Distorting And Restarting Life From Zero In Another World.

Break Time - 6

BREAK TIME - A Debt Not Asked For

The mansion had long since fallen into silence, the hour dragging itself into the deepest cradle of the night. Moonlight streamed through the parted curtains in quiet slivers, casting silvered stripes across the polished floorboards and the side of the neatly made bed. Crusch stepped through the doorway with slow, measured steps, her boots left behind in the hall. She moved like a shadow, as if she feared the sound of her breath might wake him.

Y/N lay still beneath the blanket, turned slightly to the side, his breathing calm and deep. One arm was resting across his chest, the other loosely to his side, fingers twitching faintly in his sleep. Even unconscious, he looked as if he was bracing against the weight of something heavy. His brow, though smooth, carried an invisible furrow-a ghost of burdens he never voiced aloud.

Crusch's sharp eyes softened.

She didn't come here to wake him. Zarestia had made it abundantly clear-though always with civility, never threat-that Y/N's rest was sacred. For someone so enigmatic, so powerfully entwined with spirits and strange power, he gave so much of himself away for others. Crusch had always known duty. But Y/N... he gave without demand.

Without limit.

She quietly pulled a chair beside his bed, the wood creaking ever so slightly beneath her as she sat. For a long moment, she didn't speak. She merely watched him-watched the subtle rise and fall of his chest, the lines of his face relaxed in slumber, the way a lock of hair curled slightly against his forehead.

Then, very gently, she reached for his hand.

Her fingertips hovered over his before brushing lightly against them.

She didn't intertwine their fingers-no, she didn't deserve that. Not after what had happened. Not after what he'd given up.

[Chibi Crusch]: "You always throw yourself headfirst into storms that were never yours to weather,"

She said quietly, her voice barely louder than a breath.

[Chibi Crusch]: "Even if I had told you not to. Especially if I had asked you not to."

Her thumb grazed the side of his hand, reverent and hesitant.

[Chibi Crusch]: "I didn't need a savior,"

She continued.

[Chibi Crusch]: "And yet, you stood between me and a force I should have faced. You absorbed consequences meant for me and bore them without complaint. Why? Why do you carry burdens that aren't yours, Y/N?"

She looked down, eyes clouded with something sharp and tender all at once. Her shoulders, always held with the proud poise of nobility, trembled slightly.

[Chibi Crusch]: "I told myself it was your nature,"

She whispered.

[Chibi Crusch]: "That you were simply the kind of man who couldn't stand to see others suffer. But the truth is... I don't understand you. Not entirely. Not yet."

Her gaze flickered to his face again. He seemed so far removed from the world in that moment-untouched by pain, still and distant.

Crusch sighed, a small melancholy smile on her face.

[Chibi Crusch]: "Fourier once said: 'To love is to be unafraid of loss!'"

Her voice broke slightly on the name, but she pushed on.

[Chibi Crusch]: "I didn't quite understand what he meant then. I do now. Because when you fell... when you bled for me... I felt something I haven't felt in a long time. Fear."