Omake - Girl Talk
Another day done, another series of trials and tribulations over, as was the norm in the IS Academy. As the day went and the sun casted a warm orange light across the waves, the winds carried a cool end-of-spring breeze…
"REALLY?! YOU COULDN'T HAVE JUST LET ME TALK OUR WAY OUT OF IT!?"
...alongside other such phenomena.
"Huh..? Was that..?"
"Hm? What's wrong, Charlotte?"
The Frenchwoman strained her ears to try if she could catch the familiar voice in the wind once more, narrowing her eyes as she stopped her walk. "I swear I heard Ryo yelling…"
Rin, Houki, and Laura looked at her in slight confusion.
The blonde then shook her head, shrugging before joining them once more. "Must have been my imagination!"
Rin's lips then curled mischievously and, upon spotting it, Houki let out a quiet sigh.
"Hmm, must be a pretty active imagination to suddenly hear his voice~"
Charlotte's cheeks flushed at the teasing. "Wha– What are you implying, Miss Huang?"
"Oh come on, you've never had those kinds of imaginations? Or dreams?" The Chinese girl's brows waggled as her smile turned cat-like. "It's part of growing up as a normal and healthy girl, you know~!"
"Never took you to be a pervert, Rin." Houki muttered beside her, her own cheeks a little flush. "Seriously, what brought this about? The match leave you hot and bothered?"
The four girls had just finished a practice bout in one of the arenas, eager to test their mettle against each other. It was almost a weekly event where their friend group would spar with one another, oftentimes devolving into a free-for-all. Their bodies were sore at the end of it but had a good burn that warmed them up, which would only be further aided by the hot shower all of them would have to clean themselves afterwards.
It was a shame that the boys were unable to participate, as disappointing as it was. They often were the opponents for most of the girls in a group fight, especially Ephraim who would have jumped at the chance for a scrap.
"I mean, you gotta admit that the rush of adrenaline made you excited. Right, Houki?"
The ponytailed girl rounded on her shorter rival, her expression gobsmacked. "Wha– No! Gross!"
Rin laughed as she crossed her arms, tilting her head back in victory. "Denying is just as good as admitting it!"
"Pervert!"
"Says the girl sharing a room with a boy! I bet you got to see Ichika while he got out of the shower aaaall wet and fresh, huh?!"
"Haaah?!"
As the two began to bicker, Laura rolled her eye and glanced at the blonde before furrowing her brows. Charlotte seemed to be in a daze, her gaze locked forward but her lips moving soundlessly. Her cheeks were still flush, and she occasionally stopped to shake her head.
"...Dunois?" The German nudged her side with an elbow, snapping the taller girl out of…whatever was happening with her. "Are you okay?"
"Fine!" Charlotte replied a tad bit too quickly, her eyes suddenly widening and rapidly looking around before locking into the sole ruby. "I-I'm fine, Mademoiselle Bodewig. I was just worried about exams and totallynotrememberingthebathhouse-kyah!"
Laura stared at the Frenchwoman in incredulity before easing into a deadpan. "Dunois, I may be lacking in many social aspects, but even I can see that you are fond of Ryo-nii. Or at least you show signs of it, based on what Clarissa told me." She whispered the last part to herself in doublespeak.
"Eep!"
'...I need to find out what she knows of Ryo-nii that I don't.' The albino thought, suddenly recalling the mission Alektra had passed to her from their superiors. 'I know of his past, but not of what happened between then and now, and those before my arrival.'
She still felt conflicted at said mission, feeling that her brothers didn't deserve to have someone poking about and reopening old wounds. But an order was an order, especially if it came from High Command. Even if she had her own reservations about this whole thing…
"What…do you know of Ryo-nii, by the way, Dunois?" Laura asked, feigning innocence as best she could. Which really just came out as her usually blunt way of talking. "You two seem to know each other more than the rest."
Charlotte looked at her with a self-conscious expression, her mouth partially open as she considered what to say. The albino was patient as she waited for the blonde to find the words, though a bit strained at how she was quiet as they walked to the girls locker room.
