Number.3!
3. Don't offer him compliments! Informing him of all of his good qualities just helps him inflate his already Bigger-Than-Life ego. If he happens to do something wildly impressive in your presence, simply ignore it. If THAT proves to be impossible, compliment him in your head or go home and express your adoration onto a piece of paper. Then...rip the paper to shreds and burn it.
After the night at the hospital Elizabeth couldn't find it within herself to leave her apartment for two weeks. She had lost three patients in total that day. Three high ranking ninjas had died, when she should have been able to save them. People were constantly telling her that she was the best healer in the village, aside from Evelyn herself, and that she was even coming close to surpassing her master as well. However in the end she was unable to save their lives when they needed her most.
Though the others survived, it wasn't without difficulties. One was now blind, his eyes being damaged far beyond repair. Others were missing limbs from the attack and one had even been paralyzed from the waist down. Their once handsome or beautiful faces, their strong features as well as their pride in being a ninja of Vampiria was now wiped away, hidden underneath their injuries.
They were hardly even recognizable, their faces scarred horrendously.
The guilt she felt ate her away inside. And the pieces of her soul that weren't affected by the guilt were consumed with uncontrollable grief. She cried for fourteen days straight. Her throat was raw from weeping and her eyes stung painfully.
Every day, for two weeks she'd wake up from her nightmare-filled two hours of sleep, and then she'd simply curl into a ball and cry again. She only got out of bed when she absolutely needed to. Her eating habits had been tossed aside. She hardly ate anything at all.
Every day, William came by her place and thumped on the door for twenty minutes, pleading with her to come out, or to let him inside. She blocked out his voice. She couldn't stand for him to try and cheer her up right now, when all she wanted to feel was sadness. In the midst of all his shouts and noise making, Elizabeth thought sadly that Henry had never even asked about her. He hadn't come see her. William never mentioned him ever being concerned about her well being. All these thoughts just made her cry harder.
'He couldn't care less...' She thought to herself. Though she was trying to forget her feelings her him, that didn't mean they weren't there. It didn't mean she wasn't secretly hoping he'd give her a reason to keep loving him.
But he hadn't. He didn't think of her as anything more than a mere hindrance.
What she didn't know was that every time she thought William was pounding on her front door alone, begging her to come out, Henry was standing right next to him silently.
In fact, every night for the past two weeks, the Fitzroy had left his house at midnight and settled himself outside Elizabeth's door. He was sure to be as quiet as possible. He could hear her heartbreaking sobs through the walls, and wished that he was anything other than a Fitzroy. For if he was, he could be inside with her, consoling her.
But he wasn't. So he contented himself with sitting outside her door for a few hours. He would pick himself up early every day and walk back to the compound. He'd be damned if anyone saw him there outside his auburn haired team member's home.
He didn't know why he did it. Honestly he couldn't think of anything more out of character for him to do than that. He knew that Elizabeth meant something to him. She had known him for most of his life and was a good teammate. But that was as far as it went, he had assumed. However, when he found himself tossing around in bed, thinking about the girl, the Fitzroy just felt somewhere deep, deep inside himself that she needed someone to be close to her right now. And maybe that he needed to be close to her too.
Henry couldn't admit it to himself, but her absence was getting to him far more than he had ever expected it to. He was distracted and wasn't focusing. He wasn't going to be able to sleep unless he knew that she was safe. In her immeasurable grief, she probably wouldn't notice an intruder. She was at a weak state right now and his natural reaction to protect her was overwhelming.
However, his excuse of wanting to protect her was only his way to cover up what was really bothering him, but it wasn't fooling even himself. Henry knew that the main reason he was leaning against her outside wall in a dark hallway was his guilt. She had needed him that night. He had known that she was hurting inside and yet he had still turned his back on her. What kind of teammate turned away from their team members when they begged for your help? Jasper's words had been running through his head for days. Though he had told them this when he was but a low rank Ninja, Henry was still haunted by these words.
"Those who break the rules and codes of the Ninja world are trash. But you know what? Those who don't take care of their comrades are lower than trash."
Was that what he was? Trash? He had deserted all of his comrades at one point, when he had left for Jake Jagielski. He left the village and the people whom he cared about behind him. And now he had done it again.
