A/N: Another (earlier) update! Whee! This chapter is mostly dialogue and whatnot. Anyways, I'll probably get the whole fic up by Christmas (consider it a Christmas gift, I guess); this is the second to the last chapter, fortunately or unfortunately...

jedimasteryugi2 - Thanks for liking the story, and bothering enough to drop a review.
Yuriel-Castries - Well, here's the next chap, rather early by the way I usually post my stories...haha. All stories have an ending, whether they come early or not...I just hope I don't disappoint... And many, many thanks again!

Well, that's done. On with it now...enjoy!

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CHAPTER 6

Confess

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Kite peered, a curious look on his face. "What's that?"

There was only one item inside the chest instead of the usual three, and Blackrose gently extricated it from its confinement after a few moments of scrutiny.

In her hands was a strikingly lovely blossom. Kite traveled his gaze from the ordinary-looking stem, adorned intermittently with thorns which Blackrose's hands carefully avoided, to the flower itself.

It was a rose.

A rose with midnight-colored petals defined with faint luminous-white outlines, looking very newly-bloomed.

A black rose.

He continued looking upwards until his eyes came to rest on hers; confusion was now written all over his face as he stared, wide-eyed, at the only other person with him.

His mind whirled. He felt more than just a touch of disappointment as he compared the difficulty, the complexity of the tasks they had to go through, with this, their supposed reward. From the start, he expected something that would considerably aid their cause. Inwardly, he wondered what purpose the item could serve; maybe it could be traded for some other, more useful stuff, or sold for a high price at a shop. Still, a part of him reasoned that there was a rational explanation for the whole thing. He looked to his partner now for that explanation; she did seem to know...

Blackrose caught his perplexed look and sighed. "Okay Kite, I'll come clean now..." Her eyes never left his for a moment, even though the urge to turn away was overwhelming; her voice was trembling as she spoke.

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Flashback:

The busy MacAnu streets were even more packed with adventurers milling about. There had been a recent announcement concerning an event to be held by CCCorp, and many were on the hunt for whatever information was strewn among the NPC's and other players. One of those scavenging was Blackrose.

At first, the event was only background noise, another distraction to the more important issues that had to be dealt with. At the top of the list was finding new leads about irregularities and data bugs in The World; even though the job had been assigned to Wiseman and Balmung, the Heavy Blade was restless enough to do a little sleuthing herself.

So far, the morning hunt proved to be fruitless. There just seemed to be no peculiar incidents as of late, save this particular event everyone kept talking about. Conversations were rampant, yet very hush-hush at the same time, as if nobody wanted anybody else to know what they knew about the topic. Posts made on the message boards were usually quickly dismissed as rumors, though were secretly investigated, or re-investigated, all the same.

Deciding that there wasn't anything better to do, and probably to dispel some of the frustration of not finding any useful piece of information about data bug infestations as well, Blackrose moved all the background noise to the foreground.

It was something of The World she hadn't really experienced before, taking part in a quest totally askew from her own reason for even playing the online game in the first place. Of course there were times when Kite or some of their other friends tagged her along in search of rare items and weapons, but never like this – and her mind always lingered on her true objective; she didn't really let herself get too caught up in the 'game'. There was always something urgent, something to do or keep her preoccupied.

But now was different; she let herself get caught up in the ebb and flow of things, specifically in the event.

Of course there would be a field and dungeon involved; what would be the accomplishment of obtaining a rare item if it wasn't guarded by hordes of monsters and traps?

It was the beginning of February, so it came as no real surprise that the event would involve romantic notions or undertones, at the very least – only two players, partners, would be allowed to participate at a time, and a certain degree of cooperation and care would be needed since no reviving items are allowed. Credit Lios for being a little unimaginative about the rules – the guy had as much "amore" in him as Piros had common sense. At least, in Blackrose's mind, it could be a sort of "proving ground" for those partners...

The most striking, however, of all were the rumors of what the rare item was. There were those who claimed it was another excessively-powerful weapon for this or that character class, or an exceptionally defensive piece of armor; but the most predominant conjecture was that it was only an item, with no significant use whatsoever apart from giving the bearer bragging rights. This alone cut the amount of interested parties to less than a fourth, but Blackrose wasn't deterred. Research soon identified the item – a flower.

