"Does it ever bother you?"
Jesse looked up from his book to stare at the young woman sitting on the rooftop edge. She was staring out at the bustle of Gundalia's capital, her reflection unusually sober considering her hyperactivity.
"Does what ever bother me?" he decided to reply as he idly turned his page.
"Me, my race, my...alien-ness compared to you. I mean, I know I look like one of your people right now," she went on to say, glancing over her shoulder so Jesse could see her familiar disguise so she appeared to belong on this planet, "but we both know I'm human at heart, even when I am using this face. Do...you ever really think about it?"
The blonde stared hard into Yumeí's vivid emerald eyes, knowing she was seriously conflicted when she wouldn't meet his gaze. With a sigh, he closed his book and got to his feet, striding over so he could drop to one knee at her side.
"What has brought on such sudden melancholy? You know fair and well that I don't mind your species at all. In fact, I quite admire many of your people."
"But we shouldn't be able to meet like this," the darkus brawler suddenly burst out, her tone bitter. "We're at war. I'm fighting your Emperor, trying to thwart your plans at every step...and that doesn't bother you?!"
"Does it bother you that I am Gundalian?" Jesse shot back. That seemed to catch her off guard as she had to pause and think about what had just been said before answering.
"Not at first," Yumeí admitted. "But as the fighting gets more brutal... you've already lost some of your teammates to the Twelve Orders. Because of my friends, because of my brother...you have every right to hate me. Every right to shun me, to expose me...but you don't. You don't seem to care that I'm really your enemy in all this. Meanwhile all I can think about recently is how I'm human and you're...not. We're not...we shouldn't be..."
The frustration with the inadequacies of language was apparent on the young ninja's face as she gritted her teeth and curled her hands into fists. The ventus brawler gently put a hand on her shoulder as he maneuvered to sit beside her on the roof's edge.
"Please show me your face," he requested.
"Jesse," she protested. "It's not safe-"
"Please," he insisted. "This isn't something I wish to tell you when you wear a mask."
She was still hesitant if her expression was any indication, but she closed her eyes and was overtaken by a dark purple gleam as her features changed. When the light faded, she was no longer Gundalian; instead, there sat a Japanese girl with the same emerald eyes and messy mop of bangs that suggested what the rest of her hair might look like if it were ever loosed from its waist-length braid. She refused to look at him, so Jesse gently cupped her face so he could look at her full on.
"I cannot deny those same thoughts did not flicker across my mind in the early days of our relationship, but such feelings no longer cloud my mind," the young man gently informed her. "I have come to appreciate our friendship for what it is: abnormal, yes, and without a doubt risky, but filled with such honesty and frivolity. It does not bother me that you are human, nor your role in this greater war. In these moments, you are not defined by your species or your side in the conflict: you are simply Yumeí, a wonderful young lady with a passion for life and optimism that cannot be matched. You are not a human and I am not Gundalian whenever we meet: we are simply people. People who are very good friends one to another."
Yumeí's eyes were wide as she searched in the violet of Jesse's gaze for any sign of insincerity, of any sign he was just saying those words as he would any other flowery line. When she found no falsehood, those emerald orbs began to water with tears.
"Gosh freaking dangit you nerd," she choked out, frantically wiping her nose. "Stop being so good with words. How am I supposed to deal with you if you go off saying nice stuff like that?"
"As you always must, I suppose: grin and bear it," was the cheeky response. He was rewarded with a smack on the shoulder and a furiously put-out human, but as her normal cheer and spastic energy came flooding back, Jesse couldn't help but continue to smile, more gently that his usual confident smirk.
Yumeí thought she was lucky to have him as a friend who could keep up with her enthusiasm, but in truth he was the lucky one. She had proven to him that not all humans were bad, that it was okay to be curious about and enjoy her culture as much as his own. She was his one light in the darkness of this war...and not even Barrodius' direct order would make him give her up. Not even for the Sacred Orb itself.
Such things were more precious than any promise of safety or power.