Kurai Yoru (Darker Night)

22: Consequences

Sitri was surprised, very surprised. Both from the fact that Thalia's currently kissing him, and the fact that she's kissing him.

After some few, intimate seconds, the green-haired girl withdrew from the kiss, a satisfied smile plastered on her face. She brought her hands below her cheeks, giggling all the while. "You don't know how long I've been waiting for that."

Meanwhile, Sitri's eyes are still wide, but after hearing her remark, he regained his former smile. "I can imagine."

Thalia, now regaining more of her sense, reverted back to her usual antics. "W-Wait, if you did love me back then, why didn't you do this earlier? Baka!"

Sitri anticipated some kind of attack from the girl, but none came. Instead, he saw her smiling once again.

"Still, I'm glad you finally answered to my feelings. I-I'm, so happy." Thalia had the urge to kiss him again, but refrained and opted to hug him instead.

Thalia remembered her other friends, which is undoubtedly harboring feelings for the demon too. Some might not have realize it yet, and some who are really aware of it. Her mind drifted back to a certain white-haired demoness, a death goddess, and a nine-tailed fox.

"Sitri, you're aware that they love you too, right?" Thalia said, not ending their hug.

"Yes. But, I don't want to force their feelings to me." Sitri sighed. "Love is more complicated than I thought."

"You can't underestimate the power of love, my dear lord." Thalia teased.

"Yes, yes. I'll keep that in mind." Sitri felt the vampire reluctantly let go of him, and gestured to their audience some hundred meters away from them.

"You better clear this up to those people. In their eyes, you looked like you suddenly kissed me." Thalia smirked to herself, again remembering their brief show of love.

"It can't be that bad." Sitri gazed at the onlookers.

The first thing that he noticed was Lizifer, who's currently covering Gabrielle's eyes. The said angel adjusted the devil's fingers though, and peeked through it. A movement to the duo's left brought his attention to Satina. It looks like during Sitri's and Thalia's conversation, the little devil had quietly snuck up away from them. Her gestures was mildly angering him though.

The red-haired girl kept on making the 'kissing' motion with her fingers, while winking at him. Now that Sitri remembered who she was, he can now also recall how annoying the devil can be. Behind Satina stood a grinning Mikael, with his hands formed into a thumbs-up sign.

Looking back, Sitri remembered that all four of them were annoying.

"U-Oh. Sitri, you might want to talk to your sister right now." Thalia pointed at the stone gaze Celleya sported.

Sitri closed his eyes; he really didn't want to make his other companions feel upset. All he wants now, is just to return their love with all he has.

He quietly flew down towards the demoness, then finally, landed in front of her. He met her glare dead on, but didn't feel any less guilty. "Celleya, I can explain."

Surprisingly, Celleya smiled at him, but the painfully obvious fake-smile brought Sitri nothing more than pain. "Congratulations, nii-chan. I'm happy for both of you."

Before he could reply, she continued talking. "Don't worry, I'm okay. I'm perfectly fine." A small pool of tears in her eyes betrayed her words.

"Celleya, you know I lo--"

"You love me as a sister. Yes, yes I fully understand that." She turned around, with a quiet sniffle resounding from the girl. "Of course you'll love a more proper girl like Thalia-san. She's perfect. Beautiful, powerful, and most of all, you can fully love her without any consequences. I get tha--"