Chapter 18: Sleeping Next To Him

The winds were calm after the tragic events that happened in one house that led to its downfall by fire. The time was exactly 12 pm, noon. Clear blue sky and not a cloud in sight, blowing a warm yet chilling temperature of the breeze due to the coming season of harvest. The silver-colored car parked inside the Shop's Garage, right next to Ryan's car which William gave him long ago.

"We're here, you can wake up now," said Lucas with a gentle voice, not wanting to wake up the heavy sleeping Joseph next to him. Hearing his faint voice, Ryan woke up, his head planted sideways on top of Hitomi's head before gathering his vision and thoughts.

"How long were we asleep…?" The lad asked, feeling tired and exhausted after the recent events.

"A few minutes. Wake up Joseph and Wendy, I'll be down in the basement to find something I left. Accompany your guest and make her feel at home, after I'm done, I'll make her something to drink or eat"

"Alright, thank you, Uncle Lucas" Ryan thanked his kind Uncle before he left the car and went inside the house. Ryan slowly shakes his head to wake his senses before waking Joseph by calling his name.

"Joseph, wake up. We're here"

"I believe in Fairies!" Joseph shouted after he woke up from a dream, waking the others with surprise in the process.

"We're here already?" Wendy muttered with a light yawn before opening the car door next to her. "Come on, Hitomi, let's get you familiar with the house" Wendy added with a gentle smile to reassure Hitomi who suddenly had the look of both nervousness and embarrassment but she cast those emotions aside and took the hand Wendy offered as she assisted her in getting out of the car. Once Ryan got out of the same vehicle as well, he closed the car door behind him and led the others by opening the door that connected the living room with the garage. He then led them to the living room where they took each seat on the comfortable furniture.

"Lucas is down in the basement, I'll explain to him everything once he arrives" Ryan started before slouching his back at the body of the couch he's sitting on to relax.

"What are you going to say to him though?" Wendy asked.

"I'll come up with something… but seriously… we would have been in serious trouble if that man hadn't arrived… Arthur… that was his name"

"Yeah who is that guy?" Asked Joseph in curiosity.

"I don't know… I never met him before back when I was in the city… I only met him once here, but I never once told him anything about me"

"But he seemed to know you a lot, whatever it is, all of those creatures are after you. Even the monster from the lake was only after you, it left us all aside except for you" Wendy said with a concerned look towards the problematic lad.

"I know… they all want me, but for what reason? But what I'm more concerned about is how I brought this matter into Hitomi…" Hitomi shifted her head directly at Ryan from the mere mention of her name, looking clueless.

"What do you mean?" Asked Wendy.

"Even if you guys tell me that none of this is my fault, everything that happened is still technically because of me… if I hadn't suggested going to rest in Hitomi's house then her house wouldn't have been destroyed and Arachne would have still been alive… everything is truly my fault…"

"So what if it is your fault? There's nothing you can do about it but let it go and promise yourself to not make the same mistake again… that is what true regret means" Wendy spoke with a serious tone yet she had a gentle expression of empathy across her face as she said those words of advice towards the lad. He knew everything she said was correct but being the cause of someone's death is something he could never move on to. But his shroud of darkness disappeared when Hitomi forced herself to speak with a small voice that they could barely hear.

"I see… I promise I won't make the same mistake again" Ryan replied with a small smile before sighing.

"That's the spirit, we could really use your cheerful self right now," Said Wendy, trying to lighten up Ryan's mood.

"Hehe, sorry if I've been acting unlike myself"

"Alright, now that that's settled let's go to the topic on hand" Joseph intervened looking like a detective who was about to interrogate his suspect. "So, Hitomi, why don't you tell us more about yourself?" Joseph asked, placing Hitomi in a hot seat which caused her to fluster in red due to her rising nervousness.

"What do you mean exactly?" Ryan asked for Hitomi's sake.

"Oh, I don't know, probably about how she can summon powerful beings like in an Anime or what that Neko girl said about her being a Keeper? A keeper of what exactly?"

