The GATE Academy [Please read description]

Chapter 20: Encounters

Keita, Riku, and I returned to school later that Sunday, having spent some time sightseeing around Australia because it was our first time there, took a tour through a safari, fun stuff. When we returned Sunday night, I had walked Keita and Riku back to their dorm and made my way back to my dorm.

It was 11:07 pm and most would be asleep by now, GATE didn't have a curfew, but they expected people to be asleep or in their dorms around 10:30 and after that, campus security is slightly tightened. This being said, my door was slightly cracked opened and I could see some light coming out of my room through the small opening.

I lit my left arm and hand with a deep red flame and held the door knob with my right. I swung open the door an-

"Shizuo! You're back! I'm so glad you're sa-!!"

Faith ran up to me to give me a hug from my left side, but the fire from my hand caught onto her white blouse...

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Faith sat on the spare bed with her head hanging, as did I on my own bed. I gave her a white t-shirt to make up for her burnt blouse and apologized for doing so.

"I..." Faith was on the verge of exploding with anger right now and I could feel it. Hopefully she was strong enough to overcome it.

I got up from my bed and sat besides her on the other, wrapping my right arm around her waist and, trying to make it as least awkward as possible, tried to apologize affectionately by leaning my head onto her shoulder.

"I'm so sorry Faith... Please forgive me..."

Whatever I did seemed to work because she turned to me and hugged me around the neck, holding her face down against my chest. Such a weird position, I've never done something like this before.

"It's ok," she said through my shirt. I didn't necessarily hear her, but the vibrations from her voice resonated in my chest and its rhythm and tone indicated acceptance.

I didn't know what to do and did all that I could to not swallow in my nervousness, luckily Faith was the one to move first. She pulled back from me and wiped off my shirt where her head was at.

"How was the trip?" She asked, seeming to have overcome her burnt blouse.

I eased up and leaned back on my arms, "It went well, ended up getting paid more because the request was harder than it was posted as, so that was good," I said, feeling the tension breaking as I smiled at Faith, who smiled back.

After finishing wiping my chest off, Faith lightly slapped it in a joking manner, "Professor Cloud had made a fuss about it while you were gone, he said he had been following those brothers' movements and figured that that request was actually something else."

"Yeah, it definitely was, but we pulled through it, Keita went ape-s*** crazy and killed the brothers. I don't know how I feel about that, though..." I said, looking off to the side now.

"So Keita IS a demon then, right?" She asked.

I "Mhm"-ed and looked back at her, "So tell me, why are you in my room right now, at this time of all times?"

Faith smiled at me, "I just wanted to make sure you were ok, after hearing about the unexpected difficulty of the request, I just wanted to be the first one to make sure you weren't hurt."

I was touched, nobody really cared about me like this before. Riku, yes, Keita, no, but I guess I never really people get this close to me to hear them out.

"Thank you Faith, but it's getting late and you should get back to your dorm," I said as I stood up, glad to see Faith rise with me.

"I agree, walk me to my dorm?" She said, winking at me. She winked at me.