Chapter 27: Breeze
A/N: Figuring out what exactly to do with this chapter was fun. Figuring out what to do for the next chapter is gonna be even more fun. I'm glad I managed to get this out as quickly as I did given the amount of writer's block I had.
I won't keep you waiting any longer, cause I bet a lot of you are very excited for what goes down this chapter. Enjoy.
I...
I had no idea what to say. What to do. How to even think.
There's no way she just...
"You... you... what?" Was all I could say.
She just giggled.
"You two are just so adorable together. There's no way you don't!" She said, "Riiight?"
I could feel the heat rush to my face.
"There's absolutely no way that-"
"Nuh-uh! I've seen how you two act around each other. You let her do what she wanted with you from day one!" She said, "And she's always teasing you."
"... There's a saying called 'more than friends, less than lovers'..." I muttered.
She frowned.
"You're just saying that cause you're surprised," She pouted, "Stop for a second. Take a moment to consider how you truly feel about her, because I know you haven't. And when you're done, tell me truthfully."
I was silent.
Part of me screamed to just shout 'no!'
... But as much as I wanted to, I could not stop my brain from thinking away.
I felt my face heat up even more.
Zena... I'd hardly known the woman for, what, a week? And yet she was already my best friend.
I let her take me to the dance floor on the same day we met. Something that plenty of girls back in my old homeworld, most that I'd known for years, tried and never succeeded in doing.
... I just chalked it up back then to 'not wanting to ruin her mood'... but...
... That didn't really make much sense...
"I..."
She was such a warm-hearted, caring, free-spirited girl, who never met a stranger. Exact opposite of me.
Wasn't there a saying about something like that?
"I..."
Seeing her happy brought joy to my life...
... Seeing her nearly die almost broke me.
But was that really enough to say that I had feelings for her...?
I shook my head and threw my arms up into the air in exasperation.
"I don't know!"
I looked at Hailey, who was listening intently.
"I-I've never really had to worry about something like this before..." I muttered, "I never really had a 'crush' or anything back in school, and I hardly ever socialized outside of it. I... I can't say that I don't... but I can't say that I do either."
She just smiled.
"I think I understand," She said, "You need to be fully confident that you do or don't, and you have none. Sorry if I made you uncomfortable."
I sighed and shook my head.
"Well... I guess it was bound to happen," I muttered, "But... I'm going to be extremely uncomfortable whenever I talk to her now..."
She giggled.
"I don't think she'll notice," She said.
"I hope not," I replied, "She'll definitely ask me what's wrong if she does... and I'll have no idea how to reply."
I then shook my head.
"But, whatever. I can worry about this later," I stated, "She wanted me to check on Alpine Skyline, so we should probably go do that."
"First I'll get this sweater of yours fixed," Hailey said, "It's what lets you breathe easily up there, remember?"
"Right..." I muttered.
So, she ran off to her bedroom, and returned some time later with the sewn sweater.
"Well, that was fast," I said.
She merely shrugged and threw it toward me. I caught it and put it on.
"Now we can go, yes?" I asked.
She nodded, and bolted for the Engine Room. I quickly followed.
We peeked down through the telescope, and...
When we landed in Alpine Skyline, the first thing I noticed was that it seemed like all of the nomads and goats had met up for some kind of discussion. They all seemed very worried, even the goats were! And the goats were the most inexpressive creatures on the planet!
People were talking over each other, shouting, panicking basically. It was a mess.
Something I needed to stop.
"Hey!" I shouted, walking forward, "What's going on here?"
"Zena's disappeared! Nobody knows where she's went, and she always tells someone before she leaves somewhere!" The nomad closest to me shouted, "Do you know where she is?!"
I sighed.
"Yeah. I know," I said, "She was helping me, halfway across the planet. Saved my life, even."
Gasps and discussion.
"Where is she now?" The nomad asked, "She'll be coming back today then, right?"
Oh boy...
I shook my head.
"She... she got injured pretty badly. She needs to recover before she can come back," I said, "I don't know how long it's gonna be..."
More uproar.
"HOWEVER!"
They all turned to me.
"She entrusted me to keep watch over everything here while she was gone. I know that I'll be nowhere near at doing that as she is, and I... I won't be able to stay all day, every day, but you all know that I'm no pushover. And it shouldn't be too long, anyway. Maybe a week or two at most?"
They were all silent.
"But... I'll stay the full first day here, until night at least," I said, "If you have any questions, please ask."
"Well... that's a relief," I heard a nomad say, "If she thinks you're the person to take her place while she's gone, we'll trust her decision!"
A murmur of agreements.
"Guess that means we'll go back to our daily lives, now," Another nomad mused, "Bye!"
And with that, most of the nomads and goats cleared.
There was one who stayed behind, though, with a pink-white cloak, and they walked up to me.
"So... you're sure she'll be alright?" They asked.
I nodded.
"I made it absolutely certain that'd she'd be okay. She'll be back before you know it," I assured the nomad.
They took a deep breath and nodded slowly.
"She really must see something special in you, going through all that much trouble to come to your help..." They said.
