you trapped me

Author's note: I tried making Rias's addition more natural. What do you think?

I did say that I would try to accept Rias, but there was something that I needed to clarify with her. Since I watched the anime, I this preconception that she was in love with Issei, but now she says that she fell in love with me. I accepted the situation only to not hurt Akeno. I can see that she has some sort of emotional dependance in our relationship. She seems extremely scared to be abandoned or to separate with her loved ones. To be able to move forward in some sort of relationship with Rias, I needed some assurances that she was not using me to get over Issei's death. At our age love and need for support could become entangled some times, enough to become confused. Enough to not recognize your feelings anymore. I'm not some anime main character that makes everyone fall in love with him by saving them. I do not believe me helping her get up, should be enough to make my image in her heart change so much. The human heart it's not such a simple thing, after all. I was suspicious. Why would she fall in love with me? Why now? Why after Issei's death? I needed answers, so later that day I arranged a meeting alone with her, after asking Akeno, and expressed my doubts.

"Rias-san? Do you mind if I call you Rias-san, now? It seems strange to call President someone I am trying to see as a possible love interest." She seemed strangely happy, after hearing my words, and nodded.

"I honestly am still shocked by your confession, after all there were no such signs that indicated your love toward me. In reality our interactions were just exchanges, business relations. It was only an exchange between equal partners. I honestly thought you were in love with Hyodou Issei, you. I'm sorry, I know that by mentioning him I could hurt you and make you remember his death, but to move forward I need to know at least this much." I knew I would hurt her. When I mentioned his name she started showing some of the weakness I saw in the underworld, but in the end she managed to resist the urge to give up everything again and close herself in her room.

She looked me directly in my eyes. Her eyes that seemed to contain oceans inside, looked at me. I could feel some kind of determination in her eyes.

"I guess you would think so, after all, for you it was only a business relations. For me it was the first time someone saw me as Rias the person, and not as Rias Gremory, the heiress of the Gremory family. Do not get me wrong, I love my family and the Gremory surname for me is something I find pride in. It might seem stupid, but in my fiancee I wanted something simple like that. That was one of the reasons I came to the human world. Humans, after all, did not know who I was."

She stopped a moment to gather her breath. It seemed like she was trying to find the courage to keep going on.

"At first, I wanted you as a member of my peerage. I wanted to defeat my ex-fiancee in a rating game so that I could be free. You do remember what a rating game is, right?"

"Yes. I do remember reading about it in some books. It's something like a death match without death to decide the devils rankings right?"

She chuckled at my description.

"More or less something like that. Anyway I needed to defeat my ex-fiancee to be free from the engagement and I thought you could be a great addition to our firepower. After you refused me, I become a little interested in you. When you said that you wanted to have an equal relationship that kept growing. Honestly, it was not love at first sight or something like that. I even found you a little annoying after the reaction you had the first time you and Akeno met. Who would have thought that you two would get together?!"

I felt a little embarrassed. After all, I was ready to kill whomever entered in the room that day. It's really ironic that we are a couple now. I guess you can never know what'll happen in life.

" You asked me if I was in love with Issei? No. I was not. How could I when I was in love with you. I tried even to make you jealous with him. I did not fell in love with you, I got trapped by you. Everyday your presence kept growing stronger in my heart. The more time passed, the more I could not stop myself from desiring you. I felt some kind of distance between us though. Scared by that barrier, I kept myself far away. I was scared to get hurt. Ahahah, in the end you were right to despise someone like me."

In that moment I understood what I had done. Just because of some preconception I had by watching the first season of this story, I had unconsciously rejected her. Enough to not join us. Maybe if she did train with us, she would have been able to avoid the death of her peerage's member, of one member of her family. I felt guilty. She looked so frail in that moment, like it would take just a little push and she would break in a thousands pieces. Tears kept falling from her eyes and she tried hiding it by lowering her gaze down. Hear hands were shaking. It was in that moment that I decided to try putting my faith in her. I still could not get together with her, but I felt that I would regret it, if I did not kept her in my life. I clasped her hands.

She slowly got her head up and looked at me surprised.

"I said it to you, right? Believe in me who believes in you. After this, I can swear one thing to you Rias Gremory. I believe in you and always will. I do not know if I can fall in love with you, but I can tell to you one thing: 'You are part of my family now. I make a promise to you. It does not matter what happens, I will always be your ally.'"

I could feel it from her aura. She was honest. To repay her for opening so much for a person like me, I could not just refuse her. I had not many people I believed in this world and in this instant I added one more person to the list.

I could feel her regaining composure. Tears stopped flowing from her eyes, she clasped my hands too and smiled. It was so radiant that hurt me. Enough to make my heart skip a beat.

"You know, it's in moments like this that you grasp my heart. Your presence alone gives me strength." She said, still smiling. Her hands seemed to do not want to leave mine. She just kept clasping stronger. It seemed like she wanted this moment to last forever. Honestly I did like this moment too, but I did not want to admit something like that. I still felt that would be a betrayal to Akeno.