“I have no idea what to do or what to say, Heart...!” Emilia groaned to Heart as they both got comfortable in the couch. It had been some time after saving Luluwa and for the first in a while, they didn’t have a mission.

  Heart had been living with Able and the boys, getting used to the new environment.

  “You know from you came here, you’ve been gushing about your little date,” Heart rolled her eyes and looked at her friend endearingly.

  “It’s not a date! Why would I wanna date that idiot!” Emilia instinctively shot it down, being caught up in her own flustered embarrassment. She calmed down, “He doesn’t think it’s a date…”

  “When are you going to man up and face your feelings,” Heart sighed and turned off the TV so she wouldn’t be distracted. “Me and Able are dating now.”

  “What? Already!? Before me!?” Emilia was losing her mind, she was still honestly happy for her best friend.

  “Yup. He was honest with his feelings and I was honest with mine, things went smoothly,” Heart summed it up well for her. “I heard that you kissed him too. You’re just confusing the boy by not being honest with your feelings.”

  “You’re scaring him away.”

  “Do you think I want to!?” Emilia is used to being rude and unapproachable, a reality of romance was too overwhelming to her.

  “So you’re admitting that you like him?” Heart smirked, reaching a point she wanted.

  “Yes I do! In fact, I am down right obsessed with him!” Emilia caved in, reaching the climax of embarrassment, being able to speak freely. “Are you happy now!?”

  “Sure, you can say so. You’d be happier if said that to him,” Heart was happy to see her best friend be so honest, it was due time.

  “To his face? I would rather die…” Emilia groaned, she had to meet him soon.

  “You better do it fast, before Lauri sinks her teeth into him,” Heart warned her. “I heard what happened at the Red Panda District, that girl is a seductress.”

  “I won’t lose Kayne to something like lust,” Emilia became genuine in that moment, having complete trust in Kayne’s character. “He is better than that.”

  “Then go get him, tiger,” Heart cheered her on. The house was quiet since Able was out with Peaches and the boys, Logan and Eden, tagged along on.

  “I told him I am coming over to check on him, and just that,” Emilia looked at her phone, he hasn’t been online since he told her okay. “And just that, how would he get any idea that I like him from that.”

  “Then do more than that when you do go over, make him aware.” Heart gave her the best advice she could. “But just make sure that he likes you just the same.”

  “I… I will.” Emilia felt a strengthened will because of her best friend. “I love you so much, Heart! You’re the best!”

  Emilia checked her phone and saw that it was almost time, “I should get going now.”

  “I love you too, Lia. You sure you don’t want anyone to drop you off?” Heart wanted to be sure that Emilia was okay. “I could ask someone, maybe Bryant to drive you there?”

  “No I am fine, I’ll take the bus,” Emilia waved Heart goodbye.

  “Just remember be careful, Kayne still identifies with the Confederation,” Heart still wanted Emilia to be rational, since their lives were at stake. Emilia nodded and beamed down the stairs.

  On her way to the elevator she saw Able, Peaches and the boys.

  “Where you going?” Able asked her, since she was in such a rush. He thought she was in trouble.

  “None of your business!” Emilia yelled back at him and hoped in the elevator.

  She hustled to the bus stop and got one immediately, standing up and holding on. She popped in her wired earphones discretely, since woke music was illegal in the Confederation. Playing SALES – Chinese New Year, she prepared to see the man of her dreams.

  Hoping out before his mansion, she recalled that he said to let herself in. Emilia rolled her eyes, it must be convenient living in the suburbs. Leaving the entrance unlocked was unbelievable to her.

  She let herself in and immediately got mesmerized by her surroundings. He even had a pool and a Jacuzzi. Emilia thought he would be in one of the large bedrooms but didn’t find him in any. She followed his pheromones and came to secluded and small area compared to the bedrooms, having a soft mattress on the ground and many colored pillows.

  Sprawled out on the mattress was the giant himself, hugging multiple pillows. His tears stained his bed, signaling that he cried himself to sleep. Such a giant man was vulnerable at a moment like this.

  Emilia wondered how to approach him. Should she be lovey-dovey and gentle so he could get a clue? No, Heart said he should genuinely like her. So she decided to be herself but, more open with her feelings.

  With a large leap, she crashed into Kayne’s back, “You invite me over and you’re not awake!? Idiot!?’

