Chapter 3: Promise


Bell's POV

"Haah…" I sighed after washing my face with lukewarm water.

It was the peak of summer in the village and the weather was humid and hot. It was just past noon at the moment and we were entering the hottest time of the day. I had returned from helping grandpa tend the fields, a task we started at dawn and worked on until noon during this time of year. It wasn't pleasant working outside during the afternoon hours, so we tried to keep to the cooler morning hours whenever possible. Thankfully there wasn't too much work to be done at this time of year, as the crops had long ago been sown and we were just biding our time keeping out weeds and pests as we approached the first harvest of the year. It was much less grueling work than planting and harvesting, but the hot sun made me just as sweaty. As such, it was quite a relief to wash up after it was done.

After I was dressed and had dried my hair, I left the washroom and made my way to the kitchen to grab something for lunch. I was really hungry after everything. Grandpa had made omelets again for breakfast. Even after all this time with Haru here and him experimenting to try to make something to remind her of home, he still hadn't made much progress. Omelets were one of his few safe bets for making a nice meal.

I arrived in the kitchen and quickly made myself a sandwich with some cured meats, cheese, and lettuce I'd brought in from the garden earlier. It was nothing fancy, but it was easy and quick. While I'd learned a bit of cooking skill myself after Haru took an interest, I didn't have the patience right now to make something more complicated or which actually required cooking. I took a bite; it was pretty dry. Right, I forgot the mayonnaise. Luckily we still had some, so I didn't have to try making any. I was terrible at that. Once that was done I made a second one and wrapped them both up with a napkin each.

I then made my way back toward the bedrooms. I passed my own bedroom and continued onto Haru's next to mine; the door was kept open a crack to let a breeze pass through. We kept most of our doors open like that. Our house wasn't really good at keeping cool during the summer, so the only benefit we'd get from keeping the doors shut was it getting super stuffy in here.

I walked to the door and peeked inside, I didn't really expect her to be indecent or anything, but I didn't want to barge in. I had better manners than that.

"Can I come in, Haru?" I asked.

"Mhmm," she replied, unconcerned.

I pushed the door the rest of the way open and walked inside. Haru was sitting at her desk by the window scribbling in her notebook. She was dressed lightly in a loose pink-red sundress and open sandals with straps that wrapped around her ankles. Her legs swung gently beneath her chair as her toes barely grazed the floor. Her tail waved behind her too and her ears moved gently as though with the breeze. She had her hair tied up in a loose bun on her head like she always did in the summer to keep it off her back and stay cool—she also looked really pretty like that.

I came up beside her and peeked over her shoulder to see what she was working on. Haru had grown to really love these kinds of creative pursuits. Ever since she made that embarrassing story for me for my birthday last year, she's taken to writing and drawing all kinds of things. Although she mostly kept things related to our stories. Over the past few months I'd tried learning alongside her.

The two of us had loved seeing all the beautiful and awesome illustrations in my copy of the Dungeon Oratoria and had wanted to try making even more of them for scenes that hadn't been illustrated. It was Haru's idea to start doing that, and I hadn't wanted to leave her alone in it. I'd really like to be able to draw like that too.

Honestly, I don't think we've made anything really good yet. Haru is better than me at drawing people and characters, and I'm a bit better than her at drawing the backgrounds, but both of our works have a lot of issues. Nothing we've made really has the depth or detail that the illustrations we're trying to imitate have, and we also don't really have access to colors, so none of them pop out the same way. But it was fun just spending our evenings trading our little projects back and forth and adding bits and talking about it. It was always fun to spend time with her talking about these kinds of things—I was so glad to have her in my life.

Currently she was working on a new illustration where she was trying to redraw an illustration of Argonaut from a different angle. I thought it was looking pretty good, although the face was definitely a bit off, but I couldn't judge. I was terrible at drawing faces and I was really proud of seeing what Haruhime had made so far. I was sure one day she'd be as amazing as the illustrators of my book. I really wish I knew the person's name. I wonder if they're still alive? I have no idea how old my copy is or even who transcribed this version. Haru had spent so long pointing out all the ways my copy differed from hers, and how many more details it included.

