Consequences of a Secret Heart

Tulio had carried the girl all the way to the tree by now, but stayed in between the trees where they could be alone.
He slowly, gently laid the girl down on a soft spot of the grass with her back against a tree for support.
"Are you ok?" he asked, examining her ankle. It might just been a slight bruise from the fall, and in that case it would probably be ok to stand on now, but if she had sprained her ankle... he wouldn't know what to do. He was no doctor and didnæt know anyone else around who was. Maybe he would have to call for Rose.
He looked around for her and saw her a little bit further away... with Shan Yu.
No, he wouldn't talk to her. Not now. Not when his anger still burned under his skin. He would only end up doing the same mistake as last time. He gritted his teeth for a long time, clenching his fist in anger as his eyes prickled with the threat of tears to come. He felt like he was loosing her... loosing her to a beast. How could she even like that monster?
He shook it off, focusing only on the girl now, trying not to think of Rose. He didn't want to anymore.
He smiled weakly at the girl in front of him, Mulan, though it was obvious he had lost his cheery attitude.

When Tulio put her down on the grass she felt a little sadness loosing the physical contact, but at his question she nodded with a soft smile "It hurts only a bit, nothing serious." then, slowly rasing up on her feet she added sith a shy smile "Thanks to have carried me..."
Only then she realized he was looking away, at Rose...
A mix of emotions went through her: she knew what was going on between them, Tulio told him... oh well, he had told it to Ping...
When he focused again on her, she smiled to him and, taking shyly and gently his hand, she asked to him "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, fine," he said, but a bit bitterly.
He shook it all off of himself, telling himself to get a grip. He chose to focus on the girl in front of him instead. That seemed far more pleasant, and to think of Rose right now would only make his heart ache. How could she be with him again? After seeing Tulio so heartbroken, did she not care of him at all? He felt so betrayed...
"Hurt yourself often, do you?" he laughed, teasing her. She seemed like a clumsy person.

It hurted seeing him sad, cause even if he was trying to hide it, it was evident to her he wasn't ok. But she couldn't do anything in that moment to make him feel better, anything but keep talking to him, maybe trying to distract him... at his question she smiled a bit emabarassed "Sometimes..." she replied honestly looking down "but... i can handle it..."

He bowed down by her feet and gently laid his hands on her ancle. He pressed it softly, looking up to see her reaction.
If it wasn't that bad she wouldn't flinch or frown. However, if she did he realized he must have to do something. Maybe take her back to his room? He didn't have any experience in healing people, but no doctor was around, so he might as well try..
However, he wasn't the type of person to be overly worried, and if she once again insisted she was fine he would leave it be with that.

When he pressed on her ankle she bit hardly her lips to not moan or make a grimace: it wasn't something to worry about but it still hurted. "Really, don't worry" she whispered to him, bowing to have here eyes at the same height of his "I'm fine" she smiled reassuring to him. She was used to this kind of 'accidents' and staying in the army and with his uncle that was a doctor she had learned a lot about what to do in similar cases: it would have hurted for a couple of days, she wouldn't have to preassure too much the ankle, not to fight... oh, well, it seemed so riddicoulus think it with a female dress on... she couldn't help but laugh softly a bit

He laughed with her, but probably for a different reason. Only moments earlier she had seemed so shy and careful. It felt nice to hear her laugh for once. It warmed his heart to hear a female's laugh, the most beautiful sound in the world.
"Well, someone is warming up to me," he said and nudged her playfully. Not as hard as he did with Ping, softer, more careful. As if she was fragile and he didn't want to hurt her, but instead caress her. It all seemed like a loving gesture in comparison.

At his phrase she blushed a bit and giggled again, and when he nudged her she could feel all the difference between been considered a male or a female. As a male, he was supposed to be strong, even play was more... rude... but as a female... he touched her like she was something precious and fragile... it felt so... so... she couldn't even describe what a pleasure it gave to her... she swallowed... she should have stopped now, now before to take too much pleasure from being a woman: she wasn't like that, she wasn't that person, maybe she wished to be but she wasn't...
"I... I have to go now..."

The disappointment was clear on his face, but he quickly wiped it off and replaced it with a charming, crooked smile.
"When can I see you again?" he asked softly. For some reason, he was truely fascinated by this beautiful woman that stood before him. The thought of not seeing her again was hard. Not devastating, but he found himself wanting to see her.

"Soon" she replied simply with a soft sweet smile "I'll be at the waterfalls" she added still looking straight into his eyes: for a second she seemed like undecided about something, then, suddenly and fastly, she overcame the little distance between them and kissed him softly on his cheek then, ignoring the pain at the ankle, she ran away with her cheecks that were burning...

Tulio, even if still shocked by the kiss, quickly grabbed her wrist before she could run away, and turned to face her.
The surprise was obvious on his face, but so was the crooked, sly smile and the gleam in his eyes.
Rose had just run off with Shan Yu, into the forest, to do God knows what. Maybe they didn't think Tulio had noticed, but he had, and through his anger he did not see his faults with what he was about to do.
Gently he pulled her back in and kissed her lips softly, stroking her hair away from her face as he did so, caressing her cheek.
"If you're going to kiss me... at least do it properly," he said teasingly with a crooked smile on his face.
Only then did he finally let go of her hand.

It happened all so fast... he grabbed her wrist, blosking her, turned her face, his eyes once more captured hers, wide opened in surprise, and then... she felt a strong dizziness when he kissed her on her lips... the world stopped to exist, in that few moments everything became perfect... and when he broke the kiss was hard coming back to reality... she felt still dizzy, like she was walking in clouds... she didn't manage to reply, she was even more red then before: she looked at him with a se confused glance, her eyes still wide opened that thanks to the make up seemed even bigger. And she couldn't know but that naive, surprised expression made her seem even more beautiful... only after a few seconds she find the strenght to leave, runnibg fastly away...
She shouldn't have done it... she shouldn't have kissed him... she wasn't supposed to do it... she shouldn't have done it anymore... it went more over what she had planned: she wouldn't have done it anymore, she wouldn't have to dress up in that way anymore... not matter if she had promised... that wasn't right... she wouldn't have done it anymore...