<div align="center"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 18pt;"><strong>The Bet</strong></span></div><br/><div class="floatleft">(https://i.imgur.com/eRBwTzu.png)</div><strong>NAME:</strong>Albion<br/><strong>DAY:</strong>June 12th, 2021, Mid Afternoon<br/><strong>LOCATION:</strong>SOPHE, Training Grounds<br/><strong>TAGGING:</strong>Nerissa<br/><strong>EXTRA:</strong><br/><strong>WEARING:</strong>As pictured<br/><br/><hr/><br/>"Ashamed of you? As if. You don't realize how many people would fall over themselves to be friends with you." Albion remarked, even though most of the people who wanted to befriend her tended to do so for more... Simple reasons. It didn't help that usually Nerissa did not quite understand such movements from others, but it also left many of them disappointed when she just hit them up for favors like doing her harder work. No one seemed to realize that she didn't date within SOPHE... Maybe, he certainly didn't know. "I'm just... Not ready to move on yet. It's a very long story that I try to forget... But no, you don't embarass me at all. Put that thought out of your mind." He frowned, wishing he didn't have the aversions he did right now.<br/><br/>Maybe she could tell he had something he wanted to divulge, secrets he did not want to share. At times it made him hard to approach... But Nerissa almost seemed like a perfect contrast, sharing her secrets with Albion like it was the most natural thing. "I'll .. Never understand how you can say those things with such a straight face, Neri." He chuckled gently. She could really wear her heart on her sleeve at times... But saying such things to him when she should have saved them for a loved one...<br/><br/><em>'Be there... For me...'</em><br/><br/>He closed his eyes for a moment, snorting lightly as she said she wished she knew what went on in his mind. "Nerissa... My mind is a dark and terrible place you should never visit. Sometimes even I don't know what goes on inside there." He gave a soft shrug. The way she sat down in his lap was... Not how he expected it to be. It was perhaps more intimate than he was expecting, but he also hurt too much to do anything embarrassing over it. For what it was worth, she applied a rather gentle, pleasing pressure to his lap once he adjusted for it.<br/><br/>She began to apologize, but he shook his head slowly. "Silly... I should be the one apologizing to you because I'm still stuck in the past instead of moving on, like you always are. I've always just tried to be a good friend ever since that day, when you couldn't leave me alone... Beaten, bloodied, and bruised I warned you, and still. Fresh into SOPHE, you wound up getting caught up in way more than I wanted you to be.." He sighed, letting his head hang and rest against her shoulder. "No one but us know I shouldn't even be alive right now if it weren't for you... I think that's why I'm always kind to you." He tried to rationalize it. But there had to be more to it...<br/><br/>Though, he found himself blinking in awkward confusion as Nerissa began to list... Arguably the smallest, most minute details he never paid attention to, yes she paid full attention to. "You really notice all those things? If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were watching me a little too closely." He wanted to laugh, but... He felt a little heartwarmed to know she paid such attention to him.<br/><br/>She was truly going to make some man feel lucky one day, when she found the right one.<br/><br/>"Well... In a way, I do owe you my life. I would think by now you'd know there was a lot I would do for you, but some things I just... Can't. You have to find that someone special in your life." He hummed, lifting his head to look into her eyes. "I'm just... Your good friend, with bad tendencies."