"Actually, he's on point. I've been meaning to ask that myself as well, can you explain everything to us Hitomi?"

The shy female was placed in an even more blazing situation of pressure. Her heart was beating nonstop and the palms of her hands were sweating. The thought of explaining to Ryan and his friends about her capabilities never once came to her senses so now she doesn't know what to say. She felt like she was drowning in an ocean of thoughts and pressure, slowly suffocating her and pulling her down the ocean's dark abyss. "(What am I going to do?! I want to tell them but I can't move my mouth! I'm too scared to speak to others… I don't have the confidence to do so…)" She said to herself in her mind with utter despair as she waited for their curiosity to die out. Until a light reached down upon her even in the darkest and deepest depth, it was Ryan. She caught a glimpse of him staring at her in front of her sitting on his chair with a small glass table between them. The calm and gentle smile that he had shown towards her created an explosion of light deep within her head, removing the darkness away from her and replaced with light. It was as if Ryan was emitting a positive aura towards the people dear to him. His split-colored eyes and hair were indeed a perfect combination for his added charm, her rising emotions were suddenly depleting before she spoke to herself but this time, she had a smile behind her scared expression from the outside. "(Right, I don't need to force myself to be confident. Because he is the one giving me the strength to do the things I could never do alone. It is all thanks to the man in front of me, gazing at me with his eyes, sparkling in hope. Love or not, I want to help him with all of my strength because he gave me a breakthrough)" With just a slow closing of her eyes, and taking in deep breaths before exhaling all of her worries away, she gazed at them with a hint of determination in her sparkling amethyst eyes. Straightening her posture and showing her book to them in full view of the front cover. "A-.... *Ahem*... A Keeper is a title given to me from the original Keeper of this book. I don't know what this book is called but I know it allows me to summon the characters listed within pages of the book, but I need each of their permission by gaining their trust if I want to summon them, I made a trust with 6 characters in this book while the others I still have to gain permission to summon them… but the stronger the character is, the more tired and exhausted I get. The original Keeper entrusted me wholeheartedly with this book before she disappeared and I vowed to keep this safe." She spoke all the necessary information she wanted to give them without stuttering a sentence, although she had her eyes closed in some of the words she spoke to reduce her nervousness. Once she opened her eyes, she could only see the shocked faces of each of them after hearing her clear sentence, even Ryan had the same expression as the others, making her once again shy and embarrassed.

"Again, you can speak?" Said Joseph with an idiotic look before Wendy playfully slapped him across his face.

"Of course she does, you idiot"

"That hurt! Why?!" Joseph complained, holding the part of his cheek where the brown-haired female slapped him. After a few seconds of silence, the quiet aura was replaced by Ryan's laughter from what Wendy did. Soon Wendy laughed as well followed by Hitomi with a cute giggle until even Joseph laughed in the end.

"I'm glad to see you can speak even with others watching," Ryan said after wiping off the year on his right eye from their laughter. She gave him a nod with a faint blush on her face from his kind words.

"So who is the Original Keeper?" Asked Wendy, wanting to know more about her past.

"Her name was Lily Nightingale. My first ever friend here in Shooting Star, but she disappeared right in front of my eyes" Ryan's eyes widened a bit after hearing those last sentences.

"She disappeared?" Asked the lad.

"Yes, without a trace" Hearing those words made him remember something of his past, but he brushed those memories away to focus on his current problem, which was finding a solution for Camille's next attack on the day after tomorrow. But little did they know that Lucas, who was already in the kitchen, overheard what they were talking about after their laughter so he couldn't have heard about Hitomi's ability, his usual mature expression dropped after hearing a trigger word from the teen's conversation to mention the female name. He shook his sideways looking he was removing some thought and walked towards them with a tray, and on it were four bowls of noodles and a glass cup of warm coffee.

"You four seem cheerful, what did you kids talk about? Is how cool Ryan's Uncle is despite his age catching up to him?" Lucas joked to show their guest his positive and cheerful side

"Nothing important, just making our guests feel at home" Ryan replied for them. "How is Bruno?"

