"It should be up here," L said, his face practically buried into the floating screen with the map on it.
I sighed, feeling my feet start to ache again.
"You might might wanna actually look at the road L," I huffed out, stopping a couple feet away from him.

The events from last night were still burned clearly into my memory, and every time I think about them, my stomach flip flops and my face turns kinda red.
So I try not to think about them....too much.
I looked up from inspecting the damage done to my feet and saw his profile, lit up by the sunlight hitting directly on his face at an angle that made his face glow.
Screw him.
For being so freakin perfect.

I sighed and slipped my shoe back on just as he finally looked over at me.
We made eye contact for a brief second before looking away.
It's been like this since we woke up this morning.
Silent words being exchanged with our eyes.
Hidden feelings that remained dormant now became all too prominent.

"So uhhhhh," I walked up behind him, keeping my eyes fixed on the map, "did you find it?"
"Yeah," he closed the menu screen with a swipe of his finger and turned his back towards me. "It's in a cave somewhere around here."

Well thanks Captain Obvious....=.=

"And where is this cave exactly?" I inched my way forward so that I was beside him. Even if things are awkward between us now, I can't let that get in the way of what we needed to do. Especially since it could save lives.
"I don't know."
"Check Sungjong's map."
"I did. It says we're already at the cave but I don't see anything."
"Did he get it wrong?"
L scoffed, "Don't be stupid. Elves don't get these things wrong. If Sungjong says the cave is here then it has to be here. We just have to find....it." his sentence trailed off as he slowly bent down and put his hand on the ground.
"Uhhhhhh....what're you doing?" I watched as he started to rub his hand on the ground, brushing away dead leaves and pulling up vines. 
He motioned with his free hand for me to join him. "The cave is underground." he said as he pulled away a clump of vines, leaves, and dirt, revealing something that looked kinda like foggy glass.
"Whoa...good call," I stood up and started to brush away the dirt around it with my feet, revealing more of the glass. "How'd you even know this was here?"
"Sungjong's map said that the cave was here," he said as he cleared away another large area, "I just followed his map."

"Oh," I stopped moving and looked at him, feeling a mix of guilt and regret sink in.
I wanted to kiss him.
Trust me, I did.
But logic and reasoning took over.
We're trapped in a video game because of some crazy person; there was no time to think about relationships.
And plus, he's from Korea and I'm all the way in America.
It was never going to work out.

I fell to the ground with a sigh, brushing away what little dirt L didn't manage to get.
"L," I called out, brushing furiously away at a certain spot where the dirt wouldn't budge. "The dirt here isn't moving."
"What?" he walked over and leaned down so that his head was nearly on my shoulder.
"The dirt here isn't clearing away," I brushed my hand over again then looked at him as he let out a sigh.
"That's cause the dirt's stuck in a......crack."

We both looked at each other then back at the ground.
The glass floor had a crack in it.
And judging by how much dirt was stuffed in there, I'd say that the crack was pretty deep.
Which meant bad news for us.

Our hands automatically found each other's.
"_________________, get up and back away slowly," L whispered.
The sound of him using my real name sent shivers down my spine as I slowly lifted myself up and slid my back foot along the glass floor.

The crack grew longer.
It was moving towards us.
And the longer it gets, the deeper it gets.

"L," I barely whispered as I slid my other foot back, "the crack got bigger."
"I know. Just keep walking."
His grip on my hand tightened as we slid our feet together backwards.

This time, the crack was audible.

"If we move again, we're gonna die," I muttered.
"You can fly can't you?" 
"Yeah, but I need to kick off from the ground. Can't really do that right now...."
"Can't you levitate us or something?"
"I'm not telekinetic stupid. If I levitate us, the air puts pressure on the ground. Then we fall and die."

Both of us had nothing more to say.
I was all out of ideas, and the crack on the floor wasn't getting any smaller.

"_________________," L finally said after what seemed like hours of silence.
"Hmmm?"
"I have an idea."
"One that'll actually work?"
"I think so."
"You think so?"
"Well do you have anything better?"
"Point taken."

He took a deep breath in, looked at the floor, then looked at me.
"Do you trust me?"
I stopped breathing.
He was either gonna do something that could totally save our asses or get us killed.
"________________, do you trust me?" he asked again, giving my hand a squeeze.

My brain was telling me no.
But right now, my heart wasn't taking any of its crap.

"Yes," I barely whispered out, feeling my heart rate accelerate. He nodded then let go of my hand, reaching for his sword.
I didn't blink.
I didn't even breathe.
I stood there and watched as he pulled it out, swung it above his head, then slammed it into the ground.
I didn't even have time to react.
The glass shattered before I even had time to process what happened.

Author's Note

about the title: "i’ll risk everything for you"~Tearfully Beautiful