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pretty-on-point: The power of love is real. (•ˋ _ ˊ•) Alice and Shun's love story is far from the end, as you will find out in this chapter and small spoiler alert, but there will be some relocating done - a small snippet will be revealed near the end of the chapter. Though, not for the same reasons as the news article. ~(￣▽￣)~*

Innocent-Diamond: Thank you for your kind words! And please continue reading to find out what'll happen to our Shurisu babies~ ( ﹁ ﹁ ) ~→

MagicxMusicxMelody: Your questions will be revealed in future so please look forward to that! \^o^/

cherry-tree-of-life: Soon was simply curious about Shun because she wanted to see if Alice was going to kick him to the curb like she did with the other men or not! And LOL, the grass at Klaus's grave didn't turn green yet and here we are wanting him to forget about him. (⊙x⊙;)

Chapter 13

"I'm leaving."

"What?" Alice sat upright from where she had been entangled with Shun in bed, turning to face him. "What...What did you say?" The world felt like it was ending again - she couldn't breathe because oh my God she just got him back in her life why was he leaving already does he not love her anymore -

"Alice, Alice." Shun's voice interrupted her from her racing thoughts. "Breathe, breathe." He was sitting upright as well, inhaling and exhaling exaggeratedly in an attempt to make her mimic his actions. Which worked, as Alice found herself inhaling and exhaling alongside him.

"I shouldn't have said it that way, I'm sorry. What I meant to say was that I must leave Wardington." Shun explained when he deemed that she had calmed down. If she hadn't been too busy trying to remain calm, Alice would have laughed at how Shun's attempt to fix his previous statement was more shocking than it was helpful.

"What? Why?"

"They caught up to me."

"Who?" Alice asked, confused. "Shun, what are you talking about?"

"Ah, I forgot. I never explained what exactly my line of work was." He let out a wry smile. "I was so caught up with being with you that it slipped my mind."

"Is it that horrible?" She asked, settling back into bed, her lover doing the same. Shun didn't continue his story until they were entangled with one another once more, with Alice's head on his chest and a hand playing with her hair.

"It wasn't, but I've been neglectful. Do you still remember what I told you about my whereabouts when we were separated?" When Alice nodded her affirmation against his chest, Shun continued on. "I was training to be a ninja warrior like what Grandfather wanted me to do. But...But that wasn't the only thing I was doing."

"What do you mean?" She asked, tracing nonsensical patterns on his chest.

"When I came back, we were going to leave Wardington, just like we always wanted. I knew that we couldn't just leave empty-handedly and I knew that even if you did save some money, it wouldn't have been enough - all of the money that you did have would have gone to your Grandfather for his medical expenses at the time. So I knew that I had to make money for us. And that was when I found them."

Alice felt rather than heard Shun let out an exasperated sigh, his chest rising as he did so. "It was a month into my training in New Vestroia and while I promised Grandfather that I would stay for a year to train with the other palace guard recruits, I wanted to get back to Wardington as soon as I could. I didn't get paid during the training period, so I was desperate to find some way to make money to come back to you. One day, after training was over, I went out for drinks at a tavern with the rest of the recruits and the officers. There was a man who came up to us and offered us a large amount of money if we joined his group. The officers dismissed him, saying he was bad news, but I was desperate for money. So, after everyone left, I sought out that man."

He paused once more, letting out a shaky breath. "I should be grateful that all he ever wanted from me was to steal, but I felt so guilty. Still do, to this day. I stole from the rich, I stole from the poor - thieves do not discriminate when it comes to stealing. I went out to steal with a group of other people every night after I was done training at the palace. We worked from midnight until sunrise and by then, I had to make my way back to the palace for training. It was so exhausting, but the pay was good enough for me to continue - Angel, what's wrong?" Shun cut himself off from his story, looking down at Alice.

Tears streamed down the redhead's cheeks as she buried her face in his shirt. "You shouldn't have done that...not for me. I...I'm not worth it." She managed to get out in-between her tears. "I'm so sorry."

"You are worth living and dying for." Shun murmured, adjusting himself so that Alice was wrapped in his arms as she shook from her tears. He held her in his arms until her sobbing subsided, all the while stroking her hair and whispering encouraging words. When he deemed that she was calm enough, he took her face in his hands, smiling gently as he wiped her tears and kissed her eyes before he continued with his story.

"I made what I thought was enough in almost a year. I wanted to leave - I did my job and I did it well and I wanted to come back to you. Apparently, I did my job too well that they had refused to let me leave. That was also one of the reasons why I left New Vestroia despite being capable of being King Keith's personal guardsmen. I couldn't tell Grandfather about what I've done so as you can imagine, he was upset when I refused the offer. Which led me to Neathia."

Another sigh was released. "I thought they wouldn't follow me to Neathia because of the war with Gundalia. Apparently not, as they are everywhere. Anyways, I managed to avoid them during those six months because of how tight security was at the palace. But the moment I left Neathia for Bayview, they resurfaced. Bayview isn't that big of a town, and there's not much you can do or steal, in this case, there. I don't know how but...but they managed to find me again here recently."

"What do they want?" Alice asked, her heart hammering in her chest.

"Me. I know too much and I suppose they're worried that I'll share anything damning to get them arrested or whatnot." Shun grimaced. "As you can see, I must leave - "

"I'm going with you."

End of Chapter 13.

Note: Hello, my friends! I am back with yet another chapter! And that was a lot, wasn't it? Let's get into it~ ( ﾉ ﾟｰﾟ)ﾉ

Y'all forgot about how Shun managed to get money to get back to Wardington and get back to Alice, huh? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) But anyways, yes, Shun worked for a crime gang in order to save up money to get back to Alice and Wardington. You know how crime gangs are - no one can leave unless they're dead. This is essentially the opposite of 'Of Angels and Ninjas', where Shun is a ninja or thief in that story and fully embraces it while he doesn't in this work, LOL. But whatever shall they do? I guess you have to read the next chapter to find out~ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

As always, please leave a review and considering that I fulfilled my goal of updating a work once a month, this is most likely going to be my last update of this work for this year, so I will see you again in the next chapter AND in the new year! Ciao ciao! \( ^0^ )/