"Oh, he's going to be alright… I think... he's in pretty bad shape so let's just hope he recovers soon, so I can give him a beating of a lifetime" Lucas stated, balling his right hand in a shoe of a fist as he chuckled from what he said. "So, who is our Asian guest?"

"Oh, this Hitomi Tanaka. She's from our school, her house caught on fire because of a faulty electrical outlet. Luckily we managed to escape to safety, but now she doesn't have a house to stay in so I offered her to stay here until it gets rebuild"

"Tanaka? Are you related to Masami Tanaka?" Lucas asked before she nodded from the mention of her grandmother's name.

"I'm guessing you're her granddaughter?" Asked Lucas as she answered with another nod.

"Oh, hmm are you two close? Or have mutual feelings for one another?" Lucas casually asked although judging from am exposed laughter, he wanted to tease them but the only people who reacted were two girls.

"No they're just friends and friends help each other!" Wendy shouted with a clear blush as Hitomi nodded her head in agreement.

"Why are you shouting?" Joseph asked.

"I'm not shouting you're shouting!"

"Alright, everyone calms down, I was just kidding. But we don't have any spare room, the sofa is too small for anyone to sleep in and since she's a guest we must give her a comfortable sleeping bed. Unless she's okay in sleeping next to you, Ryan? That reminds me, I should buy a new sofa, one that's long" Lucas muttered to himself when he spoke the last sentence. Both the female's face was comparable to a tomato or an apple from their bright expression, Joseph held his laughter inside while Ryan thought hard about how he can handle the coming events of encountering those creatures again.

"No! There is another room! She's not comfortable sleeping next to him! Right, Hitomi?!" Wendy shouted once more as for Hitomi, she just nodded quickly in agreement. This time it was clear for Lucas to know that a certain someone has feelings for his nephew.

"(We'll I wouldn't say I'm uncomfortable, just embarrassed…)"

"Another room? What room?" Lucas asked with a confused look before Joseph nudged Ryan, breaking him from his deep thoughts as the chubby teen mouthed the words 'About the Room'. Giving him a hint to tell Lucas about what he found while he was cleaning.

"Oh! Joseph told us about a room behind the bookshelf next to my room, I wanted to ask you if Hitomi could stay in there just until her house gets rebuild… which a month or so"

Lucas had his eyes widened a bit after hearing what Ryan said, letting out a soft sigh before placing the tray of food on the glass table in front of them. "Help yourselves with some food, I'm sure you all haven't eaten yet"

"What is this?" Wendy asked, referring to the noodles.

"It's Instant Ramen, I thought our guest would want to eat something she's familiar with, don't be shy eat up"

"What's Ramen?"

"You're such an uncultured swine, Ramen are noodles that are famous in Japan! Everyone knows this!" Said Joseph towards the brown-haired female, making her snap in anger in a flash from his insult.

"What did you call me, Fat Weeb!?" Both of them glared at each other with the static of electricity in-between their intense gaze before Lucas stopped them.

"That's enough, eat it before it gets cold, Ryan, follow me" With that, Ryan followed his Uncle upstairs while the others grabbed each one of the three disposable wooden chopsticks to eat their bowl of ramen. Hitomi and Joseph seemed to be at ease to eat their food but Wendy on the other hand had troubles using the Japanese people's traditional utensils.

"Someone having trouble" Joseph muttered audibly with an insulting tone towards Wendy.

"Shut up!" Shouted Wendy while Hitomi enjoyed the satisfying taste of instant noodles.

In the meantime, Ryan watched Lucas push the heavy Book Shelf to the side, slowly exposing a glimpse of a brown door made entirely of Acacia. Once it was fully revealed, Lucas pulled out a key from inside one of the books on the bookshelf, hidden deep inside the book's pages. Once he opened the door, it revealed a fairly spacious room, complete with a bed, a reading desk, a bathroom, and an AC unit and windows, although it was partly covered in thick dust due to the years of not cleaning this particular hidden room.

