"He did it." I muttered to myself once again as I slowly went through his old room to tear everything down. I really should've been managing the bakery, but, for now, I just wanted to contemplate what had happened. This problem that he's been dealing with for five years was finally resolved. But it felt strange to have heard this as it had become so normal for it to just keep going on and on.
What did such a thing even entail? Larishazza should be safe now but where would they go? I had kicked Nin out of my house because I was sick of always seeing him covered in blood. But, if it was all over, then shouldn't I?
"Do I make sure she's okay? Do I go back on what I told him so recently?" I let out as my confused thoughts got the better of me. What I had been doing thus far came to an abrupt halt and I looked down at my hands uncomfortably. I couldn't figure out if I should help them, let alone if I had the right to help them given what I had done. Whatever the case might have been, I needed to go outside so I could just think clearly for once.
Yet, as I left the room and reached the top of the stairs, I heard someone knocking on the door.
"I know I left the closed sign on display..." I sighed before I walked down the stairs so I could emphasise it by ignoring them. However, once the door came into view, so did a large, shadowy figure. With each further step I then took, it became all the clearer as to who it was and I stopped on the final step.
He came here on his own, is what I wanted to say were it not for the silence I had been afflicted with.
It proved to be shortlived, though, and I rushed to the door with ever greater haste, "N-Nin?"
He didn't say a word, he just made sure I saw his teary-eyed gaze and he collapsed against me. Quickly, his body began to shake and tremble and all kinds of noises left him. Then, he cried, all he did was cry. I tried to comfort him but he only seemed to get worse.
"Nin, what happened?" I dreaded to ask as his emotionally unrestrained strength began to envelop me. I wanted to try and bring him in for some privacy, but he wouldn't let me move at all. He didn't want me to go, he wanted me to stay here right by his side. I was fine with that, and I learned immediately to ignore what everyone else was doing.
The blood across him still unsettled me, but I ignored it as well. Whilst one hand held his shivering, hiccup-cursed head, the other stroked his back. And I kept it up for as long as it needed to be. My friend needed me, nothing else mattered right now.
All that mattered was that my dear friend needed someone.
Eventually, he lifted his head up and a single, bloodshot eye dominated my view. I stared deeply into it and picked out all the details of it as his jaw trembled. Whatever he wanted to say, he struggled to do so. He was terrified to admit it to me in the open.
"It's okay, Nin. I am here." I whispered as my ear was placed right by his mouth.
"S-She's gone... She's gone..." he repeated only twice before he tightened his grip and hid his wet eyes once again.
"I see..." I let out as I considered what that meant. What he was talking about was obvious, but even then, even then...
Five years of ceaseless fighting and it didn't pay off.
"Would you like me to close the door?" I asked him with a flat tone as his words ricocheted about my head. But his only response was further sobbing and it broke my heart to hear it. For these past five years, I have only known him as a relentless beast with a single-minded obsession. But now, I saw someone else entirely and I didn't know what to do with him.
However, with the best of my strength called forth, I closed the door. With that click of the lock filling the air, I then returned my attention to what was important. I made sure to hold him as earnestly as I could and I just let him cry. Eventually, as well, a few tears started to leave me as well as now...
I had my friend back.
"Come on, let's get you to a chair." I whispered in an encouraging manner as I began to try and heave him up. Eventually, he responded to my attempts and he slowly got up to his feet with a strange expression. His eyes still watered profoundly as if they could never be closed, but his face was straight, almost blank. It was as if he had turned into a corpse, all but his eyes, anyway.
I then set him down on a chair and I quickly turned to bring down the store blinds, but he wouldn't let me. His hand held onto mine and he refused to let it go. So, taking the hint, I returned to his side and left everything as it was. And once I sat down, his head suddenly fell against my shoulder.
"Th-Thank you for letting me in." he told me as I stroked his side delicately.
"You're welcome." I replied simply as now was not the time to mention anything else.
"I don't know what to do anymore, Liadanann." he said with a sniffle.
"I'm sure you- we'll figure it out, Nin." I tried to tell him, but I really didn't know either.
"Five years of this... Five years of shit, only for her to die in my arms." he growled as his hands dug into and snapped a chunk out of my table.
"Did you at least get to speak to her one final time?" I asked him after having been left quiet at that detail. She didn't die before he got to her and she wasn't killed, at least, not before he found her. So I could only hope, I could only pray as much as I could that he at least got something... Anything.
"I did... She told me to promise that I would find everybody and bring them all back." he explained with a lengthy sigh.
"You're off to a good start, then." I tried to joke despite the situation.
"She also..."
"She also, what, Nin?"
"She also said she didn't love me, she answered my confession from before all of this started."
"I see..." I let out quietly as I wasn't quite sure how to respond to this if at all. I know at one point I had feelings for Nin, but I couldn't be sure now if it was ever romantic. He was just the only one I ever trusted at one point in my life. I couldn't say either, though, that I wanted to return to those times.
"Liadanann..."
"Yes, Nin?"
"Would you be up for trying to make something work?" he asked as my heart and mind started to act strange. I felt like I had suddenly become a bit of an idiot inexplicitly.
"I... I... I don't understand." I told him as he brought himself back into an upright position.
"Amongst what she told me, she gave me four directions. One of which was a mysterious, crimson-skinned giantess. You. She told me to try and find love in one of those four directions."
"Find love..." I repeated slowly whilst I fought back what might've been the biggest smile in my life.
"It's what she told me, but, I'm surprised I am going through with it so willingly."
