a unicorn and confessions
A few days later the next monster appears on the school's doorstep, getting caught in a trap that Hope and the teachers made.
"Sounds like the trap worked." Hope says, meeting up with Dorian and Alaric at the front door.
The three step out of the building and see Sosuke waiting next to the door already, stretching as if getting ready for a fight.
"Good you heard it." Alaric says relieved, happy for every form of backup since they have no idea what's waiting for them.
"Let's go." Sosuke tells them and leads the charge, the three others following him as they walk through the woods around the school to the trap, which basically looks like a fence made of branches.
"I know this is important but you really couldn't put pants on first?" Hope asks Alaric disappointed, her, Dorian and Sosuke all being dressed while the headmaster only threw on a bathrobe.
"Any bets on what movie famous monster we get to slay today?" Dorian asks, arriving at the trap
"with our luck it'll be Cthulhu." Alaric says.
"Ah, a false alarm. It's just a horse." Dorian says, smiling relieved.
"It must have gotten out of the stables." Alaric says.
"Not quite.''Sosuke says, walking around the fence and sees a big pearly horn sticking out of the horse's snout.
The horse then turns around to the others and they gasp, Alaric readying his crossbow seconds later.
"Hey. Hey wait." Hope stops him, moving in front of the weapon.
"It's obviously a monster here to take the artifact Hope." Dorian tells her.
"You're not seriously suggesting we kill a unicorn?" Hope says protesting.
"I'm suggesting we don't give it a pass because it's cute." Dorian replies.
"Sosuke?" Alaric asks the other teen present.
"Well, we should wait before we act. I mean killing it could be what it wants. There are legends that you get cursed when you kill a unicorn." Sosuke tells them.
"Right. We don't want that." Alaric says, lowering his crossbow quickly, squinting his eyes at the creature.
"I'm gonna do a sweep around the area to make sure this thing came alone and isn't like..." Sosuke says.
"My dead fiancee? Yeah you go make sure it's alone." Alaric agrees bitterly and leaves.
"It's a good call, he's just not over it. None of us are." Dorian tells Sosuke, patting his arm before going after Alaric.
"Do you want some backup?" Hope offers to Sosuke.
Sosuke looks her over with Hope only wearing a loose pajama and a wool sweater.
"Nah, I think it's safer if I go alone." He says motioning to her dress code and Hope pulls her sweater closed hurriedly.
"Fine." She replies snarkily and heads back as well, no one noticing a little slug crawling up
Hope's shoe and sticking to it.
Hours later at morning time Hope comes downstairs where the students usually hang out and sees Landon, Rafael and Sosuke sitting together on a couch, the latter of them barely staying awake as it seems.
"Hello handsomes." Hope greets Sosuke and Landon overly chipper, pushing them apart on the couch they are sitting on so she can sit in between them and gives both a loving hug.
Sosuke holds a hand to her forehead while raising his eyebrows.
"Doesn't feel like she's having a fever." he reports tiredly.
"Hope, are you feeling OK?" Landon asks softly.
"Better than ever." She replies with a wide smile.
"So did you find anything after we left?" Hope asks Sosuke chipperly, the teen still wearing his work out clothes same as last night.
"No. It came alone. I tracked it back to... I don't remember, half across town?" He sighs, rubbing his eyes.
"I think you need this more than me." Rafael tells him with wide eyes and pushes his freshly fetched Cappuccino over to him.
"Much appreciated." Sosuke says, trying to down the drink, but burns himself at the first taste.
"Aww you poor thing." Hope says, brushing through Sosuke's head.
"Yeah I gotta find Dr. Saltzman, looks like we have a development afterall, keep an eye on her would you?" Sosuke says, getting up, looking at the two boys who nod in agreement.
"Oh you're so nice to worry about me, but I'm fine." Hope says happily.
"Yeah, I definitely need to see the Doctor." Sosuke murmurs and heads to the headmasters office.
Shortly after he left the Saltzman twins show up at the couch.
"Morning Rafael. We're officially back today." Lizzie greets the boy who dumped her on her birthday while having an arm around her sister.
"And welcome back Landon." Josie greets the human of the group.
"Didn't you vote me out?" Landon asks.