"Why did you hid this room?" Asked Ryan as he went inside, slowly gazing at the bed and Dusty books that were stacked in spoke on the reading desk. He opened the window and let in some fresh air to let out some of the dust.

"Because this room… gave me memories… memories I buried long ago" Lucas replied as the lad noticed a sudden change of mood on his face.

"Who does this room belong to?"

"Daisy… my daughter"

"You have a daughter?!" Ryan asked with his eyes widened from the sudden revelations of his Uncle's secret hidden past.

"Yes, and if she was still alive, she would have been the same age as you by now…" He replied with a gentle smile on his face as he caressed the dust-covered walls of the room. "But she died in an accident… and I was not there to save both her… and her mother"

"I didn't know you were married as well"

"It's probably because I don't wear the ring anymore. But your Aunt would have been so happy to see you living here, her name was Lidia, and she had a personality just like your mother" Ryan smiled and felt happy knowing he was married to a nice woman in his time. He watched him pick up an old picture frame by the drawer next to the bed, containing a picture of him, her daughter, and his wife although for some reason, the picture of his wife was torn, preventing anyone from seeing her face.

"I'm sorry about Daisy, she seemed really beautiful. I'm sure I would have gotten to know her very well if we'd met" Said Ryan reassuringly.

"She was indeed… you have her eyes, well to be precise, your right eye has the same color as hers, brown… Seeing your eyes always reminded me of her" he wiped away a tear on his eyes after remembering a smile from his daughter. He held the picture frame tightly before gazing back at Ryan with a smile. "You're a good kid, Ryan. Tell the girl you brought that she can use this room and stay here as long as she wants"

"Are you sure? This room holds your dearest memories?"

"It's alright, it's time I let go of the past, besides I have my dearest memories right here" He pointed at his own head. "Those memories won't go anywhere, they will always be in both my brain and my heart, both my wife and daughter… Plus, it'd be nice seeing this room become lively again. But she can use this room tomorrow, I still need to clean this room in the afternoon and remove some of Daisy's equipment" Lucas stated as he grabbed an empty basket near the closet before placing the picture frame and his daughter's other stuff inside.

"Understandable, but where should Hitomi sleep for the night?" With that one question, Lucas gazed at him with a wide smile embedded on his face. After a few minutes, Ryan walked back downstairs and saw Joseph, laughing at Wendy from her struggle with the chopsticks while Hitomi let out small giggles as well.

"Shut up! Just give me a fork!" Shouted Wendy whose face was red from the embarrassment. Overhearing her loud shouting, he silently walked towards the kitchen and grabbed a clean silver fork before walking back into the living room and handing it to Wendy.

"Here, so you won't have a hard time," Said Ryan, surprising Wendy from his sudden appearance but delightfully grabbed the fork from him and finally started to eat her bowl of Ramen.

"We saved you your bowl, come on, Ryan, eat" Joseph spoke, wanting him to join them but he kindly refused.

"I'm not hungry, you can eat it if you want"

"With pleasure," Said Joseph with a satisfied look as he grabbed Ryan's bowl of Ramen and started eating them.

The lad sat on his earlier chair and reached for his cup of coffee, he did like the way his Uncle made his coffee, strong, soft, and foamy. Soon he gazed at Hitomi who gently placed both chopsticks on the top of the empty bowl, guessing that it might probably be a Japanese form of respecting a food.

"Thank you, for the food" Hitomi muttered although it was audible enough for them to hear.

"Sorry if it wasn't a formal meal, my Uncle just didn't expect a sudden guest," Said Ryan with a light chuckle.

"I-it's alright, I don't mind it. The food was really good" Hitomi replied with a sweet, small smile as a sign she enjoyed their hospitality"

"So? What did Lucas say about the hidden room?" Asked Joseph who just finished his bowl of Ramen, letting out a small burp and patting his stuffed stomach lightly.

"He said that she can stay in that room as long as she wants" Ryan replied, seeing a delighted look on Hitomi's facial expression before hiding it when she realized she exposed her rising emotions, blushing in embarrassment as a response when Ryan saw her making that face but he chuckled in delight after seeing her like that.

