The ninth chapter. Didn't think I'll last this long.

Thankies for those who reviewed. Truthfully, I didn't think I'll have this many reviews because somehow this fandom isn't famous. God, this game is gold y'know… And the storyline isn't that bad… Ah well… BTW, I made a mistake on chapter 8 (I think?) when I wrote Alisa is a short blade user. Beep wrong! She's actually a long assault blade user. Thankies very much anon guest! If you happen to read this again and be kind, maybe you could give me your email or username on fancfiction? I wanna properly thank you.

Oh yeah, Tsuna11644, I totally agree with you. Learning to Speak IS so good! I followed the story but somehow Ink Dragoness haven't updated that fic for quite a while… Pity…

I'll be going with my colleagues friends (all 105 of them, plus a few lecturers and an upperclassman) to a kinda field trip this week, so before I go, I think I should update first… Ooh, it's gonna be hella fun. I hope you, in a way or other, is having fun with your loved ones too! Beaches and outcrops, here I come!

Pardon my typos. Again and again, you know the drill with disclaimers.

Enjoy!

Zero Centimeter

After receiving a weird expression he couldn't put his finger on, Soma just stood there questioning his female comrade's mental health. Oh yeah, she once had a mental breakdown, so Soma felt he shouldn't be concerning himself of her… weird demeanor. So instead of that, the boy turned to his leader who was still on bed. Her face was red as tomato but her eyes were blank with shocked expression. Fearing she might catch a flu or fever, Soma rushed to her side.

"Are you alright?" Soma put the back of his hand on her forehead. "Are you sick? You're not feeling cold, are you?"

Duh, Soma… Rather than feeling cold, the combination of Alisa's elaboration, Soma's hand on her face, and the closeness between their faces made her felt hot and sweaty as hell. It was the first time in forever she ever felt so conscious near him, not as a comrade or fellow God Eater, but as a man. It would be a lie if Riitsu didn't think he had a nice face and manly figure, but she was accustomed with this view that she forgot how damn well of a man Soma was…

… until now.

"I-I'm fine!" The brunette openly shrug off Soma's hand and covered half her face with blanket, shyly avoiding eye contact.

…

No, that wouldn't do. During her deep, deep sleep, even when she still had to rest on bed, Soma was always there. He had been there all along. Now that she thought about it. She always had been there in every step of her life as a God Eater. He trained her, he helped her with missions, he shared the pain of losing Lindow and Shio, he saw through her when she lost Ren, which explained the flan and the root of that rumor, and now he was there in her weakest time.

Riitsu knew how it felt to have a one-sided love, painfully unrequited, without a chance or courage to say it until that person gone. Now Soma was the one in her shoes like she was with Ren. The only difference was she was still alive, Ren was not, but in their line of work, who knows of she would survive tomorrow like she did all these times.

The girl cared for Soma, that was for sure. So if she did care, the right thing she would do now was to answer Soma's unrequited love, relieving him off of this load called love.

"So-Soma!" called Riitsu for the platinum blonde's attention, saying it a little louder than she intended to. "C-can I talk to you about something?"

"What?" As the boy looked at her expression became tenser, he did too, wondering of what was the thing she want to talk about.

As a starter, she took a deep breath and said, "Remember when that rumor about us?" Soma nodded a little. "I-I, uh.. I want to say I'm sorry, though I'm sure it past due, but uh… sorry. If I didn't sleep on you that day, all of that wouldn't happen."

"If you're talking about that rumor, don't mention it. I was at fault too for letting you sleep out there." Riitsu let out a happy sigh. "But that wasn't the thing that bothered me."

"Th-then what was?"

"They talked trash about you," Soma said it ever so cooly, even Riitsu's heart skipped a bit when he said that.

What else could she do? It was a rumor so everything could be added to spice up a bit, including bad mouthing her, but the way Soma got perked up because of nasty words about her made Riitsu smiled, feeling warm and touched inside. "You're very kind…"

"It's because you've always been careless and overly trusting since day one. If I let my eyes off of you for just one second, you would either get eaten by aragami or being taken advantage of."

