The group of supernatural beings has been traveling for a few long, tiring weeks. Satarou didn't talk much, and he found it really hard to stop himself from staring at Leon. Every time he even glanced towards the Angel, memories from when he kissed Leon in his dream came flowing back to him.
Princess Marina clinged onto Leon's arm, resting her head on his shoulder as she walked. She was trying hard not to break into tears.
Leo beamed at the two as he asked, "are you two dating?"
"No" Leon responded glumly.
"Then is there anyone you like, Leon?" Leo asked happily. Satarou wished that Leo would shut up. He was secretly happy that Leon wasn't dating the princess since he found himself growing jealous for some unknown reason, however he didn't want to know who the damn Angel likes.
He froze for a quick second before resuming walking. Shaking those thoughts out of his head, he realized that he doesn't have the right to feel jealous in any way. After all, everything that was happening was his own damn fault. He doesn't even have the right to love Leon when he gave him up.
"Yes" Leon told Leo.
Leo's smile grew even wider, if that was even possible. "Who is it? Can I meet them?"
"He's dead" Leon said glumly.
Leo frowned widely, "I'm so sorry for your loss. What was his name?"
Leon looked at Leo thoughtfully, then he replied, "Satarou."
Eyes widening, Leo exclaimed, "But he is-"
"Dead" Satarou shot Leo a look, and the lion immediately shut up.
"Dead" Leo repeated a second later, looking at the floor as he walked, defeated. He wanted to keep Satarou's secret, but he didn't want this new man he met to be hurt. He assumed the Angel would be suffering at the thought of his loved one being dead.
Silence settled over them for several long minutes before the princess turned to Satarou and said, "Ketsu? Why are you always wearing sunglasses? It's not that bright out."
The question caught Satarou off guard, and not paying attention, he tripped over a large rock, falling to the ground, his sunglasses slipping off of his face.
Immediately he squeezed his eyes shut and curled up in pain. The only one who noticed that he had fallen was the princess, and she was at a loss as to what to do.
It wasn't long before Satarou started coughing up blood, fighting hard not to change into his wolf form out of pure instinct.
"Guys! Guys! Ketsu is hurt!" the princess called out, tears falling down her cheeks, "I don't know what happened!" They all turned to face Satarou.
Immediately Leo's eyes widened and he called out, "Ketsu!" He quickly ran over and grabbed Satarou's sunglasses before slipping them onto the older teen.
Satarou calmed down rather quickly, blinking his eyes open and looking at the group.
He attempted to wipe the blood off his mouth, only to smear it, when he said, "what? Nothing serious happened."
"You were dying!" the princess scolded, "what happened? How come you are fine now?"
"He can't face the sun without his sunglasses" Leo explained, "otherwise he collaspes to the ground and starts coughing up blood." He turned towards Satarou and scolded, "you need to be more careful and watch where you are going! You know very well what happens when you don't have your sunglasses on outside in the daylight!"
"I know. Nothing happened, it was just a mistake" Satarou shrugged before getting off.
Still unhappy with the older teen, Leo scowled, "you have blood on your face."
Smirking slightly, Satarou replied, "Oh, do I? Whoops, guess I missed a spot."
"You act as if this is normal" Leon was puzzled.
"Guess it kind of is" Satarou tells him, "I am use to the sunglasses, anyways."
A couple hours had passed since that incident and they had decided to make a fire at sunset. Yorrel had taken Leo out hunting, so Satarou was left with Leon and the princess.
Before he could stop himself, Satarou blurted out, "Leon, why did you like Satarou?"
Leon smiled softly to himself as he said, "well, no matter how spoiled he acted sometimes, he would do anything to protect his brother, Yui. Eventually, I realized he considered me a friend because he tried to protect me, too. Somewhere along the lines I began to fall for him."
Satarou frowned, "it must hurt knowing he's dead. I'm sorry for your loss." Satarou felt a huge pang of guilt hit him straight in the chest. He couldn't believe that he was putting them through that kind of pain.
"It's okay, Ketsu" Leon frowned, "my biggest regret was not being able to tell him how I feel before he passed."
Satarou smiled softly at him, "for the record, I think he liked you, too. In fact I know he did. He would always talk about you."
"He did?" Leon was surprised, "he never gave off the impression that he liked me."
Satarou let out a small sigh before lying again, "the whole time in the lab, he knew you would come to his rescue. And that's why he had to die, because he didn't want to get you involved because he was worried that you would be killed."