"That doesn't mean I don't like you. I just took the safe route." Josie replies, looking somewhat guiltily at him.
"Either way. It's all in the past. Now, is everyone excited about tonight?" Lizzie asks.
"What's happening tonight?" Landon asks.
"The school's annual talent show. All the factions compete." Josie answers.
"Yeah and the witch performance really wouldn't be the same without you two." Hope tells the twins.
"Thank you." They say surprised.
Just then a bell rings over the communicator and Alaric cancels the show because of the new monster that showed up.
"Kind of overkill if you ask me. I told your dad that a unicorn barely counts as a monster." Hope tells the twins.
Within minutes the two gemini witches are standing in the headmaster's office where Alaric is reading a book while Sosuke sits on one of the two chairs in front of the man's desk, his head tilted back and his eyes blinking and falling shut uncontrollably.
"Dearest father. Does this monster happen to be a magical pony?" Lizzie asks once the tso enter the room.
"Maybe." Alaric answers, not looking away from his book.
"Of all the manipulative ploys to.." Lizzie starts to say angrily only to get shocked by her armband which is supposed to help her be nicer by punishing bad behavior.
"With all due respect. I think that this is a matter for the honor council." She then says instead.
"Not really. If it is deemed dangerous then it's your dad's call." Sosuke groans tiredly.
"Would you... Will.. Ah" Lizzie attempts to chew him out, still majorly upset by how he rejected her before the party.
"I got it." Josie tells her sister.
"It's a unicorn we're talking about here. How dangerous can it be?" Josie asks, addressing both Sosuke and Alaric.
"Normally I would agree, if it weren't for the fact that Hope was... like Mary Poppins level happy. You have to admit that's a weird coincidence." Sosuke tells them.
"Maybe she's so happy because she's in love with Landon." Lizzie says glaring at Sosuke.
"It's your call. Maybe I'm a bit too biased and tired." Sosuke folds, giving the headmaster the responsibility to make a decision while he leaves to get to class, where he promptly falls asleep on his table.
Lizzie and Josie then announce that the talent show is back on again, to some students' relief and others dismay.
"So Lizzie was acting weird right?" Landon asks Rafael.
"Yeah but she's not the only one." Rafael replies, pointing at Hope.
"Babe. I have an idea. We should do a talent." Hope says excitedly, turning to Landon.
"We? Uh you and me?" Landon asks.
"I never wanted to before because I would have been doing it alone but now we'd be three. You, me and Sosuke." Hope tells him and grabs Landon's hand.
"Come on, we have to find him and tell him the good news." Hope says and leads them to the class Sosuke is sleeping at, floating him a paper that reads "talent show 3pm with Hope and Landon" and has a little heart drawn in the corner of it.
After waking from his nap at the end of his class Sosuke heads over to the class Hope asked him to come to as her test subject and he sits down beside her stifling a yawn while saying "Hey."
"You remembered. Even though you're so tired. You're the best." Hope greets him with a hug, Sosuke being happy that he's too sleepy to get aroused at the moment due to her close contact.
"So, what is this about the talent show?" He asks, taking out her letter while Hope is mixing a green goo together in a petri dish.
"Oh I decided we're going to do it this year. Fun right?" She says smiling widely.
"You never wanted to do one before." Sosuke says surprised.
"Yeah but then it was just me... You were obviously not gonna participate... But now you're supernatural too." She says.
"Hold still." She tells him and makes a cut over his cross shaped scar on his cheek with a scalpel while leaning in close.
"And now... I make it all better." Hope tells him, smearing a little of the goo over the cut and then wipes his cheek clean with a napkin, the cut being healed and gives the cheek a kiss.
"Well done Hope." The teacher tells Hope after seeing her goo work.
"Come on. We have to figure out our talent." Hope tells Sosuke, pulling him up and with her, meeting up with Landon and 10 minutes later Hope, Landon and Sosuke are standing in the kitchen.
"Are you sure cake decorating is our talent?" Landon asks Hope, the two checking on the progress of the cake itself.
"Sure it is. Unless you want to sing those songs I know you have written instead?" She offers and he shakes his head no.
"It involves... knives, so I'm fine with it." Sosuke says, thinking about how he can contribute to the talent.
