Interlude (Asia’s Crush)

In front of the door to the master bedroom of the mansion, Asia steadied her breathing. She knew that sleeping in the same bed as Eden was a sin, and she had prayed every day since she had started for forgiveness from God. But the temptation was too much for her. Asia knew that she was in love with Eden, but the problem was Eden had a girlfriend, was engaged, and probably had more dalliances with women, she just knew. Asia had found out that this was not against the law in Japan and very normal for the upper class, but this idea went strictly against her religion. So she was stuck between a rock and a hard place: temptation for Eden and her love for God.

Asia wished she was not struggling so hard with these feelings. She wished that she could go to Eden as a messenger of God and help him understand the glory of the Creator. But she could not. She was falling to temptation and dreaded that Eden would forget about her and not be there for her. So she used the only advantage she had against the other women in his life – the fact that they lived together.

Opening the door into the large bedroom, she saw Eden already in bed, reading a book. As she walked in, he looked at her. "Asia, you're late tonight. Are you alright?"

"Yes, Eden, everything is fine," she said, trying to hide her inner conflict. Eden, after looking at her, must have decided to change the topic. "So, are you coming with me to the rating game tomorrow?"

Asia was interested. She had grown to at least like some of the devils that she had trained with, and every time she had met Rias, the devil had been nice to her. So going to cheer her on was not something she was against. "If you can bring me, I would like to go."

"That's great, but since we're going to the Underworld, you should wear something other than your nun outfit." Asia was not one for fashion, but her new friends had helped her pick out some clothes. So she thought she could wear those, but then an even better idea came to her. "Can you help me pick something out?"

"Sure, there are some outfits I think would really suit you," he said, looking at Asia up and down, making her squirm a bit. Asia now embarrassed, took her unusual spot next to Eden in the large bed. Seeing she was getting ready to sleep, Eden, following the routine, snapped his fingers, turning off the lights.

After a while, Asia couldn't sleep. Maybe it was because Eden's engagement to Serafall was brought up again, but Asia was not at ease. "Eden?"

"Yes, Asia," after a silence, Asia gained the courage to speak again. "Why did you let me stay with you?" Eden then turned around to look at Asia, closer than Asia might have ever seen Eden before. His blue and green eyes both made direct contact with her own.

"Remember that spell I used on you?"

"Of course."

"Well, when I used it, I saw your past and your potential futures, and I really saw how much of a sweetheart you are. You helped so many people in your last church, and even when you were expelled, you kept helping people. After seeing that, even with my small, very small conscience, I would feel bad just throwing you out into the cold. And it's never bad to have a good girl like you around," Eden said, smiling at her.

What Eden just said both warmed her heart and also made her a bit mad. "Eden, I'm not a girl. I'm older than you. You should think of me as more like a woman."

Eden didn't seem to think of her as a woman, someone he could be romantically interested in. Asia thought he saw her more like he saw his sisters. Instead of really answering her, Eden just laughed a bit. "Really? I can be a woman."

"Right, great holy maiden, you can be very womanly." After saying that, Eden laughed a bit more before looking back at her. "You good now?"

"Yes, Eden." After that, Eden got comfortable again and closed his eyes. Asia, after a while, pretended to be asleep until, from sleeping with Eden for a while now, she knew that he was sleeping before opening her eyes to look at him. "I'll show you how womanly I can be." And with that, Asia gave the sleeping Eden a kiss on the cheek before then going red in shame because of her action and then trying to truly sleep.