"That idiot" Leon shook his head in disbelief before offering Satarou a small smile, "thank you, Ketsu."
At that moment, Leo and Yorrel returned from hunting.
"Does anyone know how to cook?" Yorrel asked before shrugging, "I didn't have much time to learn cooking while I was in prison."
"I do" Satarou and Leon both answered at the same time before Leon said, "you can cook if you want to, Ketsu."
Satarou nodded and took a few sticks. With his freshly cleaned knife, he started skinning the various rabbits and chopping up the meat. Skewering the chopped up meat, he decided to make kebabs, though all he had available to put on it was the rabbit meat. He handed everyone a kebab and they all held it in the fire to cook it.
It took a decent amount of time before it was fully cooked, but once it was done, everyone happily dug into their kebab.
"Do you cook often?" Leon asked Satarou.
Satarou nodded slightly. "Not as much anymore, but I use to have to cook all of the time when I was younger."
"You certainly know what you are doing, Ketsu!" Yorrel exclaimed through a mouthful of rabbit meat, "mm, I love the taste of rabbit."
The princess didn't eat, instead looking down. "Um, it would be weird to eat this."
Yorrel froze before frowning, "oh, right. You are a bunny. I'm sorry. This was all we had to eat."
"I will be right back" Satarou finished his food and got up, leaving the group. He didn't want the princess to starve and because of all of the pain he was causing them, hunting for her was the least he could do.
Once he walked deep enough in the forest, he took off his clothing and sunglasses. It was dark enough that the sun would no longer affect him.
Sighing, he shifted into his wolf, stretching out his legs for a much needed run. It felt forever since he was in his wolf form, since he's hiding it from the group.
His vision was much sharper now, and it didn't take him long to find a squirrel. He slowly knelt into position and watched the squirrel carefully. Once the squirrel was completely at ease, he lunged at it and locked his jaws into it.
Carrying it around in his mouth, he began to walk back towards his clothes to see Leo sitting there, criss-cross. Satarou dropped the squirrel a few inches away from his clothing, and Leo kindly waited until Satarou switched back and was done changing.
"Why are you here?" Satarou watched as the younger teen stood up to glare at him.
"You can't keep lying to Leon and the others! Don't you realize how much it is affecting them?" Leo asked, beyond angry.
"But it's better this way" Satarou told Leo.
"For you, maybe! But for them, they are devastated!" Leo hissed.
"They will get over it" Satarou frowned. His eyes widened in shock when he felt a stinging sensation against his cheek, and it took him a moment to realize Leo had just slapped him.
"You still aren't even over your parents death!" Leo yelled, "how do you expect them to get over yours? They care about you, moron! Leon even has feelings for you! You idiot!"
Still in shock, Satarou managed to say, "but I can't. I'm not ready for them to know yet."
Leo was mostly calm a moment later, but still angry, he says, "fine, I will keep your secret for now. But you have until we reach Bloodstone to make up your mind as to whether you want to remain in their lives or not. Because once I am in Bloodstone, I am not going to let them think you are dead when you are not! You can either tell them yourself, or I will. So decide now. If you choose to stay out of their life, I will wait until you are gone before I tell them, but they deserve to know. Otherwise you have to tell them yourself."
"What?" Satarou asked, shocked.
"Remember, I am only giving you until we reach Bloodstone" Leo snarled, "I can't continue watching you hurt them like this!" And with that, Leo stormed off.
Sighing, Satarou grabbed the squirrel and headed back to the fire where everyone was gathered. Satarou quickly skinned the squirrel and cut it up before making it into a squirrel kebab. Once it was done cooking, he handed it to the princess and asked, "is this good?"
"Squirrel?" the princess asked before smiling slightly, "yes, it's better than eating a rabbit. Thank you." A moment later she asked, "did you catch it?"
Lying, Satarou shook his head and said, "no, Leo caught it."
The princess ate in silence as everyone else stayed silent as well.
Satarou couldn't help but to think about what Leo had said. He knew he must have messed up if he made a normally cheerful guy snap at him. The worst part was that Leo was right, too. All he was doing was running from his problems, yet he couldn't bring himself to fix it. He couldn't bring himself to tell Leon or the others the truth. He didn't want them to know. He didn't want them to think he was a monster now. He didn't want to think he was a failure because he was now disposable trash, nothing more than a science experiment. The worst part was that he was afraid of disappointing his little brother Yui.
Curling up on the ground, he decided it was time to sleep.