"Yeah. And you'll both like it." She tells them, playfully flinging some decor at them while giggling.
"Are you on drugs?" Sosuke asks her concerned, Landon also looking at her concerned.
"No. I'm just happy I'm done overthinking everything and watching out for the bad side of things and I'm about to be on cloud 9. After we get rid of the urn obviously." She tells them and pulls Landon in by his shirt, kissing him before doing the same with Sosuke, until a trickle of electricity zaps her through their kiss and a slimy worm creature shoots out of her ear and lands on the cooking board, Landon stabbing it with a knife immediately.
"So that happened. And that happened." Landon says perplexed, pointing at her and Sosuke, who'se shirt she was still holding and then at the worm.
"Let's deal with the monster problem first." Hope tells him nervously while Soduke is looking at her wide eyed.
"Mr. Williams is still out there with the Unicorn." Souke then tells them worried.
"You're right. Let's go." She says, nodding for them to follow.
"What, no more holding hands?" Landon asks jokingly but Hope remains quiet, shocked by what she did during the day now that the monster is out of her.
"Mr. Williams, we need your help. Dr. Saltzman is MIA and this creepy slug came out of my ear. And I think there are more of them in the school." Sosuke adds, thinking about some students unusual behavior.
"One of these?" Alaric asks, holding up a mason jar with one of the crushed slugs, yellow goo splattered inside the glass container.
"Definitely." Landon confirms.
"I think our friendly visitor the unicorn brought them onto the grounds to infect all of us. I was just hoping the one that tried to get me would've been the only one." Dorian tells them.
Suddenly the unicorn neighs loudly and dies.
"Let's hope that means its out of slug thingies." Sosuke says.
"This creature looks similar to insects that reproduce inside a host though. So Hope and others could have spread more all over the school." Dorian says
"Great." Hope sighs feeling responsible.
"Let's get to the library and figure this out." Dorian tells them and the four hurry to the library to come up with a plan.
"So this slug was the real monster and the horse was only its host. Now from what you told me it latches onto the prefrontal cortex and basically removes someone's inhibitions.
"So I was slug drunk?" Hope asks.
"Basically, now it definitely must reproduce in the host since there are already 2 we've seen. And only 1 monster at a time comes originally." Dorian says.
"That's fine and all but how do we stop it?" Hope asks.
"That's the weirdest part. I can't find any legend on a creature like this." Dorian says, flipping through some pages of a book he just went through.
"Sci-Fi. It's often based on myths and in the movies its always all about mind control and Hope wanted to take the urn someplace before the slug popped out." Landon says.
"So it's like an infection. Getting worse as it spreads. Stage one, it lowers your inhibitions. Stage two you're susceptible to suggestion you'll do whatever the slug says." Dorian guesses.
"Stage three you join the unicorn." Landon adds.
"Did you see this Hope? Parts of this thing look bio-luminescent." Hope tells Dorian, having stared at the creature he collected in the jar for a long while now.
"Let me check that out." Dorian says and takes the jar, shining at it with a uv light he takes out of his emergency bag.
"Well, that clears up how it enters the host." Sosuke says, seeing a bright blue slime trail lighting up on Hope's face from behind her ear to her nostril.
"I don't want to know, do I?" Hope asks cringing along with Dorian and Landon.
"Nope. But now we know how we can track it." Dorian replies and gets out some more UV lights and everyone takes one.
The four of them then follow the multiplying slime trails all across school until the latest ones end at the talent show, where all other students have gathered and are performing by now.
"Not good. We need a way to de-slug everyone. And fast." Dorian says.
"Why did yours pop out?" Dorian asks Hope.
"I kissed them... and flup." She says awkwardly, pointing at the boys standing on either side of her.
"You kissed me second and I think I shocked you." Sosuke says in realization.
"Finally my powers have value." He then says. excited.
"So the plan is you lay one on everyone in here? That'll take an hour after the first ones start resisting." Landon chimes in.
"You're right. Uhh, Let me try something."
Sosuke says and turns to the three, holding up one hand and five tendrils of lightning climb out of his fingertips.
"Whoa. What are you doing with those." Landon asks worried and backs away with suit.
Sosuke looks to Hope who nods, trusting him completely and one of the tendrils connects to her arm.
