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3 hours later…

Icarus was still on the bed, contemplating whether or not he should just run for it. He looked down again to see Ahri still cuddling him like he was the last lifeline. Her eyes were closed, bliss etched on her face.

Icarus was getting tired, annoyed and bored. But her face at that moment caused him to lose all sense of himself. He couldn't help but smile, but he knew that they should have already left the inn two hours ago.

He slowly patted her head.

"Ahri. Come on now. You've taken your time. We need to go now."

Ahri opened her eyes and looked at him again, trying her best to make him change his mind.

"That's not going to work anymore. Come on, you had 3 hours." He stood up, grabbed Ahri's arm and walked out of the room, dragging her with him. She took one last longing look at the bed, and followed Icarus.

The morning air in Ionia was a cool breeze. It was comfortable, to say the least. Icarus loved it. Air on earth was way too polluted to be as fresh as air here. He stood still and took the scenery in. Ionia was beautiful. Filled with trees, grass, rivers, and nature all-around.

"I would love to settle down here." Icarus said, breathing in the air.

"Why?"

"It's so serene. It's so calm and peaceful. Back in my planet, all you could hear were people shouting at each other, and car horns. They destroyed our planet's nature. Now, they just put them in enclosures. Parks. It's like they're trapping nature itself."

"That sounds horrible." Ahri said, her tails drooping in sadness.

"I'm glad I'm not there anymore." He jumped and then ran off to the wilderness.

"Wait! I was going to ask you something!" She called, but Icarus was seen no more.

She cautiously wandered after him, following his tracks, when two heavy pairs of hands grabbed hers, effectively disabling her. Her tails tried to flail around and distract the attackers, to no avail.

"Wh—Stop!" Ahri cried out.

"Icarus! HE—" Ahri tried to shout for help, but was promptly muffled by another hand.

"Heh heh heh. Well well well, look at what we have here. A fine looking lady." A deep voice rang from behind her. Heavy footfalls circled around her and stopped at her front. He was a tall and muscly man, a barbarian.

"What the hell do you want?" Ahri snapped back, unable to defend herself.

"I was on route to raid a convoy, but then I saw you. All alone." He started.

"You were helpless, defenseless, what a poor little girl." He mocked.

"And I," he paused, raising his arm to his chest for dramatic effect.

"I felt a little bit in heat today." Ahri froze at his implication.

"No. No. No no no. You can't do this." Ahri begged, her voice shaking. But her efforts were in vain. The barbarian slowly traced his hand up to her leg, his other hand slowly reaching towards her right breast.

"Oh, I think I'm going to like fucking you." He smiled.

He was about to squeeze, when- BANG. The barbarian stumbled forward, almost falling onto Ahri.

"Argh! WHO DID THAT?!" the barbarian boomed. He turned around, the back of his head scorched and scalded as if it were on fire. He searched for the source, Ahri's two captors still locking her in place on the ground.

She looked around, frantically looking for her savior.

A bush rustled.

BANG!

Another blast of fire flew out of nowhere and onto one of Ahri's capors. The force blew him away, Ahri's right hand being free at last. She summoned powerful magic onto her right hand, hitting her other captor with it, knocking him unconscious. She was free.

Before the barbarian could react to the sudden chain of events, Ahri ran towards him, summoning charm magic to her palms and pelted him with it, effectively stunning him, knocking him to the ground.

She stared at him before a light tap on her shoulder made her turn around.

"Nice job." Icarus was smiling brightly.

But Ahri was far from happy.

"Ow! What justified that slap?!" Icarus said, holding his cheek, which was now reddening.

"Don't you dare leave me like that again. I almost got raped!"

"I'm sorry! It's just I was way too excited to find out what this planet is all about."

"You didn't even tell me that you had… your own magic!" Ahri said, pouting, awfully upset.

"I'm sorry." Icarus smiled at her, but she noticed that it was a sad smile.

"I'm not proud of… this." He gestured to his palm, which was still glistening with fire.

"What do you mean?" Ahri looked up at Icarus.

Icarus' sad smile disappeared from his face slowly, as he turned around to look for a place to sit. Once he found a fallen log, he slowly walked towards and sat on it. Ahri followed, her eyes burning with worry.

"What's wrong, Icarus?" Ahri said as she sat down beside him, her hand slowly holding his.

Icarus sighed heavily, his eyes dead serious.

"At a young age, I was taken from my family. I don't know why they took me. I don't even know what I did wrong. They forced me into a program. Apparently, it was for the 'greater good of the people.' Greater good of the people my ass. They essentially brainwashed… people. They make them into killing machines. They give them… Godlike powers, essentially to control the population, and then make them their… slave." Icarus flinched at the last word.

"I was one of those people. They brainwashed me. For god knows how long." His voice was hardening, his teeth clenched.

"I broke free of their programming. I realized the horrible things I was doing. And when I tried to rebel, they exiled me." His eyes were shining with tears. He was trying his best not to let a tear fall.

"They took away my humanity, Ahri. They took me from my family, and they took my life away. It's like I'm nothing now. I…" he stopped, his mouth open, tears now falling. He closed it slowly and he buried his face in his hands.

Ahri sat there, dumbfounded and saddened.

"I don't even know who my parents are anymore. I don't know who I am. I don't know who I was, and I don't know who I'm supposed to be. All I know is that I was Icarus. I was Icarus. And then…" he paused.

"Icarus fell. All that's left of him is a shell."

"Icarus…" Ahri started, but she had nothing else to say. She pulled him in closer and wrapped him in a warm hug.

"You may have lost your past life… But…" Ahri started. Icarus looked up to her, his eyes locking on to hers.

"But you're here now. You can start again." She continued.

"I'm glad they exiled you."

"Why?" Icarus asked.

"Because if they didn't, I wouldn't have met you." Ahri said, her eyes gleaming with affection.

"I don't know what I would have done if I haven't met you. If I wandered alone, some thieves would have already done away with me…" Ahri sighed for a moment.

"All I'm saying is that… I'm glad you're here with me. Remember that I was a fox. This is a whole new life for me too. We can go on this journey together."

"You know, you are the only person that I care for anymore." Icarus chuckled to himself.

Ahri's heart lept in her chest.

"You're the only one for me too. I suppose… we only have each other." Ahri said a bit breathlessly, her eyes widening slightly.

"Ahri… I know I kept on saying your advances on me were a bit too soon, but… I really like you. You're the only girl I've ever met whom I don't have any problem with, and that's like… a one in a million chance, so I'm just going to go ahead and ask you; would you be willing to-"

He was cut off by hard lips pressing into his own. And Icarus gladly returned it. They stayed like that for a few moments before Ahri broke apart, wide-eyed.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean—" Ahri started.

"No, no, it's fine, really." Icarus said, laughing slightly. He found a flustered Ahri an incredibly cute Ahri.

"So… what do we call this?" Icarus asked her.

"I… I don't know."

"A more-than-friends relationship?"

"Let's just call it that until we can figure it out properly, yeah." Ahri said, smiling.

Icarus grinned back, his expression brighter than it had ever been since she met him.

"Come on, then, let's get going."

The rest of the plot will be explained in the next chapter. It was supposed to be one chapter, but this one was too long. I'll try and post Chapter 5 as soon as possible!