Chapter 10 – Confession

She was bound in a prison of ice, clad in iron shackles. Gumiho hated the feeling of not being able to move. But try as she might, she couldn't move. Her arms and legs were bound in iron so heavy she could barely move them. On top of that, she had a pounding headache and for some reason, she couldn't even open her eyes. With no choice, she was forced to try and curl up as much as she could within the confines of her prison and bear the cold. The pain in her head, and the cold assaulting her body made her whimper. She was freezing.

"Cold… help… Ea…."

She managed to moan pitifully. She felt someone gather her within a warm embrace. It was welcome and soothing. It helped to drive away the cold. She snuggled closer desperately to this heat source shivering. She breathed in and the scent of lilies caught her nose. It reminded her of Ea. It was a familiar comforting smell. Gumiho lasped into darkness and dreams again…

This time, she was in a prison in the underworld. Heat and flames assaulted her. Again she couldn't move, nor open her eyes. The pounding headache was still there. She could only feel the intense heat burning up her whole body. She opened her dry mouth and tried to say something through her parched throat. But no words came other than a pitiful croak.

She felt a cup brought to her cracked lips and a small trickle of life giving water was slowly fed to her. She lapped at the water and drank gratefully. A soothing wet cloth was placed on her forehead and soft fingers stroked her fox ears gently as Ea always did. The heat was still there, but instead of suffocating her, it was now bearable. Again she caught the scent of lilies before Gumiho lapsed into darkness and dreams again…

Pain… her body was afire with pain. She was in a sea of blades and they were piercing her body cruelly. She gasped in pain and beads of sweat formed on her brow as the pain started up again. It began as a pinprick, like an ant bite. But it got worse and worse, as if those blades were slowly pushing and twisting themselves into her. They reached a point where she was biting down hard on her lip and small meows of agony slipped through her lips. Finally, when she could she couldn't bear it anymore, a soothing cream was applied to her wrecked body. The blades were withdrawn and she curled up in relief, still trembling from the pain. She caught the scent of lilies yet again before she lapsed into darkness again.

And the cycle went on. Finally, after what seemed an eternity, she finally awoke to consciousness released from her prison. She was no longer assaulted by fire, cold nor pain. She breathed in slowly and that familiar scent of lilies wafted through her nose. She could detect a faint tinge of saltiness from tears within the sweet fragrance. Experimentally, she tried to open her eyes again. To her surprise, she succeeded. A ceiling swam into focus. She was in a soft bed with girly pink sheets. She felt as weak as a new born kitten when she tried to move, though she managed to turn her head slightly to the side.

She saw a mess of silvery hair framing a pretty oval face. Ea's eyes were closed and she appeared to have fallen asleep beside Gumiho. One arm stretched out over Gumiho protectively even as she slept. The scent of lilies had been Ea all this time, Gumiho realised. She noted Ea's tired face and thin lines of tears on her cheeks. Ea had been crying. Why had she been crying? Gumiho slowly raised her fingers and traced them down Ea's face, while the tears had been.

Ea stirred and opened her eyes. She saw Gumiho's questioning look and her eyes widened as she realised that Gumiho was finally awake. She jerked upright and clasped Gumiho's hand tightly with her own.

"Gumichan! You are finally awake! I am so glad…"

Ea couldn't help it as she looked into the now open eyes of Gumiho. Tears formed again and rolled down her cheeks anew. She buried her head within the crock of Gumiho's neck and cried in relief.

"Why… why are you crying? Where are we? What happened?"

Gumiho asked in confusion, as she awkwardly patted Ea's head.

"You… don't remember? After we fought Chaos, you were terribly injured. I brought you here to Dion and Nyx's place. You almost died. You have been unconscious for days. I … I thought I almost lost you…"

The memories came flooding back into her now as she remembered the fight with Chaos, and how they had jumped into the water to escape. Everything after that had been a blur.

"Thanks Ea, thanks for saving me … Don't cry anymore. I am ok."

Gumiho tried to reassure Ea. But Ea only cried harder and harder. The last few days of watching Gumiho suffer as she writhed in pain from her still healing wounds, then trembled in cold and sweated from fever had been really hard on Ea. She had bravely stuck through it all, gritted her teeth and refused to leave Gumiho's side. But now, finally seeing Gumiho awake, she finally allowed all her stress to be released in a flood of tears. Hearing Gumiho try awkwardly to reassure her only seemed to make her cry harder in relief.

