Back at the palace...
Rose was walking sluggishly down the corridor to her room. She was tired after walking all the way to the palace and she was completely exhausted. She was pushing her body to it's limit. Considering that she would stay up all night since the last week, waiting and hoping that Raphael would come back. But he didn't. He left without leaving a trace of his whereabouts almost as if he never existed. As if he was a fragment of her imagination.
And to her suprise, Abner was still at her door, waiting for her. She was expecting that he would have been in bed since he knew she was with Rex.
She hoped he wouldn't ask her any questions. It wasn't like she was trying to be rude or anything, she was just tired and wasn't in the mood to answer any questions. That was when Abner spotted her when she was close to the door. "Princess, what happened?" she didn't answer him. She was practically dragging herself to her room and when he noticed how much effort she was putting into walking, he rushed over to help her walk. "Did he do anything to you?" he asked. But, she still did not respond. "Would you like me to call Mira for you?". She nodded in the negative. The last thing she would want was to wake her maybe pregnant friend that late in the night. It was almost 2am and Mira would need adequate sleep for her baby. Rose wouldn't even blame her if she started waking up later than usual.
Abner ushered her to her room and left her there. He didn't ask her anymore questions because he noticed the princess was tired and that if anything happened to the princess, she would bring it to the attention of the king the following morning.
After Abner left, Rose sat on her bed thinking of all that happened. She started to question herself.
Was I just overreacting in the situation? It wasn't that much of a big deal. Maybe I shouldn't have slapped him? But, he questioned my morals. He should have trusted me. Trust is the bedrock of ever relationship... right? Or what if he's just not the right one. All that glitters is not gold Rose. Those where the kind of thoughts running through her mind.
When her head told her it had had enough, she decided to take a long, deserving, cold shower and by the time she came out of the shower, she noticed that the time was 2:30. She sighed and got dressed quickly. And without wasting any more time, she drifted off to sleep.
After about 45 minutes of deep sleep, Raph came in, through the balcony and when he saw she was asleep, he took a deep breath and sat on her bed, staring at her for an immesurable amount of time. Listening to her breathing, a rhythm he could listen to for as long as possible. "I came back" he whispered, trying his best not to wake her up. "I just hope you're not mad at me for coming so late and not coming to visit you for the past week. I just needed to...clear my head and I will beat myself up. Hard. If you blamed yourself, even once for me being angry. It's just, I needed space. There are so many things you don't know and even more things you can't understand you know? You humans might call us myths but, guess what? We're not. We were just forgotten in time. Why am I even saying all this. It's not not like you can even hear me. What's wrong with you Raph?" He didn't say anything more for a few seconds that passed. His brows suddenly furrowed as if he was talking to Rose in her sleep.
"What did he do to you?" he asked the air. His eyes started turning Amber. When Rose stired on the bed. He immediately fell on the floor in hope that she wouldn't see him.
She opened her eyes slightly and looked around with barely open eyes and within 10 seconds, she drifted back to sleep.
When he heard her snoring, he stood up and said "Don't worry, I'll make him pay for whatever he did to you. I should better not disturb your sleep. Goodnight." Then, he bent over and gave her a goodnight kiss on her forehead. A million stars were taking a vacation in his eyes. His usual dead eyes seemed alive for the first time. It was a shame Rose wasn't awake to see it. He turned around and left the room.
***
She woke up the next morning and her whole body ached. Especially her legs. She had walked a one hour driving distance yesterday so, that was expected. Memories of Raph flooded her mind and she sat up in a rush and glanced at his seat. He wasn't there. She sighed.
'Why are you even trying? He's probably never coming back' she told herself. She felt something prick at her heart which was followed by an overflow of sadness. She returned to her bed. The thought of Raph leaving her forever made her eyes sting. She layed on her bed for a while, trying to stop thinking about Raph but, all her efforts was to no avail. After a while, she let all the thoughts flow through her mind. There was no use trying to stop them. They were thoughts after all, they'd come back one way or another. The level of sadness she was feeling was too much that she didn't want to feel it and her body's only escape was sleep. Even though she just woke up from her slumber, sleep came and she let sleep take her to it's home.
