Along The Nile

Chapter Six

TEREMUN
"Let's commit the perfect crime:
I'll steal your heart
And you'll steal mine."
-Darcy Zamora

Teremun thought she wouldn't come.

After the Akuma attack, Melis had returned with an arsenal of guards that whisked him away to the main palace where his mother, brother, and sisters all fused over him for the rest of the day. Since then, he hadn't seen Ket. He paced about his room, his mind turning over the endless possibilities as to why she hadn't come to check on him. Perhaps she was summoned to the main palace to be personally rewarded by the Pharaoh himself. Perhaps she was getting punished for touching an Egyptian prince. Perhaps, she was upset that she had to touch him in the first place. Perhaps she hated him more than he had thought.

Without even thinking about it, Teremun gently brushed his fingertips over his lips. They still felt numb.

What had they felt like to her? Had she, at all, thought that she was doing anything other than saving him? Had his lips on hers felt like anything other than cold, wet, and dead?

Was it insane that he was tempted to throw himself into the Nile so that he could feel her lips again?

He fell back into his bed, his body aching and all the breath in his lungs slipping out. He felt foreign to himself, like something in him had broke, and it was something that he didn't want to fix. He felt like his bed was a cloud, and it only knew how to ascend higher and higher until he was floating through the heavens, until he was dancing with gods and inhaling stars.

And when he thought of her, his mind just buzzed. His whole body was on fire.

"Gods," he breathed as he covered his hot face with his elbow. "Gods, what's wrong with me?"

He heard a hesitant tap on his door and knew it was her without really knowing. He jumped out of his bed and ran to the door faster than he thought he should. He wildly swung it open. Ket blinked at him with wide eyes.

"Whoa," she commented, looking him up and down in concern. "You okay?"

"C-come in," he stuttered as he quickly stepped to the side. He ran his fingers through his dark wispy hair, and then realized that he wasn't wearing his headdress. Then, he shook his head, annoyed at his own sporadic thoughts. Why would she care if he was wearing his headdress or not?

Ket walked in. She had been in his room a million times, but for some reason this time felt different. Teremun was suddenly nervous, like she was seeing it for the first time.

"I can't stay long," he barely heard her whisper, "your mother will send doctors soon to check in you, and I need to go see if the workers from the fields are settling in well. I brought some medicine though."

She held up a little leather bag that he just noticed her holding. As she went to put it on his desk, Teremun couldn't decide if he should be relieved or disappointed that she was all business like usual.

He couldn't help but think it wasn't fair that he was constantly on fire for her yet all she did was use him to warm her hands.

"I thought you weren't coming," he managed to get out, just because he didn't know what else to say.

She had her back to him, so she turned. He face was unreadable. "I said I would." Her voice was too quiet, like the sound was trying to be ten steps behind its source.

"But that was before..." In his mind, he pictured her face when he had opened his eyes. That stricken expression, the raw despair. Had she always carried that many feelings for him that she could show such a face? And if so, why did she keep it so deeply buried away?