Sage nodded and chuckled. "There's not much she can help with in the winter, truthfully. Dried out herbs can only do so much." He knew it had gotten awkward between them, and he understood why she wanted to leave, though it did sadden him a bit. He knew they had to push eachother away a bit, though, so whatever had happened wouldn't happen again. He didn't know if he wanted it to or not ... It was great, but it wasn't supposed to happen, and it was making everything confusing. He wished he could figure out his emotions better, and not be afraid of them so much. He did want to talk with Anya even though it scared him ..maybe if they talked they could figure something out. How to stop all this maybe.

Anya nodded slightly. The castle doctor had all sorts of medicines... shots, pills, everything. It mostly masked pain, but if you get rid of pain it's easier to sort everything else out. Pain weakened people, and you're not likely to live if you were weak out in the village. Anya placed her hands on her cheeks as they finally started to cool down before rolling over so that she was facing him. They needed to sort things out... it would get awkward, and weird, but rather that for one night than be struggling to be around the boy for months. If Lizzie was going to come, it would be a little while, so she could use that time just to run things through with him. She sighed softly, "Can we talk?" She asked, knowing full well that things would get weird again... but it needed to happen.

He smiled slightly and shrugged. "I think we have to," he admitted softly. It was true, they needed to sort things out between them. They couldn't be awkwardly acting like this around eachother all night every night she came. They did need to talk, to figure things out. Sort out what needed to happen, even if it was taking a break from this for a while. He hoped it wouldn't come to that, but it was an option, alibet a horrible sounding (and feeling) one.

She nodded and glanced away trying hard not too look the boy in the eyes again. Her heart speeding up again. Not in the way it had before, but in a more nervous way. She hadn't been sure what she was going to say exactly, but she had to think of something relatively quick. She had initiated the conversation, of course. "Whats... whats happening?" That was a broad question. Obviously, there was a lot happening right now, but eventually, if they didn't figure themselves out, then something was sure to take place. She shrunk away a little before adding on. "Because I don't want to hurt you. Not like this, and I feel like the that's going to happen unless we can figure ourselves out.

Sage took a deep, slow breath before responding. "I...don't know. I don't know what's going on, or why it's going on, or what to do about it." After a second he shrugged and glanced over at her before looking back at the fire. "But, Anya, nothing you can do can make my life any worse." It was a solid point, and while it was also very debatable, he had to admit his life was already...pretty much the worst it could be. She couldn't hurt him anymore than he was already hurting. She didn't know about the flashbacks or the nightmares or anything, and she barely even knew about his claustrophobia, and he had never told her why he was that way.

Anya shook her head slightly before propping her head up on her arm. She knew Sage had it rough, but she also knew when she left he was all alone. All he had was Lizzie, and while she was great, he couldn't talk about the more serious stuff with an eleven year old. One day, Anya wouldn't get to see Sage any more, and she knew for a fact that she would be bruised by that. It was inevitable, and god it was scary. Still, she gave a small nod. "I... I know you have it hard." She murmured quietly, trying to figure out her next words. She had barely taken notice of her feelings for the boy the day before, even though they had been there for a while, so why was it so hard to talk to him now? "But if something came of this, and by the looks of things it might, then what? I'm going to leave one day, and I won't come back. Does that not... not scare you? Because it sure as hell scares me. And I don't want to keep on pushing you away until then."

Sage thought for a minute before responding slowly. "It does scare me, but...if I had to go back, do it all over again, I would still choose to have met you," he admitted softly. He smiled and shook his head slightly, knowing it sounded a bit sappy, but it was true. Anya had brightened his life up just as much as Lizzie had. And he would take the time and friendship they had over never having known her. "You'll be queen. Even if we can't run out together, you can bet I'll see you around, especially if you go through with helping out the people who need it." If he was still around, that was. He barely had ten years left, if he was going by the average lifespan in the slums, so he might now even get to see her as queen. He hoped he would.

Anya gave a small smile to him, turning her gaze a little so she was looking back into the fire as she thought. He was right. If she managed to get out and help whoever like she was planning, then the chances were that she would see the boy anyway. Though, she wasn't sure if she even wanted to see him once she became queen. Sage would wither away a lot faster than she would... could she even handle that? She wasn't sure if she wanted to know. Still, her cheeks flushed up ever so slightly at his slightly sappy speech. That almost reminded her not to get of track with this little chat. "We can't be like this every time we're together. So I guess that leaves the question... what do you want to do about this whole thing until then?" That was her main worry. They might still have a while until they would have too bid goodbye to each other, but she didn't want that time to be awkward and heavy.

Sage shrugged and let out a heavy breath. "We'll have to figure out what's going on before we can answer that question, I think. It would be hard to fix a problem when we don't know what the problem we're fixing is, if that makes sense." He sat back slightly, leaning on his arms and stretching a leg out in front of him, thinking. Why were they like this? He thought it was live, but he didn't know. And he sure as hell didn't know what Anya thought of him.

Anya nodded slightly as she curled her legs up a little. She wasn't sure what to say next. It was like she was a little bit braver with her wording than Sage was, so she had just kind of thrown questions at him to get this little chat over and done with. Or maybe that was just because she was nervous. Of what? Sage? She had no reason to be nervy of him, but she had been worried that she would say something she didn't mean during this little thing. The girl planned her next words out fairly carefully, in an attempt to make her tone a little less... shaky. "I've never felt like this before... but I think I like it... I don't know whats going on. But it's a good thing, right? Even if it's not meant to be happening?"