A Day Like Any Other

How?

How was it someone like him ended up here? Not some worthy rich noble with a great title. Not some strong and brave adventurer. And not anyone else of value.

She was beautiful. She was so beautiful. When she danced and sung she had the whole room captivated. She could have taken her pick of any of the people in that room, but for some god-unknown reason she picked him.

Useless, worthless, cowardly him.

And he could never repay that favour as long as he lived.

Shintaro woke up fairly early the next morning. At first, he almost jumped out of his skin. There was someone in his bed!

It took him at least a minute to realise that this wasn't, actually his bed, and rather that he was in someone else's bed. He looked at the form in front of him, a woman in his arms- completely naked. His mind went into crisis as he recalled everything that had happened the night prior. If he hadn't just woken up, he would have assumed it was all some crazy dream. Yesterday he never would have guessed he'd be waking up in a girl's bed the next morning. He tried to contain himself and remove his arm from under Alexandra's slender form without waking her up.

As he carefully snuck off the end of the bed without disturbing her sleeping form, he searched around the floor for his pants.

It made his face go red just to think about it. He looked around for a bit but couldn't differentiate the pieces of clothing scattered about the floor. He blinked a few times to try to clear his vision.

Oh. he thought to himself in realization I'm not wearing my glasses. They must have come off at some point last night. Strange that he hadn't even noticed; he supposed he was probably a little too distracted to care.

He looked at the bedside table and found them sitting right there. He quietly stepped over the pile of clothes and slipped his glasses back along the bridge of his nose. He needed to find his hair tie too- as if it wasn't bad enough in the morning, without something to hold it back his unruly mane was just a pain.

In a few moments he had regained and re-equipped his pants, feeling a little better because of it.

He looked down at Alexandra's sleeping figure. She was so beautiful. So perfect. He leant down over her and craned his neck to kiss her lightly on the forehead, but not enough so as to wake her up.

She stirred a little, but only smiled before settling back into her slumber. Shintaro smiled back at her and walked out of the room.

Entering the main part of Alexandra's house, he noticed that the curtains on the window were open. He dashed over to them and drew them shut so as to avoid someone seeing him in this compromising state.

He stopped where he was an turned around slowly, horrified at what he realized. From where he was, he could see directly into Alexandra's bedroom.

Where they were.

He actually thought that if it were possible to die of embarrassment, it would have happened to him. Right here, right now.

Chances were nobody saw anything last night- it was pretty late, and not many people went around looking through windows, but the fact that there was a chance was almost enough to make him have a heart attack right then and there. In that moment he decided.

I'm not going to tell her.

Without giving any more thought; because he really really didn't want to think about it, he stormed over to what looked like a kitchen with determination. He'd made a comment about his cooking last night, and he intended to prove his skills. Cooking was just like Alchemy, after all. Or maybe that was supposed to be the other way around?

Either way, regardless of what he had gone through yesterday, he was going to boil the Hell out of these eggs!

Alexandra began to stir shortly after to the sound and smell of freshly cooking eggs. She smiled fondly at the thought that Shintaro had decided to stay, rather than flee in the early hours of the morning, but quickly waved the idea that he would even consider such a thing. That notion made her feel even better about him still.

She scanned the floor, looking for where her clothes had landed the night before. Finding her undergarments and shirt, she donned them before heading towards the kitchen (as her shirt was long enough as to be not completely immodest.) She tip toed out, as she got closer to the source of the cooking, and saw him standing over the stove, still shirtless. She admired him for awhile without saying anything, he was a lot more handsome than he seemed to credit himself for; not everything for so superficial as muscles to her.

Slowly walking forward, she surprised him by draping herself over his shoulders with a gleeful "Good morning!", kissing him on the cheek in the process.

Shintaro freaked out.

Somehow he'd been so absorbed in making sure the eggs came out perfectly that he hadn't noticed Alexandra sneaking up on him.

When she lovingly attacked him from the side he dropped the wooden spoon he was using into the pot, splashing boiling water all over himself, mostly his arm.

He managed to step in the way a little in his moment of clarity to stop it from splashing her.

"W-woah, s-sorry!" He spluttered, not having meant to react so drastically. "I-I didn't mean to uh..." He trailed off as the burns on his skin started to sting, and he realized how bad they were.

Alexandra let out a panicked squeak as it transpired, then began to apologise profusely, feeling terrible for what was only meant to be a bit of harmless fun. "Oh no, no, no, I'm sorry! This is my fault, here, let me help!" She offered, her words a constant stream as she grabbed his hand in one of her own, not waiting for permission, and held her free hand over the worst of the burn.

