Beta: ShadowMeister234
The walk back to the inn was quiet and somber. The festival had pretty much come to a close after the lantern drifting. The few stalls that were left open only housed the late-night stragglers as they enjoyed their last drink. It would have been a pleasant time to take a stroll if Mercury's companion didn't look like a kicked puppy shuffling beside him.
Ruby hadn't looked up once since they left the boat. She hadn't said anything either. She was probably deep inside her mind thinking everything over. Mercury didn't feel great seeing her like this, but he didn't know what he could do about it.
Putting an arm around her shoulder or his hand on her back would just send the wrong message. He didn't want to give her that kind of hope. He also couldn't just tell her everything was going to be alright because while that was true, it wasn't true in the way she probably wanted.
He could feel her racking her brain for an answer to this problem. That if she just thought about it hard enough, she would find some solution that would let them be together despite their different worlds.
There was no solution like that. The gap between them was too big. Ruby wanted to be a Huntress and a hero, but he was already the villain. This wasn't a storybook where the hero could forgive the villain and he'd be redeemed. In the real world, the hero's feelings didn't matter. He helped destroy Beacon and every Huntress and Huntsmen in Vale knew it. The whole world would too, eventually. The destruction of the CCT had only bought him a little delay. Ruby wouldn't be able to convince everyone to just let him go because "he was good now." If she even tried, she would probably be labeled a traitor.
No, it was impossible for Ruby's feelings and her dream to be reconciled. The only thing that would fix this was time. In time, Ruby would grow out of this crush and realize it never could have worked out. Then there would come that point where they had to say goodbye. Ruby would probably cry like a baby and promise to never forget about him, but she would still leave and head back to Vale where her family and future awaited. They would probably never see each other again unless he got caught and Ruby came to his execution. That wasn't likely to happen though. When the time came, he planned to go down fighting.
The inn came into view and Mercury nudged Ruby so she would see it. When he did that though, he noticed a girl walking slightly behind them. She had brown hair and was wearing a plain pink yukata, so she didn't look out of place and could have easily just been going back to the inn just as they were, but the fact that he hadn't noticed her until now set off alarm bells.
No civilian should have been able to walk behind them so quietly. His first thought was that it was a Huntress trying to ambush him, but the girl behind them seemed to be focused on Ruby, strangely enough.
Mercury pretended to not have noticed their follower, but he kept an eye on them as he continued leading Ruby to the inn. His observation paid off when he heard the soft click of metal and instantly pulled Ruby's arm to move her out of the way of the blade tipped umbrella that sailed by.
The girl was carried by the momentum of her attack and spun around on one foot so she was facing Mercury and Ruby.
Ruby seemed shocked that she was almost skewered and pushed her fingers into the sleeve of Mercury's jacket. "Who are you?" she yelled.
The girl gave Ruby a vicious smile and her eyes changed color before her entire appearance broke into shards of glass to reveal a tri-colored girl that both Mercury and Ruby were acquainted with.
"Didn't think I would get to see any of my old teammates again," Mercury said.
Neo rested her umbrella on top of her shoulder and curtsied. It wasn't as cute as it was probably meant to be since her eyes never stop glaring at Ruby.
"What brings you all the way out here?"
Neo pointed to the newest addition to her outfit, a familiar bowler hat, then pointed to Ruby while sliding her finger across her neck.
Mercury had been with Neo long enough to have some understanding of her unique signing, but this message was clear enough for even Ruby to understand it. "You're here for revenge," she paled. "I didn't kill Roman. It was an accident."
Those words didn't give Neo the comfort Ruby was probably hoping for, in fact, she seemed even angrier than before. Neo pulled her leg back and held her umbrella out to the side ready to go in for another strike.
In response, Ruby got into one of the worst boxer stances Mercury had ever seen. She wouldn't have been able to beat a hamster with that stance let alone Neo. "What the hell are you doing?" he whispered to her.
"I don't know," Ruby whined. "I'm no good at hand-to-hand."
"Then where's your weapon?"
"My room. I wasn't going to carry it around for a date."
"I thought that thing was like your baby."
"It is but you don't bring babies on your dates either."
Mercury groaned and stepped forward so he was between Neo and Ruby. Neo seemed surprised and Mercury understood why. If their positions were reversed, he'd be surprised too. "Listen can we just talk about this. Whatever happened with Roman I can guarantee you it wasn't Ruby's fault. She's way too—" The girl in front of him shattered into glass. "Shit!"