"Hmm… I think it's looking good, Haru."

"Mmm… Yeah. It's a lot easier to do when I have another image as a reference. Much easier than trying to illustrate a whole scene from scratch like last week." She replied. She moved slightly away from the table to give me a better view.

She also gave me a better view of something else, and I looked away quickly. I could feel myself blushing. She'd gotten so much prettier lately. I felt guilty with how often I'd catch myself staring at her curves. I gulped and closed my eyes, took a deep breath and refocused on our conversation.

Well. It wasn't much of a conversation really. We were comfortable just enjoying each other's presence in silence most of the time. There wasn't much to be said here. Just a quiet day enjoying our hobby.

I looked at my hands and remembered I'd brought food for her. I hadn't finished my own sandwich either.

"Haru. I brought a sandwich for you, by the way." I reached out and offered it to her.

"Oh. Thanks, Bell," she responded as she took the sandwich from my hand. She offered me a smile in return and I could feel the start of another blush rising from the tingle in my cheeks. Thankfully she looked away quickly as she dug in. Gosh, she was cute when she ate.

I turned to my own sandwich for relief. I took a step back and sat on the edge of her bed beside her desk and began to eat again.

"It's good." I heard her say.

"Huh? Oh! Thanks," I said a little awkwardly, having stopped paying attention for a bit there.

It was after I finished my sandwich as I watched Haru from the side, looking at how her ears twitched with the breeze and the lazy way her tail swayed, that I saw her turn to look out the window.

"Bell?"

"Yeah, Haru?"

"Do you want to go to the lake to swim?" She brushed her bangs aside, and I caught her emerald-green eyes. "It's really hot out today, and I think it would be great for cooling off." I appreciated the shape of her eyes for a moment too long, before agreeing.

"Yeah. That sounds great."


It was an hour or so later that we found ourselves walking down the path towards the lake we always took whenever we wanted to visit our little spot. We hadn't changed our clothes much, I was wearing shorts, a shirt, and sandals. Haru was wearing her sundress and sandals as before. She was wearing underwear and a bra too, thankfully. My treacherous mind had strayed a few too many times toward the image of her with her dress wet and I don't think either of us would handle me seeing something I wasn't supposed to very well.

I held her hand as we walked down the path with our group. We weren't the only ones with the idea to go to the lake this afternoon, so we'd waited a while in the village square for a bunch of other kids and adults to finish their tasks for the day so we could all go as a party.

Among the adults in the group was Haru's friend, Lissa and two of Lissa's older brother's, Edward, and Kent. They and some others would be the chaperones for all the younger kids. Other than the adults, Haru and I were the oldest of the group, with the rest being a dozen of the younger kids in the village.

We passed through the edge of the forest and I took a moment to appreciate the shade. It was so much cooler along this path. The tree cover overhead left almost the whole path in the shade, and I could see the light dancing and flitting about as the branches swayed in the afternoon breeze. The forest in summer was vibrant and green, and many different plants and mushrooms could be seen growing along the forest floor. We'd often come out here foraging this time of year. Some of the edible mushrooms we could find were super delicious.

All the while, Haru and I kept on chatting about the scene we wanted to illustrate. The specific scene we'd been working on was from the middle of the Argonaut's tale, a part that had fewer illustrations than others, but the kind of scene we were depicting had a parallel scene earlier in the story with an illustration that we were trying to base the new one off of.

It was as we chatted peacefully about this that we heard rustling in the bushes next to us on the path. We stopped for a second to look at the source of the noise when it happened.

From the bush, sprung a small, green, humanoid creature with a spiked wooden club made from a thick tree branch.

It was a goblin.

It took me a second to register what was happening. Then I realized. It was swinging at Haruhime. With one hand still holding hers I grabbed her by her bicep with the other and pulled her back as quickly as I could. It still grazed her other arm.

"Aiiieee!" Haru cried in pain. I looked at her arm and saw it bleeding from where the spikes scraped it. She was also holding it funny. She was hurt. Haruhime was hurt.

