The Lazy Life Of Raine

Happiness (8)

Axel relaxed his body under her care.  Her quick hands let him know that she was an expert.  He didn’t even feel any pain as she sewed his open wound up.  There was only a cooling sensation that came over his skin when the medicinal paste was put on his wound.  With his help, she wrapped his torso up again and every time she came close to him, he could smell her sweet scent.  

The sweet scent caused his heart to stir up.  Without him knowing a sense of longing poured out and he felt as if he needed to hold her.  But he held himself back, not knowing the reason why, he couldn’t do anything rash with the Keeper.  She was his savior, he couldn’t do anything to hurt her.

Once he laid back down, she felt his forehead with her hand again.  

“Stay here, I’ll go make some rice porridge and brew some medicinal tea.  Call my name if you need anything, I’ll be right outside of the door.”

“Alright.”  

Axel watched as the Keeper left the room and suddenly felt his heart leave with her.  The sense of longing intensified and his heart began to hurt. He pressed his hand against his chest, where his heart is and he didn’t know why it was hurting so much.  The thought of never seeing the Keeper ever again cause him more pain. But why? Why does he feel this way?

Axel thought back to the day he fell off the cliff.  He and his men were pursuing a group of Soulless that had spawn up in the woods.  The fight was harsh and intense, but they were not only fighting for their lives, they were also fighting for humanity.  

Suddenly there was a blue fire that lit up the sky that was towards the direction of the battlefield.  The blue fire was so big and intense, that it even their platoon saw it from 20 miles away, where they were fighting the Soulless.  However they did not let the blue fire take their attention away from the fight. The Soulless suddenly became more fierce. As the Soulless died one by one, Axel saw one of his soldiers losing a fight with a Soulless.  Axel quickly gave the soldier a hand, however the Soulless turned towards him and threw itself on top of him and they both fell over the cliff. On the way down, they still fought, in the end, he won, but his body was bruised  and battered. He thought he would die under those cliff. His only thought was that he wanted to see his parents and grandfather once again.

When the Keeper came back into the room, she held a tray of food and medicine.  It was then that Axel really studied the Keeper and what he saw made him like her even more.  Her pastel violet hair still has a vibrancy to it, it looked just as smooth and silky as her skin.  Her large gold eyes were fully lined with eyelashes, making her eyes bigger than it is. Her lips was a shade of red, which made him think of cherries and he wondered how her lips would feel like, if he kissed her.  Would they be as sweet as cherries or would she be sweeter?

“Let me help you sit up so I can feed you.”  Elise said as she placed the tray down.

Once Axel sat up in bed, Elise blew on the porridge on the spoon before feeding him.  He opened his mouth and ate the food without complaint about the plainness and the lack of seasoning.  There was also a bowl of boiled vegetables that was cooling on the side. She would add a vegetable to the spoon of porridge every once in a while, to change up the texture, but the boiled vegetables were also unseasoned.  But he didn’t complain. He ate the food she fed him as if it was the best meal he ever had. He finished the porridge and the bowl of vegetable soup, not leaving one grain or drop of soup behind. Afterwards he drank the medicinal tea as if it was wine.  

Before Axel could realize  what happened, his mouth suddenly had a piece of sweet hard candy to help take the taste of bitterness away.  Axel watched as the Keeper smiled sweetly at him.

“I only give candy to the good children.”  

“You have children?”  Axel asked. His brain suddenly stopped working, not understanding what she meant.  

“No.  I don’t.  When I say children, I mean my patients who are children.”  

Axel felt a strange relief that she doesn’t have a child.  He watched the Keeper as she blew out the lamps one by one before leaving the only lamp by his side.  Suddenly he wanted to know everything about her.

“Are you married?”  He blurted out.

The Keeper smiled gently and sadly down at him and helped him back down to bed.  She tucked him into bed and brushed his hair out from his face. Before taking the tray and leaving him alone in his room for the night.  But before her hand could even touch the tray, his hands shot out and held on to her wrist.

“Are you?”  

“Goodnight, General.”  The Keeper said as she gently pushed his hand off of her wrist.  She took the tray out of the room and closed the door. Leaving him with his thoughts and his feelings.  

That night Axel could hardly sleep.  When she pushed his hand away, he felt dejected and sad.  But not as sad as her eyes. There was so much hurt in her eyes that even he felt it.  He wanted to only make her happy. He wanted to be the source of her smile and laughter.

As Axel stayed up for the rest of the night, Raine slept peacefully on the couch in the living room.  She had a smile on her face as she thought about the plain food she gave Lui Wei. That slag of a man was so happy that she was feeding him with her own hands that he ate the plain, unseasoned and unsalted food without complaint.  He even drank the bitter medicinal tea as if it was sweet wine. Too bad for her, she couldn’t keep up with her plan to make him suffer, that she put a piece of candy in his mouth to replace the bitterness.

But with the bitterness, there has to be some sweetness.  Then that way she could string him along to her side again and train him properly.  Raine’s smile broke through without hesitation at that thought.