Demon's Protégé

Assumption

I hesitated for a second. “Are y-you sure?”

“Let’s do it.”

I gulped and felt a little bit nervous all of a sudden but I still said, “Okay.”

And before I knew it, we were doing it again. I was climbing the tall steel gates with her and we managed to wobbly get across the whole ordeal. After we finally got ourselves inside the property, Nari paused and turned around with her back on me. I observed her for a second, absolutely confused as to why she was even being like this now. And like a jolt, she turned around again and sprint towards my direction making me reflexively extend my arms towards her as she deliberately jumped into my arms and wrapped me into a tight hug.

All of these unusual actions had me feeling all sorts of things but I was not complaining. And before I knew it, Nari’s face was slowly leaning towards me. Her eyes softened and her face was completely flushed and like a magnet, I was being pulled down to her and my lips trembled as I started to anticipate what was coming next.

Her breath fanned against my jaw and I waited for any moment she might step back but when she didn’t try, I took the initiative to lean down. My eyes instinctively closed as I met the first warmth of her lips. We just let it stay like that, our lips locked together and I inhaled a great deal of air as if I had been deprived of breathing for hours. Her scent instantly invaded all of my senses and the next thing I knew, I was being pulled towards her with my tongue clashing against hers.

It was a wild, frenzy, sensation and I could no longer feel anything else but her touch, her taste, and the sound her breath hitching as she pulled away for a second to gasp, only to dive back to our kiss again and savor more of it.

It must have been a long while before we finally pulled apart and I was panting as I tried to catch my breath. I was still in a daze, my eyes could not even focus themselves on Nari. I tried to remember where I was and only then did I realize that it was already evening and the sky was getting darker as the seconds went on.

“Wow.”

Her simple word had my chest tightening as I felt the blood rushing up to my cheeks and I chuckled shyly. For some reason, I felt like some teenager who had been caught fooling around with his girlfriend. Only Nari could actually make me feel like this, as if being intimate with somebody was actually a whole fresh experience. And as I stare down to her magnificent image before me, I could not help but smile and feel warm. I wanted to take a moment to appreciate her presence and how adorable she looked when she tried to avoid my gaze with an embarrassed expression. I want to protect her… I want her to smile and be free from everything that’s stopping her to be happy.

If I can wish for anything in this world to come true…

I would only wish for Nari’s happiness.

“You still love me, right?”

Her question was so out of the blue that I actually stopped for a second to make sure I heard her right. When she spared me another wary glance, I immediately cleared my throat and felt myself blushing so hard.

“Why are you asking this now?”

“Why did you leave me?”

Her question was inevitable and I already expected her to ask this. I even planned the words I was going to say to her but for some reason, the things I wanted to speak out got blocked by a huge lump in my throat and the only sound I had managed to make was a croaking squawk.

“Are you okay?”

“Caw! Caw!”

The foreign sound coming from a near distance stole Nari’s attention as she turned to look towards the direction of the noise. For a second, she frowned and squinted across the garden behind us and as she started to walk away, I found myself following her in silence.

“It’s a crow.” I heard her say after a while just as she stopped near a tree and stared at something moving behind it. I moved beside her and looked closely to the moving thing. As I finally recognized the look of its beak and the way its head kept turning around, I briefly let out a chuckle and smiled.

“What?” Nari asked after I let out a soft chortle. I turned to her and grinned down to her anxious frown.

“It’s a raven.”

“Really?” she commented back, raising a brow at me.

“It is, believe me,” I retorted back, still smiling as I returned my eyes to the bird as it started to gallop away and quickly its head turned up and it opened its wings before flying away up to the sky above. “I’m sure of it, because it’s my favorite bird species.”

“Really?”

“Do you know what it symbolizes?”

“A bad omen?”

I laughed at her remark but it was actually what one would assume at first thought. But it wasn’t.

“No, in fact, ravens are actually a good thing.” I reclaimed as I stood straight and turned to face Nari beside me. “In the Japanese culture, it actually represents the sun. And the reason why it’s my favorite is because my name means ‘sun’. It’s kind of attached to me and I find them very complex and enigmatic. Don’t you think?”

“Your name means the ‘sun’?” She asked and this time I did not hesitate to pull her closer to my chest. My arm instantly moved around her back, hugging her tighter until there was no more space between our bodies.

“Yes. And I wanted to say sorry, Nari.” I boldly remarked, quickly changing the entire subject. I did not even wait for her to say anything else as I continued to speak with my eyes only intently gazing to hers. “I want to be honest to you… Things happened back at home and I had to go back.”

“Are you okay?” her frown pierced into me as I felt comforted by the worried sound of her voice. “What happened, Taiyo?”

“My father…” I said, sounding pained all of a sudden as I got reminded by the loss it had left me and my family, “He passed away that night.”

The shock came very apparent on her face as Nari slowly raised her hand to gently caress my cheek. I closed my eyes and basked to the warmth of her touch as I forced not to cry despite the painful tug I was beginning to feel at the pit of my stomach.

“I’m sorry…”

“It’s okay,” I whispered back, kissing the palm of her hand that had brushed against my mouth as she continued to rubbed my cheeks with her fingers. “I just want to let you know I’m not going to abandon you, Nari. Do you trust me?”

She did not even take that long to answer my question as I was immediately answered by a deep kiss with her taste lingering as she stepped back and nodded to my eyes.

“I trust you, Taiyo.” She told me afterwards, and like a ray of sunshine… My heart welled up and I was immediately showered with relief and hope as she stared up to me with those vivid green eyes.

“Then I want you to wait for some more time,” I intoned as I held her gaze. “I’m going back to the city and it might take a little while before I come back again, Nari. So I want you to believe in me… I’m going to take you and your family away from here. I promise. I will do everything I can to protect you. And because of you, I will face all of my responsibilities.”

“I trust you.” She just repeated back and as if I still needed more reassurance, I leaned down for another kiss. And it was real. She was finally returning my feelings… Now, it was all the more reason I have to fight with everything I got. The enemy could be quite vicious, but I had to stand my ground and set everything right.

I have to protect what I love… And for the first time in my life, I was able to find something I didn’t want to lose in the world.