Without thinking, I turned toward the goblin and took a swing at it. I struck it in the face as hard as I could while holding Haruhime with my dominant hand. I managed to surprise it, but not much else. It took a step back but it quickly growled in anger before lunging at us again. "Greiee!"

I reacted quicker this time and pulled Haruhime and myself back into the center of the group and out of harm's way for the moment as someone larger than me stepped into place where we were.

My only focus at this moment was Haruhime. Was she okay?—no, she wasn't, but how badly did that hit hurt her? "Haru?! How bad is it?" I asked in something of a panic.

She took a sharp breath. "I-I'm okay. I-It-It's just a scratch!" She seemed to be freaking out even more than me. Where did the goblin come from? There have never been monsters in this forest before! I looked up, and for the first time noticed that it wasn't just one goblin. No, it was five. Our group was large enough that we weren't surrounded, but most of our group were children hardly any larger than the goblins themselves. The only ones who could fend them off were the adults who had long enough limbs to keep the goblins away, but they were outnumbered. The only bright side I could see was that the goblins had very crude weapons, and nothing more sharp than the spiked clubs.

"Children! All of you run back the way we came! Lissa will go with you! Hurry back to the village and get some help!" One of the men holding them off called out. I couldn't even tell which one of them it was. Just as he said, Lissa broke away from them and moved toward the back of the group to direct us back down the path we came down.

A part of me wanted to stay and help. That's what a hero would do, right? But at the same time, I could look to my right and see Haruhime trembling and clutching her bleeding arm. I had to get her away from here. I put a hand on her shoulder and shook her. "Haru! Come on, hurry!" She seemed to come to her senses and nodded frantically before we both made a break for it. Many of the younger kids had already fled ahead of us, and I could see Lissa trying to get to the head of the pack and make sure nobody got separated.

We ran and ran and ran. I never realized just how long this path actually was until I had to take it in a hurry. I also didn't realize how narrow it was in some places. I suppose it made sense. It wasn't like they'd really cleared away the trees and paved it like the roads leading away from the village. It was mostly a hunting trail cleared by chopping away any branches from shrubs on the forest floor and tamped down by decades of use, and that was only because the forest itself was mostly older trees leaving the path between the tree trunks relatively clear.

Either way, I felt myself get scratched a few times by stray branches I rushed past, but noticed little else during our flight other than continually assuring myself Haru was keeping up with me by the feel of her hand in mine.

I had no idea how much further we had left to go but eventually we got ambushed a second time. A smaller group of four more goblins blocked our path and us again. Were these from the same group as before? Were there more of them? How many were there?

I wanted to run again, but I couldn't, there wasn't anybody other than me and Lissa who were big enough to hold them off. Haru had frozen up again behind me. We had to be close to the exit, there would be villagers managing the fields not too far from the tree line. I could hold them off. I could do it. I just had to buy a little time.

I let go of Haru's hand and broke a low hanging branch off a tree nearby. "Run and get help, Haru!" I swung that branch at one of the goblins blocking the way. It managed to push the goblin back a few feet and out of the way, but the branch cracked down the middle from the impact. It wouldn't last another strike. I wasn't even sure it would be able to actually block one. Monsters were terrifying. How could they have this much strength in such small, scrawny looking bodies? I was lucky the goblins didn't seem smart enough to just tank through all of our attacks and would still retreat from the strikes I and the adults had sent their way.

I looked to check if Haru had run ahead. She still hadn't and was staring at me wide-eyed. "Run! Hurry!"

Thankfully this time I saw her make a break for it in the opening me and Lissa had made. A number of other kids made a run for it behind her. Hopefully grandpa and the other adults would be here soon to beat them—I'd seen grandpa kill a goblin before when I was little, so I knew he could do it.

I turned back toward the goblins and prepared to break off another branch.


Haruhime's POV

I ran just as Bell had asked of me. I had to get help quickly! If I didn't, who knew what could happen to him! What might happen to all the others, especially Edward and Kent who'd stayed behind to hold off the first group. I hope they managed to retreat.