Looks like settling things peacefully wasn't going to be an option. Mercury scanned the area around him, but Neo could've been anywhere along with being invisible. He concentrated on his hearing and kept an eye on the dirt road. A soft thud and puff of dust alerted him and he fired off a shotgun blast in that direction with his boot.
It didn't connect with anything and Neo had already appeared under his outstretched leg. He tried to bring his foot down on her head, but she dodged to the side of it and swung her umbrella up. It would have caught the underside of his chin if he hadn't brought his arm up to block it.
Ruby tried to assist by running up and throwing a clumsy right hook. Neo easily ducked under it and proceeded to kick Ruby in the stomach. To prevent Neo from pressing her attack, Mercury grabbed her shoulder. Sadly, that Neo shattered.
Instead of trying to locate the real one, Mercury dove forward and tackled Ruby, Neo's true target, to the ground. Ruby avoided a kick to the head because of that and Mercury managed to roll them out of the way of the downward thrusts of Neo's sword. While they were rolling, Mercury fired a few more shotgun blasts which forced Neo away.
Once he had put enough distance between him and Neo, he lifted Ruby to her feet and grabbed her by both shoulders while looking her dead in the eyes. "Listen you have to go get your weapon."
"But then you'll be fighting her alone." Ruby panicked.
"I'll be fine. Just use your semblance and you'll be in and out in no time. Besides without your weapon, you're honestly putting me at more of a disadvantage being here than not."
Ruby huffed but nodded. "Fine, I'll go."
"Just be quick. She's probably going to try and cut you off."
"I know." In a burst of rose petals, Ruby rushed towards the inn, and as expected Neo ran to block her. It looked like Neo was going to succeed too until Ruby suddenly stopped and, in a pretty surprising move, kicked her sandal at Neo's face. It was easily knocked out of the way by Neo's umbrella, but the slight delay gave Mercury a chance to catch up and engage the petite assassin. Ruby was free to make a dash for the inn which she did.
Neo's eyes flickered through a couple of different colors as she watched her prey get away. She slashed towards Mercury's family jewels which he deflected by hitting the bottom of her umbrella with her knee and sending her weapon up and to the side. Then spun around and aimed a roundhouse at her chest. She dodged by falling backward into a backflip.
"Quit moving around," Mercury sneered.
The two exchanged a few more attacks, but while Neo was able to score gracing hits, Mercury couldn't touch her. With her speed, flexibility, and that damn semblance it was like trying to catch water with a net. A fight against Neo was never going to be easy, but he was beginning to think that he couldn't win.
Mercury knew from his time with Neo that she was an agile fighter, but that was a style based in necessity just as much as preference. Neo didn't have a very strong aura if he could get just a few solid hits in, it would break. The problem was she was so slippery that in one-on-one combat, where she could focus all her attention on a single opponent, getting a solid blow was next to impossible.
Which was why he would really appreciate it if Ruby could come back already. Just what was taking her so long?
The door to the inn nearly flew off its hinges as Ruby used her semblance to cover the distance between the inn and them in a couple of seconds. "It's gone!" Ruby yelled with sweat running down her cheeks and tears in her eyes.
"What's gone?" Mercury called back as his inattention let Neo scrape her weapon along his stomach.
"Crescent Rose! It's gone. I looked everywhere."
Neo looked at Ruby with an absolutely ecstatic grin. Mercury cursed. The half-pint had done something. No wonder she had stayed out here to fight him instead of chasing Ruby into the inn. For her, there hadn't been any reason to worry. "What did you do with Ruby's weapon you bitch."
Neo must have been really happy with herself because she gave an immediate answer. She grabbed her nose, held her other hand above her head to make it look like a fin, and wiggled downward.
Ruby looked confused, but Mercury got the meaning. Neo was pretending to swim, and he could only think of one body of water close by. "She tossed your weapon into the lake." There was no recovering it from that.
Neo applauded him for his correct answer while Ruby stood there flabbergasted. "Snap out of it," Mercury said. "This is no time to be spacing out. You have to get out of here."
Ruby cracked to life with sudden strength. "What?"
"You need to run away. Neo will kill you if you can't fight back."
"I'm not leaving," Ruby said stubbornly.
