A Wilting Rose Among The Thorns

Chapter 4: Nurturing The Wilted Rose

Reiji POV:

(5 Minutes Before Ayato's Attack On Rosalinda)

I was nervous about leaving Rosalinda alone until the 2nd period and after school, I don't know what it is about her we just met her and she has grown on me in some interesting way. I feel I need to protect her, there is something about her I know that my brothers probably won't notice about her. She's very pale and unhealthily skinny, if our father brought us a sick girl my brothers will not hesitate but to harm her so heavily that she will die. I have to figure out a way to prove that she's sick so I can make sure to protect her against my brothers. I smelled blood on my way to the next class and it didn't smell like Yui's, my breath hitched knowing it was probably Rosalinda's. I head where I can smell it as fast as I can and I see Ayato drinking her to the point of her being unconscious, I see her look at me before she falls into darkness. "Ayato, how many times must I reprimand you for doing such things at school and keeping it inside your room," he just scoffs at my statement until I hear a gasp, turning back I notice Ayato holding what appears to be a wig and a sickly pale Rosalinda with a little blood dripping down her mouth. I run in to check her pulse, it's still there but the blood is from her coughing multiple times because I found the hanky in her sleeve. "This is what I was afraid of. You get back to class, I'll be taking Rosalinda home for this," Ayato walks away still with a stunned look on his face after he hands me the wig. I sigh looking at her condition thinking that I must contact father immediately to find out why this is happening to her. Why would he deliberately bring her here knowing the condition she is suffering and what his sons are like she would die within 24 hours if they knew, but I guess she knew that because she tried to hide it for her own safety. 

I teleport her home to my room and lay her down, I know she will be at her most safest here with me in my room because none of my brothers, if I can call them that, know better than to enter my room willingly. I cover her up in the blankets to keep her warm, set her wig up in a decent manner to keep it nice and clean, and to make sure another blanket is set on top of her since she is functioning on a lack of blood. Heading over to my work station, I look for a remedy to strengthen her body, warm her up, and heal her scratchy throat from coughing so much to blend into her cranberry juice I gave her previously. Even with the feeling I had in my gut, I ignored it, I shouldn't have because of her condition now due to my brother's idiotic claims over different females from time to time. I finish the concoction knowing I would probably have to continue to make this for her because of my brothers. She's shaking because of how cold she was from the lack of blood, I take off my glasses and lay them gently on the nightstand, knowing she's resting I have to do this this way because she needs it. I gently put the liquid in my mouth as I hold it in my mouth, I lightly put my hand on the back of her neck and gently lift her up. Due to the angle of her neck her mouth opens slightly allowing me to put my mouth over hers to get the liquid into her mouth. She is conscious enough to swallow the liquid but not enough to wake up since she is so tired, I lightly lay her back down and set the blankets back on her the way I had them previously. Lightly brushing my hands over her cheeks she smiles in her sleep as the liquid starts taking effect adding the pink shine back into her face. I smile proudly at what I've done walking away to start writing a letter to my father to give me an explanation for this, I am not amused by his actions to allow a sick girl in this condition to be here among us. I'm nurturing a wilting Rose and I will not allow her to die under my watch, not me or my brothers, I may be a sadist but I am not a murderer of the innocent. I only killed my mother because she never cared for me, I was always better than Shu she just never took the time, plus my mother would beat me constantly so I took matters into my own hands. I may have poisoned tea for past brides and drank their blood, but I'm not Kanato I don't turn them into dolls when I grow bored of them. I don't rape them like Laito and I don't claim them as if they were property like Ayato, I'm nothing like my brothers. I hope I can protect her because with Ayato knowing next time won't be so nice.