Kris scuttled to Emi’s side, gently carrying her into his arms and oblivious to the blood that was dripping from his palms. His eyes traced every part of her body frantically, heaving out a sigh of relief when he found no visible traces of injuries on her body.

          “Oh, thank god.” He whispered out, tightening his grip around her and bringing her closer to him.

          Glancing down at her, this time, he slowly traced his eyes around her body, eventually landing on her face as he gazed intently at it, feeling her chest rising up and down; at a steady pace. The warmth of her body and the serene look on her slightly blemished face made his heart flutter.

          Luna neighed loudly, snapping Kris out of his daze and a tiny smile graced upon his face as he directed it to the horse. “She’s fine, she’s okay.”

          He noticed his arm starting to feel weak under her weight and he bent down, kneeling down on the floor and placing her gingerly on the floor. Just as he was about to place her upper torso on the floor, Emi let out a small groan, blinking her eyes open and she was face to face with a familiar man.

          However, still disorientated from the attack, a hazy look covered her eyes as she gazed at the man holding her in his arms, which she failed to realise.

          Who…?

          “Winters, you are fine—you are fine.” The man muttered to her, a voice that she also found familiar too. Strangely, instead of reassuring her, it sounded like he was reassuring himself.

          Squinting her eyes, Emi’s eyes widened just a fraction, recognition evident in her eyes.

          I know this man.

          He is a man who detest criminals like me.

          He is a man who dared to kidnap me.

          He is also the man responsible for taking away my freedom.

          “…Kris…? What—is…” Emi spoke hesitantly, wariness flashing through her eyes but she was suddenly cut off, the wariness in her eyes instantaneously vanishing, a look of utter surprise on her face as the man who supposedly detested her moved closer to her and wrapped his arms around her, giving her an unexpected hug.

          She froze on the spot, her heart missing a beat.

          …what?

          What’s happening?

          …why is he hugging me?

         

         

          ********************************************

         

         

          When Kris saw the bandit preparing to stab Emi with the knife, something in him cracked and he went insane, unconsciously shooting at the attacker. His mind only feared for the safety of the woman that he was supposed to hold total contempt for.

          His mind only thought of her and he couldn’t think of anything else, his hatred for her just flying out of the window. He didn’t know what he felt or why he was feeling like this, all he knew that if he didn’t do anything now, he would regret this decision of his for his whole lifespan.   

          Staying still for a few seconds, Emi blinked her eyes rapidly until she managed to recover from the situation, her arms were laying limply at her side and she started to lift them up. Pushing at Kris, her breathing hitched when he squeezed her even tighter, now, she was starting to feel everything so clearly.

          The warmth of his muscular arms, his tense form and the way his arm curled around her body; his breath tickling her neck.

          She felt heat rising up to her face, her heart rate increasing steadily and she could feel it thudding loudly in her ears.

          “Kr-Kris.” Emi stuttered out and immediately, the warmth vanished, leaving behind a cold trail that bothered Emi to some degree but she shrugged it off.

          They stared into each other’s wide eyes, not knowing what to say, both of them completely taken aback at Kris’ action, including himself. In that moment, Emi noticed that Kris held a different emotion on his face; in his eyes.

          It wasn’t anger, contempt or hatred in his eyes.

          There wasn’t a frown or a grimace on his face.

          She could see the concern, the astonishment and the relief in his eyes and his face.

          “You are bleeding.” He mumbled quietly and if not for their surroundings being this quiet, Emi wouldn’t be able to hear a word.

          “Wh-what?” Emi stuttered out, flinching when he wrapped his hand around her arm, inspecting it carefully. She glanced away, only to look back when she discovered the source of blood wasn’t from her, it was from him.

          “Kris, you are the one that’s bleeding.” Emi gasped out, involuntarily reaching her hand out and enveloping her hand over his wrist, turning his palm towards her.

          It was Kris’ turn to flinch at her sudden touch now, the same fluffy warmth he felt surrounding him yet again.

          “Look.” She pointed out, seeing a deep cut across his palm and she frowned at it.

          Everything started coming back to her at once and she observed her surroundings, narrowing her eyes at the two unconscious men on the gravel path, one of them being Bartholomew.