And during that whole trip, the other two just.
Didn't.
Stop.
Arguing.
"We knew each other even before being enrolled in the Academy." The whisper was so quiet, almost drowned out by the screeching of the other two, that if Laura wasn't as artificially enhanced as she was, she would have missed it. She turned her head at her, her brows rising.
'Does that imply..?'
"Were you two…childhood friends?"
"Eh?" The blonde looked at her in surprise before shaking her head with an amused smile. "No, no. Nothing like that. He was under contract with the Dunois Corporation for about a month while he was in France. We…met while I was still…you know."
'Ah.'
Charlotte's purple eyes then grew distant as she mumbled to herself, all too audible for the German super soldier.
"But what if we were childhood friends..? Him and I frolicking in the flower fields, resting under the apple trees back at the village…"
The Frenchwoman's cheeks flushed as she placed her hands on her cheeks, lips quivering as she began to fantasize. Laura simply stared as the blonde began to smile listlessly, somewhat befuddled by her reaction.
"Then we'll swim in the river where he'd save me from almost drowning, take my lips to save my life, and since I'm cold, we'll cuddle with our clothes off-"
The albino's brow merely furrowed in confusion.
'What.'
"Dunois." She grabbed her by the wrist, stopping her from walking face first into the pocket doors that led to the girls locker room. "Dunois, snap out of it. We're here."
"Huh? Wha-?"
"You're just jealous that I get to room with him!" Houki hissed at the shorter girl, the smug grin on her lips somewhat ruined by her twitching brow.
"Of course I am!" Rin didn't even bother to hide her jealousy, both literally and metaphorically green-eyed as she glared up at the ponytailed girl. "I won't forget how you talked with Dunois to switch dorms behind all of our backs, you scoundrel!"
"Scoundrel?!"
Laura sighed as the two went at it again, the renewed screaming match echoing up and down the hall as she dragged the blonde inside the locker room. The doors closed behind them with a quiet hydraulic hiss, muffling the other two's argument, much to their ears' great relief.
"Mon dieu, those two are…" Charlotte let out a tired sigh, massaging her temples as she and her fellow European walked between the locker aisles.
"Like banshees." The albino grunted as she stopped in front of her locker. "I've had drill instructors yell less painfully than them."
"I knew I heard their voices."
The two whirled around in slight surprise to see Cecilia walking around the corner of one of the locker aisles, wrapped up in a bathrobe and carrying a small basket of toiletries in one hand. Her hair had a light sheen to it and there were still some droplets of water coming off of her form, telling the two that she had just finished showering.
"Mademoiselle Alcott!" Charlotte greeted with some surprise in her voice. "I thought you were studying with Monsieur Sahaku."
"I wasn't able to." The other blonde sighed as she walked over to her locker, one that was between the two Europeans'. "He was chased off by some upperclassmen after he complimented their leader's ribbon tie."
"Ah." Laura didn't need to know more, she already knew what to expect in things between her eldest brother and other girls in the Academy. She never could really understand why he kept on goading the more volatile girls of the school, and he seemed to enjoy doing so too! "So you went for some training to let off some steam, I presume?"
"In another arena, yes."
The sound of the doors opening cut off any further conversation.
"Next time we're in the arena, I'm going to make you eat your words!" Rin hissed as she stomped past the three.
"Come at me anytime, Huang!" Houki challenged back as she went the opposite way, her grumbling clear in the tensely silent locker room.
The light-haired trio shared a look.
"Business as usual then?" Cecilia drawled with a mirthless smirk as she opened her locker.
"Seems so." Charlotte shook her head as she took out her own set of toiletries from her locket. Inwardly, she missed going to the boy's bathhouse. Even if it was only once, the sensation of the hot bath and the atmosphere was more than enough for it to be memorable.
