Chapter 43: Girl's Fascination

I would like to start this chapter by apologizing for not posting for couple of days. The reason being that my dog was in critical condition. He got intestines infection, as well as enlarged right ventricle of his heart (Normal heart should end at 4-5th rib, his was at 7th.), which caused him breathing problems, nearly suffocating him in the process. It was even suspected he had heart disease, but thankfully it was only a serious lung pneumonia.

*******************

(Will I forgive her so easily?) I kept my eyes closed, still conflicted about what I should do next.

"Please, don't be upset with me." Her guilty tone confused me even more, making all my negative emotions slowly diminish, but the pace at which it happen quickly accelerated when she squeezed my hand, nearly digging her nails into my skin.

This stinging sensation opened my eyes and when they fell on Gaia's quilty face I spoke quietly, unsure of my own answer. "I won't."

"Can you say it again?"

"I won't leave...*sigh*...and I won't be upset with you." This time my voice returned to its normal volume, clearing all the confusion along with it, or so I thought.

Despite the obvious meaning of my sentence, Gaia still looked surprised, maybe even scared.

"Is everything alright? You look pretty out of it."

"You won't leave? Did I hear it correctly?" I nodded, confirming my words and when I did, Gaia took a step closer, looking like she was hesitant to say something. "Can you... Can you say it again? Just once. That's all I ask for."

"Ok, but this will be the last." I straighten up before focusing on Gaia and telling her my next words calmy, making sure she will hear every one of them. "I won't leave and I won't be upset with you, if you say 'I want you to take care of me.'." I didn't forget to add the last part, as a joke and a way to say that I wasn't upset anymore.

"I want you to take care of me, and you better take full responsibility for making me say so." Gaia finally smiled, but what she said didn't sound like a joke and made me question my decision.

"Responsibility you say?..hmm...Why won't I just marry you instead? Wouldn't that be a simpler way to take responsibility?"I put a hand on my chin, looking like I was really considering it as an option.

"Marry you?! Are you crazy? How can you ask me to marry you out of nowhere?" Halfway through her agitated statement, Gaia seemed to realize I was only joking. "Marriage isn't a joking matter. You need to take it seriously!"

After seeing her innocent reaction, I leaned forward, whispering straight into her ear. "Who said I was joking?" I even blew on it, just to tease her further.

"AAA!" Right after I did so, Gaia jumped away from me, with a blush on her cheeks.

Her expression showed a lot of confliction, but it didn't last long before it turned serious. "First of all, Mister, if you want to marry me, shouldn't you go down on your knee and say something like..."

Gaia looked up, almost as if she was daydreaming "Gaia, from the moment I saw you, I knew you were special. Your beauty is something no girl can compare to. Its simply out of this world. You're also funny, nice, kind,...."

I started counting each of her 'qualities' on my fingers, but I quickly realized that I didn't have enough of them. Her list gone on and on, with her never repeating herself even once. (Why does it sound like she had this scenario in mind already?)

"...smart, fair, honest...loyal. And seeing how great you are makes me want to ask you one question. Will you marry me?" Gaia kept her head up, still deep in her fantasy.

(I don't know what exactly is going through her head, but it looks like she's about done.) She let her gaze down, with starts in her eyes, telling me she was expecting something.

(Why can't I be dense like anime protagonists? Life would be so much easier that way.) I knew what Gaia expected from me right away, but I had no desire to propose to her. (The question is, how not to break a young girl's heart?)

The task itself was quite the challenge already, but when you add the fact it was Gaia who I needed to explain it to, the difficulty changes to ultra setting.

Despite her mean and often overbearing personality, Gaia is a very emotional girl, who doesn't like showing that's the case. She keeps her emotions well hidden, not sharing them with others.

And at first, I also got deceived by this tactic.

She uses insults and her mean behavior as a protective mechanism from revealing her true feelings. I saw it when she didn't talk to me, or when her prank didn't go the way she hoped it would.

Instead of expressing her mind, she insulted my smile, or when I said I care about her, she tried to use even more harmful words, to distance me from the uncomfortable for her topic.

But even after acting like she did, she saw how I felt and decided to apologize. She knew her actions were what caused such a big reaction out of me and because of our relationship, she decided to let some of those emotions leak, hoping it will prevent me from leaving.

The only problem arised when I joked about marrying her, without knowing about her huge fascination about it. I could see that she thought about such things numerous times, creating the perfect idea of what will it be.

"You see, Gaia..."

"Yes?" She interrupted me at the start of my sentence, impatient to hear her dream come true.

"We're are too young for marriage." I decided to go with the most straight forward answer.

"But, you said..."

I put my hands on her shoulders. "Don't get me wrong. You're a great girl and I would gladly propose to you, but we're 14 and we know each other only for a year. I don't think making that decision will be a good idea in this current moment."

After explaining the reason why I couldn't propose to her, Gaia started slightly shaking and not before long, her eyes turned watery.

"I knew it! It was one of your stupid jokes! You never wanted to marry me! YOU LIAR." Gaia shook my hands off her shoulders and started repetitively punching me on my chest with both of her arms, using the soft part of her fists.

"Why did I fell for it? I should have known! All guys are the same. They only know how to play with women emotions."

"Wait, Gaia." I grabbed both of her wrists, to calm her down. "I didn't say I won't marry you, I just said we're too young. How is this playing with your emotions?"

"You really mean it?" Hearing my words made her relax her arms, so I let go of them.

"Of course. Why would I lie about it?"

"I don't believe you." She crossed her arms. "Prove it."

"Prove it? How should I prove it?" I hopped Gaia will think of something easily achievable.

"I don't know, think of something." She shrugged her shoulders. "And it's better be good."

(How should I prove it?... I know.) I turned my head to one of the branched hanging above me. "Hey, Earthguardian. Come closer, I need to tell you something." The branch lowered down, right next to my head.

"Perfect. Listen carefully. The plan is..." I covered my mouth with my hand and started whispering to Earthguardian.

"Hey! You can't do that. I'm still here." Gaia tried to eavesdrop at our conversation, but I told him the whole plan before she could do so.

Her unsuccessful attempt at eavesdropping made her glare at me, but I ignored it and put my hand down. "You think you can help me with that?"

Earthguardian moved his branch up and down, showing his agreement.

"Earthguardian, you too? *Hmph* You know what? Do whatever you two want. See if I care." Gaia turned her back to us.

"You sure you don't want to see how will I prove that I want to marry you?" I smiled because I knew she won't be able to resist knowing this information, and just like I predicted, she turned to us, blowing the air out of her nose out of frustration.

"Good. Now close your eyes." When I asked for it, she muttered something under her breath, but still did it without much protest.

"Now what?"

Instead of replying, I moved behind her back and put my hands on her eyes, feeling how tense she got.

"Don't need to be nervous, Gaia. You just need to move forward and I will make sure you won't trip on anything. You can trust me." I waited until Gaia's body relaxed and took a step forward, to signal her to move.

She complied with my wishes and began quickly moving her legs, showing her trust in me, despite her blind state.

Our walk wasn't long because our destination was Earthguardian's trunk, exactly her favorite spot, which she recognized even with her eyes covered.

"Why are we here?"

"So I can prove that I want to marry you, Gaia."

"How?"

I grinned behind her back and said while removing my hands from her eyes "Why won't you look for yourself?"

"Look at wh..." Her sentence was cut short when she saw what was in front of her.