Chapter 364: 364 - Addressing the Elephant in the Room
Slowly but surely, Noah made his way through the hall. Occasionally, one or two employeed would be seen in the distance or coming through the same hall he was, but they all seemed hurried. The small distance between the bathroom and the private room, that before whent by in but a second, now seemed to be taking ages to overcome. A strange sense of anxiety started growing in him, as Noah feared someone would arrive before he did, and slowly but surely increased his pace, before breathing a sigh of relief, as he saw the closed door.
"It"s me," he said, knocking twice, and the door sliding open to the pink haired healer"s face. "Did you guys talk while I was gone?" Noah asked her, and blinked as he saw her face grow red, throwing a fleeting glance at the other two, who avoided his eyesight. "I hope those three didn"t talk something outrageous..." he thought, as he recalled the strange message he received, and covetly hurried inside, closing the door behind him and locking it, something n.o.body had done until now.
Only one of the girls realized the change in his behavior, since it was very slight and hidden, but Khish chose not to alarm anyone, and said nothing, only paying closer attention to him as he sat back down on the table, followed by Sha.
"... So, anything you guys want to fill me up in?" he asked, Khish biting her lip, and Al clearing her throat.
"We won"t give up," she said, throwing Noah off guard.
"Excuse me?" he asked his mouth failing to close back up due to the surprise.
"I said we won"t give up! We know Sha has the lead and the advantage, but we decided we all want to have a fair dispute over this," she said, making Noah"s stomach churn at being seen as a prize.
"Hold on a second, I have a say in this!" he protested, putting his hand on the table as he stood up. "I belong to n.o.body, and I"m not a prize you guys have to dispute over," he raised his voice, before dropping himself down back onto the chair, all three pairs of eyes staring at him in disbelief. "It"s not like I dislike or hate any of you, or that I find any of you guys unattractive. But I won"t let myself be treated like a womanizer that just wants women to fight over him left and right," he said, making the girls have different reactions, despite all stemming from the same thing.
"This is not a fight, or a dispute, or anything like that. And, for now at least, I"m not interested into having that kind of thing with anybody," he said, making all but Sha furrow their brows. "I have a life to deal with, a family to take care of, and a lot of things I haven"t yet figured out about myself. I just recently stopped being a broke person, I just recently got my sister out of the hospital, and I only today became the Elder of one of the Nine Families," he started, pouring everything that was weighing in on his heart out, and discounting the stress of the last few days all in one fell swoop. "I"m not going to drag anyone in this mess of a life. Sha, you are my friend, the only person I wholeheartedly trust to have my back on Fortresses and the only healer I ever relied on without worrying. I want to keep having that, and you were also the first person in our team I opened up to about Lilith, so I hope we can keep at least that trust," he said, making the pink-haired healer blush, and put her hands over her face.
"Al, we worked together for many many years. We were practically raised by Youseff and shared a lot of the same hardships over the years. But the truth is, we had lost touch for a long time. Last we talked I hadn"t even gotten a blessing yet, and after that I spent two years diving into Fortresses without any blessing to speak of aside from my appearance changing. I am not the same person I was back then, and the same can be said for you. Besides, all of this happened today, with you, with Youseff, with the parlor... We have to rebuild everything from scratch, including our friendship, and go back to being as close as we were before all of this s.h.i.t happened," he addressed the older person in the room, whom he considered like a sister, and reached across the table, putting his hands over hers, "I"m lot gonna let you down, or suffer anything from now on. But for that, I will need you to be patient and help me out too. That"s why I offered you to stay in my house while I move to the capital. That place is all I have left of my mother, just like the parlor is all we have left of Youseff. And like your sister knows, that place will be the target of many people if it remains empty. I really need you."
Al"s eyes started to tear up, as she listened to him in silence, the only person left unadressed in the table fiddling with her fingers as she watched the two.
"Could it be that he"s actually closer to her than to Sha?" Khish thought, as he saw the two be way closer, despite their interaction being nowhere close to that of lovers.
"And lastly." He sat back down, before turning towards Khish and talking to her, "I"m sorry you had to hear all of this. I think you feel like you fell into this whole mess out of nowhere," he said, waiting for her acknowledgement.
"Actually," she started speaking while blushing, throwing glances sideways to both of her sisters, which make Noah widen his eyes for a second, before controlling himself and keeping his poker face. "While we only met recently, I always saw you with a bit of interest," she started talking about him, leaving Noah dumbfounded. "You are mysterious, you look great, and you care about everyone around you dearly. Heck, you went as far as to worry about an unkwnown person who tried to break into your house and didn"t lay a single finger on her. Even when that person who interrogated me tried to hurt me, you went and stopped her... I think..." she stopped for a second, taking a deep breath before spilling it out, "I think I actually fell for you," she said, leaving him so baffled he was unable to even change his expression.
"..."
"I think what I"ll say now goes for everyone here," she said, while waiting for the other two to nod, "But we think you are an amazing person. We"re sorry it sounded like we were considering you like some sort of prize or anything like that, we didn"t mean it that way, just that we wouldn"t fight each other over it, no matter what happens."
Noah took a breath, before sighing, "I"m glad it"s all solved, then." He scratched his head at how much he wanted to just leave the d.a.m.n place and disappear, but knew it wasn"t possible, especially knowing they would be in danger if he did so, something he was still yet to tell them, but wanted to tie all the loose ends before stratling anybody. "I"ll be entrusting you with the stuff we talked before. While I"m sure you have a lot to grow still as both a Blessed and in infiltration, you show a lot of promise for such a young girl," he told Khish, making her blush with her eyes wide.
"Eh? Young girl?" she asked, throwing at glance at Sha, who had her hands up.
"Is something the matter? Noah asked, realizing the weird atmosphere his harmless comment had created.
"Actually..." Sha turned towards him with an awkward smile, before hiding her lips with her hand, "Me and Khish are twins," she told him, making Noah look at the two, who did not seem to be the same age.
"Don"t be fooled by her small body, they really are twins," Al joked, making Khish lightly hit her shoulder as a means of protest.
"Oh," Noah muttered, acknowledging his blunder, despite still looking at the two, and not really internalizing the fact they were not only the same age, but twins. "You guys don"t look alike that much so I would have never guessed you were twins..." he said, staring at Khish, and then at Sha.
"Ah, but we are not identical twins. We are just twins," Sha said, giggling a little.
"Not only that, we don"t even have the same date of birth, though that is just our parents being quirky for absolutely so reason," Khish completed while shrugging.
"We were born a couple hours apart, so my birthday is actually one day before hers," Sha continued, the two laughing at Noah"s completely defeated face.
"I"m... not even gonna try anymore," Noah raise his hands, resigning. "Either way, there"s something else going on that I need to tell you guys," he said, his expression turning grave, and making the three girl swallow dry. "On my way back here, our waiter called me out... There"s some strange people in the restaurant searching for one of you," he said, making the girls" eyes widen.
"For whom?" Sha asked, completely oblivious.
"He didn"t say, but they"ll deal with them and tell us when it"s safe," Noah said, trying to calm her down calm them down.
"All things considered... It"s probably me," Khish said, her expression turning dark and gloomy. Noah realizing this and trying to come up with a sentence to cheer her up.
"Open up!" but a loud knocking and a man"s voice interrupted them, from outside, as he loudly banged on the locked door, making Noah prepare himself to fight.