Memories aren't forever. But through it we became an eternity.
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I am in someone's arms. And I am all drenched. As well as the someone.
However, I am not at all cold.
"What? Aren't I allowed to stroll my sister to our favorite places without your approval? Is it a deadly sin to finally, after all those wasted years, bond with her? Why are you all fuming like some feral cats? Must I touch to confirm the peril?"
"What did you do to her?"
Damien's relentless playful voice yanked me away from my dreams but Akin's mad voice brought me to life.
As if Damien already detected me waking up, he stood me up with a shot of more taunting expression.
And then there are all of them, the same ones we are with at the dining, fully enraged by the madman behind me. They were all looking at me but someone's intensity stood out.
Jaw clenched, Akin's mouth is now shut after that irate outburst of him.
I consolingly smiled at him. But he is not at all soothed by it. Like nothing else can alleviate the depth of what our escapade made him feel.
I still don't know what I should expect from them and how to deal with them. They are still not familiar to me, but I know I have to apologize to them so I stepped forward.
Yet it seems like my mouth has a different plan for me.
"Can I now head to my family's room alone?"
Akin's stare is all on Damien, and I can feel Damien's equally challenging stare back radiating behind me. The remaining eyed each other and I took their following silence as an answer.
On the whole of my trail, I continued waiting for a contrast of my statement but none happen until I shut the door of our room.
I am already on the bed, hugging the sleeping Miro, when I heard them start their banters.
"Let's talk Damien. Where do you think you are going?" Delila's infuriated voice echoed.
"Your name won't ring a bell. She doesn't know you. Stop trying so hard..."
"She does!"
"She doesn't. You're not a friend anymore."
I sighed at his offensive tone.
"Because her mind was corrupted!" Delila shouted her heart out.
"That was what I was saying..." Damien lazily scoffed.
What a mouth, really.
"Thats why I wanted her to reminisce! Maybe it could play a toll on her head. She'll know about it because we had-"
Merciless, he opened his insensitive mouth again. "Digging neck with you isn't the most memorable thing I'd like to store in my mind if I were her,"
"I hate you!"
I can oversee the tears on her cheeks with that pitching wail.
I shook my head when I heard not a single reaction from my brother. Has he really been like this since then? Then for sure, that mouth of him already crushed a lot of egos. And shattered frail hearts.
Can I advise him about that now? Will he listen to me?
"This is exactly why she left you," Ciezo belted before their voices vanished in thin air.
I am actually dreading of Akin and Damien's probable clash based on their expressions earlier but I heard them sprinted away, far from anyone's ears.
And miraculously, that night, even with uncertainty and worries in my mind, I managed to sleep with a calmer heart.
And the only thing that stripped me from it is the feeling of being stared earnestly at like it will be a second that someone might abduct me... and by then the owner of the orbs would kill for it.
I opened my eyes and I met a magnificence of an antagonized man illuminated by the palace's now dimed golden balcony lamp.
At the entrance of door, Akin is watching me on my bed with a perpetual scowl on his face. I can feel him tensed, edgy, and anxious but then when our eyes met it all disappeared.
He refused me his face and is about to turn his back at me to jump so I spoke. "Is there something you wanted to say?"
He firmly shook his head. "I'm sorry for disturbing your slumber-"
"I have something..." I trailed, halting him in his steps. "I have something I wanted to ask,"
He gazed at me as if something pained him. "What did he tell you? Am I now an animal to you like I am to them-"
That right there is not what I have not yet wanted to explore. For my mind is still clouded and I don't wish to be governed by my unjust perceptions and limited understanding. At least not for truths.
But then... just right now, I felt like it is a big thing for him to allow me to connect us again. So I braced myself.
"Akin," I softly called out.
"It's late at night, you should rest. I'm sorry-"
We both know it was a thing to ponder even when it was still considered a distance between us so I didn't mind the shading of his eyes when I stood up and earnestly brought myself 5 steps away from him.
Under the glow of the watchful moon, his lips parted as if he believed I was that same spineless...to do that.
"Sorry for disturbing your sleep. My worries exuberantly made me forget you should have your personal space,"
I took away two more steps, cautious.
The veins in his neck and arms strained to black and blue. His eyes reflected a different shade of silver gray. It was a frightening and daunting sight to see him go callously cursed than how he is when he is untainted and out of... wickedness. Like the human I have met in Caressa.
My expression must have given away. With clenched jaw, he strides the other direction out of me... and he was already fastly, in a blink, in the middle of the hallway. Tossing himself away from my reach.
Even with the obvious fast beating of my heart, I continued walking more steps toward him. Heart strong. And he stood there, rooted and immobile, but patiently waiting for me to come see him.
He tore his eyes away with blunt prudence when our footwear touched.
"I am scared of you," I declared.
"Forgive me. I'm leaving-" he said with a low strained voice.
I couldn't help but see the man I thought he is before when he breathed his distress away and said sorry even if it is me who has casted stones at him and now... again provoking him. The same man who had the right amount of restraint despite him knowing he has some advantage that could privilege him.
"Let me be not,"