  Kayne rushed up and gasped for air. He’s a trained detective so he is constantly sensing for hostility, Emilia had none directed at him so he wasn’t aware of her. Emilia laid down beside him on the bed and he explained himself, “I am sorry I meant to wait for you but… I got so overwhelmed. I didn’t mean anything.”

  “Overwhelmed by?” Emilia asked him, laying down and dragging him down beside her. They made eye contact.

  Kayne was shocked that she cared and hesitated to explain himself, “I just was thinking about Giseuppe and Carla, that’s all.”

  “They wouldn’t want you to be crying, idiot. Carla is doing fine now, her pregnancy is still healthy,” Emilia made sure to ask Able of her condition just in case Kayne asked. “Giseuppe wouldn’t want you to be crying either, toughen up.”

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  “I know but… It’s just so…” Kayne was about to break down thinking of the man again.

  Emilia rested her hand on him and it somehow helped calm him down, “Alright it’s fine, cry some more. When you’re done just remember we need you.”

  “You’re right,” Kayne showcased a pure smile for her that made her heart race.

  “So you’ve been moping around in bed all day? I can bet you didn’t eat at all,” Emilia teased him, continuing to peer into each other’s eyes as they spoke.

  “I did eat, don’t worry,” Kayne assured her. Recently she has been expressing so much care for him, he found it strange. “Have you eaten?”

  “Are you calling me skinny?” Emilia’s eyes twitched as she asked him that.

  “No I mean, it’s just the right thing to do when you have guest over. Do you want me to cook for you?” Kayne defended himself meekly, he found the eye contact a bit distracting. Her eyes were deep purple.

  “I already ate before I came here, I doubt you could cook anything great in your mood right now,” Emilia teased him, he smiled bittersweetly. She continued to talk, “And don’t call me guest, that’s too formal.”

  “Then what should I call you?” Kayne innocently asked her, with no hidden meaning behind it. He was being genuine, what should he really view her as. They live on two different worlds.

  “You just want me to pounce at you, huh?” Emilia immediately uttered, he was far too adorable for her.

  “I didn’t hear you-!” Kayne was about to say but, she pinched his nose.

  “I didn’t say anything, idiot.” Emilia smirked, she was prepared to face her feelings but not yet. She wanted to talk with him more.

  “Did you plan on mopping all day?’ Emilia asked him, changing the topic quickly.

  “No... But I didn’t have anything planned,” Kayne thought about it well. The Confederation didn’t call him in that day. “Except to see you.”

  “What kind of music do you listen to?” Emilia quickly stopped him from innocently talking further or she’d actually pounce on him.

  “Music is only a privilege to us monsters right now but...” Kayne pondered on it well. “I like rap, Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, Future, Ken Caron, Drake, Lil Uzi and more. Rap speaks to me with rhythm and flow.”

  “I didn’t expect that from your shy little ass? I thought you’d be into some more feminine,” Emilia chuckled in his face. Kayne became flustered. “Like some Conan Gray or Alec Benjamin.”

  “I get that a lot… What are you into?” Kayne asked her. He wanted to learn more as she asked about him. They continued to lay in his bed and talk.

  “I like indie pop. SALES, Hotel Ugly, Tame Impala, Tyler the Creator, Good Kid. Indie pop just sets the mood for me,” Emilia explained herself. If she loved one thing, it was music. She was proud of her taste.

  “I-…” Kayne didn’t want to say his thoughts, he thought it was too rude.

  “Let me guess, that’s unexpected? I bet you thought I am into some death metal like Metallica,” Emilia teased. She read him perfectly, his face lit up when she said his thoughts verbatim. “Well guess what, stupid.”

  “There’s a lot more about me for you to learn,” Emilia smiled with him. She was enjoying a moment like this.

  “Emilia… I am confused,” Kayne was also enjoying it until reality set down within him.

  “What you thinking about?” Emilia asked him.

  “Don’t you find me disgusting?” Kayne asked her, and it made her heart skip a beat.

  He also thought she found him disgusting. And she agreed with him, all his life he didn’t see himself for anything but disgusting. How could she lay beside him and speak so freely, or even kiss him back at theatres.

  It was so confusing to him.

  He looked at her with a painful expression, “How could you stand being next to me?”

  ~//~

  “I can’t fucking take anymore, Jason!?” The man screamed as he held onto Kayne’s hand firmly. Kayne was only 7 years old at the time. “I fucking hate seeing his face, he’s disgusting!”

