Mix feelings

After what he did in the bar, Leo walked into the bar alone, leaving Liam out on the street. Liam was waiting patiently for Leo since he was the one suggesting that he wait for him outside. But the freezing night made him feel uneasy as he couldn't see anything at all, just pitch-black.

It's not completely dark around him though as there was a lit lamp hanging from above him. It was from the bar. It was hung on the signboard with a 'bar' written on it with a bottle of wine. Even though it's not completely dark around his surroundings, the light is still obviously limited and beyond the light stands the serene, endless night. Standing and staring at the darkness felt as if time itself had stopped. It made a few seconds seem like minutes and minutes felt like hours, it was torturously horrifying. He was starting to lose his cool as deadly thoughts began to creep up on him.

A click of a tongue sound suddenly appeared from the darkness and he yelped. He turned to see what it was but nothing could be seen in the night. He gulped his saliva and slowly turned to look around the place but there was nothing.

I must have heard wrong. He thought as he slowly relaxed his guard.

But then another click came and he jumped. It wasn't coming from the side he was just looking at but from the other side. He stared at the place, where it sounded but nothing was there. Cold sweat was dripping down his face as he felt a shiver down his spine.

"H-Hello?"Liam asked in a shaky voice, realizing it wasn't his wrong intuition's fault.

Silence...He was replied with nothing but the sound of wind blowing. He was there, stoned in one place as he could feel his whole legs trembling, he was about to throw away his pride and dashed into the bar when...

Click

He turned around and saw a foot standing in front of him. It was half-transparent and it was similar to a foot of a child. Liam couldn't believe what he was seeing but something that appeared in front of him while his wide awake must be true.

He slowly back away and crashed into a hard object, which he could tell was a wooden wall. Then, another foot with chains wrapped around it's ankle appeared next to the first one and stood there, silently. He was shivering all over when a thing suddenly slipped onto his shoulder.

"AHHHHH!"Liam yelled as he took out his bow and turned around to hit.

But it was stopped by the hand of a human, which he was familiar with, Leo. He stopped Liam's attack as if it was nothing, Liam's strength was nothing compared to his. He was still gripping onto his bow, his face was filled with both shock and confusion.

"Did I scare you?"Leo asked with a smile, his smile seemed so harmless and innocent but Liam wasn't fooled by it, he knew he was going to tease him.

"No way!"Liam replied like he always did, never admitting he was scared. Then, he changes the topic."Now, where's Fiona's home?"

"Oh, it's just around the corner. You know this is just a small place after all."

"Ya and where's Fiona?"

"Still in the bar, she said that she would leave this place with us tomorrow morning, so she wanted to take this chance to talk to them. I wonder why she's in a rush to leave."

Liam thought about the things she told him this morning.

"Well, it is because she's an adventurer and was forced to stay here due to the bad guy's appearance."

"Hm? How do you know?"Leo asked him with a quite shocked look and continued."We can talk while we keep walking, I bet it's midnight now since we stayed in there for quite some time."

He pointed to the bar and Liam nodded. Then, both of them walked side by side as they headed to their one-night house.

"I noticed she wasn't insane about the baddies being defeated by you. So, I kind of guess that she wasn't someone from here and I was right. She told me, she had been staying here for months. She couldn't leave because the baddies threatened to hurt her friends if she did."

"I see...but why didn't she just tell the guards? And why didn't the guards do anything about them?"

"Did they not tell you anything?"(He was referring to all the village folks)

"Well, no. They were only thanking me and all that."

"Oh, that was kind of useless."He spoke honestly from his mind.

"Hey! Don't say that! They were just being nice!"

"Ya, ya."Liam replied, sarcastically and then, continued."Anyway, it's because..."

He began to tell what Fiona told him about the 'Blood Scar' gang to Leo. Leo listened attentively as Liam shared the information. After a few minutes passed, they arrived at Fiona's home and not only that, they managed to finish the details too.

"So, that's why they don't have the guts to deal with them...That makes a lot of sense now."Leo said, nodding, gently as he pieced the points together. But soon, he continued."Anyway, we're here!"

