Arietta was bed-ridden.

The said girl could feel her temperature rising up to an uncomfortable degree as well as an onslaught of coughing fit unexspectingly tore out of her throat, making her already parchy throat aching painfully for water.

Grabbing the small glass of water that had already been put there by Largo, Arietta downed the whole thing in one go while remiding herself to ask the former for some apple gels the next time he dropped by.

Laying back on her matress, she couldn't help but to muse over her weaker immune system ever since she adapted to the human life. Her body must have been used to the fairly stable weather in the inner land, as the atmosphere back in the wood was more rigorous.

An upcoming headache could be felt spreading ever so slowly throughout her temple and worsen her already bad mood for being left alone. Legretta had made sure to kept her isolated during her illness and that included separating Leo- her utmost loyal Liger friend from her as she said they wouldn't need another sick being to take care of.

Her words were harsh but Arietta knew she meant well for Legretta's soldier-upbringing background had held her back from openly displaying affection. She could be considered as the closest thing to a mother figure to Arietta ever since the Liger Queen was gone.

Glancing back to the nightstand, Arietta noticed their was a small, still steaming bowl of soup placing adjacent to her empty glass of water. She must have forgotten to see it in her search for water.

Picking it up, the petite girl let the comforting warmth spreaded through her entire cupped hands then proceeded to eat it. The first spoon entering her mouth had left an estatic taste balancing just right in between of sweetness and savory that led to her wolfing down the whole bowl in a matter of seconds.

The only one whose cooking skill could rival the Commandant's, which she knew, was Largo . Despite his burly appearance and brute strenght, Largo was actually very dedicated and precise in the food he made and this bowl of soup was the proof of its.

Sniffing the air, Arietta could pick up the distinct scents of Largo and Legretta wafting in the air, wood mixing with oil polish and gun powder mingling with rose perfume, even though they had evaporated off greatly indicating it had been hours since they were here.

Having a keen sense of smell was one of the few advantages Arietta possessed during her time back in the wild along with heightened vision and hearing. Even a stuffy nose as of now hadn't even dampened her ability to a slightest bit.

Inhaling some more, her nose was able to pick up a subtle scent, so subtle that she thought her mind had played a trick upon her. Pine tree swirling around burnt wood with a delicate touch of cinnamon at the edge. Sync.

Just the thought of the green haired boy brought her to embarrasment and a little bit of joy. It was definitely embarrased for her to be seen by him in such a vulnerable state, but she was also grateful and happy nonthless as he had taken his time to even visit her.

Arietta wouldn't even dare to step over the boundary and assumed that they were "friends", maybe "comrades" would be a better word to describe the relationship between her and the Tempest, but even that would still look like she was treading over shallow water.

The Sync she had always known was a cold, distant and hatred-ridden person. He was also prideful in both of his strenght and his position as a stratergist that he would ruthlessly drill the facts into an another person both physically and mentally. Never had Arietta seen the boy bowed down his head, except for Commandant Van, and showed respect to the other God Generals despite being the youngest. ( Legretta, Asch and Largo might have been the exceptions also on occasions as the Major would definitely rain down bullets if not and the latter two were because of their own strenght.). But for her, she really didn't know which categories that she had fallen into on his list.

Even though she was a God General herself, she was considered the weakest among them. Lacking severely in combatic skills and offensive power when she ran out of energy or when Leo was down, Arietta was seen as a hindrance during fights. She knew it and really did try to improve her stamina along with her body strenght, but it was still incomparble to the others. (She avoided mentioning Dist as he would also be useless whenever his machines were ruined but he was not worth it).

This was the sole reason why Arietta was only assigned to stealth and scouting missions when Van was in present. Otherwise, it would always be guarding the headquarter when Sync took charge. She had objected to those but each time it would always end with her being brought nearly to tears by Sync's harsh facts and taunting.

Just the thought alone had welled up anger inside the petite girl as she huffed and covered her head with blanket. So what. Sync was a meanie and that's that.

But it had also puzzled her greatly on why he was here in the first place. He certainly didn't need to for she was just a weakling and a crybaby to him.

This boggled her mind to no end. But before she could question the matter further, her nose suddenly caught a swift of the familiar pine tree scent.

It was faint as first but gradually become stronger until the beast tamer could identify the source was right in front of her door.

