Love that keeps on piling

Chapter 17: Calling it Eternal Love

Meanwhile, Nanon's wedding preparation had begun in full form at Exalos. The people were cheerful and there were the colors of spring but his heart had an odd vacancy. The last ever letter he received from Ohm was that he knows, but that letter had been so odd. Ohm called him Nanon only when times were too difficult for someone like Ohm to be fazed by. Or, maybe, something was very wrong. Secondly, Ohm will never respond with a one-liner to something like this.

Why wasn't he thinking of something at all?

And after another series of endless internal battles, Nanon had decided upon picking up his pen and paper.

Dimwit,

How come you aren't coming up with any witty plans?

We should meet and talk. It's finally spring.

Nanon.

Ohm was coughing endlessly when Nanon's letter reached his hand. Fai wanted to put up with some drama but looking at Ohm's feeble condition, he didn't have the heart or the courage, "Sire the letter from Prince Nanon" he only managed to say before hiding behind the curtains, pained by the looks of hurt that entirely grasped Ohm by now.

He had coughed tulip petals for the first time only after he finished reading the letter. Without understanding the meaning behind it, Ohm cried in the intensity of the pain he felt inside his lungs and only could hope for it all to end.

"Fai, these are flowers...I am coughing flowers—"

"Listen, it's, it's just that—"

"Just tell me if I'm dying? Just tell me if all this has an end"

"You just have to let him—"

"I don't have a choice, do I?"

The doctors had said, the red petals of the tulip, meant hope. The news of Ohm's sickness was kept extremely confidential since it was a matter of chaos. Also, Ohm had joked he wanted to secretly pass away one evening only to be given a death glare by his father and a flick on his forehead by Fai when the two were left alone.

Ohm had two choices before him, he could either allow Nanon to be killed, or they both could finally admit to soulmates themselves and unite. To his father, the assassination was an easier choice, to Fai, soulmates sounded as if a fairy tale and he wanted it to be true. To Ohm, however, death seemed better. Having to live a life with his father's hand stained with the blood of a great good prince, didn't seem as wise as the king thought and the latter option was extremely inappropriate. While he could almost envision him and Nanon, conquering Zivia together, he knew very well that Nanon could never.

While he started to believe somewhere between coughing these flowers that going to bed and waking up to those dimples might as well not be as bad as he always thought it would, he knew, Nanon only would have wrath for him.

While Nanon had permanently settled inside the dome of his heart with his absolutely horrific insults and great demeanor, he knew Nanon has always learned and memorized to hate him.

While he realized Nanon is the only way he could be saved, he also knew, that killing him or being wanted by him was neither possible options.

So he coughed some more amber-colored lupines— hope had perished and now only he could imagine what it would be like to live a life where he could freely call Nanon his soulmate and be called the same by him. What it would be like to have Zivia, which they could call home.

His hands shook when he picked up the pen and straightened the paper on his desk.

Nanon,

I heard you are getting married. Congratulations.

Exactly like how you have said, I definitely have a plan and it would definitely save us both.

I always told you I was the clever one.

Wish you well.

Ohm.

Nanon ridiculed the moment he concluded reading the letter, "Look someone has a plan, as if" he rolled his eyes staring back at the tailor who stood there with a bizarre smile and the measuring tape hanging from his hands— right, Nanon had put him to wait in the corner when the letter had come.

Yes, he was getting married and his wedding dresses were getting prepared, the kingdom was really so busy. Maybe, he should now, give up on this whole stigma that had Ohm in it and settle on his own. Maybe, it was the time. Yet the maybe's, the buts, and the ifs had lingered longer than he could've imagined.

Whilst Ohm combatted with his own death every second on his bed, his father was plotting a surprise attack on Nanon while he went to visit his to-be in-laws' kingdom. Fai had run upstairs crying his eyes out upon over-hearing the secret council meeting to inform Ohm and the moment he heard, he had struggled to pick up his robe but by Fai's assistance, he had barged into the council room.

"Father, what are you doing?" he yelled

The king immediately held Ohm inside his arms, "what are you doing here my son? You are not in the condi—"

"Father" he separated himself from the embrace, "I am in enough good condition to know what you are plotting here. Don't do this, please"

"Ohm I will not listen—"

"It's my last wish, father" he whispered, eyes red and quickly filling with tears, "Ohm..." the king's voice oddly faded.

"My last wish," Ohm fainted inside his father's arms.

It was bizarre, how desperately Ohm tried to let Nanon live on while all he ever did was hate him, compete with him, and always stay at the upper hand when it came to him. It was so odd, when it came to choosing, that he had chosen to sacrifice himself to let Nanon survive, after all, what was there for him to even gain from this?

"Satisfaction" he grinned while Fai asked, "I will always know that he lived because I let him" he whispered, and Fai shook his head unconvinced by the reply.

"You have banned us from letting him know"

Ohm scoffed again, "Someday he would know. He will feel it"

Fai sobbed, "In the hopes of that someday, which might never even see its day, you will sacri—"

"Don't say sacrifice Fai, that sounds hideous" he giggled like an innocent child, "Not like I am sacrificing in love—" he coughed relentlessly until a bunch of white petals of jasmine came out.

The next morning, when he was waking up from sleep, the doctor was telling Fai that it meant unconditional and eternal love, "He doesn't need to know that" the doctor also didn't forget to add. Ohm had internally giggled but feigned sleep until Fai had come with his daily morning broth which Ohm was honestly starting to hate.

Love

Love.

Maybe, it was love, after all, that had stopped Ohm from wanting to kill Nanon in order to save himself. It would save him an eternity of pain, if only he could make up his mind yet he decided otherwise, maybe because, love. Maybe it is love, that still keeps him waiting in the pit of his stomach. Maybe it is love that is holding him so strong against this endless pain. Maybe, someday, he wished he could call it love without the maybe.

For all that's worth, at least, he knows he is leaving behind a great prince and not a wuss. He knows if anyone deserves to live, it's him with his ever-so-iconic dimples. He was getting married, and he should be the one to have his happily ever after, Ohm had gone into a long sleep after that thought was tucked away safely inside his heart.

They had first fought in a garden and now Ohm is fighting one inside his lungs. 

---

the maybe's hurt don't they? anyways, let me know how do you think this will end? although I might already have written the end ;) 

thanks 

you're a star for me.