I Never Let Her Die! (Aerith x Male Gamer Reader)

Disk 01: Chapter 17: The Book of Counted Sorrows

I stood, mouth agape, heart pounding heavily, staring at Bugenhagen. There was no point in lying to myself: there was only one thing he could possibly mean by what he had just said. He knew. I hadn't the slightest idea how, but he knew. Worse, he was calling me out on it. Worse still, he was doing so in front of Aerith. At least he didn't pull this in front of everyone. Cloud knowing would have been a catastrophe.

I dared to glance over at Aerith. The look on her face said it all... She had put two and two together as well, and knew that the elder had to be talking about the secret I had been keeping. She seemed to be in the middle of a curious mix of concern for my own feelings and elation that she was getting her answers one way or another.

"Well?" Bugenhagen asked again. "What's it going to be?"

"How can you do this to me?" I asked. "After what we did to help Nanaki?"

"Oh hoo hoo... You're looking at this the wrong way son..." The old man floated over to my side, placed a hand on my shoulder. "She needs to know young man. You know this as well as I do. That's why I'm not bluffing. If you refuse to tell her the truth, I will. But, I'd rather not, this really is your story to tell..."

I let out a deep breath I hadn't realized I'd even been holding in. "Alright! Alright dammit, I'll do it already... But... how did you know?"

"Oh ho... Let's just say a little blue bird told me..."

"Blue...? Ganthet..." I grumbled.

Floating towards the door, Bugenhagen said "I'll leave the two of you alone for this."

"Hold up!" I called after him. "You... You don't plan on making me tell everyone do you? There are reasons why that's an incredibly bad idea, at least for now..."

"Yes, so I was told. Fear not, aside from your young lady, my lips are sealed."

Bugenhagen closed the door behind him. Aerith was still staring at me, but said "I assume this is something we should be sitting down for?"

"Yeah..."

We sat side by side on a small sofa. For some time, I'm not sure how long exactly, I was unable to speak. Finally Aerith asked "Y/N, why is this so hard for you? What could possibly be so bad that you can't tell me, after all we've been through together?"

"It's not like that really." I managed to say. "It's just... I'm not sure where or how to start. And, parts of this might upset you. Aerith, when we first met, the reason I didn't tell you is because I was afraid that you would think I was insane. I was afraid that you wouldn't believe me, and that telling you would push you away from me..."

Aerith laughed lightly. "Y/N, you're talking to a girl who hears the voice of the very planet under her feet talking to her. A girl who's travelling with a talking cat-thing that pulls supplies out of thin air, a stuffed-doll fortune-teller, and an obnoxious ninja princess who acts like the world's biggest you-know-what... I doubt you could push the crazy meter far enough to drive me away."

"Oh, just wait. This might. Anyway, that was at first, before we started getting to know each other. Since then, as we got closer, the fear that you wouldn't believe me was replaced by the fear of what might happen if you did... See, I was afraid that if you knew why I was here, you might think that my feelings for you were just an act to stay close..."

At this point, Aerith' curiosity was at it's peak, wondering what I could mean by something like that. Yet she simply said "Again, you forget who you're talking to. If you were faking your feelings, I'd know. Now, will you please stop stalling?"

She was right. I was still stalling, and with Bugenhagen in the next room, that wasn't going to keep. I looked up and into Aerith' eyes. She was giving me that look, the one that goes right through you yet also lets you know that she's there, open, listening.