When I broke away from Bell, I'd had to take a cut through the less trodden path and my dress had gotten caught and torn by the branches of the trees. I could feel my side throbbing now in addition to my right arm. I must have cut myself on the branches.

I hurt myself again.

I kept on running.

Why did I have to get hurt right away?! Why did I have to have Bell protect me?!

And running.

Why'd I have to freeze?! Why'd I have to panic?! Heroes aren't supposed to panic! Heroes aren't supposed to run for help!

And running and running. I felt my feet scrape on a loose branch and I nearly tripped, but I kept running. Sandals aren't made for running like this. I was so unprepared for anything like this. I think I twisted my ankle too on top of everything. Running was becoming harder.

Why, Bell? Why?

He was so much braver than me. Bell stayed and fought, and was so heroic there at the end. That's what heroes were supposed to do! They were supposed to stand and fight and protect those who can't protect themselves!

There it is. I'm weak and couldn't protect myself. Bell had to do it for me.

I kept running and I finally, finally broke past the tree line and out into the bright summer sun.

I hate having to be rescued all the time. I hate being the damsel! I want to be a hero too!

I raced down the path toward the fields where I knew there would be people.

I could feel the sweat beading down my forehead and neck and back, and everywhere. I could feel from the way my tail fur felt in the breeze that it was messy and matted. I could feel my heavy breathing and my tongue hurt from the exertion, like the blood vessels were about the burst. My chest hurt from breathing so hard too. I thought I had been getting into better shape lately. I was so much more capable than I was when I was first freed from that carriage after months without exercise, but it clearly wasn't enough. I was nearing my limit sprinting like this, but I kept going.

Finally, I reached the field and the men there turned to see what was happening. Bell's grandfather was among them.

I didn't wait for them to ask, just yelled as much as I could. "Goblins! G-Goblins in the forest!" I fell to my hands and knees as my body gave out. "Haaahaaah…"

I didn't really register what happened from there. I think somebody helped me to a chair, or a stool, or maybe it was an inverted bucket, but I was sitting now.

A little bit later a woman came up and started bandaging my wounds. I felt the sharp sting of the disinfectant and that brought me to awareness for a moment, during which I looked around quickly to see if Bell had made it back, but saw nobody other than the woman helping me and a few others.

I closed my eyes again and tried to distract myself from the anxiety.

He'd be fine. They'd all be fine.

As my adrenaline faded and I finally calmed down, my thoughts turned elsewhere. Though I doubt I could call it a more productive direction.

I should've done more. If only I hadn't gotten hit. If only I hadn't frozen up. If only I hadn't panicked I could have stayed and helped Bell. I was the fourth oldest there! I'm older than Bell! I could've done that too… If only I had more strength.

It was half an hour more before Bell and the others finally made it out of the forest. I had my eyes on the path back ever since I'd calmed down.

I clambered to my feet and ran to him even on my twisted ankle and even after wearing myself out earlier and engulfed him in a huge hug.

"Thank the gods you're okay, Bell!" I shouted. "You're okay! You're okay. You're okay…"

He returned my hug and I buried my head in his shoulder. I heard him speak right next to my ears. "Yeah…" He breathed softly. "I'm alright."


After we both calmed down, Bell told me what had happened. After I'd fled, he and Lissa had kept the goblins distracted as long as they could, holding them back with waved tree branches and thrown rocks for as long as they could. Bell got hit once or twice, but thankfully they were just glancing blows and he didn't get hurt any worse than I did. Lissa also came out of the incident mostly unscathed, just spooked, and fretful about all the kids once she saw them gathered up. She had spent the afternoon going around tending to any wounds she saw as best she could, as one would expect from our village doctor's apprentice. She'd spent quite a bit of time looking over Bell as well.

Either way, after a minute of holding them off, they'd had to retreat down the path, but were quickly found by the men from the village who'd gone in with farming tools and hatchets and managed to kill all but one of the goblins in the second group.

Shortly after, Edward and Kent came running back down the path with a young boy in tow who'd gotten separated from the group but was found before he could get hurt. The goblins chasing them met the same fate. In the end only one goblin got away, but when the adults returned they decided that the forest would be off limits for a while until they could figure out where the straggler went and if there were more goblins out there.

