I sat there in the dark with my arms around my legs. It was really cold, and my teeth were chattering so loud that it was all I could hear.

I didn’t know how long we’d been trapped in here. It seemed like hours had passed.

I looked to my side, and even though I couldn’t see anything, I knew he was there.

Neither one of us had noticed the avalanche of rocks until it was too late to get out of the way.
All I remembered was him shouting my name, and putting his giant arms around me.
Then everything went black.

When I woke up,
I was safe and unharmed.
He was trapped beneath huge boulders of rocks.

Both of us had tried to free him from under the pile, but it was no use.
The rocks would not budge.
It seemed like the whole mountain had fallen on him.
I didn’t dare turn him back to his cursed form, fearing the unbearable weight of the giant stones would crush him.
We were surrounded by rocks, and there was no way out.

I could tell the air was getting thinner now because it was getting harder and harder to breathe. I closed my mouth tightly, trying to take the smallest sips of air.
All of a sudden, I heard him moving.
“Don’t move too much,” I said crawling over to him. “You’re hurt.”
“No… I think I found a crack in the rocks…”
“Really?!” I tried to look in the direction he pointed.

Sure enough, I saw a little bit of light seeping through a small opening.
It was barely big enough for me to craw through.

“Go…” he said.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard him talk in such a weak voice.
It was clear that he was in a lot of pain.

“No,” I said. “I’m not leaving you here.”
“What?!”
“You heard me.”
“You idiot girl!” He was getting mad now. “If you don’t go you’ll die!”
“I don’t care. I’m not leaving you here.”

I stared at him through the thin light.
He stared back at me, his eyes burning in my pupils.
“Why…” he finally asked. “Why…?”
I didn’t know what to say.
I felt my cheeks start to burn a bit.
“Because… because…”
His fierce eyes staring straight at me made it even harder to get out what I was trying so hard to express.

“… You would do the same for me, right?” I said, not really wanting to finish my previous sentence.

“If you died I would never be able to return to my true form. If I died,
you’d… you’d… still have Goki to protect you…”
“That’s not the point!!” I cried. “That’s not the point…”
“Then what, Chiaki? What?”

I found myself staring helplessly into his eyes.
I took a deep breath. There was no way I could lie to those eyes.
“Because I don’t know what I’d do without you……
I’m not going to leave you, Zenki. I won’t.”
In the darkness, my hand found his, and I gripped onto it as hard as I could.
“……I’ll never leave you……”

He didn’t say anything, but he slowly clamped his fingers around mine.
I knew he wanted to tell me something. It was his pride that was holding him back.
I knew if he was to say something nice, it would make him seem weak.

I don’t expect him to do anything like that.
He never had and never would.
I knew clearly that he had no feeling for me.
I looked away, not wanting him to see my forming tears.

Maybe it was the thin air that made him a bit light headed, because I felt his other hand slowly raise and touched my cheek.
I turned, and saw that his eyes were filled with a weird glow that I had never ever seen before.
Now it was me who was looking all confused.
“…Zenki…?”

He didn’t answer me.
Instead, he reached his arm around me, and pulled me down into a warm embrace.

At first I was really startled.
Okay, I was VERY startled.
His brain must have been really running low on oxygen.

Finally I lost all thoughts, and melted bonelessly into him…………
 

BOOM!!!!!!!!

I jumped at the explosion and quickly shielded my eyes as the ever-bright light shot into my pupils like a thousand needles. I heard the voices of Grandma Saki, Goki and the others.

“Chiaki!!! Zenki!!! Are you two alright?!”
I yelled back that we were fine.

I looked down at him. He still had his arms around my waist.
And then, for the first time ever, he smiled at me.

Not a grin, not a smirk.

An actual smile.

I giggled and leaned over.
I put a hand to his ear and whispered something.
He laughed, and soon I was laughing with him.
 
We were still laughing when the others came.
They all looked at us like we just turned into purple skinned aliens.