34. spend time(?)

She took a look at Aki and the gentle moonlight-like white she had seen just now was faint when she just saw from outside, it was slightly shaking.

Yuki closed her eyes once and the next second she opened them, the aura around the others couldn't be seen, well, she had to inject her own 'magic' to her eyes in order to see that, though it didn't have any side effect, it still made her eyes dry, she had never had to care about this as an adult, but a child's body had its own constraints, it seems.

Yuki didn't do anything else and just continued to work on her sheets when she heard the faint voice of Aki talking to the prince, " um... would you like some, Ouji-sama*?"

The prince was taken aback and felt a dull pain inside his heart, somehow, he didn't like the way Aki was alienating him for a while, he was calling him Onii-chan, in that milky tone of his, but from the moment, his sister came back, he changed it to 'Ouji', he never thought he would come to slightly hate this title of his own...

Still, his heart felt warm when he saw Aki holding up a piece of cookie for him, even he wasn't sure why he forgot the TPO and even his bearings as an imperial, but he swiftly got up from his seat opposite to Aki and took the cookie into his mouth from Aki's extended hand.... the air seemed to pause, as both of them froze from this sudden intimate contact, Aki was still a bit better because he liked to feed his Onee-chan and Papa, but still was a bit taken aback because this was the prince, while, Makarios just froze after taking that cookie into his mouth, he had not been fed by another person since he was one year old!

Yuki couldn't stand this strange air, it was still too early for kids their age to feel puppy love... well, if possible she wouldn't like to give Aki away to anyone, but if he chooses a special someone when he grows up, the biggest obstacle for that person would not be their father but Yuki herself.

In her previous life, as a side character, she never had a child of her own, but if possible, she would have liked to have one.

Even though the world saw her as a war god, at a time, she too had dreamed of living a simple life, but she chose duty over her own happiness... with Aki here, she felt a strong connection to the child, it was not like she was projecting the need of a child onto him, but she still felt that this child was special.

One day, when she had been living her life, as usual, following the same routine, passing by on those same grey days, a softball of pink cotton appeared before her, even though she didn't ask him to, he still followed her and made that eternal loneliness inside her vanish, for her Aki was like the first solace in her lonely and dark world.... she had been alone since 7 years... no, it would be more accurate to say that, she had been alone since over a hundred years counting her past life, there was no one who looked at her for who she was during that whole time ... but Aki changed it and so, she will take it on herself to protect this child forever.. as for his partner in future, it was a thing of the very, the very very far off in the future, she wouldn't let anyone take away the child from her anytime soon.

"Crown Prince, I've got everything down. We would not disturb you anymore", saying this she simply got up from her chair, breaking the awkward moment.

Makarios instantly straightened up and looked at Yuki with a confused look, well, after entering the study, he had gone for a quick shower and came back in a hurry, even after that, a whole of one hour hadn't passed by and she was already done with a little over the half-the course of a year? He looked at her, opposed to her respectful words, the voice itself lacked any emotion and her face was still similar to his own, devoid of any emotion... he never thought that he would face this, he could finally guess what the people around him felt when they saw his cold face, but compared to his own, he even thought that she was a tad bit colder than him and the aura from her was a bit overbearing, even more than the duke himself, who was the strongest person he had seen, he had felt this a little after she came from the washroom, but now, it felt like she was actually a bit frightening.

Still, he couldn't let this chance go by... he wanted to spend some more time with Aki.

"I allow you to call me by my name or, Rio if you'd please ", he gave a look to both of them, Yuki simply nodded, calling anyone price left a bad taste in her mouth because of past incidents, as for Aki, once he saw her Onee-chan nod, he also gave a smile.

'That went smoothly', thought the prince before continuing, "I'm not trying to question you here, but that was pretty fast. If you still don't understand anything, please don't shy away, we will be classmates from now on and it's my duty to help you...", he spoke in a fair tone in a way, it was the truth, his father had spoken to him about this and he knew that they would be classmates so, he thought it was natural to help her, just that, he also wanted to spend more time with the child.

…....

Notes:

Ouji-sama – Ouji is Japanese for Prince, while -sama is a respectful suffix, one adds to one's name to show reverence; think of it as the butlers adding this to call their masters, in a way, it isn't used in casual occasions, even in workspaces, adding -san would do, it is probabaly the second highest form of suffix after -dono!