Michael almost fell off of his chair. He held his cheek, feeling the smear of sauce and the warmth coming from his face. He looked at her just waiting to burst out in laughter. She always liked to tease him but this went way too far.
"What?" she held her mouth, trying not to laugh. "I thought you liked me."
Evelyn looked at him like she had done something wrong. Throughout the time that he's known her, their relationship almost felt like glass. Michael wasn't even sure if she shared the same feelings with him.
Any wrong move and he could have broken boundaries that he didn't even know existed. But the majority of these times, it's like she forgets that she was a girl and Michael was a boy. The things she's done just confused him.
His heart was beating so fast, he thought she could have heard it.
"Michael," she giggled. "You're totally red."
Michael didn't know what his face looked like. Did she even know what she just did? Thousands of thoughts and questions played through his mind. He didn't even know where this had come from. Did he say something weird? Each halves of his mind were battling against each other, arguing back and forth about what he should do.
He didn't hate it, he admitted to himself, he always wanted to know what it felt like to kiss her. So why was he acting like it scared him?
The waiter abruptly interrupted them. He politely asked them to finish their meal and ready to pay. Apparently they were causing a disturbance to the other guest so they had to leave as soon as possible.
Michael headed back to the front to read the bill as Evelyn had the job to scarf the leftover food. His jaw dropped at the price. There weren't even more than three plates yet it felt like a fortune. This entire meal almost cost him all of his allowance from the quest he took with Stefan's party. He didn't know how to manage his budget for the rest of the week. But he paid it like a law-abiding citizen and carried on with his day.
The fact that these nobles were eating like this everyday and the price was basically normal to them. For what an adventurer does to risk their life was only a fraction of what nobles make. Michael didn't even know what they did as a profession. Maybe dabbling in random politics and finding ways to increase their income but at the end of the day, he was never coming to visit here again.
Evelyn held his hand as she walked beside him. "You okay?"
Michael's coin bag couldn't have felt any lighter. It even felt like they had robbed all his money for a singular meal. He could have stretched that price and fed himself for days at a normal tavern.
"Sorry," she frowned. "If I knew it was that expensive—"
"No, no," he stopped her. "It's fine. The food was delicious, really, the best I've ever had in a while. I never knew food from the sea tasted like that."
She nodded her head in agreement. Though the thought of the same food would disappear once she transformed still didn't make sense to him.
They walked down the street on the way back to the house. They must have been out for hours, seeing it's turned night. Everybody was in their houses, apart from the patrolling guards, so the only sounds had come from them. It was just the silence that made things so awkward. Michael couldn't stop thinking about what happened. The feeling of her kiss still replayed in his mind over and over like he was going crazy.
He even remembered how firmly she pressed her lips on his cheeks. That was how bad he was imagining things.
She tugged his arm.
Michael turned to her. "The house is down over here."
"I know, but…can't we stay out a little longer?"
"It's about to be curfew and what if they're waiting for me—"
"Come on, Michael," she tugged his arm again. "I don't wanna go home yet."
There was that tone of voice again, something that he couldn't resist. She smiled as he followed behind her, leading him somewhere else. Michael blamed himself for trying to end her fun early though her idea of having fun was breaking the rules. But he couldn't just say no to her when she made that pleading face. He really liked her and she already knew that. If she was purposefully using that against him then he admitted that it would work every time. Watching her look back to make sure he was following made me feel some type of way.
Did she really like him, he wondered, because he was starting to build a fantasy in his own mind the more he looked at her.
Evelyn dragged him to an area with blossomed trees and a healthy garden that grew all around them. It was the most peaceful park that he's ever been to. A place like this would have been wrecked and trampled over if it wasn't suitable for nobles. There were small ponds that ran along each other and connected into a long stream to the side.
Michael thought everything here had so much care, he wanted to figure out why none of this was shared to the lower parts of Aldoria or even back in his hometown of Alanor. These nobles had so much for themselves, what was ordinary for them was something awesome for someone like Michael.
Evelyn kneeled over and stared at her own reflection in the water.
Michael leaned next to her.
"Look," she gestured to the water. "It's like a mirror."