She began to sing, not unlike what he had heard in the Tavern the night before, but this time there was a more powerful emotion behind it; some greater power at work. Slowly the pain faded in Shintaro's arm as Alexandra worked her magic. (Literal magic)

Shintaro watched on in awe as she cast her spell, both on his arm and on him as a whole.

There was something mesmerizing about the way she did it.

Sure, if he'd gone to his bag and taken a sip of one of his potions, he could have healed it just as easily; but there was something much more wondrous about this... more intimate, and just downright more impressive.

"You're amazing, you know that, right?" He was looking directly at her, while she still had her eyes trained on his wounds, concentrating on finishing her work.

When she was done, she looked back up at him affectionately. "No more amazing than you are," she said, playfully, before glancing back at the stove. "I.. hope I haven't ruined breakfast," she added, embarrassment edging into her voice.

"Not at all!" He announced. "Surely breakfast can still be saved this day."

They laughed a little at the exchange and he went back to prodding the eggs to see if they were done yet.

As he did this, Alexandra got out a pair of plates and some bread, humming all the while.

Even just like this, they both felt comfortable enough in each other's presence. Which, for Shintaro; was an amazing feat.

The eggs were done before long, and Shintaro carefully deshelled them, using all of his precision to make sure he didn't miss any shell. These were hands that could easily handle all sorts of dangerous ingredients and potions, so he had to be careful with these sorts of things.

Together they served breakfast onto the plates.

Originally he had intended to do it all himself to prove a point, but she seemed keen to assist, and honestly he was glad of her help.

He carried them over while she stayed back and poured some orange juice she had stored away into a pair of glasses.

They sat down at her small table and ate in silence together for a while, just happy to be in one another's presence.

After a while, Shintaro broke the silence, keen to learn more about her. He wanted to know everything he could.

"So you can use magic, then?" He asked, putting down his glass. "I think that's amazing.

I always wished that I could use magic, but I just don't seem to have the natural ability for it." He laughed. "That's what first put me on to Alchemy in the first place."

He continued on about how amazing she was, though, with disregard to her actually responding.

"But healing magic, now that's something else! To be able to close someone's wounds just like that? It's amazing!"

Alexandra blushed a little at the heaped praise. "It's actually something relatively new, I've only had the ability to do this for the last six years," she spoke while examining her own hands, looking them over as if they weren't her own. "I guess there's a good side to every encounter," she added, a far off look in her eye. If Shintaro hadn't been drinking the night before, he may have recognised it at the same expression she seemed to develop every time she thought of the scar on her back, and the incident all those years ago.

"Heh." he scoffed to himself briefly reminding himself of where they'd been only the morning prior. "I'd like to think that's the case, at least."

He stared into his glass of juice, thinking to himself, six years isn't what I would call 'new'. And then he reminded himself that unlike him, she was an elf, and was probably a lot older than him, and had probably seen a lot more than him, too.

Except, y'know... he literally came back from Hell yesterday.

The was a long moment where Alexandra pondered whether to continue, her pensiveness clearly written on her face as she continued to look at her hands. "The scar was cursed," she said after a while without looking up. Her voice held a sudden seriousness, as though what she was about to tell him was of the utmost importance.

Sintaro noted the serious tone in her voice, and looked up at her, who was still staring daggers at her bread, seemingly deep in thought.

"That... makes sense as to why you couldn't heal it then, I suppose." He spoke quietly, almost more to himself than her, and then waited for her to continue.

"The sword Garlan used was imbued by a being called Thousand Face, we eventually discovered. It caused the possessor to slowly be driven mad by their own desires and dark thoughts, the things most people hide. It was only at the sight of my blood by his hand that broke him from its grip. Nobody knew that at the time though." She choked on those last words, not wanting to continue where that road lead.

Having earlier thought very angry things about the man of which Alexandra mentioned, Shintaro suddenly felt a little guilty for it, and even felt sorry for the guy.

It was these sorts of premature judgments that led to tragedy.

"On top of that," she added, avoiding any further mention of Garlan's fate, "anybody who was struck by the sword became affected by a curse of a different design, a curse that evoked the opposite feeling to one thing they held precious to them. In my case, it was because I held beauty so high in regard that the scar could not be removed, nor could the curse itself be removed by regular means.

"I saw the world in such a beautiful way, through song and creation, and happiness. Beauty in every little thing that I could. That's where the true pain followed. For months no one would look at me properly whenever so much as a glimpse of the scar caught there eye, there wasn't even a reason, they just suddenly started to turn face. I began to lose confidence in myself in more ways than one. That everything could still be so beautiful to me, but the world thought I was an ugly mark was agonising."