Neo bounced on her feet as if her day couldn't get any better which, to be fair, it probably couldn't. Her primary target wasn't just unarmed but refusing to flee. The only thing really standing between Neo and her revenge was him.
"You really need to run," Mercury told Ruby again.
Ruby didn't budge. "I'm not leaving you alone with her."
"You're the one she's here to kill. If you run away, she'll probably chase after you, but with your semblance, she'll never catch up."
"But what if she doesn't? What if she stays here and tries to kill you. I'm not willing to take that risk."
Mercury groaned. Didn't Ruby realize that at this rate they were both going to be killed? He knew there was no way he'd be able to talk her out of it, though. He was going to have to come up with a new plan. But, before he could do that, Neo ran forward.
Mercury ran up to meet her, so they'd be as far away from Ruby as possible, but just before they clashed, Neo jumped and used Mercury's shoulder as a launching pad to hop over him. Mercury turned to chase her, but she dropped something behind her and by the time he recognized what it was, it was too late.
The dust grenade exploded and Mercury found the lower half of his body encased in ice. Neo didn't even look back as she charged towards Ruby. Mercury wished he could say Ruby put up a valiant defense, but that would be a lie.
Neo broke through Ruby's guard if it could even be called that, in a second, and everything after that was a beatdown. A kick to the shin, a punch to the gut, an elbow to the neck, and so much more. Neo wasn't even trying to kill Ruby. She just wanted to make her suffer.
Mercury was furious as he tried to crack the ice surrounding his legs. It had been stupid for him to get trapped in this at all. He had just assumed he knew what was in Neo's arsenal. She had never used grenades before so he hadn't thought to expect them. He should have known better. People could always update their styles, and now Ruby was paying the price for his arrogance.
Ruby went down with a cry and Neo immediately straddled her. With Ruby pinned to the ground, Neo was free to raise her umbrella above her head and swing it down on Ruby's face. There was a crack followed by a gasp of pain and a squirt of blood.
Mercury felt a rage he thought he'd lost when he killed his dad bubble to the surface. With an almighty crack, Mercury smashed the ice with his fist and sprinted towards the two girls. Neo was so occupied by her bloodlust that she didn't notice him until he was almost on top of her.
For most people there would have been no chance of dodging, but Neo had time to spare. Mercury knew his kick wouldn't connect. He knew Neo would avoid it and slip away again. That was until Ruby grabbed Neo's leg and stopped her from moving. Mismatched eyes widened in panic just before a shotgun enhanced kick struck her ribs.
Neo was blasted off Ruby and skipped off the ground four times before making the rest of her painful trip sliding on her back, kicking up rocks and dust the entire way.
Mercury used that time to check on Ruby. She was covered in scrapes, her right eye was starting to swell, and a trickle of blood was running down her lips. If her aura wasn't broken already it was very close to being so. "Can you stand?" he asked her.
"Yeah." Mercury helped her up anyway and only let go when he was sure she could stand on her own two feet.
"This is why I told you to run."
Ruby looked at him with a toothy smile. "Never."
Neo was already back up, and besides rubbing the side where she had been hit, she looked no worse for wear. Mercury had gotten one good hit in, but it would take more than that to bring her down. To make matters worse, Neo was clearly done playing around. She pulled her sword from her umbrella, and with a look that screamed murder, she broke into glass.
Ruby and Mercury stood back to back as they tried to locate the invisible girl, but this time there was no sound of shifting dirt to give her away. Neo was playing it carefully which would take her longer to reach them, but the time it took didn't mean much if she killed them all the same.
Ruby was already leaning against his back for support. A strong breeze probably could have knocked her over at this point, and Neo would do far worse. He had to think of a way to get both of them out of this, but their options were extremely limited.
"I think I have a plan," he whispered to Ruby after nearly a minute. "It's an extremely risky one but I don't see how else we're getting out of this."
"If you believe it might work then go for it. I trust you," Ruby said with more confidence in him than he ever deserved.
"Alright, then here it is."
Neo walked slowly towards her targets. They didn't have a clue to where she was and it was going to stay that way until she buried her blade in Red's body and watched her lifeblood leak out until she was nothing but an ugly corpse.
She still wasn't quite sure why Cinder's lapdog was defending Red, but she didn't care. All she knew was he was standing in the way between her and revenge. She would repay him for that kick soon enough, but revenge came first. Just a few more steps and she'd be able to touch them with her sword.
