He pulled back a fraction to then place a kiss at her nose.
Aefia's entire mind went blank at his sudden motion, making her involuntarily squeeze his hand in pure shock. "Did you just..."
"It was at the corner of your lips—and your nose," he protested while lifting his forehead off hers, to let her move her head around.
"No, but like—I don't know! It felt personal!" She shouted at him as his eyes danced with a moment of amusement when he saw her blushing.
"It is supposed to feel personal." He laughed while looking at her immediately step back in horror of his words.
"You are... Weird." She whispered while looking down.
"I know I am. I have the 'charm~'." He spoke while sending a hand through his hair.
"If this is the person I am in a relationship with, then I am contemplating my entire life choices." She commented, although she couldn't hide her smile at his awkward childish behaivour. Her smile flattered as soon as I pictured her beside him.
"Are you sure you want a monster like me? I am just... Inhuman." She lowered her gaze while looking at her bare foot.
He understood the subtle shift of her mood, and immediately moved towards the bed where he sat down and patted the empty place beside him. "Sit here, Aefia. You are going to collapse in exhaustion." He answered when she lifted her eyebrows. Then watched as she hesitantly walked up to the bed and sat beside him. As soon as she settled down, he wrapped his arm around her shoulder and kissed the crown of her head.
"There is a reason why I like you so much as to rehearse a literal script for you." He whispered while staring at the same point of dust she was looking down at.
"You were quite different when I first saw you. Quite, shy, introverted, beautiful. And then suddenly when you think something is wrong; you are fierce, strong, determined, quick-witted and careless to your own damages. Almost like a rose with thorns. It is a very beautiful and elegant flower, but the thorns make it a danger. But also, unlike some people who are dependant on other people to live on, you tend to solve your own problems before they can escalate. Sure you have some mental problems you can't solve... But that is why I want to solve them for you. Just to see how strong you are with a little bit more help." He took a pause before continuing, looking down at her at his arm.
"I already know you are strong, but I want to see a version of you who isn't drowning in frustruation and regret. Without those two traits, I want to see how far you can climb. Not in a bad way if you are thinking so."
She let out a laugh while slumping deeper into his shoulder, until the side of her head rested at his neck. "Nah... You are quite ambitious—is the thing I am thinking about."
Her garnet eyes lifted to meet his emerald ones. "That must be why you were named 'Helio'. You are always positive and helpful, spreading sun rays wherever you go."
"Maybe so. Or maybe it is because of my hair and skin tone." He answered while letting out a laugh of his own. The room was quite lively and warm, which Aefia liked because it was completely different from the atmosphere of her room at the palace. She shut her eyes, enveloped with a coziness that no other place could replicate for the time being.
"By the way." He asked while looking down at her as she lifted her chin. "What does Aefia mean?"
She thought for a while, her eyes darting towards window. "To think clearly... My parents wanted me to be the start of something." She answered while letting out a sigh. "It is supposed to be a derived from it Sefia, which means wise. My classmates made fun of it, but my parents were quite rich. So they thought they had free-will. That is how I have quite the interesting name. They thought someone in the future, someone would be like; this girl is a sovereign! I am naming my child after her."
A genuine smile settled onto her face as she recalled the history.
"Who? Cedric?" He laughed while asking, clawing her hair away from her face at the same time.
"I mean... I don't want to shame him. If he wants to, then he has free-will. It will make my parents' dream come true at least."
"Now that I think of it... They really are wierd."
"Who?"
"Your parents I mean."
"Yeah. All of them. One was twisted and now is having to run away from her own son."
"Ah! That woman. Oh god! She is a psycho!"
"Not going to lie, she was nice in her own way."
"True."
The room fell into moment of silence. Both of them feeling awkward about it. Then...
"Hey Aefia."
"Yes?"
"Doesn't it feel lonely when you are away from your family? Like don't you miss Henry?" He asked while finally looking down at her. "You were quite sad about two days ago."
Her eyes turned a little watery as she recalled the last moment between her and them. She fell into the water before she could even see the ship depart, so it made her even more sadder. "I do..."
But a subtle smile coated her face as she shifted away from his shoulder to sit slightly away from him. She leaned back on her palm against the mattress, as he shifted his body slightly to look at her without neck pain.
"However, I remember that I would be sadder or I were separated from you and Felix." She answered while looking into his eyes.
He faintly blushed as he had no other idea what to do then just stare at her pretty face. His gaze fell momentarily on her lips before climbing back at her garnet eyes.
"Really?" He asked while dazed. She only slid her hand towards is on the mattress until the tips touched.
"Did you think I would lie?" She smiled, leaning her chin up and shifting her hand closer over his fingers.
"Right. You would be joking if you were joking." He smiled while leaning in. The room was incredibly silent as if everything was observing from different directions. His heart pounded as a flush crept up to the tip of his ears.
What am I doing? No wait—what is she doing to me? That was the only thought in his mind as her pale face turned a pink hue.
Time seemed to freeze until—
Knock knock knock!
"Aefia! You said we were heading out!" Felix shouted from outside the door, frustrated that he had to wait for so long.
Both of them were mere inches away from each other's face. Aefia immediately jolted to her senses while looking towards the door.
"Right! We were supposedly on vacation." She yanked her hand away from Helio's while he immediately reached up to cover his face. She looked back at him just to ensure he wasn't accidentally hurt by her grown nails.