Goodness… The way he said it made it sounded like he never let his eyes off of her since she first arrived at the Den, but Riitsu didn't have the guts to say it to Soma, so instead she made fun of her disturbing dream. "Haha, speaking of you, Soma, I had this crazy dream when I was still sleeping. It was dark and all but somehow I could hear your voice. You were crying and sobbing, telling me to wake up over and over again. Hahaha, you, the mighty Soma, sobbed and cried. Too bad it was only sounds with no images."

The boy froze instantly. He knew well what she described there wasn't a dream… But instead of stopping her out of embarrassment, Soma let her continue.

"Then you said that you… uh…" Riitsu never thought the letter l, o, v, and e would be this hard to say. Her face heaten up for the second time of the day. "Uh… You said you loved me then I woke up. Isn't that crazy?"

Hearing no response from her friend, the First Unit leader now was bombarded with embarrassing thought and regret, lamenting the fact that she really did say that. What would Soma think of her now? It felt like she was the one who confessed, practically begging to be loved!

The brunette was still writhing in shame when Soma spoke to her in a serious tone, his blue hoodie hiding his face. "It wasn't a dream."

"Eh?"

This time, Soma pulled off his hoodie, showing his full head. A rare sight indeed, because the only time he did this was when Shio went to the moon. Now his sea blue orbs were looking straight to her hazelnut brown eyes. They reflected determination and courage, yet he couldn't hide the nervousness on his face. "I planned to tell you that after our last mission, but you idiotly ended up sleeping for almost three weeks."

"…" Riitsu quietly heard every word he told her. On their usual situations, she would have made fun of him, but this time, clearly he was serious.

"In your sleep, you were always calling that Ren. I know you're still in love with him all this time. I know he was the one that made you smile and happy, I heard everything about it from Lindow."

"…" So he heard from Lindow huh? That man better had a logical explanation about this.

"After he's gone, so was your smile. You'd even spend all day in your room, for whatever I know, crying over him even bothering Lindow only to look for Ren in his arm. I hate it."

"…" She wouldn't deny that it sounded so pathetic of her when Soma said that.

"That's why I'll make you happy instead of him. I'll make sure you'll be smiling everyday!"

"…" He's asking for something near impossible.

"And if you're still thinking it was dream, I'll gladly say it to you again." She closed her eyes, bracing for what she would hear. "I love you. You don't need to answer that now, but I'll make damn sure for you to move on and smile like how you used to again."

And with that said, the male buster-blader left her all alone, still dumbfounded of what happened even if she knew what he would've say. Deep inside, she was gratified that someone loved her so much, but to move on from the pain of losing Ren… that was an entire other matter.

After the… recent romantic events the First Unit leader faced, she made a full recovery in 5 days time. It was like the confession never happened at all. Soma even nursed her back to normal with Alisa's help and during those times, the boy never even mentioned any part of his romantic feelings toward her. He was just being… Soma, with his usual harsh words, stoic arrogant face, and retorts. But, as the man who kept his promise, Soma indeed tried many things to make her happy, and as addition, he kept her safe during missions with extra efforts.

On her first comeback mission with Kota and Alisa, Soma purposely tagged along to make her safe. The platinum blonde didn't restrict his leader's movements or actions at all, but if she was ever got a scratch on her or got attacked by aragami, he would instantly give her a Recovery Pill or even a Recovery Ball. That was the only time Kota and Alisa saw a better medic than Sakuya.

Not only on missions, Soma's kind behavior also came to surface whenever he was with Riitsu. It was only small gestures like buying her some rations, giving her the first dessert of the day, or even asking how she was feeling out of nowhere. As the result, Riitsu, who had became more aware of that unit member of hers, had decreased her daily dose of hugging Lindow's arm and locking herself in her room to mourn for Ren. Those tears she shed for Ren slowly became true smiles because of his efforts and their friends constant support on her loss, even if they knew nothing of it. Finally it started to felt like her radiance that were dimmed over every tragedies she faced came back to the Den, enlightening every person there and gave them strength.

Little did they know, her smile wasn't the only thing that adorned her pretty face. There would also be occasional blush on her cheeks every time Soma got near her.

