Chapter 42

"I care about you."

Try and be more honest. She said. Try and talk to her. She said. Open up more. She told him. How could she ask him that and then suddenly leave in secret with her friends to fight a powerful dark wizard on another planet. And he found out about the whole thing at the same time as the rest of the teaching staff, during a board meeting with Faragonda two hours ago. Now the girls were back, one of them totally blind, the others completely exhausted. As he watched Faragonda scold and lecture the girls, he tried to name the weird churning in his stomach. Was it disappointment, sadness, confusion, perhaps a feeling of betrayal? He glared in the general direction of the caramel haired girl. She had asked him to be honest about his feelings. Well who was the one hiding things now? Moreover, Flora could probably sense his anger since she was doing everything in her power not to meet his eyes.

In the end he barely paid attention to what was happening around him until he heard the words "fairy powder" and "Enchantix." Now, those were things that always caught his interest. He had spent his teenage years helping his brothers and researching these topics to find ways to weaken and destroy the enchantix wings. In the end, he had created the perfect curse that his brothers had used against the first and last fairies on earth. Actually seeing an enchantix transformation had suddenly brought back a lot of memories. Weirdly enough, none of them were fond memories.

"Enchantix fairy wings are one of the strongest magical abilities a fairy can possess. They create this powder that has an incredible healing ability. Let me demonstrate." Faragonda created a small little chalice with which she collected some of the fairy dust that was falling off Layla's fluttering wings. Then she slowly poured the powder on the girl's blind eyes. They all watched in awe as the powder slowly healed her. Even light magic could impress him sometimes. But it would forever remain out of his reach. His heart and soul were too dark for him to heal someone. And sometimes he could not help but envy these fairies that were born with the power to make things and people around them brighter. However, then he would be reminded by listening to Stella's and those pixies' squeaky voices how utterly annoying and naive light magic users could be. That would make him regain his senses instantly.

He had been so lost in his thoughts that it took him a few seconds for him to finally notice that Faragonda was mentioning his name to the girls.

"Professor Darkell will be in charge of explaining to you the details of your punishment and make sure that you finish it before Sunday evening. I will leave you with him, ladies. Good afternoon."

He gestured to the girls to follow him out of the office. He walked down the hallway, he tried very hard to not turn around and take a glimpse of the fairy's face. He only allowed himself to stare straight forward and listen to the sound of six pairs of heels clicking on the floor behind him. Everyone was silent, even the sun princess did not say a word. Perhaps they could feel the strange tension between their friend and the history teacher. Or maybe they were just aware that their history teacher was in a foul mood and they preferably did not want to test his patience in case he made their punishment even worse.

It did not take them long to reach the archive room where the girls were met with the foreboding sight of a mountain of books. The pile almost reached the roof and seemed to be ready to crumble dangerously down at any second.

"Well girls, you timed your idiotic actions very well. I was just in need of little helpers to sort these books in the right place. The school is trying to empty some of the old underground storage rooms. We found these books in some of them. Faragonda asked me to move all of them to the archives and the library. So now I am asking you to move all of them for me." He tried to keep a blank face instead he knew that his smugness was showing.

"Without magic?" Stella uselessly asked.

"Obviously." He rolled his eyes at the hopeless looks he got from the girls. That was his que for him to leave.

"Well, have fun, I have copies to correct. I'll come and check on you later. Don't go traveling to another planet while I'm gone without telling me." He made sure to say those last wordsm while meeting Flora's eyes. But just before he closed the door behind, he decided to leave with one last word of advice.

"Be careful, some of them bite."

He might have smiled a few minutes later when he heard one of the girls scream in surprise. He could be quite petty sometimes.

The end of the week had come and passed. It was already Tuesday, and Flora and Dimitri had not yet spoken a word to each other. In class Dimitri did not speak to her directly and Flora chose to stay quiet and not participate as much as she used to. They both unconsciously avoided each other. Neither of them were brave enough to make the first step. They had no idea how to make the tension and awkwardness go away. On the contrary, the level of tension and irritation between them was only increasing to the point where everything between them would eventually explode. And today was the day.