"Maybe you already prepared yourself for the answer long ago?"
"I don't know. But, whatever the reason is, it might be because even if she did say no, she kissed me. She gave me at least that." he explained slowly as his few fingers came together and fiddled.
"Oh." was all I could think of to say.
"She was a very smart, beautiful woman, I guess." he remarked as he gazed at the roof.
"Are you sure you are thinking about this correctly, Nin?" I asked once I had considered those words as much as I could within the moment.
"I thought about it on the way here..."
"N-Nin... She just died, I don't think you are understanding what she said clearly."
"I promised her that I would get you all back. And if that means loving all of you to do it, I will do it just like that." he told me as my gaze was turned to meet his.
My heart pounded and my face was a mess, "No, Nin... Let go."
"No." he firmly told me as his grip kept my head in place.
"Let go..." I repeated with a softer tone.
"Are you going to answer my question now?"
"Question..." I copied like an idiot.
"Would you be willing to try and make something work between us?" he asked me once again as his grip started to weaken.
"I..." I started to say once I took my head out of his hand.
"So no?"
"No. No- No! Not no as in no but no as in..."
"It's alright, Liada, you don't have to say yes." he tried to laugh out, and although I knew why he struggled to be joyous. I couldn't help but think of it as disappointment towards a lack of an answer from me.
"But I want to say yes..." I squeaked quietly as the usual red hue of my skin became darker.
"Okay..." he said as a smile took over.
Then silence.
He looked around idly and I rubbed my hands together.
"If I get changed into something more appropriate, we could go and find my talisman. I couldn't find it last night..." I suggested so there was at least something being spoken.
"I should probably as well..." Nin muttered as he looked down at his clothes.
"Oh, that's an idea, maybe we could find you some new clothes as well?" I then suggested with a chirp.
"Let's not get too ahead of ourselves, I need to have a bath or a shower or something..." he muttered as he tugged up some of the loose, blood-stained bandages.
"I could always freshen up some more myself." I suggested whilst my fingers twirled through my messy hair.
"I get the shower first." he told me as he got up.
"Oh no, you don't," and I grabbed him with a knowing smile, "you said you wanted to try and make something work and that happens to mean being intimate!"
"Don't we work towards this?" he asked me before I snatched up his sluggish hand.
"I've always been more of a start at the deep-end kind of girl." I explained as I dragged him up the stairs.
"Okay, okay, I get it!" he let out before he wandered into his old room.
"No bandages or masks!" I told him sternly as he closed the door behind him. Then, with a smile on my face, I rushed into my room and immediately I went for something specific. It wasn't much admittedly, but I have waited so long for even the slightest opportunity to wear it and I didn't want to miss out on it!
A custom-made, floral patterned swing dress...
"I can look girly if I want to." I argued to myself as I looked it over. Nin finally being truly here for once as well meant it would not be so awkward to wear as well. No faffing about, no potential embarrassment, I could just put it on!
Nin knocked on the door, "Are you still in here?"
"Just coming!" I answered as I rushed to the door to open it.
"Are you going to need some space, Liada?" he asked me as he looked at my hair and then my tail.
"I'll let you have the lay of the room first." I told him before we went inside. Smiling like a little girl, I took my clothes off in an instant. But, in the very instant right after, I found myself frozen in embarrassment.
"It's nothing I haven't seen or touched before." Nin reminded me as he slowly unwrapped himself.
"I know, but..." I tried to explain before I also tried to distract myself by helping him undress.
"You don't need to explain, Liada, I get that I haven't been the best of friends these past five years."
"I didn't mean it like that."
"No, but I know it has made us fall apart, it made us all fall apart." he explained to me as he held up a single, bloodied bandage.
"And now you are working on trying to fix it."
"Can I even fix it? I've known about Rose's feelings and Einervaene's for some time now. But I snubbed them at each opportunity and avoided the subject. They are both gone completely now."
"I admit, I don't know much about this Rose but I know Einervaene went to help her mother."
"At least I just need a map to point me in the right direction, then." he sighed as he let go of the bandage.
"I will help you, Nin, know that."
"Thank you, Liada." he sighed before I rose up to pull him in for another hug.
"It's been so long since I have seen you undressed I nearly forgot what you actually looked like." I joked as my bare skin pressed up against his carapace.
"No more Dark Crow, even if it lasted for so little time." he muttered against me as his jaw vibrated and chittered.
"I think you should keep the title." I told him which made his head pull away.
"You do?"
"Yes, admittedly, what he has mostly done I don't like. But as you said when you first started being called it, it's a name a friend gave you. It's a special name." I explained to him so he could start to understand.
"What could I even use that name for now?"
"Well, maybe, if I get my armour back as well after we find my talisman, we can start doing some jobs together?" I suggested rather abruptly as although I had my bakery to consider... I'd drop it all like I would a sweet treat into my mouth just for the chance at being able to spend time with him again.
"I'm a bit tired of fighting, if I am being honest..." he sighed miserably before he likely started to be bothered by thoughts of Larishazza.
"I can tell, but, think of it this way, Nin. You are now equipped and trained better than ever to look after those you care about. Maybe it's not fighting and all that, that you are tired of, maybe... Maybe it's the single-minded fervour that you are tired of?"
"I don't know... I feel that I am without a purpose now..." he explained as he put more of his weight against me in a lax manner.
"It's going to be hard, Nin, but I am here for you. Soon, everyone else will be too." I explained as I gave my all to hug him.