I stepped quietly into the hall and observed the man I once thought I loved. He stood bent over a table in his golden imperial robes, embroidered with the dragons of the sky. He was still so beautiful, but I did not feel the same thrall I had once felt with him.

"Eona!" Kygo exclaimed when he noticed me standing besides the door. "How long have you been here? What are you doing here?"

"I just arrived. I needed to see you," I said, dropping into a low bow.

"Stand, Naiso," he said, rushing to my side. There was a lingering scent of jasmine. "How is your shoulder? I am sorry I haven't been to see you. It has been busy."

"I understand," I said with a small smile. "My shoulder is fine. It is healing slowly, but it is healing well." I paused, inhaling the sweet flowery fragrance. "When will the wedding celebrations be held?"

Kygo froze. "You know."

"Did you think you could hide it from me forever?"

"No. I was planning to tell you," Kygo said, stepping away.

"When?" I asked, stepping forward. "When, Kygo? You are always like this, hiding things from me. Why can you not trust me?" It was not an accusation. I only needed to know.

"Because you are always hiding things from me," he said, a sudden anger in his voice. "You are my Naiso, my truth bringer, and yet, I cannot trust you because you do not always tell me the truth." He gave a harsh laugh at the cool irony.

I looked down. He was right. In the past, I had always hidden the truth from him, in fear for my own life. That changes today. "I know," I said, "but I will be truthful now. There is something I need to tell you."

Kygo gazed at me, confused. "What do you need to tell me?"

I took a deep breath and thought of Ido's warmth touch. "I do not love you," I said in a whisper. Then louder, I said, "I love another."

"What?" Kygo asked. His voice was leveled, but his fingers curled into a fist by his side.

I swallowed. I could not stop now. "I love Ido."

His closed fist stopped an inch from my face. I braced myself, but did not move. With an angry roar, Kygo moved back to the table. Channeling the fierce anger raging through his body into a series of kicks and punches, Kygo attacked the table. It shuddered and creaked under his force. In one swift punch, the table split into two, sending a rain of paper flying.

As the papers fluttered to the ground, a portrait caught my eyes. Mines. The paper with my face landed neatly on the ground, next to a portrait of Lady Haru. I stared down at it, understanding flickering into me.

"Was I one of the empress candidates?" I asked, hesitantly, when Kygo's blind rage ended.

Kygo did not turn to face me. I watched the strong lines of his back. His body heaved with silent anger, but he answered my question. "Yes."

"How long has it been?"

"Does it matter?" He turned to face me. His body was tense, as if he was building a defense against me.

"How long, Kygo?" I demanded.

His fists opened and closed, blood dripping from his raw knuckles. He looked away. "Since we returned."

Everything began to snap into place. I studied the face of the girl on the paper. Her big eyes were full of mistrust and her mouth was lined with defiance, ready to lie. It was a good likeness. Lady Haru's portrait next to it was filled with hope and a beauty that extended beyond the physical realm. Kygo must have seen the same thing.

"I can understand why you chose her," I spoke softly.

"What difference does it make, Eona? You do not love me anyways." He kicked a table half, sending it flying across the room and landing with a loud crash.

"And you do not love me."

I remembered the distance that Kygo had placed between us when we had returned. He visited me only once in all that time. When he did, his too eager touch was the same as my desperate attempt to rekindle a dying fire. When I returned from Zhang's camp, there was no joyful reunion, and he avoided me even with my shoulder wound. But he would not let me go.

Kygo's body slumped at my words, as if the weight of the truth was too heavy a burden for his strength. "I do love you."

"Don't lie to me, Kygo. Not about this. Please," I moved towards him.

"No. Don't come closer," he said, backing away. The image of a child cowering in fear appeared into my mind.

"What are you afraid of, Kygo?"

"I am not afraid, Eona."

"You are acting like a child, desperately holding on to something you can't have," I said, my voice low.

"I don't want to lose you, Eona," he said, desperation clinging to every word. "You are everything I have left. You have been through everything with me. You were there when I lost my father, my mother, and my brother. You were there when my most trusted general betrayed me. You were there when I lost the dragons and my imperial pearl. You console me and you give me warmth. I don't want to lose that. Especially not to him."

"Kygo," I reached for him. I understood now just how similar we were. We were two people who had lost everything, and so we came to find comfort in one another, mistaking what we had to be love. We were wrong.

"But I can't trust you, Eona," he said, pressing a fist to his head. "When I saw that portrait, all I saw were lies. I was afraid to see you, to see the portrait come alive, and when I did come to see you, you only pushed me further away. How can I love you when I can't trust you, Eona?"

My hand stopped in the air and fell limp by my side. He was so close, yet so far. "I could not trust you either, Kygo." I gave a dry laugh as the bitter truth came forth. "Our entire relationship has been built on lies, one after another. There was no trust from either of us."

"I trusted you when I gave you the imperial pearl," Kygo said.

"But that was also where your trust ended."

We stood in silence, staring down at the portraits littered on the ground. The vast emptiness of the grand imperial hall made me suddenly realize how lonely Kygo must be. He was one man, alone, in this entire kingdom, ruling without anyone he could rely on.

"Eona, I have been trained from birth not to truly trust anyone."

Those were the words he had once told me. Words that I had turned against him in my hurt. Now I realized what those words meant; how he sees the world around him. He was safe from no one. Not even me. How could he have ever loved me in those circumstances?

"You have not lost me, Kygo," I said. My heart knew what to do. "I cannot be your lover, nor can I be your Naiso, but I can be your friend. It will no longer be a relationship built on the need for mutual survival." Kygo's head lifted at the familiar words. "This time, it will be a relationship built on trust."

Kygo searched my face for signs of a lie. His blood speckled across his forehead, casting an ominous look. Cautiously, he said, "How can I trust you?"

"Because I will trust you. I cannot promise I will always tell you the truth, Kygo, because I have a cowardly and selfish nature, but I will try."

"You will do that for me?"

I nodded.

Kygo paused, staring into my face, once again searching. Finally, he said, "If you will trust me, then I will trust you." He swept his hand from forehead to heart. It was a promise.

Author's Notes:

K folks, I have reached the crux of my cheesiness. I'm going to crawl into a hole now. There is a lot of cheese leftover from this chapter that's probably going to spill into the next chapter, because I need to take care of a lot of stuff still… lol, but I don't blame you if you can't take it anymore. Anywho... I hope that you all got what I was trying to get across... Thanks for reading thus far!

-DragonsStories: Thanks :D Do you mean the 47 Ronin movie? I need to watch that.