Garnet | KTH

24. Healing

Narrator's POV

Blaze prowled down the long hallways, maneuvering quickly and ignoring all the polite greetings given to him. As the hallways grew darker, his pace picked up, making his long, black coat blow behind him like an eerie cape in the wind.

As he turned into his office, he shut the door and collapsed into his chair with a loud sigh. The man massaged the area between his eyebrows. His thoughts ran wild with too many things, as he gazed upon his walls lined with books and the small fire going to keep the room warm.

Although soothing, the perfection of the room made his blood boil and his body jittery. It was too quiet and peaceful — when all Blaze craved was chaos and control. In conditions like this, where his own son is with a human who could kill him, made his subtle behaviours exasturbate. 

"Da-Eun, you always knew how to handle me in these situations," he muttered to himself, his gaze trailing up to the desktop, which held a picture of his smiling wife.

His anchor, the one who calmed him through his wild mind was now out of reach and it only left him more lost. "I miss you." Blaze said quietly, fingers tracing the image with a certain gentleness he never showed to anyone. 

Not even Taehyung.

The man jumped with fear when the door to his office swung open to reveal Jun. He leaned back in his chair.

"Yes?"

The Gem pulled out a clipboard, reading off of his papers. One he carried with him at all times. "We have update from 'Safe Haven', sir."

Blaze's body straightened and he leaned forward. "What is it?" He asked, almost fearful.

Jun gazed down at the clipboard with serious eyes. "They're safe, and there's been no issues. In fact, we've gotten reports that the human has been rather kind to all of them." Jun said, face unchanged. Blaze could even say that the ticking of Jun's jaw indicated he was rather uncomfortable with what he just reported. 

Blaze exhaled a relieved breath. "Really? She hasn't hurt them in any way?"

He shook his head. "No, sir."

"Maybe I was wrong about her after all." Blaze mumbled with folded arms. "Do we have any proof from the attack that the girl was involved?"

Jun flipped through his papers again. "The humans attacked the girl and almost killed her. She was hospitalized for a couple days,"

Blaze's eyebrows furrowed. "The humans attacked her?"

Jun nodded eyes glued to his papers, "the newspapers shushed it at first, but the Order's been stirring about it ever since word got out she almost died."

The Gem raked his hands through his greying red hair, with a shocked scoff. "Is there anything else?"

Jun shrugged again, licking his lips in thought, as if not wanting to say anything more. "From what I've been told, she also saved Jimin from almost being killed."

Blaze's hard stare softened, at Jun's words. It struck him like a knife to his whole being — it went  against everything he was told. He sighed in relief, realizing he was wrong about the human all along. 

He now felt rather glad to have hired Juliana after the recommendation from Jun. Although Blaze remained somewhat suspicious, the wandering of his eyes across the image of Da-Eun's face made him realize the truth.

She isn't a killer.

He didn't realize how much his prejudices clouded his judgements; merely for the protection of his son and Onavale. Blaze came to the acknowledge the beauty of open-mindedness, and now he didn't want to judge unfairly again.