"Tell me if you get shocked." He says and concentrates before closing his hand to a fist in a sudden movement and she yelps.
"Yeah it works." She says, watching the tendril leave her arm while the skin he shocked is reddened.
"Sorry." He apologizes and is about to caress her arm but instead turns to face the crowd of students who became aware of them after Hope's yelp.
"I gotta do it 10 at a time." Sosuke tells the three people behind him.
"We should go." Hope says, all of the students coming their way.
The four quickly run to the door at the top of the stairs they were on and slam it shut behind them.
"OK, divide and conquer. Mr. Williams, you try to reach the headmaster."
Hope you blockade the left exit and you the right one. There should be props you can use, you'll have to use your brute strength though." Sosuke tells the three while they are standing in front of the main doors with all of the students trying to push through.
"You can't hold them alone. You need me here.".Hope says, shaking her head.
"No. Now do as I told you." He says lowering himself and digs his feet into the ground until they sink in and he can anchor himself against a slab of concrete underneath while sitting with his back against the doors.
The three clear out reluctantly and Sosuke closes his eyes, 10 tendrils rising from his finger tips before they slide underneath the door and latch onto one person each. He then clenches his fists and they get shocked.
"Ahh! What the hell, how gross." A shrill girl's voice clearly telling him that it worked.
"If you were shocked, move away from the door and spread out." Sosuke tells them loudly over the noise of the controlled student mass.
He repeats this about 7 times before he got all of them.
"Hey you did it man." Landon tells Sosuke, patting his shoulder and helping him out of the hole his feet dug, Hope helping him up from the other side once she arrives and they tell the students to stay inside the theater though.
"We can't let one slip through the cracks. It can replicate again and again." Sosuke tells Hope and Landon, the three standing outside the theater.
"So what do we do? It clearly can survive outside of a host." Landon asks.
"MG, Kaleb!" Sosuke shouts, waving the vampires over and they join him, Hope and Landon outside the theater.
"You two go with Hope. Find Dorian and then you four will have to follow every single trail until it stops. Look everywhere and remember that a new trail can randomly start. Cross them out with some chalk along the tail if you followed them." Sosuke tells them, handing the vampires the uv flashlights.
"Why us?" Kaleb complains.
"Because if us humans do it. It'll take a day or two. With the four of you you should finish it tonight. Or in the morning.
In the meantime, you stand guard here while I barricade the side entrances." Sosuke says, pointing at Landon.
"Me? How am I supposed to stop them?" Landon questions.
"I won't take long. Just tell them I'll kick their ass if they try to leave." Sosuke tells him.
"Are we gonna do what he said?" Kaleb asks Hope once Sosuke disappeared to block in the side entrances.
"Yes. Or do you have a better plan?" Hope says.
"Just sleep on it?" Kaleb suggests.
"If those things stay inside you too long you'll die. So sleeping on it, not ideal." Landon tells Kaleb.
"Great. Let's go slug hunting." Kaleb says and they start to back track every slugs path, finding no stragglers in the house luckily.
When they get back, Sosuke shocks all four of them without so much as a warning.
"I thought you didn't want to use that on people." Kaleb reminds him.
"I'm not draining anyone. I'm doing the opposite. forcing my energy into you in the form of an electric shock." Sosuke replies.
"You got everything?" Sosuke asks the four and they nod.
"Alright, send them on their merry way in a single file, so I can shock them one more time." Sosuke says.
"They will love you for that." MG says sarcastically, rubbing the ankle where he just got shocked.
The students then one by one leave, Sosuke shocking them one after another and one straggling slug actually comes out of one of the students and is promptly stomped to death by an annoyed Kaleb.
"Alright that was everyone." Dorians says.
"Yeah... But how do we check this place?" Sosuke asks with a sigh, looking at the large room the students just cleared out of and sees slime trails leading up the walls.
"I think I can help with that." Emma says, arriving with Alaric, both teachers getting shocked on their hands courtesy of Sosuke.
"Hey!" Alaric complains.
"What? You got shocked once. We got zapped 3 times already." Kaleb tells the headmaster.
"Aximander Dust. It conducts electrity through anything it touches. Think of it as chain lightning." Emma says showing them a bottle.
