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Momma's Boy
Ryodan was still unconscious when Kai found the room he was being nursed in. His mother was by his side, brushing the sweat rolling down his chest with a wet, presumably cold cloth.
He'd been poisoned, apparently.
But it was not Marius' doing. According to Erasmus, it was his sea witch who shot a poisoned dart at Ryodan when he couldn't afford to focus on anyone but Marius who was coming at him with the wrath and vengefulness of a slighted king.
"You don't have to do that. He's not your problem." Kai told his mom, and even to his own ears he sounded cold. At the moment, he didn't quite care. His kindness and patience had been exhausted, depleted down to the last drop.
The constant barrage of problems wouldn't let him care about anyone but his own hardships.
His mother, who had calmed down since their reunion, ignored him.
Kai sighed. He knew his mother well enough to know that her silence meant she disapproved of his statement. And he also knew not to press her about this, and that she wouldn't budge from her perch by the side of the bed until Ryodan either awoke or died.
Kai didn't particularly care which happened as long as it happened quickly.
He sighed warily again. He'd been doing a lot of sighing lately. "You must be exhausted. Let me do it." And when he saw the doubtful look on her face, he added, "I'll stay with him all night."
His mother surrendered the cloth without further protest, and Kai immediately noticed her shaking hand when he glanced down to take the cloth.
"I'll be in the room next door," she said after she'd planted a kiss on his cheek. He smiled involuntarily. Some of the dark clouds rumbling over his head dissipated. He'd missed these affectionate moments between him and his mother; he never imagined that one day, he'd be deprived of them for more than one of his mother's diplomatic trips.
'Momma's boy' was what his distant cousins in the US called him, but in Turkey every boy was his momma's boy. Turkish culture was much more familial. Truthfully, Kai didn't much mind nor care about the things ignorant, jealous people said to his face or behind his back. He paid no heed to his American friends pestering him about moving out and getting a place of his own either. Move and leave his mother alone in a big glass mansion? No way. He'd always felt strongly against it. And that was before he discovered their beautiful home overlooked merfolk-infested waters. He was never going to leave her side now. In fact, they were moving house as soon as things settled down.
If things ever settled down. Their once mundane life appeared like a distant dream now, a thing of the past.
She grimaced, making a pained face.
Deeply concerned, Kai demanded, "What's wrong?"
"It's nothing. It's just a headache. It'll pass." In this moment, his mother looked older than he'd ever seen her look before, the invisible wrinkles by her eyes materializing under the dim lights. She was pushing into her mid-fifties, but anyone who saw her would swear she wasn't a day older than forty.
Kai said nothing, mostly because he didn't know what to say. Did his mother even realize she'd been put under a spell that altered her memories and her perception of reality? Did she remember meeting King Marius and his army of soldiers guarding her while keeping her hostage themselves?
Fuck you, Marius. Damn you for doing this to my mother.
He imagined navigating through this conversation, telling her everything that had been done to her, would be like navigating through a minefield. It was a conversation he needed to have with his mother, but he would have to do so later. His mother needed the rest.
He dumbly nodded, and then watched her walk out of the room slowly, her form and pace betraying her exhaustion.
At least his mother was safely with him now. He would console himself and her with that. It would have to be enough. For the time being.
Something wet dripped on his left shoe. He looked down only to realize that he'd squeezed the water and sweat out of the cloth in a tight fist. Sighing, he loosened his grip.
He looked around, really taking in the room for the first time. It was huge and grand, something he'd briefly noted as he walked into it. But he'd seen enough grandeur to last him several lifetimes. So far, all the grand and majestic palaces he'd been to usually concealed the most horrific events and ugliest truths.
Ryodan lay on the bed, unmoving.
Kai sat in the stool and dipped the nearly dry cloth into the basin on the nightstand.
He busied himself with the task of wiping the unconscious general of every drop of sweat appearing on his rock-solid body. He was totally naked save for the thin sheet that concealed his state of nudity up to his waist. Kai had heard mention of a fever when Erasmus had explained the general's condition to him and Kai had pretended not to care.
Ryodan's face was flushed, but other than that, he wasn't shaking or moaning.
I guess merfolk experience fevers differently, he thought.
The general looked like the male version of Sleeping Beauty, lying perfectly still with a face carved out of pink marble. His mother had placed another cloth over his forehead in an attempt to keep the fever from cooking the general's brain.
Long ago, his mother had a brother who died from a fever he caught at sea. She'd been twelve, while Kai's late uncle was only three. He didn't survive the night. Because of this, his mother had treated any fever he contracted as a child like a cancer, going above and beyond to ensure he was being treated well, and she stayed the entire night alongside him until the fever dissipated.
Hearing of Ryodan's fever triggered her, and she immediately volunteered to nurse him.
Kai wrung the cloth over the basin and then continued to wipe Ryodan down.
He needed the distraction. He needed to concentrate on something else other than the consuming thoughts brewing at the back of his mind. A fever of his own would break over him if he let himself think about this now.
He didn't dare think about what Marius might be doing to Hakan at this very moment.
Kai's hand over Ryodan stilled and began to shake.
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
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Abyssal (ManxMan)
RomanceThe day that Kai learns that he's half-human, half-merman and that he's the key to ending a 100-year-old war, is also the day that the entire ocean learns of his existence. For twenty-seven years his family had kept him hidden from the world, but no...
