What It Means To Be King

Chapter 49: Standing In The Present, The Past Is Behind

I can't believe it's already 49 chapters and I've only just named the villain....

Well. 

More or less. 

Sorry for being late, I've been writing this chapter for a few days, but it just keeps sounding wrong, I had to rewrite a major part of it over and over again. 

So because of that, I decided to write a present scene and a flashback scene as well. Hence the reason why the title would only make sense for the second half of the chapter and no the first. 

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Shao Long's fever flared up at 1.00 am. Anubis, who had practically seen it coming, was there by the time the spell wore off, because of course he would know the exact moment when the spell would stop working. Leo was dragged there as well, not that Anubis needed to for several logical reasons, one of them being the guy doesn't sleep till at least 3. 

While Leo was aware and had studied how important sleep was for human basic function, he drew a hypotheses four years ago on how he was a special case that did not need as much sleep as he himself had proclaimed was necessary for humans. So that was why he was here, changing the wet towel on Shao Long's forehead every five minutes, only to find that each time, the towel was at least a couple degrees higher than normal body temperature. 

A high fever wasn't uncommon in terms of their health. Shao Long would have one or two maximum every year, and Leo just a little less than five (Gee, wonder why). Anubis had never admitted to being sick, and his sickly appearance was no better than his everyday appearance, so there was no way to tell. It still struck them as annoying though, how it couldn't be avoided. But this one, the one Shao Long was having, the Chinese deserved every degree of temperature rise his body was going through. It was his fault for neglecting at least two months of taking care of oneself.

"So from what you told me..." Leo spoke after setting the cold wet towel on Shao Long's too warm forehead for the nth number of times tonight. "That hypnosis also has something to do about fevers flaring up?" 

Anubis thought back about the spell he knew was incomplete. It was supposed to take away the pain, but because it's barely working, it would wear off sooner or later, and when that happens, naturally the body would return to its feverish self. Because the thing about how your brain works, is all about convincing your body that something could be done, and then it's done. Like healing. But no, the spell was incomplete, so the fever was still present, and possibly flaring up as retaliation. 

"As a backlash, yes. The spell was incomplete." 

"Uh huh. And you thought it was a good idea to use it on him because?" 

"Because I wanted to test it out." Already, Anubis had a few things to consider to further improve the spell from his observations towards its effects on Shao Long. 

Leo stared at him long, as if waiting for him to continue. When Anubis did not, he tilted his head to the side with the sweetest smile Anubis knew was fake and dangerous. "In three seconds, if you don't give me a solid reason why this dumbass became your lab rat, I'm going to poison your dinner."