"Great, I'm guessing you know a magic spell then that can blast the room?" Sosuke asks.
"None that would for certain kill these creatures." Emma admits.
"Great, so I have to do the one thing I can't figure out." Sosuke says defeated, but takes the vial and nods Kaleb over to give him a boost while he's reaching for an air duct.
"The next part you'll all love I'm sure. Get me angry and don't touch the vent." Sosuke tells them, looking back to the group before crawling into place.
"Alright, go. Make me angry." Sosuke yells, starting to spread the dust within the room.
"This is a time sensitive issue here." Sosuke tells them when no one says anything.
"Hold on, gimme a sec." Kaleb tells him and ushers the others away so they won't hear him.
Over the next two minutes Kaleb then proceeds to make fun of him only being able to use lightning when Hope is babying him and comes up with various descriptions of how he's weak, leaning into the whole 'quick shot' angle.
"Y'all my work is done." Kaleb says, feeling like a boss while going past the others, while Hope, Landon and the teachers go back inside to check on Sosuke, who they see lying on the very bottom floor with some melted metal underneath him and sticking to his clothes.
"What did you do?" Alaric asks fearful of the building damage.
"It's not a human-shaped hole... I would have hoped comedic relief would be my reward tonight." Sosuke says, lying on his back, looking up at the hole he melted into the vent when his electrical dome or whatever you want to call it appeared as he was getting angry.
Everyone follows his line of sight and most of them laugh or giggle at his comment.
"You OK?" Dorian asks Sosuke, helping him up from the metallic puddle which starts to harden on the floor.
"At least I don't seem to have burned anything inside here." Sosuke tells Alaric.
"Yeah. If one of your other blasts went off in here... Thanks for the consideration." Alaric says.
"Alright. I better take this stuff off before it fuses with my skin." Sosuke says, leaving with the others following and splitting up to their rooms.
After about an hour or so, trying to get to sleep but failing, Sosuke rolls out of bed and puts on some workout clothing and grabs his bag with a towel, escrima, some knives and gloves.
He is on his way to the gym when he spots someone at the pier, intending to make sure it's no one possessed by a slug he heads down to check it out and sees Landon tossing stones into the water obviously lost in thought.
"You're still up? Do I need to zap you?" Sosuke asks.
"No. Just thinking." He replies and fumbles in his pockets, pulling out the uv light, shining it all over his face.
"Alright. Have a good night then." Sosuke says and turns to leave.
"How long have you been in love with Hope?" Landon then asks before he can leave, leaning against the wooden railing on the side of the pier.
"5 years more or less." Sosuke answers, hopping onto the railing opposite from him.
"And you never made a move?" Landon asks surprised.
"She didn't start letting anyone in until we met you and Rafael. Plus I was kind of compelled not to feel much emotions... so no." Sosuke replies, chuckling at how weird it sounds out loud.
"I'm guessing you told her after your transformation then?" Landon asks.
"Nah. I didn't tell her, period. She just kind of found out about it the other day when she mind dove into my head to safe me from the oneiroi." Sosuke says.
"My nightmares involved a lot of you two canoodling." Sosuke explains.
"Sure." Landon says laughing.
"So, we good?" Sosuke asks Landon, picking up his bag again after hopping off the railing.
"Yeah. It's just weird right?" Landon asks uncomfortably.
"After today even more so." Sosuke nods in agreement and turns to leave.
"I'll come with you. Maybe I can learn some fighting tricks from you." Landon says, heading with him back towards the school building.
In that moment Hope steps out of the door and sees Sosuke and Landon standing next to each other, both looking at her in a way which warms and simultaneously breaks her heart, because her worm-caused slip up will no doubt mean that she has to decide on one of them soon.
"Hey." She says quietly, not looking them in the eyes.
"Relax Hope. We're not going to ambush you." Sosuke tells her with a grin and walks past her, continuing his way to the gym.
"Can we talk?" Hope asks Landon, who nods and the two step back onto thee pier, sitting down at its edge, their feet dangling just over the water.
"So... this is awkward." Landon says nervously.
"Landon. I like you. But... I also like Sosuke as I'm finding out about myself." She tells him honestly
"Yeah, the slug showed that." Landon says.
"I don't want to hurt either of you." She assures him.
