Drakkon

Chapter Thirteen

"Yat-sen, have you eaten dinner yet?" I asked him as we walked the halls of the base. Soldiers were milling around with sullen expression on their face, most of them bowing or giving nods when we passed by. I focused on Yat-sen, watching the way he ran a hand through his hair, combing it between his fingers.

He bobbed his head. "Yes, I have. How about you, princess?"

Princess? Well that was a new title I wasn't accustomed to.

"I've already eaten what I could," I replied with a hesitant smile. "Yat-sen, just call me Daiyu—"

"Can I call you Aunt Daiyu?" he asked me boldly. I blinked back in surprise and he must've taken my surprise and pause as a negative thing, because he quickly blushed and stared down at the ground, clearly embarrassed. "U-Um, sorry, I wasn't—"

I shook my head. "No, I'm just really surprised, that's all. If you want to call me that, you can. After all, it's much better than princess or empress."

He beamed at me from ear to ear, his eyes brightening up. "Aunt Daiyu, you're just as nice as Lady Jia."

Speaking of Jia, I instantly thought of Fang, who was the very reason Meilin had left the palace to aid the battles against the revolts. Turning to Yat-sen, I grimly grabbed his shoulder. "Yat-sen, what happened to General Fang? I heard he was injured—"

"His shoulder was hurt by a sword attack and he's recuperating. It was a serious injury at the time, but he'll be better real soon," Yat-sen said with a wavering smile. "It was scary at first but now that Uncle Meilin is here, everything will be alright."

The tension left my shoulders and I sighed in relief. At least Fang was alive and well. I wasn't sure how Jia or Kang would handle things if Fang was severely injured or, worst case scenario, killed.

Before I could further converse with Yat-sen, Bohai came up from behind us suddenly, scaring the daylights out of the both of us as we stared at him wide eyed. He didn't seem to notice—or care—about our expressions because he spoke the instant we saw him. "There you are, Lady Daiyu. Meilin was wondering if you had run away when he returned to the room and you were missing," he said as he looked between the two of us. "Everything alright? You both are tense."

"Because you scared us, Commander Bohai," Yat-sen said with a soft chuckle as he bashfully scratched the back of his head.

Bohai watched him for a second before turning to me. "Are you going to bed, Lady Daiyu?"

"I was planning on it," I said slowly, not sure why he was asking.

"Right, you need your rest," he mused.

"Is something wrong?"

"Meilin didn't sleep at all last night and he's exhausted from all the war-planning we've been doing," he said with a shrug. "He didn't mean to fall asleep in his room, but he did. He told me he was just going to rest his head." Bohai ran a hand through his brown tresses, sighing with an unnecessary amount of work. "Well, he fell asleep instantly and I don't want to wake him up since he looked so tired. So, either you bear with him in that room, or you sleep in the hallway."

I stared at Bohai in absolute shock, not understanding what he was saying while knowing exactly what he meant. I wasn't ready to face Meilin since I was still analyzing my thoughts concerning him. I was still deciding on what I was going to decide when dealing with Meilin, and to see him so soon and be in a potentially compromising situation with him was moving things along too quickly.