Mountain of The Suns • Book 2

Chapter 26

We got to the top of the stairs in Jun's room and I walked into pretty much the middle of the little loft and looked at him. He set his backpack which he had been carrying until now down sloppily on his desk and his eyes were wide but looking elsewhere. He sat down on the end of the bed and refused to look at me. My arms had been wrapped around my waist tightly and I bit the inside of my lip.

"Makio, I had no idea." He said as if he was freaking out.

"Stop it. Immediately stop it." I said in a sharp tone.

"You could have gotten hurt! I thought I had done my research and Minoru never mentioned-"

"I don't care!" I said yelling knowing that there was enough space between us and the class downstairs. "I would have still done it."

"Makio don't be an idiot- you can't risk your life like that over-"

"Over someone I trust and care about." I said cutting him off. "If I would risk anything for anyone it's you. All this means is that we have to make sure we take care of ourselves. We have to live for each other."

"You shouldn't have to do that. I promised you I'd give my life protecting you and now if I do that I just hurt you anyways." He said and I saw tears running down his face. I walked over to him and I cupped his jaw in my hands and forced him to look up at me. His cheeks were bright red and wet from tears and I hurt my stomach to see him so hurt.

"Losing you would hurt me more than anything they could do to me." I said firmly as I looked down at him. I would have still taken this risk if I would have known so you can get that out of your head now. "It doesn't matter what happened before."

"I was careless." He said in an argumentative voice because he was internally beating himself up.

"No one has ever cared for me before, not a fraction of what I know you do." I said kneeling down in front of him though I still held his face.

"God you're beautiful." He said as his hand ran through my hair.

"Stop it." I said knowing I had turned pink.

"No I won't." He said taking my hands from his face and placed them in his own hands. "Come here."

He pulled me up to my feet and I stood up but he wrapped an arm around my back and pulled me into straddling him on the end of the bed. My arms placed themselves around his neck but I just looked at him as his puffy face was still looking back at me. His hands went from my sides to my hips and his hand grabbed at me as his eyes looked over me.

"I'm scared I'm going to blink and you're going to be gone. Like this was just a dream." He said in a calm voice as his doe eyes just looked up at me.

"No I'm here to stay. I'm never going to be able to apologize or forgive myself for running away." I said looking down and away.

"You did what you had to do, I didn't have to like it." He said with a nod of his head and a long blink.

"I know but I felt guilty. I almost didn't go, I didn't want to leave you and everyone else." I said as my fingers were on the back of his neck. "I was so scared."

"Never again." He said shaking his head and pulling me into a hug.

He engulfed me in his arms and I heard him let out a sigh of almost relief. His head was rested on my chest and we just stayed there for a long while. Not a word was said for several minutes we just stayed there in each others arms. I felt safe again and it was as if a weight on my shoulders had disappeared entirely.

"Do you have any injuries?" He asked after a moment and I could tell he had felt the bandaging on my leg.

"Just a small cut on my leg." I said in a small voice