          Arriving to a conclusion, she let out a resigned sigh.

          He must have saved me, again.

          Why?

          That’s right, I am still his request and I need to be alive.

          “I don’t like owing debts.” Emi grimaced, standing up and almost falling back to the ground when a sudden dizziness took over her.

          Woah.

          She heard a crunching noise behind her as she leaned onto her horse for support, turning her head to the side.

          “I’m fine, just st-stay still.” Emi struggled out, butterflies fluttering around her stomach when she noticed that Kris wanted to prevent her from falling.

          It wasn’t a feeling she wanted to embrace.

          “But, you are-“

          “Just keep quiet and let me dress your wounds.” Emi turned her head back, Luna supporting her as she dug into her satchel for her medical supplies.

          She could feel his gaze on her back, only with the presence just right behind her and she fumbled with the medical supplies, her palms starting to feel clammy.

          Damn it.

          Calm down, Emi. It’s not you’ve never felt a man staring at you before, why are you so goddamn nervous now?

          Despite that, she knew his gaze was different from the other lecherous man, it was something more…special.

          Spinning around, she opened to speak again only to stumble back when she bumped into him, since he was a little too close to her. Stabilizing her by her shoulders, she could feel his callous hands through the thin material of the clothing.

          “Si-sit down and please, not too close.” She gulped nervously, shaking her head.

          He obediently followed her orders, both of them sitting down cross-legged on the gravel path and she gingerly placed his palm on her lap, trying not to feel conscious about his hand.

          Leisurely dressing and treating his wounds, she could feel his gaze once again on her, making her distracted and she bit on her lip, hastily enclosing the wound with the bandage.

          He’s staring too much.

          His stares are…piercing…

          She heard him wince loudly in pain when she tied the bandage too hard, startling her as she loosened it immediately.

          “Crap, I’m so sorry!” She quickly responded, only to furrow her eyebrows when she noticed herself apologizing.

          Wait a minute.

          Why am I apologizing?

          I shouldn’t even be guilty over this!

          “It’s fine, thank you.” Kris awkwardly answered her, both of them staring at each other again before abruptly standing up, turning away from one another.

          Eventually both of them silently climbed onto their horses, leaving a tied up Bartholomew and along with the bandit at the tree. Cantering across the gravel path, both of them were side by side and Emi glanced discreetly at him, her mind running with thoughts.

          Most of them contemplated on whether she should run now, due to his injured hands that would surely serve as a burden to him when she escapes from him.

          Unfortunately, the other side of her mind disliked the idea of abandoning someone who saved her life twice, despite knowing it was for the sake of the requester to ensure that she was alive.

          Her thoughts arrived at a sharp stop when she heard a horse neighing loudly and loud noises beside her. She gasped, spinning her head around and saw Kris on the ground, dirt around his whole body as he groaned loudly.

          “Oh my god.” Emi whispered softly.

          “Woah, woah.” Emi stopped her horse, spinning her horse around and heading towards Kris who was still groaning as he stood up from the ground, dusting himself.

          He must have fell off his horse, since his hands couldn’t hold onto the ropes properly.

          Emi made a move to jump down, only to hesitate when she perceived the situation in another way. Kris noted the change in her and gone was his emotions from earlier, now, it was back to his usual self.

          He narrowed his eyes at her, the same thought occurring in his mind.

          “Winters, don’t you dare do it.” He hissed at her and she regarded him with a passive look, before turning back around quickly.

          “Go, Luna, go!” Emi urged and Kris clicked his tongue, withdrawing his swords as he spun it around him adeptly, before flinging it towards the horse.

          Luna neighed when the sword flew past her, stabbing into the ground just a few inches away from her hooves. If she took a step further, she would have sustained a serious injury on her legs and she definitely wouldn’t be able to move at all.

          “Holy crap.” Emi gasped out, turning her head around to look at Kris, her hair flipping over and she glared at him.

          What a quick-witted man.

          “Winters, either you are coming with me awake, or asleep.” Kris threatened, loading his crossbow with a tranquiliser and she continued glaring at him.

          “…awake.” Emi muttered out after a few moments, a defeated expression on her face as she slowly trudged back with Luna.

