Laurence POV:

    I had woken up with a headache. Last night it turned out Nicole was out in the woods with us, and pretty much became a boxer with her swing. It was a groggy and late start to the morning since the sun was past high noon. There was a set of clothes laid out for me. Long sleeve grey shirt under a brown shirt, matching and tucked into some khakis. I was also given a green 'cape' to wear.

   It was a humble gesture to give new clothes to all of us. I would have to return the favor one day. I walked towards the door with a hand on my temple, calming down the growing dizziness. "Yo, Laurence?" My name was muffley called I didn't notice whoever it was was right outside the door. We ran into each other, falling down onto the floor. Hovering inches away from Y/n's surprised face wasn't what I was expecting.

    Though I'm not complaining. There was a fairly noticeable blush against my face while I made little mention of it. "...I slept in, huh?" I didn't go to move but, neither did she so, I guess this was fine for now. "Yeah, and you missed breakfast too." I huffed a breath at that. "Ugh, and I was hungry too... Say, should I get off of you now or do you want to continue this conversation like this because I honestly don't mind."

   Y/n rolled her eyes while softly pushing me away from her. "If you would be so kind." I stood, helping her up as well. "So, do you want to see if there is anything for lunch?" She merely shrugged before turning around. "Aph is down there talking to this Refugee Leader of some escapees from the Tu'la region. Many of them are themselves Meif'wa."

   Aphmau apparently brought a dead child that was running with them, back to life. Word spread in their group and the leader wanted to speak word with their savior. This person was now known to be Michi's brother, Mikai. She had faked her death to him but her actions towards us was not uncommon of her. The mention of that tommycat was worthy of an eye roll itself. We were within earshot of Aph and Mikai's conversation upon the stairwell. It seems they were just accepted into our alliance.

A Scaleswind guard barged in the doors. "LORD NICOLE! COME QUICKLY! OUTSIDE OUR GATES! THOSE MONSTERS ARE BACK AND IN GREATER NUMBERS!" He then left with all of us in tow. Row upon row of Shadow Souls were swarmed and barging against the closed gates. "This is bad, there are too many of them!" Those with weapons all had them out. "How often has this been happening?!"

"Enough to make them this mad apparently!" There was some dear present in all of us. "MY PEOPLE ARE OUT THERE!" Mikai yelled in appropriate concern. I made my mind up then. "Nicole... let me handle this..." Shadow Souls are weaker creatures compared to Shadow Knights. I should be able to make it an even match for the rest of us. Aphmau told me she would be coming as well, getting her own sword from Nicole.

I focused and shifted, growing bigger than the rest of them. Feeling the rush of emotions becoming intense again.

No One POV:

The Lord and guard ran out as the gates were open to immediately defend against the coming Shadow Souls. Even with Laurence's new height, some were towering over him. The mistake of looking on in the eye caused his demeanor to fall. A blank face with the intense red irises expanding completely. He slowly turned around to Aphmau, bringing his sword up with no other intention but to kill her.

She hadn't moved, trying to figure out what had gotten into him. A swift slash across Laurence's upper body brought him out of his state and into an unconscious one. The blow itself was given by Y/n, with the blunt end of her sword. She didn't look to happy about having to do it though. He was dragged back into the village walls by both females.

"Y/n what did you do?!" Aphmau panicked from the sudden attack, knowing that the woman was fully capable of murder if she wanted to. "Calm down. I didn't even hit him hard enough to knock him out. This reaction was unexpected. Let's get him back inside to recover, come on!" The male was carried inside and laid in the closest bed, which belonged to the (H/c)nette/blonde.

Once he was down, Aphmau looked up at Y/n. Who had been crossing their arms. "What did you do?" She sighed in response, contemplating over what even happened. "I slashed him. Trying to draw out a defense, or even a reflex. But... he did nothing in response. This is concerning, since the most likely thing that happened was the Shadow Knight 'part' of him... took over."

Aphmau was still confused. "He was going to kill you. You know that just as much as I do, and it came out of no where. Being distracted caused you to be an easy target. We both saw it in his eyes--Laurence was no longer there." It was hard to admit it in the first place. Almost physically painful to see him like that. "No," Aph didn't by it. "Laurence wouldn't--!"

"Look at me. That. Wasn't. Him. Don't cloud your judgement based solely on what you know. There are things we still don't know about each other. I know I am the only one currently able to stop him from going back-shit ballistic, but you have the power to bring people back from the dead. You would rather have Laurence strike you down, than me take matters into my own hands-- even if he... gets hurt?"

Y/n hated saying that. Knowing that if it got too out of hand, she'd have to take Laurence out herself to prevent the downfall of everyone else. "...I'm sorry Y/n, I'm sure that was really hard for you to do. I will go down and get it back together with everyone else. I'll leave you with him to sort out what happened." Aphmau left without another word, not being stopped by her companion either.

Laurence had opened his eyes a little delusional, but completely confused. "W-what happened? W-where am I? Why are my arms numb?" Y/n replied simply. Saying where they were, what they were doing and how he turned his blade on Aphmau. "I DID WHAT?! NO... DID I HURT HER?!?!"

"You didn't, I stopped you..." what a delightful conversation this was. "....I owe you my sincerest gratitude. UGH! What the-- WHAT IS THIS PAIN IN MY SHOULDER?!" As it turned out, most of the damage landed there. "It's a bruise. I'm sorry, I must have done that." Laurence hissed from the pain, it was bearable enough. "Mother of Irene it hurts! You must have dropped an entire building on me!"

Y/n stepped back, feeling overwhelmingly guilty. "S-sorry! This's my fault, I'll go get Aphmau!" She made quick work of going to leave, feeling like she would hurt him by merely standing there. Her wrist was grabbed before that though, with Laurence non-hurt arm. "W-wait. I was still trying to talk to you." Y/n turned around with a look almost like she were mourning.

"I am so very sorry for what you saw of me and had to do to stop me. I am thankful for such an incredible woman to have so genuinely saved me from myself. But I also know you feel as though you carry a burden because of me." That was true. Y/n expressed that to Aphmau and it showed in the distance she tries putting between herself and Laurence, even when she thinks he can't tell.

"Look...I just think you shouldn't go into your Shadow Knigt form anymore. None of us really know much about it, yourself included. That fact is that you can't control it from that... corruption that took place, and it backfired in a bad way. If I hadn't done anything, you would have 'hurt' Aphmau and probably would have gone after everyone else. I-I-I'm sorry but, there is a lot of unpredictability in this."

That old habit of trying to remember what happened next was starting to come back. Though nowadays it was a lot more frustrating and migraine inducing than it used to be. "Y/n, come here." She hadn't noticed he walked closer to the closed balcony after having his head down for a minute. She approached cautiously. Laurence softly held her face with both hands, despite the pain aching through one of them.

He wanted to lift the stress that seemed to never stop adding onto her plate. Or at least express that it didn't need to be so bad. Y/n realized where this was going when he leant in. She put her own hand up in front of her mouth to cover his when he was close enough. With a heavy, slow beating heart, she rested her forehead against his after shutting her eyes. Neither of them said anything, one with a desperate longing and the other with a small, growing one.

"...You shouldn't do that..."

...

"...Y-you're right, I'm sorry. It's just hard to hold back when I know you obviously have feelings for me." Y/n backed away at the accusation, a little disappointed at their loss of closeness. "W-What?" Laurence looked her in the eye before saying anything. "Then deny it." She couldn't keep contact and turned to the floor with furrowed brows.

1623 words.