Pride & Humility

XIV

Beta: TaintedLetter

(óヮò)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

"Someone burned down the library?!" Elizabeth shrieked, startling Nina. She had been teaching Nina math when her best friend in the whole wide world came in to give her the news. She abruptly dropped the worksheet she was going over with Nina, and stood up from her chair to stare at Selim in abject terror.

"Calm down, Ellie," Selim said, chuckling at her horrified expression. "It's only a library."

"It's—it's not just a library!" Elizabeth vehemently rejected, her stomach churning in disgust and grief. Even the comforting familiarity of being in her beloved greenhouse wouldn't quell her distress. "It's—it's where I met you. It's where we became friends."

Selim's lips tugged down, a thoughtful flickering over his face before he shook his head. "That may be true, but it doesn't matter. Buildings fall, people die... will we stop being friends because of this?"

"Of course not!"

"Then what does it matter? We're here now," Selim said, scratching his cheek.

The sentiment behind Selim's question made Elizabeth want to smile and relax, but then another thought popped in her head. "It wasn't... it wasn't that vile thing was it?"

Selim caught on to Elizabeth's venomous tone, chuckling in amusement as his friend leaked out murderous rage. He reached forward, tucking a stray curly bang behind her ear, immediately causing the girl to falter in her anger and blush under the affection. "No, Ellie. It was not the serial killer."

"O-Okay... have you, um, had any luck with it?" Elizabeth inquired, resisting the urge to fidget. Her cheeks warmed under Selim's growing amusement, and she tried not to show her embarrassment any further.

It failed, but at least she tried.

"Red," Nina said, her tail slowly wagging. "Elle... red!"

"Yes, she is a bit red, isn't she?" Selim agreed, reaching forward and giving Nina a pat on the head. "Good girl."

"Good," Nina repeated, elated at the compliment. "I'm... good girl!"

"N-Nina, why d-don't you get the fertilizer ready? Want to feed the flowers again?" Elizabeth wheezed out, trying desperately to quell her rapidly beating heart under Selim's growing larger smirk. She could handle his teasing under normal circumstances, but for some reason she felt particularly sensitive to it that day. Must have been because she was so thrown off kilter about the library and the mention of the-thing-she-would-destroy.

(Or puberty. Cursed thing.)

Nina slowly got up from where she sat beside Elizabeth, her normally dull eyes sparkling at the thought of feeding the flowers. "Yes! Flowers... yes! Yes!"

The chimaera hobbled off to collect the fertilizer, her tail wagging furiously. As soon as she was out of sight, Selim let out a rough chuckle, and Elizabeth abruptly turned away from him to start fanning her cheeks.

"You're so easy today," he laughed.

"Shut up," she brilliantly retorted. "Ugh! I'm not used to you initiating without your shadows."

"I know. I always get the best reactions this way."

"Ugh!"

Selim reached around and played with one of her bangs, immediately eliciting another fierce blush from Elizabeth as she spluttered. "St-Stop teasing!"