The Last Lotus

Chapter Five

Chapter Five

Kyan lets out an exaggerated squeak as he loses his grip from the tree limb, and starts tumbling towards the hard ground below. He keeps his eyes closed tightly, waiting for the painful impact with the ground that he knows is inevitably coming.

However, the pain never seems to come.

Instead, he's surprised by a pair of strong and comforting arms holding him against a hard chest. He opens his eyes cautiously, only to be met with a pair of green eyes that match the color of the leaves on the trees surrounding them.

Kyan is shocked into silence as he stares up into the other man's mesmerizing eyes. Silas, or a version of him anyways, just stares back into his own eyes. It is almost as if the other man can't look away either, too lost in his own golden orbs.

A smile graces Silas' lips, a bright one that takes up his entire face and shows off his pearly white teeth. His smile always reminds Kyan of a rabbit with his top two teeth being just a bit longer than the norml. It is the one feature he loves most about the other man, but he knows it is the opposite for the other man. Silas has always been self-conscious about that cute little smile.

That is the real reason that the man rarely ever smiles and tries to keep all of his emotions to himself. He would never outright say it to anyone, having too much pride in that, but Kyan knows.

People in middle school would make fun of him for it and it caused him to become very protective of his smile. He would keep his emotions bottled up inside behind a closed door. Kyan only saw that smile a matter of three times throughout his eleven years of knowing the man. That's such a small amount of times for knowing someone for that long.

It makes Kyan's heart hurt to think about. He wants to take all of those insecurities away from the other man somehow, take away that hard brick wall that is surrounding his emotions and keeping them buried inside. It isn't like the man will listen to him if he tells him the truth about how he feels about his smile. He will just assume Kyan is trying to tease him again, since that's what he always did. It will just end up being a fruitless effort in the end.

This Silas in front of him seems different from that man he knows. He is devoid of those walls that surrounded the other version of the man he knew. This man in front of him mustn't have gone through such hardships throughout his life like the person he knows has. A warm sort of aura seems to surround him, and Kyan automatically feels at home in the man's arms. As if this is the place he belongs in life.

He can't help but to wonder if it would feel the same way in the arms of the Silas he knows. He isn't even sure if he will ever have the chance to find out. Is he going to be stuck in this weird ancient land for the rest of his life?

The two men stare into each other's eyes, almost scrutinizing each other's souls, for what feels like an eternity. It only must have been a minute at the most, however. They only break apart from the gaze when the other man gently places Kyan back onto his own two feet.

Kyan suddenly becomes nervous as he gives the other man a hesitant nod, something he's been realizing is rather common in the world he's been placed into. A polite sign of respect to show others no matter their ranking.

"Thank you for catching me," Kyan says to the other man meekly, not at all acting like his usual upbeat and overbearing self.