Hellbound With You

Back in the cabin.

Alicia was still making that sniffling sound when she woke up. "Did I just… dozed off?" she uttered incredulously as she pulled away from Zeke's arms, looking up at him with her brows knotted together.

She noticed that their positions had not changed at all from before she fell unconscious. It was as if he had not even made a single movement. Their clothes were still heavy and saturated with water, but his body was so hot that she could not even feel any coldness. In fact, it was as though she had been just soaking in a pool of warm water.

"You put me to sleep, didn't you?" she asked again, eyes narrowing and tone suspicious when Zeke suddenly kissed her mouth for three seconds. The man must be trying to throw me off the topic. She knew how he worked now.

He pulled away and buried his face into her shoulder again. "I didn't know how to stop you from crying." The explanation came out soft and a little muffled from his mouth being pressed so closely to her shoulders.

Alicia's jaw dropped. "What?! You put me to sleep because of that?" Seriously?!

Zeke just looked away as he spoke. "You're such a crybaby." He murmured in a teasing manner. Alicia sputtered at the accusation, not wanting to acknowledge it but knowing it was somewhat true as she was crying quite a lot earlier and lately.

"I… I'm not usually like this. I only found out recently that I can actually cry so easily and have a hard time stopping the tears. And I honestly think that this is all your fault, Ezekiel. You must have somehow done something and turned me into a crybaby." She said that last line a little playfully.

He returned his gaze to her, tilting his head. Those dark and fathomless eyes of his roved over her face as he observed her quietly for some minutes. Alicia was content to stay still and allow him to look as much as he wanted. So she might as well just enjoy the time with him.

"I don't think so. The first time I saw you, you were crying too. So I already had that preconceived notion that you already cry very easily even before you met me officially."

Alicia stilled. Her gaze was now searching his so intensely. She remembered clearly the day that they first met. And she was sure as hell that she had not been crying back then!

"What are you… talking about? Don't tell me… you've already met me before we've even met up that day in the Black Forest?" Alicia was looking at him in disbelief now. How many more secrets was this man keeping from her?!

It was true that that meeting was not the first time she had seen Ezekiel. She had actually been spying on him way before then, when she was out for training. Could it be that he too, had already seen her during one of those times?

Her eyes narrowed as she noticed that Ezekiel tensed up a little. Did he just have a slip of the mouth?

She cupped his face and pinched his cheek, but gently this time and without the punishing force she had done previously. "Answer me, Ezekiel. No more hiding things from each other, please. Don't make me cry again." then she pouted and turned her watery puppy eyes on him full force.

His brow raised. "Are you using your crying to threaten me?"

"Do you like seeing me cry?" she shot another question back at him instead of answering.

"No." his response was instant and serious.

"Well, that's a weak threat because you'd just put me to sleep –" Alicia muttered as she mused on it while she nibbled on her lower lips.

"No. It's actually a strong threat." He cut her off, surprising her with his words. "Because even when you're sleeping, you still make those sounds that I cannot stand." His serious tone coupled with the furrowing of his brow and his face set in that confused manner, all just seemed too adorable to Alicia. She never would have thought to be able to see the almighty Ezekiel in a stump over matters such as her crying or making sounds while she sleeps.

Alicia struggled to keep herself from grinning. She bit her lower lip and feigned not being touched and melted into puddle. This man was being so damned… adorable right now. Despite his one eye which was still black as the abyss of hell, he still could exude that somehow cute aura. Well, this might never appear cute to others but...

"Then answer me, Ezekiel, or else…" she lifted her chin, challenging him, letting him know that she was more than serious. There were still a lot of reasons for her to cry. The fact that he had yet to accept her offer and that latest issue were still causing a heavy weight to reside in her chest.

"Remember the place my mother said I'll go but I never actually managed to?" he asked Alicia in a low voice.

That one question made Alicia instantly turned silent and still in his arms.

She only gave a tiny nod of her head. That was when Ezekiel was escaping, and he was planning to go to that place his mother had asked him to go to. But he never reached it because his demonic powers had been awakened and he had immediately returned to rescue his siblings post haste.

"For hundreds of years," Ezekiel continued, "I had never bothered to look for that place. I don't know why, but… I just never thought about it again. I don't know what had exactly prompted me to remember it a few years ago, but I finally went to search for the place. It took me a long while before I finally found it. And…" his gaze on her seemed to intensify. "It was there that I first saw you, Alicia. You were in that exact place, crying."