[So what was your plan? Hm? Charge in here and then what?] Saka tilted his head as he studied the girl trapped between him and the wall, her face inches away from his left breast. [What's the second step, twerp?]
In these kinds of situations, it was imperative anyone kept their cool and avoided any form of distraction, but Saka was not really giving April much wiggle room. He was way too close for comfort. And despite his hands being secured to his back, he was proving a nuisance, his bare skin getting close enough to brush against hers.
Damn the tank top!
"I think…" she whispered. "...the effective thing to do… is for you to step back… and get your flesh away from my face, ya brute!"
Her heart skipped a beat as he pressed closer, daring.
Saka scoffed at her yelled proposal and made a low growling sound, his jaw working inside his muzzle.
[That's a bold choice of words to insult me with, considering you're the one who charged in here with intentions to harm me.]
"Harm you." April looked up at him with scrutiny. "Harm you? Harm—are you trying to be funny? You're the one who agitated me! And might I add it's your fault you're in here? You got captured by a single ninja."
[And give or take six hundred elven warriors while I was trying to rescue your ungrateful, plump little behind!]
His grey, swirling iris eyes narrowed to slits down at her.
"My what!?" She barely managed to lift her knee and directed it to his crotch.
By whatever luck, Saka pulled back, his expression hardening more than the steel ropes binding him. She stumbled forward, free.
She'd attempted a very crude move on him! Little did she know it had served to agitate the seemingly calm young pale elf. As in:
[Little brat!] His voice rang in her head. [Do you want to die now?]
April let out a shaky breath, allowing herself to laugh at the situation. That was the most uncomfortable position she had ever found herself in. She had been grabbed by the waist, given mouth-to-mouth, dangled from bridges and hoisted over the shoulder, but this? This had all the cells in her body reactive. As in, never-been-touched-before reactive. And she probably was never going to get that hit in anyway—but better safe than sorry.
"Would I have felt it too if I'da kicked his—"
[Hey, little rat!] Saka's thoughts plowed through hers. [I can hear every stupid thing you think, y'know!]
April lifted her chin, wearing an irritated and slightly embarrassed look before knotting her hands into fists. Damn the Soul-Tie!
"So what?" She asked. "It's better if you know what an unpredictable and formidable adversary you're dealing with!"
Yes… adversary. Indeed.
Saka stood as still as a statue as he watched her stomp to him, her harem pants looking lively, twin tails swinging courageously behind her, hair as wild as ever. She pointed a finger up his muzzle.
The thing three times smaller than him had such chutzpah.
"I didn't visit you here because I have some sort of emotional attachment to you," she declared, barely batting an eyelash. "Neither do I care if you're locked up, nor when you're free."
Saka's eyes widened in mock shock. She added:
"Things are getting weirder and weirder by the second in this castle. My long lost orphanage brother is suddenly here and he looks thirty! He has powers… I'm a predator…! But if you're not free, neither am I and that's another thing on its own."
She gazed up his tall frame, mirroring his wide-eyed expression. Surely, there were times when she just drowned in unnecessary emotions and self-degradations and self-loathing as if she was being paid for it.
And then there were moments like these. Reasonable concerns.
Her finger slowly trembled down from his muzzle to her side, her tails drooping. And as sure as she never disappointed, she delivered her winning speech:
"Look… when you found me in that forest, I'd just gotten separated from Hiroko." She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, her eyes focusing on a spot on the floor.
"He'd tried to save me when we got sucked into that vortex portal thingy. Then I met you guys and… things went south… I barely had enough time to think about him. He was gone, I was here, I was dying… But the point is… he is a good person, and I would do anything to gain his forgiveness but…" she trailed off, thinking of her next words.
"I don't think words will be…" Her eyes lifted to connect with Saka's but she paused.
"What the?" She wiped her eyes, her neck inflated. "Hey! Are you kidding me?"
Saka's eyes snapped open when she shoved him back.
"How could you fall asleep in five seconds, ya big yeti!" She kicked his shin impulsively.
Two seconds later, an invisible force hit her own shin, knocking her down and onto her knees.
"Owey, freckles!" She grabbed her shin, wincing.
Saka looked down at her from his pretend slumber with a blank expression in his eyes, his hips tilting with his head.
[I don't care why you're here, who you cursed or how guilty you are.] His telepathic voice flowed into her mind, flat, detached and overall uninterested. [Your predicament is personal.]
She raised her head at him, still soothing her shin while her lower lip trembled feebly. Even boys from different dimensions used the same callous sayings!? The cruel irony!
Saka sighed through the muzzle.