"You can't avoid that though. Not for long at least." Landon tells her.
"Then what am I supposed to do? To me... it's not like I have a favorite or like one of you more than the other. It's the exact same feeling to me." She tells him and takes out her truth orb, showing its blue glow.
"That's playing dirty." Landon says chuckling.
"It's the only way I know how to convince either of you or myself." She says with a small frown.
"So, where are we going to go from here?" Landon asks.
"I don't know. I thought I would have a lot more time before I had to come to a decision between you two." She admits.
"Well that ship has sailed. But at least now we can be honest. No secrets right?" Landon asks.
"Yeah." She answers, caressing his arms but the crystal glows red.
"Care to explain?" Landon asks her, nodding to the crystal.
"I know what happened to your mom. Somehow I remember the Kansas trip." Hope confesses.
"That was over a week ago, when were you going to tell me that you know about my mom?" He Landon asks hurt.
"Never." she admits, the ball lighting up blue next to her.
"Thanks." Landon says sarcastically and tries to leave but she holds onto him and pulls him down, straddling him while tearing up, holding onto his arms firmly.
"I wanted to protect you. The truth isn't worth finding out." Hope tells him.
"But that is my decision to make, not yours. Just because you have to make a lot of tough decisions doesn't mean you make the right ones. Like with the Necromancer and definitely not with this." Landon tells her angrily.
"Fine, you want to know? Your mother worked for a secret organisation which keeps the supernatural world hidden by throwing creatures into Malivore when they make one wrong peep. She doesn't know who your father is. She never had a serious relationship and she went into Malivore so you wouldn't remember that she failed you as a mother and to get the organization that was after off our backs." Hope tells him, tears rolling down her face as she does so.
Landon looks over to the orb shocked and sees that it's blue.
"My mother didn't want me and you would have let me search for her forever, because she doesn't even exist anymore?" Landon yells upset.
"Well, problem solved Hope. I liked you, like a lot, but when did our relationship get so twisted into a lie? And why? You are the one I had to grovel for forgiveness for, for something I don't even understand. And yet you would keep this from me? The one thing I always wanted to know. And would have never found an answer to, if it weren't for this." Landon yells at her, tossing her orb in her lap.
"I didn't want to lose you. I thought if you didn't know about what happened you would be happy, here, with me." She says crying, the orb showing that it's the truth.
"Well you achieved half of it. I am staying, I mean I have no reason to go looking for my parents anymore and nowhere else to go. But we are nothing like before anymore. I don't even think I can trust you as a friend now." Landon says harshly and leaves.
Hope stays at the pier crying her heart out for what feels like an eternity for her before she wants to finish the job and come clean with Sosuke as well. She heads to the gym, where Sosuke is currently pounding on the punching bag.
"Hope? Came to tell me the bad news already?" Sosuke asks, seeing her shadow in the entrance but she doesn't say anything.
When he turns to face her she tosses him her crystal.
"I remember what happened on the Kansas trip. We met Landon's mom and she was on the run from a company that has control of malivore and uses it to get rid of supernaturals who appear to the public." She tells him, staying in the shadow while the otb glows blue.
"Why tell me now? And why keep it secret in the first place?" He asks confused.
"I had to tell Landon. He wanted to know the truth. And my keeping it secret for this time pushed him farther away than outright telling him could have ever done. I made a stupid mistake keeping it from the two of you." Hope says apologetically.
"Dr. Saltzman knew?" Sosuke ask.
"Yes. I had to tell him, for various reasons, but the biggest one is that he's like a father to me." Hope answers and Sosuke watches the ball light up blue.
"So you're only telling me this now because Landon already knows and you saw how that blew up in your face? Not because you genuinely want me or trust me to know?" Sosuke asks.
"Yes." Hope admits, her voice choking up.
"That hurts. But I don't get it. Why would I care about a secret about Landon's mom?" Sosuke asks.
"Landon's mom isn't why I didn't tell you. I was too ashamed to tell you what happened." She says and he watches the ball glow blue still.
"Then tell me now, since we're already at this point." He sighs, hearing her crying in the shadows while he sits down on the training mats underneath the punching bag.
