Reader is a diviner. Period. XD

..~*~..

What turned out to be a free day became unfair for (f/n). The (h/c) haired woman was seething; it's evident by the way how she glared daggers at the vermillion haired guy who seemed to never minded her ferocious glare from afar as he tended to his Tenma— the creature obviously aware of its owner's assailant as it shuffled its feet, probably demanding for justice. Tsubaki brushed his palm above its head to calm his partner down as a chuckle escape his lips. The kinshi knight knew, and is painfully aware of the burning gaze of (f/n), but he made no signs of showing it. And he knew, for an apparent reason that it's only making the diviner livid.

Tending to his Tenma on the spur of the moment, Hinata happened to pass by him and the gentle creature, whistling a lively tune— when he suddenly stopped to his tracks, an involuntarily shiver crippling through his system. He gave a quick rub on his arm, another ripple of shiver contacting him. "Weird, I can feel eyes all over me.." He meant to keep it low into a whisper but it turned out to be louder than he intended to.

"Ah, don't worry about that." Tsubaki spoke too soon, making the swordman jerk. Another brush of his palm and a snort coming from the snout of his Tenma, he lowered his outstretched arm that was petting his partner and gave a brief glance at the cause of the unnerving atmosphere. He could see those (e/c) orbs sharpen, just as he expected, but he didn't mind that even a single moment for he averted his eyes too soon— not that he felt the urge to but for in fact to return back to Hinata, who is now aware of the situation, the unsettling lineament of his face too perceivable to miss. "She's just glaring at me. Nothing unusual about that."

"Nothing unusual?" Hinata repeated with such incredulity, his disbelief for the kinshi knight robust enough to replace his once unsettled face in just a short span of time. Glancing back at (f/n), then at him, Hinata queried. "Are you kidding me? She's literally glaring daggers at you! How can you call that not unusual?!"

Tsubaki shrugged, "I don't know. I just really think it is. It's a daily routine between us."

"She's been doing this for as long as you can remember?" Shaking his head, Hinata took a step back. "Don't tell me this started at the day when you accidentally told her how frail she looked!"

Tsubaki blinked. "Ah yes. I think that's the main reason why she wants my head on a platter."

"You're digging your own grave here Tsubaki. Did you know that you've insulted her?"

"I did what?" Tsubaki shook his head, "I didn't. I just told her the truth. She was truly frail-looking."

"...you don't know what you've brought yourself into."

Tsubaki cocked his brow at the swordmaster, clearly appalled at his manner of speaking. What's there to be afraid of anyway? It's not like he's in some dire situation; let alone in his position. In fact, if there's someone who should be afraid, it's him, isn't it? Considering that he is the one being targeted in the first place, not him. Tsubaki observed Hinata a bit as he occasionally glances back at the diviner. Now that he could see it, Tsubaki concluded that maybe Hinata has the right to be afraid. All-in-all, he has weak resistance; one blow of magic could be fatal enough to eradicate the everliving daylights out of him. While he on the other hand, could easily deflect any sort of magic that would ricochet on his way.

"It's not like she's going to eliminate me. And if she does then she'll be kicked out of the army." He regarded Hinata's condition but all it did came to nothing as Hinata turned frantic in a matter of seconds.

"By the love of gods, she's barreling over here!" Growing even more frantic, which is probably unusual of him to do, Hinata gave a hasty reply. "I'm not going to interfere with whatever business you two have. I'm out of here before she pelts my guts with full of spells!" Turning to his heels, he dashed off from Tsubaki.

Just as the vermillion haired knight peered over his shoulders to look, he was greeted with a determined diviner who, literally did the most impossible and reckless move ever, lunge her own self with a battle cry that would've mistaken by a brat. It would've been successful to catch him off guard if it weren't for her slow momentum and his fast reflexes as Tsubaki casually sidestepped before (f/n) had the chance to take the upper hand. He watched her once determined expression crumbled down into one of that terror as she vaguely made an attempt to hold on to something– anything to prevent her from falling but to no avail as she was not fast enough to perceive her own mishap, falling in the most embarrassing way as possible. (F/n) groaned against the green carpet, voice slightly muffled.

