Road to Ruisea

❆ ❆ LIX. CHIRO ❆ ❆

Chiro feels his heart shatter into a million pieces.

No ice crystal is nearly so fragile as his heart, which aches and burns and breaks when it feels that Kumari's mad at him.

And it's his own fault. He should've watched his mouth...

Because, so what if Kumari fails to accept the reality of their situation? Even if they very well freeze or starve to death, all the better for her to hang on to a last hope... But could Chiro really let her believe in what he sees as nothing more than a sweet lie?

Though, even after all that, the fact that she still has more faith in Alexei and Jae, still more faith in them coming to the rescue, more faith in Alexei being a good person, than faith in Chiro's word being true... What does that say about him?

Chiro really was stupid, after all.

''Kumari, wait, no," he reaches out a shivering hand to put on her shoulder but she roughly shoves him off.

Is she really not going to speak to me forever...?

If Cevalonians are known for anything, it's for their stubbornness.

And how Kumari is stubborn, as no matter what Chiro says or how much he pleads she gives him no response, her eyes closed and her arms crossed in confident defiance.

She almost looks like a queen, head lifted high and back perfectly arched, poised and proper and very unhappy with her servant...

Because that's what Chiro is, after all, at the end of the day... At the end of the day, he would come to perform for the princess in the tower, and just like then, just as she is now, she would be unsatisfied and disappointed in what he could do for her.

Now she was exactly where he'd always wanted to take her — in the ice and snow — and still, he was not good enough.

"I'm sorry," he whispers, tears springing to his eyes. "I'm not cut out to look after you. I never was... I act like I know you, like you're my sister, but... I don't, not really. I knew you for a year but we've never talked, and then I genuinely knew you in the past ten days, and still I get it wrong."

There's no response. Chiro didn't really expect one.

Not knowing what else to do, he sniffles, wipes his nose with his sleeve, and puts his head down on the cold hard ground, curling in on himself, trying to keep warm.

An unwilling yawn escapes from his throat.

Maybe I'll just close my eyes for a second... I can keep from falling asleep, no problem.

So he does, eyes fluttering closed, a small and sad puff leaving his lips as his body relaxes.

And when he opens his eyes again, Kumari's gone.

"Kumari?" He asks, frantic, hoisting himself up and going over to where the princess had been sitting earlier, but there's nobody there.

He falls onto his knees, feeling the ice and eventually, clawing at it as well, as if the repetitive but pointless action will bring his friend back.

Tears sting his eyes as he finds that he's not getting anywhere with what he's doing, but he refuses to stop, he has to find Kumari, he can't just be left alone here—

"Chiro?"

A girl's voice sounds, and Chiro thinks it's Kumari in his panicked haze and he hiccups in relief, but when he turns around it's... Hard to tell.

There's a little girl sitting there, a little ways away from where Chiro was still scratching his fingertips raw. And as she regards him oddly, Chiro finds that he can't really full well tell what she looks like.