"Tear!" Kyle shouted at the fleeing figure.

The girl kept running, and kept a solid distance between the two. He kept running after her until Tear burst through the main entrance and outside.

'She's not going to listen to me like this.' Is what Kyle thought.

Kyle grit his teeth and set his feet; his wings expanded to twice, then three times their size. He leaned forward and, forcing all of his energy into his feet, he pushed off the ground.

The floorboards splintered with an audible "crack", and Kyle went flying through the air at an incredible speed. As he came up upon Tear, he twisted himself mid-air, then twisted his body with a backwards corkscrew and firmly planted his feet into the ground. He skidded to a halt in the muddied path a few feet away from Tear.

He stood there, panting, as his wings returned to normal size.

"Tear!" He exclaimed. Then he took a moment to look at his friend. The girl was still visibly crying, her eyes were puffy, and her face was noticeably red.

He had caused this. He had done this to her. Kyle had never hated himself more than this moment. He should have trusted his friend. He should have just asked her, not invented some ridiculous scheme.

He walked forward.

"I...I'm sorry." He said. "I'm sorry I did that...I hurt you, I'm sorry...please do-BUGAH!"

Kyle had expected a slap, or some kind of verbal insult. He didn't expect Tear's fist to connect directly with his jawbone. Upon getting hit, Kyle slipped in the mud and immediately fell to his knees.

"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU DID THAT!" Tear shouted angrily. "THAT WAS SO MEAN! I THOUGHT YOU GOT CAPTURED! I THOUGHT..." She paused and lowered her voice. "...I thought you were going to get hurt..."

Tear knelt down, and reached her arms around Kyle's neck. She then proceeded to put the Kaiser into a full-blown headlock.

"NEVER!" She shouted at him. "PROMISE ME NEVER TO DO ANYTHING LIKE THAT AGAIN!"

"OW! OW!" Yelped Kyle. "I GIVE! I PROMISE! UNCLE, UNCLE!"

Tear relaxed her grip and Kyle rubbed his neck. He heard a sniffle and looked over at her. Of course, she was still crying.

"H-hey now...I promise, never again." Kyle said. He reached out his arms towards Tear, who was wiping at her eyes with her sleeve. "I'm sorry, I'm an idiot. Come on, stop crying, please?"

Tear sniffled, and leaned into Kyle's arms, resting her head on his chest. Kyle gently placed his arms around her and stroked her back.

"I'm sorry..." He repeated in a soft voice. "...I'm sorry..."

As Tear's sobs died down and became less audible, Kyle couldn't help but focus on his friend.

'Her hair smells so nice...' He thought, and brought his hand up to the hair at the base of her neck while he stroked her. '...it's soft, too...'

"Kyle..." Tear's voice snapped Kyle back to reality. "...I'm sorry too..."

"W-what do you have to be sorry about? This is all my fault!"

Tear pushed herself away from Kyle, and wiped her eyes. "Y-you heard me say something strange..."

Kyle thought for a moment.

'I'M IN LOVE WITH YOU!'

Kyle flushed bright red. "O-oh...r-right...t-that was definitely...um..."

"Y-You mean you didn't realize?!"

"H-hey! I fell from 6 feet up!"

"You brought that on yourself!"

There was a long silence.

"Did you..." Kyle mumbled. "...did you really mean that? What you said about...?"

Tear turned a deep shade of crimson.

"W-well...haha...I..." She put her hands over her face. "...I made you think about something bad, I'm sorry..."

"Bad?! No, no! That's a good thing! I-I mean...oh geez..." Kyle turned his face away from the embarrassment. "I-I-I mean, I thought...you wouldn't think that way about me, after I did that whole...thing..."

"N-no! I-I mean yes! I-I mean no, I still think that! Oh gods what am I saying...?" Tear hid her face.

There was another awkward silence.

"You...you really mean that?" Kyle asked.

Tear didn't move for a moment, and then nodded.

