Chapter 40: I love you
Master4thWall Note: Back after a hectic few months. You can expect regular updates from now on! Oh, and don't forget to leave some stones for a headstart.
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"Was such a deal with this Emma Frost woman really necessary?" Anna Marie asked out straight, wearing a worried frown.
Anna was in Enrique's arms as he flew in the air; her expression was serious while her arms were locked around his neck to support her position.
"Depends on your definition of necessary," Enrique answered vaguely, making her groan a little. "Relax, it's fine, I know what I am doing."
"Do you, now? I want to trust you, like I always do, but this woman just seems so dangerous even to an ‘oblivious little girl’ like me, you know?" Rogue replied honestly.
Earlier, by showing her a photo (Google Maps) of where he wanted to go, therefore activating her stolen Teleportation power, Enrique found himself in a desolate place in France. In the middle of nowhere, in grassy terrain, where an old abandoned house rested. This was a place where, in his previous world, Enrique built a mansion after clearing the old house. It was a stroke of coincidence that this broken house existed even in this world.
There, Enrique just dropped on his butt to sit on the grassy ground, under a tree, with Anna and Emma sitting around him—as he made a deal with the latter, the White Queen of the Hellfire Club.
Avoiding the details, to explain the deal in simpler terms, Emma was to help Enrique in every way that he demanded. As for Enrique's end of the deal, he wouldn't live up to that yet. Only a few months from this point will he live up to that and help her out.
However, the help she would receive was entirely different than what she had planned earlier. It was comparatively worse than the earlier one too, but she didn't have any choice but to accept.
"Emma Frost is desperate. Meaning, I can use her in ways suitable for my current situation." Enrique told Anna. "Obviously, she's not the type to be trusted, or be used too easily, so I will have to watch out for every minute details—but as they say, treasure that comes with no risk isn't treasure worth it."
".…"
"Besides that, if everything goes well, she wouldn't necessarily kill me at the end of this ordeal. After all, it's not as if she lacks humane feelings and therefore cannot build liking or friendship with others. I personally wouldn't mind a strong and independent woman as a good friend…. But let's not go that far, that may just be wishful thinking given its Emma of all people. It all boils down to what she herself chooses to do after I complete my part of the deal that would decide our relationship."
"Just like you and I, then." Anna suddenly said, laughing a little and making Enrique look down at her face. She stared back at him with a smile. "Emma is still human, so it's not impossible for her to feel grateful to us for helping her. Grateful, or a feeling of friendship, or something else. She could feel those either by herself or being forced to, being manipulated into. That's just like me, isn't it?"
"You are good at this, Enrique." As Enrique stared at her silently, Anna explained to him. "You seem to have prior experience at this… manipulating thing. I am not that stupid to not notice. A big bad villain, that's what you are, I can tell that much."
Enrique stared at her, his eyes unreadable.
"It's fine," Anna continued. "I know… you're not that bad. It's impossible for you to have been manipulating me from the moment we met, so there is obviously nice within you. But… I am sure you did some things to me according to calculations, selfishness, rather than just being a nice guy. From how I saw you treating the others, including Emma Frost, it would be weird for me to assume I alone am special to you—even though we have known each for more than weeks."
'So she found out.' Enrique hummed in his head.
…Well, in his defence, it's not as if he was trying to hide things from her. Finding it out and realising it should have been easy, more so, when she must have had a discussion with Ava on the matter recently.
Anna Marie finding out and realising her case of being manipulated wasn't entirely out of Enrique's expectation, but he knew that even if she did find, she wouldn't turn her back on him. Her 'It's fine!' only proved to that point.
If he wasn't sure, he wouldn't have called her to aid him today at all since she would have been forced to fight the X-Men in the worst case scenario, and then she could have turned her back on him to aid them in the battle instead.
But he still called her. Because unlike Greer and Ava, he trusted this girl; this naive yet cute girl who so much as refused to believe that she was just another girl in his life. He liked her for that though, because truly she wasn't just anyone to him, she was important for his current and future plans. He liked her too, of course, though ‘love’ would be too strong of a word.
In short, it may not be a bad thing for Anna to know about his true affinity—as long as she still supported him, which she seemingly was.
Enrique stopped staring at her with an unreadable expression and just laughed instead.
