My Dearest Enemy - GeminiFourth AU

22. Daydreaming

★★★ Gemini POV ★★★

I said goodbye to NuNew.

The emotions that had built up inside me were looking for an outlet. I found a way to do it: shooting at a target in our shooting range. I gave up only when I felt the first symptoms of fatigue.

And then my legs led me to the doctor's office and after a short conversation with Dr. WanDee (this time he and Khaotung, as his student, were on duty, so the group of people who knew our secret dangerously increased by another person, which I didn't want at all), I entered the room, where Fourth was sitting cross-legged on a hospital bed. It was obvious that he was feeling a bit better. He looked almost completely healthy and only the glassy look in his eyes and the cracked skin on his lips indicated that he had recently been fighting with his own weakened body.

When I entered, he raised his head and greeted me with a smile that seemed quite cheerful.

When our eyes met, my heart did a strange acrobatic thing that had never happened to me before. To hide my embarrassment, I quickly walked over and sat down in the empty chair that Chokun had vacated for me a few minutes earlier. Chokun reported that there had been no problems and that no one had visited Fourth.  This was a bit suspicious to me, I thought that Fourth's fake sister would try to see him again, but since she didn't show up again...

“Hello Gem”.

Fourth's voice also sounded quite cheerful. In front of him, on the bedclothes, I saw cards for playing magic solitaire spread out. On the table next to him, there was no shortage of sweets, fruits, and sweet drinks. He still had an IV in his hand, which gave me the impression that we were in a hospital for non-magical people and not in the state-of-the-art medical unit of the Knights of Light Institute. It was all so extremely ordinary! Completely unworthy of the future king!

“Hello Nattawat”, I said gruffly.

I have no idea why I did it, what I was trying to protect him from, since it was me who brought this misfortune upon him, or perhaps upon both of us, or even upon the entire Institute. I wish I were nicer, but I guess I've worn the mask of an arrogant, emotionless boor for too long to unlearn it so easily now. Apparently Fourth felt as if I had intentionally hurt him.

“Are you angry with me, Gemini? If so, I apologize. I didn't know it would end like this. I seriously believed that Pierre was an honest and decent man”. 

“Yeah, because you're naive. Your own good nature almost cost you your life. When will you finally let go?”

“When will I let go of what?”

He looked at me with those big, dark eyes of his, shaded by long eyelashes, and when he blinked, I had the impression that he was stirring up a real tornado of emotions and feelings in me. On the one hand, I wanted to take his hand, tell him exactly what I thought, promise him that I would take care of him, but on the other hand, I knew that I had hurt him enough and I couldn't give him false hope. He was the one who reached out to me and placed it on my knee, squeezing it lightly.