'Not to mention…'
The image of Ryo's flustered face and the feeling of his firm chest when she pawed at it that night came to the forefront of her mind. The soft sensation of his cheeks in her hands, and then just how warm his body was when she pressed it against hers…
Her cheeks flared red as she lost herself to her memories once more, her imagination running wild…
"Isn't it a bit troublesome, Frau Alcott?"
Cecilia looked at the albino questioningly as she sat down on a nearby bench. "What do you mean?"
"Those girls who seem to hate the boys." Laura answered as she opened her locker and unstrapped the combat knife on her thigh before putting it inside. "They haven't been subtle about their opinions of them and those who associate with them."
The noblewoman frowned. "I am well aware of that. They often come to Sir Sahaku and I whenever we're studying in the library or outside, spouting their usual drivel about their superiority over him." She then huffed, crossing her arms as she glared off to the side. "And to think I used to say the same before he knocked me down from my high horse."
"From malicious rumors circulating around the student body to libel online… It's one thing after another." The blonde clicked her tongue, her brow twitching in annoyance. "I know that he provokes them but it's the result of their own callous actions that he resorts to barbed words!"
"Why do you still stick around him if it bothers you?" Laura asked with a curious gleam in her eye.
More information about her brothers was always good!
Especially if it came from those they were closest to!
Cecilia looked at her as if she said something stupid before realizing just who she was talking to. Shaking her head, she sent the albino a small fond grin as her cheeks gained a light pink dusting.
"Because I like him, isn't that obvious?"
"...Eh?"
Laura stared at her, her expression serious as her brows slowly rose.
"You…like him?"
Rin and Houki leaned around the opposite corners of the aisle the three Westerners were in.
""It was obvious."" They chorused in deadpan at the shocked German.
Laura looked at the three of them, as Charlotte seemed to still be in her own world, with growing incredulity.
"W-Wait, you like being around him, you mean?" The albino clarified as she stared at the confused noblewoman. "You like training and studying with him, right?"
"Well, yes to all of those, but I also like him." The blonde tilted her head towards the Frenchwoman, ignoring how the diminutive girl seemed to freeze. "Much like how Charlotte over there likes Ryo."
"Wha-?!" That seemed to snap the purple-eyed blonde out of her daydreaming, whirling around to fix the other blonde with a betrayed look. "W-W-Why would you say it out loud?!"
"I mean, it's also obvious, Char." Rin commented with a sly grin. "You give him a smile that you reserve for only him~"
"Wait, how would you know?!"
"I know many things~!"
"How did it start?!" The German exclaimed to the Brit. "And when?!"
Cecilia leaned back at her yelling, her brows raising as she placed a hand on her chest in slight shock. "Goodness, must you yell it out? Are you that curious?"
"Just…" Laura palmed her face as she turned her head away from them. "Just tell me."
"...Curious about love, I see~" Rin's lips curled into another sly grin, a hand covering it as she tittered. "Ah, I think we're witnessing Laura's 'Springtime of Youth'!"
"T-That's not it!"
The noblewoman stared at the red-faced albino before her lips stretched into a fond smile. She always loved witnessing the moment a young bud of a girl would start her journey to blossom into a beautiful woman. The topic of their talk was something she enjoyed too!
"Well, if you're that curious of how I fell for Ephraim…" Cecilia placed a finger on her chin, her smile dimming as she remembered that certain sunset in the Infirmary. At the empty smiles and cruel self-deprecating laughter on the scarred man who had held her heart. Closing her eyes to push the vivid imagery away, she thought further back to their first rendezvous in the Infirmary.
"It started in the Infirmary after I lost to him the first time, in the so-called 'Battle of the Blondes'."
'Eh?' Was the collective thought of the rest of the girls, eyes wide in surprise at the rather unprecedented locale. Even Rin was surprised!
She didn't expect her friend to have started crushing on the taller blonde in the same place that she later confessed in!
