Illusions and Lies (A Super Smash Brothers fan fiction)

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN: I TRUST YOU.

Marth had spent the entirety of yesterday pacing anxiously. He'd skipped a training session because he was too busy worrying, and now he had one hour- ONE HOUR! before he was supposed to meet Caeda at the park and give her his answer. 

And he still had absolutely no idea what he was going to say. 

How did he feel about her? How could he even begin to tell somebody else "I love you" after only spending a short few months with them, trying to get over Roy's betrayal and preparing to go to war?

Oh, he really wanted someone to kill him. Why was he so nervous about this? It couldn't be that hard- wait, it was, mostly because he had no idea what he was going to tell her. 

He'd seen how flustered she had been after confessing. He'd seen her eyes begging him to believe her. And Marth wanted to believe that Caeda wasn't using him or playing him like a fool. He really did. 

She seemed so sincere, and if it hadn't been for the fact that his ability to trust had basically been destroyed... Marth would believe her. But that stupid voice in his head that told him nobody could be trusted was so loud. 

It was so loud, and Marth didn't know how to turn it down. 

With an aggravated sigh, Marth flopped down on his couch and closed his eyes, pressing his hands to his temples as if it would force his thoughts to move slower. Why did this have to be so complicated? Couldn't he just exist like he had before this? 

Apparently not. 

Of course, he knew that a sudden declaration of love kind of ruined friendships. The proof of that was Corrin and Sheik, before they'd actually communicated with each other. Now they were happy together, and Marth was glad that Sheik was actually marginally happier than they had been previously. 

But Marth really didn't want his friendship with Caeda to be ruined before they even got a chance to repair it. Even if he didn't have his memories of the time they'd spent together before the Headmaster screwed everything up, he knew that he had been important to Caeda. So she must have been important to him. 

She had become the only person he felt that he might be able to trust. But he couldn't say that he trusted her completely, because Marth didn't know if he'd ever fully trust someone again. After all, he'd done that with Roy, despite knowing that the other boy lied about small stuff all the time. 

The fact that he had been wrong, and the fact that he had been so wrong and then figuratively stabbed in the back was just... 

He couldn't get over it, as stupid and as pathetic as it sounded. He knew he had to move on, or he'd get stuck in the past and then drive himself insane. 

If he wasn't already insane. The amount of times he'd laid in bed, wide awake and exhausted but unable to sleep was far too high. Recently, even before Caeda had confessed to him, the thoughts that kept him up had slowly started to turn from Roy to the blue-haired girl who seemed so familiar and yet she wasn't, and how he felt about her.

How did he feel about Caeda? 

That was a complicated question, and now his thoughts had brought him in a circle. 

First things first. Was he trying to force himself into a decision because he didn't want to disappoint her? Or was he genuinely ready to take a step past being friends with her and closer to relationship territory? 

More questions he didn't quite know the answers to. He'd honestly be lucky to get out of this without going completely insane from pressure. 

Caeda was kind to him, but she didn't treat him like glass that was so fragile it could break at any moment. Lucina and the others did, which irritated Marth. Sure, he knew he had a bit of a temper nowadays, but he just wanted his friends to treat him like a person. Was that too much to ask? It went without saying that he appreciated Caeda treating him like a person. He actually preferred spending time with her over his sister or his other friends because of this.