Dimitri had decided to sit on a bench situated behind the school and facing the magical forest. Since they were in September, these were probably going to be the last day of sun and Dimitri had wanted to spend them outside. Most of the students had returned since classes would start again in a few days. But right now this part of the courtyard was luckily free. the students were probably unpacking and catching up with their friends in the common areas.

He was blissfully enjoying the silence. No high pitched giggling or boring small talk were going to ruin his moment of peace. He leaned back on the bench and closed his eyes. He was thinking back to a mind control incantation he had read a week ago that had looked quite interesting. While he was trying to brainstorm a way to tweek so it could be used on more than one person simultaneously, his silent calculations were interrupted by the sound of footsteps behind him. As he turned around to greet the person, his voice remained silent as soon as he recognized the feminine silhouette of the flower fairy. She looked as surprised as him.

"I did not know someone was already here…" An awkward silence followed her words. Darkell was the first move. He stood up from his seat, and without a word started to walk in the direction of the school's back entrance. But small hand landed on his shoulder and made him stop in his tracks.

"We can't keep doing this forever. We need to talk to each other."

He turned to look at her. She had a serious and worried expression directed towards him. Her words only irked him more.

"Oh, now you want to talk?" He spat.

"What do you mean?" Her visible confusion only added fuel to his fire.

"I remember that we had both agreed to do exactly that but three days later you disapear without saying a word. No letter, message, no warning. Nothing. I had to learn everything from Griselda!"

"I did that because i did not want to get you involved in something dangerous!"

"You demand for me to be honest, to open up to you. But you don't do the same. Does that rule only apply to me? Is it a way for you to control and make sure the dark mage does not betray your trust?" She looked hurt from his accusations. But he needed to know the truth. Did she really not trust him at all? He had thought that he showed more than once that he'd always take her side.

"Of course not. Dima… I…" His heart ached weirdly at the sight of the small tear falling from her cheek. He watched her as she took a deep breath and took a step forward. "I did not tell you because I wanted to protect you. When you had been kidnapped I was not able to protect you. I had felt useless and so so so scared that something had happened to you. I never wanted to feel that again. you don't understand how horrible it had been..."

He could not stop himself from interrupting her.

"What do you mean I don't understand? How the hell do you think I felt when you disappeared? I was scared. I never get scared, except when your safety is concerned." she looked shocked at his words. Perhaps he had not shown her enough that she was important to him?

"Do you not see how much I care about you?" As soon as he saw a second tear fall from her eyes, he quickly erased the distance between them and embraced her softly in his arms.

"I care about you, okay? Next time you're in a dangerous situation I want to be involved. Understood?" He was surprised to hear her chuckle lightly in his chest.

"What's so funny, sweetheart?" HIs anger had flown away ages ago and he could only feel affection and endearment towards the crying young woman in his arms.

"Even when you tell someone you care about them, you sound like an arrogant jerk." He heard her tease him. He felt her arms tighten around his body.

"I care about you too." His heart felt weird. It was beating so fast. He had never felt it jump like that before. Should he be worried? But the feeling got ten times worse when the fairy stood on her tiptoes suddenly and placed her soft lips on his. The argument had been forgotten by the two. They were both too focused on slowly brushing their lips against each other's in a rhythm that only they knew. He placed his hand on her nape and the other on her lower back to bring her closer to him and to her surprise deepened the kiss. She tried to concentrate on the feel of their lips perfectly interlocking together but she would easily get distracted by Dimitri's fingers softly caressing the skin of her neck. They stayed like this for a long time, trying to pour all of their care and affection and apologies in this one kiss. They were finally on the same page in this relationship. And she hoped that it would continue to be like this for a long time.