They stood in front of a one-story house, it was not bad. The place was neatly designed with lamps outside the steps so it wasn't so dark and they could see the steps leading into the house. They walked to the front door and unlocked it. Liam, the one who just experienced a scary incident that seemed straight out of a horror movie, took one of the lamps on the ground. He shooed Leo to the side and pulled out the light. He reached the lamp out into the darkness, the dim light allowed them to barely see what was inside. It was a living room as they could see a 'welcome' mat in the entrance and not only that, there were some chairs too.

Leo couldn't understand what he was doing and pushed his hand down, softly with a reassuring and friendly smile. He noticed Liam was tensed the moment he opened the door. Liam saw his hand placed on top of his, which was holding the lamp, and looked up at him. He saw Leo's smile and realized what he was doing was childish!

A teenager holding a lamp as he looked into the dark room, which is not abandoned and there are still people living there but still gets scared. How embarrassing does it look?!

Liam blushed, madly as he thought of how ridiculous he might look in Leo's eyes. While he was still thinking, bright lights suddenly flashed into his eyes, kicking him out of his thoughts. Leo had already gone inside the house and opened the lights while he was lost in his own world.

"Hey, Liam! Quit standing there and come in!"Leo yelled as he thought Liam was still in his own world.

"Ya! I'm coming! And you don't have to shout, jeez..."Liam shouted back with the same volume he yelled to him.

He then turned around to return the lamp from where he took and walked into the house. It was different from how it looked with the dim light, the home looked cozy with its bright light. The chairs he saw have cushions on them, there's an armchair too and a rocking chair!

Why does she need so many chairs? Liam thought but he didn't bother to ask since he knew Leo wouldn't know either. He walked away from them and acted as if he wasn't curious about it.

His eyes scanned the room, the floor was clean and well-polished just like the walls. The pictures on the walls were so pretty that they added the profession of this whole house. Seeing all of this, Liam had high expectations of the bedroom. He couldn't wait to see the room, he would be sleeping tonight.

He walked, excitedly deeper into the place but was suddenly stopped by a pull on his collar back.

"What is it?"Liam asked with annoyance, he didn't want to delay his rest any further, he was drained from what had happened to him earlier.

"We can't just randomly roam around other people's houses, especially their bedrooms!"Leo lectured him as he immediately understood what Liam was planning to do.

"Why not?! We did ask for her permission to stay in her house for a night, so? We should have access to the bedroom too!"Liam disliked lecturing so that's why he immediately talked back.

"No, it doesn't work like that. You should know that your own room keeps a lot of your personal stuff and you wouldn't want someone you just met to go there."

"But I did let you in! Even when we just met!"

"True..."Leo said as he nodded, he couldn't deny it since it was true."But you need to know we're staying in a girl's home....and you know...girls are...complicated..."

"So what?! I want a freaking bed!"

Liam ignored Leo's nagging and turned around but was pulled again, but this time on the shoulder. He pulled him in and pushed him onto one of the chairs. His face was placed close to his as he now was in a sitting position and was locked in. His hands were both nailed down by Leo's, causing him to not be able to push Leo away and free himself. (It's not like he has the strength to push Leo away either...)

Both of their faces were just inches away from one another, Liam could feel his breath blowing on his face as he stared into his serious eyes. Liam felt his heart thumping wildly in his chest, the sound of his heart beating loudly in his ears, his cheeks burning hot as if he was being burned. He tried his best to not make eye contact but he couldn't help it, he was just right in front of him. How is he going to ignore that?!

Panicked started to rise from him even though he was only in that situation for a second but to him, it was like minutes! What made it worse was that Leo didn't speak a word nor do anything instead he just stared at him with a serious face.

"No, "Leo suddenly said, his seriousness switched into a cheerful and playful smile.

"Huh?"Liam was confused by the sudden change of his nature.

"No, you cannot leave unless I make sure you will not go to her room," Leo said without showing a single expression of embarrassment about his action.

"What's that got to do with her room now?! Unhand me, you...you demon!"