"That's great then! Now we don't have to worry about where she's going to stay" Wendy added before she took a long sip from the already lukewarm coffee.

"Yeah about that… that room actually belongs to Lucas' deceased daughter"

"He has a daughter? Woah, mind Blown!" Said Joseph gesturing with his open palms on both sides of his head.

"The room hasn't been used in a while and is now covered in dust, not to mention he still has to remove some of his Daughter's personal equipment there before cleaning, and I'm pretty sure he'll finish cleaning the room until tomorrow"

"So, where is Hitomi going to sleep?" Asked Joseph, having the same confused look as Hitomi.

"Well, he told me that she should sleep next to me for the night"

Everyone's eyes suddenly came to a widened and shocked expression. Wendy, after hearing his full sentence, spit out the coffee she was drinking and splashed onto Joseph.

"Gross…." The chubby teen complained.

"What do you mean to sleep next to you?! I swear I'm going to kill that Lucas!" Shouted Wendy as she stood up from her chair, realizing her bold actions, she covered her mouth while staring directly at Ryan with a slowly reddening cheek.

"It's just for one night, I don't see any problems," Ryan replied with a clueless expression. Wendy mentally face-palmed herself from the clueless lad's response.

"(Is someone really this dense?!) Hitomi, what do you think? Are you okay with this?" Wendy asked as they all turned to see Hitomi who was frozen still with a surprised expression with a bright red blush that trailed from her cheeks to her ears. (She's paralyzed in shock?!)

"I… I don't mind… sleeping… n-next to him… there is… n-nothing wrong… with that… it's just for… one night" Hitomi replied, trying her best to break free from her paralysis.

"(Of course you would say that)" Wendy mentally rolled her eyes and let out a calm sigh before facing the clueless lad. "Alright, fine… just for one night. You hear that, Ryan?!"

"R-right… why are you getting worked up?" Asked Ryan, looking troubled from her sudden shouting.

"Nothing, ignore that."

"Alright then, if it's all cleared, I'll be in my room. I need to clean and tidy it up… if you guys need me, just call my name" Ryan announced before walking back upstairs, hearing a faint sound of him shutting the door of his room behind him. The two females stared at their coffee mug in utter silence while Hitomi still kept that reddened face, just by thinking of the events this coming night will immediately send her to a month in a coma.

"Wow… you girls witnessed that too right? How dense he was?" Joseph spoke, wanting to start a small conversation as he wiped off the coffee on his face with a dry, clean towel.

"Yeah… it's hard to believe a guy like that actually exists" Wendy Sighed as she rested her back on the sofa she was on while Hitomi nodded in agreement.

"He seems like the main character of a harem anime"

"Quit it with your weeb talk, Joseph. This is real life… he's just normally dense I guess…"

"Or maybe he was cursed or something? Think about it, with all this magic around I'm sure he was cursed to never fall in love" Joseph assumed which only made Wendy spurt her words in laughter while Hitomi feared the coming event, will she even manage to sleep?

"Really? Of all the things they could curse him with, they chose to love? Think for once, who in the right mind would do that?"

"Yeah I guess you're right, maybe he is just dense or maybe he's just ignoring you cuz he prefers people who knows how to use a chop-"

"Don't push your luck, Weeb!"