After an hour, she opened her eyes sluggishly. But, the pain was still there. She wanted to sleep some more but she couldn't find sleep which allowed her pay more attention to her surroundings. She felt someone's prescence in her room. She sat up in a haste to see who it was.
Mira was there, sitting on Raph's chair. Rose's shoulders dropped. "Good morning Mira" she said.
"Good morning Mi Princesa, you don't seem happy to see me"
"Of course I'm happy to see you"
" But, you don't look like you are"
" I thought you were someone else "
" Like..." Totally ignoring what Mira said, Rose got up from her bed and went to her dresser. She brought out the pregnancy kit and handed it to Mira. "I bought this for you yesterday" Mira took the pregnancy kit from her hand and said " And Rex didn't say anything? Yesterday, I was trying to tell you not to buy it because, he might get the wrong idea"
"It's too late for that because now, he thinks I'm pregnant"
" Oh, that's bad"
" And then we fought, he questioned my morals, blah blah blah, I slapped him, I walked home alone in the dead of the night -"
" Did you just say you slapped him...and you walked home...alone. What happened?"
She narrated everything to her, not leaving any single detail. "Maybe I overreacted a little but, he shouldn't have left me on the street all by myself. It was past midnight. Who knows what would have happened to me." said Rose.
"As far as my judgment goes, I think you both were wrong. You were too fast to react. You shouldn't have slapped him and he shouldn't have said those things to you and he should have believed that you were telling the truth and maybe you shouldn't have led him on to believe that you'd be safe by yourself"
" How did I do that? "
" You walked away from the car you know"
" Because I was mad! I expected him to have followed me or to at least call out to me but, he didn't do anything like that. Instead, he left me to walk home alone."
" Yes and -"
" I can't believe you're siding with him Mira! So, you're saying what he did was right? "
" No yo -"
" Just forget it Mira. Now, can you please take the test? "
She was done talking about Rex. She sighed and sat down on her bed, waiting for Mira to take the test. " Tell me something, do you like Rex? " asked Mira.
" I don't -"
" And, don't say you don't know. Be true to yourself." She took a few deep breaths and responded "I don't like Rex...like that. I'd prefer him as a friend. And yes, I prayed for someone like him to waltz into my life and maybe I didn't know what I wanted then. I know I asked for him but, he's just not the one. I don't get butterflies when I see him. I don't daydream about him. I don't look forward to seeing him. I just don't see him as someone I want to spend my entire life with. I tried Mira. I tried. I tried and I pushed myself to have a liking for him but deep down, I know he's just not the one. I gave him a chance because, he wasn't like the others but, something keeps telling me to run away from him. It tells me that he's worst. When he holds my hands all I want to do is to turn around and run on my heels I don't feel safe around him and I don't know why. It's not like he's given me a reason not to feel safe around him, it's just...I don't know Mira. I just don't think I like him"
Mira sat there, listening to everything she was saying and when she was done, she held her breath, waiting for Mira to say something. A smile crept up Mira's face slowly. " Hmmm. If that's how you feel then, who am I to push you? "
" Thanks for understanding Mira"
" You're welcome"
"Now, it's time to know if you're a mother"
" Wish me luck".
" Luck!"
Then, Mira entered into the bathroom and within a minute she was out." Wow, that was fast. So what does it say?"
"Nothing yet. It'll say after five minutes. Two lines for positive, one line for negative"
" Oh, what did you do to the kit anyway? "
" I peed on it"
" You pee on it? "
" Yeah"
" That's just...gross"
Then both had a good laugh and chatted about nothing specific for five minutes just to while away time until the results was ready. "Mi Princesa, it's time"
"What does it say?"
"Let me check" After another minute of suspense, Mira said " TWO LINES!!! "
" WE'RE HAVING A BABY! "