Tower: Murky and Charming

Chapter 12: Connection

The life of the two changes as their relationship develops. For one time certain, they're not abductor and hostage anymore. It's obvious that status was dropped long ago and wasn't even one in the first place. 

So... what are they exactly?

"Lucas, how does the fruit taste?" She asked out of curiosity, slouching on the couch with a book open and laying on her stomach. "Is it good or it's just... magic?"

"I didn't get the fruit because the damn tree didn't spare any for me so I just took the branch instead"

She squints her eyes with a sullen face and frowns. Isn't the World Tree alive? If compared to a person, then taking a branch would be like ripping skin. She didn't want to question it and decided to stay oblivious.

"... Ok..." She mumbles and goes back to reading around him while he works, redoing his research after "accidentally" destroying it.

There isn't much to do in this lonely tower now that he replenished his mana. It makes her stressed sometimes about her fate. What is her role now? She ponders nervously about it and had a difficult time focusing on the book.

She read these same fairytale tons of times and is always thirsting for more. A cliffhanger is horrible! She needs the sequel immediately!

"Lucas, can we please go to town. I'm dying for the sequel" She whines with a pitiful expression, hoping he can feel the desperate aura hinted in her tone.

"... No" He rejects the request and she flings the book at full force to his head.

SWOSH

He catches it like it's nothing with his hand and turns around. Gloomy and fed up with her attitude. She instantly regrets her actions and sweats bullets while getting up from the couch and heading toward the door.

"Anyway, I'm going to tend to my roses!"

"Wait..." He says and she stops in place, standing at the doorway and turning around slowly with a tense grin. "Do the flowers need anything special?"

".. Huh.. what?" Her facial muscles twitch in great bewilderment as she comprehends the simple yet strange question. "Other than water and sunlight, no"

"Then why do you need to go to them?"

"Because...." She pauses and fidgets with her fingers while looking to the side, thinking of an answer real quick before he catches on which he probably already did. "I need to change the water!"

"... Didn't you change them yesterday?" His memory is sharp and she is caught.

"Oh, did I?" She hits her head lightly and tilts, pretending to play it off. "I'm such a knucklehead." She says as she takes steps back into the doorway, leaving the room and going to the hallway.

This conversation happens more often than she would expect. Ever since she accidentally tugged onto him like a child, he's been more around and by her side a lot. She felt uncomfortable at times with it but that feeling was temporary and she goes back to living normally with his presence. The only time he leaves her is when she goes to bed at night. However, what's most humiliating is how she cannot stop herself from tugging onto him every time he tries to leave.

That's the most bizarre and worst thing she can do when she is desperate to separate from him. It only happens when absent-minded, her hands would move on their own.

Maybe Athanasia should chop it off so next time she doesn't have to embarrass herself anymore. It's also uneasy and very weird how Lucas doesn't say anything and just goes with it. The misunderstanding only gets worse when she denies it!