A/N: Picks up from 'A Lack of Understanding'. There wasn't any Frey/Bado fics, so I wrote my own ha ha.

Since she kissed him, Frey didn't know what to do.

She kept her distance from the aloof blacksmith and did her best to avoid crossing paths with the man. It was no easy feat, considering the size of the small village and how unpredictable his schedule was. But somehow, she had managed to avoid him for a year.

Even though she had avoided the man out of her own embarrassment, she had continued to replay that climactic scene in her head when her lips brushed against his and the way his arms wrapped around her waist, over and over...

It's silly, but whenever that scene would begin to play in her head, her body had no choice but to follow suit and betray her with flushed cheeks and a heavy beating heart as if it were reenacting the scene for her.

She'd curse herself through clenched teeth and tried to carry on through her day. But she knew she couldn't.

She was in love with the damn fool. He treated her as an equal and spoke to her as such, without formalities and without any regard to her 'royal title'. It frightened her to realize how comfortable and vulnerable she felt around him. As much as she wanted to be around him, she knew she'd be too scared to confront him.

Truthfully, she wasn't scared of being rejected by him, no. She could handle his rejection with a genuine smile and a bruised ego. Her feelings would be intact and within her control once again. And she would feel whole and she would continue to rely on herself for herself...

What made her stomach churn with dread, was the slight possibility that he may even, somehow, reciprocate her feelings. Feelings met with mutual regret and forced awkward touches of affection. Time would eventually drift them apart.

But god, she yearned to be with him.

She knew pain would be inevitable. She knew she'd be immature, naive, and foolish. Her feelings would get hurt and her heart would spill with all the insecurities she had forgotten she carried. But she would recover.

Her only feasible options left were to confront him or to remain silent. It's all just circumstance.

She bit her lips nervously and smiled from ear to ear.

Today would be the day her silence would break.