"I must say, that is one cumbersome fall I've ever seen." Tsubaki admitted, taking note of the way how her body tensed as he said this. He approached her as she slowly raised her head, making eye contact with the knight when he finally had her in his line of sight. He smiled earnestly which only elevated her annoyance for him, "Though it's also your best record, I'll give you that. You almost caught me off guard."

(F/n) gritted her teeth, a powerful blaze of magical energy pumping through her veins. "Oooh, I'll show you what I'm capable of you arrogant piece of—"

"Well no matter, have you been practicing a lot?"

That did it. With surging anger and resentment, the magical energy that was filing up her veins channeled through her palm with a glow of somber light of cerulean which erupted and to him. Tsubaki quickly comprehended that, and with precise timing leapt out of the way, but not as dainty as he expected it to be when he was with his Tenma every time they successfully dodged projectiles in the fray, rolling across the ground before crouching to balance himself. He took a peek on his sleeves, noting the burnt fabric on the hems. The ball of light slightly brushed his garment, singeing it for its strong power, and Tsubaki knew that everything's going downhill starting on.

"Are you out of your mind? You could've killed me!" Tsubaki yelled, which made her surprise and — for the impossible yet logical way — guilty. She didn't mean to. She was just way too livid.

The kinshi knight peered on the direction where the powerful magic had flew through to speculate if someone's been hit. When he saw none, his form relaxed a bit and looked back at the woman with such authority. "What were you thinking? Slinging spells all of a sudden, do you intend to get us into trouble?!"

Now that is one thing (f/n) doesn't have a reply on. She lowered her head, obviously not wanting to face him for out of embarrassment and guilt. She could feel his piercing eyes on her, and for once she felt like a child again being reprimanded by her mother.

"I...didn't mean to.." Her voice turned out so soft— so frail and fragile,as if she's afraid to do something wrong again.

Tsubaki sensed this immediately, and eventually felt bad for shouting at her like that. He took a small step towards her for consolation, a hand already outstretched. However, within his third step, he abruptly stopped when he heard her sniffle which made his blood run cold.

Of all things he despised the most is seeing someone cry. And to make it clear, all because of him.

Swallowing the lump on his throat, he began to take feeble steps towards her. He had to be slow and gentle at this point because he couldn't afford to hurt the diviner anymore even though all he wanted to do was to comfort her as soon as possible. Once (f/n) is within arms reach, he tentatively brushed his fingertips to her dampen cheeks. He felt her stiffen up for a moment after skin contact, then devolved into relaxation as she finally accepted his comfort in which Tsubaki is grateful for.

"(F/n)..."

The diviner finds herself lifting her head to face the youthful man in front of him against her will, and what shocked her is the genuineness of his sincerity and rue, seen only by the depths of his eyes.

Tsubaki wiped away any signs of tear stains on her cheeks, a blush adorning his face as he murmured. "I'm so sorry. It was not my intention to snap at you like that. I should've known how sensitive your heart can be."

If there were to be another world wherein he didn't snap at her in the first place, she would've spat at him for saying how sensitive she is. But at this point, she realized that he was just being honest; she truly is sensitive to what others think about her, and that she was being too childish and stubborn to understand the motives behind his actions and compliments. She finally understood that he wasn't insulting her; but in fact was being considerate and helpful all this time, and yet she failed to notice it until now.

"No." She sternly replied back, it made Tsubaki reel.

"Wh-what?"

"You're wrong. I'm at my fault. It's not you who did wrongly, for in fact it was me who should be sorry." Looking back to his sincere-filled gaze, she continued, "You were just being too compassionate to me, a-and I failed to notice that. I was too absorbed on proving to you how wrong you were, not even once looking for any clues on why you would say that... that I'm frail and all. I-I just want for others to acknowledge me, that I'm great too. That I am capable of great things too. It just hurts me so much on how perfect you are. You have everything; your reputation, everyone's respect and having the signet of a hero. N-no-nothing like me at all." Her lips quivered as she admitted this as new tears rolled down her cheeks.

Tsubaki is speechless. He doesn't know what to say. In fact, he doesn't know how he should feel about this. It was just too much. Should he be flustered? Be thankful? Or be guilty? There are so much emotions in her words— such strong feelings he hasn't felt nor seen from anyone before; it was making his chest tight, as if there was a silver chord tied around it and was squeezing it; it was making him hard to breathe.