Meanwhile, the split-colored lad finished cleaning his room with a wide broom and fixed his bedsheets for the shy female downstairs. Letting out a breath of exhaustion before opening the curtains of his window, letting in the fresh sunlight of noon, and taking a seat on the chair in front of his reading table. But something suddenly came up to his mind, something he thought he had already forgotten about. "I haven't really answered my personal question to myself all those years ago… What can't I feel love towards the opposite sex…? Love… love… Selena…" He muttered those same words over and over again as if he was in some sort of trance, but the mention of a forgotten female's name broke him free from the mental prison he was stuck in. Arching his back straight before gazing at the forest in front of the shop, looking peaceful as ever, yet holds many dangers as always. He roughly shook his sideways, brushing off the sudden thought off his head and focused on his primary problem. "No… focus, Ryan. Camille and her allies will be back the day after tomorrow, this time no one would be there to help us… I can't ask for Hitomi's help, I fear the possibility of seeing another one of her friends die. I can't fight them off, if what she said was true then they can regenerate meaning the police won't be of much help, Lucas… I don't want him to get into this mess… I must fix this… on my own… but how?!" He slammed his face on the reading table, planting it there as he used all the percent in his brain to come up with something, a plan or an idea could help but it was all blank. Until a spark of hope shined a glimpse from his darkened mind.

"If you ever need help, just stroll into the forest until you are truly lost and call my name"

"The bull creature… but can I trust his words? Every creature is after me… will he help me though? He never even mentions his name…" he sighed as he raised his head away from the desk, coming to an end with no other choice to make but go straight. "I don't have much choice… I need that creature's help. But what if my nightmares mean something? What if it is a vision… I'll still try… I must, for their safety…"

Eventually, several hours have passed. The time was 7 pm, Joseph and Wendy already said their goodbyes to Ryan and Hitomi and hoped to see them again in the morning. After they ate dinner, the lad decided to assist his Uncle in Hitomi's coming room by helping him move the heavy bookshelf into the room.

"Thank you for the help, I'm getting too old for this" Lucas joked as both of them chuckled lightly after placing the bookshelf in the perfect location next to the small brown reading table.

"Old, but not obsolete. That's what Arnold Schwarzenegger said"

"Ha! Terminator Genesis? Nice" Lucas complemented with another chuckle. "I'll finish this off tomorrow, why don't you take a shower? You wouldn't want to sleep next to a girl smelling like garbage?"

"I was already thinking of that. Alright then, good night Uncle, Lucas. I really can't thank you enough for what you did, offering Hitomi this room"

"It's nothing much, I can never forget how you saved me from almost certain bankruptcy" He laughed once more and ruffled the lads' hair before gesturing him away from the room. As the lad walked inside his room after opening the door, he realized that Hitomi was nowhere to be seen. Assuming that she was taking a shower downstairs, he decided to take a shower in the bathroom in his room as well. He slowly took off his top clothes leaving only his jeans seen on the outside, exposing his fairly built body with the perfect skin tone of light brown that covered his entire body. A long scar was seen exposed at the center of his chest before reaching for the doorknob in his bathroom and hearing the creaking sound of the door made once he opened it. But suddenly the creaking stopped and was replaced by the sound of water running down the faucet of a bathtub, the warm aura was certain that the water was hot, the lad froze in shock when he was face to face with a half-naked Hitomi who was also paralyzed in a position that seems like she was about to remove her exposed brassiere. Her light pinkish white skin was a perfect sight for all men, and to top it all off, cute pink underwear that has somewhat a rose design. Both of their cheeks slowly rose to red, especially Hitomi who was redder than the lad. Once she screamed from the moment and covered her exposed body with her arms, the lad reached inside to grab his orange towel next to the light blue towel that he provided for her earlier and shut the door behind her.

"I'm sorry! I thought you were downstairs!" Shouted Ryan who tried his best to remove the 'wonderful' sight away from his head while mentally punching himself for not knocking to see if someone was inside.

"AHH!!!!" Hitomi yelled before he shut the door and apologized from behind it. Even though the door was preventing him from seeing her body, she still covered it up with her arms as if he was still there.

"I'm really sorry, forgive me!!" Ryan kept apologizing through the door before hearing Hitomi's reply which muffled because of the door between them.

"I-it's alright…! Let's just… forget everything… okay…?!"

"Yeah! I'll take a shower downstairs. Again, I'm really sorry!" Ryan apologized once more before grabbing a new pair of clothes, leaving his room, and closing the door behind him.

"What happened? What's with all the shouting?" Lucas asked who just exited his daughter's previous room.