It was early evening now. The sun would set in a couple hours. Bell and I had gotten patched up, and afterward we went home for an early dinner. Bell's grandfather cooked us a meal, and we got some food in our bellies. He encouraged us to go lie down and get some rest after such a stressful day.

We both decided against that, as after sitting together on my bed for a while, we started feeling restless and decided to go for a walk around the village.

We informed Bell's grandfather, who saw us off with a reminder to be careful and keep well within the village, which we agreed to, Bell saying, "Of course," before we walked out the door hand in hand.

We walked down from the porch and took the path toward the river. The village was unusually quiet now. The sun was lower in the sky and sunlight was less harsh, making the walk more pleasant, but the whole village was still reeling from the close call today. I was still reeling, myself, so I understood completely.

We made it to the river side, and I asked Bell if he still wanted to go swimming, a little bit of strangely dark humor creeping into my voice.

He considered it for the moment, giving me a moment of my own to appreciate the gentle sound of the flowing water. "Maybe in a bit. I want to keep walking." I nodded, and we moved on.

We walked along the river toward the bridge and made our crossing. I glanced over the side of the brick construct and watched the flowing river from above, taking time to appreciate the contrasting colors of the gray-blue water and the tall, verdant grass and wildflowers. I turned away and we continued on.

We walked through the village center on the other side of the bridge, checking in on the families of villagers who we knew were there during the ambush. We stopped and we talked, and many of the mothers and fathers heaped praise on Bell for staying behind and holding the goblins off. He blushed in embarrassment and scratched the back of his neck. It was such a cute gesture of his that I'd loved from the moment I first saw it the day I met him. But right now, it made me feel a bit of shame.

That was until one mother thanked me for running ahead to warn everybody and get help; and for guiding her child out of the forest. Honestly, I wasn't sure I did much guiding that whole time as I fled in a desperate sprint without looking back to see that other kids had followed me.

It did feel nice to be appreciated, nonetheless. Bell squeezed my hand and gave me an encouraging smile and I had to look away. He was so bright.

We continued on until we reached the edge of the village. We walked up to the border fence and Bell let go of my hand to lean over it and look over the fields. This part of the village was a few feet higher than the edge of the fields in front of us, so we had a great view of the golden wheat swaying in the evening breeze, ripe for a harvest whenever we were ready. That day might be sooner than usual, as the labor is sometimes good to take everyone's minds off something like today, but I was never the one doing that labor, so I wasn't sure. Maybe things would go the other way, and we'd hold off until things were back to normal.

I climbed up onto the fence and swung my legs over the front, letting my freshly groomed tail sway behind me as I steadied myself with my hands. Bell placed one of his hands over one of mine, and we stayed there for a while.

After some time, I asked, "Do you want to go swimming now?"

"Sure," Bell replied. I hopped down from the fence and grabbed his hand as we made our way back.

We walked back through the village, most people had already gone back inside, just a few women taking down clothes they'd hung up to dry and some others making their way back. Sunset would be in just a half hour it seemed. The sky was already gaining some color, visible on the thin wispy clouds, high, high up above us.

We reached the edge of town up against the river and climbed over the fence, hopping down to the slope toward the river. The weather was actually cooling off now, without the sun continuing to heat up the ground and our skin. When we reached the river side, I continued a few steps till my sandaled feet were covered by the water and it came up to my ankles. The water was wonderfully cool and a balm to my sore feet. Thankfully the cuts on my feet from my dash were shallow and had mostly closed on their own, although it did sting a teensy tiny bit.

"The water feels great," I told him. "How about we just walk along the river like this?" I looked at him and saw him nod, and so that's what we did.

We walked along the river side, taking careful steps so as not to trip in the uneven river bed. We continued like this until we reached the bridge, where we stopped underneath it and I moved to sit down, keeping my feet in the stream. I patted the ground next to me and encouraged Bell to sit beside me. After he did so we sat there for a while more. I watched how the shadows moved out from under the bridge as the sun lowered enough to come in from one side. The sky was turning orange.