The wooden door suddenly slammed open and jolted her out a little with its loud noise, but Arietta's vision then quickly focused on the figure standing proudly at the door.

Still was the mask covering half of his face, which made it impossible to read what his expression was, along with his ever spiky green hair bouncing lightly with each step he took to get closer to her bed.

One of his glove covered hand was holding a tray which was pretty sparse aside from a familiar glass bottle, which Arietta could clearly see the menacing green liquid swirling around, laying (not so) innocently on top of it.

This triggered a memory in the petite girl's mind on how disgusting the thing had tasted through the forced order of Legretta as it would help her get better she said ( the stupid thing actually worked unfortunately) , which mentally made her dry heave just thinking about it.

" What are you doing here?" The sentence came out croakly, evidence to the long period of not using her voice, which made Arietta blushed a little for she sounded just like an old woman.

" Huh, never have thought a granny would reside in that small body of yours. By the way, you looked absolutely miserable and pathetic with those puffy eyes and runny nose." The Tempest snidely commented as the corner of his mouth twitched up to form a crude smirk.

Arietta's blood was boiling and she could already felt a vein forming on her head by the time Sync finished his sentence. Trying to calm herself down, for she would be the mature person here, Arietta huffingly laid down and turned her back towards the boy: " If you just came here to make fun of me then please leave. And take that thing away with you too, tell Legretta that I wouldn't be drinking it as I had felt better already."

A moment of silent stretched between them. Arietta could still sense Sync's presence as he stood there silently without making any attemps to either leave or reprimand her rudely for her rebellious behaviour. This puzzled her greatly, just what was that boy up to?

" Order is order. Guess I have to force you into drinking this unless I want my body to be pulverized by bullets." was the only thing that left his mouth.

What happened next was liked a blur to her. One moment her ears were taken in the sound of metal tray hitting the floor and of the unplugged bottle, the next was she felt her shoulder being grabbed and her body being yanked upward.

Before the Beast Tamer could comprehend the whole event, a large gloved hand proceeded to cover her eyes as she felt her head being titled up. What occured next would forever be carved in her mind as her mouth was then enveloped with something warm and a little chapped.

Million thoughts crossed her mind in an instance as her brain was screaming for her to snap out and push the offended object away. Feeling her instinct kicking in, Arietta used both of her hands to move and hit at whatever was in front of her while thrasing around to escape the close promixity with her attacker.

The scent of pine suddenly infiltrated her nose and her mind instantly registered that it was the Tempest she was dealing with, which then made her thrashed around even more to fight against his strong hold. This was soon proved to be futile as the hand on the back of her head then tightened its grip and yanked her hair lightly, which made her gaped, while her chin was firmly held in place as a slimy appendange took the advantage to invade her mouth.

The taste of that liquid medicine then filled up her mouth and it was so disgusting that it made Arietta want to spit it all out before the offended liquid could slip down her throat. Sensing her unwillingness to swallow, Sync tiltled her head up more until he could feel the medicine practically slipped down her throat.

His grip on her then relented but Arietta was so adamnant to get away that she hadn't realized it and instead had used all her strenght to push at the boy's body which nearly made the Tempest stumble off the bed.

Arietta's lungs immediately welcomed in the much needed oxygen as she panted heavily while her ruby orbs hazily focusing on the blurry features of the Tempest underneath his suprisingly turned up mask.

Arietta could have sworn that she saw an unidentified glint sparked briefly in his eyes and the all so familiar features resembling the one she knew. But before she could inspect closer, Sync had already put back down his irritating mask and briskly walked out of the room without much words.

Dazedly sitting on the bed, the situation had finally caught up to Arietta, leaving her face as red as a ripen tomato. Screaming into her cover as not to alert unwaned presence, Arietta angrily thumped her hand against the cover, hoping to defuse some of her anger.

How dare he? How dare he commited such an atrocious act of stealing her first kiss? The one who was supposed to take it was Ion, she had saved it for him and him only. But then stupid Sync decided to stole it. A few drops of tear leaked out of the corner of her eyes as she desperately blinked them backwards.

Feeling exhausted all of sudden, Arietta willed herself to sleep in hope of calming herself down and to regain back some strenght.

She would definitely made him paid back, was her thought as she slowly slipped into dreamland.

But one thing then crossed her mind briefly before oblivion could completely take her.

Why did it have felt so right?