217 Inevitable Crash (9)

Iris spent the day at home, not going anywhere. She took care of Lucy, making sure that he was comfortable. Around midday, she chatted with Lily a bit, listening to how she spent her day studying even though no one was supervising her anymore. Gale was apparently still on his path of self-destruction, but this time somewhere out of the house.

In the evening, Iris waited to eat dinner with Kyro, but he sent a message that he was going to be late. It wasn't usual of him, but from what she knew there were some troubles in the company, so she just wrote back 'okay' and told him to take care.

Without anything to do, Iris just watched TV, wondering how late he'd end up being. Hour after hour passed, and she was about to go to bed when he showed up. A quick glance at the clock showed that it was around midnight.

"Did something happen?" she asked, but he just shook his head and went past her to the bathroom than the kitchen. After taking out his cold portion of dinner, he didn't even bother with heating it up before wolfing all of it down.

Noticing her eyes on him, he shook his head. "Lots of work. I'll probably be this busy for the upcoming few days."

Iris nodded, stepping away to let him pass. He was not saying something, but that was probably to not worry her. It wasn't like she could help him with anything much. Her best course of action was to not get in his way and make his days even harder.

The next morning, he left as early as always, and like the day before, he didn't come back for dinner. Iris had to eat by herself, which somehow made the food less inviting. She finished her meal in quick bites and went to check up on Lucifer.

The cat was napping peacefully enough, so she returned to the living room and checked the news. A couple articles screaming about the imminent fall of Dioscuri caught her eye. There wasn't anything concrete in the journalist's words, but the fact that there were more articles like that didn't bode well.

It seemed like sharks were sensing blood in the water and were congregating around the area. The large prey wasn't dead yet, so they were waiting, but for how long would that last? No wonder Kyro stopped coming back home. His position didn't look good.

'But that's just the gossip. It might not be as bad in reality.' Iris closed the newspage, but her worry didn't dissipate. What would Kyro do if his company crashed? Would he be okay? Debt-ridden?

'Stop thinking like that! It's Kyro, he knows what he's doing!'

Yet the thoughts remained. She couldn't help herself from considering all the worst outcomes. After all, her future was connected to his, and in more ways than just boyfriend-girlfriend. If something happened to him, she might not be able to return home even if she wanted.

For a fraction of a second, the idea of running away flitted past her mind, but she smothered it in cold blood. That wasn't an option. It simply wasn't.

To calm herself, she decided to go and cook. There wasn't much in their kitchen, but she could still find the ingredients for simple spaghetti. The time was ten minutes before eleven, so Kyro should be returning in around an hour. If he came back as yesterday, that is.

There was no certainty to that, but Iris wanted to do something. Even if Kyro didn't notice it, she wanted to show him that she was there for him.

The cooking process was a touch harder than she remembered, and her skills had rusted over the time, but the end result wasn't too bad. It was far from a culinary masterpiece, but for a midnight meal, it was fancy enough. At least it was going to be warm.

Kyro returned the moment the clock struck twelve, looking like a ghost. There were shadows under his eyes, who were looking blankly around him. Barely saying hi, he dropped his briefcase, went to wash his hands, and came to the kitchen.

When he reached for the refrigerator, Iris caught his hand and pulled him to the table. "Sit," she ordered him.

"Iris, I'm tired. I—"

Before he could say anything more, she dropped a plate of still-warm spaghetti in front of him. "Then eat."

This stunned Kyro. He looked at the food before him then at Iris, and back again. "You cooked?" After noticing how stupid this question sounded, he changed it up a bit. "You cooked now?"

"Yep, so eat." Iris put a fork in his hand and pushed it into the food. "Hurry up before it gets cold."

It seemed like Kyro wanted to say something, but then he changed his mind and began eating. In a few minutes, the plate was cleaned to the last bit.

Iris hadn't cooked too much, since spaghetti wasn't exactly the perfect food before going to sleep. If she wanted to do this again, she had to get some ingredients that were lighter on the stomach.

After deciding that, she collected the plate and utensils to wash them. When she finished, Kyro was already about to go to sleep. She went to the bedroom to take her pajamas to change into them, then went to bed.

Kyro wasn't asleep yet, for he pulled her closer to him. "Thanks," he murmured in a barely audible voice. Iris shifted to turn to him and saw that his eyes were closed, his breathing steady. He was clearly almost at the door to the dreamworld.

"You're welcome," she whispered back and made herself comfortable by his side. As she closed her own eyes, there was a slight smile on her face that refused to fade away.