Raven]
"Rave, focus!" Jane slowly got impatient and again I had to ask what we were talking about at the moment.
It was early in the morning after what happened yesterday and Jane, Vince, Rune and I were holding something like a secret emergency meeting while the other's were either recovering or comming up with a new strategy to search the ruins of the old Falcon headquarter hospital.
"We were saying that these people from Mellontikos must have known that Rune is from Falcon so they either had a secret informant that we don't know about or Rune's uncle knew about him all along." Vince explained again and I nodded slowly to show my approval. After that silence filled the room again and it felt more pressing than ever especially now that Rune was sitting next to me with crossed arms and a cold expression.
"Seriously, what's wrong with you two today? For this mission we need to work together so get over whatever is going on." Jane's eyes went from me to Rune and back to me again.
"Nothing's going on. We should continue going with the flow for now." I breathed out to end this small session as soon as possible. It was a lie though... of course something was going on.
When Rune had confessed his feelings to me I had thought of it as a joke at first until I realized he actually meant it. For a small moment I had been happy until I had realized that it was plainly stupid of me to give in to it. How could it ever work out between us? I had no guarantee that Rune continued to stick to Inoue nor would he be accepted by anyone of my group. As the future leader, a boyfriend was like a weakness and on top of that I was expected to have children that continued the leader bloodline.
And yet... I knew that I felt something for Rune. When I played that prank on him yesterday I had enjoyed it and the way Rune had reacted made my heart race.
But we weren't fit for each other... if I had told him what I really felt then both of us would end up getting even more hurt because of that.
It was like fighting against myself... I was painfully aware of how I hurt Rune and I still doubted the rightfulness of it but I couldn't go back. For the sake of the mission we should never get distracted.
"I will go back to my room." Rune stated shortly and pushed himself up form the chair so his hair fell down softly. With expecting eyes Jane was nudging me to go after him.
"You still have to keep an eye on him, remember?" She whispered and in thoughts I cried out.
"Vince... could you?" I tried persuading my curly haired friend because I knew he'd understand and even if his eyes told me he'd murder me, Vince still got up and followed Rune out of Jane's and his room where we were sitting.
As soon as they were gone I let my face sink into my hands.
"Hey, I know something is bothering you so get it off your heart for once, will you." Jane pulled her chair closer and patted my back gently. There hadn't been many moments in which I told her about my worries but she had always been there for me... always. So I owed her.
"I mean..." I started trying to find words for what I wanted to say. This wasn't exactly one my strengths so I had to try harder.
"It's probably no surprise to you that Rune... is not exactly like other people to me." I sighed and closed my eyes for a second. This was awkward.
"Yeah, Vince and me have known that form the start. Be honest... do you like him?" Jane curiously asked and I noticed how she observed my every move.
"I don't know. How do you even know that you like someone?" I wondered and already feared that Jane would laugh at me for asking something so immature and clueless. It felt embarrassing in a lot of ways, especially because I had been with a few people before. But it had never felt the same as when I met Rune.
"Hmm..." Jane seemed to think intensively until she carefully answered.
"Love is something that cannot be put into words because it's different for everyone." She smiled a little sadly. Thinking about it, the last time Jane was in a relationship had been years ago. Maybe she felt lonely too...
"Then what is it for you?"
"For me.." she started again.
"I guess...everytime you see that person you want to make them smile and react to you, you want to be close to them, hold their hand or kiss them. Even the slightest discomfort in that person's eyes makes you want to protect them and be there for them but you fear the rejection and judgement so you end up caught in fooling yourself into endlessly admiring."
"That sounds awful..." I laughed half heartedly but I felt the pain in every word Jane said.
"It is awful... and one will continue suffering with no end." There was no doubt that she regretted something personal when addressing this. So there was someone she liked and never told it to? I felt bad for not knowing all this time.
At that moment a frightening thought came to my mind. What if-
"Jane...? You don't have feelings for me, right?" I searched her eye contact with fear of her answer because if that really was the case I could not look at her in the same light anymore.
"Pft, only because you're good looking doesn't mean everyone falls for you, idiot." She gave me fingerflick in the head and both of us chuckled for a moment. Phew... a small weight was lifted form my shoulders.
"Who is it then?" I wondered and gave her a glass of water.
"Haha, don't laugh at me Rave." She said but I could not promise that I wouldn't. Who could it be? Not Neil, right?
"It is Vince..."
"VINCE?!"
"Dude shut up! He'll hear us." Jane slapped my back hardly and I was about to make some mean comment when my phone unexpectedly started ringing. On the screen it showed Mr. Gray's name.
"Pick up, will you?" Jane grunted and I did exactly that and put it on speaker.
"Your favourite good looking Inoue family member here. What's up?" I greated the man as I usually did.
But soon we were taught that this wasn't a situation to joke around.
"Raven, the cursed dagger has been stolen from the headquarters. The culprit was most likely related to Mellontikos. Someone inside the group definitely has told them where it was hidden meaning we have at least one spy in our higher ranks. Be careful from now on. Especially around the newcomers."
