The Shadow King's Princess (An OHSHC Fanfic) [Completed]

Chapter Twenty-Two

Zaira

 

My mind went blank. Almost on their own accord, my hands that had come up to push him away relaxed. Instead my fingers gripped the fabric of his blazer, a desperate handhold as his lips pressed against my own. Warmth blossomed from the moment they touched, something sparking inside me that I couldn’t completely recognize. Not that I could make myself think at the moment anyways beyond the simple observation that his lips were softer than I would have imagined.

As quickly as my mind had gone blank, it was suddenly shocked into action as I realized what was happening. My hands gripping his blazer shoved him away and flew to my lips. His expression was as bewildered as mine was shocked. My back dug further into the roses behind me as my mind attempted to pull together a word, anything to interrupt the silence that suddenly descended between us.

In the end it wasn’t me who spoke first.

“You kissed me back,” he whispered. His voice was low, breathless and confused. His expression, however, was slowly melting into one of happiness. “You kissed me back. You didn’t just push me away.”

Anything I might have said was caught in my throat.

I kissed him back.

It didn’t matter that I shoved him away in the end.

I kissed him back.

“Zaira,” Ichiro began, a mixture of emotions flooding into his words. “Zaira, you kissed me back. Do yo-.”

“Stop it.”

His eyes flew wide with shock as those two single words managed to escape my mouth. My hands had slowly curled over my face and now I used them to keep me from having to look at him. It wasn’t until then that I realized tears had begun to slip from my eyes.

“Zaira?”

I didn’t have to look at him to know that the happiness had probably disappeared from his expression.

“Stop it,” I managed to get out again. “You can’t. Th-this isn’t… it can’t…”

I heard him step forward and suddenly my wrists were being pulled away from my face. I immediately shut my eyes, attempting to push away the tears that were now leaving wet trails down my cheeks. I couldn’t look at him. If I looked at him I wasn’t sure how long I could hold onto the one fact my mind was holding onto. The thing I had to point out to him.

“I’m engaged, Ichiro-kun,” I told him, surprising myself with how clear and precise the words came out. His grip on my wrists loosened just a little. Noting this, I easily tugged them away and once again pressed my hands to his chest, pushing him away from me.

“I know.”

I couldn’t look at him. I’d opened my eyes, but I could only look at the ground. The pain in his voice was clear.

“We c-can’t do this,” I continued, my voice cracking the moment the words left my mouth. “I can’t. You’re not him.”

“I know,” Ichiro replied once again.

Surprised by the tone that appeared in his voice, I chanced a glance at his expression. Once I looked, however, I couldn’t pull my eyes away. The pain was there, but there was also a degree of irritation mixed with determination. Ichiro was always so easy to read and even with everything that was going on currently, that fact hadn’t changed. What made me unable to look away was the knowledge that I’d put those emotions there.

“I know that. Did you think there was a chance that I wouldn’t?” he continued, his voice turning hard. “There’s not a single part of me that isn’t completely aware of the fact that I couldn’t be him even if I wanted to be. That doesn’t change the fact, Zaira, that I am standing here. That I kissed you and you kissed me back.”