"(F/n)... I-I didn't know.."

Tsubaki paused, contemplating himself of what he should say next. "I'm so sorry I caused so much pain to you. You don't know how I hate myself for being so dense with your feelings, rubbing to your face of how exceptionally good I am with everything." Brushing a loose strand of hair from her face, he continued, "I've considered myself perfect, I have no qualms about that. Because that's how I see myself. But the truth is, I'm not really perfect of how you and I pictured to be. Why? Because nobody is perfect. There's only one entity in this universe that will always fit that role. And it will never be us for we will always be failures at first glance." His eyes was so intense that she couldn't have the will to look away, "But do you know what makes it special?"

"What?"

"We learn from our failures. We grow with it, we experience a lot because of it. Surely, you see how good Lord Ryoma is with a sword right? Did you think that he started already being a swordmaster after grasping Raijinto for the first time?"

(F/n) shook her head.

"Exactly. All our skilled allies didn't begin with no failures. They ventured with a lot of failures in their life. Imagine there are no failures, would they be as skilled as they are now?" Tsubaki grinned when he saw the diviner's eyes widen. "Do you get what I'm saying?"

"Y-yes! Wow.. I-I didn't know.. I thought that having failures would only keep me from evolving, but it turns out to be quite contrary to what I kept on believing." (F/n) grew quiet for a while; then with a newfound energy rubbed her eyes with such determination as the passion in her eyes glazed once again.

"Tsubaki-san!"

The said guy almost reeled (for the forth time this day) again from her upbeat nature, "H-hey, don't scare me like that."

(F/n) sheepishly grinned — which made the organ inside him leap a huge skip of beat before accelerating faster than usual — rubbing her neck as she did so. "Sorry. I just wanna start over. You know, just to repay you for what you've done for me."

"Uh yeah. Of course." Tsubaki almost stammered, startled at the way how his heart was beating so abnormally fast. But his main concern right now is that he hopes that (f/n) didn't notice his slight mishap. And if she did, she was not showing it.

"Great! Are you busy today? If not, we could train together!" Another grin, another skip of beat of his heart.

"Sure. I could use a bit of training." He smirked, patting his Tenma, which was surprisingly quiet and reserved throughout the situation.

"Alright! But you have to disregard your Tenma for a while." (F/n) said, with her arms akimbo. "We're training one-on-one."

Tsubaki gave her a disbelieving look, "Are you serious?"

"Yes. Why, don't tell me you can't beat me?" She smirked.

That did it. "Is that today's challenge then?"

"Yep."

"Then consider it done." Taking his yumi bow from his Tenma, Tsubaki added more words, "I could use some training with bows. Honestly, I'm still not quite sure on how to use one."

"Good riddance, I need to improve my stability. Hope you don't mind if I use you."

"Likewise, hope you don't mind becoming a pincushion." He jested. (F/n) rolled her eyes.

"Hardy har-har."

"It's only fair right?"

(F/n) smiled at this, "Of course." Taking out her signature scroll, she paused midway; looked at Tsubaki; then walked towards him and gave him a sincere hug.

"Thank you."

Tsubaki just stood there, motionless. His heart, once again, leapt one more time. And he knew, that this feeling won't go anywhere anytime soon, and he just hopes it won't for he already dedicated his heart for no one else's but for (f/n) alone. His neutral face lit up when he felt the same ailment from (f/n), heart beating loudly and faster against his. Before he knew it, he couldn't stop smiling, knowing for sure that his feelings were being reciprocated.

"No, thank you, (f/n).. For being fair."

..~*~..

Sorry if Hinata seemed OOC. ;-; I cannot think of a character suited for the role to talk to Tsubaki, and my only choice is him. Anyway, I really enjoyed writing this. I don't know what came over me. I was feeling sentimental and stuff and this happened.

Also, I just wrote this for one day! One day! Can you believe it! I'm really proud of myself, truly! ^_^ This is my most favorite so far! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do! Leave as many feedbacks as you can. I love reading your thoughts and feelings. Don't be shy to converse with me. I don't bite. :)

See you at the next chappie! Not sure who is going to be first, Silas, Kaze, Hinata, Kiragi (I love Takumi's son so much! 😭❤️) or Hayato, but oh well. Whatever my brain chooses.