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lyranova · 2 years ago

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Chapter 9: Denial and Acceptance

Hi guys! I know it’s been a while since I’ve updated this series and I apologize, but hopefully the next update won’t take too long 😅. This chapter is very much a filler chapter but you do get a Zerilliam moment as well some development with their feelings, the next chapter is more “action packed” so to speak 😆. But I still hope you all enjoy~!

Word Count: 2,999

Warnings: None

A Couple Weeks Later

Zera quickly took a deep breath as she lifted a heavy clay pot and moved it to the other side of the courtyard. After she began to feel guilty for what she was doing to Captain, ah no, to William with the ‘fake engagement’ jokd she decided to bury herself in her work. The next day she had gone to her shop early in the morning and worked there until late at night, hoping to avoid him at all costs. She did that for a few days and it seemed to work.

But one day when she had been returning from her shop, William was waiting at the gates for her. She had been surprised, and had begun to make excuses as to why she was late and that he didn’t need to worry. It had worked at first. William had accepted her excuses and hadn’t asked her any questions. But after a few days he began to grow more and more curious and even became a bit worried.

When Zera noticed, she quickly stopped staying out so late and began coming back earlier and earlier. Her reasoning? Because if William began to get too worried he would either stay out all night waiting for her, would follow her to and from work or have some of his squad do that for him, or worse…get her father and brothers involved.

So she decided from now on that she would try and stick around the Golden Dawn base and keep herself busy by putting flowers in her room and taking care of the courtyard since it would keep William from worrying about her.

“ Wait a second…why should I care if he worries about me or not?” Zera began with a frown as she stood up and placed her hands on her hips. “ I mean, it’s not like I care about how he feels or anything. So why does it matter if he worries about me uselessly? I’ve told him before to stop, so how is it my fault if he doesn’t listen and just continues doing it?”

“ But, if you really didn’t care about him and his feelings would you be going to such lengths to keep him from worrying?” The angel on her shoulder suddenly pipped up, causing Zera to glare at her.

“ Or better yet, would you be trying so hard to convince yourself that you like him or care for his feelings if you didn’t feel the opposite?” The devil on her shoulder asked with a smirk, causing Zera to turn her head the other way to glare at her.

“ Will you two shut up? I don’t recall asking for your opinions.” Zera muttered as she bent down again to pick up the clay pot.

“ Denial is always the first stage.” The devil muttered with a shake of her head, and the angel nodded solemnly in agreement.

“ Will you two just shut up?!” Zera suddenly shouted as she stood up straight and crossed her arms.

“ Oh dear, it seems we’ve seamlessly transitioned into anger.” The angel on her shoulder said with a small ‘tsk’ sound, causing Zera to yell in exasperation and throw her hands up in the air.

A few feet away stood Mimosa, Neva, Yuno, and Klaus. The four of them had come by the courtyard to see if Zera needed any help with the flowers or pots, but as they went to go inside the courtyard they noticed her talking and shouting to herself. So the four of them stopped and just…watched the scene unfold before them.

“ Um…is Ms. Zera okay? It looks like she’s talking to herself.” Mimosa whispered as she looked from the ash blonde haired woman to her friends beside her.

“ I’m sure she’s fine, everyone talks to themselves sometimes.” Neva said softly and with a small shrug, Klaus shook his head.

“ That’s true, but it looks like she’s actually talking to someone instead of just herself.” Klaus pointed out with a frown as Zera once again let out an exasperated shout causing the four to jump slightly at the sudden noise.

“ Maybe she’s possessed by something, like a ghost or a fairy or something.” Yuno muttered thoughtfully as he watched her.

“ What?!” Klaus and Mimosa shouted in surprise as they looked over at the dark haired man, Neva sighed and shook her head.

“ I doubt it. If she were possessed by something she wouldn’t be talking so openly to them, she’d be trying to hide it just like Captain Vangeance did.” Neva muttered the last part softly as she looked away and crossed her arms, Yuno glanced over at her for a moment with a soft look in his eyes before he turned to see Zera walking towards them.

“ Oh hey guys! I didn’t see you here, is something wrong? How long have you been standing here?” Zera asked with a bright smile on her face.

“ Oh not long! Not long at all!” Mimosa said a bit too quickly before she rubbed the back of her neck nervously.

“ We just came by to see if you needed any help with the courtyard.” Neva told her simply, and Zera looked around.

“ Oh. Well, I don’t really need any help…but I think I can find stuff for you guys to do.” Zera said with a small mischievous smile on her face. She quickly turned around and began to instruct the four on things they could do to help make the courtyard a little nicer and a little more welcoming.

William sighed as he accidentally read the same paragraph for the third time. Everytime he tried to concentrate on the words his mind began to wander back to the memories from a few weeks ago and a silly smile would appear on his face, and he would have to reluctantly snap himself out of it and try to get back to work.