[I don't care about anyone's problems unless I'm the direct source. You want to free your friend out of guilt? Good for you. But the High Council of Cronies will not give you the choice.]
"Then they'll give him the choice!" April raised her voice, trying her best not to look even more pathetic. "I can't have him die here. Now."
[Too bad! Death is most likely what they'll choose for him immediately,] Saka proclaimed, raising his chin. [If they haven't already considered it.]
April rose to her feet, maintaining her gaze with the tall young man. She could do better than allow everything to weigh her down, not now. Not after Hiroko just poofed back into her life. Her whole thing couldn't have just been negative from left to right and up and down. And if she was as important to the High Council of Elders as they were making obvious, then she could use that. She could make them see his importance as well.
…If he didn't flatten her first.
…Or not.
"What happened to him…?"
Maybe it was all a delusion telling her she could bargain with the Elven High Council of Elders. A bunch of beings who had lived countless lifetimes more than her!
Maybe this was her finally going crazy. After all, she had previously had a conversation with rabbits a few weeks prior the council.
Either way!!
"I'll convince them to let him join Kuri and Kakuro." She declared in a whisper. "Get him a spot in this weird castle."
Saka narrowed his eyes.
"And I'll get you out as well, even if I'm to reveal our Soul-Tie."
[And if they don't believe you?] Saka asked dryly, noticing the deflated look on her face.
April scoffed and crossed her arms, her tails swinging mischievously behind her despite the pouty expression on her face. "I'll threaten to jump off a cliff!"
That was the best she could come up with? Saka raised an eyebrow in disbelief.
[That is… the most hairbrained thing I've ever heard.] Saka muttered, narrowing his eyes.
April's eyebrows pulled together as she huffed. "I don't suppose you have a better idea, Mr. Third Prince, sir!?"
[You're crazy, little girl,] Saka stepped back. [I shouldn't even tell you how crazy stupid you are! Everything you think of is gonna get us killed. I don't even want to talk to you. Get out of my cell!] His telepathic voice rose inside her head.
He turned away from her.
"No!" April yelped. "I don't wanna!" She lifted her hands and, like a little koala bear, jumped, clinging onto him. "You're gonna help me. You're gonna help me save us."
Saka's body leaned back, rigid, his eyebrow twitching. "Heurgh!" He made a wretching sound as he grimaced. [Get. Off!]
The girl squeaked a refusal, clinging around his bare and narrow waist. She had no intent of leaving without his word, and he knew her thoughts because of the bond. Saka's forehead adopted a light shade of purple as frustration sank into his nerves.
[April, I swear upon my name, I will bite you in half!!] His teeth ground together, his frustration turning into anger.
April refused. "No. You're now my partner in soul. If you want me to let go, make me~" She stuffed her face into his chest, whimpering like a puppy.
[...]
"..."
A heavy silence befell the cell. The two remained bound by souls and April's arms in the middle of the room for a moment, Saka staring down at the half-blonde-half-ravenhead clinging to him like he was some sort of a lifeline.
The whole idea was pure madness, they both knew that much. But she was very insistent on some sort of a fellowship between them. She wanted to save someone she had absolutely no power of saving.
And that was amusing.
[You're a stubborn thing…] Saka declared, watching how her tails swished behind her to a response. He lifted his eyes and noticed behind the cell bars Eref and Irstte standing, holding spears, their eyes judgemental and piercing. [...admirable but you're directing it to the wrong person.]
April lifted her face from his abdomen and looked up at him with a long face, her green eyes shimmering with confusion. Saka shook his head, messy white hair flowing down his shoulders. He added:
[Unless you want to get the stupid spanked out of you, let go. I only have enough tolerance.]
April felt her breath hitch. She involuntarily let go of him and took an immediate step back, her eyes wide. The first time a boy told her he would spank her and she felt horrified. The glint in his eyes told her he was serious—as he always was—but a chill ran down her spine and she felt utterly exposed. She backtracked a little.
Outside the cell, Eref unlocked the cell bars and Irstte rattled them open. They marched closer to the two. April was still gawking up Saka's form when they spoke.
"The meeting shall commence once more." Eref announced. "We shall escort you to your fate."
But April was more focused on the statuesque young man before her, as the guards waited behind her.
[I'm not your friend. Because you're going to be the death of us.]
April took another step back as the words echoed in her head.
The guards took a step forward. "Now," Irstte grabbed her arm and tugged her back.
She maintained eye contact with Saka who stared blankly down at her. He didn't care, didn't come near cracking an expression.
"Is he humiliating me or praising me...?"