Deception

♡Chapter Twelve♡

"Now sir, I dare say I've never been so insulted in all my days!" Jade declares passionately as Eden smiles at Jade's dramatics. She waits for his rebuttal, but his smile slowly fades away as he shakes his head and looks to the floor now.

"We both know that you have been on my account. I'm so sorry Jade, I cannot say it enough." Eden apologizes while breaking character forcing Jade to do the same. It'd been so long since she'd seen Eden that she'd love for them to go back to the way things used to be, but for a plethora of reasons, it can not be so.

"You know...for a long time, I blamed myself for what happened. I regretted toying with your emotions and making you feel like the only way to move on was to run away from me." Jade starts as Eden quickly shakes his head to stop Jade from continuing.

"No, not at all! The fault was all mine. You were right to be upset with how I spoke to you, and how I conducted myself while claiming to love you. That's why I said I wasn't ready to have this talk, it hasn't been nearly long enough for me to feel as if I'd gone through any kind of productive change since our fight." Eden expresses remorsefully as Jade scoffs at the notion.

"Eden, you're leading a secret rebellion underneath Jeniah! I think that's a pretty big change since we last spoke." Jade points out as Eden shakes his head and sits down on the couch prompting Jade to follow and do the same, though all the while maintaining a respectable distance from him. She recalls for a moment the anger flashes and insults that had been thrown her way due to Eden's unaddressed spiritual battle, yet her heart holds no hatred towards him. Despite her better judgement, the longer she sits with him, the more relaxed she begins to feel.

"I may be involved with them, but I'm not leading them. I can't..."

"Why not? You're more than capable of doing so and it seems that you've already had a sizable influence on them, and their cause is just. Why are you hesitating?" Jade instigates as Eden once again falls into a faraway gaze. He's notably not as rash with speaking as he'd been in the past, which in and of itself proves that at least some positive change has happened in their month or so apart, at least slightly.

"I'm scared to fail them. Like how I failed you and Amos...speaking of which! You two are a thing, right? Like officially?" Eden asks now turning the tide of the conversation over to her with a burst of energy that Jade recalls him using to deflect from topics he wishes to ignore. Jade bites down on her lip and nods while looking away from Eden unable to look him in the eye as she confirms her heart placement.

"I fell into this deep sadness after your disappearance for a week or so after you left. When I wasn't sitting around crying, I was cramming myself with a million other tasks to try to keep my mind off what I'd done. Amos snapped me out of it. I felt so guilty that I could barely allow myself to be happy in something that brought you pain." Jade confesses as Eden's excitement drops and he sighs heavily.

"I'm so sorry I made you hesitate. I always knew how you two felt about each other, and frankly, I'm proud of Amos for pulling you out of doing something as stupid as getting depressed over me, I'd kick his butt if he didn't make a move sooner or later. I trust that he's treating you well?" Eden investigates as Jade smirks and nods while subconsciously fiddling with the ring he'd given her. Eden takes note of Jade's fiddling and for the first time since they'd been reunited, she sees a genuine smile cross his lips.

"Let me guess, promise ring?" Eden takes note of as Jade nods and lifts her hand to allow him to examine the ring which he does while letting out a low whistle. Upon their first moment of physical contact, Jade feels a strange jolt of energy flows through her body. His touch and presence are familiar, but there's a definite change in terms of his mental and spiritual state that she can't pinpoint. It's too soon to say for sure, but she doesn't sense any darkness around Eden as she had before.