"You'd have expected him to be all nice and comforting with flowery words about how there's 'no hard feelings' or anything of the sort." Her lips curled up into a haughty and proud grin as she shook her head. "But no, he was honest about what he wanted to say to me. He did not apologize, only reaffirmed that someone getting injured was a normal outcome of a duel. And I…appreciated that. I appreciated how he didn't apologize, because that would have meant that he saw me as someone fragile. I will never forget it…"
Cecilia could feel her heart beat faster just at the memory of that fateful afternoon…
"That…and his god-awful pun."
'Eh?!'
"He said that I needed a 'knock on the noggin' while I was suffering from a concussion." Her smile turned icy as her fingers clenched around his imagined shoulders, relishing in the retribution that was to come. "He was lucky that I couldn't do much back then, but one day…one day, I will have my vengeance!"
"..!"
"Ephraim? What's wrong?"
"...Just felt a shiver up my spine. We gotta keep going."
"We would if you would. Your ass is blocking the way, man."
"Are you telling me that I've got a fat ass?"
"No? I mean, I'd rather not stare at it when it's right up in my face-"
"I will kick you, Normiemura-"
"Guys, enough squabbling. We need to hurry past this area. Ephraim, stop holding up the line and follow me. Ichika, stay quiet and try to keep track of where we are. Davion, keep watching our rear for any crazies, drop a flashbang if you need to."
"So…he was honest and…he said a pun?" Houki couldn't believe her ears. Her image of the battle-hungry idiot was broken by the mere fact that he said a pun.
A pun.
She couldn't even think of him seriously now that she knew that he used puns of all things. That was the lowest form of humor at their age!
What was he, 12 years old?!
"And you fell for him for it..?" Laura eyed the blonde strangely. She never expected her to fall for her brother due to him using puns of all things…
"No!" Cecilia hissed, running a hand through her somewhat damp hair. "I developed a crush on him on that day, and not because he said a pun! But because he was honest and treated me as an equal!"
"S-So when did you realize that you were in love with him, Mademoiselle Alcott?" Charlotte asked as she wrapped the towel around herself, having stripped off her pilot suit while also listening to the other blonde's story with rapt attention.
The noblewoman stared at the Frenchwoman for a few seconds, then at Laura, and then exchanged a quick glance with Rin, before finally looking up at the ceiling and closing her eyes.
"...It was after Laura beat both Miss Huang and I down to the point that we needed medical attention."
The albino did a full-body twitch. "I-I'm sorry–"
Cecilia raised a hand. "It's fine. You've grown past that, I don't hold it against you…much." She then shook her head. "Though, I guess I should also be thanking you for giving me the chance to confess to him in the Infirmary."
'The Infirmary? Again?!' Was the collective thought of the rest of the girls, save for Rin, who had ducked away back to her aisle so she could change out of her pilot suit.
"Wait, you confessed?!" Houki yelled out in surprise, rounding the corner fully as she stared in incredulity at the noblewoman.
"Well, not in the way you're thinking most likely." The blonde shook her head, her cheeks a healthy shade of pink as she recalled her joy that day. "I gave him my blessing to court me."
"...Which pretty much is the same as confessing that you like him enough to consider him dateable." The ponytailed girl argued, her right brow twitching as she frowned. She wasn't jealous that the blonde got the courage to do that!
She was not!
Cecilia stared at her for a few seconds.
"...When you put it that way…Yes, I did."
"And what was his answer?" Charlotte wanted to know!
The noblewoman looked uncomfortable for a moment before she sighed.
"He said that he was into Orimura-sensei."
…
Laura froze.
Houki sputtered.
Rin stayed quiet.
Charlotte looked like a great revelation had been bequeathed onto her.
"But!" Cecilia raised a finger in the air as if in triumph, her lips curling into a proud grin. "Hope is not lost just yet. I've been making progress in making him want to court me!"
"Uwaaah," Rin let out the stupefied noise in the next aisle over, the grin clear in her voice. "You sound so desperate when you say it that way, Cecilia."
"I am not desperate!" The noblewoman hissed, crossing her arms and glaring at each of them imperiously. "At least I actually confessed to the boy I love!"
Houki growled. "Low blow, Alcott."
