wear your heart on your sleeve

When Orion came to, he felt something cool and damp dabbing at his face. Fingers tenderly brushed hair out of his eyes, and it made him want to lie there peacefully forever. He breathed in fresh air, and breathed out to a painful stinging sensation that wracked his ribs and he broke into a coughing fit.

“Hey, easy,” came Halie’s gentle voice, and her face started coming into focus. “He said…he said you didn’t break anything, thank god. I’m…” She swallowed thickly, “I’m so glad you’re alright.”

Orion struggled to sit up, feeling the twinge of pain that stabbed his chest.

“Just rest,” Halie insisted, her hands hovering lightly over him. But instead of pushing him down, she just stayed there, unmoving for a long moment. She was being gentle with him for the first time ever, and it was probably because he was injured. “You need to recover your strength. You’re too hot to die like this.”

“Why do you always have to ruin the moment,” Orion groaned, burying his hands into his face. “I didn’t need to hear that.”

She laughed. “But we survived all that so you can keep dealing with my bullshit, right? We made it out of there, against all odds. You know, I was really scared the whole time.”

“Somehow, I doubt that,” Orion said dryly, peering through his fingers and becoming momentarily stricken by the way her smile lit up everything. He missed her. He missed her a lot.

“I was terrified!” she insisted, and he felt her hand ghost over his shoulder before she pulled back, settling herself down to sit next to him. “This wasn’t supposed to happen. Leonis was the one who should’ve been locked up. We were supposed to rescue him together. Aries was supposed to let us go. I’m…”

“...sorry.”

“Sorry,” Orion said, at the exact same time. Halie’s viridian eyes widened slightly, before her face broke into a strained smile.

“No, I should be the one apologizing. See, Actaeus already told me everything.” She took a deep, steadying breath. “I played the game so many times, I was convinced the common route should’ve been linear. ‘Cause I was…so focused on getting your route, I didn’t know I still needed the other guys as my allies. To think I was the one who reassured you that they wouldn’t fall in love with me—I didn’t realize Aries would straight up try and kill us. Lol.”

Lol indeed.

Despite everything, it was nice to hear that Halie put his—Magnaolia’s—route over getting along with the other guys. Her one-track mind was endearing. Even if it wasn’t meant for him, not entirely, it still made him feel something. Something that he was trying his best not to quantify for a while, because he didn’t think he had the right.

But to hell with what was right or wrong or whatever—he could’ve died today and met a gruesome bad end without ever getting to see Halie again.

“I’ll do my best for you,” Orion said earnestly. “I won’t ever let you be scared or alone again. I’ve been meaning to tell you but I just…couldn’t get the words out or something. And then all that shit happened.”

“Gee, thanks,” she said, looking slightly embarrassed. “You’re a pretty nice guy, after all.”

“Huh? What did you think of me before?”

She shook her head, clamping her mouth tightly shut, so Orion assumed the worst. But to him, the bygones didn’t matter anymore. Since the moment he thought he lost her, he’d given up on his pride, his dignity, his everything. He needed to consolidate that into words before he changed his mind, even if it meant laying his heart bare.

“I don’t know if this is too late,” he said haltingly. “Or maybe it’s too early. I mean it hasn’t even been two days since we met. But it feels like a lifetime has passed and we’re not growing any older. Or was it the other way around? I’m not so dramatic as to say that I’d die for you, but maybe I’d get hit by a metal bat for you. Or something.”

“Um, sorry to break it to you but you didn’t get hit protecting me,” said Halie. “You got hit on your own.”

“I know that! It’s just a figure of speech!”

Orion was taking too long to get the point, and he was pretty sure he got that from her somehow. So he stuck his tongue out at her without thinking, to which she gasped and clutched at her heart and he regretted everything.

“No fangirling yet—I’m not done! I think I—” He paused, weighing the simplest words in the world on his tongue. “Because you’re you. At least, I think it’s because it’s you.”

“What are you on about?”

“What I meant is—my affection levels for you are over 55%!” he blurted out. “And I don’t expect you to, well, do anything more than fangirl over this guy’s face. I’m really sorry that I’m not that Orion, but I’ll keep doing my best for you. Because that’s what I want to do.”

If he crawled into a pool of contaminated water now, maybe he could still save himself. He’d already dropped his gaze to the floor when he first started rambling, unable to bring himself to look her in the eye. A part of him almost didn’t want to hear her response and maybe that was why he just kept going on and on and on.

Maybe he should keep going.

“Did you think I was that shallow?” Halie asked slowly, breaking the brief moment of silence that felt like an eternity. “That the only thing I care about is your face?”

“Well no,” he said. His words stumbled over his tongue. “I’m pretty sure you said you really liked his personality. Like how he never raises his voice, never yells at people, never gets angry. Something like that. I’ve got his face and all, but I don’t have that.”

“I know you don’t,” she said. “And that’s okay. Because you’re—”

“I don’t want to interrupt a heartfelt moment, but we have to get moving.”

Halie flinched slightly at that, and if Orion didn’t know any better, he’d have thought she could hear the Entity as well. And then—

“Goddamnit, I forgot you were still here, Actaeus,” she groaned. “I thought I told you to give us some time.”

“I’ve given you both more than enough time,” the Entity scoffed. “Finish your confession later—we have to go.”

Huh? Orion felt like he had crash-landed back to the earth after he’d floated too close to the atmosphere. What was she going to say before they got interrupted?

“Right,” Halie said, dusting off her knees as if she hadn’t just nearly given Orion a heart attack, and was now acting like speaking with the Entity was the most normal thing in the world. Then she shot him a worried glance, because he was frozen solid. “I hope Actaeus didn’t give you a hard time.”

“Actaeus?” he repeated.

“Me,” the Entity said simply.

Orion gaped at Halie, as the words finally registered. “Like, Actaeus Viriadian, the heroine’s twin brother?”

“The one and only. Now get going before I spill every single impure thought you’d ever had about my dear sister.”

“Wait, what the hell? When did I have impure thoughts about her?” Orion spluttered.

“Hey, spill,” Halie said eagerly. “I’m not moving from this spot until you tell me everything in detail.”