  They before a large white city, surrounding by large walls and having a barrier that kept being attacked by harpies. Jason Mauter, stood outside the city with his men behind him. Kayne’s adoptive mother and father dragged out of the walls and brought him there.

  “He smells like them, acts like them, looks like them! He’s abhorrent!” His adoptive mother yelled, tossing the Kayne to Jason. “You need to talk him from us, Jason! Every moment with him is a curse.”

  “Who do you think you are? I said you two need to raise him.” Jason glared at them, showing his grotesque tongue to them. Black leathery with orange, fish-like eyes. Upon showing it, Kayne’s adoptive parents’ necks began to swell. “Or else I should cut our contract short?”

  “No! No! No!” His adoptive parents pleaded. Begging for their lives, his adoptive father spoke, “We’ll continue to raise him. He’s just…”

  “So disgusting to look at.”

  Kayne looked at Jason and trembled. All the times before that he met this man, he experienced fear and agony like no other. And seeing this man now again brought back trauma, he expected terror.

  “Don’t look at me like that,” Jason muttered and commanded one of his men to strike the boy, he was sent tumbling through the ground. Landing near the waters that surrounded the white city, “You really are disgusting!”

  Kayne’s vision was going blurry and he was finding it difficult to move his body. Before him was a large reptile creature was killingone of its young that emitted flames, due to it being so different from its aquatic siblings.

  An unrelenting rage built up in Kayne’s heart. A dark purple energy erupted from him and manipulated reality by its existence, tearing against all laws of the universe. It was a destroyer that erupted from his vessel and rushed to the reptile.

  Kayne screamed, “You leave him alone!”

  ~//~

  “I appreciate everything you’ve done so far but… If you find me disgusting,” Kayne rolled away from her to hide his face, “Then don’t force yourself to live with the curse… I will fine eventually.”

  “Oh my god, this is all my fault,” Emilia muttered into his back. “I need to stop being like that stupid bitch Brita. Even she could find love…”

  Emilia climbed over Kayne and ignored her growing flustered feeling. “Do you remember the first time we met?”

  “No?” Kayne responded genuinely, wondering how that was relevant to what he said.

  “It was in middle school. I got everything that I wanted because I was pretty, even the teachers weren’t hard to budge. I found it so fucking shallow and disgusting,” Emilia recalled, even now it was like that. Just because she was attractive, she was treated differently. “But you, it’s like you didn’t care.”

  “The first time we ever spoke, I tried to make you do my homework cause I didn’t understand it and didn’t want to,” Emilia recalled the memory so vividly. “Do you remember what you said?”

  “No?” Kayne responded so again. Emilia being over him made him nervous.

  “You said no, and instead you would teach me how to do it. I told you to fuck off,” Emilia recalled how defeated she felt. “I hated it, then I liked it, then I started to see more of your qualities and realized I… liked you.”

  “What?” Kayne wasn’t believing the words he was hearing.

  “You’re kind, you’re considerate, you are helpful, patient, and observant, you listen, you don’t expect anything. And you’re so fucking adorable!” Emilia gushed on and on about the qualities she loved about him. Holding his arms down and kissing him. The warmth of her lips was so perfect that he couldn’t fight back her restraint, “I became obsessed with your oblivious, idiotic self! Stupid!”

  “I can’t get enough you!” There she became more honest as she became more embarrassed. Breaking out of her self-control, she plagued him with kisses. Kisses him rapidly with cutesy noises, all over his face until Kayne couldn’t help but chuckle. The affection she was feeding him was far too genuine. “I want you to want me! As I want you.”

  “I want you to understand me! I want to understand you!” Emilia released his arms and kept up her barrage of kisses. Kayne then embraced her, the feelings he was getting cause of her was something brand new.

  “I want you to comfort in me and only me! If you’re not my rock I will lose my mind, so lose yours if I am not there either!” Emilia pinched his cheeks and stared into his eyes with a feeling of satisfaction and euphoria, she wanted to do this for a long time.

  Kayne sat up and Emilia sat in his lap facing him, her arms around his neck and his arms around her waist. They passionately kissed each other and Kayne couldn’t stop smiling, he spoke, “I can’t believe this….”

  “Do you understand me, you fucking idiot?” Emilia squeezed his face. Holding his face and stopping herself from hitting him with another barrage of kisses until she got a proper response.

  “Yes I understand,” Kayne nodded his head and responded. They both starting stripping each other, as if it were natural. They found love in their honesty and needed to fulfill it. “I will be your rock.”

  “And you will be mine.”