Charlotte looked away. "...It's complicated."
Laura blankly stared ahead, her jaw having gradually dropped.
"Y-Yeah, well," The Chinese girl stammered as she peeked around the corner again with a glare, this time clad in a towel like the rest of them, save for Houki and Laura. "I would totally confess to Ichika if he were here!"
The ponytailed girl recoiled, looking as if she had just been slapped. "Huh?! Yeah right, as if that would happen! I'll be the one to confess to him first, you thieving cat! And what do you mean 'here', we're in the girls locker room! As if he'd just drop in here out of-"
Crash!
Suddenly, part of the ceiling came down, scattering debris as the sound of metal bending and breaking entered their ears. The girls all shrieked as they covered their faces to shield themselves from the dust, missing the three bodies that fell with their own shouts of surprise.
"Orimura, why the hell did you pull me down with you?!"
"And why did you pull me in with you guys?!"
"Oww, my back…"
Waving away the dust in the air as she coughed, Cecilia squinted into the cloud when the familiar male voices registered to her senses. "Ephraim? Is that you?"
…
"...Lords below, please don't tell me we're where I think we are." The aforementioned blonde groaned in sheer anguish.
"R-Ryo?" Charlotte stammered as she began to back away to the corner, her cheeks reddening as the cloud began to clear. "Is that-?"
"...There was a reason why I was hurrying up in this specific area before we fell." The swordsman grumbled as, from the sounds of it, he stood up. "I'm going to close my eyes now."
With the last vestiges of the debris cloud settling, the girls could finally see just what happened so suddenly.
Part of the ceiling had given away, revealing the wiring and vents that went on behind. Above them, they could clearly see that one of the bigger vents had torn open outwards. A brief flash of brunette hair was spotted ducking back into the vents.
And on the floor, surrounded by pieces of the ceiling panels and of the vent metal were...
"Can you get off of me now?" Ichika wheezed from underneath the scarred blonde, face down into the floor and just as covered in dust as the other two. "You're not exactly light, Sahaku-san…"
Ephraim rolled his eyes as he got off of the pained IS pilot, patting his dirtied suit jacket clean as best he could. Royal purple met imperious blue before they dipped down below the owner's neckline.
Cecilia unconsciously straightened, causing her breasts to slightly push out of her bathrobe.
The taller blonde's cheeks tinted red as he stared for a few seconds before realizing just what he was doing. He quickly shut his eyes, covering them with a hand as he looked straight up with an embarrassed grimace.
"Orimura, if you know what's best for you, I suggest you keep your eyes on the floor."
"Why? I thought I heard Charlotte…" Brown eyes looked up and into embarrassed purple before flicking to the side, right into enraged blues.
"Ichika..!" Houki snarled as she pulled out a shinai from around the corner, her eyes promising a quick death as she rounded the corner in slow but deliberate steps.
Those same brown eyes dulled as they thought back to memories of the past.
"...This is why I didn't want to talk about girls' locker rooms."
As Charlotte began to retreat around the corner, running past Houki as she did so, Laura remained to blankly stare at the row of lockers opposite to her.
She had bluescreened the moment her mind registered the fact that her eldest brother was into the person who she saw as an older sister.
AN:
No beta, I die like an Oggo Pilot in A Baoa Qu.
It's only fair that I show the girls' version, isn't it?
Originally, the Valentines Special was going to be angsty and cringey as hell but I found that it wasn't in line with the spirit of the omakes. So, I picked up a half-finished omake and instead turned it from a lengthy exposition dump into something more light-hearted!
On an unrelated news, I finally assembled the 1/100th Gold Frame my dad sent me last year and I showed it off to the newest hobby store a friend of a friend just opened. I'm still an amateur at best compared to those guys. I've seen them pull out entire Chaos armies that were painted in vivid detail.
One dude had a Heresy-Era World Eater Red Butchers squad that had blood detailing against the white armor, how cool is that?!
Side-note: my kit came with the Mirage Frame's Amenohabakiri and I noticed that the Gold Frame itself is like...60-65% legs in height, which is wild.
