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"No! You aren't a child! I worried about you because I lo-"
He stopped. Right there. His face turned into a deep red. He buried his head in his knees, trying to keep it unseen. He did say what he did, and he couldn't lie. He could only hope Mizuki didn't hear him.
(Dang, I actually wasn't expecting that :')
She lifted her head, now more curious instead of sad. "Er, I didn't quite catch that..." She looked at him, confused. "Can you repeat it?" She moved her hair out of the way and cupped her hand around her ear.
"Y-Yes...I could.." He said, his voice sort-of raspy and quiet.
He thought about it all for a moment. What if Izzy found out? What if she hates me afterwards? What if she doesn't believe me?
He decided on it. "I can't say it.." He said. He shook his head. "Y-Yes I can..and I will. I-I...I t-think I l-love you.." He whispered into her ear, as his face turned to a beet-red.
Her face quickly became red and she could feel the blood rushing to her cheeks. She turned and put her hand lightly on his forehead.
"D-do you have a fever? Are you okay?" She leaned closer to him, trying to examine his face for signs of illness.
He stood up, turned around and just left. The feeling of humiliation swept over him. He tried, and ultimately failed, and now he felt terrible.
Utterly humiliating. He thought, tears streaming down his face. I shoulda know better. Nobody really loves me anyway. Who would love such a big, fat oaf like me?
She got up, panicking. "Hey, wait!" She leapt for him and grabbed on to his ankle, trying to prevent him from leaving.
"I-I'm sorry... were you not joking?" She asked quietly, still on the ground.
"I-I can't lie about something like that, m-my gem forbids it.." He said, quietly. He lay on the ground, not caring that she was holding on to his ankle, as he slowly trotted on. She was slowing him down.. He cared more about the fact that it seemed to her that this was a joke. I wish it wasn't true. He thought. Everything would be simpler if it wasn't true.
"Right, well, I guess I just forgot that. But... don't you like Izzy?" She instantly regretted saying that. She clapped one hand over her mouth, the other still tightly clutching him. Stupid, stupid!
He hung his head low, and ultimately gave up with walking. He fell over, the deafening silence filling his ears. A tear rolled onto the ground, moistening the ground below.
She let go of his leg and pulled him up to sitting position. She looked at him for a second before tightly hugging him. "I'll stop. If I leave, then you get to be happy with Izzy without any "distractions", right?" She murmured. "Easy as pie."
Kyle felt her warmth, her affection, and her words.
"I-If you go, I'll never be able to forget you.. In other words, if you left, you'd be more of a distraction whilst gone." He paused for a moment. "If that makes any sense."
He felt a tear well up in his eye once more. He hugged her back, before saying, "D-Don't go."
After a while, Liam woke up, lying on the snow. He sat up and looked around. He saw the burnt down trees. "...The hell happened here?" He then saw the knife and the two gems next to him, and suddenly the memories came rushing back to him. "Ugh, they're gonna kill me for this... Literally." He felt that he had to do what he did, though. He could have been the one to get killed if he hadn't.
He picked up the two gems and looked at them. "They're both cracked... Maybe that's what happens when somebody dies." It made sense to him - Izzy died, and then her gem got damaged. The black gem was damaged in the same way. And he hadn't heard from the gem's owner for around a day before his gem and theirs unfused. Maybe whoever had this gem killed themself, he thought.
He got up, and started walking. Soon, he saw the igloo in the distance. He didn't want to go back, though, after what had happened.
(AWWWW SHEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYT) Alice went out of the igloo. She saw smoke in the sky. Fire..izzy? She thought to herself, going in the direction of the smoke. She froze when she saw Liam with not one, not two, but three gems. Including izzy's. She saw a crack in two of them. A black gem and..Izzy's gem??! "Where's Izzy??!" Alice yelled to Liam Yasuke saw Alice leave the igloo. "Hey, hold up!" He called, grabbing him and Malani's gem. He followed, and too, saw Liam with three gems.