Finally, Ea's crying subsided and she lifted a teary face and flashed a wan smile.

"I… I am sorry Gumi, I am such an ass. I don't know why I broke down like that."

Gumiho wiped the tears off Ea tenderly.

"Hey, its ok. It must have been hard on you while I was unconscious."

Ea shook her head in denial.

"You… you were the one suffering really badly, I couldn't do anything but just sit by and watch…"

Gumiho cupped Ea's face tenderly.

"You are wrong, you were close by all this time. I remembered your scent even through all the pain, it probably kept me alive, thanks for saving me Ea…"

Ea blushed red and shivered a bit at Gumiho's touch. With her realisation of her feelings for Gumiho, her thanks was very precious to Ea. Her heart pounded. She tried to get it under control by asking Gumiho if she was hungry.

"Dion said you can only drink soup for now. Sorry."

Ea said apologetically as she brought over a bowl of warm broth and set it down by the bedside. Gumiho was still very weak and Ea had to help prop her up and feed her with a spoon. Ea giggled a bit. Gumiho looked like a little Kitten as she lapped up the contents by the spoonful.

"You look like a starving kitten, Gumi." Ea giggled.

"I am! I am really hungry!" Gumiho agreed smiling.

After Gumiho had finished eating, Ea had to apply on the salve on her wounds. Gumiho's face turned red as Ea gently undid her buttons and undressed her.

"Ea… I, I can do this myself"

Ea shushed her and asked her to be still as she peeled off Gumiho's nightdress and slathered on the salve on her wounds.

"Shh, I have been doing this for quite a while now Gumi, hold still it will be done soon."

This time though, with Gumiho looking at her with a red face, Ea felt very self conscious as well. She tried to keep her eyes slightly averted from Gumiho's body, though this only resulted in her dabbing Gumiho on the wrong place.

"Eekks!"

Ea looked back and realised that she had slathered some salve on Gumiho's breast. She flushed red in embarrassment and quickly wiped it off. Ea forced herself to look at Gumiho's body and finally got through the whole thing without any more mistakes. She sighed a breath of relief as she helped Gumiho put her nightdress on again and put away the healing salve.

"Sorry, I …I should usually quite good at this already, but you have never been awake while I did this…"

Ea stammered. Gumiho shook her head, though her face was as red as Ea's.

"Its… its ok. I would rather it was you than anyone else anyway…"

Gumiho said shyly.

Ea gulped at Gumiho's words and looked at her. She took a deep breath and swallowed hard. Gumiho was finally awake. There was no better time for it, and she had promised herself she would do this. But her heart was betraying her and pounding hard.

"G…Gumi, I want to tell you something."

Gumiho's ears perked up and she waited. Ea seemed really hesitate and shy about something.

"I … I..."

Ea foundered trying to piece together the words she wanted to say, but her heart was pounding even harder now and the words seemed to choke in her dry throat. She knew her face was probably flaming red now. She tried again.

"After … after you almost d...died, I realised something. I …I"

Ea shivered in embarrassment. She had no idea it would be this hard to do this… Why was it so hard! She forced herself to close her eyes so that she couldn't see Gumiho's face and she finally blurted out the words.

"I… I love you, Gumichan!"

She opened her eyes to see Gumiho's red face, but the fox girl was also smiling now. She couldn't move much, in her current weakness. But Gumiho met Ea's eyes and replied shyly.

"T … thanks Ea… I.. I love you too!"

Ea forgot herself and embraced Gumiho hard, feeling joy bubble up within her. She had finally confessed her love to Gumiho! Gumiho squeaked and winced, as Ea pressed on her wound.

"Oh, I am sorry! I... I forgot, I shouldn't have done that!"

Ea released Gumiho guiltily, and made as if to get up. Gumiho's words stopped her.

"No… its alright. Stay, please, Ea, don't leave me again…"

Hearing Gumiho's plaintive plea, Ea felt guilt shoot through her as she remembered the first time she had ran away from Gumiho back in the waterfall glade. Ea turned back to Gumiho and slowly, carefully slid under the pink sheets together with Gumiho. She carefully clasped Gumiho into a close embrace, being careful not to press on her wound this time.

"I won't leave you, Gumi, I promise"

Ea whispered to Gumiho and hugged her close. Gumiho closed her eyes in relief and bliss as Ea brought her hand up and stroked her fox ears in a familiar and yet now intimate manner. The two fell asleep to the sound of each other's beating hearts…