Anyway, the next Episode chapter might take a while to finish and to upload. I've got a class project to participate in that's going to decide if we're going to graduate or be held back a year. Hope you all understand!
To the reviews!
RoyalTwinFangs: Oi oi, I said that I'm a Zeke, not a damn Zabi sympathizer. Operation British could have done well without the genocide of the colony residents, but I'd argue that the Federation had equal part in the resulting decimation of Sydney due to the damage the cylinder had taken during its trip to the atmosphere. I'd be all too willing to fight against the oppression of the Federation on the Colonies, but I draw the line at genocide.
KnightOfZaku: Heh, I have my own plans for the Americans and the Dagger-series. A good take though! As for Phantom Task and any other possible antagonistic organizations, they'll have their own aesthetic. Phantom Task especially, since they haven't really been fleshed out based on what some people on Reddit say about the 12 volumes. Which pretty much means that I have free reign on how I'll expound them.
P.B.S: Ah, so I was right in a way. Houki just seems to love rampaging when she doesn't get what she want. And you mentioning Volume 12 made me remember the plot points/spoilers to the LN that I was researching prior to publishing the fic. God, that volume looks like a shit show. Can't wait to read it properly, haha. The Princess is going to be a damn headache, that's for sure, especially with what I'm tossing up in the air when it comes to her. That and what happens to Ichika in the volume, and the ambiguity of the IS series having a proper ending...
So they really are just the Feddies? The Zeke in me is itching for a scrap with them but I shan't! I have to be (mostly) impartial on how I'll treat them...
cough Current views on the efficacy of the UN notwithstanding coughcough.
Ahem. I'm just gonna imagine the EOS as a bulkier Iron Man Mark 1, with a huge battery pack on the back that's just asking to be shot. That or a more ramshackle version of the Hulkbuster suit.
I both fear and anticipate your long review after Season 1 is finished, as is any review from you. I can totally understand why you would have those 'why' moments, by the way. I too ask myself that whenever I reread the earlier chapters. Really just makes me want to do the rewrite faster, but I can't really do that by forcing myself to write more. Seriously though, I feel chills whenever I check the reviews and your name pops up. Not that it's bad, mind you, your reviews help ground me on what I should and should not do moving forwards and I appreciate it, truly.
I'm glad that the story is inspiring you to possibly write one of your own, it feels good to know that what I wrote isn't just...there on the internet and is taken as is.
Rankin de Merthyr: Thank you for the review! Well, I can't really dissuade you from your own waifu opinion but the ships were alreayd decided from the start. And not by my design, that was only for Ephraim's romance prospects, the other two had their own chosen by their respective Controllers.
Phew, I need a good week of cooling my mind off because the exam yesterday was more than stressful enough!
This is Cipher, needing a few days of break but can't because of a project, signing off!
.
.
.
You know what? I might as well put in a part of the cringe original special, it feels wrong just forgetting it.
Written while listening to a slowed and reverbed version of This Side of Paradise by Coyote Theory.
Otherwise titled as...
Fleeting Petals
"Thank you for the meal."
"Your welcome, Sensei. Shall I make you a drink to top off your night?"
"No, that's quite fine. Head back to the dorms, I've kept you long enough."
"As you wish."
Ephraim left the room with a light skip in his step, the normally faux-genteel smile having been replaced by a more genuine and boyish one. With an empty plate in his arm, he made his way to the Culinary Arts Club.
The Academy was a different place at night, when almost all of the students were safely sequestered away in their dorms. The once busy footpaths were empty, the hallways silent save for the steps of those that remained. There was a general calm to the atmosphere, one that the blonde enjoyed as he exited the Academic building once he deposited the plate and cutlery back at the club room.
The wind blew against him, ruffling his hair gently and bringing a light smile to replace the fake one. The quiet rustling of leaves, both from the trees and bushes that lined the pathways, was a welcome sound. In the distance, the quiet waves of the bay that surrounded the Island brought about a warm sensation.
