Meant For Each Other

The meeting of brothers

Fourth had to keep the whole meeting up with the royal family a secret from everyone for an entire week, but he knew Jeff knew. It was in the looks he would give him or the random conversation he would initiate with just asking about his well-being or saying things like "you are not obligated to do anything you don't want to do you know that right Fotfot?"

The hardest was keeping it a secret from Gemini because they were at a point in their relationship where they told each other everything. It didn't matter how small or insignificant it seemed they would tell it. Whether it was about a difficult assignment,  a stubborn professor or a worm Fourth saw by the side of the road. Fourth would tell Gemini about it.

Ford also, being the person who knew him the longest, could tell Fourth was hiding something, so Fourth avoided him as much as he could. The only people who were either not observant or simply didn't care that much were Phuwin and the Bible. Pond couldn't come because of a dance competition or something like that, so Phuwin spent most of his time glued on his phone. Fourth had never spent a lot of time with the Bible, just the two of them. However, this time around, he was the only person Fourth felt like he could be around.

Fourth knew that Bible was smart. The guy was a goddam professor at a prestigious university, but by God, the man was a giant nerd. The first time they spent time alone together Bible had spent the entire time telling him about Stephen Hawking's theory all-encompassing theory that proposes a framework of understanding of all of physics, combining the quantum mechanics and classical physics into a unified approach which explains the laws of the universe.

Fourth, I understood a quarter of that discussion mainly because he was a biochemistry student and really didn't care that much about physics, but he listened anyways adding here and there with his limited understanding. It was much better than spending time with his doting parents, Jeff, who gave him knowing looks and said the strangest things. The one time he had said, "If you ever need to remove something or someone in your path, let me know. You don't have to do a thing. Just say the word." Which had convinced Fourth that Jeff was talking about an assassination attempt, but he could've been talking about paying someone off, but with Jeff, who really knew what was going on in his head.

The other time he had spent time with Bible, he discovered a fun fact, which was that Bible absolutely adored cats. They ended up having a full discussion on the different breeds of cats and so forth and Fourth learned a few fun facts. Apparently, Egyptians believed cats were magical creatures, capable of bringing good luck to the people who housed them. Also, apparently, they believed domestic cats carried the divine essence of Bastet (or Bast), the cat-headed goddess who represented fertility, domesticity, music, dance, and pleasure.

However, as much as he had fun spending time with Bible either the theory of quantum physics or the worship of cats. He knew that time would arrive where he would have to finally meet up with the woman who birthed him, Ye Hu xuan.

The morning before they left, Jeff had coincidentally or not so coincidentally showed up and reminded Fourth all he had to do was say a word. Apo had a private conversation with Jeff, and they left.

The place where the royals resided was magnificent, and that was coming from Fourth, who had seen his fair share of magnificent. He was the son of billionaires, so luxury was something he grew up around, but this was next level luxury. The place had a lot of Chinese cultural influence, which made sense since they were technically Chinese royalty. He felt like he was walking into the set of one of those wuxia shows that Ford liked to make him watch. There was a touch of modern design, though, and unlike the wuxia shows, there weren't people walking around in hanfus, although it would've been cool if there were.

The royal servants that received them took them to a room that Fourth assumed was the meeting room. It looked like the emperors room from the wuxia shows. They were served tea the same way he had seen it being done in the shows. Apparently, it was a Chinese tea ceremony. A few minutes later, a man with an air of authority showed up, followed by one of the most beautiful women Fourth had ever seen. Then, shortly after, someone who looked exactly like him showed up. If Fourth didn't spot his signature moles on the guy, he would've thought the guy was his cline or something.