The Princess and The Devil - Karma Akabane x OC

T H I R T Y - S E V E N : HIS THOUGHTS

Normal's POV

Ever since Hime left, Haru has been feeling under the weather and his heart feels heavy up to a point where it destroys his interest to even play and resume learning about the orchard from his two maids. He has been in the kitchen a little while after his sister and mother left for the UK. He presses his cheek on the pristine table as he watches his two maids cleaning up the area. He wanted to at least reconcile with Hime before she left but he couldn't force those words out of him earlier and some hateful words escaped him instead. He groans and closes his eyes tightly. "Prince Haru, I lost count on how many times you did that in the past hour. Are you perhaps bored? May I suggest we visit the northern part and take a look around at the museum?" One of his maids asks throwing him a glance or two as she cleans the floor with a broom.

"I'm not in the mood to." Haru grumbles. The maids sigh inaudibly as they resume their work. Haru is a good kid and they admit that Hime has done a good job raising her own brother but there's something about Haru that they just couldn't put a finger on. He baffles them at times and this is one of them. He just wouldn't voice out his wants and needs and prefer to drown in his own thoughts instead. They know Haru wanted to reconcile with his sister for a while now since all he has been saying in his sleep is Hime's name but they never knew he could be this prideful. They thought Haru gets this trait from his since the apple does not fall far from the tree and there are times where they catch a glimpse of the emperor's trait in him. But what baffles them the most is his cheekiness and mischievousness. Haru often pull pranks on them and they have no idea what he derived the trait from.

"I want to see Karma-nii." Haru said, pulling himself up into a seating position. The maids abruptly stop doing their chores to look at their little prince. Did he just request something from them? "I want to see Karma-nii." Haru repeats sounding more powerful than before.

"What?" The two maids question.

"Did I stutter? I said I want to see Karma Akabane." Haru turns at the two maids. "Get Ichiro-ojiisan for me and have him contact Karma-nii. I want to see him." Haru orders as he watches his two maid scrambles from the floor and rushes out the door. Haru smiles softly at the thought of his beloved scarlet haired devil. And almost immediately, he begins to plot a plan to prank the red haired.

Karma's POV

My alarm clock has been annoyingly loud lately as I gently smashed it to pieces. I groan in my bed as I try to pry my eyes open. I barely had any sleep ever since she pulled that shit on me because my mind will always go back to her. Maybe I was a little harsh on her but the fact that I am still rather indignant of how she views me as a whole. Am I really that unreliable to her? To Haru?

I roll back on my stomach and bury my face in the pillow. But the possibility of not seeing her again at a close proximity is what I fear most about our separation albeit my hostile attitude towards her. Maybe I should have just given in when she snuck out of the palace that day and made amends with her.

No.

She needs to know how she hurts me. She needs to know how badly it hurts my pride when she doesn't trust me as much as I expected her to. She needs to know or she will keep pulling shit like this when we're older.

But..

When I think about that day.. She must've hurt as much as I did.

"Karma, wait!" Hime shouted at me from the back door of the campus. I could tell that she ran out from the class after I uttered those hurtful words to her. Why did she run out after me? She's not supposed to do that. Stop making me confused, Hime. What is it that you really want from me? You hurt my pride by doing what you did and told Asano your real identity but here you are, going out of your way chasing after me. It took everything in me to not turn around when she calls my name. I almost hesitated for a while there and it made me panic on how weak I am when It comes to Hime. I forced myself to keep my pace and take longer strides into the forest. The faster I get away from her, the better. No one has to see me give in to this girl whom I spent my life liking.