"I...I've never really been in love before, I mean...does that mean..." Kyle twiddled his fingers together. "...kissing, right?"

Tear's face looked like it could boil water, and the two met each other's gaze.

Kyle couldn't help but stare at her face. Her green eyes seemed to glow in the night.

The two started leaning closer, and closer...

Tear pushed Kyle in the chest.

"Wait." She said. "There is something I need to tell you."

Kyle was confused as Tear slowly lifted up her right sleeve to reveal a sparkling crystal bracelet. Part of it curved outward in the shape of a wing.

"You know when we found those weird guys messing with the relic that generates the shield around Pantheon?" She asked. "You awoke as the Kaiser, but as for me..."

She gently brushed the relic, and took a deep breath.

"I'm the Angelic Buster."

Kyle stared. "So it was true."

"What was true."

"I...well...I saw you...um...practicing a few dance moves in the forest."

Tear blushed. "Y-you saw that? Oh geez..."

"It...it's kind of why I staged that whole ghost thing." Kyle admitted. "To see if you really were her or not. No one really expected the whole...y'know..."

Tear nodded, still red.

"Um...by the way..." Kyle glanced at the relic. "Who was that...person you were talking to back then?"

"Oh!" Tear's face lit up, and then turned into a look of disgust. "Oh...that would be...give me a second..." She murmured under her breath, and then held up her arm and shouted out.

"Eskalade! I need to talk to you! Come out!"

There was a slight sound, like a ringing of keys, and the relic sparkled and its colors shifted, and in front of the two Novas materialized a translucent, blue dragon. It yawned.

"Aw man, I was in the middle of a nap, what's up?" The dragon blinked and looked at Kyle. "Hey...HEY! Didn't I say you shouldn't tell anyone about me?!"

"Kyle, this is Eskalade." Announced Tear.

"Don't ignore me!"

"He's the pervert who makes me dress up like that."

Kyle's face darkened. "Pervert? And why does he make you do that, do tell?"

"H-hey now, don't get hasty kid! You look like you're about to kill me!" Eskalade looked panicked.

"Because..." Tear sighed. "It's his power that I'm using to fight monsters. So I have to do what he says. That's why."

"Yup! I'm a bonafide Nova GOD here, boy!" The dragon proudly pointed to himself.

"If you've ever done anything to her I swear I'm gonna..." Kyle grit his teeth.

Eskalade stared at the two for a while, then huffed a sigh.

"Hey, hey, I'm not that kind of pervert."

"So you admit you are one?!" Kyle snapped.

"...besides, can't touch anything anyway." The dragon waved a claw through a nearby tree in order to prove his point. He then walked close to Kyle, leaned right next to his ear, and whispered to him.

"Don't worry, she's only get eyes for you, lord Kaiser."

Kyle was a mix between embarrassed and angry as the dragon let out a smug grin.

"Weeeell...I've got quite a few Z's to catch up on, so if you don't mind..." He gave a small wave. "Nighty-night! And don't wake me!"

With that, he disappeared, and the relic grew dark. Tear quickly covered it up. There was a long silence.

"So..." Started Tear. "...yeah."

"'Yeah'?" Asked Kyle. "You travel everywhere blasting monsters along with a perverted dragon god! That's...that's..."

"Weird?"

"I was going to say 'stupid', my powers are way cooler."

"They are not, moron!" Tear shoved Kyle over, and the two broke into laughter.

After a minute, Kyle stopped laughing and glanced at Tear. She looked so happy now...

"Hey Tear?"

"Yeah?" She turned toward him.

He leaned forward and planted his lips square on hers. They felt soft to him.

He pulled away after a second.

"If...if you're ok, with an idiot like myself."

Tear blushed, then reached over and pulled Kyle's head in for a kiss of her own.

"Of course, stupid."

The two smiled.

"We should head back, before someone gets worried..." Kyle said.

"Sure." Tear grinned.

The two walked back into the hot spring building, hands entwined.