[WMMaP] Elias de Alger Obelia

Elias 7.2

Elias woke up in his shared room with Claude. He was currently on top of Claude's chest as the emperor was sleeping. The prince did not remember when he had fallen asleep. These days, he was just so exhausted. He felt like he was making something. He was just not sure what he was making and how he was making it.

There were a couple of times when Elias asked Gavril about his exhaustion since he was a dryad as well but the Head of Daphne had just replied that the prince would know when it came. It was annoying because he could barely do anything while being so exhausted. He could barely keep up with the official papers. Fortunately, Claude had been understanding and looked after the paper in the prince's stead.

Maybe he was seriously sick and he would know that he would die soon when the time came?

"Whatever you are thinking, you are thinking too deeply into it. Just rest since it is most likely not what you are thinking at the moment."

Elias flinched in surprise when he heard Claude speak up and turned to look at Claude. The emperor had his eyes half open as he watched Elias.

"But what if–"

"You are not dying."

"How did you know I was going to ask that?"

"You are the most dramatic prince I've ever had in my life when it comes to life."

Elias hummed in deep thought. He did contemplate life.

"I just want to know what's wrong with my body but Nikolas is still away and he had grandmother's diary and Sir Gavril won't tell me a thing!"

"You are just preparing for the future."

Claude gave in but not completely.

"Preparing for the future?"

Elias asked back in confusion.

"Something you probably didn't know you were capable of doing but are capable of doing."

"... What kind of riddle is that?"

Elias huffed in annoyance and turned his back to Claude. The exhaustion was no joke because the moment his head hit the pillow, he was in deep slumber.

****

Claude watched how Elias knocked himself to sleep and he was sure the prince wouldn't wake up any time soon. The emperor got up from bed and fixed his garment as he made his way to a painting in the wall. It was a painting of when Elias was ten years old and Claude. The emperor pushed the painting to the side and behind the painting, there was a small tree. It was glowing beautifully. It had ground a lot over the years but it was still small. The size of it had worried Claude but when he had consulted it with Gravil, there was nothing to worry about since Elias's heart was just born like that. Not all trees had to grow huge. There were small trees like the bonsai trees.

If one took a closer look at the tree, the tree had two small transparent fruits like cherry but they were smaller than cherries and if focused, there were tiny sapphire seeds on each of the fruits.

...This was worrying.

Claude was not confident of not popping them when he was carrying them in his hands but he was still mesmerized watching the little fruits. There were times he thought they twitched or shivered.

The emperor moved the painting back to its place after a while and got back into bed where Elias was sleeping.

There were times Claude wondered if it was okay to be sleeping in the same bed as his son. He was after all a human turned somewhat dryad (if that was a thing). A part of him (most likely his somewhat human sanity) told him that it was wrong to desire a future with his son but the other part of him (his somewhat dryad sanity?) told him that it didn't matter and he should accept everything that came and went by. Just like... trees.

Claude was grateful to his human side. He was able to hold himself back and not hurt Elias.

The emperor remember a certain dryad, who was his brother, who seemed the definition of a dryad. He accepted everything that went his way and let go of anything that went away... Although Claude admitted, Chrys was not sane and did not have moral values.

Claude turned Elias around and brought the prince closer to his embrace. The emperor wondered when he would tell Elias the truth about his heart.