Unplanned Return [Hiatus]

3rd

Éclair had been in the southern forests before, granted she had been with others and had not gone nearly as deep as she was now. The forest during the day had always seemed normal, now that it was night however it seemed completely different. Nothing seemed familiar, she could hear odd noises almost every foot she ran, and she felt like she was being watched. The deeper into the forest she ran, the taller the trees began getting, and the darker it got until she could barely see more than a few meters ahead of herself. The forest was becoming eerily more quiet as she got deeper as well and she could feel a sense of unease, probably related to a lack of protection from the land.
Groooooaaaaaaaaa!
Éclair stopped running and listened hard, hoping it was not what she thought it was, until she heard it again.
Gggrrrooooaaaaaaaaaaa!
Her blood curdled. A demon. A demon was in the forest. She needed to either kill it or run. Figuring that finding Shinku was more important, she nodded to herself as she began running again, until she head the sound of metal slamming into wood. Running toward the sound she could feel the demonic aura intensifying as she got closer until she finally came to a large clearing by a waterfall. Below the waterfall were two things, a small demon shaped like some kind of large monstrous bear, and Shinku who had his demon combat bright power arm and blade out and ready.
The demon lurched forward like a battering ram, attempting to topple Shinku with its sheer weight. Having seen this before, Shinku jumped high over the demon and swung his demon slaying skill down on the creature's back, smashing the bright power blade as it contacted the demon. He landed as the demon turned around and charged him again, and again he jumped over it, summoned up his demon slaying skill, and slammed it into the demon to no avail.
Éclair swore to herself under her breath as she watched. It was just like she had been during Union Fest. Her mind and emotions had been clouded and it made her weak and unable to use her bright power, and Shinku now had the same problem. Only he was up against a demon, not another person.
Realizing the situation, Éclair looked up again to realize that Shinku had been smacked by the demons tail and had nowhere to run! She quickly rushed out, summoning her own bright power, and sliced through the demon, causing its body to dissipate as it was thrown over the waterfall's pool.
Looking back, Shinku was on his back with his legs and arms clutched together to protect himself, tears streamed down his face and he did not look in good shape. With a quick poke of her boot, Shinku lowered his arms to see what happened, and then proceeded to scramble to his feet and run away, at least he tried to. Before he could Éclair threw her leg in the way, causing him to stumble and trip, falling on to the ground. Before he could get back up, Éclair grabbed him and flipped him over staring right at him.
"What do you think you are doing, Hero? Everyone is worried sick over you!" Éclair screamed.
"I, I just-"
"If something is wrong, we can help you know! All you have to do is ask!"
"I can't, I just can't, it's not so simple!" Shinku replied as his eyes filled with fresh tears.
Éclair was screaming even more in her head. He was being just as pig headed as she had been to Rico during Union Fest, but she wasn't going to allow it, she had to help him. "And what is that huh, tell me what's wrong!"
"I can't, it's just that-"
"You what, you failed!?"
"How-?"
"Valerie told me that you lost in a tournament on Earth. Why is something like that getting to you like this huh?"
"...fine" Shinku said as he pushed Éclair off of him and knelt on the grass across from where Éclair knelt. Shinku took a few deep breaths and wiped his eyes, then looking to the ground beside him. "I lost; I lost the Iron athletics tournament."
"That would not make you like this though. why are you so depressed that you would run away from your friends?"
"Because I'm useless. I lost, but I didn't, and I did not do a thing about it!"
"You're not useless, and what do you mean you lost but didn't?"
"I got first place, even Nanami thinks so. I bested Nanami and won the Tournament, but I lost."
"What do you mean?"
"It was rigged. After the declaration of the victor, when I was leaving the changing room, I saw a man talking with the Tournament organizer. hHe was thanking him for rigging it to make his own son win. I won, but lost because someone rigged the tournament!" Shinku screamed as tars began welling up in his eyes again.
"So they cheated."
"Yes, I lost because someone cheated and got away with it and no one believed me. Neither of my parents believed me, they said I was just being a poor loser. Even Nanami said that I should just give up and forget about it! I'm a useless acrobat who can't even make the truth be seen and a terrible hero because of it. It would just be better if I never appeared again and died in this forest. I'm so pitiful!"