         

         

          **************************************************

         

         

          Yun raised an eyebrow when he saw two familiar horses in the distance, along with two other very familiar faces. Except, both of them were riding on one horse and Emi was sitting in the front, a murderous look on her face, which looked slightly red. Yun assumed it was from the anger she was feeling but the reason for the blush on her face was quite different from what he thought.

          Kris was sitting behind her, too close for her own comfort and his face held a frown, however, Yun knew there was something strange about him. He wasn’t entirely grumpy, instead, he was also somewhat…amused?

          “Do I need to know what exactly happened when I was gone?”

          “No, you don’t.” Both Kris and Emi answered swiftly at the same time, making Yun widened his eyes in mirth.

          “Huh.” He responded as both of them narrowed their eyes at one another before flipping their heads away.

         

         

          **********************************************

         

         

          Sergi tapped his foot impatiently on the floor as he sat on the chair, his chest resting against the back of the chair as an annoyed expression covered his face; the opening between his legs was large but it was hidden by the back of the chair.

          “Where the hell is Bartholomew?” Sergi roared, his henchmen widening their eyes in alarm.

          “Maybe he failed in retrieving the Shadow Rogue?” One of them suggested.

          “Bull! He always succeeds in every mission he does.” Sergi spat out.

          “Except for one.” Another one of them added.

          Before the conversation could continue any further, the entrance to the bandit hideout slammed opened, revealing a frantic-looking henchmen that Sergi sent out.

          One look from him, Sergi knew something went terribly wrong.

          “What happened?” Sergi questioned darkly and his henchmen gulped nervously, approaching him carefully and timidly telling him everything.

         

         

          ************************************************

         

         

          Sergi sighed, running a hand through his hair in frustration. The whole hideout was in a mess, tables were out of place and chairs were toppled over with a few broken cups and plates on the floor. Before this, the place looked horrendous, since it wasn’t maintained and cleaned in years, despite being one of the most beautiful houses in the past.

          However, after Sergi’s went into a series of raging thrashing around the house, the house before this state didn’t seem so horrendous anymore.

          This was one of Sergi’s terrifying trait and that was his temper, which Emi had to face a lot in the past when she didn’t succeed in any of her missions.

          Sergi’s henchmen all went to hide in their rooms or outside of the house, not daring to go anywhere near him as they would only be his punching bag.

          “Clean up this mess!” Sergi demanded, stomping his way up to his room and flopping onto his bed, his mind filled with thoughts on new plans to get back his prized possession.

          His thoughts were interrupted when he heard something rustling outside his room, coming from the window and he narrowed his eyes; not being able to see clearly outside other than the tree swaying with the wind, since it was nighttime. His ears picked up on a whooshing sound and he widened his eyes, side-stepping out of the way as he heard another rustling, the eerie atmosphere disappearing after a few seconds later.

          Sergi marched up to his window, scouring outside before quickly shutting it. Spinning around, he found an arrow stuck into the wall, frowning at it because it wasn’t supposed to be there.

          Upon nearing it, he noticed a paper tied to the arrow and he untied it, unfolding it. His eyes looked from the left to right as he read the note in his hands, before he frowned further, reading it again.

          What is this?

         

         

          ********************************************

         

         

          Emi returned back to the place that was better than the bandit hideout, but she wasn’t happy to be back here either. Everyone cheered and congratulated on their success, it was a daily routine of theirs to celebrate and congratulate on their success.

          Emi stood behind the two men awkwardly, Yun grinning at his comrades and high-fiving them while Kris smirked, not bothering to high-five any of them. It was a lively atmosphere, at least to all the mercenaries who was oblivious to Emi’s discomfort.

          I don’t belong here.

          She lifted her head up, taking a hesitant step back as she frowned at the blissful scene before her.

          I should take my leave.

          Taking another step back, Emi made a move to go when someone grabbed onto her arm and she stopped in her tracks, her eyes widening in shock.

          “Where do you think you are going? We need to celebrate.” A voice said and Emi knew who it belonged to.

          “Zak?” Emi tilted her head in confusion and Zak nodded his head, grinning at her.