"Bell."

"Mmm?"

"When you stayed behind in the forest. You really scared me."

"Ah… I'm… sorry about that."

I shook my head. "Don't be. I'm not mad at you." I told him, I made eye contact to emphasize my point, before breaking it and looking back to the river, watching as the colorful sky reflected off its waters.

"I was scared too." I looked at him again.

"Of the goblins?"

"Well… yeah, definitely." He agreed, then continued. "But I was also really scared for you. You got hurt and… I realized I'd have no idea what I'd do if I lost you." He seemed like he had more to say, so I didn't interrupt. "Before today, I'd never really considered that to be something that could happen. I was concerned about you being in danger when I first met and I broke you out of that carriage, but I always kind of thought that was it. That I'd saved a girl in distress and now we got to have our happily ever after, nothing bad would happen again." He let out a mocking laugh.

We were quiet for a bit as I thought over how to respond.

I guess I also kind of thought things would go like that too. We spent so much time living in this fantasy of heroic tales and adventures, that I guess we both thought ourselves immune to those hardships. I thought that way too.

But… A girl in distress. I guess that's what I was. Both then… and today. Bell was my hero, and I loved him for that. For being such a nice person, for being so brave, for sharing my passions and giving me a home.

But I hated having to be saved. I hated having to be a burden. Today it felt like I dragged him down.

"I don't want to be a girl in distress." I said, my thoughts leaking out into spoken words. I clenched my arms around my knees. I could feel a lump forming in my throat, and the beginnings of tears in my eyes. "I don't want to keep dragging you down and having you save me. I feel like a burden and a waste sometimes! I hate it!" I was actually starting to cry, wasn't I? "I want to be a hero like you, Bell! I want to be the one doing the saving! Like in the stories!"

I didn't see his reaction with my head buried in my hands against my knees, but I felt his arms wrap around me as he hugged me.

"You're not a burden, Haru." He tried to console me. I couldn't take it.

"No! I am! I just got myself hurt, you had to save me! Multiple times! I panicked and I froze and I tripped and I fell and I cut myself! I couldn't do anything right! I dragged you down! You could have done so much more if I wasn't there taking your attention!"

I hated it.


Bell's POV

I had no idea how to react to her vehement denial. She… She was really broken up about this. She buried her head back in between her legs and I could see how she was trying to hold back her tears. Her tail had curled up around her waist tightly and her ears had flopped forward in sadness.

I sat there stunned for a moment, before turning back to the water in silence. I couldn't just say something not thought through again. I'm not that insensitive. But… What words would help?

She… she really thinks I'm her hero, doesn't she?

It feels really weird being thought of so highly. I just always did what I thought was right. I'd have been a total jerk not to save her from that when I met her. I'd have been ashamed of myself if I didn't stay back and fend the goblins off today.

She… She doesn't like being saved. She thinks being saved makes her a burden.

She wants to do the saving…

She wants to be by my side…

Hearing her say things like that brings a blush to my face, and I feel guilty for thinking like that when she's crying like this. I hate seeing her cry.

Well… "If you want to do the saving, then we'll save people. If you want to be by my side, then we'll do it together and we'll never be apart." I told her. Yeah. It was as simple as that.

"H-Huh?" She looked up and looked at me with tear soaked eyes. I brought my thumb to her eyes and wiped them clear of tears.

"I felt weak too today. The goblins were stronger than I thought. Real monsters are stronger than I thought. You were right to be scared for me. I was scared for myself too. I don't know how long I could have held them off, but it likely wasn't much longer than I did." I breathed. "So… We'll get stronger together. And then we'll go and become heroes. Together." I reached out my hand to her and offered her my pinky. "We can promise, yeah?"

I looked into her eyes all the while, watching as her expression changed from confusion to shock to something like awe to… something else I felt like I should recognize. She linked her pinky with mine.

"I promise, Haruhime, we'll become stronger together, and then we'll both be heroes and we'll save more people than we could ever count. I won't leave you behind again. I swear."

