Dimensional Descent

[Bonus chappy thanks to Mr. Ham <3 (2/6)

Leonel sat on a stone in silence, looking out into the ocean. Every part of Anastasia's world-well, almost all of it-was absolutely beautiful. But he wasn't able to enjoy the beauty of it at all in this moment.

It wasn't like he wanted to have conflict with Aina's father, it was just that he couldn't see eye to eye with the man. It only made it worse that it was almost impossible to win an argument against Leonel. By the time you thought of one rebuttal, he had had a thousand.

It was hard to see how that could be a problem with Leonel, but when an argument was so one-sided, and yet the other party still felt like they were in the right, it made it impossible to come to a true common ground.

The only way would be if Leonel purposely held back and allowed Aina's father some concessions, but he didn't want to do that. Maybe that was a hint of his selfishness coming up, maybe it was his unwillingness to lose, but he truly meant those words he said to Aina.

He was willing to lay down and take a loss to her, but not for anyone else.

Leonel knew there wasn't really anyone wrong in this situation.

He felt that he was still rightfully mad at Aina back then. She didn't like his reckless actions, but he always had 100% confidence in himself. The idea that his woman wouldn't have the same unfettered belief in him not only hurt his own ego, but something deeper than that.

It had taken him a long time to understand what really bothered him about that moment back then, but as he came to understand more about himself, the more clarity he had about that day.

He had always imagined his relationship with Aina to be some perfect fairy tale. Or maybe it was that he always had an ideal of her in his mind, an ideal that shattered that day he watched her kill someone for the first time.

His feelings for Aina came from a power beyond him, probably much like his self-confidence. In the beginning, he didn't even really know why he liked her, so he filled in the gaps with fantasies instead.

could also get serious when she needed to, how smart she was at the same time. He felt that she was the

when she never came to his game. That was why he felt so lost when she didn't even

acting the way he fantasized about, and the

learn more about Aina, the

exceedingly shy. She was a fierce competitor, and yet

everyone else was, but that fantasy was stuck

that could possibly gain his interest out of all

him? How dare she not lean on him?

sudden turn of rage in him. It wasn't coming from his current self, but rather from a

him. But this time, rather than it ending

have trusted him back then as well. When the Shadow Tail appeared, the first thought in her mind should have

separate situations, and yet their root cause was

She hadn't trusted him.

it was all so

feel Aina changing. He could feel that her trust in him was becoming just as unconditional as her love, it may even

she truly was, the fact he tried to fill in so much of her personality on his own as though she wasn't her own person...

at all. He was a father, of course his allegiances would

that led to this moment, a situation where two men refused to back down and the lives of tens of thousands were in the balance as a