Even more players then decided that the event wasn't worth spending time on. But Blackrose was even more interested and determined since along with the item's identity came its description – a beautiful rose with midnight-black petals and silver linings. In the back of her mind, she wondered if Lios was playing a sort of trick on them; it wasn't like he didn't know about Kite, or about her...but she pushed the thought aside, concluding it was just coincidence that the item was indeed a black rose, if the news was indeed true.

She wanted to be sure; she needed to go to that dungeon; she decided she had to have that item.

There were many other players, mostly males, who had asked to accompany her on the event, especially when they found her name out, but she dismissed all of them, usually with threats and angry brandishes of her sword. The only person she could think of to accompany her was, of course, her "partner" Kite.

As of late, she found herself thinking how immensely helpful he had been in...everything. With their investigation on the data bugs going rather cold, she had had time to ponder things out. Kite was perhaps the only other one as concerned as she was in finding out about the incidents that left the real-life players of The World in a comatose state. He was always careful yet quick in making decisions, as well as very influential whether he noticed it or not, marking him a good leader. He cared genuinely about his teammates, sometimes risking even his own welfare for theirs. He was honorable, kind, considerate, almost always smiling, not to mention mature, in a way, and attractive as well...

It was then she felt her ears and cheeks growing hot. She didn't need to look in a mirror or a pool of water to know they were also a deep shade of red.

This was ridiculous! She didn't even know the guy, if he even was really a guy, personally, and she's getting all giddy just thinking about him...or his character, which probably doesn't even look a single thing like him!

But then another part of her spoke out. Did it really matter how he looked? She was almost absolutely sure that the real life Kite was a guy, so there was no problem there. And she was definitely certain that his thoughts and actions were sincere; he really did care for the team, for their cause; he really did care about her...or at least she hoped he did...

Blackrose now believed those stories she had read before about finding love online; it definitely was possible to do so. All there was to do now was to make sure; and find a way to get Kite to go with her on something that seemed so superfluous, yet so important at the same time.

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"...and there you have it..." She finished her narrative uncertainly, anxious of what his reaction might be. "I feel a little guilty doing something that doesn't at all help my little brother. It's silly..."

Kite was looking at her in even more bewilderment. "You mean, all that trouble...you didn't even tell me anything about this earlier."

"It's just that..." She was on the verge of crying. "I was just scared...that you might...I mean, we're not out looking for data bugs like Balmung or the others; I guess we're just fooling around, actually, and I feel really bad I dragged you into this mess..."

Kite blinked. 'What mess? It's not like we're in any trouble or anything...we even completed the event! She should be happy! I just wish she had told me from the beginning!'

His voice was level when he answered. "It's not that I think we're wasting time on these events, though I admit I haven't been paying any attention to them at all recently. I just wish you'd told me from the beginning instead of leading me around in the dark."

She didn't seem to be listening to him as she babbled on, tears flowing freely down her flushed cheeks. "Yeah, I'm terrible, aren't I? All I've been doing was pushing you around like some kind of puppet when you have a lot of responsibilities to do. Aura gave you the bracelet 'coz she trusted you to get the job done...while I can't even...can't even...here! I'm sorry, Kite!" She thrust the blossom at him and ran outside. The last thing Kite saw were the golden rings left behind as she teleported out.

He was stunned. That was a side of her he hadn't seen before. She was so...vulnerable, so afraid; it reminded him of their first meeting at the chapel at Delta: Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground. But even then, she was still adamant and rather proud. Now, she looked simply...fragile, as if she would break at any moment.

He looked at the flower in his hands; it was certainly exceptionally beautiful, and looked as fragile as his partner had just been.

"She was afraid I might hate her, that I might reject her," he told the inanimate object. Sitting in the dark confines of the room, he let his thoughts drift from one thing to another. He would need some time to organize all his thoughts...

...but at least now he was certain of one thing; without a shadow of a doubt. All there was to do now was to wait...until she was ready...