Éclair listened to Shinku beat himself up and couldn't stand it. He didn't lose. He was hit by a cheater and was now beating himself over it and adding even more onto the wound. Éclair looked at her own feelings and knew what they meant; she wasn't feeling bad for him because he was a friend, at least not entirely. She was feeling bad for another more complicated reason. "Hero,...no Shinku!"
Shinku was shocked out of his self-pity beating by hearing his name called so suddenly by Eclair, who had always just called him Hero. She leaned forward and put both her hands on his shoulders and looked right into his eyes. Before he could speak or even register what was going to happen she pulled him forward and latched her lips onto his, forcing on him a deep kiss before letting their lips part as she then looked him back in the eyes. " W-what was that for?" Shinku asked in a panic.
"Because, you're not useless, Shinku. You are a great person and a great hero that cares for his friends. And because I love you!"
"Um, okay but-.."
"You're too dense, Shinku!
"W, what!?"
"You're too dense on stupid things. Every time someone here said they loved you they did not mean as friends Shinku, and neither do I! You're a great person, a great hero and a great man and I love you, romantically!" Éclair screamed as her face was turning bright red in embarrassment at what she was saying to him so loudly.
"...But, that- I, you, I -, I can't, I, I need to beat, - Nanami before-"
"Before what. Before you even think about things like that? You said it yourself, did you not? Nanami agreed that you beat her in the tournament. You've beaten her and you know you won. Even if it was not given to you officially you know you won that tournament, that should be enough for you!"
"But I-"
"You what, still lost. You know you won. Nanami knows you won. I know you won. And your parents probably do as well and that should be all you need. Don't beat yourself up over something that you can't do anything about and don't say you're a terrible hero and never want to see us again, that would make all of us sad, even me."
"But I-"Shinku began before Éclair pulled him into another deep kiss that both of them fell into.
Éclair pulled away and looked Shinku in the eyes. "Okay?"
Shinku was unable to look away from Éclair as he nodded, a blush filling his face as much as Éclairs did.
Éclair now finally looked to her side away from Shinku. "Good! Um, sorry about that."
"I-it's okay. So when everyone was saying they loved me..."
"They meant romantically, yes."
"And you-..."
"Well, that is. It's not like I don't have feelings for you or anything," Éclair said in a panic returning to her normal behaviour.
"I see."
"Yeah, so um, you know. Actually we should head back. Unless you-"
"What?"
"Er, never mind. It's just that I was wondering. If, you-,"Éclair began whispering so quietly that Shinku could not hear her.
"If I what?"
"Well, I, I'm wondering if the, kiss wasn't to, um, bad, or, never mind" Éclair said as she stood up and turned away from Shinku. "We should get going!"
Standing up and walking behind Éclair, Shinku grabbed her hand and spun her around, planting a kiss on her lips like she had twice previously. Pulling away from the kiss, both of them were breathing faster as Shinku looked her in the eyes this time and said what he needed to. "Nothing was wrong with it Éclair. It was great and very good, and so are you."
Éclair tuned beet red and pushed away from him, turning around and yelling as she walked. "Stupid Shinku... we, we should get going, Shi,.. Hero. Let's go already so you can apologize to everyone.
"All right. Was it good though?" Shinku asked as he ran up and caught up with Éclair.
'Was what good?"
"My kiss to you?" Shinku smiled with unusual happiness.
Éclair's face turned red once again as she turned away from him "S, stupid Hero."
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Quite a few years later.
"Here Eclair, I want you to have this." Shinku said as he handed Éclair a black case.
Opening the case Éclair took out a beautiful silver ring with a small emerald and ruby upon the top. The gems twisted around each other almost like a yin-yang symbol. "A ring. So an item of promise then? I thought you had decided that you were going to be staying in Biscotti permanently?"
"I did. And it is an item of promise, to you and just you." Shinku said as he knelt down on one knee and looked up at Éclair as everyone nearby prepared for the day's war against Pastillage. "Éclair, will you marry me?"
Éclair blushed slightly and seemed flustered as she turned to her side. "d- Do you even need to ask that, Shinku! Let's go win this war and then we can talk about it." Éclair put the ring on her ring finger in plain sight, making sure Shinku could see.
"All right." Shinku replied as the two of them ran onto the battlefield with big smiles on their faces.