A/N: I love you all, so, so much! Thank you for all your lovely reviews! Every review makes me ridiculously happy, and I wonder what would happen if I ever received a flame...

*shudders* When that day comes, it will come, but for now...

Enjoy the chapter!(:

Please believe me. Please, please, please do. I'm not lying. I swear to gods, I'm not.

I slowly lifted my gaze from the ground and was greeted by the sight of Nico's bemused expression. His eyebrows furrowed, as if he didn't understand the words that went out of my mouth, and to be completely honest, I never expected him to understand it immediately, anyways.

He didn't look at me in disgust, though, so that was a good thing. He wasn't scowling at me or scoffing at my confession, and I could only hope he didn't believe I was making this up. If he told me he thought I was lying, I didn't think my heart could take anymore damage.

"Say something," I said nervously, hating the silence that seemed to last forever. I fiddled with my hands on my lap to distract me, but it wasn't working so far.

"You're afraid," he said slowly, still not understanding, "of falling in love?" The last part was a question, and I wasn't sure if he expected me to answer or not.

I nodded my head silently. "That's why I asked you to stop saying..." I swallowed. "...to stop saying 'love' all the time," I finished, my voice so soft, it was possible he didn't hear me.

"Why?" was the first question he asked, now knowing my phobia. I could feel his gaze on me, and I shivered, imagining the intensity in his dark eyes. My courage seemed to abandoned me in my time of need, and I found myself incapable of meeting the eyes of my best friend.

"Love..." I cleared my throat. "Love scares me...a lot." How did people do this? How did they open themselves up and feel this vulnerable? I'd never felt this exposed in my life. I felt naked, admitting my secret, and there were hundreds of people watching me.

In this situation, though, Nico was the equivalent of said hundreds of people.

He was the one making me feel this way. He was responsible for the flying creatures attacking my stomach, making me feel nauseous and dizzy.

Nico flipped my world upside down, and his altering my life scared me a lot more than I would confess.

As I mentioned before, I hated depending on him, but I also hated the control he had over me. He pulled the strings, and I was his puppet, unequivocally under his control.

He didn't know it, I was sure.

That was the worst part.

"I don't get it," simply said Nico. "I mean, I get that love is scary and all, but to be actually afraid of it—to have it as a phobia, I just...I just don't get it. It's not everyday I hear that the girl I fell in love with is actually scared of love," he chuckled, finding it ironic. "Would you please look at me, Arabelle?"

Painfully slow, I lifted my eyes from the ground. In his eyes, I saw everything that I could possibly want right now.

He wasn't judging me.

He wasn't blaming me.

He wasn't accusing me of lying.

He was trying to understand me.

If I had been one of those emotional girls, tears would be welling in my eyes, and words would be choking in my mouth.

If someone knew your secret, and it was a secret that made you feel like a freak or this insecure being...having someone trying to understand you, trying to understand why you felt this way was just...

It was everything I could hoped for.

I wasn't making sense, I know. My mind wasn't the most coherent at this moment, and if you had someone like Nico...hold onto him tight and never let go.

His brown eyes were filled with so much warmth and concern, I couldn't fathom why I doubted him at all. Nico wasn't one of those bastards I'd read in books or the boys I knew from school. He wasn't immature in the least; Hades, he lost his sister when he was ten, he fought in the Second Titan War when he was twelve, he had been through so much, it intimidated me—though, I would never say it aloud—how...how he was forced to grow up.

I didn't think anyone gave Nico much credit.

"Talk to me," he demanded softly. He moved closer to me, grabbing my hand and holding it in between his two larger ones.

"I don't know what to talk about," I admitted.

"You said that you loved me, though," he reminded me. "When it was your birthday, you told me you loved me after I gave you your presents , and then all the times after that, you've said it like it was the most easiest thing in the world."

I touched the owl necklace that adorned my neck, and a small smile tugged on my lips at the memory of my fourteenth birthday.

I had never taken my necklace off, now that I thought about it. The only time I took it off was when I was in the bathroom, but other than that...nothing.

"Yeah...I guess I did..." I replied, tentatively and a bit dazed. "I think...all the times I said those three words...my subconscious made me think of it as nothing more but two friends showing that they really cared for each other. I think that's why I was able to say it without freaking out," I forced myself to chuckle at the last part.

"Being with you is like the most natural thing in the world," Nico confessed.

"Um," I struggled, trying not to laugh at his words, and I didn't know why I found this funny, I just did. Nico seemed to see me shaking silently, holding in my laughter, and it wasn't longer before we both broke out laughing.

"I'm sorry," I said. "I just...I just really can't imagine the son of Hades saying something so..."

"Romantic?" he offered.

"Cheesy," I finished, finding it a better word. "It just caught me off guard; I don't think I can take you seriously when you say things like that."

"Isn't that a good thing, though?" Nico asked. "You not getting freaked out when I say stuff that shows how I really love you?"

The word love still made me nervous, but it didn't seem so bad that much, anymore. Love still scared the shit out of me, but...maybe it was possible that I might overcome my phobia.

"You can't leave me, Nico." I wasn't begging nor was I pleading; I was only stating it as a fact, like there wasn't any other option.

He couldn't leave me.

It was just not possible. My mind couldn't comprehend it, and neither could I for that matter.

Nico, slightly confused that I turned to a much serious note, nodded his head solemnly.

"I would never, ever think of leaving you, Arabelle. I promise."

Break that promise, Nico, and I assure you, you'll be breaking my sanity.

A/N: I think I'm just going to include one author's note per chapter starting the next one...yeah, I'll do that.

There isn't really that much going in this chapter...but we have a promise!(:

I'm sort of jealous of Arabelle...she found someone who sincerely loves her when she was only fourteen.

Dammit. I wish I had a Nico. *sighs*

Fun fact about me (though some of you don't really care): When I was little, my parents used to tell me, that when it rained in the Philippines, there would be goldfish. In the rain. Meaning, they would be on the ground. Yeah...I don't know how I believed that.

Did your parents ever lie you about something?

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