A long six months ahead... (Or, Time Waits For No Man or Woman)

_{(Come on now, do I really need to say it again? You know the drill. Click on this to find out what happens!)}

As many of you know, I've been happily engaged for a few months now. So, as @meeterboom puts it, wayhay!

What many of you don't know is that today marks a very special day in our lives, for today we can officially say that the wedding is six months away! As customary, I'm posting another installment of my engagement tale. If you want to catch up with everything you've missed, you can read the announcement and its sequel. Like I said in the previous installment... Go on, we'll wait.

Done? Great! Awesome! Fantastic! Let's get to it!

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"Hey," the man whispered as he grabbed onto both of the woman's arms. He liked how soft they were recently, a product of years of his hard work to keep her fed.

    "Hello," the woman swiftly answered.

    "I was just—"

    "What?" she interrupted.

    "You know—"

    "No, I don't."

    "Huh? No, I-I ... What I meant was—"

    "What did you mean?"

    "See—"

    "No, I don't see."

    "I-If you could just—"

    "If I could just what?"

    "Shh!"

    "Don't shush me!"

    "Gah!" the man exclaimed, waving his arms up in desperation. "Listen to me."

    "I am listening."

    "No, you're ... Just—"

    "Oh, no, you don't tell me what I do or—"

    "Jesus H. Christ! Please! J-Just ... hold on for a second!"

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The woman stopped talking, and instead just stared at the man angrily. In her mind, he kept interrupting her when she was talking, which didn't sit well with her.

    "Okay," the man sighed. "Let me start over."

The woman stayed still and refused to acknowledge what the man was saying. She was open to listening, but that didn't mean she was pleased with how the man was going about it.

    "I was thinking," the man followed. "Let's just get married!"

The woman stayed silent. In her mind, she was doing what she was told, but she knew that it had the effect of spiting the man for his actions.

    "What do you think?" the man queried. He received no response, and he figured that the woman took what he said too literally. "Now's the time for you to talk."

    "We are getting married."

    "Yeah, I know, but ... what I meant was let's just forget the preparations, let's just forget all the other stuff. Let's just get our closest family and have the ceremony."

    "But, we already enlisted a lot of suppliers!"

    "I know, I know, I just—"

    "We already paid their initial wage!"

    "Yeah, but ... See, the amount we have already paid is nothing compared to the amount we're going to pay. The remaining balance and all."

    "I get what you mean but ... what about all those people we already invited?"

    "Let's just say we decided to downsize." The man grabbed the woman's arms again. He pulled her in closer, wanting to meet her gaze. "At the rate we're going, we won't have anything left by the end of this."

    "Hmm," the woman pondered. She calculated everything in her head, and couldn't help but agree with the man's estimation. "Nice try."

    "What?"

The woman cupped her hands and then forcefully pushed against the man's chest, knocking him to the ground. She used the same technique the man taught her months prior, in an attempt to rid the man of their foe.

The shade separated itself from the man and floated high above the pair. It had already taken a form quite similar to the man, albeit darker and malformed. The shade's mouth moved but no sound came from it. Once it was done with its silent speech, it disappeared from view.

The woman had suspected the shade to have gotten hold of her beau ever since they were deceived by messengers they had booked earlier. She remembered that he took the deception quite negatively, and surmised that his weakened state would've been the perfect opening for the shade to establish a foothold. For weeks she had wondered what could've caused the man's sudden shift in his mood, but couldn't get close enough to execute the move. It was a particularly deadly technique, one that would've surely took the man's breath away. If the shade wasn't there to cushion the blow, it would have certainly taken his life as well. She loved him, so she had to make sure.

The man was knocked out for a bit, but when he came to, it seemed like he had a complete recollection of everything that transpired. His beloved extended a hand to help him get up, which he accepted gladly. He was ashamed that he let their adversary take full control of him, but the woman didn't judge him for it.

    "We all have our weak moments," she consoled. "What did I tell you?"

    "Everything will work itself out."

    "Exactly. Now, come give mama a hug. Let's do this..."

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To which he did. His attempts at returning to being a sellsword was met with failure. No one needed his services, and it slowly disheartened him. He even stooped as low as charging the amount of dirt for the service he provided. His coffers were being bled dry, and there were no viable options to refill it. Even STEEM wasn't able to provide a stop-gap, not that he was doing any better there. In fact, he may have been worse off than before. Every negative factor compounded and chipped away at the man's defenses.

Reality and time had been greater adversaries than fate. Their combined attack was succesful in bringing the man to the brink of surrender, which was something that fate couldn't even come close to accomplishing. They didn't account for the revitalizing power of a loved one's hug.

The earth rumbled beneath the pair, and they made haste to board the man's steed. They made a beeline towards the location where they would meet the general that they planned to hire. A massive congestion sought to delay their progress, but they remained determined.

    "Damn," the woman blurted out. "We just couldn't catch a break."

    "Well then," the man followed. "We don't need to!"

The man directed his steed through the pile up. It rode like a graceful feather dancing in the wind. He had a renewed vigor, and he made sure that his steed felt it too.

They arrived at their destination with only a small amount of delay. In fact, the general that they were going to meet was the one who was delayed by the very same congestion.

