"Aiden," she sighed in relief. She put her head outside the door and asked him to climb up. For a moment Aqua was worked up and prepared to fight charging her crystals. She was relieved to see her cousin and put off some kind of weight off her chest she wasn't aware of what. Her mood instantly turned happy as she set her eyes on him.
"Do you think uncle cannot see what you do?" he scolded her. "What the hell are you doing in the middle of this dense forest? Are you not afraid of the wild beasts? Have you forgotten confronting the golden lion alone when you wandered around like this few years back ?" he scolded her.
"Pa asked you to come here?"
"Yes," Aqua flushed as she heard him and punched his arms.
"Argh that hurts, " he screamed. "Stop hitting me all the time," he said though he always liked it.
"Go Go, go back home, am going back to school. I have practices and cultivation to do, if they notice me and find am missing it will be a hustle to deal with it," she said.
"Why did you come here?" he asked her.
"I just wanted some lone time when I got stressed, I wasn't feeling well temporarily, " she told him honestly but didn't explain why she was unwell.
"I will report to uncle, let's go back," Aiden along with Aqua went back to her school.
"Don't report about me, please don't, " she begged to Aiden all the way.
Aiden bought her some food and a new maroon ribbon for her hair. Her moods lifted instantly. Aiden smiled as she walked around him. He wished he could see her in bright colored clothes she always wore and the princess gown instead of this dull school uniforms that looked similar to preparing for funerals. He teased her about it and kept getting hit by Aqua.
He swiftly turned around pretending to look away as she called him for something, hiding his smile before he gets caught. He has always been careful about his feelings towards her since he was her family, the Grand Prince and the fact that they grew up together in the same palace. He couldn't afford to make even a petty mistake that would stir trouble.
It wasn't King Aenon who sent her but he came looking out for her himself during his work time, when he visited school and found out she sneaked out. He wanted to make sure that she was safe though he knew nothing would easily happen to her with her powers.
But he used her father's name to keep her safe and to scare her, so that she wouldn't think of doing it again. Aqua had no idea about the lie he made up. Aqua also wasn't aware of his heart, ever. He would get upset about it but clear his mind since it always was one sided and how it is going to remain the same. Still he cherished his unrequited love.
They reached her school couple of hours later and he sent her off. He made sure she got in and warned her. He watched her until she disappeared from her sight.
"Don't let her wander around, it's not safe, can you take care, shd looked pretty down when I found her," Aiden told Ash and left quickly. But Ash informed this to Senior Huo and let him handle the matter.
Aqua decided to fall asleep on her bed comfortably for compensating her loss the previous night, staying up. She changed into her more comfortable clothes, washed up and lay in the bed. She was sure of how shifu was going to punish her for staying away. But she couldn't ponder about it longer and she fell into a deep sleep quickly.
Huo came inside to see if she was okay.
He found her in her bed chamber, sleeping good and let her be. He didn't wish to wake her up. It dawned to him only then that he forgot to ask Aiden about where he found her.
Huo watched her sleep for a while and put the quilt on top of her. He checked her temperature and it was normal, she didnt seem to have been in any sort danger since the pulse was also normal.
He then ordered Ash to ask the servants to refill all the water in her accomodation and clean it spotless. He saw Volca on his way back to his house, he nodded at her as he passed and left the school to carry-on with a business Shifu had given him.
Volca walked into her accomodation and sat in her bed. She cried. She couldn't help but cry again for a long time. She couldn't understand what she did wrong. She got upset about how her mother is trying to use her against her best friend. She got angry about how people look at her when she mentioned about equality and she felt her heart break everytime she saw the heartless Huo ignoring her and instead caring about her best friend though he never expressed them openly, and even though they do not interact or share any connection. She couldn't understand why he cared so much without getting it back from Aqua. That very thought angered her the most bringing out her original demonic cultivation on the surface though shifu had trained her the best to control it, to suppress the rage and extreme levels of emotions.
She felt the jealousy boiling inside her. She took a deep breath and laid down for some time. She went into meditation soon to gain back her good mood. Poor Aqua wasn't aware of anything except taming her water crystals. Only if she had known could she have helped her best friend trying to sort things out instead of kept in shadows. Volca was aware of it either, deep inside her heart, but she was never ready to accept the truth and reality or perhaps she was willingly getting into the trap set by her mother, slowly growing the seed of hatred.