          “Yeah, it’s Zak. Come on, let’s go.” Zak tugged on her wrist and she resisted, staring at him with wide eyes.

          “But why? I don’t belong here, I’m not part of this group.” Emi sputtered out, utterly shocked at the invitation.

          Zak stared at her speechlessly, before bursting out into a hearty laughter. “That’s a load of crap, Emi!”

          “Wh-what? But, it’s-“

          “Hey, boys! What the hell are you doing? We still have one additional comrade here to congratulate!” Zak hollered towards the mercenaries and everyone quietened down into a pregnant silence.

          Emi ducked her head down in embarrassment, shaking her head.

          Look, didn’t I tell him that-

          The atmosphere suddenly shifted into a boisterous one when the mercenaries changed from silence into an exuberant crowd, surrounding Emi.

          “Good job out there, Shadow Rogue!”

          “I’m sure you had it easy with our two best men out there!”

          “It must have been hella fun!”

          “Congrats, rogue!”

          Emi was taken aback as she stumbled a few steps back, overwhelmed by the sudden congratulations around her. They kept continuing on and on, sometimes adding in comments from other people’s congratulations or making conversations and arguments with each other, before guffawing at their silly argument.

          Meanwhile, Yun chuckled at them, shaking his head and Kris who felt hesitant and wanted to stop them at first, cracked a small smile at the scene, folding his arms across his chest.

          Witnessing the joyful and warm atmosphere around her, Emi was suddenly transported back into the past where the scene became her sitting around the dining table.

          Oh…

          She saw her younger version hurrying her mother for the delicious homemade food while her father chuckled at her impatience, trying to stop her but it proved to be futile. Her mother would rolled her eyes and let out a sigh, a soft smile still remaining on her face nonetheless.

          “Motherrrr! I’m hunnngrry!”

          “Yes, sweetie, we all are.”

          “Huurrry!”

          “Emi, the more you hurry, the slower it will be.”

          “Oh, you impatient little girl…”

          With those words, the young Emi would always break out into a toothy grin.

          Oh my god…

          Tears involuntarily welled up in Emi’s eyes as it blurred her vision. However, no one noticed the tears in her eyes since they were all busy having silly arguments and conversations, along with light-hearted laughter. Occasionally, some of them would pat her on the shoulder.

          “See? What did I tell you?” Zak draped his arm around her shoulder, grinning languidly at her. Emi pressed her hand against her lips, trying to prevent them from seeing her trembling lips as she struggled to answer Zak.

          “Let’s prepare to party!” Yun hollered and all of them cheered, rushing into the house to make the preparations. Kris shook his head, making way for them to go into the house as Yun grinned widely, murmuring something to Kris whose eyes lighted up in amusement at his words.

          Yun jogged towards Emi, who was still trying to hold back her tears as she ducked her head down.

          “Welcome to the family, Emi Winters.” Zak said to her, Yun and Kris just arriving beside her.

          “Yeah, Emi, welcome. It’s nice to have a woman here.” Yun added and Kris snorted at his words.

          “There’s a lot of them out there in the town, Yun.”

          “Seriously, Kris?” Yun groaned and the two men chuckled at his response.

          Emi broke out into the smallest hint of smile as she quickly recovered, hurriedly blinking her tears away as she swallowed her saliva down to clear .

          “This isn’t so bad, isn’t it? Shadow Rogue?” Zak spoke to her as she slowly lifted her head up.

          The small smile on her face remained as she sniffed. “…yes, it isn’t.” She answered softly, before scrunching her nose in disgust.

          “Don’t call me that.” Emi said, pushing off Zak’s arm and he frowned at her.

          “Doesn’t everyone call you that?” Kris responded and Emi narrowed her eyes at him.

          “What do you want us to call you then?” Yun said, knowing that most of the mercenaries still doesn’t know her name, and some knew but didn’t know if it was right to call her by her name.

          “…Emi.” She whispered out and they could hardly hear her.

          “Pardon?”

          Welcome to the family, Emi Winters.

          …family…

          “Emi.” She said more confidently this time, her smile widening and now, all three men could see her dazzling smile.

          Family.

 

---

A little longer than other chapters, but this chapter is one of the most memorable one to me ^^.