I felt heat rush to my face, and merely looked down.
"Y-yeah..." I replied, "Not quite sure what she sees, myself."
"Out of curiosity, what exactly happened?" The nomad asked.
I let out a sharp exhale.
"It's a long story," I said, "Let's just say... I had to fight someone really evil, the tables were turned on me, and she came to help me, 'cause she sensed that I was in danger. She got hurt helping me fight."
The nomad didn't seem surprised at all.
"They tell tales of amazing feats she did centuries ago to protect our civilization. Ones that she'd never confirm or deny. I can see now that they were true," They said, "And either way, it doesn't surprise me that she'd go to great lengths to protect someone or something she holds dear."
"I just hope I don't let her down," I said, "I owe her my life. She gave me one request afterwards, to look after this place in her absence. And I plan to do it as best as I can."
Even though I couldn't really see their face, I could tell they were smiling.
"Ehe... I think I get what she sees in you now," They said quietly, "My name's Malika, by the way. I'll be off now... but I'll be back later!"
They ran off after that.
"Wow!"
I turned around to see Hailey standing there, who seemed pleasantly surprised.
"What?" I said.
"I thought this was going to be a disaster," She said, "And it wasn't!"
"So you just let me go with blind faith, eh?" I grumbled.
"It worked, didn't it?" She countered, "What's the saying... the n's justify the means?"
"The ends justify the means," I corrected, "But... fine, I guess you're right."
"What should we do now?" She asked.
"Well, I said I'd stay here for the first day, I plan to do that," I answered, "I suppose you can go do whatever you'd like. I'll probably just... sit around."
"Sounds boring," She said, "Are you sure there's nothing you want to do?"
"Not that I can think of," I replied, "Besides, better to stick in one spot so that if people need to find me, they can do it easily."
"Well, suit yourself," She muttered, "I guess I'll go explore, then. Bye!"
She ran off, leaving me alone. It was silent, except for the distant rumbling footsteps of giant goats, and the gentle whisper of the breeze.
I climbed up higher on the cliff beside me and walked around until I was at the red zipline.
Once I was there, I sat down.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.
This place was so peaceful. So tranquil. It had slowly become one of my favourite places on the whole planet after I overcame my fear of heights.
There was no better place to just stop, relax, and think. And the sights were some of the best on the planet as well.
However, my thoughts kept coming back to the same thing.
Zena.
I tried to get her out of my mind for a while, but I just couldn't. So, as much I didn't want to, I had to contemplate how I felt about her.
And... well...
Now that the initial shock had gone and I could think a bit more clearly...
I really didn't want to admit it... but Hailey might've been right about how I felt toward her.
She was just... perfect.
Heck, even thinking about her now was making me feel funny inside-wait, hold on... was that why she used to make me feel funny before? Just how oblivious WASI?!
That dance we did, on the night we first met...
Seeing how overjoyed she was... it was beautiful. She was beautiful.
I...
I took a deep breath.
It took all of my willpower to man up and admit it...
But I did. I loved her. I loved everything about her. The kid was right, she had me wrapped around her finger from day one, and me, being the ignorant moron I was, had absolutely no idea of it. Even when it should've been blatantly obvious.
It was funny, because... again, I'd only known her for, like a week, and yet I was already head over heels for her. Suppose that was the sign of true love, ha, ha, ha.
I shook my head.
But who was I kidding? She was a thousand years old, she'd have probably forfeited the idea of romance ages ago. And even if not, I probably wouldn't have stood a chance anyway.
So, I reckoned that it'd be probably for the best to not ever tell her how I felt.
"What a depressing sight."
I turned to see Traveller of all people standing there, leaning against the zipline pole in a strangely casual pose.
"Why the long face?" He asked.
I sighed.
"Were you able to watch what happened last night?" I replied.
"If I would've had time to watch you, I would've had time to help you," He replied, "What happened?"
"Well, you know the woman that lives here?" I asked.
He nodded with a frown.
"Yes, I know her," He replied irritably, "Zena. It's a shame she's not a block of ice."
"What did you just say?!"
In an instant, I managed to spring to my feet and got right in his face.
His eyes widened in alarm.
"Look, buddy," I hissed as I got even more up in his face, "I don't give a damn what kind of history you two have. She's my best friend, and last night she saved my life. You will treat her with respect."
He frowned, and I narrowed my eyes in suspicion.
"In fact, it's very strange," I said, "Both Zena and Badge Seller, when I mentioned you to them, seemed to react as if you were some kind of interdimensional supervillain. One person I can give the benefit of the doubt, cause there's the possibility of just being rivalry and beef between people, but two people? And you're tried, both times, to make me think that they're the bad ones. When they're definitely not. It makes me want to ask..."
I narrowed my eyes and leaned close so we were face to face.
"What even happened back then? What caused them to hate you so much? And why are you hiding it from me? Got some hidden agenda you wanna keep secret?"
He was silent, before taking a deep breath.