"Hey! I'm doing this for your own good! I don't want you to be called a pervert by her!"

"What you mean pervert! I just want to check it out a little, just a little peek!"

"No way! You pervert!"

"Umm...what's going on here?"A female voice suddenly appeared, cutting them off from their argument.

Both of them looked to the door and saw Fiona standing at the door, her hand still on the doorknob. (She just came in)

Liam immediately flushed red as he thought of what situation they were in. Leo's face was just a few inches away from his and his hand was still bound tight by Leo. Just imagined what scene Fiona is witnessing now!

"Oh, I didn't see you there. Hi, Fiona! Hm? Liam, why is your face so red?"Leo asked Liam after he greeted Fiona, he noticed something was wrong with Liam due to the amount of sweat from his hand.

Even though Fiona was just right in front of them, Leo's face didn't move, it was still close to his. His whole body felt like it was right above lava as his eyes met with Leo's. (He felt embarrassment burning in his core)

He crashed Leo's forehead with his and Leo immediately let go of his hand. Liam hastily looked away from him and Fiona with both his hands covering his face. His face was so pinkish-red that it felt like he needed a few days to calm down.

"Ouch!"He heard Leo yell, but he ignored it. To him, he was the most pitiful one over here.

Leo rubbed his forehead with his knuckle as he mumbled."Even if you don't like it, you shouldn't have knocked me that hard."

He turned back to Fiona, who looked as if she was about to walk out of the house.

"Anyway, what did you just say? Sorry, I didn't hear you."Leo asked with a kind smile as always.

"What is going on here?!"Fiona spluttered out her question again.

"Oh, haha. Now that I think about it...it must have been a weird scene for you to witness."Leo chuckled, awkwardly as his cheeks turned slightly red.

After that, he began to explain and clear out the little misunderstanding.

"Oh, so that's explain why you two were in that position..."Fiona said after she understood what had happened."But to be honest, I don't mind people entering my room. I have nothing important in there so, feel free to enter."

Hearing Fiona say that, Liam immediately stood up from his seat without the slightest shame on his face and walked past Leo as he yelled.

"Told you so!"

Before heading to the bedroom, he longed to visit. He pushed open the wooden door, which had a sign hung on the door written 'bedroom'.Inside the room was like almost everyone's dream bedroom. There was a comfy bed in the middle of the room with two small shelves on each side. One of the shelves has a lamp on top while the other has a book.

Liam noticed the book and approached it, it was brown with a leather cover. He then opened the front page and saw 'Dear Dairy' written on it. Curiosity overtook him as he, flipped through the pages in a quick pace, ignoring all the words and images that were written on it until...he flipped to almost the middle where there was a map stuck to the pages. There were a lot of red 'x' marks on it. As he was about to turn to the next page, a hand slammed on the book, which made Liam immediately draw back his hands.

"Can't you keep your hands to yourself?!"Fiona shouted at him as she hastily snatched the book and slammed it shut.

Liam stared at her in shock, he didn't expect her to get so panicky when someone went through her stuff...Even though she was the one who invited them to her room.

Seeing Liam's stunned face, Fiona immediately flustered as she said with a shy and apologetic tone.

"I'm sorry...I didn't mean to raise my voice at you. It's just, you know...it's my dairy after all...I keep a lot of personal things inside."

"It's alright...I'm sorry too..."Liam apologized, it was his fault after all since he was the one going through other people's stuff without permission."For going through your stuff without asking you..."

"It's fine...just don't do it again. Alright?"

"Ya..."

"What's going on over here?"Leo suddenly popped his head out from the door."I heard someone shout. Did something happen?"

"Oh, it's nothing at all!"Fiona replied with a friendly smile. Then, she looked to Liam."You should get ready for sleep too. Tomorrow, we have to set off early, right?"

"I guess so," Leo said with uncertainty."If Liam managed to wake up early. Then, we can set off sooner."

"Hey! Don't say that!"Liam yelled at him with flushed cheeks.

Leo and Fiona laughed as Liam embarrassingly followed Leo to the bathroom to get himself ready for sleep.