He wasn't looking at his own image. He was looking at hers. Evelyn was so pretty, even if the water wasn't still enough to replicate that. Michael couldn't stop himself from obsessing over how she looked. Her dark-brown hair that flowed down her back, her golden eyes that always glowed when she looked at him, and her soft touch that reminded him everyday how lucky he was.
She pushed him into the pond. "Whoops—"
Michael awkwardly yelped and fell into the waters. He sat up with his clothes drenched.
She laughed, rolling around in the grass on how funny he sounded.
He swung his arms across, splashing the water onto her. For a moment he thought he was in trouble until he heard her laugh again, wiping the water off her face.
Evelyn dove on top of him and splashed around in the pond. She was an uncontrollable force of motion that Michael didn't want to stop. They stood from the pond dripping wet. Michael kicked the waters with his feet while she leaned over and swung it across.
This was the reason why he wanted to become stronger. This freedom and love he's been searching for whenever he was young. Michael never wanted to be rich nor did he want to become the best adventurer Wilmere had seen.
Maybe he just wanted someone else to enjoy life with him. It just had to be a girl that gave him magical powers and someone he found so attractive. Even when her hair was wet, she was still the prettiest girl he had ever seen. Her laugh was something he could talk about for days. And when she called his name, it felt like a flame could never be extinguished in his chest.
Michael loved everything about Evelyn. He didn't care if she existed as an ego sword for him to use. She was just so much more than that. She was a person that could talk, touch, and love. There wasn't anything else in the world that could replace her.
Evelyn choked on the water, stopping their little fight.
"Evelyn!" Michael rushed over to her. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, no problem," she cleared her throat obnoxiously. "Just a little water fell down the wrong spot."
"Maybe you shouldn't laugh while you—"
She splashed some more water as he shielded himself.
"Sorry."
She sighed, wrapping her wet hair around her shoulder. She kneeled in the pond, placing her hand through the running stream.
Michael sat alongside her.
"I'm sorry, Michael."
"For what?"
"For using all of your money. If I knew how much everything cost then I wouldn't have ordered so much food."
"You're still talking about that?"
She pouted. "But now we don't have any money."
"Evelyn, it was my idea for us to go somewhere expensive. I sort of figured that I'd have to spend everything."
"Oh," she squinted at him. "So then you knew I was going to order a lot?"
"Uhh…"
"I'm just joking with you," she splashed more water in his direction. "But why would you do something like that for me? I can be your sword however much you want, Michael, it's our bond. You don't have to repay me all the time."
"You really do listen to everything in my head."
"Of course," she bumped his shoulder. "What else is there to listen to, right? Evelyn this, Evelyn that, how should I tell Evelyn—"
He splashed some more water back.
She laughed, wiping the water from her eyes. "You really are stupid, Michael."
"I can't tell if you mean that."
"I do," she turned to him. "You're one of a kind."
Michael looked into her eyes. Her golden eyes were just as beautiful as he remembered. Was her face always this close before?
She leaned closer and kissed him. It wasn't like before when she took him by surprise. Evelyn held her lips against his and made sure he was there to feel it. The world had seemed to stand still again.
Michael wasn't even scared anymore. This is what he wanted all along. Just something to seal his love with hers, something to make it official that they shared the same bond.
She pulled away. "Better?"
He looked into her eyes again. "Yeah."
She grabbed his hand. "Take me home."
"What—"
A bright flash of light cut him off. He was now holding a sword. There was a silence that followed after. He didn't know if he had made things too awkward by staring too hard but there wasn't a voice in his head to reply.
Michael stood from the pond and followed his way back to the house, all while being dripping wet. The kiss kept replaying in his mind again, even if he didn't want it to. There wasn't anything to sheathe his blade so he ran home while holding it. He knew she was listening to all of this, also watching the kiss replay in his head. He swore that he didn't want to make things weird but he couldn't stop thinking about it.
The more he did, the more his heart beat. It was an embarrassing thought that she knew he was being flustered over this.
How could he even complain anyways? The prettiest girl he found ends up sharing the same type of love that he hoped for. If that wasn't the best thing to happen to him then he didn't know what was.