"We found Landon and his mother at a motel. She stabbed you with that sword you now have. It was bad and I wasn't sure you were going to make it. We treated you as best as we could and I fed you blood as well. When a monster showed up for the urn however, I made the call to put a tracker inside it and follow the monster to Malivore." Hope tells him while sniffling.
"So? Sounds like a good idea. It worked right?" Sosuke asks.
"Yes. But only after Landon's mom entered Malivore, I finally realized what a mistake I had made." Hope says.
"I don't get it." Sosuke says confused.
"I forgot all about you. You were clinging to your life in the next room for all I knew and I took off without a second thought." Hope says, coming over to him finally close enough where he can see how much she was crying, obviously not only because of him but much of it because of Landon.
"I'm not mad about that. It was a tactical call. I'm sure I would have done the same." Sosuke tells her, taking one of her shaking hands carefully and pulls her down to himself and into a comforting hug.
"I forgot one detail." She realizes and leans away so she can see his reaction. "When you were hurt... You told me that you love me. I thought it was only the drugs talking until I asked Dr. Saltzman and he confirmed that you were telling me the truth." She tells him.
"So that's why you didn't start going out with Landon immediately." Sosuke says in realization.
"I'm so sorry." She apologizes again, fearing he's going to leave her and disappear as well like everyone else has so far.
"Here." He says, handing her his towel as he gets up.
She stares after him with teary eyes as he heads to the gym doors. She hugs her knees to her chest and cries even harder, burying her face in the towel and her knees.
"Geeze I guess you never really know everything about someone. To think you can cry so much." Sosuke's voice comes directly from behind her and she feels herself being lifted up with ease and carried over to the small bleachers in the gym. Sosuke had only locked the door so they won't get disturbed when he moved to the doors.
Sosuke sets her down on a row beneath him and lies back on his one.
"Are you curious what bothers me most about what you just said?" He asks a slight chuckle in his voice while he's playing with her orb between his fingers.
Looking over he sees her still sitting in a ball while she nods and tries to get herself under control again.
"That you told the old drunk before me." He says and she watches the ball light blue.
"I always hoped when it comes down to it, no matter what, that I would be your confidant over anyone else." Sosuke admits.
"There is one thing I still need you to tell me." Sosuke says, sitting up on the row and turning to her. Hope is basically sitting in a ball with his legs on either side of her.
"When did you start to like me?" He asks, holding the globe out between them.
"After your change." She admits.
"As much as this should make me angry or at least disappointed... I guess since I wasn't really in touch with much emotions before I can understand it." Sosuke admits, Hope watching the ball light up blue again with relief.
"So you're not going to leave me?" She asks, sounding hoarse from all her crying.
"I could never do that." He replies, shaking his head and sets the still blue ball down in her palm.
"This is really not how I thought this would go." Hope says sniffling, happy that at least Sosuke doesn't hate her.
"I promise, you can have all the time in the world to sort out your feelings and even if you... don't return mine I'm sure we'll find a way to stay close even then. But for just the next few minutes ... I can't keep that promise." Sosuke tells her and takes her hands, setting the blue glowing ball to the side and pulls her up so she's standing in front of him with him getting up as well and tilting her head slightly up because he's taller and kisses her gently.
Hope has other expectations however and she wipes away a few tears before whispering "We can do better than that."
Her arms wrap around his shoulders and neck while she goes on her tiptoes as she kisses him passionately, his hands loosely holding her.
"Are you sure you want to waste this chance by holding back?" She asks him, stroking down one of his arms and squeals happily when he pulls her firmly against himself and seemingly convinces her of his years of pining for her with his hungry lips while a lightning bolt passes over her head and blows the sandbag into nothingness.
"We should get some rest now..." Sosuke says breathing heavily when they break away from the kiss, holding her in a firm grip still.
"We should." She agrees but moves in for more kissing.
"One last kiss." Sosuke accepts and claims her lips once more while lifting her up with ease, his hands holding her by her waist.
The kiss lasts for a while before they part lips disappointed.
He sets her back down and caresses her cheek before sighing out tiredly and letting her go. He then lies down on the row above her and she climbs up the extra row, lying down on the other half of the bench, their heads nearly touching upside down, with a few stray strands of her hair finding their way onto his face.
After the eventful and emotionally draining day the two fall asleep almost immediately.