"Nothing… it was nothing" Ryan coldly responded before walking downstairs and headed to the bathroom leaving Lucas in curiosity and confusion but decided to let it be and prepare to sleep for the night.

"(He saw me! Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God! This day is the worst!!! I won't hear the end of this from Diane…)" The female internally spoke to herself with her face as bright as a shining apple before locking the door and undressing as she headed towards the bath in embarrassment. The same goes for the lad but once he felt a sudden hotness in his cheeks, he came to a realization.

"Am I… blushing…?" Ryan asked himself as he pressed his fingers on his cheeks before clenching his hands together. "Weird." He muttered once more before taking a cold shower, unlike Hitomi who took a hot bath. As minutes went by, he finished showering with no complications as usual. He changed into his fresh new clothing, wearing dark grey sweatpants, a dark red t-shirt underneath his orange hoodie that he always wore as pajamas. He finished off by walking out of the bathroom and wiping his hair dry with his clean orange towel. He walked back to his room, seeing Hitomi nowhere inside he thought that she would still be in the bathroom, taking a shower.

The lad placed his old clothes onto his laundry basket and suddenly the bathroom door opened where Hitomi was seen exiting the door wearing a light purple hoodie and pink pajama while drying her long hair with a towel. Without her pink ribbons tying her hair's end, it was seen that her hair was so long that it reached her waist. She paused for a moment when both of their eyes met, her cheeks showed light pink colors before asking with a flustering look.

"I see you're done taking a bath" Ryan spoke to break the aura of silence between them.

"I am…" She responded with a shy tone before diverting her gaze into somewhere else but his mesmerizing eyes but he took it as a negative response for his earlier intrusion.

"I'm sorry again… I really should have knocked earli-"

"No, it's alright!" She suddenly interrupted him, she paused seeing his surprised look before continuing what she was about to say. "I mean… I forgive you, I should have told you that… I was going to use the bathroom… so it's my fault as well…"

"You're a really good person Hitomi, I'm glad I met you" Ryan boldly stated out of the blue, sending a wave of shiver across her body from his compliments before blushing as a response.

"I'm… glad I met you too… Ryan" After her reply, the aura of awkward silence retreated from the area.

"You are?"

"Why wouldn't I? You're… amazing… really amazing..." She said with a small smile, meaning it was part of her subconscious confession but Ryan failed to think of that word more than it seemed and just smiled widely in delight.

"Thank you" Ryan simply replied before taking a seat on a chair next to his reading table and opening one of the books he bought previously at the bookstore where he first met Hitomi. She gazed at Ryan when she realized what she just subconsciously said and sighed in relief when Ryan didn't overthink that word.

"(Good thing he's too dense to see right through me. But that is the problem, he's too dense… I never saw anyone act like him even in the romance novels I read. He's nice, caring, strong, and smart. He's everything a girl would want… of course I didn't fall for him because of those… I fell for him because he gave me a breakthrough. But he doesn't realize why I'm always flustering around him or how Wendy was protective earlier… is something wrong with him? Anyone would have guessed by now that someone likes them… more importantly… now that I kept staring at his eyes, the eye on his left really symbolizes the one from my book… or is it really that much of a coincidence?)"

As the adorable female mumbled in her thought, Ryan turned to face Hitomi, seeing her still standing there, staring at him in silence while she held her old clothes across her chest like how she carries her book. With no response from her, the lad immediately questioned her.

"Is something wrong? You've been staring at me in silence for a while now" Asked the lad with a light chuckle. Hearing his words caused the female to revert back to the real world and immediately fluster before responding.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I was thinking about something… totally not related to you!" The female lied with a nervous laugh.

"Are you concerned about where you're going to sleep? You can sleep on my bed and I'll sleep on the floor, I slept on it once and it wasn't that bad actually"

"N-no! Please don't sleep on the floor, in fact, I should be the one to sleep there…"

"No, you're my guest I'll sleep on the floor" Once Ryan stated his opinion, he was then caught off guard by Hitomi's determined gaze. A gaze that he never saw from her before, seeing her like that made him realized that he was belittling her and let out a small breath. "Fine, you win. But if something is bothering you, please don't hesitate to tell me. I too would be nervous if I was in your position"

The female's eyes sparkled from his response and smiled in sheer delight before quickly removing her excited face to prevent him from realizing that she was happy about the idea of sleeping next to the lad. "I will" She responded.