"They call me a hero, and here you are." He said.
"They're not the ones flying in your arms, I am, so I would know better." Anna insisted.
"Yet you're not running away?" Enrique asked her with curiosity. "Your skin is still red, ears pointy, with that cute tail rolling behind you. You should be able to use your power anytime. Why not flee from this big bad villain?"
Earlier, Anna had teleported them to Massachusetts Academy after the deal was sealed, dropping Emma off there, but when Enrique told her to do the same and reach their villa—she refused. She wanted to fly there, in his arms, she said.
"Well," Anna trailed off, going silent for a moment before she continued. "Do you know what the most popular fictional genre is for women? I know myself, and a quick Google search would answer you too. It's actually the Beauty & Beast sorta thing. So according to most women, I am living my dream life. Why must I flee?"
Enrique wanted to point out how she called him a Beast, but then he realized his current appearance and stopped.
After a moment of quick thinking, Enrique doubted she was here all because this was her 'kink', maybe it played a part but there were surely other reasons. One of them must be 'love' he was sure, and Anna probably didn't want to admit that to his face after she just witnessed what a cold-hearted douchebag he was, realising that there was a real chance that he had no feelings for her.
In her insecure mind, Anna Marie probably couldn't be sure if her feelings mattered to this man at all, so she just said part of the truth why she was still with this villain who was pretending to be a hero.
"...Anna," Enrique said after a silence, looking forward again as he continued flying. "I love you."
He didn't, not yet, but he needed to say it now.
"...What?" Anna's prior easy expression froze as she looked dazed. "What did you just-"
"I just felt like saying it," Enrique said. "I never said those words to you, I recalled."
"Oh… r-right, that's… I mean-" Anna tried, but she couldn't speak, she fumbled as her face went red. "I am sorry, t-that was sudden for me."
"It's fine," Enrique hugged Anna gently. "You don't have to think about it, then. Don't answer me either if you're feeling confused. I just said what I said because that's what I feel. Also because I feel like you'd like to hear it, and another also because I am grateful to have you by my side."
An 'I love you' was never said from his part until now, and Anna must have noticed it at least once by now as she never got a reply to her own 'I love you’ that she screamed countless times in their intimate moments.
So when Anna's face was pushed against Enrique's chest, her wide eyes stared at the white fabrics of his suit. At the same time, Enrique stared forward at the sky with… no emotion present on his face.
He felt sorry for doing this, as he didn't love her yet, however, he knew this had to be done now before he loses his chance to tell her that.
"I… love you too." A soft reply came a long silence later.
* * *
"I like him. Seriously." Kebechet the Snake Goddess couldn't help a giggle as she saw the scene through the projection in Mut's heaven. "What a menacing bastard. Are you sure you can trust him with the fate of the pantheon, grans?"
Mut and Kebechet had been observing Enrique for long, and though they couldn't read his thoughts they were still old Gods, they could see through some of his lies and expressions—precisely this, when he was indifferently staring forward while the little girl was shredding gentle tears on his chest.
"This guy doesn't fail to stun me," Mut muttered softly before sighing. “By the way, do you have any idea why he said he would help the Frost girl a few months later and not yet? It felt to me that there is something else at work behind that decision rather than just receiving her help first.”
“I don’t know,” Kebechet shrugged while saying in a dramatic tone. “Perhaps he has some plans for 2012? It’s nearly the end of 2011, it’s October, so perhaps he is cooking something spicy in his head.”
“Mhm, possible. But-” Mut was about to continue, but her words were cut midway by her own gasp. "Ah- they're making out!"
Suddenly the emotional scene got steamy when Anna stopped crying and abruptly kissed Enrique, making Mut flinch while Kebchet raised an eyebrow at the scene.
"...Now I get it. It's not just the boy, the girl is weird too. Both of them are weirdos, grans." Kebechet said with a frown. "They're a perfect match."
"I, I guess?" Mut replied, though at the very moment she wasn't focused on her words. “Whoa.”
"Holy hell-" Kebchet abruptly gasped. "He got a big dick, though; that seriously might be his only redeeming quality."
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Master4thWall: That concludes the current arc, and we will be moving on to Avengers first movie starting from next chapter.
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