Valkyrie woke with a sad face. Everything seemed to be falling apart. She hadn't seen Caelum or Donnie since they had a row in her house. She had stayed away from everything called the media, very sure that somehow, the paparazzi had gotten a sniff out of it, and made a big headline like 'The Wicked Wizards - Too wicked for their own good?' and shit like that. She hated the gossip sometimes.

Val finally decided that lying in the bed, looking into the roof would get her nowhere, so she rose from her soft mattress and threw on a dark gray, shining bathrobe and walked out into her backyard. The autumn was coming, the leaves on her trees were changing their color, but the air was warm today. She wasn't cold when she walked there with nothing on her feet. She walked over to the wooden statue with the bell in the middle. She leaned on it and sighed. At least her garden was the same.

Caelum hadn't spoken to Valkyrie in almost two weeks - major record timing there, much? As much as he liked to pretend, everything was getting him down at the moment - except for the Jaycie encounter. But he'd just lost his best friend, and his soul mate (in a friends way), and now one of his close friends and band members was dead - and he'd always seen the look in Val's eyes when she looked at him, even if she didn't realise it she must've liked Anscom just a little bit.

He shook his head - he'd have to see Val to tell her about Anscom's death, and to apologise for punching her. He'd hated himself after that, and still did. he'd punched her, his best friend for he didn't even fucking know how long.

He floo'ed into her lounge room and shut his eyes. He muttered the human revealing charm and followed the tug to the backyard. "Matilda?"

Valkyrie stood still for a second when someone called her name. Her name, not Valkyrie. Caelum. She stood completely still and frozen, her eyes closed. He was there. Finally. Was she mad at him? She looked deep inside to try to find some anger. She was mad at him. A bit. But why? Because he punched her? No. That wasn't it. She sighed. It was because he had started a fight with Donnie. They had caused the rift in the band at the moment. That's why she was mad.

But more than mad, she was relieved. So relieved to hear his voice. She wanted to run at him and hug him, tell him that it was all right, because he deserved that. He deserved to be happy. But it wasn't right to not be a bit mad. She turned slowly and looked at him, standing there with wounded eyes. It took a lot of strength to not run over and hug him. She sighed and rooted her feet.

"Caelum," she retorted, not very unkindly. Just a bit.

She was wearing a dark grey bathrobe that caught the gentle luminous glow of the overcast morning and caused it to shine slightly as she moved, though when he called her name she immediately froze and he sighed. He waited for it, her turning slowly around and screaming her head off at him, how dare he come here after what he did, what a stupid dickhead he was, yada yada yada. He almost smiled at how familiar it would be for her to scold him like a child.

Almost. But she didn't turn and scream, she just stared at him for a moment, before she said in his name in a retort. He sighed and walked over to her, fully prepared to be slapped. He stopped in front of her and before she could make a move he enveloped her in a hug and buried his face in her shoulder, squeezing her smaller frame closer to his tall one. "I'm so sorry, Val. I let the monster go, I didn't mean to." He said in a muffle voice.

Finally, he stepped back and sighed. "Go on, punch me, I deserve it." He said flatly.

Valkyrie felt frozen when he walked over to her. She wanted to slap him, to scream, but she didn't. She couldn't. She had frozen, and she didn't hug him back when he hugged her. She felt unreasonably cold and it had nothing to do with the autumn air. Nothing at all.

But when he apologized and said he shouldn't have done it, she remembered how horrible it must've been to be him and Alcyone when they were kids. Who was she to judge him? She had had a splendid childhood with more love than she could describe. She didn't get to judge Cae. And when he asked her to punch him, to say that he deserved it, she felt herself returning. And she slapped him. And she slapped him again.

But she didn't slap him hard. At all. Just made his face turn a bit. Then she growled at him and threw her arms around him, feeling tears run down her face. "You fool!" she cried, "You damned idiot!" She didn't let him go for at least a minute, getting a hold on herself and then she broke from him, holding his face in her hands.

"Punching you isn't going to help me or you. So why would I? And no, slapping doesn't count," she added quickly before he could say anything. Then she let a small smile grace her lips. "Violence isn't the only solution in the world, Cae. And Don can be an idiot when it comes to pretty girls, you know that. I guess it was simply the first time he flirted with someone you love. But still! Why would you do that? It wasn't right, Cae," Valkyrie said with a serious face. Then she sighed again. "But I don't want to reprimand you. I'm pretty sure you already know it was wrong. So whatever."

Valkyrie then threw her arms around him again. "Oh, I've missed you," she said sadly, "Why didn't you come sooner?"