[Rune]
"Hey hey, Rune calm down." I needed a few seconds to realize that Vince had come after me instead of Raven. Of course... what else did I expect?
"I am calm." I stated shortly and sat down on some chair to check my phone.
"No you're not. I don't know what happened between you and Raven all of a sudden but this whole situation must already be stressful enough as it is." His voice sounded as if he'd understand what I was going through and I didn't like that.
"Thank you for trying to comfort me but that doesn't help." I was aware that this sounded a little harsh but I'd rather not talk about my feelings at the moment.
"Alright, I won't pressure you Rune but I hope you know what will come at you." Vince crossed his arms and leaned against the closed door as his glasses were reflecting the light from outside.
Slowly, I looked up at him. Right... what was comming at me? The older seemed to have noticed my cluelessness and sighed.
"You see... if your uncle is part of Mellontikos he is naturally our enemy. And if he is searching for you that could mean he wants to reunite the family. What will you do if he asks you to join him?"
What would I do? If it was my uncle would I be able to go against him?
"That depends, I guess..." I said while still thinking about it.
"He was caught on camera at the Falcon headquarter ruins meaning it is highly possible he was also searching for project healer. And if he wants to use it for something that I don't support I will need to go against him." I explained to Vince what I had already thought about.
Uncle or not, if he was part of mellontikos that was already suspicious and I ought not to be naive because he was family.
"But he might also know if there is something special about you..." Vince hinted reminding me of how he said that my aura was somehow different form everyone else's.
"By the way... you've seen my sister before. Was there anything special about her aura?" I questioned but the other shook his head. So nothing...
It was strange... very strange indeed.
After that the whole day passed by as it was while in the afternoon Neil and Yuto went outside to investigate the headquarter ruins on their own insisting that the less people seen the less risk there was. Celeste was still recovering form her injuries just as Ed and I had no idea what the other's were doing because I sat alone with Raven of all people.
Jane had basically locked us both up in our room saying we should sort out our problems before it was too late but until now no one had said a word.
Why was I even sitting here? We had more important things to do but thanks to Neil's orders we were stuck here. On top of that we were just informed that the cursed dagger had been stolen again as if that wasn't bad enough already.
I really had enough of this. What was I? A child? I cleared my throat and finally spoke up to fill the silence.
"Just forget what I said or pretend you never heard. I'll do the same, then it should be fine." This apparently easy solution was basically impossible for me to realize but if we were going to continue being this awkward I'd take the hit.
"Rune, you can't just-" Raven wanted to go against that but I shut him off before I'd start to get emotional again.
"No, it was my mistake. I had no right to be angry at you because of my own frustration." I held my hand up to stop him but didn't dare to make eye contact.
But maybe I should've done that because next thing that happened Raven stood up and grabbed my hand to gently put it down again.
"No I should've given you a clear answer from the start... but I don't know what to answer." It seemed like these words were a challenge to say for him but they only confused me even more. How could he not know what to answer? At least there should be an explanation for that, right?
"Let go." I demanded but he was still holding onto my hand tightly. Instead he pulled me closer and placed his other hand on my neck as he inspected every part of my face very closely.
"I said let go. Don't play around with me again, Raven." I warned him, not expecting him to stop anyway. I should not give in to that. He hadn't given me an answer yet.
Slowly, he stroked the side of my neck with his thumb and let his hands glide through my loose hair. It send shivers down my spine every time his skin touched mine and even though I planned not to, I still melted into his touch.
"Please..." I whispered meaning so many different things behind that one word but Raven did not answer.
"You're not like everyone else..." he whispered back and slowly his thumb reached my lips that he brushed only faintly.
Why could he not give me an answer then? Why do all this when he said he couldn't?
"When everything is over we-"
"Raven, Rune, I think Celeste's condition has drastically worsened!" Raven was interrupted by Jane who stormed into our room and I felt a wave of frustration rising up because now I couldn't hear the rest of what Raven had to say. On the other hand the health of Celeste was definitely more important right now.
"What's wrong?" I worried and Raven immediately went out of the room to check.
"Just follow me." Jane explained and grabbed my arm to pull me out of the room but as soon as we were in the hallway it was strangely quiet. I did not think anything of it at first and asked Jane whether Celeste was still in the same room as before but she gave no answer and her grip on my wrist got stronger by the second.
"You know Rune... actually that girl is dead." She suddenly said but it sounded strangely empty and not like the Jane I knew.
I started to get more suspicious by the second. What was she doing?
I tried to pull my arm away but she didn't let me. I did not even try because I knew she was too strong.
Was Jane... the spy? The traitor?
"What do you mean? Celeste was fine a few hours ago." My voice tensed in this pressing silence when all of a sudden there were rumbling noises heard from Jane's room.
A second later the door bursted open and the blue haired girl fell on the floor with blood all over her face comming from her left eye.
I froze in my actions as all my alarm systems went of. There were two Jane's here...
In horror I stared at the face of the Jane that was by my side. She looked exactly like her... but right now her face had turned into a sadistically grinning grimace.
I heard the Jane on the floor coughing up blood.
"RUNE *cough* FUCK RUN AWAY!"