Chapter 4

The sound of the bell echoed across the room. It got faster and louder each time until it finally pulled Zain out of his sleep. He gasped as he sat up on the bed and looked around panicking as the bell kept ringing, trying to collect what was going on.

Finally getting the grasp of what was going on he step off the bed and walked towards the door across the room and pushed it. It flew open to Zain surprise while it was clearly stuck last night. To his further surprise, there laid Edous on his bed holding the bell, wearing nothing but his bottoms.

Zain felt his face heat up and he turned around quickly to avoid making eye contact. "What do you need?", he asked with a cold tone he tried his best to utter.

He knew the bell and what it was for. It was to summon the servants present around the Royals and as Zain knew that he had to serve Edous from now on he had to mentally remember to be there for him anytime for his service. Zain mentally sighed at the thought.

"I want my breakfast served to me now." Edous commanded getting out of the bed. Zain didn't dare to turn as he knew he won't be able to take his eyes of the fine toned muscles that man possessed. His abs were to die for.

Zain didn't realize the amount of time he was still for before Edous spoke again, "Did you hear me?"

Zain sighed, calming himself, before answering, "Yes.", and walked out of the room but this time through Edous door. He was familiar with his room but had never once seen the other room attached to it. 'Did he order to get them attached?', he wondered as he headed to the kitchen.

As he stepped inside, he wasn't surprise to see the surprise look on the chefs and maid's face. Without giving much attention he simply said to a maid, "Get the breakfast for Lord Edous ready."

"Eh? Zain is back?".  "Why is her here?", "When did he get back?" all these questions were whispered across the room.

Ignoring them Zin walked up to a maid which he knew usually made the breakfast for Lord Edous. The maid looked at him confused though, making him raise an eyebrow.

"Ummm.." the maid hesitated, "..Zain. It's actually too early for that."

"What?" Zain looked around the kitchen and realized there were a large amount of ingredients than usual.

"We came early to prepare breakfast for the guest that is to eat together with the King, Queen and the Lords.", she stated.

Zain looked out the window and realized that it was indeed too early for breakfast but he couldn't defy orders. He clenched his feast in annoyance. 'Is he toying with me?' He couldn't even sleep last night and only had his eyes closed in the dawn.

"Umm. If you want, we can prepare it for you right now.", the maid suggested clearly getting nervous in the tensed air.

Zain sighed, "It's fine. I'll prepare breakfast for him. You all continue with your work." Giving a sweet smile to the maid he reassured her. Smiling back, she got back to her work and so did everyone else that Zain didn't realize were watching.

Walking to the further corner of the kitchen he looked down at the stove he always preferred, "I missed you buddy." he said before getting to work.

Zain knocked the door but there was no answer. He knocked again before deciding to just walk in. He looked around but there was no one to be seen. Walking up he placed the tray on the table beside the bed.

"You are late." Zain almost jumped at the deep voice. He turned around and saw the man leaning on the door frame of the bathroom with folded hands, completely naked. He felt his face heat up at the sight of the fine muscles with droplets still visible and the wet hair dripping drop of water on his shoulders.

Freaking out Zain reached to the bed and grabbed the thin blanket and threw it on Edous making him almost trip. "What are you-"

"As you know. It was no time for breakfast and I had to prepare them first!", Zain said folding his own arms and trying his best to hide his embarrassment. "And why are you naked? Wear at least a towel."

Edous stared at him as he removed the blanket from his face before saying, "Aren't you my servant. Aren't you the one supposed to be the one to prepare my towels? And also, my bath but I'll let that one skip for today."

Zain felt the need of that reminder since he completely forgot all the things he has to take care of being a personal servant. Maids hereafter were only helpers of him and not the one to do the job.

Zain sighed and walk past Edous into the bathroom. The floor was cold. 'Did he take a cold bath? But he doesn't like cold bath ever since he was small.' He reached out to the drawer where all the towels were kept and pulled the one on the top. Without giving a glance he handed over the towel to Edous and picked up the blanket he threw at him from the ground.

"Eat your breakfast before it gets cold.", he said wile folding the blanket.

Edous wrapped the towel around his waist and walked to the table.

"Did you cook them?", Edous asked taking a seat as he looked down at the bowl of soup with small amount of leaves and pieces of meats. He loved them, specially because he knew it was Zain's original recipe.

Zain didn't answer. Instead he walked up to his back and placed another towel on his drenched hair and stated rubbing it, "Get dry first or you'll catch a cold."

Edous couldn't help but smile as he nodded and let him do his job.

Zain was thankful that Edous wasn't able to see his flushed face right now.

Zain didn't realize it until late that he had a little too much to take care of if he was going to take care of all the chores for Edous alone. As he walked through the veranda carrying couple of sheets, he felt a slight pull in his heart. He looked around and clearly enough got a sight of the reason he felt that.

