In Pieces

Chapter 20: Do I have a savior complex?

Hayl didn't return to his own quarters, instead, he stood outside the door, listening for sounds and movements. He found it unbelievable how the Prince could just waltz into Niki's room in the middle of the night, and the boy wouldn't even bat an eyelash. Just what kind of relationship did the two of them have?

At the same time, Hayl had to reluctantly admit to himself that His Highness was right – he got too involved with the boy. So much so that lately he spent more time with him than practicing his sword. At first, he told himself that it was just because he couldn't stand disorder but recently there hasn't been so much necessity for cleaning and organizing anymore.

Maybe his late brother's last hateful words were true after all – Hayl was addicted to being needed, and he couldn't live without taking care of somebody. Now that Hayl had Niki he indeed felt much less empty. But he couldn't let himself become sidetracked. Not with the way things were at the moment.

Hayl sighed and was just about to leave when he heard a loud thud coming from the room. Without thinking twice, Hayl pushed the door and barged inside. He saw Niki lying on the floor with blood splattered all over his chest. The Prince was looking at him, more annoyed than concerned.

"What the hell happened here?" Hayl asked as he rushed towards the unconscious boy. Thankfully Niki was still breathing.

"It doesn't concern you," the Prince responded coldly.

"What did you do to him?" Hayl examined the normally pale face that had now turned deadly white.

Kai rolled his eyes. "Relax, he's going to be fine. I don't have time for this. Once he wakes up, tell him to try again."

"Try again what?" Hayl wanted to ask but he knew that he wouldn't get a straight answer from His Highness, so he just nodded. Even though, obviously, he wasn't going to tell Niki to try anything that would leave him in such a sorry state again.

The Prince slammed the door on his way out without sparing them another glance. It seemed His Highness didn't care at all about Niki's condition, he was just irritated that whatever he asked the boy to do didn't work out.

For a moment there Hayl wanted to follow the asshole Prince and punch him as hard as he could. But there was a boy lying in his lap now, all drenched in cold sweat and breathing heavily. Hayl could feel Niki's whole body convulsing, his hair was stuck to his forehead and his hands were as cold as ice.

Carefully he placed the boy on the bed, took off his stained robe, and wrapped him up in a blanket. Then he wiped his face with water and moistened Niki's cracked, pale lips. The boy continued to shiver, so Hayl put his arms around him, wanting to warm him up as much as possible. He truly didn't know what else to do.

They lay there like that for a while, but it seemed that no matter how tightly Hayl was hugging him, Niki didn't get any warmer. At the same time, Hayl felt himself getting colder and colder. Even like this, he didn't let go.

"What are you doing?" he suddenly heard a weak voice next to him.

Hayl lifted his body to see that Niki had come to it and was now looking at him with his big dazzling eyes. He didn't release the boy and only said:

"It's all right, you need to rest."

At that moment Niki pushed him away – with such strength that Hayl would have never expected from somebody who looked so fragile. Caught off guard, Hayl fell off the bed.

"I'm sorry, I was just trying to help," he said, feeling a bit awkward.

"You have no idea what you were doing," Niki sat up and hugged his knees. "You can't waste your spiritual strength like that – you don't have a lot of it to begin with, and I'm like a bottomless pit."