Times like these allowed him to…relax.
Relax, to let go of all his worries, to take a step back from all the planning, whatever you could call it.
Ephraim was…calm.
For a moment, he let his feelings of cynicism go, alongside his spite and the myriad of negative emotions that he let free to rampage in his mind. No more thoughts of immediate murder, no more thoughts of drawn-out revenge…
Just him, and the few thoughts that brought him genuine happiness and – dare he say it – hope.
He thought of his brothers, of the affection he had for them that he had trouble showing. There was always that machismo that prevented him from being all too worried or showy of his filial affection for them. And he knew that they suffered the same fate, it was natural, after all, as men. But that still did not hide the fact that they were his family, it didn't matter if they were blood-related or not.
He would sooner betray the world than betray them and their brotherhood.
He then thought of the world that they were in, of all its injustice and craziness. It was hard not to think of it negatively, he found so little to be happy about, after all. Its society was deeply flawed and foolish, the world danced on the palm of a madwoman who pulled the strings in the background, and darker elements were gearing up for conflict.
In a way, this world was sick, infected with an illness.
And they were a form of a cure that was sent.
At least, that was what he hoped they were.
Shaking his head, he let go of the worrisome thoughts as he stuffed his hands into his pants' pockets. He let his mind wander once more, in hopes that it wouldn't go down the dark path that it had moments prior. He thought of thoughts that brought him joy and comfort…
He thought of Chifuyu.
The woman was…enchanting.
That was the closest word that he could use for all of his feelings towards her.
She was strong, she was steadfast, and she didn't hesitate to say her mind or act when danger presented itself.
She was stern, she was strict, she was unyielding to those that opposed her.
She was beautiful, a modern amazon that did not cower nor compromise.
She was weak, the chains that wrapped around her full of easily-broken links, ones that could be exploited.
She was imperfect, laden with vices and sins that he could see, that he could hear, that he could feel.
She was pathetic.
She was…human.
And he loved her for it.
He paused, the lollipop stick between his lips abruptly stopping its usual swishing motion. Taking a moment to close his eyes, he took a deep breath and let it out in a long sigh. Tilting his head back and opening his eyes, he stared up at the starry sky.
'Love…is that so..?'
He was still not sure if what he felt was love; perhaps it was an obsession, a passion-driven infatuation towards her strength, maybe even something as shallow as lust. Was he just confusing the concept?
He had no illusions that he was 'normal'. Not after what he's suffered through, in this world and in the last. His empathy was shot, his sense of kindness corrupted, and whatever remained of his innocence lost after betrayal after betrayal. His hands were stained, caked with layers upon layers of blood, whether guilty or innocent.
He was a monster.
Something as pure as romantic love…he didn't believe that he was worthy of it. In fact, he would try his best to distance himself from anything of the sort. He was going to inevitably break it, whether through his actions or his words. He'd rather have the fleeting, desperation-driven trysts than to bare his blackened heart in a pathetic bid for a fantasy.
'But…'
Whether it was the shriveled sense of optimism or the ephemeral hope that he had...
'Even a monster like me can yearn to love…'
With a rueful huff, he shook his head and resumed his walk back to the dorms. He pushed all of those kinds of thoughts back once more, locking them in Pandora's Box that was the depths of his mind. He didn't need them clouding his judgement, didn't need them messing up the plans and contingencies that he had.
"Good grief…look at me being all sentimental…"
A scratching itch in his throat prompted him to remove the lollipop to cough. The sensation of something hitting his palm made him grimace and he pulled his hand away to glower at the phlegm.
'..?'
Only that it wasn't phlegm.
It was a flower; a six petaled white flower that had a yellow center. In the recesses of his mind, a name popped up, identifying the anomaly.
A jonquil.
"Huh..." He breathed, confused at its presence for a few seconds before shrugging. Flicking it away, he placed the lollipop back and went back to reviewing the flowchart of plans in his head, discarding the presence of the odd flower from his mind.
He had more important things to think about.