Book 3: Chapter 48: Patch 8.0: The Temple in the Forest

“Are – are we really going to do this? Here?” Cassiel asks, struggling to look Fenrir in the eyes as he leans over her on top of the bed. While Oleander and the rest of them are fighting their way through the undead-infested caves, Fenrir has cleaned off the bed to the best of his ability and is now on top of her with all but his pants off.

“You’re the one who started trying to take my clothes off,” Fenrir teases as he starts to unbutton her vest.

“I… I just got into it, you ba… Ryo-Ryouta. H-hey.”

“What is it?”

“Can we – can we call each other our real names? Y-you know, while we…”

While his hands work at her vest, his body held up by his elbows on each side of her, he leans his head down to her ear and whispers, “I love you, Cassandra.”

Cassiel wants to just flip over and bury her face into the pillow so that Fenrir can’t see it, but instead, she stays facing him and even looks him in the eyes when he hangs his head over hers. “I lo… I love you too, Ryouta,” she softly whispers.

Fenrir may be used to affection and confessions of love from Serra and Nell, but when it comes to Cassiel, she makes him blush every time she says or does anything like that. He’s just so used to her always calling him a bastard and threatening to kill him that he forgets she has this side to her as well sometimes, so when she brings it out, it’s extremely effective against him.

“I’m sorry they’re not as big as Nyaiko’s…” Cassiel whimpers as Fenrir pulls her breasts out from her bra and gropes them. “I – I know you like them—”

“I love yours just as they are, silly. Whether it’s your real body or your in-game body, you’re perfect and I love everything about you,” Fenrir says, lowering his head to her breasts to place gentle kisses on them. It doesn’t take long for his mouth to reach her nipples where he then takes time to suck on each one of them, alternating between the two so that neither is left out.

“Nn… why… why are you so good to – to me?”

Fenrir pulls his face away from her chest to look up at her face.

She’s crying.

“Hey, hey, it’s alright. What’s wrong?” he asks, one hand resting on the side of her face and wiping away some of her tears.

“I’m always so… mean to you a-and I – I know I have a bad personality and that I’m mean and rude and bossy and—”

Fenrir places his lips against hers in a soft, comforting kiss.

Cassiel closes her eyes and tries to kiss him back for a few seconds before just crying even more, pulling away from him.

“I know you’d like me better if I was more – more like the others… I wish I could be more like Aiko and be all over you, but it’s – that feels impossible for me. I’m still – I’m… I’m still scared that something might happen and you’ll, you know, umm… if – if you,” she lowers her voice, “l-leave me.”

“I’m never going to leave you, Cassandra. Why do you think I might?” Fenrir asks, caressing her head while speaking in a gentle tone.

“Because… my past – my past boyfriends always made everything sound like it was my fault, and I was always blamed for everything, and – and my mom, she always… everything was always my fault, so I’m just scared that – you know? I’m scared of doing something stupid and pushing you away, even though I – and sometimes I’m just… so horrible to you because I want to stop myself from loving you even more than I already do, and I – I love you so much that it hurts, and just… I’m – I’m scared of messing up, but I know that being so mean all the time is probably worse than anything I might accidentally do,” Cassiel explains between sniffling and crying.

Fenrir rolls onto his back next to her on the bed, staring up at the ceiling.

“S-see! You – you, now you—”

“Now I just feel like a bad boyfriend for not noticing my girlfriend was feeling like that,” Fenrir answers, pushing one of his arms underneath her to pull her closer and partially onto him. “You should have told me that sooner, but I also should have paid more attention and thought about why you were like that instead of just chalking it up to some stupid trope. I should have known better than to assume that there was no real reason behind any of that.”

There may be dozens of undead just outside of the room they’re in, still banging on the door trying to break in, but to Fenrir and Cassiel, there is total silence aside from the sounds of their voices.

“I – I don’t want to be like that anymore. I want to be more honest and – and, and I want to be clingy and spoil you and tell you how much I love you all the time, and I don’t want you to think I hate you, and—”

“I’ve never once thought you hated me – well, after you thrust into me from behind without any warning,” Fenrir says, kissing the top of her head.

Cassiel, instead of getting angry at him for bringing that up, nuzzles her face against his chest and lets out a quiet giggle. “I’m – I’m sorry about that… and I’m sorry about how I’m always so mean.”

“It’s alright, Cassandra. I love you. Even the part of you that calls me a bastard and threatens to kill me – I love all of you.”

“But – but I don’t want to be like that anymore.”

“Then don’t be. I’ll love you even if you stop doing that. I’ll always love you no matter what, alright? I promise.”

“R-really?”

“I promise to love you forever, Cassandra,” Fenrir pledges, kissing the top of her head again.

“Then – me, t—I promise to – the same… I – I! I promise to love you forever!” Cassiel practically shouts into his face, hardly an inch separating them now.

She turns bright red when she realizes how loudly she just shouted that, but she doesn’t dare avert her eyes from his. That would just be running away from how she truly feels, and she refuses to do that from this moment on. Her excited pledge, no matter how embarrassing it may have been, is the first step forward for her.

Fenrir is red from her statement as well, and he desperately wants to wipe away the new tears running from her eyes, but he knows that they’re not tears of sadness this time.

They wrap their arms around each other and allow their lips pressing against one another to do all of the talking.

With their voices silenced, nothing but soft moans escaping their mouths as they kiss, the tunnel outside grows quiet as the undead outside can no longer hear anything coming from within the room.

Of course, neither Cassiel nor Fenrir cares about that right now. All they care about is each other.

“Hey,” Cassiel pulls away and whispers, “earlier you said something about our hair. Do you… do you have a preference?”

“A preference for what?” Fenrir asks, running his fingers through her hair and petting the back of her head.

“How – how I have my hair.”

“Nope. I think you’d look good with all sorts of hairstyles. Even if you go bald, I’ll still love you and think you’re perfect.”

“I’m not going bald, you… I love you.”

“It’s alright if you slip up sometimes. I’m sure it’s habit at this point to call me a bastard.”

“No! I’m not – I refuse to call you that again. I’ll only call you that if you cheat on me or do something to really piss me off. You don’t deserve to be called a bastard just because I’m bad with my emotions.”

“You know, you said earlier that you’re worried about not treating me good, but you really are amazing to me, Cassandra. You take care of me, help me clean up, you tease me for what I’m into but I know you don’t actually judge me, you’re a badass, don’t get mad at me when I stare at your boobs, you wear sweaters, and you’re just perfect.”

“Those sound like low standards.”

“Hah, I know they might sound like low standards, but I mean it. You really are perfect whether you’re calling me a bastard or not. I’m sure Serra and Alice think the same.”

“Can – can I just ask one thing, please?”

“Of course you can.”

“I don’t mind if you poke my sides sometimes… but can you – can you please stop doing it in public? It really is embarrassing, and I don’t like other people hearing me make those sounds.”

Fenrir places his hands on her sides, but he doesn’t poke her. Instead, he gently slides his hands up and down along her sides which sends shivers up her spine and causes her to arch her back. “I promise not to poke your sides in public anymore, Cassandra. I’ll make sure nobody else does, either. If there’s anything that ever makes you uncomfortable or that you don’t like, just let me know and I’ll promise not to do it. Alright?”

Cassiel smiles and nods her head before kissing him again.