    "I said 'break,'" the woman reiterated. "B R E A K not B R A ... You know what? Never mind."

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Previously spurned by false messengers they hired, they were wary about other people they would enlist to their cause. The general arrived, and they exchanged pleasantries. They tried their best to discern her intentions, but decided to enlist her to their cause. Signing a contract, they made their agreement binding before they went their separate ways.

It was one less thing on their minds. At that point, they had booked almost everything they need, so they were on track in terms of their deadline. But, time wouldn't have it.

Days later, they discovered that the same general was booked for a significantly lower cost by another couple for a different battle. It seemed like they were duped once again, and they contemplated whether to find another general or confront her regarding the discrepancy. They were already burning through their resources, so they decided to go with the latter.

Decisions with regard to suppliers caused some disagreements. But, at the end of the day, love won out and they put up a united front. Time ticked quickly and reality weighed heavily. There were some things that they couldn't avoid, but what they could, they tried their best to stay the hell away from them.

On their way to meet with the general, the ground parted and divided the couple. The woman was confronted with all of her insecurities personified. As much as she tried to do her best to vanquish them all, there were still those who dealt their damage. After a valiant effort, the woman laid down her arms and tried to talk to the fiends. It seemed like their gripe with the woman stemmed from her bottling them down deep within her. The tasks and events she had to endure over the years had caused her to put everything on the wayside, allowing them time to gather energy to gain form.

On the man's side, he went toe-to-toe with the shade that had possessed him. Every time he hit it, it seemed like he was injuring himself. The shade laughed at every attempt taunting the man that his strikes only made it stronger. After a while, he realized his folly and decided to calm down to think of a better approach.

    "There is no way you can defeat me," the shade goaded. "I am you, and you are me."

The man put his palms on his injured abdomen. He was writhing in pain, and couldn't believe that his ABS (A Big Stomach) was no match against his foe. Rain started to pour down, when it hit him—the solution to his problem was right there all along.

    "You're right," he replied, dejected. He stretched his arms to the side, as if inviting the shade to a warm embrace.

    "Huh?" the shade wondered. "What are you doing!?"

The man walked closer, and when he was close enough, he gave the shade a tight squeeze.

    "What are you doing!?" the shade squealed. "Wait!"

    "I am you," the man answered. His hug forced the shade back inside him. The two of them merged together, but quite unlike when the shade took hold of the man before. This time, instead of letting the shade course freely through his body, the man merged it to every fiber of his being. He accepted the shade as a part of him, and he eventually won out. "And, you are me."

Rain dripped down the side of his face, but it tasted quite salty. Don't get it wrong though, it was rain that came from the sky above. Pure rain, with nothing mixed with it. Nothing at all! Anyway, yeah...

The man made his way to where the woman was, just in time to see her bid farewell to her enemies. Hand in hand, the pair eyed a way out of the jagged labyrinth they found themselves in. All of a sudden, the rain water caused the man to slip over the edge. With her hands equally wet, the woman was unable to get a good grip of him before he fell.

The man fell without any obstruction and the earth swallowed him whole. He was welcomed by the gaping chasm, as the darkness slowly devoured him. Falling, the man felt his soul slowly separating from his body. But then, a sudden shock surged through his body!

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    "Hey," the woman whispered, shaking the man awake. "I said I'm ready."

    "Huh?" the man replied, confused and groggy. "What?"

    "Get up, let's go! We can't be late!"

The man grabbed his phone to check the time. "You said you needed five minutes."

    "Yeah. Now, I'm done. So let's go!"

    "It's been an hour since you said you needed five minutes."

    "Beauty can't be rushed."

So, they headed out to destress. They had completed their list of suppliers, and they felt like they deserved to reward themselves for all their hard work. After all, getting the suppliers was just the beginning. The real battle still lies ahead, and they needed all of the energy they could gather. And, that's what they did. They headed out on an adrenaline-filled adventure...

Where at least one of them didn't struggle.

    "You were very restless while you were sleeping earlier," the woman commented.

    "Was I? Huh ... That's weird."

    "What were you dreaming about?"

    "You know what? I really can't remember."

At that point, the man really didn't. But, he quickly realized that it was the perfect moment to say that he was dreaming of the woman, to which she would blush. He decided to save it for another time.

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Okay, okay. You got me. The jig is up! Yes, @randomli and I are, in fact, the woman and the man in the story. I tried to conceal their identities for so long, but the pictures gave it away. Speaking of the pictures, these are just some of the pictures we took while we celebrated part one of our birthday less than a month ago. It was taken in Camp N, an outdoor obstacle park in Nuvali. If you're ever in the Philippines, and you want an adrenaline-filled romp, go check it out! :D

There's also one other thing I have to fess up... We have not yet completed our suppliers :( But, the only other one we're missing is for the cake, and we're meeting with one of the most highly recommended (and affordable whew!) ones tomorrow, so fingers crossed! Also, even though we have a dress supplier, we still haven't heard back from him after the initial meeting, so I'm getting a bit nervous that it's going to go down the wire. Hopefully, everything will work out ;)

Thanks for reading! I do hope you get to comment :)

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