So here he was... sitting on the ground outside Elizabeth's door; listening to her crying and wishing he could help her, while not really understanding why he was even there in the first place.
'Elizabeth. We need to stop doing this. Crying isn't going to bring them back.' Her inner's voice woke her from her anything-but-peaceful slumber.
Elizabeth tightly shut her eyes. She didn't really want to face the world. She had failed the ninja's she was supposed to protect. She wasn't worthy of the title she was given as a trustworthy medic that everyone could put their faith in. She didn't even have faith in herself any longer.
'Elizabeth. You're wallowing. Get up and carry on. Carrying on doesn't mean we need to forget about them. They were brave ninja's, and they were loyal to Vampiria. Do you think they would want you to stop your duties to this village because of this? The village they died for? You owe it to them to contribute to their home. They can't anymore, but we can.'
Elizabeth slowly sat up from her lying position and pushed her feet off the side of the bed. Blinking a few times, she continued thinking about what she had to do.
'You're beating yourself up for failing them, but by staying here crying instead of being out there helping other people in this village, you truly are letting them down. They lost their lives because of a mission to protect the people of Vampiria and you are here refusing to help those very people they died for! Don't really be a failure, and continue on for them. Get your butt out there and do your job Santiago.'
With a newfound determination, Elizabeth pushed herself up onto her feet and walked to her bathroom, grabbing some clothes as she went. She slowly looked upwards and cringed at the sight in the mirror. Her eyes were red and swollen and had a crusty film in the corners and eyelashes. Her hair was a terror. Messy and knotted, it would take her an hour along just to brush it. Her lips were chapped as well and she had black rings under her eyes from sleepless nights and malnutrition. Her throat was burning and she knew as soon as she attempt to speak, her voice would probably refuse to work for her.
But she was alive. She had the Kabece to do something for others. Therefore, without anymore thoughts about looking like a hag, she stepped into the shower and began to prepare herself to emerge into Vampiria.
After she got out of the shower she pulled on her outfit and weapon's pouch. She remembered the list that she had written to get over Henry. She pulled it out slowly and read the step she'd be working on today.
She briefly wondered if it was wrong to be thinking about this, after something so tragic had just taken place, but as she remembered all the times her heart had been hurt by this man...She knew that her happiness was on the line. She'd help the people of Vampiria, but she'd also take steps to help herself too. She'd continue on her mission to move on.
'Don't Compliment him. Don't Compliment him.'
"Elizabeth-Kabe..."William whispered softly as he engulfed her in a caring hug.
"We were so worried about you. We heard about what happened at the..." He drifted off. The last thing he wanted to do was to reopen her wounds. After a gentle greeting and concerned hug from Jasper, the group of them moved on to the training grounds. Sam had returned from his mission within the time she'd spent inside.
"Hey ugly, where've you been?"
Elizabeth smiled. Same old Sam. She briefly wondered if he had even heard about what had happened, and if he had, if he would even bother to show her a bit of respect.
"Come on hag. The teams leaving."
She sighed. Apparently not.
Sam was probably the most straight forward person on the planet. If he didn't like you, he would tell it to you on your face. If he thought you were ugly, he'd say it without caring if he was hurting someone's feelings. He'd been brought up that way.
She hadn't been feeling up to a heavy sparring session, so she contented herself by reading under a tree while her boys went at each other. She was also on standby in case William and Henry decided to murder each other.
"Henry-Kabe!"
Elizabeth sighed and looked up. Could they not go ten minutes without trying to kill each other? She exactly how it went. Henry and William would fight, William would scream stupid things out loud, Henry would mutter insults under his breath, William would be furious and unleash his powers.
She rolled her eyes and looked up, her breath catching in her throat. She must have been staring, she was sure, but the sight before really took a toll on her brain. Henry was there, shirtless in all his sweaty and toned glory. He was out of breath and held a look of total concentration on his face.
She nearly fainted.
Of course she'd seen him shirtless countless numbers of times and he's been sweaty before. But after forgetting exactly what he looked like after two weeks, it was like seeing him for the first time.
And it was a good time.
'Santiago! Don't you dare compliment him. Don't breathe a word of this to him. He can't know about us fighting the urge to tackle him on the spot!' Inner Elizabeth shouted inside.