Shintaro couldn't understand the reasoning behind that, to him; if anything, the scar made her more beautiful. It proved to him that she was a living, mortal being, just like himself.

She'd been through hardships just like everyone else, and her scar was just a reminder of the things she couldn't bring herself to let go.

"I think you're beautiful, scar or not." He said, with a completely serious tone; not even a trace of a smile on his face. "It just proves that you're mortal like everyone else. Some people bare scars on their body, others in their heart, but they can only serve to make you stronger. Nobody can really take away who you are like that. Even if some idiots will judge you for it, that just proves that they're below you and no way near worth your time."

He began to falter a little here before adding with a smile, finally breaking his dark expression, "And besides, that's only your outer beauty- that's nothing to be said of the beauty on the inside! I bet your soul is more beautiful than Aphrodite herself!" He exclaimed.

She smiled at the sentiment briefly, not wanting to detract from its meaning to her. If only you could see your own soul shining, she thought to herself. Letting out a small sigh, not inherently tired or sad in meaning, she continued. "There was a catch though, it was what the sword had done, the curse was in the scar itself and so anyone who saw it was repulsed; they saw the polar opposite to how I saw the world."

"Huh?" He spoke quizzically "But I saw it, and I'll have you know I thought no such thing." He was genuinely intrigued by the whole thing, really. But didn't want to seem careless.

She chuckled, amusement radiating from her very being at the statement. "That's the thing though, it used to be cursed. It's not any more," came the reply, a warmness in it less serious than the rest of what she had said so far. She genuinely appreciated the way he spoke to her, despite his minor brashness at times.

"Really?" He said, deep in thought "Who'd've thought it'd work like that?" He half mumbled to himself, staring at his glass of juice, pondering a few things.

"You want to know what I think?" He turned directly at her, a serious look on his face.

"What I really truly honestly think?"

She looked back at him, a little startled by the sudden directness of the question. Her mind started to worry at what he might say, Darolith had promised her the curse was broken but now she worried that maybe something else lingered. She nodded, a shy, hesitant nod, almost as if their personas had switched.

"I think..." He started, as though he was about to start a long tangent, and took a long, deep, dramatic breath before continuing. "That beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And, while I may not have very good eyesight, I can tell you that you're the most beautiful being I have ever in my entire life of a long twenty eight years ever had the pleasure of laying my eyes on." He stopped for a moment to clear his throat. "And I think I've known that since the moment I first saw you up on that stage, curse, scar, or not. It doesn't even matter."

He tried to keep his serious act up for as long as he could.

Alexandra just stared, utterly shocked by the outburst, completely unsure of what to say to begin with. Suddenly a deep heartache filled her, a mix between longing and loneliness as all the pain the curse had caused her began to flood back in. Why did I only find you now? She thought, utterly convinced that even if she was still cursed, it wouldn't have stopped Shintaro from seeing things the way he did. A few tears began to well at the corner of her eyes, a mix of joy and the pain she felt inside.

"You really are a strange one," she said, voice cracking slightly, through a smile that betrayed her tears. She reached across the table, placing her hands upon his, "if only everyone saw the world the way you do."

Shintaro saw the tears beginning to well in her eyes and jumped up suddenly from his chair, standing alert.

"O-oh hey, I didn't say something to offend you did I?" He rambled, shocked that she was all of a sudden crying after what he'd said. Maybe I was too insensitive he thought.

It took him a moment to realize that standing up from his chair so roughly had caused the small remainder of his juice to topple over and spill out all over the table.

"Aah!" He exclaimed in distress "What am I even doing?!"

Alexandra jumped up with a start, eyes suddenly clear and focused on cleaning the mess. She rushed over to where she kept some of her spare rags and brought one over to soak up the spilt drink. She let out a little giggle as she did. "You didn't offend me, by the way, it was just.. Some memories, and they hurt. I just needed a wake up from memory lane, that was all. You certainly gave me that." She said, turning to smile at him.

"W-well, I'm glad I could help." He said, scruffing the back of his neck, his unruly and loose bedhead flicking up every which way. He couldn't tame that thing if he tried. (not that he ever did)

He did think it strange though, that she wished people would see the world his way; considering to him the world was a rather dreary place. It was the people inside it that really made it special. The bonds that you make.

He was sure that the way she saw the world must have been much more beautiful. Especially if she somehow managed to see something worthwhile in a guy like himself.

He was eternally grateful for that, and would be for a long time to come, it seemed.

He'd like to have said that he met her on a day like any other; but he couldn't.

That day would go down as one of the greatest days he'd ever have the experience of living through; because it was the day he met the love of his life.