"I should've known this would happen..." He muttered, "Well, to start off, Badge Seller tried to travel to other universes in search of other badges, a long time ago. I couldn't let that happen. And when I stopped him, he just kept trying over, and over, and over, and over. It eventually caused me to snap and try to kill him. I hunted him down for years, as he kept running. Until eventually I gave up. But, at least he stayed in the right dimension afterward."
"And you didn't tell me this... why?"
He sighed.
"I was worried you wouldn't trust me if you knew," He answered, "And you'd have had every reason not to if you did."
"And Zena?" I said, clenching my fists, "I swear, if you hurt her, too..."
He looked down.
"Ah... well..."
That gave me everything I needed to know. I had to hold back the urge to smack him in the face.
"Just how fucked up in the head were you, back then?" I hissed, "And why the hell did you try to make me think THEY'RE the ones in the wrong?"
His look darkened. I could tell I made him mad.
"Okay, look. It was far easier to try and pin it on them than it was to try and come up with another reasonable excuse for why they're hostile toward me," He growled, "I know what I did was wrong. I know I lied. But it was for the best. If you don't want to trust me anymore, that's fine. But I have a multiverse to protect. I'll do whatever it takes to protect it, morals be damned. If my actions makes me a villain to the eyes of everyone else, so be it. So, if you want to protect it, too, then you're just going to have to accept what I do. Otherwise? I'll be out of your hair, forever. Which means no more assistance from me, and nearly assures the Multiverse's demise."
"... And you don't even apologize," I muttered.
His look softened to a more awkward expression, and he sighed.
"... Sorry?" He said, "I... ah... I've never been good at apologizing."
I fumed.
"Whatever..." I muttered, "And I guess you're right, as much as I hate to say it. But don't think I won't be less trusting of you from now on. Do something funny like this again and I'm done with you. I'm not going to be your damn puppet."
"Very well," He replied, "I... I really do apologize for lying to you like that. And for snapping just now. I... don't like being called out like that."
I shrugged and shook my head.
"Well, I guess it's karma for lying to Hailey in the past," I said.
I think I may have heard him even chuckle a very tiny amount at that.
"Perhaps. Anyway, I'll be off now. I simply wanted to check how you were doing," He said.
"Bye," I said.
I then heard the noise that signaled him leaving.
"Woah..."
I turned around to see the same nomad from earlier, Malika, standing there, appearing very surprised.
"Thought you ran off somewhere?" I asked.
"I heard some commotion and came to see what was happening," They answered, "Don't worry, I didn't hear anything. But who was that, anyway?"
I turned back to the sky.
"Long story. Let's just say he's my mentor," I explained.
"A mentor? What's he teaching you?" They asked.
"Eh..." I muttered, "Again, it's a long story, but long story short, I have some sort of special power, and he's teaching me how to harness it."
"Oh, cool!" They exclaimed, "Could you show me?"
I sighed.
"Maybe later," I said, "I don't really feel up for it, right now."
"Oh, well that's fair," They replied, "I forgot to ask you something... you don't really have anything to do here, do you? You don't really know anyone aside from Zena, right?"
"Not really. I mean, I'd go help people but I don't really know how I'd help," I admitted, "I may have gotten over my fear of heights a while ago, but I still wouldn't be too comfortable doing any treacherous tasks over the abyss."
"Oof. Exploring here must've been a nightmare, then," They mused.
"It was. First time I rode one of those ziplines was... an experience I'll never forget, I'll put it that way," I grumbled.
They chuckled.
"Well, if you and the girl ever need anything, or a place to stay down here, I can show you to my house. We love having people over," They said.
"'We'?" I asked.
"Oh, yes! Me, my husband, and my son," They... or I suppose, she answered.
"I see," I replied, "Well, thanks for the offer. Maybe when Hailey gets back I'll see if I can take you up on your offer."
"'Hailey'?" She asked, "Is that the girl's name?"
"Oh, yeah," I said, "Sorry, I've just gotten a bit used to people knowing her name."
"Ah, it's fine," Malika replied, "Well, I'll be off, now. For real this time! See you later!"
"Bye," I said.
The pink/white-cloaked nomad ran off a second time.
It really wouldn't have been a stretch to say that these folks were without a doubt the nicest people on the planet.
Not at all.
I took a deep breath and stared at the sky with a smirk on my face.
"Well, Zena..." I muttered,"... if you haven't shown me enough about your people already, you're sure gonna now."
A/N: Well, looks like our main man has finally realized his feelings for his best friend. And accepted them rather quickly, too. Hailey will be ecstatic to hear that, you can bet. But there's no guarantees that Zena likes him back.
I wouldn't be cruel enough to make it a one-sided love interest, would I?
Well, given that I was cruel enough to do 2 extremely mean cliffhangers back to back... ehehehe... don't get your hopes up just yet. I've done far more cruel things than an unrequited love in some of my other stories.
Review time:
XStarInTheSkyX: Well, if anyone would figure it out, it's her alright. A little genius, she is.
And thank you for the boop. In response, I give you a: PECK!
Thanks for the review again.
Next chapter... uh... I don't really know. Like, I only have a skeleton of an idea of what I wanna do.
So if it takes a little bit longer... that's why.
Here's to hoping it doesn't. See you then.