There stood Edous in the middle of all the fully bloomed rainbow of flowers, wearing all red like the string's colour, with slight of gold and white as decorative. It took a second for Zain to realize that he had a company; a timid looking lady much shorter than Edous wearing pastel blue gown. She had a beautiful face and a sweet smile as she brushed off her blond hair from her face elegantly and nodded at whatever Edous was saying.

Zain stopped the servant passing him and asked who she was, "She's the daughter of King Dowin, Princess Ivana, from Kingdom Medlas. They came yesterday for the uniting party and is intending to stay for two more days."

"May I know why they are together?", Zain asked looking at them both still chatting. He always gave in to the curiosity.

The servant smiled slightly. He was an old worker and clearly had idea about the relationship between Edous and Zain. "It seems like King Dowin has taken interest in Lord Edous. He wanted to introduce his daughters to Lord Edous so he could maybe choose a bride from them and our King has much approved it."

"Oh.", was the only thing Zain said as he felt his heart ache. But it didn't really bother him that much after all these years.

"Now, may I take my leave. King has asked for Lord Edous in his office.", the servant said and Zian nodded letting him past.

"A bride, huh? This might be a chance." Zain said to himself as he walked away.

Princess Ivana looked around the garden as she waited for Edous who had taken his leave few minutes ago. She bent down to smell a specific flower when she suddenly heard her name and she almost jumped. "Princess Ivana."

She turned around quickly hiding her embarrassment, "Y-yes?". A small smile plastered on the face of the boy with ashy hair.

"I am Zain. A servant of the palace.", he introduced bowing down in respect.

"Oh.."

"I am here to convey my Lord Edous' apology for not being able to accompany you anymore.', Zain said passing a small bouquet of flowers that was tied together with a while ribbon.

Ivana gladly accepted it, "It's okay. I know he must be busy."

"Indeed. Please take a seat.", Zain pointed out at the table on the corner of the garden shadowed by a tree. "Lord Edous has asked me to take good care of you in his absence so you can feel comfortable here at the palace." Ivana smiled brightly with blush spreading across her cheeks at the statement and slowly waked towards the table.

Zain served a cup of tea which Ivana gladly accepted again. "Edous asked you to take care of me?" She asked with a small shy voice.

"Yes.", Zain answered mentally noting that the lady was being too comfortable with Edous to call him without 'Lord'. Even if they both were royals, they had the practice to still dignify by their positions.

"Oh.", her cheeks turned bright red, "He was so indifferent with me earlier that I thought he actually didn't want to be with me at all. I'm so happy to hear this."

Zain gritted his teeth. 'Obviously he didn't want to be with you. After all he's in love with-' Zain brushed off the thought reminding himself of what he came here to do. He continued with the sweet talk.

"Hey brother Edous." Seka called carelessly as he entered the King's office, "Why didn't you let me know that Zain was back. Were you purposely hiding him from me?"

Edous took a single glance at him over the shoulder before he continued looking through the papers he was holding. There was no one in the room as his father had already left the room to take care of the guess.

"You don't need to know." Edous simply answered making Seka pout.

"What do you mean by that? With that attitude of yours no wonder Zain didn't wanted to stay with you and ran away. He might be a little too desperate since he was even flirting with that Princess from Medlas kingdom earlier in the Garden. Don't you think you should let him loose? Afterall he's also a man you kn-"

Seka was startled as Edous slammed the paper on the table a little too forcefully. "What did you say?", Edous low voice was menacing making even Seka tremble.

'Oh my. Did I just step on a mine?' Seka smirked. "What you heard." He replied as he turned around and walk past the door, "You might as well just let him loose. He ain't a kid you know. He has needs." No matter how much Seka wanted to tease him he knew better than to fuel his anger. Especially not regarding Zain.

Zain sighed after he finally finished laying out the sheets. It was a tiring day. He remembered talking to Princess Ivana for a long time. He made sure to she had a good impression of Edous in her mind.

No matter how much it hurt him he still had to do it in order to take care of Edous' future. Also the soulmate string of Princess Ivana seem to be broken so there was a chance for Edous to get her as his wife without much complications.

Broken string meant that the prior assigned soulmate they got right after the birth had died. They could always look at other people though the love won't be as strong as for their own soulmates. They were the loneliest being who just needed comfort from even the slightest form of affection. Humans were indeed very weak to pain.

Zain facepalmed himself trying to calm down. He had to do it. He had to. He reminded himself over and over again. He didn't want to have any regrets.

He took a deep breath before he headed to continue his work for the day. Now the only things left was the bath and dinner. He needed to take care of the bath first since he knew Edous would be here any minute but before that he needed to make sure the dinner was being prepared already.

He walked towards the door and before he could even grab the handle the door flung open making him jump backwards in order to not get hit by the door, making him trip and fall on his butt.

Zain whined at the pain before he felt the atmosphere completely change. He looked up trembling at the sight of Edous towering over him, emitting the aura of pure rage.