Orchid romance

20

I sighed as I watched the fight in front of me. It was the master of Shadow fight the master of poison. It wasn't much of a fight. The shadow man just was toying with her. It was boring and hard to watch. He's just doing it for fun, just end the fight already. 

But he, finally decided to end the fight. "About time." I glared at Shade as he smirked and raise the blade. He was creepy. Not in the 'he's definitely evil' but in the 'never be caught alone with him' way. "That was just cruel." Kai looked down at him as disgusted as I feel. 

"No kidding." Jay sighed out as we all started to head back to the main palace. As we did, Lloyd grabbed my hand and maybe me wait as everyone else felt. Only starting to walk after a couple seconds so we were far enough away that we were out of ear shot.

"Are you okay? Don't you dare tell me you're fine. Or don't worry about it." He knows me to well. "Greenie, I'm okay." It's not what he told me not to say. 

"And the sky is pink." He rolled his eyes as the main palace came back into view. "I don't know what you want me to say. I'm tired, had a hell of an adrenaline rush today, and a roller coaster of emotion." I sighed and I walked closer to him. I can feel warmth radiating off him from where I was standing.

He gives me a gentle smile and squeezed my hand in comfort. "I wanted you to be honest with me and you were. Can I ask something?" His smile morphed into an expression of confusion.

"Of course." I wonder what he's thinking. "Why did you tell me to stop pretending before my fight?" Oh that. I was hoping he would forget that. I sighed and looked up before answering. "I got tricked by Chamillie. She pretended to be you and got into my head."

Lloyd's grip on my hand tightened before loosening again. "What did she say?" I don't really want to tell him because it was really just a play on my insecurities. "Does it matter?"

"Yes." His response came out as soon as I finished my sentence. I looked back at him and only saw concern with a bit of anger. "You- well she said that I was a burden since the day you met me so I should lose my next fight and that you hated being around me. That it was hell pretending to like me."

He stared at me in shock and stopped walking. Making me stop in the process. "See it's stupid. It doesn't matter-." 

"Yes it does!" He took both of my hands it his. A wave of warmth washed over me as he did. "It's not stupid. You have never once been a burden to me, okay. Never. Remember when we were in the mountains or Hiroshi's labyrinth?" I gave a small nod, not being able to look at him. I feel guilty for letting this get to me. It shouldn't have.

He brought a hand to my cheek and guided my head to look up at him. "You were the reason I was able to actually function. You were there the whole time making the situation better. You put your self in danger just so I could make it out. How could I ever hate you? How could I ever think you were a burden? You brought a place all of us could find some form of comfort during something that I'm pretty sure we would have cracked under the pressure in. Just because you couldn't fight as well as us at the time does not mean you didn't bring something to the table."

Why was he saying this? I was a burden. "In the end, I made the fight between Cole and Jay worse. Because of my inability to fight, you got captured. I wasn't able to hold the overlord still for long enough so no one would get hurt. I-" His eyebrows furrowed and gently whipped away the tears I didn't even know were falling. I froze. Why was he being kind? Sure he's my friend but I shouldn't be putting this on him.

"Why do you blame yourself for our actions? I choose to get captured because I was worried for you and my father. Even if you were able to fight everyone off, I probably would have still chosen that." His voice came out gentle. "As for Cole and Jay, they were being idiots. But they made up."