She gulped and stared holes into the page she was on. A blush had crept up her face and she desperately willed it to go away. He would be able to see it and naturally assume what she was thinking and take it...as a compliment. Oh god...Today was never going to end.
Henry looked over at her, burning holes into her book with a slight blush, out of the corner of his eyes and smirked. After so long, Elizabeth was still the same.
Elizabeth arrived home and collapsed at her kitchen table. She sat there for a moment staring straight ahead of her, before slamming her head onto the table.
'How beautiful can one guy be?' Her inner demanded. 'Fifty two! FIFTY TWO! We nearly spat out compliments to the guy fifty two times! What is wrong with us!'
Elizabeth quickly remembered the list and got out a pen and paper and began to write furiously.
1. Henry, I want to run my fingers all through your hair.
2. Your abs make me die a little inside
3. If I weren't trying to get over you, I'd have definitely jumped you
4. Can someone say manly?
5. I wish I was as strong as you as a ninja.
6. Your stupid smirk makes me want to smack you...That, or kiss you. Mostly the second one.
7. Your strong jaw and perfect lips make me wonder if you could really put them to good use.
8. Sweaty men aren't always attractive but if they all looked as erotic as you do...they would be.
9. I want to squeeze your arms just to see if my fingers break.
10. When you look at me, you might not know this, but you make it a lot harder for me to resist the urge to tackle and rape you.
And so the list went until Elizabeth had reached number fifty two.
'Burn it.' Her inner commanded. 'Burn it now.'
And Elizabeth did burn it. It was somewhat freeing to watch her feelings from him go up in smoke. The Auburn haired Ninja in training process watched as a small pillar of smoke rose up into the air and she closed her eyes and exhaled a big breath, It wasn't just her pitiful feelings for a certain Fitzroy she was trying to let go of. After what had happened she was also trying to forget the hurt and shame.
She decided to take a walk around Vampiria to clear her head. So much had happened to her so soon, and she knew that she was numbing her pain by trying to move on so quickly. But she couldn't handle it anymore.
Elizabeth slowly walked towards the memorial Jasper had first shown the three of them years ago.
She ran her fingers gently over the names of the people that had died. She had tried so hard to save them, yet their names still ended up here. She could feel tears rolling down her face again. No matter how much she told herself that she was carrying on, she'd still felt a sharp ache in her heart.
"Elizabeth."
She lifted her head and turned herself around to look at Him.
"Henry-babe..."
He stood behind her with his hands buried deep in his pockets. He regarded her with an unwavering gaze. Elizabeth turned back to the memorial and said a quiet prayer for the men and women while wiping away her tears with the heel of her hand. She half expected Henry to be gone once she had finished, for he had never once waited for her. He slowly turned around and took and few steps away from her. She shook her head.
'Of course he's not going to wait stupid. He doesn't care.'
Suddenly Henry stopped walking and turned his head to look over his shoulder at her expectantly. At first Elizabeth just stood there staring at him, unsure of what he was doing. Then she widened her eyes and ran after him. Slowly he walked beside her in the direction of her apartment
Though he was at least three feet away from her on the sidewalk, he didn't say a word to her and he didn't even look in her direction, Elizabeth smiled softly all the way home.
As they reached the narrow cement path that lead up to the entrance of her building, Henry just paused for a moment and watched her make her way to the door before continuing to the compound. Just as she was about to open her front door she just looked at his retreating back and smiled. He hadn't walked her to the door or said goodbye, he just kept walking, but for Elizabeth, that meant more than anything else.
'Thank you Henry-babe'
As soon as the door was closed she walked mindlessly up the stairs and pulled out one piece of paper. She furrowed her eyebrows as she wrote down one last compliment.
53. Today, you showed me real kindness.
Elizabeth felt a smile climb up her face. She wouldn't burn this one though. She'd keep it as a constant reminder that no matter how cold or rude or hurtful Henry was, he was her friend.
And she wanted to keep it that way. Nothing more. Nothing less. Just friends. That's why she came to the decision that complimenting him wouldn't happen anymore, because she didn't want to see him that way. She'd encourage him, help him, but now she'd do it because he was her friend and not because he was her love interest. She was just tricking her heart into loving him even more by admitting all the great things about him.
She finally accepted that she'd never throw meaningless and superficial comments his way again.
Step two: Complete and successful.