Trust me – Part 2

Raven swallowed heavily.

The doorbell had rang a few seconds ago and he had a vague idea – or hope? - who it could be.

He opened the front door – but it wasn't Elsword.

It was Chung.

What is he doing here?

"Hi..."

"Hi. How about you come over to my house for a few hours?" The blonde smiled, but if one would look closely, it wasn't a honest kind of smile.

This smile was hiding something.

„Sorry, I'm not really in the mood to hang out with you today... maybe tomorrow, if that's okay?"

"Raven, I'm not here to ask you to hang out with me. This is about something much more important."

"Huh?"

"It's about Elsword."

The black-haired tensed up, he hadn't expected that. Had Elsword told Chung everything?

But then again, Elsword was always full of surprises.

He put his shoes on and went after Chung, both didn't speak a single word on the way to the blond's house. It wasn't a comfortable kind of silence between friends, it was a tense silence filled with unspoken assaults.

When they arrived at Chung's house, he felt the guilt rise up in him, stronger than ever before.

How was he going to explain the previous night?

He snapped out of his thoughts when a clear voice called his name. A voice he had missed although they had only been separated for a few hours.

"Hey, Raven."

"H-Hey... Listen, I-"

"Don't say anything, please..."

He nodded. If he would be stubborn now, Elsword would probably never forgive him – if what he had done was forgiveable at all.

They silently sat down beside each other on the couch. Neither of them dared to speak first, so the voice which broke the silence was Chung.

"Hey you guys, if you're just gonna sit around and do nothing, I can as well do some shopping. See you!"

And with a bang of the door, he was gone.

"Elsword..." The black-haired made a first attempt to start an actual conversation between the two.

"Hmm?"

"Listen... I... I don't know what came over me. I never meant to... to..."

"You never meant to do what? You did a lot of things, you know..."

"I never meant to do anything of that."

"But you did."

"Looks like it."

This wasn't going well at all. Elsword seemed like he was completely calm and had already made his decision, while Raven – the supposedly strong and protective one in the relationship – was messing around, not finding the words to say what he wanted to say.

It was like their roles were vice versa.

"You know, Raven, it doesn't really make sense to discuss this for a long time. When I make a decision, I rarely change it."

"I know."

"Do you want to say something?"

Raven nodded. He wanted to say so many things, but there was one sentence that pretty much summed them up.

"Elsword, I'm incredibly sorry, and I love you."

He didn't know if he should be happy or sad when he saw that the redhead beside him was struggling to hold back tears.

"Els...?"

The little one wiped his eyes with his sleeve and shook his head.

"It's nothing."

"Elsword, this whole thing isn't nothing. I'm pretty sure you will leave me now and called me over just to tell me this, but you should know that I still love you. I never stopped loving you. You're the most important person to me and I just... I just don't want to lose you, and even if you never speak to me again, know that I will never stop loving you-"

He stopped as tears made their way to his face as well. His voice had become louder until he had almost screamed the last words at the red-haired boy.

"Raven..."

Elsword looked at his – lover? Ex-lover? - with big eyes, tears now freely streaming down his face.

"I never thought... never dared to hope that you would say this once again..."

Raven rose his head.

"Eh?"

"Please, Raven say it again... tell me that you love me..."

Raven thought the world was going to end. He rushed forward, burying his face in Elsword's chest, clutching to his sides and repeating the words over and over, like a prayer he wanted to become true.

Elsword stared forward, at the wall, feeling his shirt slowly being soaked with Raven's tears.

Was this really happening? Was Raven still in love with him?

Raven's throat became dry and little hiccups interrupted his crying, his voice became quieter and quieter until it died out, but he was still forming the words with his lips.

His eyes widened when he felt Elsword's small hand stroking his black hair.

A wave of incredible happiness and surprise rushed over him and it just got bigger when Elsword pressed a little, chaste kiss on top of his head.

It may have been the shortest and shyest kiss of their whole relationship, but right now, this little contact of Elsword's soft lips with his head meant the world to him.

He rose his glaze, staring into the familiar red eyes that were filled with emotions – sadness, worry, but also a hint of bliss and happiness.

"E-Els..."

A soft voice answered him, quiet and shy.

"I might give you a second chance..."

At that moment, only these words and occasional "Elsword doesn't hate me"'s were spinning through his head. He couldn't quite believe what the younger one had said, although he'd heard it clearly.

"W...what...?"

"I don't think I could last one week without you, Raven. I need you, and I love you, even after what you did. But I'm not sure if I can trust you... so you get a chance to prove me I can."

He swallowed nervously.

"I'll- I'll do my best..."

"I know."

They were silent for a little while, but it was a comfortable silence.

Raven opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but shut it right away again.

Then, finally, after some failed attempts, the words left his mouth.

"Els..."

"Hm?"

"Can... can I hug you...?"

Instead of an answer, he felt the small boy crash into him and he almost fell down the couch when the warm body collided with his.

"H-Hey, Els!"

He didn't receive an answer. All he could sense was that the little one was shaking.

The black-haired wrapped his arms around the redhead, careful not to make too much contact – he didn't know if his beloved little Elsword would approve.

Well, probably he would, judging from the way the small fists were clutching to his shoulders, the redhead sat practically in his lap, pulling himself as close as possible.

He was fidgeting, shaking, and he was only able to hold it in for two or three minutes. Then he finally broke loose, letting the sobs overtake his body, allowing the tears to flow down his face, all while he was holding onto Raven.

The black-haired was completely stunned, the only thing he could do was to pull the small one closer and carefully caress his fire-red hair, in an attempt to calm him down. But the longer they stayed this way and the more he tried to sooth Elsword, the harder the sobs and little cries became, the wetter his shirt got at the area where Elsword's face touched his shoulder.

Despite that, Elsword repeated one word all over, sometimes it was a bit messed up due to the hiccups and violent sobs that had become out of control, but it was still easy to understand.

"Stay..."

Raven's feeling of time was completely gone and the little one hadn't stopped crying, so he tried something else.

He answered.

"S-Stay... stay..."

"I will, Elsword. Forever. Okay?"

Elsword rose his head, facing Raven for the first time in a couple hours. His eyes were red and puffy from the crying, his face was flushed, not to speak of his hair.

"Promise...?"

His voice wavered and threatened to break out in tears again.

"Promise."

And he meant it. The soft smile on Elsword's face was enough of an answer. No words were needed here. Just the promise.

* cries *

Same as always, please review and tell me how I did. Next chapter will be lemon. I don't own Elsword... dammit.