Suddenly Cinder's pet lunged forward causing Neo to freeze on the spot. There was no way he had seen her. Her approach had been spotless. As confident as she was, she still held her breath and refused to move. Thankfully, she was correct in her assessment. Mercury hadn't seen her. He ran behind and far to the left of her. He kicked at air, and upon realizing there was nothing there, got on his hand and started firing his boots while spinning around like a pinwheel.
With how far away he was shooting, Neo only had to duck slightly to avoid any stray bullets. Mercury had no idea where she was. He had either seen something else and mistaken it for her or had given in to panic and decided firing wildly and hoping to hit something was the best course of action.
It didn't matter what the reason was. What mattered was that he left his little girlfriend undefended. Neo stepped in closer being careful not to give herself away at the last moment. Red had such a stupid look on her face as she stood there helplessly. She didn't know her death was right in front of her. So close, she could have reached out and touched it. Neo grinned as she readied her sword and aimed for Red's soft, defenseless neck.
This was for Roman!
The sword thrust forward hitting Ruby's neck and drawing a drop of blood. That was as far as it got though before Neo's vision was filled with the steel-toed tip of a black boot. For the second time that night, Neo was sent skidding along the road. Her aura shimmered and her back burned. By the time she got back up, Mercury was already running towards her.
She ducked under a kick and thrust her sword at him hoping to force some distance between them. Her sword struck his stomach, but instead of sliding off his aura like it was supposed to, it pierced his skin and spilled his blood.
That bastard had dropped his aura on purpose!
That brief moment where her sword was stuck inside him was enough time for him to grab her wrist and headbutt her. Neo felt her nose crack as her aura decided it had enough. Roman's hat flew off her head as she tumbled to the ground. Mercury was quick to take the opportunity to sit on her chest. She tried to wiggle free and claw her way out, but Mercury was just too heavy, and she was already exhausted from losing her aura.
Still, she continued to struggle fueled by her anger at Red and the need to avenge Roman. That was until Mercury delivered a cruel punch to the side of her head that made her vision spin.
"Doesn't feel so good to be on the other side of the beatdown does it?"
With a vicious smile, he punched her in the jaw and made her teeth rattle.
"I bet you're curious how I knew where you were?"
Another punch. It split her lip.
"It's because I know what it's like to hate someone with every fiber of your being and wanting nothing more to see them dead."
Another punch. Blood splattered on the ground.
"I knew you'd want to see Ruby's face when you killed her. I also knew that you'd go for the neck. That would give you the chance to see her choke on her own blood instead of an unsatisfying peaceful death."
Another punch. She could barely hear his words anymore.
"Of course if the risk was too high you might have sacrificed your pleasure for a guaranteed kill. That's why I had to draw you out by leaving Ruby's side. As long as I covered a certain area with my attacks, I could narrow down the angle you were likely to come from, and you fell for it!"
Another punch. He was laughing at her.
Another punch. She was crying.
Another punch. It hurt.
Anoth— "Mercury stop it!"
Red came rushing in and practically threw herself on his back trying to pull him away. "Stop it, she has had enough."
Mercury turned on her with a vicious snarl, but his features immediately softened when he saw Red was on the verge of tears. He sighed and lowered his arm, but he still kept an eye on Neo making sure she couldn't move an inch. Not that she had it in her to try and escape anyway.
"Ruby, she tried to kill you. I know you don't really like this kind of thing, but this isn't Vale. There isn't a prison out here that's capable of holding someone with Huntress level power. We have to kill her."
"No, you can't!"
"If we let her go, she's just going to try again and she'll keep trying until she succeeds."
"You don't know that," she tried to argue.
"Stop being naïve. She thinks you killed Roman. She'll stop at nothing until you're given the same fate. I saw the way she looked at him. He was basically her dad."
For a moment, it seemed that their differences might come to blows, but then Ruby let go of Mercury and calmly walked forward. She walked right past Neo to pick Roman's hat off the ground. Then she returned to Neo and knelt by her side.
They were both beaten bloody, but Ruby was still able to smile even as her cheeks were still wet from tears. She brushed off Roman's hat and set it on Neo's chest. "He must have been really special to you," she said softly. When you were blown off that airship, we kept fighting each other. He was winning, and he would have won if a Griffon didn't eat him while he was focused on me."
