Naivety Unveiled

"Kane, Kane!"

The first thing Kai'Sa did upon waking was to call out for Kane as if she were possessed.

She found herself pinned under the carcass of the beast, lying in a sticky purple liquid that stretched into long tendrils with every movement of her arms.

"Disgusting."

Kai'Sa felt a wave of nausea, though she couldn't deny she was absorbing nutrients from the substance.

But now was not the time to feed; the priority was to check on Kane's status.

Her broken legs, along with the bite marks on her carapace, had healed without her realizing it. She crawled out from beneath the monster and made her way to where Kane lay, the viscous liquid on her being greedily absorbed by her carapace until her skin felt dry and clean again.

Reaching the predator's corpse, Kai'Sa found Kane unconscious, pressed under the collapsed beast in a similar state to hers, except his entire arm was buried in the predator's chest cavity.

"Kane, Kane! Wake up!" In a panic, she slipped off her helmet and scrambled over the predator's hefty limbs to his side, calling his name.

Kane was unresponsive, his chest rising and falling ever so slightly, the only sign he was still alive.

"Thank goodness." The sight of him like this made her tear up again, but she quickly absorbed the tears with her fingertips.

Not wanting to let the weight of the beast's corpse continue to oppress Kane's fragile human body, Kai'Sa wrapped her hands around him and pulled him out from under the predator, his arm coming out of the chest cavity.

She laid Kane down and saw that the monster's chest cavity was dark and void, with no liquid oozing from the wound. Peering inside, she discovered that the heart and flesh had been completely absorbed by Kane's carapace, leaving behind an empty shell.

To help Kane recover quickly, she moved him to the side of another corpse and split it open to let its energy-rich plasma flow out, making it easier for Kane to absorb.

After repeating this process several times, Kane suddenly began to cough.

Upon opening his eyes, Kane saw Kai'Sa's tear-streaked face and the earrings faintly visible through her hair. She embraced him tightly as if trying to meld him into herself.

"Kai'Sa, you need to be careful! I told you not to hug me so hard; I might get squashed..."

Hearing the creaking of his own ribs, Kane gently patted her back, urging her to loosen her grip.

But she wouldn't relent, not listening to a word he said, instead leaning in closer and pinning him to the ground.

"Ow!" He toppled once again.

Lying next to the skeleton of the beast, with an excited Kai'Sa suppressing her tears on top of him, Kane silently endured this "painful" love, wondering what exactly were Kai'Sa's feelings for him?

Was it romantic love, friendly affection, or familial bond?

Or... did it encompass all three?

They had been childhood sweethearts who experienced the tragedy of losing their families and then survived together in the perilous underground for so long that their relationship had become too complex to be defined by any single term.

Perhaps initially, Kane saw Kai'Sa as a guarantee for survival, an investment for a future relationship; and Kai'Sa sought comfort to drive away loneliness, looking for a beacon in her dark wanderings. But over time, they had become each other's everything.

Kane wasn't sure about Kai'Sa's thoughts, but his feelings for her could be summarized as such:

In the past, he couldn't live without her.

Now, he wouldn't live without her.

The corpses of monsters, the shattered battlefield, the embrace of the two survivors – the atmosphere was saturated enough with the essence of a close call.

To test Kai'Sa's feelings for him, Kane, with a sense of guilt reminiscent of puppy love, kissed her cheek.

As expected, he got a mouthful of dust – in over a year, neither of them had ever washed their faces...

Kai'Sa paused, then loosened her arms and turned her face to look at Kane.

"Did you just kiss me?" Her large purple eyes searched Kane's lips for any trace of the kiss.

"Would you rather I bite you?" Kane awkwardly turned his head away, feeling embarrassed despite his experience, especially under such direct scrutiny.

Kai'Sa showed none of the shyness typical of a young girl, making Kane think he might have overthought things. Perhaps she didn't feel romantic love for him, but rather saw him as her only family.

Was it because they were too familiar with each other? Or was she too young to be aware of such feelings?

It seemed his affection was misplaced...

However, just as he was preparing to engage in a prolonged struggle out of disappointment, Kai'Sa's next words pulled him back from the brink of despondency.

"Kiss the other side too."

Kai'Sa brushed her hair aside to reveal the other un-kissed cheek and leaned in.

Kane had just turned when he was caught off guard by her approach.

He managed to kiss her, but again, he got a mouthful of dust.

Seeing Kai'Sa's satisfied smile, Kane realized...

He was wrong! Once again, he was wrong!

It turned out Kai'Sa was not indifferent to him; he had simply overestimated her complexity when she was, in fact, innocent.

"Was I expecting too much from you? I only used the skills needed to handle the Iron tier, and you're telling me even a bot could outperform you!" Kane was incredibly frustrated, massaging his throbbing temples.

Kai'Sa approached emotions with an almost naive ignorance, acting solely on feeling.

Normally, dating involved mutual testing and gauging, with more testing the higher the tier, ensuring confidence before taking the plunge.

But these steps were nonexistent for her. As a romance novice, she was straightforward with her feelings, her words always a reflection of her thoughts.

Moreover, she was like a blank slate when it came to love. Falling into the gap between two worlds at the age of ten, nobody had taught her about these things before, and Kane hadn't taught her either.

She remained unguarded, expressing her emotions unabashedly, just as she did with that perilous hug.

Inherently clueless and straightforward by nature.

This meant Kai'Sa rarely bothered to do things to please others, more carefree even than Kane, who restrained himself due to his youth.

Kane had always thought Kai'Sa's affection maxed out at a hundred, unlocking new displays of progress every ten points, only to find out Kai'Sa's affection maxed at five!

Over the year, Kai'Sa showed no significant change in attitude, leading him to believe his courtship hadn't even started.

If he hadn't taken the initiative to test the waters, he would never have known her affection was already at its peak!

"I thought you'd be shy, but I didn't expect you to be so simple."

It ended before it even started, without any real feeling of romance. Kane looked at Kai'Sa with mixed emotions, then patted her head.

"Let's get up; we can't rest here. Who knows when we'll be surrounded by voidlings."

Speaking of monsters, Kai'Sa finally agreed to get up, extending her hand to pull Kane up while asking, "What does naive mean?"

Kane reached for Kai'Sa's hand, replying sullenly, "It means you're a fool."

Dealing with a fool...

He took her hand to stand up, not expecting her to suddenly let go, causing him to fall back hard.

"What are you doing?" Kane was stunned; he had trusted Kai'Sa.

"Humph! That's for calling me a name."

Watching Kai'Sa act petulantly, Kane exclaimed, "Ah, this is the feeling! My youth is back, baby!"

Humans are indeed strange and complex creatures.