“ Captain, you're spacing out again.” Langris said as he walked into the office and up to the desk, William sighed and nodded.

“ I know, but I can’t help it.” William admitted softly as another smile crept onto his face unknowingly, causing Langris to sigh.

“ Captain, do you like Zera?” Langris asked curiously, causing William to pause his reading once again.

“ I…” The white haired man suddenly trailed off as a frown formed on his face and he leaned back in his chair.

If he were being honest, he wasn’t actually sure what it felt like to ‘like’ someone romantically. Sure he had friends that he liked and cared for, but surely that couldn’t be the same as liking someone romantically? When you liked someone that way it was supposed to be different, right?

He suddenly began to compare his feelings for Zera to those of his friends. With Zera, he worried about her, cared for her, and wanted to make sure she was safe and happy, much like he did with his friends. But with Zera, he was willing to go to any and all lengths to make that happen. He would give her the sun, moon, and stars if she asked for it. He wanted to spend as much time with her as he could, he wanted to hug her and hold her in his arms for as long as he could, and probably most importantly or most strangely depending on how one looked at it…

He wanted to kiss her.

“ I do like her. I like her a lot.” William confessed softly as the smile on his face widened, Langris blinked in surprise.

“ I…I really didn’t expect you to be so honest sir.” Langris admitted in surprise which made William chuckle.

“ I guess I didn’t see the point in lying or denying it, especially since the evidence is as clear as day.” William told him with another chuckle.

“ And when do you plan on confessing your feelings to Zera Captain?” Langris asked curiously as his brow raised slightly, suddenly the white haired man’s eyes widened and a blush appeared on his face.

“ I…I don’t know, I don’t think now is the best time to tell her. Maybe in a few weeks?” William muttered to himself as he began to think, which caused the Vice Captain to sigh in exasperation.

“ So you’re not going to lie or deny your feelings for her, but just keep them to yourself. Alright, I guess that’s a choice you can make.” Langris thought with a shake of his head.

“ Anyway, enough about me, what brings you here? Did you happen to find more smuggler files?” William asked, Langris blinked in surprise before quickly shaking his head.

“ No sir, I searched our entire records room and didn’t find any more. So what’s on your desk is all we have. Did…you find anything?” Langris asked curiously as he peaked over the desk curiously, but William shook his head in defeat.

“ Nothing yet. No names or descriptions seem to fit, and there’s nothing about smuggling plants or other goods similar to it either. So I’m wondering if this is a case of mistaken.” William muttered as he picked up the file and skimmed over it again.

“ It could be. So far it seems the most likely since none of the files seem to match.” Langris said, he watched as William shook his head again.

“ Something’s still not adding up, if it’s a case of mistaken identity then why would she say that when we first met? Maybe it was a joke?” He muttered more to himself than to his Vice Captain, Langris shrugged.

“ I’m not sure sir, but I’ll leave it to you. I have a prior engagement I need to attend to,” Langris said before quickly saluting William and turning around to walk away.

He walked out of William’s office and, as he closed the door behind him, he let out what felt like his millionth sigh before he pinched the bridge of his nose.

“ Did you show the Captain what you found?” Alecdora asked as he stood against the wall across from the Captain’s office, Langris shook his head. “ Why not?”

“ Because there isn’t much evidence to prove that it is her.” Langris told him matter of factly.

“ The name and description alone is proof that it’s her! The name ‘Cinnamon’ and the description ‘female, short, ash-blonde hair with ice blue eyes’ is more than enough evidence! It even says that they smuggled in plants!” Alecdora nearly shouted, but quieted down once Langris walked up to him with an ice cold glare.

“ And it could all be nothing more than a mere coincidence. I want to be 100% sure before I accuse our Captain’s fiancé of smuggling in goods.” Langris said quietly, and Alecdora rolled his eyes.

“ What will you do when you find evidence and they’re already married? Are you going to just arrest her and ruin our Captain’s good name?” Alecdora asked, and Langris smirked.

“ Yes, that’s exactly what I plan on doing. Except I won’t ruin our Captain’s name, instead it’ll just make him more sympathetic won’t it? The people will see how a conwoman manipulated him and played with his heart in order to get immunity for her crimes. But was quickly found out by the Captain and his squad and was immediately charged and arrested. Sure people will say our Captain was dumb and silly, but I think a majority will be sympathetic and place all their anger on the woman.”

“ Wow, that’s very detailed and kinda cruel.” Alecdora muttered as he rubbed the back of his head.

“ Which is why I want to make sure, without a shadow of a doubt, that Zera is this ‘Cinnamon’ person. Because I don’t want to accidentally ruin an innocent woman’s life, along with our Captain and his happiness.” Langris said as he began to walk away.