"You should go to sleep, I'm going to catch up with my studies" Ryan added before Hitomi nodded in agreement. The female sat on her side of the bed and placed her two pink ribbons on the desk beside the bed before the lad switched off the light that Illuminated the room, replacing it with darkness as he plugged in his reading lamp by the side of his desk. Emitting a calm and warm orange/yellow to Illuminate his reading. "Good night, Hitomi. I'll see you in the morning" Said the lad to her before taking a seat and reading his book.

"(Good night, I'm glad we met at the bookstore…)" The female spoke in her thoughts before slowly drifting to sleep as her vision of Ryan's back started to get dimmer until she fell asleep. Once he can tell that the female was fast asleep, he closed the book he was reading and arched his back until it rested ok the chair's body, placing both of his feet on top of the reading desk as his mind became clouded with deep thoughts.

"(If the nightmares I kept seeing is indeed a vision… then I must prepare to fight that creature in order to protect my friends… but I can't top his strength, just by seeing that large-bodied creature that lifted me from the throat like I was nothing was proof that there is a huge gap between our strengths… if that's the case… I better use his strength as his weakness… but there is also a possibility that he will help us, he did say to call for his name if I need help… but he didn't even give me its name!)" The lad ruffled his own hair, frustrated due to the fact that there was no idea coming to his head. "(When will this fight ever end…? I promised Sasha I wouldn't use violence to solve my problems… but ever since I came into this town all I did was beat up other males… even if that was self-defense, I feel like I overdid it, but yet… why am I pleased to have used violence so far…?)" Ryan let out his stored breath in one go and hot up from his chair, gazing at the dark forest that was slowly illuminated by the small flying lightning bugs. "(Right, now's not the time to worry about what will happen, the future is already certain. Destiny wants me to fight and fight is what I will do)"

A few hours have passed, the night was quiet and cold. Hitomi awoke from a faint noise, as she recollects her senses, he could see Ryan doing push-ups on the floor as he counted how many he already did.

"777… 776… 778"

"(I can see that troubled look on his face… all of the weight of pressure is placed on his shoulders… poor, Ryan…)" said the shy female, showing an exposed sympathy on her glistening Amethyst eyes. "(You're not alone, whatever happens, I am here to help you. I am certain that Flambo can defeat them, leave everything to- oh crap his coming!)" Hitomi quickly closed her eyes shut and pretended to be asleep by letting out small snores. The lad stood next to her before muttering a sentence.

"(No one else needs to get hurt… especially not my friends… if those creatures lay a hand on any one of my friends… I will kill them all)" Hitomi got surprised by what he just said, lightly opening her eyes just to get a glimpse of Ryan, staring down at her with an ominous aura as his left eye glowed in the dark. Hitomi wanted to make sure what she saw was correct by gazing at him one more time, but in just a blink of an eye, his amber glow was gone, as if it was all just her imagination.

"(Did I saw that right? His left eye… glowed…? Maybe I'm just tired… but the way he said those words sent chills to my spine… Ryan please, don't do anything you would regret…)" her thoughts were cleared when she felt the bed rack, the lad finally got on the same bed but he made sure he kept his distance to prevent her from being uncomfortable once they woke up. She opened her eyes once more, this time she fully opened them and stared at Ryan who had his back turned towards her. She kept staring at him with a mixture of nervousness and sympathy before slowly drifting to sleep once more while still staring at him from behind. "(I promise… I will for sure help you)".

"Good night again, Hitomi" the lad spoke in an audible voice, sending Hitomi in shock and embarrassment before making her snoring louder this time with an exposed blush. Ryan heard her loud snoring and let out a small giggle before falling asleep as he waited to face tomorrow's problems.