Neo's eyes widened.
Ruby grabbed Neo's hand and pressed it to her forehead. Neo could feel her trying to hold in the tears. "I'm sorry for what happened. I'm sorry I knocked you away and took away your last chance to see him. I'm sorry I didn't save him. I'm sorry he died fighting me. I'm sorry I'm so weak." The tears were flowing fast and free now. "But please stop this. I don't want anyone else to die."
Even if Neo could say something, she wouldn't know what. This wasn't how it was supposed to go.
Ruby wiped away the tears and stood up to face Mercury. "Let her go."
Mercury bit his lip as he looked between the two girls desperately trying to figure out what he should do. When it was clear he couldn't decide, Ruby walked up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Please, for me."
He expressed a deep sigh. One that made it clear he thought this was something he would regret, but even so, he got off Neo. She was slow getting to her feet and when she did, she was met with the cold eyes of the assassin Mercury Black. "I never want to see you again," he said.
Neo didn't say anything or make any gesture. She just cruelly ripped the sword that was still stuck in Mercury's stomach out and disappeared with shattering glass.
"Son of a bitch," Mercury cried as he bent over and placed his hand above his wound.
"Are you okay," Ruby said, quick to come to his aid.
"Yeah, I'll be fine," he groaned. "My aura will heal me. It just hurt like hell."
"Good. Because I'm going to kill you for being so reckless! What were you thinking!"
Mercury turned away as his eardrums were being assaulted. He had explained to Ruby that she was going to be the bait and as sure as he had been about Neo's attack, it had never been a guarantee. Ruby had accepted that risk, but what Mercury hadn't clued her in on was his plan to drop his aura if Neo managed to get back up. A stab wound was a small price to pay to keep Neo from sliding back into her illusions.
At least that was his opinion. Ruby clearly didn't see it the same way.
They dressed Mercury's wounds in Ruby's room. There wasn't really a reason for that other than her room being closer to the inn entrance. It was a little awkward having a shirtless guy in her room, but they had already shared a bath together so it wasn't that bad. Plus, she was so angry with him that she didn't have time to be embarrassed.
Ruby tightened the last bandage and immediately had to slap Mercury's hand away when he tried to loosen them. "Don't you dare?"
"Relax," he groaned like a child, "I've had worse."
"Just because it's not on the level of your legs being removed doesn't mean it's fine. I really think you should see a doctor."
"Nah, I just need some rest."
Ruby wanted to scream. What was wrong with going to a doctor? Why did he have to be so stubborn about it? Sadly, as much as Ruby wished she could, she couldn't force him to move. Besides she was exhausted herself. Instead, she sat on her bed and leaned herself against Mercury's side. He looked a bit uncomfortable with it, but screw it, she wanted this.
"Thank you for letting Neo go," she said.
"I still think it was a mistake," he replied.
"That's why I'm thanking you."
"Well, it's your life on the line, so I guess you get to decide how much danger you put it in."
"I don't want to hear that from you." She would have poked his wound if she wasn't afraid that would hurt him, so she just made the gesture.
"I'm just saying that without your weapon you're pretty defenseless right now, so you should be careful. From what I saw even regular Grimm will be a threat to you if you get caught."
Ruby slumped farther into Mercury's side not only because he was pointing out her lack of unarmed skills, but because she was reminded that she didn't have Crescent Rose. Her stomach hurt just thinking about it. What was she going to do without her baby? She couldn't craft a new one without the proper equipment and Crescent Rose wasn't exactly something that could be easily replaced. Was she going to have to buy a civilian weapon like a rifle or a sword? It was hard to even imagine herself using something so mundane.
Mercury ran a finger under her eyes to wipe away tears she hadn't realized she was shedding. "Is having to use a different weapon really that upsetting?"
"It's more than that. Crescent Rose has been with me through everything. No matter what happened I could always rely on it. Losing it is like losing a part of me."
Mercury looked down at his robotic feet. "I know what you mean." He gently pushed her off his side, stood up, and grabbed his shirt. "Well, I'm off to bed. See you around."
"See you around," Ruby whispered.
The next few days were quiet as they grew shorter and colder. The excitement of the festival had vanished and people had returned to their daily routines. Ruby didn't do much but wander around town. She didn't see much of Mercury outside of when the inn served meals in the lobby. She hoped that meant he was resting his wound. That was definitely a good thing but it left Ruby without much to do.