“ In one week you and I are going to try and find any and all evidence that either proves or disproves that Zera is Cinnamon.” Langris threw at Alecdora over his shoulder before he turned the corner and disappeared.

Zera let out a small yawn as she walked down the halls towards her room. She was able to finish quite a bit of the courtyard thanks to Neva, Yuno, Mimosa, and Klaus’s help. But she still had a way to go. Tomorrow she would go to her store and get some more of her babies to plant around the courtyard to make it just a little more ‘colorful’.

As she rounded the corner she stopped dead in tracks. Standing in front of her door, waiting for her, was William. When he noticed her he stood up straight and smiled warmly at her.

“ Zera, you’re coming back late.”

“ Yeah, me and a few of the Squad members worked on the courtyard a little longer than we had intended.” Zera admitted sheepishly as she approached him, the closer she got to him the more her heart began to race in nervous excitement.

“ Stop it, heart! You would think he and I were getting married right this instant with how you’re acting!” Zera mentally shouted at her heart, she quickly grabbed her cardigan and wrapped it tightly around herself and placed a hand on her chest to try and calm herself down.

“ But what are you doing here? It’s pretty late isn’t it?” She asked with a slight frown, William moved away from the wall and walked towards her.

“ It is, but…I wanted to see you for a moment before I went to sleep…” William trailed off softly as a small blush appeared on his cheeks. Zera felt her face begin to heat up slightly as her heart felt like it was jumping for joy at his words.

“ I-Is that right?” She stammered a bit nervously, she quickly cleared her throat as it suddenly went dry.

“ It is. I have something to tell you,” William began softly, he nearly chuckled as she tilted her head in confusion. “ I’m going to be away on a joint mission with the Black Bulls, I’ll be gone for a week and at least half the squad will be with me. So you’ll pretty much have the entire base to yourself.” He added as Zera blinked in surprise.

“ Oh really?” Zera suddenly felt her heart sink in disappointment at him being away, but she quickly shook her head and mentally scolded herself. “ That’s a shame,” she muttered softly before she could stop herself, she watched as William’s eyes lit up slightly.

“ I-I mean, it’s a shame that I’ll be stuck here while you’re gone and I won’t be able to go to my shop.” Zera quickly lied, she knew it wasn’t the most convincing lie, but still she had to try and keep him from discovering her true feelings.

“ Why would you only be able to stay here? You can still go to your shop and go about your day like you normally do even when I’m not here.” William said with a frown, he watched as a strange look of relief passed over her face.

“ O-Oh that’s good then! Because I still get quite a few customers a day so I don’t want to have to stay closed for an entire week and lose out on money!” Zera said quickly and with a small laugh, she watched as William laughed a bit as well. He knew she wasn’t actually as greedy as she pretended to be, but decided to keep quiet on it for not.

The two fell into silence for a moment, both not really sure what else to say. They had so much they wanted to say to each other, but the words wouldn’t come out. Suddenly William walked up to her and gently grabbed her hand, and Zera felt her heart rate immediately begin to increase the longer he held her hand.

“ This is a Magic Communication Device. It allows people to talk back and forth, only Magic Knights are allowed to use them, but as long as no one else finds out, you can use this to talk to me while I’m away.” William said softly as he placed the device in her hand. “ But only if you want to talk to me, that is, you don’t have to force yourself to.” He added quickly as a blush crept onto his cheeks again and he rubbed the back of his head.

Zera looked down at the device, he wanted to stay in contact with her even while he was away on a mission? Instead of feeling just warmth and joy, she also felt that cold guilt creep into her heart as well. She held the device tightly in her hand as she gently pulled her hand out of his grip.

“ Thank you, I’ll…I’ll be sure to call you while you’re away, even if it’s just to make sure you’re not bored and lonely without me.” Zera half joked softly as she walked past him to get to her room, and she heard William chuckle.

“ I will admit, it’ll probably be quite boring without you there, and…I’ll probably miss you while I’m gone.” He admitted softly, he turned around a bit to face her. “ Goodnight Zera, sleep well.”

Zera felt her heart sink into the depths of guilt at William’s words, he would miss her while he was away? He would actually be bored without her there? She watched as he walked farther and farther away from her. She had hoped he hadn’t fallen for her yet, she had hoped that maybe he never would, but as soon as the words left his lips she realized she was too late.

He had fallen for her, just like she had fallen for him.

She quickly walked into her room and shut the door softly behind her. When he returned from his mission she was going to have to talk to him and tell him the truth.

That this had been nothing but a joke, and she wasn’t just the ‘law abiding citizen’ that she claimed to be.

Thank you all so much for reading and I hope you all have a good day 🥰!

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