A/N: Sorry for not posting in some time, well, from the past 4 chaps, you know what I've been doing. Well, hope y'all will enjoy this chapter, I spent a lot of time working on it, and I hope y'all will appreciate it. I think it's my best work so far, it's also one of my most emotional pieces, probably my proudest moment yet. So... Enjoy!
Waking up, I found that I was holding hands with Elvira.
And... it felt strangely warm, and comfortable.
'You still like her, don't you?' I asked myself.
I continued to lie there, enjoying the feeling of a familiar hand entwined with my own, knowing full well that I would experience hell when she woke up.
After all, "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."
...
I felt the hand in my hand tense, and realized that Elvira had finally woken up.
Turning to face her, I waited until she awoke from the stupor like state of right after sleep and faced me.
"How are you?"
"Seriously? That's what you ask me the first time we meet again after running away with no explanation?"
"Uhm... what was I supposed to say?"
"Something like a, "Sorry," or a, "Forgive me!" Would do..."
"S-sorry..." I said, looking downcast, not being able to look her in the eyes.
"..."
"Sigh... just tell me, why'd you do it? Was I being to clingy? Was I being annoying?"
"No, no, I left because... there were complications... You had nothing to do with it."
"Complications?... You still won't tell me?"
"Whatever, it's not like that's what hurts, it's the fact that you couldn't turn to me for help. You know that I was always there for you, right?"
"I... I know..."
"Then WHY? I honestly don't get you!" Her voice raised a little bit.
"I..."
"Just say it Arvil!"
"..."
"Why can't you just say it?" She looked at me with a pained expression, I could tell that she was so pained, so pained that it pained me to look at her, breaking my heart. She removed her hand from mine.
"You seriously won't tell me? You know what?! Why am I even caught up on you?!! I could be roping in guys everywhere I turn, but no... I just keep coming back to you, Arvil, so please, please tell me, I don't want to be in pain anymore."
"You know, after the week that you said you would be gone, I just thought that you got caught up, snagged somewhere, and I believed that you would still come back."
"I worried that night, that night that you didn't come back, but I always held that hope in my heart."
"But then, a week passed, then another, and another."
"Every single fucking day! I waited for you EVERY SINGLE FUCKING DAY!!! But no... you never showed up."
"Do you know how much that hurts? At first, I thought that you had left me because of something that I did, but then after a while, I seriously thought that you were dead somewhere."
"I mourned you. I prayed to any angel up there to hear my pleas and give me an indication of where you were, but they never responded."
"Do you know what it feels like to mourn a friend? To mourn a loved one? A family member? Someone I actually wanted to go further with?"
"I thought that you were the only one that would stay by my side no matter what happened, but now, look at me."
She slowly took off her astronaut helmet, and then her mask.
I looked at her burned face. She had never looked more ugly, but in my eyes, the eyes of the original Akimitsu, she was still the most beautiful girl in the world.
"Why weren't you there?"
"Why weren't you there, for me?"
"And why? Why didn't you let me be there for you?"
"..."
She was about to turn around again, signaling that we had never been, but, I finally responded.
In an almost inaudible whisper I said, "Because you're a princess..."
She froze, before laughing. But, this wasn't a laugh of happiness, no, this was the laugh of someone on the edge of a mental breakdown, filled with bitterness.
"Hahahahahahaha! You actually found out!"
She kept on laughing, and laughing, and laughing.
But then, I took an unexpected action.
Scooting myself over next to her quickly, I embraced her tightly, not letting her push me away.
Putting my mouth next to her ear, I told her only one thing, something that came from the deepest pits of my heart, a phrase that mirrored my very soul.
"I'm sorry."
My voice resonated in her ear for a while, as her mind processed this, and she stopped laughing and froze, before burying herself in me, and crying.
I hugged her even tighter, wrapping as much of my body around her as I could, so that she could let all that frustration and sadness she felt at me out.
"You are so cruel Arvie, you're so cruel..."
She couldn't help but let it all out into the warmth of my body.
She hit me with her fist, weakly, and then again, and again.
Responding to this, I only hugged her tighter and tighter, wanting to never let her go.
Our bodies melded together, and we were once again, one.
...
We stayed like that for a while, embracing each other tightly, afraid to let go.
After a while, she was able to calm down, before looking up at me from inside my arms.
Seeing her expression, I decided that it was time to come clean.
"Elvira, do you know who you are?"
"Yes, I am your best friend, a commoner, a princess, and finally, a liar."
"You know that keeping a secret is not the same thing as lying."
"But not telling your best friend about what makes you... you, is a sin of the same degree."
I pondered this for a while, and she just waited for me patiently.
"Well, I did the same thing you know?"
"So, Elvira, do you know who I am?"
"You are Arvil, my best friend, the one I love the most in this world. Whether that be familial love, or something else, that is up to us to decide."
"No, did you know? That all that I have shown you was just a facade?"
"Are you talking about how you can actually speak?"
"No, it's not that."
"Then what is it?"
"I-I was a spy sent to Laramil by the Monarch of Darkness. My name is actually Akimitsu, not Arvil."
She stared at my face in shock for a while, before once again, burying her face in my chest.
This in turn, surprised me.
She hugged me even tighter, before saying, "I don't care what you are, you will always be the one I love, no matter what."
"B-but!"
"No "buts", I know that I am the heir to the throne, and you are a spy sent by the enemy country, but still, you are the one I love, and this fact will never change, so please, don't ever leave me again."
"I-I..."
"Say it! Promise me!"
"I promise, I promise I won't leave you ever again."
At this moment, although I was just a random bloke that got transmigrated into this unlucky guy's body, I knew one thing, as an ember lit itself deep in my heart.
I was in love.