Horizons

Epiphany

The next time you opened your eyes, you at once realised that you were lying in a bed, packed under a pile of blankets. That also explained why your whole body was sticky with sweat.

That, however, did not explain why you were stark naked.

Neither did that explain why Dante was lying next to you, though under his own blanket. You could only see his bare shoulders and you panicked, wondering whether he was naked, too. Whether you were sharing a blanket or not, sharing the same bed, even when not naked, was just too much for you.

Apparently, your stirring about had woken Dante up and he rolled over onto his side, closer to you. His blanket fell from his shoulders, down his arms, and rested in the small curve of his hip, giving you full access to his toned chest, though you weren't quite in the position to take pleasure in the sight of it.

"What's wrong?" the devil hunter asked, eyes still half closed in a groggy attempt to wake himself.

"W-what's wrong?! You- We- You do realise we're lying naked in bed together, right?" you shot right back at him, not giving him the chance to come back to the living in a peaceful manner.

Dante blinked a few times before he ran a hand through his hair. "Yes, I know that you're naked. I was the one to undress you, after all. You know, because you were wet and shivering and that's the first thing one does most of the time in such a situation."

You mentally cursed when he didn't elaborate on the part of whether or not he was naked, too. Still, you did try to calm yourself down a little by telling yourself that the guy hadn't been meaning to take advantage of you. He had wanted to save you.

"I never thought you'd be so uncomfortable about it. Last time you seemed to flaunt your assets freely."

Okay, so maybe he had been trying to take advantage of you. A little. But remember, he had also wanted to save you.

"And anyway, I remember you were quite passionate about kissing me yesterday when I was pulling you out of the water."

The bastard quirked an eyebrow to add to his challenge, the corner of his mouth turning upwards into a tiny smirk, which made you frown back at him.

"There's a huge difference between wanting to kiss someone and wanting to share a bed with them," you retorted while you struggled to enlarge the distance between the two of you. No matter how much you hated the situation, you weren't quite willing to trade this warm nest of yours for the cold outside world. And destroy any decency you had left by displaying yourself in all your nakedness before the man, while conscious.

The smirk on Dante's face only grew at your words. "Are you telling me that that kiss was an 'I want to kiss you' kiss, and not a passionate 'I'm not dead' kiss? Because I can totally understand the latter, if that's what you meant."

Despite the smile on the man's face, you managed to see the sadness hidden behind it. You wondered whether that sadness had always been there without you noticing it, or whether this matter was so important to him.

Whatever the case, you knew that his question was a test, your last chance to get out of this while you still could. He wasn't stupid, and you saying you wanted to kiss him was enough to insinuate the truth. But exactly because he wasn't stupid, he knew how difficult it was for you to admit it, and that you might regret it.

You didn't answer immediately, merely stared at the ceiling with unseeing eyes, running your mind over the options presented to you. You could take the escape and try fleeing from the reality of your feelings once more, or you could make good on your promise to yourself and just say 'fuck it all' for once.