The Meaning of Love|| The Promised Neverland || (Ray x Emma)

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When they finally got out of the forest, it was starting to get dark-which was crazy because they had left the base in the morning. Which means, Emma's and Ray spent nearly the whole day together.

When it was dark, the two were unbelievably tired, not to mention, they were hungry. They still had the food they brought from the base, but they didn't want to eat the food they got from the shelter until they were out of the forest. Now that they WERE out, they allowed themselves to eat.

For the night, they took turns sleeping. They took night shifts of 3 hours before switching, while the other person stayed on look out. Emma insisted that Ray could sleep first but he refused and told her to go to sleep. They were in a large tree on a huge branch.

Emma tucked herself in and slept. Ray was pretty sleepy but he never let his guard down even for a second. The night was quiet. He could hear everything. Any fluctuations in the wind could be heard with ease.

He also had his bow in hand. He looked over at Emma who had been in a deep sleep. Her breathing was the only thing he could actually hear in the silent night. He caught himself smiling when he looked at her.

"Ray, I'm in love with you!"

He remembers her voice shouting that as if it were in pain, which it was.

"So she loved me enough to be in pain for it, huh?"

Ray closes his eyes and puts a hand to his face, almost as if he was hiding it from someone.

"Love... So this is what it feels like to feel loved back? Yuugo was right. When he called me into his room, that time, he was right. I AM in love with this girl. This strong, yet fragile girl"

His smile breaks and tears start flowing down his cheeks.
"Thank you," he whispers.

Those six years in Grace Field he spent felt so alone. Holding such a horrifying secret in by himself was too much to bear. The concept of love had never even crossed his mind until Norman told him he loved Emma.

When Emma slapped him, that was when his love blossomed. He felt free of the burdens around him.

Ray looked to the moon. It's brilliant light illuminated his dark eyes.

He looked at Emma.
He reached over to her hand. When he got close to it, he saw that someone was already holding her hand.

He looked up, and it was as if he saw Norman holding her hand. He blinked and the hallucination disappeared.

Ray brought his hand back to him and felt it sweat with fear... Or guilt.

He turned his back to Emma again and looked down.

"Your only job right now is making sure she's safe..."

He looked at his hand and went back to guarding.
~~~

After three hours had finally passed, Ray felt his eyes get heavy and tired. He wanted to let Emma sleep for a bit longer but he knew there was no point in looking out if he barely had the energy to stay awake.

He let's out a deep sigh and crawls over to her. He gently pokes her soft cheeks until she awakened. The sky was still dark and she rubs her eyes as she yawns.

"Thanks for keeping watch, now it's your turn, Sleepy Cyclops!"

"Emmmmm...."
He wanted to say something about her usage of that name but he was too tired to actually argue.

He layed down on the ground without even tucking himself in.
Emma sighed and smiled at his behaviour. She walked over to his blanket and put it over him.