Aegis Island, Night

"Whew, we managed to survive again today!" Kota beamed happily as he looked at the dead Zeus in front of him. "Gosh! I was this close to get hit with its laser beam, then I dodged it! It was sooo cool!"

"Yeah, that was a nice one, Kid," Lindow responded his junior's antics, but agreed nonetheless. The eldest one then turned to Soma. "Soma, extract its core won't you?

"No need to tell me." The buster-blader walked to the aragami's corpse and readied his God Arc for an extraction.

As Lindow and Kota walked in front of her, arguing who was cooler when they attacked that Zeus, Riitsu came closer to her boy-friend, and told him, "Hey, thanks."

Soma lifted an eyebrow. "What for?"

"For helping me all this time, obviously." Fyuh! Finally she said it. The truth was, the brunette girl had been wanting to say it to the Schicksal but she just didn't get the right moment, that was, until this night. They managed to complete the mission without casualties, he didn't seem to be in a bad mood, and the full moon shone ever so brightly above them, to boost. "But most of all, thank you for still being friend with me even if I haven't give you an answer to your… feelings."

Yeah, it was painful, unrequited and unanswered love, that was. Riitsu once faced it with Ren, so more or less she know how Soma felt.

"Don't thank me." ZING! Soma's God Arc shone brightly, lighting up the run-down dome, indicating the extraction had finished. "That's why I say you're overly trusting. You don't even know if I have any motives behind it."

"But you don't, do you? You are always this kind, you just recently made it public." Riitsu blushed a little, smiling. "You even keep your promise to help me smile and overcome Ren's death." Though death wasn't the right way to put it, 'death' was easier to use in this term.

"Heh, I'm not a kind man who keeps his promise," snorted Soma. It seemed like his pretty leader hadn't fully grasp of his true nature after all.

"How come? Don't be shy now, Soma. You earned it."

The way she said it so calmly and trusting irritated him. The boy knew words alone would never make it into her thick skull, so he made sure actions would. He came over to where Riitsu stood, deliberately invading her personal space. "I promised to treasure you whether I have you or not. Don't bother to remember. I said it when you were asleep."

Goodness! How could he look so cool and handsome when he said a cheesy line like that?! But that wasn't all. The look in his eyes when he saw her now was like a predator spotted its prey and ready to attack at anytime. On instinct, the brunette pulled herself out of his range, taking a step backward.

As he kept coming closer and closer, Riitsu kept moving backward but her movement came to a halt when the boy in front of her got hold of her chin. It was like a powerful Vajra got hold of a weakened Ogretail under its claws. She couldn't go anywhere and the way he held her chin, it made her eyes looking deep into his sea blue eyes. She must had looked like as red as a Magmatic Gboro-gboro. "U-uh… Soma? Too close?"

"It wasn't supposed to be like this. I should've been content by your smiles from far away." So slowly while holding his inner beast, Soma closed the distance between them. "But now I've become greedier of you. I want you. All of you. It's your fault because your radiance fucking pulled me to you."

After saying that with a seducing tone, Soma completely made sure there was no distance at all between their lips. God Arcs forgotten on the floor, he mauled and ravished Riitsu's lips, holding her jaw with both hands so she wouldn't escape. His kiss wasn't innocent nor kind, it was very fiery and passionate, full of his pent-up feelings and desires for her.

After a minute or so of 'assaulting' her, Soma broke the kiss, letting both of them gasped for air, a string of saliva hanging on the side of their lips. He then manly wiped off that string of his face with his sleeve, and leaned to her left ear, whispered, "Now I think you know damn well what my hidden motives are."

With that, he picked up his God Arc and walked to the exit, leaving her alone, flabbergasted, and feeling surreal of what just happened. She was convincing herself that it was just a dream, but this hot sensation on her lips, heaten and blushing face, and loud voice of her fast heartbeat clearly reminded her it was all anything but a dream. It was real. Soma von Shicksal just fucking kissed her and took the life, and apparently her knees strength too, literally right out her mouth. To think it was her very first kiss…

"Wh-where the hell he learned to do th-that?!"

FINALLY! FLUFF AND ROMANCE BABY!

Worries not, there are more to come.