

Hao couldn't describe what he felt as he, shocking himself, slowed the horse to an even paced to look at the the evening sky a head. He wanted to cry how free he felt even though he also felt scared; just a little bit. Somehow he was able to stop the horse completely just to watch the sky in the distance and the breeze move through the field and small flowers.

"Beautiful isn't it" said Yoh as he trotted to a stop next to Hao.

"I should be mad at you for let a horse take me like that, but I can't not with this in my face".

Hao did not once take his eyes off the scenery in front of him as he spoke to Yoh.

The duo stood in a comfortable silence. Both on top their horses with the breeze blowing through their hair and the sky in the distance keeping them company, letting the time go by slowly. By the time they came back to the castle the sun was beginning to set.

"Thank you Yoh for doing this for me, I really needed it" said Hao as he was helping Yoh put the equipment away and placing the horses back in their spots.

"No problem come back anytime I mean it. Today I just wanted to play with you and see how you were with horses, but next time if you want I could give you a lesson and all".

Learning how to ride a horse? It could come in handy one day and it's not like Hao had anything better going on. After working around the castle I could?

Hao nod his head, "That would be great. Thanks Yoh".

Hao said goodbye to Yoh after asking if he was coming inside for a shower and dinner and received a simple no from the stable boy. Hao left him where he spotted the boy before the ride.

Hao begin making his way towards the shower room hoping to get clean and bath in the water and warmth from today. Just as he rounded the corner towards the shower room hallway, Hao stop and came face to face with the one person he been unknowingly avoiding since the accident happen. He was walking down the hall but stop when he noticed Hao was walking the in the opposite direction.

Hao didn't say anything as he just stared at him dead on. Hao couldn't move his eyes away, all he could think of saying at that moment was: "Marco?"

A/N: Hoped you enjoy this chapter. Please do not take this chapter as a way that we are going to update regularly, but we hope it might a be a start of something new. Please review and leave your feedback on what your guys think of this chapter and hope to see you in the next. 'THAT'S ALL FOLKS'