𝙶𝚘𝚛𝚖𝚒𝚝𝚒 - 𝙾𝚗𝚎-𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚝 𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔

𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘺𝘰𝘶 (𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵 2)

For the next couple of days, things didn't get better, at least for Ao-ki. They kept fighting against the Eclypsors and trying to find the remaining fragments of the heart of the titan, as they should. However, during this time Ao-ki fiercely avoided Riff at all costs, taking every change possible to do so. She knew he didn't know about the mark he probably already had on his own palm since his glove was fixed and the boys wear them all the time. Besides, when it was night time, she knew he was way too tired to even notice such things.

What he did notice though was this weird attitude towards him. It left him confused, as he wondered what he could possibly have done to anger her. But most of all it also hurt. Like hell. He didn't know why but everytime she practically ran away from him when he just wanted to talk to her pained him so badly. Did he do something wrong?

The others noticed this as well, just as confused about her behaviour as Riff. If something they did bothered her, she would always come to them and explain the situation, giving them advice on how they could do better. She always did it in a polite and friendly way, making them understand her immediately. But now she was just avoiding Riff at all costs and refusing to explain the reason why, leaving him obviously hurt. They had to do something about this.

Ikor decided to be the one to take initiative, completely done with this ridiculous situation. Once he finally got the chance he decided to go meet Ao-ki in her room, determined to solve this.

- Come in! - he heard her say from the other side of the door, after he briefly knocked on it. He entered immediately, finding her sitting on her bed and holding a giant book in her hands - H-Hello Ikor! Do you need anything?

- Yes, I need to talk to you. Urgently - he said quickly, coming up to her just as fast as he entered the room. She was caught off guard but managed to keep her composure, closing her left hand into a fist.

- Oh I see. What's going on? You seem very bothered by something-

- Believe me, you know exacly what's going on, Ao-ki.

- Umm, not really. I really don't know what you're talking about... - Ao-ki said, starting to feel really insecure. She's not entirely sure if he found out since she actually covered her hand with some bandages on the day she found out about the mark, giving the excuse that she ended up injuring herself as well. She was still wearing it and they seemed to believe it so how did he find out?!

He sighed hastily, already expecting her to pretend like everything was okay and that she wasn't acting weird at all.

- Come on Ao-ki, something is going on and we already noticed it! All of us. You have been acting in a really weird way towards Riff, ignoring him left and right and still pretending that it's completly normal! - he said angrily, making her look at him in pure shock - I don't know what's going on or what he did but I think he deserves to know what he did wrong for you to act like this. In case you didn't noticed, you're hurting him Ao-ki.

Hurting him? Her ignoring him pained Riff this badly? Oh lord, she didn't want him to feel like that at all!

- It was never my intention to hurt him, okay?! I'm just doing this so I won't hurt him in the first place! - she snapped suddently, feeling overwhelmed with guilt - This...isn't just a simple problem Ikor. This isn't even a problem caused by him, something I can just normally talk about and help him fix! It's...much deeper than that...

Once she reluctantly removed the fake bandages, extended her arm and opened her palm, showing the fire symbol on it, Ikor finally understood it all. She still explained the entire situation properly though, from the initial feelings, right until the moment she found out.