He only looked back at her with a smile and a furrow of his brows. "Your family truly loves ruining moments. First it was Nada, now it is your brother."
She smiled back at his puppy-like face. "Well it is what it is—"
"Are you going to hurry up or not?! The ice-crean truck will leave in five minutes and none of you are out or your rooms!" He shouted while pounding on the door again, as if he wanted to rip it apart.
"Just take the money from my bag and go buy yourself if you are that desperate!" Aefia shouted back while standing up to rush on her bare feet towards the door and pull it open. "Don't tell me you forgot how to do things independently?" She asked while still faintly blushing.
"Why?! You said you wanted to go along with me! Don't break your promise!" He shouted back while grabbing her arm and trying to yank her out.
Suddenly, the door pulled wide as Helio stepped alongside Aefia.
"Hey little kid. How about we three go together?" He asked nicely while sending his hand through his golden blonde hair.
Felix looked him dead on the eye while sticking out his tongue. "It is a sibling thing. If you want it too, then go get it yourself." He shot back as Helio let out a shocked gasp at him.
"Besides... What are you doing in her room?!" He asked while bruttally letting go of Aefia's arm. Then holding up a fist in front of his. "Don't tell me you were going to capture her and take her away like the Imperial family did!"
"Felix... That was not what happened." She smiled while leaning against the door frame.
"Of course you would say that! But this guy here looks shady! He had got some serious business with me!" He glared back at Helio.
He tried to hide behind Aefia as her brother circled around her.
"Your family isn't just fond of ruining! They are terrifying!" He whispered to her while trying to stay away from Felix.
"Hey! What are you telling her?! Let me know too!" The kid shouted while pulling out a dagger from within his pocket.
Immediately, Aefia sprinted out from the middle of the circle. Reaching for her bag while scrambling to wear her shoes and depart for the ice-crean truck.
"Aegis! Stop! Wait!" Felix shouted. He shot Helio a glare that pinned him still against the nearest wall. "I will deal with you another time shady guy!" With that, he took off at Aefia's direction.
Helio let out a deep sigh of relieve as his eyes darted towards the empty room. Technically speaking, it has been two days since he had booked a second batch of tickets to head to a different destination from the first. Because she was having a mental breakdown, he decided it would only be wise if they went somewhere in the guise of a vacation to clear her mind properly.
Since he knew just how worse her previous ones were, he tried to do something different.
Aefia wanted to go to the snow peaks for a cool and cozy destination. However, he just started realizing she really enjoyed a type of summer which wasn't too humid or too warm. A light one where you go out to the beach or to a waterfall and do some leasurely activities.
So he got a three room suite with a large dining and living room at a resort close to the nearest beach and waterfall—if she wanted to go fishing at a river near the waterfall, that was possible too, since she said she always wanted to catch some protein with her own hands.
So far, Aefia had been locked in her room unless she was in severe pain and consulted Helio from the next room. Like the stab wound at her side or the dog bites. She was quite reckless, didn't want to heal these injuries because she wanted it to be a constant reminder for her choices.
So he would have to take a look at her bandages at her arms. The stab wound was too irritating—that was healed already. But the dog bites had a risk of becoming an infection although he gave her rabies shots to insure it. So far, she was tolerating. Like he had said, she was extremely strong.
But the toxins she had taken was the ones causing her problem. A thing about opioids is that if you take them like an addict, you can't stop taking it or the pain returns worse. For Aefia's case, it was kind of worse.
She went out of her way to damage her kidneys to the point of failure, her lungs were collapsed—making her gasp for air every difficult task she does, like running, walking very fast. That was why she hadn't been going to dungoens as of lately; it was taxing and exhausting.
Of course in the midst of it all, Felix wasn't aware.
Yes, his name was Felix. Aefia named him when she first met him, because his parents hadn't given him a proper name just yet. He was six and went with the tag 'Orphan 8', representing he was the eighth 'left at the doorstep child'. Funny, but this was how toxic her extended relatives were. Just for money, that aunt had gone this direction.
He was only six back then, when Aefia was just starting to learn how to defend herself. Seeing her little brother so happy and joyful, she called him Felix as a makeshift name. However, he embraced that name and gave her a name too.
Aegis. A shield who happened to be a sister who spent all her energy from youth before him and his growth. Even until now in another universe. He was raised so loved by his single sibling that he tracked her last locations to just find out why she was missing. He realized, he was nothing if she didn't appear and fund his growth with the money she got from killing others.
When he did come to realize, he didn't even care about it. He only cared for his sister's safety since many families wanted to take revenge and kill her.
Helio only knew this because she told him. And sometimes hearing from Felix as he spoke to Aefia while she packed the leftovers for the next morning.
And yes, surprising thing or not... She did chores around more often than Helio had anticipated. She even washed and folded her own clothes, let alone for her brother as well. The few times that Helio tried to ask her to hand it to him, she would tell him to just sit and watch tv. To think she was from a rich family and knew how to do household chores, he was shocked. That got him to asking what he thought of a relationship is.
She just answered, "it should be something where one partner supports the other, but not to use them or ask them to do what they don't want to'. It was partially wrong through, the first part was right, the second part was irrelevant.
But that alone shocked him. He thought she was like those in the books who only knew how to survive. He thought she would be an aromantic. However, she was more human than he had expected. Which made him realize why exactly he fell for her.