#aorinapollo

Title: Slap Characters: Ena, Eliphas. Some others are involved. Rating: K+ (I think? Hitting and arguing is involved.) Wordcount: 859 Spoiler warning: As always, post canon. {part 1 - part 3}

“That was way too dangerous.”

Ena couldn't say anything else. The silence was heavy and unbearable, occasionally interrupted by Kotori's soft sobbing. Yuma, Astral, Eliphas, the Barian Emperors. They all got heavily injured, and some of them were still unconscious.

The woman was watching outside the window with her arms crossed, nails digging in her own flesh. She didn't want to see any of their faces. “I did tell you not to go.” She wasn't shouting. Her voice was low and icy cold. Ena was simply furious.

“We had to.” Ena turned to see Eliphas standing right behind her. “You had to.” she was looking straight into his eyes. “Is that your best excuse?” she asked. “Look at them. Look at yourself.” her voice's tone had slightly raised.

“It was unavoidable. Sacrifices have to be made if--”

Ena's hand hit Eliphas face before he could notice she had raised her arm. He didn't even flinch; she didn't slap him that hard, after all. Yet, for some reason, he felt deeply hurt. “May I ask for an explanation?” he said, slightly irritated. She brought her hand to her chest, looking down for a moment while she realized what she had done.

She raised her head back up. “On my travels to the human world, I learned a lot.” she started. “They are irrational beings. And because of this, they are able to express their feelings in a multitude of ways.

“I have learned that sometimes, hitting people you care about is a way to show you love them.”

Eliphas didn't understand a word out of her mouth. “If you care about people, why would you try to hurt them?” “Did it hurt?” “No.” “That's because I didn't want to do that.”

Eliphas was exasperated. “Couldn't you be a little more clear? This whole discussion isn't making any sense.”

“I wanted to show you how angry I am. To show you that you may not care about getting hurt or even getting killed, but I do. Referring as yourselves as sacrifices? Are you crazy?!”

“Just because we are friends of human beings now, that doesn't mean you should act like one.” replied Eliphas. “Only stupid beings such as them could think that you can show affection through pain. And you must be just as stupid as they are, if you think so too.” “But I didn't mean to- I wanted to-” she looked for Kotori's aid, but the girl, who was watching over Yuma across the room, was staring at the floor, lost in thought. She had always hit Yuma, albeit not in a serious way, but never once she questioned the other's feelings about it. And after all, was her behaviour even excusable?

She could understand how Ena was feeling, but she couldn't help but think that Eliphas wasn't exactly wrong, and she had took his arguments very personally.

The astral woman felt a little lost, without the human's support. Eliphas took advantage of that. “Hitting only means hurting, and that's that. You're only using humans as an excuse.”

Ena was fuming. “Only hurting, you say?” she shouted. “Well, I'm going to show you the difference!”

She was ready to punch Eliphas right on his nose, but someone had put a hand on her shoulder. Alit was still injured, but he was able to walk towards them to try to make them stop bicker. “Lady, I know his face looks like the perfect punching ball, but I must ask you to stop.” he said in a suave voice. “There are people trying to rest, here. May I suggest you to bring this outside?”

She shook his hand off. “I'll tell you what's going outside.” “Now, now, violence almost never solves things. Why don't you apologize and restart your argument from zero?” suggested the barian. “I'm not apologizing when there's no need for me to.” replied Ena and Eliphas in unison. They looked at each other and then let out an irritated snort.

“Actually, fair lady and grumpy sir, you both need to do that. Both of you are, allow me, acting pretty“stupid”.” He marked quotations with his hands while saying that last word. Eliphas glared down at him. “Ena may have misunderstood a fair amount of things, but that is nothing you can't solve with a nice explanation and a good “I'm sorry for hitting you”. Eliphas, on the other hand, insulted both her and the whole human race. Now, don't you think an apology is needed?” The answer was a firm and cold “No.” They both got offended by the boy's words, and they absolutely meant to hold their ground.

“It's all useless, Alit.” said a voice. “They're both idiots, how do you expect them to get any of it?” Vector was laying down, his arm covering his eyes. He woke up to Ena and Eliphas' bickering, and was less than pleased.