She had hit Shinkai's single local weapon store, but nothing there had caught her attention. The clerk had told her she could put in a special order if she wanted, but buying a weapon without touching it didn't feel right to her, so she just kept putting it off.
Overall life just kind of passed by.
That was until she entered her room one night and saw an unbelievable sight. Sitting on her bed was none other than Crescent Rose. She rushed to it and examined it from every angle just to make sure it was real. When she determined beyond a doubt her baby was really back, she nearly collapsed to her knees in tears. It was still a little wet, but otherwise, it was in perfect condition.
The only question was how it had gotten back, and Ruby only knew one person who might have the answer. She left her room and raced down the hall until she was in front of Mercury's door where she started banging her fist on it.
"Can you stop trying to break down my door!" a shout said from the other side. "It's already opened for Brothers' sake."
Ruby pushed down on the handle and flung herself into his room. "What did you do?"
Mercury raised his arm while lying on his bed wrapped in a cocoon of blankets. "You're going to have to be more specific than that."
"I mean how did Crescent Rose end up back in my room?"
"Oh that, I went and fished it out of the lake for you. It took me a while to find it though." He acted like it was no big deal, but Ruby knew it couldn't have been simple otherwise she would have done it herself.
She ran up to his bed ready to demand more answers but noticed that Mercury seemed kind of pale and his cheeks were flushed. "What happened to you! It's not your wound is it?" Ruby reached for the blankets, but he flimsily pushed her hand away.
"Don't worry about it."
Ruby narrowed her eyes and stared at him.
After a moment he looked away sheepishly. "Alright, I might have torn my wound open when I pulled your weapon from the lakebed. It was pretty stuck and it wasn't easy to get good leverage underwater." He paused to cough. Not just a normal cough either, one that sounded like he was trying to remove all the air from his lungs. Once he was done he chuckled, dryly. "Also I may have caught a bit of a cold. Turns out swimming in freezing water for a couple of days isn't great for your health.
Ruby placed her hands on the mattress to steady herself as tears threatened to spill. "Why would you do that?"
Mercury put his hand over his mouth and coughed again. "Because it obviously meant a lot to you. Just think of it as my apology for leaving you back at the mining camp."
Ruby didn't know what to say, so instead, she bent down to hug him, conveying what words couldn't.
"Don't do that," Mercury said.
She just snuggled in closer. "I don't care if I get sick. This is one of the nicest things anybody has ever done for me."
"It's not that," he paused to cough, "you can't be this affectionate towards me."
"What?" she said in shock.
Mercury rolled his eyes. "We already talked about this."
"But—"
"No buts. Neo already proved it's not going to work out. You were completely against killing her when I would have done it without a second thought."
"But you didn't kill her. You listened to me. Doesn't that prove we can be together?"
"Even ignoring all the other problems that come with me being a criminal, I only listened to you because you're my friend." Mercury's voice suddenly took a very dark tone. "If we had been together at the time, nothing you could have said would have made me let her go. I would do everything in my power to make sure the girl I committed myself to was as safe as possible. It's only because our relationship is slightly more distant that I could accept the risk, even if it was only barely."
That was so morbid and romantic at the same time that she didn't know how to feel. Instead, she tried to deflect. "But this isn't a romantic hug. This is just me showing how thankful I am."
"Ruby," he chilled. He tried to push her off himself, but he must have been feeling worse than he was letting on because Ruby hardly felt it. She didn't want him to try and push it though, so she got off."
"Fine," she huffed, "but you're like this because you were helping me, so at least let me look after you."
"Ruby," he said again before speaking to her with a softer tone. "Don't do this to yourself. It will only hurt you in the end."
"I'm not going to give up on this so easily."
"It's not giving up. It's accepting reality."
"I'll bring your breakfast in the morning," Ruby stated as she headed towards the door. "Make sure you get plenty of rest until then, and if you need absolutely anything, just yell and nurse Ruby will come running."
Mercury pressed his head into his pillows accepting he couldn't do anything to stop this. "You'll regret this."
"I'll never regret chasing after the person I love." She didn't hear what he said back because she had already closed the door behind her.
Once she was out in the hall, she had to lean on the wall to catch her breath. There she said it. The word with the big L. There was no going back now. She would make him understand and make this work.
No matter what.