She looked at me wide eyed, and smiled the most beautiful smile I'd ever seen her smile. Her wet eyes caught the light of the setting sun and her arms trembled. She nodded. I released her pinky and she looked down. Her arms trembled again, and then…

She lunged at me, her hands grabbing my face and her lips slammed against my own. It hurt. I felt our teeth knock and pinch our upper lips. She kept her face there.

This… This was a kiss, wasn't it. Haruhime was kissing me. I was kissing Haruhime.

I brought my hands around the back of her neck and leaned into it as well. But as I tried to start moving my lips a bit, she pulled away. She brought her hands together at her chest, almost in a prayer pose. Or it would be if her hands weren't balled into fists against her lips, her face completely scarlet and her eyes far away.

We'd just kissed.

"I-I love you, Bell!" She blurted out. "Thank you!" She met my eyes again, her face growing even more red if that was possible. "I love you so much, and have from the day I met you! I love you!"

My mouth went agape, but then I could feel a smile coming to my face. That feeling I thought I recognized in her eyes was love, wasn't it. And if I thought I recognized it, then I knew it too. I love her too, don't I?

As I looked into her searching eyes, the answer was clear. "I love you too, Haru." I said.

She trembled and then lunged at me again, I caught her and prevented her from crashing her teeth against mine again, and this time returned the kiss properly. I'd admit I had practiced kissing my pillow before a frankly embarrassing amount of times when I first got interested in the idea of kissing girls.

Haruhime climbed into my lap and wrapped her arms around me, her shifting weight enough to make me lose my balance and fall onto my back. She began to move her hips.

Wait. What?

She pulled away from the kiss, and when I looked into her eyes I saw another emotion I didn't recognize.

She pushed me back down.


Haru's POV

Oh my gods! I just did that, didn't I?! We just did that, didn't we?! Stupid horny fox! AHHHHH!

It was over in barely even a minute, compared to how it was described in the novels I secretly read, it was honestly nothing alike, it wasn't slow or sensual, it was outside in the grass and not a wedding bed. We weren't married. Oh no! We weren't married! Isn't that a bad thing! AHHHHH!

Worst of all… he finished inside… Oh no… I'm not going to get pregnant am I?! I'm not ready to be a mom!

I scrambled away and made myself decent. The sun had set and it was twilight now.

"Bell! We need to go back home!" I rushed away from him covering my face, paying no mind to his reaction or anything else. There was no way I could possibly think straight at the moment. When I got back inside the house I saw Bell's grandfather looking at me in concern.

"Haruhime! Are you alright!" He asked. I looked at him and knew I was doomed. I couldn't hide the blush from my face, and when I saw his expression change from concern to a stupid knowing grin, it was over.

"Well, well, well, what did the two of you get up to out there?"

It's over.


Author's Notes:

And that was the chapter with the fic's title drop. Finally I got this out. Their relationship rushing forward like that might be a bit OOC, but with all the time skips I'm going to be having and the fact I don't want any explicit scenes when the two of them are this young, it seemed the easiest place to drop that their relationship went there without having to find some other way of sticking it in later. And if you've read my M rated story you'd know I enjoy the idea of Haruhime getting caught up in the moment and doing stuff like this. I mean, how else would a girl like her get the courage to go that far without just getting carried away. I don't expect her to build the courage to go that far again for a long while, though, things will be pretty awkward for her and Bell now won't they?

Next chapter they'll be following through on this promise and working to get stronger. Let's see how they fair with a falna. It will be a bit before Chapter 4 releases as I still need to figure out how much of Haruhime's adjusted magic she should have access to off the bat and also how exactly I'm going to rework her magic as that's something I'm still uncertain about. Her magic needs to be suited to the story and can't just be the same as in canon.

Anyhow, I don't think I'll have as much trouble writing that one as I had writing Chapters 2 and 3. Writing more objective analysis and exploration of their abilities sounds easier as there is a very clear purpose to each scene rather than this loose slice of life stuff I've had going on. It'll be something new for me, but I'm excited to finally try my hand at it, being stuck on this part for so long has been miserable.

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